Hey all,

Welcome to the Chapter 2 release notes! This is our biggest update ever and there's a lot to get through so let's just get into it. One note before we begin, this release will be going live on April 8 simultaneously on all platforms.

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Dominion

Dominion is our brand new, 5v5 objective-based mode. Play with a group of up to 5 players and take control of three different zones on the map to rack up points and win. There are no chests here, so you'll need to defeat other players as well as NPC Vowguard to earn potions and scrolls as well as to charge your Boon Gem for a visit to the Merchant to gear up. With 4 different randomly chosen maps (from Halcyon, Hymnwood, Bogmore, and Dustpool), each match will require different strategies for your builds and team makeup for you to be successful!

With Dominion, we're also vaulting Clash for the time being, so players can focus on the new mode.

For LOTS more information about Dominion, including answers to numerous questions and other tidbits, check out this post.

Leagues

To pair with Dominion, we're also introducing Leagues, our new seasonal ranking system. With each season, players will compete to showcase their mastery and rise through increasingly challenging Leagues. By performing well in matches (capturing and defending zones, exiling other players, dealing damage, etc.), players will earn Accolades which award Crowns towards the next Tier in their League. After completing ten Tiers, they will advance to the next League.

There are six Leagues for players to progress through: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Legendary.

Once players reach the Gold League, the stakes increase as matches cost Crowns to participate. Players will risk losing Crowns and Tiers if they don’t do well in a match. However, every five tiers they’ll reach a milestone below which they cannot drop.

At the end of each season, players will be rewarded with Titles and Badges corresponding to their final placement and standings will be reset for a new season of competition.

For more information about Leagues as well as some developer commentary, check out this post.

Chapter 2

• A brand new chapter begins! Players will learn more about the cause of the Fracture while having to ward off an incursion by the sinister Vowguard.
• 12 weeks of new Story and Honor quests will introduce the player to new NPCs.
• A few new gameplay affecting objects have been sprinkled around the map...
• Players can now reroll 1 daily quest every day.
  • We heard your feedback here!

Battle Royale

• The final circle location is no longer completely random in Battle Royale. It now chooses (randomly) from a selection of hand-placed end locations.
  • This is similar to how Clash worked and should ensure the final circles are much more interesting!

Resurrection

• Players will now have an option to resurrect their fallen teammates when crossing into the next circle in Battle Royale.
  • To resurrect a teammate, a player will have to enter a new safe zone AFTER their teammate has been exiled and hold Use key for 12s.
  • This does not include teammates who have been downed but not exiled.
  • Players respawn with their common class gauntlet but no other inventory.
  • Players retain their talent levels after respawn.
  • Folks have been asking for a way to get back in the game after being exiled early on. Don't give up, Breaker, there's hope for a comeback yet!

Gameplay and Balance (Battle Royale)

• Increased time to exile a player to 6.5s (from 5.0s).
  • We wanted it to be slightly harder to sneakily exile someone so it's now more of a commitment.
• Downed "orb" timer reduced to 60s (from 90s).
  • On the flip side, playing hide and seek as/with an orb could potentially take a long time. Now, with resurrection, it's easier to bring back fallen teammates and we wanted to lower this amount so we didn't double dip.
• The storm now deals increased damage early on before reaching its current damage values.
  • First circle does 2 damage per tick (up from 1), then 4 per tick (up from 2) until next closure, then 8, then 16, 20, 32
  • Early circles were almost entirely ignorable.

Gameplay and Balance (All Modes)

• Overall gravity has been reduced by 25%.
  • This does not affect Shockwave, Springstep, Featherfall, or Bedrock fall speed.
  • This makes going airborne more of a commitment and puts the player more at risk for being shot down. After seeing how the change to wind jumping worked, we felt comfortable extending this wider.
• Wind Surge no longer has a 35% gravity reduction.
• Increased cast speed for ALL spells/sorceries other than Lightning Bolt and Wind Shear by 18%.
  • With the removal of Fervor, we took the opportunity to revisit cast speeds across the board (including sorceries!) to make things much more snappy at a base level.
• Sped up drop recovery animation duration (when falling from a portal/respawn) to 1.0s (from 1.34s).
  • Made it slightly more responsive to account for the increased amount of falling that's going on these days in Dominion and resurrection.
• Fix issue where projectiles would occasionally fire in a random direction.

