This September, transform your Armored Horse into an Armored Bonehorse by simply referring a friend to Albion. This spectral skin is an equine skeleton shrouded in a ghostly ectoplasm, the perfect addition to any creepy collection. And with its death-defying nature, it's sure to make your enemies think twice about trying to take you down!

But there's more up for grabs than spine-tingling style, there’s massive amounts of Fame too. For your third referral, you'll receive a T7 Pile of Tomes, and for your fifth, you'll get another T8 Pile of Tomes. And if this is your first ever referral, you’ll earn an additional T8 Pile of Tomes!

• Send your referral link, which you can find here, to a friend. (You must be logged into your account on the website to view this page.)
• Your friend registers an account and starts playing Albion Online (preferably along with you!).
• The first time your friend purchases at least 30 days of Premium, they will trigger a reward for you.
• On top of that, for your very first referral ever, you'll receive a T8 Recruiter's Pile of Tomes, worth a massive 200,000 Fame.

The current referral season ends September 30 at 23꞉59꞉59 UTC. So grab a friend or two, hop on your spooky steed, and ride with the moon in the dead of night!

This September, plunge into the madness of the Heretic Challenge. Earn points through open-world activities, unlock chests filled with the fruits of deranged craftsmanship, and claim the Heretic Combat Mule – a twisted creation with a powerful cannon shot!



HERETIC COMBAT MULE: This month's Challenge brings back the Heretic Combat Mule, a war machine from the twisted minds of Heretic saddlers. The Combat Mule fires a powerful cannon shot that knocks back and slows targets, but watch out for its massive recoil!
 


AVATAR RING: Adventurers who rack up enough total Challenge Points will also earn the Heretic Challenge Avatar Ring. This non-tradable item permanently unlocks this crazed, ramshackle avatar border for one character, or can be traded to the Vanity Merchant for one Adventurer's Token.
 


SEASONAL SPECIALS: All month long, reach weekly goals to unlock Heretic Challenge Chests. In addition to valuable rewards like Adventurer's Tomes, Silver, and resources, you'll also have a chance to unlock special furniture items like the Heretic Lantern, Heretic Junkpile and Heretic Scarecrow.
 


As always, you can earn Challenge Points by gathering, fishing, farming, and killing monsters. Points count simultaneously toward a daily bonus, a weekly unlockable chest, and the monthly mount and avatar ring rewards. So log in, head out into the open world, gather points, and claim these rewards while they last!

We're back with another Dev Talk! While everyone is busy filling out their Journals, Game Director Robin Henkys sat down to unpack the key takeaways from Paths to Glory, and give you a sneak peek at what the team is cooking up next. With work on the next update well underway, there's a lot to be excited about!
 

• Rebalancing the Roads of Avalon has led to a marked increase in both PvP and PvE activity there
• The next update will aim to achieve a similar effect for the open world
• The goals are:
  • Increased attractiveness to solo players
  • More rewarding mid-sized group content
  • Increased activity in the inner-Outlands
  • More challenging and rewarding PvE

• New PvE objectives for solo players
• New mechanics to help solo players journey deeper into the Outlands
  • This will reduce the risk of ganking near Portal Cities
• PvE rewards and difficulty in the inner-Outlands which scale by region quality
  • This should draw competition away from Portal Cities and into the inner-Outlands
• Increased rewards for group Randomized Dungeons
• Rebalanced mobs in the open world and Randomized Dungeons
  • Higher-tier mobs will become more challenging and more rewarding
  • This should bring high-end PvE back to the open world
• Some Tier 5 and Tier 6 content introduced to blue and yellow zones, respectively
  • This will expand the content available to new players before entering full-loot PvP zones

At the same time, we’re working on many other features and improvements:

• Two new categories in the Albion Journal
• A more customizable HUD
• Savable settings presets for quick hotkey adjustments
• Inventory management improvements
• The next batch of Crystal Weapons
• Enhanced rendering performance
• Strengthened cheat protection

These developments are all part of our mission to make Albion Online the ultimate sandbox MMORPG, so stay tuned to hear more as we approach the next update. Meanwhile, if you have any questions or comments for us, check out the full video and leave them in the comments there, and we’ll address the most popular comments in a future video!

