Echoes of Creation – Version 1.1.1.0 Patch Notes

1 General

This is the first non-hotfix update following the launch of version 1.1 approximately two and a half weeks ago! As promised, it contains a number of entirely new unique items for you to incorporate into your builds. Further, significant adjustments to the infinite Crucible (Floor 51+) have been implemented based on your feedback combined with a few balance tweaks that have the goal of encouraging more build diversity at the top end. Finally, the endgame in general has received changes which slightly increase its difficulty, but at the same time significantly improve the drop rates of Crucible keys. The intention behind all of these changes is detailed further below.

2 New Content

Added 14 new Unique Items to the drop pool, bringing the current total to 144!

3 Endgame Changes

3.1 Infinite Crucible Rework

While I am generally happy with the current endgame, based on both your feedback as well as my own observations it has become clear that the current system of the infinite Crucible of Creation (Floors 51+) comes with a few significant issues. For example, when assuming a very powerful character that can push deep into the infinite Crucible, a single run can last for multiple hours, making it highly time-consuming to attempt reaching a new highest point as the lower floors have to be completed on every attempt as well. This issue of a single run taking a very long time also makes it difficult to experiment with different approaches to a build, as it can take multiple hours until a character reaches the point where it had struggled previously.

To solve the issues which are caused by the current approach, a checkpoint-based system has been implemented instead. From now on, each run from floor 51 onwards consists of a series of five floors, e.g. floor 51-55. Once a run has been completed for the first time, the next series of five floors can be attempted, in this case for example starting from floor 56.

3.2 Endgame Balance

Currently, many players have reported being in a situation where, in the endgame, they feel stuck waiting for more keys to drop in order to progress through the Crucible of Creation. Instead, ideally, the main reason for stalled progress should be one’s own character power, with significant upgrades to that power directly translating into faster progress. To reach this point, I have decided to approach the problem from both sides: An increase to the difficulty of the endgame by adjusting enemy life to increase the amount of character power required to progress further, and also a significant increase to the drop rate of Crucible keys to make both progression and Crucible rewards more accessible.

  • Increased enemy life growth in the Nexus of Creation by approximately 13% per tier (Equivalent increase in the Crucible of Creation)
  • Increased the drop rate of keys by approximately 30% at all tiers
  • Slightly reduced the bonuses to arcana and experience gain in the Crucible of Creation to account for the increase in available keys
  • Reduced the bonus to item quantity in the Crucible of Creation, but increased the bonus to item rarity by an equivalent amount. This change is done to combat game performance issues, and will not impact loot in a practical sense. Essentially, fewer items are found, but each item found has higher rarity

4 Game Balance

When comparing build diversity to pre-1.1, the changes made to general game balance can be considered a success. However, with the many significant adjustments and reworks of abilities, classes, and unique items, there are some which can benefit from further buffs, and others that are currently at a level of power where they eclipse all other options which ideally would be competitive.

While I am planning on a more significant pass over all content in the game in the future where I will especially focus on increasing the power of currently under-used items, abilities, and classes, more data is required to achieve this in an impactful manner. On the other hand, a few significant outliers that are currently a bit too powerful have already shown themselves, and I believe that adjusting their power immediately has the potential of improving build-diversity at the current top-end and will also provide me with more data for future adjustments.

  • Galesong (unique two-handed sword) now grants 3% increased Strikes per Attack with Strike Abilities per 10 Dexterity (previously 4%)
  • Phantomstep (unique boots) now grant +1% chance to dodge per 20 dexterity (previously per 10 dexterity)
  • Siegebreaker (unique crossbow) now grants 8-15% fire resistance penetration with hits (previously 10-30%)
  • Vengeant Thorns (melee ability) now has a base damage multiplier of 80% (previously 75%)
  • The value of the implicit modifier “Hits ignore x% of Enemy Armour” on Flails, Mauls, and Daggers has been reduced to 10/15/20% on one-handed weapons (previously 20/30/40%), and 20/30/40% on two-handed weapons (previously 40/60/80%). The previous high values were a remnant from before significant changes to the damage reduction provided by armour had been made, and were too powerful in their current form

5 Other Changes

  • The duration of the Shrine’s Blessing when activated via an Advertisement has been increased to 6 hours (previously 4)
  • Made initial improvements to the item creation process with the goal of improving game performance

6 Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a bug where the modifier “Enemies take 1% increased Damage per 1% Effect of applied Chill” on Blizzard instead caused enemies to take 1% increased damage per stack of applied chill
  • Fixed a bug where death in floors 51+ of the Crucible of Creation did not count as a death
  • Fixed a bug where the highest Nexus of Creation tier that would be farmed during offline combat was tier 9 instead of tier 10
  • Fixed a bug where keys found during offline combat had a visually different colour
  • Fixed a bug where clicking on the enhancement tier text on an item icon would cause the item to not be selected
  • Fixed a bug where character slots and storage space bought in a specific realm post-1.1 update would not carry over to the other realm

7 Ending Notes

I’m very excited for you all to experience the new uniques introduced with this update, and also curious how far you will be able to push their effects.

As always, thank you for your continued feedback, especially on our Community Discord server! I have many more improvements planned for you all in the future, and appreciate all the ideas and suggestions. If you would like to share your feedback regarding this update or your thoughts/experience in general, feel free to join us as well by clicking the link below:

Discord