Hello Dungeons of Sundaria Adventurers!
We have quite a few updates and improvements introduced with this patch and are excited to share them with you today.
Highlights:
- UI Improvements
- New Class Abilities and Class Updates
- Updated Bonus Ability Attribute Scaling
- New Bonus Ability Attributes
- New Level Cap
- Updated Crafting
- New Signature Abilities
- New Combat Effects
UI Improvements:
We appreciate all of the feedback we've received regarding the challenges with the UI and are happy to announce the following improvements:
- Abilities will now display precise countdown timers
- Abilities will now show a small display when they are ready to be used again
- Optimized the Minimap
- Revamped the Heroism Screen to improve readability
- Revamped the Inventory Screen to improve readability
- Improved UI Scaling and Menu Sizing for Splitscreen Play
- Improved Scrolling functionality in Splitscreen Play
- Quest Dialog size increased and scrolling functionality for controllers added
- Added friendly text to Town NPCs
- Added Class Descriptions to the Character Creation Screen
Class Abilities and Class Updates:
As we previewed in a prior Developer Update, all Classes are receiving some new skills, passives, and/or ability updates with this patch.
Additionally, many existing class abilities have had their animations and VFX improved.
Champions
- New Ability - Brutal Strike - Brutally Strike your enemy for 160% Physical Damage and automatically change to your next equipped weapon. On a successful weapon change, your next Brutal Strike deals 300% increased damage.
- New Passive - Bladed Bastion - You become fortified by the blade, increasing your Melee Attack Power based upon your Block Amount.
- New Passive - Vicious Strikes - Increases your damage by 15% for 5 seconds when you Critically Strike with a Two-Handed Weapon
Clerics
- New Ability - Justice Strike - Strike an enemy, dealing 120% physical damage and 120% holy damage. Justice Strike also heals you for 2% of the damage done.
- New Ability - Arbiter's Fury - Conjures a hammer to strike your target, dealing 300% physical damage and stunning them for 3 seconds. Hammers continue to strike nearby targets for 3 seconds.
- Ability Update - Divine Shield - Shields all Allies within range, providing crowd-control immunity and absorbing 20% of their health as damage for 15 seconds. 30 second cooldown
Rangers
- New Ability - Blasting Shot - Jump backwards while firing multiple mines in front of you. Enemies that trigger the mines take 300% physical damage and an additional 135% physical damage over 3 seconds.
- New Passive - Nature's Warden - You are empowered by Nature, reducing damage taken by 100% of your bonus Movement Speed.
- Weapon Specialization Update - Enforcer now also increases Critical Strike Damage
Rogues
- New Ability - Ambush - Ambush your target, dealing 200% physical damage. Ambush will consume Stalker to deal an additional 300% physical damage.
Wizard
- New Ability - Vortex - Conjures a Vortex that tracks after enemies, dealing 180% Void Damage to nearby enemies per second 8 seconds.
- New Passive - Conduit - Dealing Fire Damage increases your Void Damage by 15% for 4 seconds. Dealing Void Damage increases your Fire Damage by 15% for 4 seconds.
- Ability Update - Ember Eruption - Conjures a clone that draws the attention of all nearby enemies before erupting into flames, dealing 450% fire damage.
Updated Bonus Ability Attribute Scaling
We have added many new attributes in the form of Bonus Ability rolls to loot tables for all classes, and have removed a few that were causing scaling issues at the very top end of gearing.
To address these issues, we’ve adjusted the values of Bonus Ability Rolls based upon the base cooldown duration of abilities and/or the type of ability. The following provides an overview of these adjustments:
- Bonus Ability Rolls for Abilities with a cooldown of 8 seconds or less remain the same
- Bonus Ability Rolls for Abilities that affect the Duration of an Ability reduced by 33%
- Bonus Ability Rolls for Abilities that affect a Defensive Ability reduced by 57%
- Bonus Ability Rolls for Abilities that have no cooldown reduced by 33%
- Bonus Ability Rolls for Abilities with a cooldown of 8 to 12 seconds increased by 67%
- Bonus Ability Rolls for Abilities with a cooldown of more than 12 seconds increased by 130%
With these changes, our goal is to bring down some of the outliers down, such as Defensive abilities providing immunity or near-immunity, while also pulling power away from primary abilities, such as Slash, and transferring that power into longer cooldown abilities.
