August 2017 Update

Overview

Tuesday August 15th, 2017 10:00 AM PDT
August 2017 Update (original by MO Evangelos)

• New Hero: Oru
• Custom Lobbies (Beta)
• Push to Talk

Intro

We are thrilled to announce the August build and introduce Gigantic’s newest mischief-maker, ORU! This new mid-range caster brings an entirely new set of tools to the battlefield, and we’re excited for him to join the rest of the Gigantic cast!

In addition to Oru, the August build introduces a ton of new features, improvements, and fixes based on feedback you provided on the last two builds from June and July. For this update, the biggest changes to the game rules impact creatures, the NPC allies you summon on points around each map. Back in the June update, we made an adjustment to the summoning rules: we changed them from a delayed summon to an instant summon. While this was incredibly helpful for new players who wander away from their defenseless creatures, it also removed much of the high-level strategy and counter-play inherent to the summoning system. With today’s build, we’ve tried to strike a middle ground between the two approaches by creating a system that offers strategic choices for mid-to-high level players without being too complicated for new players.

We're also introducing two other major features that should be welcome additions based on your feedback: the much-desired push-to-talk setting for our integrated voice chat, and custom lobbies. We hope they’ll help you interact with your team and play on your terms, and we look forward to hearing what you think about them!

More details on all the changes can be found below. Give them a read to get ahead of the competition, and we’ll see you on the airship!

Wallpapers

Devaedra's corruption takes hold in the August Update. Download the official wallpaper today!

2560x1440 (16:9) || 2560x1600 (16:10)

New Features!

Introducing: Oru!

"Oru deals in fate and the future; the Eternal sees no reason why simple cards should be met with apprehension."

Oru, also known as ‘The Fortune Teller,’ is a mid-range damage dealer who shines in teamfights. His kit revolves around his ability to combo between his skills - dealing high damage while also providing utility to the team in the form of crowd control or the ability to peel away from a fight.

• JUDGMENT (LMB/RT): Throw a 'Judgment' card at the target enemy. On hit, inflict JUDGMENT and burning.
• THE BEAST (RMB/LT): Toss a spread of 3 'The Beast' cards. On hit, inflicts THE BEAST and slows.
• THE JOKER (Q/LB): Place 3 cards as a row of traps at your feet. On trigger, the cards damage and push away enemies. This can only hit unique targets once.
• COSMIC POWER (E/RB): Damages target area and reveals cards held by enemies. If they have a JUDGMENT, the skill deals damage. If they have THE BEAST, the skill dazes.
• DEATH DEALER (F/LS+RS): Rapidly toss 'Death' cards. Once completed, reveal all cards dealt. Deals 400 damage and +200/400/800 if target is below 50% health.

Try him out in the Practice Arena before picking him up in the shop! Ultimate Pack owner unlock Oru for free, and can play with him right away!

NOW AVAILABLE: ORU SKINS!

Along with the hero, Oru also has his first skin, now available in the shop. Pick up the Mordant, Voracious, and Garrulous skins today!

VOICE: PUSH-TO-TALK

The much anticipated Push-To-Talk feature is now available! This will default to ON for PC players, and lets you set a new push-to-talk key via the 'Keybindings' menu (default keybinding is 'X').

CUSTOM LOBBIES (BETA)

Introducing the beta version of custom lobbies! This feature allows teams to arrange 5v5 matches without requiring them to enter the general matchmaking pool. As a beta feature, the goal was to implement the system in a way that would allow us to quickly introduce it into the game while continuing to work on the feature behind the scenes. As such, it's worth a brief explanation of how you'll setup your own custom lobbies!

In order to play in a custom match, players must first form two full crews of 5 players. One of these crews will act as the "host" for the match, while the other crew will join the host's match. The hosting team's crew leader will then setup the match:

• Navigate to the 'Play' tab and select the '(beta) Custom' option.
• In the Custom lobby, select a map and generate a code for your match.
• Once you hit 'Submit', you'll be ready to share your custom code with the crew leader of the team which you'll be playing against.

The joining crew leader then enters the custom lobby screen, where they will join the match:

• Navigate to the 'Play' tab and select the '(beta) Custom' option.
• Select the "Join" tab. There you can enter the code for the match given by the host.

Once this is complete, both teams will enter a match - going straight to the Hero Confirm screen!

Sounds complicated? Yes and no. We think that once players get the hang of it, they'll be able to create custom matches within a matter of seconds.

Note: Custom matches do not affect player progression such as badges, prestige, fortune cards, etc. and do not award currency. They also do not affect your skill rating or inflict penalties.

