Diablo IV’s first season arrives on July 20. As was previously announced, players will make new characters with each fresh battle pass. Though it might seem a little unexpected, making new characters on a regular basis is common in the world of Diablo. Sadly, the latest patch might make those future characters of yours a little weaker. In particular, if you were hoping to make use of a certain Druid build that dealt over 2-billion points of damage…well, you can’t do that anymore.
Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build
As an action RPG all about chasing numbers, leveling up a new character in Diablo is a linear path toward more and more epic powers and abilities. And with a thorough and versatile skill tree, players can build all sorts of classes to deal incredible amounts of damage to hordes of foes. But a recent update ahead of the game’s first season has made characters hit a little less hard, with nerfs that affect basically everyone. Some of these fix a few unfair exploits, while others scale back the numbers more generally. In general, it’s made for a very unsatisfying patch for the Diablo community.
OP Druid build gets the ax
For some of you, the saddest news is the Druid’s absurd billion-point damage exploit has now been removed. Previously, a specific Shapeshifter Druid build let you deal remarkable amounts of damage. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise as Blizzard, in a statement to PC Gamer, said that this specific use of the Druid’s Shred ability was in no way supposed to be functioning like that.
Read More:Diablo IV: Three Go-To Builds That’ll Crush Everything
But it’s not just the druid that got hit. Other classes have been taken down a few notches as well.
It’s hard to pick which nerf stings the most (the answer is probably whichever class you happen to main), but virtually no one got out of this patch unscathed. You can view the nitty gritty details for each class here. Certain nerfs address unintended issues, like the Sorcerer’s Aspect of Control seeing a fix for an incorrect 3x damage bonus.
Other nerfs simply lower numbers for certain classes and abilities: The Rogue’s Siphoning Strikes now require a Lucky Hit chance of 75; the Necromancer’s Splintering Aspect Bone Shard damage was dropped from 50-100 percent to just 30 and 60. The Barbarian’s Hamstring ability only slows enemies with more than 80 percent of their health or above, and its slowing effect has been dropped by 10 percent. These only scratch the surface of the nerfs (though the Rogue was the most untouched), but there are some more general ones that strike at the core of the game’s developing meta.
Latest Diablo patch cuts at the heart of current build strategies
The patch notes indicate that Blizzard is interested in reducing Critical Strike and Vulnerable damage as they don’t want all builds to center around these mechanics. In the notes, Blizzard said:
Developer’s Note: We’re seeing Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage often viewed as a hard requirement for a build’s success in Diablo IV. We believe this is a step towards allowing more builds to flourish and will continue to make changes in support of this goal.
Those changes look like this:
Critical Strike Damage: Reduced by ~17%.
Lightning Critical Strike Damage: Reduced by ~17%.
Critical Strike Damage with Bone, Earth, Imbued, and Werewolf Skills: Reduced by ~17%.
Vulnerable Damage: Reduced by ~40%.
The change to Vulnerable Damage is perhaps the harshest, especially as many builds thus far optimize sending enemies into Vulnerable status to pile on the damage.
Live service games typically have an ebb and flow over the course of their lives. In some ways, the current community sentiment surrounding the frustrations over Diablo IV’s pre-season one patch might just be a bump in the road in what will surely be a long life for the latest action RPG. That said, swift, abrupt changes like these massive class nerfs and core changes to the game won’t do well to inspire fan’s faith in the new live-service structure.
On Wednesday, CD Projekt Red juiced up The Witcher 3 with yet another patch, giving the eight-year-old fantasy role-playing game improved cross-platform progression on consoles, new features for Nintendo Switch, and even better-looking grass for touching purposes.
Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build
The Witcher 3’s version 4.04 patch introduces a hodgepodge of graphical updates and quality-of-life improvements to both console and PC versions of the game, as well as bringing certain specific improvements to the Nintendo Switch. In short, the latest patch improves the Switch’s cross-progression feature making it so that, once logged in to your CD Projekt Red account, you can pick up where you left off in The Witcher 3 on other platforms. The Switch is also getting the Netflix-inspired content other consoles received in the last patch.
Buy the game:Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop | Target
Aside from numerous bug fixes like, umm… “mending grass collision,” patch 4.04 has also made it so you don’t have to do so much fussing in menu screens during combat, letting you switch oils and potions right from the game’s radial menu. It’s a welcome change, since oils are vital tools in taking down specific monsters. Now Geralt can bathe his sword in whatever specific concoction will help him defeat the beasties he’s currently battling without you needing to break the flow of combat by opening up the pause menu and fiddling around with witcher’s brew.
Netflix
Read More: The Witcher Netflix Views Are Down, Prepare For Discourse
These quality-of-life updates come as the second half of the third season of Netflix’s Witcher series—the final season with actor Henry Cavill in the role of Geralt—is almost upon us. In his absence, Liam Hemsworth will take up the Roach-riding mantle, debuting as the Butcher of Blaviken in the show’s fourth season.
The second part of The Witcher’s third season will premiere on the streamer on July 27.
The last 48 hours of Diablo IV has been a little chaotic following wildly controversial changes to player power level in the game’s first pre-season patch. Now, developer Blizzard is doing a bit of damage control, taking to a livestream on July 21 to try and explain its decision-making process, as well as what changes it’s making in response to the overwhelmingly negative feedback.
Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build
Diablo IV’s latest patch, 1.1.0, dramatically reduced player power across the board. Changes include reductions to XP earned for various activities, as well as a diminished role to status effects like Vulnerability that have played a central role in class builds. It was a tumultuous set of changes to say the least, all documented in an exhaustive list of alterations via the official patch notes. As promised, Blizzard held a livestream today to address these changes, as well as provide some updates on future changes to the game—particularly in response to the negative feedback on the previous patch. You can watch the whole stream here:
Blizzard / Diablo
Reducing player power: ’We know it is bad. We know it is not fun.’
On the stream, Blizzard’s associate director of community management, Adam Fletcher, immediately responded to the overwhelmingly negative feedback in response to the patch, acknowledging that missteps were made and that the reduction to player power has wrecked the fun of the game for some players.
While Fletcher stated that Blizzard had specific goals in mind with the most recent patch and that it wanted an opportunity to explain why it made these changes, some good news is that the team doesn’t “plan on doing a patch like this ever again.”
Blizzard plans on ‘always providing patch notes well beforehand’
While the most recent patch did dramatically reduce player power and strike at the heart of the developing meta, one of the most chaotic elements of it all was how suddenly the patch notes arrived, how lengthy they were, and how it felt like there was absolutely no heads up as to what was going to happen going into the game’s first season, which started on July 20.
As a way to get ahead of future issues like that, Blizzard has promised to provide patch notes “well beforehand,” estimating that notes will hit about a week before a new update. The game’s next patch, version 1.1.1, is expected to arrive sometime soon, and Blizzard will discuss the specific details of that patch in another livestream chat next Friday, July 28.
