August 01, 2019 Patch

Source: Head to Head Update (#213)

## Update 1

### Head to Head

* Players are now paired off to fight directly against each other, and both take part in the same shared combat.
* When an odd number of players are present one of the players fights a clone of an actual player.
* Leaderboard now pairs off players when they're in head-to-head combat.

### New Ranked System

* Rank is now a number you can see that moves up and down in a predictable way.
* Rank change is based solely on where you finish in a Ranked match and does not depend on your opponents' Rank.
* Any time you reach the next minor Rank, we also grant bonus rank points.
* Just like before, once you obtain a major Rank, it's locked in and you cannot drop below it
* More details and breakdown of rank thresholds here.

#### New Casual Multiplayer Mode

* Play multiplayer games without affecting your Rank.
* You will be matched against opponents of your same skill level.
* You can queue up solo or with friends.
* This is where you experiment with new builds, or complete those elusive challenges.
* Daily Challenges and Achievements can be earned in Casual Multiplayer matches.

#### Ranked Multiplayer Mode Updates

* Your Rank (Enforcer I, Upstart III, etc) is used to find opponents.
* Play Ranked matches solo or in a party, see this blog post for details about party ranked.
* New players will need to unlock ranked mode by playing 5 casual games. (Don't worry, accounts with at least one Multiplayer game will be grandfathered in.)
* Daily Challenges and Achievements can be earned in Ranked Multiplayer matches.

### Achievements

Complete achievements to earn Proto Pass XP
Complete an entire tier of achievements to unlock equippable Banner Sigils (i.e. complete all three 1-star Economy achievements to unlock the piggy sigil)

**Added 2-Star and 3-Star look upgrades to the following Heroes:**

* Abaddon
* Arc Warden
* Anti-Mage
* Clockwerk
* Doom
* Dragon Knight
* Drow Ranger
* Gyrocopter
* Kunkka
* Lina
* Luna
* Medusa
* Mirana
* Phantom Assassin
* Queen of Pain
* Razor
* Templar Assassin
* Timbersaw
* Tiny
* Venomancer

### Gameplay

* Round damage eliminated for rounds 4-9. Round Damage starts at round 11, at 2 damage, and proceeds as before from then on (3 starting at round 20, 4 at round 30, etc.).
* Whenever a player loses a round against another player, the loser gains a free reroll the next round. This reroll is not stackable, so use it or lose it.

### General

* Fixed solo games / tutorial not ending (staying on an empty board screen) when you are not connected to Steam.
* Fixed Spirit Bear HP bar offset
* Fixed Defeat screen sometimes not showing correct units and damage
* Fixed healing-disabling items not applying in neutral waves
* Clarified some alliance text
* Fixed an issue where an incorrect message was sent when a  Divine Rapier was stolen
* Fixed an issue with players being shown to have completed their rounds on the leaderboard before that was actually true
* Fixed Deadeye  units not switching away from unselectable targets.
* Fixed  Unstoppable (now  Helm of the Undying) triggering too early.
* Fixed incorrect stun duration after Burrow Strike bump.
* Further particle effect optimizations across all platforms.
* Fixed crashes when resuming app on iOS
* Several optimizations for ARM Mali GPUs
* Added option (defaults to on) to automagically deploy units from your bench if you have room on the board and combat begins before you had time to do so yourself.

### UI

* Updated post-game screen with progress, stats, and scoreboard
* Improved mobile responsiveness to touch events (dragging, scrolling, etc.)
* General UI updates and polish

### Spectating

* Fixed playing the startup animation if you start spectating or reconnect to a game after the first round
* Spectators can now see the shop of players from the same party that they started the match with

### Hero Changes

 Crystal Maiden:

* Maximum Health changed from (450, 900, 1800) to (550, 1100, 2000)
* Gold Cost changed from 2 to 3

Eidolon:

* Attack Damage Minimum changed from (40, 50) to (40, 80)
* Attack Damage Maximum changed from (60, 70) to (60, 120)
* Armor changed from 20 to (5, 10)
* Maximum Health changed from 300 to (300, 600)

 Juggernaut:

* Juggernaut will only cast **Blade Fury** when he's surrounded by at least 2 enemies.

