Gauntlet Prep Improvements There's now a guaranteed random demi-boss spawn at the north/east/south/west-most rooms from the centre. Meaning four demi-bosses with fixed locations, but the specific demi-bosses that you encounter will still be random.

•Demi-bosses have had their attack range reduced from 16 to 10.
•Non-demi-boss enemies now have standardised defensive stats, meaning it's never better to kill a wolf over a scorpion, for example.
•Weapon frames are guaranteed from your first 'low tier' NPC kill.
•Phren Bark, Crystal Ore and Linum Tirinum are now stackable.
•Crystal Shards are now automatically placed in your inventory. Additionally, the quantity dropped by enemies has a smaller range, so will feel much more consistent.
•Crystal Shard costs for crafting various pieces of equipment have been adjusted:
•Creating a Tier 1 weapon requires no Crystal Shards, down from 20. You'll still need a weapon frame.
•Creating a Tier 2 weapon requires 50 Crystal Shards, down from 60.
•Creating a piece of Tier 1 armour requires 50 Crystal Shards, up from 40.
•Creating a piece of Tier 2 Body armour requires 100 Crystal Shards, up from 80. Creating a piece of Tier 2 Leg or Helmet armour requires 50 Crystal shards, down from 80.
•Creating a piece of Tier 3 armour requires 100 Crystal Shards, up from 80. The reason for this increase is that we don't want Tier 3 to become a guarantee/must-have for every run and should still be trading comfort for time-loss, encouraging people to push themselves down to Tier 1 prep for the fastest clears.
•Gauntlet Speed-chaser now requires a completion in under 4:45, down from 5:00.
•Gauntlet Speed-runner now requires a completion in under 3:45, down from 4:00.
•Corrupted Gauntlet Speed-chaser now requires a completion in under 7:05, down from 7:30.
•Corrupted Gauntlet Speed-runner now requires a completion in under 6:05, down from 6:30.

Other PvM or PvM-adjacent Changes

•Phantom Muspah tweaks:
•Will no longer swap forms until you've dealt 4 hitsplats. Note that even 0s count towards this
•Homing Spikes special attack duration reduced to 34 ticks, down from 50 ticks. Additionally, the attack ends early if Muspah is phased into its 'blue shield' form.
•Demonic Gorillas will no longer swap prayers until you've dealt damage at least 4 times, and dealt at least 70 damage with a style.
•Skotizo tweaks:
•Once a totem has been destroyed, it won't respawn for another minute.
•The arena has been reduced in size, you'll have to get your steps in elsewhere.
•Ice Demon's demonbane vulnerability has been increased to 115%, up from 100%.
•Wardens in the Tombs of Amascut are no longer immune to the life leeching effects of the Sanguinesti Staff or Amulet of Blood Fury. You might notice some weirdness during P2 because damage calculations here are non-standard, but these should be working as intended.
•Autocast settings are now preserved through death.
•Looting a gravestone should now automatically sort your inventory to match its layout prior to your untimely death.

Gear Changes Update: We included a mention of the Venator Bow here in error, there have been no changes to its target-finding with today's Game Update and we expect to make this change in a future batch.