Who's a good boy? Your Direwolf, that's who! This International Dog Day, give your mount the fluffiest makeover with the Shepherd mount skin! From August 26, 2024 at 10 UTC until September 2, 2024 at 10 UTC, you can transform your fierce friend into the cutest canine companion. 

This is the first time that this beloved skin is available in-store, so you don’t want to miss out on this pawsome opportunity. As you explore the wilderness or charge into battle, the Shepherd will be your loyal sidekick, always ready for belly rubs, heroic deeds, and sniffing out pesky rats!



No bamboozling here - for just $9.95 USD (price may vary by platform and region), this dawg can be yours to pet as much as you like with all your characters on any server. Happy Dog Day!

Invasion Day is back, bringing you another weekend of high-octane battles! Are you ready for the second round of Season 24?

Since the first Invasion Day of the season, we’ve seen a rapid tactical evolution in Albion Europe, and smaller guilds are still finding ways to make their mark. Meanwhile, Albion Asia is developing the kind of strategic depth that exists on Albion Americas. Guilds are breaking up, internal tensions are high, and drama is unfolding on all servers, bringing some drastic changes in territory control and creating a volatile and unpredictable landscape. Let’s see how things unfold!

Join us on AlbionTV for live coverage of the carnage with your hosts Robinhoodrs, Shozen, Lewpac, Bogul, and Tazzik at these times:

• Albion Asia: August 24, 14:00 UTC
• Albion Europe: August 24, 18:00 UTC
• Albion Americas: August 25, 01:00 UTC

See guilds clash in real time, witness strategies succeed and fail, and watch new champions emerge! For the full season schedule and more details, check out this forum thread.

This patch is intended to fine-tune some of the changes introduced in the Paths to Glory update, refining the overall game dynamics and addressing community feedback.

Health Regeneration Adjustments:

• Avalonian Crystal Basilisk no longer regenerates health after the second phase has been triggered
• Reduced health regeneration amounts for all elite and high-tier veteran mobs:
  • Tier 7 Veteran: 72 → 61
  • Tier 8 Veteran: 109 → 76
  • Tier 4 Elite: 111 → 83
  • Tier 5 Elite: 137 → 103
  • Tier 6 Elite: 167 → 125
  • Tier 7 Elite: 241 → 154
  • Tier 8 Elite: 363 → 190
• Mobs no longer regenerate health while invincible

Other Adjustments:

• Demonic Harbinger:
  • Forceful Swing damage per tick: 350 → 250
  • Reckless Swing damage per tick: 400 → 300
  • Raging Onslaught cast time: 1.35s → 1.5s
  • Unrelenting Slaughter cast time: 0.65s → 0.75s
• Elite Earthkeeper Axe-Thrower:
  • Stun duration no longers scales with mob’s ability power or player’s crowd control resistance
• Respawn chances for T6+ resources and resource mobs affected by Dynamic Spawn Rates have been increased by up to 10%

Armor Abilities:

Armor items now have all their abilities unlocked from Tier 4 upwards, as has been the case with weapons since the Paths to Glory update.

Albion Journal:

The following Journal missions have had their rewards updated:

• Defeat 30 Roaming Mob Mini Bosses
  • Elder's Bag of Silver → Master's Tome of Insight
• Gain 3 million Fame from Roaming Mobs
  • Elder's Bag of Silver → Grandmaster's Tome of Insight
• Gain 10 million Fame from Roaming Mobs
  • 5 Elder's Bags of Silver → Elder's Tome of Insight
• Gain 30 million Fame from Roaming Mobs
  • 10 Elder's Bags of Silver → 50 Community Tokens
• Gain 100 million Fame from Roaming Mobs
  • 25 Elder's Bags of Silver → 15 Elder's Bags of Silver
• Kill 1000 Champions in Static Dungeons
  • 5 Elder's Bags of Silver → Elder's Tome of Insight
• Gain 3,000,000 fame in the Roads
  • Elder's Bag of Silver → Grandmaster's Tome of Insight
• Gain 10,000,000 fame in the Roads
  • 5 Elder's Bags of Silver → Elder's Tome of Insight
• Gain 30,000,000 fame in the Roads
  • 10 Elder's Bags of Silver → 50 Community Tokens
• Gain 100,000,000 fame in the Roads
  • 25 Elder's Bags of Silver → 15 Elder's Bags of Silver
• Kill 1000 Champions in Static Dungeons
  • 5 Elder's Tomes of Insight → 1 Elder's Tome of Insight

