Patch Notes Build 24 (Feb 24, 2015)

Build 24 (v0.3.1.2) is an update that was released on February 24, 2015.

The key features of this update are the town of Homestead and the quests and areas west of it, as well as the first stage of the faction system overhaul.

This build also included the usual slew of fixes, improvements and balancing adjustments. There are also some performance optimizations that should help most systems.

Major new features

 * The second chapter of Act 3 is now available! You can now enter Homestead and engage with its denizens, venturing forth into the lands west of the settlement.
 * The first stage of the faction overhaul has been implemented. You can now access the Faction window for information on the factions you've encountered. The faction system will be fully fleshed out in Build 25.
 * With this update to factions, vendors now offer discounts based on your faction status.
 * The main screen has been updated with a character list for improved character selection.

Art

 * Added new FX to Flashbang, Canister Bomb and Canister Bomb fragments to improve visibility while in-air.
 * Updated several textures for the prison building in Devil's Crossing.
 * Updated wood bridge texture.

Animation

 * Skeleton meshes no longer stretch upon ragdolling.

Tech

 * Character sheet DPS formula has been updated to better reflect the number of attacks performed per second. This has no impact on actual damage output.
 * Resistances on the character sheet are now appropriately reduced when hit by a Resistance Reduction type attack.
 * Fixed a bug when only hovering between items would not update the DPS change calculation.
 * Items that have fallen through level geometry should now be placed back on the ground after a short period.
 * Added Alpha to Coverage graphics option.
 * Character and monster light rigs now affect normal and specular maps.
 * Albrecht's Aether Ray and Conflagration are no longer blocked by friendly targets.
 * Added a skill cooldown timer so you can more easily see when a skill will be available.
 * Improved skill targeting for many ranged skills.
 * Fixed a bug where charge skills could cause the player character to become stuck.
 * Move To hotkey command will move towards an allied creature.
 * Casting a skill while in the process of being trapped will no longer interrupt that skill and prevent other skills from being cast.
 * Fixed odd NPC head bob when opening a dialogue conversation.
 * Slightly shortened Skill Not Ready message uptime.
 * Holding down a repeatable skill and moving will allow it to activate once you stop moving.
 * Fixed a bug where enemies with thrown projectiles were suffering from reduced accuracy.
 * Improved skill queuing system to eliminate some small but noticeable delays, and some issues when switching targets quickly.
 * Adjusted resource preloading system to be less aggressive and reduce CPU usage.
 * Improved performance of UI rendering by eliminating some memory thrashing scenarios.

Game

 * Veteran difficulty bonuses on enemies were increased.
 * Increased basic attack damage on many Hero spawns.
 * Rebalancing of enemies on Normal (that will also affect Veteran). There have been both global and individual adjustments. Primarily damage, movement, OA and DA have been adjusted to make combat feel a bit more dynamic with higher hit variability.
 * Many enemies have been given a pursuit dynamic where they will run up to the player at full speed but then revert to a slower run/walk as long as they are within a certain radius of the player. If the player moves outside this radius, enemies will return to full speed. This is a modification of the previous version where enemies immediately dropped to lower speed within a radius of the player. The new version should make enemies more threatening when closing from a distance but allows for a wider slow-pursuit radius that should give melee players more room for tactical movement around enemy groups.
 * Reduced the rate at which damage drops off due to low OA relative to target – affects both players and enemies.
 * Some monster spawns tightened a bit so that, on average, you'll tend to see some packs spawning closer together with a bit more of a gap to the next group of enemies. The number of some enemies spawns was increased slightly. In some cases the max is slightly higher, in others only the min was increased.
 * Increased character name size limit to 24 characters.
 * Removed % Reflect from Thorned Horrors, pierce retaliation increased to compensate.
 * Reduced frequency of stuns from Groble Stone Clan Geomancers.
 * Slightly increased drop rate of Dynamite from Scrap Piles, Cronley's Gang Arsonists and Ascended.
 * Physique now confers Life Regeneration at a rate of 1 point per every 25 points of Physique, beyond the starting 50.
 * Added new critical damage bonus that can appear on skills and rarely on select Epic items. The values of the default Critical Damage bonuses have been reduced to accommodate this shift.
 * Increased the PvP damage penalty to 70%, up from 50%.
 * For community translators: updated the quest offer text in NPC_TomHart_01.cnv.
 * Skills that do 100% weapon damage now say so on their tooltips (was previously hidden).

