Hi there! We're thrilled to announce the beginning of global clan wars — for the first time ever in a MOBA!
Clan Wars
Hi there! We're thrilled to announce the beginning of global clan wars — for the first time ever in a MOBA!
Get ready for a whole new level of competition. Suzerains become vassals, and vassals marshal their forces to challenge their masters and become suzerains themselves! The treasures of the Ancients are waiting for heroes able to demonstrate their valor in unending battles in the name of glory and honor!
Matchmaking and Player Groups
First of all, we'd like to call your attention to a change in the matchmaking system for grouped players and give you an overview of changes to the rating system that depend on group rosters.
The system now tries to match groups of three players with groups of three, four, or five players whenever possible. This way, there are fewer games where teams of five or 4+1 players fight teams lacking groups comprised of three players at least, which makes players more comfortable whether they're playing alone or in a group.
If a group of three or more players is unable to find a similar group to fight against within a certain period of time, a team is assembled from random players with the same rank as the group (rather than one rank higher as before). For example: if a team of three or more lieutenant colonels is searching for opponents and the system is unable to find an identical group, a team of three random lieutenant colonels is assembled for them to fight against.
Penalty ratings no longer affect the final calculation at the end of battle for a full group of four or five players. In other words, a player's rating will change in the same way it would have changed if the player were not in a group. But if a randomly assembled team in which there are no groups of four or more players is playing against a full group, the rating of this team will increase more in case of a victory and decrease more in case of a loss than in the previous system.
In other words, when the changes to the rating for a random team are calculated, the rating of a full group will, as before, receive an additional bonus rating change, as though the random players had been fighting a group one rank higher. For the rank of Lieutenant Colonel this bonus has been reduced from 150 to 100, but for a Colonel it is higher: from 200 to 150.
As a result of these changes, groups of four or more players won't have to wait as long for a battle to begin (which is especially relevant to players with high ratings), and randomly-formed groups will get a larger rating increase for their victories! However, we think that playing in a group has now become a lot more comfortable, and the introduction of clan wars is going to make it a lot more fun, too!
Since the number of players in the other modes still hasn't reached the level where it would be possible to introduce battles in which all players have the same rank, these modes will no longer affect your rating. Moreover, our decision was influenced by the fact that a number of players have been using the other modes to increase their ratings dishonestly, i. e. by staging fixed battles. Now the results of battles in the other modes will no longer affect heroes' ratings. A similar change was made to the Switcheroo mode earlier.
Having a full library no longer makes it impossible for a player to enter a battle or swap talents in a hero's build. However, keep in mind that if your number of talents exceeds the size of your library, your reward for fighting a battle will be the same as if you had fought with a weaker hero.
Faction Unity
In the new version we have reduced the influence of a player's chosen side on gameplay. The first thing this affects is the heroes you can hire — you can now hire all heroes regardless of whether they are Dokht or Adornian, and you can also fight alongside friends from the other faction on the same team. You can find more detailed information on these changes below.
Heroes and Skins
The new version makes it possible to hire heroes who used to be considered unique members of each faction — so the Inventor and Doctrine can now be hired in Adornian castles, and the Artiste and the Demonologist can be hired in Dokht castles. The only exceptions are Da-ka and Ha-ka — these are the only heroes whose mechanics remain different for each faction. However, you can't have both Ha-ka and Da-ka in the same group — you'll have to leave one of them behind.
Players can now also obtain skins for their heroes that used to be available to one faction only. This new feature doesn't extend to the default skins, but we're planning to make them available for purchase very soon in one of our updates.
Groups and Clans
Players of either faction can now be invited to clans.
Both Dokhts and Keepers can now be invited to a group, which means you can now play with your friends regardless of which faction they're currently in.
Since team rosters can now be mixed, maneuvers will always be considered active and cannot be disabled in the HUD.
Changing Factions
The cost of changing factions has been reduced from 495 to 49 gold.
When a player changes factions they remain in the same clan as before — they're no longer automatically removed from their clan.
Chat
Castle chat now contains messages from players of both factions, which allows players to communicate with one another and form new inter-factional clans.
Talents
New Set of Exclusive (Orange) Talents: Conqueror's Regalia
The main feature of these talents is that they are only available in the clan store and their full potential can only be revealed in a well-formed group.
Tireless Defender
Talent type: Exclusive (orange)
Stage required: III
Cost to learn: 675 Prime
Increases Health Regeneration by 1.8 for the allied hero with the lowest Health percentage.
Increases Speed by 30% for the allied hero with the lowest Health percentage, if his Health dropped by more than half.
The talent does not require Energy to use.
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Undying Spark
Talent type: Exclusive (orange)
Stage required: II
Cost to learn: 500
Increases Energy Regeneration by 1.8.
Glyphs the hero picks up are not applied. Instead, the last glyph picked up by the hero is preserved in the spark for 60 seconds. The stored effect is applied to the hero after 60 seconds have passed or when the hero uses a talent.
