That's right, Dungeon Defenders 2 is now publicly available as a Free to Play Alpha on Steam.
Join the Steam group and play with other Penny Arcade Forum folk
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/PADD2
What does this mean? It means that the game is still being developed, and you get to have a say in it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB3YRPWWobI
Earn influence points by logging into the DD2 forums and playing the game each day, then use these points to vote on gameplay development decisions!
Influence Report 1 - 12/10/2014
Influence Report 2 - 12/17/2014
Influence Report 3 - 1/9/2015
Need some tips on soloing the early levels?Or maybe you just need some help to not "suck"
So let us join together, and share tips and answer questions on how best to put those nasty Old Ones back in their place!
Posts
I currently am running the Level 20-25 dungeons on Hard, and the only things my Heroes do is lay down defenses, and pick up mana to upgrade with. It requires using synergies to get the most damage you can. ie:
Huntress Guyser Trap + Monk Lightning Aura = Stunned enemies and bonus damage
Apprentice Freezing Tower Frozen proc + Knockup (Tornado or Earth Shaker Tower proc) = HUGE bonus damage and shatter
And overall using more than 1 builder type.
MWO: Adamski
Diablo 3 - ArtfulDodger#1572
Minecraft - ArtfulDodger42
Having played DD1, OMD, and DD2; I cant say that any of them have felt particularly floaty, but it has been a while since I played DD1.
On its own merits, DD2 feels solid enough IMHO. Though the DD series has always required a lot more running / jumping than OMD, so maybe that is whats causing the disconnect.
MWO: Adamski
So I'm curious too, actually, how DD2 feels in that regard. Lots of people talking about leveling, systems, and just saying "it's fun!", but some firm description of how it feels would be nice.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Diablo 3 - ArtfulDodger#1572
Minecraft - ArtfulDodger42
Jumping around reminds me of Luigi from the second super mario bros.
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
Diablo 3 - ArtfulDodger#1572
Minecraft - ArtfulDodger42
As someone who loved the apprentice in the last game I'm finding the huntress much more satisfying. I'm able to lay traps and pick of whatever enemies manage to work their way past. It's a class that greatly rewards a good understanding of how resistance works.
Origin: Broncbuster
MWO: Adamski
DOH
Also omg electric arrows with the water trap.
The Ramparts map spawns enemies out of 5 ground based locations, and 3 flying locations. DD2 also has a mix of enemies that are strong vs magic, and strong vs physical. So using a mix of towers is necessary. Upgrading towers both repairs the tower, and increases its damage and range.
http://youtu.be/_A2HKD8sA0s
http://youtu.be/4yFiMNhAE0U
MWO: Adamski
The sub cores were gone early on but I'll be damned if it didn't work.
MWO: Adamski
Who was I to stand in the way of a perfect murder V?
I wonder if there's any chance DD2 will see a daily this sale....if only we had someone on the inside who might give us a hint.
if only...
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
MWO: Adamski
They did, but it was like the day before christmas or something, I didn't have any cashmoneies.
Now I do.
Maybe they'll do a recap sale at the end and it'll be on it.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Influence Report 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAZrKVxxdcY&feature=player_embedded
Influence Report 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FWSJ3yfGQcs
MWO: Adamski
I've been so distracted by games that I totally forgot. :rotate:
I'm uh..gonna have to get on it sometime.
I just...Destiny....
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Oh well, now I get a chance to try out leveling again now that I know what I'm doing. It is a lot easier.
MWO: Adamski
Is your Steam name longer than 3 characters? There's a known bug where the playverse login box will pop up if you have a username that's fewer than 4 characters.
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
I think it was the issue where my original steam name has an underscore in it, but I renamed it so it doesn't. I heard there was an issue with the playverse and special characters.
Its kinda funny, the top right of the launcher shows my account name as Deaddin, but once I get into the game my account is the new one "Gnomish". I'm betting a reinstall of the client will fix it, but I submitted a bug report anyways to see if there was another way to resolve. (I swear, I even briefly see something about it signing into the Gnomish account on the launcher too)
MWO: Adamski
https://www.dungeondefenders.com/2/blog/116932/foundation-part-1-preview
Level progression and XP grind frustrations were the biggest points of feedback we received, so addressing these points received the majority of our focus. After stewing on your feedback, we’ve decided to turn away from our level bracket progression system and move toward a Campaign Mode! In the Campaign Mode, you will move from one map to another, facing stronger and more varied enemies until you reach the ultimate showdown in the castle. Once you’ve completed this content, you’ll enter the Free Play and Incursion endgame content that’s designed to keep you challenged and engaged. Getting to this point is much faster thanks to a dramatically decreased XP curve to Level 25.
There’s still work to be done, though. Transitioning from one map to another in the Campaign requires you to click the “Continue” button on the Summary Screen; if you don’t press the button, you will be forced to leave and re-enter Campaign Mode to continue on your journey. We know we have a lot more work to do to fix matchmaking in the future, including improving party support. We’ll focus on these issues and more in our future updates. One step at a time, Defender. One step at a time.