Itemization

 * Craftable potions can now rarely drop from bosses and heroes.
 * Found a bug where certain types of more common randomized loot objects like stumps, rock piles and such were running chance to spawn twice. Eliminated the second chance roll so that they should now spawn reliably at the set probability. In short, you should see more randomized common lootable objects.
 * Debuff effects applied via % Weapon Damage (ex. % Reduce Target's Resistances) are now capped at 100% Weapon Damage. This means that skills that deal more than 100% Weapon Damage will no longer amplify the strength of these effects.
 * Energy Drained has been renamed to Energy Burn to clarify that no transfer of energy occurs.
 * Frizzick's Utility Pack has been redesigned. This belt's versatile +1 to All Skills was difficult to pass up for many builds and stifled selection in that gear slot.
 * For the same reasons as Frizzick's Utility Pack, the stats on the Mask of Delirium have been revised.
 * Updated the stats on Possessed Human Monster Infrequent (MI) items. Drop rates of rare variants slightly increased.
 * Reduced Offensive and Defensive Ability values on the prefixes "Paladin's", "Seraphim" and "General's".
 * Slightly reduced % Total Damage values on the prefixes "Tyrant's" and "Officer's".
 * Replaced % Total Damage on the prefix "General's" with bonus Physique.
 * Removed bonus % Offensive Ability from the prefix "Menacing".
 * Reduced Poison resist values on the prefix "Incorruptible".
 * The suffix "the Dranghoul" has been split into an Armor-only version and an Accessory-only version. This suffix ended up being slightly over budget on accessories and significantly over budget on armor, and required adjustment. The Offensive and Defensive Ability values on this suffix have been reduced. Unfortunately the split into two affixes is not retroactive, so accessories already rolled with this suffix will have lower than intended values.
 * Reduced the Offensive Ability values on the suffixes "Onslaught", "Oleron's Wrath" and "Shadows".
 * Replaced the Cast Speed on the suffix "Voracity" with Attack Speed and slightly increased the values.
 * Slightly reduced % Attack Speed on the suffixes "Fervor", "Ferocity", "Wildfire" and "the Defiler".
 * Slightly reduced % Cast Speed on the suffix "Torrents".
 * Slightly reduced % Total Damage and % Attack Speed on the suffix "Onslaught".
 * Slightly reduced % Total Damage on the suffix "the Oracle".
 * Reduced % Total Damage on the suffix "Fury", but increased its Offensive Ability bonus.
 * Removed % Total Damage from the suffix "Bestial Rage", but the suffix now gives a larger bonus to pets and scales better on 2h weapons.
 * Removed % Total Damage from the suffix "the Wild", but it now also grants % Attack Speed to pets.
 * Updated the Aether Cluster consumable to grant 75% damage absorption for 10 seconds, instead of 90% damage absorption for 5 seconds.
 * Slightly increased % damage bonuses on items crafted from rare-quality blueprints.
 * Slightly increased the drop rate of the Dread Skull component.
 * The component skill Sacred Strike now converts 100% of physical damage into elemental damage.
 * Added Critical Damage bonus to component skills Slam and Lightning Strike.
 * The Severed Claw component now also gives 10% Trauma Damage.
 * The relic skill Conflagration now scales with Cast Speed, dealing damage more frequently with higher Cast Speed. Base damage interval has been increased from 0.25 s to 0.30 s. Energy cost is now calculated per damage interval instead of per second.
 * Adjusted the scaling on Salazar's Harbinger between tiers of the Salazar MI. The Harbinger's basic attack should now scale much better relative to the level of the weapon.
 * Adjusted the scaling on the Stalwart and Frenzied Guardians summoned by items. Their basic attacks should now scale much better relative to the item level.
 * The Revenant of Og'Napesh has received cardio lessons and now moves considerably faster.
 * For community translators: prefix tagPrefixAO009 has been renamed to "Draining".
 * For community translators: suffix tagSuffixB011_Ar_A has been renamed to "of the Grove".
 * For community translators: tagArmorClass02 has been changed to "Armor", along with removal of the word "Light" from all tagCraftRandomARMORSLOT_Light tags.

