The recent Spells in Spades Update included the Inferno difficulty of the Valtan Legion Raid. While Legion Raid Normal and Hard modes prove to be a challenging experience for many— Inferno takes it to the next level. It’s all about proving you’re the among the best of the best in Arkesia, and earning the accompanying prestige. We partnered with veteran Lost Ark raiders Saintone, ATK, and EndieM8 to provide tips, tricks, and other advice for groups looking to rise to the challenge.
Inferno Legion Raids Overview
Before we dive in, here’s a quick refresher on how Inferno mode varies from Normal and Hard. Rather than chasing the normal rewards of gear, honing materials, and everything else you’d receive in a Legion Raid, Inferno rewards instead showcase your victory with titles, achievements, and Stronghold structures! On top of differing rewards, there are a few key changes between Normal/Hard and Inferno difficulties:
‘Scale of Balance’ is applied, and the raid requires use of the Book of Coordination, so everyone’s gear is normalized against the level of your Legion Commander opponent.
The gate progression system will not be active - you can’t make it half-way and come back later in the week.
Inferno mode will not count against your weekly attempt limit for Legion Raids, so you can battle a Legion Raid Commander on Normal/Hard and Inferno in the same week, and try Inferno as many times as you’d like.
Getting Started
From team composition, to Battle Items, to mental approach, there’s a lot that goes into clearing a tough, team-based activity. For each of these sections we’ll provide advice from our veterans, and end with some specific tips for the Valtan Legion Raid. Before we dive in, a word of encouragement from Saintone, ATK, and EndieM8:
“So you’re thinking about challenging Inferno mode! Inferno mode is significantly harder than non-Inferno content, but you are more than good enough to clear it. Inferno mode grants you prestigious titles and other vanity that you can show off with, but by far the best thing about doing Inferno mode is that you’ll learn things about the raids and your class that you didn’t know before. It will help you get better as a player and you can enjoy utilizing that mastery in even your weekly non-Inferno runs.” -Saintone
“I’ve personally increased my performance in raids by a lot after trying out Inferno mode with my friends. If you desire to increase your mechanical skills, playing Inferno mode will definitely boost your performance for regular raids.” - ATK
“The hardest part can often be starting. We all have to start somewhere, be prepared for a few sessions of progression with many wipes. Don't psyche yourself out! It's as challenging as it is fun and exciting— and very doable by anyone!” - EndieM8
Preparation
Commitments Advice - Battle Items & Time
Saintone: Inferno mode can be costly when we consider the cost of battle items used, but the real cost is time. Something that many Inferno mode raiders experience is that they spend so much time and effort trying the fight, that they have no time for dailies and weeklies. Try to allocate a fair amount of time for both, or be prepared to rest your dailies accordingly. Realistically for your first clear, you’ll spend thousands of Gold (or tens of thousand) in Battle Items. The next major raid for the West is coming in September, so this downtime is a great opportunity to make time to try out Inferno mode!
ATK: I recommend to only play Inferno mode a few hours at a time. Inferno uses a lot of Battle Items, but the reward is titles and personal skill gains. Not everyone can be focused for such a long time, and pushing for 5-10 hours can be a waste of time if no real progress is achieved, and can add stress when games are supposed to be fun. It is actually smarter and more efficient to try a few runs for a few hours every day or every week with static groups of the same members.
Inferno Mode's difficulty significantly decreases the more damage you deal, and the more items you throw at the boss. This means using Sacred Charms right away to cleanse negative effects, Darkbombs at every downtime, always using Adrophine in certain DPS windows. If all 8 players have this mentality, you actually use less Battle Items overall.
Finding a Team
From friends, guildmates, Lost Ark Discords, the in-game Party Finder tool and more, there are plenty of ways to find like-minded raiders up for the challenge of Inferno mode. While static groups working together can help promote chemistry and progressing together, there are plenty of dedicated raiders always looking for one more.
Saintone: The trick is to find teammates that you mesh well with, as sometimes even if you’re good enough to pass the encounter, your teammates may require more practice. That’s why my first tip is patience. Everyone learns at different paces, and while you may pick up a mechanic really quick, someone else may require several more tries to get it right. Take breaks occasionally to allow everyone to refresh their mental, and try to look at everything objectively when looking for solutions. Likewise, some may not have a static party for Inferno mode. If you jump from party to party sometimes strangers you meet might not be as experienced as you. You (as a raider) need to recognize when you should ask to leave the party to look for teammates closer to your own skill level. If you ask politely, there shouldn’t be offense taken if you don’t want to be there.
EndieM8: Find a group of like minded players that want to clear the content and have a good time. Encourage your teammates when they make mistakes and be open for suggestions! Learn and have a good time together, and get that cool Valtan Statue for your Stronghold and flex that Inferno clear title!
Composition: Roles & Team Set-Up
When it comes to structuring a team, ATK has has some advice on how to best think about your team’s roles and how to set up classes using the Book of Coordination.
Class Set-Up
Every class is viable for Inferno mode. It’s always about how many skills you can land with giving up time you have. For example, keep asking yourself how many times can you squeeze in more skills while others are running around dodging patterns? Inferno mode really tests your uptime and DPS cycles for your class so it is a really nice content to try to boost your mechanical skills.
As for builds, it’s always about your comfort zone. For example, with Gunslingers, Swiftness makes your character go faster, but you can actually have a build with 0 Swiftness. While it does the most damage, you’d be slow, taking hits, or possibly dying more often which cause resets. When I do Inferno mode, I invest a few of my combat stat points (roughly 200 to 300) into Swiftness to make my animations feel a little more fluid. The lower damage can be covered by higher uptime and faster rotation of skills.
Party Set-Up
When Creating parties, It is critical for the raid leader to understand how party synergies work, like crit synergy from Gunslingers and Deadeye, and back/front attack damage synergies from Deathblade and Gunlancers. You can research and communicate with your teammates what their classes can deliver to your party. It is also very important for someone in the raid to calculate overall DPS outputs in the raid.
