It’s time for a blood transfusion!
Starting at 19:00 CET on May 14 and ending at 19:00 CET on May 18, V Rising will be free to play!
Never has there been a better time to turn the unconverted to the bloody ecstasy of the Vampire lifestyle. There are yet still many foolish mortals who have not been lured into the dark joys of the hunt for blood, and this is your opportunity to show them the way. During this weekend at absolutely no cost, anyone with Steam can download V Rising and indulge in all the horrors and delights Vardoran has to offer.
Though it’s only for a limited time, the Free Weekend also coincides with historic V Rising sales. From May 14th through May 21st, V Rising will also be on sale for 55% off, and all DLCs will also be available at 20% off. In addition to all of that, the V Rising Complete Edition Bundle is also an additional 20% off, allowing the most clever of Vampires to layer promotion upon promotion and maximize their savings.
In addition to the news of the free weekend, we’ve got the promised balance patch coming to V Rising based on your feedback. We’re a little cautious about introducing a patch right before a free weekend due to the risk of instability during an influx of players. For that reason, we’re going to be patching next week. We’re taking this opportunity to turn this event into a further advantage. Below, you’ll find we decided to share the patch notes ahead of time, as well as instructions on how to download the patch early to provide advanced feedback.
Please keep in mind that these patch notes will not go live until next week. Also, be aware that this patch will NOT require a save wipe.
Based on your feedback, for the most part, we’re in a pretty enjoyable state in terms of there being some choices for builds and the gameplay itself being pretty solid, but there’s still some frustration with a lack of variety in PvP that could use some love. PvE feedback, on the other hand, has generally been more positive across the board.
Overall, our conclusion is that while there’s definitely room for improvement, we also want to be careful not to disrupt what's already working well. The goal of this patch is to improve variety in both PvP and PvE while making a conscious effort to focus on the more extreme issues. We’re looking to primarily improve underperforming spells and options to encourage more variety overall. This can be a bit of a difficult balancing act, because there are some spells that are far more delicate to change than others!
An awkward little bug has been around for a while, where the dodge roll on the pistol could still take damage from some effects while mid-roll. This inconsistency was pretty frustrating, so we’re happy to finally crush it.
Explosive Shot (Pistol)
Fixed a bug where you could take damage during the roll.
One of the common issues referenced has been Corrupted Blood in both PvP and PvE contexts. In PvP, the ghosts spawned can become an advantage and are used to trigger free counters. In PvE, they act as a sometimes frustrating downside to using the blood that can add an overwhelming amount of complexity to a portion of the game that can already start to become a little overwhelming.
Our goal with this change to Corrupted Blood is to make it so that they no longer trigger counters. That takes away a significant portion of its PvP advantage, while touching something that is rarely used for such a small amount of value in PvE. Additionally, the dash speed reduction makes them a lot more manageable to dodge in PvE, and that additional touch of making them unable to cause a fatal blow means they’ll never be responsible for an outright death.
Corrupted Blood
The hostile ghost spawned by Corrupted Blood has its dash speed reduced and will now pierce enemies. The damage will no longer trigger counters. Damage from ghosts can no longer cause a fatal blow.
Sanguine Coil can be a bit oppressive in PvP due to the amount of charges and fast projectile speed. We’re going to slightly reduce the speed, but also buff the healing to give it more of a strong identity in line with its original purpose for those who want to play a more supportive role in both PvP and PvE.
Sanguine Coil
Increased Cooldown from 6 to 7 seconds.
Reduce default projectile speed by 20%.
Increase healing on allies from 14-30% to 20-40% (Jewel Effect).
Blood Rite has outshone similar spells, making it often feel like the best option to pick for a counter spell. We’re tuning it down just a bit in hopes it makes other options more appealing.
Blood Rite
Reduce duration and damage on the follow-up attack from 20-40% (5-second duration) to 15-30% (4-second duration) (Jewel Effect)
For Wraith Spear, we feel like its mobility is being exploited a bit too much with cancel casts, so we’re making it a bit more costly to do. Its AoE jewel also felt unattractive, so we wanted to give it a little buff to give more alternatives for good AoE damage.
Wraith Spear
Cooldown gained from canceling the spell has been increased from 50% to 65%.
Reduced the penalty per target from 6-10% to 8-16% (Jewel Effect)
Spectral Guardian is a fantastic defensive ability, but it often gets neglected due to its lower damage compared to other ultimates. We’re adding a little bit more of an offensive advantage to it so that it feels less like a damage loss, and hopefully makes it a bit more attractive of an option.
Spectral Guardian
Now attacks 15% faster.
The recast of Ball Lightning can feel impossible to react to, and it has no visual feedback. Adding a small delay and improving the feedback of the recast will hopefully put this spell in a better position.
