Version 0.9.2

Version History
← 0.9.1 August 19, 2011	0.9.2 September 12, 2011	0.9.2b → September 13, 2011

Patch notes

These are the official patch notes for version 0.9.2 released by Grinding Gear Games.^[1]

Features

Added new skill prototype - "Explosive ArrowExplosive ArrowAttack, Projectile, AoE, Duration, Fire, Bow
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (8-10) Mana
Projectile Speed: 3260
AoE Radius: 15Requires Level 28Fires an arrow which will stick into an enemy or wall, and then explode, dealing area damage around it, either after a duration or when the maximum number of arrows stuck to that target is reached. If an enemy has multiple Explosive Arrows stuck in them, the first one to explode will consume the others, adding their damage to its explosion.Base duration is 1.00 seconds
Explosion deals 50% less Base Damage
Explosion will have (47-522) to (71-783) added Fire Damage
+0.2 metres to Explosion Radius per Explosive Arrow on Target, up to a maximum of +1.2 metres
Explosion deals 6% more Damage with Hits per Explosive Arrow on Target
Explosion deals 3% more Damage with Ailments per Explosive Arrow on Target
Maximum 20 Explosive Arrows stuck in an Enemy

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
+(0.1-2) Maximum Explosive Arrows stuck in an EnemyPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.": Fires an arrow which inflicts a short duration fuse charge on the enemy. Applying additional charges extends the duration. When the target dies or the fuses expire, the charges explode, dealing fire splash damage to nearby enemies.

Added new skill prototype - "Temporal ChainsTemporal ChainsSpell, AoE, Duration, Curse, Hex
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (16-33) Mana
Cast Time: 0.50 secRequires Level 24Curses all enemies in an area, lowering their action speed and making other effects on them expire more slowly.Base duration is (5.00-8.80) seconds
+(0-1) metre to radius
50% less Effect of Curse against Players
Cursed Normal and Magic Enemies have (15-29)% less Action Speed
Other effects on Cursed enemies expire 25% slower
Cursed Rare and Unique Enemies have (9-18)% less Action Speed

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
(1-20)% increased Curse DurationPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.": Curses all targets in an area, making time pass more slowly for them. They will move, attack and cast at a reduced speed and effects on them expire slower.

Added new skill prototype - "Elemental WeaknessElemental WeaknessSpell, AoE, Duration, Curse, Hex
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (16-33) Mana
Cast Time: 0.50 sec
AoE Radius: 22Requires Level 24Curses all targets in an area, lowering their elemental resistances.Base duration is (8.00-11.80) seconds
+(0-1) metre to radius
Cursed enemies have -(15-30)% to Elemental Resistances

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
(1-20)% increased Duration of Elemental Ailments on Cursed enemiesPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.": Curses all targets in an area, making them less resistant to elemental damage and more vulnerable to elemental status effects.

Added new skill prototype - "Warlord's MarkWarlord's MarkSpell, Curse, Mark
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (16-33) Mana
Cast Time: 0.50 secRequires Level 16Curses a single enemy, giving a chance to double the duration of stuns on them. Attacking the cursed enemy will leech life and mana, stunning them will grant rage, and killing it will grant an endurance charge. You can only have one Mark at a time.Cursed enemies grant (2-2.95)% Life Leech when Hit by Attacks
Cursed enemies grant (2-2.95)% Mana Leech when Hit by Attacks
Cursed enemies have a 100% chance to grant an Endurance Charge when slain
Hits against Cursed Enemies have (40-59)% chance to double Stun Duration
Cursed Enemies grant 20 Rage Regenerated over 1 second when Stunned

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
Cursed Enemies have a (0.25-5)% chance to grant an Endurance Charge when HitPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.": Curses all targets in an area. Attacks on the cursed targets will leech life and mana, and killing them will result in more flask charges and a chance to gain an endurance charge.

Added new skill prototype - "PunishmentPunishmentSpell, AoE, Duration, Curse, Hex
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (16-33) Mana
Cast Time: 0.50 sec
AoE Radius: 22Requires Level 24Curses all targets in an area, causing them to be debilitated when they hit enemies and increasing damage they take while on low life.Base duration is (8.00-11.80) seconds
+(0-1) metre to radius
Cursed Enemies take (30-58)% increased Damage while on Low Life
Cursed Enemies are Debilitated for 2.00 Seconds when they Hit

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
Cursed Enemies are Debilitated for +(0.05-1) Seconds when they HitPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.": Curses all targets in an area, causing them to suffer some of the physical damage they deal with their attacks.

Added new skill prototype - "EnfeebleEnfeebleSpell, AoE, Duration, Curse, Hex
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (16-33) Mana
Cast Time: 0.50 secRequires Level 24Curses all targets in an area, reducing their accuracy and making them deal less damage.Base duration is (8.00-11.80) seconds
+(0-1) metre to radius
Cursed enemies have (10-19)% reduced Accuracy Rating
Cursed Normal or Magic enemies deal (15-29)% less Damage
Cursed Rare or Unique enemies deal (9-18)% less Damage

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
(1-20)% increased Curse DurationPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.": Curses all targets in an area, making their attacks less effective.