Changes to player power explained
Though some may find Blizzard’s explanations for the dramatic, across-the-board nerfs lacking, associate game director Joe Piepiora explained that the reductions to player attributes like cooldown rates and status effects like Vulnerability were done to try and amplify player choice. On the cooldown rates specifically, Piepiora said:
[Cooldown reduction (CDR) is the most powerful stat] in Diablo IV, and the reason for it is obvious: When you’re able to get CDR to a certain point when using certain class mechanisms, you’re able to get effectively instantaneous active skills. That can give you unlimited resources, can give you unlimited movement speed, can give you unlimited damage resistance, and it begins to dwarf the effectiveness of other options when you start trying to take these things into account.
During the stream both Piepiora and game director Joe Shely recognized that overpowered builds and mowing down tons of enemies is core to the action-RPG power fantasy. However, the team is presently concerned that player choice in builds is dying in favor of go-to metas, meaning that if you don’t emphasize cooldown reduction, or optimize builds to send foes into Vulnerable status, you’re operating at a disadvantage.
Vulnerability, which saw its damage modifier reduced significantly in patch 1.1.0, according to Piepiora, became the only way to really start dealing damage to enemies at certain levels of play. This, the team said, is not in line with their vision of the game, and in many ways they believe it’s the result of the outsized influence of high-level Nightmare Dungeons, which Piepiora said is one of the areas of endgame content that tends to demand very specific builds without much room for customization and choice.
The reality is that Nightmare Dungeons are dramatically overtuned from where they actually need to be based upon the role they fill in the game itself. So Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons are excruciatingly difficult for most classes to be able to actually get through and as a result it begins to winnow the opportunities and options that players have when they begin to engage with content at that Tier. You need to lean on very, very specific builds, very specific setups with access to things like near-instantaneous cooldowns for some skills in an effort to actually make it through those spaces. And that was never really the intent of that content.
Apparently Nightmare Dungeons will see changes on at least two fronts: The density of hordes will be increased to play into the power fantasy of destroying vast amounts of enemies and, in respect to Piepiora’s statement that the crushing level of difficulty they pose is having too much of an effect on build choice, difficulty will be reduced, bringing Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons down to about the current difficulty level of Tier 70 Nightmare Dungeons.
Patch 1.1.1 is expected to address some of the concerns
During the stream the team stressed that the goal was not, in fact, to reduce the speed of the game and slow progress, though many have felt that changes to game systems like an increase in the amount of time it takes to teleport out of dungeons seems to suggest otherwise. Commenting on that very change, Shely said the team will continue to evaluate changes like this, but stopped shy of saying why, exactly, that specific change was instituted in the first place.
The next patch, 1.1.1, is expected to address a wide variety of the issues present in the current build of the game. Blizzard revealed some such changes, like an extra tab in stash size to mitigate concerns over inventory management, and a 40 percent reduction in respec costs so players can more adequately respond to changes in the game’s meta while also having more choice over build variety as the game progresses. Other specific details, such as changes that have wildly reduced the power level and strength of certain classes more so than others, will be explored more in depth in next week’s livestream.
The team stressed that it doesn’t want to take powerful skills and items away as abruptly as it did with the most recent patch, and pledges to offer more alternatives when potentially sweeping changes come about in the future. A hotfix is scheduled to arrive later today (July 21), with patch notes expected to hit Diablo IV’s website shortly before it goes live.
It’s not uncommon for live-service games to make sudden changes like Diablo IV did here, but community frustration over poorly communicated and executed changes can easily build up over time to create burnout and resentment. Time will tell how quickly Diablo IV recovers from this latest kerfuffle.
As promised, Blizzard held a livestream today, July 28, going over what Diablo IV players ought to expect from the game’s upcoming 1.1.1 patch. During the stream, the developers laid out their overall philosophy behind the expected changes, and got into some specifics about what to expect when it lands on August 8, 2023.
Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build
The Diablo IV community hasn’t been particularly happy with recent changes to the wildly popular action RPG. Shortly before the game’s first season, Blizzard pushed a patch that made sweeping changes to classes and quality of life features that’s been largely seen as a net negative. Players felt that the unwelcome adjustments made the game grindier, among other things. Last week, Blizzard acknowledged that the changes weren’t great and promised to never release a patch of that nature ever again. While full notes for the upcoming patch are expected to arrive next week, August 2, today’s stream gave a good sense of what to expect, with some changes to player power and a few reversals of controversial changes. You can watch the whole stream here:
Blizzard
Sorcerer’s and Barbarians, patch 1.1.1 is for you
Early on in the stream, lead class designer Adam Z. Jackson said that the Sorcerer and Barbarian will see the most changes.
“We know that Sorcerers typically have a tough time when they start getting pushed into later Nightmare Dungeon tiers, so we’re going to be looking at ways to increase [late game survivability] specifically.”
Jackson also said that the team is pinpointing what they call “kiss curse mechanics,” which is when the player gains “a really cool power or effect and then we kind of take something or nerf some other part of you, usually for balance reasons to make sure that it’s not out of control.” One example of this is an expected change to the Serpentine Aspect:
“[The Serpentine Aspect] is the one where you can spawn an additional Hydra, but it reduces the duration of your Hydras. That’s no longer going to reduce the duration. It’s actually going to increase it.”
Jackson said that the Barbarian’s early game experience will also get a boost. One concrete example of this is an improvement to Fury generation. In a slide shown during the stream, Bash, Flay, Frenzy, and Lunging Strike all see their Fury increased.
Screenshot: Blizzard / Kotaku
Jackson said the Barbarian ought to expect other improvements to the late game experience with alterations to Unique items that’ll swap existing effects for more useful ones.
Screenshot: Blizzard / Kotaku
While the other classes can expect some updates, they won’t be as comprehensive as Sorcerer and Barbarian. Still, increases to Spirit gains for the Druid ought to be welcome.
Screenshot: Blizzard / Kotaku
Blizzard aims to start expanding build options for Diablo IV in future updates
During today’s stream, Blizzard expanded a bit on how it wants to see build options change for Diabo IV. Jackson spoke to this directly:
“Vulnerable and Crit are really, really strong right now. A lot of the meta is about [making] an enemy vulnerable, and then you do bonus damage to them, and then you stack as much Crit Strike damage chance and Crit damage as you can, and then you blow them up. [Diablo IV] actually was foundationally made with other types of builds that aren’t only those in mind. We have “Damage Over Time” […] we also have “Overpower” as a mechanic in our game. [We want those damage types] to have parity with Vulnerable and Crit Damage.”
Jackson said that the long term goals with Diablo IV are to ensure that “if you’re an Overpower build, or a Crit build, or a Damage Over Time build, you’ll be relatively equal in power to all the different types of ways to play. This will be in addition to improving how skills and effects scale as players increase in level, potentially opening the door to late game builds that make use of typically discarded abilities. What might that look like? Jackson gave a couple of examples:
“We have a lot of legendary powers and effects that spawn ‘a new thing.’ An example of this is the [Barbarian’s legendary power that] spawns earthquakes or dust devils. Another one is the Necromancer [can] leave shadow trails on the ground that deal damage. These [effects] deal what we call ‘flat damage’ which is [where] we give it a damage number and then that’s how much it does. And that damage number scales with player level. But we find is that a lot of these [effects] are really good in the early and mid game […] but then when you get to the really late game, they kind of fall of really hard. And what we want to do is find ways to add scaling so that the player can opt into making a build out of these things. So if I want to be an ‘Earthquake Barbarian’ or a ‘Dust Devil Barbarian’ I can actually do that.”