Ball Lightning
Added a 0.5-second delay before explosion on recast. (Jewel Effect)
Veil of Storm has been outshone by other veil abilities in many cases. Increasing its speed will make it a more interesting choice and fit the theme of lightning-fast spells.
Veil of Storm
Dash duration reduced from 0.45 seconds to 0.4 seconds.
Corrupted Skull damage feels low, so we’re looking at ways to improve the damage while also keeping its identity a little divergent from other similar spells of other schools. This might do the trick!
Corrupted Skull
Increase the bonus damage done below the threshold from 40% to 50%.
Veil of Bones is yet another underutilized veil ability. We’re hoping to make it a little more appealing while also leaning into its theme.
Veil of Bones
Increase the bonus damage when below the threshold from 20-40% to 30-50% (Jewel Effect)
Freeze Immunity can feel too punishing for players using frost builds against enemies like V Bloods. To make Frost feel a little more effective in PvE, we’re increasing the bonus damage you deal when trying to apply Freeze to immune targets, making it a solid choice even against units with freeze immunity.
Freeze Immunity
Damage bonus for trying to apply freeze on an immune target has been increased from 25% to 30%.
For Mosquito, the player character was the source of the damage, making Mosquito more of a visual representation of an AoE than being an actual “minion”, which many players found unintuitive. This change makes the Mosquito minion the source, making it more in line with other minion-summoning spells.
Mosquito
Damage dealt now scales with bonus minion damage.
No longer leeches health to the player through Spell Leech attribute.
The short distance of the dash, along with the quick duration, made it so that this dash was almost impossible to react to in PvP, so we’re tuning it closer to other veils while also trying to keep its identity, and also lengthening the distance in a way that should prove as an advantage in PvE.
Veil of Chaos
Dash duration changed from 0.3 seconds to 0.4 seconds.
Distance changed from 5 to 5.5.
Wisp Dance activation was way too fast, making it impossible to react against and also comboing in a particularly nasty way with Scholar Blood that wasn’t originally intended. Increasing the cast time will reduce the guaranteed activation damage and help ease back on the guaranteed combo.
Wisp Dance
Increased cast time from 0.15 seconds to 0.4 seconds.
The quick unblockable damage felt a tad too high. We’re moving some part of the damage to the end effect, which can be countered, to make it more rewarding to block while keeping the overall damage the same in all other contexts.
Arctic Storm
Reduced damage per tick by 15% and moved that damage to the final tick.
To make more ultimates a bit more attractive, we decided to lower the duration of Raging Tempest while keeping the damage the same. That means the overall damage per second is increased, and lets you hop back into the fight to keep up the pressure.
Raging Tempest
Reduced duration from 3 seconds to 2.5 seconds while keeping total damage dealt.
Curse has high output variance. Increasing its base duration heightens the base value without increasing the max damage potential into dangerous territory. Curse more reliably than ever!
Curse
Increased base duration by 0.5 seconds.
The Ice Block melts too fast, unfortunately. We’re increasing its shield to reward defensive usage of the ability.
Ice Block
Increased shield from 500% to 550% of your spell power.
It’s our impression that the initial heal from Blood Fountain is a bit too weak, especially in scenarios where the delayed healing is missed. We’re giving it a slight buff to help bolster another tool for those of you who were asking for more support playstyle options.
Blood Fountain
Increased initial heal from 50% to 55% of your spell power.
Cyclones bonus damage jewel gave it a bit too much damage output, so we’re lowering it to put it more in line with other damage-increasing jewels.
Cyclone
Bonus damage reduced from 20-40% to 14-30% (Jewel Effect)
Want to get your hands on the patch early? Even… right now? We’ve made it available on a test branch for you to hop on and try it out! It should have no adverse effects on your current world saves, so nothing stops you from loading it up on anything you like. Be aware that while you’re in this test branch, you won’t be able to play on servers that are not updated to the same patch.
To access the test branch, right-click on V Rising in your Steam Library and click on Properties. Then, in the pop-up window, select Game Versions & Betas from the left-hand tabs, then, in the options that appear on the right, select the Public Test.
After that, simply update your game, and you’re good to go! To go back to the default version of V Rising, you just have to select Default Public Version. It’s as easy as that.
This weekend promises to be filled with delightful bloodshed, new faces, and excitement. Invite all of your friends for the coming days of dark wonder, and perhaps they’ll even stick around a bit longer, becoming permanent Vampires themselves.
Don’t forget to follow all of our socials down below, Vampires, including following Stunlock Studios on Steam! As we release news on our next game, it’s going to be one more excellent source of news on the future of V Rising.
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Lots of love and a pint of blood,
/The Marketing Team