While it’s different for every raid group, DPS classes are split into two general groups: broken bone and consistent DPS. For broken bone DPS (which do additional damage during stagger windows) it is important to save all their skills to unload at certain points, such as when Bosses are staggered. Supports will also need to time their buffs and darkbombs at this critical timeframe to best maximize their damage. On the other hand, consistent DPS builds don’t have to worry about saving cooldowns, but their uptime is very important. Since the uptime of landing all skills is very important, the party’s support will need to play around this. Bards tend to activate Serenade of Courage at 2 bubbles, and Paladins take Magick Stream to rotate through their buffs more often. If both broken bone and consistent DPS players exist in the group, they are often split into different parties to organize support buffs accordingly.
Valtan Inferno Advice
Valtan Inferno difficulty requires item level 1445 for participation. Once you’ve set-up your build in the book of coordination, stocked up on Battle Items, and found a team, you’re ready to challenge Inferno. Below you’ll find advice from EndieM8 on first gate and Saintone’s advice on the second gate— but we’ll kick it off with a general tip from ATK:
It is critical to stay alive, so play at your comfort zone first and slowly take risks. Inferno mode often requires you to reset the fight if one person dies, because the DPS checks are really tight. Myself, alongside the majority of players, have problems with being greedy when attacking the boss and taking hits as a result. You are severely punished for taking hits in Inferno mode, (as they often result in death) so prioritize dodging first and rotating your skills, and add in more uptime once you’re comfortable dodging the patterns. You don’t want to die early and force your team to reset, as you won’t get as much practice dodging patterns.
G1 - Wolves
For the first gate in the Legion Raid, EndieM8 has a few tips and tricks to help vanquish Valtan’s beasts:
Every attack in Inferno Valtan hits like a truck. It’s important, more than ever, that you learn and can quickly identify the boss’s patterns. One of the most lethal mechanics in Gate 1 are the slash attacks spawned by bleed stacks. Try your best to avoid all of the attacks from the red wolf (and be sure to use Panacea on yourself at 2 stacks of bleed), or call for a cleanse from your teammates (such as a Paladin or Gunlancer). Sacred Charms are also critical here— use them liberally to prevent your team from eating these lethal attacks. The Purify Rune is also incredibly useful in this encounter to cleanse bleed stacks.
Try and stack up for traps and move together as a group! Every now and then the wolf you are fighting will have a green, blue or red glow in their hands. Try to stack up and stand near each other as a group, since each player will have a trap thrown at their feet. Once the traps have been deployed, move together as a group to dodge the explosions.
The damage check for this gate is tight! An interesting strategy to safely beat Gate 1 within the enrage timer is to use Thirain's Sidereal ability to hit both of the wolves simultaneously. This is often done by first separating the red and blue wolves to 12 and 6 o'clock (North/South) so they don't take reduced damage. Keep in mind it's easier to move the blue wolf than the red wolf, so players targeted by the blue wolf should move away from the red. Try and find the perfect moment to land Thirain (you'll find an almost perfect moment every time) to hit both Wolves and deal massive damage. Thirain's ability has incredible range— but it's not limitless!
G2 - Valtan
Saintone has some advice when facing the Demon Beast Legion Commander at the second gate:
Inferno Valtan is the easiest of the Inferno bosses by a long shot, and as such the DPS check isn’t terribly hard. Because of that, you can afford to play a little more cautiously and you don’t have to be greedy on literally every DPS window while you’re still learning. Focus on positioning and learning the patterns. However, because of the nature of the battle, the more damage you deal, the less dangerous patterns you will encounter. This reduces the chances that you or your allies face a sudden death, which could end up being a domino effect.
It’s possible to outright skip some of the random patterns that frequently cause raid wipes if you can proceed through the fight fast enough. For example, if your damage is on the low side, the 5x counter pattern can occur as early as 90 lines of health, and as late as 30 lines. The pattern isn’t tied to a specific HP amount though, so for some who challenge the fight it might not happen at all in your run.
Bonus tip:
“Did you know? Valtan will periodically prime himself up to do a pizza ground slam, followed by a second slam. If a player gets hit by the first ground slam (preferably a tanky class or support with shield/damage reductions) the second ground slam will be cancelled, potentially saving lives!” - EndieM8
Checkout Saintone, ATK, & EndieM8
With the end-game beginning to enter the Western version of Lost Ark in the Destined for Destruction Update, we hope these tips were helpful! Make sure to follow Saintone, ATK, and EndieM8 for more raiding tips, guides, live high-level Lost Ark gameplay, and more original content on their Twitch and YouTube channels, found here:
We could supply nearly endless tips for these difficult raids. For those looking for more advice, Saintone welcomes all interested raiders to the Hell Academy Discord, a place for Inferno mode enthusiasts to learn more about the fights, builds for classes, and find other raiders in a server that he helps run.
Thanks for joining us for this special edition of Lost Ark Academy, and we wish you luck in your Inferno battles!
Go make some food, grab a drink, and enjoy the largest patch notes in Rune Knights history. Also make sure to read PART 2 of the patch notes for Talent changes and other updates.
Quick note: Existing characters might look a bit weird due to the new customization system and models. Visit the Hairdresser just behind where you spawn in Town to update your character's appearance.
These 2 new gear slots both provide new skills, for a new total of 8. The action bar has been redesigned to show 5 keys at once, and pressing Ctrl (your Modifier key is configurable in Hotkey settings, and you can change between hold and toggle behavior in Gameplay settings) switches your Q, E, and R skills to your 6th, 7th, and 8th skills. All skills can be moved freely with drag and drop.
Gloves roll double strength offensive implicits.
ENCHANTS
Enchants imbue an armor piece with special effects. Enchants cannot be applied to Legendary items, jewelry, or belts.
Weapon Enchants - For Physical Weapons and Shields. You can buy Level 1 Enchants for 1H Weapons and up to Level 2 Enchants for 2H Weapons from Binder.
Fire - Physical Hits Ignite for X% of the damage inflicted
Ice - Physical Hits apply a X% Chill for 3 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
Lightning - Physical Hits have a 30% chance to chain lightning to 2 additional targets for X% of the damage.
