I hope you’re ready for a hefty amount of additional Grim Dawn content this week, as the team at Crate Entertainment has just announced that Build 25 of the action RPG is officially live. This one brings the much anticipated factions and nemesis systems to the game, among other things:
v0.3.4.1 (b25)
[Major New Features]
The Faction system has been fully implemented. You may now visit Faction Quartermasters to purchase rewards earned for gaining reputation. Enemies will now spawn additional foes based on reputation.
Factions now offer Bounties via their respective Bounty Tables to earn additional rewards and reputation. 145 Bounty Quests have been added to the game.
A new set of items has been added: Writs and Mandates. You can use these items, purchased from Quartermasters, to boost reputation gain on the next difficulty and with your alternate characters.
Each hostile faction now has a Nemesis that can spawn to hunt you down in that faction’s territory, after you reach Nemesis reputation status. Nemesis spawns are rare ultra-bosses with powerful abilities, but also some of the best loot, including a higher chance of rare Blueprints. Additional Nemesis spawns will be introduced in the future.
[Art]
Updated textures and meshes on several common armor items
Updated common armor bitmaps
Updated Rock textures
Updated several Terrain textures
[Animation]
Attack spells (ex. Panetti’s Replicating Missile and Dreeg’s Evil Eye) will now cycle between three different cast animations rather than playing the same one over and over
New player character self-buffing animation for all weapon types
New Soldier “Warcry” animation for all weapon types
New Soldier “Field Command” animation for all weapon types
New Occultist “Doombolt” animation for all weapon types
New Arcanist “Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange” animation for all weapon types
Attacking with dual wielding pistols now feels less sluggish. Default attack animations hit sooner and can be interrupted much sooner alleviating a feeling of being rooted while fighting.
[Tech]
Fixed a crash for the host when a player tried salvaging items or components
Fixed incorrect faction bonuses when in a Multiplayer game
Certain factions will no longer allow positive reputation gain after permanently siding against them
Experience bonus messages from Lore Notes are no longer hidden behind the Character Window
Shield damage no longer shows up in the main damage values on the Character Sheet (it still shows up on the rollover tooltip)
Pet bonuses on items merged into one section
Fixed an issue with skill cooldown notifications playing at inappropriate time intervals
Personal and Transfer stash now have the same item highlighting as your inventory
Right-clicking a Component/Augment will now highlight all items that can accept that Component/Augment in your inventory and stash
Can now craft multiple items in a row without having to remove the previously crafted item from the Crafting Window
Pet bonuses on items now have stat variation, just like all other item attributes
The inventor has a new ability to remove Augments in addition to any Soulbound status that the Augment applied
Fixed being able to shift-click soulbound items into the shared stash from the player’s equipped items
Soulbound Augments can no longer be applied to items in the transfer stash
[Game]
Common and Champion monsters no longer stop giving reputation past a certain Reputation tier. Instead, they now give a reduced amount as you approach Nemesis/Revered status.
Increased the reputation change from killing bosses to -50 from -25. This makes bosses more valuable for reaching Nemesis status.
Many bosses and mini-bosses now instantly regain some health when killing a player on Veteran Difficulty
Pierce Ratio on weapons has been redesigned. The engine now tallies up all of the physical damage you would deal on an attack (before % Damage bonuses) and then converts a portion of that to Pierce damage. The values are then modified by % Damage bonuses. Before, the Pierce ratio only accounted for the weapon’s base damage.
Probability to Hit Formula has been adjusted to reduce the impact of highly disparate Offensive vs. Defensive Ability values. This will allow characters with lower Defensive Ability values to survive better.
Lore notes have been reorganized into new categories
Updated lore notes for Origin of the Slith, pages 1-3
Breakable Shelves and Cabinets are now easier to target
For Community Translators: added additional dialogue to various Devil’s Crossing NPCs relating to the Making a Deal quest
[Itemization]
Reduced flat Defensive Ability bonuses on all items
Reduced % Offensive Ability and % Defensive Ability values on armor and 1h-ed weapons and % Defensive Ability values on accessories
Reduced % Health Regeneration bonuses on all items
Gutworm now has a chance to drop a unique Medal
Some side-bosses now have an additional chance to drop Component and Relic Blueprints
Slightly increased drop rate of Blueprints from Hero Monsters
All One-Shot Chests (exception of boss chests, ex. Warden’s Stash) are now named Exalted Stash to avoid any confusion with Glorious boss chests
Increased the drop rate of Elixirs of Spirit
Epic – Explorer’s Garments: replaced 3-piece Defensive Ability bonus with 8% chance to Deflect Projectiles
Epic – Mark of the Templar: adjusted stat values, removed bonus Health, replaced Increased Resistances with bonus Max Resistance
Epic – Templar’s Leg Armor: adjusted stat values, removed Stun Resistance
Epic – The Eye: chance to cast Sniper Round has been replaced with a 10% chance to do 100 bonus Pierce damage on a regular attack (no more cooldown). Base Pierce damage replaced with Physical damage.