•Sanguinesti Staff Tweaks
•Chance to heal increased to 1 in 5 (up from 1 in 6), deals 8 additional damage whenever the heal procs - this averages out to +1.6 damage per hit.
•Base max hit increased by +1.
•Charge cost reduced to 2 Blood runes per cast, down from 3. You should be refunded one Blood rune per charge upon logging in after the update. If your inventory is full then they'll go to your bank. If your bank is also full (or you're a UIM with a full inventory) then they'll drop on the ground.
•Soulreaper Axe Changes
•Gains +4 Strength bonus.
•Stack limit remains at 5, with 6% damage bonus gained per stack.
•Stacks take 50 ticks to start decrementing, up from 20 ticks.
•Stacks no longer drain HP.
•Special attack now gains 12% accuracy per stack, up from 6% (60% at max stacks)
•Special attack now gains 6% minimum hit per stack (30% at max stacks)
•Updated the special attack animation of Soulreaper Axe and Soulreaper Axe (o).
•Ghrazi Rapier Stab accuracy increased by +6, Strength bonus increased by +4.
•Blade of Saeldor Slash accuracy increased by +6, Strength bonus increased by +4.
•Pegasian Boots gain +1 Ranged Strength bonus.
•Master Wand gains +10% Magic Damage bonus.
•Ancient Sceptres (all variants) have their Magic Damage bonus increased to +10%, up from +5%.
•Aquanite Hopper to have its second hit accuracy penalty halved. There's not much room to buff this loads without it powercreeping on the Twisted Buckler, but a small buff should make it at least a little more worthwhile.
•Belle's Folly drop rate increased to 1 in 75, up from 1 in 256.
•Inquisitor changes (it wouldn't be a Summer Sweep-Up without Inquisitor changes)
•Inquisitor's Great Helm gains +2 Crush accuracy and +2 Strength bonus, to match its Oathplate equivalent.
•Additionally, provides a +0.5% bonus to Crush damage and Crush accuracy. This boost is no longer increased by a set effect or when using the Inquisitor's Mace specifically.
•Inquisitor's Hauberk gains +4 Crush accuracy, to match its Oathplate equivalent.
•Additionally, provides a +1% bonus to Crush damage and Crush accuracy, up from +0.5%. This boost is no longer increased by a set effect or when using the Inquisitor's Mace specifically.
•Inquisitor's Plateskirt gains no Crush accuracy or Strength, since it already matches its Oathplate equivalent.
•Additionally, provides a +1% bonus to Crush damage and Crush accuracy, up from +0.5%. This boost is no longer increased by a set effect or when using the Inquisitor's Mace specifically.
•Inquisitor's Mace gains +7 Strength bonus and +7 Crush accuracy. This guarantees a max hit in all setups, and might add +2 max hits in some setups.
•Additionally, any negative Stab/Slash bonuses have been removed from Inquisitor armour pieces.
•Shaman Mask Magic bonus increased to +2 from -6.
•Tonalztics of Ralos improvements:
•Special attack buffed to reduce opponent's Defence by 12.5% of its Magic level per hit, up from 10%.
•Special attack buffed to grant +50% increased accuracy.
•Rosewood Blowpipe changes:
•Can now fire darts up to rune.
•Special attack no longer grants +10% increased damage and -20% decreased accuracy.
•Burning Claws Special Attack Energy cost increased to 35% from 30%.
•PvP Only: The Eclipse Atlatl now fires every 4 ticks while set to Rapid, unless the full Eclipse set is worn to reduce the attack rate back to 3 ticks.
•PvP Only: The Soulflame Horn's Accuracy boost for Special Attacks has been reduced to +50%, down from +100%.

While these were the changes you seemed most excited for, nothing can prepare you (sorry) for how good the Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet are about to feel. We've got a suite of changes that smooth out the prep phase so that you can chill out and blast your way back towards insisting that those tornadoes were miles away.

•There's now a guaranteed random demi-boss spawn at the north/east/south/west-most rooms from the centre. Meaning four demi-bosses with fixed locations, but the specific demi-bosses that you encounter will still be random.
•Demi-bosses have had their attack range reduced from 16 to 10.
•Non-demi-boss enemies now have standardised defensive stats, meaning it's never better to kill a wolf over a scorpion, for example.
•Weapon frames are guaranteed from your first 'low tier' NPC kill.
•Phren Bark, Crystal Ore and Linum Tirinum are now stackable.
•Crystal Shards are now automatically placed in your inventory. Additionally, the quantity dropped by enemies has a smaller range, so will feel much more consistent.
•Crystal Shard costs for crafting various pieces of equipment have been adjusted:
•Creating a Tier 1 weapon requires no Crystal Shards, down from 20. You'll still need a weapon frame.
•Creating a Tier 2 weapon requires 50 Crystal Shards, down from 60.
•Creating a piece of Tier 1 armour requires 50 Crystal Shards, up from 40.
•Creating a piece of Tier 2 Body armour requires 100 Crystal Shards, up from 80. Creating a piece of Tier 2 Leg or Helmet armour requires 50 Crystal shards, down from 80.
•Creating a piece of Tier 3 armour requires 100 Crystal Shards, up from 80. The reason for this increase is that we don't want Tier 3 to become a guarantee/must-have for every run and should still be trading comfort for time-loss, encouraging people to push themselves down to Tier 1 prep for the fastest clears.
•For some comparisons:
•A full set of Tier 1 armour and two Tier 3 weapons requires 250 Crystal Shards, down from the 280 that it currently does.
•A full set of Tier 2 armour and two Tier 3 weapons requires 450 Crystal Shards, down from the 460 that it currently does.
•A full set of Tier 3 armour and two Tier 3 weapons requires 750 Crystal Shards, up from the 700 that it currently does. The additional demi-bosses dotted around and auto-pickups for Crystal Shards should make it much easier to rack these up though!