Blood - Physical Hits restore X Health over 5 seconds.
Enfeeble - Physical Hits reduce the target's damage by X% for 3 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
Sunder - Physical Hits increase damage taken by the target by X% for 3 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
Serrated - Physical Hits Bleed for X% of the damage inflicted.
Toxic - Physical Hits apply X stack(s) of Poison.
Skill Enchants - For Armor (excluding belts and jewelry) and Caster Weapons. These enchants affect the skill granted by the item. Can buy level 2 Enchants for Staffs and Level 1 Enchants for Focuses and Armor from Binder.
Increased Area - Increases the size of non-aura area effects of this skill by X%.
Reduced Cooldown - Reduces the cooldown of this skill by X%.
Reduced Resource Cost - Reduces resource costs of this skill by X%.
Increased Duration - Increases the duration of the effect of this skill by X%. (Note: Poison's duration cannot be increased.)
Enchanted Gear can drop from bosses, and these dropped enchants are significantly stronger than those craftable at Binder.
ORDER INFLUENCE
Items can drop with influence from one of the world's Knight Orders. Items with these influences roll mods under the order's influence more often than normal, can roll implicit and explicit mods that are normally impossible to roll, and roll mods affected by the influence one tier higher than normal, however, mods that are not under the order's influence are rolled one tier lower.
Influence can also be added to equipment with a new item called a Sphere of Influence. Binder can use a Sphere of Influence to add the influence of any Knight Order to an item. Spheres of Influence are available as a quest reward for all quests, and can drop from any boss.
FLASKS REWORK
The original Flask has been split into 2 Flasks: Health Flask (Default: 1 or D-Pad Down) and Utility Flask (Default: 2 or D-Pad Up). Health Flasks always heal for 30% of your Maximum Health. Utility Flasks can be heavily customized with many different effects using Utility Flask Points. All level 1 characters start with 1 Utility Flask Point and gain an additional point at levels 10, 20, and 30. Visit Binder in Town to customize your Utility Flask. New drops will refill Health and Utility Flasks separately, and killing enemies will slowly refill both Flasks.
The "Flask Target" function has been removed.
Hotkey customizations may need to be reapplied.
NEW ENEMIES
LOOT GOBLINS
Each encounter on Invasion maps has a 10% chance to spawn a loot goblin. Loot goblins are cowardly hoarders who flee at the first sign of danger. Goblins will flee to other nearby encounters and spawn as many enemies as they can in their wake to protect themselves and their horde.
A new merchant has come to town. The Gambler will allow you to exchange Gamba currency in exchange for a random item of your choice. Items from The Gambler can roll Influenced, Enchanted, Legendary, or with very high mod tiers. Regular equipment rules apply (Legendary items still cannot be enchanted).
SHRINES
Each encounter on randomly generated maps has a 10% chance to spawn a Shrine. Shrines apply a powerful buff to all allies for 30 seconds when destroyed.
25 NEW SKILLS
Blood Leshen Pact Summon - Summon a blood leshen to fight for you. Attacks from range. Hold Left Alt while casting to dismiss. Pact Effect: You and all minions restore 10 Health over 5 seconds on Hit. Minion duration increased by 10%. Requires a Staff or Focus equipped
Summon Greater Spider - Summon a greater spider to fight for you. Cannot be pushed by enemies. Hold Left Alt while casting to dismiss. Mana Cost: 500 Cooldown: 8s
Summon Greater Zombie - Summon a greater zombie to fight for you. Cannot be pushed by enemies. Hold Left Alt while casting to dismiss. Mana Cost: 500 Cooldown: 8s
Bat Swarm - Summon a swarm of bats upon your foes, dealing 35% combined weapon damage to all targets in its path. Damage scales with Minion Damage instead of Bonus Damage. Mana Cost: 40 Cooldown: 0.75s Range: 1500 Requires a Staff or Focus equipped
Fulfill Pact - Entangle with your Pact Minion and attempt to fulfill the pact between you. While Entangled and within 1000 range, you transfer 10% of your maximum health per second to your Pact Minion. Sustaining this transfer without interruption for 10 seconds fulfills the pact, granting your minion Pact Vigor. Pact Vigor increases Total Damage, Attack Speed, and Movement Speed by 30%. Pact Vigor lasts for 5 seconds after the transfer is stopped. Activate again to disentangle. Requires a Staff or Focus equipped
Necrosis - Cast necrotic energy that consumes your foes life. Deals 50% spell damage per second for 10 seconds. Mana Cost: 150 Cooldown: 2s Requires a Staff or Focus equipped
Arcane Bolt - Cast a bolt of arcane energy that applies 1 stack of Arcane Resonance to the target for 6 seconds. 3 stacks of Arcane Resonance causes the target to unleash the resonating arcane energy in a burst that deals 100% spell damage and applies 1 stack of Arcane Resonance to all nearby targets. Mana Cost: 70 Cooldown: 0.75s Requires a Staff or Focus equipped
Arcane Nova - Create an arcane nova around you which applies 2 stacks of Arcane Resonance to all targets for 6 seconds. 3 stacks of Arcane Resonance causes the target to unleash the resonating arcane energy in a burst that deals 100% spell damage and applies 1 stack of Arcane Resonance to all nearby targets. Mana Cost: 250 Cooldown: 3s Requires a Staff equipped
Call Lightning - Call down lightning that deals 250% spell damage to a large area after a short delay. Mana Cost: 200 Cooldown: 8s Requires a Staff equipped
Fire Quiver - Toggle. While active, all arrows are imbued with fire and inflict Burn on impact, dealing 15% combined weapon damage per second for 3 seconds. Burn stacks up to 75% combined weapon damage per second. Mana Cost: 20 Mana per Arrow
Lightning Quiver - Toggle. While active, all arrows are imbued with lightning and create chain lightning on impact, dealing 30% combined weapon damage to up to 2 additional targets. Mana Cost: 35 Mana per Arrow
Arcane Nova Arrow - Fires an arrow that explodes with arcane energy, dealing 150% weapon damage to all nearby targets. Mana Cost: 150 Stamina Cost: 75 Cooldown: 8s
Toxic Rain - Fire a marking arrow that calls down a hail of toxic arrows where it impacts, inflicting 2 stacks of Poison per second to all enemies in the area. Lasts for 3 seconds. Mana Cost: 200 Stamina Cost: 150 Cooldown 10s
Blight Arrow - Fires an arrow that inflicts a deadly blight on the target which deals damage over time. Deals 60% weapon damage damage per second for 10 seconds. Mana Cost: 130 Stamina Cost: 130 Cooldown: 10s
Hook Chain - Throw a chain and latch onto the first enemy hit, dealing 150% combined weapon damage. If the target is a Normal or Elite enemy, they are pulled to you. If the target is a Boss, you are pulled to them. Stamina Cost: 75 Cooldown: 5s Range: 2500
Hallow Weapons - Call upon the divine to bless your weapons with overwhelming power. Melee attacks deal 50% more Resilience Damage for 6 seconds. Mana Cost: 150 Cooldown: 10s Requires a Sword, Axe, or Mace equipped.
