Spellbreak Changelog

What's new in Spellbreak 0.30.91 Alpha

• PLAYER WIPE:
• Before getting in to the notes though, we wanted to highlight an unfortunate reality of alpha testing and making major changes: As a part of this release, we'll be wiping all progress and resetting the leaderboards. We've made some large and fundamental changes to not only the game systems, but to our server backends as well, which required wiping the databases.
• We don't do this lightly and certainly don't want to but the changes required it. Anyone who has purchased a pack or otherwise redeemed a code, you'll re-receive the rewards again, but previously earned class XP, mastery rewards (titles and badges), and so on will all need to be re-earned.
• GAME MODES:
• Y'all have spoken and really seem to want it, so we're going to be turning on Duos in release .30 and disabling Squads. Solos will remain enabled.
• MOVEMENT:
• BASIC MOVEMENT:
• Ground acceleration has been increased. You'll reach your top speed much faster than you currently do.
• Strafing and backpedaling are now based on your overall speed (so boots or other buffs affect it).
• However, base strafe and backwards speed was slightly reduced to compensate.
• Somewhat reduced air control. This brings it back to where it was in release 17.
• Increase midair strafe braking. In other words, if you're exceeding maximum strafe speed in mid-air, you'll more quickly brake toward strafe speed.
• HOVER:
• Hover has been removed from spells. You'll keep going in whatever direction you were going when you cast.
• Hover is still enabled for sorceries to aid in aiming.g and provide moments of vulnerability.
• Hover now always caps downward momentum.
• LEVITATION:
• Levitation is a new base character ability available to everyone at match start.
• Jump and hold to start levitating.
• Consumes a fixed percentage of mana per second.
• Can attack out of it or start levitating after an attack.
• Double jump has been removed.
• Instead of granting an additional jump, Legendary Boots of the Slayer now reduce Levitation mana cost by 25%.
• GAUNTLETS:
• Can no longer equip 2 of the same type of gauntlets.
• Sorceries can now be cast more quickly after casting a Spell.
• Sorcery cooldowns are now frozen while hovering (e.g. aiming sorceries).
• There were some insane sequences that could allow people to stay aloft for... a long time.
• Fire Gauntlet:
• Fireball:
• Damage is now 25, 30, 34, 36, 38
• Mana cost is now 25, 23, 21, 20, 19
• Flies much faster
• Leaves flaming puddles behind
• Has a much smaller explosion radius
• Does more damage to the caster should they be within the explosion
• Explosion damage falloff has been reduced (i.e. Fireballs exploding close to a target do more damage than before)
• Flamewall:
• Ignites players who touch it, dealing 5 damage per second for 3 seconds.
• Is higher, so it takes more effort to go over it
• Casts faster
• Has a longer cast range
• Frost Gauntlet:
• Ice Lance:
• Damage is now 45, 58, 63, 67, 72
• Mana cost is now 40, 36, 34, 32, 30
• No longer spawns ice puddles / trail
• Leaves behind a visual effect
• Has a windup sound that's audible to other players
• Has a lowered base velocity, but max speed remains the same. Charge longer to reach max speed.
• Has lowered movement penalty while aiming
• Overall damage has been reduced with a steeper ramp to max damage, but increased minimum damage as well.
• You can see the basic Ice Lance in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lwrrHxtWiM
• Flash Freeze:
• Applies a slowing effect to players, eventually freezing them
• No longer spawns ice puddles
• Lasts for 6 seconds
• Freeze no longer applies damage reduction
• Duration of Freeze has been lowered to 2s
• Flash Freeze now blocks Fireballs, Wind Shears, and Lightning Bolts
• Though players can still fire from above and below it
• You can see the basic Flash Freeze in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBMlq0cu4WM
• Ice Puddles:
• Ice puddles / trails now give everyone a speed boost.
• Increased acceleration while running on Ice trails (i.e. you get to max speed much faster now).
• Ice puddles have a shorter duration but the water has a longer duration.
• Speed boost from ice is a (big) flat bonus, but no longer stacks.
• You now retain full speed when moving diagonally on frozen puddles (i.e. pressing W+A or W+D).
• Toxic Gauntlet:
• Poison clouds, mist, puddles, and toxic whirlwind all now do 6 damage per tick, two ticks per second, while overlapping them. This previously varied by type.
