Patch 1.0 & Release Discussion

[MonTy]

Hail all,

Patch 1.0 notes landed ashore today. Lots to be said, some interesting changes in there.

The new Scion character class requires that you've rescued her in the Sceptre of God once before she can be used. This is an account-wide setting. We've enabled the Scion on any existing accounts that have finished Normal difficulty before...She is aligned with all three core attributes (Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence) and starts in the center of the passive tree. She's only available once you've unlocked her by playing through Normal difficulty and rescuing her. Existing accounts that have finished Normal difficulty before start with her unlocked.

The big deal with the Scion being introduced is that she cuts off the middle of the skill tree, so if you need to easily reach opposite sides of the tree you'll want to be a Scion. We'll have to wait for the final skill tree to be released to talk more about it, but builds such as Vaal Pact Ghost Reaver will probably need to be a Scion. *edit, seems like she may not completely cut off the middle. Will wait for final skill tree for further comments.

Four month challenge leagues are a great opportunity for a fresh start. All your old characters and items are still present in the Standard and Hardcore leagues, but you're encouraged to join the new economies, complete challenges and climb the ladder!

Domination: A variety of powerful Shrines now spawn throughout Wraeclast, surrounded by large groups of monsters that are influenced by their power. These monsters receive substantial bonuses or are protected by their shrine's effects in some way. If you are able to tag the shrine, you receive these powers for a short time. It's often very risky to run in and try to claim the shrine, but it is a gamble that can pay off. One of the new challenges is to tag each of the shrine types.
Nemesis: Nemesis is a Hardcore league (characters who die are coverted to Standard characters). Rare monsters have one guaranteed mod from the Nemesis Pool, which makes the fight substantially harder. One of the challenges is to kill a rare with each of the Nemesis mods.

Thanks to the item balance changes, I'll probably only be playing in new leagues from here on out. I hit my goal of 90 with my Softcore character, and I'll never be able to afford some of the existing uniques that are being turned into legacy items. I'll get more into that below. But new leagues will certainly be for those who want a fresh economy (well mostly) and a clean stash. People will still trade from the existing leagues to the new leagues. Heck I know a group of people offering 15 standard exalts to anyone who is willing to level a character to level 70 in the new leagues within a few days. But I do enjoy people trading all kinds of items opposed to never finding anything of value to trade for in Standard. The actual league traits sound interesting. I could see it being harder than expected, depending what the Shrines or Nemesis mods are.

The new challenge leagues have introduced five new base types of items - four new Flasks and a Ring.

Now that's interesting. Four new flasks? I assume one will be Evasion Flask akin to Granite flasks. Maybe an Evasion Ring too. But not sure what the other flask types could be. ES? Raise Max stats? All Resistances?

The Item Quantity Support Gem can not be obtained in these Challenge leagues.
Increased Item Quantity mods cannot spawn on Magic and Rare items in these leagues.

Huge nerf to Magic Find. Also will reduce the number of items on the screen. I'm happy to see that, as it got out of control in large groups.

I Love, love, love the new trigger gems. Should be very handy using Curse on Hit, Cast on Crit, and Cast when Damage Taken. Also transforing items into a minion that fights for you sounds awesome, with Animate Guardian and Animate Weapon.

I'm not too excited about Mind over Matter Keystone (When hit, 30% of damage is taken from mana before life) or Avatar of Fire (50% of your physical/lightning/cold damage is converted to fire damage. You can't deal non-fire damage). I just always seem mana starved and Avatar is certainly a niche build. But I'll give them a shot one day.

Some of the previously drop-only Skill and Support Gems are available from a new side quest. The new Trigger Gems are also available in this quest. The other new side quest offers utility flasks and rare items.

Awesome. Maybe Elemental Weakness, Elemental Hit, Added Chaos Damage, Multistrike, or Chain?

