This game update aims to tackle a bunch of the initial issues we've had since launch (a month ago).
The main features (among many others) are:
1) Ring progression: In order to progress in the game yo no longer mindlessly kill stronger foes to increase your highscore. You must now find rare abnormalities & slay the soulless creature within.
2) Tier matters: Tier plays a much bigger role now compared to earlier. When you are travelling the world you previously had to hover every creature and view their `level`. No `tier` is what decides their strength.
3) Apollyons' siphon: The further you move from World Tree (the center of the world) you are siphoned on core defensive stats: armor, block- and dodge chance. This makes sure you can't rush to insane progression immediately.
4) Equipment level squish: Rather than seeing numbers between 1 - 500 000 in gearscore & levels these numbers are now properly balanced and should appear in the 1 - 150 range instead.
While this might seem weird, tier plays a much bigger role in each individual ring.
5) Damage reduction double dipping removed: Damage is now dealt as physical + elemental instead, making it so that armor & attunement damage reductions reduce their individual portion of the damage, rather than reducing the total twice.