[Major New Features]
•The Final Chapter of Act 3 is now available. Venture out to the north of Homestead and face off against the vile Cult of Ch'thon and their minions. Learn about what brought the Cult to the north and the cataclysmic plans they have in store for Cairn in Act 4!
•Humanity will not survive through the efforts of just one individual. Join forces with the enigmatic Order of Death's Vigil or the zealous Kymon's Chosen factions and turn them into valuable allies in the battles ahead.
•Two new Nemesis bosses have been added; one each for the Order of Death's Vigil and Kymon's Chosen factions.
•The Level Cap has been increased to 50. Discover new loot and reach for ever greater power as you gain access to over 70 Epic items and class-specific Rare suffixes.
 
[Tech]
•Critical Damage Bonus now visible on Character Sheet
•Pet reputation levels sync with player's regularly instead of only on pet creation
•Skill confirmation dialog changed back to not require confirmation in between mastery panels
•Bonus items from dismantling now have a proper seed
 
[Art]
•Updated Aether Crack terrain texture and Scattered bone Terrain Texture
 
[Game]
•Boss and Hero monster health scaling adjusted. Should have minimal impact at the levels you normally fight individual bosses at, but improve scaling at higher levels.
•Drop rate of Manticore eyes increased
•Rifthounds have had their Component table replaced so that Bristly Furs will drop more consistently in the early game
•Drop rate of Bristly Fur from Boneback rats has been increased
•Bounty: Mortallis now spawns on the first 3 floors of Steps of Torment instead of the bottom 2 floors. Reward reduced.
•Bounty: Lord Executioner has been replaced with a new target that does not require entry into the roguelike dungeon. Reward reduced.
•Updated the requirements, rewards and text for various bounties. Some bounties may be reset because of this.
•Fixed an issue that could cause players on any bounty to be stuck without a bounty and unable to accept another
•Fixed Stone Clan Groble bleed dealing excessive damage
•Sped up default cast animations by 8%
•Fixed an issue with being unable to complete the Seamstress quest
 
[Itemization]
•12 new Faction Augments have been added to support Pet builds
•6 new Faction Augments have been added for Burn, Coldburn and Electrocute builds
•Many older Monster Infrequents (MIs) have had their stats updated to bring them in line with more recently introduced MIs
•Rare Suffix - Abomination: removed % Offensive Ability for real this time, added % Physical damage
•Component - Arcane Spark: can now also be applied to Medals
•Component - Mark of the Myrmidon: added 16% Reflect
•Crafting - several blueprints have been updated to use Chthonic Seals of Binding instead of Aether Crystals. More blueprints will be introduced in the future that use this crafting material.
•14 new Epics have been added to the loot pool in the 10-50 range
 
[Class & Skills]
 
Soldier
•Warcry: now has tiered effects that scale in size to more accurately represent the skills effect radius. Radius increased.
•Markovian's Advantage and Zolhan's Technique have been adjusted to provide a more fair value relative to other weapon pool skills, for their weight for point investment. They now increment to 25% prior to the level cap, then only bonuses increment.
•Markovian's Advantage and Zolhan's Technique bonuses have been shifted around and rebalanced to be more in line with the number of targets each skill hits
•Blade Arc: Bleed and % Weapon damage scaling increased
•Break Morale: changed from % Total resistance reduction to absolute Physical resist reduction. The resistance reduction also scales up to about twice what the original provided.
 
Demolitionist
•Fire Strike: Fire damage scaling with rank increased
•Static Strike: base chance increased from 15% to 30%, scaling to 60% at max and 75% at ultimate. Damage adjusted to start lower but scale higher.
•Quick Jacks: Lightning damage reduction increased to -30%, from -25%
 
Occultist
•Wasting: Vitality damage increased
•Black Death: Poison damage increased. Vitality and Bleed % damage bonuses increased
•Sigil of Destruction: Chaos and Fire damage increased
 
Nightblade
•Weapon-pool skill weights now all start at 8% and increment to 20% by level 5. Beyond that level, only the power of the skill increases.
•Scaling on various weapon pool skills adjusted based on the higher starting weights and change of Nidalla's Hidden Hand to affect Belgothian's Shears and Amarasta's Quick Cut.
•Belgothian's Shears %physical bonus changed to pierce so that it isn't self-boosting and flat physical scaled down slightly.
•Amarasta's Quick Cut %weapon damage scales to a higher cap. Pierce damage also increased at cap but %pierce was removed.
•Whirling Death %weapon damage starts lower but scales faster to reach within 5% of the than the original cap. Bleed damage scaling increased.
•Ring of Steel: Pierce damage starts lower but scales faster to reach a higher max damage
•Circle of Slaughter: Bleed damage significantly increased
•Blade Trap: replaced % Weapon damage, which was actually not functioning, with flat Pierce damage. A significant damage increase for the skill. % Defensive Ability reduction now scales with rank, starting at -25%, instead of being -50% at all ranks.
•Devouring Blades: added % Pierce bonus, reduced starting % Damage Converted to Health to 25%, from 33%
•Frenetic Throw: Total damage reduction increased
•Lethal Gambit: % Current Life damage minimum now scales up to 7% at max ranks instead of remaining at 1% at all ranks
•Amarasta's Blade Burst: % Weapon damage now scales up to 75%, up from 50%
•Merciless Repertoire: % damage bonuses increased. Added % Acid damage bonus
 
Arcanist
•Panetti's Replicating Missile: slightly increased scaling, more so at rank 13 and above
•Distortion: slightly increased Aether damage scaling with rank, with a bump at rank 12. Added % Fire damage
•Supercharged: % Elemental damage bonus increased with rank
•Proliferation: now starts at 2 additional fragments, % Aether damage bonus increased with rank
•Sky Shard: area of effect scaling increased, but energy cost increased with rank as well

Shamans are untamed fighters capable of brutal strength and ferocity that would make most men take a step back and reconsider their chances; but that wild side is equally matched by their connection to the skies and the power of lightning storms. Shamans expertly combine the use of two-handed melee weapons with storm powers. Backed by their patron deity, Mogdrogen the Beast God, they fearlessly charge into battle with lightning surging through their fierce weapons, the scorched earth and corpses still reeling from the electricity coursing through them the only sign of their passing.

