Classes

There was a common theme across several classes where a few skills were unleveled in favor for skill points to be used for attunements, especially in high NG+ modes. While it’s great that the diversity exists that allowed players to chose to avoid leveling unfavored skills for their build, we felt that some skills were left to the side strictly because they felt too weak overall to be worth the points, rather than a build preference. You should feel the effects of leaving a skill unleveled. These changes to classes should promote more active gameplay, and also allow for some new multiplayer class interactions. We have given every character a free retrain to try out new skills.

Paladin

• Lay on Hands is now an active skill that will buff the Paladin and all allies in an area around the Paladin. The buff heals allies for 3/5/7/9 + 2% of max health and provides a shield that has a 25% chance to block 5/10/15/20 magical damage (this was moved from Shield). The buff lasts for 3/3.5/4/4.5 seconds.
• Flames of Devotion replaces Juggernaut. Hitting a target with primary attack builds up stacks of magical damage to all Paladin's skills. Each stack lasts for 1 second and maximum stacks are 12/24.

Priest

• Holy Light now builds up damage slower but has increased maxiumum damage output of 17/24/31/38/45/52. Heals allies for 2/3/4/5/6/7 + 1% of max health.
• Aura of Purification is now an active skill that will provide an aura around the priest that both effects allies and enemies. Enemies have their speed and resistance lowered by 20/30/40%. Allies have their damage taken reduced by 10/20/30%. Aura lasts for 6/7/8 seconds.
• Celestial Orbs will now fire at the same target as Holy Light (which can increase their range).

Ranger

• Flurry of Arrows moved to secondary skill. No longer provides a movement speed bonus on its own. Arrows fired are the current level of the primary attack.
• On the Prowl replaces Dodge. When casting a skill the ranger receives a buff that lasts for 2/3/4/5/6 seconds. The buff increases movement speed by 25% and evasion by 5/10/15/20/25%.
• Marked Prey replaces Deadly Aim. Primary attack has a chance 10% to apply a "Marked" debuff which lasts for 2.5 seconds. Marked targets have a 5/10/15/20% chance to receive crits from all instances of damage.
• Powershot replaces Explosive Bomb. Charged ranged attack that deals up to 100/200/300magical damage with 50% resistance piercing. Maximum charge rate is reached after 1 second. Speed and damage is increased by charging.

Sorcerer

• Comet damage gain increased to 40/80/120/160/200/240. Freeze time changed to 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2/2.25 seconds.
• Frost Nova, increased projectile lifetime by 50%.
• Biting Chill slow changed to 20/25/30/35/40% and duration 2/2.5/3/3.5/4/4.5 seconds. Now has a 5% chance to apply freeze for 1.25/1.5/1.75/2/2.25 seconds.
• Ice Barrier, each time the Sorcerer casts a spell a barrier stack is added that lasts for 2.5 seconds. Each stack lowers the damage taken from one instance of damage by 20/30/40/50%. Maximum stacks 5/6/7/8.
• Shatter, enemies killed while effected by the freeze will explode dealing 40/80 hybrid damage to nearby enemies, (no longer triggers a frost nova).

Thief

• Throwing Knives got 20% lower cooldown, piercing damage drop off lowered from 25% to 10%, and increased damage from 10/14/18/22/26/30 to 12/16/20/24/28/32.
• Grappling Hook gives the thief 100% evasion while grappling. No increased travel speed by leveling. Stun duration changed to 0.5/0.75/1/1.25 seconds.
• Smoke Bomb cooldown changed to 5 seconds and mana cost increased to 30/40/50. The smoke bomb will now leave a smoke cloud that lasts for 2/3/4 seconds. All allies in the smoke cloud will have their evasion increased by 10/20/30%.
• Slice and Dice stacks are now built up by hitting targets with your primary attack. Each stack provides a 2% attack speed bonus. Maximum stacks 8/16/24/32. Stack duration is 2.5 seconds, if the duration runs out all stacks are lost at once. Stacks no longer provide evasion.
• Decimating Strikes replaces Gold Fever. Primary attacks have a 5/10% chance to lower enemy health by 5%, (works on bosses).

Wizard

• Flame Breath now roots you in place unless you have combo. Increased range and narrower cone of fire. The fire now pierces all enemies.
• Flame Shield is now a 20/30/40/50% damage reduction of one instance of damage with a cooldown of 8/7/6/5 seconds. When Flame Shield procs your current level of Blastwave is cast.
• Blastwave now destroys "blockable" projectiles.

Warlock

• Soul Dagger replaces Poisoned Dagger. Now adds a Soul Consumption debuff to enemies that does 12/14/16/18/20/22 magical damage per second for 2.5/3/3.5/4/4.5/5 seconds. The Warlock gains 5% health and 10% mana based on the damage dealt by Soul Consumption.
• Soul Sacrifice and Blood Sacrifice has been replaced with Extended Domain which increases the range of all the Warlocks skills and Soul Cleaver which causes enemies with the Soul Consumption debuff to spread any damage taken to nearby enemies.
• Lightning Bolt damage scaling changed from 18/22/26/30/34/38 to 20/23/26/29/30/33/35.
• Gargoyle duration is now 5 seconds on all levels. Stun time increased slightly.
• Gargoyle and Eye of the Storm will now link together when close to eachother to create ling chain lightnings.

Other balance changes

Drinks

• Incendiary Demise, Lowered magical damage add from 50 to 40
• Wicked Sickness, Changed negative effect to 50% less damage output when not in combo
• Crimson Death, Lowered life steal from 7.5% to 5%
• Groovy Ghost, Lowered evasion bonus from 10% to 8%
• Smelly Old Man, Lowered mana regen bonus from +3 to +2

Items

• Duelist's Edge, Lowered evasion bonus from 10% to 8%
• Slippery Cloak, Lowered evasion bonus from 10% to 6%
• Sandals of Swiftness, Lowered evasion bonus from 5% to 3%
• Markham's Mastery, Lowered Armor & Resistance bonus from 1 to 0.5 per item in your inventory

Fountain

• Fountain, Increased cost of Glass Walks from +5 to +6
• New fountain effect: One Man Guild (No class title bonuses)

Monoliths

• Endless Potential, Lowered duration from 5 to 4 minutes
• Vigorous Restoration, Lowered duration from 10 to 8 minutes

Downscaling

In order to promote people playing with each other we now scale down players' characters when not playing at the highest NG+ they reached.

• Class titles and effective level scaled down to whatever NG+ level you play on
• Beating a higher NG+ now always only increases your NG+ by 1
• Players can now get experience at lower NG+

Networking Fixes

• Fixed load screen disappearing too soon in multiplayer
• Changed networking compression algorithm to a more efficient one
• Crash fixes

Miscellaneous Fixes and Changes

• Removed cost for chapel convert
• Skills can now "cancel" the cooldown of your attack meaning you can use them rapidly one after another
• Rebalanced enemy experience rewards
• Improved details in some tooltips in character screen
• Fixed distance based stats descriptions
• Added several new colors to find