KNOWN ISSUES

You can find a full list of known issues with the beta build over on the official forum. We'll keep this list up-to-date with the most significant issues (and solutions) that are reported this month:

Known Issues & Solutions: August 2017 Release

We'll also be tracking the most impactful issues - as well as any workarounds or known solutions - on the official subreddit:

Visit the Official Gigantic Subreddit

GENERAL UPDATES

AUDIO

• Updated the sound effects of the Sanctum Falls Clash.
• Updated the sound and voice events related to creature gestation times.
• Added a subtle audio tell when Voden and Imani have charged their shots to full power.
• Added a pop sound when you receive a text chat message.

SETTINGS

• Added the ability to lock or unlock minimap rotation. When turned on, the Dynamic Minimap setting will automatically rotate the minimap so your team is always on the bottom side of the minimap. When disabled, the minimap will not rotate, and will instead default the Aurion team to the bottom side of the map!

PROGRESSION & REWARDS

PROMOTIONAL SKINS

• Fixed a bug where all promotional skins would display the message: "Only available in the Founders Pack."

SUMMONED CREATURES

GENERAL

The decisions you make as to when you summon or upgrade a creature and what type of creature you summon at any given time is critical to the high-level strategy of Gigantic. With the recent update to make creature summons and upgrades instant, we found that the system introduced some awkwardness to high-level play. This is why we're re-introducing a mechanic we call creature gestation.

When placing a creature on a Power circle, the creature will now remain in a defenseless, "summoning" state before it fully appears into the world. During this time, it is unable to fight or collect power, and is extremely vulnerable to enemy attacks.

We believe this change will improve the game in a few important ways:

• It gives players a chance to recognize when the enemy team is summoning before it is complete.
• It lets you know which creature is being summoned before it fully spawns.
• It offers counter-play when a team decides to upgrade their creature: teams can punish each other for an ill-timed summon.
• It significantly reduces the benefit of upgrading a creature in the middle of a fight.
• It requires players to think much more carefully before deciding when to upgrade their creature, and which creature to upgrade.

For those familiar with how gestation worked previously, it should be noted that gestation is no longer affected by hero proximity as it was in the past. We wanted players to feel like they should protect their summons, but not necessarily feel like they are doing nothing while waiting for their creature to spawn - particularly if there is no immediate threat.

• Reduced the channeling time to summon a creature from 6 to 3 seconds.
• Young creatures now gestate for 3 seconds before spawning. This time is not affected by ally or enemy proximity.
• Adult creatures now gestate for 20 seconds before spawning. This time is not affected by ally or enemy proximity.
• Obelisks have a 1 second gestation time for both babies and adults.

CYCLOPES

• The Yeti Cyclops now creates a single frost field at the wall's location.
• The Young Yeti Cyclops no longer creates frost fields.
• Fixed a bug where Heroes could get stuck in a Cyclops wall if standing where the newly-created wall spawns.

BATTLEGROUNDS

GHOST REEF

• Fixed a bug where larger Heroes would clip through the terrain when using the leftmost jump pad from the airship.
• Fixed a bug during Clash which would sometimes cause projectiles fired near the center of the map to be fired in random directions instead of where they were aimed.

HEROES

AISLING

RMB/LT // CADOR'S COMMAND

• Fixed a bug where Cador's Command could be cast while Focus-primed, interrupting the Focus attack.

F/LS+RS // TERRIFY

• Fixed a bug where using Terrify on an invalid target would place Aisling in her weakened state.

BECKETT

RMB/LT // GRENADE

• Smart Grenade upgrade: Fixed a bug where the Grenade would not trigger its visual or sound effects when impacting an enemy directly.

CHARNOK

LMB/RT // FIREBALL

• Bigger Ball of Fire upgrade: Increased base damage from 300 to 330 damage.
• Bombastic upgrade: Bonus damage is now maintained when hitting enemies caught in the explosion radius, not just by hitting enemies directly.

Q/LB // DETONATE

• Blast Off upgrade: No longer pushes enemies
• Parting Gift upgrade: Now pushes enemies instead of creating a burning area.

GRISELMA

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug where Portal Beast could be cast while Focus-primed, interrupting the Focus attack.

LMB/RT // REACH OUT

• Shielding Touch upgrade: Reduced the amount of armor provided from 25 to 20 armor.

RMB/LT // PORTAL BEAST

• Increased the base Portal Beast damage by 10%.

E/RB // DISPLACEMENT

• Fixed a bug where players could continuously use Displacement without it going on cooldown.

