Patch 2.6

Patch 2.6, known as Surrounded!, is one of the Patches of Orcs Must Die! Unchained.

Overview
HOO-BOY. This is a big one, guys… we added so much stuff for you, we’re probably only going to touch a little bit on it here. We encourage everyone to strike up a conversation on the forums about this stuff. Let’s get chatty!

Here’s a rundown:


 * New Traits!
 * Crafting!
 * Potions and Scrolls!
 * New Survival Game Mode and accompanying map = SURROUNDED!
 * New Guardians, to be placed in Survival Games!
 * Updated New Player Experience!
 * Unchained Fortress Returns with a Neutral Objective!

In general, we are currently focused on getting a number of systems in place and not spending a lot of time getting these polished. Other systems which connect to these are in the pipeline too, so we don’t want to spend a lot of time improving pieces of the game that are just going to be exploded a few weeks later. This means you’re going to be playing with some “non-optimal” things. For example, the chests are due for a rework and are not what we want them to be, the drop rates for materials in survival games are rough guesses, the material costs for potions are similarly inaccurate, and the rewards for some games are…interesting.

Rebuilding Traits
In the past, the trait system was separated from deck building, and players had to meet attribute prerequisites to use traits. In addition, every trait had 3 tiers of quality, with increasing prerequisites. Overall, this made the system both complex and not very deep, because:


 * Players had to manage two separate deck editors.
 * Many players didn't understand that they had to meet attribute stat point requirements in order to use traits.
 * Due to being required to meet stat point requirements, players didn't really experiment with different stat point layouts like we hoped.
 * Low tier traits were not valued by players because the high tier traits were strictly better.
 * Most players picked damage-oriented stats.

In patch 2.6, we aimed to make the system simultaneously deeper and less complex. Here is how it works:


 * Traits are now part of your deck
 * There are no longer trait tiers
 * Every trait now has a primary and secondary bonus
 * You always receive the primary bonus, but the secondary bonus is only obtained by matching the gem slot type

This system allows the flexibility of playing any card into any slot, while also having second layer of depth in optionally matching the gem type. For example, if you choose to stack all damage-related traits, you will be sacrificing many secondary bonuses. In addition, we added more ways to improve your stats than just primary attack damage and health. These new bonuses are more or less effective on different heroes. As a result, it should now be worthwhile to create a separate deck for each hero. Overall, we find this system both easier to understand and more compelling to interact with.

New Traits

 * Practices Witchcraft - Grants 5% magical lifesteal on primary attack
 * Enjoys Pain - Grants 5% physical lifesteal on primary attack
 * Ransacking Obsession - Leadership pickups from caches give 5% more leadership
 * “Motivates” Others - Gain 5% more leadership from escorting minions
 * Takes Lessons from Cygnus - 10% of Max Mana is added to Max HP, with a cap of 50 extra hp
 * Show Off - Grants bonus to armor and magic armor while escorting minions
 * Feels Safe at Home - Grants extra bonus to armor and magic armor while near friendly guardian

New Survival-Only Traits
We have introduced a few new Survival-only traits! These can be acquired through chests, and can go in Survival decks. >


 * Believes Size Matters - 15% Extra damage to large minions when you go unchained, The damage increases to 25% against large minions if your whole team goes unchained
 * Difficulty Calming Down - 15% Extra duration to unchained state
 * Easily Excited - Combos give 20% extra unchained juice to the whole team, Effect stacks if multiple people have the trait
 * Natural Born Sprinter - Grants a 50% speed boost when you go unchained
 * Wall Building PhD - Barricades and Great Walls have 20% extra HP, They also regenerate… slowly.

All Traits

 * We have removed the levels of traits as part of our overhaul to the trait system. There is only one version of each trait.
 * Each Trait now has a gem icon associated with it.
 * There will be more changes to this system forthcoming.

Get Crafty with Crafting
In patch 2.6, we are introducing a new feature: Crafting. Crafting allows players to create Survival cards using materials that they find in Survival matches and in chests. This alternate method for creating cards is designed to add intrigue to the card collection process by creating more variables to compare when choosing your next card. This is only the first implementation of the crafting system. It's not perfect. For example, if you get 2000 feathers, there's nothing for you to do with them after you've crafted Rumrudder. This is a temporary implementation of this. You won’t get 2000 feathers with no purpose in the future. We will be expanding the crafting system significantly in future patches.
 * With this patch, we are introducing a Crafting system. This will allow you to collect items that drop inside games and use them to craft new Survival-only Traps, Survival Guardians, or Potions and Scrolls.
 * You can get crafting materials from in-game drops (They sparkle!) or out of chests.
 * Crafting Materials will appear under the appropriate tab in My Stuff.
 * If a card is Craftable, you’ll see the Crafting widget appear at the bottom of the cardback.