The following Journal mission has had its objective changed:

• 'Defeat 25 T3 Roaming Mobs' → 'Defeat 12 T3 Roaming Mobs'

UI Changes:

• Travel Planner and Island Merchant UIs:
  • Now grouped in a two-level dropdown menu for easier navigation of multiple personal and guild islands
  • Icons now indicate the destination’s biome/attached city and type (city, portal, personal/guild island)
  • Clearly distinguishes between Own Islands, Favorites, and Other Islands for quicker access
• Guild UI:
  • Added functionality to copy guild member list as TSV
• Claiming a reward from the Albion Journal now automatically opens the Inventory
• Dropdowns with submenus now have arrow symbols

Other:

• System-generated soup, salad, and mules have been removed from Marketplaces on Albion Europe
• Added Guild Logos for Albion Europe Beta Season winners

Arcane Staffs

• Enigma Blade (all Arcane Staffs)
  • Damage: 180 → 190:
• Frazzle (all Arcane Staffs)
  • Cast Time: 0.6s → 0.5s
  • Range: 13m → 15m

Daggers

• Merciless Finish (Bridled Fury)
  • 0 Stack Damage: 68.3 → 75
  • 1 Stack Damage: 108.8 → 120
  • 2 Stack Damage: 163.3 → 180
  • 3 Stack Damage: 216.6 → 238

Frost Staffs

• Frost Bomb (all Frost Staffs)
  • Initial Area Slow: 20% → 30%

Hammers

• Powerful Swing (all Hammers)
  • Damage: 94 → 113
  • Bonus damage to crowd-controlled enemies: 48 → 56
• Seismic Tremor (all Hammers):
  • 1st and 2nd Hit Damage: 70 → 80
  • 3rd Hit Damage: 140 → 160

Holy Staffs

• Generous Heal (all Holy Staffs)
  • Cast Time: 0.6s → 0.5s
  • Range: 14m → 15m

Shapeshifter Staffs

• Fireflash Orb (Hellspawn Staff)
  • Initial Damage: 150 → 120
    • Every 0.6s the projectile travels, damage increases by 30, up to a maximum of 240
  • Recast Damage: 220 → 150
• Seedling's Bloom (Rootbound Staff)
  • Empowered Bloom Healing Received: 20% → 10%
• Barbed Roots (Rootbound Staff)
  • Shield: 150 → 175

Shoes

• Blind Spot (Shoes of Tenacity)
  • Caster is no longer invisible to mobs, but only to other players
  • Buff duration: 1s → 1.5s
  • Movespeed: 20% → 60%

Albion Journal fixes:

• Fixed issue where ‘Defeat Roaming Mobs’ missions would incorrectly count certain other mobs
• Fixed issue where ‘Find Hidden Treasures’ missions would not count those found by party members
• Fixed issue where the ‘Rescue 50 Wisps in Greater Mists’ mission would not count those rescued by party members
• Fixed issue where the mission ‘Defeat another player after invading their Corrupted Dungeon’ could not be completed in Hunter difficulty
• Fixed issue where the mission ‘Win a 5v5 Crystal League Match’ could be completed by winning a 20v20 Crystal League Match
• Fixed issue where the mission ‘Win a 20v20 Crystal League Match’ required a Level 1 match, rather than any level
• Fixed issue where the mission 'Use a crafting bonus in a Hideout' could be completed by acquiring items from the Energy Manipulator in a Hideout
• Fixed issue where untracking a mission in the summary would cause the UI to scroll to the top

UI fixes:

• Fixed issue where using Community Tokens to craft an item at the Vanity Merchant would default to the maximum number of items
• Fixed issue where Territory Control Cost tooltip on region map would incorrectly display zero
• Fixed issue where Albion Journal achievement popups could be hidden by other UI elements
• Fixed issue where a two-handed Vanity Item could not be equipped if the off-hand slot was already occupied
• [MOBILE] Fixed issue where region map would sometimes appear pink

Other fixes:

• Fixed issue where a stray Blue Zone Randomized Dungeon would appear in the Roads of Avalon
• Fixed issue where Siege Banners could not be raised against a territory that had already been raided
• Various additional graphical, animation, terrain, audio, UI, and localization fixes

Mounts in Albion are more than just a means of transportation. Picking the right one for your adventure can even determine whether you survive an encounter or lose your hard-earned gear. In the following guide, we’ll go over some useful tips for raising, buying and riding your mounts, and show which stats and traits to look out for to make sure you aren’t easy prey out there in the wild.


