Hello! Wanted to share this nice quality of life update that spices up the game and opens some new build options to play with.
Content
- Added a new skill: Chain Strike. Each successive hit in a single melee attack deals additional damage. This further encourages flicking the weapon around and also letting the entire animation play rather than cancelling it early.
- Added a new skill: Combustive Rush (replaces Trapper). Starting a sprint will trigger a fiery explosion. Also explodes enemies who are knocked into traps. Not having to always rely on traps should make this much more of a build defining staple.
- Added a new staff-only skill: Mana Surge. Every combo level restores some mana directly to the staff using this skill.
- Added a new curse: Arcane Fragility. Item's that are reduced to zero mana will break, similarly to how it worked in the previous version. Rewards +4 item level
- Added a new curse: Raging Spirits. Killing an enemy from afar has a chance to fire a projectile at the player. Rewards +3 item level
- Added two new staff-only auto combos to Vampire to give a few more options if you happen to have missed your Waves of Blood combo ability reset.
Polish
- Renamed durability to mana to more accurately reflect how it works now, as resource for powerful skills, rather than something that deteriorates and breaks over time.
- Lowered the gravity a little bit in portal rooms, so jumping has a little more hang time.
- Blood spray effects now fade out the closer they are to the camera, so they don't obscure the action.
- Did a pass on all of the cave textures and colors so it's brighter, more aesthetically pleasing, and has better contrast with the enemies.
- Damage numbers are bold and outlined so they stand out a little more.
Balance
- Reworked Hunter Vanish a bit. It no longer grants critical strikes, but does trigger a shockwave on use and also grants very brief invincibility. I've seen a lot of comments confused why the ability triggers so often during auto combo. The answer is, it allows you to attack faster than you otherwise would by cancelling the attack animation, and also is a key component in every Hunter combo. I believe making it an actual attack will make it feel less strange, and also adds the benefit of not leaving you vulnerable for the moment it's active.
- Added Heavy Strikes, Vortex and Body slam to Hunter in case you want to try more of a whirlwind style build.
- Increased elite enemy scare attribute cooldown so it doesn't spam as frequently.
- Iron Grip and Clarity now use a percentage of the skill's reduced cost, rather than a flat percentage. This way, faster weapons aren't drained disproportionately faster compared to slower ones.
- Soul Cleave and Manifest Weapon now hit on every rotation like they used to. Manifest Weapon has been buffed significantly in particular, with longer duration and many fast spins for high damage.
- Moved Berserker Rage from weapons to gloves (with small chance for other armors as well)
- Moved Bloodthirst from weapons to helmet (with small chance for other armors as well)
- Moved Combo Mastery from boots to gloves (with small chance for other armors as well)
- Doubled Sin Ward cross duration so you have more time to accumulate them
- Reduced parry health gained from Unyielding Faith slighly from 25% to 20%
Bug Fixes
- Spirit Drill now correctly applies critical strike damage.
- Alchemist now shows up on gloves like it was intended (instead of being solely a passive skill)
I'm beginning work on new enemies / levels, but also trying to think of a way to introduce these piece by piece instead of going silent for two months and dropping it all at once. Stay tuned for more exciting content additions!