Dark and Darker – New patches shake up the meta

In the last few days, the dungeon crawler Dark and Darker has received some comprehensive patches and hotfixes, some of which had a strong impact on the meta – the current best and most effective way to play a class.

We summarize the changes of the last days and also have the patch notes for you.

New patches cause a stir

The idea behind the first patches after the recent wipe was to first bring pretty much all weapons in line and then gradually make them stronger again.

The same approach can be seen in the classes, which are gradually being further adjusted.

The goal behind this is to give players the widest possible range of weapons and classes, all of which have their place in the game.

In Hotfix #14, the focus was mainly on rogue and bard.
The possible attributes of the items were also adjusted once again, so that in some cases the combination and the level of the attributes can be higher even for low-level items than for some high-level ones.

Hotfix #15 mainly took care of various fixes, but also tuned the abilities of the warlock and adjusted the status modifiers of the items.

After the changes from Hotfix #15 led to balancing problems and then a database problem also led to unwanted duplications, Ironmace quickly added another patch.
This Hotfix #16 reset the game to the state before Hotfix #15 and also reset the item modifiers to the state close to Hotfix #14.

As compensation for the trouble, all players were credited with 5 Bluestone shards.

Dark and Darker: Hotfix 14, 15 & 16 – Patchnotes

Early Access Hotfix #16

• Fixed an issue where Earthquake was doing more damage than intended.
• Rolled the game back to around 9:00 AM UTC on October 5th.
• Item random modifiers have been rebalanced back to similar to hotfix #14.
• The total amount of Additional/True Magical Damage that can be obtained has been slightly increased.
• All Attributes was limited to a maximum of 1.
• 2 additional blue portals have been added to the Ruins.
• The quantity of items dropped by chests has been slightly reduced.
• All players will receive 5 Bluestone Shards.

Early Access Hotfix #15

• Fixed an issue where Bard’s Warsong was not applying to teammates.
• Fixed an issue where newly added crafted items could not be used even if the class had the elgible Perk equipped.
• Fixed an issue where Ghost King’s Debuff Area Effect was not visible.
• Fixed an issue where players could be killed by traps upon respawning at the Sacrificial Altar.
• Fixed an issue where Portals would not display properly.
• Fixed an issue where monsters would get stuck in certain spots in the Goblin Cave and could not move.
• Barbarian’s Iron Will’s additional Magic Resistance has been changed from 100 → 60.
• Bard’s Beats of Alacrity additional MoveSpeed changed from 15/20/25 → 5/10/15.
• Bard’s Harmonic Shield Armor Rating and Magic Resistance changed from 40/40 → 15/15.
• Warlock’s Torture Mastery healing’s Attribute Ratio Bonus has been changed from 50% → 25%.
• Warlock’s Eldritch Shield’s magic damage absorption changed from 40 → 25, dark magic damage bonus changed from 40% → 20%, and cost changed from 5 → 10.
• Warlock’s Hydra cost changed from 15 → 20.
• Warlock’s Ray of Darness’s dark magic damage has been changed from 3 → 7, and the cost has been changed from 5 → 10.
• War Maul’s Armor Penetration has been changed from 30% → 20%.
• Kris Dagger’s animation has been modified.
• The primary modifier for many items have been adjusted.
• The Random Modifiers for items have all been adjusted.
• All legacy items are now gone. Options that are removed or have their min/max values changed will be rerolled or rescaled to accommodate the new data.
• Fountain of Speed’s additional MoveSpeed changed from 70 → 50.
• Dungeons now drop high-quality items much more frequently and in greater quantities from all chests and subbosses.
• Merchants no longer sell as many Uncommon (Green) and Rare (Blue) items as before.
• You can no longer preview the Random Modifiers from Jack O’Lantern’s merchandise.
• Matchmaking below level 14 has now been removed.

Early Access Hotfix #14

• Fixed a rollback issue where players would revert to a previous state when exiting a dungeon.
• Fixed Occultist Boots movement speed.
• Fixed an issue where Curse of Pain’s instant damage would not occur when the Warlock uses Curse Mastery.
• Fixed an issue where Power of Sacrifice could not deal damage when the Warlock uses Curse Mastery.
• Lantern/Torch additional movement speed has been adjusted to 0.
• Lanterns can now appear with random modifiers at the higher rarities.
• Damage for all daggers has been slightly increased.
• Rogue’s Trap Detection range has been increased from 400 → 450.
• Rogue’s Jokester range has been increased from 350 → 450.
• Rogue’s Ambush physical damage bonus changed from 30% → 50%.
• Rogue’s Weak Point attack armor rating reduction has been changed from 25% → 30%, and the duration has been changed from 3s → 4s.
• Ranger’s Chase range has been increased from 400 → 450.
• Bard’s Warsong range has been increased from 350 → 450.
• Bard’s Story Teller range has been increased from 350 → 450.
• Jack-O-Lantern has returned.
• Regular merchants no longer sell Epic items.
• The random modifier properties that appear on the colored rarity items have been reverted to give the much larger value range and larger variety including the +all attributes from before the previous patch. This means that checking the rolls for your items means just as much or more than just the color grade of the item.
• Sub-bosses and Special Chests such as the Lion’s Head, Golden Chests, Marvelous, and Royal Coffins will always give colored grade loot now.
• Soulreaper name changed to Soulscraper.