Pirated Breach patch notes from an alternate future reality

I've been playing Breach (the async action pvp rpg) for a little over a week now. I have over 100 hours into it already according to Steam. Obviously this completely qualifies me as an expert in the game's system and mechanics, and that my ideas are superior to the developers. /sarcasm.

The game itself is really fun, has some basis in mythology, and is currently in beta/early access as I type this. I am really excited to see the game succeed, and in the spirit of beta testing, I have decided to write up this list of suggestions and requests in the form of a set of patch notes.

These "patch notes from the future" are simply a list of features, requests, suggestions, and bug fixes that I feel should be implemented. Obviously the dev's will likely already have some ideas of their own and my ideas may conflict with theirs, or maybe they won't. Maybe they will take some of my ideas and make them happen, maybe they wont. Maybe they already know about every bug I'm about to list. Maybe they don't. Also, 1 or 2 of these items are already on their to-do list (like the ability to map/remap all the buttons), but I have included them here for completeness.

I understand some people won't agree with some, much, or all of this. That's ok. I'm not saying I am perfect or know everything. Game balancing is a very tricky artform. I've been doing it for a while, and I still get stuff wrong. We all do. This is just a list of stuff I think would put the game in a relatively balanced state (Heroes vs. VD's wise), make some of the items, builds, and tactics less frustrating for everyone involved, and improve the quality of life for a few classes. Not to mention improve build and team comp diversity.

So here are the patch notes that have been pirated from an alternate future reality.

 

General:

• Added support for mice with extra buttons on them.
• Added support for remapping all the buttons, including the ability to change the self-cast button to something other than alt.
• Added the ability to make "self-cast" the default action/cast-style on a per-spell basis, in this case holding alt (or w/e) when casting will make it function the "normal" way, requiring a target to be under the player's reticle.
• To reward teams/demons that perform extremely well, we have added an additional in-mission level for all players/characters both hero and demon: Upon reaching L5, you will be presented with an additional opportunity to purchase a level-up-talent via the usual F1/2/3 buttons. However, rather than adding a 5th piece of gear to pull these talents from, the 3 options will be randomly pulled from the 6 gear-based options that were not selected when that person leveled up from levels 1-3. Any unselected talents from the weapon item (L4) will not appear here for balance reasons.
• Ability damage amounts, cooldowns, and durations will now be displayed on the 'B' screen.
• Ability damage amounts, cooldowns, and durations will now be updated on both the 'B' screen and in the class editor/active spellbook screens when they have been modified by a gem.
• Added the ability to /whisper other players.
• Added the ability to report other players.
• Added the ability to ignore/block other players. This will not impact your matchmaking and you can still end up in the same match as somone you have blocked. We will look into changing this in the future, but it is unlikely as it would cause many matchmaking issues.
• The current picks and bans order often leaves the Veil Demon feeling frustrated and powerless, and the match feeling too easy for the Heroes since they can easily counter pick the VD and shut him down early. To mitigate this, we have changed the VD pick order from Elite-VD-Elite to Elite-Elite-VD. This should reduce the frustration felt by the VD as the number of opportunities for the Heroes to choose hard counters is reduced from 2 to 1, and will encourage the top 3 Hero picks to be more diverse in their picks in anticipation of what the VD pick may be.
• Added an audio alert for when the queue is ready to be entered.
• Added a 0.5 second cooldown for using potions to prevent players from accidentally using more charges than intended
• Color coded all schools and classes so that now the color of the border around each class's icon will represent the school they are in. Arcane = pink, Dark = green, etc.

 

Maps:

• Modified existing maps so that they are more dynamic and the next area you go to is based on who won the last event - kind of like a choose your own adventure book. Some of these rooms have multiple ways to get to them, others will only be reached when 1 side is doing really well, or really poorly. Each map will still only have 1 boss room.
• Modified existing maps so that each room has a randomly generated event/objective, rather than having each room be the same every time you come to it. This should increase replayability exponentially.
• Adjusted enemy difficulty (via increased quantities of enemies, increased base health pools, damage output, etc.) on a per room basis to help reduce feelings of powerlessness encountered by players on either side when they consistently lose objectives. This should help to reduce snowballing as well as act as a low-grade "come-back" mechanic for both heroes and demons.
• Added a whole bunch of map-specific and thematically appropriate monsters to each map so that you aren't fighting the same old satyrs and wolves in every room on every map.

