Steadfast Steward's Update - 7th Build Live!

This is our last major update to the Steadfast Steward’s public beta. We’ll be doing final tuning and bug fixing over the next few days, including additional work to the Occultist, before we push all of those changes to the main “retail” branch late next week.

We extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped beta test our weekly changes, submitted feedback, and answered our surveys and polls. This massive game update was made better through your involvement. We are fortunate to have such a passionate fan base, and we don’t take that for granted.

Before we proceed with this week’s patch notes, we first have a note about the (extensive) hero rework effort. As you have likely noticed, we have not yet started our planned reworks to the Hellion and the Leper. When we began this process, we hoped to complete all 5 of our remaining hero reworks during our set beta period. However, as the weeks went on, we opted to dedicate a little more time to refining the changes we had made to the Plague Doctor, Occultist and Runaway. This ultimately meant we had to make the difficult decision to prioritize these new changes at the expense of getting to everything we had originally planned in this period. Based on how the changes have been settling and the community response we feel like this was the right decision! 

While you will not receive our Hellion and Leper reworks next week, we are still committed to doing them and we’re happy to announce that you will not have to wait too long. Our current plan is to get these remaining reworks out shortly after our next Kingdoms release. 

To give you a better idea of our timeline: after next week's update, our team will be completing their work on the final Kingdoms module (K3). This 3rd free module features the return of the Crimson Courtiers, and is currently set for a late August release on PC/Mac. 

Once the K3 module is released the priority will be Hellion and Leper. Similar to the Steadfast Steward’s Update process, both of these heroes will be available to test during a limited beta period on our coming_in_hot branches so we can collect public feedback before they get locked in.

Console players, we have news for you too! Now that we are working towards our final PC release of the Steadfast Steward update, we will soon begin the porting process to bring these changes, as well as the Hero Origin Pack, to all our supported console platforms. More specific dates/times will come in the following weeks.

And with that, here are the notes for today’s release!

HEROES

Heroes

• DOT bomb skills that do not interact with DMG modifiers (tokens, trinkets, buffs, etc) now state this in their tool tip

Runaway

Orphan

• Orphan Path's passive Burn buffs no longer require that the Orphan has not moved that round; instead, they require only that she end the round in the same rank she was in when the round started.

  • Dev Note: This opens up a number of additional tactical avenues for using and maintaining her buffs, particularly since you can now get both the mobile and immobile buffs running simultaneously. This also helps better enable the Orphan's Burn buffs when partied with other mobile Heroes.

• Ransack now ignores 10% Move RES if the Orphan has Stealth

• Ransack+ now ignores 20% Move RES if the Orphan has Stealth

• Smokescreen and Smokescreen+ no longer interact with Combo

• Smokescreen and Smokescreen+ now inherently grant 1 Stealth

• Smokescreen CRIT increased from 5% to 10%

• Smokescreen+ CRIT increased from 10% to 20%

• Smokescreen+ grants an additional Stealth on CRIT

  • Dev Note: While it doesn't always grant as much Stealth this way, we felt it important to reduce some of the friction involved in gaining Stealth without having to move. This also further plays to the Orphan's general lack of Combo requirements and alleviates the issue of her being unable to provide Combo for Smokescreen use without moving (Ransack).

Occultist

Aspirant

• Malediction and Malediction+ are now compatible with Physician's Cause of Death

Dev Note: We plan to release another patch tomorrow (July 11) with additional Occultist changes.

Plague Doctor

Wanderer

• Blinding Gas and Blinding Gas+ now increase their chance to inflict Combo to 100% when scoring a CRIT

• Cause of Death+ DMG reduced from 150% of remaining Bleed/Blight/Burn on the target to 125%

Surgeon

• This Path now passively grants 2 Regen on kill

  • Dev Note  This effect enables the Surgeon to benefit from both direct DMG kills and kills scored by any DOT she has applied. This is more universally applicable than her (now removed) Incision+ version, which worked against the DOT nature of the skill.

• Battlefield Medicine+ heal bonus reduced from 33% to 25% per DOT type on the target

  • Dev Note: Just a touch too strong of an effect, so scaling it back a little bit.

• Incision+ no longer grants 2 Regen on kill

• Incision and Incision+ no longer gain +30% Bleed RES Piercing when the target has Combo

  • Dev Note: The community has demonstrably proven how strong the unique Combo effect on Incision can already be, so we're removing the Bleed RES Piercing (as we'd originally intended to) in order to keep it in balance. The Regen effect has been moved to the Path's passive list, where it will be much more valuable than it would have been on Incision.

Alchemist

• Cause of Death bonus DMG vs. Bleed reduced from 3 to 2

• Cause of Death+ DMG reduced from 6-10 to 5-8

• Cause of Death+ interaction with Blight has been adjusted from "Ignores Block and Dodge" to "Ignores Block and +2 DMG Dealt"

• Cause of Death+ interaction with Bleed has been adjusted from "+4 DMG Dealt" to "Ignores Dodge and +2 DMG Dealt"

• Cause of Death+ interaction with Burn has been adjusted from "+15% CRIT" to "+15% CRIT and +2 DMG Dealt"

• Cause of Death+ no longer ignores Dodge when the target has Blight

  • Dev Note: Cause of Death has been adjusted to retain much of the prior DMG but spread amongst multiple DOT types to better suit the theme of the Path as well as help balance a skill that's highly damaging for how little cooldown and effort was required.

