Avowed just received a major update addressing one of the most obvious imbalances in the release version: pure ranger and fighter builds had far fewer exciting ways to specialise compared to a wizard. Thanks to spellbooks with a vast range of different elemental attacks, plus some powerful active and passive abilities, wizards enjoyed much more versatility compared to their less-magical counterparts (though I reckon it’s more fun playing a blend anyway).
Obsidian has addressed this by rolling out a bunch of new active and passive skills to both rangers and fighters, and some of the abilities are quite radical. Take the ranger’s Shadow Step ability, for instance, which lets you warp behind an enemy all the better to smite them stealthily. Players of Pillars of Eternity will recognise this move: it’s a great way to kick off prickly encounters, and it can be upgraded so that a killing blow will reset the ability’s cooldown. Au revoir, moving with your feet.
While that’s the most exciting new ability, the others will definitely add some spice. The fighter upgrade tree now includes Reviving Exhortation, which can revive allies from a distance, while the ranger active Fan of Daggers does what the name implies: issues a set of poisoned daggers, with upgrades increasing its range and poison accumulation.
A bunch of new unique items have been added too because, according to Obsidian, “we found that players were not able to play specific builds that they wanted to early on in the game”. There are new unique weapons spread out across the game’s four regions accommodating most weapon-types (except daggers, as someone on Reddit pointed out).
This all threatens to make the game a lot easier, but Obsidian has granted “several enemies” abilities previously only available to the player-character. So if you find yourself moving syrupy slow in the heat of battle, it’s probably because someone has used Tanglefoot against you.
A couple of other interesting points: the game is now Steam Deck Verified, though I’m yet to try it myself on the handheld. There’s a new 40fps mode, tweaks to FSR settings, and new custom map markers.
The patch notes are huge, so I’ll just post some important selections below; for the whole lot, check it out on Obsidian’s website.
New Ranger and Fighter Abilities
Ranger abilities:
- Shadow Step – Step into the Beyond, reappearing behind your enemy. Upgrades will Mark the target, lowering their Damage Reduction and resetting Shadow Step’s cooldown after landing a killing blow.
- Fan of Daggers – Throw a set of poisoned daggers that hit multiple enemies and cause Poison accumulation. Upgrades increase the number of daggers thrown and apply Slow as well as interrupt enemies.
- Smoke Bomb – Throw down a Smoke Bomb, creating a cloud that interrupts your enemies as you dodge backwards out of the way. Upgrades increase damage and deal Elemental Accumulation that matches your currently equipped throwable.
- Chilling Surprise – Set a trap to be triggered by an approaching enemy. The trap deals high Frost Accumulation to nearby enemies upon detonation. Upgrades increase the number of traps that can be set at a time and reduce the Essence cost.
Ranger passives:
- Concussive Shot – Shooting an enemy’s Weak Point causes them to take increased Stun from melee weapons for the next few seconds.
- Sharpshooter – Deal increased Weak Point damage that scales with the number of consecutive Weak Points you deal within several seconds of each other.
- Deadly Poison – The Poisoned status deals increased damage to enemies. Upgrades increase the amount of Poison Accumulation you deal.
Fighter abilities:
- Driving Kick – A powerful kick that breaks through enemy Blocks, dealing damage and launching enemies through the air. Upgrades increase damage, adds Explosive Damage, and creates and area of effect.
- Barbaric Smash – Deal a massive blow to your enemy. If that blow kills the enemy, absorb a percent of their current Stun to unleash on the next enemy you hit.
- Deep Breath – Inhale deeply, immediately recovering 100% of your Stamina and temporarily reducing the Stamina cost of your actions by 50%. Upgrades reduce the cooldown, increase the temporary reduction cost of Stamina to 100%, and allow you to refill your Breath Meter while underwater.
- Reviving Exhortation – Revives an ally from a great distance and grants them Temporary Health. Upgrades reduce the Essence cost and heals you and all currently standing allies by a small amount.
Fighter passives:
- Dual Wield Mastery – Your dedicated training has unlocked a more powerful Special Attack to perform on Stunned enemies while dual wielding melee weapons.
- Adrenaline – When below 50% Health, your Attack Damage is increased by 25%. When below 25% Health, your Attack Damage is increased by another 25% and your Stability is increased by 20%. Upgrades will cause the first lethal blow you receive to leave you with 1 Health and make you Invulnerable for a few seconds.
- Bloodlust – The Bleeding status deals increased damage to enemies. Upgrades increase the amount of Bleed Accumulation you deal and adds additional Attack Damage to Bleeding enemies.
- Vanguard – Gain a chance to negate the damage from an incoming attack. This chance scales with the number of enemies targeting you.
New Unique Items
Dawnshore: New Unique Mace, Spear, Two-Handed Hammer, Wand, Arquebus, and Robe
Emerald Stair: New Unique Two-Handed Axe, Pistol, Two-Handed Hammer, Bow, and Robe
Shatterscarp: New Unique Two-Handed Axe, One-Handed Axe, and Robe
Galawain’s Tusks: New Unique Spear, Two-Handed Sword, and Robe
- Graphics Upscaling OFF previously used TAA, now it will be properly off. There is now a new separate option for enabling TAA.
- Added 40FPS option to the FPS Limit setting.
- FSR Quality setting now has “Native AA” displayed before the “Quality” option.
- Map information now fills in a larger area around the player.
- Hands no longer clip when opening chests.
- Fixed issue with player not being able to swap the drinks during the “One Last Drink” quest.
- Quest “Shadows of the Past” now updates correctly in the journal.
- Piercing Thrusts description now correctly reflects what weapons it affects.
- Fixed an issue where shooting a bow would block ability Spirit Lance.
- Updated visual representation of enchantment to show that upgrades will replace the base one.
- Fixed an issue where Menu screens and widgets did not register input correctly when another navigation input is active.
- Fixed Thalla’s ground stomp attack to better match the size of the area of attack indicator
- Doubled the cap on Ring of Fortune crit chance bonus from 5% -> 10%
Again, for the whole list of patch notes, head to Obsidian’s forums.
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