A big one. Thieves can become Assassins, Mages can become Wizards, and the Sphinx dungeon has opened in the desert. There are also four headgear quests, a personal tab in storage, «invisible» and «incognito» modes, and smarter monsters: they sense casting and can no longer be shot through walls.
Assassin and the Sphinx dungeon
A Thief with Job Lv 40 can become an Assassin. The Assassin Guild hides in the Sograt desert south-west of Morroc. Expect a written test, a 3-minute hunt for six marked targets among traps, a stealthy walk past mummies and hydras, a maze and an interview with the Guildmaster. The reward is a weapon of your choice.
- Two hands: a second dagger, sword or axe instead of a shield; both hands hit, each with its own damage number.
- Katar hits twice and doubles your crit chance.
- Skills: Cloaking, Sonic Blow, Grimtooth, Enchant Poison, Poison React, Venom Dust and Venom Splasher. The quest skills Throw Venom Knife and Sonic Acceleration are taught in the guild.
- The Sphinx dungeon, five floors, entrance from Sograt desert 19.
Step by step on the Assassin page.
Wizard
A Mage with Job Lv 40 can become a Wizard. The exam takes place in the Geffen tower: Catherine's errand, a written test with Raulel and the elemental arena — the Water, Earth and Fire rooms, 3 minutes each for the monsters and the guardian. Maria the white dog tells you about the guild and shows pictures, just like in RO.
- Single-target skills: Jupitel Thunder, Earth Spike, Water Ball.
- Area skills: Heaven's Drive, Meteor Storm, Lord of Vermilion.
- Around you: Frost Nova and Sightrasher.
- On the ground: Fire Pillar, Storm Gust, Quagmire and Ice Wall (it can be broken).
- Sense shows a monster's level, HP, element and defence.
- The quest skill Sight Blaster is taught by Meow the cat in the Geffen tower.
More on the Wizard page.
Headgear
Four RO craftsmen have finally opened for business:
- Ipore in Geffen (67, 87) grows a mushroom right on your head. Bring 300 Mushroom Spore for a Decorative Mushroom.
- Seth in Geffen (83, 189) folds a paper flower out of Mr. Smile and Scarlet Dyestuffs — the Tulip Hairpin. Novices also get the «leftovers».
- Neko Neko in Payon (115, 131) sews Black Cat Ears from a Kitty Band, Black Dyestuffs, 200 Fluff and 10,000 zeny.
- Nephia in Prontera (165, 232) ties a Red Ribbon from a Big Ribbon, a Ribbon [1] and a Silk Ribbon. In RO the Silk Ribbon drops from Sting, which we don't have yet, so this bow is for the future.
As in RO, refines and cards on the items you hand in are lost, and if you are overweight the craftsman will ask you to lighten your load first.
Invisible and incognito
- Invisible. A checkbox in the friends window: your friends — in the game and in the app — see you as offline and get no «logged in» notice. Whispers and the party work as usual, and the setting is remembered between logins.
- Incognito. «Settings» → «Game» → «Incognito»: everyone except your friends and party sees «???» instead of your name — above your head, in public chat, in trades and chat rooms. You can switch it on anywhere, even mid-fight.
Combat
- No more shooting through walls — for players and monsters alike. If the target is behind a wall, your character walks around it and attacks as soon as the target is in sight. Cliffs, pits and water can be shot over, as in RO.
- Monsters sense casting. Start a Fire Bolt on a monster and Skeleton, Isis, Smokie, Baphomet and others run at you before any damage lands, as in RO. Instant and ground-targeted skills go unnoticed.
- First Aid now glows and plays a sound, as in RO. Instant skills (First Aid, Bash and others) can no longer be spammed: there is a swing delay between them, as in rAthena.
- Fire Wall hits on its own: the mage no longer swings when a monster burns in the wall.
- Slaves stay with their master. Lure a mini-boss's slaves more than 15 cells away, or let the master teleport, and they reappear next to it.
Party
Even experience sharing now requires a level gap of at most 10, as in classic RO (it used to be 15). If someone outlevels the party, sharing switches off by itself and the party is told.
Small things
- Personal storage tab. Character-bound items can now go into Kafra storage: every character has its own «Personal» tab with 20 slots.
- First Aid and Play Dead after a job change. Nami in the Prontera inn teaches First Aid to any job, and then Bulma teaches Play Dead.
- Links in chat are underlined and open in your browser when clicked.
- The mouse wheel scrolls the item window, storage and cart even with the cursor over an item.
- Kerbs and steps no longer «eat» your character's legs.
App
The Android app now has party chat with a notification when someone calls your name, an «Auction» tab (search listings, your sales, and «Watching» — a notification when the item you want is listed at or below your price) and whisper history on the server, so your conversations survive a phone change.
Why the server lagged
About 12,000 monsters on empty maps kept wandering around and looking for paths. The server spent almost all of its CPU on that, and everything else, chat included, had to wait its turn. Now, as in RO, monsters far from players stand still until someone comes along. The load dropped several times over, and the delays are gone.
The client updates itself on launch. Thanks to everyone who writes to «Report a bug» and on the forum!