EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

June 28, 2019

Balance Changes/Fixes

General

• Sidearm : Improves with strength. We've had Sidearm set to improve with Dexterity for years, but ultimately determined that it made the stat too powerful compared to Strength. We hope this change encourages more build diversity and improves utility of the Strength stat.
• Field Medic: Improves with every 2.5 Support; Improves with every .1 levels over 20
  • Level 1: 165 Health Points
  • Level 2: 190 Health Points
  • Level 3: 215 Health Points
  • Level 4: 240 Health Points
  • Level 5: 265 Health Points
  • Level 6: 290 Health Points
  • Level 7: 315 Health Points
  • Level 8: 340 Health Points
  • Level 9: 365 Health Points
  • Level 10: 390 Health Points

Bounty Hunter

• Smoke: Increase base cost by 10 energy
• Stun Grenade: Improves with every .4 Dex instead of .45
• Shadow Arts: Removed damage reduction aspect as it was viewed to be too strong

Mercenary

• Blood Commander: Increased lifesteal to 80% of strength from 70%

Tech Mage

• Overload: Improves with every .3 Dexterity; Improves with every .3 levels above 20
• Plasma rain: Improves with dextery
• Assimilation: Now absorbs 100% of  energy drained

Tactical Mercenary

• Frenzy: 0 Energy requirement
• Field Commander: 10% Crit boost was only applying to primary damage. Will now apply to sidearm and auxiliary.

Cyber Hunter

• Malfunction: Improves with every 3.5 Support instead of 3.7 Tech
• Shadow Arts: Removed damage reduction aspect as it was viewed to be too strong

Blood Mage

• Overload: Improves with every .3 Dexterity; Improves with every .3 levels above 20
• Plasma rain: Improves with dextery         

Cores

• Health booster:  300 health  ; Energy booter: 300 energy
• Absorption: Changed from 50% to 40%

Next Week!

"Hey! Where's the meat?" You may be asking. Next week, we'll kick off the 4th of July Week with an Epic Charfade Evolution release. Charfade has been on Delta V for nearly a decade and while that harsh environment has made her gruff and gritty, it hasn't hardened her heart toward the sparce wildlife remaining on her adopted planet. Join us next week for new achievement, new bosses, new weapons, new armors, and all the burgers you can eat!*

*Last part may not be true.

Tags: Nightwraith

June 21, 2019

This week in EpicDuel, get ready to boost your rating points as we introduce 3 new, long-awaited, evolving achievements. While your stacking your ranks and trying the latest round of balance updates, try downloading the latest Artix Game Launcher for the best dueling experience!

Balance

As of the latest balance update, Mercenaries were punished hard and Hunters surged while Mages languished somewhere in the middle. This update will introduce some changes to soften the other passive armors, reduce the spam-ability of Venom Strike, and increase the stat cost of Shadow Arts. Mages should see a bump with a boost in Plasma Bolt and a change to Supercharge which can provide a huge boost to Rage depending on the target's Rage.

General

• Auxiliary damage rate improved slightly to encourage Support builds

Bounty Hunter

• Smoke Screen: Improves with every 4 Tech instead of 3.7
• Venom Strike: Cooldown 3
• Shadow Arts: Changed requirement to Support
  24 Support(+2 per skill level increase)
  Level 1: 24 Support
  Level 2: 26 Support
  Level 3: 28 Support
  Level 4: 30 Support
  Level 5: 32 Support
  Level 6: 34 Support
  Level 7: 36 Support
  Level 8: 38 Support
  Level 9: 40 Support
  Level 10: 42 Support

Mercenary

• Artillery Strike: Improves with every .35 support instead of .4

Tech Mage

• Plasma Bolt: Boosted defense ignore to 15% from 10%
• Supercharge: Caster receives bonus Rage based on target's current Rage
• Deadly Aim: requres Strength instead of Support

Cyber Hunter

• Venom Strike: Cooldown 3
• Shadow Arts: Changed requirement to Support
  24 Support(+2 per skill level increase)
  Level 1: 24 Support
  Level 2: 26 Support
  Level 3: 28 Support
  Level 4: 30 Support
  Level 5: 32 Support
  Level 6: 34 Support
  Level 7: 36 Support
  Level 8: 38 Support
  Level 9: 40 Support
  Level 10: 42 Support
• Plasma Armor:
  Level 1: 10% Resistance
  Level 2: 12% Resistance
  Level 3: 14% Resistance
  Level 4: 16% Resistance
  Level 5: 18% Resistance
  Level 6: 20% Resistance
  Level 7: 22% Resistance
  Level 8: 23% Resistance
  Level 9: 24% Resistance
  Level 10: 25% Resistance

Tactical Mercenary

• Artillery Strike: Improves with every .35 support instead of .4
• Toxic Grenade: Cooldown 3
• Mineral Armor:
  Level 1: 10% Defense
  Level 2: 12% Defense
  Level 3: 14% Defense
  Level 4: 16% Defense
  Level 5: 18% Defense
  Level 6: 20% Defense
  Level 7: 22% Defense
  Level 8: 23% Defense
  Level 9: 24% Defense
  Level 10: 25% Defense

Blood Mage

• Supercharge: Caster receives bonus Rage based on target's current Rage
• Deadly Aim: requres Strength instead of Support

Bots

• Pyro Fly:Chooses from top 3 skills rather than top 4 

Achievements

Win Rank: Awarded for wins, corresponding to rank icon on stats page. This will default to hidden and will update after one PvP victory.

