Changes this patch

Here are the changes as posted on www.L2Vault.com 

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Changes to Player Death Penalties

The following changes have been made to death penalties of player characters.

Unchaotic character: No items are dropped at death.


Chaotic character: Items are dropped at a lower rate than before. PK count still determines item drops, while Karma influences susceptibility to the combat penalty.
When characters die, they will now receive a penalty of reduced combat capability at a certain rate (about the same rate as the previous item drop rate).

The penalty for death is applied cumulatively. If you die again after the penalty has been applied, the new penalty is applied on top of the existing penalty.

The penalty can be viewed in the Status window and it has a permanent duration.

You can recover your combat capability level by using Scroll: Recovery items. There are recovery scrolls for each level and each character must use one appropriate for his level (per expertise skill). Chaotic characters cannot use recovery scrolls.

You can also recover your combat capability level through Black Judge NPCs for a fee, including chaotic characters. The Black Judges are in Floran Village, the Wastelands, and Hardin's Academy.

Charms of Luck have been changed to have the effect of preventing this new penalty to combat capability.

New Skills

Skills that summon party members have been added.

The “Summon Friend” skill, which enables a Summoner to summon party members, has been added. Elemental Summoners, Phantom Summoners, and Warlocks can acquire this skill at level 56. Spellbooks can be acquired as drops from monsters and at the Magic Stores of Rune Township and the Town of Goddard. These items are sold at a certain time at a certain rate.
The character summoned must have the Summoning Crystal. Summoning Crystals can be purchased at a town grocer.
You cannot summon party members to battle grounds, certain raid boss regions, and the Olympiad Stadium. You cannot summon party members who are engaged in combat or dead.
More party summoning classes will be added in a later update.
Skill Changes

The Fortune of Noblesse skill has been changed to have the effect of preventing reduced combat capability if killed by a Boss or a Raid Monster. Consumes 4 Lucky Charms: A Grade.

The Clan Death Fortune skill effect has been changed to reduction of the rate at which the clan's Experience Score is reduced and the rate at which the character suffers a penalty for death when killed.

The Lucky skill has been changed to have the effect of preventing the penalty of reduced combat capability on death. The Lucky skill now applies to characters up to level 9.

Items

Instant Effect Potions

New instant effect potions have been added.

Elixir of Life – HP Recovery
Elixir of Mental Strength – MP Recovery
Elixir of CP – CP Recovery
There are No Grade - Grade S instant effect potions and one can only use potions corresponding to expertise level. For example, a character of level 76 can only use Grade S potions.

The instant potions can be obtained from stores and through common crafting.

Elixir of Life: No Grade - Grade C can be purchased at stores.
Elixir of Mental Strength: No Grade - Grade D can be purchased at stores.
Elixir of CP: No Grade - Grade S can be purchased at stores.
There are potion grade restrictions depending on the size of the town. For example, all grades of Elixir of CP are available at the NPC stores; No Grade - Grade S are available in the Town of Aden, and only No Grade - Grade A are available in the Town of Giran.

The common crafting recipes can be obtained through clan hall production.

Instant Effect Items (Herbs)

New instant effect items have been added for more convenient solo hunting.

The effects of buff-type herbs and common buffs are not both applied. For example, if you acquire Herb of Power or Herb of the Warrior when you are under the effect of the Might buff, the effect of Might doesn’t apply as long as the herb effect is active. The existing Might buff effect starts only after the herb loses its effect.

Luxury Shop

Items have been added to the Luxury Shop. Soul Crystals Stage 7 through Stage 10 are now sold at the Luxury Shop in the Town of Giran.

Other Changes

The weight of the following items have been significantly reduced.

Spirit Ore: From 10 to 5
CP Potion: From 110 to 25
Greater CP Potion: From 500 to 100

The re-use time for CP Potion and Greater CP Potion has been significantly reduced.

You can exchange B Grade weapons (Sword, Bow, Blunt, Polearm) for fist weapons through Blacksmith of Mammon. However, you cannot exchange the fist weapons for another type of weapons. (Arthro Nail and Bellion Cestus are the applicable B Grade fist weapons.)

Quests

The number of quests that can be simultaneously taken has been significantly increased to 25 from 15.

You receive Dimension Diamonds that enable you to purchase a Scroll of Escape to Town when you start the second class transfer quest. If you are in the middle of a quest, then you receive it at the end of the quest.

In the “Enhance Your Weapon” quest, more power has been added to the blade to eliminate the possibility that the Soul Crystal might break during the Stage 1- Stage 10 soul collection process.

Interface

Changes to the Buff Window

A “de-buff” window has been created, separate from the buff window, where de-buffs inflicted by danger areas or NPCs are displayed. There are a maximum of 10 de-buffs and 10 toggle skill buffs that can be displayed.

The maximum number of buffs visible in the general buff window has increased to 24 from 20.

