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Jay's Notes: Class and Crafting Balance Improvements

Announcement · 13 November 2026 · Source: Steam — ArcheAge Chronicles

A sunlit palace in a mountain valley at dusk, with the ArcheAge Chronicles logo and the title Creative Director Diary: Jay's Notes

Jay Lee, Design Team Lead for ArcheAge Chronicles, has published a new Jay's Notes letter answering recent player feedback.

You can read the original announcement on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3218230/view/667256037088166528

Jay starts by greeting the Pioneers. He says players have sent a lot of feedback recently through the community, Discord, and streams, and that the most heated topic by far has been class balance.

He thanks players for their attention and for the passion they have put into the game. The team is reviewing that feedback very closely. In this letter he wants to give an early look at the key changes coming in next Tuesday's update — Tuesday, 17 November 2026, counting from the date of the letter, Friday 13 November 2026.

What you told us

According to Jay, the feedback falls into three main areas.

First, the Mage class is too strong compared to the other classes. The Elemental Staff's fire skills performed very well in both hunting and PvP. Meanwhile, many players said the Longbow doesn't deal enough damage for what they put into it.

Second, there were too few ways to deal with status effects. Status effect damage scales with Max HP, but there was basically no way to reduce it. So no matter what gear you had, you took about the same damage.

Third, gathering crafting materials was too tedious. Even a basic processed material needed both monster loot and Sweetgrass Powder. Bone Chips, the raw material for Bonecraft, also took a long time to collect in the amounts players needed.

Jay writes that the team should have seen these issues coming and fixed them before launch. He apologizes for the inconvenience this caused, and then turns to what is changing in this update, based on that feedback.

What's changing in this update

1. Class balance adjustments

The team followed the community's discussions closely. To decide what to change, they simulated a range of scenarios using the gear and stats of top Pioneers.

Elemental Staff:

  • They are lowering the power of the fire attack skills, mainly Wall of Fire and Flamethrower.
  • Flamethrower in particular dealt high damage and also applied status effects very efficiently with the Hellfire trait, so that is being adjusted.
  • In return, they are increasing the power of Shooting Star.

Longbow:

  • Weapon ATK is increased for all Longbows.
  • The power of Focus Fire, Fire Arrow, and Scarlet Arrow is greatly increased.
  • The power of all Maneuver skills is greatly increased.
  • Rapid Fire and Aimed Shot are already performing at about the right level, so their skill power isn't changing. They will still get stronger from the increase in Weapon ATK.

Other weapons: the team also reviewed other weapons, such as the Warrior's Greatsword and the Berserker's Axe. They decided it was better to ship the most urgent fixes quickly than to delay the update until every weapon was ready. They will keep watching how people play and what the data shows, and will adjust the other weapons step by step.

2. Elemental DEF now protects against status effects

Currently, raising Elemental ATK made status effects build up faster and deal more damage. Elemental DEF, however, only reduced attack damage of that element and did nothing against status effects.

Starting with this update, higher Elemental DEF also reduces both the buildup and the damage of status effects of that element. For example, raising Fire DEF makes you less likely to get Burn, and if you do get Burn, you take less damage.

There is a floor, though: no matter how high your Elemental DEF goes, status effects always keep a minimum effect, so they can never be fully ignored.

3. Processed material recipe overhaul

This update simplifies the recipes for processed materials such as Ingots, Textiles, and Additives.

Many of these recipes used to require Common and Uncommon monster loot, and even Sweetgrass Powder. Rather than just reducing those amounts, the team is removing monster loot and Sweetgrass Powder from processed material recipes entirely.

For loot materials of Common and Uncommon grades that are used directly in equipment crafting, they plan to either maintain the current setup or increase their acquisition amounts.

They are also increasing how many Bone Chips you get, since they were hard to come by. Yields go up across the board, and later regions give even more. The team will keep working to make sure gathering crafting materials doesn't become too stressful.

In closing

Jay says this balance update started with the players' feedback and their passionate discussions. Players told the team specifically what frustrated them and what fell short, and that helped the team see what needed fixing and decide where to start.

This update will not address every piece of feedback at once. But the team will keep reading what players tell them and reviewing real game data and play experience, and will keep making improvements. They look forward to continued feedback and support.

Thank you. Jay Lee Design Team Lead, ArcheAge Chronicles