The talent does not require Energy to use.
Dimensional Gate
Talent type: Exclusive (orange)
Stage required: VI
Cost to learn: 1600
Increases Stamina or Will (whichever is greater) by 7.
Maximum casting time is 15 seconds. During this time portals appear next to allied heroes that allow them to teleport to the caster's location after interacting with the portal for 4 seconds.
The talent does not require Energy to use.
Cooldown: 180 sec.
Pillar of Cunning
Talent type: Exclusive (orange)
Stage required: VI
Cost to learn: 1600
For 10 seconds an area is created within which the Cunning of all allied heroes is increased by 30.
The talent does not require Energy to use.
Cooldown: 100 sec.
Liberation
Talent type: Exclusive (orange)
Stage required: IV
Cost to learn: 825
Increases Health by 80
Removes all debuffs from the user or a selected allied hero and decreases the duration of control effects by 40% for 3 seconds.
The talent does not require Energy to use.
Cooldown: 60 sec.
Spatial Distortion
Talent type: Exclusive (orange)
Stage required: V
Cost to learn: 1160
Increases Stamina or Will (whichever is greater) by 6.
The owner of the talent (or the selected enemy hero) becomes incapable of acting and gains invulnerability for 2.5 seconds.
The talent does not require Energy to use.
Cooldown: 120 sec.
Petrification
Talent type: Exclusive (orange)
Stage required: IV
Cost to learn: 825
Increases Health by 100.
Takes 3 seconds to cast, during which the selected enemy hero becomes incapable of action and takes 30% less damage.
The talent does not require Energy to use.
Cooldown: 90 sec.
Upgrading Talents
Upgrading talents has become easier, since the number of talents with the status of "Effective for upgrading" has been increased.
Rare (blue) talents with the status of "Very effective for upgrading":
Sagacity
Inquisitive Mind
Fountain of Energy
Universal Regeneration
Unique (purple) talents with the status of "Very effective for upgrading":
Obstinacy
Strength of Will
Firm Logic
Stubborn Logic
Insidious Stamina
Insidious Will
Nimble Will
Nimble Stamina
Energy Stockpile
Seal of Wisdom
Wild Power
Wild Mind
Wild Agility
Wild Cunning
Blood of the Ancients
Other Talents
A bug that would immediately cancel Source of Bonds or Hidden Intention talents on death of a hero who activated them has been fixed.
The starting Power of exclusive (orange) talents has been increased from 44 to 47 in order to fit their effectiveness better. The stat bonuses based on Power derived from these talents have therefore also been increased. On the average, the stats of a hero with a Prime level of 36 and a set of fully-upgraded exclusive talents will be increased by no more than 2%.
A number of minor typos and inaccuracies in the descriptions of certain common and class talents have been fixed.
Castle
Starter Talent Packs
The promo menu now provides players with the opportunity to purchase starter packs of ten talents. This will allow new players to develop their hero more quickly. They include:
Champion Pack: contains only unique (purple) talents and costs 199 gold.
Hero Pack: contain two unique (purple) talents and eight rare (blue) talents and costs 49 gold.
Each pack has been assembled with an emphasis on core stats (Intellect, Strength, or Health) and one recommended stat (Agility, Cunning, Will, Stamina). You can find the names and contents of each pack in the promo menu after choosing the corresponding option.
Constructing Buildings
Resource generation no longer depends on having friends added to a building. The effectiveness of any resource-producing building is now the same as if it had the maximum number of friends with maximum castle levels.
To make the game easier for new players, resource generation in resource-producing buildings below level 21 has been increased.
Minor bugs in the Talent Forge/Talent Garden interface have been fixed.
Bonuses for Players Who Have Not Fought in Battles for a Long Time
If a player does not fight in a battle that affects their hero's rating for a long time, it can be hard for that player to return to rated battles because their mastery level will have dropped over time. In order to make it easier for these players to come back to the game we have made the following changes:
Players who have not fought for a long time can now complete two quests, one of which is directly related to fighting in battles. The rewards for these quests include crystals, a Golden Age for several days, and a white rune that allows to make talents unassigned a few times.
The player will also have the opportunity to reduce their hero's rating in order to fight weaker enemies. However, this change cannot reduce the player's rating below 1300. The longer a player's break from battles, the greater their potential rating reduction. However, if a player does not wish to reduce their rating, they can refuse the offer and continue to play as though nothing had happened, while still completing the quests and earning rewards.
Miscellaneous
Now you can share your heroes' builds right from your castle. To do this, just go to your hero's talent screen and click the "Share" button in the left-hand corner. Then, just as with battle results, the game website with the saved build will open. You can then send the build to any social networking site.
In the latest version, the messages from the admins will, in addition to appearing in the general chat channel, be sent to a special channel called "Administration." Please keep an eye on the new channel. The messages it contains could be very important for your accounts.