Are you guys still on target for a fully polished release by the end of 2015?
 
[AB] I think the game will be complete before the end of the year. If it's ready for official release before the end of Oct, then we'll move it out of Early Access. If we finish in Nov or Dec, we might keep polishing it until Jan or Feb just because the holiday season would probably be a tough time to release, with all the high-profile games that come out at that time. In either case though, people will be able to play through the full content before the end of the year.

[Major New Features]
The 6th and final mastery is now available: Shaman. The Shaman mastery opens up new opportunities for players seeking the power of lightning, additional summoned minions and powerful two-handed melee techniques.  
The vile swamps of East Marsh are now accessible. Travel to the east of Burrwitch and take on two new mini-bosses.  
A new chest has been introduced: Treasure Trove. Rumors speak of vast quantities of Iron Bits that Treasure Troves contain, but the only way to open them is with the use of Dynamite. Treasure Troves are scattered around the far reaches of the world.  
Nemesis bosses now have a chance to drop Warrants, which boost Infamy gained with the respective faction by 50% across all difficulties. Warrants can be freely traded between players.  
The Damage per Second display on the Character sheet has been overhauled. It now displays the DPS of your Left Mouse Button attack, with a detailed damage break-down in the tooltip. This calculation assumes a single target and takes into account all of your bonuses, including the skill's cooldown.  
Two new Damage per Hit calculations have been added to the Char II tab of the Character Sheet which provide a Damage calculation of the skills you currently have set on the Left and Right Mouse Buttons, with a detailed breakdown in the tooltip. These calculations assume a single target and take into account all of your bonuses.  
Skill tooltips now take into account all of your bonuses and update dynamically as you swap out equipment.  
 
[Art]
Updated Underground Cellar art set  
Art adjustment pass on swamp environments  
 
 
Tech
Fixed a crash when crafting items quickly  
Fixed a crash which could sometimes occur when loading the world  
Fixed a bug where skills bound to mouse wheel events would activate repeatedly  
Fixed a bug with pet skills not getting properly boosted from +skill bonuses on items  
Fixed certain item attribute tags being singular when plural should be used  
Fixed some spells not properly benefiting from critical damage bonus on equipment  
Large item tooltips can now be scrolled using the mouse wheel.  
Fixed conversion attributes merging into a percentage point of value 1.  
 
Animation
Fixed an issue where dual wielded pistols were clipping incorrectly through female players character's offhand  
 
[Game]
The Grobles that have seized Tyrant's Hold have discovered an entrance to the inner chambers. Bloodfeast has moved his camp deep inside the Fort.  
Increased the spawn rate of Nemesis bosses  
Faction reputation has been changed so that your reputation is not reset across difficulties. Faction Writs are now available at Honored for a high price as a shortcut to reaching Revered. Quartermaster rewards will no longer update on higher difficulties. Higher level faction equipment will be available in the future in the form of blueprints. For the Kymon's Chosen vs Order of Death's Vigil decision, you will have the option of switching your loyalties on higher difficulties (resetting your reputation with those groups).  
Bounty Tables now offer the same bounties to all players in a Multiplayer session  
Possessed Archmage's Arcane Shield has had its % Reflect reduced, but it now scales with level up to its original value and the skill deals Aether retaliation in addition to the reflected damage  
Bolvar the Bloodbinder now has a more pronounced animation when casting his Chaos Barrage, but the skill launches more projectiles  
Nathaniel and his goons for the Burn the Taken quest have had their damage reduced  
Order of Death's Vigil Dreadlords now summon Revenants less often and use their Vitality tendril attacks with significantly reduced frequency  
Increased the threat of various Kymon's Chosen spawns so that they better compete with their Order of Death's Vigil counterparts  
You can now ask the Chosen and Order emissaries about the equipment their respective factions offer  
The Bladesworn Talisman is now offered by the Devil's Crossing Quartermaster instead of the Black Legion Quartermaster  
Quest - An Old Threat: Outlaw lieutenants are no longer required targets for this quest. The quest can now be turned in retroactively if you have slain Darius Cronley before accepting it.  
Quest - Disarming the Enemy: the quest is now retroactive if you destroy at least 3 Forges during a single session, prior to accepting the quest  
Bounty: Manticore Eye has been replaced with a new bounty targeting Cavern Crawlers in the Mountain Deeps. Anyone currently on this bounty will have it erased from their quest log.  
Increased drop rate of the Depraved Sanctuary key  
Increased drop rate of Kilrian's Shattered Soul and Kilrian's Skullbreaker  
Sound effects for Gunfire and Crossbow shots have been updated  
 
