Ten testers played the pre-demo builds over the past week, eight of them in a single round, and sent us videos, written reports and their game logs. We went through every note and changed most of what they found, and the changes are in the build we are preparing for the demo on 19 October.
Shields block now. Every shield has a block chance from 5 to 15%, higher on shields that need more Strength, and affixes can raise it toward a cap of 75%. A blocked hit loses 40% of its damage, or 60% while Aegis or Bulwark of Faith is up. Two-handed weapons swing slower than one-handers, but you can walk again as soon as the blow lands instead of standing still until the swing ends. On bosses, minibosses and map guardians, a Doom toll now takes at most 10% of their life, and the rest lands five seconds later.
Every chest gives gear now, uniques and Dread Maps get a beam of light on the ground, and the gold you pick up floats up as a number. The shops in camp hold more: 16 items at the Armourer, 14 at the Weaponsmith and 20 at the general vendor, with two magic items and a rare on the top row. You can drag an item to buy it, sell everything at once, and buy back what you sold even after the shelves restock. The Gambler can refresh his stock, and the bag sorts itself. Hold Shift over an item and the one you wear shows beside it.
One tester's video showed how hard it was to get a skill onto the hotbar, so skills now drag straight from the tree onto it, or you click a skill and press Q, E or R. Skill and rune cards have two columns and say plainly whether a skill builds your resource or spends it. The talent trees have 120 new icons.
You can scale the interface from 90 to 130% and pick one of five text sizes, resize the chat, turn the camera shake down or off, and reduce flashing. Tab or M opens the map, and an Unstuck button frees you from a spot you cannot walk out of. The guide has Back and Next buttons, pictures, and keys drawn as keycaps, and its hints wait until you are actually playing.
A new character starts in rags now.