A new patch is now live! This is a big one! There are a lot of new stuff in this one, with several new gear pieces, lots of new gear mods, balancing, new cap on attack speed, shield implementation and more. I will list all the new stuff at the end of the post, so you can see "regular" changes first.
Some of the stuff here is not available in the demo though. That's because the classes that have some of the updates are not available. Every class that is available in the demo, has the new stuff in the demo too.
Improved:
Your healers stop wasting their heals. They used to open a fight by healing a party that was already at full health, and then sit on the cooldown when somebody actually got hurt.
The gear filters now only offer stats and effects that piece of gear can actually have for that hero, and the loot filter only lists effects your party can find. No more scrolling past things your party will never see.
Long dropdown lists now stop at a comfy height and scroll, with a scrollbar you can actually see.
Every enemy now wears a sign that says what is holding it: dizzy stars when stunned, cold sparks when frozen, "Zz" when asleep, a "?" when confused, and a "!" in your tank's colour when it has their attention. Dark embers mean it is carrying a Doom Mark.
Every gear effect now tells you how long it lasts, and effects that fire on a timer tell you both: how long they hold and how often they go off. Regeneration now says outright that it works the whole time you wear the item.
Every gear effect a hero is wearing, now has its own icon on their party card, and it stays there as long as the item is equipped. One glance tells you which of your four is carrying what.
In compact view those icons sit inside the card, just after the hero's skills with a thin line between, using space that was empty anyway. Anything temporary still appears beside the card, so a buff that lands really does read as something new.
Safety-net gear like Second Wind, Stoneskin and Guardian Ward now has an icon on the hero card that dims and counts down while it recharges, so you always know if it's ready. Effects that fire and are over in a moment just sit there brightly instead, and the ones that give you a buff swap to counting that buff down while it lasts.
Gear effects now show up by name in the statistics window, for the run and for all time, so you can finally see what Twin Fang or Cleave really did for you. They're marked as Equipment, right next to your skills. That includes the sneaky ones: when a confused enemy cuts down its own friend, the damage and the kill go to the hero whose gear confused it.
Effects that change how your hero swings, like Twin Fang, Splitshot, Stormcaller and Cleave, now say straight out that they change your basic attack and leave your skills alone.
The potions you have running now share one slim glass shelf under the top bar, with the grey boxes behind the bottles gone. Much easier on the eyes.
The stats on a detailed party card turn green when they've hit their ceiling. Hover any of them to see what that ceiling is and how much room you have left. Crit, Dodge and Attack Speed all have a limit now, while the other three say outright that they don't, so you can stop guessing where your points are still worth something.
Balance:
Legendary effects now feel properly legendary: every Epic effect is 75% as strong as its Legendary twin, including the percentage buffs that used to be identical. Your Legendaries are exactly as strong as before.
Stuns, sleeps and other disables now last half as long on bosses, and an enemy always gets one swing in before it can be disabled again. If you see "Resisted", that's why! No more stun-locking, but stacking different disables still pays off.
Attack Speed now has a ceiling of 4 attacks per second. Buffs can still take you up to 6 for a while, though. If you had a higher attack speed before, your stats will be lower after this patch.
Necromancer's skeletons don't crumble after 30 seconds any more. They stick around until something kills them or you leave the dungeon, the same as the Druid's wolves and every other summon. Raising one now takes 5 seconds instead of under a second, so your bone army builds up over a few rooms rather than all at once.
Fixed:
Your active potions no longer sit on top of the top bar hiding the room counter. They now have their own little shelf right under it, and they stay put when you hide the party.
Hover a buff, debuff or summoned minion and the countdown keeps ticking instead of freezing at the second your cursor arrived.
A poison or burn ticking away on an enemy no longer makes the hero who applied it swing their weapon at thin air every time it deals damage.
Changed:
Gear effects can now belong to certain classes, and an item that rolls one says so. A Robe with a Pyromancer effect on it is a Pyromancer's Robe, and it will never drop for a party that cannot use it.