 

Gem Changes:

• Sapphire and Ruby of the Cheetah effects swapped for both hero and veil demon versions of the gems.
• Sapphire and Ruby of the Vulture effects swapped for both hero and veil demon versions of the gems.
• Vigilant Light Sapphire and Ruby effects swapped for both hero and veil demon versions of the gems.
• Vigilant Light Ruby and Sapphire have had their Haste effects increased from 3.75% and 7.5% to 5% and 10% respectively (in addition to having their effects swapped) for both hero and veil demon versions of the gems.
• Empowering Dark Lethal Conjuring Ruby (the one that grants +2.5% Elite accrual rate per team level) name has been fixed. Its proper name should have been (and is now) Empowering Dark Ruby of Advancement.
• All other "Dark Lethal Conjuring" and "Empowering Dark Lethal Conjuring" gems have had their tooltips corrected to accurately state that they are increasing conjuring damage rather than breach damage.
• Draining Light Sapphire and Ruby have had their lifesteal effects increased from 2.5% and 1.25% to 5% and 2.5% respectively for both hero and veil demon versions of the gems.
• Gems will continue to only be purchased a single time rather than our original plan for players to be able to buy more than of a single gem and stack the effects. This is to ensure build diversity.
• Before the next major patch, we will be evaluating which gems are used the most and least used and plan to improve on those gems that are least used - and possibly reduce the effectiveness of the most used gems - in order to continue to improve game balance and build diversity in the future.

 

Spells and Item changes by School:

• Added a 0.5 second global cooldown for all abilities to prevent players from accidentally using more charges than intended by tapping a button quickly, and also to prevent cancelling abilities by pressing several buttons in too quick of succession.

Non-School Specific Items:

• "Basic attack clip size increased by 50%" mod can no longer appear on items for melee classes.
• "Dodge automatically reloads basic attacks" can no longer appear on items for melee classes.
• "All spell cooldowns are reset and charges set to max. Does not include dodge or ultimate spells" talent has been combined with "Instantly grants +1 health potion" talent. It now reads: "Instantly grants +1 health potion and all spell cooldowns are reset and charges set to max. Does not include dodge or ultimate spells."
• "Health potion now also cleanses all negative effects" talent has gained the following effect: "Instantly grants +1 health potion." It now reads: "Instantly grants +1 health potion, and health potion now also cleanses all negative effects."
• "Health potion now grants all healing instantly, instead of over 3 seconds" talent has gained the following: effect "and instantly grants +1 health potion." It now reads: "Instantly grants +1 health potion, and health potion now grants all healing instantly, instead of over 3 seconds."
• "Health potion also grants 2s of damage immunity" talent has gained the following effect: "Instantly grants +1 health potion." It now reads: "Instantly grants +1 health potion, and health potion now also grants 2s of damage immunity."
• "You are invisible to the veil demon while reviving an ally" talent has been combined with the "You are invisible to the veil demon while downed" talent. It now reads: "You are invisible to the veil demon while reviving an ally or while downed."

Arcane:

• Transcendent Blast: range increased by 10m and the tooltip now includes a description of the shape and size it covers as well as the range.
• Mending Wave: Passive now also grants Light Impact Resistance.
• Stasis Beam: Passive now also grants Light Impact Resistance.
• Glacial Armor: Passive now also grants Light Impact Resistance.
• Chronoleap: Now also grants Moderate Impact Resistance for 4 seconds after emerging from Chronoleap.
• Quake: If stumbled, knocked down, or knocked back while casting this spell 75% of the cooldown is refunded. This does not occur if you were "Interrupted".
• Meteor: If stumbled, knocked down, or knocked back while casting this spell 75% of the cooldown is refunded. This does not occur if you were "Interrupted".
• Temporal Field: If stumbled, knocked down, or knocked back while casting this spell 75% of the cooldown is refunded. This does not occur if you were "Interrupted".
• Aqueous Globe: If stumbled, knocked down, or knocked back while casting this spell 75% of the cooldown is refunded. This does not occur if you were "Interrupted".
• "Guardian Sprite now applies to all allies with a damage shield that blocks up to 3000 damage, but the duration is reduced to 3s" talent changed to: "Guardian Sprite now applies to all allies with a damage shield that blocks up to 1500 damage."