Rebalance ALL The Things
In addition to matchmaking and grind concerns, we received a ton of feedback about critical game imbalances throughout the core experience. Foundation: Part 1 brings major balance changes to defenses, enemies, green mana, heroes and maps. The result is hopefully a smoother progression through early- and mid-game and a more challenging experience in the endgame. We look forward to your feedback on the forums about these changes, and we’ll use your posts to continue refining the game. We’ll also have the full patch notes on these changes for you to ruminate on when the update is live.
Incursions and Legendary Loot
Speaking of endgame content, Foundation: Part 1 lays the groundwork for DD2’s endgame starting with our Incursion prototypes. There are two prototypes included in this update: Chrome Enemies on Ruins and the Dark Mage Commander on Ramparts. Thanks to your Influence voting, we’ll be focusing more on Commander Incursions in the future.
In the Chrome Enemies Incursion, all enemies are covered from head to toe in chrome. This shiny affliction makes them immune to crowd control. Enemies will walk over Geyser Traps, shrug off Earthshatter explosions, sneer at Frostbite beams and laugh in the face of Lightning/Geyser combos. This Incursion is designed to mix up the meta we’ve seen in our current 25++ matches. The Dark Mage Commander Incursion stars a floating Dark Mage who looks down upon the battlefield and globally heals areas of enemies. The number of areas it can heal increases until the final wave, when it leaps down and joins the fray. This commander can spawn an incredible amount of skeletons when it’s on the field, and it’s no slouch when it comes to offensive power.
While you’re playing the Incursions, be on the lookout for new Legendary weapons that you can only find in these modes. There’s one new Legendary weapon for each hero. These weapons have unique special stats that will separate them from what you can find anywhere else. For example, you can find a Monk weapon that will detonate enemies when you land the killing blow while inside the Serenity Aura. If the explosion kills a nearby enemy that's also in the aura, that poor *** will also blow up.
Bring A Friend...Or Twenty
Looking for players to join you on your Incursion quest? Stop by the new Social Tavern, where up to 20 players can hang out and find new partners-in-crime. If you want to get away from the buzz of the Social Tavern, just create a private game. You'll be able to progress through the whole Campaign Mode and the endgame content without seeing another soul. #solomode
Daily Missions
While you’re in the Tavern, pay a visit to Archibald to receive your Daily Mission! Thanks to your Influence voting, you will be able to select between two different missions. Select your mission and then complete it for an XP and gold reward. Have an idea for a Daily Mission? Head to the Suggest a Daily Mission thread! We’d love to hear your ideas.
Challenges and Steam Achievements
Conquered the Incursions? Try completing all of our new Challenges! There are 80 Challenges for you to unlock. These Challenges bring their own XP/gold rewards, and a number of them will also unlock additional titles for you to adorn. We’ll be adding more Challenges in the future. Have an idea for a Challenge? Stop by our Suggest a Challenge thread and share your ideas!
We’ve also added 15 Steam achievements to the game, and more are on the way!
Level Up Feedback
There’s much more coming in this update, but the final highlight we’d like to share is our improvement to level up feedback. When you level up, you’ll see how your stats grow with each passing level. You’ll also see which defenses, abilities and actions (like an additional tower upgrade) you’ve unlocked. And you’ll also see how many Spec Points you’ve unlocked, along with a notification on your HUD encouraging you to spend your SP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=85114404&v=pXz6BwyybUU&feature=player_embedded&x-yt-ts=1422579428
MWO: Adamski
It's coming out tomorrow. It's the first step on a larger path, but I'm very proud of our team for this update. I can't wait to hear your feedback over the coming weeks.
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
MWO: Adamski
MWO: Adamski
Yeah, matchmaking is the feature that's in the roughest state in this transitional update. We're going to be addressing those in future updates.
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
MWO: Adamski
https://www.dungeondefenders.com/2/blog/117047/foundation-part-1-update-released
•Maps from levels 1-20 have been put in linear order. Select “Campaign Mode” at the War Recruiter to experience this new change! We encourage you to create a new hero to play through the Campaign.
•New maps become available once one of your heroes reaches the level required by the next map. Winning a map (completing all 5 waves) should bring your hero to the level required for the next map. Replaying a map should also only be required if you are defeated, or, if you change heroes for each Combat Phase.
•The hero level curve has been adjusted to shorten the XP grind.
•Heroes and hero defenses have been rebalanced. See a more detailed explanation below.
•DISCLAIMER: The current Matchmaking flow has been iterated. We are constantly looking for ways to improve it. The changes below are step 1 in a multi-step, multi-patch plan to improve your play experience:
•Currently, the “Continue” button on the Summary Screen takes you to the next playlist BUT it will load you into the Tavern. Clicking on the War Table will show that a new map is available. It does not automatically load into the next gameplay map.