These changes, combined with the addition of new Bonus Abilities rolls detailed below should provide greater customization for players to allow for focused increases to their preferred abilities.
If you already have an item with an attribute that was removed, fear not. We did not remove these from your items, but we did remove them from appearing on newly acquired items.
We appreciate any feedback you may have on these changes.
Bonus Ability Attributes
As mentioned above, we've added additional Bonus Abilities rolls for all classes. Below is a list of all new Bonus Abilities rolls players may now receive on equipment, and the ones that were removed:
Champion
- Brutal Strike Damage
- Skin of Stone Damage Reduction
- Skin of Stone Duration
- Upheaval Damage
Cleric
- Arbiter’s Fury Damage
- Channel Heal Healing Amount
- Divine Sacrifice Damage
- Exorcism Damage
- Heavenly Strike Damage
- Heavenly Strike Duration
- Holy Blast Damage
- Justice Strike Damage
Ranger
- Blasting Shot Damage
- Blight Arrow Duration
- Blight Arrow Damage
- Deadly Shot Damage
- Poison Arrow Damage
- Salvo Damage
- Salvo Duration
- Ranger’s Flask Damage Reduction
- Ranger’s Flask Duration
- Rapid Fire Damage
Rogue
- Ambush Damage
- Assassinate Damage
- Backstab Damage
- Phantom Strike Damage
- Phased Carnage Damage
- Tomahawk Damage
Wizard
- Chaos Orb Damage
- Ember Eruption Damage
- Ember Lance Damage
- Flame Blast Damage
- Fire Armor Damage
- Magic Missiles Damage
- Meteor Damage
- Vortex Damage
Removed
- Champion – Mighty Blow Threat
- Wizard - Cauterize Healing
- Wizard - Cone of Fire Damage
Increased Level Cap to 20
With this patch we have increased the level cap to 20 in anticipation of Ragewind Castle. For players already into their Heroism journey, any experienced gained will go towards leveling up to 20. Once players reach level 20 Heroism will activate/reactivate.
Updated Crafting
We have made some improvements to Crafted items to address some of the frustration with creating ‘dead items’. We understand that players feel Bonus Health and Bonus Power are mandatory stats on equipment before that piece can be considered usable. Based on this, we have made some adjustments to Crafted items.
Now when players craft Legendary Quality equipment, that equipment will always receive either Bonus Health or Bonus Power, but will be limited to only receive one Bonus Ability Roll. When crafting Eternal Equipment, that equipment will always receive both Bonus Health and Bonus Power, but will be limited to only receive two Bonus Ability Rolls. Additionally, Epic Quality Crafted items and below will never roll Bonus Ability Rolls.
To Summarize:
- Eternal – Always has Bonus Health and Bonus Power. Limited to 2 Bonus Ability Rolls
- Legendary – Always has 1 of Bonus Health or Bonus Power. Limited to 1 Bonus Ability Roll
- Epic and Below – Never rolls Bonus Ability Rolls
Players may still find equipment that can roll any combination of attributes, but with these crafting changes players should have an easier time crafting usable items while descending into the item hunt for the perfectly rolled item.
Additionally, we’ve heard the grumbles about how much money you’re earning in order to fuel your crafting fees. To this end, we have adjusted the sale price of Essence to the following:
- Common Quality Essence – 1 Silver
- Superior Quality Essence – 10 Silver
- Rare Quality Essence – 1 Gold
- Epic Quality Essence – 10 Gold
- Legendary Quality Essence – 100 Gold
- Eternal Quality Essence – 1 Platinum
Combat Improvements
We are always striving towards improving combat, and today we would like to share with you two new systems coming to Dungeons of Sundaria.
Signature Abilities
With this system, all classes have received 3 Signature abilities capable of extra Critical Strike effects. When you score a Critical Strike with one of these abilities, your Character will perform a new extra action.
