Early Access Update #9 (v0.1.9) - Balance Patch #2

Early Access Update #9 (v0.1.9) is a balance patch aimed at equipment balance and improving build variety from run to run. On top of many Equipment changes, a new randomizer setting has been added that allows equipment prices to be shuffled. Additionally, the critical strike damage formula has been reworked, as crits were previously dealing excessive amounts of damage to heavily armored foes. Lastly, a "Slain!" tag will now appears in combat to help indicate if the enemy has been slain and recorded for your Talent requirements.

Balance Changes Overview:

• Ability changes for Assassin Garb, Divine Blade, and Guardian Plate, making them more desirable and impactful.
• Equipment prices and EXP needed to reach max level have been adjusted to bring the gold and exp needs of each class archetype a bit more inline with one another. Additionally, some equipment has had its ability order swapped.
  • In general, the less an item costs, the more the exp it'll need to reach max level.
  • Several expensive items had too high of exp requirements, and have been reduced.

• A randomizer setting has been added to shuffle equipment prices. This setting is currently only available in a "Custom" Randomizer run, and hasn't been added to the "Chapter 2" or "Standard" presets.
  
• The critical strike damage formula has been reworked. Critical strikes were doing a bit too much damage against heavily armored enemies (especially in the end game). This rework ensures crits perform well at both piercing armored foes and providing powerful blows to less armored enemies.
  
• All balance changes can be found in full detail at the bottom of the patch notes.
  

Other Updates:

• A "Slain!" tag will now appear in combat to help indicate if the enemy has been slain and recorded for your Talent requirements.
• Fixed a typo with the Necromancer text in Chapter 2 and the Randomizer.
• Fixed a typo when the Uncles receive a power up.
• The outer cursor in the randomizer/customizer menus now follows the inner cursor instead of resting at the menu blocks.

------------------Detailed Balance Changes:------------------

Assassin Garb:

• Assassinate:
  • Previously: "+100% critical chance against sleeping enemies. Strikes always wake enemies."
  • Now: "+50% critical chance against sleeping enemies."
  • Notes: Sleep's greatest advantage is the potential extra turns it can generate, and wasting turns failing Sleep just to deliver 1 crit often wasn't worth it. By removing the downside, going for Sleeps is a much more lucrative proposition, even against enemies with some amounts of Sleep resistance. Naturally, the upside power had to be reduced to compensate (and may need to be reduced further), but this should be a much more desirable ability now.

• Heart Seeker:
  • Previously: "+50% to critical strike bonus damage."
  • Now: "+25% increased critical damage. Critical damage increases now also increase weapon attack."
  • Note: The critical strike bonus damage going from 50%->25% is not a nerf. Due to the changes to critical strike damage calculations, the resulting effect is unchanged. Critical strike damage also increasing weapon attack is a buff, intended to make the Assassin Garb not only desirable to Dagger users, but also any high ATK weapons (such as the Invisible Blade). This effect applies to any source of increased critical damage, such as the Lethal Talent.

Divine Blade:

• Peak Performance:
  • Previously: "Deal 25% increased attack damage when at full health."
  • Now: "+20% increased ATK when HP is above 50%."
  • Notes: Previously, Peak Performance was often acting more like a "first strike". Outside of turn 1, few opportunities presented themselves in which you'd have full HP against an enemy. Players (especially Paladins) should be able to keep this effect up much more often now. "+20% Increased ATK" applies to your TOTAL Attack Power on your status sheet.

Guardian Plate:

• Divine Intervention:
  • Renamed to "Divine Shield".
  • Previously: "Once per long rest, ignore fatal damage."
  • Now: "Once per combat, ignore fatal damage."
  • Notes: Since Divine Intervention could only be used once per expedition, it was often forgotten about. Now that it can be used once per combat players can engage with the ability more often and in advantageous ways such as risking a run attempt or going for that final blow before healing, knowing they'll be protected should they fail.

Lethal Talent:

• Previously: "+30% increased critical strike damage."
• Now: "+20% increased critical damage."
• Notes: This is actually a slight buff due to the changes to the critical strike damage calculations. Also, Lethal has usage beyond crits thanks to the Assassin Garb's new "Heart Seeker" ability.

Equipment Price, Ability EXP, and Ability Rebalance:

• 5 pieces of equipment have had their prices adjusted to help bring the overall gold cost of each class a bit more inline with one another.
  • Total gold cost for Thief gear is slightly up (~500g)
  • Total gold cost for Mage gear is slightly down (~500g)
  • Total gold cost for Paladin gear is very slightly up. (~200g)

• 16 pieces of equipment have had the Total EXP needed to Max their abilities adjusted to be more in line with the price of the item. In general, low cost items must be used and invested into more, taking more EXP to max. Higher cost items require less investment, taking less EXP to max.
  • While a few low cost items will have larger EXP requirements due to this rebalancing, it's mostly kept towards the final ability. For reference, any piece of equipment can be fully maxed (from 0 EXP) by using it from level 12 to level 14 (with experience to spare).
  • Overall, EXP costs are slightly down across the board (by ~5%), largely due to higher priced items previously requiring too much EXP to max.