•Similarly, “Return to Tavern” takes you back to the tavern BUT the next map will not be available. We’re fixing this in coming patches.
•Joining Campaign mode will now ask you to remove the lowest hero in the deck or it will allow you to adjust your deck.
Incursions
•We’ve added 2 new Incursion maps. Incursions are our highest challenge content balanced around 4 players.
•Access them from the War Recruiter.
•Defend against Malthias and his forces in the Ramparts. Malthias summons skeletons every wave and places healing zones throughout the map.
•Defend against the Chrome Horde in the Forgotten ruins. The Chrome Horde is immune to knock up and all crowd control effects.
•Defeat these maps for a chance to earn the highest level legendaries and a chance at...
Legendary Weapons
•Four new Legendary Weapons have been added to the game -- one for each hero.
•You can only find these in the Incursions.
•These weapons will drop at level 25.
•Each weapon has a unique special stat that can only be found on that weapon!
Social Tavern
•Social Tavern has replaced the Entry Tavern. Players are now placed in a Social Tavern with other players after connecting from the title screen.
•Social Taverns hold up to 20 players each and the game menu displays player portraits for all players in the Social Tavern.
•More functionality will be added to the Social Tavern, as well as more ways to interact with other players, in future patches.
Level Up Feedback
•Level Up Feedback displays during the Build Phase when one of your heroes has gained a level.
•Displays your hero’s stat improvements and any new unlocks you’ve earned, including when you gain the ability to upgrade defenses to new tiers.
Unspent Spec Point Notification
•When the active hero has unspent Spec Points, a notification is displayed at the bottom right of the HUD.
•Spec Points are still spent from the Forge -> Character -> Specs subscreen.
Challenges, Titles, and Achievements
•80 Challenges are now available to complete for various rewards. There are Challenges completable by each specific hero as well as universal Challenges completable by all heroes. Many more Challenges will be added in upcoming patches!
•Challenge progress can be viewed from the new Challenges screen at the Forge -> Collections -> Challenges subscreen.
•New Titles have been added to serve as rewards for Challenges. Titles are still set at the Forge -> Collections -> Titles subscreen.
•Steam Achievements have been added. Completion of Steam Achievements is tied to the completion of specific Challenges, so you can complete both at once!
•Steam Achievements can be viewed from the Steam Overlay.
Influence Vote Winner! Daily Missions
•6 new daily missions added.
•Colonel Archibald is now the Daily Mission giver.
•Influence Vote - Players can pick between two different mission options each day.
•When Daily Missions are active or have been completed, you will see a notification above the Hero Portraits in the Forge.
Balance
There's a tremendous amount of patch note tweaks here. We'll be breaking down the adjustments by hero. Enjoy!
Enemies
When adjusting enemy values, our goal was to create more differentiation between enemy types. This allows us to target further tuning changes around difficulty and challenge instead of effective hit points.
•Enemies have increased health.
•Adjusted base movement speed of each enemy type. Goblins and kobolds now lead the charge. Everything else is slower.
•Adjusted the growth scale per level for each enemy’s damage and health stats. As a result, enemies should scale better and match some of the buffs that players and defenses acquire.
•Ogres received some buffs to damage.
•Added two new special enemies: Special Ranged Goblin and Special Dark Mage. These two enemies should randomly start to appear in later content
•Added a spread to the Drakin’s projectiles.
•Reduced the attack rate of ranged goblins by 20%.
•Note: we couldn’t quite get to Special Enemies yet but expect more balance tweaks in the future.
All Heroes
Primary and secondary attacks didn't feel effective during high-level play. We've increased scaling across the board to make itemizing hero damage more meaningful.
•Increased Apprentice hero damage to 1.6 damage per Hero Damage point, up from 0.8.
•Increased Huntress hero damage to 1.8 damage per Hero Damage point, up from 0.9.
•Increased Monk hero damage to 1.4 per Hero Damage point, up from 0.6.
•Increased Squire hero damage to 1.4 per Hero Damage point, up from 0.6.
Defense Speed
Defense Speed was an interesting stat to balance. There were a couple pillars we wanted to hit with this stat. Ultimately with current tech, we decided on a very simple solution until we find a better and more meaningful feature to support Defense Speed increases. That being said, we've settled on a solid plan for this balance revision.
Certain defenses benefit incredibly from Defense Speed: Frostbite, Geyser Trap and any tower with significant on hit effects. Others have nominal DPS increases, like the Ballista and the Earthshatter. To satisfy separate builds and playstyles, we've categorized different defenses into two categories with regards to Defense Speed: Damage and Crowd Control.
Damage defenses no longer increase their attack rate through upgrade tiers; instead, you must obtain items with Defense Speed to increase their attack rate. Crowd Control defenses continue to gain attack rate increases with upgrade tiers. Our goal is to diversify which defenses you want to place based on the map, the enemies the defense is targeting and your play style.
