Jan 14 2024 Changelog

Balance Changes

heRO Permanent Rate Update

heRO will be moving from a 5/5/3 server to a 5/5/5 server. Here are the details.

• All items are at 5x, up from 3x
• All OCA cards are at 10x, up from 5x
• All Non-OCA cards are at 5x, up from 3x

Non-OCA card includes all MVP cards, plus 7 selected miniboss cards: Angeling, Deviling, Ghostring, Maya Purple, Grayphon, Muspelite Aranea, Muspelite Golem

Why make these changes?

Times have changed and there's less time for everyone to grind to the same extend that heRO players have 18 years ago. We're all significantly older than when heRO first launched. We like to grind, but perhaps not this much. Even RMS has changed from 2007 where low rates have a max drop rate of 10x, but now low rates have a max drop rate of 25x. Increasing from 3x to 5x is a reasonably mild increase along with the times.

Drop Rate "Nerfs" Due to Permanent Rate Update

Selective changes are applied so that the best zeny-generating spot does not run out of control due to the rate change. At the same time, other locations may also catch up to the amount of zeny generated by the best locations. These changes are:

• Mavka has all of its etc item and consumable items drop rates nerfed such that their drop rates are the same at 5x in comparison with heRO server 3x before this change
• All monsters in Abyss 4 have all of their etc item and consumable items' drop rates nerfed such that their drop rates are the same at 5x in comparison with heRO server 3x before this change
• Incubus and Succubus have all of their etc item and consumable items' drop rates nerfed such that their drop rates are the same at 5x in comparison with heRO server 3x before this change

Assassin

• Left Hand Mastery now gives a passive 2.5% damage boost when a weapon is equipped in the left hand (max of 12.5%). This bonus applies at the end of damage calculation, similar to Advanced Katar Mastery. This boost does not apply to Soul Breaker.
• Right Hand Mastery now gives a passive 2.5% damage boost when there is a non-Katar weapon equipped in the right hand (max of 12.5%). This bonus applies at the end of damage calculation, similar to Advanced Katar Mastery. This boost does not apply to Soul Breaker.
• Meteor Assault range increased from 2 cells to 3 cells (AoE increased from 5x5 to 7x7)
• Meteor Assault is now affected by damage% cards in weapons from both hands

Why make these changes?
Even though we buffed many Assassin skills, it turns out dual wield is still woefully insufficient compared to katars and grimtooth. Even with the dagger bonus boost, because of the heavy restrictions on Meteor Assault, a Katar still out-damages dual wield when both use Meteor Assault. Advanced Katar Mastery allows katars to out-damage and overcome the initial first round of changes for sinx dual-wield builds. Advanced Katar Mastery is only 5 skill points, while left/right-hand mastery collectively needs 10 points so it’s a total waste of skill points to do less.

We’re buffing left/right-hand mastery so that if you are going down a path that costs more skill points, there needs to be a pay-off. With this 2nd wave of changes, MA has a niche where if you are willing to invest in it, it has the potential to be a powerful mobbing ability because it’s scaling off of potentially 7 cards together (such as a Scalpel + a 4 carded Main Gauche; or Red Twin Edge of Naght Sieger in the main hand for more attack power for veterans; then classic ice pick in the def-ignore scenario as needed). If you are willing to invest in 7 proper cards and handle the expense, then Sinx dual-wield Meteor Assault should be the highest damaging AoE available to an Assassin Cross.

Gunslinger

• All bullets have their power increased from whatever sub-30 value to 35, 5 higher than archer's elemental arrows
• Bloody Shell power increased from 30 to 45, 5 higher than steel arrow
• Spheres power increased from 50 to 75
• Cost of Spheres is halved (from 60 to 30)

Why make these changes?

Bullets are even worse than elemental arrows even though they cost more (Arrow Crafting can create them with ease). One of the issues for Gunslinger is that they are surprisingly pricy due to their ammo. We don't want Gunslinger and Archer classes to be monotonous either. We will emphasize Gunslinger ammo to be higher damage so that they justify their price, rather than make them identical to Archer ammos. We hope the price and power adjustments will make Gunslinger feel more explosive in damage, especially with Sphere-based skills.