Champion Signature Abilities:
- Brutal Strike – Will perform an additional attack for 50% of the damage done
- Mighty Blow – Will perform an additional attack for 50% of the damage done
- Shield Bash – Will perform an additional attack for 50% of the damage done
Cleric Signature Abilities:
- Heavenly Strike – Will send down a second strike for 50% of the damage done
- Holy Light – Will send out a second orb for 50% of the damage done
- Justice Strike – Will perform an additional attack for 50% of the damage done
Ranger Signature Abilities:
- Deadly Shot – Will perform an additional attack for 50% of the damage done
- Poison Arrow – Will explode on the target, applying the damage over time effect to nearby enemies
- Salvo – Will root the target in place for 2 seconds
Rogue Signature Abilities:
- Assassinate – Will perform an additional attack for 50% of the damage done
- Backstab – Will perform an additional attack for 50% of the damage done
- Phased Carnage – Will perform an additional attack for 50% of the damage done
Wizard Signature Abilities:
- Cone of Fire – Will light the target on fire, dealing additional damage over time
- Flame Blast – Will conjure a small Meteor to hit the target for 50% of the damage done
- Magic Missiles – Will fire a small Chaos Orb for 50% of the damage done
We have also improved weapon impacts and hit feedback.
In addition to the new Signature Critical Strike system, we have introduced a new Combat Effects system to enemies.
Combat Effects
After attacking an enemy for some time there is a chance for a new Combat Effect to occur. The chance for a Combat Effects to occur is based upon the dungeon difficulty, enemy difficulty, and how long the enemy has been attacked. On Normal difficulty it will be easier to trigger a Combat Effect against an enemy than it will be on Nightmare difficulty.
Additionally, enemies will always have a chance to initiate a Combat Effect when they reach 20% health. When a Combat Effect is triggered, it can come as either a beneficial effect or a detrimental effect on the enemy.
Enemy Buffs:
Bolstered
- Enemy gains Crowd Control Immunity
- Enemy deals Increased damage
Call for Help
- Calls nearby enemies for help
Go for Help
- Flees to nearby enemies for help
Potions
- Humanoid enemies will drink a potion to restore some health
Clones
- Non-humanoid enemies will clone themselves
Enemy Debuffs:
Stunned
- Enemy cannot perform any Actions
- Enemy takes increased Damage
Staggered
- Enemy takes increased Critical Strike Damage
Maimed
- Enemy takes additional damage over time
Winded
- Enemy attacks more slowly
Ragewind Castle
Development continues on Ragewind Castle, the 8th dungeon ahead of our official launch. With Ragewind Castle, we've tried to go a step further by creating some of the most fun and engaging encounters released to date. Today, we wanted to provide a few new images from the dungeon.
Further within the dungeon, players will enter a large battlefield and encounter Zzorack the Deathbringer.
Improvements and Bug Fixes:
- Optimized Rim Shading
- Optimized Dungeons and reduced texture memory demand
- Improved environmental asset LODs
- Fixed Hitboxes on Ogre enemies
- Ogres Palm Smash attack now should correctly hit targets
- Decreased volume on Imp sound effects (wing flapping)
- Boss chest highlights should now be visible by the player that owns the chest
- Defeating the final boss in a dungeon should now reset the dungeon correctly
- Fixed issue where exit portal could stall and not travel correctly
- Fixed issue with inconsistent player icons
- Fixed Backstab tooltip to show correct range
- Fixed bug with Assassinate and Phased Carnage that could proc endless critical hits
- Fixed Malorath Bonus Boss Loot chests not dropping the correct boss loot on resume session when a boss had been previously killed
- Fixed Issue with Minimap loading incorrect floors at times
- Fixed issue with dodging while on ladders or in mine cart
- Fixed an issue with menu item slots not showing until focused
- Fixed issue where completing a specific quest for a merchant NPC could invalidate their buy tab until they are talked to again
- Fixed issue with Hulking Gnolls dropping incorrect loot
- Reduced damage of Gnolls in Alchemy area of Grasslands on Nightmare
- Reduced Husk damage on Nightmare
- Arcane Rituals: A Study of Dark Magic by Asbestor Crucible may now be sold
- Fixed issue with Ettin NPCs that were able to clone themselves
- Fixed Victor Von Vindenskarl spawn and checkpoint to ensure correct spawning
- Fixed essence sell amount to be consistent with scaling factor of quality
- Fixed issue where altars could be impacted by status (stun, etc)
- Fixed (reduced) Nightmare scaling in The Festering Bog
- Improved Navigation on all dungeons
- Fixed issue where Thokmog and Lomarg would drop incorrect fragments for Rogue and Wizard
- Fixed an issue with Phase Port not triggering Stalker