Mod 9 Guide

*Please note, the following is property of JayAgeDee. Ghost Rebellion takes no credit for the following content. You may find the original here*

Since the release date for The Maze Engine on Xbox has been announced, it is May 3rd, here are some guidelines of what will come with this new expansion. A full guide will follow shortly before release:

NEW CAMPAIGN

The Maze Engine campaign plays out in a series of story quests (much like in mod 8 with "The Dwarven King") and daily repeatable quests which earn you campaign currency (only one currency in this campaign). The stroy elements are well made, while some of the quests have pleasant surprises and cool gameplay elements.

More importantly the campaign and all its quests are available from level 60-70. All level 60+ characters will now gain entry to Mantol-Derith. The exp rewards are huge, also they give unbound resonance stones again.

Of course it has boons, tasks and everything you would expect from it. It plays out smoothly with a tight linear progress. Nothing fancy, but it works. Last task gives PVP shards (repeatable reward).

NEW GEAR

The collection of Underdark rings will be completed with more stacking and "sudden" rings for several stats (lifesteal or deflect for example).

Castle Never will drop so called "Shattered" items functioning like artifact stones for their respective artifact equipment. You will also drop old T2 equipment as statless transmutes/salvages in CN.

You will also see 3 new enchantments:

* Demonic (drops in CN) which gives power/arpen/crit
* Shadowclad (shards drop in CN) which gives deflect % per damage hit taken, some damage resistance and invis on transcendent
* Dread enchantment (bought in ZEN store bundle with keys) which gives 75% crit severity for encounter powers, some weapon damage over time and some armor shredd on transcendent. HRs, this is for you.

CASTLE NEVER? HYPE HYPE!

Yes. CN is coming back. Cut down to about 30 minutes of T2. It is still fun and has some new mechanics to it.

Other than that, 4 old dungeons will come back as non-epic level only versions: Cloak Tower, Pirate King, Karrundax, The Frozen Heart. Lame.

THE NEW MOUNT SYSTEM

Let's get to the spicy stuff. Mounts will no longer be stored in your inventory, but rather in a character- (NOT ACCOUNT) wide "stable", where you may select 5 mounts as active to gain their Insignia benefits (much like companion active bonuses).

All green+ mounts will now have Insignia slots. Insignias work like enchantments with little stats and setbonuses (here is a list). There is a weak (on green mounts) and a stronger (on rare-legendary mounts) version of every setbonus.

Additionally to Insignias you may now select one mount as "current" (what you wil actuall yuse in game). This current mount can be assigned a Combat Power, Eqip Power and Mount speed. You unlock those by having a mount with the respective speed/power in oyur stable. This basically means, what you use ingame can be purely cosmetic and you can choose equip powers, combat powers and speed from different mounts.

ONE SPEED, COMBAT POWER AND EQIP POWER MAY BE ACTIVE AT A TIME.

All epic+ mounts will now give bonus stats (as equip power), epic less than legendary (epic usually +2000 and legendary +4000).

Insignias can drop from bosses in epic dungeons/skirmishes or from skill notes. They are character bound. Insignias that drop from lockboxes are unbound.

NEW QUEUE SYSTEM

You may now invite players to a so called queue group, entirely independent of your actual party. Demogorgon, Stronghold Siege, Gauntlegrym and Tiamat may be joined with full premade groups now.

IMPROVEMENTS TO CAMPAIGNS

All AD costs have been removed from campaign tasks (exepts the ones for fey blessing and dragon hoard enchantments. Some quests may now give more currency, also there are tasks in some campaigns to craft epic stronghold vouchers, that are worth more coffer points than they cost currencies.

Zone reward gear is now accout bound and scales from level 60-70 (perfect for ALTs now).

IMPROVEMENTS TO STRONGHOLD

* Tiamat: Weekly you may now gain an epic AD strongholds voucher.
* Stronghold Siege: Weekly you may now gain an epic influence voucher.

Professions:

You may now craft crates that function as vouchers for Gems (Jewel crafting), AD (leadership) and surplus equipment (all else except alchemy).

CLASS BALANCES

On PC there were big scale balances announced. So far about ELOL-set, OP and DC and Guardian Fighter.

Though I doubt they will come to xbox with mod 9.

THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR

* Greater marks of Power/Union/Stability will fall in price, since the Thayan lair keys no longer cost AD.
* All epic+ mounts will skyrocket in price.
* Even green (but good looking) ones will increase, since pople might want to ride a parade horse or a pig.

THAT WAS IT. I hope it helps to prepare you and your guild for the upcoming mod. A full guide will follow shortly before release as always.

Stay classy folks! Cheers, jay.