Aurora Arena: equal footing and an honest score

Over the summer the Aurora Arena became a mode of equal footing. Gear and a full set of skills are handed out at the gate, the fight is limited in time, points depend on how strong your opponent was, and staged fights are sorted out by the server itself.

Equal footing

• Gear is provided. At the gate you receive equipment refined to plus 10 with gems inserted, plus every combat skill of your class at level 10, including the 79th and the 100th (14 July).
• Panels are laid out for you. Skills follow popular builds: the main rotation on keys 1 to 9, secondary ones on F4 to F8, buffs above. Any rearrangement you make is remembered per character (14 July).
• Separate macros. The arena and the Dynasty Battle now have their own macro set: arena chains no longer overwrite the world ones, and world macros survive the fight, a crash and a character change (7 August).
• Genies. Genies with a choice were added to the pool and your pick is remembered. Before the gates open the genie energy is fully restored (14 July, 19 August).
• Health and Chi. Health and mana are fully restored before the gates open and the fight starts with a full Chi bar. Sitting to fill the rest by meditating no longer works (9 August).

An honest score

• Staged fights are reviewed. Every match is analysed automatically: the server sees all actions inside the fight and tells an honest duel from a staged one. First comes a personal warning in chat, and if it continues the points from such fights are frozen until the administration decides. Frequent fights against the same opponent do not lead to a ban by themselves (17 July).
• Points depend on the opponent. An ordinary rival gives 100 points and 25 for the finishing blow, an opponent rated 1700 or higher gives up to 175 points per fight. A loss gives 10 points, but not if you left early and not if you dealt no damage at all (15 July, 1 August).
• Leaving early. A whole team walking out no longer gifts the opponents an easy win and points: the surrendering team simply takes a normal loss (15 July).
• A closed gate for offenders. The administration can close arena access for a specific character. The ban covers every mode at once: 1v1, 3v3 solo and 3v3 team. On an attempt to sign up the character receives a chat message saying access was closed by the administration. A fight cycle already in progress is played out, but the character cannot queue again (17 July).

Less waiting

• Waiting for a live opponent: 5 seconds instead of 15 (26 August).
• A fight lasts no longer than 5 minutes. If both sides are alive, the winner is whoever dealt more damage, and equal damage is a draw (26 August).
• Penalty for declining a found fight: 3 minutes. It used to be 10, then 5 (15 July, 24 July, 26 August).
• The arena squad holds 5 people, the fighting group is still 3 (7 August).

Fixed from your reports

• Detection potions can be used again during a fight, so assassins are visible under their effect (15 July, 24 July).
• Invisible after the fight. The loophole that let a defeated player leave the arena invisible with a stuck immunity icon is closed (17 July).
• Skills and chains no longer vanish from the panel after leaving, and macros stop multiplying after a defeat (6 August, 29 August).
• Shields and restrictions. Bans on attacking guild mates, white names, the alliance and your own faction are removed at the gate and restored on the way out automatically (15 August).
• Name range was raised from 100 to 200 metres, and distant opponents move in real time (24 July).

Since 1 September the arena has daily quests in both 1v1 and 3v3.

The dates in brackets are the updates the change shipped in. These news posts come out later than the changes themselves: there was simply no time to write them.