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As promised, we have performed a full review of all magical damage sources triggered by the Herald of Xotli class. As it is intended for bonus magical damage (specifically fire damage) to be an effective way to increase the damage output of the class, we have implemented and adjusted the magical damage coefficients on all fire-based magical effects.

The main sources of scaling from +magical damage will be from Hellfire Breath (as before) and Burn to Death, as they are primary damage-dealing effects. Additionally, moderate to minor coefficients have been added or increased on all secondary fire damage hits and damage-over-time components.

While the balanced values will not be equivalent to the erroneous 100% coefficients being applied to some spells prior to last patch, there were many spells which were not scaling previously that will after the update. Given that we have adjusted all spells to have a bonus equivalent to their base power, the contribution from +magical damage should be much more consistent across all spells.

Combos which deal damage only through the combo attack, such as Pillar of Infernal Flame, will not be affected by this change as they scale with melee-based damage adjustments.

The future update will also include fixes to some additional issues we discovered in the process. When patched, the update notes should include the following changes:

Herald of Xotli
-Desecrating Essence should now scale more consistently across all levels. Additionally, the variance between minimum and maximum damage has been decreased to be more consistent.
-Burn to Death now receives a substantial portion of the Herald's bonus magical damage on its damage over time effect.
-Burn to Death now applies a separate debuff for all Herald of Xotli players.
-Spreading Flames will now always tick 5 times, instead of occasionally only ticking 4 times.
-Inferno, Tongue of Xotli, and Phoenix Cloak's gain from bonus magical damage has been increased.
-The area of effect damage from Inferno has been renamed to Inferno instead of Lash Field.
-Phoenix Cloak and Burning Skull have had their base damage slightly increased.
-The following abilities now properly scale with the Herald's bonus magical damage:

    * Avatar of Xotli
    * Bonds of Anguish
    * Burning Hex
    * Burning Skull
    * Burning Words (Word of Command)
    * Chains of Anguish
    * Desecrating Essence
    * Fiery Weapons
    * Flame Cleave
    * Hatred of the Living
    * Hellstep
    * Improved Burning Skull
    * Knowledge of the Underworld
    * Searing Curse
    * Searing Hatred
    * Spitfire

__________________
Senior System Designer
Age of Conan
   

All forms of melee damage modifiers will affect combo damage.

However, the portion of the damage affected by +fire damage (melee) and combo finishers which are fire typed damage will use fire invulnerability instead of physical. Therefore, +fire damage (melee) is probably the preferred melee increasing modifications for Heralds.
__________________
Senior System Designer
Age of Conan