Chương 179: Public Safety

The first change filled the main screen, and Meno was pissed before he finished reading it. [1] Balancing Usurper proved to be an impossible task. Usurper has been retired alongside Trophy Form and replaced with Conqueror. Existing Usurper players may select a new Prestige. [Mythic II | Dirty Hands] has been retired; the affected Swing Master will receive a replacement Mythic II Prestige item after completing their new Prestige selection. That was the laziest solution imaginable.

Meno had expected Solar to smash the Bleed interaction into the ground. Convert boss modifiers into weaker player versions. Cap percentage-health effects. Stop Dirty Hands from doubling things it had no business doubling. Deleting Usurper entirely had not made his list. Why create the Prestige in the first place if one half-drunk player could use it for ten minutes and force early retirement?

As usual, Meno was apparently responsible for discovering the systems Solar should have thought through before releasing them. Rina glanced over and caught him glaring at the patch notes.

"Oh, that's unfortunate."

"Great!" Kestrel said.

"The AI is smart. Instead of wasting time patching a sinking ship, it knows when to cut its losses." Rina waited for someone else to jump in. Meno kept reading while Kestrel raised a hand toward the bar for another drink. BrineSaint took a slow sip of sparkling water, apparently optimizing for the fewest words spoken per hour.

"PBG, Brine, do you guys perhaps have a reaction?" Rina asked.

"I need to see Conqueror first," BrineSaint said.

"But removing Usurper was good."

"It's great. Fantastic." Meno leaned back into the sofa.

"The replacement better be good or I'm going to be forced into Destroyer just to abuse the Dual-Wield Linked weapon setup."

"Okay," Rina said, glancing toward the production side of the room.

"Was the Conqueror info included in the patch notes? Can we show that next?"

"Yes," Meryn called from off-camera.

"But change number two first." The screen advanced. [2] Swing Master Tyrant variants may no longer Dual-Wield weapons of any type. Perfect. He should never have explained the Destroyer interaction out loud. Solar had not touched Destroyer at all. It had gone straight to Swing Master Tyrant and stapled the restriction onto his class, exactly like Meno predicted would happen if he picked the Prestige. Except he had not even picked it.

"Another intelligent decision," Kestrel said.

"Big approve from Crownfall." Rina nudged Meno with her knee, but he kept reading. She turned to BrineSaint instead and gave him a pointed look until he accepted that sitting on a podcast occasionally required speaking.

"Good change," BrineSaint said.

"And it doesn't affect Swing Master as a whole, only the Tyrant variant generating 100 Chain per hit. Allowing Linked Massive weapons to double that through Dual-Wielding was clearly unacceptable." Destroyer was dead for Meno, and he wasn't about to pick anything he had personally ranked F-tier or lower, which meant Conqueror had to deliver. If Solar had replaced Usurper with bonus damage on Sundays or extra stats after killing a dungeon endboss, another support ticket was happening.

"Can you show Conqueror already?" Meno said.

"Usurper is dead. Swing Master is fine. I wasn't going to abuse that interaction anyway." Meryn switched the display, and the new tooltip filled most of the wall. [Conqueror] Choose a Dual Class using your existing Base Type. The selected Class Evolution cannot be identical to your primary Class Evolution. If your primary Evolution is EX, the selected Evolution is also EX, and you may modify each Class Skill once. Classes may only be switched outside combat.

Switching Classes removes all persistent effects granted or created by the previous Class. Solo Dungeon Bonus The Dungeon Endboss drops 1 additional guaranteed Equipment item if no other player has entered the instance. Raid Conquest Bonus While you are the only Conqueror to have entered a Raid Instance, no more than 4 other players have entered, and no player who has entered exceeds the Raid's Recommended Level bracket: [1] Your damage dealt after all other modifiers is multiplied by 10.