Buy Backer: Now an evolving achievement with 12 levels. Will take some time to update, but can be updated instantly with a Buy Back purchase.

Banker: Awarded for buying bank slots (doesn't include the 20 free slots). 10 levels. This will take some time to update, but can be updated isntantly with a Bank Slot purchase.

Get the Artix Game Launcher V2

If you didn't know already, very soon most major browsers are discontinuing support of Flash! You may notice that browsers already disable Flash by default and require you to give special permissions to enable Flash. The best way to play EpicDuel and all the other Flash Artix Entertainment games is with the Artix Games Launcher 2.0! This app is the best way enjoy all your favorite AE browser games with easy access ot the latest news on each game's ongoing development. Ideally, all these Flash games will be ported to alternate platforms (like Steam, iOS and Android), but that project will take a bit more time and resources considering many of these games have decades of content!

In the meantime, get the latest Artix Games Launcher and Duel On today!

Get the Moglins on BackerKit! New stretch goal unlocked! 

You can still get the Moglins for a limited time on BackerKit!
The Moglins Kickstarter was a success! We have been using a service called BackerKit to send out the in-game codes to backers months ahead of schedule. If you missed out on the Kickstarter, you can still pledge and get your Moglins through BackerKit until the end of December. For more details, check out the complete Design Notes post about it!

Tags: Nightwraith

June 11, 2019

Surprise! To get out ahead of the ongoing security updates to the servers, which did cause some downtime earlier today, we're rolling out some significant balance changes today! Currently, Mercenaries and Tactical Mercenaries are extremely power, partially due to passive shield bonuses like Hybrid Armor. Other classes that are underperforming due to lack of damage or limited build diversity will receive signifant buffs to make them more competative.

Balance Changes

• General
  • Field Medic: 3 turn cooldown

• Bount Hunter
  • Venom strike: Reduce cost -20; Cooldown 2; Poison 4 turns.   
  • Cheap shot: +3 % per lvl
  • Shadow Arts: Damage reduction added
  • Stun Grenade: Reduce energy cost 20; Improves with every .45 Dex instead of .5

• Mercenary
  • Hybrid Armor: Reduced Defense/Resistance % to 6-15% 
  • Surgical Strike: Improves with every .35 Tech instead of .3

• Tech Mage
  • Supercharge: Reduce cost -30 per lvl
  • Bludgeon : 20% Crit chance; Reduced cost -20
  • Plasma rain: Improves with every .35 Support instead of .4
  • Overload: Improves with every .4 Dex instead of .45
  • Malfunction: Improves with every 3.7 Dex instead of 2.4 Supp; Improves for every 2 levels over 20

• Cyber Hunter
  • Cheap Shot: +3 % per lvl
  • Venom Strike: Reduce cost -20; cooldown 2; Poison 4 turns 
  • Malfunction: Improves with every 3.7 Dex instead of 2.8 Supp; Improves for every 2 levels over 20 
  • Shadow Arts: Damage reduction added
  • Multi-shot: Improves with Dex

• Tactical Mercenary
  • Surgical Strike: Improves with every .35 Tech instead of .3
  • Poison grenade: Cooldown reduced to 2 turns; poison lasts for 4 turns
  • Stun Grenade: Reduce energy cost 20; Improves with every .35 Dex instead of .4

• Blood Mage
  • Supercharge: Reduce cost -30 per lvl
  • Fireball: Removed warm-up
  • Plasma rain: Improves with every .35 Support instead of .4
  • Overload: Improves with every .4 Dex instead of .45

Bug Fix

• Hairstyles
  
  • Male Bounty Hunter style 209 should now be purchaseable. 
  • Bug that prevents you from equipping a purchased style after a class change until you log out and back in again persists

Tags: Nightwraith

June 07, 2019

This week in EpicDuel we're introducing a truckload of new styles, fixing bugs, and significantly buffing some of the new Infernal Gladiator skills!

Infernal Buffs

• Tremor Blast: Removed warmup; increased reduction to 20%
• Infernal Surge: 25% increase in stats; 0 energy use
• Plasma Super Beam: 4 Turn cooldown; Unlimited Use
• Infernal Sting: 4 Turn cooldown

Bug Fixes

• April Fools Founder Armor and Bike show up in Item Finder
• Molten Bullet: No longer blockable

New Styles

It seems like it's been ages since EpicDuel added some hairstyles that were just...hair and not some kind of weird alien helmet or grostesque mask. This week, we borrowed some styles from DragonFable and adapted them to EpicDuel's template for use on all classes and genders. Hopefully these 30+ new styles will allow for some unique new customization combinations!

Coming Attractions

Although we started June strong with 2 new promotional bundles, there's still plenty in the pipeline for EpicDuel's June releases! Charfade will be getting a new makeover, along with new gear to reflect her evolution over the nearly 10 years she's been stranded on Delta V.

We've also enlisted the help of 2 new artists: Lae and Tyronius, who've already lent their talents to AQW. I think their style translates quite well to ED, and I can't wait to get their new WIPs in game!

Tags: Nightwraith