Another key way the team is looking to expand build options is to mitigate how many skills require specific scenarios to function. One such is the Sorcerer’s chain lightning, which currently sees bonus damage when the lightning bounces off of you. 1.1.1 will change things so that you gain bonus damage when Enhanced Chain Lightning bounces off of anything.
Teleporting out of dungeons will take 3 seconds again and treasure goblins are getting better
In a complete reversal, the controversial change from dungeon teleportation from three to five seconds is getting reversed. Game Designer Joe Shelly said that the original intention of the change was to mitigate players teleporting themselves out of tough encounters and boss fights. Given the community’s reaction over this change, however, teleports are back to three seconds.
And while associate game director Joe Pieopiora discussed how the Treasure Goblin’s Legendary drop rate was actually 50 percent, player frustration over infrequent encounters with them led to a perception that it was far lower. Starting at level 15, Treasure Goblins are now guaranteed to drop a Legendary.
Other quality of life updates
As discussed during last week’s stream, monster density for Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides are going up. During the stream, the devs showed off a slide of what the increased monster presence will look like.
And while bosses will see their health boosted, at level 35 and up you’ll be guaranteed a Legendary item drop. Legion events will also see a guaranteed Legendary drop.
On the technical side, patch 1.1.1 is also expected to address a specific VRAM issue for PC players, so the game should be more stable.
Patch 1.1.1 is expected to arrive on August 8, with final patch notes coming on August 2.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, one of this year’s worst games, received a massive update on July 27 that addressed multiple issues across all platforms.
The Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: October 2023 Edition
Developer Daedalic Entertainment shared the update on the game’s Steam store page, thanking everyone for their patience. Some of the headlining fixes of update 2.2 revolve around performance issues when deep learning super sampling (DLSS), a video rendering technique powered by AI, was turned off. This has been set to “auto” by default to prevent stuttering, primarily on PC. Other big problems included quest markers that would randomly disappear and interactable objects suddenly becoming non-interactable. Both of these issues have been fixed in the patch.
Read More: Review: 2023’s Worst Game, Gollum, Has Entered The Chat
There were plenty of other problems with Gollum, too. The camera, for instance, would get stuck on walls or inside Gollum himself, spin around the environment endlessly, or shake nonstop after certain enemy encounters—all of which have been addressed with update 2.2. Missing environments were put back in place, unfortunate progress blockers—such as one that killed Gollum during the beetle conflict early in the game—were ironed out, “required checkpoints” that weren’t there have been established, and localization issues were fixed. All in all, update 2.2 appears to make Gollum a more playable experience.
Kotaku reached out to Daedalic Entertainment for comment.
Read More: Gollum Studio Will Stop Developing Games After Its Dismal Release
This is all great news. Gollum was universally dragged when it launched on May 25. From its abysmal controls to its bland UI, the game was so derided for all its problems that Daedalic Entertainment not only apologized for the “underwhelming experience”Gollum presented and promised to address the issues, but the development arm of the German studio shut down on June 30, telling German news magazine GamesWirtschaft—and confirming to Kotaku in an email—that 25 of its over 90-person team had been impacted.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Update 2.2 Patch Notes
Adjusted DLSS default mode from “off” to “auto” to prevent stuttering and performance issues when playing with RTX without DLSS.
Resolved a low reproducibility bug where parts of the environment could be missing.
Fixed an issue where quest markers could disappear after continuing from the main menu.
Fixed an issue where interactable objects become non interactable after restarting.
Fixed Bugs in the checkpoint system to improve the titles stability and clear annoying gameplay bugs
Corrected the issue of the Bird losing the player’s chosen color in the breeding mission.
Fixed the Bell in “Thranduil’s Halls – Cellars” being placed before the player placed it.
Resolved a malfunctioning interactable object in “Thranduil’s Halls – Cellars.”
Fixed a conditional blocker that caused Gollum to die if restarting during the beetle conflict.
Fixed an unresponsive situation where the Pause Menu overlapped with a Game Over screen.
Addressed the issue of losing mouse focus when opening settings.
Fixed a blocker in the tower of light where the guard could see the player after spawning.
Increased the chase radius for the “Cruel Woman” chase to prevent save games where the player cannot keep up anymore.
Fixed a locked camera issue in the cart sequence in the “Sewers.”
Improved Bird Training Spy Mission and Morning Visits, fixing several bugs.
Resolved missing environment issues in “Tower of Light.”
Fixed cog wheels spinning in random directions.
Fixed nervous hands achievement behavior.
Adjusting DLSS mode and sharpness when loading a save from a previous version.
Fixed background sequence causing blocker behavior in Sewers.
Overall fixes for background sequences.
Fixed a Game Over screen in the tutorial when restarting from the main menu during the chase sequence.
Fixed a possible bypass in Tower of Light Day 6 that caused a blocker.
Fixed a softlock in Shadow Mountains when jumping off a cliff during a checkpoint.
Added required checkpoint to Great Halls Low Day 1.
Fixed malfunctioning trigger in Beast Pits Day 3.
Fixed unresponsive menu issue after quitting from Gamma settings.
Unloaded sublevel issue in the Black Pits cart mission fixed.
Halls of Grond & Execution chambers – fixed and adjusted rotating wheels.
Fixed extra camera shakes.
Gollum Groom is now covered correctly by translucency while still respecting DOF and refraction.
Fixed possibility to end the Sewers without killing both orcs.
Fixed some localization issues.
Fix excessive camera rotation during frame drops.
Solved the issue of no sound in the cutscene of Cook’s death.
Fixed KingsGrove missing sublevel when the escape orcs quest started.
Resolved tutorial checkpoint issue in the chase mission.
Fixed German conflict menu choice being displayed as French.
Fixed several VO subtitle inconsistencies.
Fixed Pause Menu malfunctioning after initial load of the game.
Refresh animation state when Gollum is pushed by another character in crouch mode.
Added missing “Hold” to Food tutorial in German and both traditional and simplified Chinese.
Fixed a blocker in Mines Day 2 where the environment would unload before reaching the 3rd tunnel.
Redundant collectibles removed for ending levels.
Fixed unresponsive puzzle door in Ruins Outside when loading from Main Menu.
Fixed blocked progress after the throttle tutorial when restarting from a checkpoint.
Fixed Gollum floating at the beginning for Chapter 2.
Fixed a softlock in Outer Gardens where Gollum would be detected immediately after spawning.
Resolved Gollum staying in the shadow form even after exiting the shadow volume.
Fixed softlock in “Queen Cascades” where it’s possible to avoid quest dialog when loading checkpoint.
Fixed missing Mell water spot VFX when loading checkpoint.
Fixed missing Grashneg lantern issue when loading checkpoints in Shelob’s Lair.
Fixed unresponsive map / collectible screen when spamming open / close buttons.
Improved NPC navigation around Gollum.
Fixed a conditional blocker when returning from haze in Haze Gate.
Kings Grove – fixed incorrect quest marker when loading checkpoint.
Fixed wrong spawn location, direction, and missing quest marker on a specific checkpoint in the Finale.
