Steadfast Steward's Update - 3rd Build Live!

Welcome to the third build of our Steadfast Steward's Update. Over the next several weeks we will be deploying a new build with many experimental changes that will live on our public beta branches. Please use the in-game feedback tool or join our Discord to let us know your thoughts on these changes. We are trying out many changes and will be doing adjustments weekly. 

For full details on what to expect from our Steadfast Steward’s Update and how to participate, please check out our Participation Details blog post, or see our intro post in the #general_info channel on Discord. 

You may notice that these patch notes are more detailed than usual. We have included a number of ‘Developer Notes’ beside many of the entries here, to better express the intent behind the changes. By outlining our goals we hope that this will help measure if our intent is matching our implementation.

This update features the Runaway's Wanderer path, updates to the Occultist's Ritualist path, adjustments to Memories, as well as adding game speed options.

HEROES

RUNAWAY

Wanderer

Dev Note: The Runaway's kit has been adjusted to provide her with some previously lacking options for Stealth synergy, RES piercing, and general improvements to utility skills. Few skills (Backdraft, Hearthlight) received any extensive revisions. Most received refinements in power or identity, particularly in regards to her activities in the front ranks.

• Backdraft and Backdraft+ cooldown increased from 1 to 2

• Backdraft and Backdraft+ now benefit from all standard damage-affecting tokens, trinkets, and other sources

• Backdraft now has a CRIT value of 5%

• Backdraft DMG calculation increased from 50% of Burn to 75%

• Backdraft now removes all Burn from the source monster when unmastered

• Backdraft+ now has a CRIT value of 10%

• Backdraft+ DMG calculation reduced from 100% to 75%

  • Dev Notes: The Runaway's DOT bomb regains its previously unique nature among the skill type, allowing it to interact with all of the standard tokens (for better or for worse) in addition to the DOT-based calculation for damage. Some values have been adjusted to keep it moderately in line in light of recent increases in Burn availability and the unmastered version does retain some normalized DOT bomb behavior (removal of the DOT source).

• Cauterize and Cauterize+ launch ranks changed from 2 3 4 to 1 2 3

• Cauterize and Cauterize+ no longer require that the target have Bleed

• Cauterize now only provides the 25% heal if the target has Bleed; otherwise it heals for 1 point

• Cauterize+ now only provides the 33% heal if the target has Bleed; otherwise it heals for 5%

  • Dev Note: Being unable to use Cauterize in rank 1 didn't feel great for a character that can easily dance to the front. We adjusted the condition restriction to allow for desperate Death's Door saves (and to give some legitimacy to all those Heroes getting angry that they aren't on the receiving end of the hot poker).

• Controlled Burn and Controlled Burn+ are now considered Ranged skills

• Controlled Burn initial (non-token) Burn value reduced from 3 to 2

• Controlled Burn+ initial (non-token) Burn value reduced from 4 to 3

• Controlled Burn+ now ignores Guard

• Controlled Burn and Controlled Burn+ (token) Burn values are now compatible with buff/debuff effects on monsters that influence DOT values, such as Physician's Cause of Death

  • Dev Note: Burn values have been reduced to match the values on the token of the same name, given how much DOT potential the skill has as a whole. While other external factors can now increase the continuous Burn, this only applies to buffs/debuffs on the monster, as the continued effect lives on the token and not the Runaway. As an experiment, Controlled Burn is allowed to ignore Guard tokens in order to place its rank-locked token but, being a non-damaging skill, it will not remove those tokens. It's not a clearing skill.

• Dragonfly+ now has +20% Burn RES Piercing when Stealthed

• Firefly and Firefly+ now apply their Combo Burn effect to the monster in front rather than a random neighbor

• Firefly+ now has +20% Burn RES Piercing when Stealthed

  • Dev Note: We wanted to make the direction of the fire spread more controlled and this gives both Firefly and Ransack the ability to spread fire to rank 1, which they otherwise cannot reliably affect. Additionally, they can now synergize with Stealth for piercing resistance.

• Firestarter buff increased from 2 Burn to 3 Burn

• Firestarter+ now also grants the Runaway +1 Burn Duration for 3 Turns

• Firestarter+ Use Limit increased from 2 to 3

  • Dev Note: We wanted to provide a little more incentive to spend a turn buffing an ally and this was inspired by a mix of the Survivor version of the same skill. This also helps make up for the fact that she can never target herself with Firestarter.