Potions and Scrolls
We have added some new types of Survival-only cards: potions and scrolls. Potions are cards that can only be be crafted and provide tremendous buffs to yourself. Similarly, scrolls are also crafted and provide enormous team-wide bonuses. These new cards are designed to allow you to overcome those difficult “dead-end” waves that a team has been striving to beat.
 * These are ‘consumables’ - things that you can purchase or craft, use one or more times, and will then be consumed.
 * There are two types; Potions and Scrolls. Potions, when used, will only affect you. Scrolls will affect the entire team!
 * You can only use each type of item a specific number of times before it is used up, and you will have to craft or purchase more.
 * Chests now have a chance to drop some potions or scrolls in addition to what they normally drop. This required a workaround to implement – if you see a small amount of skulls in a chest in addition to other stuff, this is because of that temporary workaround.

The Full List

 * Potion of Health
 * Potion of Luck
 * Potion of Rage
 * Potion of Speed
 * Potion of the Guardian
 * Scroll of Invulnerability
 * Scroll of Repair
 * Scroll of Resurrection
 * Scroll of the Empty Rift
 * Scroll of the Unchained

New Survival Guardians
Before discussing the new guardian cards, it is important to note that guardians are no longer placed by default in Survival. Instead, players now play guardian cards in one of several pre-defined locations. There will be many different unique Survival Guardians, and each has specific locations associated with them; if the player places a guardian in its associated “home” location, the guardian will spawn with significantly more health and damage. This provides interesting theory crafting, especially on maps like Surrounded, where players will prioritize funneling their minions through different rooms based on their guardian choices.


 * Guardians are new cards that you can take with you into Survival maps, placing them on Glyph spaces to help defend your fortress.
 * Everyone receives one Guardian in their starter Survival deck. The others may be purchased or crafted. You may take two Guardians in a deck.
 * In the Surrounded map, some Guardians have a ‘Home Base’. If placed in their Home Base, they will receive a damage and health buff, and they will have unique VO lines.
 * Bear in mind, this means you now have to place your own guardians on ALL maps now, not just the new Surrounded type!

Who are the Guardians?

 * Blacksmith Guardian
 * Cook Guardian
 * Deckhand Guardian
 * Dragon Guardian
 * Priest Guardian
 * Lion Guardian
 * Moon Guardian
 * Stablehand Guardian
 * Sun Guardian
 * Rumrudder Guardian

Blackpaw

 * Health reduced by 16%.
 * Now has 20% lifesteal on primary attacks.
 * "Go For The Throat" damage increased to 135, up from 120.
 * "Go For The Throat" lifesteal reduced to 75%, down from 100%.
 * "Go For The Throat" cooldown increased to 14, up from 12.
 * "Go For The Throat" mana cost increased to 35, up from 30.
 * "Go For The Throat" now properly damages caches, although he cannot lifesteal from them.
 * "Hungry" weaver improved now has a 3.5s cooldown reduction, up from 3.0s.
 * "Vengeful Tide" weaver upgrade improved to 35%, up from 30%.
 * Summoned Gnolls now vanish upon Blackpaw's death.

Cygnus

 * Attack range of Rift Shard increased to 2k units, up from 1k units.
 * "Assisted Walking" weaver removed and replaced with 25% cooldown reduction for Feign Death, now called “Feign Recovery”.
 * DevNote: The theme of Cygnus being one of the fastest heroes was backward. The move speed upgrade was left over from when Cygnus moved slower than other heroes.


 * Cygnus no longer affects the Neutral Objective while feigning death.
 * Mana cost of primary attack increased to 7, up from 6.
 * Mana cost of chain lightning decreased to 22, down from 30.
 * "Elderly Urging" weaver upgrade improved to 33% cast time reduction, up from 20%.
 * Other heroes can no longer chain lightning off of Cygnus' Buff Pylon trap.

Dobbin

 * Mineshaft Shortcut health scaling fixed. This results in the shortcut having significantly less health in the late game.
 * Teleport cast time increased to 1.5s, up from 1s
 * "Kick 'Em In The Knees" Weaver damage bonus increased to +30%, up from +20%.

Hogarth

 * Health reduced by 5%.
 * "Axe!" renamed to "Swing!".

Ivy

 * "Nature's Ire" weaver redesigned to now reduce all armor types of Rooted players by 20, rather than dealing 20 damage/sec.