• Toxic Spray:
• Damage is now 35, 41, 47, 49, 52
• Mana cost is now 20, 18, 17, 16, 15
• No longer creates puddles
• Increased fire rate
• Any toxic damage applies Corrosion
• Deducts 4 armor every second for 3 seconds
• Spread of projectiles cast by poison spell has been increased.
• You can see the basic Toxic Spray in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgYkS2CY0EA
• Toxic Cloud:
• Increased projectile speed
• Reduced duration of toxic clouds to 5s
• Wind Gauntlet:
• Wind Shear:
• Damage is now 7, 8, 9, 10, 10
• Mana cost is now 12, 11, 10, 10, 9
• No longer wind jumps
• Increased fire rate
• Reduced damage
• Tornado
• Reduced pull, especially when on the ground
• Stone Gauntlet:
• Shockwave
• Damage is now 30, 39, 42, 44, 45
• Mana cost is now 25, 23, 21, 20, 19
• Lowered vertical collision hitbox slightly
• Boulderfall:
• Added small windup before casting
• Base version no longer grows over distance
• Reduced velocity
• Lightning Gauntlet:
• Lightning Bolts:
• Damage has been increased and is now 9, 11, 12, 13, 14
• Mana cost is now 12, 10, 10, 9, 9
• Lightning Bolts now deduct mana per-shot instead of per-cast.
• Though if you’re nearly out of mana, you’ll still shoot all three bolts.
• Added damage decay over distance
• Added windup prior to firing
• Reduced fire rate
• Reduced bloom (spread)
• Reduced the collision size of the projectile
• Fire rate is no longer affected by Cast Speed buffs.
• The windup and recovery animations are still affected, however.
• It's now possible to interrupt the burst by using a rune.
• You can see the basic Lightning spell behavior here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgBeFm293Wc
• Lightning Strike:
• Unchanged:
• CLASS REVAMP:
• Class System:
• For release 30, players will have a choice of the six elemental classes:
• Conduit, Frostborn, Pyromancer, Stoneshaper, Tempest, Toxicologist
• This is just the start, more will be coming!
• The other classes have been removed.
• Each class has four skills, one starting and three additional skills.
• These skills are in a pre-determined order and are NOT randomly granted.
• Skills no longer have multiple levels.
• Before a match begins, players choose a single class.
• Players start with a common gauntlet matching their class.
• Reaching a circle will unlock the next skill for the chosen class.
• This means you need to reach three circles to “finish” your class abilities.
• Classes have been given new icons.
• Removed class campaign.
• Class unlocks have been removed. You'll start with all classes unlocked at the start.
• We’re not done with the class system yet! We wanted to get a first pass in front of you to get feedback. We’re already working on an additional layer that brings back a lot of the depth that we loved and the combinatoric madness it enabled. While there's differentiation from game to game based on the gear you find, it's still not where we want things to be. We're working on it, but it won't be in 30... stay tuned for more info!
• Let's go through the class skills now...
• Conduit:
• Potential Energy (level 1 starting skill)
• Lightning Bolts: Hold to continue casting
• Overload (level 2):
• On Cast Lightning Strike: +1 Rune charge. Max 1.
• Note: this does not store charges beyond 1.
• Power Surge (level 3):
• On Cast Lightning Strike: -100% Spell Mana Cost (4s)
• Secondary Strikes (level 4):
• Lightning Strike: +3 Strikes
• Frostborn:
• Frozen Alacrity (Level 1 starting skill):
• Ice Lance: Leaves Ice Trails
• Increased size of ice puddles created by Frozen Alacrity
• Fixed Frozen Alacrity issues that would cause gaps between ice trails or the ice trail to end earlier than it should.