Fix for wall running not always triggering correctly.
Riverpath fixed invisible 2 elves’ issue at the end of the level.
Baldur’s Gate 3 got it’s first major post-launch patch today on PC, and the patch notes mention fixes to rogue genitalia and missing undies, among other, more pedestrian things like “Fixed an issue causing you to get stuck in dialogue.”
6 Things To Know Before Starting Persona 5 Tactica
Larian Studios is calling the August 8 update Hotfix 2, otherwise known as version 4.1.1.3630146 of a game that spent over two years in Early Acccess. What players experienced previoulsy was only a small slice of the world being built, however, and now that the whole thing is out in the wild, Larian has had a chance to discover, analyze, and improve on a ton of issues with the Dungeons & Dragons RPG.
Baldur’s Gate 3 hasn’t been shy about how horny it is. The game opens with a warning about nudity, even if some Twitch streamers feigned shock anyway when things started to get hot and heavy. Naturally, matters of sexuality topped the list of the new patch notes:
Penises C and D no longer clip through some githyanki clothing.
Male gnome sorcerers are no longer missing their undies.
Githyanki clothing is the cool, sophisticated version of bikini armor, with metal chestplates and belts connected by leather. Players can now enjoy it without worrying about their massive dongs poking through. The underwear mishap, meanwhile, is related to a specific incident that blew up on Reddit in which a brave gnome sorcerer’s robe turned into a make-shift parachute as he fell, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Read More: 45 Hours With Baldur’s Gate 3: The Best Non-Spoiler Moments (So Far)
“We’re busy working away on squashing some of the remaining bugs and issues that have come up since launch,” the studio wrote today. “We’ve got a new hotfix for you this week, addressing almost 300 crashes, blockers, and bugs.” My personal favorite one of these fixes is, “Fixed pauses and long silences in over 200 dialogues.” I hope Larian is getting some sleep as the game cracks the top 10 most played games ever on Steam.
Here’s the full patch notes for hotfix 2:
CRASHES AND BLOCKERS
Fixed an issue causing you to get stuck in dialogue.
Fixed a potential crash when reloading a savegame made mid-dialogue.
Fixed being unable to enter the Shadowfell if you saved while the prompt was on screen.
Fixed a crash caused by the UI.
Fixed a potential crash when saving while standing on a surface during combat or in Turn-Based Mode.
Fixed a rare blocker when loading a savegame made in camp that would cause a party member to spawn outside of camp.
Fixed a potential crash when choosing to stop listening in on a dialogue.
Fixed a potential crash when applying dye to an item outside of the inventory or through non-conventional means, such as the Reward panel.
Fixed a potential multiplayer crash when the client touches the transponder on the nautiloid and leaves the party, and then the host tries to open Party View.
Fixed a potential crash caused by the game trying to load the Character Creation UI when you are no longer in Character Creation.
Fixed a potential crash related to the tooltips of items that grant skill advantages but don’t have an owner.
Fixed a rare PhysX crash.
Fixed a rare crash related to moving items.
MULTIPLAYER
Fixed long fade-outs when listening in on dialogues in multiplayer.
GAMEPLAY
Penises C and D no longer clip through some githyanki clothing.
Male gnome sorcerers are no longer missing their undies.
Fixed an infinite loop that could occur with spells like Minor Illusion, where the enemy and the illusion would repeatedly enter and leave combat.
Fixed necromites not joining the combat with Ketheric.
Fixed enemies on the upper floor of Moonrise entering combat with those on the lower floor.
Fixed Voss’ dragon reappearing after the githyanki scene near the Mountain Pass.
Fixed a book in Moonrise Towers showing an internal variable name instead of the correct content.
Fixed an issue preventing the boss fight with Ketheric from progressing.
UI
Removed the version number that was below the minimap.
Improved UI stability by preventing possible crashes and possible savegame corruption.
ENGINE
Fixed issues with rendering on Vulkan when minimising the game.
Added additional multiplayer servers and server scaling support.
Fixed an issue causing the wrong refresh rates to be applied if the game was not running in fullscreen.
CINEMATICS
Fixed pauses and long silences in over 200 dialogues.
Companions no longer block the camera in some dialogs.
Fixed a camera issue where you see the back of Gale’s head when he asks you to place your hand over his chest.
Fixed a pop on Shadowheart when she hears the voice of Shar.
Fixed Gale’s paddle hands in one of his dialogues.
Fixed Guex looking at the floor in his dialogue in the Emerald Grove.
Fixed a blocked camera in the dialogue with Benryn at Waukeen’s Rest.
Fixed clipping and other issues in the scene where you hear the voice of the Absolute when approaching the Goblin Camp.
Fixed a camera issue and a pop in the dialogue with the owlbear in its cave.
Fixed players’ feet sliding around in the dialogue with Jaheira after combat at Last Light.
Fixed one of Astarion’s lines getting cut off in a camp dialogue.
Fixed several animation issues in the dialogue after some acquaintances of Astarion visit camp.
Fixed a pop for players using Body Type 4 in the scene with poor Liam at the Goblin Camp.
Fixed a camera issue in the dialogue with Edowin, Andrick and Brynna in the forest.
Fixed Kagha’s eyes rolling backwards à la Exorcist after the goblin leaders are defeated.
Fixed a positioning issue with Lorin in the hag’s lair.
Cleaned up some mocap in conversations with Astarion.
Fixed a head pop in the scene with the ogres in the Blighted Village.
Fixed Wyll’s head animation in the dialogue with Florrick at Last Light.
Fixed Sceleritas Fel standing a little too close for comfort when he tells the Dark Urge to commit a certain misdeed.
Fixed a camera issue in the scene with Radija at Moonrise.
Fixed a minor pop when rescuing Zariel’s asset for Mizora.
Fixed a clipping issue with a certain hag’s arms and leaves in the Blushing Mermaid.
Fixed some character placement issues in an endgame scene.
Fixed a camera issue for female gnomes in a dialogue at Moonrise involving something coming through a wall.
Fixed a pop for the flesh golem when speaking to Balthazar.
Fixed a camera issue when talking to one of Therezzyn’s dire wolves in Crèche Y’llek.
Fixed character placement issues in the lanceboard scene with Mol and Raphael at Last Light.
Fixed a character placement issue that caused Lae’zel to float off the edge of the nautiloid.
Fixed several issues in the dialogue with Bernard at the Arcane Tower.
Fixed a camera issue in the boat scene where you’re heading to a particular pool.
Fixed a minor mocap issue with Fist Rowan at Wyrm’s Crossing.
Fixed Minthara looking to the side with suspicion the night after the celebration at camp.
Fixed characters’ heads popping downward when throwing a coin into the well in the Blighted Village.
Fixed a minor pop when Shadowheart tries to convince you that you need her at the Goblin Camp.
Adjusted Astarion’s expression in dialogue with Gandrel in the Sunlit Wetlands.
Fixed Blurg being invisible and Astarion being stuck in the wrong animation in the Myconid Circle.
Fixed several issues in the dialogue with the monk’s amulet.
Fixed several issues in the dialogue with Dammon and Karlach about her heart.
Fixed several issues in the dialogue with Fortuno Dibbs at Wyrm’s Crossing.
