02FEB2026 – Updates to HoC Discoveries

With several players approaching the successful conclusion of the long-attempted Heart of Corruption quest (known colloquially as the “Audrey Quest”), the DEVS listened to feedback from the server that the 4 racial discoveries for successful questers might need an edit, as the build recipes and modifiers were unbalanced across all 4 discoveries. In response to this, we felt it was important to make some updates to the gear prior to the end of the quest so that potential winners would have a clear view of the new updates.

Why an Update Was Needed

The main reason for the need for an update was the advent of elite divisions in Illyriad, which launched after the design of the HoC racial gear. The HoC quest appeared circa June 13, 2011, as reported in this thread. Interestingly, the DEVS never made an official announcement of the quest -- it just showed up on the map. 

While the early player hanoth suggested elite divisions as early as June 28, 2010, the announcement of elite divisions wasn’t made until September 23rd, 2012. Therefore, the bonuses of some of the HoC gear, along with their easy builds, were not taken into account for use in elite divisions. The best example of this is the Elven Spirit Bow, which has a +120% racial bonus for elves and nets out at a +96% attack bonus and +108% defense bonuses, all while being relatively easy and inexpensive to make. Unleashing this weapon into the elite meta of the game could have had game-breaking consequences.

Update Rationales

We’ve taken steps to bring all 4 pieces more into line with one another in terms of their build difficulty and racial bonuses. The goal was to make all 4 pieces of gear difficult to build rather than easier, so that these pieces cannot be easily “mass produced.” We also wanted to make sure that they offered more balanced bonuses to all 4 races (though they still aren’t 100% balanced, by design).

Here are some key changes to the pieces, and why we made them:

• Racial Bonuses: All 4 pieces of gear now have the same racial bonuses and penalties, with the preferred race gaining +76% and the unfavored races getting a -24% penalty. This spread still makes it clear that only the preferred race can truly benefit from each piece, but it makes the racial bonus even across all 4 pieces.

• Equalizing the Rare Component: The original builds featured the Orc Marauder Sword and Dwarven Champion’s Amor, requiring elemental salts for their recipes, while the Elven Spirit Bow and Master-Crafted Chainmail had no such requirement. We saw this as an issue, as the non-salt pieces could be easily mass-produced. Now, all 4 pieces require the rare and expensive Dyallom Gall to build elemental salts in their recipes. We don’t see these pieces as ones that should be easily mass-produced, but rather built in smaller batches for commanders and elites.

• Harder Recipes Yield Increased Bonuses: You’ll notice that there are essentially 2 sets of gear among these discoveries: the Elven Spirit Bow and Orc Marauder Sword favor attacking, and the Dwarven Champion’s Armor and Master-Crafted Chainmail favor defense. Within these 2 sets, there is a hierarchy, with the Elven Spirit Bow and Dwarven Champion’s Armor outperforming their counterparts: the Bow and the Armor both have higher bonuses, offer additional terrain advantages, and/or boost movement speed. The rationale for this is that the recipes for these items call for more resources: the Bow draws on Mana and Research points, while the Armor requires both Arterium and Silversteel. The Orc Marauder Sword and Master-Crafted Chainmail don’t have these requirements and are slightly less resource-intensive to make, but have less of an edge on the battlefield.

• More Basic Resources Needed: You’ll also notice that we substantially increased the amount of gold, hides, basic minerals, and basic weapons/gear that you need to make a single weapon. The thinking here is that these pieces are exceptionally expensive to build, with the need to pay the best craftsmen handsomely, and there is a lot of waste and failure in crafting a successful piece. This is why the craftsmen need a lot of basic resources. 

• Equal Build Times: We have also decided to make the build times equal across all 4 pieces, which will be 7200 seconds / 2 hours per item as the base level.

What we did not do is make further edits to modifiers based on the server's perceived strengths or weaknesses of the corresponding unit types that the pieces are associated with by race. We feel that the unit type for each race’s piece represents a viable recipient of these weapons, giving them unique tactical advantages. Additionally, players have the ability to mix and match other crafted weapons to further balance commanders and elites to dial in the bonuses that they need for specific battlefield scenarios.

New Metrics

Here are the new metrics. Changes to the original metrics are in bold:

Elven Spirit Bow

Statistics:

• +60% ATK

• -12% CAV / -12% SPR / -12% BOW / -12% INF / 

• 0 Hills / 0 MTNs / -36% Arctic /-36% Desert / -36% Jungle

• Movement Speed: +5%

• +76 Elves / -24% Humans, Elves, Orcs 

Recipe:

• +10000 Mana

• +500 Research

• +1000 Bow

• +10000 Gold

• +1000 Herb

• +1 Larken Wood

• +1 Elemental Air Salt

Orc Marauder Sword

Statistics: 

• +40 ATK

• -12% CAV / -12% SPR / -12% Bow / -12% Inf

• 0 Hills / 0 Forests / 0 Arctic / 0 Desert / 0 Jungle

• Movement Speed: -10%

• +76% Orcs / -24% Humans, Elves, Dwarves

Recipe: 

• +1000 Sword

• +10000 Gold

• +1 Wolf Teeth

• +100 Hide

• +1 Elemental Fire Salt

Dwarven Champion Armour 

Statistics: 

• -12% ATK

• +50% CAV / +70% SPR / +70% Bow / +50% Inf

• +30% Hills / +10% MTNs / -20% Arctic / -20% Desert / -20% Jungle

• Move Speed: -20%

• +76% Dwarves / -2%4 Humans, Elves, Orcs 

Recipe: 

• +1 Plate Armor

• +10000 Gold

• +100 Hide

• +1000 Mineral

• +1 Arterium

• +1 Silversteel

• +1 Elemental Earth Salt

Master Crafted Chainmail 

Statistics:

• -12% ATK

• +25% CAV / +25% SPR / +25% Bow / +25% INF

• 0 Plains / 0 Arctic / 0 Desert / 0 Jungle

• Movement Speed: -10%

• +76% Humans / -24% Elves, Dwarves, Orcs

Recipe: 

• +1000 Chainmail

• +10000 Gold

• +100 Hides

• +100 Minerals

• +1 Iceheart 

• +1 Brascan Seeds

• +1 Giant Palm Leaves

• +1 Elemental Water Salt

Timing & Rollout

These changes have already been made in the live server and are now visible on the front end of the user interface.

A Player-Driven Update

Thanks, as always, to the players who bring needed edits and corrections to our attention. Illyriad remains one of the few MMORPGs today that offers players genuinely open access to its developers. While we cannot implement every change, update, or suggestion, we make a deliberate effort to listen, to learn, and to act where we can. The collective insight of players who know the game deeply is something we value highly, and it continues to shape how Illyriad evolves.

From hanoth’s early 2010 suggestion for elite units – well before the rollout of the Heart of Corruption – to the updates being made to these items today, that dialogue has never stopped. We will continue to listen, and to do our best to improve the game wherever thoughtful player feedback points the way.