Patch 2.5

Patch 2.5, otherwise known as Chaos Theory, is one of the Patches put out for Orcs Must Die! Unchained. It was released on October 6, 2015.

Overview
It seems like it was only yesterday we were posting the last Patch Notes for you guys. Let’s see what’s in the patch box this time!


 * New Hero! Welcome to Zoey, the Chaotic Apprentice. (Or not welcome, considering the damage she’s already done to the Order fortress…)
 * New Post Game Stat screen! It’s very pretty.
 * Radial Communications! Makes communicating with your teammates MUCH easier.
 * Lots of bug fixes. Every patch. If we ever DON’T say this, we just assume you know.
 * Endless Boss Hero Roulette! Get a random boss Hero every time one spawns!

AND MUCH MORE! The new party system is in, which will allow you to view other dashboard screens while in a party. However, there's a bug you need to know about. If the party leader launches the matchmaking search while other party members are in the middle of navigating to another screen, there’s a chance that those party members will not be transitioned to the matchmaking dialogue. If this happens, the party leader should cancel matchmaking and start again once the player has finished transitioning to a screen. If a party member doesn’t transition into the Hero Select screen, you should close the dash to ensure that the party isn’t in a bad state.

Heroes

 * New VO events have been added for almost everybody. The downside: Some of them are in Rippybot’s voice for now.
 * Weaver upgrade icons, if they modify a Hero ability, will be that ability’s icons.
 * The Apprentice makes her return as Zoey! Check out all the details below.

Zoey
Zoey is a powerful yet, yet unpredictable magic user. Her slow fire rate and unpredictable damage types are offset by her ability to dramatically increase her rate of fire after using an ability and her wave annihilating E ability, Feebee’s Wrath. Read her full ability list below and check out the blog about her development here.


 * Chaos Tome (LMB) - Whenever Zoey spawns, Chaos randomly selects a school of magic (Fire, Frost, Arcane, or Lightning). Zoey draws energy off the Chaos Tome casting a ranged spell of the current school. Whenever Zoey changes schools of magic her attack speed is greatly increased.
 * Book Club (RMB) - Zoey uses the Chaos Tome as a club, inflicting physical damage and knocking enemies to the side. If she hits an enemy Chaos chooses a new school of magic.
 * Chaos blast - Zoey fires off a powerful blast, then Chaos chooses a new school of magic.
 * Feebee's Wrath (Q) - Zoey disappears into the Chaos Tome. Scared she won't return, Feebee loses control, rapidly firing high damage attacks in all directions until she returns.
 * Trial and Error (E) - Zoey rips a page out of the Choas Tome receiving a random buff, then Chaos chooses a new school of magic. There is a very small chance the spell backfires causing a debuff.
 * Feebee (Passive) - Zoey's pet Firebat, Feebee, occasionally attacks a nearby enemy using the current school of magic. Feebee cannot be hit or killed.

Blackpaw

 * Cooldown on “Call to the Beyond” increased to 120s, up from 75s.
 * Maximum health reduced by 5%.

Gabriella

 * “By My Command” no longer ignores enemy disabled traps.

Hogarth

 * “Axe!” recovery time reduced.
 * “Ambush!” slow increased to 25% for 3s, from 15% for 5s.
 * Maximum health increased by 10%.
 * Stay Put! Weaver upgrade lowered to 20%, down from 35%.
 * All the Feels! Weaver upgrade lowered to 40/s health, down from 50/s.

Ivy

 * “Elven Swiftboots” passive now triggers at 25% health, up from 20%.

Maximilian

 * Recovery times reduced for all abilities.
 * Slightly increased cast time for “In Your Faces.”
 * “Can’t Touch This” duration lowered to 3s, down from 4s.
 * “Can’t Touch This” cooldown increased to 16s from 15s.
 * Health and Physical Armor weaver upgrades have been removed, and are replaced by new versions of Spiffy Cravat and Chiseled Abs.
 * Spiffy Cravat Weaver upgrade now increases the duration of “Can’t Touch This” by 1s.
 * Chiseled Abs Weaver upgradenow reduces the cooldown of “Can’t Touch This” by 25%.

