Beta 0.7.2

Skills

 * Added an augment tree for Avalanche.
 * Added an augment tree for Rive.
 * Added an augment tree for Reaper Form.
 * Added an augment tree for Shatter Strike.
 * Added an augment tree for Shield Throw.
 * Added an augment tree for Transplant.
 * Added an augment tree for Werebear Form.
 * Thorn Burst is now Ice Thorns
 * Deals cold damage instead of physical
 * Fires less projectiles, but heat seeks towards enemies
 * Re-worked much of the augment tree.
 * Added a new Primalist skill, Tempest Strike, which is a short range melee attack that has a 20% chance to trigger lightning bolts, northern winds, and earth spikes.
 * Removed Summon Vale Spirit. It will be reworked into other skills/passives in the future.
 * Adjusted minion scaling and defences
 * Minions now have half as much health as before, but take half as much damage from all sources. This will make the effectiveness of healing, leech etc. on them more comparable to how effective it is for players.
 * The health of Totems, Manifest Armour, Bone Golems, Scorpions, Skeletons, Spriggans, Wolves and Vine Walls were only reduced by 40% rather than 50%.
 * The health of Wraiths and Revenants were reduced by 60%
 * Bone Golems retaliate with Bone Nova after taking 50 damage (down from 100).
 * Increased Manifest Armour's health scaling because the Sentinel has fewer sources of minion defense.
 * Primal Serpents now gain health per player level, and gain added health per point of strength and dexterity, rather than gaining increased health.
 * Increased Poisonous Vine damage by 11%.
 * Armour Shred now reduces armour by 100 per stack (up from 40)
 * Frostbite now deals 15 damage and subtracts 50 cold protection (from 10 damage and 40 cold protection).
 * Black Hole
 * Changed base cooldown to 20 seconds (up from 10).
 * Reduced outer pull radius by 22%.
 * Reduced pull strength on more distant enemies.
 * We plan to re-work Black Hole in more depth later on, but for now it's just too strong.
 * Elemental Nova
 * Added a node to the lightning nova area of the tree that makes elemental nova channelled.
 * Added a node that reduces the mana drain from channelling, while also reducing area of effect.
 * Added a node behind the channelled node that disabling lightning nova (allowing non-lightning nova channelled elemental nova).
 * The Ascended Current node now gives 80% increased shock effect per point (up from 50%).
 * Erasing Strike is now unlocked in the Void Knight tree rather than the Sentinel tree. The unlock levels of some other skills have been adjusted to accommodate this.
 * Marrow Shards' Shredding Bones node now has a 20% chance to shred armour per point (up from 14%), but can only have up to 5 points allocated (down from 7).
 * Rip Blood
 * Rip Blood can now trigger up to 2 blood splatters per cast (up from 1). This means that the Splatter and Eviscerate nodes are no longer mutually exclusive in terms of usefulness.
 * Splatter now has a 20% chance to cause a blood splatter per point (up from 17%).
 * Reworked Shield Throw's base functionality
 * Now ricochets between enemies and then returns to you.
 * Ricochets to additional 2 targets after the initial target.
 * Also hits enemies it passes through on the way to its targets.
 * Fragments no longer shatter off on hit.
 * Has a 2 second cooldown that starts when the shield returns to you.
 * Reduced mana cost to 20 (from 30)
 * Increased damage by 43%.
 * Increased added damage scaling by 100%.
 * Increased throw speed by 12%.
 * Shatter Strike now creates two ellipse areas of effect which start behind you and end in front of you.
 * Previously, Shatter Strike was a single sweep that traveled clockwise.
 * Smite
 * Fixed some bugs with Smite that made it overpowered.
 * Increased base damage by 20%.
 * Reduced mana cost to 3 (from 7).

Voice Acting

 * Each base class now has some unique voice lines that they say when reaching certain points in the story, for a total of 35 unique lines.
 * Each base class now has voice lines for taking damage, running out of mana, being unable to pick-up/equip items, and being unable to use a skill.
 * Music and other sound effects will decrease in volume when story dialogue plays.
 * Added voice lines for several NPCs
 * Dolus
 * Elder Erza
 * Elder Gaspar
 * Haruspex Orian
 * Keeper Balthas
 * Trader Corbin

