[Chance]

In 1.8, we've went above and beyond to bring you a great amount of features and content. This update has been in the works for a few months now, and its release is steadily approaching. A second post will follow when we have an exact date for that, as well as information on various race and role hooks available to you if you want to make a character specifically for the update!

That said, let's go over some of the highlights that have been added thus far. 

Gear Slots

Now each of the major gear types have a dedicated slot, letting a player see what they have equipped easily on glance. This also means that the maximum player inventory has been universally increased! 

Menu Tags
Another UI related update. Various aspects of the menu have an associated tag when you hover over them. 

Foraging 
Previously the foraging lifeskill wasn't doing so great. Now the EXP gain functions as intended (when harvesting materials), and depending on your foraging skill, there's a bonus chance to get an extra herb. Each level increases the chance by 0.25% for roughly 25% at level 100!

Stall Bookkeeping
When interacting with your stall as an owner or helper in the update, you'll see a 'Check Logs' command. This displays the Total and Weekly Revenue of the stall, as well as a dated list of items placed and sold by the shopkeeper. 

Event Battle Command
Specifically for events, this is a variation of the usual arena except it's much larger! Making it great for group battles.

Mini-map
To help you navigate the world, the mini-map has been added! It shows an expanded view around your character and marks things like other characters, quest NPCs, monsters, etc. You can minimize it with the click of a button, and also hide your location from other players with the 'Incognito' toggle option. 

Compost Bin & Fertilizer
Upgrade your farming game by crafting a compost bin. You can place organic material within the bin and watch it climb higher over time: once its four stages are complete, it'll produce an amount of fertilizer that varies depending on the materials used. Every material has a unique compost value.

What fertilizer does is an item that's expended and applied to a 3x3 radius of soil, doubling the rate of growth and also doubling the chance of getting a 'high quality' crop!

Oh yeah and I hate to say it but nature magi have it too good so they're being nerfed; they'll no longer have access to Growth. Sorry! We'll be doing something with that in a smaller follow up patch, though.

Arcanium Watering Can
A supercharged watering can that covers a 3x3 area rather than 1x1 on use!

Faceless Spells
The Faceless are getting a complete redesign that plays into their theme and gives them more mechanical depth.
 

➤Shapeshift: You declare a new identity, customizing your profile, quote color, age, name, etc. Then, whenever you use this spell, you switch between your shapeshifted form and your alter ego. This has a decade long cooldown.

➤True Face: When used, select an Intermediate type spell from your target and gain it for a duration of 24 hours, then apply a -10vit unhealable injury to them for 1 year. This can only be used once per year, meaning the window to use your 'free' stolen spell is limited!

➤Produce Magibane: A unique, poisonous concoction derived directly from the blood of a Faceless. Discreetly spawns it in your inventory at the cost of 750 energy.

Seed Harvester
At Level 100 farming, you now unlock the 'Seed Harvest' ability that destroys a herb but produces a few seeds! This doesn't work on event only materials but anything you can find in the world then you can produce seeds of it.

Drakanite Half-Shift
This is now a toggle-buff, meaning you can pair it with other aura type spells! (with number adjustments, of course)

Ranching 
A number of new commands have been added to farm animals, such as 'View Status' that lets you see their happiness %, age, whether they're hungry, etc! & 'Call' that has them follow you, or 'Back' which returns them to their barn. Once a few years old, you can use 'Slaughter' to butcher them for meat (also adds beef and associated recipes). Additionally, feeding and butchering animals now grants farming EXP!

You can also see a clean, less intrusive context menu below when you right-click an animal. This will be leveraged more often in the future.

New Public Spells: Unarmed, Cosmic, Summoning, Absorption, Fire, ??...
This is largely being kept as a spoiler for now, as some important sprite work is in progress, but many public abilities are in the works! Unarmed and Cosmic in particular will be getting a major makeover. More details on this later!

Event Spells
Many new spells for DMs to use, as well as parties, has been added. Let's start with the first two,
➤TAUNT: Switches the boss's target to you! You gain 50% damage reduction for 10s.
➤FULL RESTORE: Heals the party member closest to you to full HP & inflicts a 7s self-stun.
These are two player abilities that can be assigned to parties at the discretion of the DM hosting the event.

The following are boss only spells,

SUMMON MINION - RITUAL: Spawns a Level 100 ally creature after 30s of the ritual being active. The ritual circle has a set amount of HP and can be destroyed. 
FLASH - Quarter: A 1/4 of the arena flashes red repeatedly for 3s, then 20d to any in that area, followed by the next 1/4, to make a full circle (starts in a random place and moves either clockwise or counter clockwise, also random)
FLASH - Half: Same as the above except half of the arena.
FLASH - AoE: Same as the above except a 11x11 AoE around the caster.
FLASH - WallSide: Starts at one side of the arena, covers the entire height, rapidly moves to the other side (leaving explosions as it does so) going back and forth a randomized number of times (between 3 to 6).
FLASH - WallTop: Starts at the bottom side of the arena, covers the entire width, rapidly moves to the top (leaving explosions as it does so) going back and forth a randomized number of times (between 3 to 6).
ORB OF DESTRUCTION: Spawns an object that has HP (displays HP bar beneath) that gradually gets larger over the course of 30s. Explodes and spawns a 21x21 AoE that deals 10 tile damage if not destroyed beforehand.
PILLARS OF DEFENSE: An object spawns in each corner of the arena (HP displays beneath). Each one increases the boss's damage reduction by 15% (total of 60%, reduces as they are destroyed).

Cosmetics
Some excellent cosmetics coming to the store sprited by Sionnach!

& More...
➤ Sear-type spells such as Prismatic Pillars and Glacier no longer hit NPCs, focusing on the player only.
➤ Bonds of Blood no longer heals off of NPCs.
➤ There's now a confirmation prompt when you construct a building. Woah!
➤ Healing elixir reduces temporary injury duration by half rather than instant healing.
➤ 'Delete Waypoint' command added to Rift & Wayfinding.
➤ More to come!

[Chance]

The 1.8 update is scheduled for the 14th of July! (Friday)