Albion Online’s Dragonfire Update Adds Dragons, a 20-Player Raid, and More on August 31

Albion Online will receive the Dragonfire update on August 31, bringing dragons to the open world, a new floating-island region, and the game’s most demanding dedicated PvE encounter yet. Sandbox Interactive has also made wide-ranging combat, Destiny Board, Armory, guild, and interface changes in the official Steam changelog.

The centerpiece is the Ancient Lands, a realm of floating islands connected by Leygates. Players will enter through open-world portals, fight Ashborn enemies and Drakes, complete local quests, and collect Leygate Keystones to open routes toward deeper areas.

Risk depends on the entrance. Royal Continent portals lead to partial-loot orange-zone Ancient Lands, where only inventory is dropped on death, while portals in the Outlands and Roads of Avalon lead to full-loot versions. The region uses a 1200 Item Power soft cap, with different scaling in orange and black zones.

Portals support solo players and groups of different sizes. Small entrances accommodate 1 to 5 players, medium entrances support 5 to 7, and large portals support 15 to 20. Groups enter separate spawn locations and remain anonymous to other parties, adding another layer of uncertainty to every trip.

Each visit begins with a local quest and a global quest. Clearing islands grants Leygate Keystones, while completing the global objective eventually opens the central island and its Fire Drake encounter. Spirit Essence rewards players with more Fame and increased damage and defense against mobs, but the buff disappears when a party leaves the Ancient Lands.

Azaryon Awaits Inside the Dragon Sanctuary

The Dragon Sanctuary is built for raids of up to 20 players. Groups will need a Spirit Waystone, which can be assembled from 10 Waystone Fragments, dropped by Fire Drakes or Dragons, or traded through other players and the Marketplace. Waystones range from Tier 6 to Tier 8.4 and determine the tier of the sanctuary portal.

Inside, parties will face Ashborn enemies, Drakes, traps, Maeve the Unfettered Oracle, and finally Azaryon, the Fire Dragon. There is no Item Power cap in the sanctuary, so raids can bring their strongest PvE equipment. Defeating Azaryon can grant a rare Fire Drake Egg, while every victorious player receives a Lingering Dragon Spirit that lasts for seven days and makes later sanctuary runs harder.

Dragons will also attack the Royal Continent and the Outlands. Royal Continent attacks will be announced shortly before they begin, while Outlands attacks will offer more warning so guilds can prepare and contest the objective. Players who contribute to defeating a dragon receive loot from the reward chest, and successful Outlands defenses also grant Might and Favor.

Dragonfire Adds New Gear, Food, and Progression

Draconic Insight is a new form of Standing earned through Dragon Statues, Ancient Altars, and victories over Drakes and Dragons. Progress unlocks the Ancient Mystic Vanity Set, an Avatar, and an Avatar Ring.

Fire Dragon Scales go toward the Dragonslayer Armor set. The jacket creates a protective zone that boosts damage output and cooldown recovery, the hood reveals invisible enemies and slows their cooldown recovery, and the shoes build movement speed stacks that can refund weapon cooldowns.

The rare Firewing Drake mount can be raised from an Egg in a Kennel, although it must be fed other mounts before it is ready to ride. It ignores forced movement, glides without being interrupted by damage, resists roots and slows while gliding, and can breathe fire that deals damage over time.

Dragonfire also adds Drake Egg Biscuits, Lifeward Potions, and Leyfin Omelettes. The biscuits provide Combat and Gathering Fame for 25 hours without replacing combat food buffs. Lifeward Potions protect nearby allies from a fatal blow and revive them the first time they would be defeated. Leyfin fish from the Ancient Lands are used in omelettes that reduce cast time, reduce cooldowns, and improve healing casts.

New Albion Journal missions cover Creatures, Exploration, and PvE. Guilds receive two new Guild Might Levels tied to the Ancient Lands and Dragon encounters, while Ancient Memories add Lore Fragments that record the history of Dragons and their connection to Albion.

Combat, Crafting, and Interface Changes

Outside the new content, the update reduces the maximum health and damage debuffs that can be applied against mobs. Several weapons and abilities have been adjusted around those new limits, including Axes, Frost Staffs, Maces, Nature Staffs, Quarterstaffs, Shapeshifter Staffs, War Gloves, helmets, armors, and mounts.