Sound

 * Added 6 new music tracks to the start of the game.
 * Added sounds for hovering over and clicking on menu buttons.
 * Added a sound for opening and closing the inventory.
 * Replaced sound effects for all base Mage skills that weren't changed in 0.7.1
 * Elemental Nova
 * Fire Shield
 * Focus
 * Ice Barrage
 * Lightning Blast
 * Mana Strike
 * Static Orb
 * Replaced sound effects for many Acolyte abilities
 * Exhume
 * Harvest
 * Hungering Souls
 * Mark for Death
 * Marrow Shards
 * Rip Blood
 * Sacrifice
 * Transplant
 * Wandering Spirits
 * Replaced sound effects for several Primalist abilities
 * Fury Leap
 * Ice Thorns
 * Serpent Strike
 * Summon Sabertooth
 * Summon Wolf
 * Thorn Totem
 * Replaced the whoosh and impact effects made by all melee weapons.
 * Replaced or improved sounds for all enemies in Chapter 3.
 * Added a new skeleton death effect.
 * Added multiple sounds for picking up gold.
 * Adjusted the listening perspective. This means that sounds will not fade out as aggressively as the source gets further from the center of the screen.
 * Adjusted the volume of many combat effects such as on-hit sounds, whooshes and void enemy attacks.

Visuals

 * Overhauled the visuals for Chapter 1.
 * Replaced nearly all environmental objects in the Temple of Eterra
 * Overhauled the Imperial Dreadnought zones.
 * Improved Post-Processing in all levels.
 * Added Volumetric Lighting to the light sources and camera of most zones.
 * Improved reflection for most zones and objects by making better reflection probes.
 * Improved Character Selection Screen visuals.
 * Implemented Contact and Soft Shadows
 * Overhauled the vegetation system.
 * Experimental implementation of TAA (disabled by default), which can provide a sharper image and improved appearance of the game in motion.
 * Added new models for breakable objects.
 * Updated the effects for items that are on the ground.
 * Updated on-hit effects for most melee skills.
 * Updated visuals from summoning and around totems.
 * Updated Aura of Decay's visuals.
 * Updated Avalanche's hit indicator effect.
 * Avalanche's impact visual now matches its area of effect better.
 * Improved Elemental Nova's visuals.
 * Updated Entangling Roots' visual effects.
 * Updated Shatter Strike's visuals.
 * Spriggan Form's Vine Walls now have random size and rotation to decrease uniformity.
 * Adjusted Tornado's visual effects.
 * Updated the lightning storm effect, which is used on skills like Storm Totem and Tornado.
 * Giant Scorpions now play a fiery vfx on their tails during the anticipation of tail attacks.
 * Tweaked Haruspex Orian's textures.
 * Updated the beam effect for the Oculus Mortis enemy.
 * Updated the attacks of Voidfused Armour.
 * Added an effect for enemy skeletons that rise from the ground.
 * Increased the size of player models by about 4%.
 * Adjusted the maximum zoom level.
 * Temporarily removed stat-based visual effects on items due to the system not supporting our new weapon models yet.

Levels

 * Added 4 new Monolith of Fate layouts.
 * Breakable objects now have an outline when you mouse over them.
 * Some Ruined Era levels now have lootable corpses.
 * Reworked the presentation of time travel events.
 * Re-worked talking to Elder Gaspar when you first enter the End of Time.
 * Added more background NPCs to inhabited zones.

Performance

 * Re-worked the shadows system to use fewer resources by reducing shadow cascades.
 * Improved the Vertical Sync system.
 * Improved item tooltip performance.
 * Improved the performance of the on-hover outline system.
 * Improved the performance of all UI windows, especially parts that fade or animate.
 * Globally improved the performance of spawning enemies.
 * Improved the performance of Static Orb.
 * Fixed a bug where overhead enemy health bars were reducing performance.

Mechanics

 * Items placed in the crafting window are now saved and loaded.
 * The distance at which enemies target the player now better matches the visible area. These means that enemies will generally aggro from further away than before, but are less likely to aggro from below the edge of the screen.
 * Because of the camera angle, the distance between the player and the top of the screen is actually much larger than the distance to the bottom.
 * Reduced the distance minions will target enemies from by 8%.
 * Reduced the distance enemies will follow the player from by 13%.
 * Chill can now stack up to 3 times (from 1) but now inflicts 12% less attack, cast and movement speed (down from 25%).
 * Slow can now stack up to 3 times (from 1) but now inflicts 20% less movement speed per stack (from 45%).

Passives

 * Necromancer
 * Added 4 new nodes.
 * Removed the node that gave you increased crit chance on minion skill use.
 * Tyrant grants 3% increased health per point (down from 6%) and can have a maximum of 8 points allocated (down from 10).
 * Taste of Death grants 35 penetration per point (up from 25).
 * Rotting Army gives 7% minion poison chance and 17 poison protection (from 5% and 15)
 * Undead Intellect has a 5% chance to proc its buff per point (up from 4%), but can only have 15 points allocated (down from 20).
 * Rite of Undeath no longer gives your minions additional necrotic and elemental protection, but instead increases their necrotic and elemental damage.
 * Embrace of the Grave no longer gives your minions elemental protection, but now gives your minions 5% increased armour and physical damage.
 * Marrow Armour now drains 4% of your current health per second, regardless of the number of points invested (from 1% per point).
 * Reconstruction can have 8 points allocated (down from 10).
 * The Paladin's Divine Essences now last 10 seconds (up from 7).