Runes

These changes are largely to decrease the ability for players to reset / escape fights entirely with runes.

• Increased Featherfall cooldown by 2s across rarities.
• Increased Teleport windup to 1.0s (from 0.6s)
• Reduced Teleport cooldown by 2s across rarities.
• Reduced Flight rune duration to 3.5s (from 5.0s).
• Increased vertical flight speed of Flight rune to 60% of full speed (from 50%).
• Reduced invisibility duration of Shadowstep to 1s (from 2s).
• Springstep no longer maintains speed through levitation.
• Increased horizontal speed/distance of Springstep.
• Decreased Chronomaster cooldown by 4s across rarities.

Potions

• Reduced Knowledge Potion drop rate.
• Knowledge Potion now takes 3s to consume (prev 1s)
  • They were fun while they lasted, but it's time to dial them back.
• Safeguard Potion now takes 4s to consume (prev 5s)
• Large Safeguard Potion now takes 6s to consume (prev 8s)
  • Safeguards took a little too long to drink for the amount they healed, so we've sped them up by 20%.

Talents

• For this release, our goal with talents was two-fold:
  • We want to increase the number of viable builds.
  • We want to shake things up.
• To that end, we’ve made the following changes:
  • Talents now cost between 1 and 4 points (up from 3).
  • Players now have 7 total points to spend (up from 6).
  • There are now 7 talents per category (up from 6).

Body Talents

• Tough
  • Cost: 1
  • Max Armor: +10/12/15/25
• Dexterity
  • Cost: 2 (from 1)
  • Run Speed +3
  • Levitation Mana Cost: -15/18/20/30%
  • No longer gives Jump Height
• Wellspring
  • Cost: 2
  • Mana Recharge Rate: +25%
  • On 0 Mana: Spell Damage +10/12/15/20% (6s)
• Vigor
  • Cost: 3
  • Max Health: +25/30/35/50
  • Moved from Mind to Body
• Fellowship
  • Cost: 3
  • Any healing affects nearby teammates at 25/50/75/100% efficiency
• Ambidextrous
  • Cost: 4 (from 3)
  • Gain Level 1 Skill of Offhand Gauntlet's Class
  • Offhand Spell Mana Cost: -10/15/20/35% (from -5/10/15/25%)
  • Moved from Spirit to Body
• Athletic
  • Cost: 4
  • On reading Body Scroll: +1 Character Level

Spirit Talents

• Mystical
  • Cost: 1
  • Max Mana: +10/12/15/25
• Thirsty
  • Cost: 2
  • Potion and Shard Consume Speed: +25/35/50/75% (from 35/50/65/90)
  • No longer has AoE effect
• Vampiric
  • Cost: 2
  • Heal for 20/25/30/40% of health damage done
• Inspired
  • Cost: 3
  • Spell Damage: +10/12/15/20% while you have a Rune charge
• Fortitude
  • Cost: 3 (from 2)
  • Create a barrier that absorbs one source of damage before reforming
  • Cooldown: 60/50/30/20s (from 60/50/45/30s)
  • Moved from Body
• Foresight
  • Cost: 4 (from 3)
  • See Future Storms and Mana Vaults
  • See Enemies on the Minimap every 10/8/5/3s (from 10/9/8/5)
  • Moved from Body
• Gilded
  • Cost: 4
  • On reading Spirit Scroll: Upgrade all equipped items by 1 Rarity

