Patch Notes Build 28 (Nov 25, 2015)

Build 28 is an update that was released on November 25, 2015. This update included the devotion system and the areas leading beyond the Darkvale Gate to Fort Ikon.

The developers announced their plans to release the rest of Act 4, including the Necropolis and the final dungeon with the final boss.

Major new features

 * The area beyond the Darkvale Gates has been unlocked, granting you access to the Black Legion stronghold of Fort Ikon and the wilderness around it.
 * The devotion system is now available. Venture out into the world and uncover shrines dedicated to the deities and celestial symbols of old. Restore them to their former glory in order to harness their power and unlock new bonuses and effects.
 * The devotion system is the final layer of character customization in Grim Dawn, offering you a staggering amount of choices to augment your builds and add your personal touch, helping make your builds even more unique. Spend up to 50 points in the Devotion UI across 434 stars and unlock 50 unique celestial powers!
 * With the release of new areas to explore, the level cap has been increased to 60.

Art

 * Caster weapon art updated to feel more appropriate for melee combat, with larger blades and heftier scepters.
 * Updated the mesh and texture on the Occultist's Familiar pet.
 * Updated art for various structures and environments in Devil's Crossing, Lower Crossing, and Burrwitch. Added signs to more buildings, providing you more insight into the daily lives of people in Cairn.
 * Added signs to the various mines in the the Arkovian Foothills and Old Arkovia.

Animation

 * Updated animations and timing on the Flesh Hulk's two default attacks.

Tech

 * Optimized the area loading algorithm to reduce CPU load and significantly improve performance. The performance gains depend on the player's hardware configuration.
 * Optimized various calculation processes for up to a 10% gain in frame rate. These changes may cause equipment to reroll their stats, resulting in different values. This may cause characters to lose, or gain, some attributes.
 * The "Always Show Loot Filter" option is now stored on a per-character basis. To configure the loot filter for the current character, use the new button on the left side of the HUD.
 * Item stacking has been overhauled. Players can now split items without resorting to complex workarounds. Item stacks also no longer count as individual items, resulting in smoother connections in Multiplayer. The stack size for crafting materials has been increased significantly.
 * Fixed an issue resulting in a stuck cursor when using Windows scaling.
 * Fixed a bug where certain loot containers would not respect their minimum and maximum level range.
 * All damage calculations on the character sheet now include conversion.
 * Added armor absorption to the armor rating tooltip on character sheet tab 1.
 * Removed the "Complete Components" button for the extra inventory bags. The main inventory's combine button will now complete components throughout the entire inventory.
 * Fixed certain skill damage calculations double-dipping from active buffs.
 * Mind-controlled monsters will now award the appropriate reputation when killed.
 * Fixed an instance where spamming certain skills could cause the player character to attack themself.
 * Fixed an issue with beam spells (e. g. Albrecht's Aether Ray) that let players cast them while moving.
 * Fixed an issue with beam spells that let players accelerate the casting speed of other skills.

Game

 * Nemesis enemies now have a 100% chance to spawn in a session if the faction requirements are met.
 * Loot chests and orbs from nemeses and bounty targets will now generate loot at the level of the monster, and not the area they are opened in (e. g. a level 40 bounty target appearing in a level 15 area will now drop level 40 loot instead of level 15 loot)
 * Fabius "the Unseen" Gonzar has received a tuning pass, with a reduction to his damage burst and an adjustment to his Blade Barrier. Blade Barrier has a longer cooldown and reflects far less damage, but now also deals pierce retaliation.
 * Increased the spawn rate of Kymon's Chosen and Order of Death's Vigil heroes if the faction requirements are met.
 * Lore notes the current character has already read will no longer appear in the world.
 * Balancing adjustments to many different enemies / enemy skills.
 * The difficulty jump from Normal to Veteran is more pronounced now, with the result that Veteran should be more challenging. According to the developers, a lot of work was done to reduce damage spikes, so it should be a little easier to handle the increase.