Items

 * Replaced the 3d models for all weapons.
 * Added a new suffix that gives a chance to chill attackers.
 * Added a new suffix that gives a chance to slow attackers.
 * Added a new suffix that gives increased armour and protections.
 * Added a new prefix for one-handed swords that gives +% base spell damage.
 * The increased spell damage prefix can no longer spawn on or be applied to one-handed swords.
 * The chance to chill suffix on weapons is now called &quot;of Sleet&quot; rather than &quot;of Frostbite&quot; to prevent confusion with the Frostbite ailment.

Animation

 * Added alternate idle animations for each base class which trigger randomly.
 * Updated the attack animations for each base class.
 * Improved animations for the character select screen.
 * Fixed run animations not speeding up in some situations.
 * Updated the Mage's run animation
 * Improved weapon positioning for the Mage.
 * Fixed some clipping issues with the Mage.
 * Updated the Primalist's idle animation.
 * Fixed the Primalist's feet clipping below the ground in some situations.
 * Fixed a rotation issue with a new Primalist armor set.
 * Implemented better animations for all NPCs.
 * Capes on Skeletons (friendly and enemy) now move using cloth physics.

Uniques

 * Arboreal Circuit's Illusory Tree's now gains health per point of Strength and Attunement you have, but only lasts 8 seconds (down from 20).

UI

 * Dialogue windows now automatically close when you walk away from NPCs.
 * Added a special notification for entering certain zones that are important to the story.
 * Greatly improved the visibility of text that appears in the HUD (ex. quest objectives).
 * Improved the visibility of the minimap.
 * Improved clarity of all text
 * Updated the appearance of the health bars at the top of the screen for enemies and allies.
 * Text labels above NPCs and doors now stays the same size as you zoom in or as it gets closer to the camera.
 * Improved the visuals (and information of some) for level up, skill unlock, crafting, arena and quest notifications
 * Updated the animations for objectives in the quest tracker panel.
 * Added a text pop-up for picking up gold.
 * Improved the appearance of minimap icons.
 * Added a loading screen tooltip to clarify that minions take 50% less damage.
 * Added an explanation to the character sheet for the behavior of having an ailment chance above 100%.

Enemies

 * Added a new Monolith of Fate boss.
 * Changed Void Maggots to Voidfire Maggots that explode on death.
 * Removed Soul Prisons (Soul Cages remain).
 * Void Drain from rare Void Leeches now has a time limit of 3 seconds, but leeches 40% of damage dealt as health (up from 25%).
 * Adjusted Imperial Scouts
 * Increased projectile speed by 36%
 * Reduced damage by 10%
 * Increased movement speed by 10%

Bug Fixes

 * Fixed Aura of Decay's Corruption node tooltip not changing as you invest more points.
 * Fixed Aura of Decay's Plague Rat node not scaling the visual area of effect.
 * Fixed Frenzy Totem granting an inconsistent amount of Increased Attack Speed.
 * Fixed a bug where Glacier's Static Collapse node was setting the total added crit chance given by the tree to -5%, rather than just subtracting 5%.
 * Fixed Mark for Death's Desecration node interacting incorrectly with the skill's base effect.
 * Fixed using Reap while exiting Reaper Form causing you to re-enter Reaper Form immediately.
 * Fixed a bug where Rebuke's damage did not increase when you were hit while channelling Rebuke as specified in the tooltip.
 * Fixed Rebuke not correctly increasing its damage when the player is hit.
 * Fixed Sacrifice's Catalyst of Horror increasing mana cost by a different amount than stated.
 * Fixed a bug where Smite's increased damage from its tree applied twice (multiplicatively).
 * Fixed a bug where added crit multi from Smite's tree was also being applied as &quot;more base crit multi&quot;.
 * Fixed Smite's Righteous Overload not working.
 * Fixed a bug where the Smite teleport node was not adding a cooldown.
 * Fixed Spriggan Form's Root Wall's health not scaling with Attunement or Health.
 * Fixed Storm Totem's Discharge node not causing a nova on death.
 * Fixed Storm Totem's Frostbite node not working correctly.
 * Fixed Storm Totem's Icicles node not working correctly.
 * Fixed Storm Totem's Shockfury node not granting added lightning damage to minions.
 * Fixed Summon Sabertooth's Heavy Paws node not applying additional damage.
 * Fixed Thorn Totem's Rotten Core node not working correctly.
 * Fixed Tornado's increased duration node not working.
 * Fixed using Wandering Spirits with the Spectral Putrescence node stopping player movement temporarily.
 * Fixed a bug where non-transform skills would go on cooldown when you came out of a transformed state.
 * Fixed a bug where Claw Totems were not scaling at all with level or attunement.
 * Fixed a bug where Healing Totems were not gaining extra health per attunement.
 * Fixed Poison Vines not scaling correctly with attunement or health.
 * Fixed Divine Essences only increasing melee damage, instead of all damage.
 * Fixed the Druid's Defense of the Heart giving a different amount of increased protections than stated.
 * Fixed a bug where the Druid's Regrowth passive would not grant additional mana if you manually returned to Human Form.
 * Fixed the Lich's Darkguard passive not working.
 * Fixed the Lich's Dance with Death node giving you 4x effectiveness at low health instead of 3x as stated.
 * Fixed a bug that made the Paladin's Aura of Divinity passive not affect the passive part of Holy Aura.
 * Fixed a bug where the Shaman's Elemental Shrines passive gave stats per totem instead of flat stats.
 * Fixed the movement speed buff from Eterra's Path working incorrectly.
 * Fixed the elemental protection reduction of shock changing with sources of increased elemental protection.
 * Fixed the armour reduction effect of armour shred changing with sources of increased elemental protection.
 * Fixed a bug where the &quot;gains damage when hit&quot; and &quot;gains haste and frenzy when hit&quot; monster mods were triggering off of any damage, not just hits.
 * Fixed an enemy ability causing log file spam.
 * Fixed being able to Fury Leap through the floor near the Last Refuge Outskirts bonus chest.
 * Fixed Janeus clipping through the ground in End of Time.
 * Fixed the affix list's scrollbar not moving all the way to the top or bottom of its frame.
 * Fixed the health text above the health globe wrapping to a new line in some situations.
 * Fixed Eterra's Blessing using different icons in the skills and passive windows.
 * Fixed a visual error with connections to Summon Sabertooth's Fury Swipes node.
 * Fixed a bug that would not let you shatter a fractured magic or rare item.
 * Added additional failsafes for inventory bugs.

