Knights!

In this two posts (yes, it is that long), you can read all the Patch notes for version 2.0. Please make sure to have at least 5 GB of free space on your hard drive before applying the update. Please note that this post does not contain changes related to the Rising Eclipse season or the 10-mission skirmish pack - they are both free updates that launch together with Patch 2.0. Please refer to the previous blog posts for more details.

Be advised: these patch notes contain spoilers! 

GENERAL

• Skills and Traits that increased Vitality and/or HP from Accessories/Armour now increase maximum Vitality/HP.
• Minor modifications have been made to the Morality Chart. Costs have been adjusted, mainly to make it impossible to access Act II morality Heroes before even starting Act II.
• The use of Tomes that grant a bonus for 1 Mission is now restricted: the same Hero can't use multiple Tomes of the same type on a Mission.
• Allies and Objects no longer trigger effects that happen on kill.
• Fixed a bug which caused summoned Enemies to start with their full AP on their first Turn. Now they have 50% of their AP as Movement AP on their first Turn.
• Decreased the cost of the Archery Range building upgrade in the Training Ground from 3000 Gold to 2000.
• The Round Table building upgrades have been repositioned:
  • Decrees has been moved to the old place of Laws, and Leadership 1 is now its prerequisite
  • Famous Titles has been moved to the old place of Legislature, and Leadership 3 is now its prerequisite
  • Laws has been moved to the old place of Famous Titles, and no longer has Leadership 1 as a prerequisite
  • Legislature has been moved to the old place of Decrees, and now has Laws as a prerequisite instead of Leadership 3
    • Dev Comment: This switcheroo was made mainly because of this last point. Now you can no longer purchase the Legislature upgrade (which allows you to pass a second law) without first purchasing Laws (which unlocks the Laws tab in the first place).
• Starting Hero Skill presets have been revised and updated in many cases to promote unique gameplay styles.
  • Adjusted many Heroes starting levels as well, to better reflect the level of the maps they can be obtained at.
• Fixed a bug where passive Skills that granted a benefit to the Hero based on the number of Units affected by a certain status effect (like Terror Wings) did not count Units as affected if the source of their status effect wasn't the Hero.
• Most AP/Kill effects have been restricted in the game to work only once per Turn.
  • Dev Comment: These effects easily broke the game in later acts, and especially in the endgame where players were able to hoard them. This often caused overpowered builds where the enemy didn't even get a single turn to act. The current change is to remedy that - surely a big nerf to AP/kill builds, but a necessary one.
• A new building, the Forge is now available for construction in Camelot.
  • Various types of Gems now drop as loot from missions, that can be used in the Forge to upgrade Heroes gear.
• Fixed a bug where a floating text that indicates healing appeared whenever a Lost Unit entered their Reanimation state.
• Added a new option to the Gameplay Options: Simultaneous DoT Ticks: Damage over Time effects will apply simultaneously at the start of each Turn. - This has no impact on the game mechanics, it just speeds up gameplay.
• Existing Skirmish missions have been updated with the modifications of patch 2.0. Hero presets have been revised and many skirmish missions received minor balance changes.
• Enemy Traps can no longer be detected during the deployment phase.
• Fixed a bug which caused the Fealty law to not grant its bonus Loyalty during Missions.
• Fixed a bug which caused the Muster of Arms Decree to not function properly.
• Aspirant Heroes will be leveling up automatically, but they will always be 3 levels behind your highest-leveled Hero.
• Resurrection Tome now resurrects Heroes on the same level as the highest level Hero in the Round Table.
• The default cooldown of skills can no longer be reduced below 1 Turn.
• The Purse of Gold Decree now only costs 2000 Gold, instead of 5000.
• The Concession Decree now grants a 50% discount at the Merchant, instead of 20%.
• The Merchant now sells packs of resources, enabling players to sink their excessive amounts of gold gathered (or pillaged) in Avalon.
  • Resources sold include Relic Dust, as well as various gem packs.
• The Newcomer Vendors building upgrade now has the Craftsman upgrade as a prerequisite, and it also has a reduced Gold cost from 3000 to 2000.
• Fixed several issues that caused Very Hard AI to behave strangely.
  • Dev Comment: Very Hard AI had a tendency to suidice to opportunity attacks, or be overly aggressive just to get some backstabs into the player's backline. This behaviour has been toned down, and the AI should behave more in line with normal expectations, while still presenting a formidable challenge.
• Added tutorial videos for controller users, and generally improved UX with controller.
• Fixed the missing controller vibrations when casting a skill.
• Several spelling inconsistencies and typos have been corrected for all languages.
• Various GUI and UX updates and changes.
  