In order to increase the maximum number in the general buff window, one must have the Ancient Book – Divine Inspiration and learn the Divine Inspiration skill. There is one buff slot increase every time the skill level improves.

Clan Window

The clan affiliation change function has been added. A clan member no longer has to be dismissed in order for his affiliation to be changed. For example, a clan member who is affiliated with a Royal Guard can change his affiliation and join a direct clan, Royal Guard or an Order of Knights without having to leave the clan and re-join.

This function is available only for clan lords and changing the affiliation of the Academy members is not allowed. In addition, it is not allowed to change the affiliation of a direct clan member by making him an Academy member.

Party Matching Window

One can view, invite, and whisper by going to the party matching waiting list. Party members as well as a party leader can now invite others.

Mini-Map

The Adventurer’s Guide Book functions have been integrated with the mini-map. The Adventurer’s Guide Book items are no longer usable and can be sold to the NPC store at the original price.

The location of the cursed weapon Zariche can now be identified on the mini-map.

Shortcut Window

The shortcut window can now be expanded to three levels. Click the arrows at the top of the shortcut window to control the levels. The expanded shortcut window (levels two and three) can be used only by mouse. The shortcut expansion functions are not supported for the game pad.

Miscellaneous

Useful tips for game playing can be viewed on the loading screen. Tips can be turned on and off in the game option window.

A new function to hide dropped items on the ground has been added. Turn this function on and off in the game Options window. If you turn this function on, because the items that are dropped on the ground are hidden from your screen, you can significantly reduce lag arising from the client. Because the items dropped on the ground are hidden, you cannot obtain them by mouse but only by using the Pick Up button.

Changes have been have been made so that all the windows can be displayed again by pressing ALT+H after they have been hidden by ALT+H.

An issue where the shortcut bars could not be used when the interface was hidden (ALT+H) has been corrected.

An issue with the clan hall buff windows has been corrected.

The Seven Signs

The following effects have been added when the winning side has the Seal of Strife.

CP Gauge Change

When owned by Dawn: A CP gauge of a player who belongs to the Dawn side increases by 10%, and the CP gauge of a player who belongs to the Dusk side decreases by 10%.
When owned by Dusk: A CP gauge of a player who belongs to the Dusk side increases by 10%, and the CP gauge of a player who belongs to the Dawn side decreases by 10%.
When Strife is not owned: Same as before (no changes incurred).

Returning to Town in a Siege

When owned by Dawn: Same as before (no changes are incurred); player restarts in the second nearest village.
When owned by Dusk: A clan that has participated in a siege restarts from the first town at the time of escape and death.
When Strife is not owned: A clan who has participated in a siege restarts in the first town at the time of escape or death.

The Grand Olympiad

The Olympiad Stadium has been reduced in size.

The match schedule has been changed. The Olympiad is now 6 hours long starting from 6:00 PM CST and ending at 12:00 AM midnight CST (6:00 PM GMT+1 to 12:00 AM GMT+1 on the Teon and Franz servers). The schedule was previously 8:00 PM – 12:00 AM, a total of 4 hours.

Other schedule changes:

Announcement of the start of the match: From 30 seconds to 120 seconds
Match preparation: From 50 seconds to 60 seconds
Match Sessions: From 180 seconds to 360 seconds (the announcement of the remaining time will start from 2 minutes before the end of the match through the system message.)
End of Match: From 20 seconds to 40 seconds
At least 9 applicants are required for the non-class specific matches. (Matches between classes require only 5 applicants as before.)

The following rules apply if an Olympiad participant has failed to participate in a match due to conduct such as restarting, sub-class change, possession of more items then allowed, possession of Demonic Sword Zariche, and death status.

Before being summoned to the stadium: The match is annulled and has no impact on the opponent’s record. The player who cannot participate has his score reduced by 1/5 of his points.
After being summoned to the stadium: The player who cannot participate is deemed to have lost, the opponent is deemed to have won, and these results go on record.
After the match has started: The player who cannot participate is deemed to have lost, the opponent is deemed to have won, and these results go on record.
When the participants ended the match without attacking: When the cumulative damage 0, the match is deemed a tie and the result goes on the record.
When the participants inflict the same damage on each other: It is considered a tie and the result goes on record.

The transferable point for the non-class specific matches has been changed from 1/3 to 1/5. No changes to the matches between classes. The gate pass amount given to winners of the non-class specific matches has been reduced.

Non-class specific matches: 30
Matches between classes: 50

These items cannot be used in Olympiad matches.

Blessing of Fire, Blessing of Water, Blessing of Wind, Blessing of Earth, Blessing of Darkness, Blessing of Sanctity
Fire Crystal, Water Crystal, Wind Crystal, Earth Crystal, Dark Crystal, Sanctity Crystal
Elixir of Life, Elixir of Mental Strength, Elixir of CP

The Olympiad settlement points have been raised from 40 to 50.

