Where Winds Meet — July 23 Version 2.0 Optimization and Fixes Announcement

July 23 Version 2.0 Optimization and Fixes Announcement

Dear Wanderer, Windtail has brought you the latest update news from Eastwind Pavilion. Read on for the details!

[Path Balance Adjustments]

Based on real-time data and feedback, this balance optimization focuses on adjusting Paths that underperformed or had room for improvement, while ensuring overall stability. We have also addressed core pain points frequently reported by Wanderers that significantly affected the experience, and made targeted adjustments to the experience and balance of certain game modes.

We welcome you to continue providing valuable suggestions. We will carefully listen to every piece of feedback and continue to make prudent adjustments to progression, Paths, and competitive modes in future versions to optimize experience.

General Experience Optimizations

1. The Buff Food category has been split into Vitality Food and Attack Food. These two effects can now coexist, allowing Wanderers to simultaneously increase their Max HP and Physical Attack. Consequently, Auto-Buff Items has been updated to support equipping both types of food at the same time.
2. The calculation priority for Buff Food attributes has been adjusted. Attribute boost from Buff Food will now be added directly to your Base Attributes from character progression to calculate your Effective Attributes. These Effective Attributes will then be uniformly scaled by other percentage-based buffs. The character stat UI has been updated to clearly distinguish between Base Physical Attack and Effective Physical Attack.
3. The Qi damage output of DoT effects has been standardized to a consistent baseline, matching their application methods. Some effects (like Bleeding/High Bleeding from Strategic Sword) have gained Qi damage; others (like Weeping Blood/Piercing Damage from Fivefold Bleed, Qingyi's Poison from Bitter Seasons, Combustion from Dragon's Breath, and Burning from Divinecraft: Fire) have had their Qi damage reduced. Newly added DoT effects (like Dark Scorch from Dragon's Breath) will also adhere to this new baseline.
4. Adjustments have been made to the Exhaustion Vulnerability multiplier bucket. The universal vulnerability applied by the Exhausted and the bonus vulnerability from Qi Imbalance have been moved to the same multiplier zone as Mechanism-Based DMG Boost found in Boss Modes. This mitigates the diminishing returns caused by multiplier dilution for paths relying heavily on universal damage boosts.
5. Addition to Tier 4 Inner Way Seasonal Edge: Completing the active cast of the Control-Removing Mystic Skill Serene Breeze can now trigger a random effect, with the probability of rolling Spring or Winter significantly reduced; addition to Tier 6: Completing the active cast of Serene Breeze guarantees that Winter will not be rolled.

Mystic Skill Optimizations

1. Added a new Enlightenment branch effect Dark Scorch to Mystic Skill Dragon's Breath. Selecting this branch replaces the Combustion debuff with Dark Scorch. Multiple Dark Scorch debuffs from different players can coexist on a single target independently. This resolves the limitation where only one Wanderer in a team could benefit from the Combustion damage bonus.
2. When Mystic Skill Drunken Poet reaches Tier 3, the applied Alcoholic Breath effect will trigger a more violent explosion (dealing increased damage) when hitting a target afflicted by the caster's own Dark Scorch. This will not extend the duration of Dark Scorch. If both Combustion and the caster's Dark Scorch are present on the target, the Dark Scorch explosion takes priority.

Path: Bellstrike - Splendor

1. Optimized the continuous casting experience for Martial Art Nameless Sword skills: Charged Skill Vagrant Sword, Martial Art Skill Daunting Strike and Relentless Chase will now chain much more smoothly under high-latency conditions in Online Mode Boss and Boss Dummy.
2. Damage falloff has been removed when a single instance of Sword Energy of Martial Art Nameless Sword hits multiple non-player units, significantly strengthening its AoE clearing capabilities against groups of enemies.

