Wea e delighted to share the winners of our cross-realm contest: Shaul (Achaea), Kyrista (Achaea), and Rinata (Aetolia)! Thank you to everyone who participated by spreading the word and joining in. Your support keeps the realms thriving. We will reach out to each winner in-game to arrange prize delivery. We will run another community contest soon, so keep an eye on in-game news and our sites for details! Penned by My hand on the 15th of Lupar, in the year 990 AF.

It started with a spark.

Not just any spark, but a tragedy that evolved into a cataclysmic eruption that caused the eruption of Mount Harae, destroying countless lives throughout its unyielding rampage.

But from that, came hope. Excitement. Potential. Tremors in the following months caused sinkholes to form about the farm of a small valley village named Inbhir Ness.

In the village, a settlement of dwarves, refugees from their underground domain once ravaged by earthquakes and avalanches that forced them to eke a life above ground. Things changed for the worst for this almost forgotten clan, and now was the moment for things to swing in their favour once more.

Amidst the excitement, a Deep Council was rapidly organised: representatives of clans of multiple dwarven families around one table. Orcsplitters, Boulderscorch, Fiania, Ironson and more. An adventure was planned, for the sinkhole revealed Old Inbhir Ness, once thought lost to those of the living. The journey was eventful, groups from every city upon Sapience navigated puzzles of recounting past history, musical performances for ghosts, and even routing steam to a winding pipe network. It was the Mhaldorians that found a key to the one remaining area locked away from eyes, but it was the Hashani who entered the Abbey first. A substantial amount of the old Ness was laid bare, perfect for restoration and the return of the dwarves to their ancestral home.

Many years passed and finally Rhorg, Chief of Inbhir Ness announced the news many were waiting for. A festival to celebrate the reopening of their home, restored to greater glories. Worked upon by more than just Inbhir dwarves, but the very Chosen of Lord Phaestus, His most loyal children.

With the doors declared open once more, the fruits of hard labour were shown to the world. A great brewery promising a guided effort to produce your own drink! Anvilwake Memorial honouring relics and past notables. An area showcasing their crafting prowess and dwarven shops selling rugged wares!

And the games! From Boldarihm, came the rarely seen beardball! Standing upon the mountainside, countless kegs were tossed until only one remained. Of course it was a dwarf, the very Hand of Phaestus winning the Champion keg tossing belt. Statue carving followed, a faithful hound pulling at the heartstrings of the judges, earning Tahquil a miniature statue of her creation. And not to forget the dwarven classic: axe throwing! With many twists and turns to rival any sentinel axe thrower, it was Lystet who stood alone clutching the victor's trophy.

What started with such despair and countless lives lost, balance was restored, as the dwarves of Inbhir Ness stand restored and invigorated.

With suggestions of continued collaboration and projects of grandeur, it might just be prudent to keep on eye on what the dwarves do next.

Classlead submissions are now closed, and the commenting phase begins. This is the period when historically you'd apply any comments to a classlead you had thoughts on, but now it shall mostly serve to comment any that either were submitted close to the deadline or that you've not quite finalised your thoughts on yet. Please remember that this is not a voting round - you should supply reasoning for any comment on a classlead! This phase shall run until 0 gmt on Wednesday 17th. Penned by My hand on the 21st of Ero, in the year 990 AF.

Curses

We've fixed a bug with SWIFTCURSE BLEED where it was considered an equilibrium-based attack in certain places and thus was having its damage re-calculated for players with the faster_eq artefact.

Domination

The willpower cost when using LYCANTHA[ against denizens has been reduced.

Metamorphosis

The willpower cost when using GAZE against denizens has been reduced.

Physiology

WRACK no longer bypasses denizen shields.

Striking

STERNUM can now be used after TWOARTS RAZE against denizens.

Twoarts

Using an infusion with MULTISLASH now converts all three slashes to the infused damage type against denizens. Note that the damage bonus still only applies to the first slash.

Misc

The KILL command now prioritizes WRACK over EDUCE IRON for alchemists.

It is Friday, the 14th of November, and the following changes have been implemented: - There is now an archived status for classleads - these are reports that have been approved/rejected in the past. - Future reports that are archived will include the submission status at the time of finalisation. Published by my decree on the 17th of Miraman, in the year 990 AF.

We've rolled out a bunch of bashing updates (see CLASSLEADS POST 162) aimed at giving more class skills a place in PvE combat. I wanted to share a bit of the thinking behind these changes.

1) As it stands, the vast majority of abilities are restricted to player targets only, leaving most classes with only a single PvE attack. This has been especially frustrating for new players who unlock new skills only to find they cannot actually use them in the areas they're exploring. While there are still technical and thematic limitations that will keep most abilities PvP-only, the goal here is to narrow that gap.

2) It allows us to open up the design space with resistances. When you're locked to a single damage type, interacting with denizen resistances offers little meaningful choice: either they resist your attack, or they don't. With a wider spread of damage types across additional skills, we can make resistances more engaging in future boss fights and PvE content.

We expect these updates will change the preferred bashing style and introduce new optimisations for a few classes, but most will likely continue using their usual ability. This is not intended as a full bashing overhaul, but rather a first step in our ongoing effort to bring more class abilities into PvE and improve the overall experience.

Read more about the specific changes here:

• https://www.achaea.com/2025/11/14/pve-expansion
• https://www.achaea.com/2025/11/16/pve-fixes-tweaks

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We are also ungating the DPSTEST command!

This tool lets you check the average DPS of most bashing attacks across different stat and artefact levels. It is a quick way to compare options and understand how abilities scale.

NOTE: The numbers shown are simulated in-game, but they are not perfect rankings of PvE performance. They only measure the raw DPS of the listed commands. They do not account for several class-specific buffs (for example Blademaster Stances or Paladin Dawnhand), universal buffs, denizen quirks, defensive utility, gear interactions, and more. Treat the results as a rough comparison between attacks and a general look at how stats and artefacts affect them.

How to read the output:

Each attack shows either two or three stat columns labelled 12B, 16B, and 19B.

12B represents a base stat of 12 (an unspecialised human with no traits).
16B represents a base stat of 16 (for example a strength-specialised troll with the +1 strength trait).
19B represents a base stat of 19 (typically only reachable with consumeables, for example a specialised troll + strength trait + rare minerals + divine truefavour).

Dragons and Elemental Lords will only see 16B and 19B columns. In these forms, 16B represents the form's normal base stats (for example 18 strength and 18 intelligence for dragons), and 19B represents the form's base stats with an additional +3 that comes from a rare mineral and divine truefavour.

Under each stat column is an (art) row. This shows the DPS with the same stat values but with the artefacts and artefact powers listed in the DPSTEST record.

These usually include:

• +3 to the primary scaling stat
• An artefact weapon, if relevant
• faster_eq for equilibrium attacks
• magic_damage for magical attacks
• Any class-specific damage artefacts

You can view the full list of artefacts, the attack commands being tested, and other details by using:

DPSTEST SHOW

Some tests may have tester-specific variants of commands in them. These are direct stand-ins for the player versions and you can assume they behave the same.