Hi FaeFay, I'm the release manager here on Dauntless - nice to meet you.

We definitely had some missing advance communication around this update, apologies for that. We'll do better.

However, no-one should have been kicked from the game (definitely not mid-way through a Trials run or anything) when these updates roll out. I can still see a good chunk of folks playing on the previous patch. You should only get a platform-side message about updating if you were to launch the game up fresh after the patch rolled out.

I'd really like to understand what happened to you and your friends here because it definitely isn't intended for updates like this to disrupt you in the way you're mentioning! Would you be able to give us a little more detail about what platforms folks were playing on, and what sort of behaviour they saw that interrupted/kicked them please? I'd love to improve anything here that feels bad.

Cheers!

Sorry about the delay in messaging around this hotfix.

We'll do better to communicate changes like this in advance.

There is a big dev cost to setting up these public tests. It’s like a mini release for us. So we generally have to do them infrequently so that we can spend more time on our final patches. I’d love to improve our tools and workflow to make this easier because we get a ton of value from them.

We are making a ton of tweaks based on the feedback from the ETR. What players saw this past weekend is definitely not the final product.

Yes...a crown...

First off, big thanks to everyone who spent time trying things out on the ETR this weekend and providing feedback. We've parsed reams of feedback from reddit, discord, youtube, etc., and there several common threads we'd like to address and give more clarity on.

Why are you even doing this?

One of the longest-standing points of feedbackabout Dauntless is that the meta is stale and builds all look the same. Which is true, and it's something we want and need to address.

Rage, Wild Frenzy, and Discipline are the common thread, and for good reason. The first 2 grant large amounts of the two most powerful stats in the game —"raw" damage and attack speed. Add Discipline, and they're always on — no conditional activation, no timer. The tradeoff is being locked at half health, which is not an issue for skilled players. For those who can't yet dodge every attack, there's Iceborne. Again, always on access to the best sustain ability in the game.

Thanks for listening!

Hey everyone, we found some missed items that should have made it into the 1.6.4 patch notes.

We've updated the patch notes on our webpage and here are the missing items on their own.

Sorry for any confusion!

Balance

Hunting Grounds

• The guaranteed Behemoth on Razorcliff Isle is now Rezakiri (was Deepfrost Embermane).
• The guaranteed Behemoth on Paradox Breaks is now Flameborn Rezakiri (was Rezakiri).
• Removed Moonreaver Shrike from Razorcliff Isle.

Elder Behemoths

• Elder Behemoths are no longer slower than their normal counterparts.
• Elder shield’s explosions now only trigger on weapon hits.
• Elder shield’s explosions are now aimed forward to minimize side or back splash.
• Elder shields now move faster, and will no longer all move at the same time.

Agarus

• Reduced the health of Agarus' vine arm.

Stay tuned 👀

100%! In fact, the game mix itself priorities Behemoth audio so that you can be sure to hear that roar or build up SFX before a big move and respond accordingly. We want these badboys to sound mean and powerful! Thanks so much for the support! :)

Passed this on to the audio team and they're so happy right now <3

Thanks for this feedback!

It always makes me so happy to see slayers upgrading their audio setup to enjoy the game how it was meant to be heard! We put a lot of love into crafting the sounds for behemoths and visual effects, glad to know it's appreciated!

We did read it! Thanks for sharing. This is great feedback.

We will be doing more work on Omnicells, and Windfury in particular will have some changes as it’s slated to come out slightly later than the other 3. But don’t worry not too much long after and we have more Omnicells planned for later in the season.

I was testing some Sturdy and the new Rage rework on the Iceborne Omnicell today 😀

That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing!

We are going to revert the stagger change for now. We got some great feedback on it this weekend but it does need more animation and design work before we think about introducing it.

We are also looking into the possibility of adding a raw attack speed increase to all weapons to compensate for all the AS reductions we’ve made to cells and other sources. We want to make sure all our weapons feel good as a base and the feedback has been pretty clear.

The dev team spent a bunch of time reviewing all the feedback today and we are going to make a bunch of changes. We are open to adding a raw attack speed increase to all weapons and toning down the amount you can get from cells and other sources.

In terms of the stagger break part change, we are gonna take more time on this and not release it at this time. It’s not off the table for a future date but we need some animation and design work before it’s ready.

Thanks so much!