Soldier

 * Increased Blade Arc's animation speed. Also increased its bleed damage scaling and the % Weapon Damage scaling.
 * Added Critical Damage bonus to the Blade Arc modifier Laceration and its transmuter, Clean Sweep.
 * Markovian's Advantage now scales up to 30% activation chance by level 8. Also increased the scaling of Defensive Ability reduction to enemies.
 * Zolhan's Technique now scales up to 30% activation chance by level 8.
 * Added Critical Damage bonus to the Cadence modifier Fighting Form.
 * The Cadence modifier Deadly Momentum has been redesigned: now applies a short buff that increases damage dealt, effectively buffing all your non-Cadence attacks while active.
 * Fighting Spirit reworked to provide Critical Damage bonus and % Physical Damage instead of % Total Damage, % Life Regeneration instead of % Damage Absorption, a fixed % Offensive Ability, a fixed cooldown of 24 s and a slightly longer duration of 12 s.
 * Increased bonus Constitution scaling with rank on Veterancy, and the bonus scales up faster at low ranks.
 * Squad Tactics now increases Attack Speed, but provides less % Total Damage.
 * Menhir's Will now starts with a lower % Life heal but scales up faster to reach original values by max rank.
 * Overguard now starts with lower absorption and %DA values and scales faster in early levels to promote investment. There is also a fixed amount of +% Life regen.

Demolitionist

 * Increased the fire damage on Blackwater Cocktail with rank, but the damage is now a range. In addition, the skill now reduces Offensive Ability on afflicted targets.
 * Increased the scaling of Blackwater Cocktail's modifier Demon Fire.
 * The Blackwater Cocktail modifier Agonizing Flames has been redesigned: now also increases % Chaos Damage and reduces resistances on afflicted targets, instead of applying Fear and reducing damage dealt by afflicted targets.
 * Increased the number of fragments on the Fire Strike modifier Brimstone and slightly increased the fire damage dealt.
 * Increased the % bonuses on Ulzuin's Chosen. The chance of resetting the cooldown now scales from 3% to 25% with max rank.
 * Added Critical Damage bonus to Grenado's modifier High Impact.
 * Grenado damage reduced, most significantly at lower levels as it was far too powerful with just one point invested in the early game. Cooldown was increased by 0.5 s so that higher level damage could remain fairly significant. Radius was increased to 2.2 but remains relatively tight, with the idea that this skill should be oriented toward taking down tougher enemies instead of clearing fodder.
 * Increased fire damage scaling with rank on Thermite Mines.
 * Added Critical Damage bonus to the Fire Strike transmuter, Searing Strike.

Occultist

 * Increased scaling of the Hellhound's Cunning attribute with level.
 * Added Critical Damage bonus to the Dreeg's Evil Eye transmuter, Focused Gaze.
 * Doom Bolt cooldown reduced from 18 s to 15 s.
 * For community translators: Bonds of Bysmiel modifier, Devotion, has been renamed to Manipulation (tagClass03SkillName03B).

Nightblade

 * Reduced Shadow Strike's % Weapon Damage at the first rank but increased its scaling up to rank 5 until it catches up to the original values. Intention is to promote further investment in the skill.
 * Added Critical Damage bonus to the Shadow Strike modifier Nidalla's Justifiable Ends.
 * Added Critical Damage bonus to Amarasta's Quick Cut.
 * Reduced Phantasmal Blades % Weapon Damage scaling through max rank by 4% but added it to the ultimate ranks.
 * The % Weapon Damage penalty on Phantom Blades' transmuter, Frenetic Throw, has been increased. Increased the conversion rate of Pierce to Vitality.
 * Heart Seeker now has a % Bleed duration bonus. The Attack Damage Converted to Health has been reduced and the % Bleed Damage increased.
 * Added a chance to greatly increase Critical Damage to Lethal Gambit.
 * Amarasta's Blade Burst starts with lower % Weapon Damage but catches up to original values by level 5.
 * Added Critical Damage bonus to Lethal Gambit's modifier, Amarasta's Blade Burst.
 * The Ring of Steel transmuter, Ring of Frost, has been changed so that, instead of reducing pierce damage and increasing cold damage, it converts 75% of pierce damage to cold.