Battle:

• Guard: effective distance increased from 10m to 20m, but you may only have guard active on a single target. Casting Guard on a new target removes Guard from your previous target.
• Intervene: cooldown reduced from 12 seconds to 10.
• Arcane Charge: cooldown increased from 8 seconds to 10.
• Cyclone Blade: cooldown increased from 10 seconds to 12.
• Mana Strike: cooldown increased from 4 seconds to 6.
• Resolute Block: duration increased from 2 seconds to 3.
• Resolute Block: cooldown reduced from 10 seconds to 9.
• Bastard Cleave: gaining lifesteal now requires 3 stacks of "Bastard Cleave" rather than 2.
• War Cry: duration decreased from 8s to 6.
• Zephyr Strike: cooldown increased from 8s to 10. 
• Zephyr Strike: aerial damage resistance reduced from 75% to 50%.
• Zephyr Strike: fixed bug where enemies launched into the air via Zephyr Strike would sometimes fall back down to the ground for no apparent reason.

Dark:

• Haunting Wraiths: increased range by 5m.
• Death Touch: reduced the casting animation/delay that occurs after you release the mouse button but before you teleport from 2 seconds to 0.5 seconds.
• Death Touch: fixed the bug where you would cast the spell but not teleport to the target, resulting in a wasted cast.
• Death Touch: added the ability to self-cast this (via the alt key). This option will only work if you currently have an active Phylactery in play. When you self-cast Death Touch, instead of teleporting to an enemy, you will instead teleport to your Phylactery, dealing Death Touch's damage to all enemies within 5m of your Phylactery.
• Raise Dead: duration increased from 20 seconds to 25.
• Arcane Siphon: upon casting, enemies are pulled towards the caster for 1 second. After 1 second all enemies nearby are knocked down, and are then also Silenced and Slowed for 10s.
• Arcane Siphon: any enemy killed while Silenced or Slowed by this ability will heal the caster for a percentage of their maximum health. Grunts provide 5%, Strong enemies provide 10%, and Elites provide 20%.
• Sow: Grunt enemies killed by Sow, or while they have the Sow debuff on them, automatically heal the caster for 50hp without the need to cast Reap.
• Sow: corrected the tooltip to explain how many Sow stacks an enemy can have at once, and the duration of those stacks.
• Sow: now also grants the caster 20% damage resistance against any attacks made by enemies that currently have a Sow debuff.
• "Reap no longer consumes stacks of Sow but instead refreshes the duration. Reap now has a cooldown of 15 seconds" talent cooldown reduced from 15 seconds to 12.
• "Reap no longer consumes stacks of Sow but instead refreshes the duration. Reap now has a cooldown of 15 seconds" talent can now appear on tertiary items as well as weapons.

Hedge:

• Siphoning Skull: now grants Heavy Impact Resistance while being channeled.
• Siphoning Skull: tooltip clarified to indicate that it does 335 damage per second for 8s, and that the target is stunned for the full 8s as well.
• Siphoning Skull: increased range by 5m.
• Exilium Daemonium: The souls of any enemies killed by Exilium Daemonium are converted to "Exorcism Stacks" for the caster (max 10 stacks). The next time the caster successfully applies the Expel debuff to a possessed enemy, he deals additional damage to the Expelled target equal to 100 per stack and heals himself for 100 per stack.
• Banishing Relic: increased damage from 225 to 250.
• Hallowed Spike: decreased cooldown from 21s to 20.
• Confound: increased damage from 80 to 100.
• Confound: decreased cooldown from 20s to 18.
• Marked Shot: increased cooldown from 12s to 13.
• Hellfire: increased aoe radius by +1m.
• Tar Jar: increased range by 5m.
• Tar Jar: increased damage from 75 to 100.
• Tar Jar: increased aoe radius by +2.5m.
• Tar Jar: increased cooldown from 6s to 8.
• Sticky Grenade: increased cooldown from 3.5s to 5.

Shadow:

• Mob of Ravens: fixed bug that could result in clones disappearing even if you selected the "permanent clones" talent.
• Mob of Ravens: fixed bug that could result in your clones casting "Mob of Ravens".
• Bird of Prey: increased cooldown from 8s to 10.
• Bird of Prey: fixed bug where enemies launched into the air via Bird of Prey would sometimes fall back down to the ground for no apparent reason.
• Ambush: fixed the bug where you would cast the spell but not teleport to the target, resulting in a wasted cast.

Tech:

• Kinetic Absorbtion: fixed the 0 stacks lockout bug.
• Recall Dart: cooldown increased from 10s to 15.
• Snare Trap: root duration reduced from 3s to 2.
• Snare Trap: cooldown increased from 13s to 15.
• Snare Trap: max charges reduced from 6 to 5.
• Rapid Fire Clip: cooldown increased from 15s to 18.
• Quick Feet: reduced duration from 8s to 6.
• Precision Barrage: increased duration from 6s to 8.
• Precision Barrage: cooldown reset threshold reduced from 50% to 25%.
• Lead Storm: increased duration from 5s to 6.
• Boom Shot: increased cooldown from 8s to 10.
• Turret: reduced turrets health by 25%.
• Ricochet: fixed bug that sometimes causes ricochet to only hit 1 target, or none, or just stop for no reason.
• Ricochet: increased base bounce range by 1m.