Fixed several animation issues in the dialogue with Kansif and Warrior Vez in the Shadow-Cursed Lands.
Fixed a minor timing issue with a Dream Visitor line when talking to Therezzyn in the crèche.
Fixed issues with several voice-over lines.
Fixed characters’ eyes looking in the wrong direction in the ambush scene in the Shadow-Cursed Lands if you side with the Harpers.
Cleaned up some mocap in conversations with Gale.
Cleaned up some mocap in the dialogue with Astarion about illithid powers.
Added some pained grunts for the player in a scene about Wyll in the Colony.
Added grunts in a scene for Dark Urge players after they resisted the allure of their Urges.
Drenn is no longer invisible in the scene at Moonrise when Minthara has to defend herself.
Fixed a very long pause in a dialogue with Halsin after the endgame fight.
Overwatch 2 Season 6, AKA Invasion, is upon us, and with it, the new support hero Illari and a new game mode called Flashpoint. While the aforementioned new arrivals are exciting additions to the team-based hero shooter, any seasoned Overwatch player knows the real question is whether or not its tandem patch update will nerf your main into the ground or elevate them to new heights. If you’re a tank main, this patch is what you’ve been waiting for. Damage players, not so much.
Overwatch 2’s New Story Missions: Worth The Money?
Read More:Overwatch 2’s New Healer Could Be Your Worst Nightmare
Tank heroes got buffed overall
Doomfist, a tank that Overwatch 2’s developers acknowledged has been seeing more deaths on average compared to his fellow tanks, had his survivability increased, along with his seismic slam cooldown being reduced from 7 to 6 seconds and his power block reducing damage from explosive projectiles regardless of what direction he’s facing when hit.
The cooldown on D.Va’s boosters has been reduced from 4 to 3.5 seconds, meaning she’ll be able to bully stragglers on the enemy team even harder. And she is now immune to damage while ejecting out of her exploding mech for 0.4 seconds. While those seconds might seem insignificant on paper, that slim window of time means enemy combatants can’t damage her with a quick melee attack before a D.Va main like myself can collect their bearings and take control of a “baby D.Va.”
Here’s every other tank change:
Orisa
Fusion Driver damage falloff range increased from 15 to 20 meters
Bonus health from Fortify increased from 75 to 125
Ramattra
Block now reduces damage from explosive projectiles
His ultimate now costs an additional 12 percent to fully charge
Sigma
His base movement deceleration increased so he’s less flat when knocked back
Winston
His Tesla Canon’s recharge time has been reduced from 1.2 to 1 second and his recovery time has increased from 0.5 to 0.75 seconds. Basically, he’s a juiced monkey.
Overwatch
Read More:Overwatch 2’s Story Missions Are Good, But Not $15 Good
The attack heroes who got nerfed
While tank characters experienced an overall buff this season, attack characters were somewhat nerfed this time around. That is, unless you’re a Bastion main. Bastion got a lot of changes. So much so that my brain whirls just trying to compute how many bells and whistles this bird-loving bot can now use to wipe me off the map. Here’s a list of his changes that might make sense to Bastion mains:
A-36 Tactical Grenade
Maximum explosion damage falloff was reduced from 70 percent to 50 percent
Detonation time was reduced from 0.5 to 0.35 seconds
Recoil adjusted so it recovers quicker
The projectile size of bullets increased from 0.2 to 0.25
Impact damage increased from 15 to 30 (holy shit)
Configuration Recon
His reload time was reduced from 1.5 to 1.2 seconds, so he’s a lil faster now.
Configuration Assault
Transforming into Configuration Assault mode now repairs 50 of his armor health
Configuration Artillery
His targeting state movement speed increased from 20 to 25 meters per second
Cassidy’s health has increased from 200 to 225. His Peacekeeper damage was also reworked, making its damage falloff happen at 25 to 35 meters, and his Magnetic Grenade got its distance reduced as well to make him more of a mid-range hero.
You can no longer preserve your Storm Bow’s draw strength while wall climbing as Hanzo because it “often resulted in some frustrating behavior for enemy players” according to developers. They never outright say what that behavior is, which leaves me to believe that it’s being tilted.
Sombra’s ultimate now costs an additional 15 percent to fully charge because developers say her EMP frequency has been “a little too high,” and it will no longer cancel out Lifeweaver’s ult, Tree of Life.
Soldier 76’s Helix Rockets (those things players panic use to kill their opposition with ease) have had their damage reduced from 90 to 80 and his ultimate now costs an additional 10 percent to fully charge.
Torbjorn’s weapon swap time is slightly faster (0.5 to 0.4 seconds) and his recovery time from his Forge Hammer has been reduced (0.75 to 0.6 seconds). Additionally, the recovery time of his Rivet Gun has been reduced slightly, too (0.55 to 0.48 seconds), to make up for his turret damage being decreased.
Read More: The New Overwatch PvP Mode Is Just What The Shooter Needs Right Now
Support heroes got a bit of both
If you’re wondering what has become of my support characters, their updates are a bit of a mixed bag. Here are their changes:
Ana
Her Biotic Riffle damage and healing have been reduced from 75 to 70
Her unscoped projectile size has been slightly reduced from 0 to 0.1 to help you heal allies and damage enemies
Brigitte
Her Barrier Shield’s health went from 300 to 250
Her ultimate, Rally, now costs an additional six percent to be ready to use
Kiriko
She no longer has knockback when she uses Protection Suzu
Her healing has been reduced from 50 to 40
She now heals an additional 30 of health when she’s having a teammate’s negative effects like poisons and whatnot
Her kunai damage increased from 40 to 45
Kunai recovery time reduced from 0.55 to 0.5 seconds
Kunai critical damage multiplier has been nerfed from 3 to 2.5
Lifeweaver
His health reduced from 200 to 175 but this shield health has gone from 0 to 50
The spread of his Torn Valley projectiles has been reduced by 25 percent
The healing from his Rejuvenating Dash has increased from 25 to 50 HP
Life Grip duration has increased from 0.45 to 0.75 seconds.
His ultimate, Tree of Life, now has 50 percent of its haling converted into Overhealth.
Lucio
His self-heal with Amp It Up no longer has a penalty, which means he can survive longer while you wallride on the point to keep overtime alive.
Mercy
Damage boost was reduced from 30 to 25 percent, so pocket-boosting nice teammates will no longer be as effective.
Overwatch 2’s sixth season is ongoing, and now that Blizzard has rolled out its new PVP mode, new support hero, and the long-awaited story missions, today, it unleashed out a balance patch and a new mode called Hero Mastery. The latter will let you take part in some solo skill-based challenges to learn how to use a different hero. However, it’s only available for a small group of heroes at this time.
Overwatch 2’s New Story Missions: Worth The Money?
Unlike most Overwatch 2 modes, Hero Mastery is a single-player joint that has a tailored obstacle course designed for specific heroes, where you’re graded based on how quickly you reach the finish line. This is meant to help you train in a character’s specific skillsets, such as Mercy’s flight or Tracer’s teleporting Blinks. Blizzard plans to roll out courses for each hero eventually, but right now the mode is only playable as Tracer, Reinhardt, and Mercy, with Sojourn and Winston being added “in the weeks ahead.”