[2] Your damage taken after all other modifiers is halved. [3] Instant-kill Raid mechanics instead reduce affected party members, including you, to 1 HP. [4] The Raid Endboss drops a Divine Realm Key (Solo) for each player present. Divine Realm Key (Solo) Invade a god's realm to attempt Divine Theft. Success allows you to select a Divine Class Evolution associated with that god. Nobody spoke for a moment, then Kestrel shot out of his chair.

"NO! WHY?! IT'S OVER! IT'S ALL OVER!" The bartender stopped mid-pour. Even BrineSaint came alive, tapping his fingers against his palm as he worked through whatever he had just read. Meno sank deeper into the sofa as relief hit first, followed quickly by satisfaction. This was excellent. Without him breaking Usurper, Conqueror would not exist. Solar had tried to fix one broken Prestige and ended up rewriting high-end raiding in the middle of their first podcast. Meno also understood why Kestrel was crashing out.

Kestrel dropped back into his chair and buried his head in both hands. Meryn stepped into frame, sat on the arm beside him, and started rubbing his back.

"Kestrel, that's a pretty strong reaction," Rina said.

"Can you explain what happened? I think a lot of viewers are confused too, including me."

"Crownfall is finished," Meno said.

"At least the way it's organized now. Highbanner and Silverwake too. Stormhold might be the only one that survives." He stood and pumped a fist toward the camera.

"STORMHOLD RISING! Shoutout to Thorn. They didn't have an alliance or enough high-level players to raid anyway, so this is a pure buff." Kestrel shot out of his chair again and went straight for the door. He yanked the handle the wrong way, got nowhere, then lowered his head and started knocking it against the frame. Meryn hurried after him and grabbed his shoulder. Kestrel pulled free. Meno sat back down. The podcast had become significantly better.

"Brine!" Celeste shouted. BrineSaint was already on his feet. He crossed the room, caught Kestrel by the arm, and hauled him away from the doorway.

"Calm down," BrineSaint said.

"This is not guild master behavior." That got through to him. Kestrel returned to his chair without another fight and sat there for a moment before speaking.

"Right. Sorry about that. Got a bit passionate." Kestrel finished his sparkling water, then looked at Meryn. She understood and stepped back out of frame.

"Okay, let me explain," Kestrel said.

"At the point where Divine Evolutions matter, normal twenty-man raiding no longer advances the main progression path. Twenty-man raiding is for casuals now." Kestrel pointed at the Conqueror requirements.

"Every 5-stack needs at least one Conqueror. You can only clear the raid once per week, so that's one Divine Key. People are going to fail the solo challenge and need more keys. There's simply no room left for normal 20-player raiding."

"There are other ways to get Divine Evolutions, right?" Rina asked.

"Yes," BrineSaint said.

"But none of the known methods are reliable. Some are effectively impossible. The Delfor challenge PBG triggered requires dungeon bosses to die in under 5 seconds. A non-Tyrant player without a Divine skill cannot realistically meet that condition."

"I still don't get it," Rina said, turning toward the screen.

"Conqueror looks really strong, but you can only have one. Can a single carry actually clear that raid?"

"That's not the point," Meno said.

"Crownfall players aren't going to knowingly use the weaker progression route. If one Conqueror with four supports is optimal, that's what they'll want to run. It's probably harder than a proper twenty-player raid with good gear and class balance, but that won't stop them."

"The math doesn't work. That's why I'm so pissed," Kestrel said, dragging both hands down his face.

"The moment I log back in, I'm going to be flooded by every DPS player wanting to be the carry. Then I have to decide who actually can, and everyone else will quit on the spot, grab four friends, and keep progressing without the guild." Kestrel let one hand fall against the armrest.

"These guys are all ambitious. We can't afford to pay them enough to stay when they can make more from streaming if they do something clip-worthy. This is a total disaster. Raids aren't about the loot anymore. They're challenge-mode content now." Meno stopped enjoying the meltdown quite as much. Kestrel looked genuinely wrecked. Crownfall had spent years gathering top players, organizing them, and giving them a reason to stay together. Conqueror had just removed a huge part of that reason.

