August 18, 2026

• Named NPCs are guaranteed spawns. No placeholder cycle to work through.
• Every named has a guaranteed drop, a common or rare item with stat bonuses. Some are old favourites, many are new, and some carry new effects you can either use as they are or turn into exaltations.
• All named are now flagged as rare creatures, which vastly increases their chance of dropping motes of potential. That is the part that changes how worthwhile a clear is.
• The castle residents are less aggressive in daylight and will not react from extreme range any more.
• At night they still show their true forms, and the notes are explicit that it stays a harrowing trip after dark.

This is the third dungeon in three patches. Launch cleared placeholders out of The Hole, Lower Guk, Nagafen's Lair, Splitpaw, the Warrens and Mistmoore; August 4 did Upper Guk's named; this goes further than either.

• The wasps and bees of Plane of Sky do less damage while charmed. The notes phrase it as their stingers being filed down.
• Shimmering Meteors are tuned down while charmed in the same way.
• Murderbee is easier in solo instances, which is a separate change and a welcome one.
• Non-raid boss NPCs cannot cast charm if they already have a pet.
• NPCs no longer keep attacking each other after charm fades, and getting charmed then shrunk by the pet scaling option is fixed.

This lands on the build. The Plane of Sky run leans on a charmed pet doing a large share of the damage, and I said in Crushing Some Bones that I expected charm to get nerfed. It did not happen in the first patch. It has started happening here.

• Grouping now gives a small experience bonus, which the notes describe as the intended behaviour rather than a new feature.
• It has been a live complaint since launch, with people comparing per kill experience in a group against soloing.
• The kill rate was always the better argument, since a group kills far faster and banks far more motes. A bonus on top removes the debate.

• UI scaling now runs 0.75x to 4.00x in 0.25 increments, rather than whole steps.
• The cursor scales separately, with its own factor in Options.
• You can use the operating system cursor instead of the in-game one, via a new toggle.
• Scaling now applies before character select, so the loading screen scales too, and the server selection screen has it as well.
• Windows keep their relative position and stay on screen when you resize or rescale, and context menus are kept fully on screen including the spell list on an empty gem.
• Font scaling uses dynamic re-rasterisation, and the map window is more compatible with scaling generally.
• A fresh install now detects a scaling value and uses it automatically.
• Spell search in the Actions window covers many more fields, and a new Options toggle opens the Actions window on the Spells tab instead of the spellbook.
• A batch of new maps arrived for the Maps window.

• Lifebite is new, a lifetap at level 10 for Shadowknights and level 8 for Necromancers. It is on the autogrant list for both and stocked at the appropriate vendors.
• Lifespike moves from 8 to 5 for Shadowknights.
• Targeted area lull spells such as Harmony now work on NPCs you have not engaged. That is the split pull working the way you always assumed it did.
• Mounts from AAs only grant mount speed when you are a valid class for the AA.
• Contact procs like Vampiric Embrace now range check properly against NPCs with large hit boxes.
• The Stop Action keybind no longer fires a 5 to 10 second recovery cooldown when a Bard is in the loadout.

• Cleave not working with one-handed blunt weapons is listed as fixed. It was also listed as fixed in the August 4 notes.
• Beastlord Warders got a substantial melee increase.
• Raid invites failing in certain circumstances is fixed.
• Non-attackable NPCs can no longer multiclass, and corpses no longer keep walking after death.
• Classic two-handed blunt animations are restored.
• Riposting no longer grants skillups in skills you have not used.
• Stun messaging is clearer, distinguishing becoming immune from already being immune.
• Fear and charm in Plane of Fear and beyond got toned down, in the notes' own words, from being unable to approach the game again for 24 hours.
• Two audio fixes: zone music no longer skips tracks when environmental sounds are disabled, and a track can resume without first coming to a full stop.

• Snow no longer overwrites a zone's precipitation type, so rain falls again. The notes say praise Karana and I am inclined to agree.
• Rain is no longer too small to see.
• Wild animals are friendly to Kerran, the way they already were to Rangers and Druids.
• Runnyeye monsters stop patrolling through walls.
• Seplawishinl Bladeblight in the Ocean of Tears has a considerably shorter respawn.
• High level named in Kedge Keep no longer take excessively long to respawn.

• Player illusions can no longer be used as pet illusions. Guise of the Deceiver and Amulet of Necropotence get a Conversion button instead, turning them into a pet illusion version.
• Bloodmoon gains Improved Vampirism III as a focus effect.
• The four Steed AAs summon bridles rather than the mount directly.
• Copper Band gets +1 AC, and Armor Ornamentation Tokens work when made from cloth armour.
• Player pets stop equipping secondary-only items while holding a two-hander.
• The Soldier's Brooch quest in Rathe Mountains now lets you choose your reward.
• Potential of the Void tasks are handed out on entering a raid instance, and the others are cleared from your task list at the same time.