We're expecting to deploy patch 1.3.1 tomorrow. We will release the full patch notes during the deployment countdown. In the meantime, today's news update includes new microtransaction videos, our current unique design plan for Act Four and information about our next Race and PvP seasons.
Tomorrow's patch will introduce two new bow-themed microtransactions. Here are videos of the new Seraph Bow Skin and Verdant Blink and Mirror Arrow Effect.
Race Season Eleven and PvP Season Two are expected to start late next week. We've created a new unique item for the top bracket race reward. The signature race for this season will be the 65 Minute Fixed Seed Unwavering event. The Unwavering mod means that monsters have increased life and cannot be stunned.
PvP season two, which takes place in Bloodlines and Torment, will have a larger number of Blitz, team, and high-level events. We will be running fewer free-for-all events this season.
We'll be releasing a large number of new unique items alongside Act Four. In preparation for this, our design team has developed a new system for creating and assessing uniques with the intention of creating a high quality and wide spanning variety of items to build around and towards.
In recent major patches, we've experimented with adding a larger numbers of unique items to offer players something fresh to build around after these updates.
For the most part, this has had pretty good results. Players are generally levelling up through the content on fresh characters, providing stronger utility for low and mid-level unique items, and high-level items are providing good build goals for the rest of the league.
However, from a development standpoint, working with a mix of GGG and supporter uniques, it can become difficult to lock down exactly what will and won't make the patch deadline.
Since we released patch 1.3.0 we've changed the design process for adding uniques to the game. The intention here is to create a more stable and consistent manner in which to work on uniques to ensure the quality of the items that are being added to the game.
Every week our team works through a new set of (usually three) unique items and assess every aspect of them; their power, flavour, aesthetic, function, value etc, as a group. We then make changes where necessary and aim to have them locked down the following week with three more uniques ready to be assessed.
While you won’t see most of them until we release Act Four, we are glad to say that this new system is resulting in high-quality unique items. We have several ridiculously fun and supporter-made uniques coming.
In the meantime, we've got four unique items that we’ve included in tomorrow’s patch. We've chosen these four because they all provide something new and interesting for different builds. They're all powerful late-game items for players to aspire to. One is the ultimate goal for the upcoming racing season, two are community-designed, and the final item is:
This unique is very simple at face value. Its gem-boost is universally strong, its defensive values are reasonably good, it increases all your attributes. Pair this item with the Pillar of the Caged God, and each aspect of that weapon becomes that much more effective. Pair it with Iron Will, and your spells deal that much more damage from your strength. Pair it with a upcoming super-secret supporter-designed Act Four weapon and… well, I can't tell you.