 Lina:

* Gold Cost changed from 3 to 2

	+ Self Bonus Attack Speed changed from (35, 55, 75) to (50, 90, 130)
	+ Other Bonus Attack Speed changed from (30, 40, 50) to (30, 65, 100)

 Shadow Fiend:

* Attack Range changed from 4 to 3
* Requiem of Souls:
	+ Projectile Start Width changed from 125 to 128
	+ Projectile End Width changed from 425 to 256

	+ Number of Wards spawned changed from (1, 1, 3) to (1, 1, 1)
	+ Maximum Health changed from (200, 200, 240) to (200, 220, 240)
	+ Attack Damage Minimum changed from (50, 80, 120) to (50, 100, 150)
	+ Attack Range changed from 6 to 8
	+ Attack Damage Maximum changed from (55, 100, 140) to (55, 110, 170)

	+ Cooldown changed from 10 to 15

### Item Changes

* Alliance items have been disabled. Many of these effects have been migrated to Alliances or Equipment. The rest went back into the Underlords Vault.

#### New Items

 Helm of the Undying: Tier Two Defensive Equipment: "+5 Armor. Equipped hero survives for an extra 4 seconds after receiving a killing blow."

 Bracers of Desperation: Tier Three Support Equipment: "Equipped hero resets their cooldown and gets full mana when below 30% health. Attack target's magic resistance is reduced by 30%."

 Poaching Knife: Tier Three Offensive Equipment: "Equipped hero has a 30% chance of producing 1 gold when they kill an enemy. Attacks against units with less than 20% health crit for 200%."

 Dawning of Ristul: Tier Three Global Item: "Healing for both crews is reduced by 50%."

#### Removed Items

* Cloak
* Recruiter
* Vicious Intent
* Wicked Intent

#### Item Changes

 Big-Time Contract

* Changed from "Equipped unit is Blood-bound in addition to its other types." to "+250 Health. Equipped unit is Blood-bound in addition to its other types."

 Brooch of the Martyr

* Changed from "+50% Mana gained from receiving damage." to "+50% Mana gained from receiving damage. +50% debuff resistance."

 Chainmail

* Bonus Armor changed from +7 to +10

 Claymore

* Attack Damage changed from +21 to +30

 Gloves of Haste

* Attack Speed changed from +20 to +25

 Hood of Defiance

* Tier changed from 3 to 1

 Octarine Essence

* Tier changed from 2 to 3

 Tranquil Boots

* Health Regen changed from +16 to +25

 Force Staff

* Now pushes melee attackers away from the equipped hero when taking damage.

### Alliance changes

Elusive : Level 3 Alliance (9 heroes) - changed from "Allied Elusive units gain +75% evasion" to "All units gain +75% evasion."

Warlock : Healing Link duration changed from 3 seconds to 2 seconds

Brawny : Changed from "All Brawny units have their Maximum HP increased by 200/500" to "All Brawny units gain +30/60 maximum HP for each kill they have."

Savage : Changed from "Allies gain +10/25/45% Attack Damage" to "Allied Savage units apply a stackable 5/10/15 damage/s bleed on attack for 3s. Duration refreshes each attack."

Shaman : Changed from "Enemies affected by Hexes, Silences or Stuns will generate -200% mana" to "Units attacking a Shaman have a 17% chance of being turned into a chicken and hop 4 cells in a random direction."

Primordial : Changed from "Enemies attacking Primordial/Allied units have a 25% chance to have their attack speed slowed by 50% each attack. This effect is applied at the start of the attack and lasts for the duration of the attack." to "Allied Primordial units spawn a rank 1/2 Eidolon on death. Eidolons are ranged Primordial units that don't spawn Eidolons."

Inventor : Changed from "Allied Inventors get 15/40 HP regen" to "Allied Inventors explode on death dealing 15/30% of their Max Health to all enemies 1 cell away"

Demon Hunter : In addition to the existing bonuses both levels now also have "All Demon Hunters gain 30% Pure Damage for each unique allied Demon unit."

Assassin : Level 3 Alliance (9 heroes) - In addition to the existing bonuses level 3 now also has "All Assassins also blind enemies 1 cell away from where they land for 2 seconds (50% miss chance and 50% less mana when attacked)"

## Update 2

### General

* Fixed Savage  alliance applying to all units instead of only savages.
* Fixed unit kill count sometimes not incrementing.

### Hero Changes

	+ Cooldown changed from 5/6/7 to 5. **(This change wasn't mentioned)**