Druid Patch notes

Which Protection formula was revised? It affects Critical and Wounding too, not just damage.

The damage reduction from protection was altered. Monsters protection was increased to compensate, and they were also given Magic Protection. The Wound and Critical Formula were not altered to compensate for the protection change. (So unless you're using a Lance, Knuckle, or Gun, never expect to get a critical hit. Lance pierce was buffed to compensate for higher enemy protection, but overall it's nerfed, just not to as great an extent as other weapons.)

You keep saying the "n" word... Aside from the Alchemy Update, what isn't "N"'d?

• Defense and Magic Defense are more abundant to players and the amount of damage it reduces was not altered, unless the enemy has a high amount of dex (only applies if the enemy isn't a mage or alchemist).
• Blaze's formula was buffed. (Exact formula currently unknown I believe.)
• The utility of Intelligence was slightly increased.If you had 1005 Int before the update, it rounds down to the nearest multiple of 20 and divided by 20. But now, it rounds down to the nearest multiple of 5 and divides by five, making it possible you get a slightly higher amount of magic attack.
  • Some Int enchants were made stronger than Magic Attack because rather than every 20 int being equivalent to 1 Magic Attack, it is now every 5. Consequentially, Magic Attack enchants were nerfed to an extent. (But I believe Island is still superior to Int enchants.)
• Magic Attack Prefix Titles, normal Titles, Reforges, and other sources NOT including Enchants were NOT nerfed. (Not buffed either, just multiplied by four.)
• Magic Damage upgrades were changed to Magic Attack Upgrades. For actual damage, this is a nerf. But, this is a buff in terms of Mana Shield, Healing, and other skills that use Magic Attack but not Magic Damage. Magic Damage cannot be obtained in any way anymore other than possibly skill ranks.
• Healing was nerfed, but Party Heal was buffed. (They are both now a range of x to y health restored, which how much inbetween the two numbers being random.)
• Light Armor was buffed.
• Heavy Armor are arguably buffed or nerfed, depending on your view.
• Shields are buffed, some buffed more than others. (Kite Shield is better than Composite Shield. . . Wow, seriously?. . .)

• *scratches head at unity of intelligence and magic damage*
• Healing, nerfed, how?! This is madness!
• What do you mean some shields were buffed more than others? Shield Mastery's chart is still blank.
  • As a side note, will Guard Cylinders make Shields obsolete?

• Shield Mastery Categorizes Shields under three categories. Small, medium, heavy. Light, Heavy, Large. W/E the english terms will be, some shields have more protection than others.
  • Some examples that come to mind:
    • Small: Round Shield, Composite Shield, Heater Shield
    • Medium: Kite Shield, Hetero Kite Shield, Light Hetero Kite, Avon Shield, Demonic Shield, Valkyrie Shield, both Guard Cylinders, etc.
    • Large: Vales Shield <-- Only Large shield is Giant-only and can be bought from NPCs. . .
• Healing is now a range of health restored, rather than a fixed amount, so it's similar to First Aid. From what I'm told, the range is actually less than it is now.
• Guard Cylinders add base Magic Def and Magic Prot and no Def or Pro, and its upgrades doesn't add to any of the four stats, so defensive wise, they're not that great compared to other shields. But they benefit from both Shield Mastery, Guard Cylinder Mastery, and allows the use of alchemy. So people will probably be dropping their Avon Shields for a Levi Guard Cylinder (or Rebis Guard Cylinder[?]).