In the upcoming 1.3.6 patch, the scholars of the Ayanad Library have unearthed a series of scriptures which detail extensive research into the Secrets of Ayanad.
Thanks to Iseren's recent submissions related to recent comet trajectories, the scholars have discovered a potential lead which reveals how to unlock the latent power of Ayanad Armor.
This method has been said to have been researched by Alexander himself as he sought to uncover the secrets of Ayanad, bringing out his vestment's true potential.
Unsealing the Secrets of Ayanad
Enlightened Ayanad Armor is a stat only version of Ayanad armor which does not have any set effect by default.
Its set effects are activated through the use of Lunasigils on your Costume or Underwear slots.
Using a runestone, your existing Ayanad armor is transformed into its Enlightened version.
This upgrade does not improve the armor itself in any way, besides enabling the use of Lunasigils to allow the player to decide the set effect that is activated.
There are two types of Lunasigils:
- Major Lunasigil
- Lesser Lunasigil
The Major Lunasigil applies a 7-set effect and is embedded onto your Costume slot.
The Lesser Lunasigil applies a 4-set effect and is embedded onto your Underwear slot.
The effects of either a Major or Lesser Lunasigil will only be activated granted that you have enough Enlightened Ayanad armor pieces equipped.
- To activate a Major Lunasigil, you must be equipped with at least seven (7) of any Enlightened Ayanad armor pieces.
- To activate a Lesser Lunasigil, you must be equipped with at least four (4) of any Enlightened Ayanad armor pieces.
Lunasigils can only be activated by Enlightened Ayanad. Applying another lunasigil on an existing lunasigil effect will replace it.
The total number required can be activated by any stat Enlightened Ayanad, allowing the player to equip combinations such as:
Example Set 1: Flame x2, Gale x2; activates 4-set Enlightenment
Example Set 2: Wave x3, Earth x3, Lake x1; activates 4-set and 7-set Enlightenment
Lunasigil Set Effects
Resealing
Much like normal Ayanad, Enlightened Ayanad can also be resealed.
The cost of resealing Enlightened Ayanad armor is higher, but you will be able to pick the stat type that you want.
Resealing a cloth armor piece will allow you to pick from cloth only, for example. This applies to leather and plate as well.
Enlightened Ayanad armor only supports guaranteed resealing and cannot be rerolled at a lower cost with RNG.
Media
Blogpost #2
The next blog post will cover scythes in detail and showcase some of the items that you can expect from Primal Anthalon should you defeat him!
Developer's Notes
As players have brought up a multitude of questions regarding our approach on Ayanad, this section will be dedicated to sharing our thoughts and how Enlightened came to be.
The original suggestion was to address the weaker sets without changing any of the stronger sets. Why did this approach change?
The weaker set changes was part of the first iteration of Ayanad changes. The players brought up three concerns with these sets:
Stats
Some of the stat allocations were not as popular anymore. XLGames changed how stats worked throughout the course of the game's lifetime but never addressed Ayanad keeping the same stat allocation mix, so some of the Ayanad armors sets were made for an older vision of the game.
Set effects
Some of the Ayanad set bonuses for 4 and 7 set bonuses were not as popular or impactful for certain set types. This contributed to some sets being less popular than others.
Existing sets should not be touched
We value a player's time and effort and gear balancing and changes comes with great risk. Our approach needed to consider this first and foremost so that players with existing investments can see this as an upgrade path and it does not invalidate their efforts.
We iterated while keeping these concerns in mind, and we faced several challenges.
The first challenge that we faced when we began reviewing Ayanad with these concerns in mind is that attempting to give favorable stats to the weaker sets simply made them similar to another set that already exists.
The second challenge was that attempting to buff or address the set bonuses on certain sets caused the set to be similar to existing sets, and the bonuses had to be strictly related to the stat allocations that these armors offered.
The third challenge is that in order not to affect existing players, we would need to make our approach an upgrade path from existing Ayanad rather than change existing sets. Rebalancing existing sets would risk invalidating certain armors when players had already invested into them.
The result of this led us to consider a more flexible path that had been suggested previously.
- Stat allocations are not bound to set bonuses, which allows more freedom to decide exactly which stats that they want to have.
- Set bonuses are not bound to specific armor types, allowing the player to decide exactly what set bonus they want to use.
- A new armor set that upgrades from Ayanad and offers an advantage over existing Ayanad, giving players a new chase to look forward to.
By separating the set bonuses from the stats, the decision to use a certain armor type will now be determined by the stats the player would like to see in their build, instead of whether or not the set bonus of that armor type is strong enough to use.
The set bonus seperation also allows us to rebalance existing set bonuses and even add new ones without needing to carefully consider the implications of them against certain armor types.
Enlightened Ayanad doesn't seem to address the weaker sets at all. If anything, players are less likely to use the actual set itself now because they don't need it for the set bonus.
Enlightened Ayanad allows you to use any armor piece with each other, regardless of stat allocation. If you have 4 or 7 pieces of Enlightened Ayanad, then the set bonus effect will activate for its respective Lunasigil, giving the player finer control of what stats they want and what set bonus they want.
While we agree that this doesn't necessarily make a player want to use Meadow, Ocean, or Typhoon more, it opens the options for players considerably for both the set bonuses and the stat allocations that Ayanad would otherwise restrict you into.
The result of this is more set bonuses to pick from, more options to pick to build stats, and more potential options that we can offer players to explore.
We also have more ideas that we wish to explore with Enlightened Ayanad, such as boss lunasigils with specific effects.
Will you consider further balance to the set bonuses that are listed for Enlightened Ayanad? What about adding more options?
Following the 1.3.6 patch, we will observe the balance of these options and provide changes if any of the set bonuses are too strong or too weak.
Initially, we intended to provide more options for players but we decided to limit our scope and revisit more options later.
The following set bonus types did not make it into Discovery:
- Cloud
- Mist
- Tidal
- Volcano
With the Ayanad naming scheme and set bonus decouple, we are excited to explore ideas in the future to give Enlightened Ayanad more interesting set bonuses that players can express themselves through their 4-set and 7-set combinations.
Players who have invested deeply into Tier 7 Obsidian are worried that these Ayanad progression paths will invalidate their sets and there is no point going Tier 7 Obsidian.
Enlightened Ayanad remains the same item level as regular Ayanad and does not offer any advantage over Obsidian besides being able to select one 4-set and one 7-set.
The difference between Ayanad and Enlightened Ayanad is a mix of quality of life and allowing the player to express their set investment by giving better options for their 4-set and 7-set.
Tier 7 Obsidian will still offer higher item level and provide a better mix of stats per piece compared to Enlightened Ayanad, and therefore still remain the best in slot gear choice.