New Last Epoch patch notes 1.02 have arrived for the ARPG that’s currently blowing up on Steam. Slotting in nicely between Diablo 4 and Path of Exile, the loot-heavy RPG from Eleventh Hour Games has won the hearts of many with its diverse and interesting class selection. Along with several bug fixes and UI improvements, this Last Epoch update also tones down two skills that are “exceptionally over performing” right now, although EHG says the change has only been made as both have a “tendency to crash servers.”
With Last Epoch proving a huge hit on Steam, the Last Epoch server status has been in a state of constant flux over the past few weeks, with the notorious Last Epoch LE-61 error preventing people from travelling between zones or, in some cases, playing the RPG game altogether. As such, the problems being caused by the Falconer’s Dive Bomb ability and the Warlock’s Ghostflame skill are ones that EHG is keen to get on top of, even though it will affect the power level of these skills.
Ghostflame’s Spirit Kindling node could apply to the player if it had previously hit a Wraith and was not currently doing so, causing stacks of the effect to quickly build up. This bug has now been fixed. EHG notes, however, that its current stance is to not issue mid-cycle balance changes for balance alone, so the very potent Vampiric Blood node for Warlock’s Profane Veil, which “is much stronger than intended,” survives until the next seasonal cycle arrives.
Dive Bomb’s Cloud Gatherer node, meanwhile, was causing multiple instances of the Smoke Bombs to stick around – the On Wings of Shadow node causes Dive Bomb to hit each active smoke cloud, and that combined with the duration extension of Cloud Gatherer would cause vast numbers of smoke clouds to build up over time. This caused server instability, so now the extended duration will only apply to each Smoke Bomb once.
“While these changes are being made for performance reasons, they do also carry considerable impact to power levels of these skills/nodes,” EHG writes in the Last Epoch 1.02 patch notes. It explains that the team will not remove existing entries from the leaderboards for either of the Last Epoch classes, and that while it would like to adjust each skill “in a way that keeps it as powerful as it currently is but without the server issues,” this would take too long to design and implement, especially when the power level would get a nerf at the next cycle’s launch.
The other big change worth noting in the full patch notes is that arena keys now sell for dramatically less gold (175 down from 6,500). They’ve become a common way to quickly farm gold, and EHG explains that it was causing Merchant’s Guild players to feel left out as the rival item faction Covenant of Fortune is able to farm them much faster.
If you’re contemplating what the best Last Epoch builds look like right now, we’ve got plenty to help you choose, and we’ve also looked through more of the best games like Diablo that you should play in 2024.
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