That’s a real small hero pool for a new mode, and I’m bummed that none of my favorites are part of it yet. But the mode does seem like it’s meant to help people learn new characters, so I might not get much out of playing them as Soldier: 76, Sombra, or Lifeweaver.
Beyond Hero Mastery, Overwatch 2 is also bringing back its anniversary event on September 19, just a few weeks before the sequel’s one-year anniversary in October. This will bring back all the game’s seasonal modes, and return Legendary skins to the in-game shop, alongside new challenges to earn credits.
As for the actual balance patch, there are a few small but significant changes in this new patch that mostly boil down to damage, shield, and healing numbers moving up and down. There’s nothing super-exciting, like a rework or fundamental changes. But tanks like Zarya and Orisa are getting some noticeable tweaks that will help them act more defensively. Check out the full patch notes below:
Overwatch 2 Anniversary 2023
We’re celebrating the first year of Overwatch 2! Come and play returning event game modes, including Battle for Olympus, Catch-A-Mari, Starwatch, and Mischief and Magic! You’ll also be able to take part in new challenges that reward Overwatch Credits, which can be spent on returning Legendary skins from the in-game shop. Join the celebration when it begins on September 19!
New game mode – Hero Mastery
Hero Mastery is a new, single-player game mode that allows players to test their skills with individual heroes on custom courses. Push your expertise to the limit for high scores and dominate the leaderboards. Are you up to the challenge?
● Each hero can be played on three unique courses of increasing difficulty. Flex your skills and unlock up to five stars on each course.
● Hero Mastery courses are scored on various factors, including time, eliminations, heals, and escorts. Each hero has individual stats that are tracked as well. Plus collect all the Mastery Emblems to show off your prowess!
● Hero Mastery is launching with a limited-time event that includes exclusive rewards. Courses for Tracer, Reinhardt, and Mercy are now available, along with courses for Sojourn, Winston, and more premiering in the weeks ahead.
Ping system updates
● Owned entities (such as Torbjörn’s Turret, Symmetra’s Teleporter, or Illari’s Healing Pylon) now have a lower priority as ping targets than enemy heroes.
Hero Updates
Zarya
Projected Barrier
● Health increased from 200 to 225.
● Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds.
● Size increased 15%.
Developer Comment: Zarya often spends both barrier charges on herself as it is usually more consistent for building energy. The change to Projected Barrier incentivizes using the barrier for her allies more often.
Junker Queen
Jagged Blade
● Impact damage increased from 50 to 65.
Developer Comment: This change rewards throwing accuracy with the Jagged Blade without directly affecting Junker Queen’s self-healing.
Orisa
Fortify
● Cooldown begins when the ability is activated instead of when it ends.
● Cooldown increased from 12 to 16.5 seconds.
● Overhealth bonus decreased from 125 to 100.
Developer Comment: The Fortify cooldown has been adjusted so that the effective uptime remains the same. However, Orisa is no longer incentivized to cancel the ability early to begin the cooldown immediately, which makes the interval between uses consistent and more susceptible to counterplay.
Ashe
The Viper
● Reload time decreased from .25 to .2 seconds.
Developer Comment: Ashe has the longest total reload time of all heroes to balance out the advantage of being able to shoot after a partial reload. However, we are shortening it slightly to make the full reload from empty less punishing.
Bastion
A-36 Tactical Grenade
● Impact damage decreased from 30 to 15.
Configuration Artillery:
● Can no longer deal critical hits.
Developer Comment: The A-36 Tactical Grenade is now more reliable after having its projectile size increased recently, so it doesn’t need to be quite as damaging. The change to Configuration Artillery is a bug fix from what was intended for the ultimate, and we’ll monitor to see how this impacts Bastion’s performance.
Mei
Endothermic Blaster
● Damage increased from 65 to 70 per second.
● Duration before slow falls off between primary fire hits increased from 0.5 to 0.6 seconds.
Deep Chill
● Bonus damage can now also be triggered with Mei’s quick melee.
Developer Comment: Mei is still underperforming after her last set of changes, so we are increasing the effectiveness of primary fire and improving the quality of life to Deep Chill.
Support Passive
● Duration until support passive activates increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds.
Developer Comment: Support heroes have received individual improvements to their survivability and are quite strong overall, so we’re reducing the impact of the role-wide passive.
Baptiste
Regenerative Burst
● Instant healing decreased from 50 to 40.
● Heal over time decreased from 50 over 5 seconds to 40 over 4 seconds.
Developer Comment: Regenerative Burst’s overall healing output has been too effective after gaining the bonus instant heal for low-health allies, so we are reducing its total healing slightly.
Kiriko
Protection Suzu
● Now passes through enemy heroes.
Developer Comment: The Protection Suzu no longer knocks back enemy heroes, so the projectile doesn’t need to impact them either. This quality-of-life change prevents accidental activations when thrown into groups with both enemies and allies.
Bug fixes
● Fixed an issue with the Daybreak challenge being reset to 0 and not receiving progress after
completing games.
● The Save-a-Mari challenge now specifies the difficulty requirements for completion.
● Resolved an issue where the Progression Level badge wasn’t promoting. Players who have already reached levels where the badge should now be promoted to the correct badge now.
● Fixed a bug with the Option ‘Relative Aim Sensitivity’ not accepting a value of 0%.
● Fixed an instance where equipped Competitive Titles would reset after a relog.
● Fixed a bug with Matches Played showing as abandoned for matches played on another platform.
● Fixed gaps and other environment issues in Mischief and Magic.
● Fixed navigation issues that could occur with a controller in Winston’s Lab.
● Fixed the missing sound effects for Training Bots respawning.
● Fixed a bug on controller/gamepads that prevented some characters from flying diagonally.
● Resolved a bug with the Overtime bar not burning all the way down in Competitive, making it difficult to tell when the round is over.
● Fixed an issue that prevented players from immediately equipping Golden weapons after purchase.
Maps
Dorado
● Fixed a bug in the environment near the final point that sometimes allowed Mei’s Blizzard to go through the environment.
New Junk City
● Fixed areas on the map that players could become stuck in.
● Fixed lighting issues in specific areas on the map.
● Added the intro when loading into the map. You will now be greeted with ‘Welcome to New Junk City.’
Suravasa
● Fixed some fountains on the map that allowed some turrets to be hidden.
● Fixed a few areas that did not have correct lighting.
● Fixed areas on the map that players could become stuck on.
● Fixed areas on the map that allowed players to stand outside the playable space.
● Fixed gaps in the geometry in several areas across the map.
Co-op missions
Rio
● Fixed a bug that could occur after the Artillery lands that resulted in your camera looking at the sky after regaining control of the camera.
Toronto
● Fixed an interaction with the train that could force players outside of the map boundaries.
● Fixed a bug with lighting that could occur on this map when changing graphics settings.
Gothenburg
● Fixed a location in spawn where players could become stuck.
Heroes
Bastion
● Fixed an error that resulted in the vertical knockback on Bastion’s Tactical Grenade being reduced.
Echo
● Fixed a bug with Duplicated Illari’s displaying the incorrect VFX colors when casting Captive Sun.