Resilience Penetration has been removed from a long list of weapons and transformations as a seasonal test. Sandbox Interactive said the change is meant to move large-scale combat away from Plate melee damage and create room for different compositions.

Leather Armor and potion crafting bonuses have been redistributed on the Destiny Board. Specialization nodes are now visually combined, the Armory gains a second Metrics page with average-per-hour performance data, and players can compare Average Item Power directly from equipment lists.

Guild tools, party communication, target markers, loadouts, rankings, and the HUD Tracker also receive updates. The changelog includes fixes for Xbox text entry, mobile spell targeting, controller scrolling, Steam Deck graphics settings, and several other interface and gameplay issues.

Albion Online Dragonfire Patch Notes

Dragonfire’s largest changes affect the Ancient Lands, the Dragon Sanctuary, open-world Dragon Attacks, and the new reward loop. The detailed combat balance and fix notes are reproduced below in their original order.

Ancient Lands

Dragonfire unveils a previously undiscovered realm: the Ancient Lands. This domain comprises numerous floating islands suspended over Albion, linked by a network of Leygates. Upon arrival, adventurers will face Ashborn mobs, brand-new creatures, and rival parties. Activating Leygates allows deeper exploration into the territory, where even more significant challenges and rewards await those who venture furthest.

Entering the Ancient Lands

• On the Royal Continent, portals take you to partial-loot, orange-zone Ancient Lands where only inventory is dropped on death; in the Outlands and Roads of Avalon, portals take you to full-loot Ancient Lands
  • The Ancient Lands have a 1200 IP soft cap
  • This soft cap scales differently in full-loot and partial-loot Ancient Lands
    • Orange zone: 20%
    • Black zone: 35%
• Portals are displayed on the Minimap and Region Map, as well as the World Map within a certain range
• There are different portals available for different group sizes:
  • Small: 1-5 players
  • Medium: 5-7 players
  • Large: 15-20 players
• The number of players entering a portal determines which matchmaking pool you join:
  • Small:
    • Solo players face other solo players
    • Groups of 2-3 players are matched against other groups of 2-3
    • Groups of 4-5 players are matched against other groups of 4-5
  • Medium: Groups of 5-7 players are matched against other groups of 5-7
  • Large: Groups of 15-20 players are matched against other groups of 15-20
• Once a portal appears, it is initially locked, and can be entered after a set amount of time:
  • Small: 30 minutes
  • Medium: 60 minutes
  • Large: 180 minutes
• After opening, portals remain accessible for a duration of three minutes
• To enter a portal, every party member must declare themselves ready and channel for a short time
  • Finishing the channel grants players temporary invulnerability to damage
  • Once all players have channeled, the party leader decides exactly when the party enters
• Within the Ancient Lands, parties are anonymous to one another; you can only see the name of your fellow party members
  • Each group arrives at a separate spawn location

Within the Ancient Lands

When you arrive in the Ancient Lands, you’ll appear on one of the outer islands, and you’ll see two quests in your HUD Tracker:

• A local quest, tied to the island you are currently exploring
• A global quest, which culminates in unlocking the final encounter

Defeating the enemies on an island completes its local quest, rewarding you with a Leygate Keystone:

• Leygate Keystones are used to activate the Leygates that connect the various islands of the Ancient Lands
• These can be used on any Leygate in the Ancient Lands
• Each island has several Leygates which connect to different islands
• Keystones can be removed from an active Leygate, allowing you to carry them elsewhere and activate a different route
• Activated Leygates are displayed on the Region Map, with newly activated connections briefly highlighted

As you explore, you will encounter four Drakes on certain islands, marked on both the Minimap and Region Map. You must complete each of these islands’ quests to complete the global quest.

• Once the global quest has been completed, the central island unlocks after a short delay, granting access to the Ancient Lands’ final boss: the Fire Drake
• Defeating the Fire Drake awards a large amount of loot and opens a portal back to the open-world region from which you entered

If you wish to leave before completing the encounter, any entry portal found around the outer islands can be used. These return you to your original open-world region.

Spirit Essence

Spirit Essence is a stackable buff that can only be acquired and used within the Ancient Lands.