Maximilian

 * Damage of "In Your Faces" initial hit decreased to 160, down from 180.
 * Damage of splash increased to 90-130, up from 80-120.
 * "Overpowered" weaver upgrade now also decreases the cooldown of "In Your Faces" by 2 seconds.

Midnight

 * Combat timer reduced to 2.5 seconds from 5, allowing Midnight to more quickly stealth and gain out of combat bonuses.
 * Snares now have twice the hit range, but now expire after 40 seconds.
 * Vital Strike now deals 20% health, up from 17%.
 * "Shade Cloak" weaver upgrade reduced from 40 Magic Armor to 25.
 * "Premeditated Malice" renamed to "Hunter's Snare".

Oziel

 * Starting mana increased to 190, up from 180.
 * "Eternal Machine" weaver upgrade changed to only provide 85% of the healing into damage dealt.
 * Oziel can now use other abilities after using Siphon Life much more quickly.
 * "Wraith Surge" mana cost now increases by 16 per cast, down from 20.
 * "Vampiric Blast" renamed to "Vampiric Slash".

Smolder

 * “Heart of Flame” mana cost per second reduced to 12 from 18.
 * “Dragon's Breath” now only loses 25% damage per target hit, improved from 50%.
 * “Dragon's Breath” mana cost increased to 18 per second, from 12.
 * “Dragon's Breath” now prioritizes heroes and enemies near the reticle.
 * "Channeling Dragons" weaver improved from +10% damage to +20%.

Stinkeye

 * Totem health reduced by 10.
 * Arcane Bowling Ball trap reset time increased by 1 second.
 * Totems now die when Stinkeye dies.
 * Slow totem now lingers for 1 second, down from 1.5.
 * "Bonus Balls" weaver upgrade increased from +2 to +3.
 * "Nauseous Anomaly" weaver upgrade improved to 2.5 seconds, from 2.
 * "More Booms" weaver upgrade improved to 33% reduction, from 25%.

Single Player Survival!

 * You can no longer play a custom Survival game.
 * To play Survival:
 * Choose a difficulty
 * To play by yourself or with your party, hit “launch”
 * To matchmake, hit “Match”.


 * Maps are randomly given to a player based on their chosen difficulty
 * All maps have random boss heroes (chosen by Hero roulette), and random doors.

New Surrounded Map

 * This map plays a little differently than the rest. There are multiple entries, and as the game progresses, they will randomly open up.
 * There are a bunch of new awesome environmental traps to play with!
 * This is our first true Survival Content… enjoy!

Difficulty Levels and Single Player Survival

 * Survival is going to be divided into difficulty categories- Easy, Normal, Hard, and Endless. All of them can be played single player, if you so desire.

New Tutorials

 * There’s a new Survival tutorial. This will teach everyone the basics of how to play Survival mode. This is currently the only active tutorial, and it is non-optional.

PVP Changes

 * Guardian mana regeneration bonus increased by 50%
 * Experience gained from leading minions is now divided when there are more than 2 allies in a lane
 * Cache's now grant experience in an area when the leadership token is picked up
 * Minion Portal XP from all sources has been reduced by 15%

New! Unchained Fortress Neutral Objective

 * Cook the Crogon Filet!
 * In order to get a boss to aid your team you must feed it a good meal! Starting during wave 3, a Crogon appears in the specially designated area. Defeat the Crogon to claim a choice cut of Crogon steak. Bring the steak to the cooking pit in the center of the map where it’ll be cooked up, earning your team the right to summon a Boss Minion. Be careful though, while carrying the steak you are slowed and cannot use your abilities (due to its massive size, of course). You can only use your primary attacks, so make sure you have some teammates to escort you. If you die, the steak is dropped and the next person to touch it picks it up. Don’t let the enemy team steal your steak!

Great Wall Barricade

 * Cost increased to 2000 from 1750
 * Health reduced to 60 from 80.

Steam Vent

 * Cooldown increased by 3s.

Gnoll Hunters

 * Damage lowered to 19, down from 23.
 * Health decreased by 10%.

Pride Hunters

 * Health decreased by 10%. This currently displays correct health in dashboard, but not in game.

Orc and Human Archers

 * Attack time increased to 1.15s, up from 1.0. (Slower attack speed.)
 * Can now only hit the target at which they are aiming.

Satyr Runners

 * Now have +65 Trap Armor.

Gatebreaker

 * The Captain is now called Gatebreaker.
 * Gatebreaker is now available as a boss.

Orfum

 * Orfum now waits 7s before regenerating health, up from 3s.
 * Damage reduced by 33%.

Swiftyhooves

 * Damage reduced by 75%.
 * Now attacks guardians.
 * Now kills barriers in a single attack.

