Dear Tibians,
We followed your reaction to our announcement for the new vocation with much anticipation and were very happy to see the many positive reactions from the community. A lot of questions emerged regarding the availability of monk equipment in the world of Tibia. This balancing insight will detail our strategy for designing and balancing the monk's new equipment and hopefully offer some intriguing context for the news teaser.
First, I would like to highlight some differences regarding the balancing design process for the summer and winter updates in contrast to a whole set for a single vocation. For our regular updates, we usually introduce a set of thematically coherent equipment for all vocations that has to be integrated into the vast array of existing items. Therefore, the upper and lower limits are predefined and the new items will be balanced accordingly.
Designing the set of monk equipment involved several additional steps, including defining the limits for each equipment type. Once we established that the vocation would be the monk and some of the lore was crafted by our content design team, it was decided to go with an zaoan look and feel for the equipment. This synergised very well with our intention to revitalise the fist fighting skill, which we interpreted in a broader sense as martial arts. Regarding the aesthetics of the new equipment, our graphics department did an incredible job, and there will also be an interesting insight article giving you more information about the process of creating the graphics for the new items.
The next step was to develop the roster of equipment that we wanted to introduce for the monk. There were several considerations when we started to design this roster. One of the most important overarching goals during the implementation of the monk was to ensure that the monk, with all its intricacies, feels like a natural part of Tibia.
To achieve this goal, we identified quest and monster rewards where players would expect to find new equipment for the monk. Another key consideration was to provide equipment for all level ranges. This includes giving the players interesting choices when planning their hunts by differentiating equipment for similar level ranges.
Speaking of differentiation, we also introduced two new attributes for equipment that helped us give the equipment special mechanics and a unique feel: Mantra and elemental bond.
Mantra is a new form of elemental protection that works similarly to armor but protects the monk against elemental damage (Fire, Ice, Energy, Earth) and can be found on all defensive equipment. This symbolises the deep and natural understanding of the essence of these elements. Our initial design exchanged armor with mantra but after some testing it became obvious that especially low-level monks would need some amount of armor to survive their journey in Tibia. Therefore, we reapplied some of the armor but lowered the upper ceiling that can be reached.
As an example, we will have a look at the monk robe and the merudri nanbando:
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monk robe Level: 0 Mantra: 7 Armor: 6 Mantra: 7 Skill: Fist Fighting +1 |
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merudri nanbando |
As you can see, even low-level equipment will give some much needed protection against physical attacks. As your journey continues, you will find better armor like the merudri nanbando which will protect you even more effectively against elemental attacks (whilst giving you additional benefits) but the armor value will not increase as significantly. Anyone who has ever tried to wield a nunchaku or a bo while wearing a falcon plate will agree on the difficulty of not hurting yourself.
Elemental bond is a new attribute that can be found on all monk specific weapons. It indicates the resonance of offensive power with one of the following elements: physical, energy and earth. This means spells will do damage according to the weapon’s elemental bond type. This defines a weapon similar to the elemental damage of swords, clubs and axes but focuses on three elements. As a result, it helps players decide which weapon to use in different hunting grounds and therefore allows multiple weapons to be efficient in the same level range.
If you compare, for example, the umbral katar (Level 120) with the bambus jo (Level 150) you can see that stat wise these weapons are not too far away from each other.
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umbral katar Level: 120 Skill: Fist Fighting +2 Attack: 42 Defence: 17 Elemental Bond: Physical |
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bambus jo |
What distinguishes them is their elemental bond which helps the umbral katar shine in hunting grounds with monsters being weak against physical damage whereas the bambus jo resonates better with the earth element and is therefore more efficient against monsters sensitive to earth damage.
We are looking forward to your feedback on the test servers and hope you have as much fun playing the new vocation and using the new equipment as we had designing them.
Happy testing!
Shazaya
| New Vocation Insight Featured Article 2/6 |
To preserve balance is to carry forward, nurture and shape life, to bring harmony to the mind and order to chaos
- Dhar-Enpa Rahng -
In his PM Insight, Niadus has already discussed Harmony - an unique spell mechanic for the monk characterised by gaining one Harmony when using an attack spell and spending up to five Harmony with powerful spender spells. He detailed Virtues, which consists of three distinct spells each offering an unique passive effect, as well as Serene, a special power boost for the monk that activates under certain conditions.