Wizard/Sage/Soul Linker

Any Two-Handed Staff starts at 20% MATK at a minimum, instead of 15% MATK. These include:

• Divine Cross
• Glorious Destruction Staff
• Dea Staff
• Staff of Light
• Storm Staff
• Frozen Staff

Why make these changes?

We want to bridge the gap between some of the existing two-handed staff to Aeon Staff and Staff of Destruction. There needs to be an incentive not to use any shields, and the top tier 1 handed staff already has 20% MATK bonus. If you made the trade-off to go glass cannon and not utilize a shield, then you should be rewarded with higher attack power. This is in-line with changes to 2-handed melee weapons in the past.

Costume Update

A new Schematic item is now available: the Love Bubble Schematic, dropped by Kokomo Octopus, will allow you to craft the following:

• Costume Love Tentacle Bubble (Rank 1)
• Costume Love Bacon Bubble (Rank 1)
• Costume Love Cake Bubble (Rank 1)

The following new costumes have been added to Faeheim.

• Banana_Hat (Rank 1)
• Cherry Blossom Bell (Rank 4)
• Cherry Twig In Mouth (Rank 3)
• Cow Hat (Rank 1)
• Crow Tengu Mask (Rank 4)
• Hat of Fortune (Rank 3)
• Mystic Rose (Rank 2)
• Strawberry Hat (Rank 2)

The following new costumes have been added to Lutia.

• Red Christmas Jester (Rank 1)
• Green Christmas Jester (Rank 1)
• Minstrel Song Hat (Rank 4)
• Pingvi Cap (Rank 3) (new drop by Kingvi, see below)
• Raccoon Hat (Rank 1)
• Resting Swan (Rank 4)
• Satanic Bone Helm (Rank 3)
• Shafka (Rank 1)
• Winter Hat (Rank 1)

The following new costumes have been added to Nobility Costumer.

• Antler (Rank 1)
• Bandit Hat (Rank 2)
• Black Framed Glasses (Rank 4)
• Ceremonial Hat (Rank 2)
• Circlet of Survival (Rank 4)
• Egg Shell (Rank 1)
• Link Hat (Rank 3)
• Blue Sunday Hat (Rank 1)
• Green Sunday Hat (Rank 1)
• Purple Sunday Hat (Rank 1)

The following bugs regarding costumes should be fixed:

• Phoenix Crown should be costumeable in Faeheim (Rank 3)
• Blue Christmas Jester should be costumeable in Lutia, and lowered from Rank 2 to Rank 1

The following headgear has been retired and will not be obtainable anymore. If you have the following items, you may trade with a GM for its costume version.

• Love Rainbow Carrot Bubble (the quest will now create the costume directly)
• Love Tentacle Bubble
• Love Bacon Bubble
• Love Cake Bubble

Costume Avian Wings

The Avian Wing quest has been updated to be far less frustrating with a significantly shorter item list. Furthermore, you can choose to create the regular Avian Wings as an armor, or create it as Costume Avian Wings. You cannot convert an existing Avian Wings into the Costume Avian Wings. If you want the costume, you will need to do the new quest.

See the updated new Avian Wing Quest guide for the updated details and new item list.

Monster Update

• Kokomo Octopus no longer drops Advanced Heroic Backpack or Love Tentacle Bubble. Now it drops the Love Bubble Schematic at 100%
• Ghostring has Rare Rune at 7.5% (under 5x), replacing Dead Branch
• Kingvi has a new drop, the Pingvi Hat

Elunium/Oridecon Drop Rate Boost

The following monster changes are related to making Elunium/Oridecon to be more accessible to match with the increased gear drops overall due to the overall rate change. Although Elunium/Oridecon's drop rate will also be scaled up by our item drop rate changes, lot of players often hoard items or sell it at safe refine not because the equipment is scarce, but rather Elunium/Oridecon are at a premium, and "not to be used on meme gears." The number of shops that sell them have dwindled almost to none, so it's time for GMs to increase their supply in the server. Elunium/Oridecon sources have not been changed for a decade, so it's time to innovate in this area as well, especially for new fields/dungeons. However, we want to keep Elunium/Oridecon at traditionally older locations to encourage players not to forget the older maps along with old minibosses. Their previous drop rates (under 5x) has been listed along with their new drop rates (under 5x). The balance standard is to compare the accessibility and drop/HP ratio with Abyssal Knight. Certain locations that we want to buff up as potential mobbing spots, or we want more players to visit to indirectly increase the supply of their drop rate/cards will get an abnormally high drop rate as well.