Path: Bellstrike - Umbra

1. Adjusted the DoT Enhancement talent for Martial Art Heavenquaker Spear: The duration of the Soul-Shaken debuff has been increased from 15 seconds to 18 seconds. Furthermore, the DoT vulnerability effect is now split into a base buff and an extra buff; the full buff is only granted if the damage source is actively using Strategic Sword or Heavenquaker Spear.
2. Adjusted the effect of Tier 6 Inner Way Wolfchaser's Art: Martial Art Skill Sober Sorrow now inflicts a stack of Soul-Shaken upon hitting any unit, removing the prerequisite that the target must already be Soul-Shaken. This simplifies the rotation and lowers the threshold for applying the debuff in Arena. Additionally, the consecutive strikes required for the Wine Gu effect have been reduced from 5 hits within 3 seconds to just 3 hits, and continuing the combo will refresh its duration.
3. Adjusted the base effect of Martial Art Strategic Sword: Bleeding and High Bleeding now inflict baseline Qi damage. If the target is afflicted with the Soul-Shaken status from Heavenquaker Spear, this Qi damage is further amplified. This adjustment aims to unify DoT Qi damage expectations while preserving the unique synergy between Strategic Sword and Heavenquaker Spear.
4. Supplemented the Tier 3 effect for Inner Way Sword Horizon: When hitting non-player units with a guaranteed-Affinity High Bleeding (triggered after maxing out Sword's Zenith), it will extend the remaining duration of your own active DoT effects by 10 seconds (up to a maximum of 16 seconds). Extendable effects include Bleed from Martial Art Strategic Sword, Dark Scorch from Mystic Skill Dragon's Breath, Qingyi's Poison from Inner Way Bitter Seasons, and Weeping Blood from Fivefold Bleed.

Path: Silkbind - Jade

1. Adjusted the Attuning effect for Martial Art Vernal Umbrella: For the newly unlocked Tier 96 gear, the Vernal Umbrella Special Skill DMG Boost and Vernal Umbrella Charged Skill DMG Boost will be merged into Vernal Umbrella Frequent Ballistic DMG Boost. This covers both Special Skill Unfading Flower and Light Attack Charged Skill Spring Away, increasing freedom of skill selection and reducing development costs for multiple strategies. To balance the total number of Attuning affixes, Vernal Umbrella Light/Heavy Attack & Varied Combo DMG Boost has been added. For Tier 91 gear, relaying will automatically merge the old affixes, taking the higher value of the two. 2. Adjusted the Ballistic Skill Enhancement talent for Martial Art Vernal Umbrella: The Blossoms Point refund condition for Special Skill Unfading Flower has been changed from hitting Immobilized or Airborne units to hitting Immobilized/Airborne Non-Boss units, or Exhausted Boss units. This ensures players receive consistent resource returns during dungeon Boss encounters. 3. The Talent effect will now apply to all projectile skills. A new effect has been added to ignore 5 Physical Resistance for all damage dealt, while the Physical Resistance ignored when hitting Immobilized or Airborne targets has been reduced to 15. 4. Adjusted the effects of Inner Way Blossom Barrage: The Tier 5 buff has been changed from Critical DMG Bonus to Direct Critical Rate; For Tier 4, when Light Attack Charged Skill Spring Away and Special Skill Unfading Flower hit targets marked by your Combo debuff in non-Arena modes, they deal 5% more damage (increased to 10% if the target is Exhausted). This creates a more balanced damage profile.

Silkbind - Deluge

1. Supplemented the Mystic Skill DMG Boost base effect for Martial Art Panacea Fan: If Martial Art Soulshade Umbrella is also equipped, the Mystic Skill is guaranteed never to trigger an abrasion (Abrasion is converted to normal damage, without affecting Precision/Critical checks). This greatly optimizes the Open World combat experience for dedicated Healer players.

Path: Stonesplit - Might

1. Adjusted the Charge Calculation Enhancement Talent for Martial Art Thundercry Blade: The conversion cap that turns Max HP into Max Physical Attack during skill resolution has been changed. Instead of a fixed 120-point cap, the limit now scales with the Martial Arts Breakthrough level to better match character progression.
2. Adjusted the Critical Rate UP talent for Martial Art Thundercry Blade: The bonus attribute gained based on the higher value between your Body and Power has been changed from Critical Rate to Max Physical Attack. The talent has been renamed to Physical Attack UP accordingly. This prevents the issue of players overcapping their Effective Critical Rate while tuning their paths.
3. Adjusted Cadence inflicted by Inner Way Exquisite Scenery: The duration has been increased from 15 seconds to 20 seconds, and the maximum stack limit has been increased from 1 to 2. This lowers the difficulty of triggering Special Defensive Riposte and optimizes the flow of the path's rotation.

Stonesplit - Strength

1. Optimized the continuous casting experience for Martial Art Snowparting Blade skills: Light Attack Charged Skill Grave Frost and Heavy Attack Varied Combo Snowbreak Spring will now chain much more smoothly under high-latency conditions in Online Mode Boss and Boss Dummy.
2. Adjusted the Tier 6 effect of Inner Way Frost-Clad Night: Hitting an Exhausted boss with Snowbreak Spring now extends the Dread debuff by 2 seconds.
3. Adjusted the Tier 3 effect of Inner Way Steadfast Devotion: The final effective Critical Rate requirement to trigger a Guaranteed Critical for Burning Heart and Anxi Army Assist has been raised from 70% to 75%.
4. Adjusted the Tier 6 effect of Inner Way Steadfast Devotion: Hitting Exhausted enemies with Burning Heart instantly grants three stacks of Charge Enhancement, and the buff duration is extended to 18 seconds.

