Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem Update #67

The previously previewed 0.5.0.4 update for SolarFall Games’ hack ‘n’ slash RPG Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is now live in experimental mode on Steam. This new patch comes with a “fresh start” and a full wipe of previously accrued items and characters. And in return, it offers a revamped character sheet, new game mechanics, NPCs, weapon types, and an assortment of general fixes.

Here’s an overview of the new stuff:

This update is temporarily in experimental mode on Steam. To access the branch:

Go into game properties.

Beta tab, and opt in.

First news is: Fresh start ! The major changes applied by this patch required us to wipe all characters and stashes in the game in order to avoid conflicts with deprecated features. We are aware that this may be seen as an inconvenience, but unfortunately this is occasionally needed if we want the game to be tested properly.

So ! We’ve been presenting you these features for a few weeks now. The day has come to enjoy them !

As mentioned in our previous devblog, the four Attributes defining your character have been completely revamped and streamlined, giving useful bonus regardless of your playstyle and making investing in them interesting at all level tiers. You will now be able to spend points in Ferocity, Toughness, Agility and Willpower each level and instantly see their effects on your character in the brand-new Character Sheet UI. In this regard, all Attributes modifiers of the game has been rebalanced, especially the ones from the PST which have been heavily streamlined for a steadier progression: all PST nodes now give Attributes points regardless of their main effect, and the amount of points is determined by the node’s rarity.

Continuing on the matter of build-crafting, The Maleficient PST section has been added to the game: unleash the wild forces of Shadow, Poison and Fear to curse and incapacitate your enemies while inflicting them heavy Damage over time. The Maleficient is a Battle Mage than can be played with any kind of weapons and spells, but will likely use Status Ailments as its main Damage source. This new section features two unique Signature skills and 43 new passive skills, and is the first class to use the Corpses mechanic. It’s the first step towards Wolcen’s long-awaited Necromancer and fits into most playstyles as soon as you wish to inflict Status Ailments to your enemies.

Since Maleficient is a 2nd ring section, many changes have been brought to the PST: Assassin is now the first 3rd ring section and has been totally reworked, with 15 new passive skills and its first Signature skill.

Gladiator has also been heavily changed with 19 new skills and a Signature skill too, a brand new layout, revamped Masteries skills and a true Battle-orientated flavour that was lacking in this section until today.

Other classes have received changes in order to fit this new quality level and the work brought to Attributes and the character sheet, and the whole update brings a total of 89 new passive skills to the game !

Here comes a new feature which will please Ranged-oriented players: Pistols have been added to the game! They are our first firearms class and play really differently from crossbows. You can pair them together for a high number of shots per second or with a Melee weapon for hybrid attacks and aggressive playstyle. In the future, they will also be compatible with Shields and create a mobile-bunker typed gameplay we would all like to play. You’ll find two different Pistols in the game when this patch is released, but more will come soon.

Regarding weapons – and more globally, items – a new core mechanic from the looting system has been added to Wolcen: Gems and Sockets! Coming with a new inventory UI, Gems allow you to customize your gear by bearing affixes which have different effects depending on the socket you put them into (Offensive, Defensive or Support). Coming along with the new Jeweler NPC, they are a first step towards a complete crafting system and a wider choice of gear specialization. For now, they take the same room as other small objects in the inventory but in the future they will use a stacks system for a more compact storage !

Last but not least, the Archivist has been added to Amarth and other important locations, allowing you to sell your spellbooks for a specific currency and use it to increase the experience level of your other spells. We believe you will find this much more useful than selling your tomes for gold!

As usual, the update comes with a lot of minor features and various fixes, new skills, new weapons, new enemies and more !