We made it! I know I said October 6th, and I think it’s still the 6th somewhere in the world...
Sorry about things being a touch later than I thought - some final last minute tweaks to sort out! The Tempest is officially out, and before going any further, a massive thank you to everyone who had a chance to play test her on the Beta Branch. There were well over 1,000 runs done, and that really helped to fine tune a few things in terms of balance. That said, I'm still keeping an eye on things here, and expect a few small tweaks here and there over the next few days.
So let's talk about the Tempest quickly, then I’ll dive into a few overall changes that will make their way to the live branch with this update.
The Tempest
So firstly - how many cards? The Tempest has launched with 70 cards in her kit. This is by no means the final number, as with all the other classes we’ll be looking to add more over the next month! She also has a fair share of Artifacts (14 Elite, 11 in the shop pool) but expects that to flesh out again over the next few weeks.
She also has 44 unique Zeal powers.
What is Zeal? Basically, The Tempest has the ability to trigger certain automatic powers when she reaches different levels of Zeal. You gain a point of Zeal for every energy you spend. Play a 1 cost card, gain 1 Zeal. Play a 4 cost card, gain 4 Zeal.
What’s cool about Zeal powers is, each run, your Zeal tree is randomly generated. You always start with the 3 and 7 power unlocked and equipped, however as you progress more, you’ll gain Fervour (from clearing Heretic sites... those nasty, dirty Heretics), which you can spend to buy new powers for the run. Make your Zeal 3 stronger? Or pickup something new in the Zeal 5 slot? The choice is yours.
A little more on Heretic sites. 4 Mob fights on every floor will be marked as a “Heretic Site”. These rooms, when cleared, will grant you one of those sweet Fervour points, which you can spend on your Zeal powers. This adds just another layer to map pathing. Oh boy...
Other than that - you’ll see Tempest make a lot of use from Overcharge, Discharge, Rage and Shock. All of these combine to lay out one hell of a lot of damage at times. Expect big numbers.
Yo, I don’t like new classes! What else has changed? Love from, imainhidden
Thanks for your question imainhidden. Quite a few things actually. You’ll be interested to know that the Bleed kit had a card swap out! Lots of small balance tweaks all over the place, as well as the inclusion of the new Artifact Chest, which can spawn on either floor.
But possibly the biggest change is to Elite nodes. So its been no surprise that Elite nodes contained ... A LOT of value. High value Artifact, Rare or Uncommon card, extra Essence and Souls etc. Not to mention, a chance to hang out with a cool Shark.
From now on - Elites don’t offer any card rewards. However, there is a guaranteed 1 Rare and 3 Uncommons spawned into a map, and scattered somewhere around on regular Mob rooms. This was a pretty wild change, but the feedback has been pretty positive overall! People now feel they have more choices and decisions to make when looking at pathing options, which sometimes just became “Where’s the Elites? Okay cool go go.”
Also, to everyone who’s been struggling with OP Bruce since the last patch (sorry!), the Piranhas are now Minions :)
Thank yous!
I’m not going to type too much more honestly - its been an extremely busy last few weeks to get all this ready! I also don’t want to spoil too much of Tempest and how she plays, rather let players jump in and experience things!
However the Tempest wouldn’t be here without a few key people! Firstly, to all the Beta Testers - you have no idea how valuable you all are! Many bugs were squashed, and much balance was balanced. This also extends to the Internal Testing team, who logged a bunch of runs before it even made it to the Beta Branch. This alone has made this process so damn smooth.
To my fellow artist Mengo, for pulling out all the stops when it comes to card artwork, and to my animator friend Sanjeev who has really brought things to life! And last but not least, Dabor (who many of you know from the Discord and Forums) for all the work on the Tempest so far.
Dabor started working on the design for the Tempest in November last year, after a few discussions we had around how it should work and slot into the ecosystem. Since then, they’ve become a major contributor to the games content and balance, and also has been doing a great job making Trello lists of problems and changes every day throughout the process. Many hours spent in calls the last few weeks, and probably many more to come!
Thanks everyone - I will post this up and get a full change log added below in the next hour or so, as I organise my notes.
Now go bring the Thunder !
- Josh