Maybe Crownfall already had bigger problems if one patch could make it fall apart, but Meno kept that thought to himself. Rina cleared her throat.

"Okay. So the raid part is apparently catastrophic, but Conqueror also gets Dual Class and a Solo Dungeon Bonus. Brine, what do you think about those?"

"Dual Class is useful," BrineSaint said.

"Especially for Tanks and Healers. It gives them a DPS specialization without changing their main role. I still wouldn't run dungeons solo. The extra drops don't make up for the lost clear speed."

"You could remove both bonuses and every serious DPS player would still pick Conqueror for the Divine Key," Meno said, leaning forward.

"And this is going to create a huge support shortage. The obvious abuse is one Conqueror carry with four Architects stacking everything onto them. Once you have the carry, bringing another DPS just wastes a support slot."

"Dual Class makes things even worse," Kestrel said.

"Now every Tank and Healer who takes Conqueror has to maintain a raid-ready DPS second class and gear set, because the sole Conqueror slot is wasted if they show up as support. Your Conqueror has to be DPS. You are not killing a boss with five people otherwise."

"Well, the way I read it, Warriors can only pick another Warrior-type class," Rina said.

"That might make it less appealing."

"Yes. If you pick Conqueror for Dual Class, you're trolling yourself," Meno said, pointing toward the main camera.

"I know nobody is going to listen, but this is only SSSS-tier for the best players. Most viewers can barely play one class, let alone two. You're giving up too much free power from Destroyer and automatically removing yourself from the groups that can actually carry you to a Divine Key."

"Meno, could you not disparage our twenty-eight million viewers?" Meryn called from off-camera.

"Thank you." Twenty-eight million? That was much higher than Meno expected. He had assumed most people would skip the live show and watch clips later instead of spending an hour listening to four people argue on a fake beach. It had to be Rina. Surely.

"I apologize to the viewers," Meno said.

"I understand you're all trying your best, but unfortunately, it's still not enough. That's exactly why I made my tier list: to help you make the correct decision. I'm not even putting Conqueror on it despite being SSSS-tier, because I refuse to bait you into picking something you can't use properly."

"Very helpful," Vivi said.

"So, are any of you actually planning to pick Conqueror?" Rina asked.

"No," BrineSaint said.

"I'm picking Destroyer."

"Yes, obviously," Meno said.

"Undecided between Conqueror and deleting my character right now," Kestrel said.

"It's okay, man," Meno said.

"If Crownfall doesn't work out, you can always join GraveMistake." Kestrel looked across the studio.

"Oh really? I just might."

"I was kidding. Please don't do that," Meno said.

"It's on camera. No take-backs."

"Okay, let's move on before these two actually join the same guild," Rina said.

"Before that," BrineSaint said, "I want to know which Dual Class PBG plans to pick."

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Meno said.

"Assuming the game even lets me do it."

"Just answer him, Meno," Rina said, twirling a strand of pink hair around one finger.

"Everyone wants to know."

"I already know," Kestrel said.

"Even though it's highly questionable." Rina turned toward him.

"Okay, Kestrel. Don't keep us waiting."

"Swing Master," Kestrel said. Meno clapped once.

"Impressive. Exactly. If it lets me pick another Swing Master with a different Evolution, that's what I'm doing. Then once I have two Divine Evolutions, I can swap between whichever one is better for the boss."

"Really?" Rina asked.

"I'm surprised. I thought you'd pick Rush Master."

"I might take Rush Master for a while just to mess around since switching Sub-Type is cheap," Meno said.

"Then once I get my first Divine Evolution, I can swap it over to Swing Master."

"I really hope class stacking doesn't work," BrineSaint said.

"It removes most of the downside from being forced to learn a second class." Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"Okay, let's keep going," Rina said.