Gear

 * All gear in the game has had its mana cost removed.
 * Cooldowns have been substantially increased on all pieces of gear.
 * Ice Amulet now has a 20 second cooldown and has a much smaller projectile spread. Damage increased by 15%.
 * Freedom Trinket no longer affects nearby allies, but now has 3s lingering Control Immunity.
 * Lightning Cloud ring damage reduced by 40%, but now hits 3 targets, up from 1. Duration reduced to 5s, down from 8s.
 * Ring of Last Stand now lasts 2s, down from 2.5s.
 * Flame Ring no longer deals any initial damage. Projectile speed slowed to 6500 from 10000.
 * Fire Wall Bracers damage increased by 40%s
 * Arcane Bubble Blower damage increased by 15%s
 * Trap vambrace duration increased to 12s, up from 9.
 * DevNote: We have balanced character's sustanability around the absense of gear. When gear is involved, we think mana is a bit too restrictive. We also like gear to provide ways to fill downtime when a player is out of mana. This, in addition to the guardian mana regen change, makes mana management a much more enjoyable and strategic experience.

Quests
The New Quest System is now live!


 * When you log into the game you will see a Player Progress window that shows your account progress as well as your Daily Quest.
 * There is also a tab on the Player Progress window just for your Quests.
 * You get 1 Daily quest every day and have 24 hours to complete it.
 * If you do not complete the Daily Quest, it is replaced with another after the 24 hour time limit is up. If you complete your Daily Quest, you will receive a new quest the next day.
 * You are granted 2 Journeyman Quests, which take longer to complete than the Daily Quests and grant deeper rewards.
 * You can pass on 1 Journeyman Quest per day. When you do, it is immediately replaced. Even if you pass on a Journeyman Quest, the quest isn’t gone forever, you may see it again.

Matchmaking

 * It’s now non-modal, which means you can access the tabs of your dashboard while searching for a game! This includes chat and friend list, the Shop, and your Decks.
 * There is a game confirmation screen that you must accept before it will sort you into a game.
 * Randomized maps!
 * The matchmaking algorithm has been significantly enhanced for fairer and faster matches.

Dashboard and UI

 * There’s a new score HUD in the in-game UI.
 * The guardian count at the top of the screen has been removed.
 * Rift points are now displayed as a health bar once minions have scored.
 * A new score metric has been added at the top of the screen. The score is designed to aid players in gauging who is winning. You receive 1 point for:
 * Killing a guardian
 * Upgrading a minion portal
 * Spawning a boss
 * Scoring two rift points


 * The New Player Experience has been updated. On first login, you will see a welcome screen.
 * The Basic tutorial has been removed for CB14. We are only showing the Survival tutorial.


 * You will then be taken to the non-optional Survival Tutorial, but, fortunately, there will be another reward.
 * There are new Tabs under “My Stuff” so you can access your Crafting Materials and your Consumable Potions and Scrolls.
 * The dashboard now supports 3 resolutions: 1366x768, 1280x720, and 1024x576!
 * Backstories in place for several heroes.

Maps

 * There is a new ‘Wisp’ system in all maps designed to show you the path that minions will take- where they are coming from, and where they will go. It is dynamic, so it will change if you put up barricades. This currently only works in Survival.
 * In PvE, maps are now unlockable based on your level (or the level of the party host). You must be level 3 or higher to play Highlands, and you must be level 5 or higher to play Surrounded.

Cliffside Clash

 * Bug Fixes

Highlands

 * Collision fixes
 * New Art Assets

Unchained Fortress

 * Art changes to adjust for new Neutral Objective

Surrounded
New Environmental Traps!


 * Lava Pots
 * Shoot anywhere on the pot to activate it.
 * Pours lava for 10s.
 * Enemies that walk under the lava have a fire DOT applied.
 * Recharges for 30 seconds after pour, but you can use it as many times as you want. Go nuts!


 * Boulder Drop
 * Hit the target attached to the trap to activate it.
 * A large boulder will be released that will bounce and roll away.
 * Enemies that are hit by the boulder will take damage and get knocked back.
 * Can be retriggered immediately after a boulder is released, but you only get 5 per trap so use them wisely!


 * Boom Barrel Roll
 * Hit the target attached to the trap to activate it.
 * A boom barrel will roll out and away from the trap.
 * Enemies that are hit by the rolling boom barrel will take a small amount of damage and be knocked back.
 * After its fuse expires, the boom barrel will explode, damaging nearby enemies.
 * Can be retriggered immediately, but like the Boulder Drop, you get 5 per trap.