Arc Slash - Spin and deal 150% melee weapon damage to all nearby enemies. Stamina Cost: 130 Cooldown: 2.5s Requires a 1H Sword, Axe, or Mace equipped
Poison Trap - Spawn a Poison Trap. On activation, applies 4 stacks of Poison to nearby targets and covers the area in toxic miasma for 7.5 seconds. Enemies within the miasma receive 1 additional stack of Poison per second. Max 1 Poison Trap. Trap becomes armed after 2 seconds. Hold Left Alt while casting to dismiss. Mana Reservation Cost: 200 Cooldown: 5s Requires a Focus or Staff equipped
Emberlash Stance - Deliver a vicious uppercut, dealing 200% unarmed damage and igniting targets for the same damage over 5 seconds. Enter Emberlash Stance for 8 seconds, causing your melee hits to Ignite the target for 20% of the damage dealt over 5 seconds. Only one Stance can be active at a time. Mana Cost: 100 Stamina Cost: 100 Cooldown: 4s Only usable while Unarmed
Viperfang Stance - Quickly dash forward and strike an enemy. Deals 100% unarmed damage and inflicts 5 stacks of Poison. Enter Viperfang Stance for 6 seconds, causing your melee hits to inflict 1 stack of Poison. Can interrupt current action. Only one Stance can be active at a time. Mana Cost: 100 Stamina Cost: 100 Cooldown: 4s Only usable while Unarmed
Rockfist Stance - Smash the ground, dealing 100% unarmed damage to nearby targets and inflicting heavy Resilience Damage. Enter Rockfist Stance for 6 seconds, increasing your Resilience Damage by 30% and decreasing your damage taken by 15%. Only one Stance can be active at a time. Mana Cost: 100 Stamina Cost: 100 Cooldown: 4s Only usable while Unarmed
Thunderstrike Stance - Strike a target for 125% unarmed damage and create chain lightning that deals 65% unarmed damage to up to 4 additional targets. Enter Thunderstrike Stance for 6 seconds, causing your melee hits to create chain lightning for 30% of the inflicted damage to up to 2 additional targets. Only one Stance can be active at a time. Mana Cost: 100 Stamina Cost: 100 Cooldown: 4s Only usable while Unarmed
Snowstorm Stance - Slam the ground with a savage rush of cold, dealing 75% unarmed damage to nearby targets and Chilling them 20% for 3 seconds. Enter Snowstorm Stance for 8 seconds, causing your melee hits to inflict a stacking 5% Chill on the target for 2 seconds. Chill stacks up to 5 times. Only one Stance can be active at a time. Mana Cost: 100 Stamina Cost: 100 Cooldown: 4s Only usable while Unarmed
Phase Shift - Phase violently between dimensions, dealing 100% combined weapon damage to nearby targets. You gain Phased, causing you to ignore enemy collision and increase your movement speed by 50% for 1.5 seconds. When you lose Phased, you deal damage again. Mana Cost: 125 Cooldown: 6s
Bestow Favor - Cast an orb that bestows all the effects of your Utility Flask to all allied players in an area on impact. Consumes 1 Utility Flask use. Mana Cost: 75 Cooldown: 1s Requires a Staff or Focus equipped
NEW LEGENDARIES
10 New Legendaries added to the global drop pool
CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION
A new merchant has come to town. The Hairdresser will allow you to change your character's appearance for free.
Characters now have many more customization options.
Gear now comes in many new styles.
MINIMAP UPGRADE
Fog of war has been added. Pressing Tab (default) will toggle a large minimap showing the whole area you've explored.
EQUIPMENT LOCKING
Ctrl + Shift click to toggle equipment's lock state. While locked, it cannot be affected by crafting items, offered for trade, sold, or broken.
BALANCE
RESISTANCE REWORK
Enemies now have natural resistance penetration equal to their level, and enemy damage has been rebalanced around net 0 resistance. Resistance mods now grant 0.3% resistance per mod level.
Dev comment: In easy terms, this means that if you have 30% resistance, level 30 enemies will hit you for exactly the intended amount. 20% resistance against level 30 enemies will cause their damage to you to be increased by 10%, and 40% resistance against the same enemies will decrease their damage to you by 10%. This solves a few issues: Glass cannon builds are now more viable, as 0% resistance against level 30 enemies creates a 30% increase in their damage to you (the previous system would punish this with a 300% increase in damage). It's no longer possible for a single resistance mod to overcap you and feel like a portion of the mod is wasted. Tank builds now have more room for expression in their stats instead of being limited to the same 75% cap that most other builds were required to meet.
STATS OVERHAUL
Enhancement has been removed. Mods now roll in tiers, which provide a bonus or penalty to mod level. Gear dropped by stronger enemies is more likely to have higher tier mods. High tier mods can also roll via crafting items, but the chance is far less likely. New crafting items have been added which increase the likelihood of high tier mods.