Itemization

 * % Conversion on monster infrequent one-handed weapons and helms replaced to reduce excessive conversion stacking, particularly while dual-wielding
 * Shield Block Recovery cooldown significantly reduced on all shields. Shield damage blocked has been adjusted in some cases, but the net result is a buff to the defense provided by shields.
 * Updated Retaliation values on items of Rare and above quality, particularly chance of Retaliation values. This is a general buff primarily focused on Rare and Monster Infrequent items, but some Epics were affected as well.
 * All component blueprints are now sold by faction quartermasters at Respected status. They no longer drop from monsters/chests.
 * Epic - Guardsman's Raiment: replaced Block Recovery 2-piece bonus with 6% Defensive Ability.
 * Epic - Menhir's Touch set: renamed to The Apothecary
 * Epic - Miasma set: updated set bonuses and stats on torso and helm pieces.
 * Epic - Shieldmaiden's Guard: replaced Block Recovery with 5% Defensive Ability
 * Relics: removed % Experience from the list of possible completion bonuses. Increased values on bonuses against specific monster types and increased % attribute combination bonuses.
 * Relic - Desolation: increased Electrocute Damage to 24.
 * Relic - Haunt: Increased the radius of the activated skill to 5 and increased the damage. The skill now also reduces aether resistance. Resistance reduction increased to -30%.
 * Relic - Juggernaut (relic): reduced % Physical Damage to 28%.
 * Relic - Mistborn Talisman (relic): updated values on Troll Rage based on changed to Shaman's Savagery in the Build 27 Hotfix 1 and 2 to bring this skill in line.
 * Relic - Sacrifice: increased the cooldown on the activated skill, but slightly increased the flat vitality damage.
 * Relic - Slaughter: increased % Pierce Damage to 20%, added 5-8 Pierce Damage. Increased the damage, energy cost and number of targets and reduced the cooldown on the activated skill.
 * Relic - Torment: increased chance of activating the skill to 33%, added 5% Cast Speed, replaced Chance of % Current Life Retaliation with 8 Vitality Damage.
 * Class prefixes: the % damage modifiers have been replaced with appropriate attribute modifiers that will scale better in the long-term, while also reducing tooltip bloat.
 * Rare prefixes: updated rare shield prefixes with proc effects to trigger off of blocks rather than hits taken.
 * Rare prefix - Bloodletter's: added 3% Offensive Ability bonus in addition to a significant buff to its chance of Bleed Retaliation.
 * Rare prefix - Formidable: reduced % Physical Damage bonus.
 * Rare prefix - Paladin's: increased % Pierce Resistance and damage reduction from Undead.
 * Rare prefix - Plague Bearer's: added % Poison Duration.
 * Rare prefix - Renegade: removed % Physical Resistance and updated Slow to scale with the level of the affix.
 * Rare prefix - Stonehide: added % Poison Resistance.
 * Rare suffix - Incantations: replaced % Elemental Damage with % Total Damage, energy regeneration replaced with % Spirit.
 * Rare suffix - Redoubt: reduced Block Recovery bonus based on level of the affix, but increased the health bonus.
 * Component - Aether Soul: increased % Aether Damage to 12% and Aether Resistance to 8%.
 * Component - Aethersteel Bolts: significantly increased the damage on Aether Tendril, slightly reduced its cooldown, but increased the energy cost.
 * Component - Arcane Lens: increased Elemental Damage to 2-6, up from 2-4.
 * Component - Black Tallow: increased % Chaos Damage to 12% and Chaos Resistance to 8%.
 * Component - Blessed Steel: added 10% Conversion to Elemental.
 * Component - Blessed Whetstone: increased Pierce Ratio modifier to 50%.
 * Component - Corpse Dust: this component can now also be used on medals.
 * Component - Devil-Touched Ammo: added 10% Conversion to Fire, increased chance of % Total Damage.
 * Component - Dread Skull: increased % Pierce Damage to 12%. This component can now also be used on medals.
 * Component - Ectoplasm: this component can now also be used on medals.
 * Component - Focusing Prism: added 8% Crit Damage.
 * Component - Mark of Dreeg: added % Acid Damage and Conversion to Acid. Increased damage on skill and slightly reduced cooldown.
 * Component - Roiling Blood: this component can now also be used on medals.
 * Component - Soul Shard: increased % Vitality Damage to 12%. This component can now also be used on rings.
 * Component - Vengeful Wraith: increased % Cold Damage to 12%, but reduced % Coldburn Damage to 15%. This component can now also be used on rings.
 * Component - Wardstone: this component can now also be used on medals.
 * Components: updated Poison Bomb and Noxious Poison Bomb to instead leave behind a pool of bubbling venom that will continue to poison enemies that step into it.
 * Components: adjusted damage on Greater Ice Spike, Greater Fireblast, Noxious Poison Bomb and Empowered Lightning Nova. Lightning Nova was performing a little too well, while the rest were lagging behind it, so the difference was equalized.
 * Components: adjusted the aura skills (e. g. Lightning Aura). Added % damage over time bonuses in addition to direct % damage bonuses. Adjusted secondary effects, such as making the slow on Chill Aura affect Total Speed and not just run speed.
 * Components: reduced % Weapon Damage on component weapon attacks by 20% (e. g. Slam). Oleron's Might was reduced by 40%, but the physical damage was increased and the cooldown reduced by 0.5 s.
 * Faction - Weapons crafted from faction blueprints that do not deal primarily physical or pierce damage have been updated to offer more of their damage type baseline, instead of being purely physical (e. g. a Vitality-based Order of Death's Vigil gun will do less physical damage, but have baseline vitality damage).
 * Faction - Binding Powder: replaced % Pet Damage bonus with % Vitality Resistance for Pets
 * Faction - Keeper's Binding Dust: replaced % Pet Damage bonus with % Vitality Resistance for Pets

Soldier

 * Reworked Overguard.
 * Reworked Veterancy.
 * Added new shield passive that inherited some of the bonuses from Veterancy.
 * Reworked Menhir's Bulwark and Oleron's Rage. They are now toggled exclusive skills similar to those available to the Shaman.

