Patch Notes Build 30 (Jan 13, 2016)

Build 30 is an update that was released on January 13, 2016. This update included substantial changes to skills across all masteries, as well as many other changes.

The developers announced the following build, B31, would remove the Reckless Power transmuter, Unlimited Power. Additionally, players might have needed to reassign skills to certain celestial powers due to changes to the devotion system.

Major new features

 * A tuning pass has been done on all masteries to improve underperforming skills and general performance.
 * Added devotion shrine world map icons. If you discover a shrine, but do not restore it, its location will be marked on the world map. When you restore the shrine, it will be checked off.

Animation

 * Added a new animation for Flame Breath skill from the Mask of Infernal Truth item.
 * Added a new animation for Shadowflame skill from the Shadowflame Mantle item.

Art

 * Updated the artwork for Cairn's world map.

Tech

 * Fixed a crash when opening the options menu on a system with no detectable network adapters.
 * Fixed full component stacks creating duplicate full stacks when auto-completing components.
 * Fixed certain blueprints that would not work properly with different-level monster infrequent items.
 * Fixed shrine offerings that would use multiples of the same item.
 * Completed component icons are now more distinct compared to partial components.
 * Skill modifiers that require specific weapon types will no longer be applied if the appropriate weapons are not equipped, which could cause a loss of damage (e. g. the Tremor transmuter).
 * Fixed conversion on buffs not being included in DPS comparison calculations.
 * Fixed secondary pet skills overwriting celestial powers attached to base pet skills.
 * Holding CTRL while comparing weapon DPS will now also hide augments.
 * Fixed buffs/debuffs created from celestial powers not using their appropriate level.

Game

 * The Loghorrean encounter has received a tuning pass. On Normal/Veteran difficulty, the boss now summons chthonians with reduced frequency and the summons have less health. The tentacle summons have had their health reduced and no longer cast additional Void Zones. The Void Zones last for a shorter duration. The amount of Chaos and Vitality damage dealt by the boss has been reduced. On Elite/Ultimate difficulty, the boss has received a slight damage bonus on several of its abilities, and some of its spawns are now more dangerous. On all difficulties: diversified the damage dealt by the boss's summons so that a more general spread of resistances will be required rather than stacking Chaos and Vitality resistance. The boss's Chaos Barrage now deals a combination of Fire and Chaos damage, instead of Vitality and Chaos damage. The area in front of the boss has been slightly enlarged, and more pets can now target it at the same time.
 * Added an additional chest to the Loghorrean as reward for overcoming the challenge.
 * Ultimate difficulty enemy offensive ability and defensive ability scaling reduced. Enemy life and damage bonuses reduced. Slight adjustments to Ultimate as well.
 * Destroying the 3 blood wagons now opens the final crypt permanently. It is now possible to destroy the blood wagons across multiple sessions for the quest without having to destroy all 3 again.
 * It is no longer possible to open riftgates within the chamber of the Loghorrean, but a shortcut now opens to the area upon defeating Bloodlord Thalonis and takes the player to and from the tomb entrance.
 * Legendary item drop rates have been adjusted based on difficulty. They are now significantly reduced on Normal/Veteran difficulty, remain the same as before on Elite difficulty, and have been increased by about 40% on Ultimate difficulty.
 * Special chests in challenge dungeons (e. g. the big chest after the final boss) now have an increased chance of dropping Legendary items to equalize them with the effort required.
 * Due to their comparably limited spawn locations (in relation to other Nemesis bosses), the Nemesis spawns for the Kymon's Chosen and Order of Death's Vigil no longer have a 100% chance to appear.
 * Epic item drop rates are now slightly increased on Elite difficulty, and then increased again on Ultimate difficulty.
 * Fixed an issue with the quest The Bane of Cairn not rewarding a Legendary item if the player was too low level to receive one. The list of Legendary items that can be received from this quest has been reduced.
 * Slightly increased drop rate of Manticore Eye from Boss and Hero manticores. Doubled the drop rate from Champion manticores.
 * The Avatar of Mogdrogen is now easier on Normal difficulty, but instead drops an Epic version of his unique shoulders. He will continue to drop the Legendary shoulders on Elite and Ultimate difficulty.
 * To help emphasize the function and relative power of each, "%Total Damage" and "Damage Modified by %" have been changed to "%All Damage" and "Total Damage Modified by %" respectively.
 * Fixed an issue with shortcut rifts (e. g. Obsidian Throne, final boss) disappearing if the area is unloaded.
 * Increased spawns from corrupted devotion shrines on Elite and Ultimate difficulty, with the exception of the Steps of Torment shrine, which had its armada of Bone Golems toned down.
 * Increased the level gap between the player level and monster level before which rare crafting materials stop dropping by 10, making it feasible to farm up crafting materials on Elite before needing to move on to Ultimate.
 * Diversified damage dealt by Chthonian enemies so that they are not almost exclusively Chaos and Vitality damage.
 * Reduced stun, freeze and other crowd-control effect resistances on heroes and bosses. Those without 100% resistance will stay stunned, etc. a little longer, some of those that are immune have been brought lower, so that with resist debuffs, they can become stunnable, etc.
 * Player default attack and cast speed slightly increased.
 * Loxmere Nightmage energy burn reduced, and spawn set so that he will only appear at level 60+.
 * Fixed a potential cause of the obsidian gate past the Fields of Despair getting stuck in a visually locked position.
 * Fixed an issue with nemesis troves remaining locked if the associated nemesis is killed while pulled far enough away from the chest for it to become unloaded.