Crafting: The following components are now crafted and had their level requirement increased to 15. Their blueprints are available immediately at the Blacksmith: Dense Fur, Molten Skin, Resilient Plating, Rigid Shell, Viscous Venom.
Crafting: the following Component blueprints are now baseline instead of loot drops: Hollowed Fang, Imbued Silver, Purified Salt, Scaled Hide, Silk Swatch, Wardstone
Relic – Conflagration: Spirit replaced with 25% Fire damage, Energy Regeneration increased to 1.5
Relic – Sanctuary: replaced flat Health with 10% Health
Component: many crafted Components can no longer be acquired via monster loot, but can still be acquired via Crafting, Dismantling and Bounties
Component: Health completion bonuses slightly reduced, Energy completion bonuses slightly increased
Component – Aether Soul: flat Aether damage replaced with 10% Aether damage, replaced % Energy Regeneration with 6% Aether Resistance, but also added 6% Reduced Damage from Aetherials
Component – Aethersteel Alloy: renamed to Reinforced Shell, icons updated. Now requires 4 fragments. Replaced % Defensive Ability with 22% Shield Damage Blocked, reduced % Block Chance to 8, added 10 Physique. This Component can now be crafted, available immediately at the Blacksmith.
Component – Amber: replaced Lightning Retaliation with 25% Electrocute damage
Component – Ancient Armor Plate: reduced Physique to 18 and % Protection to 4
Component – Arcane Lens: removed Offensive Ability, replaced energy regeneration with 6% Reduced Energy Cost, increased flat Elemental damage to 8-12
Component – Arcane Spark: replaced % Spirit with Offensive Ability, increased Energy Leech to 15, but reduced Energy Regeneration to 20%
Component – Attuned Lodestone: Lightning Retaliation increased to 40. Completion bonus increased to 15% Lightning damage, nova damage increased and chance to stun increased to 100%
Component – Ballistic Plating: now provides 10% Projectile Deflection and 18 Defensive Ability, but Armor has been reduced to 10
Component – Bindings of Bysmiel: bonuses redesigned, completion bonuses improved
Component – Black Tallow: replaced % Energy Regeneration with 6% Reduced Damage from Chthonians, reduced Chaos Resistance to 6%, but also added 10% Chaos damage. This Component is now acquired through crafting. New Blueprint has been added to the loot pool.
Component – Blessed Steel: has been redesigned, now provides bonuses to Elemental damage and Offensive Ability
Component – Blessed Whetstone: now provides 25% Bleed damage and 18 Offensive Ability, Pierce damage removed
Component – Bloody Whestone: replaced % Pierce Ratio and flat Bleed damage with 8% Total damage and 5% Leech. This Component is now acquired through crafting. New Blueprint has been added to the loot pool.
Component – Bristly Fur: Health increased to 90
Component – Chains of Oleron: % Physical damage reduced to 12%, Cunning replaced with 18 Offensive Ability, Armor Reduction removed
Component – Chilled Steel: increased damage on Ice Spike I
Component – Coldstone: replaced Cold Retaliation with 25% Coldburn damage, increased damage on Ice Spike II
Component – Consecrated Wrappings: now also provide 8% Chaos damage
Component – Dense Fur: Armor replaced with 60 Health, now also provides 18% Constitution
Component – Devil-Touched Ammo: replaced Life-Leech with 25% Chaos damage
Component – Dread Skull: % Physical damage replaced with 10% Pierce damage, % Vitality damage replaced with 20% Bleed damage
Component – Enchanted Flint: replaced Fire Retaliation with 25% Burn damage
Component – Flintcore Bolts: replaced flat Burn damage with 25% Burn damage, increased damage on Fireblast II
Component – Hallowed Ground: Defensive Ability reduced to 25, % Health removed
Component – Haunted Steel: reduced % Energy to 4%, but now also grants 25% Vitality damage
Component – Hollowed Fang: Now also provides an 18% Vitality damage bonus
Component – Imbued Silver: damage against Chthonians increased to 25% + 8 flat damage
Component – Kilrian’s Shattered Soul: Replaced % Energy Absorption with 10% Vitality damage. The completion bonus skill’s damage has been rebalanced and its chance of activation increased to 5%.