  

CLASS BALANCE

MARKSMAN:

• Adrenaline: changed to Once per Turn the Hero gains 2 AP when killing a Unit.
  • This is in line with changes to other AP/kill effects.
• Long Reach: now grants +1 Range for all non-melee Active Skills, instead of just for Ranged Skills.
• Shoot:
  • The masteries Torture and Weak Spots have been combined into one single mastery. The new Torture mastery gives +20% Damage against either Burning or Poisoned Enemies.
  • The 4th mastery of Shoot has been changed to Quick Draw: Shoot's AP Cost is reduced by 1.
• Aimed Shot:
  • The default damage of Aimed Shot has been increased to 35% from 25% per AP point spent.
  • The Direct Hit mastery now gives +15% damage to Aimed Shot, regardless of the target.
  • The locations of Direct Hit and Long Range Shot masteries have been swapped on the skill tree.
• First Shot:
  • Damage bonus increased from 15% to 30%.
• Poison Bomb:
  • Now inflicts poison by default.
  • Default range has been reduced to 2-4 from 2-8.
  • Default damage has been increased from 70% to 75%.
  • Damage bonus of the Potent Blast mastery has been increased from 15% to 25%.
  • Pestilence mastery has been changed to Light Coating: Poison Bomb's Range is increased by 2 Tile(s).
• Long Reach:
  • Increased the bonus damage of the Prepared mastery from 25% to 50%.
  • Far Shot has been replaced by Composure: +2% Weapon Damage for each unspent Movement AP the Hero possesses.
• Scout:
  • On the Run Mastery has been changed: For every 2 Tiles of Movement the Hero's next non-basic Skill costs 1 less AP this Turn.
    
    Dev Comment: Marksmen became pretty weak as the game progressed to later Acts. These changes help them stay competent throughout mid- and late game, without throwing off early game balance. They also received various tools that reward tactical gameplay and help positioning.
    

SAGE:

• Globe of Protection:
  • Can now be cast on Allies.
  • The Dispel Magic mastery can now be used to dispel Stuns and Freezes as well.
• Inspire:
  • AP Cost has been increased from 3 to 5.
• Enchanted Weapon has been moved on the skill tree to Tier 1, replacing Long Reach for all Sages, except Morgawse.
• A new passive skill has been added to Tier 2 for all Sages except Morgawse:
  • Dedication: -1 Cooldown for Support Skills.
• Ice Spikes:
  • Now causes Chill by default.
  • Default AP Cost has been increased from 4 to 5.
  • The Bursting Spikes mastery now causes Knockdown instead of Knockback.
  • The Frost Shards mastery has been changed to: The Chill effect's Duration is increased by 1 Turn(s).
  • The location of Bursting Spikes and Frost Shards masteries have been swapped on the skill tree.
• Cleansing Fire:
  • AP Cost reduced from 5 to 4.
  • Cooldown reduced from 4 to 2.
• Divine:
  • Now also grants +1 Spellcraft.
  • It has been swapped with Unburdened on the Skill Tree, moving it up to Tier 2.
    
    Dev Comment: We felt that Sages were in a pretty good place, but Inspire was by far the most use players got out of them. After these changes we hope they won't be one-trick-pony inspire machines anymore, as they can now be built in a variety of interesting ways.

CHAMPION:

• The Extra Bleeding and Robust passives have been swapped on the skill tree.
• Juggernaut:
  • Damage bonus has been reduced from 5% to 3%.
• Whirlwind:
  • Reduced default AP cost from 6 to 4.
  • Increased the bonus damage of Raging Wind from 15% to 25%.
  • Dev Comment: Whirlwind rarely saw any use, since Cleave is a default skill for most Champions, and the 5 extra targeted Tiles mostly just meant an extra restriction on positioning, rather than an increased damage potential like its AP cost suggested. By significantly reducing that AP cost, we think it has become a worthy alternative to the easy-to-use, no strings attached Cleave.
• Earth Shaker:
  • Description has been reworded to clarify it can target empty Tiles as well, not just Units.
• Killing Spree:
  • The free Strike can now only occur once per Turn.
    
