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The Stonehenge Chronicles delayed for Hellgate: London

Robin Torres
Updated ·11 min read


Hellgate: London's Patch 1.0 aka Stonehenge aka The Stonehenge Chronicles has been delayed until January. This will be the first major quarterly update and, if released in January, will still be on schedule. Bill Roper, in a letter sent to registered players, said that they want to take the time to make this patch right:

If there is one lesson we've learned from launching Hellgate: London, our releases should be a question of "what" and not "when".

Huzzah.

In other patch news, Single Player Patch 0.6 is live and available for download. Multiplayer Patch 0.7 has been live since December 14th on US servers and went live December 19th on EU server Sydonai.

Subscribers who login to Patch 0.7 will find that Nemo in Holbrook Station has a goodie for them. My first try to receive it got me the much treasured Server Error, but after restarting the game I received the even more intriguing Transmogrifying Cube which, as promised previously, will look familiar to Diablo II fans.

Patch 1.0 notes from the Test Center are after the jump.


General
Based on the number and depth of balance changes to skills in this update, certain characters will be provided a "respec token" that allows them to reassign their skill points. This token is automatically placed in the character's inventory and can be used at any time.

All Evokers and Guardians will receive respec tokens, as will all characters in Subscription Member accounts.

PvP
A Dueling Arena has been built for those who wish to test their mettle against each other. When challenging another character to a duel, the invitation dialogue indicates that the duel will take place in the Arena. When the duel is accepted, both characters are instantly transported there.

When both characters have loaded into the Arena, a countdown begins. During the countdown, characters can move, but they cannot use skills, activate items, cast spells, or attack their opponent. After a duel has been won, the defeated character is reset, as is their opponent and a new countdown clock begins. Players can leave the Dueling Arena by activating their Recall device.

Players can still duel in other areas by joining the same party and activating their /pvp flag as before.

UI

  • The Mini Map is now set to the top right of the screen with character state icons appearing below.

  • The Chat Window is now scalable. To adjust the size of the chat window, hold down the ALT key. There is a small tab in the upper right hand corner of the chat interface that can be used to resize the window.

  • The LFG interface has received new functionality. To activate the LFG Interface, simply press the 'P' key.

Skills
There are a wide variety of balance tweaks across the Templar and Cabalist factions.

Cabalist:

  • Brom's Curse:

  • Afterlife

  • Elemental Drain

  • Word of Fear

Evoker:
Skill Rank bonus descriptions have been updated and normalized to be based on their initial rank 1 effect. For example, Spectral Bolt now displays no Phase Attack Strength bonus at rank 1, but displays a more clear bonus of 25% Phase Attack Strength per additional rank.

  • Spectral Curse

  • Arcane Shield

  • Concentrate Damage

  • Summon Ember

  • Firestorm

  • Flameshards

  • Hellfire

  • Spectral Bolt

  • Spectral Lash Mastery

  • Lightning Field

  • Tempest

  • Arc Legion

  • Boneshards

  • Skullsplitter

  • Venomous Spirit

  • Venom Armor

  • Swarm

Templar:
Aura of Power, Aura of Renewal, Aura of Defense, and Aura of Salvation have been rebalanced. Additionally, their skill rank progressions have been normalized to provide a 33% increase in effectiveness per skill level. Blademasters and Guardians will now see more return on investment in these auras.

  • Aura of Power

Blademaster:

  • Call of the Chosen

Guardian:

  • Aura of Renewal

  • Aura of Defense

  • Aura of Salvation

  • Grand Aura

  • Challenge

  • Denounce

Quests

  • Certain quests that could not be completed after defeating Sydonai because Emmera was no longer accessible can now be turned in to a new NPC named Sammy.

Items

  • Unique items that were found before Patch 0.5 that are missing special attributes may now be rerolled for free. The process is as follows:

  • The Stun Defense granted by the Gyro Stabilizer has been increased.

  • Health and Power injectors now show up in high level stations.

Crafting

  • The limit on number of times an item can be upgraded has been raised to 10.

  • Upgrading an item takes 50% less resources.

  • A new, rare salvaged material crafting material called Nanoshards are now required to upgrade items.

I hope that postponing Stonehenge until January will give them enough time to release a much more stable patch than what they have released so far. Many people are having trouble with Patch 0.7 and their track record from the beginning has been less than stellar.

Are you having trouble with Patch 0.7? What are you most looking forward to in Stonehenge?