"I'm sure the patch has more changes, even if those were the dramatic ones." The display advanced. [3] Movement Speed Wording: Fixed inconsistent wording on +% increased Movement Speed modifiers. These modifiers now correctly display as +% Movement Speed. The displayed Movement Speed modifier begins at 0% and modifies the character's underlying baseline movement speed. For example, +100% Movement Speed causes the character to move at twice their baseline movement speed.

[4] Maximum Movement Speed: Movement Speed is now globally capped at +400%. This limit is referred to as Maximum Movement Speed. Some specialized classes have a naturally higher Maximum Movement Speed, as indicated by their skills or Core Class mechanics. For example, Rush Master has a Maximum Movement Speed of +600%. Modifiers that increase Maximum Movement Speed can now be found on Legendary VI and higher items. Maximum Movement Speed cannot exceed +600%.

Action Speed is applied before Maximum Movement Speed is checked and cannot bypass this limit. [5] Acceleration: +% Acceleration can now be found on Legendary VI and higher items. Acceleration was previously a hidden modifier and reduces the time required to reach Maximum Movement Speed. Baseline acceleration time is 1 second. Each 1% Acceleration reduces this time by 1%. For example, +50% Acceleration reduces the time to 0. 5 seconds, while +100% Acceleration causes Maximum Movement Speed to be reached instantly.

Acceleration above 100% has no additional effect.

"I knew it!" Meno said, pointing toward the screen.

"There was a hidden Acceleration modifier, and now it's on gear. That's great. Capping Movement Speed at five times normal, on the other hand, is disgusting. Rush Master stocks are going way up. It gets seven times."

"This makes Manipulator even better," BrineSaint said.

"You can find modifiers that increase Maximum Movement Speed and push the cap to 600%. Based on this design direction, I now recommend Manipulator over Hoarder." Rina turned toward Kestrel. He had sunk into his chair again and was staring at the screen with both hands clasped in front of his mouth.

"Kestrel, any thoughts?" Rina asked.

"Irrelevant," Kestrel said.

"Sane players don't stack Movement Speed above everything else anyway. Another PBG fix, no doubt. Even at 400%, controlling your character properly is already difficult. At 600%, it gets ridiculous. Even Miri only has around 300% unbuffed as a Rush Master."

"This also makes Action Speed way worse," Meno said.

"I hate it. You still need to stack it for Attack Speed, but the Movement Speed part gets capped fast."

"Why are you complaining?" Kestrel asked.

"Even you're only around 200% without your buff. It doesn't matter. Next point, please." The screen changed again. [6] Balveth Fishing Bait: Balveths used as fishing bait no longer grant Player Experience when a fishing attempt succeeds. Rina read the line and smiled.

"Oh, this one is cute. Any clue what it's about? Brine?"

"I don't know," BrineSaint said.

"There was an exploit," Kestrel said.

"Once your Fishing is high enough, you can turn dead monsters into bait. If you used a Balveth Elite from Layer 4 with the Undead modifier as bait in a Layer 3 lava chamber, successfully catching one of the lava fish would resurrect the Elite for some reason. Then it immediately died to the lava and gave player XP. I told Patience to stop doing it." Meno looked over at him.

"That is insane."

"Thank you for the explanation, Kestrel," Rina said.

"Let's keep going." [7] Headsman Reclassification: Due to negative player sentiment surrounding the Headsman Warrior archetype, Headsman has been rolled into the Master archetype. Existing Headsman variants have been reclassified according to their existing mechanics as Execute Master, Bleed Master, and Blaze Master. Functionality is unchanged.

Existing Headsman classes have been automatically converted to their corresponding Master subtype, while existing Evolution, Augmentations, and other class modifications are preserved. The Headsman archetype is no longer available.

"I was wondering what happened to Headsman," Meno said.

"Makes sense. Master is way cooler."

"I'm so confused by this," Rina said.