• Each stack increases Fame earned and grants increased damage and defense against mobs
• Spirit Essence can be obtained in several ways:
  • Interacting with Dragon Statues, which grant Spirit Essence to you and your party
  • Defeating mobs, which have a chance to award Spirit Essence to your party
    • Certain enemies, such as Drakes, always grant Spirit Essence
  • Defeating players in PvP
    • If you are knocked down in PvP, 50% of your current Spirit Essence is transferred to the opposing group, while the remainder is lost
• Spirit Essence is lost when you leave the Ancient Lands

Revive

In both partial-loot and full-loot Ancient Lands, players who are knocked down in PvP enter a Bleedout state instead of dying immediately. While in Bleedout, players can be revived by allies before a timer expires.

• A bar displayed on-screen indicates the amount of time in which a revival is possible
• Moving away from your downed party member causes this timer to deplete more quickly
• If no allies remain to perform a revival, Bleedout ends in a short time
• Revived players return with a stacking 10% maximum Health debuff
  • This effect lasts only while inside the Ancient Lands

Ancient Altars

Ancient Altars can be found throughout the Ancient Lands, with a guaranteed Altar on the central island and additional Altars spawning on smaller islands adjacent to the spawn location.

• Ancient Bones, obtained from Drakes and sometimes chests, can be offered at Ancient Altars to earn Draconic Insight, Fame, and temporary Fame bonuses
  • Small sacrifices grant a 10% Fame bonus for one hour, while large sacrifices grant a 20% Fame bonus for two hours
  • Nearby allies also receive rewards when a ritual is completed
• See ‘New Rewards’ section below for more information on Draconic Insight and its associated rewards

Dragon Sanctuary

The Dragon Sanctuary is Albion’s most challenging dedicated PvE encounter to date, built for raids of up to 20 players. Fight through a dangerous Ashborn stronghold, overcome powerful high-level bosses, and ultimately face Azaryon, the Fire Dragon.

Access

• To enter the Dragon Sanctuary, you need a Spirit Waystone
• Spirit Waystones can be obtained by:
  • Collecting 10 Waystone Fragments in the Ancient Lands and combining them at the Artifact Foundry
  • Receiving a complete one as a drop from Fire Drakes or Dragons
  • Buying either Waystones or their fragments from other players or on the Marketplace, as both are tradable
• Spirit Waystones range from Tier 6 to Tier 8.4
  • These determine the tier of the Dragon Sanctuary they open
• Using a Spirit Waystone in an open-world region of the corresponding tier creates a portal to a Dragon Sanctuary
• Each Dragon Sanctuary can be entered by a single raid of up to 20 players

The Dragon Sanctuary

The Dragon Sanctuary contains new Ashborn enemies, powerful Drakes, deadly traps, and increasingly demanding PvE encounters. There is no Item Power cap, allowing groups to bring their strongest PvE gear and optimized compositions.

Guarding the path to the Dragon Sanctuary’s heart is Maeve, the Unfettered Oracle. As the leader of the Ashborn, this formidable high-level encounter serves as the ultimate test for your party before the raid’s final boss: Azaryon, the Fire Dragon.

Azaryon, the Fire Dragon

Awaiting at the end of the Dragon Sanctuary is Azaryon, Albion’s most challenging raid boss to date.

Designed for up to twenty players, the encounter demands coordination, execution, and teamwork across multiple phases featuring devastating attacks and unique mechanics. Players capable of defeating Azaryon can earn immense rewards, including a rare Drake Egg (see ‘New Rewards’ below).

If your party defeats Azaryon, every member will receive a Lingering Dragon Spirit, lasting for seven days. Each Lingering Dragon Spirit makes completing the Dragon Sanctuary significantly more difficult, making repeat attempts a considerable challenge.

Dragon Attacks

Dragons also launch attacks across both the Royal Continent and the Outlands, creating large-scale, open-world encounters that any player can join.

• On the Royal Continent, attacks are announced only shortly beforehand to encourage spontaneous encounters
• In the Outlands, they are announced much earlier, allowing groups to prepare and contest the objective

As the dragon approaches, its roar echoes across the region and its shadow sweeps overhead before it descends in a fiery landing, scorching the surrounding area and challenging everyone nearby.

Reduce the dragon’s health until it is forced to retreat. As it flees, it leaves behind a reward chest containing loot for every player who contributed to the fight, whether playing solo or as part of a group. In the Outlands, successfully repelling a Dragon Attack also awards Might and Favor, making these encounters valuable Guild Season objectives.

