Release Notes for 1.2.40 (Google Beta)

[vo1d]

* At the end of the level, loot flies toward the hero faster.

Hell yeah!

[Machiavel]

Very nice update! I think the red aura for BR is just enough. Also, making BR last longer makes attack speed very much relevant to be able to do trials without in the zone. I now use SW, deadly throw and BR in trials. Works for me!

[Humus]

Very nice update! I think the red aura for BR is just enough. Also, making BR last longer makes attack speed very much relevant to be able to do trials without in the zone. I now use SW, deadly throw and BR in trials. Works for me!

But how do you compensate for the loss of the 50% parry?

[Machiavel]

But how do you compensate for the loss of the 50% parry?

I use celerity, tough as nails and lightning reflexes as pasives. I have to say i also dropped by 6 levels for farming trial LVL but it goes a lot faster for me with deadly throw to finish off a small pack. I changed every CL lvl into attack speed so LoH is a little bit better. Hope it helps

[Dave]

Warrior:

Shockwave:

Its picking up what would be safely positioned archers that have their Aura up and placing them directly in front of you. = deaded

If you try and use SW to place the Archers away from you they still fire the Aura aoe at you.

This might be by design but its going to limit the use of SW somewhat

It'd be (mega) helpful if the SW interrupted the aura or the SW turned the archers to be facing away if the aura was active.

EDIT: Yep its pretty stupid tbh, you can't disengage to reposition yourself (not on trials 250 anyways) as you get insta gibbed (deaded) from losing LoH (which is already struggling to keep up from the BR "fix")

[Dave]

BR nerf is jarring. It still seems essentially essential due to blazing speed.

The lack of LoH from BR hasn't been balanced properly/at all.

The uplift to frenzy for single target DPS doesn't offset the reduced AS lost from BR

The fairly big DPS and AS loss from BR makes comparable pack clearances unworkable, which essentially gimps a class that was struggling with trials even further. The bonus armor in this patch goes nowhere near far enough to compensate.

Devastate is unworkable in trials as it still has the LONG standing bug where it occasionally disengages from the fight when it ends even though you're still in a pack of aggro'd mobs = instance deaded.

Warriors will still be massively be behind mages in trials, BH looks like its getting fixed. Meaning they will both be ahead of Warrior in gearing up for multi player and PvP (more drops, better gear). Am thinking typical WoW model of having a class that's the ginger haired step kid on each evolution except one class ...cough mages cough is always blue eyed child


In summary
You haven't given us enough DPS to kill smaller packs quicker and you gimped survivability by "fixing" BR

We cant run with DPS build because bosses will just one shot us. What might be a good idea would be to allow us to switch gear and builds mid trial......


The worry about BR and LoH for PvP would seem to be fixed by removing LoH for PvP

Having standardised gear of varying levels that could be bought (and only worn in PvP) with gold and gems would keep PvP real as opposed to it just being my stats beats your stats game

[Dave]

Also if you want to apply the same graphics make over to cleave as you did to WW that'd be great

[abc127]

BR nerf is jarring. It still seems essentially essential due to blazing speed.

The lack of LoH from BR hasn't been balanced properly/at all.

The uplift to frenzy for single target DPS doesn't offset the reduced AS lost from BR

The fairly big DPS and AS loss from BR makes comparable pack clearances unworkable, which essentially gimps a class that was struggling with trials even further. The bonus armor in this patch goes nowhere near far enough to compensate.

Devastate is unworkable in trials as it still has the LONG standing bug where it occasionally disengages from the fight when it ends even though you're still in a pack of aggro'd mobs = instance deaded.

Warriors will still be massively be behind mages in trials, BH looks like its getting fixed. Meaning they will both be ahead of Warrior in gearing up for multi player and PvP (more drops, better gear). Am thinking typical WoW model of having a class that's the ginger haired step kid on each evolution except one class ...cough mages cough is always blue eyed child


In summary
You haven't given us enough DPS to kill smaller packs quicker and you gimped survivability by "fixing" BR

We cant run with DPS build because bosses will just one shot us. What might be a good idea would be to allow us to switch gear and builds mid trial......


The worry about BR and LoH for PvP would seem to be fixed by removing LoH for PvP

Having standardised gear of varying levels that could be bought (and only worn in PvP) with gold and gems would keep PvP real as opposed to it just being my stats beats your stats game

Really useful post.