Added new skill prototype - "Assassin's MarkAssassin's MarkCritical, Spell, Curse, Mark
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (16-33) Mana
Cast Time: 0.50 secRequires Level 16Curses a single enemy, making them more vulnerable to Critical Strikes. Killing the cursed enemy will grant life and mana, and a power charge. You can only have one Mark at a time.Cursed enemies have a 100% chance to grant a Power Charge when slain
Hits against Cursed Enemies have +1.5% to Critical Strike Chance
Hits against Cursed Enemies have +(30-49)% to Critical Strike Multiplier
Cursed enemies grant (65-600) Life when Killed
Cursed enemies grant (25-80) Mana when Killed

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
Cursed Enemies have a (0.25-5)% chance to grant a Power Charge when HitPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.": Curses all targets in an area, making them more vulnerable to critical strikes.

Added new skill prototype - "Projectile WeaknessSniper's MarkSpell, Curse, Mark
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (16-33) Mana
Cast Time: 0.50 secRequires Level 4Curses a single enemy, increasing the damage they take from projectiles, and making projectiles split when hitting them, to hit other targets around them. You can only have one Mark at a time.Cursed enemies take (10-29)% increased Damage from Projectile Hits
Projectiles which Hit Cursed Enemies Split towards 2 additional targets

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
Cursed enemies take (0.25-5)% increased Damage from Projectile HitsPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.": Curses all targets in an area, making them easier for projectiles to pierce and easier to knock back, while reducing their evasion against projectiles.

Added new skill prototype - "VulnerabilityVulnerabilitySpell, AoE, Duration, Curse, Physical, Hex
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (16-33) Mana
Cast Time: 0.50 sec
AoE Radius: 22Requires Level 24Curse all targets in an area, causing them to take increased physical damage. Attacks against the cursed enemies have a chance to inflict bleeding.Base duration is (8.00-11.80) seconds
+(0-1) metre to radius
Cursed enemies take (15-30)% increased Physical Damage
Attacks Hits against Cursed Enemies have 25% chance to inflict Bleeding

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
(1-20)% increased Duration of Bleeding on Cursed EnemiesPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.": Curses all targets in an area, making them take increased damage from physical attacks and degeneration, and easier to stun. The target's energy shield will regenerate more slowly.

Added functionality for cut-throat leagues. We'll test this with some events in the near future!

Added user interface elements to show the life totals of party members in your instance.

Projectiles should only collide with chests now if they would open them.

Further improvements to the new user interface.

Added new Portal art.

Enabled a lot of new music for many areas.

The outlines around friendly entities are now green rather than red.

Added new loading screen art/layout.

Increased the size of the chat box.

Many website forum improvements.

Disabled the ability to lift flasks in the HUD version of the belt. Now you won't accidentally drop them while playing. Either mouse button can be used to drink from them now.

Made monster description text easier to read.

Reduced the grass in some areas of Act Two to improve performance on older hardware. This is being investigated.

Added proper support for 1280x1024 and other similar resolutions.

Dropping items with skill gems in them will warn you.

Added crash dump reporting.

The Dark Forest now has a spidery entrance to the Weaver's Chambers.

Substantial incremental improvements to areas, environments, effects and sounds.

Overhauls to the look and feel of many Act Two environments.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a memory leak with the shader compiler. Areas will now not become progressively slower to load. This may reduce "out of memory" errors as well.

Fixed some bugs with monster spawning in dungeons.

Fixed a bug where moving the client from one monitor to another would crash.

Fixed a bug where players would receive the "Surgeon's" Flask bonus more than once per action.

Frenzy no longer grants frenzy charges for shooting Frost Walls.

Spell critical strike chance is now shown on the character screen.

Fixed a crash with Frost Wall.

Fixed some font position issues with the chat box.

Fixed a bug where UI buttons could get stuck down.

Fixed a bug with Shock Nova's damage calculation if the area of effect was increased.

Fixed some issues with socket colours on ground item hovers.

Balance

Most important balance changes are coming in 0.9.3 (the major balance patch). There are plenty of planned balance improvements that are not addressed in this 0.9.2 patch, because we can do them better with the new balance in 0.9.3.

Significantly reduced the mana cost scaling of most skills at higher levels

Added a five level grace period above the player where monsters still give full experience.

Reduced bow-monster damage by 30%.

Removed "Spell damage %" from spawning on some types of items.

Changed high-quality versions of "Multiple Projectiles" and "Faster Projectiles" support gems to have increased cast speed as well as attack speed.

Reduced overall drop rate of items slightly. Also reduced drop rate of equipment slightly in favour of currency items.

Reduced size of most direct mana passive skills by 20%.

Doubled the stack sizes of all currency items.

Reduced the amount of Critical Strike Chance per Power Charge from 3% to 2%.

"Elemental" now doesn't include chaos damage any more.

Made boss (magic/rare/unique) monsters more dangerous. 0.9.3 will further address this issue.

Cleave now has less of a penalty when dual wielding.

Reduced upper Shock Nova damage by 30%.

Fireball splash damage is now centered on the monster itself, rather than the point of impact (which was in front of the monster).

Increased Fireball's splash area of effect and increased its damage by 23%.

Increased the damage of Sweep, Ice Nova, Ice Spear and Phase Run's melee damage bonus.

Changed Sweep's quality bonus from knockback distance to increased attack speed.

Massively increased Cold Snap's chill duration bonus.

Sweep is now affected by increased area of effect stats.

Reduced the mana cost of Elemental Hit.

Reduced the cast time of Phase Run.

Viper Strike, Poison Arrow, Infernal Blow and Glacial Hammer do more damage at higher levels than before.

Reduced maximum number of Viper Strike charges to 4.

Increased Blood Rage's life leech at low levels and decreased the damage it deals you at lower levels.

Reduced the number of flasks charges gained on Critical Strike for both Surgeon's and Avenger's mods.