All of these add up to make prep far more consistent and reduce the mental load considerably, allowing for a much smoother stint in the infamous red prison. Having said that, we noticed in testing that these changes did reduce our completion times fairly consistently, so we've made some changes to the Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet Combat Achievements to stop them from becoming freebies, particularly since they're generally considered some of the harder speed times to tick off:

•Gauntlet Speed-chaser now requires a completion in under 4:45, down from 5:00.
•Gauntlet Speed-runner now requires a completion in under 3:45, down from 4:00.
•Corrupted Gauntlet Speed-chaser now requires a completion in under 7:05, down from 7:30.
•Corrupted Gauntlet Speed-runner now requires a completion in under 6:05, down from 6:30.

Alongside adjustments to NPCs, there are sweeping changes to the stuff you use to hit them, let's take a look!

•Sanguinesti Staff Tweaks
•Chance to heal increased to 1 in 5 (up from 1 in 6), deals 8 additional damage whenever the heal procs - this averages out to +1.6 damage per hit.
•Base max hit increased by +1.
•Charge cost reduced to 2 Blood runes per cast, down from 3. You should be refunded one Blood rune per charge upon logging in after the update. If your inventory is full then they'll go to your bank. If your bank is also full (or you're a UIM with a full inventory) then they'll drop on the ground.
•Soulreaper Axe Changes
•Gains +4 Strength bonus.
•Stack limit remains at 5, with 6% damage bonus gained per stack.
•Stacks take 50 ticks to start decrementing, up from 20 ticks.
•Stacks no longer drain HP.
•Special attack now gains 12% accuracy per stack, up from 6% (60% at max stacks)
•Special attack now gains 6% minimum hit per stack (30% at max stacks)
•Updated the special attack animation of Soulreaper Axe and Soulreaper Axe (o).
•Ghrazi Rapier Stab accuracy increased by +6, Strength bonus increased by +4.
•Blade of Saeldor Slash accuracy increased by +6, Strength bonus increased by +4.
•Pegasian Boots gain +1 Ranged Strength bonus.
•Master Wand gains +10% Magic Damage bonus.
•Ancient Sceptres (all variants) have their Magic Damage bonus increased to +10%, up from +5%.
•Aquanite Hopper to have its second hit accuracy penalty halved. There's not much room to buff this loads without it powercreeping on the Twisted Buckler, but a small buff should make it at least a little more worthwhile.
•Belle's Folly drop rate increased to 1 in 75, up from 1 in 256.
•Venator Bow to be made more consistent thanks to new engine capabilities. It's hard to quantify this, but in effect it should mean that the bow finds new targets more reliably.
•Inquisitor changes (it wouldn't be a Summer Sweep-Up without Inquisitor changes)
•Inquisitor's Great Helm gains +2 Crush accuracy and +2 Strength bonus, to match its Oathplate equivalent.
•Additionally, provides a +0.5% bonus to Crush damage and Crush accuracy. This boost is no longer increased by a set effect or when using the Inquisitor's Mace specifically.
•Inquisitor's Hauberk gains +4 Crush accuracy, to match its Oathplate equivalent.
•Additionally, provides a +1% bonus to Crush damage and Crush accuracy, up from +0.5%. This boost is no longer increased by a set effect or when using the Inquisitor's Mace specifically.
•Inquisitor's Plateskirt gains no Crush accuracy or Strength, since it already matches its Oathplate equivalent.
•Additionally, provides a +1% bonus to Crush damage and Crush accuracy, up from +0.5%. This boost is no longer increased by a set effect or when using the Inquisitor's Mace specifically.
•Inquisitor's Mace gains +7 Strength bonus and +7 Crush accuracy. This guarantees a max hit in all setups, and might add +2 max hits in some setups.
•Additionally, any negative Stab/Slash bonuses have been removed from Inquisitor armour pieces.
•Shaman Mask Magic bonus increased to +2 from -6.
•Tonalztics of Ralos improvements:
•Special attack buffed to reduce opponent's Defence by 12.5% of its Magic level per hit, up from 10%.
•Special attack buffed to grant +50% increased accuracy.
•Rosewood Blowpipe changes:
•Can now fire darts up to rune.
•Special attack no longer grants +10% increased damage and -20% decreased accuracy.
•Burning Claws Special Attack Energy cost increased to 35% from 30%.
•PvP Only: The Eclipse Atlatl now fires every 4 ticks while set to Rapid, unless the full Eclipse set is worn to reduce the attack rate back to 3 ticks.
•PvP Only: The Soulflame Horn's Accuracy boost for Special Attacks has been reduced to +50%, down from +100%.