The bag's effect filter has a new "Trade-off" row for effects that give with one hand and take with the other, so you can hunt for them or avoid them.
New:
44 new gear effects to hunt for, and a new kind of gear on top of them. They are listed one by one below.
Warrior and Barbarian - Melee weapons - Concussive Strikes: Your critical hits knock the target senseless for 2 seconds. Nothing says "sit down" like a tank with a big stick.
Warrior and Barbarian - Armour - Challenger's Plate: Your first hit of every fight, and then every fifth hit, drags that monster's attention onto you for 3 seconds. Hits count, not swings, so a wide swing into three monsters pulls three.
Warrior and Barbarian - Armour - Juggernaut Plate: You take 20% less damage, but you swing 15% slower and your skills take 20% longer to come back. Your skills still last just as long.
Warrior and Barbarian - Accessories - Overkill Gauntlets: The damage your killing blow did not need, walks straight over to the nearest enemy. Nothing wasted on a corpse ever again. It only carries once, so no, you cannot wipe the room with one swing.
Warrior - Armour - Beacon Aegis: Every 8 seconds in a fight, every monster near you drops what it was doing and comes for you. Your squishy heroes will send a thank-you card.
Warrior - Armour - Bodyguard's Oath: 20% of every hit aimed at a friend lands on you instead, and your own armour applies to it. Your tank finally gets to be the reason nobody else died.
Warrior - Melee weapons - Warlord's Crest: Challenging Roar also heals you for 10% of your maximum health.
Barbarian - Melee weapons - Whirlwind Edge: Cleave catches five enemies instead of three.
Barbarian, Rogue and Ninja - Melee weapons - Executioner's Verdict: Any hit that leaves an enemy under 10% health finishes it on the spot. A Legendary one does that to bosses too.
Rogue and Ninja - Melee weapons - Twin Fang: Your basic attack strikes twice for 60% each. Everything that triggers on a hit now triggers twice as often.
Ninja - Accessories - Riposte Band: Every dodge leaves your next hit a guaranteed critical. Dodge finally does something other than not dying, and Silent Step and Smoke Screen suddenly look a lot more interesting.
Rogue - Melee weapons - Assassin's Edge: Backstab always lands a critical hit.
Ninja - Melee weapons - Thousand Cuts: Flurry strikes six times instead of four.
Necromancer and Ninja - Melee weapons - Doom Mark: Your hits mark an enemy, and three seconds later the mark goes off for 30% of everything you dealt them in the meantime, poison and burns included. Kill them before it lands and it goes off on the bodies around them instead. One mark per enemy, and hitting them again does not reset the clock, so keep swinging.
Mage - Magic weapons - Deep Freeze: Critical hits freeze the target solid for 2 seconds. It cannot act, and it cannot walk away either.
Mage - Magic weapons - Falling Sky: Meteor comes back 30% sooner.
Mage and Electromancer - Magic weapons - Gravity Well: Your critical hits yank every nearby enemy in toward whatever you just hit. Wonderful right before someone drops a Meteor on the pile. Bosses stand exactly where they are, as bosses do.
Mage and Bard - Accessories - Mesmer Orb: Every enemy you kill leaves another one confused for 3 seconds. Clear half a room and watch them start swinging at each other.
Electromancer - Magic weapons - Thunderhead: Every hit has a 10% chance to leave the target dazed and unable to act for 1.5 seconds. No crit needed.
Electromancer - Magic weapons - Stormcaller: Your basic attack jumps to two more enemies, each hit for 70% of the one before.
Electromancer - Magic weapons - Stormrider's Coil: Chain Lightning jumps two enemies further.
Pyromancer - Magic weapons - Conflagration: Flame Wave spreads wide enough to cover the room.
Pyromancer and Necromancer - Armour - Blood Pact: Your skills hit 30% harder, but every cast costs 5% of your maximum health. It can never kill you, but it will absolutely keep your healer busy.