Existing mods on gear will be reset to the gear's level (max 30).
NEW CRAFTING ITEMS
Favored Crafting Items - Favored versions of existing crafting items function similarly to their non-favored counterparts, but with massively increased chances for exceptional outcomes.
Favored Runestone
Favored Fool's Gamble
Divine Will has been renamed to Favored Twist of Fate
Favored Crescendo
These drop exclusively from boss-type enemies. Chance to drop is increased massively in Captain (50% increase) and Commander (100% increase) difficulties.
Course Correction Rework - Shuffles mod tiers among existing stats. Randomly lowers the tier of a single mod by 1. Course Correction can now be purchased from the Merchant in Town (again).
BOWS
Removed the 2 variations of bows (high damage/slow attack speed variant and low damage/high attack speed variant) and replaced them with a single improved version.
SHIELDS
Max Shield Block % now increases with Equipment Level. 18% max at level 1, 35% max at level 30. Shield implicits now roll naturally at double strength. Modifying the implicit with crafting items will reset it to normal values.
MODS
Boot implicit mods no longer roll at double strength. Movement Speed mod scaling has been increased to compensate.
Health Regen, Lower Mana Cost, Lower Stamina Cost, and Minion Health are no longer available without influence.
Health Regen can now only roll as an implicit mod. Existing Health Regen explicit mods will be randomly rerolled.
Cooldown Reduction scaling reduced by roughly 50%.
ITEMS
Swarmcaller Rework - Applies Horde to Summon Spider when granted by this item. Viscera Rework - Melee hits restore 7.5 Health over 5 seconds. Lifesteal effects heal 10% faster. Decimator Rework - Sunder now causes targets to take 10% increased damage from all sources. Maximum Sunder stacks becomes 1. Spire of Teurok - Proc chance reduced from 50% to 40%. Additional projectile damage reduced from 50% to 40%. Stormblade - Chain lightning effect now chains 2 times, down from 4. Dual wielding now increases chance to proc Godcaller to 40%, down from 60%. Hellfire Sanctuary - Shield now blocks 50% of damage from the next hit. Meteor Forge Rework - Ignites nearby targets for 35% weapon damage per second for 3 seconds. Song of Fire - Casting Firebolt causes your next Frostbolt within 1 second to explode and Burn nearby enemies for 10% spell damage per second for 2.5 seconds. Song of Ice - Casting Frostbolt causes your next Firebolt within 1 second to burst with cold, Chilling nearby enemies for 10% for 1 second. The Ordained - Renamed to Tempest Oath. Blessed effect removed.
Penance - Price reduced from 200 to 150 gold. Absolution - Price reduced from 6000 to 4000 gold.
ENEMIES
Summoner Elite enemy: Summons now disapparate after making an attack.
SKILLS
Using skills now disables dodging until the cast completes.
Default Melee Attacks - Tapping now initiates light attacks that can be used while moving. Holding now initiates a heavy attack combo that deals increased damage and resilience damage, especially on the last hit of the combo. During this combo, you are more vulnerable, and receive 50% increased Resilience Damage. 1-hand melee, 2-hand melee, dual wielding, shield melee, and unarmed melee all have access to both light and heavy attacks. Heavy attack damage bonuses also apply to projectiles from Bladecrest and the Wrath of Ehtiras super.
Summon Skills - Holding Left Alt while casting will now dismiss all minions of that type. (Previously Left Ctrl)
Pact Warrior Minions
Mana cost removed.
Now cost 1 Health Flask use to summon.
Can now be targeted with Entanglements.
Non-Pact Warrior Minions
No longer reserve mana.
No longer have a max summon amount.
Now last for a base duration of 5 seconds.
Now have a cooldown of 8 seconds.
Nearly all minions have had their health increased by between 250-300%, damage increased by 50-100%, movement speed increased by 25%, and mana cost increased by 50-100%.
Vanguard Mech Pact Effect: Now reduces damage taken by 10%. Power Mech Pact Effect: Now increases Total Damage by 10%.
Construct Spidermine: Construction speed doubled. Construct Turret: Construction speed doubled. Attack speed significantly increased.
Bloodthief Rework - For 6 seconds, Hits restore 10 Health over 5 seconds. Mana Cost: 100 -> 150 Cooldown: 2.0 -> 8.0
BOONS
All Boons have had their base bonus values reduced by 30%.
All Boon skills have had their mana cost reduced by 30%.
Empowered - Renamed to Brutality. All related skills have been renamed to match (Empowering Aura is now Brutality Aura, etc.) Quickened - Renamed to Haste. Undying Will - No longer affects resistances or max resistances. Now reduces damage taken by a flat 10%. Boon Intensity Effectiveness reduced from 100% to 50%.
Shout, Aura, and Entanglement skills have been added for both of these new Boons.
BLINK SPELLS
Blink spells no longer put other Blink spells on a cooldown.
All Blink spells now have: Gain 1 stack of Spatial Instability for 5 seconds. Spatial Instability increases the mana cost of Blink skills by 50% per stack and loses 1 stack every 5 seconds.
Blink: Mana Cost reduced from 125 to 100.
Frostblink: Mana Cost reduced from 175 to 150. Damage reduced from 100% to 50% combined weapon damage.
Thunder Step: Damage reduced from 200% to 100% combined weapon damage.
Summon Bear
Taunt cooldown increased from 10 to 15 seconds.
Nova damage reduced by 50%.
Damage reduction removed.
Explosive Arrow Rework Renamed Witchfire Arrow Charge up to increase explosion radius and damage, up to 100% weapon damage. Deals heavy Resilience Damage and Ignites targets for up to 35% weapon damage per second for 6 seconds. Charge rate is affected by attack speed. Mana and Stamina Regeneration halted while channeling. Max Mana Cost: 125 Max Stamina Cost: 125 Cooldown: 12s
Seeker Barrage Rework Fires an arrow that shatters into a hail of seeker arrows. Creates 1 seeker arrow for each enemy in range. Each arrow deals 100% weapon damage. Mana Cost: 100 Stamina Cost: 100 Cooldown: 5s (Tip: Try firing this one into the air instead of directly at your targets.)