While we're talking Sweep-Up, we'd like to chat a little more about the Chambers of Xeric.

We'll put this first bit in bold so that nobody panics: this section does not detail changes made with today's game update. This section is us proposing a future change to see how it lands. As we wrapped up our initial Sweep-Up blogs, we'd said that we'd like to take a conservative approach here and adjust incrementally over time. It would be an understatement to say that this wasn't a particularly popular stance to take, so instead we'd like to propose something a little more radical for adjustments to the weightings of uniques in the Chambers of Xeric. We'll be the first to admit that the numbers we're about to include look a little scary and that we're a touch nervous, but think that they do make CoX a little more in-line with other raids when it comes to how many hours the content expects you to put in. The most significant shift here is Ancestral pieces, which do fetch a hefty price currently, but also serve as a huge source of frustration since ticking off the full set takes considerably longer on average than a Twisted Bow. Realistically these numbers are a big enough shift that it's impossible to predict exactly where things might shake out if we implement them, but we do expect that while individual item prices might shift, the GP/hr of the raid shouldn't drastically reduce. The proposed numbers aim to bring regular Chambers completions more in line with other raids while also improving the value proposition offered by Challenge Mode clears compared to regular raids. With all that said, let's take a look:

•Ancestral Hat — 3 — 4 — +53.3 — 4 — +64.3
•Ancestral Robe Bottoms — 3 — 4 — +53.3 — 4 — +64.3
•Ancestral Robe Top — 3 — 4 — +53.3 — 4 — +64.3
•Arcane Prayer Scroll — 20 — 14 — -19.5 — 12 — -26.1
•Dextrous Prayer Scroll — 20 — 14 — -19.5 — 12 — -26.1
•Dinh's Bulwark — 3 — 3 — +15 — 3 — +23.2
•Dragon Claws — 3 — 3 — +15 — 3 — +23.2
•Dragon Hunter Crossbow — 4 — 4 — +15 — 4 — +23.2
•Elder Maul — 2 — 2 — +15 — 2 — +23.2
•Kodai Insignia — 2 — 2 — +15 — 2 — +23.2
•Twisted Bow — 2 — 2 — +15 — 2 — +23.2
•Twisted Buckler — 4 — 4 — +15 — 4 — +23.2

In effect, this means scrolls are 20% less common in regular Chambers of Xeric, and 26% less common in Challenge Mode Chambers of Xeric, which puts it closer to how the Avernic defender hilt in terms of its relative weighting. Let us know what you make of these, we'll be keeping an extremely close eye on these conversations!

Summer Sweep-Up Gear & PvM Changes