Divergence

This feature is deprecated and is no longer implemented. Information in this article is presented for historical reference only.

Divergence was a balancing mechanic for hunting areas to have spells behave differently in the affected areas. The abilities impacted are in a state of flux. Refer to the Dev team Divergence proposal document for more information.

On January 25th, Divergence was removed. The changes to melee roundtime, PSM AoE setups, and short duration spell cooldowns (except 240) were made live across the game, while the changes to bards and wizards were suspended.

Spell	Change
Bard Spellsong Hindrance	Drains mana and incurs CastRT
Song of Sonic Disruption (1030)	reduced damage (similar to Grimswarm)
Song of Tonis (1035)	Enforces a 2 second minimum RT with exceptions for certain weapon types which are limited to 1 or 3 seconds, including aimed attacks. Proc rates on standard flares are reduced, inclusive of script-based flares that utilize standard Cat B damage types. Song of Tonis no longer provides a group bonus, unless under temporary 'Wings of Tonis' effect.
Spirit Slayer (240)	"60" second cooldown (shows up as 90 since it's applied when the spell is cast and runs concurrent with the base 30 second duration of the spell).
Rapid Fire (515)	When CAST, it lowers the caster's cast roundtime down to 2 seconds and has no cooldown. When EVOKEd, it lowers the caster's cast roundtime down to 1 second, and applies a 2 minute cooldown to the base spell and a 10 minute cooldown to the evoked version. The evoked cooldown is lowered by -1 second per EMC rank, down to -300 (making it a 5 minute cooldown).
Core Tap (950)	5 minute cooldown Can still be activated multiple times during the cooldown with EL:E training.
Minor Steam (1707)	Increased mana cost to 5 mana.

Area Name	Level Start	Level End
Atoll	94	103
Crawling Shore	55	61
Forgotten Vineyard	58	66
Hinterwilds	96	114
Moonsedge	??	??

08Jan23 Update

Per GM Estild on Discord

Regarding Wyrom's Creating Adventure - January 2023 (https://gswiki.play.net/Creating_Adventure_-_January_2023) announcement, below are the details we're currently planning for the removal of Divergence.  The current implementation can be reviewed at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kN-1Of1A8HvgERjNQdBrXpQGk-SH72q4gqja9dkp33I/edit#heading=h.ynx2a2khr7o2.

Cooldowns for short duration spells (140, 211, 215, 219, 919, 1619) will go live.
Numerous effects (including the above short duration spells) were already made exempt from Manastorm, Spellburst, and Spell Sever.
Spirit Slayer (240): clerics are in a good position, but empaths probably need a few updates, so we plan to wait before implementing this cooldown.
Breeze's (612) haste effect will go live.
Updated minimum roundtime for melee weapons will go live.
All the other bard and wizard updates are suspended when Divergence is disabled.
PSM AoE setups (reduced from 4s to 3s) will go live.

See Also

• Spell sever
• Spellburst
• Dev team Divergence proposal document
• Saved discord posts