Alex “Ibn” Beckers has started a known issues thread for the patch this month:
Noble Armor
As per the Dev Notes, the Hieromancer’s Ward spell on the Noble Armor was replaced this month with Brogord’s Defiance.
However, as some players have noticed, any Noble Armor that was wielded during the patch downtime still has Hieromancer’s Ward cast on it. If the mana runs out on this armor, the Ward will go away, likewise if the armor is unwielded.
We understand that this is causing those characters who were wearing this armor during this patch to be rather overpowered at this time, particularly in PvP combat. We initially investigated hotfixing for the issue, but we have decided not to do so.
Why not? The fix for this is non-trivial. At this point, we’re not even sure exactly how we’re going to fix it. We have a number of possible solutions, all of which require both content and engineering resources. Scheduling them for a hotfix for this issue is extraordinarily difficult.
On behalf of the team I want to personally apologize for players who are negatively impacted by this issue. We’ll be providing specific info on the fix in the January Letter to the Players, if not before then.