New Rewards

Dragonfire introduces a host of new challenges and rewards, from powerful equipment and consumables to exclusive cosmetics.

Draconic Insight

The more you encounter Dragons and explore the Ancient Lands, the more you learn about them. Draconic Insight is a new form of Standing which can be increased through the following activities:

• Interacting with Dragon Statues
• Sacrificing Bones to an Ancient Altar
• Defeating Drakes and Dragons

Increasing Draconic Insight unlocks brand-new rewards, including the Ancient Mystic Vanity Set, Avatar, and Avatar Ring.

Dragon Armor

Fire Dragon Scales can be obtained by defeating Drakes and Dragons, and used to craft the new Dragonslayer Armor set. Each piece grants a unique ability:

• Dragonslayer Jacket: Creates a protective zone that grants immunity to enemies outside it while increasing your damage output and cooldown recovery
• Dragonslayer Hood: Launches a flare that reveals invisible enemies and slows their cooldown recovery
• Dragonslayer Shoes: Build up stacks of movement speed that can be consumed to instantly refund your weapon cooldowns

Drake Mount

Defeating Azaryon, the Fire Dragon, offers a rare chance to obtain a Fire Drake Egg. These can be raised in a Kennel into a Firewing Drake, but be warned: these creatures have quite the appetite, and you’ll need to feed it other mounts before it’s ready to ride.

• The Firewing Drake is immune to forced movement effects
• Rather than entering a traditional gallop, the Firewing Drake glides across Albion
  • While gliding, it is immune to roots and slows
  • Unlike a normal gallop, taking damage will not interrupt its glide
    • Only stuns can end the effect
• The Firewing Drake can also unleash a scorching breath of fire, dealing damage over time to enemies caught in its path

New Consumables

Drake Eggs can also serve a rather different purpose in the kitchen:

• Drake Egg Biscuits: Increases Combat and Gathering Fame for 25 hours
  • This bonus does not replace or remove combat food buffs, allowing it to be used alongside regular combat food

Drakes and Dragons can also drop Dragon Blood, a rare crafting material used to create a powerful new potion:

• Lifeward Potion: Protects nearby allies from a fatal blow, reviving them the first time they would be defeated

The Ancient Lands are also home to a previously unknown type of fish. These Leyfin fish can be used to cook a new dish:

• Leyfin Omelettes: Provides cast speed reduction, cooldown reduction, and a healing cast bonus

New Albion Journal Missions

Dragonfire brings new missions in the Creatures, Exploration, and PvE categories. These focus on hunting Drakes and Dragons, exploring the Ancient Lands, and raiding the Dragon Sanctuary.

New Guild Might Levels

Guild members can now earn Might and Season Points through two new Guild Might Levels, one focused on the Ancient Lands and one on Dragon encounters.

Ancient Memories

New Lore Fragments can be found throughout the Ancient Lands, uncovering the history of Dragons and their connection to Albion.

• Each Ancient Memory is permanently recorded in a new Lore category in the Albion Journal, where you’ll also find hints to help locate those you have yet to discover
• Lore Fragments that were in the Exploration category have been moved to the Lore category

Destiny Board Crafting Bonuses

Leather Armor

With the addition of the new Dragonslayer Armor items in the leather category, Focus Cost Efficiency and Quality bonuses have been adjusted for all Leather Armor items in order to keep the total available crafting bonuses equal across all armor types.

• Focus Cost Efficiency to all Leather Armors/Heads/Shoes per level:
  • 15 → 12.5
• Quality Bonus to all Leather Armors/Heads/Shoes per level:
  • 0.375 → 0.3125

Potions

With the addition of the new Lifeward Potion in this update, we have also looked at Focus Cost Efficiency bonuses for potions. Since certain potions require expensive artifact ingredients, we have decided to weight Focus Cost Efficiency bonuses away from these and towards those which do not require more specialized ingredients. In doing so, the total alchemy bonuses will be more fairly distributed between base potions and more specialized potions.

We chose this specific approach as it benefits the majority of crafters, and keeps alchemy competitive with cooking as the majority of the bonus comes from simple ingredients. This also now more closely mirrors the Focus Cost distribution for weapons and armor, where base items provide more of the overall bonus due to their accessible reagent costs.