Every mount has passive stats that can help you to determine whether it’s suitable for your next adventure. These include mount health, armor, magical resistance, and crowd control resistance, which tell you how much damage that mount can take before it throws its rider off. Move and gallop speed, meanwhile, indicate how fast you can travel across the world: move speed refers to the basic speed of your mount, while galloping is achieved by continuously riding without taking damage.

Another important stat is max load, which shows how much extra weight a mount lets you carry. Here we have to distinguish between max load, which counts as active carry weight, and the ‘Courier’ passive spell, which counts as passive carry weight.

Active carry weight lets you carry more weight while riding or while you’re directly next to your mount. Being forcefully dismounted or leaving the mount radius will remove this bonus, and may leave you over-encumbered.

Passive carry weight, meanwhile, increases your max load as long as you have a mount equipped, even if you’re on foot or in combat.



A number of mounts also have active abilities that can be triggered while riding. Some offer abilities on the shoe slot (default: F) that let you travel faster in various ways, while others have weapon slot abilities (default: Q,W,E). Using an active mount ability will put that slot on cooldown, so if you use the shoe slot ability on your mount and then dismount, you must wait for the cooldown to end before you can use your actual shoe slot again.

Every mount has the ability ‘Journey Back’ (default: R). This allows you to return to your last safe zone location after a channel. This ability has a Silver cost, which is determined by the distance to the nearest safe zone and the items you’re carrying.



When dismounted by an enemy player or creature, you become immune to crowd control for a short time, while having full access to your cooldowns. You cannot remount within 30 seconds.

When dismounting voluntarily, your weapon slots are available as long as no enemy players are nearby, while your armor slots are on a 5 second cooldown. You will also notice a circle around your mount, within which you can move freely and click/tap on the mount to quickly mount up again. Getting into combat with another player will immediately remove the mount.



Every mount can be traded at the Marketplace. If you decide to raise or earn a mount yourself, you will find additional information below.


When playing the tutorial, you’ll meet your very first mount - the Novice’s Mule. While it isn’t the fastest, it already has the ‘Courier’ passive, granting some additional carry weight.

Horses and Oxen can be raised on pastures on personal islands or guild territories. Once grown, they can be saddled to become a Riding Horse – an agile mount with passive carryweight – an Armored Horse – a sturdy mount with additional armor for added protection – or a Transport Ox, which allows you to carry large quantities of goods.



Adventurer’s Challenge Mounts offer either fast movement, escape abilities, or high transport capacity. Each month brings a fresh challenge in which players can accumulate Challenge Points to unlock daily, weekly, and monthly rewards. After completing the monthly challenge, players with active Premium status can claim that month’s mount and immediately begin to use it.

Adventurer’s Challenges work on an annual rotation, with each month’s mount as follows:

• January: Frost Ram
• February: Saddled Terrorbird
• March: Grizzly Bear
• April: Black Panther
• May: Morgana Raven
• June: Gallant Horse
• July: Spectral Direboar
• August: Divine Owl
• September: Heretic Combat Mule
• October: Spectral Bat
• November: Pest Lizard
• December: Snow Husky

Some baby animals can be acquired by killing open world hide animals. These can then be raised on a pasture or in a kennel.

The chances of one of these baby animals dropping decreases with the tier of the mob.

You have a chance of finding each type of baby animal in the following biomes:

• Steppe: Stag (T4) / Swiftclaw (T5) / Mammoth (T8)
• Forest: Direwolf (T6) / Moose (T6) / Direboar (T7) / Direbear (T8)
• Swamp: Swamp Salamander (T6) / Direboar (T7) / Direbear (T8)

There is also a small chance that Conqueror’s Chests contain one of these.

Swiftclaws and Direwolves are very quick, while others, like the Moose, are great at carrying medium loads while remaining agile. The Transport Mammoth is by far the best mount for carrying a lot of weight.



