The Spear Calls Today In Throne And Liberty, But The New Rune System Allows Past Weapons To Get Stronger, Too

It's update day in Throne and Liberty and today's patch for the MMORPG from Amazon Games and NCSoft brings the game the new spear weapon. Appropriately titled "Call of the Spear," the new weapon may be the title "character" of the patch, but it's far from being the only addition players can use to make their characters stronger.

Leading off with pointy spear news, the new weapon has a mix of ranged and melee abilities. Getting close for high damage and then backing off and just chucking the spear in for the finish is a viable strategy. The spear can break down enemy defenses, apply a number of debuffs for stacking damage, and even has a few target-specific abilities. Target an ally and the skill does one thing, targeting an enemy results in that skill doing something totally different.

If the spear isn't your thing but you're still looking for ways to become more powerful, the new Rune System is where you'll want to look. Epic grade weapons and accessories now have a Rune Socket on them. If you've played other MMORPGs, you'll probably be familiar with how this system works. Runes add stats and sockets have certain attributes. If you place runes into sockets and the attributes on both are the same, boom, bonus effects. If you match the full Synergy pattern across all sockets on a weapon or gear piece, boom, more bonuses.

You could also power up a bit using the new Fortitude main stat. This stat enhances vitality and does offer other improvements to damage, crowd control resistance, and more. However, this will primarily be something for those of you messing around with the spear, as right now the primary method of increasing the stat is tied to spear stat bonuses.

Finally, the update offers something new to both PvP and PvE players. PvP players get the ability to create (or spectate) custom matches in the War Games menu, and PvE players get the Torture Chamber of Screams 2-star dungeon and Dimensional Trials. That latter option requires you to have cleared the 2-star version of whichever trial you want to take on and the road won't be easy. Bosses have higher stats, new mechanics, and more. Clearing these trials will advance your seasonal leaderboard stats, though.

The full notes are up so you can look at the other fixes and improvements added ahead of logging in.