Patch Notes Build 17 (Feb 26, 2014)

Build 17 (v0.2.3.0) is an update that was released on February 26, 2014. It has received a hotfix, v0.2.3.4.

The primary focus for the update was the release of Act 2, as well as a substantial revision of the Nightblade mastery (that may have resulted in loss of skill points and/or an invalid skill point assignment).

Art

 * Added icon for the Inventor.
 * Updated HUD with new design and animated resource bars.
 * Updated in-game UI (character sheet, smuggler, vendors, etc).
 * Updated Act 1 house textures.

Tech

 * Added codex page to the quest log window to store collected notes.
 * Added in-world item comparison tooltips. (Hold Alt and hover over an item on the ground.)
 * Added "move" keybinding. Press and hold to move to the location of the mouse cursor.
 * Added "force move" keybinding. Hold to prevent targeting of enemies and objects.
 * Added gender support for localizations.
 * Added pet icons for aggressive/normal/defensive states.
 * Added the world map to the local map UI, which has been resized.
 * Added a larger minimap toggle to the top right of the screen which displays a larger area.
 * Components can now be combined regardless of whether you meet the level requirements or not.
 * Fixed a bug where the hotbar would fail to reload correctly when it contained multiple skills of the same type.
 * Fixed a bug where skills on the hotbar would fail to work if a component was moved between items.
 * Fixed a bug where enemies would get up incorrectly after being knocked down.
 * Fixed a bug where skills which target in an arc would fail to hit additional enemies.
 * Fixed a bug where monster pets would display incorrect death behavior when the master was killed.
 * Fixed a bug where NPC quest punctuation would be updated incorrectly.
 * Fixed a bug where monsters were unable to resummon pets in a timely manner.
 * Fixed a bug where mouse clicks could be registered by windows behind the skill pick area.
 * Fixed a bug where pet skills would display incorrect pet stats for the skill level.
 * Fixed an issue with Physique and Spirit from mastery not granting additional Health/Energy, respectively.

Game

 * Some one-shot chests have been removed in Act 1.
 * Rare and Epic drop rates have been improved on bosses and heroes.
 * Hero spawn rates have been increased.
 * The experience formula has been adjusted to scale better into the higher levels. You may notice existing characters suddenly gaining a level or two.
 * You'll now get a small experience bonus for collecting lore objects / notes.
 * Adjusted mastery life per level to account for fix to physique life bonus. Total life is still a bit higher for each class.
 * The Strange Key now grants a short quest reminding you to use it. Consequently, this means the key will stop dropping after you open the door. Characters that already opened the door will stop getting more keys to drop if they loot a key.
 * The Inventor finally received that voice surgery she desperately needed.
 * Challenge areas: Some side dungeons meant to be especially challenging can now have a level offset, so that they spawn enemies and loot as though the player were higher level. Spawns will still be capped at a min/max for that area if the player is above or below that range. Example: Player is level 20, dungeon has offset of +2, it will spawn enemies and loot as though the player were level 22.
 * A new hero archetype has been added: Frozen. This type of hero is mostly prevalent in Act 2, though you may encounter it in Act 1 as well.
 * Giant Mosquitoes, Wasps, Spiders and Harpies are now easier to target with ranged abilities.
 * Nightblade: Shifted some mastery bonuses in favor of life to increase durability.
 * Nightblade: Increased protection on phantasmal armor.
 * Nightblade: Increased frostburn damage on Night's Chill.
 * Nightblade: Slight boost to Shadow Dance's avoid attacks / projectiles and changed +%OA to +%DA.
 * Nightblade: Increased bleed on Heart Seeker and added %pierce.
 * Nightblade: There is a new tier 1 melee attack called Lethal Gambit and corresponding tier 4 modifier, Amarasta's Blade Burst. It occupies the space Blade Trap was previously.
 * Nightblade: Blade Trap now has a radius effect, trapping the target and any adjacent enemies. The new more powerful version has taken Blade Swarm's place.
 * Nightblade: Blade Swarm removed from mastery to make way for Lethal Gambit. Blade Swarm didn't fit well as it was a little too casterish and also difficult to balance so that it wasn't either useless or outclassed other skills.
 * Nightblade: Belgothian's Shears now causes 1.5s stun to enemies.
 * Nightblade: Dual Blades is now a passive skill (as opposed to weapon pool with chance to proc) that enables dual wield and provides a constant pierce / %pierce bonus.
 * Nightblade: Pneumatic Burst heal scaling increased slightly and pierce / %pierce replaced with %total dmg since the former was redundant with the new Dual Blades.
 * Nightblade: Nightfall and Phantasmal Blades have each been moved up a tier as part of the restructuring.
 * Soldier: Increased energy cost for Blitz and Forcewave, reduced %wpn dmg to Forcewave.
 * Soldier: Increased starting damage on Forcewave.
 * Soldier: Adjusted Markovian's Advantage to provide higher initial damage with absolute physical and a flat weapon damage %.
 * Soldier: Reduced duration of regen on Will to Live by 1s.
 * Soldier: Reduced scaling on Military Conditioning and Decorated Soldier.
 * Occultist: Shifted some acid dmg from Blood Burst into poison.
 * Occultist: Increased pet health slightly.
 * Occultist: Reduced life steal on Sigil of Consumption.
 * Demolitionist: Shifted % weapon dmg from Fire Strike to Explosive Strike so that the radius damage would benefit from it. In place, Fire Strike gains % physical dmg.
 * Demolitionist: Increased speed of all projectiles.
 * Demolitionist: Grenado cool-down reduced by .5s and radius increased slightly.
 * Demolitionist: Blackwater Cocktail energy cost increased and damage slightly reduced.
 * Demolitionist: Mastery bonuses shifted a bit in favor of life / physique to make class a little less squishy.
 * Demolitionist: Increased health regen on Vindictive Flame.
 * Demolitionist: Stun Jacks cooldown reduced from 3s to 2.5s.
 * Demolitionist: Added 50% chance of 1.5s stun to Canister Bomb.
 * Demolitionist: Added a small slowing component to Flashbang.
 * Weapon Damage: Increased rate at which base weapon damage scales up.
 * Enemies: adjustments to life and base physical damage.
 * 2h Guns: Increased damage to a level more befitting the 2-hand requirement.
 * The following components had their stats adjusted: Aether Soul, Arcane Lens, Arcane Spark, Dread Skull, Hollowed Fang, Mark of Illusions, Mark of the Myrmidon, Restless Remains, Shard of Beronath, Spellwoven Threads.
 * Guardsman's Spaulders' Will to Live granted skill has been rebalanced and renamed.
 * New Epic gloves have been added to the 10-20 range (Embergrip Handguards).
 * New Epic sword has been added to the 10-20 range (Willie's Razor).
 * Slightly reduced run speed bonuses on items.
 * Chance on effects on some rare affixes have been shifted around so that loot will never generate two skill procs on one item.
 * Affixes affected by this change are: Devastating, Survivalist's, Overseer's, of Fury, Houndmaster's, Sandstorm, Glacial, Thunderstruck.
 * 7 new rare affixes were added to accommodate these shifts.