Component – Leathery Hide: now also provides 4% Health
Component – Mark of Mogdrogen: removed % Elemental damage bonus, reduced Movement Speed to 3%
Component – Mark of the Myrmidon: replaced % Physique with 120 Health, replaced % Reflect damage with -15% Shield Block Recovery
Component – Mark of the Traveler: removed % Health bonus
Component – Molten Skin: Armor increased to 14, added a Reduction in Burn Duration by 15%
Component – Mutagenic Ichor: increased damage on Poison Bomb I
Component – Mutated Scales: Health increased to 220, but no longer provides armor
Component – Purified Salt: damage against Aetherials increased to 25% + 8 flat damage
Component – Radiant Gem: Granted skill redesigned, now grants 30% resistance and +10% Maximum resistance to Fire, Cold and Lightning for 8s. Cooldown increased to 30s.
Component – Reinforced Shell: renamed to Serrated Shell. Replaced % Armor with -20% Shield Block Recovery. Increased Pierce Retaliation to 80 and added 20% Total Retaliation.
Component – Sanctified Bone: Armor replaced with 10% Chaos Resist, reduced damage from Chthonics and Undead replaced with 15% damage to those monster types
Component – Scaled Hide: Armor Absorption increased to 15%, Armor increased to 20
Component – Searing Ember: increased damage on Fireblast I
Component – Severed Claw: increased % Trauma damage to 15%
Component – Silk Swatch: increased level requirement to 15, increased Bleed and Pierce Resistance to 15%
Component – Spellwoven Threads: replaced Energy Burn with 20% bonuses to Burn, Coldburn and Electrocute damage, but reduced Spirit to 15
Component – Soul Shard: Spirit replaced with 8% Vitality damage, added 25% Energy Leech Resistance
Component – Spined Carapace: Pierce retaliation increased to 55, added 5% Total Retaliation bonus
Component – Vicious Spikes: Bleed damage bonuses replaced by 25 Armor Reduction for 5s
Component – Viscous Venom: renamed to Antivenom Salve, added 5 Health Regeneration
Component – Wardstone: Bleed Resistance increased to 15%
[Class & Skills]
Cooldown lowered on many skills – adjustments to damage or other stats on some skills as necessary based on the level of cooldown change
Damage over time effects (ex. Poison, Bleed, etc.) now stack with diminishing returns when applied through unique sources. For example: If you apply Poison through Eye of Dreeg, then hit an enemy with a poisoned weapon, both will now deal damage, but the weaker DoT will be reduced. The stacking ratio is as follows: 100%, 50%, 25%, 12.5%, 0% with the most powerful DoT dealing 100% damage and each subsequently weaker DoT dealing less.
Soldier
Counterstrike: activation chance now scales up to 20% at rank 16 (25% at max ultimate rank), but the activation now has a 1s cooldown
Overguard: reworked to be more oriented around the shield, with improved shield bonuses and scaling % Health Regeneration that synergizes with Menhir’s Will
Veterancy: Chance to Block replaced by Shield Recovery Time, since it is probably the more powerful shield bonus that you would want to have “on” all the time. Allowed for Block Chance to be increased by Overguard instead.
Fighting Spirit: lost its % Health Regeneration to Overguard. This seemed more sensible since Fighting spirit is already a powerful offensive skill and having the % Health Regeneration on an active skill will allow players to time it with the flat Regeneration bonus on Menhir’s Will if they so choose.
Demolitionist
Blackwater Cocktail: reduced energy cost scaling with rank and increased radius scaling
Demon Fire: increased % Burn damage scaling with rank
Agonizing Flames: increased % Chaos and % Fire damage scaling with rank
Quick Jacks: energy cost reduction lowered
Nightblade
Dual Blades: flat Pierce damage reduced
Amarasta’s Quick Cut: increased % Pierce damage bonus and reduced flat Pierce damage. Percent weapon damage now scales up to 100% at max rank.
Shadow Strike: % Weapon damage adjusted to scale more with rank with a lower starting value. Reduced the flat Pierce damage, but added a % Pierce damage bonus.
Pneumatic Burst: Heal now starts at 10%, but scales more rapidly to catch up to original values by rank 8
Arcanist
Mirror of Ereoctes: slightly increased % reflect scaling at rank 8 and above, scaling up to 325% at max ultimate rank
Wrath of Agrivix: this Transmuter now adds a 100% chance to Knockdown for 1.5s, but the % Total damage bonus has been reduced to 150% and the cooldown is increased to 6s
Elemental Exchange: active energy cost reduced and Elemental damage slightly increased
Warcraft Tavern
Warcraft DB
Diablo Tavern