We are now six weeks into Steam Early Access. This week featured several patches, and the changes of those patches has been combined into the summary below. [b]Combat[/b] [list][*]If you reduce damage by blocking (shift key) it now has a chance to leave the attacker Off Balance. Off Balance is an opening which makes knockdowns, knockbacks, and some special abilities more effective. [/list] [b]Items and Loot[/b] [list][*]Added new class targeted equipment sets. These will give additional bonuses if you equip all of the items in the set. [*]Improved variety of generated item stats.[/list] [b]NPCs[/b] [list][*]Some NPCs can now block. There will be an animation cue when an NPC is blocking. Attacking them while blocking will not only be less effective, but could result in them riposting damage back at you. If you see an NPC blocking, it may be a good time to choose another target. [*]Made adjustments to the NPC aggro radius, generally increasing it slightly. [*]Tweaked up the effectiveness of NPC blocking. Particularly on the bottom end of the curve (low level NPCs) will be much more effective at blocking than was previously the case. Higher end NPCs will have a smaller change. [/list] [b]Scenarios[/b] [list][*]You can now alternatively unlock the Rescue scenario, by completing the Destroy Their Supplies quest. [*]We've made some experimental changes to the spawning code, to attempt to resolve a spawning underneath terrain issue that has popped up from time to time. This includes delays to give navigation time to build, and offset checks. [*]Fixed an issue with the spawning FX in ambushes spawning too high above ground in some cases.[/list] [b]Skills and Abilities[/b] [list][*]Added a new Healer (Cleric) ability: Circle of Healing. This spell creates a circular area on the ground, in a location of your choosing. It will grant a health regeneration buff to you or any allies standing inside of it, up until the point that it expires. This spell is obtained at level 10. Additional ranks increase the amount of life regenerated per tick. [*]Introduced a new Inquisitor (Cleric) ability: Circle of Slowing. This spell creates a circular area on the ground, at a location of your choosing. This effect will instead debuff enemies though, reducing their attack speed when they are inside of it. It is available at level 10. Additional ranks of it will slow incoming attacks by a larger amount. [*]Introduced a new Swashbuckling (Warrior) ability: Befuddling Flurry. This ability is granted at level 15, and requires you to have trained Dashing Strike. It essentially works like Dashing Strike, in that it is a blink/dash style attack that will teleport you quickly to the target and attack them. Unlike Dashing Strike though, this delivers an AoE which has a chance to Stun and Confuse all targets nearby. Temporarily disabling them, leaving them Vulnerable (an opening for other attacks). Additional skill ranks will increase damage, while additional Dashing Strike skill ranks provide a bonus to the AoE radius. Similar to Dashing Strike this has a percentage based power cost, in this case 6% of your maximum power. [*]Fixed a typo in the Stone Skin description. [*]Fixed a localization issue with the Off Balance status effect.[/list] [b]Miscellaneous[/b] [list][*]Made some improvements and filled some gaps in some localizations. [*]Potentially fixed the issue where pets would teleport halfway underground after opening a portal. [*]Fixed a bug that was preventing settings from setting in some cases. [*]Fixed an issue with some achievements and different localizations. It was localizing a string before some achievement checks, which was preventing the achievement from being completed in some languages, like Chinese. [*]Fixed a bug that was preventing players from obtaining the Journeyman achievement.[/list]