Arcanist

 * Albrecht's Aether Ray now scales with Cast Speed, dealing damage more frequently at higher Cast Speed. Base damage interval has been increased from 0.25 s to 0.30 s. Energy cost is now calculated per damage interval instead of per second.
 * Added Critical Damage bonus to Aether Ray.
 * Improved scaling at ultimate ranks on Aether Ray's modifier, Disintegration.
 * Slightly increased the elemental damage at higher ranks on Iskandra's Elemental Exchange.
 * Improved scaling on Iskandra's Elemental Exchange's modifier, Elemental Balance, to 90% at max rank, up from 75%.
 * Adjusted the values on the transmuter Manifestation for Iskandra's Elemental Exchange to -10%/-20%/-40% Elemental Damage for 30%/60%/120% pet Elemental Damage.
 * The Reckless Power transmuter, Unlimited Power, now grants bonus Critical Damage instead of % Total Damage.
 * Panetti's Replicating Missile elemental damage increased, especially at ultimate ranks, and energy cost bumped up slightly at higher ranks. Casting speed slightly increased.
 * Slightly increased the electrocute damage scaling with rank on Panetti's Replicating Missile modifier, Supercharged.
 * Reduced the fire damage scaling with rank on Callidor's Tempest, but the % Weapon Damage now scales better at ultimate ranks.
 * Slightly increased the burn damage scaling with rank on Callidor's Tempest's modifier, Inferno.
 * Increased the % Weapon Damage on the Callidor's Tempest transmuter, Wrath of Agrivix, to 30%.
 * The Trozan's Sky Shard modifier, Frozen Core, now has a 100% chance to freeze and deal frostburn damage. The frostburn damage scaling with rank has been slightly reduced and now lasts for 2 s instead of 3 s.
 * Added Critical Damage bonus to the Sky Shard modifier Shattered Star.
 * Increased the % Elemental Damage Reduction on Nullification at ultimate ranks.
 * Nullification now also removes damage over time effects off of allies.
 * Improved scaling at ultimate ranks on Arcane Will.
 * The Chilling Surge modifier, Absolute Zero, now slows for 5 s instead of 3 s.

v0.3.3.2 (b24 Hotfix 1) changes
A hotfix for Build 24 was released.


 * Fixed a crash on multiplayer clients caused by a monster pathing issue.
 * Fixed a sound related crash when exiting the game.
 * Fixed a pathing issue that could cause charge skills to become stuck.
 * Fixed a bug in the Soldier skill Deadly Momentum where the buff did not apply correctly to the player.
 * Fixed a bug where some set-granted skills would fail to work.
 * Fixed a bug where some older characters could not receive faction bonuses.

We'll be issuing further hotfix patches to fix some of the issues still remaining in B24 when the rest of the team returns from PAX.

v0.3.3.3 (b24 Hotfix 2) changes
Following the previous hotfix, Build 24 got a second hotfix.

Animation

 * One of the 2H weapon-type default attack animations reworked to feel more powerful (the right to left uppercut-style attack).
 * Wasps no longer stretch upon ragdolling.
 * Fixed an issue that caused casting speed when wielding 1h guns to be slower than intended for female characters.

Tech

 * Fixed a crash when viewing players in the multiplayer server browser.
 * Double clicking on a character in the character selection list now starts the game.

Game

 * Lower Crossing and Wightmire areas have gotten a visual upgrade with new trees and other adjustments.
 * Fixed an issue that could cause players to lose progress on the quest Road to Homestead.
 * Music has been updated in various Act 3 areas.
 * For community translators: Added additional dialogue to Edwin_02.cnv.

Itemization

 * Adjusted the visual FX of Elixirs so they are less intense when multiple are used together.

Soldier

 * Slightly adjusted physical bonuses on Deadly Momentum.

Demolitionist

 * Blackwater Cocktail fire damage increased – radius and energy cost slightly reduced.
 * Flame Touched activated energy cost reduced.

Nightblade

 * Amarasta's Quick Cut now correctly has a Critical Damage bonus.

Arcanist

 * Elemental Balance now increases electrical and coldburn damage by the same amount as burn damage.

v0.3.3.4 (b24 Hotfix 3) changes
Following the previous hotfixes, Build 24 got a third hotfix.

Tech

 * Fixed a bug where the Alpha to Coverage option would cause flickering when selecting targets.
 * Fixed a bug where the server browser would sometimes display incorrect server data.
 * Fixed a crash that could occur when inspecting lore notes when using community localizations.
 * Fixed a bug where multi-line text could be displayed on a single line when using community localizations.

Game

 * Fixed an issue with Luther Graves spawning in two locations at the same time.
 * Fixed a dialogue issue with Luther Graves that could make him unresponsive to the quest.
 * Updated the boss area in Tyrant's Hold to prevent an exploit with the portcullis.