With Update 1.0.5 well into testing on the test server, the official 1.0.4b update is to be implemented tomorrow!

1.0.5 is cooking away on the Public Test Server! In the meantime we had a few changes we wanted to patch to all live servers to continue improving your game experience.

Tomorrow morning (11/11/08), starting at 7AM EST all North American servers will be brought offline to begin updating to 1.0.4b. Oceanic servers will follow at 9AM EST and we anticipate all servers to be back online by 1PM EDT.

Click "More..." below to view the 1.0.4b update notes. We've also included a copy in our forums.

Highlights

* When conquered, Keeps will always provide three gold loot bags and Fortresses will now offer six guaranteed gold loot bags as part of the chest loot.

* Rally Masters have been added to all warcamps. Now, players can set their rally point in a warcamp in the same manner as binding in a chapter hub.

* To promote population balance among the various scenarios, we have added a feature that reduces the number of times a specific scenario can launch in a short period of time. This will give scenarios which are launched less frequently an opportunity to catch up in the queue population and launch more often.

General Changes and Bug Fixes

* Fixed an issue that prevented grouped players from earning influence if the group's leader was in a different zone.

Combat and Careers
Engineer

* Electromagnet: This ability has undergone significant changes. The cost of the ability has been significantly reduced while the cooldown has been increased. In addition the build time has been increased, the ability can no longer be cast on the move, and the maximum number of targets affected by this ability has been decreased and it can now be defended against. Lastly this ability will grant immunity to knockback effects.

Magus

* Chaotic Rift: This ability has undergone significant changes. The cost of the ability has been significantly reduced and its cooldown has been increased. In addition, the build time has been increased. The ability can no longer be cast on the move, the maximum number of targets affected by this ability has been decreased, and it can now be defended against. Lastly, this ability will also grant immunity to knockback effects.

Items

* In addition to reducing the amount of damage received from high-level encounter NPCs, each Ward on high-level armor set pieces worn will now affect the amount of damage players are able to do to those NPCs. Players not wearing any pieces of the appropriate armor set will see their damage greatly reduced. For each piece of the appropriate armor a player wears, their damage against the boss monster will increase.