Barbaric Stomp Rework Renamed Earthquake Stomp the ground with brutal force, dealing 50% combined weapon damage to nearby targets and creating an earthquake for 8 seconds that deals 15% combined weapon damage per second. Deals heavy Resilience Damage.
Ground Smash Rework Charge up a powerful slam that deals up to 150% weapon damage and increases Resilience Damage taken by targets by 20% for 8 seconds. Damage and area scale with charge. Disables movement while charging. Max Stamina Cost: 175 Cooldown: 12s
All Nova skills now share a new animation.
All Shout skills that apply Boons have had their mana cost increased from 100 to 150.
Rapid Fire: Damage increased from 75% to 80% Weapon Damage. Stamina Cost increased from 30 to 40.
Rain of Arrows: Damage per second decreased from 150% to 100% Weapon Damage. Stamina cost increased from 125 to 150.
Concussive Arrow: Velocity increased by 50%.
Ice Nova Arrow: Damage reduced from 125% to 75% weapon damage.
Whirlwind: Damage per tick reduced from 140% to 65% combined weapon damage. Stamina cost per second increased from 150 to 175.
Fireball: Impact damage reduced from 200% to 175% Weapon Damage when fully charged.
Leap Smash: Stamina cost reduced from 150 to 130. Damage reduced from 200% to 75%. Now reduces damage taken by 15%.
Block - No longer drains mana while wielding a focus. Players now receive Resilience Damage while blocking, but the amount is reduced by your shield's Block %.
Bestow Mercy - Now affects all allied players in an area on impact. Shield now blocks 50% of damage from the next hit.
Bestow Vitality - Now affects all allied players in an area on impact. No longer applies Flask Effects.
Shield Slam - No longer affects resistances or max resistances. Now reduces damage taken by 10%.
Rooting Arrow - Root duration decreased from 3.5 to 3 seconds.
Frostbolt - Chill duration decreased from 2.5 to 2 seconds.
Ice Storm - Chill amount reduced from 40% to 30%.
Lightning Nova - Mana Cost increased from 125 to 150. Damage decreased from 125% to 75% spell damage.
Flame Nova - Mana Cost increased from 100 to 150.
Magic Missile - Improved homing behavior.
Vicious Spin - Damage decreased from 300% to 200% combined weapon damage. Cooldown increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds. Stamina cost increased from 150 to 175. Bleed amount reduced from 100% to 25% of the damage dealt.
Fan of Knives - Damage increased from 100% to 130% combined weapon damage. Stamina Cost increased from 125 to 150.
Sinister Flare - Mana cost increased from 100 to 150.
Backstab - Damage increased from 1000% to 1200% while behind target.
Reave - Damage decreased from 300% to 250% primary weapon damage. Reave duration increased from 2 to 5 seconds. Cooldown increased from 4 to 8 seconds.
Flame Slash - Ignite damage reduced from 100% to 75% per second. Mana and Stamina Costs increased from 100 to 125. Cooldown increased from 3 to 5 seconds.
Blizzard - Chill amount reduced from 50% to 30%. Damage per second reduced from 125% to 50% Spell Damage. Max Mana Cost increased from 200 to 250.
Spectral Claw - Damage reduced from 100% to 60% weapon damage.
Thunderbolt - Mana Cost increased from 50 to 65.
Shockwave - Stamina Cost increased from 100 to 150. Damage reduced from 150% to 125% combined weapon damage. Explosion radius reduced by 30%.
Flurry - Damage per hit reduced from 75% to 65%.
Flurry of Blows - Damage per hit reduced from 75% to 65%.
Runic Serration - Mana cost increased from 100 to 125. Bleed amount decreased from 40% to 30%.
Serrated Dagger - Initial damage increased from 50% to 60% combined weapon damage.
Envenom - Mana cost increased from 125 to 150.
Voltaic Thrust - Cooldown increased from 2 to 4 seconds. Max chains reduced from 4 to 3.
Consecration - Damage per second reduced from 60% to 30% combined weapon damage.
Frost Shield - Chill amount reduced from 25% to 20%. Chill duration reduced from 3 to 2 seconds.
Ruthless Charge - Shield now blocks 50% of damage from the next hit. Shield duration increased from 1 to 2 seconds.
Savage Strike - Damage reduced from 400% to 200% combined weapon damage.
Calamitous Strike - Shield now blocks 50% of damage from the next hit.
Mystic Arrow - Reduced Damage from 200% to 100% weapon damage. Reduced cooldown from 8 to 2 seconds. Reduced Mana Cost from 80 to 65. Increased Stamina Cost from 50 to 65. Added the Area Effect tag.
Summon Zombie Warrior - Now heals via the Blood Pools mechanic instead of instantly. Heal amount reduced from 10% to 5% of Max Health on hit.
Summon Zombie - Now heals via the Blood Pools mechanic instead of instantly. Heal amount reduced from 10% to 5% of Max Health on hit.
Glorious Entanglement - Now also applies Lethality and Precision.
Avatar of Ice - Chill amount reduced from 30% to 25%. Chill duration reduced from 3 to 2 seconds. Mana cost increased from 100 to 150.
Avatar of Fire - Mana cost increased from 100 to 150.
Avatar of Lightning - Mana cost increased from 100 to 150. Chains to 2 targets, down from 3.
Destructive Wave - Damage reduced from 300% to 200% weapon damage. Mana Cost increased from 150 to 200. Fixed Destructive Wave dealing less resilience damage at low health instead of more as intended.
Super: Strength of Zabaoth - Now grants Health Regen equal to 5% of Max Health per second. Total Damage bonus reduced from 40% to 30%. Damage reduction amount reduced from 20% to 15%. Resilience damage immunity removed.
Super: Wardship of Orias - Damage reduction increased from 30% to 40%.
Super: Divine Arrow - Damage reduced from 1000% to 500% weapon damage.