    Dev Comment: This small mastery was able to greatly increase the damage output of all Champions. By restricting it to only trigger once per Turn, it still rewards smart positioning, but isn't a must-have, game-breaking upgrade.
    
    

ARCANIST:

• Force Bolt:
  • Increased the bonus AP granted by Mindgame from 1 to 2.
• Fire Blast:
  • Now causes burning by default.
  • Default damage has been reduced from 70% to 50%.
  • Firestarter mastery has been changed to Immolate: +20% Weapon Damage for Fire Blast.
• Terror Wings:
  • Changed the skill to: Gain AP at the beginning of each Turn equal to half the amount of Hexed Enemy Units.
    • This is basically the same mechanic, but instead of Movement AP it gives normal AP at only half the rate of the original.
• Wall of Flame:
  • Now causes burning by default.
  • Initial damage has been increased to 70% from 50%.
  • Burning mastery has been changed to Incendiary: Wall of Flame's AP Cost is reduced by 1.
    
    

VANGUARD:

• Fixed a bug that caused Vanguards to have 50% Surprise Damage Bonus, instead of the intended 30%.
• Traps now ignore all Armour. This change also affects Traps placed by Heroes of other classes, like Sir Damas.
  • Dev Comment: Traps were far inferior in their damage potential compared to regular attacks, even though their use requires much more forethought and careful planning. This change helps make up for that gap, while it also helps differentiate traps from other skills, giving them a unique advantage.
• Assasination:
  • The Vigour mastery now only grants AP after the first kill each Turn.
    • This is in line with changes to other AP/kill effects.
• Gas Trap:
  • Now causes Poison by default.
  • Poison Gas mastery has been changed to Quick Assembly: Gas Trap's AP Cost is reduced by 1.
  • Poison applied by the trap now correctly causes 10% damage, as most poison effects do.
  • Fixed a bug where Heroes would be unable to move into the gas cloud area left by the trap.
• Jumping Attack:
  • Jumping Attack no longer jumps back to the original position after the attack.
  • The Recoil mastery now causes Knockdown instead of Knockback.
• Strike:
  • The Finishing Blow mastery now grants 1 Movement AP for each kill with Strike, instead of AP.
• Bear Trap:
  • The duration of the Slow has been increased from 1 to 2 Turns.
    
    

DEFENDER:

• Strike:
  • Bonebreaker's extra Damage was increased from 15% to 25%.
  • Bleeding Strike was replaced by "Shredder: +10% Armour Breaking for Strike" for all Defenders except the Red Knight.
• Flaming Strike:
  • Searing Blaze's extra Damage was increased from 15% to 25%.
• Robust:
  • Previously the Robust passive of Defenders and Champions were different, as Champions gained an extra 10% Physical Resistance from the skill, that Defenders didn't get. Now Robust gives all classes the same advantages: +10% Vitality from Accessories and Trinkets, +10% HP from Armour Sigils, and +10% Physical Debuff Resist.
• Strength:
  • The Tier 1 Strength passive has been replaced by Counter Attack for all Defenders, with the exception of Sir Mordred and the Red Knight.
• Vigilance:
  • Now reduces Damage received from Overwatch and Opportunity Attacks by 50%, instead of 30%
    
    

MAP & ENCOUNTER BALANCE

• Several maps have been polished in various ways. These include unit pathing, covers and obstacles, loot received, encounter areas, cutscenes, event triggers, rest areas and many more minor changes.
• Likewise several encounters have been rebalanced, partly thanks to the fantastic community feedback.
• Some enemy unit types have received alternate versions with differing skillsets. These have been added to tons of encounters to spice things up!
• Enemy Units:

(Please note that the numbers below represent the base values of the units, and they can vary depending on difficulty settings.)