Itemization

 * Performed a sweep on Magical affix loot tables, pruning generally undesirable combinations by level 20-30. For example, level 25+ Magic weapons will always roll something that increases damage. Magic medals and belts can now also roll % Damage bonuses.
 * Rare-quality item drop rates increased by 30% at level 55+ from all sources.
 * Faction armor augments can now also be applied to belts.
 * Slightly increased shield physique requirements in the mid-levels.
 * Shield recovery time on shield items increased by around 20%.
 * Increased flat and % damage bonus values on all two-handed guns by 15%.
 * Increased the chance of rolling Rare affixes from crafting by 30% and the chance of crafting a double Rare by 25%.
 * Rare - Squire's Handguards: replaced % Block Recovery with % Shield Damage Blocked.
 * Faction - Survivor's Resilience: replaced % Block Recovery with % Health.
 * Crafting - simplified the blueprints for low-level Epic items.
 * Crafting - minor update for Shard of Beronath and Prismatic Diamond to replace duplicate material requirements in the blueprints.
 * Component - Mark of Dreeg: reduced duration of poison damage on granted skill, slightly reduced damage.
 * Component - Shard of Beronath: reduced % All Damage on skill, but added % Elemental Damage, removed Offensive Ability bonus.
 * Components: increased projectile speed on: Ice Spike, Greater Ice Spike, Fireblast, Greater Fireblast, Poison Bomb, and Noxious Poison Bomb.
 * Relic - Avenger: replaced % Block Chance bonus with 5% Defensive Ability, increased % Elemental Damage to 50%. Ability now triggers on hit rather than on block.
 * Relic - Aegis: ability now triggers on attack rather than on block, cooldown slightly increased.
 * Relic - Bysmiel's Domination: increased duration and reduced cooldown on skill. Skill now also grants 30% resistance to Physical and Elemental damage for the player.
 * Relic - Oleron's Wrath: reduced Offensive Ability to 50.
 * Relic - Menhir's Bastion: replaced % Defensive Ability with 4% Block Chance, reduced % Shield Damage Blocked to 30%.
 * Relic - Primal Instinct: sped up the spawn-in of the swarmlings and increased their toughness against all damage.
 * Relic - Troll Rage: slightly increased Physical Damage bonus and reduced Offensive Ability penalty on skill, but removed % Attack Speed bonus.

Legendary items

 * Legendary items have received a tuning pass. Most received various buffs or improvements to their stat distribution or skill allocation. This does not mean that Legendary items will never be adjusted again. We will continue to monitor feedback and make changes based on any issues that arise.
 * Fixed a variety of issues relating to Legendary item skills (e. g. broken durations, missing summons, unusually low damage, missing/incorrect text, etc.)
 * Adjusted the item table for Legendaries so that level 50 Legendary items can still drop at max level.
 * Added a new level 75 Legendary sword (Reaver's Claw) for Physical/Pierce builds.
 * Added a new level 75 Legendary 4-piece set (Trozan's Ascension) for Cold/Lightning build favoring Arcanist and Shaman. The art for this set will be finalized in Build 31.
 * Added a new level 75 Legendary 4-piece set (Valdun's Treachery) for Pierce/Physical two-handed ranged builds favoring Soldier and Demolitionist. The art for this set will be finalized in Build 31.

Classes and skills

 * Taunt mechanics have been updated to be more effective. War Cry now taunts affected enemies while other skills generate additional threat (e. g. Clean Sweep, Hellhound's Fire Claw, Briarthorn's Slam).