Mind Talents

• Intelligent
  • Cost: 1
  • Rune Cooldown: -5/10/15/25%
• Spellslinger
  • Cost: 2 (from 1)
  • Store extra Gauntlets and Runes in your Inventory
  • Sorcery Cooldowns: -10/12/15/20% (from -5/8/10/15)
• Curious
  • Cost: 2
  • Chance to find an extra Scroll: +12/25/35/50%
  • Scroll Reading Speed: +100%
• Tracking
  • Cost: 3 (from 2)
  • On Damage Target: Outline target for you and your squad (3/5/7/10s) (from 3/3.5/4/6)
• Hardened
  • Cost: 3
  • Immune to Ignition and Corrosion
  • Freeze and Shock Duration on you: -35/50/75/90%
• Rebirth
  • Cost: 4 (from 3)
  • On Disruption (once): Resurrect with 20/30/40/50 Health (from 10/25/35/50)
  • Immune for 4s after Resurrection
  • Run Speed: +25% while immune
  • Moved from Spirit
• Runic Fluency
  • Cost: 4 (from 2)
  • Max Rune Charge: +1
  • Rune Cooldown: -5/7/10/15%
• The following talents have been removed for the time being:
  • Escapist
  • Fervor
  • Finders Keepers
  • Focused Mana
  • Harmony
  • Recklessness
  • Recovery
  • Scavenging
• Projectiles fired after switching gauntlets with Spellslinger no longer fire off in the opposite direction.

For more information about the Chapter 2 talents, including some frequently asked questions, check out this post.

Classes and Gauntlets

• Spell damages (other than Ice Lance) are being changed across the board to make more rare gauntlets more powerful than they were previously. Details below in the relevant sections.
• Mana costs are now consistent across rarities. Generally speaking, mana cost is now equivalent to the old rare gauntlet. Details below in the relevant sections.
  • Adjusting your muscle memory to lowering mana costs while upgrading your amulet felt awkward at best. Standardizing them across rarities lets players strategize around their mana bar in a more straight-forward way and makes increases to max mana feel more impactful.
• Sorcery cooldowns are lowered at higher rarities. Details below in the relevant sections.
  • On the other hand, sorceries NOT improving as rarity increased was always a headscratcher. Why doesn't it get better over time? Now it does!

Conduit / Lightning Gauntlet

• Lightning Bolt's damage is now 7/8/9/10/11 (from 7/8/9/9/10).
• Lightning Bolt's mana cost is now 9 (from 9/9/9/8/8).
• Lightning Strike's cooldown is now 18/16/15/14/13 (from 15).
• Lightning Strike now does 25 damage on hit (up from 20).

Frostborn / Frost Gauntlet

• Ice Lance's mana cost is now 24-48 depending on charge duration (from 30-60/27-54/24-48/21-42/20-40).
• Flash Freeze's cooldown is now 18/16/15/14/13 (from 15s).
• Frozen Alacrity now grants “Ice Lance: Leaves Ice Trails / 150% faster acceleration on Ice Trails / Immune to Slow/Frozen".
  • Frostborn has long struggled with getting frozen while on their own ice trails. No longer!
• Icicle no longer grants "Ice Lance: Hover in mid-air while aiming (5s)."
• Ice Lance now hovers across all classes while being charged.
  • This behavior being tied to a class felt very inconsistent and made it more difficult to swap between them in a way that didn't happen with other class abilities. It also highlights the risk / reward of the sniping playstyle.
• Ice Lance projectiles are no longer blocked by Toxic Spray or other Ice Lance projectiles
• Fixed Ice Lance occasionally looking like it’s being fired from behind the player firing it.
• Various fixes for rubber-banding caused by ice skating.

Pyromancers / Flame Gauntlet

• Fireball's damage is now 25/30/34/38/42 (from 25/30/34/36/38).
• Fireball's mana cost is now 17 (from 20/18/17/16/15).
• Flamewall's cooldown is now 18/16/15/14/13 (from 15).
• Damage from lingering flames and flaming tornadoes increased to 18 damage/sec, ticking every 0.33s (Up from 12 damage/sec, ticking every 0.5s).
  • Ground flames were more of an annoyance than a threat. This makes standing in fire bad, like it should be.

