Introduction

Patch 2.9.3 focuses on three areas:

• Event and system optimizations
• Quality-of-life improvements for alliances and map interaction
• A substantial dragon talent rebalance, alongside a rework for Atalanta

While some of the optimizations are largely interface improvements, several changes have practical strategic implications—especially the dragon adjustments, which may shift the current burst-heavy meta toward longer sustain fights.

Below is a breakdown of each official patch section with practical interpretation and player commentary. Please see the full patch notes here.

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Optimizations

Rune Factory Reward Pool

Official Change

• Added Chaos (red) tier Immortals
• Added Chaos Exclusive Artifacts

This is potentially one of the more important event changes in the patch.

The main uncertainty is how these rewards will be distributed, but reading the notes I assume that they will be available in the shop.

For now, treat this as a potential value increase for Rune Factory, but wait for confirmation of how the reward pricing actually works out compared to e.g. Roulette.

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Immortal Specialization Unlock Rules

Official Change

• Specialization levels will not be displayed until unlock conditions are met.

Purely a UI clarity improvement. It prevents confusion for newer players seeing locked specialization levels without understanding the requirements. No gameplay impact.

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Returning Player Event Rules

Official Change

• Each character can trigger the returning player event only once.

This closes a loophole where some players attempted to repeatedly trigger returning bonuses through inactivity cycles. For normal gameplay, this change has minimal strategic impact.

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Legion of Frostborne Map Optimization

Official Changes

1. Added Federation markers managed by alliance leaders
2. Leaders automatically join Federation chat groups
3. Alliance Thermal Towers now display server identifiers

Comments:

The server identifier on Thermal Towers is the key improvement here. Previously in Legion of Frostborne it was sometimes difficult to determine:

• Which alliance controlled a tower
• Which server that alliance came from

This information matters when evaluating enemy strength and diplomacy decisions. Knowing the server origin immediately helps alliances estimate potential resistance or alliances behind a structure.

This is a small but genuinely useful improvement for cross-server events. However, mostly a quality of life thing..

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Chat Features

Official Change

• Chat channels now support secondary tabs.

Primarily organizational. No gameplay implications.

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City Declaration of War

Official Change

• After declaring war on a city, attacks must begin within 10 minutes or the declaration resets.

This change mostly targets war coordination discipline. Previously, alliances could declare war and delay the attack indefinitely.

Now:

• The attacking alliance must mobilize immediately
• Leadership must ensure players are ready before declaring

It removes some of the flexibility previously used for timing manipulation. You are no longer able to keep as many options for pressure points open at a time and thus it becomes easier for defenders to recognize where they are about to be attacked.

For casual alliances or farmers, this may occasionally cause missed declarations.

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Alliance Level After Server Merge

Official Change

• After server merges, Alliance Level and Technology remain unchanged

This is arguably something that should have existed from the start.

Previously, merges could severely disrupt alliances because technology progression might reset or change. Keeping alliance progression intact protects:

• alliance investment
• long-term technology planning
• established competitive balance

For veteran alliances, this change removes a major frustration from server merges.

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Balance Adjustments

The patch also introduces a bunch of different balance adjustments for Atalanta and for dragon talents!

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Atalanta Skill Rework

New Skill – Focused Sniper

• Fires a crossbow bolt dealing Physical Damage (240% + 80%/level) to one random enemy
• Grants normal attacks a piercing chance (30% + 10%/level) for 10 seconds
• Pierced attacks hit the enemy behind the target

Artifact Effect

• Focused Sniper damage +30%

Atalanta has historically struggled to remain relevant in the Wind meta. Many players experimented with her but eventually moved away due to inconsistent performance.

However, until testing confirms the interaction frequency of the pierce mechanic, her true value remains uncertain.

In practice, most veteran players will likely wait for battle testing before rebuilding Wind compositions around her.

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Dragon Talent Adjustments

This is the most impactful section of the patch.

The adjustments strongly suggest a meta shift toward sustain-oriented combat, rather than the burst-damage environment that has dominated for over a year.

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Holy Dragon

Changes

• Healing increased from 6% → 10% per level

• Protect now scales Attack & Defense from 75 + 15/level

• Concentration healing increased
• Judgment Roar increased true damage when enemy troops remain high

Holy Dragon appears to receive the largest buff in this patch.

