Summoner
The Summoner class is now available for unlock!
Class Unlock tokens are now available at Ranks 25 and 30, in addition to previous ranks
Players already at or beyond ranks 25 and 30 have been credited tokens in their inventory for those ranks
Additional abilities for the Summoner to expand her power set are being actively developed
Matchmaking
We are aware of issues with skill matching once players exit the New Recruit pool. Our team's top priority is updating our MMR algorithm to better evaluate players, as well as tweaking our matchmaking server based on the initial Open Beta results.
These changes are still in the works, but we have made the following changes in the interim:
New Recruit matches no longer affect your skill rating (MMR) used in any other mode in any way. We discovered some players were entering the main matchmaking pool with an inflated MMR from winning a high percentage of New Recruit matches.
When searching for a game, the initial MMR tolerance is much lower and expands to its maximum more slowly. In practice, this means searching may take longer on average, but is more likely to find a "good" game.
Balancing
Global Cooldown
In the last patch, we fixed a bug causing abilities to bypass the Global Cooldown, as this was both unintended and also broke the Prophet's Disabling Curse ability. The Global Cooldown, or GCD, is a 1 second delay after an ability is used on all other abilities, and was in the game since the Closed Alpha as a mechanic to mitigate ability combos, like Dive Bomb->Puncture, or Charge->Ground Slam.
We have listened to your feedback since the change that the game felt better or smoother with the GCD "bug" in place, and as a result have decided to eliminate it from the game. We agree that the game feels "smoother" without a GCD, but will continue to investigate solutions internally that place limits on these combos without sacrificing the "feel" of the game.
Hunter
Multibow
Damage has been increased to 70 per shot (was 65)
Recoil and Spread have been reduced slightly
Alchemist
Immolate
Activation delay reduced to 3.5 seconds (was 4)
Now grants a 20% movement speed bonus while active - chase down those vampires!
Prophet
Piercing Pistols
Redesigned. Now applies a short damage-over-time bleed effect on impact rather than passing through enemies.
Heavy Pistols
Recoil per shot increased, and recoil from firing increases more quickly
Quick Pistols
Recoil increase while firing happens more slowly
Reaver
Shadow Step
Shadow Step now has an exit velocity so you don't fall straight down
Humans
All human classes now play a Bandaging animation while using a Supply Station
Optimization
All persistent smoke particles, particularly those used by Alchemist and Hunter grenades and explosions, have been optimized, made less opaque, and a shorter lifespan. This should improve performance and reduce visibility concerns for human teams featuring these classes.
Graphics settings have been reworked and now offer options between "High Performance" and "High Quality", rather than Low vs. High
Bug Fixes
Fixed a memory leak related to online data sync
Fixed an issue causing Shadow Bomb to block AoE damage inside of it in certain scenarios
Fixed an issue causing your own AoE skills to sometimes block enemy AoE damage when the damage rings overlapped