Aldermere
Alderwic at sunset, seen from the steps above the town square
โ€น All patch notes

Version 0.5.6

The Reaver Dales, private boss fights and new armour

New Reaver land and a quest east of the Reaver Camp, private boss fights at Arena Wards, reworked armour and magic resist, and a compact HUD.

World#

The Reaver Dales. The land east of the Reaver Camp is open: three new stretches of highland with a beck, a tarn, the Reavers' camps and Eastwatch, a thegn's outpost at the edge of the Dales.

Why: the Reavers now fill their own level band the way the goblins fill theirs: front ranks, a miniboss, back ranks and a boss on top. At 32 Varric sat in a gap well above everything around him; at 25 he ends the band. NPCs drop what they wear, and the rest of a Reaver's outfit is now its look rather than items.

Big pine forest. The small pines across the world are now full-size pines, about 12 to 18 m tall, so pine forest towers over you.

Grass takes the colour of the ground it grows on, so it's darker on the darker patches instead of always meadow green. It's a little taller, and it grows on the Dales moor too.

Lighter towns. People, pen animals and mounts you can't see no longer animate, gathering spots stop checking for your mouse until you point at them, and smoke and sparks out of view pause. In Alderwic's centre, with about 100 NPCs nearby, the game's work each frame fell from 9.5 to 8.7 ms on our test laptop.

Try it: Head east from the Reaver Camp into the Dales, or talk to Thegn Aldred at Eastwatch.

Combat#

Private boss fights. Every boss now has an Arena Ward at the edge of its fight. Pay once and the boss past it is your party's alone, for as long as you stay. The shared boss is still there, and still free.

Why: every boss was in the open world, and whoever hit it first owned the fight, so a busy boss meant waiting or getting crashed. The fee keeps the shared boss slightly better for one kill, and a private fight better for a long sitting.

How private fights work
  • A private fight copies only the boss. Ore, trees, chests and other NPCs stay in the shared world, so you can't reset them by going in and out.
  • Inside, you only see and fight your own party and your boss. Chat to people nearby stays inside too.
  • One private fight per party at each ward, and a few at a time across the world. When they're all taken, the ward says so and charges nothing.
  • Only the player who opens the fight pays. Joining is always free.
  • Die inside and you respawn at home, outside the fight.
  • Drops and quest credit work as they do on the shared boss.

Try it: Take your party to the Goblin Chief in the goblin valley and click the Arena Ward.

Combat level. It's now your best attack skill (Strength, Dexterity or Magic) plus Hitpoints, halved and rounded down.

Why: your combat level now matches the NPC level that's an even fight for you.

Faster kills, and three kinds of enemy.

Why: kill times had got far too slow, and an enemy at your level fought like your equal, so a pull of three was usually death. Ordinary enemies are now built to be beaten, as in most MMOs, and elites are the even fights.

Bosses. Every boss has half the health it had, and they're built to be fought solo at their level without a bag of potions.

Why: a boss hits like an even fight at its level, and with four times the health a solo kill cost several bars of your own health. Varric in full steel took about 30 health potions.

Smaller pulls. An NPC now calls for help only from friends within 9 metres of it (was 15), so most camps come at you two or three at a time instead of all at once.

Why: you couldn't pull a few enemies out of a camp, especially archers and casters, and camps filled back up while you were still fighting in them.

Worn gear#

Armour and magic resist, reworked. Every armour type now has a clear job: plate is the toughest, mostly Armour, robes mostly Magic Resist, and leather sits between: less Armour than plate, as much Magic Resist as robes.

Why: armour and magic resist didn't line up between players and NPCs. Leather resisted magic better than robes, plate had no magic resist at all, and armour penetration decided fights more than the gear did.

Reaver headpieces. Each Reaver rank wears its own headpiece and has a rare chance to drop it. Each follows its rank's armour type at the rank's level.

  • Reaver Mask
  • Seer's Hood
  • Gorse Hood
  • Bearskin Hood
  • Witch's Hood
  • Hearthguard Helm
  • Smokefang Hood
The Reaver headpieces

Uniques wear now. Boss uniques and Reaver headpieces of level 21 and up wear down like other gear: the Gobbler, Smokefang Daggers, the Gorse, Bearskin, Witch's and Smokefang Hoods, the Hearthguard Helm, and the Lampwarden's and Lightless Lanterns.