The Lifeward Potion is grouped with those which provide less Focus Cost Efficiency bonuses.

• Heal Brewer, Energy Brewer, Gigantify Brewer, Resistance Brewer, Sticky Brewer, Poison Brewer, Invisibility Brewer, and Bootlegger
  • Focus Cost Efficiency group bonus per level: 18 → 22.5
• Calming Brewer, Cleansing Brewer, Acid Brewer, Berserk Brewer, Hellfire Brewer, Gathering Brewer, Tornado Brewer, and Lifeward Brewer:
  • Focus Cost Efficiency group bonus per level: 18 → 11.25

Destiny Board Improvements

To improve visual clarity, specialization nodes on the Destiny Board with the same parent node have been combined into one. This does not change the behavior of specializations in the game, but visually simplifies the Destiny Board.

• To keep a sense of accomplishment, individual specializations are represented by badges encircling the combined specialization node
  • Individual specializations can be previewed by hovering over the combined specialization node
  • Each badge visually reflects its specialization level
• Opening a specialization node shows a list of all specializations inside
  • Tracking in the HUD Tracker and activating Quick Learn for the specializations can be toggled for both individual specializations or all at once
• Specialization details and recommended builds have been moved to the new Details tab within the Respec UI in the combined specialization node

Armory Improvements

The Armory’s Metrics section now includes a second page with a detailed breakdown of a build’s performance, making it easier to evaluate and compare them.

• This view displays average per-hour statistics, including damage dealt, healing done, kills, deaths, and other combat metrics, alongside each build’s Average Item Power
• Players who want to compare builds at a glance can also enable a new option to display Average Item Power directly in the Armory’s equipment list

UI Changes

• Added a new Ping chat channel for ping messages
  • The Ping channel has been added by default to the General, Combat, and Social chat tabs
• Party chat messages now appear as speech bubbles, visible only to members of your party
• All party members can now place target markers on allies, enemies, and mobs
  • Marker placements are announced in party chat, making it easy to see who assigned each marker
• The list of Guild Members can now be filtered by role
  • The export button also takes filtering into account
• Guild leadership can now write internal mails to their entire membership
  • Members possessing the ‘Access Guild Mail’ permission can now target specific ranks when sending messages
  • Every individual within the designated rank will receive the correspondence
• Loadout creation and editing now includes an ‘All’ column, allowing you to adjust quality and enchantment preferences for every item at once
• The HUD Tracker can now automatically expand when important quest objectives become available
• Rankings have been expanded with new leaderboards for Crafting Fame, Ancient Lands PvE and PvP Fame, and Dragon Sanctuary PvE Fame
• A new Crystal League information panel has been added to the Arena UI, making it easier to discover and learn about the Crystal League

Other Changes

• Resource Guardians now spawn in Tier 6+ regions in the Outlands, instead of around resource hotspots
  • A Guardian only spawns in a biome in which its resource is present
  • Resource Guardians spawn without any preannouncement and are neither shown on the Region or the World Map
• Furniture on Player and Guild Islands can now be placed directly next to each other
  • If you become trapped, remember that you can use Journey Back for free while mounted
  • If you’re unmounted, you can use your mount-slot ability to teleport out of the island, similar to leaving a Randomized Dungeon
    • This also works while overweight
• Focus Fire Protection for mobs has been reworked to scale more smoothly if a large numbers of players attack the same target
  • This allows powerful mobs, including Dragon Attacks, to remain challenging for large groups without disproportionately increasing their strength against smaller groups
• The aggression of Resource and Hide mobs has been reduced
  • More creatures are now passive, and aggressive mobs are less likely to engage players from a distance
• After being knocked down for more than 30 seconds in Blue and Yellow Zone open-world regions, you can now choose to respawn at the nearest region entrance
  • This option is unavailable for players with Outlaw status, in Faction Warfare combat, or while inside an open-PvP zone
• The target selection circle is now red, making it easier to distinguish selected targets from enemy spell effect areas
• Animal growth times have been standardized across player islands and the Outlands
• [MOBILE] Ground-targeted and auto-targeted spells can now automatically select the previewed target when no target is currently selected

Combat Balance Changes

Mob Debuff Changes

After observing both elite and standard groups in PvE, the performance gap between groups that consistently reach the maximum debuff caps and those that only apply part of those debuffs has become too wide. The debuff caps applied to players and PvE enemies have therefore been decoupled.