[Itemization]
Duplicate Unique items should now drop far less frequently in a single session thanks to optimized quantum algorithms  
Conversion: the order of events on Conversion from gear has been changed. It is now: Skills -> Skill Modifiers -> Skill Conversion -> Equipment Conversion -> Equipment Modifiers and Skill Passives/Auras. Previously, Conversion on Equipment would be the last step.  
Magic Affix loot tables have been updated so that lower level affixes stop dropping sooner, increasing the probability of getting appropriate-level bonuses dramatically.  
Additional tiers of Magic % Damage suffixes have been added for Weapons so upgrades are available more consistently. This does not increase the number of possible affixes; instead, the affixes are replaced more frequently with better versions.  
Base damage values on weapons have been significantly increased with level. Overall, we felt that going up weapon tiers was unrewarding and there was too much reliance on good RNG to get a decent weapon. Now most of a weapon's flat damage comes from its base values, and less from its affixes. This change necessitated adjustments to the stat requirements formula. While we tried to maintain the same progression, you may find that the requirements on your weapons may have shifted a few stat points.  
With the above weapon damage rebalance, two-handed guns and crossbows have had their damage increased more, so that their ratio to one-handed guns is closer to that of two-handed vs one-handed melee weapons  
In addition, the penalty on Pierce ratio has been slightly reduced, shrinking the DPS gap between weapons with high Pierce ratio and those without any  
To compensate for the weapon damage rebalance, flat damage bonuses on all equipment have been reduced, or in some cases removed entirely  
As the above changes have a significant impact on hybrid characters' ability to collect their desired element, physical-to-magic damage Conversion is now more readily accessible on Components, Prefixes and Uniques  
Armor values have been significantly increased with level to provide reasonable protection against incoming damage. Heavy Armor in particular should be better at absorbing hits from non-bosses. Armor requirements have been recalculated based on these changes, resulting in a small increase in physique requirements on standard Armor and Heavy Armor at level 30+ and a slight reduction in Physique requirements to Caster Armor.  
Attribute Magic suffixes have been removed from the loot tables for weapons, and the chance of getting weapons with % damage bonuses has been increased  
Caster Implements can now roll +Skill prefixes. Magic Class prefixes have had their % damage bonuses increased  
Caster Implements now also have base % damage bonuses  
Shield Damage has been increased to match the increase for melee weapons, Physique requirements slightly increased at higher levels  
% Attack Damage Converted to Health bonuses have been reduced, and in some cases removed/replaced, on all equipment. In addition, it no longer scales above 100% Weapon Damage on skills (ex. 20% life steal with 200% Weapon Damage would still be 20%, not scale up to 40%).  
Item Pets: Innate damage / life scaling with level reduced in accordance to B26 changes to Occultist mastery summons. This change did not make B26 and is simply bringing item pet scaling in line with those summoned by Mastery skills, which they are not meant to out-compete.  
 
Epic Items
Epic: many granted item skills have had their cooldowns reduced and stats improved  
Epic: reduced + Skill bonuses on various Epics  
Epic - Chains of Anguish: increased cooldown on the skill to 60s and reduced resistance penalty to -50%  
Epic - Black Grimoire of Og'Napesh: removed bonus to Physique and Pet % Health bonus, reduced Pet % Damage bonus  
Epic - Death Ward: removed the unintentionally high Cold damage bonus  
Epic - Falcon's Claw: + skill bonuses replaced with bonuses to Shaman skills  
Epic - Guardsman's Defender: added +1 to Blitz  
Epic - Hulking Legguards: Added % Trauma damage bonus, physique reduced to 25, % Armor and flat Physical damage removed. The chance to activate Earthquake has been increased to 5% and the values on the skill have been updated.  
Epic - Jewel of the Royal Crown: reduced Health bonus  
Epic - Scythe of Tenebris: replaced Cast Speed bonus with Cooldown Reduction  
Epic - Spiritstone Charm: reduced Pet % Health bonus  
Epic - Warmonger's Belt: reduced the Defensive Ability penalty on the proc from -150 to -30  
Epic - Warpath Girdle: replaced Physical damage bonuses with % Bleed damage and % Trauma damage, reduced Attack Speed to 4%  
Epic - Wyrmclaw: reduced Pet % Defensive Ability bonus, replaced % Acid damage with 50% Pet Fire Damage  
Updated several item skills (Ex. Death Ward's Defy Death) that had a chance to activate on low health to instead always activate at a fixed health %, as they were originally intended  
 