Art

 * New Nightblade "Lethal Gambit" skill animation.
 * New Nightblade "Blade Barrier" skill animation.
 * Vultures now have a new "Vomit" skill and animation.

Tech

 * Fixed a pathing bug where opening doors which made them impassable.
 * Fixed a bug where doors could sometimes be used at too large a range.
 * Fixed a locale bug when using localization string recapitalization.
 * Fixed a bug where skills could experience an excessive delay when firing.
 * Weapon-based attack skills (Lethal Gambit/etc) now use the default weapon attack when cooling down.
 * Fixed a bug where RMB assigned skills could be re-fired when performing other actions.
 * Fixed a bug where objects with attached fx would disappear on the edges of the player view frustum.
 * Fixed a bug where ranged weapon hits were causing weak physics behavior.
 * Added dutch font set (fonts=NL).
 * Removed "item comparison" option (now always shown).
 * Added "auto item tooltips" option. Enables automatically showing item tooltips for in world items.
 * Removed show loot/filter broken keybind.
 * Added show item tooltips keybind.
 * NPC Dialog sounds now use the dialog volume level rather than soundfx volume.
 * Friendly pets are no longer targetable when not using the target pet keybind.
 * Fixed a bug where npc merchants could generate the same items.
 * Fixed a bug where destructibles would drop unseeded items.
 * Fixed an issue with one-shot chests that would cause them not to drop a guaranteed Epic (this issue was new in the 30+ level range).

Game

 * Updated epic item loot tables. The level range scaled poorly into the 40's, resulting in level 20 epics dropping from level 45 monsters.
 * Updated spirit requirements on rings and necklaces, reducing them by 20-30%, particularly at higher levels.
 * Percent Physique, Cunning, Spirit, Offensive Ability and Defensive Ability bonuses on gear have been reduced.
 * Absolute Offensive Ability and Defensive Ability on gear has been rebalanced. This primarily affects equipment of level 25 and above.
 * Removed Offensive Ability affixes from Shield loot tables. With the exception of some uniques, shields will no longer generate Offensive Ability in their stats. This change is not retroactive and only affects drops in B17 and beyond.
 * Soldier: Increased %physical dmg on Decorated Soldier, while reducing %total damage on Squad Tactics.
 * Demolitionist: Fixed an issue with Flashbang's Searing Light not working. The fumble component of the skill was rebalanced now that it actually works.
 * Occultist: Hellhound's Hellfire aura is now a radius buff with +%fire, +%burn and fire retaliation.
 * Experience formula that determines how much experience is gained from killing enemies has been adjusted to slow down leveling. Based on the results, further adjustment may be required. This change shouldn't affect current character levels.
 * Fixed an imbalance in the Regenerator hero archetype which caused it to regenerate too fast for most builds to handle.
 * Fixed an issue with the Sunken Reliquary where the boss room was inaccessible.
 * Fixed an issue with the Magistrate's Censor skill Fear not working and updates the skill's stats/name.