Patch 2.1 Preview - Part 1

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##Progression

For this patch, we wanted to make sure it was dedicated to improving the “PvE” (player vs. environment) aspect of Dungeon Quest, especially considering how much of 2.0 was devoted to Battle Arena.

The overall goal and theme for 2.1 is “improving the feeling and reward for playing Campaign.” We’ve noticed multiple areas in the item progression curve that were causing players to be “stuck”, causing a bit of unpleasantness to how item progression felt.

One of the main areas this occurs is once a player reaches 99 and is in full Legends. The time it takes to reach the next point in gearing takes a bit of devotion. We don’t mind that there’s a farming required to get the best gear, but we want to do a better job of rewarding playtime.

So now the player has options. The first option is the only option in 2.0: Continue farming for gear at 99, pushing floors and hoping for Rare Legends, Eternals or High End Crystals/Mythstones. In 2.1 the second option will be: Ascend!

#Ascension

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Once you reach level 99 in 2.1, you’ll be able to purchase Ascension for your Hero. Your first Ascension will cost 5,000,000 gold, which is roughly the amount of gold you earn from a play-through to 99.

You’ll then be presented with a choice of powerful perks:.

  • Accomplished - Requirement to complete Feats reduced by 25% ( rounded up )
  • Enshrined - Increase effectiveness of Shrines by 300% and increases Shrine Count by 1
  • Hunter - Shrines now always spawn 1-3 Epic Enemies ( does not stack with Hunter mythic )
  • Treasured - Increased chance for Eternal and Crystal Legends by 300%
  • Fortunate - Adds 200% Luck and Gold Find to drops ( beyond cap ), increase pick-up radius by 5yd
  • Dealer - Increased gold value from selling items by 1000%

Unlike the Heroic System where you gain power from long term investment in hero points, you will not gain power from Ascension. However, the perks from Ascension will enable you to find gear more efficiently, helping you to gain power more quickly.

We also wanted to make sure this was a choice since some players might prefer one perk over another. Now it’s up to the player to decide their strategy and what means the most to them.

##Ranks

Once you Ascend, your Hero’s level and stats will be reset to 1, and all of your equipped gear will be unequipped. You’ll also earn a new colored frame that shows your Ascension Rank.

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Like all of our other systems, your rank will range from Magic to Eternal and will be visible in all areas of the game that your portrait frame is displayed.

This rank also determines how much experience is scaled. The amount of experience needed to get 99 is increase by 2x for the first rank, 3x for the next rank, 4x for the next, and so on (this might change before the patch is released).

#More to come

We have much more to discuss for 2.1 while we wait for testing to be completed. Our next blogs will cover:

  • New Sets
  • New Affixes
  • New Affix Types - Dependent Affixes and Negative Affixes
  • Battle Arena updates
  • Balance updates
  • Crystal changes
  • UI updates

If you have any feedback, suggestions, or questions about Ascension please let us know! We’re excited to talk about it and even more excited for this feature to be available (we’ve been waiting a long time before we could develop it).

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:alarm_clock:

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@SteigerBox if i understand correctly, perks is on toon not account as the X toon using it right. if that correct then if main have certain perk and hireling have certain perk does both count or only count from main only. and if it both. does the perk stack if both main and toon have same perk effect.?

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Perks will be active if the main hero has them, and most will be active for both heroes. The only perk that will need to be active for both is dealer.

They will also not stack.

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This is an awesome part of the update. Hopefully I get time to play once it releases, I’ve been so busy these past few weeks. crosses fingers

Cheers.

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Thanks. BTW for other thing like set affix (not the new one) I have some suggestion for it like deadly arts, I believe that set affix is broken long time ago and already get fixed.

Currently Deadly arts is chance by chance by chance to have just +1% to reset CD per rank. Since stealth already have it change to have min 4sec CD for its effect to active again, it should not make deadly arts broken again if the chance value increased back like 3% chance per rank, at rank 5 it should give chance by 15% to reset all CD.