Devotion

 * Note: Due to changes to the devotion system, you may need to reassign skills to certain Celestial Powers.
 * Aeon's Hourglass: added % Aether Resist.
 * Blind Sage: added % Cold, Fire and Lightning Resists.
 * Chariot of the Dead: reduced Offensive Ability bonuses.
 * Dying God: added % Chaos Resistance.
 * Leviathan: added % Cold Resistance and % Health.
 * Obelisk of Menhir: reduced % Shield Damage Blocked to 30%, increased Defensive Ability, Stun Resist and Freeze Resist.
 * Mogdrogen the Wolf: reduced % Offensive Ability for pets to 5%, added % Vitality and % Elemental Resist for the player.
 * Oklaine's Lantern: reduced Offensive Ability bonuses.
 * Oleron: added % Pierce Resist.
 * Raven: reduced % Offensive Ability for pets to 5%.
 * Shieldmaiden: reduced % Armor Absorption, % Block Chance and % Shield Damage Blocked.
 * Spear of the Heavens (constellation): added % Aether and % Lightning Resist.
 * Targo the Builder: reduced % Shield Damage Blocked to 20% and reduced Defensive Ability.
 * Tree of Life: added additional Health Regen.
 * Ulzuin's Torch: added % Chaos and Fire Resist.
 * Unknown Soldier: added % Health and Health Regeneration.
 * Blizzard: slightly reduced damage.
 * Elemental Storm: proc rate increased to 25%, now also reduced Elemental Resistance on affected enemies.
 * Healing Rain: now activates on Any Hit rather than on Block.
 * Living Shadow: increased damage.
 * Meteor Shower: now drops several waves over a duration rather than a single wave. Damage adjusted accordingly.
 * Spear of the Heavens (skill): increased proc rate to 50%, added 1 s Stun.
 * Trample: increased cooldown to 1 s, slightly reduced % Weapon Damage.
 * Time Stop: increased proc rate to 30%, from 25%.
 * Tsunami: % Weapon Damage now scales slightly with rank, but starts lower.
 * Whirlpool: increased damage.
 * Fixed an issue with Wendigo Totem not triggering the Bat Fangs celestial power.

Soldier

 * Soldier mastery life bonus reduced from 30 per point to 28 while energy has increased from 8 to 10.
 * Menhir's Will: cooldown now decreases with rank to 16 s at rank 16, 12 s at max ultimate rank. To balance this, duration has been cut from 10 s to 8 s.
 * Markovian's Advantage: Defensive Ability reduction amount increased in the first two ranks (which also bumped up later ranks), physical damage scaling increased, and animation speed increased.
 * Blade Arc: animation speed increased slightly.
 * Discord: bonuses updated. Now converts up to 50% of physical damage to elemental.
 * Veterancy: Health Regeneration increased at higher ranks, significantly at ultimate ranks.
 * Forcewave: Physical Damage scaling with rank increased.
 * Tremor: reduced % Weapon Damage penalty on from -75% to -70% and damage modifier from -30% to -20%.
 * Military Conditioning: % Health bonus decreased, % Physique increased moderately.
 * Oleron's Rage: % Attack Speed moved back to Squad Tactics, and % Offensive Ability slightly reduced.
 * Squad Tactics: % Attack Speed returned, % Movement Speed shifted to Oleron's Rage.
 * Overguard: Block Recovery now starts lower but scales more quickly in early ranks. Starting Health Regen also reduced to promote early investment.
 * Shield Training: Block Chance and Block Recovery moderately reduced. Physical Damage bonus slightly reduced.
 * Blindside: Enemy Damage Reduction removed as it was redundant with War Cry, and the skill is powerful enough without it.
 * War Cry: Enemy Damage Reduction scaled down.

Demolitionist

 * Blackwater Cocktail: damage increased slightly, and max radius scaled up from 5 m to 5.8 m.
 * Fire Strike: damage scaling with rank increased.
 * Explosive Strike: % Weapon Damage scaling with rank increased. % Chance of Physical Damage now scales with rank, instead of being a flat 33%.
 * High Impact: resistance reduction removed. This modifier seems compelling enough without resistance reduction, and it reduced the value of the debuff on other skills.
 * Lightning Arc: Lightning and % Fire Damage significantly increased.
 * Brimstone: Fire and Chaos Damage significantly increased. Fragment number scales higher.
 * Demon Fire: % Burn Damage and Armor Reduction scaling with rank increased.
 * Stun Jacks: Physical and Lightning Damage increased.
 * Quick Jacks: Damage modifier adjusted relative to base skill damage changes. Energy reduction increased.
 * Full Spread: Electrocute Damage increased. Internal Trauma damage added. Max projectile count decreased by 1.
 * Canister Bomb: Damage slightly reduced, Cooldown adjusted from 7.5 s to 8 s, and fragments now have a min number 2 less than the max.
 * Concussive Bomb: Transmuter Stun duration adjusted down, Reduced Damage Modification increased by 5% higher at max rank.
 * Grenado: Radius slightly increased, Physical and Pierce Damage increased. Physical damage range tightened up for greater consistency.
 * High Impact: Fire Damage now starts lower but scales to a higher max, and the chance of % Physical starts higher and now scales to 75%, up from 50%.
 * Thermite Mine: Damage and radius increased. Added chance to cause Fear.
 * Mortar Trap: Attack rate increased.
 * Ulzuin's Chosen: % Damage Bonuses increased.
 * Vindictive Flame: Radius slightly increased.
 * Blast Shield: converted to a skill that activates on 75% health, providing a significant defensive boost for a short duration.

