State of the Beta - Post #8

Earlier State of the Beta posts:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7

Unique rebalance

As well as adding over 100 unique items and Jewels in The Awakening, we've made balance changes to around 50 unique items. Mark2 outlines the changes in this manifesto post.

Leech Changes

The new leech changes are on the realm. We have worked out we need to change leech rate as it currently works. Currently, when you would already be at the Leech Cap, the rate increase does not give you more leech, as you are already at the cap, while it still reduces the time taken to leech. This can make Leech Rate detrimental to a player in fights against large number of targets, or who otherwise reaches the leech cap quickly.

We will be changing increased Leech Rate to increased Life/Mana Leeched per Second. This will be best against single targets, or in times when you do not reach the Leech Cap, but will not be detrimental in situations you are against a large number of targets.

We are also looking at increasing the values of the Leech Cap. We will then have two main bonuses affecting leech gained, with Leech Cap bonuses best against packs, and Increased Leech Per Second bonuses best against bosses. Neither will be detrimental to the player.

Energy Shield Leech was also bugged on the beta, and was not stacking in the way Life and Mana Leech now are. This will be fixed on the next deploy.

Maps and Map Drops

The next patch will include some changes to map drop rates. The end result of the changes should make it easier to get to and maintain mid to high-tier maps. The highest tiers of maps (level 80 to 82) will still be challenging to reach and maintain.

We are also doing a rework of map mods. Once done it will be patched in. We will make a manifesto post once the details are close to finalised.

Timeframes

Chris posted news yesterday which outlined the general time frames leading up to The Awakening's release.

I am aiming to do a small patch before this week with the unique items, leech, and a few other changes.

After that my focus is on the 1 July patch which completes the content on the beta.
As well as finishing off The Awakening, a few team members are getting trailers and other assets ready for the media and marketing push you should start seeing late next week.

How are we tracking?

Number of issues required to be completed for release: 530

Yes, that is a lot more issues than last week. 120 of the issues are new since last week. There are two things that have caused this jump. General issues for things we are getting together now being turned into individual issues. For example, the new challenges and achievements make up dozens of individual issues.

The other cause of the increase is small issues being identified that require a fix.

There are more issues, but they are smaller and being dealt with fast.

Stop finding new issues, you bastard.

yuup

I can't wait to see the trailer for the Awakening.

Thanks for the frequent updates! keep up the good work guys.

Looking good

hey can u tell us about the 200 beta keys from the last event? we are waiting for that to play the beta

Will the map drops be in a patch before the last wipe? Or will be implemented after the last wipe?

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The highest tiers of maps (level 80 to 82) will still be challenging to reach and maintain.

So, gate people from challenging content and have them grind lower content to hope for RNG to allow them a glimpse at the challenging higher content and call it... challenging.

I don't want to have to point out the obvious here..

"

Leech Changes

Seriously, just scrap everything you have done with leech in beta.

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We also doing a rework of map mods. Once done it will be patched in. We will make a manifesto post once the details are close to finalised.

Remove hordes.
Remove champs.
Remove commanders.
Population density scales directly off of map quantity which scales directly off of the difficulty and number of affixes.

?

Finally? Not doing this at this stage will show there is no real intention to fix the map system. It's long overdue.

gimme my close beta key from that 3 day exile race.. camonnn..