The descriptions of rewards for titles higher than Major in the castle have been corrected. They used to mistakenly list a larger number of talents than players would actually receive.
The number of enemies who have agreed to join a battle is no longer displayed on the pre-match screen.
Battles
Taunt Effect
If a hero is simultaneously affected by several Taunt effects, the one that was applied last will now be the only one that is effective. However, the other Taunts won't disappear — as soon as the active Taunt expires, the next one will take effect — as long as it hasn't expired itself. For example, let's say a hero has been transformed into a beast for three seconds by Fang/Claw's Curse of the Beast talent, and immediately after that he has Blade Master/Sesha's Hypnotic Taunt applied to him, which lasts two seconds. In this event, the hero will attack Blade Master/Sesha while in beast form, and then, once two seconds have elapsed, he will attack Fang/Claw until the Curse of the Beast expires.
Outpost and Dragonwald
A spot on the Outpost map next to the Dokht Armory where players sometimes used to get stuck has been fixed.
A bug that made it possible for the Dokht team to raise a flag in front of the bridge on the Dragonwald map without attacking the surrounding Touched has been fixed.
A bug that caused a mismatch between the heroes' projected and actual respawn time on the Outpost and Dragonwald maps has been fixed. On Outpost it was a little less than intended, and on Dragonwald, the other way around — slightly more.
Clan Battles
Clan battles are now defined as battles in which three or more members of one clan fight on at least one side.
The icon indicating that players are fighting a clan battle has been improved.
Miscellaneous
In the latest version, the Portal skill will begin in cooldown on the Borderlands map and its mods.
Challenges
A bug that would cause the kill counter to go up when a player would destroy the Genomorph/Chimaera's cocoon with the Undermine talent, the beacon from the Protector/Guardian's Spirit Beacon, or the Demonologist's trap from Demon Trap, has been fixed.
A bug that would very occasionally cause a hero's egg from the Sitting Hens quest to not disappear until they died if the hero had picked it up just as the quest timer was running out has been fixed.
Heroes
Fay/Fairy Queen
Fusion
A bug that made the hero able to use Fusion on the Maiden/Nymph while her Rainbow Flight talent was active or on Highlander/Immortal while he was in ghost form after using Immortal Spirit has been fixed. Whenever this would happen, the skill itself would not activate, but all the positive effects from it would still be applied. In the latest version, Fusion can no longer be used on the Maiden/Nymph or Highlander/Immortal while these talents are active.
A bug that caused the target of Fusion to have their Cunning/Agility and Health Regeneration increased as if by Fairy Dust even if the hero herself did not have them has been fixed. In the latest version, these effects are applied only if they have been applied to Fay/Fairy Queen herself.
A bug that caused the hero to remain fused with the Protector/Guardian after her death if she had activated her Keeper of Life class talent has been fixed.
Jaeger/Wolf Dancer
A bug that caused the Curse of the Piercing Spear effect not to disappear from the target of Piercing Spear after using talents and potions that remove negative effects has been fixed.
Highlander/Immortal
A bug that caused the hero not to respawn using Immortal Spirit until the Secret of Immortality set was in cooldown after being activated by enemy talents that move targets or cause knockdown has been fixed.
Soul Reaper/Soul Сatcher
A bug that rarely caused an attack by the Lightning Master/Storm Thrower's ghost to insta-kill a target if it was knocked down when hit has been fixed.
A bug that caused Ghost Whip not to stop working after the Protector/Guardian died and her Keeper of Life talent activated has been fixed.
A bug that caused the stats of the ghost of soldiers and Touched to be slightly lower than those of living enemies has been fixed.
Protector/Guardian
A bug that caused Ray of Life not to work on the Pied Piper/Rat Master's rats sent out by Rat Rogues talent has been fixed.
A bug that caused the hero not to move to the Night Queen/Black Panther if she used Angel's Flight while her Unity talent was active has been fixed.
A bug that caused the teleportation effect to disappear if a hero who had learned Keeper of Life died while casting Angel's Flight has been fixed.
Woodsman/Witch Doctor
A bug that made activating Raging Skin free a target from the Wicked Tree's grasp as the tree was drawing the target into its trap has been fixed.
A bug that caused the Wicked Tree not to be able to grab a hero being affected by the Pied Piper/Rat Master's Flute Song has been fixed.
Pied Piper/Rat Master
A bug that caused Flute Song to immediately expire when used on a target being controlled by the Wicked Tree has been fixed.
Eraser/Assassin
A bug that allowed the hero to instantly become invisible again using Shadow Warrior after having used Insidious Throw while invisible (whereas the player was supposed to have to wait two seconds before becoming invisible again) has been fixed.
Sorcerer/Mage
Loader
Energy Barrier
The area within which the stun effect from the talent is applied has been slightly increased, since it used to be smaller than the edge of the displayed barrier.
New players no longer have to enter their birthdays when registering via email.