Veil Demon Spells:

• Veil Rift: can no longer target anything other than players. Yes that means you can no longer Veil Rift a zombie. Sorry.
• Veil Rift: increased "throw force" by 10%.
• Veil Rift: fixed bug where the veil demon would exit the veil rift while the target was still in the veil.
• Veil Shock: fixed bug that resulted in "this power requires a target" error message. 
• Veil Shock: now correctly has its damage increased from Gems (like Ruby of the Wolf & Lethality Ruby).
• Veil Shock: is now automatically applied to anyone who has been affected by Veil Rift for as long as they are in the Veil.
• Pain Conduit: increased aura threshold from 100 health to a percentage based value: 25%.
• Pain Conduit: reduced cooldown from 60s to 50.
• Translocate: can now be cast in the air, but the target will appear on the ground below your current location.
• Translocate: increased heal threshold from 100 health to a percentage based value: 20%.
• Translocate: increased cooldown from 8s to 12.
• Sacrifice: reduced ally animation time from 'trigger' to explode from 1s to 0.6.
• Sacrifice: now applies a 10% slow for 10s to anyone who takes damage from the explosion.
• Grael Heart: Increased base health by 25%.
• Grael Heart: Reduced cooldown from 60s to 50.
• Watcher: increased base health by 50%.
• Aethyr Coil: removed delay between cast and "hit". This should now function like an instant cast spell similar to Veil Rift, Translocate, and Winds of Auros.
• Aethyr Coil: now applies a 10% slow for 10s.
• Sheaths of Sorrow: increased cooldown from 33s to 36.
• Inspiring Presence: Allies are now granted 25% bonus damage if they are near an Elite, a possessed ally, or the disembodied Veil Demon himself. This effect does not stack.
• Cursed Siphoning: Elite minion allies now gain 75% lifesteal on targets that are affected by root, stun, or any ailment - as well as slow. This effect does not stack.
• Grael Vitals: bonus health increased from 10% to 20%.
• Grael Cage: can no longer be placed in the transition areas between event rooms.
• Chronos Gem: increased duration from 20s to 25.
• Chronos Gem: decreased cooldown from 60s to 50.
• Chronos Gem: increased base health by 50%.
• Command: allies in the area now also receive 15% haste in addition to bonus movement speed.
• Command: reduced 60% bonus movement speed to 35% (making the total movement speed increase only 50% when combined with the haste, down from 60%). 
• Veil Shroud: now applies a 25% slow to any enemies (heroes) while they are in the AoE.

Veil Demon Items:

• "Every enemy captured within Grael Cage grants +0.5 charge for that breach" talent has been reduced from +0.5 to +0.35.
• "Every enemy hit with Sheaths of Sorrow grants +0.5 charge for that breach" talent has been reduced from +0.5 to +0.35.
• "Veil Shroud has reduced cooldown and reduced duration, but you can now have multiple active at one time" talent description edited to specify how much the cooldown and duration are each decreased.
• "Damaging enemies while possessing a minion grants 1s of recharge time on all _____ spells" talents have all been changed to "... 1s of recharge time on all spells".
• "Cooldown and Charge Accrual for all spells reduced by 12.5%. Stacks with similar gems and talents. Maximum Bonus is 50% from all sources." talent has been improved from 12.5% to 18%.
• "Cooldown and Charge Accrual for ______ spells reduced by 15%..." talents have all been changed to/replaced by "... for all spells by 18%..." talents. This is to simplify items, reduce the number of possible "waste" combos on talent items.
• The weapon talent: "Cooldown and Charge Accrual for all spells reduced by 25%. Stacks with similar gems and talents. Maximum Bonus is 50% from all sources." talent has been increased from 25% to 32%.
• "Dodge automatically reloads basic attacks" can no longer appear on Veil Demon items.
• "Basic attack clip size increased by 50%" can no longer appear on Veil Demon items.
• "Expel will no longer force de-possess" talent can now appear on tertiary items as well as weapons. It has also been reworded for clarity and now reads: "While possessing you are immune to expel effects."
• A few new weapon talents have been added as well:
• "While possessing you are immune to slow and root effects."
• "While possessing you are immune to stun and 'launched into the air' effects."