● Fixed an interaction with Duplicated Symmetra turrets persisting through the duration of Duplicate.
Illari
● Fixed an interaction with Genji’s Deflect and Illari’s Healing Pylon. Deflecting the pylon should now correctly heal Genji’s allies.
● Fixed a bug that prevented the Stay Dead voice line from being equipped.
● Resolved an interaction that allowed Illari to see underneath the map if they were slept by an Ana Sleep Dart while using Captive Sun.
● Fixed an interaction with Illari’s Pylon indicator being disabled if it was Hacked by Sombra.
● Fixed an interaction with Symmetra’s Teleporter that allowed Illari to place a Pylon in mid-air.
● Fixed several instances that resulted in the Pylon being destroyed instantly after deploying.
Junker Queen
● Fixed a bug where Junker Queen recalling Jagged Blade in the same frame as it stuck in an object (by holding Secondary Fire and aiming at an object the same distance away as the Knife’s recall range) would cause a pingable knife to be stuck in the world.
Kiriko
● Fixed a bug that made it difficult to Swift Step to allies in rooms with low ceilings.
Lifeweaver
● Fixed a bug allowing friendly EMPs to destroy your Petal Platform.
Ramattra
● Resolved a bug that prevented the damage increase from Zenyatta’s Discord from being correctly applied while Ramattra was Blocking.
Good news! With the latest Star Wars Jedi: Survivor patch, the game is finally achieving a near-consistent 60fps throughout all its action and exploration, translating to a much smoother experience. However, to achieve this some visual cuts were made, and that has added some quirks that might be distracting for some players.
How Alan Wake 2 Builds Upon The ‘Remedy-Verse’
Even before the recent patches, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was a fantastic game and one of my favorites of 2023. Respawn’s sequel to 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Order expanded on that original game with more planets, lightsabers, enemies, and abilities. It also continued the story of Jedi Cal Kestis as he and his ragtag group fought back the Empire and looked for a place to escape all the violence in the galaxy. Still, as great as Survivor was, the game’s performance was a bit all over the place, especially in its large hub world and during intense fights. Patch 7 seems to fix that by removing ray-traced visual features.
As covered extensively in a new video from Digital Foundry, Jedi Survivor’s latest patch includes big improvements to the game’s performance mode, which is supposed to offer up a higher framerate at the cost of some visual fidelity. As mentioned at the start, the good news is that Patch 7 succeeds, and Jedi: Survivor now runs at a nearly locked 60fps, even in previously troublesome areas. This is fantastic, as it makes it look and feel smoother, which helps a lot in a fast-paced action game like Survivor
Digital Foundry / Lucasfilm / EA
But as also pointed out in the video, Respawn achieved this improved performance by removing ray-traced reflections from Performance mode. Now, on the one hand, this trade-off seems fine as RT lighting and reflections are still in the game, but now only in the game’s Quality mode which runs at 30fps.
Yet, the problem is that some areas of the game without ray-traced lighting look darker than before. Worse, the removal of RT reflections means some areas with shiny floors or water now feature some hard-to-ignore artifacts from the game’s use of screen space reflections.
Personally, I agree with Digital Foundry’s suggestion that Respawn, in a future patch, should turn off SSR on water, as the artifacts are the worst here and it would likely look better without it on at all.
But even with some of these new visual quirks, I’m happy Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s performance mode is now running at 60fps most of the time. I think the visual trade-offs here make sense. And these improvements and tweaks might be a glimpse at how the next-gen game will look when it arrives on PS4 and Xbox One in the future.
Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to evolve. The hit fantasy RPG received its much-anticipated and sprawling Patch 3 update today, which brings Mac support, a Magic Mirror feature to redesign your player character’s appearance, and an overwhelming number of bug fixes and tweaks.
Unboxing The Baldur’s Gate 3 Collector’s Edition
Larian Studios’ patch notes are always a pleasure to read, and the ones for Patch 3 are no exception. They also include spoilers though, so new players beware. The development team is still promising new features and epilogue scenes in the future, but in the meantime there’s plenty to chew on for both PC and PlayStation 5 players.
On Sony’s console, for example, Baldur’s Gate 3 now matches colors more closely between the spells you’re using onscreen and how the PS5 controller lights up in your hand. Neat! More importantly, Larian says it’s improved optimization and performance, including when it comes to framerate. It’s still aiming to hit a solid 60fps in performance mode, but 30fps should be more consistent across every area in the game in quality mode.
One noteable change in the gameplay itself revolves around NPC reactions. One change reads, “NPCs will no longer run away from anything but the [REDACTED] to improve interactivity and flow.” Druids and Necromancers on the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit are rejoicing, since it means they can now summon their minions without frightening away everyone in town.
Other modifications are much more escoteric. “Fixed Shadowheart looking like she’s either in pain or about to sneeze in the background of a dialogue with Thulla,” reads another part of the patch notes. In case you’re wondering what the hell that refers to, fans quickly found an exact screenshot of the expression.
Some changes weren’t even part of player feedback. “Nobody asked for this, but we made the ceremorphosis scene on the nautiloid more horrifying,” reads one note. “These patch notes are massive, they fix so much, add so much, and even then add shit like this, just cause,” a fan wrote in the comments on Reddit. “Studio is incredible.”
Here’s the full list of Patch 3 changes in Baldur’s Gate 3 if you’ve got the time to read a small novella:
HIGHLIGHTS
Baldur’s Gate 3 is now fully supported on Mac!
A Magic Mirror that lets you change your appearance is now available at camp!
Combat
Cazador now cannot turn into or remain in his Mist Form if in magical sunlight, such as that created by the Daylight spell.
Fixed Ansur’s Stormheart Nova blasting right through the ice shields you can hide behind.
Grym suddenly got eerily smart and was avoiding the Crucible in the Adamantine Forge. With a nervous laugh, we dumbed him back down a little.
Fixed Level 4 or higher Divine Smite allowing you to add Divine Smite as a reaction, allowing for two Divine Smites in 1 attack.
Fixed the Divine Smite damage increasing over the cap of 5d8.
Made several improvements to the Poltergeist enemy: they are now revealed on being attacked or hit with Radiant Spirit Guardians; they will not turn Invisible again if they are still in a character’s See Invisibility aura; in Balanced and Explorer Mode, they have disadvantage on Dexterity Saving Throws when Invisible; the range of their attacks has been reduced; and they won’t try to keep distance from the player in combat so that they are easier to find.
Fixed the Sneak Attack damage bonus not increasing to 6d6 at Level 11.
Fixed a case where multiple Smokepowder Arrows could be used for free while the Extra Attack feature was active.
PS5
The colours on the PS5 controller will now match elemental damage types more closely.
Performance
Improved performance in the Lower City. More to come!
Art
Made dye colours more intense and more visible on some armours. This will only affect newly dyed items.
Dragonborn characters can now select any of the barbarian piercings.
Fixed Shadowheart going blonde when equipping a hat.
Improved the reflection in the Spectator’s eye in the Underdark.
Fixed face tattoos disappearing when zooming out.
Flow and Scripting
Fixed a bug where companions temporarily leaving the party (e.g. being sent to prison) would forget their partnership history and act unusually cold towards you.