Defense Health
Surprisingly, Defense Health is in a solid place. The main issue we have is communicating the actual benefit besides just increasing your defense's health, mainly repair and upgrade cost. The formula for these two mechanics -- one is calculated as a percent of health lost, the other a constant cost per upgrade tier -- isn't overly obvious within a match.
Defense Health increases the total health of your defense. Repair cost is calculated as a percent of health lost; therefore, Defense Health is the only defense stat that has a DIRECT correlation to how much green mana is available, one wave to the next. Having more Defense Health for a defensive player allows him or her to build and focus their repair costs in one place and potentially allows other players to build more offense-focused defenses.
All that being said, we're going to continue to monitor Defense Health and its place and use in DD2.
Defense Range
We are so excited to finally reveal this change! We know you players are going to love it! There's not much to say here except that each defense has an increased minimum range that is upgraded by a percent each upgrade tier. It seems like a small part of a defense's package. Believe us when we say that the overall effects of Defense Range adjustments have the largest potential to change moment to moment game play.
Defense Power
Defense Power is as straightforward as it comes. Stack DP to deal more damage.
NOTE: The balance changes sought to not only create a distinction between stacking Defense Speed, Defense Power or Defense Health but also to create MEANINGFUL numerical upgrades as heroes become more POWERFUL. As such we expect that players will start with a base defense dealing between 250 and 500 damage while seeing numbers in the 15k-20k range at the high end.
Other Balance
•Increased the chance of higher-tier loot chests appearing after victory. Legendary chests still require a blood sacrifice to the RNG gods.
•Removed the bonus experience stat from endgame loot.
•NPC shop item values have been increased substantially, especially for higher-tier items.
•Item Upgrade costs have been refactored. Upgrading of higher tier items now costs more Gold.
•Apprentice and Huntress secondary attacks now do less damage at their minimum charge and more damage at their maximum charge. This should encourage players to use fewer, higher-charged shots instead of firing them as fast as possible.
Content
•Added new training dummy area to the Social Tavern for you to do your sick, twisted experiments on.
•Added resolution support for 1600x1200, 1440x900 and New Year’s.
•Minor adjustments to the SFX for the Earthshatter tower. You probably won’t even notice.
•Significantly increased mouse sensitivity. You might need to reset your options to the default values.
•Updated the SFX for the ramsters in The Gates of Dragonfall to make them 84% cuter. (Some people call these majestic creatures meburs. These people are strange. #TeamRamster)
•Updated the Minibosses to make them look *puts pinky to lip* ... “evil-er.”
•Added new SFX to the War Recruiter for writing sounds. #immersion
•Updated the Witherbeast’s aura sounds to make them 78% more aura-y.
•SFX Pass on the Stubborn Old Man, whose name we’ll one day learn once when we build the courage to ask him.
•Updated Skeleton Orc SFX to make it sound more menacing. In case you were wondering, this is a 92% increase in menace.
•Updated the foliage in Greystone Plaza, Dragonfall Bazaar and The Gates of Dragonfall. You can’t beat this attention to detail, folks.
•End Game Chests timings and animations have been adjusted to always make you think it could transform because we’re jerks.
•Improved SFX for headshots. Pew pew pew.
•New SFX for skeleton goblins. Rawr.
•New dissolve sounds for the Mana Node Fairy. Ssss?
•Adjusted the SFX on Throne Room to give footsteps more ECHO echo echo...
•Added 16 new armor meshes for Tier 3 to Tier 6 armor drops - 4 for each tier. This is pretty cool. No idea why we put it down this far.
•Adjusted the location of the Forge and War Recruiter to make room for Colonel Archibald in the Tavern.
•Updated the Basics tutorial video that you’ll definitely skip to use mana nodes instead of chests.
•In Greystone Plaza, the Rocket Cart Traps have been changed so that it fires 3 rockets in succession, and it now stuns enemies for 3 seconds. You might actually use them now.
•Improvements made to the Inventory where items were not being updated properly. Can still occur.
Bug Fixes
•Fixed an issue where the loading screen would flicker. Rest in peace, disco loading screen.
•Made several updates to in-game text to make it clear that we do, in fact, know English.
•Fixed an issue where the shy end-of-match matinee wouldn't play. It will now play for your amusement every time, unless you scare it away again.
•Fixed an issue where a "Login Expired" error was incorrectly shown for a "Game Session Closing" error. Removed 10 points from Gryffindor for the error.
•Fixed an issue where the aptly named Reduced Cooldown Buff from the aptly titled Reduced Cooldown Spec Node was removed after an aptly timed transition.
•Fixed an issue where players would load into a black screen when transitioning back into the Tavern. Goodnight, sweet prince.
•Updated profanity words list to allow "isn't it" and "wasn't it." In exchange, we filtered out the words "mana" and "build." Sacrifices must be made to the Filter Beast.
•Discovered the secret to taming the Filter Beast. Allowed "mana" and "build" back in the chat. You're welcome.