GENERAL
Flat % damage reduction cannot exceed 75%.
Reduced the effect of Chill on Attack Speed.
Crowd Control effects now receive duration adjustments based on level advantage. 2% increased duration for each level the caster is above the target. 2% reduced duration for each level the caster is below the target.
LIFESTEAL
Blood Pool is now removed at full life.
FLASK EFFECTS
New Effects
Mercy (2 points): Gain Mercy for 4 seconds. Mercy reduces the damage of the next Hit taken by 50%.
Lesser Protection (1 point): Receive 10% less damage for 4 seconds.
Protection (2 points): Receive 20% less damage for 4 seconds.
Greater Protection (3 points): Receive 30% less damage for 4 seconds.
Vampire has been split into 3 new effects:
Lesser Vampire (1 point): Your potions grant Lesser Vampire for 4 seconds, causing Hits to restore 10 Health over 5 seconds.
Vampire (2 points): Your potions grant Vampire for 4 seconds, causing Hits to restore 20 Health over 5 seconds.
Greater Vampire (3 points): Your potions grant Greater Vampire for 4 seconds, causing Hits to restore 30 Health over 5 seconds.
Berserker removed. Blood and Sweat removed. Warlord removed. New T1 Talent - Blood Frenzy: Attack Speed increased by 10% while you are recovering from a Lifesteal effect. New T1 Talent - Voracious: Maximum health stored by Lifesteal effects increased by 20%. New T2 Talent - Eternal: Hits restore 5 Health over 5 seconds. Lifesteal is not removed at full health. Revenge Rework - Gain 1 stack of Revenge when hit by an enemy, increasing Total Damage by 3%. Max 5 stacks. Catastrophic Impacts - Size increase reduced from 30% to 15%.
Hulking Rework
Renamed Overwhelming
Physical attacks deal 25% more Resilience Damage.
CERRIDWEN
Volatile Minions Rework
Renamed to Volatile Summoning
Summons create an explosion on spawn that deals 35% of their attack damage to nearby targets.
Horde Rework
Non-Pact Summon skills spawn 2 minions with 65% health and damage.
Moved to T2.
Mutual Mending Rework: Using your Health and Utility Flasks also applies the effects to your Pact Minion.
Symbiosis removed. Recruiter removed. Forbidden Knowledge moved to T1. New T1 Talent - Compelled Movement: Minions gain 15% increased movement speed. New T2 Talent - Chains of Domination: Minion duration increased by 10%. New T2 Talent - Swift Summoning: Reduces cooldown of minion skills by 15%. New T2 Talent - Master's Aura: Gain an aura that causes nearby minions to deal 25% more damage and take 15% less damage.
New T2 Talent - Rapid Delivery System: Using your Utility Flask also applies the effects to all nearby allies. New T2 Talent - Marshal: Melee Hits increase all Minion's Total Damage, Damage Resistance, and Movement Speed by 5% for 4 seconds. Stacks up to 4 times. New T2 Talent - Overcharge Core: Constructs explode on death, dealing 100% of their attack damage to nearby targets. Constructs that are already designed to explode on death gain 30% increased area of effect with their explosion. Super, Astaroth's Idol - Now applies Precision and Lethality in addition to its existing effects.
Ingenuity - Now grants "You ignore weapon requirements for Construct skills." in addition to its existing effect. Armor Plating - Damage Reduction decreased from 25% to 10%. Movement Speed penalty removed.
EHTIRAS
Runeskin - Now grants 1% of Max Mana as Magic Resistance and 1% of Max Stamina as Physical Resistance. Mana Shield - Now stores 75% of mana spent (down from 100%). Shield now blocks 50% of Resilience Damage. Added a UI element to track remaining shield amount. Soulsplitter - Spell Weakness duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds.
Mana Shield and Spellblade effects are now cleared on Meditation.
KIRKIRA
Cataclysmic Casting - Size increase reduced from 30% to 15%.
Innate Magic Rework - You can use Spells which require a Focus. While wielding a Focus, you can use Spells which require a Staff.
VERNDARI
Passive Cooldown bonus reduced from 2% to 1% per point.
VALKYRION
Diamond Soul removed.
New T2 Talent: Chaos Fist - While Unarmed, your Hits have a 100% chance to apply a random enchantment.
Mystic - Ki Stance skill renamed Sun Soul Technique.
Brawler
Now grants 0.3% All Resistance per level (down from 1.5%).
Fixed the description stating it granted 5% Bonus Damage per level when it actually granted 2% per level.
Now grants 3% Bonus Damage per level (up from 2%).
Monk
Now grants 0.5 Stamina Regen per level (down from 0.7).
Now grants 1% Critical Strike Chance per level (up from 0.5%).
ALCAEUS
Alcaeus Super, Fury of Alcaeus, has been replaced with a new Super: Blackflame Assassin - For 10 seconds, Hits apply Blackflame and your dodge becomes a Shadow Dash that does not halt stamina regen and can be used while attacking. Blackflame lasts for 5 seconds and deals 20% Combined Weapon Damage per second per stack, stacks up to 20 times.
Eviscerator: Now grants 2H swords or axes a 15% proc chance. Now works with bows while you have Aspect of the Wolf.
SENDATU
New T1 Talent: High-Capacity Flask - Max Health Flask uses becomes 4.
Improved Flask
No longer applies Increased Duration to your Flask.
Moved to Astaroth T1.
Gift of Wisdom
Now adds 20% Boon Intensity, in addition to its existing effect.
Moved to T2.
Talented Healer Rework Using your Health Flask also heals all nearby allies for 20% of their Maximum Health.
ORIAS
Weapons Training removed. Bulwark removed. Powerful Build - Moved to T1. Now adds 15% of Stamina as Health, down from 50%. No longer increases threat generation. Shield Boss - Moved to T2. Renamed Shield Spikes.
New T1 Talent - Intimidating: Enemies taunted by you take 10% more damage from you. New T2 Talent - Reinforcement: Blocked hits inflict 50% less Resilience damage. Threat generation increased by 150%.