Magic and Rare Items
Magic Suffix - Celerity: added additional tiers of this suffix for Accessories, starting with lower values but ending at higher values. Items currently rolled with this suffix will have the first tier. New items will roll with the level-appropriate version.  
Faction - Augments: reduced Offensive and Defensive ability bonuses, level requirements increased  
Faction - Devil's War Seal: reduced Pet % Defensive Ability bonus  
Faction - Rhowari Mantle: reduced Pet % Damage bonus  
Rare Affixes: Focus-only prefixes and suffixes have had their stats updated. Several suffixes can no longer drop, as they are redundant with the changes made, and are considered Legacy items (Affliction, Conflagration, Defiler, Squalls, Storms, Winter Storm)  
Rare Prefixes: 2 new prefixes, Demonic (Chaos + Vitality) and Aetherfire (Aether + Fire), can now drop on Focus, Armor and Accessory items  
Rare Prefixes: updated bonuses on various weapon rare prefixes  
Rare Prefixes: updated class-specific rare Prefixes with the addition of a new tier. The current bonuses are being shifted up to a level 65 version.  
Rare Prefix - Incorruptible: reduced bonuses  
Rare Prefix - Inquisitor's: stats redesigned to favor Elemental builds  
Rare Prefix - Flamecaster's: renamed to Enchanter's, bonuses redesigned to favor Elemental builds  
Rare Prefix - General's: stats redesigned  
Rare Prefix - Hoarfrost: renamed to Incanter's, redesigned to favor Elemental builds. can now drop on all weapon types instead of just ranged weapons  
Rare Prefix - Imposing: removed % Armor bonus  
Rare Prefix - Light Bringer's: stats redesigned to favor Elemental builds and Cast Speed  
Rare Prefix - Menacing: reduced Offensive Ability bonus  
Rare Prefix - Paladin's: replaced % Physique bonus with % Protection, increased retaliation chance to 5%  
Rare Prefix - Renegade's: reduced Offensive Ability bonus  
Rare Prefix - Resonant: stats redesigned to favor Elemental builds  
Rare Prefix - Savage: renamed to Relentless  
Rare Prefix - Sandstorm: stats redesigned to favor Elemental builds  
Rare Prefix - Seraphim: reduced Defensive Ability bonus  
Rare Prefix - Stonehide: removed Defensive Ability bonus  
Rare Prefix - Stormheart: this prefix can now drop on all weapon types instead of just ranged weapons  
Rare Prefix - Thunderstruck: reduced Offensive Ability and increased Electrocute Retaliation on Accessories  
Rare Prefix - Tyrant's: reduced % damage reduction and removed Offensive Ability, but increased Cunning bonus  
Rare Suffixes: consolidated some weapon suffixes. Conflagration, Defiler, Shattering, Torrents and Wildfire now give a bonus to absolute and damage over time. Affliction, Hurricane, Squalls and Winter Storm can no longer drop on weapons and are considered Legacy items.  
Rare Suffixes: replaced the + Skill bonuses on the following Armor suffixes: Amarasta's Flurry, Destruction, Dreeg's Gaze, Maiven's Wit, Oleron's Wrath and Solael's Malice  
Rare Suffixes: increased chance of generating Ring-only suffixes on Rings  
Rare Suffixes: added 5 new suffixes for Rings with + Skills: Amarasta's Flurry, Destruction, Dreeg's Gaze, Oleron's Wrath and Solael's Malice  
Rare Suffixes: Fallen Skies and Nature's Bounty have been split off into an Armor-only version and a Rings-only version. This change is retroactive, so Accessories already rolled with these suffixes will have the Armor-version stats, but new Accessories (except Rings) will not roll these suffixes.  
Rare Suffix - Albrecht's Focus: this suffix now only drops on rings  
Rare Suffix - Anomalies: replaced flat Aether damage with Cast Speed, added bonus to Callidor's Tempest, now has Aether Retaliation at all levels  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Annihilation: added Spirit bonus  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Arcane Balance: increased % Fire and % Cold damage bonuses  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Arcane Blaze: increased % Fire damage bonus, added bonus to Callidor's Tempest  
Rare Suffix - Basilisk: stats redesigned for defensive builds  
Rare Suffix - Bestial Rage: reduced pet % Attack Speed bonus  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Blight: increased % Vitality damage bonus and added Cast Speed bonus, but removed flat Vitality damage and reduced % Poison duration  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Cabal: increased % Chaos and % Poison damage bonuses, added bonus to Curse of Frailty  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Cruelty: increased chance of % Bleed damage, but reduced % Bleed duration bonus  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Devourer: can no longer drop. Items already with this suffix are considered Legacy items.  
Rare Suffix - Diviner: replaced flat Chaos damage with Cast Speed, added bonus to Doombolt, now has Chaos Retaliation at all levels  
Rare Suffix - Dranghoul: reduced Offensive Ability bonus on Armor  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Elements: added Cast Speed bonus  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Fallen Skies: increased % Cold and % Lightning damage bonuses  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Flamecaller: increased % Fire damage bonus, added bonus to Thermite Mines  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Fury: reduced Offensive Ability bonus  
Rare Suffix - Gildam Arcanum: added Cast Speed Bonus  
Rare Suffix - Glacier: added bonus to Flash Freeze, now has Freeze Resistance at all levels  
Rare Suffix - Hellhound: renamed to Incineration, added Cast Speed, replaced Fire Retaliation with bonus to Blackwater Cocktail, no longer gives a % Fire damage bonus to Pets  
Rare Suffix - Hurricane: added a bonus to Wind Devil, now has Stun Resistance at all levels  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Insanity: updated stats  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Sage: increased drop rate of this suffix  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Sanctification: updated stats  
Rare Suffix - Shadows: removed Cunning bonus  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Shattered Reality: increased % Aether and % Chaos damage bonuses  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Slayer: increased chance of % Pierce damage  
Rare Suffix - Slith: replaced Poison Duration Reduction with bonus to Dreeg's Evil Eye, Poison Damage duration now scales up with suffix tier  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Solael's Malice: increased % Chaos damage bonus  
Rare Suffix (Weapon) - Voidfire: increased % Fire damage bonus  
 
