On June 24, 2020, Zenimax Online Studios released a new update “Stonethorn”, which is known to the CIS segment as “Stones and Thorns”. It is a plot continuation of the story begun in DLC: Greymoor.
Let's take a look at what has been added and improved.
Dungeons in the Stones and Thorns Update
The main innovations in this update are the addition of two new dungeons: the Stone Garden and the Castle of Thorns. Let's consider them in more detail.
Thorn Castle
The plot of the plot is simple - mysterious Lady Thorns decided to gather an army of vampires in her castle, and it's up to you to assemble a team of Gwendis and other allies to stop her. Overcome all obstacles, storm Castle Thorn as an impenetrable fortress and stop the Lady of Thorn and her legion before she goes on the offensive and drowns all of Western Skyrim in blood.
How to get a task: after purchasing the Stones and Thorns add-on, you need to go to Collections - Stories - Dungeon Add-ons, select the Castle of Thorns and accept the task "Blood of the past».
Stone Garden
The plot of this dungeon from the Stones and Thorns expansion is as follows: you receive news from your ally Gwendis about a secret laboratory in the bowels of Blackreach. Mad scientist Arkasis erected the Stone Garden especially for his ingenious experiments.
Having received all the necessary data, you have to go down to the secret laboratory, find out what the mad scientist is up to, stop him and all creations.
How to get a task: after purchasing the Stone and Thorns add-on, you need to go to Collections - Stories - Dungeon Add-ons, click on the Stone Garden and accept the task "The logic of madness».
Other dungeon additions
In addition to adding dungeons, the developers offer the following innovations:
- The presence of normal and veteran modes.
- A gradual increase in the difficulty level for each of the three bosses in the Stone Garden. This is the first dungeon with such a "chip". If the players like it, then I promise to introduce this feature in other dungeons after Stones and Thorns.
- The introduction of the Challenge Banner allows you to activate hard mode in these two dungeons.
- New stuff from The Expendables. They can be obtained both in the Castle of Thorns and in the Stone Garden. We are talking about achievements, masks, skins, emotions, titles and things for the home.
Appearance and collectibles in dungeons
The addition of new dungeons has led to the introduction of new skins and collectibles - something that fans of collecting achievements and other things of this kind need.
- Doom Greenish Yellow Dye Pack. Can be obtained upon reaching the achievement "Connoisseur of Stones and Thorns».
- Potion bottle souvenir. Can be obtained upon reaching the achievement "Stone Garden Conqueror».
- Nimble Dwemer Electric Spider non-combat pet. Can be obtained upon reaching the achievement "Stone Garden Explorer»
- The skin of an animated vampire thrall. Can be obtained upon reaching the achievement "Conqueror of the Castle of Thorns».
New sets
The addition of "Stones and Thorns" (English "Stonethorn") brought not only two new dungeons, but also sets that can appear in the player's inventory after completing them.
Let's look at the light, medium, heavy and monster sets that can be obtained by completing these two dungeons.
Sets from the Castle of Thorns
From the Castle of Thorns, which can be reached through a dungeon in Western Skyrim, you can get the following sets:
Talfik's Betrayal (Light Armor)
- 2 items - Increases spell critical rating by 833;
- 3 items - Adds 1096 mana to maximum magicka;
- 4 items - Increases spell damage by 129;
- 5 items - Increases spell damage by 372, and damage from fire abilities and skills from the Fighters Guild by 10%.
Unleashed Horror (Medium Armor)
- 2 items - increases weapon damage by 129;
- 3 items - Adds 1096 HP. stamina to maximum stamina;
- 4 items - Adds 1096 HP. stamina to maximum stamina;
- 5 items - Dealing direct damage after certain abilities (dash, jump, teleport or pull the enemy towards you) causes the enemy to bleed for 10 seconds. The enemy receives 19728 physical damage. The effect occurs every 10 seconds.
Scarlet Twilight (Heavy Armor)
- 2 items - adds 1206 damage. to maximum health;
- 3 items - increases outgoing healing by 4%;
- 4 items - adds 1206 damage. to maximum health;
- 5 items - after taking damage, the character surrounds himself for 8 meters around with a fog of blood. While absorbing the mist for 2 seconds, it deals 8220 bleeding damage to all nearby enemies. This allows you to heal for 100% of the damage dealt. The effect occurs every 8 seconds.
Lady Thorns (Monster Set)
- 1 item - adds 1206 damage. to maximum health;
- 2 items - causes the appearance of a blood ball at the expense of health. The effect occurs every 10 seconds. Activating the synergy allows you to deal 5000 disease damage to nearby enemies. Inflicts the Major Damage debuff, reducing the damage dealt by enemies by 30%. You can apply it once every 30 seconds.
Sets from the Stone Garden
The following sets are drawn from the Stone Garden, located in the bowels of the Black Reach:
Elemental Catalyst (Light Armor)
- 2 items - Adds 1096 HP. mana to maximum magicka;
- 3 items - Increases ability critical damage by 833;
- 4 items - Adds 1096 HP. mana to maximum magicka;
- 5 items – Dealing Fire, Frost, or Shock damage causes debuffs to match the damage type for 3 seconds. Each stack of this debuff increases critical damage by 6%. Each opponent can be stacked one stack at a time.
Howl of Kraglen (Medium Armor)
- 2 items - Increases Weapon Critical Damage by 833
- 3 items - Increases Stamina Recovery by 129
- 4 items - Increases weapon damage by 129
- 5 items - The death of an enemy that has taken damage from your character causes a howl to appear. Allies near him can activate a synergy that grants 12 super points. The effect occurs every 20 seconds.
Genius of Arkasis (Heavy Armor)
- 2 items - adds 1206 damage. to maximum health;
- 3 items - adds 1487 damage. armor;
- 4 items - adds 1206 damage. to maximum health;
- 5 items - Taking potions grants you and allies 44 super points. The effect works every 30 seconds.
Stone Shell (Monster Set)
- 1 item - Increases weapon critical damage by 833;
- 2P - Using heavy attacks binds you and opponents together. The duration of such binding is 10 seconds, the distance is 10 meters. Enemies that touch these bonds take 1906 physical damage every second, and the character gains up to 15 stacks of Deplete Shell. Communication is interrupted if the distance between the NPC and the players is more than 12 meters. The effect triggers every 10 seconds. If the link is not interrupted, stacks are consumed at the end of the ability, and weapon damage is increased by 30 per stack, up to 450.
Other additions and improvements
"ZOS", releasing the update "Stones and Thorns", not only took care of adding dungeons and sets, but also made many different improvements and corrections:
- Improved stability and optimization of servers. Players can now play Trials more smoothly, as issues that caused anomalous behavior of opponents or worse ping have been removed.
- Memory usage optimizations to reduce game crashes.
- Reduced character loading time when first entering the game.
- Correction of graphic effects, some sounds.
- You can set the route of movement, the type of movement (walking, running, etc.) of the NPC in the house. This allows you to revive the surroundings.
- Deeper Cyrillic support. Text looks crisper and cleaner.
- Improved game performance on MacOS.
- Added new furniture and drawings to it.
- Reduced the cost of crafting styles. Rework of obtaining styles (Fire Dragons, Demons of the Arena and the Stormlord) on the Battlegrounds. Addition of a motif from the Aegis of Kyne.
- Various changes in the skills of different classes, traits, the strength of the effects of the Mundus Stones, existing sets, etc.
We hope that they will make the game more enjoyable. Good luck hunting for sets and defeating enemies!
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