•Fixed an issue where the game would appear choppy wh-n jum-ing or fall-ng.
•Fixed an issue where the Item Comparison tooltip wasn't displaying when comparing loot that's too high for your level, Your Majesty.
•Fixed an issue with nobody reading these patch notes by adding a line that says, "The secret to my fortune lies beyond the gates." That's sure to spawn a thread or two.
•Fixed an issue with the War Recruiter's collision…we mean, his body! He's a real person! Crap. The illusion is broken. They know it's a game now!
•Fixed an issue where the epic and powerful medallion icons did not match their meshes. These were swapped. Now they are not. Magic.
•Fixed issues where certain objects in the Tavern would pop if playing on lower settings.
•Players can now use the mouse with the scroll bar in the Codex tab from the Forge. Wheeee!
•The Ramparts and The Gates of Dragonfall crystal cores are no longer brighter than the sun.
•Fixed several collision issues throughout all the maps. Very specific patch note.
•Join in Progress no longer breaks Billboards from displaying in game because that was a thing if you didn’t know.
•Players can no longer build towers on top of the Armor Traps in Throne Room. You know who you are.
•The upgraded item remains on the enhancement wheel after upgrading it.
•Players can no longer build towers on top of the NPCs sitting near the bar in the Tavern. They have feelings, y’know.
•Fixed Forgotten Ruins Forge camera positioning.
•Removed the default keybinding for X - tiled screenshots.
•Health and Mana regen special stats now stack.
•Fixed a display issue with Spec Nodes that are % based but have no points in them.
•Players can no longer build towers on the overhead walkway in Dragonfall Bazaar.
•Fixed several display issues with the item comparison tooltips. Sometimes they were stretching off screen and other things were overlapping them; we also made them not show up when the repair, upgrade, sell is active.
Known Issues
•Free Play might be too hard for solo players, and Incursions might be too easy. Our balance jockeys will be monitoring the situation over the course of this update.
•Machines with several Steam accounts can cause an achievement not to unlock if any of the Steam accounts already has the achievement unlocked. To help, when switching between accounts, completely shutdown Steam before launching the game. This appears to be a Steam-related issue, and we are currently working on a workaround for this. What’s more frightening is that machines have become sentient and are now playing video games. We’ll continue to monitor this situation, but we might be screwed.
•After successfully completing a match, the "Press G to Continue" will appear as soon as the end-game chest appears. Doing so will cause the Summary Screen to appear and not allow the player to open the chest. Please open the chest first for mad lootz.
•Auras that are % based will not heal to 100% if the user equips a new piece of gear with less Defense Speed.
•Most Challenges and Achievements will not be completed retroactively. This may require players to replay some early content to complete early-game awards.
•We have noticed that our AI has grown dumber.... sometimes they wander into the spawn and walk around lost. Don’t look at us. We blame the public school system. We’re developing a secret concoction to make them more better smarter.
MWO: Adamski
The Cannonball tower is being transformed into an on-hit effect powerhouse. We've reduced its damage scaling and increased its range. The result being that players wanting to maximize a Cannonball build will want to search for Cannonball-specific special stats.
High Level
•Range increased to medium range.
•Increased damage at all upgrade tiers.
•Normalized attack rate.
Green Mana Cost
•30 Green Mana down from 40.
Range gains per tier.
•Tier 1 - 22 meters.
•Tier 2 - 23.1 meters.
•Tier 3 - 24.2 meters.
•Tier 4 - 25.3 meters.
•Tier 5 - 26.4 meters.
Health gained per point of Defense Health.
•Tier 1 - 10x health per DH.
•Tier 2 - 12.5x health per DH.
•Tier 3 - 15x health per DH.
•Tier 4 - 17.5x health per DH.
•Tier 5 - 20x health per DH.
Damage gained per point of Defense Power.
•Tier 1 - 1.25x damage per DP.
•Tier 2 - 1.875x damage per DP.
•Tier 3 - 2.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 4 - 3.125x damage per DP.
•Tier 5 - 3.75x damage per DP.
Initial Attack Rate
•2.32s attack rate.
Squire - Ballista Tower
BOOM BOOM! The Ballista tower is a DAMAGE POWERHOUSE. Pay very close attention to the lane type and its position as it relates to how enemies walk through the lane. If you maximize your tower placement, you'll destroy swaths of enemies as your projectile pierces through them! (Swaths is such a groovy word.) How's that for a power update!
High Level
•Range increased to very long range.
•Increased damage at all upgrade tiers.
•Normalized attack rate.
Range gains per tier.
•Tier 1 - 35 meters.
•Tier 2 - 36.75 meters.
•Tier 3 - 38.5 meters.
•Tier 4 - 40.25 meters.
•Tier 5 - 42 meters.
Health gained per point of Defense Health.
•Tier 1 - 10x health per DH.
•Tier 2 - 12.5x health per DH.
•Tier 3 - 15x health per DH.
•Tier 4 - 17.5x health per DH.