Path: Bamboocut - Wind

1. Optimized the continuous casting experience for Martial Art Infernal Twinblades: Light Attacks and Blade of Heaven's Wrath will now chain much more smoothly under high-latency conditions in Online Mode Boss and Boss Dummy.
2. Adjusted the Perfect Dodge Enhancement talent for Martial Art Infernal Twinblades: The duration increase for buffs gained via Perfect Dodges has been boosted from 20% to 40%.
3. Adjusted the Rodent Damage Enhancement talent for Martial Art Mortal Rope Dart: Effect changed from Physical Damage +9%, plus up to 15% based on min Physical Attack to Physical and Bamboocut Damage +9%, plus up to 12% based on min Physical Attack.
4. Supplemented the Bonus Attack Up talent for Martial Art Mortal Rope Dart: Physical Attack and Attribute Attack scaling coefficients for Rodent Rampage will now increase with Martial Arts Breakthrough level.
5. Adjusted the base effect of Inner Way Echoes of Oblivion: Effects triggered by Light Attacks now also ignore 10% of the target's Physical Defense and 10 points of Bamboocut Resistance.

Bamboocut - Dust Path

1. Increased the damage dealt by Heavy Attack Charged Skill Dreamwrought Bubbles of Martial Art Everspring Umbrella against non-player units by 20%.
2. Adjusted the base effect of Inner Way Phantom Rally: Phantom Umbrellas from the Heavy Attack Charged Skill Dreamwrought Bubbles of Martial Art Everspring Umbrella can also trigger Resonance Damage.
3. Adjusted the Tier 1 effect of Inner Way Phantom Rally: Executing continuous Perfect Catches to gain the Fragrant Song buff will now grant an additional stack of Fragrant Song - Delicate. This allows the next Heavy Attack Charged Skill Dreamwrought Bubbles to be cast instantly without charging (stacks up to 4 times), providing a viable ranged filler option.

Arena Network Optimizations

1. Implemented a new hit-validation reverse system targeting attackers with high latency. If the server verifies that the defender was in a dodge invulnerability state at the time of the strike, the damage will be successfully negated.
2. Fixed an issue where Martial Art Skill Spring Sorrow of Martial Art Vernal Umbrella suffered from delayed hit registrations due to attacker latency. Furthermore, when a low-latency attacker successfully hits a high-latency defender who has already moved locally, the defender will now be pulled back to their actual server position.
3. Fixed an issue where casting Heavy Attack Varied Combo Snowbreak Spring of Martial Art Snowparting Blade could cause the attacker to appear to teleport from the defender's perspective due to high latency. Additionally, fixed a bug where interrupting a defender mid-displacement skill could cause the defender to teleport erratically from the attacker's perspective.

