Game update

Game Update 0.18

Posted by Kai Schober | 2012 Apr 16 15:49 -0400 GMT

Highlights

---

Open Beta

Welcome new and old players alike to the Open Beta phase of Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes.  With the transition to Open Beta, we are officially open 24x7 all the time, and anyone and everyone can come and play.  This means you can get your friends to join and group up via a warband, or just join up with some random people online and have a good old time.
If you’re new to the game, be sure to try out the Tutorial that comes up when you hit the shiny ‘Play’ button.  It will get you used to the basics and give you a free Hero to own and cherish forever - not to mention free gold and experience to start you off on your journey.

New Heroes

As part of the process of getting to Open Beta, we’ve launched a number of new Heroes quite quickly.  In this version, we introduce a Closed Beta favorite, Bax, back into the fold.  Going forward, each new version will include a new Hero, either someone you’ve never seen before or an old favorite returning with some tweaks.  During the interim weeks of the versions, you’ll see additional items and promotions on the store and we’ll be switching out the free heroes on a weekly basis.

Be sure to give us feedback and bug reports if you find anything of note as that will help to ensure our Open Beta is a success and that future heroes fit the needs and wants of our community.  Now get out there and start bashing.  For more details on the line-up see the Hero section of the patch notes.

Patch Changes

---

General

• We have implemented a ‘EULA acceptance’ window that will show if the current EULA or Beta Agreement changes.  Due to the feature being implemented, all users will need to accept the Beta Agreement via this window again.  We apologize for the inconvenience, but it will ensure that if we change anything in the future, players are notified.

Store Changes

• Bax Dreadtoof has been added to the Store.
• Ornate Chest: This item has been updated with additional random elite tactics.
• Wood Chest: This item has been updated with additional content.  This content includes tactics and perks available from the most recent Hero introductions.
• Look for new items to appear on the store periodically!

Hero Lineup

Bax has arrived! He is a heavily armored Black Orc who specializes in melee damage.

• Bax gets stronger the longer he fights, and is able to stay in the middle of a tough fight for longer than most characters.
• Bax is good against physical damage characters, but struggles against long-range magical damage characters.
• Bax can sprint around the map, getting in and out of combat quickly.

The following Heroes are considered Free and available to all during this week:

• Ikkrik the Gutter Runner
• Felicia the Bright Wizard
• Aessa the White Lion

Note: The Heroes that are free to play will change on a weekly basis.

The following Heroes are available for purchase on the store:

• Aessa the White Lion
• Bax the Black Orc  (NEW!)
• Drulg the Ogre
• Felicia the Bright Wizard
• Glowgob the Shaman
• Ikkrik the Gutter Runner
• Ilanya the Sorceress
• Nethys the Vampire
• Volrik the Marauder

Keep an eye out for future additions to the Hero Lineup in weeks to come. 

Hero Changes

General

• Mastery: This shared tactic has been renamed to “Precision” to avoid confusion.

Aessa

• Fetch: This ability now properly displays a visual effect on the target when used. Additionally, its range has been increased.
• Pounce: Aessa now leaps much more quickly when using this ability.

Ikkrik

• Slightly increased Ikkrik's base damage.
• Infernal Bomb: Fixed a bug which allowed Ikkrik to leap away while rooted. Additionally, the leap portion of this ability now moves Ikkrik more quickly.
• Skavenbrew: This passive effect now correctly displays a buff icon in-game.

Ilanya

• Impending Doom: The stacking buff icon for this effect now displays a tooltip when moused over.

Lucian

• Slightly increased Lucian's base damage.
• Deep Wound: This tactic now increases Wounding Slash's duration by 6 seconds.
• Practiced Attack: This ability now briefly reduces the damage you take, and its damage has been reduced.
• Whirling Swing: This ability's damage has been increased.
• Wild Attack: This ability no longer causes you to take extra damage when used.
• Wounding Slash: The damage of the damage-over-time effect has been increased, and occurs more quickly.

Nethys

• Siphoned Blood: The stacking buff icon for this effect now displays a tooltip when moused over.

Scenarios

• Black Fire Pass: The Dwarf Statue on the center platform has been replaced with a pedestal.  The Rune now spawns on this pedestal.
• Black Fire Pass: Fixed a bug where players would seem to have a Rune when they did not.

Rewards

• The spinner has been reskinned.
• There is now a window that will show the experience gained during a scenario when you return to the lobby.  It will display after the spinner reward and indicate any gained mastery points when you level.
• The daily spinner will now remain at the maximum number of reels once it is reached for as long as you continue to login daily.  If a day is missed, the spinner will reset back to one reel and increase daily again until maximum.
• You may now redeem Quests on the spinner upon returning to the game if you left the game before spinning for rewards at the end of a scenario.

Graphics

• Fixed a bug that prevented the team colored paint splatters from displaying upon death.
• Fixed an issue where overhead icons and other effects were not properly positioned or displaying when a Hero changed scale.
• Fixed a number of issues where effects would stick on a player upon death.

User Interface

• Center screen Kill messages will now include the victim’s name.
• Added center screen messaging when Heroes are disabled (knockdown, stagger, etc.) or silenced.
• The escape key no longer cancels abilities.
• The Kill Streak window has updated artwork and new animations for tick marks.
• Added the text (Team), colored in your team color, to the beginning of chat lines sent to your team.
• Fixed an issue where unused ability slots still seemed usable.
• Fixed a bug where groupmates would disappear from the in-group window if they went offline.
• Fixed a bug that would cause the ‘absorb’ message to sometimes not show despite absorbing damage.

Lobby

General

• The tabs on the Lobby now have tooltips when you hover over them.
• Updated the art for tooltips and right click menus.
• Updated the text for Queuing to indicate you are successfully queued.

Chat

• Players can now send tells to players that have older EA/Origin ids that have spaces in them.  To send a tell to someone with a space, use the command: /tell “<name with spaces>” message

Store

• Fixed a rare bug where the store would sometimes remain open if alt-tabbing from within the full screen client.

Help

• The setting for “No, don’t ask me again” on the Tutorial will now persist when you close your client.

Audio

• Audio has been added to the Lobby and User Interface.
• Additional VO added for Drulg.
• Added music, ambience, and effects to the Tutorial.
• Fixed a missing impact sound for Ikkrik.
• Weapon impacts can now be heard from other Heroes as well as your own.
• Hero Voices now stay attached to the characters.  This fixes an issue where the sounds stopped moving with the character when it jumped.
• Fixed announcer voice to be heard in all areas.