Agree on frenzy. Love the cleave animation callout.

I, also, am experiencing Devastate sropping, like blade fury. Fortunately for me, I run much lower trials than I imagine you do - I was gesting on 160 or so, and was clearung easily. I'd add that Devastate is really useful aga8nst the bosses, but not so much at clearing big packs - much better against small or as cleanup. In 1:1 situations, it's pretty killer.

Totally agree on the comments you made comparing classes. (see an earlier post of mine here); the spend for Warrior on Toughness makes a DPS build - and ergo big advancement in single player mode - impossible.

I go a lot faster with the new shockwave, and honestly, whirlwind, than devastate.
???????
Purely out of curiosity, where are you running on trials now? I still had room because I haven't maxed my trial progress, so I don't feel it as much. I can definitely keep going for awhile, but I do feel like it won't be quite as far due to the BR change.

[Dave]

I'm only at 251 but was progressing nicely 1-2 levels a day with the gear I've got. I don't have that much spare time to play much more than one level a day.

I think I'll uninstall the Beta and keep progressing whilst I can, pretty sure I could get to 300 with my current gear.

The gear progression from having some classes much higher up the food chain in trials is not to be understated. It's pretty galling that they seem happy to let Warrior rot in the lower trials

Basically NEED either SW or ww in a build to round up packs so they can be cleaved efficiently tbh ww is still better at it, it's also expontially easier to use to get round the arrow aura than SW pointing everything directly at you.

[Dyoma]

I don't understand what changed in 2.41 but I have some progress on trials by warrior with same 2.40 build. Once detail what I want to see will slightly WW's damage increase. Mage and BH has good full sets but warrior jug needs some improvement. Thank's for update.

[Dave]

I understand your concerns about the Battle Rage bug-fix/nerf. But it had to be done, a 3x attack multiplier was plain broken.
The Warrior is still undergoing balancing and revamps, most of them buffs.
1.2.41 will be available shortly on Google Play Beta.

Class balancing:
* Added a visual effect for Battle Rage.
* Increased Battle Rage's duration.
* Devastate has been revamped and had its damage increased.
* During Devastate's animation the warrior is now invulnerable.
* Increased damage for Deadly Throw.
* Deadly Throw can now hit a single enemy multiple times.
* Deadly Throw now uses the correct shield's armor in its damage calculations.
* Fixed a bug in which the shield's armor was taken into account twice.
* Piercing Ammo now works against single targets.

Improvements and bug-fixes:
* Players can now move items between stash and hero inventories by double tapping them. Hooray!
* Players can now equip items by double tapping them.
* At the end of the level, loot flies toward the hero faster.

Your Warrior "balancing" is effectively putting lipstick ona pig, you know this. It's transparently disingenuous

Non of the above will have a significant effect on warrior progression in trials

Sticking with the dressing of a pig line of thought but why not just descrease the timer on BR rather extending its duration, it's getting very passive like.

Itd be overpowered but why not baked BR in to the endurance passive, that way Warrior may have a little more utility from freeing up a slot. The amount of ultility the Ranged classes have got (whilst still having...range) is what makes them so much better at trials.....well that and Warrior having to sell its soul into survival gear and passives.

In the zone is still pretty much essential otherwise you are just left watching a char auto hit crap, it's not very engaging without it. You could bake ITZ in to TaN's again freeing up a slot that might give utility or on use DPS

I appreciate you're not going to do these things but I'm just spitballing as you appear to be fumbling around like a kid on a first date.

[Dyoma]

Your Warrior "balancing" is effectively putting lipstick ona pig, you know this. It's transparently disingenuous

Non of the above will have a significant effect on warrior progression in trials

This is not clear. Nothing has changed, but the progress is obvious. And it's not in the hands

[c0mad0r]

Your Warrior "balancing" is effectively putting lipstick ona pig, you know this. It's transparently disingenuous

Non of the above will have a significant effect on warrior progression in trials

Understand that balancing is not exactly an easy thing to do and few games ever really get it right... That said, they know this and is why Adrian also said this at the end:

The class balancing process is not over yet and we have many other improvements and balance changes in development.
Waiting for feedback.

It's a work in progress, so don't get too ruffled by these changes as they are definitely not done by any means.

