First quck impression of the new beta branch bleeding edge

[MezzoMax]

Hi,

I just wanted to say, that I think you are going in the right direction. Separating talents from the skill grid is a good idea. Also making them more meaningfull and less random. It can be easier to plan out a charaxter build. I really dig the new camp site talents. They seem interesting and give every charcacter a distinct bonus.

The skill exchange points is a great idea, it gives more flexibility to build a deck and to remove cards with new ones, without over burden your deck.

I also found a bug, you can unlock all talents from the start, even if you are at -40 talent points, the game doesn't check if you are in the negative and you can unlock all. Nice for trying it out, since it is a beta build. I submitted a bug report regarding this.

[dwmr]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! That was the direction we were going for - the bug will be hotfixed shortly.

[MezzoMax]

Shortly? You fixed it immidiatly. That is quick, damn! :-)

Good work!

[Andhaira]

I downloaded the Bleeding Edge beta but it seems the older saves aren't compatible; I know you mentioned seperate save files but I thought that meant we could also continue our prior saves in Bleeding Edge.

Oh well I'll just start a new campaign after finishing my older one, but a question: Does this mean Renown from the last version will not carry over into Bleeding Edge?

[dwmr]

There were some fundamental changes to the hero progression (with regards to talent and skill grid, so part of it wasn't fully compatible.

At the moment, you automatically get 6 Renown in bleeding-edge since it is more of a testing ground right now.

[ReaperINchains]

I have also tried out the new beta from a solo hard mode duelist perspective. I have played the first act several times on the standard build. From what ive seen changes with the skill nodes and talents are nice. Enemies doing different things too but i noticed they stand around a bit and shift but dont attack when they should be.

My biggest concern is the changes with guard making the content trivial I only played up to the bandit leader but didn't even come close to have my guard broke. The enemies damage doesnt scale really with the levels. So before you would have to cycle your deck to get your guard up to 14-21 from 3 master En Garde. At level 10 right now im at 14 with just 1 En Garde. I did notice that Riposte is now has EXPEND so you cant run the double Riposte mastered to basically be untouchable so maybe in the later stages of act 1 you will take more damage but it doesnt look that way. I also notice a bug with Keen Strike not reducing the cost of cards and maybe thats because Double Strike was in my hand which never seemed to drop in cost so for a 2 cost card its pretty much useless in the current state.

[dwmr]

Thanks for your input! We are still working on enemy stat scaling and it should make its way into the game within the next week. - their damage is supposed to scale as they level, so stat applying to Guard will be a necessary to keep up to pace with them.

[Andhaira]

I reported a bug via F8; when I make the first Skill Roll (bandit hideout/supplies) whether I succeed the check or not (kicking in the door or looking for another way in) I can't go forward. The 'Succeed' button does not come up!

[Keyen]

A lot of nerfs:
-Cards no longer give stats. Levels up are a lot less useful, given that you either get a new card without stat, or a stat without card, when you had both before.
-Epic Channel nerf, since you are now losing all the reduced manacost ( a smite with 4 channel leave you with 1 channel) instead of one. But to be fair, I was expecting the channel behavior to be like that when I first started the game, so i'm not that surprised. Channel is still a very strong mechanic, especially combined with prayer spam.
-Some uniques feel really bad, like Oathbreaker, which is no longer doing anything worthwhile. However, since a lot of uniques are really weird in the wording, it's maybe a bug and not a nerf.
For instance:
https://jolstatic.fr/attachments/6/1/515/6/M2RlOWEyMzk2YjMxZDdkNTIyMzdlYzVkOGZkNmNjNWU/1.png
And I don't see anyone using the new oathbreaker:
https://jolstatic.fr/attachments/5/1/515/6/MzA1OTMyZTI4YWQ5MWFjZGFkYmUwYzg4YjllMzJmOWU/2.png

Some bugs:
-Enemies can counter attack the attack which killed them
-Unmutables cards are scaling on stats
-Colorless cards can't be converted to a stat card with a jewel
-The talent increasing rations doesn't do anything.
-Usinga "double attached cards" on tidebreaker increase the ap cost by 2 (to 4) instead of 1.

On the new stuff:
-Talents are really nice. Finally some real customization, and the "mastered thing" is the cherry on the top for equipment.
-Jewels offer a lot of possibilities. I had the spear granting the 2 poison skills, and I was able to socket a -1 ap on it, granting two powerful cards at 0 ap.
-The repick option seems too powerful. You often don't have any incentive to get a new card when you can just reroll one you have which sucks (like basic blocks/attacks). You get two picks instead of one as well if you are targeting a specific card. Edit: It's even worse, since it can also acts as a card removal.

[dwmr]

@Keyen

- While cards no longer give stats, you do get access to stat boosts in two new ways : Talents (which usually come with some other bonus) and socketing. Later on, there will be more runes that can grant higher stat bonuses (which we see as a more preferable customization option than having to pump up your deck with cards just for stats, and to give each node more identity).

- While Channel acts more as "1 free spell" per turn now, we have added more ways to boost max Channel as well as passive Channel generation on the items, specifically caster gear. This keeps in more viable and easy to use early to mid game, but it will be more in line with other "cost reducing" mechanics at the extreme end-game.

- Those legendaries with weird affixes will be fixed in today's build. We will look into the other bugs as well!

- We will continue to monitor how the rest of the patch feels. Some things were indeed intended, which was to let you target a card more easily as a result of letting you draw less often. We do hope to refine it to the best possible version it can be before it leaves the bleeding-edge branch!

Edit : Some bugs related to the repick option have been fixed in patch 90c as well.

[Bantersaurus]

I'm really liking the changes on the beta branch. They're a HUGE step in a great direction. I especially enjoy the changes to the talent system and the way we get new cards. I also enjoy the layout changes (reorganizing health etc. in the battle view).

Will you be balancing classes more? Pierre still feels quite weak.

[dwmr]

Yes, we've yet to touch upon classes in a major way, but you'll notice that a few of his cards have reduced in cost or increased in damage. Bigger changes will be coming over the next weeks.

[Zadown]

Originally posted by Doeseph Doestar:

Will you be balancing classes more? Pierre still feels quite weak.

Have you tried arcane missile spam? With the upgraded passive skill that gives you more missiles you can easily do 200 damage per round. For a while when arcane missile was bugged and int made the +more damage per missile scale as well I was doing 700+ damage per round but that got fixed.

[Draken]

Multi missles (passive) + spells cost 0 Ap for two turns + Draw card on kill + magic missle x4-x5 = endless combo that clears all. Though enemies that get buff 'Gain Thorns when ally is hit' makes Pierre self-destruct :D

[Jolly]

I don't play obsessively or at an elite level but I do play a lot and enjoy the game - great game and I really like the changes in the beta branch for the most part. Love being able to disable gear cards that I previously avoided since they usually hurt more than help my deck.

Overall beta branch feels easier so far, which I like since I don't really care for the idea of always building super lean/infinite/cheese decks as the only way to be very good at these games. But, it's already ramping up so that may only be a change to the earliest parts of the game.

One Q - I swear in non beta branch that block works against thorns but I regularly have people take damage from thorns on beta branch with block up (and block value doesn't change). It doesn't seem to be consistent and multi-hit attacks like stab that I'd expect to take tons of damage from thorns don't seem to work that way either. I could be imagining things too.

[dwmr]

@Jolly Part of the rebalancing changes were indeed to make more builds viable, rather than having to rely on certain strategies to win. There is always the upcoming Nightmare Mode for those who want to crank up the decision making to the maximum level.

We'll look into the Thorns issue - there were several changes to the status system behind the scene and we might have missed something out.