August 19 Balance Patch: Mercenary Nerfed, Withered Knight Buffed Hard

Reduced Perfect Block stagger duration; higher solo-mode energy cost on Perfect Defense; weaker Block Damage Boost shields; nerfed Shockwave Strike cooldown reduction; longer Whirling Cut cooldown; reduced Stacked Slash PvP damage; smaller Impalement hitbox.

Trio-mode buffs in the same patch: slight cooldown reductions on Stonebreaker Slash, Shield Slam, and Whirling Cut (Block).

Greatsword light strikes, Opportunistic Thrust, Pursuit, and Sprinting Slash gained movement distance and attack speed. Fully charged heavy strikes now grant Super Armor. Parry and Breakthrough Charge cooldowns reduced. Withering Mark reworked — it flies faster and applies slow plus dodge reduction. Joint Pierce now applies an enemy debuff. Radiant Retribution is cheaper and faster.

Shadowstrix: Free Movement gained a wind-up animation; fixed i-frames, Super Armor behaviour, aerial strike direction, and Blade Dance interrupts.

Sorcerer: fixed post-revive Thunder Roar failure.

Seer: fixed a Super Armor Clash interaction.

•Scavenger Squad material refresh mechanic

•Invulnerability window when entering a Mist Lord room

•Dedicated-server frame-rate monitoring

•Expanded controller customisation (fall-damage vibration toggle, favourite-item tagging)

•Unyielding gem affix bug fix

Withered Knight is now a top-tier pick in both weapon branches — if you have one levelled, this is the patch to play it. Mercenary duellists take a real hit in solo but the class is still strong in trio. The Mist Lord invulnerability window is a big quality-of-life win for boss runs that used to punish you on the loading transition.