Oziel

 * “Wraith Surge” projectile speed increased to 8500, up from 6500.
 * “Desecrated Ground” baseline slow increased to 20%, up from 16%.
 * “Desecrated Ground” damage increased to 15/s, up from 10.
 * “Vampiric Burst” damage increased by 10%.
 * Extra Vampy Weaver upgrade increased to 15%, up from 10%.
 * Unholy Mire and Diabolic Efficiency Weaver upgrades were moved to Tier IV.
 * Vexing Surge Weaver upgrade has been changed. It now reduces cooldown of “Haunting Spirits” by 10s each time he hits an enemy hero with “Wraith Surge”.

Smolder

 * When using “Dragon’s Breath”, she moves at 60% speed, up from 50%.
 * Smolder deals 120 damage upon returning “From the Ashes”, up from 100.

Stinkeye

 * “Totem of Speed” now provides a 30% speed boost for 1.5s, down from 50% for 3s.
 * “Totem of Speed” slow on enemies lingers for 1.5s, up from 1s.
 * Healthy Helpers Weaver upgrade increases totem health by 75%, down from 100%.

Account Changes

 * Hero Progress is now measured by Level/XP instead of wins.
 * The prior hero victories model has been replaced.
 * Any time a game rewards XP for playing, the same amount of XP is granted to the hero played.
 * Heroes start at level one and can advance to level 100. Each level requires 100 XP to attain the next level (this does not scale over time). This is roughly equivalent to one victory (a typical Siege victory is around 100 XP).
 * At hero level 5, 10, 15, and 20, for each hero, we reward 2000 skulls.
 * At hero level 50 and 100, we will award special dyes – these are not currently rewarded. (Previously, we were rewarding skins for 50 and 100.)

General Gameplay changes

 * Dynamic Gameplay Help (center-screen messages) defaults to ‘off’. You may turn it on again by going into the options.
 * Miscellaneous bug fixes.

Radial Communications

 * New! If you hold down ‘C’ [Default], you will see the new Radial Comms menu. Simply hover over the circle with your mouse, and let go of the ‘C’ key to ping a message.
 * F1-F4 still work, don’t worry.
 * You can also send a ping by clicking a comms ping button, which automatically closes the Radial Comms UI for you.
 * More functionality is coming for this menu in the future, but for now you will notice one of the pings changes based on game-mode: GO UNCHAINED in Survival changes to CAPTURE OBJECTIVES in Siege.

PVE Changes

 * Cliffside Clash is coming to PvE, and is the new default map!
 * Hero Roulette! When a hero is set to come out as a PVE Wave Boss, you get several options and one (or more) will be randomly chosen to fight you!
 * Changes to how combos are scored to prevent overflow.
 * Difficulty adjusted.
 * Bots and players no longer drop coins in PVE. Bots will drop from a loot table (but won't always drop something).
 * Minions thrown by physics traps now take 4x damage while in the air.
 * Bots no longer gain XP in PVE.

PVP Changes

 * Changes that primarily impact the balance and gameplay of PVP only.
 * All Heroes have 20% less health and damage at the start of the game. This maintains the previous Hero lethality.
 * Escort Aura is now full strength at all Battle Levels.
 * Players gain twice as much coin from waves before the second Minion Portal opens.
 * Starting coin decreased to 6000 total, down from 9000.
 * Caches grant 10% less leadership and 10% less experience.
 * Cache XP now always goes to the killer of the cache.
 * Escort experience increased by 10%, while escort leadership generation is reduced by 10%.
 * Minion kill experience reduced by 20%.
 * Leadership trickle increased to 12/s, up from 10/s.
 * Cost to open a new Minion Portal increased to 3600 leadership, up from 3000.
 * 100% of Player Bounty is guaranteed to the killing player. There is no more kill medallion for player kills.
 * Player kills in the late game grant less experience.
 * Fixed a bug with minions and experience. Previously, minions were stealing XP from heroes, whereupon the XP would disappear into the ether. That doesn’t happen anymore.
 * Unchained Fortress has been temporarily removed from PvP for some bug fixes.

Ice Amulet

 * Damage reduced to 18, down from 22.

Flame Bracers

 * DoT duration reduced to 3s, down from 4.

Vegetable of Mending

 * Total health restoration increased by 66%.
 * Health effect now lasts 5s.
 * Health effect breaks when damage is taken.

Mage’s Clover

 * Total mana restoration increased by 66%.
 * Mana effect now lasts 5s.
 * Mana effect breaks when damage is taken.

Mage’s Picnic

 * Restores mana at a rate of 6/s, down from 12/s.

More info

 * Patch notes