Arena Experience Optimizations

1. In Arena mode, entering a Sprint without dodging first will now incur a slight delay before Dash Skills can be used.
2. Dash skills with Melee weapons have been sped up to reduce performance disparities between Melee weapons.
3. Optimized the continuous Deflection experience against rapid multi-hit attacks; quickly tapping the Deflect button triggers consecutive Deflections more reliably.
4. Stages 2, 3, and 4 of Weapon - Sword's Light Attack execute faster. The Interrupt points for Stages 2 and 3 are earlier, and a new hit-frame was added to Stage 3 to ensure stable linkage to subsequent Light Attacks.
5. The interrupt point for the 2nd Light Attack of Weapon - Spear is earlier to ensure stable linkage to subsequent Light Attacks. The final strike of the Stage 4 Light Attack now knocks enemies back instead of knocking them up.
6. Adjusted the Special Skill Shadow Step of Martial Art Nameless Sword: The Stage 2 dash deals no damage during startup, but features improved target-tracking and an earlier interrupt point.
7. Adjusted the Bleed Mechanism Enhancement talent for Martial Art Strategic Sword: The stagger duration caused by High Bleeding is increased.
8. For Martial Art Heavenquaker Spear, the Charged Skill Drifting Thrust Tier 1 charge triggers earlier. Tenacity is now granted upon reaching Tier 1 charge, not immediately upon entering the Charging Stance.
9. Adjusted the charging for Heavy Attack Charged Skill Glow & Flow of Martial Art Inkwell Fan: The charge is split into two tiers. Tier 1 casts quickly with a shorter pull; Tier 2 retains the original range and timing. The Endurance Cost for charging is updated accordingly.
10. Adjusted the Light Attack, Heavy Attack, and Dual-Weapon Skill of Soulshade Umbrella in the Hidden Sword State to perfectly match the performance of Nameless Sword or Strategic Sword.
11. For Martial Art Soulshade Umbrella in the Hidden Sword state, when Panacea Fan and Soulshade Umbrella are both equipped, replace the Charged Skill with Hidden Sword - Dash. After a brief charge, consume Dew to dash forward and damage enemies ahead.
12. Improved the pulling by Heavy Attack Charged Skill Avalanche Landslide of Martial Art Thundercry Blade, and increased the Endurance cost while charging both Avalanche and Light Attack Charged Skill Galecloud Cleave.
13. Greatly improved the pulling by Heavy Attack Varied Combo Stonebreaker of Martial Art Thundercry Blade and fixed an issue where Stonebreaker could still knock down enemies even if they successfully deflected it.
14. While the Drumbeat or Breakthrough buffs are active for Martial Art Thundercry Blade, pressing Heavy Attack will instantly cast the Stage 3 strike. The damage dealt by Stage 3 of Heavy Attack has also been increased.
15. While casting Special Skill Sunrush Gale of Martial Art Thundercry Blade, a stacking Slow Down effect is applied to the nearest target every 0.5 seconds. Upon completion, the caster receives a brief, explosive Movement Speed buff.
16. Adjusted the trigger conditions for the Drumbeat buff and own DMG Reduction Effect granted by Martial Art Skill Storm Roar of Martial Art Stormbreaker Spear: These effects now strictly require Martial Art Thundercry Blade to be equipped simultaneously. Additionally, the damage registration of Storm Roar occurs slightly earlier to better sync with its animation and VFX.
17. If Martial Art Thundercry Blade is not equipped, the amount of Battle Will recovered from a successful defense by Martial Art Stormbreaker Spear is reduced.
18. For Disc Stonesplit - Might Arena Attuning, when the Attuning effect of Martial Art Skill - Predator's Shield is triggered, players can now immediately cast other skills to chain strikes. The interrupt priority of the stagger caused by this Attuning effect has also been fixed to match other Martial Art Skills, vastly improving chain strike stability after the Attuning trigger.
19. Adjusted the interrupt point for dodge following a successful Deflection for Martial Art Snowparting Blade: It is no longer instantaneous and now requires a brief delay before the dodge can be executed.
20. Adjusted the mechanic that stores your current Light Attack Hit Count upon dodging by Martial Art Infernal Twinblades: The stored duration has been reduced from permanent to 3 seconds, and it will instantly clear upon switching weapons. A new status icon has been added to display the currently stored Light Attack Hit Count for Infernal Twinblades.
21. Adjusted the Continuous Deflection detection for Martial Art Skill Addled Mind of Martial Art Infernal Twinblades: The maximum number of times this skill can be continuously deflected has been reduced from 6 down to 3.
22. When Infernal Twinblades and Mortal Rope Dart are both equipped, having the Rodent Rampage buff active will reduce the Qi damage taken by 30% whenever your attacks are deflected by an opponent.
23. Adjusted the overall performance of the Stage 2 consecutive kicks by Martial Art Skill Bladebound Thread of Martial Art Mortal Rope Dart: The animation speed is faster, and pulling is improved. The damage registration for the first kick is slightly delayed, the final strike now knocks back player targets, and the skill interrupt point has been moved up.
24. Adjusted the timing for gaining Tenacity by Charged Skill Rodent's Resilience of Martial Art Mortal Rope Dart: It is no longer granted immediately, but rather 0.5 seconds after entering the Charging Stance.
25. Pressing Special Skill Cyclone Waltz of Martial Art Everspring Umbrella again while spinning will instantly deal one instance of damage to surrounding enemies, allowing for faster combo follow-ups.
26. Slightly increased the Stagger by Martial Art Skill Scarlet Spin of Martial Art Everspring Umbrella in the case of non-Perfect Catch.
27. Special Skill Burn and Bury of Martial Art Unfettered Rope Dart is now unblockable. A golden flash indicator has been added to warn opponents.
28. Adjusted the timing for gaining Tenacity by Charged Skill Piercing Dart of Martial Art Unfettered Rope Dart: It is now granted 0.5 seconds after entering the Charging Stance, rather than immediately.
29. When Mystic Skill Guardian Palm is cast on the ground, its pulling capabilities and the attack range of the first two palm stri