Each major city in Albion hosts a faction that players can fight for to earn Faction Points. These points can be used to acquire baby animals. Each city has a standard and an elite version of their mount to choose from.

In addition to the six Royal Cities, Brecilien also offers two baby animals that can be purchased with Favor.

Each city’s mounts are:

• Thetford: Swamp Salamander & Elite Swamp Salamander
• Fort Sterling: Winter Bear & Elite Winter Bear
• Lymhurst: Wild Boar & Elite Wild Boar
• Bridgewatch: Terrorbird & Elite Terrorbird
• Martlock: Bighorn Ram & Elite Bighorn Ram
• Caerleon: Greywolf & Elite Greywolf
• Brecilien: Mystic Owl & Elite Mystic Owl

Battle mounts are used in large-scale battles to enhance the survivability and offensive strength of a zerg. They can offer buffs to big groups of players and shape the battlefield with their disruptive skills. These mounts are usually tough to take down.

Most battle mounts are given out at the end of a Guild Season through Conqueror’s Chests. Attaining a higher guild rank and a better chest increases the chances of getting battle mounts. Players engaging in high-level 20v20 Crystal League matches also have a chance to receive these.

Some battle mounts can only be obtained through the Energy Manipulator. They require a base mount, some materials, and a large amount of Siphoned Energy.



There are also a few rare mounts that don’t fall into any of the above categories, like the Morgana Nightmare, the Rageclaw, and the Spectral Bonehorse. Each of these can be crafted from artifacts dropped by World Bosses found in special raid zones in the open world.

The Rites of Spring event allows players to earn the Spring Cottontail and Caerleon Cottontail mounts.

Some older referral seasons rewarded unique mounts.

And, last but not least, the Avalonian Basilisk can be acquired with a Saddled Swamp Dragon and 5000 Avalonian Energy at the Saddler.



You are what you wear. So make yourself a dashing adventurer or a gruesome warrior while you’re riding through Albion! There are a multitude of skins available to give your favorite mount a makeover - simply go to the Appearance UI in the player menu to check out which skins are available.



Many skins can be purchased from the Albion Online Web Shop or ingame store, while some can be purchased for Gold or earned by referring a friend. Referral mount skins can be traded at the Marketplace.

Ready to ride? With this knowledge you'll be well-equipped to traverse Albion's treacherous roads with the right mount for any occasion. Giddy up!

Get ready for an unforgettable showdown, because the AOTV 20v20 Extravaganza is coming back! After the success of the previous event, the AlbionTV team is making it a regular series on the official Albion Online Twitch channel.

On August 10th at 19 UTC, your host Shozen will bring you coverage of this wild event, where two teams led by Lewpac and Tazzik face off against each other in a series of 20v20 clashes. And to ensure maximum mayhem, the teams will be organized on the day. No prep, no strategy sessions – just pure, unfiltered chaos!

So tune in, join the fun, and watch the ultimate community faceoff go down live on AlbionTV this weekend. Let the battle begin!

This is a small patch that primarily addresses issues introduced by the Paths to Glory update that were not critical enough to be included in previous hotfixes.

Albion Journal

The following mission rewards have been changed:

• ‘Visit all six Royal Cities’
  • Monk's Hood →  Monk's Sandals
• ‘Catch 15 different fish’
  • Blue Bard's Hat → Blue Bard's Shoes
• ‘Finish 40 hunts’
  • 5 Tomes of Learning → 1 Tome of Learning
• ‘Own a million Silver’
  • Innkeeper's Hat → Master's Tome of Insight
• ‘Own a billion Silver’
  • 500 Community Tokens → Expert's Tome of Learning
• ‘Loot 5 different Baby Animals’
  • 5x Elder's Bag of Silver → Elder's Tome of Insight

Additionally, Scrolls of Repair earned as Journal rewards are now non-tradable. Those earned prior to this patch remain tradable.

Territory Raiding

The percentage of stored energy that is destroyed when unlocking Raw Energy Cores has been increased from 1% to 5%.

Other

Randomized Dungeons shown on the Minimap in the Roads of Avalon now continue to display enchantment VFX after a player has entered.