My 1.2.40 and 1.2.41 feedback:

Bounty Hunter
- Boosts to HP and Havoc set have helped in survivability tremendously
- Concussive Shot feels like the knockback effect should be dependent on distance instead of removed after a certain threshold. IE: Effect duration to distance ratio.
- Heatseekers actually do damage... Right on!
- Snipe is better, but still feels really circumstantial.

Overall, BH is probably going to end up being a viable alternative again. It simply feels more well rounded, so thank you for that!

Warrior
- Frenzy is back! Fine fix to this!
- Battle Rage (BR) feels slower, obviously due to the bug fix, but does relatively similar damage to the "bugged" speed version at times when buffs are stacked appropriately.
- As others have suggested: Whirlwind (WW) red aura needs to last the duration of the attack.
- Leap feels too weak compared to Shockwave (SW) now and takes longer to recharge than SW or even Deadly Throw. It simply needs something more differentiating to make people want to use it over the other two. Perhaps add an after effect (EX1: thrown enemies slowed by 30% by 5 seconds; EX2: thrown enemies bleed for 5 seconds)?
- Shockwave is now really nice to use... It's perhaps the most balanced Warrior Utility you all have created!
- Devastate is... Overpowered Vs bosses now imo. Version 1.2.41 Devastate does a heck of a lot of single target damage. Only thing I can note is that the animation now causes my Chromebook to temporarily lock due to high CPU usage.
- Deadly Throw animation is pretty cool and feels more viable. Love the flying weapon!

I can understand that with so many changes to the class, many feel it is under powered now and the visual changes to BR and WW looking slower don't help obviously. Personally, I think people simply need to change the way they play the class to see that it actually isn't as big of a nerf as many state as changing powers/utilities around get SOME, but not all of that DPS we had before back.

Mage
- Blink images attacking independently is great, but players really have to pay attention to the line of sight when they blink more now than ever. I now find my blink copies attacking trees/rocks/fences/shrubs more now than before since they obstruct their target.
- Frost Beam is much better than before on mobile, but I still find it clumsy to use on Windows 10.

Mage doesn't really feel any different than before otherwise.

Others:
- Eileen is awesome and now reminds me of an amazonian woman, do another minion makeover!!!
- Thanks for that annoying Calendar fix!!!
- Thanks for speeding up loot collection!!!

[Dave]

Non of the above will have a significant effect on warrior progression in trials

It's the significant bit I'm highlighting, hence the lipstick on a pig analogy

[Adrian (Developer)]

I don't understand what changed in 2.41 but I have some progress on trials by warrior with same 2.40 build. Once detail what I want to see will slightly WW's damage increase. Mage and BH has good full sets but warrior jug needs some improvement. Thank's for update.

Yes, from our testing and numbers the warrior outperforms the mage/bh in terms of DPS with certain builds. (Hint: experimenting with the newly improved abilities and other stats might be the key)

Class	Build	Avg DPS
Mage	???	22,000,000
Mage	???	17,000,000
Mage	???	19,000,000
Mage	???	17,000,000
Mage	???	17,000,000
Mage	???	24,000,000
Bounty Hunter	???	22,000,000
Bounty Hunter	???	21,000,000
Bounty Hunter	???	24,000,000
Bounty Hunter	???	22,000,000
Bounty Hunter	???	27,000,000
Bounty Hunter	???	29,000,000
Bounty Hunter	???	25,000,000
Warrior	???	23,000,000
Warrior	???	25,000,000
Warrior	???	24,000,000
Warrior	???	19,000,000
Warrior	???	35,000,000
Warrior	???	45,000,000

These builds are using legendary gear optimized for DPS at champion level 1000. No set or unique items were used. (Builds hidden to avoid spoilers). I'm pretty sure you players are going to be creative and come up with even better builds.

The main problem when it comes to trial progress is not that the warrior is behind, but rather the mage being too far ahead. For a simple reason: they can afford to invest all their gear budget in DPS and simply avoid threats by using their superior range and Time Warp / Blink. The warrior has to get close and personal and for that needs to invest a lot in defensive stats.

We'll approach this problem from two separate directions:
1. Decrease the monster damage in Trials. That's a buff to warriors, and to a lesser extent bounty hunters. Does nothing for mages.
2. Introduce hard to avoid abilities for monsters. Those abilities won't hit that hard compared with their attack, but mages/bounty hunters will be forced to invest at least a bit in their defenses.