"It says the functionality is unchanged?"

"Yes, Rina. This is how MMO players work," Meno said.

"The class was fine, but everyone already decided it was trash. Give it a cooler name and suddenly people will want to play it."

"Doubtful," Kestrel said.

"Royal Headsman was barely playable. The other two variants were worse. I seriously recommend avoiding Execute, Bleed, and Blaze Master."

"Why?" Rina asked.

"Titan already covers most of the reason you would take Execute Master," Kestrel said.

"Bleed might become decent with Destroyer pushing the base damage higher, but the numbers were too low before. Blaze deals too much self-damage. You burn the Healer's Mana keeping yourself alive and lose time doing it. Worthless."

"Brine, anything to add?" Rina asked.

"No," BrineSaint said. The screen moved on. [8] Cooldown Modifiers: Cooldown Recovery Speed determines how quickly an active cooldown recharges without modifying the skill's underlying cooldown and remains uncapped; for example, +100% Cooldown Recovery Speed causes cooldowns to recharge twice as quickly. Cooldown Reduction directly reduces a skill's underlying cooldown and is capped at 75%. The Maximum Cooldown Reduction modifier increases this cap and begins appearing on Legendary VI items and above.

Baseline Maximum Cooldown Reduction is 75%, and Maximum Cooldown Reduction cannot exceed 90%. For example, +10% Maximum Cooldown Reduction raises the cap from 75% to 85%. An active skill cannot complete its cooldown in less than 0. 5 seconds, regardless of Cooldown Reduction or Cooldown Recovery Speed, unless the skill explicitly states otherwise.

"Sensible change," BrineSaint said.

"Like I said, Manipulator gets stronger every time they introduce more Maximum modifiers."

"So, are you considering switching from Destroyer to Manipulator?" Rina asked.

"No," BrineSaint said.

"Weird that Cooldown Recovery is uncapped," Meno said, rereading the last line.

"The diminishing returns must be massive, but technically you can push a skill down to 0. 5 seconds. Probably not worth it unless the skill is completely broken."

"Good for mages," Kestrel said.

"Lower damage is acceptable if you can avoid everything with a 0. 5-second Blink."

"Lower damage is never acceptable," Meno said.

"I'm sure Crownfall doesn't bring mages along for decoration either." Kestrel folded forward and covered his face with both hands.

"Crownfall itself might be decoration." Meryn returned to his side and rested a hand on his back.

"Hey, decorations are useful," Meno said.

"When Crownfall does stuff like pushing with Excrinant, it makes the leaderboard more hype. Didn't work out this time, but maybe next time. Unless Excrinant completely backfires and summons Excrino to steal your Divine Key." Kestrel's head snapped up. The possibility registered for about a second before he folded forward again.

"You aren't helping," Rina said quietly, leaning closer to Meno.

"Let's continue," Celeste said. [9] Sunring Concord Faction Bonus: The additional equipment item previously granted from final dungeon bosses has been removed. Instead, every dungeon boss now drops Boss Trophies for Sunring Concord players.

"Kestrel, don't read this one," Meno said.

"You're better off not seeing it."

"What?" Kestrel asked. He looked up at the screen.

"UNFUCKING BELIEVABLE." Kestrel surged to his feet, crossed the studio, and kicked the door hard enough to make the Pearl employee behind the bar flinch. BrineSaint was moving before the second kick landed. He caught Kestrel and dragged him backward.

"Kestrel, pull yourself together," BrineSaint said.

"Can someone explain what happened this time?" Rina asked.

"Kestrel moved Crownfall over to Sunring Concord recently," Meno said.

"YES, BECAUSE YOU DESTROYED RED BASTION!" Kestrel shouted.

"Calm down," Meno said.

"You said in an interview that it had nothing to do with me and Sunring Concord was better. You were right. It was broken for high-level dungeons. Now they fixed it." Meryn caught Kestrel by the elbow and guided him back toward his chair before The Pearl added a replacement door to the bill.

