From today (14th April) new patch 2.6 is hitting Korean PTS. As we are so close to get 2.5 patch on western servers, you may be interesting that future changes/improvements Korean developers are thinking about nowadays.

BE AWARE! At first this article was translated from Korean, but since NCSoft West officially has translated it into English, we’ve updated page with theirs translation. © NCSoft West 🙂

[Instances]

1. Following the success of the Empyrean Crucible, Crucible 2 has now opened its doors.

< Crucible 2 >
Encouraged by the success of the Empyrean Crucible, the Empyrean Lords ordered the opening of more such facilities and as a result we now have Crucible 2, which allows individual training–unlike the Crucible, which only allows group training.

Players can enter Crucible 2 from the Kaisinel Academy or the Marchutan Priory and progress through the dungeon by PVE combat, just like in the Crucible.

  • ’Crucible 2’ is a circular stadium like the original Crucible, where players must battle monsters that appear at regular intervals.
  • The dungeon consists of six stages, and each stage is made up of one or two rounds. Players face more and more powerful opponents as they progress through the stages.
  • There is no entry quest for ’Crucible 2’, and players of level 50 or above can enter the dungeon freely.
  • Entrances to ’Crucible 2’ can be found in the following places:
    • Kaisinel Academy and the Marchutan Priory.
    • Kaisinel’s Teleport Statue or Marchutan’s Teleport Statue in Sanctum or Pandaemonium,
    • Crucible Teleporter NPCs in Inggison or Gelkmaros.
  • Crucible 2’ is made up of a stadium where players battle monsters and a waiting room to where defeated players are revived.
  • When a player defeats all monsters in a stage, the training for the stage is complete and the player can then proceed to the next stage by talking to the Recordkeeper at the centre of the stadium.
  • Players can stop the training and leave ’Crucible 2’ by pressing the Stop Training button located on the top right of the screen.
  • Unlike in ’Crucible’, if a player dies in ’Crucible 2’ and doesn’t have a Worthiness Ticket in the cube, the training ends and the player is transferred to the waiting room and shown a results screen.
  • Worthiness Tickets disappear when the player exits the instance.
  • Some skills and items are unavailable to players in ’Crucible 2’.
  • The re-entry cooldown for ’Crucible 2’ is 22 hours.

2. Added an auto group formation system to instance dungeons.

  • The system has been added to the following instance dungeons: ’Nochsana Training Camp’, ‘Fire Temple’, ‘Steel Rake’, ‘Draupnir Cave’, ‘Dark Poeta’, ‘Udas Temple’, ‘Lower Udas Temple’, and ’Crucible’.
  • Players can apply for auto group formation by selecting the instance dungeon entrance or a NPC.
  • Players can choose New Group Entry or Quick Group Entry when applying for auto group formation.
  • Select New Group Entry to join a new instance dungeon that is yet to start, or Quick Group Entry to join an instance dungeon that just got underway
  • Each player can use this feature to apply for groups in up to three instances at a time.
  • If the player has already applied for three instances, and wishes to select another, the player must abandon one of the selected dungeons first and apply for the new dungeon.
  • Each instance has a minimum number of players, so players may have to wait a while for other players to apply for entry alongside them.
  • Certain classes may be required for an instance, so this can also prolong the waiting.
  • If a player who accessed an instance using the auto group feature is killed within that instance, they will resurrect at the entrance of the dungeon.
  • Players who enter an instance dungeon using the auto group feature are given the ’Pledge of Victory’ buff.
  • The ’Pledge of Victory’ buff is removed automatically when the player leaves the dungeon.
    Instance Buff
    Nochsana Training Camp Attack +4, Magic Boost +21, HP +65, +3 Bonus Healing
    Fire Temple Attack +4, Magic Boost +23, HP +75, +3 Bonus Healing
    Steel Rake, Draupnir Cave Attack +5, Magic Boost +25, HP +85, +5 Bonus Healing
    Dark Poeta, Udas Temple/Lower Udas Temple, “1st part” Empyrean Crucible Attack +5, Magic Boost +27, HP +95, +5 Bonus Healing
  • When a player leaves an instance entered using the auto group feature, the player leaves the group automatically.

3. Changed the way Crucible Insignia are awarded in the Empyrean Crucible so that it is based on points.

4. There is now a five second wait before resurrecting in the Empyrean Crucible.

5. Fixed some abnormal terrain and textures seen when starting stage five of the Empyrean Crucible.

6. Changed the number of creatures summoned by King Saam in the second stage of the Empyrean Crucible.

7. Fixed a bug where some instances occasionally allowed more than the maximum number of players to enter.

8. Fabled items dropped by boss monsters in the Fire Temple and Steel Rake now drop as bundled chests.

  • A player who obtains a Fabled Weapon Chest randomly receives a single item from the chest that can be equipped by the player’s class.
  • A player who obtains a Fabled Armor Chest randomly receives a single piece of armor from the chest that can be equipped by the player’s class.


9. Changed some terrain in the Abyssal Splinter.

[Items]

1. Added eight new crafting designs for each race.

  • Added four new designs for crafting Lesser, Greater, and Major elemental stones.
    • Each design uses elemental stones of higher quality to create stones of lesser quality.
    • The designs can be purchased from alchemy merchants found in the major cities.
  • Added four new designs for crafting Great Courage Scroll, Greater Awakening Scroll, Greater Running Scroll, and Greater Raging Wind Scroll.
    • These designs require different materials to existing designs for crafting.
    • The new scroll designs can be obtained from certain monsters.

2. Added new godstones.

  • Added seven new godstones that can be obtained in Crucible 2.
  • The effects of the new godstones are shown below.