HK-206

LMB/RT // BULLET BARRAGE

• Ballistic Accelerator upgrade: While fortified, you now deal up to 85% of your normal damage at long range. This has been reduced from 100% damage.

SKILL SPECIALIZATIONS

• Iron Skin specialization: Fixed a bug where Iron Skin would provide additional armor but fail to heal HK after using Focus.

Lord Knossos

LMB/RT // SKEWER

• Pierce upgrade: Now applies bleeding on hit, but adds a 10 stamina cost to Skewer attacks.
• Adding Assault to Injury upgrade: Now increases the bleeding applied by Pierce to 60 dmg/s, and refreshes the bleed duration on a successful hit with Skewer.

Q/LB // GORE

• Fixed a bug where Gore could be used while Focus-primed, interrupting the Focus attack.

E/RB // BULL RUSH

• Lowered the speed boost provided by Bull Rush from +66% to +25%.

The Margrave

LMB/RT // DEMON FIST

• Slightly reduced the ability to spam jump attacks.

Pakko

Q/LB // SLIP AND SLIDE

• Forceful Impact upgrade: Fixed a bug where the skill would fail to daze enemies.

Ramsay

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug where Rush, Flurry, and Juju Fruit could still be used while Focus-primed.

LMB/RT // CUT

• Slightly increased the base range of Cut.
• Fixed a bug where jump attacks would not properly apply Bleeding with the Open Wounds upgrade.

RMB/LT // RUSH

• Reduced the amount of Focus generated when tagging enemies with Rush by half.
• Bouncing Around upgrade: Now reduces the cooldown of Rush by 2 seconds on a successful hit rather than 3 seconds.

Q/LB // FLURRY

• Increased the base damage of Flurry by 40%.

E/RB // JUJU FRUIT

• Smear upgrade: Now increased the cooldown of Juju Fruit by 3 seconds.

F/LS+RS // FRUIT PUNCH

• Reduced the area affected by Fruit Punch.
• Reduced the length of time that the poison cloud lingers by 3 seconds.
• Slightly increased the speed at which the animation plays out.

Tyto the Swift

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug where Tyto's Excelsior weapon skin could not be selected when preparing for a match.

LMB/RT // TALON

• Increased the base damage of Talon by 5 damage per hit.
• Slightly reduced the ability to spam jump attacks.
• Hidden Talon upgrade: decreased movement distance on the attack.

RMB/LT // SWOOP

• Fixed a bug where using Swoop while falling would occasionally prevent you from reaching the intended location.

Q/LB // BLADE DANCE

• Increased the base damage of Blade Dance by 15%.

Uncle Sven

Q/LB // ELASTIC OOZE

• Bounces Off Me upgrade: Reduced the armor granted to affected allies from 25 to 20 armor.
• Super Bounce upgrade: Now grants deflection to an ally if they are hit with the initial explosion created by the flask, as opposed to being hit with the flask itself.

F/LS+RS // CHAOS QUAFF

• Removed the Daze applied by the Chaos Quaff polymorph, since it was redundant to the skill.

Vadasi

LMB/RT // RAY OF LIGHT

• Righteous Defenses upgrade: Reduced the armor granted to targeted allies from 20 to 15 armor.

Voden

Q/LB // GREEN MAN

• Fixed a bug where Voden's decoy would not create healing springs after taking the Spring to Life upgrade.
• Fixed a rare bug where Voden's decoy wouldn't go on cooldown in certain scenarios.

Wu

LMB/RT // RAIN OF BLOWS

• Removed an unintended delay after performing the jump attack.

RMB/LT // SPLASH KICK

• Increased the base cooldown of Splash Kick by 1 second.
• Boundless Energy upgrade: Increased the modified cooldown of the skill by 1 second.
• Rising Tide upgrade: Fixed a bug where you would have to wait 1 second before using Splash Kick in order to launch an enemy.

Q/LB // CRASHING WAVES

• Slightly reduced the movement speed of Crashing Waves.
• Fixed an exploit where dodge could be used to cancel Crashing Waves and negate the skill's cooldown.

F/LS+RS // TYPHOON'S FURY

• Increased the max turn rate when propelled forward by Typoon's Fury.

Xenobia

Q/LB // WAVE OF SORROW

• Sorrow's Wake upgrade: No longer pierces, but instead knocks up and weakens enemies around the targeted Hero.
• Swapped the Compounding Sorrow and Crack and Ruin upgrades (both Tier 2) to the opposite path.
• Savor the Sorrow upgrade: Reduced the amount of healing provided from 75 hp to 50 hp per target hit.