Greetings, Ascended!

Last month we gave you a general overview of what to expect from Chapter IV and the many changes that will be coming with it: including new story elements, new endgame mechanics, a dynamic boss fight, new unique items, and a truly massive balancing pass. Even more things are coming with Chapter IV, but we will save those for future monthly updates! Today, we want to give you a few examples of new unique items we’ll ship with Chapter IV, and address how the upcoming changes will impact your existing characters.

New Unique Items

One of our goals with Chapter IV is to shift the meta and allow for new types of builds and character types to shine, both during the campaign and in the end game. To achieve that, alongside the massive balancing pass we have been working on, we’re planning on shipping a lot of new unique items. Here are a few examples:

Disclaimer: Names & values shown may differ from the release version depending on the internal balancing tests we will be doing until then.

Projectile Ring

• -35% Projectile damage multiplier.
• +2 Projectiles

+30% critical damage
+50 Ferocity
-75 Wisdom

Critical Damage Belt

• Each time you drink a ressource potion (rage/willpower), you gain +40% critical damage for 6s.
• +30% chance to gain doubled potion charge on kill.

+1500 Maximum Health
+60 Ferocity

Damage Chest

• -300 Max Willpower and Rage
• +60% Attack Critical Strike Chance Score
• +60% Spell Critical Strike Chance Score
• +60% Critical Damage

+22-42 Physical damage on your attacks
+22-42 Physical damage on your spells

Auto Cast Unique Items

If you have been playing Wolcen’s end game (Or if you’re very lucky), you may have heard, or even get your hands on the infamous Trial Belt. With Chapter IV, we will be adding new Auto Cast Unique Items, here are a few examples:

Eclipse Shield

• On Block 100% chance to cast Eclipse (with 360% explosion modifier) – This effect can occur every 1.0s.

+10% Block Chance on this item
+60 Toughness
+45-67 aether damage added to spells
+100% All resistances on this item

Nova Boots

• On Block 100% chance to cast Winter’s Grasp on the player position – This effect can occur every 4.0s.

+5% Block Efficiency
+45 Wisdom
+22-33 Frost damage added to spells
+20% Movement speed
+100% Health on this item
+100% Force Shield on this item

Bleeding Edge Gloves

• On Hit 20% Chance to cast Bleeding Edge (with Duration increased modifier) – This effect can occur every 3.0s.

+10% Rend Damage Multiplier
+50 Ferocity
-25 Toughness
+75% to Material Resistances

Anomaly Ring

• On Hit 100% chance to cast Anomaly (with the increase AOE modifier, the multiple pull modifier, and the duration bonus modifier) – This effect can occur every 10.0s.

+10% Occult Damage Multiplier
+50% Occult Ailment Score
+200% force shield on this item
+50 Wisdom

A (Somewhat) Fresh Start

Much like the beginning of a traditional ARPG season, the sheer depth and scope of the changes coming with Chapter IV mean that a fresh start is required. Doing so will ensure that everyone can experience the new content properly and enjoy the game as intended well into the future, instead of being left behind as with prior iterations. However, we don’t want to negate players’ hard work and lock them off from enjoying the new content and challenges at the cost of abandoning the characters that have journeyed with them through Wolcen’s story thus far.

Our intent is to convert characters that are at least level 45, or have previously completed the Chapter III, into Chapter IV-ready versions. All character types that fit these criteria will be converted, be they Legacy, Standard, or Bloodtrail. Characters that have not completed Chapter III, or are below level 45, will remain unaffected. Any newly created characters will start from The Prologue and proceed into Chapter I as normal.

So that players can experience the new Chapter as intended, converted characters will have their level adjusted to 40 but will retain all their skills, unlocked cosmetics, storage space, gold, and primordial affinity. (Note that Legacy characters will receive a large lump sum of gold and primordial affinity instead of their original amounts). To offset this, the experience curve will be greatly flattened, by up to 45% for some higher levels, as part of Chapter IV’s balancing pass.

All items will be retained and scaled to around item level 40. Items with affixes will retain their existing affixes but have their values re-rolled in line with the new balancing meta.

City Building and War Table progress will be reset. We are investigating the possibility of carrying over City Building progress in specific buildings and projects, however there are some technical hurdles to overcome. In parallel with the reduced experience requirements, we will be significantly reducing the Gold and Productivity costs of the City Building projects with the Chapter IV patch.

This is a lot of information and change, so to reiterate and lay it out plainly our current plan is:

• All characters that are at least level 45 or have completed Chapter III will be converted, regardless of the game type they were created in (Legacy, Standard, or Bloodtrail).
• Eligible Legacy or Standard characters will effectively become Bloodtrail characters when converted, bringing everyone into a unified player pool and content tier moving forward.
• Once converted, all characters will be level 40. The experience requirements per level will be dramatically reduced by up to 45%.
  • All converted characters will receive:
  • 39 Gate of Fates points,
  • 390 Attribute points,
  • All previously unlocked dyes and armour skins,
  • All previously unlocked Aspects of Apocalypse,
  • Standard and Bloodtrail characters will retain their Gold and Primordial Affinity.
  • Legacy characters will have their Gold and Primordial Affinity reset and replaced with a large lump-sum of both.
• All items in character inventories and personal storage will be retained and scaled to approximately item level 40. Any items with affixes will retain their affixes and have their values rerolled in-line with the new balancing meta.
• War Table progress will be reset.
• Stormfall City Building will be reset, though we are investigating the possibility of carrying over progress in certain projects. City Building costs are being massively reduced with Chapter IV to offset this.
• A system will be in place to prevent personal storage collisions when a player has converted both Bloodtrail personal storage and Legacy or Standard personal storage. We will be detailing this at a later time.

These changes are substantial but necessary if we are to continue refining Wolcen further and deliver our seasonal plans for the game in the future. With this character conversion, we will be bringing everyone to the same player pool and allowing everyone to experience the same content and balancing – something we were unable to do previously. Further, we hope that by providing a sense of continuity with your characters, as opposed to a completely blank slate, we can make that transition easier and more enjoyable.

That’s all for the month! As always, you can join us on the Official Discord and have a chat, or you can find the previous Monthly Update here. If you have any specific questions about the conversion process, please contact [email protected], or Tyber#0143 on Discord, so that they may be gathered and addressed in future updates.