•Tier 5 - 20x health per DH.
Damage gained per point of Defense Power.
•Tier 1 - 1x damage per DP.
•Tier 2 - 1.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 3 - 2x damage per DP.
•Tier 4 - 2.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 5 - 3x damage per DP.
Initial Attack Rate
•4.84s attack rate.
Squire - Spiky Blockade
Ol’ faithful, slow and steady. There aren't many updates here. As above, we're currently happy with Defense Health builds for certain heroes.
Squire - Target Dummy
We will be addressing the issues with the Target Dummy defense in a future balance patch.
Apprentice - Flameburst Tower
We don't know how to describe the state of the previous Flameburst Tower except overpowered. The downstream effects of his splash damage, Double Shot Spec Node imbalance, Defense Speed increases and high-tier range created a monstrous concoction. We made a lot of adjustments to the FB defense specifically. He's more in line with other damage defenses.
High Level
•Range increased to medium range.
•Increased damage at all upgrade tiers.
•Normalized attack rate.
•Reduced splash damage and damage fall off.
Green Mana Cost
•40 Green Mana up from 30.
Range gains per tier.
•Tier 1 - 22 meters.
•Tier 2 - 23.1 meters.
•Tier 3 - 24.2 meters.
•Tier 4 - 25.3 meters.
•Tier 5 - 26.4 meters.
Health gained per point of Defense Health.
•Tier 1 - 8.5x health per DH.
•Tier 2 - 10.6x health per DH.
•Tier 3 - 12.75x health per DH.
•Tier 4 - 14.75x health per DH.
•Tier 5 - 17x health per DH.
Damage gained per point of Defense Power.
•Tier 1 - 1x damage per DP.
•Tier 2 - 1.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 3 - 2x damage per DP.
•Tier 4 - 2.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 5 - 3x damage per DP.
Initial Attack Rate
•2.49s attack rate.
Splash damage radius
•2.5 meters down from 6.5 meters
Apprentice - Frostbite Tower
The Frostbite Tower is one of the most powerful crowd control defenses in the game. Its slow allows other defenses more chances to shoot enemies, and the freeze chance combo’s very well with shatter effects.
High Level
•Range increased to long range.
Range gains per tier.
•Tier 1 - 30 meters.
•Tier 2 - 31.5 meters.
•Tier 3 - 33 meters.
•Tier 4 - 34.5 meters.
•Tier 5 - 36 meters.
Movement Speed Reduction
•50% speed reduction on enemies. This is reduced by enemy tenacity.
Apprentice - Arcane Barrier
We iterated on the design of the Arcane Barrier. The current implementation creates a more reliable blockade that has a knockback on health lost. The Arcane Barrier has less health than the Spiky Blockade, its counterpart, but more offensive potential. We really liked how this change affected the Apprentice and his ability to defend a lane with a reliable blockade.
High Level
•Adjusted timings on the knockback.
•Recharges much faster and blocks enemy movement much more consistently.
Health gained per point of Defense Health.
•Tier 1 - 18x health per DH.
•Tier 2 - 22.5x health per DH.
•Tier 3 - 27x health per DH.
•Tier 4 - 31.5x health per DH.
•Tier 5 - 36x health per DH.
Damage gained per point of Defense Power.
•Tier 1 - 1x damage per DP.
•Tier 2 - 1.75x damage per DP.
•Tier 3 - 2.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 4 - 3.25x damage per DP.
•Tier 5 - 4x damage per DP.
Knockback Radius
•4 meters.
Apprentice - Earthshatter
Seems like we’re doing sides by sides of the Apprentice and Squire a lot. The Earthshatter is an AoE version of the Ballista Tower. The core difference is that the Earthshatter is slightly easier to maximize and focuses more on crowd control over higher damage potential.
High Level
•Range increased to very long range.
•Increased damage at all upgrade tiers.
•Normalized attack rate.
Range gains per tier.
•Tier 1 - 36 meters.
•Tier 2 - 37.8 meters.
•Tier 3 - 39.6 meters.
•Tier 4 - 41.4 meters.
•Tier 5 - 43.2 meters.
Health gained per point of Defense Health.
•Tier 1 - 12x health per DH.
•Tier 2 - 15x health per DH.
•Tier 3 - 18x health per DH.
•Tier 4 - 21x health per DH.
•Tier 5 - 24x health per DH.
Damage gained per point of Defense Power.
•Tier 1 - 1.25x damage per DP.
•Tier 2 - 1.875x damage per DP.
•Tier 3 - 2.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 4 - 3.75x damage per DP.
•Tier 5 - 5x damage per DP.
Initial Attack Rate
•4.98s attack rate.
Monk - Lightning Aura
The Lightning Aura got a few great buffs that ease new players into the experience and provide meaningful power. We noticed that players tend to dedicate time into beefing up one particular lane. We like this behavior so we allowed Lightning Auras to overlap. Substantially.