"It's not fixed," Kestrel said.

"Now it's just as garbage as Grave Crown. All the factions are garbage."

"Red Bastion hasn't been changed," Meno said.

"They must have rebuilt the city by now."

"They haven't. You could still take the Excrinant buff with the city ruined because the Devout Shrine was unaffected."

"Factions need a larger rework," BrineSaint said.

"They don't work well in their current state, and small changes like this don't solve the main problems. Let's continue." The tenth change appeared. [10] To reduce the likelihood of post-Level 100 content being trivialized by Swing Masters, a Maximum Attack Speed cap has been added. Maximum Attack Speed: A weapon's final Attack Speed is now capped at 10 times its Base Attack Speed. This limit is calculated separately for each weapon. For example, a weapon with a Base Attack Speed of 0.

5 attacks per second cannot exceed 5 attacks per second, while a weapon with a Base Attack Speed of 4. 0 attacks per second cannot exceed 40 attacks per second. Attack Speed and Action Speed modifiers are applied before Maximum Attack Speed is checked and cannot bypass this limit. When Dual-Wielding or using weapons consisting of multiple independently attacking parts, Maximum Attack Speed is calculated separately for each weapon or part.

Multi-Strike and other effects that add additional hits to an attack do not increase Attack Speed and are unaffected by Maximum Attack Speed.

"Oh," Rina said.

"That seems bad."

"You don't say?" Meno said, getting to his feet and stepping over the low wooden table. One slipper caught the edge, nearly sending him face-first into the floor, but he recovered at the last second and kept moving as though nothing had happened. Then he started pacing.

"I'm already at 4. 5 attacks per second with Mush. Now there's a ten-times cap based on base speed. Who comes up with this crap?" Meno said.

"At this rate, Dual-Wielding is going to be way better for Swing Master, except my Tyrant is locked out of it now. I agree, Kestrel. This patch is awful. Roll everything back, delete Usurper, and I'll pick Fatebreaker to atone for my sins. It's useless anyway. Okay? Please?"

"Please sit down," Vivi said. Rina got up, caught Meno by the arm, and pulled him back onto the sofa. Once he sat, she rubbed his back, almost matching Meryn across the fake beach as she did the same for Kestrel. The podcast had become a funeral.

"Brine," Celeste asked, "do you also want a back rub?"

"No," BrineSaint said.

"This is clearly a good change. Even ten times baseline is too generous in my opinion. Action Speed multiplying Attack Speed is the real problem, and that hasn't been touched. There is no reason to worry about this."

"But my Action Speed?" Meno said.

"I want more."

"Then switch your Tyrant to Tempest and use two daggers. You can attack forty times per second with each."

"That's not happening. Let's continue." The next change appeared. [11] Lifesteal and Leech Maximums: Due to the unintended strength of Lifesteal, Maximum modifiers have been introduced for all related resource-restoration effects, including Maximum Lifesteal, Maximum Mana Leech, and Maximum Absorption Leech. The baseline Maximum for each is 5%, meaning a single instance of damage cannot restore more than 5% of the relevant Maximum resource, regardless of damage dealt.

For example, Lifesteal cannot restore more than 5% Maximum HP from one damage instance unless the character has modifiers increasing Maximum Lifesteal. Modifiers increasing these Maximums can now be found on Legendary VI and higher items. The hard cap for Maximum Lifesteal, Maximum Mana Leech, and Maximum Absorption Leech is 50%, and values beyond 50% have no effect. Multi-Strike, Multi-Cast, and other separately resolved damage instances each apply these Maximums independently. Kestrel was right.

This day was cursed. This one was targeted too. Meno's Lifesteal had only become stupid because Chain pushed each hit high enough to refill huge chunks of his health bar. Now it did not matter how hard Sinforged Trinity hit. Each damage instance could restore only 5% Maximum HP unless he found another stupid Maximum modifier to stack. Every solution was turning into another gear stat.