With this article, we want to go into the heart of magic itself and introduce you to some of the monk's spells in more detail.
| Spell |
Description |
Mentor Other |
The great mentors of the Merudri have a long history of sharing and passing their wisdom onto others. This special skill gives monks the power to train others very efficiently and to great effect. This powerful spell grants the target and the monk an effect for 60 seconds. The effect depends on the target's vocation:
|
Focus Serenity |
Keeping enlightenment, true harmony and the balance of all emotions in perfect equilibrium, lets a dedicated monk enter a state of complete serenity. The character is serene for 7 seconds, even if he does not meet the condition. Additionally, the character receives maximum Harmony and the cooldown of all spender spells is reset. |
Greater Flurry of Blows |
An even more destructive variant of the Flurry of Blows. Hard to master and difficult to execute, this expert attack will deal large amounts of damage to every enemy in the vicinity. Greater Flurry of Blows is an attack spell from the new builder category. It generates one harmony and also deals considerable AoE damage. |
Chained Penance |
A blow performed by skilled monks with high levels of focus. So swift and deadly, that ripples of his brutal force extend towards other enemies in the vicinity. This builder spell deals damage to a target within range 2 and chains to up to 3 additional targets. Chain jump distance is 1, chain jump bonus is 15% and chain jumps prioritise the highest %HP when multiple jump targets are present. |
Sweeping Takedown |
Concentrating intensely while directing the focus of the monk's energy during a sequence of kicks and blows in quick succession allows skilled monks to incapacitate their enemies instantly in a sweeping takedown. Sweeping Takedown is an attack spell from the new spender category. It consumes Harmony and causes high damage to the 3x2 box in the direction of the attack and an additional 75% of the damage to the following connected 3x2 box. The damage increases by up to 240% while in Virtue of Sustain or Justice or even 400% while using Virtue of Harmony. |
Mass Spirit Mend |
The power of monks to use their inner power to concentrate and heal can be conveyed to allies by reaching a state of complete focus and harmony, resulting in a massive discharge of pure healing energies. Mass Spirit Mend is a healing spell from the new spender category. Like Sweeping Takedown, it can be boosted with Harmony to increase the healing by up to 240/400%. |
Naturally, this is just a small glimpse of the powerful monkish magic. In total, the monk will have more than 20 new spells, including Summon Monk Familiar and Avatar of Balance.
Key aspects will be the balanced use of builder and spender spells to fully harness the power of Harmony, and the skillful handling of Virtues and Serene. Master the monk's Three-Fold Path and you will become a legend on the battlefield.
We hope this sneak peek has whetted your appetite. The real fun begins, of course, when you start slinging spells and landing slaps yourself.
And that moment is getting closer... Soon it is time for you to step into the role of a truth seeker yourself.
Enjoy your power!
Your Community Managers
Upcoming this Thursday: What about the items you promised us?
| New Vocation Content Teaser 2/3 |
Attention, attention! Starting on Friday, February 21, cake golems will return as part of the "A Piece of Cake" event and attack certain cities in Tibia. Gather all pie lovers and face those sweet temptations. Those who manage to eat the huge amount of cake can look forward to yummy rewards!
Slay
the invaders to get enough sweet and sugary substances and lure them into the cake extractor machines in Thais, Liberty Bay, Carlin, Darashia, and Edron! Both actions are necessary to enable the bakers near the machines to build a bridge to the legendary cake island.
Once you are on the island, you need to start munching the giant cake - as fast as you can. There is no bite to waste! Time will run out with the server save on February 26. If you manage to polish off the entire cake in time, your game world will be rewarded with 25% more health and mana regeneration and exclusively for premium accounts an experience bonus of 50% for seven days.
NPC Brutus will visit the cake island in case your game world has successfully finished the event. He will offer you a special reward if you are willing to follow his further instructions. You can also get one of three delicious cupcakes from Brutus:
Low carb is overrated,
Your Community Managers