Crafting and Relics
Relic - updated Class-specific crafting bonuses: removed % Damage bonuses, replaced bonuses to base skills to instead be bonuses to skill modifiers, and reduced the bonus from +2 to +1  
Relic - Ancestor: attributes bonuses have been replaced by +1 to Shaman skills (new crafting bonus table to match) and 25% Vitality resistance for pets. % Defensive ability bonus increased to 5%. Pet damage bonus increased to 35%. Bonuses on granted skill increased, but the reserved energy has also been increased.  
Relic - Blight: increased Poison damage significantly on the granted skill to offset the risk of being in melee range  
Relic - Desolation: this Relic's effect can now activate off of any melee hits taken, rather than at low health. Cooldown reduced significantly.  
Relic - Rampage: reduced Offensive Ability bonus on this Relic's triggered effect to 40  
Relic - Savagery: renamed to Savage. Reduced Pet % Damage and Health bonuses. Bonus to all Shaman skills removed and crafting bonus table reverted. Any crafted Savagery Relics will retain their current crafting bonus. The Stormhound has learned to cleave its enemies with storm claws. Cooldown and energy cost of Summon Stormhound increased.  
Relic - Zeal: chance to activate this Relic's effect increased.  
Crafting: reduced crafting cost of Magic-quality blueprints  
Crafting: reduced crafting cost for Explorer's Tunic, Explorer's Trousers and Guardsman's Breastplate  
Crafting: increased item level on rare crafted armor, stats and requirements increased accordingly. The blueprints will continue to drop at the same level so that you have a chance to acquire the blueprints well in advance of when the armor is useful. This change is retroactive.  
Crafting: improved bonuses on Brutal Great Axe, Brutal Carver, Adept's Wand and Scepter rare blueprints  
Crafting: replaced % Attack Speed on Ranger's Ribbon and Badge with Pierce Resistance  
 
Components
Components: many component-granted skills have been revised, in some cases buffed significantly. More are now spammable to offer up new options to casters of various elements, while others have had their cooldowns reduced. Chaos Strike is now a teleport akin to Nightblade's Shadow Strike, Lightning Strike has been replaced with a Lightning Nova.  
Components: updated sell values on all Components, with higher level Components being worth significantly more than entry-tier Components  
Components: Weapon Components can now roll Cast Speed as a completion bonus, reduced % Attack Speed bonuses to 4%  
Components: Most Components previously restricted to melee weapons can now also be applied to Shields and Caster Off-hands (ex. Amber, Coldstone, etc.)  
Components: All Components previously restricted to guns and crossbows can now also be applied to Caster Off-hands (ex. Flintcore Bolts)  
Components: Chains of Oleron and Hallowed Ground have had their Completion bonus table redone. They now generate +1 to two skills from a Mastery. All non-mastery bonuses can no longer be generated. +1 to Mastery bonuses have been replaced with the new +1 to two skill bonuses.  
Components: Imbued Silver and Purified Salt have been redesigned. While thematically, these Components made sense, they were not particularly appealing or competitive with other options offered. These Components now serve as defensive options on weapons.  
Component - Ancient Armor Plate: removed % Total damage bonus, % Protection bonus increased to 6%  
Component - Arcane Spark: reduced Offensive Ability bonus to 25  
Component - Attuned Lodestone: stats redesigned  
Component - Chains of Oleron: stats updated  
Component - Dense Fur: replaced % Constitution bonus with Bonus Armor  
Component - Hallowed Ground: stats updated  
Component - Haunted Steel: completion bonus table replaced with standard Rare Weapon Component table  
Component - Kilrian's Shattered Soul: increased % Vitality damage to 25% and Vitality resistance to 20%, added % Fire damage  
Component - Mark of Mogdrogen: removed penalty to Beasts and Beastkin, increased Health Regeneration to 15  
Component - Mark of the Traveler: removed penalty to Beasts and Beastkin, added 10% Slow resistance  
Component - Roiling Blood: reduced Offensive Ability bonus to 16  
Component - Serrated Spike: now also provides 12% Bleed damage  
Component - Silvercore Bolts: stats redesigned, completion bonus table replaced with standard Rare Weapon Component table  
 
[Class & Skills]
Mortar Traps, Thermite Mines and Blade Spirit summons have been overhauled to scale with player stats instead of pet bonuses. We felt that the fantasy around those skills never quite fit the summoner role but, due to technical limitations, it was necessary for them to scale with pet bonuses. With recent tech changes, we are now able to make those skills function as they were always intended: as standard player skills. Summoned minions such as the Raven and Hellhound continue to scale with pet bonuses.  
Damage over Time from multiple sources (ex. Poison on Weapon and from Dreeg's Evil Eye on the same target) no longer suffer from diminishing returns and now deal full damage  
A new damage multiplier has been added for Transmuters. This modifier is multiplicative with other % bonuses, which are normally additive. Most transmuters have been rebalanced with this new mechanic.  
Fixed an issue where + Skill bonuses to skills with % Weapon Damage would not properly apply the % Weapon Damage of the increased skill rank. As skills were balanced around this bug, some skills have had their % Weapon Damage values adjusted at Ultimate skill ranks.  
 
Soldier
Field Command: increased Offensive/Defensive Ability and % Protection scaling with rank  
Blade Arc: animation speed increased and energy cost reduced  
Clean Sweep: rebalanced to use new damage multiplier, removing the % damage bonuses  
Laceration: increased % Bleed and % Trauma damage  
Tremor: rebalanced to use new damage multiplier for its penalty, dropping the - % Physical damage and reducing the - % Weapon Damage  
Rending Force armor reduction increased - max level went from 105 to 180.  
Warcry: cooldown increased from 5s to 6.5s and % Total damage reduction lowered at cap from 45% to 36%.  
Break Morale: increased from 8 to 12 ranks as it seemed like too much payout for so little investment, especially given that Soldier has fewer total points than other masteries. Physical resistance reduction was also scaled down slightly.  
Military Conditioning: added a Physical damage bonus. Cadence and Deadly Momentum have been trimmed back to compensate.  
Cadence: added an energy cost and reduced Physical damage scaling with rank  
Deadly Momentum: reduced flat Physical damage scaling with rank  
 