"Yes," BrineSaint said.

"After this, I would definitely rank Manipulator alongside Destroyer as the two best options, and it's not close. This affects my Mana Leech too."

"Another modifier category you managed to ruin, PBG," Kestrel said.

"Lifesteal is crap now unless you stack Multi-Strike."

"Is it really that bad?" Rina asked.

"Five percent sounds like a lot when you guys can attack five times a second."

"It depends on monster scaling," BrineSaint said.

"Once incoming damage gets high enough, 5% does not give you much room, especially with slower weapons. Stacking another Maximum modifier is also expensive."

"Any more points?" Rina asked.

"This patch note is very long."

"Yes," Celeste said.

"There are more." [12] Dual-Wielding Penalty: The default Dual-Wielding penalty has been changed from 15% less Attack Speed to 50% less Attack Damage. This penalty applies separately to each weapon while Dual-Wielding. Effects that reduce or ignore Dual-Wielding penalties are unchanged.

"This is not a nerf," Kestrel said.

"This is a nuke for fast melee DPS."

"The old penalty was too low," BrineSaint said.

"Now the damage is normalized, so Dual-Wielding isn't automatically the best option for every class that can use it. For classes that benefit from extra hits, like Swing Master, this can actually be a buff."

"Yeah," Meno said.

"More Chain generation for half the damage. Love it."

"Ugh." Rina glanced toward the production side.

"The atmosphere is getting a little rough. Should we stop here?"

"It's fine," Meno said.

"Keep going. There can't be that much more." [13] Shield Penalty: The default -10% Action Speed penalty for equipping a Shield has been removed. BrineSaint bolted out of his chair and punched one fist into the air.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" The entire room froze. Meno had seen Brine angry, serious, drunk, competitive, and deeply offended by questions about his browsing history. He had never seen him celebrate anything like this.

"Actually a good change for once," Kestrel said.

"Tank players rejoice."

"Yeah, and they should delete every negative Action Speed modifier from Plate while they're at it," Meno said.

"Nobody wants to play in slow motion. Not much else to say here. Congrats, Brine."

"Thanks," BrineSaint said as he sat back down. [14] Venom Tormentor Adjustment: Venom Master EX now grants a maximum of 20 Multi-Strike from targets affected by Venom Tyrant. Each affected target still grants 1 Multi-Strike until this limit is reached. All other effects of Venom Master EX are unchanged. This change does not affect Multi-Strike gained from other sources.

"That's all?" Meno said.

"Karmabeast dodged that one hard. Twenty Multi-Strike is still broken. Clearly some favoritism going on here. Maybe it's because of his Magician subclass." The screen continued before Meno could become more offended on Karmabeast's behalf. [15] Swing Master Tyrant EX Massive Weapon Restrictions: The restrictions preventing Massive weapons from benefiting from Multi-Strike or being converted into projectiles are now part of the Core Class mechanics rather than Quadrillionator.

These restrictions apply to any Massive weapon used by a Swing Master Tyrant variant, including permanent Massive weapons created through other effects. Quadrillionator itself is otherwise unchanged.

"Oh, another one," Rina said.

"Damn, we really should stop reading the patch notes."

"Doesn't matter," Meno said.

"It already worked like this. It's just a tooltip fix. It wasn't working anyway. Next." [16] False Wings and Variants: Fixed a bug that allowed False Wings and its variants to restore kicks by contacting the bodies of players, monsters, and other living entities. Kicks are still restored by landing on any non-living surface, including moving, airborne, summoned, or conjured surfaces.

The surface does not need to be stationary, grounded, or naturally occurring; falling rocks, airborne debris, meteors, conjured surfaces such as rock spells, arrows, and weapons thrown by another living entity can still restore kicks. Meno got up and walked straight out of the studio, and nobody stopped him. He crossed the business-wing corridor and made it all the way to the elevators before stopping. After a second, he turned around and kicked a metal trash can hard enough to knock it onto its side.