This is all I have for now

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Once you ascend, you will be stripped of all your equipment and levels reset. This would mean that you will have to do everything all over again (start the game naked and powerless). I wonder if it would be better if you could just put in a system of scaling down item affix effects like the one implemented in PVP.

On the other hand, it probably is easier to just level ascended characters as hirelings. In this case, if the scaling is problematic to implement, maybe you could make the 2nd character slot free.

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It’s pretty easy to level characters - just put it on an easy setting and blow through maps. Your goal isn’t gathering loot, it’s gaining XP.

This will probably encourage people to start keeping lower-level legends and eternals so they can level up faster after Ascending. You can equip an item at ilvl/2, so some gear at ilvl ~20, ~50, and ~75 should get you in good shape to get to your optimized gear. Once you hit 50 you can put on all of your perfected ilvl 100 gear and blow things up.

One thing I do wonder - what happens to Heroic levels? I hope they stay, they take forever to get!

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Heroic Levels won’t be resetted, you don’t lose any progress on these. It just gets harder to level up each Ascension. :slight_smile:

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Can DQ add avatars? or new costume new hair to have a unique char appearance just asking… more power to DQ familylooking forward :smile:

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That amount of EXP is insane, man.
I like the perks, though.

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Wow. I’m excited to see some of the new things for 2.1. An for campaign focused as well. One question I have is that the bugs that are in 2.0 will they be fixed. Like carto an tnt killing hirelings. Etc. An another question once you ascend all 6 times. Is there a prize of some sort? Jw. One last thing. Thank you Shinybox for a wonderful game that all of you have made. Best game ever made IMO. An thank you to the committed testers an community helpers in the forums. Lots of pple would be lost with out you guys an gals.

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Very nice changes to PvE! I’d like to suggest some things. The current iteration of leveling ascended characters is kinda off-putting in my opinion. Leveling past Rare Ascendant rank takes 3x of the Normal rank and takes too much time just to wear hard-earned ilvl 100 gears (requires clvl 50 for ilvl 100 items) in my opinion. Further, the experience gained from defeating much stronger monsters in high level maps (200+) doesn’t scale well as far as I can tell. Monsters in level 700 maps give the same experience as monsters in much lower map levels, i.e. map level 200. For me personally, I just want to go as high as I can always with the best of my gears, then tweaking them along the way as I see fit. The added benefit of getting higher heroic points per epic and up monster killed, 100% chance of getting ilvl 100 items most very especially Eternal items which can’t be modified and the constant thrill of being pushed in accordance with my gear are the reasons I play high level maps. I saw some videos back in the old forums where some people are constantly farming 1300+ maps and I wanna do too (without taking too much time re-leveling)! :smiley:

I suggest these values instead:

Normal 1x
Magic 1.25x
Rare 1.5x
Epic 1.75x
Legend 2x
Mythic 2.5x
Eternal 3x

I also like to suggest another thing. The Fortunate Ascendant Perk, could you add Item Drops% here as well? :smile:

Of course I might be wrong since this is just a tiny bit of info released for the next patch… :smiley:

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Lvl reset seems not really a problem. since u have the hireling to boost ur XP :sweat_smile:

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I was thinking maybe +.5x each time. But, it’s not our choice. :wink:

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It’s actually not that bad. A few of our testers got to eternal within 5 days. After some changes it shouldnt go that fast in 2.1, but it’s still not as long as you would think.

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I see. Can you buy the ascension before you cap?
I don’t play that much. That’s why I’m iffy, haha. I’m fine with it, to be honest. It’s still fun. I usually play a game like this (and most MMOs) religiously for awhile and then transition to strictly building and helping community anyway.

EDIT: Purchasing ascension before cap wouldn’t make sense, on second thought… In place of that question, is EXP adjusted according to rank?

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Glad to see a new vision is coming. I hope new sets and affixes could balance the elements in PVE, instead of only prison and ice.

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It just takes about an in-game hour or two to get back to 50 and re-equip gear.

Do note that progress is NOT lost in any way, so ppl can actually jumpstart the new levels by… hmmm I will leave to your imagination. :grin:

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Ooooooh.