We will be enabling the distributed backup system on all remaining shards with the exception of Balhae and Arirang, on Thursday, July 26th CDT. We estimate that this change will bring shard backup times down to approximately 15 minutes per shard. As a result, the amount of time required for shard maintenance, restarts, and ‘time warps’ may be narrowed to approximately 15 minutes in most cases.
Please note: As this backup system decreases the amount of time required for a shard backup, it will also decrease the amount of ‘warp time’ available prior to a maintenance period. We urge that players keep this in mind when playing before a scheduled maintenance period.
We will announce a release schedule for Balhae and Arirang in advance of their activation.