Stoneshaper / Stone Gauntlet

• Shockwave's damage is now 30/39/42/45/50 (from 30/39/42/44/45).
• Shockwave's mana cost is now 21 (from 25/23/21/20/19).
• Boulderfall's cooldown is now 14/13/12/11/10 (from 10).
• Boulderfall now does 30-50 max damage based on distance traveled.
• Boulderfall windup animation takes 65% longer now.
  • Bouldering someone up close was an incredibly powerful burst and nearly instant. We've increased the minimum damage that a boulder can do while also making it slower to cast.
• Stoneskin skill now grants Max Armor: +20 and On Cast Shockwave: +3 Armor.
  • The armor cap for Stoneskin wasn't especially intuitive, so it's been removed, but to keep it from getting out of control, the amount of armor gained has been greatly lowered.
• Boulderfall now displays its trajectory indicator until the projectile is fired, rather than disappearing immediately when the button is released.
  • This is so that the trajectory indicator actually shows where the boulder will land, since it's possible to continue to aim after releasing the cast.

Tempest / Wind Gauntlet

• Wind Shear's damage is now 7/9/10/12/13 (from 7/9/10/11/12).
• Wind Shear's mana cost is now 9 (from 9/9/9/8/8).
• Tornado's cooldown is now 18/16/15/14/13 (from 15).
• Increased cast speed for Wind Shear by 15%.
  • Again, keeping in line with the cast speed improvements, but just slightly less than everything else.
• Squall no longer grants its bonuses while in the air, but rather is now triggered based on Updraft or Wind Surge. It now reads: ""On Updraft or Wind Surge: Spell Damage: +20% / On Updraft or Wind Surge: Incoming Damage Reduction: +10%"
  • We sort of knew this was an experimental change when we made it originally. With the decreased gravity, it's exacerbated further, so we've dialed it back to be a triggered ability.

Toxicologist / Toxic Gauntlet

• Toxic Spray's damage is now 30/36/41/46/51 (from 30/36/41/43/46).
• Toxic Spray's mana cost is now 17 (from 20/18/17/16/15).
• Toxic Cloud's cooldown is now 18/16/15/14/13 (from 15).
• Damage from "toxified" clouds/puddles/tornadoes has been increased to 18 damage/sec, ticking every 0.33s (previously 12 damage/sec, ticking 0.5s).
• Ignited clouds now do up to 3 ticks of 16 damage every 0.33s (previously up to 2 ticks of 20 damage every 0.5s).
  • We wanted the elemental interaction to have its bite back. It's hard to pull off and needs to be rewarded as such. Good players would get hit for only 20, now they get hit for 16-32. Bad players got hit for 40, they now get hit for 32-48.
• Fixed toxic puddles causing massive damage if someone rapidly moved in and out of them.
  • This is a bug fixes, but wanted to call it out up here since it could result in some heavy damage.

Matchmaking

• Matchmaking work continues with this release, both to support Dominion and Leagues, but in general to hopefully make better matches, more quickly. Like always, we'll be iterating on this once it's live and we can see how matches are being formed and how players are performing.
• Matchmaking is now much more flexible, balancing player skill, latency, and party composition to find the best possible matches in a reasonable timeframe.
• Mage rank is no longer used in matchmaking, instead favoring other metrics, such as Leagues and other criteria.
• Players now wait for their match to fill in the play screen instead of a pre-match lobby.
• US West is coming back!

Store and Cosmetics

• A new type of outfit has been added: Ascending Outfits. When acquired, they come with a quest that unlocks additional tiers of the outfit. With each tier comes an additional quest to complete.
• Players who currently own any of the following outfits will now be able to upgrade them with the associated quest: Ascending Virtue, Blightbringer, Chilling Glare, Flinty Scrapper, Smoldering Warrior, and Spark Driver.
• The Chapter 2 pass, Trickster pack, and Priestess Pack are all now available in the store.
• Many emotes have had unique sound effects added to them.
• Bundles of emotes will be going on sale.
• Some outfits now have different idle animations on the play screen.