• 4 pieces of equipment have had their ability order adjusted, often placing the "payoff" ability as the last ability learned (and taking extra investment).
  
• Full equipment change log is provided below.

New Randomized Equipment Price Setting:

• A setting has been added to shuffle the prices of Equipment in the randomizer.
  • "Equipment Price: "OFF" | "Shuffle"
  • Currently this setting is only available as a Custom setting in the randomizer. It is defaulted to "OFF" for both "Chapter 2" and "Standard" setting presets.

• When equipment prices are shuffled, the total exp needed to max the item will change along with it. For example:
  • The Dagger costs 60g and needs 2000exp to max. The Invisible Blade costs 1800g and needs 1000exp to max.
  • If the Invisible Blade's price is randomized to the Dagger's price of 60g, it will also adopt the Dagger's exp requirement and now take 2000exp to max.
  • Any levels between 1 and Max are scaled appropriately.

• Note: This feature makes seeds feel even more unique and can send players towards equipment and builds they weren't previously considering. Shopping with your first ~500 gold often influenced equipment and build choices. With this setting enabled, players will want to evaluate where the initial "bargains" are, as well as items that are prohibitively expensive as they're planning their build, especially in seeds where gold is tight.

Critical Strike Damage Rework:

• Critical strikes were doing too much damage against enemies with a high Armor (Base Defense) stat. This is especially true on late game enemies such as Dreska. The critical strike formula has been adjusted to bring this more in line with other sources of damage in these situations, while still being being able to effectively pierce high armored enemies and deliver overwhelming blows.
• Previously, crits would roughly: Calculate your attack damage ignoring base defense and then apply your bonus damage multipliers (2x default + your crit bonus damage%).
• Now, here's the step by step on how crits work going forward:
  • ATK is calculated based on STR. However, a critical strike will calculate your ATK based on EITHER STR or DEX, selecting whichever is higher.
    • This helps DEX builds, and avoids situations where high STR and low DEX would result in a crit doing less damage.
    • (This is unchanged, crits did this before v.0.1.9)

  • When a critical strike occurs, two damage numbers are calculated, and the higher number is selected:
    • Attack damage is calculated IGNORING base defense and at the top of your damage range. (With this calculation, your crit has effectively pierced the weak spot in their armor.)
    • Attack damage is calculated INCLUDING base defense and at the top of your damage range, then multiplied by 2x. (With this calculation, your crit is overwhelming the enemy with a 2x attack, striking through their armor with great force.)

  • Now that the most valuable critical strike type is selected, it's multiplied by the player's % critical strike bonus damage (this is found on abilities and talents).
    
  • Critical strikes will always do at least 2 damage.
    

Magic Wand:

• Total EXP to Max: 2000 (up from 1500)
  • Final ability takes 1500EXP (up from 1000EXP)

• Crescendo and Magical Attunement Ability order swapped
  

Claymore:

• Total EXP to Max: 1900 EXP (up from 700)
  • Final ability takes 1500 EXP (up from 300)

Invisible Blade:

• Price: 1800g (up from 1500)
• Total EXP to Max: 1000 (down from 1500)
  • 2nd ability takes 400 exp (down from 500)
  • Final ability takes 600 exp (down from 1000)

Divine Blade:

• Price: 1200g (up from 1000)
• DEF: 10 (up from 5)
• Total EXP to Max: 1400 (down from 1600)
  • 2nd ability: 400 exp (down from 600)

• Peak Performance (buffed) and Fortified Strike Swapped
  

Starlight Sword:

• Price: 2200g (down from 2500)
• Total EXP to Max: 900 (down from 2000)
  • 2nd ability: 150 (up from 50)
  • Final ability: 750 (down from 1950)

Leather Cuirass:

• Total EXP to Max: 600 (up from 200)
  • Final ability: 560 (up from 160)

Silkweave Cloak:

• Total EXP to Max: 1300 (up from 600)
  • Final ability: 1000 (up from 300)

• Steelweave and Focused swapped
  

Blessed Hauberk:

• Total EXP to Max: 1700 (up from 800)
  • Final ability: 1500 (up from 600)

Assassin Garb:

• Price: 1400g (up from 1200)
• DEF: 8 (up from 4)
• Assassinate and Heart Seeker buffed

MindSpring Robe:

• Total EXP to Max: 1600 (down from 2000)
  • 2nd ability: 400 (down from 600)
  • Final ability: 1200 (down from 1400)

Guardian Plate:

• Total EXP to Max: 1000 (down from 2200)
  • Final ability: 700 (down from 1900)

• Divine Intervention buffed (and renamed to Divine Shield)
  

Buckler:

• Total EXP to Max: 600 (down from 800)

Mage Stone:

• Price: 350g (down from 700)
• Total EXP to Max: 1000 (down from 1800)

Kite Shield:

• Total EXP to Max: 1200 (down from 1800)
• Retribution and Defended swapped

Thief's Cowl:

• Total EXP to Max: 1000 (up from 800)

Mage's Ring:

• Total EXP to Max: 1200 (up from 1000)

Paladin's Tome:

• Total EXP to Max: 1300 (down from 2000)