Adjusting these caps provides a healthier baseline for balancing PvE encounters, without excessively punishing standard groups or allowing highly optimized groups to trivialize encounters. Paired with additional changes to specific spells, this should also give groups more flexibility in how they reach the new caps.

• Maximum Health decrease vs. mobs: 50% → 25%
• Maximum damage decrease vs. mobs: 80% → 50%

Axes

Axes have become much stronger in small-scale combat following the recent buff to Adrenaline Boost. Its behavior has now been refined to give opponents more counterplay.

• Adrenaline Boost (all Axes)
  • Now expires if the caster does not directly damage an enemy every 3s

Fire Staffs

Flame Blast has been too powerful as a ganking tool. Its movement speed buff for allies has therefore been removed, while retaining the mobility granted when self-casting.

• Flame Blast (all Fire Staffs)
  • No longer grants move speed to other allies

Frost Staffs

Avalanche has received increased damage, while its knockback against mobs has been adjusted to improve its performance in solo PvE.

• Avalanche (Hoarfrost Staff)
  • Snowball rolling damage: 120 → 160
  • Knockback vs. mobs: 10m → 5m
  • Max. air time vs. mobs: 0.8 → 1.25

Frost Lance has received its missing AoE Escalation, along with several other spells listed below. Its damage has also been reduced to limit its effectiveness as a very long-range poke tool with limited counterplay.

• Frost Lance (all Frost Staffs)
  • Damage: 148 → 134

Following its recent buffs, Freezing Wind has become a top performer in solo PvP. While the instant effect has proven more effective than the previous version, its root duration has been reduced and its hitbox has been significantly adjusted to give opponents more room for counterplay.

• Freezing Wind (Frost Staff)
  • Hitbox area now grows over 0.4s
  • Total hitbox duration: 2s → 0.6s
  • Root duration: 2.5s → 2s

Maces

Blessed Aurora’s healing on auto-attacks has been increased to encourage a new Oathkeepers playstyle in smaller-scale PvP, focusing less on the shield’s immediate effects and more on maximizing auto-attack uptime.

• Blessed Aurora (Oathkeepers)
  • Healing on auto-attack: 30 → 66

Gravitas has remained unpopular for some time. With more weapons and builds in modern Albion relying on blinks and dashes, the Morning Star’s root has become less effective. While the weapon remains a candidate for a larger rework in the future, its cooldowns have now been improved to help it better keep pace with competing options.

• Gravitas (Morning Star)
  • Cooldown: 30s → 20s
  • Recast cooldown: 40s → 30s
  • Cooldown scaling per 100 IP: -1s → -0.5s

Following the reduction to the maximum damage decrease that can be applied to mobs, single-source, damage-decreasing abilities have also been adjusted to better fit the new cap.

• Shrinking Curse (Incubus Mace)
  • Damage decrease debuff vs. mobs: 40% → 25%

Nature Staffs

Rampant Staff has received targeting and indicator adjustments to make Spirit Animal easier to use. Its hitbox now begins slightly behind the cast position, while its cast range has been increased to offset the resulting loss in maximum forward reach.

• Spirit Animal (Rampant Staff)
  • Hitbox now starts 3m behind the cast position
  • Cast range: 12m → 15m

Druidic Staff has fallen out of the group PvP meta. To give it more power and flexibility, Spiritual Seed can now be recast a third time, at the cost of an additional cooldown penalty.

• Spiritual Seed (Druidic Staff)
  • Can now be recast a third time
  • Cooldown per recast:
    • 1st: 20s
    • 2nd: 20s
    • 3rd: 30s
  • Stand time on cast: 0.4s → 0.25s

Quarterstaffs

Following the reduction to the maximum damage decrease that can be applied to mobs, single-source, damage-decreasing abilities have also been adjusted to better fit the new cap.

• Fatal Blade (Black Monk Staff)
  • Damage decrease debuff per tick vs. mobs: 10% → 8% (total: 30% → 24%)
• Forceful Swing (all Quarterstaffs)
  • Damage decrease debuff vs. mobs: 50% → 20%

Shapeshifter Staffs

The Panther transformation’s auto-attack passive has received increased damage to encourage and better reward fighting while transformed.