UI

• Players now default to their last played class on the class selection screen.
  • YESSSSS
• Added a news screen that shows relevant info, new features, or other updates.
• Play screen got rearranged to better show party composition and active quests.
• Quest dialog screen has been cleaned up.
• Current Chapter level now displays on the play screen.
• Players now get an alert when a friend request is accepted or received or when a party invite is received.
• New celebratory animation when a player levels up in a chapter.
• New celebratory animation when a player ranks up a class.
• Players can now skip animations that trigger when players purchase or unlock a cosmetic.
• Gamemode descriptions now only show on hover.

Map

• Banehelm has been completely reworked.
• Added a number of POIs:
  • Boathouse
  • Gazebo near Ruby Grove
  • Bridge near Halcyon
  • Fever Break
  • Hymnwood Amphitheater
  • Westmar

Nintendo Switch

• Added option for Gyroscope Smoothing under gameplay settings to control jitteriness versus responsiveness tradeoff.
• Fixed camera snapping up or down while bringing up menus when Gyro is enabled.
• Fixed a variety of gyro issues that would cause the camera to abruptly snap.

Playstation

• Playstation 4 Pro and Playstation 5 now support 4k and other visual quality improvements.

Xbox

• Xbox One X and Xbox Series X now support 4k and other visual quality improvements.
• Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Subscribers can get the chapter 2 basic tier chapter pass for free

Optimizations and Performance

• Optimized a number of VFX.
• Optimized puddle rendering.
• Optimized level streaming.
• Optimized full screen VFX (damage overlays, etc).
• Reduce animation CPU usage for distant characters.
• CPU optimization for fired projectiles as well as other common situations.

Bugs

• Fix characters occasionally showing up as just gauntlets in-match.
• Players who use a spellstorm rift are now able to interact with downed teammates.
• Those of you with hundreds of friends no longer lag hard while loading the friends list.
• Fixed up some inconsistent terminology referring to "level" instead of "mage rank".
• Fixed a crash that occurred if a player attempted to join another player who had blocked them while in the mastery menu.
• Cleaned up a number of places in the map where the Teleportation rune could be used to get into otherwise inaccessible areas. The player would often end up stuck there!
  • Stop trying to hide!
• Cleaned up a number of areas around the map that would report as invalid destinations when they should have been valid for the Teleportation rune.
• Fixed a bug that caused the “Risky Landing” quest to not progress.
• Fixed a bunch of places where players could fall into the Fracture safely.
• Bots are now aware of players attacking them at extreme distances.
• Red notification jewel is now properly dismissed after blocking/reporting a friend request.
• Emote wheel is no longer accessible while a player is in the "hamburger" menu.
• Fixed a bug that caused the in-game HUD to persist on the end of match screen if the player was in the options menu while transitioning out of the game.
• Quests that need to be completed in a single match no longer display partial progress.
  • This was confusing UI, but represents no functional changes.
• Fixed a number of instances where UI buttons would still activate if a player pressed down the button but dragged the cursor off of it before releasing the click.
• Fixed navigation highlights in menus where they would move to a different menu that is not being focused on for the player.
• Character model will no longer disappear during class selection.
• Using the Firefly ability no longer progresses the "Rune User" quest.
• Character models no longer occasionally freeze when they're at the edge of the screen.
• A number of floating chests have had gravity applied to them and have resumed their proper place on the ground.
• Cleaned up numerous areas where grass and other foliage was clipping through floors or steps.
• Fixed a number of issues with z-fighting and LOD pop-ing around the map.
• Corrected bad mouse scaling for 4k displays.
• Game mode now correctly updates when a player joins a party while in the tutorial game mode. Previously it would be stuck on tutorial mode.

PHEW! We made it! We'll be launching Chapter 2 on April 8 and we can't wait to see you in the Hollow Lands.

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