Arcanist Pre-release Patch Notes

This will be the last major playtest update for a while. I'm still going to continue to add some minor content for a while, primarily in the form of new item bases and unique items, especially for the Arcanist and the Beastmaster. I also have one final special surprise feature in store that I think you'll all really enjoy.

I really want to thank everyone who participated, it's been a humbling and amazing experience. I can't wait to show you all what I have in store for Don't Die, Collect Loot in the near future. In the meantime, tell your friends about all the fun you had!

Once the playtest concludes, all content will be available permanently as a Demo, so don't worry about the game disappearing! As always, I'm also interested in recruiting some Alpha testers to join our community. Existing players who have tested extensively will be automatically invited to this process once the demo drops.

The Arcanist

The Arcanist is now selectable as a playable character. She deals heavy spell damage, and relies on Mana as a resource.

The Arcanist currently has 3 sub-trees, Pyromancer, Runemaster, and Arcanist.

Pyromancer

Deal heavy Fire damage to foes while scaling Ignite damage

Fireball - Launch a Fireball at your enemies, which explodes upon impact. Scales heavily with area, more projectiles, and Ignite. Has a low Mana cost and is relatively easy to spam

Meteor - Summon a Meteor directly onto an enemy or location. Costs a large amount of mana, but deals massive damage. Can be upgraded to either (or both!) summon additional Meteors or leave burning lava pools behind on impact, which Ignite enemies who touch them

This is Fine (Ultimate) - While active, automatically spreads Ignites to all enemies on the screen while also increasing Ignite damage

Runemaster

Manipulate your Mana supply to deal incredible damage. May require some expertise at the game to utilize properly

Runic Blade - Swing your shortsword, dealing damage to nearby enemies while draining their lifeforce as Mana. Costs no Mana to use. Runic Blade can be augmented to become larger and deal additional damage based on the Mana you spent to cast your last spell. It can also be upgraded to buff the damage of the next spell you cast based on how much Mana Runic Blade would recovery.

Rune Blast - Spend all of your Mana to summon a slow-moving orb of pure magical energy. Use the ability a second time to detonate the orb for massive Lightning damage. The more Mana you spend on casting this, the larger the explosion and the more damage it does! Can be upgraded to convert the damage to Fire, or to deal massive Shocks.

Infinity (Ultimate) - Your Mana pool is doubled and is always full. You always count as having spent all your Mana for Runic Blade and Rune Blast. It's up to you to figure out how to maximize the potential here!

Conjuror

A more passive playstyle focusing on summoning Elementals that fight for you. The Elementals also provide permanent buffs when their skills are equipped on your bar.

Water Attunement - Conjure up a permanent Water Orb familiar. This provides you a permanent Cold Damage buff while equipped. Use the skill to summon a Water Elemental which focuses on a spread of projectiles. These projectiles can be upgraded in various ways to increase their clear potential.

Fire Attunement - Conjure up a permanent Fire Orb familiar. This provides you a permanent Fire Damage buff while equipped. Use the skill to summon a Fire Elemental which focuses on a targeted barrage of powerful projectiles. You can upgrade the familiar to increase the power and frequency of the barrage

Beastmaster

The Beastmaster is currently somewhat weaker than the other classes, primarily due to the challenges of scaling pets. The following changes have been made to help, with more coming:

• A number of flat Minion Damage modifiers have been added to the item modifier pool
  
• The Whip weapon category now can roll both attack and minion modifiers
  
• The Calling Wand weapon category can now exclusively roll minion modifiers
  
• Additional Nightmare mods have been added for the Beastmaster
  

Chase Uniques

Three new chase uniques, part of a set, have been added to the endgame. These do not drop randomly, but are instead hidden somewhere. Can you be the first to finish the set?

New Items

• New item base types have been added for the Arcanist
  
• New uniques have been added for the Arcanist and Beastmaster
  
• New item modifiers have been added for the Arcanist and the Beastmaster
  
• 17 new base types have been added, with more on the way
  

Balance

• Whirlwind's Damage Effectiveness has increased from 60% to 90%. This is a buff
  
• Treasure Beetles no longer share spawn points with other events like Shrines. You will see them substantially more often
  

Online Features

Note that the game does not require you to be online. These are optional Steam features.

• Added the Hall of Heroes, which includes various Steam leaderboards
  
• Added friends list rich presence so you can show off how cool you are for playing this video game
  

User Interface

• Revamped the Character Select screen to not be awful and confusing
  
• Added "The Codex" entry to the Pause screen
  
• Added "Mod Dictionary" to the Codex. This contains a list of every non-unique item modifier in the game, direct from the mod database that creates items
  
• Tooltip positioning has been re-done. Off-screen tooltips should no longer occur. Larger tooltips on items may re-position based on where they're located on the screen as well
  
• Display of Skill tooltips has been improved to be more readable
  
• Item modifiers have had their tier display reversed. The highest tier is now "T1" and the lowest is now "T10". This is purely cosmetic, but makes it obvious when you've found the best possible version of a modifier, since it will always be T1
  
• Added a new option which lets you turn off item/health/mana/exp projectiles ingame. This may improve visibility and performance very lategame
  

Engine and Performance

• A good chunk of the underlying engine has been upgraded. Hopefully this will improve performance, but a lot of testing is required
  
• Shaders now compile more efficiently
  
• Some changes to how controls work have been implemented. You should see no real change here, it's just laying the groundwork for controller rebinding
  
• Improved the handling of save files for very large files
  
• Improved the save file backup system to avoid potential data loss for very large files
  

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where the Stats panel was doubling your equipment and skills inappropriately. This was purely cosmetic, but you'll notice lower damage displays on this panel. I promise you did not lose damage, this display was just incorrect
  
• Fixed some damage conversion bugs
  
• Fixed some instances of Area of Effect not functioning
  
• Fixed some instances of Grip of Ascalon not increasing stats
  
• Fixed a bug where some resolutions could not see the Artifact scrollbar