Demolitionist
Skills affected by Ulzuin's Chosen can now be properly respecced as long as at least one remains learned  
High Impact: reduced the % Physical damage bonus by 50% at all ranks, slightly reduced Fire damage scaling with rank  
Skyfire Grenado: increased Lightning and Electrocute damage scaling with rank. Rebalanced energy cost scaling to be similar to that of High Impact.  
Stun Jacks: Flat damage was able to be increased with Quick Jacks being shifted to use a new damage multiplier for it's penalty  
Quick Jacks: rebalanced with new damage multiplier instead of the % Lightning and % Physical damage penalties. Effect on DPS will vary with build but moderately well equipped test characters saw a slight increase. The penalty shouldn't be as harsh at lower levels since it is multiplicative instead of additive but should retain more significance at higher levels.  
Mortar Trap: rebalanced to scale with player stats instead of Pet bonuses. Projectile speed increased, delay between attacks reduced. The Big One now fires sooner.  
Thermite Mines: rebalanced to scale with player stats instead of Pet bonuses. Energy cost reduced.  
Fire Strike: % Weapon Damage now scales with rank, % Physical damage bonus increased at ultimate ranks  
Searing Strike: rebalanced with new damage multiplier, removing the % damage bonuses. Now also works with rifles and crossbows in addition to melee weapons.  
Flame Touched and Temper: increased % Damage bonuses. Added % Physical Trauma bonus to Temper.  
Concussive Bomb: rebalanced with new damage multiplier instead of the % Total damage penalty  
 
Occultist
Bloody Pox: now remains active on dead enemies for the duration of the effect  
Dreeg's Evil Eye: % Weapon damage has been adjusted down to a more reasonable level  
Focused Gaze: radius increased, % Acid and % Poison damage bonuses increased, added 100% Poison Duration  
Sigil of Consumption: energy cost slightly reduced and damage scaling increased. Destruction modifier damage slightly reduced and cost increased. Intention was just to equalize the damage for cost more between the base skill and the modifier.  
Curse of Frailty: added Energy Leech  
Consecrated Blade: now works with rifles and crossbows in addition to melee weapons  
 
Nightblade
Pneumatic Burst: Cold damage exchanged for Life Regeneration  
Night's Chill: added Poison resistance reduction  
Nightfall: added % Weapon damage and increased Cold damage  
Blade Spirit: rebalanced to scale with player stats instead of Pet bonuses. Energy cost and cooldown reduced significantly.  
Phantasmal Armor: increased Armor and Energy Leech scaling with rank  
Focused Throw: added additional blades, increased % Pierce damage and % Life Leech  
Fixed an issue with Amarasta's Blade Burst not dealing % Weapon Damage  
Nidalla's Hidden Hand: updated tooltip to correctly state that Pierce damage is Converted to Acid, not Poison. This was a display issue only.  
Weapon pool skills have been adjusted to promote Pierce a little more, over Blademasters just going for straight Physical damage modifiers, especially with the boost to base physical weapon damage this build  
 
Arcanist
Albrecht's Aether Ray: damage and energy cost increased slightly. % Critical Damage bonus moved to Disintegration.  
Disintegration: the % Weapon damage on this skill was not properly scaling with weapon damage and has been removed. This change has a minimal impact on Aether Ray's damage.  
Arcane Will: increased Total damage bonus by 10% at all ranks. The skill now activates when below 70% health  
Iskandra's Elemental Exchange and its modifiers have been revised  
Callidor's Tempest: rebalanced with new damage multiplier, removing the % damage bonuses  
Maiven's Sphere of Protection has been turned into a toggled buff since it was seen as overlapping too much with Mirror of Ereoctes and also given the preponderance of active skills on Arcanist. The stats have been adjusted based on the ability to have it always on.  
Olexra's Flash Freeze: damage and energy cost increased, Fire Resistance reduction on targets increased significantly  
Absolute Zero: increased Coldburn damage scaling with rank and slightly increased % Total Speed Reduction, added Physical Resistance reduction  
Reckless Power: % Health penalty now starts at -40%, but decreases with rank to -20% at rank 12, and -15% at rank 22. Previously, the health penalty increased with rank.

You are probably eagerly asking now: but when do I get to try all this out for myself? And the answer is very soon! We would like to get Devotion in your hands as soon as possible so that we can get your feedback and impressions. Devotion is coming in November with the release of Build 28, which is expected to go into internal testing in the near future.

Build 28: Devotion and Act 4 Part 1 is now Available!

Hearken to the call! The time has come to leave the confines of Homestead, pass through the Darkvale gate and venture on through the unforgiving wilds of the Asterkarn Mountains. Within the desolate Fort Ikon, further mystery awaits and troubling events unfold...

Along with this stretch of new content, ending in a new boss battle, we're also rolling out the much awaited Devotion system. The level cap has also been raised to 60.

Devotions provide a new layer of skill customization, changing the feel of character progression, greatly expanding build diversity and adding hours of theory-crafting! Devotion points are earned by restoring broken or corrupted shrines found throughout the world and then spent among a giant sky map of constellations. Each constellation has its own lore, adding to the flavor of the world, stat bonuses on each star and the potential to unlock Celestial Powers, which are attached to your class skills and triggered in different ways. Access to higher tier constellations is unlocked by accumulating devotion among five different affinities: Chaos, Order, Eldritch, Primordial and Ascendant.