The following minibosses drop Elunium + Oridecon at 100%, as if they are MVPs. While no veterans will deliberately hunt these minibosses on purpose, this should give a bit of incentive for older players to pick them off instead of ignoring them if they come across them on a map or in dead branches. They will feel less like a waste of time due to their higher difficulty or HP compare to other monsters on the map.

• Archangeling (replaces the full plate and yggdrasil leaf)
• Bloody Knight
• Cat O Nine Tail
• Dark Illusion (replacing Brigan)
• Deviruchiring
• Dreamstone Golem (replacing Stone Heart)
• Elvira (replacing wind of verdure)
• Eralia (replacing Union of Tribe)
• Ghostring
• Goblin Leader (replacing Brigan and rough oridecon)
• Grayphon
• Gryphon (replacing Soft Feather)
• Lora (replacing rough elunium)
• Mastermarin
• Masterpoporing
• Mastersnowring
• Maya Purple (replacing rough elunium)
• Mysteltainn
• Rudo (replacing Big Ribbon and Mastela Fruit)
• Samurai Soheon (replacing Skirt of Virgin and Mastela Fruit)
• Tirfing
• Ungoliant (replacing ant jaw)
• Zherlthsh (replacing Heroic White Herb Box)

Elunium: Here are the elunium related drop rate changes. For comparison and as our balancing standard, Abyssal Knight drops Elunium at 18.45%.

• Abysmal Raydric Archer: 7.5% => 12%
• Alicel: 5% => 18%
• Aliot: 0.5% => 20%
• Archdam: 10% => 15%
• Beholder Master: 0.5% => 15%
• Choco: 2.5% => 20% (semi mini-boss and long spawn point)
• Gazeti: 2% => 7.5%
• Hyegun: 1.5% => 5%
• Ice Titan: 1.5% => 10%
• Logi: 5% => 20%
• Venatu: 0.5% => 2.5%

Rough Elunium: Here are the rough elunium related drop rate changes.

• Ancient Mummy: 5% => 100%
• Jakk: Elunium 1.5% => Rough Elunium 20%
• Megalith: 3% => Rough Elunium 15%
• Sky Petite: Elunium 3% => Rough Elunium 25%

Oridecon: Here are the oridecon related drop rate changes. For comparison and as our balancing standard, Abyssal Knight drops Elunium at 12.95%.

• Alligator: rough oridecon 6.45% => oridecon 3%
• Abysmal Raydric Archer: 2.5% rough oridecon => 10%
• Alarm: 5.25% => 10% (abnormally high/easy rate)
• Anolian: 6.7% => 12% (abnormally high/easy rate)
• Archdam: 10% => 15%
• Banaspaty: rough oridecon 1.5% => Oridecon 5%
• Bloody Murderer: 5% => 10%
• Cobalt Mineral: 4.05% => 8%
• Death Knight: 14% => 20%
• Deepsea Megalodon: 7.5% => 10%
• Dimik: 0.5% => 2.5%
• Diabolic: 1% => 5%
• Hell Apocalypse: 2.5% rough oridecon => oridecon 25%
• Ice Titan: 1% => 10%
• Majoruros: 6.5% => 15% (super annoying to reach location)
• Nightmarish Minorous: rough oridecon => oridecon 5%
• Nightmarish Ancient Mummy: 5% => 10%
• Pale Vulpine: rough oridecon 5% => oridecon 5%
• Pasana: rough oridecon 0.6% => oridecon 6%
• Phendark: 6.5% => 10%
• Rybio: 5% => 7.5%
• Sropho: rough oriecon at 1% => Oridecon at 18% (tough monster, very hard to reach)
• Stalagmite: rough oridecon improved to oridecon at 10%
• Stourf: rough oridecon 5.75% => oridecon 12.5% (abnormally high/easy rate)
• Wicked Nymph: 2.5% => 5%
• Wanderess: 5% => 15%

Rough Oridecon: Here are the rough oridecon related drop rate changes.