The Olympiad point maximum compensation limit has been adjusted from 2,000 to 1,000 points.

The bonus points the Hero received has been significantly increased from 100 to 300.

The minimum number of times the character has participated in the Olympiad required to be selected as Hero has been changed from over 5 times to over 9 times.

Scroll of Enchant Weapon/Armor D/C Grade have been removed from the list of items sold by the Olympiad Manager.

The prices of the items sold by the Olympiad Manager have increased.

Pets and Servitors

The duration of the servitors who are acquired after the second class transfer (Warlock, Elemental Summoner, Phantom Summoner) has been increased threefold. The maintenance cost and the number of times it is consumed have also proportionately been increased. The 12 servitors affected are as follows.

Kat the Cat, Mew the Cat, Kai the Cat, Cat Queen
Unicorn Boxer, Unicorn Mirage, Unicorn Merrow, Unicorn Seraphim
Shadow, Silhouette, Soulless, Nightshade

Changes were made so that the Attack/Skill command doesn’t work if the level of the pet is over 20 levels higher than the owner. However, Pickup, Move, and Unsummon commands still work.

Changes were made so that the Alpen Cougar, Kookaburra, Buffalo in the Beast Farm can now be raised to "Item Type Reward" rather than the existing "Adena Type Reward” using Crystal Spice.

The area around Tower of Insolence has been designated as a restricted area for wyvern riders.

NPCs

Boss Monsters

The difficulty of the battle with Frintezza has been decreased.

The physical P. Def of Scarlet van Halisha has been reduced.
Scarlet van Halisha’s speed has been reduced.
The rate Scarlet van Halisha uses the levitation skill has been significantly reduced.
The rate Frintezza plays his hypnotic song has been significantly reduced.

The following adjustments have been made to the difficulty level of Antharas and Valakas.

The total HP, basic P. Def., and M.Def. of Antharas have been decreased.
The total HP and basic P. Def. of Valakas have been decreased.
M.Def. of Valakas has been increased.

The area where the herb items are dropped has been re-designated among the hunting grounds. For example, monsters can now drop herbs in some of the areas such as Blazing Swamp; herbs no longer drop in Dragon Valley.

Miscellaneous Changes

In the Frozen Labyrinth, many changes were made to the monster posts, and the re-appearance of the monsters has been slightly reduced. The experience rewards of some monsters have been re-adjusted to the level similar to that of other monsters.

Changes have been made to the posts of the monsters at the outposts of Varka Silenos and Ketra Orc. Solo hunting is allowed around the entrance and the party type monsters are posted inside.

A higher number of monsters are appearing at the Cemetery.

Some of the monsters appearing around the Raid Bosses (Gludio, Dion, Oren, Innadril, Aden territories) have been removed.

An issue where the Mysterious Box didn’t appear when a character enters Four Sepulchers and has been fixed.

An issue where the player used to bleed even when the Triol’s Revelation in the back room of Pagan Temple is dead has been fixed.

Changes were made so that the all other monsters disappear when High Priest van Halter, Raid Boss of Pagan Temple, disappears.

A problem where Gatekeeper Zombies posted at Pagan’s Temple would not attack players without a mark has been fixed.

An issue where Master Anays, Raid Boss of Monastery of Silence, didn’t attack first when he became aware of a player has been fixed.

A problem with The Weathermaster of the Ruins of Pavel Research Center has been fixed.

A “cut scene” has been added when a character enters the third floor of Pagan’s Temple where High Priest van Halter is found. Immediately after the scene ends, the combat with the raid boss starts.

The Monster Race Track is no longer viewable in the Broadcasting Towers.

Other Changes

Boss Monsters

The Gatekeeper’s general teleport fee is discounted at 50% from 8:00 PM to 12:00 AM (midnight) CST (8:00 PM GMT+1 to 12:00 AM GMT+1 on the Teon and Franz servers). Sundays and Saturdays are exceptions.

All freight can be picked up through any Warehouse Freightman in the area.

All the characters under level 25, regardless of whether they are new or not, are eligible for newbie benefits:

Weapons and armor exchange
Newbie buffs
Soulshots/Spiritshots for Novice

The arrival coordinates are no longer identical with those of the gatekeeper when teleported to Giran Castle Town and Schuttgart Castle Town.

Some Noblesse teleport arrival points have been moved to safer areas.

In the teleport list of the Orc Village gatekeeper, Northern Immortal Plateau has been renamed The Immortal Plateau.

An issue where points acquired from some successful raid and boss monster raids were not recorded in the Adventurer Guide has been fixed. (The Raid total score has always been correctly calculated.)

The clan name changes colors in the character target window according to your clan reputation score.

Alliances composed of four or more clans have been dissolved. Normal penalties for alliance dissolution should not apply.

The From Beyond event has started.