Demolitionist

 * Mortar Trap: slightly reduced damage scaling with rank on the base mortar, but increased the damage scaling on The Big One.

Occultist

 * Vulnerability: now starts lower but scales faster to same resist reduction by level cap. Intention is to make investment beyond the first point more attractive.

Nightblade

 * Shadow Strike: added Cold Damage.
 * Nidalla's Justifiable Ends: increased % Poison modifier.
 * Nidalla's Hidden Hand: moved to tier 3 to make it easier to start melee poison builds. Skill has been rebalanced for earlier access.
 * Nightfall: increased Cold and Frostburn damage.

Arcanist

 * Albrecht's Aether Ray: reduced aether damage scaling with rank.
 * Disintegration: reduced % Critical Damage bonus.

Shaman

 * Briarthorn Ground Slam: Increased the radius.

v0.3.6.4 (b28 Hotfix 1) changes
A hotfix for Build 28 was released.

Tech

 * Fixed a rare crash when rendering terrain.
 * Fixed a rare crash when some monsters used chain lightning skills.
 * Fixed a bug causing tonic of mending to display an incorrect description.
 * Fixed an exploit allowing unearned devotion affinity to be temporarily gained.

Game

 * The Avatar of Mogdrogen no longer zaps you if you threaten him. Instead, he turns into an incredibly powerful foe that you probably have no hope of defeating. Good luck.
 * Fixed a rare multiplayer issue with the Betrayal at Fort Ikon quest. Characters affected by this bug were unable to proceed past Fort Ikon. The fix is retroactive.
 * Removed inaccessible bounties from the Black Legion and the Outcast lists. Players stuck on such bounties should find their bounty reset for those factions.
 * Fixed a bug where extra quest markers for items would appear on the minimap.
 * Fixed a bug where the Occultist Raven pet was unable to cast the Storm Spirit buff.
 * Fixed an issue with turning in Chthonic Seals of Binding to the Black Legion bounty table.
 * Fixed an issue with a Nemesis chest appearing in the Ashen Waste without a Nemesis boss.

Itemization

 * Relic - Ulzuin's Pyroclasm (relic): skill updated so it no longer overlaps with the celestial power from Ulzuin's Torch.

Soldier

 * Cadence energy cost scales slower and is 20% less at max level. Scaling is about even by ultimate level.

Devotion

 * Bysmiel's Command - increased activation rate, reduced rank 1 cooldown, cooldown scales to same value at rank 15 as before, increased damage of summoned pet.
 * Ghoulish Hunger - now activates at 30% health. Reduced rank 1 cooldown to 50 s, cooldown scales to same value at rank 20 as before.
 * Howl of Mogdrogen - increased activation rate.
 * Messenger of War - now activates at 30% health.
 * Shepherd's Crook - increased activation rate, reduced cooldown to 6 s and duration to 4 s, increased bonuses so it's more of a burst to pet bonuses rather than a sustained effect, a call to defend you.
 * Turtle Shell - now activates at 40% health. Reduced rank 1 cooldown to 50 s, cooldown scales to same value at rank 20 as before, increased Absorption value at rank 1 and scaling with rank.

v0.3.6.5 (b28 Hotfix 2) changes
Following the previous hotfix, Build 28 got a second hotfix.

Tech

 * Fixed an issue causing hitching when loading dynamic level content.
 * Fixed a bug where Menhir's Bulwark could be used without a shield.
 * Fixed a bug where devotion points could be lost if the player died immediately after a shrine was activated.
 * Fixed a bug where channeled skills would continue being cast after the player died.
 * Fixed two uncommon rendering crashes.
 * Fixed constellations showing up twice under Constellation Dependencies.
 * Fixed certain skills not working with On Enemy Death auto cast devotion skills.
 * The chat window is now visible in the devotion window.
 * Fixed a bug where LAN connections didn't work with some network adapter configurations.

Game

 * Fixed an issue that could cause the Fort Ikon gate to remain locked.

Devotion

 * Fixed a bug where Tsunami would be fired at incorrect angles.
 * Fixed a bug where Bat Fang would be launched from an incorrect position.