The Solaris Temple has been reduced to two levels. If you previously had the Solaris Temple Level 3 waypoint, you will be awarded the Solaris Temple Level 2 waypoint.

Wooohooo! Less chance to disconnect and lose your progress.

The experience equation has been changed so that the minimum experience you receive when too high or too low level is 2% (before it is split among the players). This means that farming non-Map areas until level 100 is actually plausible now.

This is fantastic. Sometimes you just want to take a break from mapping but the experience felt so miniscule from outside of them. Especially once you get to 85+.

Characters now receive 8 life per level rather than 6.

Seems small, but massive change with the boost to life passives. I'm expecting life builds to be much more popular now.

Item drops from Merveil, Brutus, Vaal Oversoul, Piety and Dominus have been substantially increased in Cruel and Merciless difficulties.

Smart. There's just something enjoyable about loot explosions once you kill a boss. Also second nature to people who did quick boss runs in D2.

When using Orbs of Fusing, you're now 233% more likely to roll four linked sockets and 25% more likely to roll five linked sockets.

THANK GOD.

Some of the rarest Unique items can now only drop from end-game Maps.

Huge blow to low life MF sporkers running only in Docks or Lunaris. Sure you can still make a lot of from turning rares into chaos or alts. But there was always that hope of Shavs dropping.

Balance Changes - Unique Items:...Shavronne's Wrappings: Increased Energy Shield has been reduced. Soul Taker: Increased Physical Damage has been reduced. Kaom's Heart: Increased Life has been reduced to 500. Increased Fire Damage has been added. Divine Orb used on an existing version would only update the life.

Big deal here. As I expected they've shifted into letting the game have legacy items. Meaning the existing Kaom's Hearts will NOT be nerfed in the Standard/Hardcore leagues. That means the individuals that already found these will have a huge advantage since other people cannot find them after tomorrow, only trade for it. Except those Uniques will be worth several hundred exalts so we won't be able to afford them either. Now if you only care about PvM, this won't matter as the game is balanced around the new changes, so not having a legacy unique won't mean you can't get to level 100 or do the highest maps, just you'll never be as powerful as others who have them.

Personally I dislike the feeling I can never find the strongest items in the game. But I get why they're doing it. I'd rather just play in the new leagues with a fresh start and new economy. They've hinted in past months that they play magic: the gathering and like the idea of powerful cards in old legacy formats. I'd rather they just nerf all existing items but I could imagine the headaches and time consumption from doing so.

Balance Changes - Active Skills:
The following skills have had their mana costs reduced: Ethereal Knives, Flame Totem, Searing Bond, Fire Trap, Detonate Dead, Shock Nova, Firestorm, Arc, Split Arrow and Whirling Blades.

Big fan of reducing mana on these skills. It was very hard to link support gems to these while leveling with untwinked gear and limited mana. I remember raging from having four mana pots at level 28 and it not being enough to support my skills :P

Balance Changes - Auras:
For all Auras: Base area of effect has been increased. The area of effect bonus from quality has been doubled.
The mana cost for all auras except Clarity has been changed to 60% reservation.

Wow. Huge change. Will have to see if better or worse, but people will still be able to run 2-3 auras with reduced mana, talents, blood magic or EB. I'm sure if you tried hard enough you could get 4-5 running still. The rest of the notes detail that the actual auras have been buffed, except for purity, so it's not just a straight up nerf.

Cleave: The dual wielding penalty for Cleave is now multiplicative and includes elemental damage.

Long time coming. Elemental Cleave Templar was waaaay too easy to play, equip, and level compared to other builds. I've done untwinked ele cleave builds that have over 1k damage in Normal.

You now can't use an Orb of Fusing on a fully linked item or a Jeweller's Orb on a fully socketed item.

Developers confirmed this is not for four linked items. But very handy for six sockets/links. Not that it's happened to me but I've known people who have screwed up a six socket.

I didn't touch on everything, so be sure to check out the rest of the patch notes if you haven't.