• Icicle (Level 2):
• Ice Lance: Hover in mid-air while aiming
• Tundra (level 3):
• Flash Freeze Duration: +100%
• Ice Prism (level 4):
• Ice Lance: Overcharge for 1s for +35% damage
• Pyromancer:
• Combust (level 1 starting skill)
• Fireball Explosion Radius: +200%
• Firefly (level 2):
• Immune: Your team's Flamewalls
• On Entering Flamewall: Fly (1.5s)
• Pyrolysis (level 3):
• Flamewall Damage: +100% (2s)
• Conflagration (level 4):
• On Fireball Hit: Spawn 4 smaller Fireballs
• Stoneshaper:
• Stoneskin (level 1 starting skill)
• On Cast Shockwave: +5 Armor
• Bedrock(level 2):
• On Cast Shockwave: Crash to the ground
• Avalanche (level 3):
• Max Boulderfall Charges: +1
• Accretion (level 4):
• Boulderfall Size: Grows as it flies
• Tempest:
• Wind Surge (Level 1 starting skill)
• On Wind Shear Ground Hit: Wind Jump
• Updraft (Level 2):
• Immune: Your team's Tornadoes Pull
• On Entering Your Team's Tornadoes: Launch into the air
• Squall (level 3):
• In Air (1s): Spell Damage: +5%
• In Air (2s): Spell Damage: +15%
• In Air (3s): Spell Damage: +25%
• Sudden Gust (level 4):
• In Air (1s): Sorcery Cooldown Speed: +100%
• Toxicologist:
• Viscosity (Level 1 starting skill)
• Toxic Spray: Leaves Sticky Puddles
• Toxic Puddles now last for 15s (prev 5s)
• Vanishing Mists (Level 2):
• Immune: Your Team's Toxic Clouds
• On Entering Your Team's Toxic Clouds: Dash and become Invisible for 3s
• Outbreak (level 3):
• While Invisible: Toxic Spray Damage: +100%
• Spreading Sickness (level 4):
• Toxic Cloud: +2 Clouds
• ELEMENTAL INTERACTIONS:
• Using wind on a toxic puddle now creates Toxic Mist that applies damage and Corrosion.
• Wind Shears fired through a Toxic Cloud will create Toxic Mist where they hit.
• Ice puddles that are shattered now create Ice Mist that applies a temporary Slow.
• Boulders that are frozen now create Ice Mist when they explode.
• If a cloud is frozen while a player is within it, it will shatter immediately, leaving behind Ice Mist, and no longer instantly freezing players.
• Tornadoes will dissipate both Toxic Mist and Ice Mist.
• Clouds that are frozen while characters are inside them no longer instantly freeze them.
• Reduced duration of Dragonfire created from Poison Clouds to 0.5s from 3.5s
• Clouds and Wind now block Lightning Bolts.
• RUNES:
• Blink rune has been vaulted.
• Due to the many changes to both core and class-based movement in release .30, we want to test a Blinkless game.
• Rune cooldowns are now frozen while hovering (e.g. aiming sorceries).
• There were some insane sequences that could allow people to stay aloft for... a long time.
• Fixed a bug that would cause Rune key input to be buffered too long, activating the Rune long after the key was pressed.
• This is especially annoying and resulted in a bunch of unfortunate situations so wanted to call it out in the Rune section.
• Chronomaster rune cooldown is now 15 seconds as intended instead of the 20 it was previously.
• Technically also a bug fix, but wanted to put it up here as well!
• Invisibility
• We wanted to make Invis more usable in-combat to better stand on its own, but also to combo with some of the new class changes.
• On activation, you become invisible earlier in the animation.
• Similarly, reduced cast time so it's more responsive.
• Shadowstep:
• Shadowstep's been pretty powerful in too many situations and needed to be pulled in somewhat.
• Shadowstep verticality has been significantly decreased, and duration of Invisibility lowered to 1.5s (from 2.5s).
• There is now a brief period after using Shadowstep before you can perform another action, similar to Dash.
• MANA AND AMULETS:
• Previously, with a high rarity gauntlet and amulet, it was possible to almost entirely ignore mana as a mechanic. We're rebalancing mana costs to force decisions around when to cast and when to regenerate mana. However, in addition to more meaningful decisions around when to use mana, mana recharging is much faster now to keep combat flowing.
• Mana recharge time has been reduced significantly.
• Mana that is recharging is now immediately available to spend, unless you are entirely out of mana.
• If you're entirely out of mana, the behavior is unchanged: you must wait until the mana bar is fully refilled before you can cast/levitate again.
• Mana recharge is no longer paused if you're aiming sorceries while on the ground, but it remains paused while you're in midair and aiming.
• Base max mana is now 50.
• Common amulets now give 10 max mana.
• Uncommon amulets now give 20 max mana.
• Rare amulets now give 30 max mana.