• Disorienting Blast+ no longer applies Stun when a target has Combo

Physician

• Disorienting Blast and Disorienting Blast+ target ranks changed from 2 3 4 to 1 2 3

• Disorienting Blast and Disorienting Blast+ now have a cooldown of 2

• Disorienting Blast now applies either Daze or Shuffle to each monster adjacent to the target

• Disorienting Blast+ now applies either Daze, Shuffle, or Vulnerable to each monster adjacent to the target

• Disorienting Blast+ no longer interacts with Combo to apply Stun

• Disorienting Blast and Disorienting Blast+ will apply their Adjacent Enemies effects even if the skill misses

  • Dev Note: We wanted to retain the core of Disorienting Blast but give it a unique twist. A cost-free AoE Shuffle or Daze would be too much but this gives us a way to keep the potency suitably in check while allowing for tactical targeting options via "splash" effects.

• Emboldening Vapours has been reworked to provide the Physician with a more suitably unique interpretation of the skill

• Emboldening Vapours & Emboldening Vapours+ have a cooldown of 2

• Emboldening Vapours targets all Heroes who have Weak, Vuln, Blind, or Daze

• Emboldening Vapours inverts 1 negative token on each target to a positive equivalent

• Emboldening Vapours+ targets all Heroes who have Weak, Vuln, Blind, Daze, or Stun

• Emboldening Vapours+ inverts 1 negative token on each target to a positive equivalent

• Emboldening Vapours+ draws from a better pool of inverted token options than the unmastered version (Block+, Dodge+, chance of CRIT)

  • Dev Note: This felt like a good opportunity to do something for the Physician that doesn't exist on any other Hero, making it a more notable Path signature.

• Incision is now a Path skill

• Incision and Incision+ do not interact with Combo for Bleed RES Pierce or Bleed Duration effects

• Incision and Incision+ apply Combo

  • Dev Note: We decided to try giving Physician a version of Incision that still deals out the standard DMG and Bleed but can also facilitate other party members or her own Combo effects.

• Noxious Blast and Noxious Blast+ no longer gain any benefits related to Blight when the target has Combo

• Noxious Blast now gains +20% Debuff RES Piercing vs. Combo

• Noxious Blast+ Debuff RES Piercing vs. Combo reduced from 30% to 20%

• Noxious Blast+ Blight increased from 3 to 4

• Noxious Blast+ now inflicts an additional Weak token vs. Combo

  • Dev Note: We decided to reintroduce the second Weak token, given their recently increased value, as an added Combo effect.

GAMEPLAY

• Memory reroll changes. The reroll option is now locked behind the unlock track final node, reroll now offers 3 new items + the one you already had equipped, reroll never picks duplicate items: you will ALWAYS  have 3 new options. 

• Increased Mastery drop rate at Resist locations from 37.5% to 50% and at Oblivion's Ingress locations from 50% to 60%

  • Dev Note: Although mastery is still not guaranteed at Resist locations, this should aid in reducing (but not eliminating) the likelihood of visiting several of them and getting no mastery at all. Overall, this will also result in a small amount more Mastery throughout an expedition. We'll be monitoring this change and will revert if it negatively affects the Mastery economy.

• Reduced Mastery drop rate at Road battles from 11.11% to 8.33%

• Region goal rewards will no longer include +3 Mastery

  • Dev Note: The chance of this, even when low, created strange difficulty combinations that weren't desirable

• Naked and Afraid region goal: Will no longer spawn in Region 1 and will no longer drop Candles of Hope rewards

• Spelunk region goal: Will no longer drop Candles of Hope rewards

• All downsides on Distant stat trinkets now match the values of Vague versions

• Dark Impulse icons now have icons to represent their buffs and debuffs

• Linseed Oil Flask now has flammable tag

• Mineral-Rich Spring Water: Now has the Restorative tag

  • Dev Note: It didn't have this tag earlier since we wanted to avoid confusion to which Restorative items could be produced from Chirugeon's Mixing Kit. However, there's been enough feedback asking for this change that it's worth moving forward with it.

• Rousing Ringer: Increased chance to apply Daze to attacker when hit while Flame is under 50 from 33% to 66%. +33% Debuff RES Piercing when target has Daze changed to Target: Ally: Remove Daze and Stun.

• Relics dropped from Resist and Road battles while in the Sluice will now always roll the max amount

• Fertile Dirt now has a chance to drop from road debris while in the Sluice

• At the Hoarder, Vague trinket selection is replaced with Distant trinkets while in the final region in Confessions and after Escalation 1 in Kingdoms

• Military will now only be driven out when the Warlord is defeated

  • Dev Note: Previously, there was some variance to how many defeated Military enemies were required to drive them which was unclear and didn't feel right thematically. With the change to the Warlord's defeat, it's now consistent with Chirurgeon defeat effects and an explicit requirement to provide better clarity on when the condition is met

• Military mashes have been updated

• Wilbur's Flag: Added additional target rank clarity to item description

• Removed redundant Ignore 20% RES from Crit token description

• Fixed tooltip issue when checking if self or target has no token

• Fixed Death's Head trinkets not displaying Remove Combo on some buffs

• Fixed Trapmaker's Kit item description

• Fixed The Mountain Shudders presentation not triggering after retreating from combat

• Fixed hero effects like quirks not being applied after a Max Loathing Reset occurs

• Fixed the camera not animating back to the stagecoach after resolving a mid-combat save

• Fixed sound effects and narration sometimes not triggering on Loathing Increases

• Fixed Loathing effects not being applied if the player quits before the presentation is resolved

• Fixed an issue where the Retreat button would briefly appear when Retreat was not enabled

• Made improvements to upgraded skill comparison to better show cooldown changes/removal

• Reset the Temporary defaults for The Dam options. Sell to Hoarder is now no longer on by default and is blocked by beating the game before it can be enabled. Retreat is now no longer on by default, but is available after completing the prologue and tutorial sections

• Moved the Fast Combat audio options from the Dam to the Game Options menu