Pyromancer and Necromancer - Magic weapons - Volatile Remains: Everything you kill explodes for 40% of your attack, and a blast that kills sets off the next one, up to three in a row.
Pyromancer, Rogue and Necromancer - Weapons - Wildfire Brand: When something dies burning or poisoned, the two enemies next to it catch it. Pair it with a poison or a burn and watch a room go up.
Necromancer - Magic weapons - Endless Ossuary: Keep six skeletons standing instead of four.
Druid and Necromancer - Accessories - Warden's Totem: Everything you summon takes 30% less damage, so your skeletons and wolves survive the fights that used to thin them out.
Druid and Necromancer - Accessories - Martyr's Bond: Every minion that falls, heals you for 8% of your maximum health. This and the Warden's Totem are the two ways to build around your summons, and since both are accessories you have to pick one: keep them alive, or cash them in.
Druid - Magic weapons - Packleader's Totem: Summon Pack brings a third wolf.
Cleric - Armour - Grace of Plenty: Healing that would have been wasted becomes a shield on whoever was healed, up to 25% of their maximum health. Your Cleric's overflow finally counts.
Cleric - Magic weapons - Mercy's Reach: Mend patches up your two most hurt heroes at the same time.
Cleric and Bard - Accessories - Guardian Angel: Once per dungeon, a hero who would die is brought straight back to full health, with a moment of invulnerability to get out of there. The party card shows whether you still have your save.
Ranger and Bard - Bows - Splitshot: Every shot splits, and your target and a second enemy each take 60%.
Ranger - Bows - Volleymaster's Quiver: Volley fires at two enemies instead of waiting for four.
Bard - Bows - Siren's Lute: Every hit has a 12% chance to confuse an enemy for 2.5 seconds. A confused enemy turns on the nearest monster instead of your party, and if it is the last one standing it just wanders about, looking puzzled.
Bard - Bows - Dreamer's String: Lullaby puts the two strongest enemies to sleep.
Melee weapons - Plunder: Every kill makes the party 10% richer for a few seconds, and it stacks three times. Clear a room fast and the whole pile pays out.
Magic weapons - Echo Staff: A 15% chance that the skill you just cast is ready again immediately. An echoed Meteor is a very good day.
Accessories - Glass Cannon: +25% Power, but you take 20% more damage. Glorious on someone the monsters cannot reach, terrifying on your tank.
Accessories - Miser's Pact: +30% gold for the whole party, paid for with 10% of the wearer's own Power. Put it on the hero you mind the least.
Accessories - Hourglass Pendant: Every kill takes a second off all your skill cooldowns. Lovely in the long fights where those cooldowns actually bite.
Accessories - Hourglass Chain: Every kill takes 0.75s off the skill cooldowns of a random party member, but never your own. Put it on whoever does the killing and your Cleric gets to heal again sooner. If the whole party wears one, everyone ends up paying everyone else.
Accessories - Aegis Band: Every fight starts with your shield topped up to 20% of your maximum health.
Accessories - Soul Lantern: Every enemy you kill has a 10% chance to rise again on your side as a pale Soul-Bound Skeleton. It sticks around until it falls or you leave the dungeon. A Legendary keeps two of them, and they show up on your hero's card like any other summon. Yes, your Warrior can have a pet skeleton now.
Shields are in! They sit in front of your health and take the hit first, and they last until you leave the dungeon or is spent. There is no cap, and every piece of gear gives its own shield on top of the others, so a build that stacks them can go as far as it likes. A shielded hero wears a soft glowing dome, and on the party card the shield fills the front of the health bar in its own blue, so you can see at a glance how much of that hero's pool it covers.
Casters have their own armour now: the Mystic Robe! And Barbarians can suit up in Steel Plate, while Ninjas, Rangers and Bards get to wear the Leather Vest.
Thanks for playing, and keep the feedback coming in the Discord server.
-VindR