Occultist

 * Summon Familiar - Mend: flat heal scaling boosted at mid and higher ranks.
 * Blood of Dreeg: cooldown reduced from 24 s to 12 s, allowing it to be continuously active. % Heal now scales from 15% to 25% by rank 16 and 30% at max ultimate rank, and regen scaling reduced slightly.
 * Armor of the Guardian: Poison Resistance now scales to 100% by rank 12 and 150% by max ultimate rank.
 * Solael's Witchfire: Chaos Conversion swapped with Consecrated Blade's % Offensive Ability bonus, % Poison Damage increased. It seemed better to make the conversion optional.
 * Consecrated Blade: % Offensive Ability swapped for Chaos Conversion, added % Fire Damage bonus.
 * Bloody Pox: Bleed and % Current Life damage scaling increased while cooldown and contagion interval has been reduced.
 * Wasting: Vitality Damage slightly increased.
 * Possession: has been converted into a toggled exclusive buff skill.
 * Sigil of Consumption: radius now scales up with level.

Nightblade

 * Shadow Dance: dodge and deflect values increased slightly.
 * Elemental Awakening: Cold Resist changed to Elemental Resist.
 * Phantasmal Blades and its transmuter have been reverted to their original form, where the transmuter, renamed Frenetic Throw, removes cooldown. The skill and transmuter have received corresponding damage and penalty adjustments. It was always preferred that the skill should work that way, but prior to the addition of Total Damage Modification, it was not possible to adequately balance the transmuter.
 * Lethal Gambit: Pierce and Cold damage increased, and range on the Cold Damage removed for greater consistency. Cooldown reduced from 2.5 s to 2 s.
 * Blade Spirit: Attack Aura damage and Blade Shower damage increased significantly.
 * Veil of Shadows: Radius scaling increased from 5 m to 6 m at max rank.
 * Ring of Steel: Range increased slightly.
 * Phantasmal Armor: Energy Leech retaliation increased, Pierce Resist increased, and Freeze Resist added.
 * A minor to moderate damage trim has been undertaken to Dual Blades, Belgothian's Shears, Amarasta's Quick Cut, Whirling Death, and Execution to bring down Nightblade clear speed a little.

Arcanist

 * Reckless Power and its modifier, Ascendance, have been redesigned as exclusive skills intended for Aether/Fire and Cold/Lightning builds respectively. Both exclusive skills are in Tier 9.
 * The Reckless Power transmuter, Unlimited Power, no longer affects any skill and will be removed with Build 31.
 * Proliferation has had its damage significantly increased. These additional fragments now deal Aether damage and are visually distinct from the regular fragments. Moved to Tier 8.
 * Conversion: bonus values adjusted so the skill does not give such a large return at a single point. Bonuses scale up to their original values by rank 12 and remain unchanged at ultimate ranks.
 * Maiven's Sphere of Protection: Projectile Avoidance removed. %Cast Speed penalty and -%All Damage replaced with scaling Total Damage Modified by -%. Damage absorption now scales less quickly to 25% at rank 12. Previously, this skill only really penalized casters and was too attractive for melee.
 * Olexra's Flash Freeze: freeze duration increased, radius expanded from 10 to 16 meters at max rank, damage increased, and cooldown reduced.
 * Devastation is now truly devastating and launches multiple waves of projectiles at intervals over a duration as the fight goes on.

Shaman

 * Wendigo Totem: % Heal increased.
 * Mogdrogen's Pact: Health Regeneration increased slightly.
 * Heart of the Wild: % Health scaling with rank increased.
 * Oak Skin: Pierce Resist and Armor scaling with rank increased. Added % Health Regeneration bonus.
 * Devouring Swarm: Bleed Damage and Damage Converted to Health increased.
 * Primal Strike: the Area of Effect aspect of this skill now functions with two-handed ranged weapons, and damage has been increased.
 * Torrent: now strikes from the initial target hit by Primal Strike rather than from the caster.
 * Thunderous Strike: can now be used with two-handed ranged weapons, and the % Weapon Damage and % Total Damage Modifier penalties have been reduced.
 * Emboldening Roar: % All Damage and Offensive Ability increased, Physical and Vitality Resist added. Duration and cooldown reduced.

v0.3.7.5 (b30 hotfix 1) changes
A hotfix for Build 30 was released.