How weapon damage changed, every tier
  • Greatswords: Bronze 152 โ†’ 248, Iron 266 โ†’ 434, Steel 399 โ†’ 651, Mithril 589 โ†’ 961, Ebony 779 โ†’ 1,271, Verdite 1,159 โ†’ 1,891, Tyrian 1,539 โ†’ 2,511
  • Spears: Bronze 95 โ†’ 155, Iron 166 โ†’ 271, Steel 249 โ†’ 407, Mithril 368 โ†’ 601, Ebony 487 โ†’ 794, Verdite 724 โ†’ 1,182, Tyrian 962 โ†’ 1,569
  • Axes and pickaxes: Bronze 76 โ†’ 124, Iron 133 โ†’ 217, Steel 199 โ†’ 325, Mithril 294 โ†’ 480, Ebony 389 โ†’ 635, Verdite 579 โ†’ 945, Tyrian 769 โ†’ 1,255
  • Glaives: Bronze 178 โ†’ 224, Iron 287 โ†’ 379, Steel 404 โ†’ 541, Mithril 561 โ†’ 763, Ebony 671 โ†’ 957, Verdite 877 โ†’ 1,291, Tyrian 1,044 โ†’ 1,561
  • Daggers: Bronze 164 โ†’ 170, Iron 250 โ†’ 278, Steel 361 โ†’ 388, Mithril 477 โ†’ 547, Ebony 552 โ†’ 685, Verdite 687 โ†’ 907, Tyrian 742 โ†’ 1,076
  • Arrows: Bronze 203 โ†’ 219, Iron 321 โ†’ 357, Steel 409 โ†’ 507, Mithril 552 โ†’ 710, Ebony 658 โ†’ 887, Verdite 767 โ†’ 1,177, Tyrian 858 โ†’ 1,398
  • Others: Chief's Machete 224 โ†’ 365, Smokefang Daggers 526 โ†’ 603, Steel Battle Axe 100 โ†’ 163, Troll Club 40 โ†’ 65

Interface#

The HUD takes up a lot less of the screen.

Why: the HUD took up too much of the screen, and on a shorter window the trackers ended up over the inventory.

Try it: Log in, take a Slayer task or pin a Codex entry, and click its line under the minimap.

Quests#

Black Mail, a new quest (level 14, after The War Horn). Thegn Aldred at Eastwatch wants to know why some farms in the Dales keep getting raided and others never are.

Why: so you can tell at a glance which quests suit your level and which ones are in your area.

Settings#

Report a problem. There's a new button at the bottom of Settings, next to Log out.

Why: a crash report only tells us how a game ended. A problem report shows us what you saw while it was still running.

Field of view is now 48ยฐ for everyone. The Field of View slider is gone from Graphics, and so is the wider view on higher tiers (Low 52ยฐ, Medium 56ยฐ, High 60ยฐ). The view still widens a little when you look out towards the horizon.

Why: so nobody sees more of the world than anyone else.

Why: Auto was cutting how far you could see on fast computers outside town, for no gain. Cuts are meant for computers that are struggling.

Left-click attacks again. The NPC Attack setting is back to Left click for everyone who never changed it: left-clicking any enemy attacks it. When higher and Always right-click are still there in Settings โ†’ Controls, and if you picked one, you keep it.

Why: with When higher as the default, new players clicked an enemy, walked up to it and thought they couldn't attack.

Graphics card. The Windows download now picks your graphics card itself. If your PC has a separate NVIDIA, AMD or Intel Arc card, the game starts on it, even when Windows would have given it the chip built into your processor.

Why: many PCs start games on the built-in chip even when there's a much faster card. The game now sorts that out itself instead of asking you to.

NPCs#

  • Smokefang Daggers
  • Smokefang Wolf Pup
Varric the Smokefang's unique and pet

Why: the Machete was filling World chat.

Why: her other herbs are below the Alchemy level of most players strong enough to fight her.

Skills#

No more yarn. At the spinning wheel, fibre now weaves straight into cloth. One trip to the wheel pays what spinning and weaving paid together, so cloth trains Crafting twice as fast.

Why: players asked for it.

Spellbook#

Slayer#

Music#

Shops#

Why: 0.5.5 stocked every tier by mistake. Only tiers II and III were meant to start stocked.

Fixes#

Questions or thoughts on this update?

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