Hello, Merchants! As many of you know, we have been working behind the scenes on an overhaul to the abilities for each class specialization. The overhaul is completed, but it is requiring a substantial amount of testing to ensure the balance is there before we release it for you all to try out. We have actually been spending the last few days implementing a whole new system behind the scenes so we can more easily test abilities, difficulties, different group compositions, etc., to ensure that we can get this done as accurately as possible. This is a large task, but with the new balancing system and the overhaul, we are confident that these new abilities will add a much more interesting set of choices to be made when you are building your perfect group. That said, while we are working behind the scenes to get things balanced out and make sure it’s all working as intended, we wanted to release the ability info to you ahead of time to let you plan out your strategies. Note that since these are still being tested, some things may change, though if they do change then it won't be by much! [b]Elemental Mage[/b] The Elemental Mage is the powerhouse of AoE damage. Their sole purpose is to unleash as much devastation over the enemy as possible, draining their health with extreme magical damage. However, we wanted to ensure that their kit also included some utility to make them a little more formidable on their own in solo dungeons. [b]Astral Mage[/b] The Astral Mage is a healing over time (HoT) healer who specializes in counteracting sources of incoming damage which are usually done in small amounts over longer periods of time. The new Astral kit also includes the only abilities in the game which can help heroes keep their mana in check. With some of the new difficulties and dungeons coming, along with the rebalance alongside them, mana will become even more important for each class to be able to shine. Here is the full ability card for the Elemental and Astral Mage: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42535422/6b8baf03be67a3be382f602feea1e8e7329af973.png[/img] [b]Refuge Warrior[/b] The Refuge Warrior is a tank, specializing in high Armor and Ward to be able to absorb high amounts of incoming damage. Warriors deal physical damage, and the Refuge specializes in physical damage over time via bleeds, as well as some more utility based abilities for self sustaining. [b]Frenetic Warrior[/b] The Frenetic Warrior is the highest source of single target physical damage in the game. Their abilities are also the fastest in the game, and that’s before they buff themselves with even more speed. The Frenetic is about constant and powerful hits against the enemy. Here is the full ability card for the Refuge and Frenetic Warrior: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42535422/b6c8aec40efa9b3e850512602de95f6678df66eb.png[/img] [b]Preservation Cleric[/b] The Preservation Cleric is the other tank role currently in the game alongside the Refuge Warrior. However, Preservation deals in magical damage output and focuses more on controlling the enemy through stuns. Preservation also specializes more in mitigating damage using Divine Shields instead of absorbing the damage. Divine Shields are shields which absorb both magical and physical damage. The biggest benefit to Preservation, however, is their ability to also support and protect their party members when in group content. [b]Reverence Cleric[/b] The Reverence Cleric is the other healer in the game. However, unlike the Astral Mage, the Reverence Cleric will specialize in burst healing, which means they are more suited to offsetting slower, but more powerful incoming hits. You should also never underestimate their ability to remove certain negative effects on themselves or party members. One well timed removal of a stunned party member could very well be the difference between victory and defeat. Here is the full ability card for the Preservation and Reverence Cleric: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42535422/40bef19f15a85d6214816e5ec46aeb32bafdd040.png[/img] [b]Scrapper Rogue[/b] The Scrapper Rogue is a more balanced physical damage dealer. They deliver well paced single target attacks, and they also have ways to ensure they are surviving while delivering precise strikes to the enemy. However, their kit affords them the opportunity to distribute massive amounts of AoE damage when it is needed. [b]Deadeye Rogue[/b] The Deadeye Rogue is a lot more focused on AoE damage. However, they are also equipped with powerful party support abilities and the ability to control the enemy through stuns and slows, making them a crucial part of any group facing challenges beyond simple “tank and spank” strategies. Here is the full ability card for the Scrapper and Deadeye Rogue: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42535422/c05ceac00a83972deb68210da371a9d3866c1c7c.png[/img] [b]The Arbiter[/b] Finally, we are very excited to announce that we have a fifth class coming to The Merchant’s Guide to the Kingdom! Throughout development, we started noticing the need for a different role to be filled, and it only grew stronger when we recently added in the difficulty settings. The Arbiter comes with two specs, the Tempest and the Storm. Both of these specs deal in magic damage, and they balance out magic and physical damage dealing classes in the game, putting less pressure on the Elemental Mage, which was previously the only magic based DPS class. [b]Tempest Arbiter[/b] The Tempest Arbiter is the master of wind, using it to deal high amounts of AoE damage, while also having powerful party support capabilities. They are also equipped with the ability to hinder the enemy through slows, as well as an extremely powerful silence ability, which prevents the enemy from being able to cast any spells, reducing them to only basic attacks. [b]Storm Arbiter[/b] The Storm Arbiter specializes in heavy single target magic damage through increased critical strikes, as well as high enemy control capabilities via slows or stuns. The Storm will be extremely useful in any fight which calls for high magic damage against single targets. Here is the full ability card for the Tempest and Storm Arbiter: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42535422/bb1a13d5331bddf0b498b0a0fbe806633f0a49ea.png[/img] One final note before we move on. While many of these abilities are extremely powerful and spell trouble for any enemies who dare oppose your heroes, you should also keep in mind that the enemies are evolving with these abilities as well. It will be more important than ever to know your enemy as well as yourself while you are preparing your heroes for the dangers to come! [b]Basic Attacks Mechanical Change[/b] We also wanted to announce a major change to the functionality of combat within Merchant’s Guide. Before this ability rework, the heroes had to regularly choose between using their basic attack or casting an ability. This put a lot of friction on choices the player had to make, especially as far as cast speed and attack speed go, which often resulted in a strange situation where having too much of one or the other could in fact hurt the dps of a hero. One example of this would be if you got too much Haste on a hero who specializes in casting abilities, they could choose to perform a basic attack when their more powerful abilities were going to come off of cooldown in less than a second, resulting in an overall DPS loss because they’d spend the next several seconds finishing their basic attack instead of casting their hard hitting abilities as soon as possible. With that in mind, we have now separated basic attacks from abilities, putting each on their own cast bars. This means that every hero, be it physical or magic damage, tank, healer or dps or any of the in-betweens, will now be constantly performing their basic attack regardless of a spell being cast. We believe this brings some far more interesting build opportunities into play where you can choose to increase a hero’s cast or attack speed and not have to worry about how it is impacting the timing between the two. We also think it brings about an opportunity for heroes to be more specialized in basic attacks or abilities, or hybrids, where Haste is no longer a completely dead stat on a hero you are otherwise building for powerful abilities. As always, Merchant’s, we welcome any and all feedback, and we hope that these coming changes make for more interesting party choices, more difficult challenges for those who want them, and a more clear-cut gearing process for whatever goals you might have for your heroes. We expect the abilities patch to be on the open beta branch relatively soon, but sadly cannot give a specific time frame quite yet. There is a lot to test with all these changes and additions, and we would rather release it in a better, more ready state than try to rush it out. Thanks for all your ongoing support! We hope you enjoy reading the new abilities coming your way, and can’t wait to see what kind of strategies come out of this. -Devs