The remainder of Act 4, which will take you into Necropolis and then down into the final dungeon, is virtually complete and just awaiting polish work and animation of the final boss. It should roll out near the end of the year.

We hope you enjoy the new content and are very excited to see people's reactions to Devotion, which we've all enjoyed playing with and believe adds a lot of new depth and fun to Grim Dawn.

For the full list of changes, visit the forum.

[Major New Features]
•The area beyond the Darkvale Gates has been unlocked, granting you access to the Black Legion stronghold of Fort Ikon and the wilderness around it.
•The Devotion System is now available. Venture out into the world and uncover shrines dedicated to the deities and celestial symbols of old. Restore them to their former glory in order to harness their power and unlock new bonuses and effects.
•The Devotion System is the final layer of character customization in Grim Dawn, offering you a staggering amount of choices to augment your builds and add your personal touch, helping make your builds even more unique. Spend up to 50 points in the Devotion UI across 434 stars and unlock 50 unique Celestial Powers!
•With the release of new areas to explore, the level cap has been increased to 60.

[Art]
•Caster weapon art updated to feel more appropriate for melee combat, with larger blades and heftier scepters
•Updated the mesh and texture on the Occultist's Familiar pet
•Updated art for various structures and environments in Devil's Crossing, Lower Crossing and Burrwitch. Added signs to more buildings, providing you more insight into the daily lives of people in Cairn.
•Added signs to the various mines in the Arkovian Foothills and Old Arkovia

[Animation]
•Updated animations and timing on the Flesh Hulk's two default attacks.

[Tech]
◦Updated the method by which areas are loaded as you move around the world, resulting in reduced CPU load and significantly improved performance. The performance gains will depend on your hardware configuration.
◦Various calculation processes have been optimized, resulting in up to a 10% gain in framerates. These changes may cause your equipment to reroll their stats, resulting in different values. This may cause you to lose, or gain, some attributes.
◦The Always Show Loot Filter is now stored on a per-character basis. You can change the loot filter set for your character by pressing the new button on the left side of the HUD.
◦Item stacking has been overhauled. You can now split item stacks without resorting to weird tricks. Item stacks also no longer count as individual items, resulting in smoother connections in Multiplayer. The stack size for crafting materials has been increased significantly.
◦Fixed an issue resulting in a stuck cursor when using Windows scaling
◦Fixed a bug where certain loot containers would not respect their minimum and maximum level range
◦All damage calculations on the Character Sheet now include Conversion
◦Added armor absorption to the Armor Rating tooltip on Character Sheet Tab I
◦Removed the Complete Components button for the extra inventory bags. The main inventory's combine button will now complete Components throughout the entire inventory.
◦Fixed certain skill damage calculations double dipping from active buffs
◦Mind controlled monsters will now award the appropriate reputation when killed
◦Fixed an instance where spamming certain skills could cause the player to attack itself
◦Fixed an issue with beam spells (ex. Aether Ray) that would allow you to cast them while moving
◦Fixed an issue with beams spells that would allow you to accelerate the casting speed of other skills

[Game]
◦Nemesis spawns now have a 100% chance to spawn in a session, if you meet the Faction requirements
◦Loot Chests and Orbs from Nemesis and Bounty targets will now generate loot at the level of the monster, and not the area they are opened in (ex. a level 40 Bounty target appearing in a level 15 area will now drop level 40 loot instead of level 15 loot)
◦Fabius "the Unseen" Gonzar has received a tuning pass, with a reduction to his damage burst and an adjustment to his Blade Barrier. Blade Barrier has a longer cooldown and reflects far less damage, but now also deals Pierce retaliation.
◦Increased the spawn rate of Kymon's Chosen and Order of Death's Vigil heroes, if you meet the Faction requirements
◦Lore notes you've already read will no longer appear in the world
◦Balancing adjustments to many different enemies / enemy skills.
◦The difficulty jump from Normal to Veteran is more pronounced now, with the result that Veteran should be more challenging. We've done a lot of work though to reduce damage spikes, so it should be a little easier to handle the increase.