• Hearthlight and Hearthlight+ no longer ignore Dodge

• Hearthlight and Hearthlight+ no longer have to hit a target to remove Stealth; it is cleared from the team regardless

• Hearthlight and Hearthlight+ now apply a -10% Burn RES debuff to all targets

• Hearthlight and Hearthlight+ now apply Combo on CRIT

• Hearthlight now has a CRIT of 10% and can use CRIT tokens

• Hearthlight+ now has a CRIT of 15% and can use CRIT tokens

• Hearthlight+ no longer has a 25% chance of applying Combo

• Hearthlight+ now grants +10% Burn RES Piercing to all Heroes

  • Dev Note: Hearthlight has long been a divisive skill due to the specificity of its use case. While it shines in some areas, such as Coven battles in Kingdoms, it falls a lot flatter in others. With these changes, we've aimed to retain its core capability (widespread Stealth clearing) while applying some benefits that are more broadly applicable to the skills of the Runaway and other Heroes with Burn. Splitting the Burn RES effects into a buff and debuff means you get a chance to score double value but also guarantee at least half. Lastly, non-damaging skills that ignore defensive tokens such as Dodge are not meant to remove those tokens unless they are clearing skills (e.g. the Highwayman's Tracking Shot) so we've corrected the error in this skill. To compensate, we've made a change to guarantee that all Stealth is still removed from the enemy team.

• Ransack and Ransack+ now apply their Combo Burn effect to the monster in front rather than a random neighbor

• Ransack+ now has +20% Bun RES Piercing when Stealthed

  • Dev Note: Same notes as Firefly

• Searing Strike and Searing Strike+ have had their implementation of bonus Burn vs. Combo adjusted

• Searing Strike DMG increased from 3-6 to 3-7

• Searing Strike now gains an explicit +2 Burn vs. Combo

• Searing Strike+ DMG increased from 4-7 to 4-9

• Searing Strike+ now gains an explicit +3 Burn vs. Combo

• Searing Strike+ Burn reduced from 3 to 2

  • Dev Note: Searing Strike has a cleaner tool tip and now the bonus can apply to others effects riding on this skill from trinkets or similar sources. We wanted to try increasing her direct damage potential on this skill so that she had some front line offense that didn't feel as reliant on Burn, though we kept a wider DMG range in place since the skill does still carry significant DOT potential. We feel this also helps further differentiate Searing Strike's purpose from Firefly's.

• Smokescreen+ cooldown increased from 1 to 2

• Smokescreen+ CRIT increased from 10% to 15%

  • Dev Note: This has largely been considered too powerful for its short cooldown so we thought we'd try an experiment where only the mastered cooldown is increased, given all of the added power this skill gains on mastery. The unmastered skill remains untouched and is slightly more spam-capable, albeit less efficient in its token application over a longer period of time.

Occultist

Updated Occultist trinkets to better match the recent changes

Wanderer

• Binding Shadows and Binding Shadows+ ignore their Combo effect if the Occultist already has Stealth

Ritualist

• Abyssal Artillery no longer has a chance to apply Combo when unmastered

• Abyssal Artillery and Abyssal Artillery+ now spend 2 Unchecked Power to apply Blind

  • Dev Note: There was a lot of division on the Speed token On CRIT but, ultimately, we felt that more people were against it than for it. That being the case, we decided to move to a version that allowed a powerful debuff token at a cost (Unchecked Power) that would also benefit from the Unchecked Power's passive Debuff RES Piercing. While this makes it similar to Blinding Gas, we believe the DMG component, piercing, and cost help to differentiate it. Further, Combo was removed from the base version to differentiate it from Wanderer's unmastered Abyssal Artillery.

• Malediction and Malediction+ no longer pierce Debuff RES inherently

• Malediction and Malediction+ duration increased from 2 rounds to 3

• Malediction Unchecked Power cost reduced from 3 to 2

• Malediction+ defensive token distribution adjusted from 30% Block / 30% Dodge to 15% Block / 15% Block+ / 15% Dodge / 15% Dodge+

  • Dev Note: The piercing on this skill took away from the Ritualist's core capacity of being able to pierce RES via the Unchecked Power tokens. We're likely returning all Unchecked Power skills to the original design of having the same cost when unmastered but at reduced power and this is the first one to reflect that. Increases to duration have been made to make this more accessible and the type of tokens available on mastery have improved.

• Sacrificial Stab+ now buffs the Ritualist's SPD by +3 for 3 turns when killing a target

• Sacrificial Stab+ now shares Wanderer's +100% DMG vs. Corpse buff

  • Dev Note: Bringing Ritualist's Sacrificial Stab into alignment with Wanderer's.  It retains the reduced Unchecked Power generation as Ritualist has other skills for generating it but a non-token SPD buff will help get those debuffs out faster each round.

• Vulnerability Hex and Vulnerability Hex+ Vulnerable tokens increased from 1 back to 2 to match Wanderer

• Vulnerability Hex+ no longer clears Block from the target before applying Vulnerable

• Vulnerability Hex+ now applies a debuff: if the target dies, the Occultist receives 1 Unchecked Power. This debuff lasts 1 battle.

  • Dev Note: We felt that Vulnerability Hex needed a little something more when mastered but still needed to stand apart from the Wanderer version, so this version has an additional method of feeding Unchecked Power to the Occultist at the expense of the previous Block removal. The unmastered version does currently rate as "Wanderer's but slightly better" but there's little that can be taken away from the unmastered version on Ritualist without making it an unsatisfying button to push or robbing it of the Ritualist identity.