The clang carried down the hall. Meno returned to the studio, stepped around the low table this time, and sat beside Rina. Kestrel looked almost peaceful.

"I'm starting to feel less bad now," Kestrel said.

"Shut up," Meno said.

"At least I knew how to open the door."

"Can you guys behave?" BrineSaint asked.

"We're almost done. I didn't know effects like False Wings could restore kicks by landing on thrown objects or arrows. That might actually be a buff."

"I want to see you land on an arrow without getting hit by it," Meno said.

"And who's going to throw a weapon exactly where I need it? Almost nobody. Maybe Karma could pull it off, but it's extremely clunky and impractical." Rina watched him for another moment before motioning toward Celeste to keep going. [17] Mount Nesting: Players may no longer summon a Mount while currently riding another Mount. Mounts summoned while standing on, clinging to, or otherwise being transported by another Mount will now fail to appear.

"This one is funny, right, guys?" Rina asked. She looked from BrineSaint to Meno, then Kestrel. BrineSaint barely reacted. Meno and Kestrel just stared back at her, both visibly exhausted by the patch. Rina gave up and motioned for the next point.

"Okay," Celeste said.

"This is the last one. Brine, please don't get too angry." [18] Defense now correctly applies before Damage Reduction. Defense reduces incoming damage based on the gear rarity of the damage source, while Damage Reduction is applied afterward and is not affected by gear-rarity differences. The effectiveness of Defense is capped at 75% damage reduction. This limit is referred to as Maximum Defense and can be increased by specialized modifiers, up to a hard cap of 90%.

Defense effectiveness is calculated relative to the gear rarity of the incoming damage source. For monsters, gear rarity is determined by their loot tier. For example, a monster capable of dropping Ancient II equipment is treated as having an Ancient II gear rarity score. Damage Tier may be used where applicable. Against an opponent with equivalent gear rarity, a full Plate set with High Defense on every armor piece provides the baseline Maximum Defense of 75%.

Defense beyond the amount required to reach Maximum Defense does not provide additional damage reduction, but excess Defense is retained when calculating the total. For example, replacing one High Defense modifier with High+ or Very High Defense does not increase damage reduction above 75% unless Maximum Defense has also been increased. However, one Very High Defense piece may provide enough excess Defense to replace another High Defense piece with Medium Defense while retaining 75% damage reduction.

Similarly, four High+ Defense pieces may provide enough excess Defense to replace one High Defense piece with Medium Defense without falling below Maximum Defense. Against substantially higher-rarity enemies, Defense from lower-rarity equipment may provide little or effectively no damage reduction. Damage Reduction continues to function normally regardless of gear-rarity differences. BrineSaint read the whole thing without moving, then read it again.

The studio went quiet enough that the fake surf rolling across the wall screens suddenly became noticeable. Nobody spoke until BrineSaint's entire demeanor changed.

"DEFENSE DID NOT WORK!? THIS IS WHY I WAS TAKING SO MUCH DAMAGE! I WAS WEARING PLATE THIS WHOLE TIME FOR NOTHING." BrineSaint had gone from his usual near-monotone to full rage in a single line. He shot to his feet hard enough to shove the chair backward, crossed to the studio entrance, and kicked the same door Kestrel had already abused.

"Brine, please!" Celeste called.

"YOU DON'T GET IT! IT WAS MIXED WITH DAMAGE REDUCTION!" BrineSaint shouted before kicking the door again. Rina cleared her throat and turned toward the camera. She managed half a smile while BrineSaint continued falling apart behind her.

"Okay, I think that's it for the first episode of the Public Service Podcast," Rina said.

"I hope you all had a great time."

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH MANA LEECH I HAD TO STACK TO STAY ALIVE?" BrineSaint shouted behind her.