Hello everyone, Gronkins here with patch 0.4.8 of Dungeon Exiles! I’m very excited as this update fixes a lot of issues with the game, but also introduces the Mage class so let’s get into it!
New Playable Class: The Mage
The Mage is an enigmatic caster, specialising in dealing elemental damage with spells and protecting themselves with magical Energy Shield. The Mage has all new abilities, traits, passive skills and items. To unlock the Mage you need to defeat the boss of the third floor. If you have beaten the boss of the third floor already (as of patch 0.4.7) you will already have the Mage unlocked.
Critical Strike Rework
Crit builds have been a consistent problem in Dungeon Exiles, even back in the old itch.io days. Due to the way Critical Strike Chance worked in Dungeon Exiles, it was very easy to reach high amounts of Critical Strike Chance to deal overwhelming amounts of damage. This wasn’t too much of an issue with the Warrior, however with the Rogue back in the game I noticed that crit-centric builds were vastly overperforming compared to other build archetypes for the amount of investment required. Players who were able to approach 100% Critical Strike Chance were able to kill bosses in less than 10 seconds which is not intended, so I’ve decided to rework crit which will be a sizable nerf to all current crit-builds.
With the old system, it was too easy to reach high crit chance amounts. Playing as the Rogue (7.5% Crit chance), you could pick up a Level 1 Precision (12% Crit Chance), a Level 1 Cruel Intent (25% Crit Chance) and the Lifedrinker legendary sword (15% Crit Chance) for a total of 59.5% Crit Chance without having a single passive or non-treasure item.
Crit has a place in Dungeon Exiles, but it’s too easy to reach high numbers currently, so I’m introducing a new stat called Increased Critical Strike Chance which is a percentage stat that increases your Critical Strike Chance based on your base Critical Strike Chance. For example, the Warrior starts with 5% Critical Strike Chance, and if they gained 50% Increased Critical Strike Chance that would increase the base by 50%, resulting in a total of 7.5% Critical Strike Chance. This new stat has replaced all current instances of the old Critical Strike Chance stat and the values have been rebalanced accordingly.
I’m aware that this is a large nerf to crit builds so I will be monitoring their strength closely in the following updates and will provide buffs as necessary. I believe this change is necessary as full-crit builds were able to deal significantly more damage than any other archetype with relatively low investment.
Lastly, as part of this change, the Rogue’s starting Critical Strike Chance has been reduced from 7.5% to 6%.
Class Balance
Synergy Adjustments
Trait bonuses have been changed to occur at every 2 passives. For example, bonuses for Champion are no longer unlocked at 2, 3, 4 and 6, but instead, they are unlocked at 2, 4, 6, and 8. This change was made to make upgrades more consistent, but also in preparation for the Early Access release of Dungeon Exiles as the full game will be significantly longer than the demo. I am aware that this is a nerf to synergy bonuses across the board, so I will be monitoring player power in the following updates and will provide buffs if necessary. It is worth noting that this change means some 8 synergy bonuses are not currently achievable so they have been removed temporarily until more passive skills are added.
Synergy Balance
Assassin 2 Armour Penetration: 30% -> 25%
Assassin 4 no longer grants 0.5% of Maximum Health on Critical Strike, instead, it reduces the target’s armour by 5% for 6 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
Bloodreaper 1 Bleed Chance: 12% -> 15%
Bloodreaper 2 no longer grants 1 Health gained on Hit
Colossus 1 now also grants 0.3 Health Regenerated per Second.
Passive Skills
Warrior has a new passive skill called Brutal Block for Gladiator which inflicts a bleed whenever you block an attack.
Abilities
There is now a global cooldown when an ability is activated. If an ability is currently not on cooldown and an ability is cast, it will go on a 1-second global cooldown. This is to prevent multiple spells or abilities from activating at the same time.
Resolve Changes
Losing a fight no longer grants any XP or Gold.
Enemy Balance
Blight Caller’s Spreading Plague Damage: 20-26 -> 21-26
Items
Lifedrinker
Increased Attack Speed: 20% -> 15%
Critical Strike Chance per 1% Attack Leech: 15% -> 12%
Arcanist’s Flamesword
Implicit Fire Damage: 1-2 to 2-4 -> 1-2 to 2-3
Serpent's Fang
Implicit Nature Damage: 1-2 to 3-4 -> 1-2 to 3-3
Radiant Torch
Resolve Gained: 30 -> 25
Keen Spirit Blade and Temporal Hourglass can no longer be found in shops or as rewards from random events.
Class Specific Items
Swift Rapier and General’s Battle Axe are now Warrior and Rogue-specific items
Goliath’s Bracers and Avential Helmet are now Warrior-specific items
Serpent's Fang and Ranger’s Gambeson are now Rogue-specific items
Mage can now find the following class-specific items
Volcanic Fireorb which grants added fire spell damage
Staff of Storms which grants added lightning spell damage
Frost Orb which grants added cold spell damage
Sage’s Robe which grants Maximum Energy Shield
Item Modifiers
Health gain on Hit can no longer roll on items lower than tier 3.
Flat attack stats (such as Added Cold Damage to Attacks or Added Fire Damage to Attacks) have been slightly reduced to match the numbers of Physical attack stats.
The Shield Signet is now considered an Energy Shield item and can roll Energy Shield modifiers.
Enemy Modifiers
Two new modifiers can spawn on enemies starting on Floor 3:
Bonebreaker: Attacks have a chance to Stun. Stun works exactly how you would expect, a character who is stunned cannot attack or use spells or abilities.
Spiked Carapace: Reflects damage when hit by an attack.
Miscellaneous Changes
Visual stats on the character select screen can now be hovered over for more information.
Certain interfaces such as the Character Sheet, Skillbook, Spellbook, and Equipment Screen now have a close button.
Protection of Elements has new art.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug where Level 4 Protection of Elements was incorrectly giving the bonuses of Level 3 Protection of Elements.
Fixed a bug where Level 3 Precision had no upgrades.
Fixed a bug where Champion 2 was granting 0% chance to gain Overguard.
Fixed a bug with the tooltip for Agility.
Fixed a bug that allowed players to rest and forge at the same campfire.
Closing Words
So that is everything for patch 0.4.8! This patch has a lot of changes so feel free to try it out and check out the new Mage class! So this is likely to be the last ‘major’ patch until the June Steam Next Fest (only two weeks from now!). Until then, my focus is going to be on refining the game, fixing bugs, balancing and general polishing.
To play the newest update, ensure the main menu reads “0.4.8”. You may have to update, validate game files or re-install your game to play the newest update.
Cheers,
Gronkins