• Decreased Lost Skirmishers' and Lost Knights' Power of Loss Damage buff from 50% to 25%.
• Decreased Dawnbreaker's Weapon Damage from 14-20 to 12-16.
• Decreased Weeper's Weapon Damage from 14-20 to 12-16.
• Decreased Painted Bowman's Weapon Damage from 10-15 to 9-14.
• Decreased the Range of Shade's Shoot skill from 12 to 9.
• Decreased the Damage increase of Shade's Bless from 100% to 30%.
• Decreased the Range of Moon-Woman's Thunderbolt from 10 to 8.
• Decreased the Damage of Windmaster's Earth Ball skill from 100% to 75%.
• Decreased the Damage of Lost Revenant's Strike from 100% to 75%.
• Decreased the Damage of Lost Revenant's Power Strikeja from 150% to 100%
• Clarified the description of Tainthog's Strike to note that it is an area attack.
• The Tainthog's Strike and Push Skills received the Area tag.
• The Beastman's Stomp skill received the Melee and Area tags.
• The Beastman's basic attack no longer uses the wrong name and description, and is now correctly named Great Strike, and states that it targets an Area of 2x2 Tiles.
• The Beastman's Great Cleave skill now correctly states that it causes Knockback.
• Increased the AP Cost of the Warg's Jumping Attack from 4 to 5.
• Decreased the Range of the Tainthog's Charge from 6 to 5 Tiles.
• Increased the AP Cost of the Summer Knight's Dash Attack from 3 to 4.
• The Pict Chosen's Invulnerability no longer protects against status effects.
• Dev Comment: The goal of these changes was mostly to mitigate damage that the player has no counterplay against. Ideally players should be able to counter most sources of damage, but some of our ranged enemies and some buff auras were just too strong, giving enemy units an unfair advantage. Players should feel more in control now, while still facing a formidable challenge.

BOSSES

(Please note that the numbers below represent the base values of the units, and they can vary depending on difficulty settings.)

• Midnight:
  • Increased Vitality from 200 to 250
  • Increased HP from 65 to 115
  • Increased Armour from 10 to 15
  • Increased AP from 6 to 8
  • Decreased base Damage from 18-22 to 11-16
  • Bone Cage:
    • Decreased AP Cost from 5 to 3
  • Ignition:
    • Decreased AP Cost from 3 to 1
    • Decreased Cooldown from 5 to 4
    • Decreased the Skill's initial Damage from 80% to 60%
  • Bone Spikes:
    • Decreased AP Cost from 6 to 4
    • Decreased Damage from 100% to 80%
  • Equalized the stats of the supporting banshees to 40 Vitality, 8 AP, 6-8 Damage, and 50-50 Physical and Mental Resistances.
• Fisher King:
  • Decreased HP from 420 to 320
  • Increased Armour from 12 to 28
  • Increased AP from 8 to 12
  • Decreased base Damage from 14-18 to 10-14
  • Increased Physical Resistance from 50% to 75%
  • Shadowbolt Wave
    • Causes Slow for 2 Turns
  • Power Attack:
    • Causes Weakness for 2 Turns
  • Drain Life:
    • Causes Weakness for 2 Turns
  • Shadow Lightning:
    • Decreased Cooldown from 3 to 2 Turns
  • Burnout:
    • Decreased Cooldown from 4 to 3 Turns
  • Vomit:
    • Decreased Cooldown from 4 to 2 Turns
  • Removed Immunity to Stun
• Green Knight:
  • Increased Armour from 25 to 55
  • Increased AP from 6 to 10
  • Decreased base Damage from 35-50 to 29-39
  • The Watcher's Ice Spikes now cause Knockdown
  • The Watcher now has Teleport
• Arthur:
  • Decreased base Damage from 62-82 to 25-37
  • Increased Armour from 20 to 110
  • Increased AP grom 8 to 10
  • Summon:
    • Decreased Cooldown from 4 to 5
• Dragon Arthur:
  • Decreased base Damage from 75-100 to 25-30
  • Increased Armour from 40 to 100
  • Incresed AP from 7 to 10
  • Summon:
    • Increased Cooldown from 3 to 5
• Dev Comment: We felt like the boss fights didn't live up to the expectations, they didn't feel intimidating enough. By giving them more sustainability, as well as more AP and reduced Cooldowns, but reducing their overall Damage, we hope the fights will feel more intense. The bosses will have more time and resources to show off their badass skills, but they won't one-shot any of your heroes out of nowhere.
  