RAID
Enemy health has been significantly decreased. Wizard - Number of crystals spawned when entering phase 2 now scales with Raid Difficulty level.
Dev note - Raid has been an endurance mode that heavily favors defensive and self sustaining builds. This change pivots Raid from a stratospheric stat-check a "learn the mechanics and have at least a competent build" experience. These changes should make the Raid much more accessible for a variety of builds and solo play.
INFINITE ARENA
A merchant will now spawn every 5 waves. Infinite Arena will now show your current position on the leaderboards if you are outside the top 5.
UI
The menu containing game information has been renamed "Compendium". Compendium now has a Search function.
ANTI-CHEAT
Anti-cheat has been modified to close the game when a cheat program is detected, instead of closing the detected program. A window will also be displayed showing the detected process.
MULTIPLAYER
The previous main menu lobby functionality has been removed. This system was cool but presented a lot of bugs. It may return in the future.
You can now invite friends to your active game (or join a friend in an active game) with the Steam Friends interface.
MISC
Character's skills are now shown at the main menu.
Players now spawn in Town with full Super Charge and Flasks.
Mobility skills now have 90% reduced cooldown and no Mana or Stamina costs while out of combat.
"Damage While Wielding a Focus" has been renamed "Focus Damage".
"Damage While Wielding a Shield" has been renamed "Defender Damage".
Phasing in has been removed.
The previous influence crafting system has been removed.
Dodging with the Sprint/Roll input now activates the roll on button release instead of button down. There is a 0.75 second window from button press to activate the dodge. The dedicated Dodge Roll input still activates dodge roll immediately on button down.
Stats Overlay default hotkey changed to apostrophe.
Photo Mode is now accessible from the pause menu.
Toggle Mouse now only works outside of combat to ensure Left Alt functions properly for skills.
Improved reliability of teleports.
Players can now reset their invasion level from the World Map.
Floating Damage Number Options - Players can now toggle Floating Damage Numbers on enemies and themselves in Gameplay Settings.
Meditation regeneration speed increased.
Added a reminder icon when you have unspent Flask Points.
Aura Skill mana costs now update properly on tooltip.
Multiple actions can now be bound to the same key.
Resilience now starts regenerating when Meditation starts and regenerates faster while meditating. Minions also start Resilience regen on Meditation.
Hotkeys are now searchable.
New VFX for Flame Nova and Poison Nova.
Skill Merchant now has a "Currently Usable" button which will only display skills you can use with your current equipment and talents.
Your games can now be set to Offline, Friends, or Public mode.
Added a "Hitstop Intensity" slider to the Gameplay settings menu to customize the amount of hitstop on melee attacks.
New Icons
Vicious Spin
Ruthless Charge
Summon Demon Wolf
Frost Shield
Ice Storm
Chilling Strike
Ice Nova Arrow
Super: Sendatu's Crown
Magic Missile
Explosive Arrow
Fan of Knives
Rain of Arrows
Flash Dagger
Bane Strike
Blood Rage
Meteor
Venombolt
All Boon Effects
Aura Skills
Shout Skills
FIXES
Bladecrest now works properly with Tranquility.
Fixed some filter combinations not working at the Skill Merchant.
Fixed a bug where many unintended sources of damage were dealing Resilience damage.
Fixed Troll Lord dealing twice the intended damage to targets in melee range during his shockwave attack.
Fixed Fan of Knives not working with Catastrophic Impacts.
Fixed some issues with player's Resilience bar visibility.
Fixed "Invert Y-Axis" not applying when changed in-game.
Hello, first update! Been reviewing your feedback and many players have been struggling with the controls. I have added a new control settings screen in the main menu that will allow you to adjust and test alternative control schemes and allow for controller support:
Movement: - Screen Relative: Use WASD or Left Controler Stick to maneuver your ship relative to the screen. Ex: W (up) will move the ship upwards towards the top screen regardless of the ship heading. - Ship Relative: Use WASD or Left Controler Stick to maneuver relative to the orientation of the ship itself. Ex: A (left) will move to the ship's left (portside).
Rotation: - Relative: Use Left/Right arrows or Right Controller Stick to turn your ship relative to itself. Ex: Left arrow will turn the ship left. - Directional Align: Use Arrows keys or Right Controller Stick to turn the ship to face that direction. Ex: Up Arrow (up) will turn the ship to point upwards towards the top of the screen. - Mouse Align: Use mouse to turn the ship to face that direction. Ex: The ship will point towards the mouse.
Other changes: - Removed cost for removing starting cards - Added deck minimum (30 cards) - Added starting weaker enemy - Increased health for larger advanced enemies - Fixed strafing enemy movement - Added upgrade powerup drop - free upgrade on pickup - Deduced currency drop rate for burn and ion damage on asteroids - Fixed cargo arm card increasing projectile radius - Reduced pickup sound effect
Next: New enemy types/patterns and reworking weapons to allow for more consistent exp gain to level up instead of simply running from the enemies at later stages during a round.
I’ve been working on this project since April 2020, 2 and a bit years later the first act of Kitten Burst is finished!
The game will launch on PC in Early Access for $25.
Just to be clear if you pay for the game in early access you will get the full game as it releases. Your feedback & support will help me develop the rest of the game.
If you want to wait for the full release that’s cool too. Even if the game sells 0 copies I’m still going to finish it, because I love making it.
Kitten Burst - Part [A:] September 2nd, 2022
Kitten Burst - Part [B:] ETA: Winter 2022/2023
Kitten Burst - Part [C:] ETA: Summer 2023
I have a solid plan to hit these ETAs ( I’m already well into development for part [B:] ! ) but I’m also not going to crunch myself. If delays come up I’ll let you know and explain why.
Also please be patient with any bugs. The best way to get it resolved is to send some info on the Kitten Burst Forums discord. I’ll try to support everything the best I can, but this is mostly a solo project.
I say solo, but the game also features work from amazing artists, It was tested and polished from a bunch of really helpful people giving feedback, and wouldn’t have even started without my sister Sophie who helped with character design and building out the lore.