Fixed a bug letting you trade with Cazador while he begs for mercy.
Improved the Astarion romance flow if you agreed to spend a night with him before going to camp by disabling some less important camp moments.
Fixed some dialogue options only showing up once when talking to Withers.
Fixed a blocker where if you knock Orin’s Slayer form into the chasm, you can’t get her Netherstone.
Fixed an issue causing Dammon to enter combat and die at Last Light, preventing Karlach’s story from progressing.
Added a journal step for when the tieflings leave the Emerald Grove. The Forging of the Heart quest will also close if Dammon is no longer available in the region.
Fixed the game thinking you’re dating Gale instead of Karlach in one of the dialogues with Karlach.
You now need higher approval for Shadowheart to confess her Shar worship to you.
Myshka the cat will now follow you around if told to, even if you don’t have Speak with Animals.
Halsin, Jaheira, and Minthara will no longer be able to undergo Volo’s icepick lobotomy. It’s just not their kind of pastime.
Fixed not being able to cut Vanra out of the hag by interacting with her Knocked Out body if all of her mushrooms are destroyed.
Lae’zel will no longer tag along (whether dead or alive) after you slit her throat when she ambushes you at night.
Fixed a bug allowing you to yoink the Orphic Hammer right out of the so-called Impervious Sphere in the House of Hope if someone else in your party is in an interactive dialogue with the sphere.
Fixed a flow issue in Shadowheart’s endgame romance dialogue to make sure Karlach appears alone in Avernus if Shadowheart says she’ll meet her there at a later point in time.
Fixed Karlach’s journal mistakenly saying you arrived in the Shadow-Cursed Lands when you arrive at the Rosymorn Monastery Trail.
Wyll should now acknowledge Karlach approaching him for the first time more consistently.
Fixed an issue that caused the Shadowheart swimming scene to not play for some players.
The Narrator no longer thinks you’re a mind flayer when you’re not.
Fixed companions talking about killing Gortash after meeting Orin even if the former is already dead.
Fixed issues with Astarion discussing topics that are no longer relevant.
Reworked the interaction between Nere and Minthara:The ‘Travel to Moonrise Towers’ quest no longer sends you to Minthara after saving Nere – he has a lyre of his own now. He gifts it to you if you saved him from the cave-in. This lyre can now be used to call for the drider through the Shadow-Cursed Lands, like Minthara’s lyre does. Both lyres have new descriptions.Nere no longer mentions Minthara in his Speak with Dead.You can ask Minthara for a safe passage to Moonrise if you’d heard about it. She will ask to raid the Emerald Grove first. If this happens, Nere can be asked about Minthara and then Minthara can be asked about Nere.The journals for ‘Travel to Moonrise Towers’ and ‘Follow the Convoy’ were updated accordingly.Saving Nere no longer creates a danger zone if the duergar was killed before clearing the cave-in.
During your date with Karlach, Tender Henk will no longer walk away to reveal another Tender Henk standing behind him. Staring.
Gameplay
The following spells will now correctly break the Sanctuary condition: Call Lightning, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Polymorph, Hunger of Hadar, Fear, Ice Storm, Flesh to Stone, Divine Intervention, Hypnotic Pattern, Slow, Stinking Cloud, Banishment, Glyph of Warding.
Level Up will now queue all characters who can be levelled up so you don’t have to click on them individually.
Fixed some corpses never showing the ‘(empty)‘ tag after you loot them.
Fixed not being able to use some reactions while in disguise.
Cazador’s staff, Woe, now correctly unlocks the Blight spell when equipped.
Fixed several magic items and Volo’s Ersatz Eye losing their power after you are killed and revived.
Fixed the Spell Sniper feat not working on attack spells.
The Spell Sniper feat will now correctly reduce the Critical Hit threshold by 1.
Fixed the Idol of Silvanus buff disappearing after Long Rest.
NPCs will no longer run away from anything but the Dark Urge Slayer form to improve interactivity and flow.
Mummies raised through Create Undead can now Jump to follow you around better.
The Everburn Blade now correctly sets explosive surfaces and explosive objects alight when hit.
The Misty Escape feat will no longer break concentration.
Reading shop signs will no longer be considered a crime.
The Cutting Words reaction is now set to Ask by default.
Summoned zombies and skeletons will no longer be able to pick up loot and disappear with it when dismissed.
The Azer summon’s Overheat ability is now available on its hotbar when summoned.
The Nimblefinger Gloves now correctly apply their Dexterity bonus to gnomes, halflings, and dwarves.
Fixed an Animate Dead exploit allowing you to summon 2 skeletons from the same corpse.
Optimised how the game handles object selection on controller.
Fixed Sovereign Spaw being able to resurrect hirelings with Animating Spores. We taught him to not use this on player characters anymore.
UI
Your selected trade mode (trade or barter) is now saved to your player profile.
Added an option to the Default Online Settings to let you automatically listen in when another party member enters a dialogue in multiplayer.
Clarified whether something is a Resistance, a Vulnerability, or an Immunity in the Examine window.
Added a notification for when another player in your party is trading.
Fixed spells being interrupted by climbing, allowing you to attack twice after climbing down from a crate.
Updated the Character Sheet on controller to place active Conditions above the list of Notable Features.
Level Design
Fixed some small holes in Act I that weren’t letting tiny characters through them.
Writing
Added a dialogue option to the first in-person dialogue with the Dream Visitor to avoid only having two antagonistic choices.
Rewrote some spell and action descriptions that were too vague.
Audio
Fixed Raphael’s boss fight music sometimes being incomplete or missing.
Fixed some VO not playing in dialogues on PS5 split-screen.
Fixed audio cutting out with 3D Audio enabled on PS5.
Optimised audio in merged split-screen cinematics.
Cinematics
Improved contact when petting Ketheric’s good girl, Squire.
Added some lovely blood spurts when Volo carries out his expert operation.
Fixed Wyll’s horns clipping into Karlach’s face during an Act II romance scene.
Fixed missing music on the Wyll path of Karlach’s endgame scene in Avernus.
Placed a nice purple picnic blanket in a romantic scene with Gale and fixed a camera spin if you choose to prefer to spend your time with him on a bed.
Fixed Shadowheart looking like she’s either in pain or about to sneeze in the background of a dialogue with Thulla.
Added some missing Boo squeaks.
Reworked the intro of the scene when you approach the altar at the Temple of Bhaal and fixed some bugs.
Updated cameras, facial expressions and head directions to better suit the tone in dialogue with Shadowheart.
Fixed some pops and camera issues when you start dating Lae’zel, including Lae’zel’s body flying elsewhere and then back again mid-dialogue.
Boo will now be framed in the shot as intended when you talk to Jaheira after recruiting Minsc.
Fixed Scratch floating in the air while you pet him by the posthouse in Rivington.
CRASHES AND BLOCKERS
Fixed a crash when listening in on conversations in multiplayer.
Fixed a crash when loading a savegame made during an Active Roll in dialogue.
Fixed a crash when previewing wall spells.
Fixed a crash when walking away from a triggered trap.
Fixed a crash when switching between controller and keyboard and mouse while