Tech

 * Fixed an issue causing a crash when refreshing the internet server browser list.
 * Fixed a bug where the player could occasionally become stuck when picking up items.
 * Fixed a bug where the default camera zoom key would set the wrong zoom level.

Game

 * Run Speed cap bumped up to 135%.
 * Reduced Offensive and Defensive ability scaling on Heroes and Bosses at higher levels.
 * Probability to hit formula adjusted. Equal OA / DA on an attacker / defender will result in a 90% chance to hit, up from 85%. The rate at which chance to miss or hit / crit increases as the difference in attack OA and defender DA grows has been reduced. Crit multiplier thresholds have been reduced so that they're about the same or not much harder to hit than before. The primary purpose of the change is to reduce the overall percentage of attacks that will crit, while still allowing for big crits, just less frequently. Another reason overall crit chance needed to come down is that +%crit damage bonus from items has made it much more powerful to land any tier crit. For us to continue to allow big crit multipliers, the frequency of crits needed to be scaled back. This will also help lower OA builds more easily maintain a reasonable chance to hit since equal OA/DA chance is now 5% higher and chance to miss increases less quickly if you fall below that. Another positive side effect will be less crits / less severe crits from enemies in ultimate.
 * With the probability to hit formula adjustment, we will do a future pass to adjust OA / DA bonuses in devotions and possibly gear so that builds without skill based bonuses will have a little better access to OA and DA.
 * Cunning and Spirit damage bonus scaling has been increased by about 10% to give these stats a little more value in higher difficulties relative to Physique.
 * Fixed an issue with the Avatar of Mogdrogen not spawning
 * Fixed certain cases that could cause the quests The Bane of Cairn, Blood Harvest, Securing Burrwitch, and The Warden to disappear from the player's quest log. Affected players should get their quest back if they visit the town hub that starts the quest.
 * Fixed an issue with the Bloody Pox skill not spreading.
 * Fixed an issue with the bounty for Bane'Gargoth not completing. This will cause your bounty for the Black Legion to reset if you are currently on it.
 * The Kymon's Chosen and Order of Death's Vigil Nemesis bosses once again have a 100% chance to spawn but instead have chests with a reduced item drop rate compared to other Nemesis bosses.

Itemization

 * Dismantling now has a small chance (higher with item quality) to generate Rare crafting materials (e. g. Blood of Ch'thon) and a very low chance of generating a Skeleton Key.
 * Added some Spirit to the Beastcaller's Shroud and Shoulderpads to compensate for the removal of spirit from the Cowl.
 * Necromancer's Deathgrips: increased damage and speed of the bound spirits. Bound spirits are also now nearly impervious to damage, but generate minimal threat.

Devotion

 * Fixed Wendigo Totem not activating Guardian's Gaze and Falcon Swoop.

Arcanist

 * Fixed the lack of scaling at ultimate ranks for Maiven's Sphere of Protection.

v0.3.7.5 (b30 hotfix 2) changes
Following the previous hotfix, Build 30 got a second hotfix.

Tech

 * Fixed a bug where Primal Strike would cost extra mana when using ranged weapons.
 * Fixed a bug where Devastation would use extra mana with high cooldown reduction modifiers.

Game

 * To-hit formula adjusted again. This time we're trying a hybrid formula that draws part of its value from a tweaked original formula that is more linear, with a bit of more comparative equation for a slight diminishing return. The starting crit threshold has been reduced. This should boost crit chance for everyone relative to the previous formula, but relative to the older formula, it should be easier for builds with lower OA (unless it's really bad) to hit and crit, while stacking OA will not get you to quite as high of a hit chance as it would previously.
 * Difficulty has been adjusted to compensate for past changes to combat formula and attribute damage bonuses that inadvertently boosted enemy damage too high.
 * Loxmere Nightmage got nerfed a bit. Originally his energy burn was too punishing for casters but when we nerfed it, it took down his damage dealing too much.

Arcanist

 * Reduced %OA scaling on Inner Focus. We've made several other skill balancing changes but we're still selectively syncing because too much WIP content is checked into the build for a full sync. This was the only skill that seemed so bad it warranted a special sync for this hotfix, mainly because it's one of the biggest, most accessible sources of OA, favored by crit-focused builds.