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Good Afternoon Scapers'
Today we will be launching our fifth and final (for this project) beta update for the upcoming Combat Style Modernisation.
It’s been an incredible journey since the first beta back in December, and your continued feedback and insights have helped shape this update every step of the way. This week will focus on more number polishing while adding in some additional important touches to round out this beta.
As we mentioned last week The Combat Style Modernisation update is launching on the 2nd of March and not on the previously announced 23rd of February.
We're pushing Melee's basic up slightly to better match the styles basic abilities, meaning defaulting to Basic attack doesn't feel quite so bad.
Adaptive strike and Rend's damage values felt confused, we're flipping them so Rend, the longer cooldown ability feels more impactful to use.
As Assault was a core part of your damage rotation and the first spender ability you gain, it feels odd that it would heal via bloodlust. We've moved that effect over to Dismember, so you get some passive healing over time, while allowing Assault to maintain its identity as your go-to spender.
Now heals 10% damage dealt on all recasts. We've further extended these hits to make them synergise better with bleed lengthening effects such as the Masterwork Spear of Annihilation.
We're modifying how Bloodlust Flurry damage is calculated to allow it to maintain a similar identity to Punish, in that it becomes better at the end of a fight, and moving some of its base power into its bloodlusted effect to make choosing to empower Flurry a more meaningful decision.
Chain in the early game felt a little lackluster for such a cool effect, we're upping its numbers a little so the AoE value is more clear.
We're normalising the damage of magic's foundational basics so it's clearer what their purpose is, meaning players in the early and mid-game can rely on the basic attack more when they're not specifically after the other abilities' effects.
With Detonate gone we needed to give the Blasts a new effect. The aim here was to make something that keeps in line with magic's themes, and kept the boot's usefulness in both single target and aoe scenarios.
Against live, piercing had seen a few too many buffs with the trifecta of Damage up, a new bonus and extra synergies built into the style. We're normalising it a little so its closer to the live version
Shadow Tendrils, like piercing shot had received a few too many buffs with a new bonus effect, a reduced adrenaline cost and increased damage over the live game
Greater ricochet by default in the beta was performing very well thanks to the extra shots being decoupled from caroming, which was essentially opening up a perk slot, we're wary of giving Ranged (and greater ricochet) much more power in the end game so we're pulling the power a bit closer to the live game and making the Caroming perk scale harsher.
Rapid fire can now move around by default, so we thought we'd give Fleetings a fresh effect, instead of relying on the bonus hit chance they used to give.
Splintering arrows needed updating with the removal of Greater Dazing shot. Our aim here is to make an arrow that performs well in long encounters and synergises with Range's kit; kind of like a Bik arrow that can be used at poison-immune bosses.
As part of this update, one of our goals was to reduce overall ability bloat and remove redundant or rarely used options from the combat styles. Some of the abilities we removed had unique cosmetic animations tied to them, so we’ve been looking at ways to preserve those animations by integrating them into abilities that are staying.
For the "Ice" and "Blood Ice" variants of Quake we will be integrating them into Meteor Strike as they share a common ground slamming theme but for Detonate and its animations we haven't settled on which ability would be best suited just yet, but if you have any suggestions on which ability you would think could benefit from them please let us know in the feedback threads!
UI tutorialisation has been added for Melee, Ranged, and Magic. These show up when you unlock a new ability and detail what the ability does, with a suggestion on how to use it.
We have disabled a number of auras which directly impact player-power, to allow for more within each style's core ability kit, or to be redistributed into a reward that is not time limited.
These auras have been listed below. The remaining combat auras will be removed or redistributed within the Aura Overhaul update.
As a knock on effect to the above:
Scare tactics unlock now applies the knock-back effect to Impact, Binding Shot & Backhand.
Perks for each of the skillcapes have been added. These aim to provide some usefulness in combat; whereby anytime you are using that style you want to be using the cape, without being something you feel as though you require before taking part in combat.
As Unload and Frenzy are no longer abilities, Kalphite King's Immortality effect was impossible to trigger with two of the three original styles. We've opted to move this effect over to three more niche abilities, that you don't need to use on Kalphite King to trigger.
There were some concerns that energising granting % hitchance was too overbearing late game, so we're making it flat accuracy meaning it scales better in the early-mid game when the players accuracy is lower.
Ultimatums no longer worked with the new adrenaline costs of associated abilities. We're reworking it to be generically useful with ultimates.
Ready to give the Beta a try? Here’s how:
On first login, your live save is imported into the Beta. You can re-import your save into the Beta once per hour.
Please note that this is a Beta, so not everything shown is guaranteed to make it into the live game. We’ll be working closely with players to refine these updates and bring them to the live game once they’re fully ready!