• This does not apply to randomly spawned dungeons in Hideout regions

• Added pop-up notifications for the completion of individual Journal missions
• Entries in the drop-down list in the Island Merchant UI now display visual cues to reflect the player's ownership and Guild permission status

Axes

• Relentless Assault (Crystal Reaper)
  • Damage: 82.5 → 90

Bows

• Deadly Shot (all Bows)
  • Range: 18m → 20m

Cursed Staffs

• Enfeeble Blades (Lifecurse Staff)
  • Removed: Damage debuff
  • Damage per tick: 55 → 70

Daggers

• Dash (all Daggers)
  • Energy Cost: 5% → 8%

Fire Staffs

• Combustion (Infernal Staff)
  • Damage per tick: 13 → 16
• Flame Pillar (Great Fire Staff)
  • Damage: 190 → 200

Frost Staffs

• Arctic Volley (Arctic Staff)
  • Range: 18m → 22m

Nature Staffs

• Well of Life (Wild Staff)
  • Cast time: 1s → 0.7s
  • Duration: 5s → 4s
  • Total ticks: 5 → 4
  • Healing per tick: 55.2 → 69

Quarterstaffs

• Phantom Twin (Phantom Twinblade)
  • Damage per tick: 33 → 36

Shoes

• Spectral Run (Specter Shoes)
  • Previously: auto-attacks disabled for 3 seconds after moving more than 15m (after invisibility ends)
  • Now: damage reduced by 50% for 3 seconds after moving more than 15m (after invisibility ends)

A number of progression and reward issues in the Albion Journal have been addressed. These changes will take effect with this patch and will not retroactively change existing progression unless otherwise noted.

Albion Journal fixes:

• Fixed issue where the ‘Loot Baby Animals’ missions could be completed by looting the item from a player’s corpse
• Fixed issue where the same vanity item reward could be obtained from two missions (see updated mission rewards above)
• Fixed issue where the mission ’Own 3 plots in the same city simultaneously’ rewarded a Snow Leopard Cape item instead of the untradeable Snow Leopard Cape unlock item
• Unintended Snow Leopard Cape items that have already been claimed have been converted into the untradeable Snow Leopard Cape unlock item
• Fixed issue where resource mobs in the Mists would not count towards skinning missions
• Fixed issue where hide animals in the Mists and hide treasures were not counted as unique animal types
  • As a result of this fix, the amount of hide mobs required to complete the mission ‘Skin every type of Hide Animal’ has increased significantly. To offset this increase, two additional steps in the mission chain have been added:
    • ‘Skin 52 types of Hide Animal’
    • ‘Skin 65 types of Hide Animal’
    • Unfortunately, these missions have to be started from scratch as, for technical reasons, they are considered new missions
• Fixed issue where the mission 'Use the Journey Back ability in a Black Zone' could be completed by returning from any zone
• Fixed issue where missions to kill a certain number of mobs did not count mobs defeated by a party member
• Fixed issue where ‘Gain Brecilien standing’ missions were not completed if maximum standing was reached prior to the Journal’s release
• Fixed issue where Phalanx Beetle mounts did not count towards the 'Ride a Battle Mount' mission
• Fixed issue where some crafting missions could be completed by other means
• Fixed issue where percentages in category progress bars were rounded up, causing the UI to incorrectly indicate that a threshold had been met
  • Percentages now include one decimal number
• Fixed some inaccurate mission descriptions

UI fixes:

• Fixed issue where speech bubbles could obscure important UI elements. The display priority now functions correctly, in this order:
  • Player's own nametag
  • Selected nametags
  • Nametags with an icon
  • Spellcasting bars
  • Speech bubbles
  • Other nametags
• Fixed issue where mount healthbars and spellcasting bars could display incorrectly when other spells were cast nearby
• Fixed issue where the Journey Back ability could not be used after closing the notification pop-up with the ESC key
• Fixed issue where opening the Destiny Board or World Map with the Journal Tracker UI open would cause the tracker to display as empty
• [MOBILE] Fixed issue where mail notifications would appear during the tutorial despite the mail menu being inaccessible

Other fixes:

• Fixed various mob spawning issues in Randomized Dungeons:
  • Fixed issue where boss encounters could spawn twice
  • Fixed issue where elite mobs could spawn in solo dungeons
  • Fixed issue where veteran mobs could spawn in groups in solo dungeons
  • Fixed issue where multiple groups of mobs could spawn at once
• Fixed issue where cooldown reduction buffs could sometimes cause longer than intended cooldowns for the Crystal Reaper, Panther Shape, and Imp Shape
• Fixed issue where Territory Activity Chest shield visual states would not change when standing next to them
• Fixed issue where Victory Emotes would activate if a player used the ‘/die’ command when ‘also trigger on knockdown’ was enabled
• Various additional graphical, animation, terrain, audio, UI, and localization fixes

This series follows writer Will Borger as he joins the AlbionTV crew on his very own Path to Glory. In this, the second installment, he finds his calling in an unfamiliar weapon. (Read part one here.)

By Will Borger



Everything clicked once I could start dropping nukes.

I wrapped my last Zero to Hero a couple of days ago, and I’m still thinking about the journey. But that’s not the subject of this write-up. You’ll hear from me one more time in a couple weeks, after the whole thing has marinated a bit. Right now, dear readers, I’d like to catch you up on what’s happened since you last heard from me in… May. Whoops. Time and tide, and all that.

Last time on Zero to Hero, we were at rock bottom. We were losing a lot, I didn’t know what I was doing, we were trying to find the right build… It was a lot. But as I said in May, I didn’t expect to stay at rock bottom forever.



Sometimes, the fix you need comes from somewhere you don’t expect. In this case, though, it was someone. I had no shortage of expert advice - I was playing with Lewpac, Bogul, Shozen, and Tazzik, after all - but the suggestion that changed my ever-lovin’ Albion life came from Meletriss, who, after one show was over, suggested I try out Lightcaller. I had no idea what a Lightcaller was, but I did know that Great Curse staff wasn’t working for me. As the old saying goes, I’ll try anything once.

When I play a game, one of two things tends to happen: I either find my character/class/weapon almost immediately and stick with it forever, or I fumble around for a while until something clicks. With Albion, there was a lot of fumbling. We started with a Longbow, moved to a regular Bow, tried out the Great Curse Staff, and, eventually, settled on the Lightcaller. But I never would have gotten there without Meletriss. We only spoke a few times during my run on AlbionTV, but she changed the trajectory of the show with one simple suggestion. Funny how that works out. Thanks, Mel.



Lightcaller wasn’t a plug-in and play, either. The early games were… rough. You wanna see someone do 10,000 damage on a Lightcaller? Watch my early games. I wasn’t managing my stacks well, using my auto-attacks to set up my Q, switching at the right times, landing my Ws, you name it. You want a primer on how not to play Lightcaller? Watch my first few games.

But it’s amazing what a couple of examples can do. One day, after he was tired of me doing less damage on Lightcaller than his cat did while walking across his keyboard, Lewpac had me watch him play a couple games with the Lightcaller. We went over positioning, using the auto-attacks to set up the Q, when to switch, using defensives, and so much more. And seeing it in action, I finally understood.



I’ve said it before: I’m a fighting game player, and playing that genre taught me how I improve: practice. I’m decent at games when I first pick them up, but if I actually want to improve, I have to put in the time, watch replays, see what the pros do, and so on. I have a lot of respect for people who can pick something up and immediately be good at it. But that’s never been me.

Bird had the thing all the other things I’d tried since the Bow had lacked: it was fun. So I knew what I needed to do. Stick with the bird.

And slowly but surely, the numbers started to go up. 15,000 damage. Then 20,000. And by the time my last show happened, 30,000, pretty reliably. That’s a story for the final piece, though.



Picking one build and sticking with it unlocked Albion’s arena for me. Once I knew and liked what I was doing each game, it became easier to form a stable gameplan, and once I had that, I had to think less about what I needed to be doing, and more about what the other team was doing, and how I could coordinate with my team to beat it.

I’ll stop there for now. I want to save some stuff for a couple weeks from now, and I want to spend a little more time in Albion before I give my final thoughts. But in my experience, every competitive game has the one thing that unlocks it for you, whether it’s a weapon, character, class, or something else entirely. For me, it was the Lightcaller Staff. And that’s when I finally understood Albion, and when everything started to click. All hail the pigeon.

Stay tuned for the final piece in this series, and watch Will’s journey unfold live on AlbionTV every Saturday at 19 UTC!