High Level
•Increased damage at all upgrade tiers.
•Normalized attack rate.
•Increased overlap allowance.
Range gains per tier.
•Tier 1 - 5.5 meters.
•Tier 2 - 6.05 meters.
•Tier 3 - 6.6 meters.
•Tier 4 - 7.15 meters.
•Tier 5 - 7.7 meters.
Damage gained per point of Defense Power
•Tier 1 - 0.25x damage per DP.
•Tier 2 - 0.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 3 - 0.75x damage per DP.
•Tier 4 - 1x damage per DP.
•Tier 5 - 1.25x damage per DP.
Initial Attack Rate
•1.25s attack rate.
Monk - Boost Aura
When looking at the Monk’s Boost Aura, we had to look at what was fun about our game and what was fun about the Boost Aura. For high-end players with lots of high end gear, the Aura was fantastic and incredibly fun. For low-end players, it’s anti-fun, providing almost no value for the green mana. In addition, high-end Monk players could bring undergeared heroes into high difficulty game modes and trivialize them with minimal gear and effort. Our goal is to make defenses, the Boost Aura included, meaningful at all tiers and at all item levels.
High Level
•Removed defense power scaling from damage boost.
Range gains per tier
•Tier 1 - 7.5 meters.
•Tier 2 - 8.25 meters.
•Tier 3 - 9 meters.
•Tier 4 - 9.75 meters.
•Tier 5 - 10.5 meters.
Damage Bonus
•Tier 1 - 25% Increase in Defense Damage.
•Tier 2 - 30% Increase in Defense Damage.
•Tier 3 - 35% Increase in Defense Damage.
•Tier 4 - 40% Increase in Defense Damage.
•Tier 5 - 45% Increase in Defense Damage.
Damage Reduction (Defenses)
•Tier 1 - 10% Reduction in Damage Received.
•Tier 2 - 12.5% Reduction in Damage Received.
•Tier 3 - 15% Reduction in Damage Received.
•Tier 4 - 17.5% Reduction in Damage Received.
•Tier 5 - 20% Reduction in Damage Received.
Monk - Serenity Aura
The Serenity Aura has a nice niche at the moment. It’s the only defense that directly affects heroes in lane. The percent health gained scales very well with existing Hero Health stats, as the amount of healing received per second increases as the hero’s max health increases. For hero damage or hero tank builds, placing a Serenity Aura is the best bang for your buck.
High Level
•No changes.
Range gains per tier.
•Tier 1 - 8 meters.
•Tier 2 - 10 meters.
•Tier 3 - 12 meters.
•Tier 4 - 14 meters.
•Tier 5 - 16 meters.
Base Healing Received per 1 second
•Tier 1 - 3.32% Healing per second.
•Tier 2 - 3.73% Healing per second.
•Tier 3 - 3.32% Healing per second.
•Tier 4 - 4.14% Healing per second.
•Tier 5 - 4.56% Healing per second.
Damage Reduction (Heroes)
•Tier 1 - 10% Reduction in Damage Received.
•Tier 2 - 12.5% Reduction in Damage Received.
•Tier 3 - 15% Reduction in Damage Received.
•Tier 4 - 17.5% Reduction in Damage Received.
•Tier 5 - 20% Reduction in Damage Received.
Monk - Sky Guard
For all your anti-air needs, the Sky Guard is your dedicated resource to stopping those pesky Wyverns, Flying Kobolds and Lightning Bugs.
High Level
•Range increased to medium range.
•Increased damage at all upgrade tiers.
•Normalized attack rate.
Range gains per tier.
•Tier 1 - 18 meters.
•Tier 2 - 18.9 meters.
•Tier 3 - 19.8 meters.
•Tier 4 - 20.7 meters.
•Tier 5 - 21.6 meters.
Health gained per point of Defense Health.
•Tier 1 - 8.5x health per DH.
•Tier 2 - 10.6x health per DH.
•Tier 3 - 12.75x health per DH.
•Tier 4 - 14.75x health per DH.
•Tier 5 - 17x health per DH.
Damage gained per point of Defense Power.
•Tier 1 - 0.75x damage per DP.
•Tier 2 - 1.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 3 - 2.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 4 - 3.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 5 - 4x damage per DP.
Initial Attack Rate
•2.49s attack rate.
Huntress - Explosive Trap
The Explosive Trap was undertuned relative to other defenses previously. Having a low Defense Power to damage ratio, low area of effect and a low trigger range made placing Explosive Traps a tertiary consideration. In addition, the uptime of the trap, or the amount of potential damage it could deal, was very low. As such we’ve buffed the Explosive Trap considerably.
High Level
•Increased trigger range.
•Increased damage at all upgrade tiers.
•Normalized attack rate.
Explosion Radius gains per tier.
•Tier 1 - 5 meters.
•Tier 2 - 5.5 meters.
•Tier 3 - 6 meters.
•Tier 4 - 6.5 meters.