• Weakening Curse now applies a 1 turn version of the mastered version's debuff, granting the Occultist Unchecked Power if the target attacks

• Weakening Curse+ CRIT increased from 10% to 15%

  • Dev Note: We wanted to speed up access to the specialized nature of how this Curse can generate Unchecked Power for the Occultist.  The limited duration means that timing it for maximum effect will be strict, however.  In order to make it easier for the skill to land when mastered and further differentiate it from its base version, the mastered CRIT rate has been increased.

Plague Doctor

• Surgeon Battlefield Medicine+ tool tip no longer incorrectly lists the healing bonus for Bleed twice; it has been corrected to Burn

• Physician Noxious Blast no longer has Debuff RES Piercing vs. Combo when unmastered

• Physician Noxious Blast+ Weak reduced from 2 to 1

MEMORIES

• Heroes no longer get re-rolled if they have a memory slot available, even if it's empty

• Added the ability to reroll memories

  • Dev Note: In order to facilitate testing we’ve added this feature. Right now the amount and price are made to be easy for testing. The feature is also currently enabled always, which can cause weird behavior on an un-upgraded track. When and if we keep this for retail deployment the cost, amount offered, and access conditions will be changed to reflect the intended end-game/prestige system. 

• Memoried heroes can now be renamed

• A Second Chance: Replaced +5% Deathblow RES with On Entering Death's Door: Heal 10% (Once per Region)

• A Summer's Day: Replaced +15% Traveling Heal with +10% Resolute Chance

• A Token of Friendship: Replaced +10% Positive Banter with +10% Healing Given from Skills

• A Long Day's Work: Replaced Combat Start: -1 Stress (40%) with +10% Debuff RES piercing

• Fresh Bread: +5% Max HP buff now lasts until the end of the Expedition

• A Lucky Break: Replaced Combat Start: Dodge token (20%) with Gain When Dodging: -1 Stress (25%)

• Father's Praise: Replaced Combat Start: Block token (20%) with +1 Regen Dealt

• Dev Note: After discussions with the community we've learned there's preference to retain many of the passive buffs such as increased resistances, damage, speed, etc. There's also been a desire to keep buffs and effects on the simpler side since there are many other triggered effects from items and skills. These changes focused on improving the low performing Memories and replacing them with more useful, simple buffs and/or effects. Favorite Toy is on our radar as a highly potent Memory. We're typically in favor of buffs over nerfs, so we want to see how things shake out with these changes, but we're keeping an eye on Favorite Toy.

ORDAINMENT

• Ordainment Act 5 buff now has Apply to Attacker When CRIT: Blight 3 (3 Turns)

• Reverted Ordainment DMG buff from flat to %

  • Dev Note: We are looking into adjusting how Weak tokens are calculated

GAMEPLAY

• Librarian Reduced Burn RES from IMM to 100%

• Shambler trinkets updated

• Collector: Life Steal now has a 1 turn cooldown

• Fixed Death occasionally spawning in Catacomb repair fights

• Focused Fault: Replaced +100% DMG per Seen token with +8 DMG per Seen token

  • Dev Note: This should scale better with Weak tokens

• Fixed an issue where the torch was unintentionally draining prior to the crossroads

• Fixed an issue where Horseshoe swift travel icon wasn't removed when passing the day

• Increased Biome select scroll speed with mouse scroll wheel

• Removed Bounty Hunter hero sheet "visit shrines to unlock" text

• Securis: Added Gain On Killing Blow: Strength Token & Block Token

• Adjusted In Line Damage size for trinket damage poptext text to not be so large

• Updated remove token/quirk logic to behave like copy/steal logic in that it is now pure random

• Fix for abomination causing a softlock when switching from Beast to Corpse

• Fixed some of the combinable tooltips incorrectly displaying massive missing blue strings

• Updated Kingdom Siege Resolution UI to add a pulse to sieges that must be resolved, to assist users who forget that they must resolve these before they can continue elsewhere

• Re-arranged some of the options in the pause menu

• Added two new options to the GAME category

  • Added a Combat Speed option

    • Dev Note: We've rolled out an option that will allow you to increase combat speed to 1.5x of default. This also increases the game audio to match and remain in sync. The game will revert game speed to 1x for all in-combat cinematics (ie. Boss intros, deaths, resolve checks, etc), and then resume back to 1.5x.

  • Added a Driving Speed option

    • Dev Note: We've rolled out an option that will allow you to increase driving speed to 1.5x of default

• Updated Jester Wanderer Finale, Crusader Aggressor Smite and Reap, Abomination Fiend Rage, and Smolder Hymnal on kill effects to trigger when killing a corpse

• Bundle of Contracts, Kill List, and Crimson Tick tooltips now state the on kill triggers are ineffective against corpses

• Retreating in Confessions effects have been updated; reduced Loathing from +3 to +2 and increased Stress damage from +1 to +2