Welcome to Update 1.14!
All cities have their own rhythm. For the mice of Walled Kingdoms the pulse of their cities rests in their regularly scheduled tournaments, and in the holy city of Heaven’s Reach it’s the ringing of church bells. The parts of each city – its inhabitants, infrastructure, and institutions – all come together around these things like cogs in a machine.
The Hive might be the only place where the parts of the city literally are cogs in a machine. The rhythmic pulse of their constant turning can be felt humming through the city's riveted metal walls and floors. Trade caravans arrive here daily from all over the Steppes and neighboring lands. A lively stream of airships and winged creatures flow in and out of the balconies and plateaus high upon the city's towering walls. In the heart of it all, deep down in the Hive’s core, industrious gnomes work around the clock on fantastic machinery that is always only a few blown-up experiments away from revolutionizing their way of life.
This month's update features Snazzbang in the inaugural Festival of the Hive, new challenges with two new Hero Adventures, and balances changes to some Heroes. Additionally, some balance changes and enhancements to other features await!
What's Included?
New!
Events
- Snazzbang, a small guy with a big gun. kicks off the first Festival of the Hive beginning on January 30th and ending February 13th
- Two new Hero Adventures, including the previously released Hero of the Sacred Grove: Cervidus
Happy Anniversary Rivengard!
- Our Global Launch Day was on January 21st 2021, and we're celebrating with a special Anniversary Edition Hero Adventure featuring Nimrul (and also a gift to your inbox, so keep an eye on that!)
Balance Changes
Heroes
- Akio
- Kill Command now has a range of 3
- Developer Note: The initial design for this ability goes back to 2016 when the only Summons in the game came from Sir Matteus, Grandma Bones, and Shun. New factions have given Akio a lot of power, and while we've been hesitant to make drastic changes to Heroes we very much feel that we need to reign him in a little bit. We experimented with some different restrictions and felt that a range reduction was best. This change enforces the foundation that tactical positioning is a key aspect of Rivengard while still allowing Akio to be a potent member of a team in the right circumstances.
- Kill Command now has a range of 3
- Aradel
- Blizzard now always adds Ice to her own Tile
- Blizzard base chance to add Ice to other Tiles reduced from 35% to 30% but now increases by 5% at levels 9, 18, 27, and 36
- Developer Note: The ability to generate and use Ice is a key part of the Azure Tower synergy that players have struggled with, and this change should make Aradel better suited to playing a part in that synergy while also keeping with trends to make Active and Passive abilities feed into each-other with more synergy.
- Grandma Bones
- Life Steal now counts towards "Deal Ability Damage" Quest tasks
- Developer Note: This is not a mechanical change. The ability still ignores Defender Modifiers (terrain, armor, etc) as it always has, but simply counts towards Quest progress. This has been a source of confusion for a while, and a requested change from many players.
- Life Steal now counts towards "Deal Ability Damage" Quest tasks
- Hanna
- Mass Heal now deals Damage to all adjacent Dark enemies. Damage is equal to the Heal amount
- Mass Heal now removes Darkness from her own Tile and other Tiles in range
- Developer Note: Darkness is a powerful Tile Effect, and newer players have little defense against it until they unlock Heroes that can replace Darkness with other Tile Effects. Additionally, other Healers have more tactical functionality while Hanna only has healing as an ability. These changes help improve both of those situations and also enhance the feeling of the Radiant Order being champions of Kassandra and spreading her Light.
- Developer Note: Darkness is a powerful Tile Effect, and newer players have little defense against it until they unlock Heroes that can replace Darkness with other Tile Effects. Additionally, other Healers have more tactical functionality while Hanna only has healing as an ability. These changes help improve both of those situations and also enhance the feeling of the Radiant Order being champions of Kassandra and spreading her Light.
- Pari
- Spider Web no longer adds Web to the Tile she moves to
- Developer Note: The Web created from Pari's movement tended to get in the player's way more often than help them, so we have removed that from her ability.
- Spider Web no longer adds Web to the Tile she moves to
- Pendar
- Rain of Ice no longer heals enemy Blue units and will deal damage as normal to them
- Developer Note: Pendar is a powerful Hero and strong part of the Azure Tower synergy, but his healing enemy Blue units made him an almost universally bad choice - which in turn hurt the overall functional ability of the Azure Tower faction. This change should make him much easier to use effectively.
- Developer Note: Pendar is a powerful Hero and strong part of the Azure Tower synergy, but his healing enemy Blue units made him an almost universally bad choice - which in turn hurt the overall functional ability of the Azure Tower faction. This change should make him much easier to use effectively.
- Rain of Ice no longer heals enemy Blue units and will deal damage as normal to them
Bug Fixes & Other Improvements
- Scruffy no longer attacks creatures summoned adjacent to him so hard that it crashes the game
- Thana Moh can once again chain attacks to Object units when using Dance of Daggers
- Other smaller balancing fixes and bug fixes
- Edit: We have replaced the common Item drop from Guild Bosses with a Forge Badge.
- Silver Chest: Uncommon Badge
Gold Chest: Uncommon to Rare
Diamond Chest: Uncommon to Epic
- Silver Chest: Uncommon Badge