Broken Ranks plans defense skill reworks and new gold sinks

Whitemoon Games is working on a new round of Broken Ranks changes aimed at two problem areas: defensive skills and the in-game economy. The studio says it has been reviewing player feedback, build data, and its own internal notes before sending proposed defensive skill changes into internal testing, with a PTR release planned later.

The defensive pass targets several classes, including Druid, Fire Mage, Voodoo, Archer, and Barbarian. Some skills only need number changes, according to the team, while others may need deeper mechanical adjustments. The full class-by-class breakdown is in the developer blog.

The bigger immediate shake-up may be the economy. Whitemoon says too much gold is entering Broken Ranks and not enough is leaving, partly because high-level characters are stronger, faster, and better at repeating the most profitable activities. The first wave of changes is meant to pull more gold out of circulation.

• Daily challenges will pay less gold for level 140 characters, both for individual challenges and full sets of four.
• Experience and psychoexperience rewards from daily challenges will go up across all level ranges.
• Marketplace tax is increasing from 3% to 5% without the reduction buff, and from 1.5% to 3% with the buff.
• Emperors will rise from 4,000 to 5,000 gold each, with Platinum pricing also being adjusted.
• Existing Emperors, including those in storage, on characters, or listed on the market, will be converted into 4,000 gold each.
• The level 140 death penalty is going up, with unpaid debt causing a debuff that blocks gold, psychoexperience, and mastery point gains from fights, plus a 50% lower enemy gear drop rate.

Whitemoon says this is only the first stage of its planned economy changes, so more adjustments are coming after this initial pass.