Weapons of Renown, Patch 1.9

Today's patch has some potent new content for players in the late or post game, an update to the Dungeon Dervish mastery, and bug fixes for everyone.

Lots of words here! If you have questions after, don't hesitate to swing by the Dungeonfans Academy Discord!

[h2]Weapons of Renown [/h2]

The most powerful weapons and armor of Dungeonmans are soaked in legend, storied implements of war that tell tales of conquests long past. It is time for the mighty heroes of today to get a chance to pen their own legends as well.

Mix it up with enough Ancient Kings and you might find Chronicles of Renown Unwritten, an item that lets you take a five-star (or better!) weapon and begin a mighty tale of legend. You can rename the item, and even write your own flavor text. The item then increases in star rank, scaling up its damage slightly and allowing for one more enchantment scroll. You also get to pick one of three renowned suffixes that have unique effects outside of any other enchantment. Now for the best part: the weapon gains Renown XP when you defeat further Ancient Kings or bosses of sufficiently tough Adventure Maps. Earn enough Renown XP and the weapon ranks up, giving you more damage, another star, AND the option of upgrading one of your titles or adding a new one on.

More details down at the bottom of the notes, but the short version is this: swords can level up now too, and as you push deeper into more difficult Adventure Maps, you can continue to enchant and evolve your weapon of choice.

[h2]Great Foes Forgotten[/h2]

Powerful Ancient Kings lurk in the deepest and darkest dungeons, the stubborn will of history's greatest conquerors, and have long been some of the strongest enemies known to Mans. Even so, Ancient Kings were once simply Kings, and they too looked back on distant legend. Something so truly and incalculably ancient could only be a distant echo of its true power over the countless generations since... but should many such echoes gather at once, the force would be overwhelming.

There's a new champion type one step above Ancient King, an Echo From Time Unknowable. Like AKs, they're powered up versions of the base monster, but they come packed with powers that bend space and time. They also have new music and are introduced with a special dialog, so there's no mistaking that you are in for a tremendous fight. Pay attention to everything, and expect difficult surprises. Defeating one of those foes is certainly a feat of great renown.

[h2]Dungeon Dervish[/h2]

The dual wielding tree was a little lackluster, and didn't do anything particularly well. It seemed like the fate of a dervish was to have two great melee weapons, and only use them as a last resort while kiting enemies through the dungeon with an enchanted bow.

* Razor Fury has a two tile range movement range instead of one. Still doesn't let you go through enemies. The damage reduction on the whirlwind attack has been eased a little, and the stance it puts you in has been powered up significantly, with increased damage and duration. You'll use this move often, first as an opener, and then to make calculated movements weaving in and out of groups while slashing them apart and increasing Tempo.

* While dual wielding, your parry effects have a chance to fire when you dodge. This is a big change -- dodge is the first defense that gets rolled, which means all the potential counterattacking from Tempo wasn't happening unless monsters beat your dodge, which made medium armor a bad choice for the dervish. Crazy! Here's how it works now: if you dodge, your parry chance is rolled, and if you succeed all your on parry effects fire. Previously, if you had a 90% dodge and a 15% parry, you would only see a Tempo counter attack 1.5% of the time-- 15% of the 10% that get through. Now you get all 15%. The monsters are doomed.

These changes together make Dungeon Dervish way more mobile and lethal. Keep Tempo up, keep Razor Fury up, and you'll be hitting really hard on your turn and the monsters. Dashing Charge is still a great combo of escape + damage that makes Stick and Move so jealous and bitter it stops responding to your text messages and makes you drive over to its house to ask whats wrong. Decimanser's Dance is pricey but still brings you value when surrounded by 3+ monsters.

Just don't run out of stamina.



Q Movement

Down in the options there's a new toggle for Q Movement, a mode where the numpad on your keyboard simulates input from a controller. You press in a given direction to aim, and then press W (because Q is bound to Drop Item, you see) to step in that direction, or hold W to run.

Save/Load Issues in emulators

Some people running dmans on a linux box through sorcery have noted that saves can't be reloaded. True ironmans mode sure, but this build should have a fix for that issue.

Adventure Maps

Map dungeons are shorter, 3 to 5 floors max, and the rewards on the bosses have been kicked up a little bit. Further, when you are under level 15, you're more likely to find maps that are at your level and higher. Currently there's too often when a level 13 mans ends up having to chew through level 9, 10, 11 AMaps just to get up to level. There should be less of that now.

• Fixed up the Blacksmithing menu, that mysterious unclaimable ???? enchant has been removed, and some new ones added.
  
• Restocking a pig farmer with Purloined Inventory will restore their supply of actual pigs, instead of random crap.
  
• If you somehow lost your initial Adventure Map, that chain of encounters is now likely to begin again for you.
  
• UI improvements for a number of windows where text was getting lost in the background, including the extra messed up use-item-on-item window.
  
• The UI for moving Starshards and handing over Purloined Inventory has been improved.
  
• Corrected the names of a few older powers.
  
• Fixed some really jank tooltip issues. They should be more clear and consistent now, and better about showing stamina costs.
  
• That bug where music gets stuck if you enter and leave a new dungeon too quickly is finally fixed, damn. Also, the music should no longer vanish when in those spiral dungeon floors.
  
• Fixed a bug where the ending of the last Halloween battle might display incorrectly.
  
• Ancient Kings should keep their purpley glow and menace even if you save and reload.
  
• Fixed up the presentation on Dashing Charge.
  
• Temple dungeons -- the big green ones with the traps -- may now have Ancient Kings (or worse...) guarding their sanctums.
  
• Banners now have to be dropped on empty tiles, sorry.
  
• Cryoduchesses do less damage with thier ice spike, but only a little. They're still nasty.
  
• Champion Undead Archers no longer get to drop Boneshredded on you if they miss with all their thrown bones.
  

I attack with my...


[h2]Ancient King Farming[/h2]

Some players have found a method to reliably farm Ancient Kings -- I won't spoil it here, but you know who you are. There are lots of places in the truly high-powered late/post game where Dungeonmans can be broken, and generally I am ok with this, but after much consideration I decided to turn off this particular Radiant Shard firehose. Have your fun, though it will be harder, and when you've reached the limit you will know.

[h2]Renown Weapons, Deeper Dive[/h2]

The special renown-only enchants are mostly straight up percent boosts to elemental damage done, or damage against certain monster types. If a player has a few renown weapons, they'll have a fair set of tools to go up against the various crazy combinations found in high tier Adventure Maps. There's also a bonus to loot finding, and a bonus to base health. There should be more, and there may well be more, it depends on how well this content is received by you the player.

When a weapon ranks up, you're given three titles to pick from at random. However, if you already have titles on the weapon, the first one is guaranteed to be one you already have. This will let you focus on a particular upgrade if you feel like it. Picking "The Charbroiler" multiple times just increases fire damage more each time.

If you're familiar with Lord of the Rings Online, you're familiar with the bones of this system. What about items that add unique titles? Breaking weapons down into renown for future weapons? Mysterious renow-- ok, yeah, I can dig it. If the playerbase turns out to enjoy this system, they'll see more content for it.

Some tidbits:

* Warlords react differently to you if you're packing a renowned weapon, and they will fight harder.

* If you die carrying a renowned weapon, the dungeon boss steals it. If you had more than one on you when you died, the rest are scattered about the world, and might turn up anywhere. But they are out there!

[h2]You did it[/h2]

You reached the end of the patch notes. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Comment all you like on this event, or head over to the Dungeonfans Academy Discord to yell at me directly.