[Itemization]
◦% Conversion on MI (Monster Infrequent) one-handed weapons and helms replaced to reduce excessive Conversion stacking, particularly while dual wielding
◦Shield Block Recovery cooldown significantly reduced on all shields. Shield damage blocked has been adjusted in some cases, but the net result is a buff to the defense provided by shields.
◦Updated Retaliation values on items of Rare and above quality, particularly chance of Retaliation values. This is a general buff primarily focused on Rare and Monster Infrequent items, but some Epics were affected as well.
◦All Component Blueprints are now sold by Faction Quartermasters at Respected status. They no longer drop from monsters/chests.
◦Epic - Guardsman's Raiment: replaced Block Recovery 2-piece bonus with 6% Defensive Ability
◦Epic - Menhir's Touch set: renamed to The Apothecary
◦Epic - Miasma set: updated set bonuses and stats on Torso and Helm
◦Epic - Shieldmaiden's Guard: replaced Block Recovery with 5% Defensive Ability
◦Relics: removed % Experience from the list of possible completion bonuses. Increased values on bonuses against specific monster types and increased % attribute combination bonuses.
◦Relic - Desolation: increased the Electrocute damage to 24
◦Relic - Haunt: Increased the radius of the activated skill to 5 and increased the damage. The skill now also reduces Aether Resistance. Resistance reduction increased to -30%.
◦Relic - Juggernaut: reduced % Physical damage to 28%
◦Relic - Mistborn Talisman: updated values on Troll Rage based on changed to Shaman's Savagery in the B27 Hotfix 1 and 2 to bring this skill in line
◦Relic - Sacrifice: increased the cooldown on the activated skill, but slightly increased the flat Vitality damage
◦Relic - Slaughter: increased % Pierce damage to 20%, added 5-8 Pierce damage. Increased the damage, energy cost and number of targets and reduced the cooldown on the activated skill.
◦Relic - Torment: increased chance of activating the skill to 33%, added 5% Cast Speed, replaced Chance of % Current Life Retaliation with 8 Vitality damage
◦Class prefixes: the % damage modifiers have been replaced with appropriate attribute modifiers that will scale better in the long-term, while also reducing tooltip bloat
◦Rare prefixes: updated rare Shield prefixes with proc effects to trigger off of blocks rather than hits taken
◦Rare prefix - Bloodletter's: added 3% Offensive Ability bonus in addition to a significant buff to its chance of Bleed Retaliation
◦Rare prefix - Formidable: reduced % Physical damage bonus
◦Rare prefix - Paladin's: increased % Pierce resistance and damage reduction from Undead
◦Rare prefix - Plague Bearer's: added % Poison Duration
◦Rare prefix - Renegade: removed % Physical Resist and updated the slow to scale with the level of the affix.
◦Rare prefix - Stonehide: added % Poison resist
◦Rare suffix - Incantations: replaced % Elemental damage with % Total damage, energy regen replaced with % Spirit
◦Rare suffix - Redoubt: reduced Block Recovery bonus based on level of the affix, but increased the health bonus
◦Component - Aether Soul: increased % Aether damage to 12% and Aether Resistance to 8%
◦Component - Aethersteel Bolts: significantly increased the damage on Aether Tendril, slightly reduced its cooldown, but increased the energy cost
◦Component - Arcane Lens: increased elemental Damage to 2-6, up from 2-4
◦Component - Black Tallow: increased % Chaos damage to 12% and Chaos Resistance to 8%
◦Component - Blessed Steel: added 10% Conversion to Elemental
◦Component - Blessed Whetstone: increased Pierce Ratio modifier to 50%
◦Component - Corpse Dust: this component can now also be used on Medals
◦Component - Devil-Touched Ammo: added 10% Conversion to Fire, increased chance of % Total damage
◦Component - Dread Skull: increased % Pierce damage to 12%. This component can now also be used on Medals.
◦Component - Ectoplasm: this component can now also be used on Medals
◦Component - Focusing Prism: added 8% Crit damage
◦Component - Mark of Dreeg: added % Acid damage and Conversion to Acid. Increased damage on skill and slightly reduced cooldown.
◦Component - Roiling Blood: this component can now also be used on Medals
◦Component - Soul Shard: increased % Vitality damage to 12%. This component can now also be used on Rings.
◦Component - Vengeful Wraith: increased % Cold damage to 12%, but reduced % Coldburn damage to 15%. This component can now also be used on Rings.
◦Component - Wardstone: this component can now also be used on Medals
◦Components: updated Poison Bomb and Noxious Poison Bomb to instead leave behind a pool of bubbling venom which will continue to poison enemies that step into it
◦Components: adjusted damage on Greater Ice Spike, Greater Fireblast, Noxious Poison Bomb and Empowered Lightning Nova. Lightning Nova was performing a little too well, while the rest were lagging behind it, so the difference was equalized.
◦Components: adjusted the aura skills (ex. Lightning Aura). Added % damage over time bonuses in addition to direct % damage bonuses. Adjusted secondary effects, such as making the slow on Chill Aura affect Total Speed and not just run speed.
◦Components: reduced % Weapon damage on Component weapon attacks by 20% (ex. Slam). Oleron's Might was reduced by 40%, but the physical damage was increased and the cooldown reduced by 0.5s
◦Faction - Weapons crafted from Faction blueprints that do not deal primarily Physical or Pierce damage have been udpated to offer more of their damage type baseline, instead of being purely Physical (ex. a Vitality-based Order of Death's Vigil gun will do less Physical damage, but have baseline Vitality damage).
◦Faction - Binding Powder: replaced % Pet damage bonus with % Vitality resistance for Pets
◦Faction - Keeper's Binding Dust: replaced % Pet damage bonus with % Vitality resistance for Pets

[Class & Skills]

Soldier
◦Reworked Overguard
◦Reworked Veterancy
◦Added new shield passive that inherited some of the bonuses from Veterancy
◦Reworked Menhir's Bulwark and Oleron's Rage. They are now toggled exclusive skills similar to those available to Shaman.

Demolitionist
◦Mortar Trap: slightly reduced damage scaling with rank on the base mortar, but increased the damage scaling on The Big One

Occultist
◦Vulnerability: now starts lower but scales faster to same resist reduction by level cap. Intention is to make investment beyond the first point more attractive.

Nightblade
◦Shadow Strike: added Cold damage
◦Nidalla's Justifiable Ends: increased % Poison modifier
◦Nidalla's Hidden Hand: moved to tier 3 to make it easier to start melee poison builds. Skill has been rebalanced for earlier access.
◦Nightfall: increased Cold and Frostburn damage

Arcanist
◦Aether Ray: reduced Aether damage scaling with rank
◦Disintegration: reduced % Critical Damage bonus

Shaman
◦Briarthorn Ground Slam: Increased the radius

◦Aether Ray: reduced Aether damage scaling with rank