  

LOOT / ITEMS

• Equipment enchants providing bonus Damage against Seelie and Unseelie have been combined: now they give a bonus against all sidhe enemies.
• HP and Vitality equipment enchants received an increase on higher level items.
• Teleport to Enemy on Kill enchant now has a Range of 4, instead of 8.
  • Dev Comment: This item enchant was able to single-handedly break the game when used by a well-built champion. It is still strong with only 4 range, but nowhere near enough to finish battles in a single turn, like it was used to be.
• Tome of War now correctly displays that it only grants 10% Weapon Damage, not 25%.
• The equipment enchants providing Damage and AP in the first encounter after a rest can no longer be stacked by resting multiple times.
  • The bonus Damage provided by the same enchant has also been decreased.
• Equipment enchants granting +1 AP if the Hero reserves at least 3 AP in their Turn now grant +2 AP instead.
• Teleport skills gained from equipment (such as rings for example) no longer require line of sight for their targeted tiles.
• Enchants providing Vulnerability on Hit have increased values on higher tiers to stay viable against Enemies with strong Resistances.
• Added a new Common Tome to the item pool:
  • Tome of the Hedges: Returns the Hero to the Aspirant Hero list in The Round Table.
  • Dev Comment: Sending away a knight permanently because there's no more room at the Round Table was a heartache for many. With this Tome, there are still limitations, so managing your roster of Heroes is still a strategical task, but you're not forced into making drastic, permanent decisions you didn't want to make.
• The enchants that increased Damage against either Seelie or Unseelie have been replaced by one that increases Damage against any Sidhe; so it works against both Seelie and Unseelie Units.
  • Some items that had both of the former enchants have been slightly modified to avoid having duplicate enchants on them.
• The enchant that provided Traps with Armour Piercing has been replaced by a new Enchant that increases Damage dealt by Traps.
• The Culling Hits enchant executes enemies below 10% Vitaliyt, instead of 15%.
• Fixed a bug that caused kills made by Culling Hits to not always grant some onkill effects.
• Enchants reducing the Cooldown of Inspire when killing a Unit now can only trigger once per Turn.
• Most Item Enchants with charging effects and Enchants granting new skills have been rebalanced:
  • Enchants that activate after charging:
    • Attacks cause Weakness for 2 Turn(s): from 75 to 125 Damage dealt by the Hero to activate
    • Enemies withing 2 Tiles Range are Weakened for 2 Turns: from 100 to 60 Damage dealt by the Hero to activate
    • Gain +50% Dodge chance for 2 Turns: from 7 to 20 Spells cast in the encounter to activate
    • Dodge the next incoming Attack: from 7 to 14 Spells cast in the encounter to activate
    • Deal 50% Weapon Damage to all Enemies: from 10 to 20 Spells cast in the encounter to activate
    • Basic Attacks cause Shock for 2 Turn(s): from 8 to 17 Spells cast in the encounter to activate
    • Burning Effects immediately deal their remaining Damage and end: from 12 to 18 Spells cast in the encounter to activate
  • Enchants that grant new active skills, but need to be charged:
    • Bone Spikes: from 7 to 15 starting cooldown
    • Fire Nova: from 7 to 12 starting cooldown
    • Fire Rain: from 7 to 12 starting cooldown
    • Heal: from 7 to 4 starting cooldown
    • Ice Rain: from 7 to 12 starting cooldown
    • Ice Storm: from 8 to 11 starting cooldown
    • Magic Armour: from 7 to 3 starting cooldown
    • Mass Dispel: from 10 to 6 starting cooldown
    • Mass Heal: from 7 to 8 starting cooldown
    • Poison Cone: from 75 to 100 starting cooldown
• The range of the Teleport skill granted by certain items has been reduced from 10 to 6.
• Essences:
  • Increased the Vitality bonus provided by Essence of Salubrity from 5% to 15%
  • Increased the Vitality bonus provided by Essence of Life from 5% to 10%
  • Decreased the required Damage dealt from 6 Tiles Range for Essence of Observation from 100.000 to 20.000
  • Increased the required Damage dealt for Essence of Annihilation from 20.000 to 100.000
  • Changed Essence of Extermination to: Grants 2 AP for the first Kill each Turn to the selected Hero.
    • This is in line with changes to other AP/kill effects.
      
      

Read the rest of the changes (Hero-specific balance) in the second part of this post.