Overview
Patch 0.7.2 forms part of Phase 1 of our Early Access Development Forecast.

This patch focuses on raising the quality of aspects of the game implemented previously. It brings significant graphical improvements, it introduces the first batch of voice acting, it makes NPCs more realistic, and continues our work on improving the UI.

Highlights

 * This patch features a graphics overhaul! (Sneak peek posted here!) (Larger preview here!)
 * As part of this overhaul we will be adding a new form of antialiasing. This will initially be in beta, and will thus be marked in-game as 'experimental'.
 * Every weapon has had its 3d model improved or replaced.
 * The Acolyte, Mage, Primalist, and Sentinel now have voice acting. (Previews posted here.)
 * This includes both combat lines (e.g. "I'm out of Mana!"), and dialogue pertaining to story events happening in-game. Additional VA will be added in future patches.
 * Multiple friendly NPCs now have voice acting. (Previews posted here.)
 * Haruspex Orian in The Ulatri Cliffs now has voice acting. (Preview posted here.)
 * We have made many (le:forum:15483|improvements to NPCs]]. Changes include;
 * Several NPCs now wear more thematically appropriate clothing.
 * NPC's equipped items are now being better affected by lighting.
 * Positioning improvements, including their proximity to each other.
 * A pass over the animations used by NPCs to make them more believable.
 * Several zones are now more populated with NPCs.
 * Implemented the new Tempest Strike skill for Primalists.
 * Tempest Strike is a melee attack. It features multiple procs, each of which has an independent chance of activating each time you attack with Tempest Strike.
 * This skill replaces Summon Vale Spirit, which has been removed. Vale Spirits will be obtainable via class passives and the specialization tree for Spriggan Form.
 * This is an example of an underwhelming active skill being repurposed for use in passives and skill trees. We plan on doing this with additional skills in future. Some examples include Ice Ward and Fire Shield.
 * The Primalist's Thorn Burst skill has been reworked as Ice Thorns.
 * The Sentinel's Shield Throw skill has reworked.
 * The following seven skills have been given specialization trees;
 * Shield Throw (Preview posted here!)
 * Avalanche
 * Reaper Form (Preview posted here!)
 * Rive
 * Shatter Strike
 * Transplant
 * Werebear Form
 * Minions now take 50% less damage, and have between 40% and 50% less maximum life.
 * The aim of these changes is to make life regeneration and leech more effective.
 * We continue to make improvements to the user interface, with this patch including a new Quest Reward UI, new health bars), and the introduction of Location Notifications.
 * Location Notifications were previously referred to as 'Era Banners'. It's possible that their name will change again between now and the release of Patch 0.7.2.

After This Patch
Patch 0.7.3 is scheduled for release next month.

Both friends functionality and respecialization improvements are at an advanced stage of development. We're also working on Chapter 6, new enemies, more skill trees, voice acting for NPCs, and more! Make sure you check back often for the latest news!