• Epic amulets now give 40 max mana.
• Legendary amulets now give 50 max mana.
• MISC. GAMEPLAY:
• All storm circles are now 30% bigger.
• This should help the end of match end in a wider variety of locations without having to hoof it across a tremendous distance.
• Mana Vaults no longer drop skill points.
• Mana Vaults are the only place to get Legendary items.
• We're testing this in release 30. As further changes are made to the class system, this may change again as well! Until then, get those spicy drops!
• Invisibility no longer prevents footsteps from being heard.
• With the various buffs to invisibility and how it interacts with other things, we wanted to make it slightly less sneaky.
• Hot-swapping commands are now ignored while aiming (sorceries, teleport, ice lance).
• QUALITY OF LIFE:
• Item pickup UIs are now hidden while aiming
• If all worn slots and all hotbar slots are full, you will see a "Inventory Full" message when attempting to pick up a Rune/Belt/Amulet/Boots, instead of auto-swapping the currently worn item.
• You can still hold F and press LMB in order to swap out the item.
• This avoids scenarios where the player accidentally swaps out something without realizing it.
• Players now view the class and inventory screen at the same time when pressing TAB.
• Practice and tutorial modes are now selectable in match settings.
• At match end you now see your teammates' Player Card with all associated elements.
• During Spectate, you now see the spectated player’s Player Card.
• Keybindings on the HUD are now icon-based and update when remapped to support future control options.
• Improved display of Overamor. Text now reads "Armor/MaxArmor +Overarmor" in armor bar.
• COSMETICS:
• Added 5 new skins. These are not player accessible and will be used for... things.
• TRIUMPHS
• Triumphs are a new cosmetic option. There's just one right now to test the system, but more will be coming soon!
• When you exile someone, they'll see your character, player card, and your selected triumph animation so they can ... pay their respects.
• Set your Triumph in the main menu inventory screen.
• OPTIMIZATIONS:
• Optimized rendering of chests, and they now appear from further away when dropping from portals.
• Various shadow rendering optimizations
• Various VFX optimizations
• MAP CHANGES:
• New region Verdon Estate featuring a stone maze
• Updated Witgrave region
• New conifer trees
• Polished Lowland Outpost
• Polished fracture areas
• New thatch roofed buildings in Fort Halcyon village
• Updated map and mini-map
• New cliff textures
• Updated map with POI names
• Fixed bug where parts of intentionally inaccessible parts of Edgewall Gate were accessible
• Fixed many instances of large gaps in the walls of many castle prefabs
• BUG FIXES:
• In Duos, both party members must select Ready to start the match.
• Kill feed correctly notes when a player is exiled by the circle.
• Kill feed correctly notes when a player is exiled by falling off the map.
• Dragonfire is consistent regardless of whether it was created by adding fire to poison, or poison to fire.
• Players who use Shadowstep without moving no longer appear to be running in place.
• Players can no longer damage teammates with wind shears from a distance.
• When spectating a player who uses the Chronomaster rune, you no longer see that player appear to be under the map during rune activation.
• Fixed Chronomaster rune not taking you fully back to your start position.
• Fixed a bug that made “Hold for Inventory” message appear in the UI when opening Mana Vaults and reviving or exiling players.
• An icon (and timer) now appears while you have freeze immunity.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Teleport rune targeting when a player had their back on the playable area boundary.
• Names of players using Streamer Mode are no longer revealed during spectator mode.
• Fixed a bug that caused teammate name tags to sometimes disappear when viewed at long distances.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused your character to be outlined in blue in Solo lobbies.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game window to warp to unwanted sizes after changing resolution settings.
• Fixed an issue where a castle wall piece got shifted, resulting in multiple exploitable gaps in many castle prefabs.
• Fix Springstep displaying "Skill not ready" whenever it was used.
• Fixed cases where you'd get ticked twice quickly by DoTs if you were moving.
• Fixed bug where toxic tornado would sometimes not stop applying damage after you'd left its radius.
• Fix long-outstanding bug where you would sometimes drop gauntlets while hot-swapping during combat
• Fixed a bug where you would run at less than max speed if your camera was facing mostly downward or mostly upward.
• Adjusted bounds of toxic tornado to better match visuals. The toxic damage is only taken along the ground and within the funnel of the tornado now.