Hello Everyone! Since the Encyclopedia Update that introduced the Codex, Achievements and Performance Updates, we've been working on the 0.9 Update, called the "Balance Update". This update will introduce a LOT of fixes, changes, and balance to The Slormancer to get it ready for the last content Updates and for the 1.0 release. We're getting close! This Balance Update is pretty much a community update since it involves making changes to all the points raised by the community over the last three years that we felt were relevant. That's a lot of things to rework and sort out but balance has been neglected for most of our Early Access so it is now time to address it. One giant trap at this stage of development would be to try to rework too many points and/or too deeply. This is something we did before early access and it took us nearly a year. Therefore, we need to sort out what needs to be reworked and what, despite being imperfect, is part of the charm of the game. After all, we have a game that feels solid in many aspects but can seem a bit rough around the edges in others. Below, I'll list all the changes that you can expect from the Balance Update. They are divided in two major categories: Balancing the Experience and Balancing Combat. [h2]Balancing the Experience[/h2] The Slormancer can be a tedious game. This is something that we've had to ackowledge to move forward. Most mechanics and features come with a downside that can heavily harm the fun that was initially intended. Here are a couple of examples, but if you've played the game, I'm sure that you've experienced the feeling: [list] [*] Whenever a players loots a Slorm Reaper (say, its first, around Level 10), he should be nothing but super excited to discover and equip its new weapon however, it is unplayable because of the level difference with its current Slorm Reaper. [*] Whenever a player finally unlocks its first Primordial Slorm Reaper, after sweating on that 40k+ victims, he should be thrilled, yet it is unusable for at least another couple of hours or so of grind to get it back to a relevant level. [*] Whenever a player unlock its first NPCs, he should be super excited to find out about all the fancy features that the game is made of, but no, he first has to pay a substantial amount of Goldus to unlock these features. [/list] I could go on about other mechanics that work in a similar way where we ended up turning an experience that should be full of fun into something tedious and ultimately, disappointing. We've always wanted for The Slormancer to be a game where you can easily create and experience new builds on the fly, yet somehow it sometimes feels like the game is actively preventing you to. I'm not going to go into details about how we're about to change what has been detailed above just because everything is still subject to change but these issues will no longer exist. We're moving back and forth with our solutions because although some of the issues may seem easy to resolve, or have been resolved in a certain way by other games, the solution has to fit the greater picture, and that includes all of our upcoming changes. We're also going to remove or change mechanics that can be bypassed by cheesing the game. You can expect a complete rework of Masteries that will no longer require you to afk-farm and / or mind-numbingly afk-cast Skills to get Mastery points. Same goes for the Temppopotamus' Bastion runs to get those Primordial Slorm Reapers, though it is important to mention that we are not going to prevent these runs, but simply change the prerequisite to get a Primordial Slorm Reaper to something more fun and natural. Basically, we know that we have really exciting features but we now need to get rid of the unnecessary tediousness that breaks the fun for some players. Generally speaking, the time to access to horizontal features such as new Slorm Reapers, new Legendary Items, new Class Upgrades and Passives, will be reduced and the content easier to access. [h2]Balancing Combat[/h2] There's a lot of things to say about Combat but I'll try to keep it short and on point. [h3]Reworks[/h3] There are a few major reworks that are coming up that will impact all classes and how the game is played: [list] [*] [b]Attack Speed:[/b] We're going to rename the current Attack Speed stat to what it is: Cooldown Reduction. Then we're going to add a proper Attack Speed stat to the game that will be used to reduce the animation time of the Skills you cast. This Attack Speed stat will be found on Equipment and on the various layers of the game. [*] [b]Cooldown Reduction:[/b] Currently, Cooldown Reduction (the current Attack Speed) is a necessary stat for every build because it is a quick and efficient way to increase your overall DPS and to add comfort and ease of use. We are first going to drastically reduce the need for Cooldown Reduction by reducing the Cooldown of most Class Skills (more on that below). But we are also going to reduce the Cooldown Reduction that can be found in the various layers of the game. And most importantly reduce its presence on Equipment. With the proper Equipment, you can reach +66% Cooldown Reduction (Attack Speed) on a single stat roll which is too damn high! [*] [b]Class Skills and Ancestral Legacy Skills:[/b] As I've mentioned above, we will greatly reduce the Cooldown Time of most Class Skills so that they are much more comfortable to use without the need to reduce their Cooldown. This will also lead in more contrasted Cooldowns as we, with a proper Attack Speed, currently either have 0.1 second Cooldown Time on Primary / Secondary Skills and 1 second Cooldown Time on greater Ancestral Skills that have a 60-second base Cooldown Time. [*] [b]Skill / Elemental Damage Ratios:[/b] Currently, The Slormancer doesn't encourage damage hybridation even though this was the intended behavior. You either build Elemental Damage through conversions and / or by playing the Mage or you simply don't. The Mighty Knight lacks the proper options to use Elemental Damage whereas The Mischievous Mage is strongly encouraged to build around it because both the Ancestral Legacy and his Class Kit benefit from it. The first thing that we need to change to encourage hybridation is to grant Elemental Damage to everyone, through leveling, but also through the Ancestral Legacy Tree. We are introducing a new mechanic to the Ancestral Legacy: You will now gain Elemental Damage for every Upgrade you've purchased on the Ancestral Legacy Tree, whether it is equipped or not. This both acts as a way to grant Elemental Damage to everyone but also as a Slorm Sink that is, even though limited, quite large. As for The Mischievous Mage, the Skill / Elemental Damage ratios will be changed for something more similar to the other classes. He will keep Elemental Damage ratios on Skills because we like the asymmetry that it creates. They will simply be reduced so that, as expected, Skills deal Skill Damage and Elemental Effects deal Elemental Damage. [*] [b]Conversions:[/b] A longstanding issue we've had is how we manage the numbers coming from synergies / conversions. An issue called "double dipping", because a Flat Value gained from a Synergy is added to the stat before Percent Increases and Multipliers. So if you keep converting that value, say from Evasion to Armor to Mana to Life, then that value is inheriting the Percent Increases and Multipliers of every conversion that it goes through. By building it properly, you can quickly reach gigantic numbers that were not intended. We're basically going to remove the double dipping. With the 0.9 Update, conversions will now be added on top of the final value. So instead of having ((Added Flat + Conversion) * Percent * Multiplier) for each stat, it will become (Added Flat * Percent * Multiplier) + Conversion. This feels like the healthier option even though we might lose some of the fun there is in finding these chains. [/list] [h3]Balance[/h3] Besides the larger reworks, we are also adjusting and fine tuning every layer that's available in The Slormancer. As I've mentioned above, it would be a trap to rework every Skill, Reaper or Legendary that is in the game so we are prioritizing the things that need to be changed and / or deeply reworked and the things that only need a bit of fine tuning. But we are going through everything. And everything includes: [list] [*] Equipment and Stat Rolls [*] Attributes [*] Class Skills, Upgrades, Specialisations and Mechanics [*] Slorm Reapers [*] Ancestral Legacy [*] Legendary Effects [*] Ultimatums [*] Reaper Runes [*] Elite Affixes & Cataclysms [*] The Great Forge Rewards [/list] Given the cheer amount of changes that is coming up, I'm writing the Patch Notes as I go, and boy, it is going to be a long one. That's about it for today! We're making good progress but it is not yet possible to give a release date for the 0.9 Update. Stay tuned. Cheers!