3. Changed the crafting cooldown time for White/Red/Blue Heliotrope Crystals from 24 hours to 12 hours.

4. Increased the amount of White/Red/Blue Heliotrope Powder that can be purchased each day from one to two.

5. Slightly increased the chance of obtaining higher quality variants of Magical Aether when Aethertapping.

6. Slightly increased the chance of obtaining higher quality variants of Malevite Ore when Essencetapping.

7. Fixed a bug causing some items to appear oddly when equipped by players.

8. Fixed a bug where some godstone effects displayed incorrectly.

9. Fixed an issue causing some item animations to display incorrectly during combat.

[Pets]

1. Added new pets.

  • A new pet is now available for purchase from the consumable item distributors in the Crucible of each race. [This pet can be bought with 2010 Academy Insignias.]
  • The new pet is a Fortune type pet and eats snacks that can be obtained in Crucible 2.
  • There is a small chance of obtaining Platinum Medals from the gifts that the pet gives in response to feeding.
  • There is a limit on the number of times a new pet can be fed. [Around 40 times]

2. Added an indicator to the tool-tip for purchasable pet eggs to alert the player when they already have this pet.

  • The pet egg icon is shown in red.
  • The tool-tip displays a message saying, ’You already have this pet.’

3. Added a note to the tool-tip for purchasable pet eggs to alert the player when the pet has the same size pet pouch as a Pack pet that the player already has.

  • The tool-tip displays a message saying, ’You already have a Pack pet with this function.’

4. Fixed an issue causing some pets to appear oddly.

5. Fixed an issue where the pet pouch and the legion warehouse would sometimes open at the same time.

[User Interface]

1. You can now hover the mouse over a flight transportation destination to see the places that can be reached by flight from that location.

2. Added a ’24 Hz Music’ menu to allow players to run the 24 Hz player while playing Aion.
– Menu → Additional Functions → 24hz Music.

3. Added a ’[Web] Astyle’ menu to allow players to visit the Astyle website while playing Aion.
– Menu → Support → [Web] Astyle.

4. Added a personal status note in the group window.

  • When you join a group, your status information is shown in the group window.
  • This function is on as default, and can be turned off in Options→ Game Options.

5. Added a Relic Calculator to allow players to calculate AP rewards from relics.
– Menu → Support → Relic Calculator.

6. Fixed an issue causing shortcut keys not to work after rotating the camera by pressing both mouse buttons while moving.

7. Fixed a bug where moving the chat window caused the repositioning arrow to disappear, not allowing players to reposition the window again.

8. Fixed a bug where new characters did not see macro-related Help messages.

9. Fixed an issue where the in-game Game Guide fonts did not display correctly.

10. Fixed a bug where fonts in speech bubble titles did not display correctly.

11. Fixed a bug in the list tab of AionTweet where the [Previous] and [Next] buttons did not display correctly.

12. Fixed a bug in the list tab of AionTweet where the text was not aligned correctly

13. Fixed the AionTweet people search function so players can now search for other Twitter users.

14. Profile pictures of AionTweet users will now display correctly.

[Skills]

1. Fixed an issue causing the Gladiator’s ’Piercing Wave I’ debuff to replace the ’Piercing Rupture I’ debuff instead of stacking with it.

2. Fixed the issue of Asmodian Sorcerers not being able to use ’Ice Sheet I~IV’ while moving.

3. Corrected the tool-tip description for the Cleric skills ’Healing Wind I~III’ to display the correct casting range.

4. Fixed the animations for the skills ’Provoking Severe Blow I~IV’ and ’Break Power I~IV’ so that different gender characters will now have the same animations when using the skills with a greatsword while in motion.

5. Fixed the delay in the whirlwind animation for the Sorcerer skill “Summon Whirlwind I~II”.

[Characters]

1. Fixed the resurrection animation so that characters will always display it when they resurrect.

2. Fixed some inaudible character voiceovers that went with certain emotes.

[Quests]

1. Added new quests for ’Crucible 2’.

2. Changed the Brigadier Indratu mission for Elyos so that players can now decline to go to the Abyss Gate during the mission.

  • Previously players were teleported instantly to the Abyss Gate, but now players can decide after talking with Perento.

3. Corrected some misspellings.

[Legions]

1. Fixed an abnormal message that displayed in the Legion History when a legion member changed his or her character name.

2. Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to unequip their legion uniform, legion hat or elite uniform when they quit the legion while wearing them.

3. When registering a custom legion emblem, it is no longer possible to upload one that is identical to the emblem currently in use.

  • The incorrect message that shows when an emblem upload fails will be fixed soon.

[Abyss]

1. Players now receive a reward for Inggison/Gelkmaros siege warfare only if they acquire sufficient contribution points.

[Environment]

1. There are now places in Inggison and Gelkmaros where players cannot install kisks.

  • Players logging in in these areas are teleported to their obelisk bind point.

2. Players are now unable to go inside some abnormal terrain in Inggison.

3. Changed some terrain of Inggison and Gelkmaros.

4. Changed some terrain of Eltnen.

[NPC]

1. Corrected the misspellings in the tool-tip of a skill used by Nexus in Udas Temple.

2. Fixed a bug in the Empyrean Crucible that caused some monsters to drop out of combat and their HP to reset.

3. Turncoat Monks in Gelkmaros will now correctly give AP when defeated.

4. The external form of Umbatana in Inggison will now be visible.

5. Corrected some misspellings in the dialogs of some NPCs.

[Graphics Options – High]

1. Fixed the bug that occurred when using the high quality graphics engine, which caused Asmodian characters equipped with a beach hat to display incorrectly.

2. Improved the shadows in indoor environments when using the high quality graphics engine.


Source: Korean PTS: Initial 2.6 Patch Notes on NA/EU PowerBook. and 2.6 Korean PTS patch notes on Korean PowerBook.