• Infected Scrapes (Prowling Staff)
  • Damage per tick: 7 → 8 (Max. damage per tick: 35 → 40)

The common Prowling Staff gameplay pattern of fishing for crowd control while in Plate Armor, then transforming to quickly use all Panther abilities before transforming back, offers opponents too little opportunity for counterplay against the less durable Panther form. To address this, Sinister Swipes’ cooldown with Shapeshifter Charges has been further increased.

• Sinister Swipes (Prowling Staff)
  • Cooldown with charges: 0.8s → 1.5s

War Gloves

Dragon Leap’s recast window has been shortened to reduce accidental early casts of Dragon Punch, which would otherwise trigger the spell’s longer cooldown.

• Dragon Leap (all War Gloves)
  • Recast time window: 2s → 1.5s
  • Cooldown: 0s → 0.5s

Helmets

Following the reduction to the maximum damage decrease that can be applied to mobs, single-source, damage-decreasing abilities have also been adjusted to better fit the new cap.

• Howl (Mercenary Hood)
  • Damage decrease debuff vs. mobs: 30% → 20%

Armors

Following the reduction to the maximum damage decrease that can be applied to mobs, single-source, damage-decreasing abilities have also been adjusted to better fit the new cap.

• Enfeeble Aura (Guardian Armor)
  • Damage decrease debuff vs. mobs: 60% → 25%

Mounts

Intimidating Aura has been weakened to reduce the impact of Grizzly Bears moving through enemy groups and disrupting engagements while remaining difficult to remove, without reducing the mount’s durability or transport endurance.

• Intimidating Aura (Grizzly Bear)
  • Damage decrease debuff: 70% → 40%

Resilience Penetration

For the upcoming season, all Resilience Penetration has been set to zero as a seasonal test. The goal is to shift the meta more strongly away from Plate melee DPS and create space for players to rediscover and experiment with different compositions.

Resilience Penetration is a very powerful stat that was originally introduced to compensate for the inherent risk of melee weapons having less range, particularly in large-scale PvP. However, modern Albion offers significantly more mobility across weapon lines, while player positioning and engagement strategies have also evolved.

This season will therefore serve as a test of how ZvZ combat develops without Resilience Penetration. The results will be closely observed, and further adjustments may follow based on how the meta develops.

Resilience Penetration has been removed from the following weapons and spells:

• Astral Staff (Starfall)
  • 20% → 0%
• Broadsword
  • 30% → 0%
• Claymore
  • 30% → 0%
• Dual Swords
  • 25% → 0%
• Clarent Blade
  • 5% → 0%
• Carving Sword
  • 25% → 0%
• Galatine Pair
  • 20% → 0%
• Kingmaker
  • 20% → 0%
• Infinity Blade
  • 15% → 0%
• Battleaxe
  • 20% → 0%
• Greataxe
  • 20% → 0%
• Halberd
  • 15% → 0%
• Carrioncaller
  • 15% → 0%
• Infernal Scythe
  • 15% → 0%
• Bear Paws
  • 20% → 0%
• Realmbreaker
  • 15% → 0%
• Crystal Reaper
  • 15% → 0%
• Mace
  • 10% → 0%
• Heavy Mace
  • 10% → 0%
• Morning Star
  • 10% → 0%
• Bedrock Mace
  • 10% → 0%
• Incubus Mace
  • 10% → 0%
• Camlann Mace
  • 10% → 0%
• Oathkeepers
  • 10% → 0%
• Dreadstorm Monarch
  • 10% → 0%
• Hammer
  • 10% → 0%
• Polehammer
  • 10% → 0%
• Great Hammer
  • 10% → 0%
• Tombhammer
  • 10% → 0%
• Forge Hammers
  • 20% → 0%
• Grovekeeper
  • 10% → 0%
• Hand of Justice
  • 10% → 0%
• Truebolt Hammer
  • 10% → 0%
• Brawler Gloves
  • 25% → 0%
• Battle Bracers
  • 20% → 0%
• Spiked Gauntlets
  • 10% → 0%
• Ursine Maulers
  • 20% → 0%
• Hellfire Hands
  • 10% → 0%
• Ravenstrike Cestus
  • 20% → 0%
• Fists of Avalon
  • 20% → 0%
• Forcepulse Bracers
  • 20% → 0%
• Spear
  • 25% → 0%
• Pike
  • 0% → 0%
• Glaive
  • 30% → 0%
• Heron Spear
  • 10% → 0%
• Spirithunter
  • 5% → 0%
• Trinity Spear
  • 25% → 0%
• Daybreaker
  • 25% → 0%
• Rift Glaive
  • 5% → 0%
• Dagger
  • 40% → 0%
• Dagger Pair
  • 40% → 0%
• Claws
  • 40% → 0%
• Bloodletter
  • 40% → 0%
• Demonfang
  • 25% → 0%
• Deathgivers
  • 40% → 0%
• Bridled Fury
  • 25% → 0%
• Twin Slayers
  • 20% → 0%
• Quarterstaff
  • 10% → 0%
• Iron-Clad Staff
  • 10% → 0%
• Double Bladed Staff
  • 10% → 0%
• Black Monk Stave
  • 10% → 0%
• Soulscythe
  • 10% → 0%
• Staff of Balance
  • 10% → 0%
• Grailseeker
  • 10% → 0%
• Phantom Twinblade
  • 10% → 0%
• Shadow Panther Transformation
  • 40% → 0%
• Spirit Bear Transformation
  • 10% → 0%
• Werewolf Transformation
  • 20% → 0%
• Runestone Golem Transformation
  • 10% → 0%
• Crystal Cobra Transformation
  • 10% → 0%