• Amaroq: 4% => 30%
• Ancient Mummy: 7.5% => 100%
• Earth Petite: 7% => 25%
• Foxring: 2.5% => 20%
• Marc: 4.8% => 15%
• Merman: 10.15% => 40%
• Nightmarish Mummy: 3.75% => 25%
• Nine Tail: 5% => 10%
• Stone Shooter: 5% => 20%
• Orcring: 2.5% => 20%
• Phen: 1.25% => 9%
• Wight: 7.5% => 12.5%
• Zenorc: 3.5% => 7%

Crafting Material Drop Rate Boost

The following monster changes are related to making some brewing/crafting materials more accessible by continuing to introduce boxes so that tougher monsters will drop multiple brewing items. Their new drop replaces the original drop unless stated otherwise.

• Any monster that did not drop Empty Bottles at 100% (under 5x) now drops it at 100%
• Goat, Removal, Fulbuk drop Small Empty Bottle Box (10 Empty Bottles)
• Giant Whisper, Dreadring and Whispering drop Small Fabric Box (3 Fabric)
• Cactus Needle renamed to Plant Spine (so it's easier to justify more spots that can drop it)
• Punk, Muscipular, and Parasite drops Small Plant Spine Box (3 Plant Spine) as a new drop
• Rosebud Lif drops Small Plant Spine Box (3 Plant Spine) instead of Green Herbs
• Rosequeen Lif drops Large Plant Spine Box (5 Plant Spine) instead of Aloe Leaflet
• Neo Punk drops Heroic Plant Spine Box (15 Plant Spine) as a new drop
• Ghostring and Wraith Dead drop Large Fabric Box (5 Fabric)
• Draugr drop Heroic Fabric Box (15 Fabric)
• Alnoldi, Muscipular and Drosera drop Small Stem Box (3 Stem)
• Nepenthes drop Large Stem Box (5 Stem)
• Giant Hornet drop Small Bee Sting Box (3 Bee Sting) (new drop, Giant Hornet did not drop Bee Sting previously)
• Luciola Vespa drop Large Bee Sting Box (5 Bee Sting)
• Mistress drop Heroic Bee Sting Box (15 Bee Sting), replacing the Honey drop
• Punk drops Small Poison Spore Box (3 Poison Spore) instead of Fly Wings
• Little Ghost and Demon Pungus drops Small Poison Spore Box (3 Poison Spore)
• Wooden Golem drops Large Poison Spore Box (5 Poison Spore)
• Neo Punk drops Heroic Poison Spore Box (15 Poison Spore) instead of Grape Juice at 30% (at 5x)
• Rhyncho and Phylla's Karvodailnirol drop rate increased from 20% (under 5x) to 50% (under 5x)
• Snow Lude's Karvodailnirol drop rate increased from 10% (under 5x) to 20% (under 5x)
• Remover's Karvodailnirol drop rate increased from 5% (under 5x) to 15% (under 5x)
• Infernal Hydra drops Karvodailnirol at 30% (under 5x)
• Any monster that drops Iron and with HP higher than Antique Firelock, now drops Iron at 100%
• Mysteltainn, Tirfing, Executioner, Clock Tower Manager, Apocalypse, Goblin Leader, Archdam, and Alicel drops Small Steel Box (5 Steel)
• Incantation Samurai, Orc Hero, Time Keeper, and Abysmal Raydric Archer drops Large Steel Box (10 Steel)
• Tao Gunka drops Large Steel Box instead of Iron Ore at 100%
• Howard Alt-Eisen's Large Steel Box drop rate increased from 10% (under 5x) to 20% (under 5x)
• Time Holder and Awakened Ferre drops Heroic Steel Box (50 steel)

Bugfixes

• Meteor Assault and Venom Splasher properly recognize the dagger skill bonus when you are dual wielding with 1 dagger + 1 sword/axe
• Fixed a bug where Left Hand Mastery was looking at Right Hand’s weapon instead of Left Hand weapon; causing it so dual wielding actively lowered your overall damage (due to ASPD drop) for no reason compared to a single weapon with a shield.
• Sabbath's item effect has been fixed to its heRO custom effect in the item description
• Equipment that causes Coma effect states their activation rate stated plainly, or updated in activation % to reflect the script. Note that the coma activation rate did not change)
• Fixed an issue for Aliot in Endless Tower not to use any skills (it will not use Rebirth)
• Fixed an issue where Aliot and Shinobi in Endless Tower don't drop the same items as their regular counterpart