Hey Breakers!

I’m Jesse, the Design Director for Spellbreak. We’re all super excited as we approach our Closed Beta 2 launch and we wanted to give you a few peeks at some of the things coming your way.

Talents System

With Closed Beta 2, we wanted to bring back some of the mix-and-match customization that was present in earlier alphas. It spawned lots of great conversations, theorycrafting, and experimentation and we loved it! To that end, we’ll be introducing the Talent system which allows you to further customize your character’s abilities. Talents are passive, but potent, abilities that are shared across all classes. This means you’ll be able to mix and match them to suit your playstyle and augment the strengths and weaknesses of your class. You can take up to three with you into a match where you can find special Scrolls to further upgrade them. With Closed Beta 2, you’ll be able to unlock more talents over time, but we’ve got further plans for them down the road as well…

Here’s a slice of the out of match Talent screen that reveals some more details if you’ve got a keen eye: https://i.imgur.com/5soPYNg.png

Talents can fill many purposes, depending on the type of player you are and what you’re looking to do, so let’s take a look at three specific Talents: https://i.imgur.com/op1LpNX.png

• Tracking is a powerful supporting Talent that can help you and your teammates keep track of your opponents.

• For the more aggressive among you, Scavenging can make all that work of exiling more enticing and give you a leg up coming out of a hard-won fight.

• Lastly, Vital Stone offers you a second chance at life in case things didn’t quite go your way.

We’ll be discussing a lot more about the Talent system in the coming days!

Dustpool Revamp

The map of Spellbreak continues to evolve! Dustpool has been completely revamped with a new design and unique art.

Before the Fracture, Dustpool was home to the majority of the Highland’s mining operations. This brought about an accumulation of great wealth and Dustpool Hold became the center of commerce in the Highlands. More importantly, it’s where Brilstones could be found...

As a part of our goals, we wanted to create a desert area that felt vast and expansive, while still allowing for interesting gameplay elements. By using multiple levels of very disparate heights as well as channels into the ground, players can have long sightlines and take advantage of the high ground while also being able to take covert routes to their targets or sneak through to loot-rich areas. Massive rounded domes and destroyed huts with missing walls and external staircases give players unique silhouettes and new ways to navigate and fight with each other. Areas support multiple engagements taking place at the same time and you’ll never know who or what will be just out of view as you come up over an edge.

https://i.imgur.com/Gd7rz7m.png

This is a view from Lux Vault and you can see Dustpool Hold off in the distance to the left and Gritfield’s ruins to the right.

https://i.imgur.com/JIvsY0g.png

Here you can see Gritfield with its shattered buildings and ravaged terrain.

https://i.imgur.com/QICyiZ7.png

And finally, the once-majestic Dustpool Hold itself.

Playstation 4 Launch

Over the course of Spellbreak’s development, one of the most frequently asked questions from players has been, “When’s it coming to console?” Well, the answer is Closed Beta 2! PC and Playstation 4 players will be able to face off against each other and then not too long after Closed Beta 2, you’ll be able to squad up with them as well! Check out the Playstation store page for more news and updates and welcome to the Hollow Lands Playstation owners!

 

That does it for this preview. Join me and Dan on http://www.twitch.tv/proletariat_inc on March 2nd at 1PM EST for the patch notes stream where we’ll be going over everything coming your way and answering your questions. In fact, there’s so much stuff that we’re going to be blocking out TWO hours for the stream instead of the usual one. Come by, say hi, and get hyped for the Spellbreak Closed Beta 2 launch on March 3!

Looking forward to sharing more crazy concoctions with you!

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