Fixes

Spell Fixes

• Added missing AoE Escalation to the following spells:
  • Deadly Shot (all Bows): Added to resistance reduction
  • Frost Lance (all Frost Staffs): Added to resistance reduction
  • Fire Wave (all Fire Staffs): Added to initial damage
  • Relentless Assault (Crystal Reaper): Added to damage
  • Force of Nature (Bedrock Mace): Added to damage
  • Positional Drift (all Shapeshifter Staffs): Added to root
  • Impaler (all Spears): Added to slow
  • Frost Shot (all Bows): Added to slow
  • Howl (Mercenary Hood): Added to slow
  • Grasp of the Undead (Tombhammer): Added to stun
  • Rending Rage (all Axes): Added to root
• Merciless Finish (Bridled Fury): Hitbox now disappears much faster (2s → 0.3s)
• Mark of Sacrifice (Hellion Shoes): Spells can no longer be recast during Mark of Sacrifice

UI Fixes

• Fixed issue where player names in speech bubbles could display in the wrong color when using /say chat
• [XBOX] Fixed issue where it was not possible to enter text in several UIs with keyboard connected
• [MOBILE] Fixed issue where number of unclaimed Albion Journal rewards displayed in the main menu would not update correctly
• [CONTROLLER] Fixed issue where right stick scrolling could stop working in menus with multiple scrollable panels
• [STEAM DECK] Fixed issue where several graphics settings were unavailable

Other Fixes

• Fixed issue where players could incorrectly receive Faction Points from Faction Battle Standards
• Fixed issue where Player Navigation could not be used to navigate to Starter Towns
• [MOBILE] Fixed issue where manually targeted ground spells could cast at a nearby auto-target instead of the intended location when ‘Preview Spell Target’ was disabled
• [XBOX] Fixed issue where mouse scrolling was excessively slow
• Various additional controller, graphical, animation, terrain, audio, UI, and localization fixes

Dragonfire is a major new chapter for Albion Online, but the open-world portals and full combat rebalance will shape how players approach both PvE and PvP on August 31. Tell us what you think of the update in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.

Albion Online

Developed by Sandbox Interactive

Albion Online is a free-to-play sandbox MMORPG set in a medieval fantasy world inspired by Arthurian legends. The game uses a classless system where a player's equipped gear determines their abilities and playstyle. Items span eight tiers and are entirely player-crafted, forming a fully player-driven economy. The open world features zones with varying levels of PvP risk, from safe areas to full-loot zones where defeated players lose their equipment. Players can join guilds of up to 300 members to fight over territories and castles in large-scale battles. The game also offers PvE combat and various gathering and crafting activities.

• Genre Role-playing (RPG)
• Platforms Xbox Series X|S, Linux, Android, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS, Mac
• Perspective Bird view / Isometric
• Modes Multiplayer, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
• Release July 17, 2017
• Publisher Sandbox Interactive
• Age Rating

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