Hello Heroes! Beleen here, and I’m here alongside Sir Fainal, one of the dedicated AQ3D devs and, quite possibly, a devout minion to Nulgath himself. Even if you’re new here, you already know that Nulgath is one powerful dude capable of crazy powerful things, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that such immense power is contagious. Luckily, Sir Fainal is a good guy, and he has figured out a way to harness said supremacy in the Forge of the Forlorn in order to create… special weapons!
Do want! Fainal, please tell us more!
Fainal: “You may be wondering what’s so special about these particularly forged weapons? Well, you see, imaginary disembodied voices I made up in my head!”
Yuuup. Nulgath definitely got inside his brain. 🤭
Fainal: “These weapons are special and different due to being embedded with a new game feature called an Anomaly. Anomalies will allow us to create uniquely balanced weapons that are better for builds, like
Anomaly weapons can offer, for example, abnormally high amounts of Critical Damage while sacrificing another stat, such as Haste. Or, another weapon Anomaly provides you with a lot of Haste, but nothing else. Haste is a super beneficial stat for Healers, so a Healer build would benefit greatly from that particular weapon with the Haste Anomaly.”
Fainal: “Good question, Pinky! You can tell what weapon has an Anomaly by its item description. Also, all Strong Anomaly weapons released this week will glow with a distinct aura. Regardless of a glowing aura or not, starting this week, each item released with an Anomaly will state so on the weapon’s lore / description, additionally providing you with details on how the Anomaly is affecting a weapon’s stats… and at what cost."
Fainal: “Not always. Although it is true that the best weapon Anomalies will always take something away from you in order to balance out the trade of additional power. With Nulgath’s Forge in particular, there are weapons that are just abnormally strong with no drawbacks whatsoever. For example: the Fiend Spear progression path provides you with a relatively normal set of stats, plus high Attack and an abnormal high Critical Hit rate compared to other weapons of the same level and rarity.”
… and I’m worried I won’t understand it… I just want a pretty pink sword 👉👈
Fainal: “Fear not, enjoyer of simple balance! These are called Anomalies because an anomaly is rare, and not the norm. We will continue releasing normally balanced weapons for most of our updates… however, when the situation (or the voices in my head) calls for it – as is the case of with Nulgath’s powerful forge – we will see abnormally strong weapons hot off the anvil this week.”
Fainal: *sighs*
A regular Pink Fluffy Sword has +1 Attack.
Pink Fluffy Sword with an Anomaly will have +1.4 Attack.
That Anomaly gives a 40% increase in Attack power!
Fainal: “Remember, getting an Anomaly is going to be really rare, so you probably won’t see many of these roaming around. But, for those lucky few:
And that is only the beginning…”
Fainal: “Nope, this does not affect weapons that have already been released. Moving forward, certain weapons could be made with an Anomaly.”
Fainal: “For this update mostly: yes. But not in general. Because! This new feature will allow us to put Anomalies on gear like
Currently, there are some limitations to this new feature, but for the most part… a new frontier has just been discovered! This opens the door to new character build varieties for the players pursuing it! You will have to wait and see when that carefully balanced gear arrives. Speaking of which…
This week’s upgrades for Phoenix Blade of Nulgath II, 8th Betrayal Blade of Nulgath, Abaddon’s Cruelty, Bloodletters, Hex Staff, and Void Gear will arrive through the Forge – with the chance of having an Anomaly, too!”
Fainal: “Ah yes! The best players will be able to combine the new Augment system with their rare Anomaly gear for even better builds! But don’t worry: an Augment will NOT replace the Anomaly, only improve upon it.
Here’s an example: an Augment that boosts Haste on a Fast Anomaly (Haste) weapon will greatly benefit the weapon Anomaly balance, and will return the player with more stats – given the Augment and Anomaly are compatible with each other. On the other hand, if you go for a Critical Augment on a Fast Anomaly (Haste) weapon, which provides little to no Critical boost, then the effect of the Augment will be severely reduced, only giving the weapon a tiny boost on Critical, or just returning said Critical to the weapon with no Critical, but with a severely reduced numerical value.
Does anyone have any more questions? Feel free to send me a tweet at @SirFainal and I’ll be happy to explain further if needed. Needless to say, these are really exciting times, especially for our higher level players!”
And I’m certainly excited as well, Fainal!! I reeeallly hope I find a Pink Fluffy Sword with a Critical Pink Anomaly 😛
In all seriousness though, I can’t wait to see the character builds our players come up with. Thank you so much Sir Fainal and everyone on the team for bringing new features to AQ3D!
Battle on!
Fainal, Me, and Anomaly
Undead Legion Ruler
Scribble Scribe
