XLGAMES Apologises for Temper Mix-Up, Will Fix It Without Weakening Gear and Hands Out Tempering Stones
What Changed
XLGAMES has changed course on the ArcheAge Chronicles Temper bug. Days after saying affected gear would be returned to its intended stats, the team now says it will fix the faulty data without making the equipment players are already using weaker.
The update came in an official letter of apology on Steam from Design Team Lead Jay Lee, posted on November 11 (late on November 10, Pacific time). Lee explained that after players spotted strange Temper results on streams and in the official Discord, the team found that Temper data for certain weapons and armour had been linked to the wrong entries. Some pieces gained far more stats than intended from Tempering, while others gained far less.
Why players should care: a straight revert would have cut the attack power of some weapons by around 30%, according to the letter, and XLGAMES says it did not consider that acceptable for gear people had already invested in. Instead, the mislinked data is being corrected, base stats on the affected equipment are being raised, and a new bonus stat is being added to make up for lost attack. Lee also acknowledged that, depending on the monsters you fight and your progression, some drop in performance may still be noticeable.
The team said leaving the bug in place was not an option either. At high Temper levels some weapons outperformed the best crafted weapons and killed bosses far too quickly, which threatened the balance of upcoming Raid bosses and new Legendary equipment.
For gear stats and item data, check our ArcheAge Chronicles hub.
Temper Fix Details
The letter includes a table of 59 affected items: 21 are nerfed, 6 adjusted and 32 buffed. XLGAMES says the figures show effective performance with the new bonus stats applied, and may differ in actual play. Third weapons and unreleased items were also adjusted but are not in the table.
How the nerfed gear changes
The nerfed weapons are actually stronger than before at +0. The losses mostly appear around +10 and above, although armour and Centurion's Axe start to dip at +5.
Item | Grade | Change | +0 | +10 | +15 | New bonus stat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Thunderstruck Staff | Epic | Nerfed | +31.7% | -5.7% | -12.4% | Lightning ATK |
Twisted Fate Blade | Epic | Nerfed | +26.0% | -5.1% | -11.1% | Steel ATK |
Martyr's Fang | Rare | Nerfed | +39.6% | -9.4% | -17.2% | Fog ATK |
Centurion's Axe | Rare | Nerfed | +11.4% | -12.6% | -17.5% | Max SP |
Golden Anchor Axe | Rare | Nerfed | +16.7% | -4.0% | -7.1% | Ignore Physical DEF |
Bloodfeast (axe) | Uncommon | Buffed | +11.1% | +48.8% | +58.6% | — |
Bloodfed Beast (axe) | Rare | Buffed | 0.0% | +30.5% | +38.4% | — |
Silvery Shadow (hatchet) | Epic | Buffed | +20.0% | +15.8% | +14.5% | — |
Changes are effective performance compared with the current stats at each Temper level.
Armour
Twelve Rare armour pieces from the Dreadbreath, Starwanderer and Shacklestone sets are among the nerfed items. They gain around 9–10.5% at +0, but drop by roughly 16–17% at +5 and 25–26% at +10.
Compensation
Nobody loses their gear, and the compensation comes on top of it. Here's what XLGAMES is sending out:
Tempering Stones for characters that own affected equipment Tempered to +5 or higher. Eligibility is based on each item's Temper level at the time of the announcement (11:30 PM PST on November 10). Amounts depend on the item's grade and Temper level, and exact numbers have not been published. The stones are sent character by character after the temporary maintenance patch, so arrival times may vary.
A new Unique-grade cosmetic item for every player. It is being designed from scratch, and its delivery date will be announced later.
Compensation Chest II x3 for every player. Each chest contains Gold, Vivid Weapon Tempering Stones, Vivid Armor Tempering Stones and Hersander's Dice Keys. They arrive in your account mailbox during an upcoming maintenance and can be claimed on the character of your choice.
No maintenance date has been announced yet.
What's Next
The same letter previews a patch that should make inventory management a lot less painful:
Lighter crafting materials. Raw materials drop to about a third of their current weight, and processed materials are reduced in proportion.
Zero-weight items. Items other than equipment and crafting materials, including Nui's Tear, Hereafter Stones, outfits and quest items, will weigh nothing.
Performance and stability. Runtime memory optimisation for low-spec PCs, fewer crashes, and less freezing when effects and sounds play.
Bug fixes. Freezes and memory spikes in housing placement mode, Storage bugs, some quest progress issues, and problems entering and leaving channels.
Full patch notes will follow after the maintenance. Lee closed by promising that player feedback and criticism will not be brushed aside.
