Since Albion Online's free-to-play launch on April 10, the player base has grown tremendously, as new and veteran players alike set their sights on new regions and activities. To adjust for this massive influx of players, and to ensure that combat remains vital for all players, Oberon Patch 5 (AKA the Oberon Midseason Patch) will bring a major new Outland expansion, portal binding and siege camp changes, the ability to set favorite islands, and more.
Outlands Expansion
To give up-and-coming players (and smaller guilds both old and new) a chance at territory ownership, three major new Outland regions have been added: Siluria (equivalent in size and value to Cumbria), and West and East Glouvia (equivalent in size and value to West and East Anglia, respectively). In the interest of fairness to teams currently competing in Season 6, these territories will be claimable beginning on the second Invasion Day of Season 6 (May 18), but will not contribute season points until Season 7.
Portal Binding and Siege Camp Updates
In conjunction with this expansion and the previous redistribution of Outlands portals to the Royal Cities, the following changes changes will take place:
- Players can now opt to remove their portal binding once every 30 days. This long cooldown period allows for occasional cancellation of bindings due to unforeseen circumstances, while preventing unfettered access to all Outlands clusters. Players can still cross the Outlands to a different-colored portal in order to reset their bindings with no cooldown.
- To increase competition for control of the Royal Cities, the connections for the Siege Camps in No Respite and Carpet of Bones will be switched from Caerleon to Martlock and Thetford, respectively. The newly introduced Siege Camps in Desecrated Sands, Torn Earth, and Badbury Bog will enable attacks on the remaining Royal Cities.
- To further strengthen the connection between the Royal Cities and the Outlands, and for the convenience of all players, Energy Manipulator NPCs have been added to the Royal Cities. These new merchants can be found near each city's Realmgate, and offer the same services that were previously available only in Caerleon.
By popular demand, players can now set certain islands as favorites in the Travel Planner UI. This often-requested quality-of-life change allows players quick access to their most-visited islands without needing to search for them each time.
While this was one of the most-requested updates based on community feedback, the game's UI will also receive additional improvements and streamlining over the coming months - so please keep your feedback coming!
Combat Balance Changes
The Oberon Midseason Patch brings numerous balance changes to weapons and armor. This set of changes has two specific goals in improving Albion's combat meta:
- Increasing the variety of tank builds in 5-versus-5 fights (GvGs, Hellgates, etc.)
- Bringing more variety in damage-dealing during ZvZs, and buffing some underutilized ZvZ weapons
As always, the overarching goal of these changes is to keep combat in Albion fair and vital, and to keep builds for specific combat activities from becoming too stagnant and entrenched.
And speaking of combat, in case you missed it, you can now see every weapon, offhand, and tool in the game in one place - click here to check it out.
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