•Tier 5 - 7 meters.
Damage gained per point of Defense Power.
•Tier 1 - 1x damage per DP.
•Tier 2 - 1.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 3 - 2x damage per DP.
•Tier 4 - 2.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 5 - 3x damage per DP.
Trigger Range
•2.5 meters.
Initial Attack Rate
•2.49s attack rate.
Huntress - Geyser Trap
Measuring the strength of the Geyser Trap requires understanding the downstream effects from the knockup, shocking and drench effect. When we looked at its current usage by the community and the extra effects, we were satisfied with the Geyser Trap. It’s powerful and that power is offset by its green mana repair cost.
High Level
•Increased damage at all upgrade tiers.
•Gains attack rate per tier upgrade.
Explosion Radius gains per tier.
•Tier 1 - 5 meters.
•Tier 2 - 5.5 meters.
•Tier 3 - 6 meters.
•Tier 4 - 6.5 meters.
•Tier 5 - 7 meters.
Damage gained per point of Defense Power.
•Tier 1 - 0.8x damage per DP.
•Tier 2 - 1.2x damage per DP.
•Tier 3 - 1.6x damage per DP.
•Tier 4 - 2x damage per DP.
•Tier 5 - 2.4x damage per DP.
Trigger Range
•2 meters.
Initial Attack Rate
•8.31s attack rate.
Huntress - Blaze Balloon
The Huntress’s defense theme is attrition, or picking away at the enemies’ health until finally they come face to face with a fiery Balloon or the Huntress herself. The Blaze Balloon is the only defense that can be triggered by the player. This dramatically changes the way the Huntress interacts with this defense.
High Level
•Increased damage at all upgrade tiers.
•Normalized attack rate.
Burn Radius gains per tier.
•Tier 1 - 7.5 meters.
•Tier 2 - 8.25 meters.
•Tier 3 - 9 meters.
•Tier 4 - 9.75 meters.
•Tier 5 - 10.5 meters.
Trigger Range
•2 meters.
Trap Refresh Rate
•12.2 seconds.
Burn Damage per point of Defense Power
•Tier 1 - 0.125x damage per DP.
•Tier 2 - 0.25x damage per DP.
•Tier 3 - 0.375x damage per DP.
•Tier 4 - 0.5x damage per DP.
•Tier 5 - 0.65x damage per DP.
Burn Rate
•1 second.
Huntress - Poison Dart
We focused on quality of life features for the Poison Dart Tower. We compared placement strategy, firing arc and attack rate. Finally, we took a look at the Huntress’s theme and made some stacking tweaks to the tower’s poison buff. Currently, the PDT is our first iteration on a single-target focused champion/boss killer.
High Level
•Range increased to medium range.
•Changed from a corridor firing arc to a cone.
•Increased damage at all upgrade tiers.
•Normalized attack rate.
•Allowed poison buff to stack.
•Increase poison duration.
Range gains per tier.
•Tier 1 - 25 meters.
•Tier 2 - 26.25 meters.
•Tier 3 - 27.5 meters.
•Tier 4 - 28.75 meters.
•Tier 5 - 30 meters.
Initial Poison Damage per point of Defense Power
•Tier 1 - 0.125x damage per DP.
•Tier 2 - 0.28x damage per DP.
•Tier 3 - 0.56x damage per DP.
•Tier 4 - 0.8x damage per DP.
•Tier 5 - 1x damage per DP.
Poison Damage per 2 seconds
•Tier 1 - 0.05x damage per DP.
•Tier 2 - 0.06x damage per DP.
•Tier 3 - 0.075x damage per DP.
•Tier 4 - 0.0875x damage per DP.
•Tier 5 - 0.1x damage per DP.
Poison Duration
•100 seconds.
Poison Stacking Limit
•Infinite.
Trap Refresh Rate
•12.2 seconds.
Initial Attack Rate
•3.33 seconds.
MWO: Adamski
Gaining a level every single game has made this much more enjoyable, also the enforced map changing also helps to keep this fresh.
The biggest downside from the patch is the new Social / Entry Tavern, I wouldn't mind it so much if it had no target dummies and disabled defense building in it. As is, it creates a lot of lag, and is annoying trying to get through it every time you open or close the game.
Balance wise, I don't mind how much more difficult maps are, with the reduced DPS on Turrets and increased monster HP. But I am saddened that they removed stat scaling from the Boost Aura (Previously it scaled with stats but not with upgrades, now it scales with upgrades but not stats).
Also, a couple of times now have had weird issues where 2-3 Bosses will spawn at the same point simultaneously on wave 5. It is extremely difficult when there is an Ogre, Giant Skeleton, and Giant Voodoo Sorcerer all in a group.
MWO: Adamski
MWO: Adamski
MWO: Adamski
What the hell, they did that AGAIN? They took it out after all the complaints they got about it after they put it in that new version of DD1 now they roll it out for this. That's ridiculous. It's really killing my interest in this now, strangely.