Early analysis suggests it may once again become one of the strongest dragons in the game, potentially surpassing Earth Dragon in popularity.

Historically, Holy Dragon and Shadow Dragon were intended to be the top-tier dragons, but Earth Dragon dominated the meta for a long period due to its durability.

These changes may finally restore Holy Dragon to its intended role as a high-impact sustain and scaling dragon.

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Shadow Dragon

Changes

• Silhouette: Dark Breath true damage increased 10% → 15% per level

A simple damage increase.

Shadow Dragon remains strong in offensive compositions, but many players hoped for more mechanical improvements. The buff is welcome, though it likely won’t dramatically change its current position.

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Wind Dragon

Changes

• Turmoil Breath: True damage scaling increased

• Stormy Breath: Healing scaling increased

The buffs are decent but may not be enough to revive Wind Dragon usage across the meta.

Players who already invested in Wind Dragon will appreciate the improvement, but it may still struggle against stronger sustain dragons.

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Earth Dragon

Changes

• Collapse damage increased from 30,000 to 50,000

• Fissure now:
  • Reduces damage by 25%
  • Provides stronger healing or true damage on attacks

Interestingly, Earth Dragon did not necessarily need more damage.

These changes appear focused on increasing sustain across the board, reinforcing the idea that the developers are pushing combat toward longer battles rather than burst kills.

Even with these changes, Earth Dragon was already extremely strong. It will likely remain a top defensive option.

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Lightning Dragon

Changes

• Shock spec: Damage increased  from 6%/level to 10%/level

• Overload spec: Increases damage dealt gets buffed from 25% to 35% + 5%/level for every stunned target on the battlefield

The rework improves scaling but probably won’t dramatically elevate Lightning Dragon.

The main limitation remains its reliance on stun-heavy compositions, which are not always reliable in competitive environments.

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Water Dragon

Changes

• Frigid spec: Healing increased 6% → 10%

• Coalesce spec: Converted to stronger continuous healing (from 10%/level to 12%/level, duration extended by 12s)

• Buff for ALL specs: Ice Breath freeze chance increased from 24.75% + 2.25%/level to 27.5% + 2.5%/level. At max level from 45% to 47.25% at baseline

These improvements are long overdue.

However, Water Dragon still suffers from hard counters in the immortal roster, such as compositions that disrupt healing mechanics.

Currently, many Water Dragon teams rely heavily on Athena-based builds to remain viable as well as ones focused around energy regen (no change). The buff helps, but it may not be enough to bring Water Dragon fully back more options for sustain water in the meta.

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Fire Dragon

Changes

• Burning damage increased for Prairie Fire. Damage increased from 6%/level to 10%/level.

• Wildfire spec: Critical strikes now increase Attack and Defense. Changed from 30 + 5/level to 75 + 15/level for 30s when it lands a Crit. At max that means instead of 120 attack and defense you now get 210 attack and defense for every crit.

This is one of the more interesting changes in the patch. Critical strikes now converts crits into stat boosts, potentially enabling stronger sustained DPS setups. This is something I am very keen to be testing out once the patch lands, as I have hopes for more mitigation enabled setups with the fire dragon.

Testing will determine whether this becomes a meaningful buff or just a minor adjustment.

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Player Perspective – Meta Direction

From a veteran standpoint, the overall patch direction suggests a clear goal:

Reduce the dominance of burst-nuke teams and encourage sustain-based combat.

Signs pointing toward this shift include:

• Multiple dragons receiving healing improvements
• Defense scaling increases
• Sustained damage mechanics replacing burst amplification

If this trend continues, we may see:

• Longer battles
• Greater value in healing and mitigation
• More diverse team compositions

However, the real impact will only become clear after battle testing in Arena and PvP events.

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Conclusion Summary

Patch 2.9.3 introduces meaningful adjustments, especially to dragons.

The key takeaways:

• Rune Factory rewards may become significantly more valuable
• Holy Dragon likely receives the biggest buff
• Many dragon changes favor sustain and longer fights
• Atalanta receives a potentially important rework, though her viability remains to be tested
• Several quality-of-life improvements help alliance coordination and cross-server clarity

Overall, this patch feels like the first step in a broader meta adjustment, rather than a complete balance overhaul.

Veteran players should watch closely how Holy Dragon and sustain-based teams perform once the update goes live.

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Published: 08-03-2026