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December 9th, 2016
Gifting 2016 Continues
Howdy EpicDuelists! We hope you're enjoying the new gifting season! Some of you have been very enthusiastic about gifting so starting Monday (as soon as the next release is live), we'll be offering a 15,000 Varium package. This will replace the 12,000 Varium package for a limited time.


Everyone who acquires this package will receive, as a bonus, an Epic Supporter achievement worth 2500 Rating Points!

"BUT NIGHTWRAITH!" you exclaim. "I've already purchased a $50 package!" I have good news for you -- we'll be awarding 3000 Varium to to all who've purchased the 12k Varium or BioBeasts packages at least since gifting began.
This new package, along with the BioBeasts package, will be available until shortly after the gifting event ends.

Enter the Maze

Our areas of focus on EpicDuel for the last few months have been primarily to improve the sustainability and longevity of the game as well and increased the enjoyment of players at all level ranges. Player counts tend to peak around December, but at certain times of day it can still be challenging to find a good match! Since acquiring new players becomes more challenging each year, we've developed a solution to this ongoing problem: AI.
In order to ensure that players can always find matches, especially while leveling to 40, NPCs will be automatically added to battles at intervals while waiting if a player cannot be found. The system will pick a level-appropriate NPC to add to the match if a player was not found in a certain amount of time. In the case of 2v2 and Juggernaut, 1 NPC will be added at a time until the match is full.


To make NPCs more competant allies, we've improved their AI so they will attempt to heal a partner in critical condition. They're not perfect, but neither are human allies. We've also worked to minimize the instances of only one player in a 2v2 having an AI partner.

While you may be apprehensive about this change, it actually enables some fresh and interesting scenarios.

NPCs level 37+ will not be added to battles, so players near/at max level should see less NPCs than lower level players. If you're a level 40, you will probably rarely encounter an NPC. This change is primarily intended to bolster the matching at low-to-mid level ranges so players will be more likely to stick with the game and eventually reach the cap!

Restock!
Tired of bugging the devs on Twitter to restock your favorite item? Angry that your favorite items are always restocked when you're asleep or in school/at work? We finally have a solution for you! Non-Seasonal Limited Rares will now automatically be restocked every few weeks if depleted. Check NPCs with limited quantity items such as Charfade to see when the next restock will happen.

Legendary Balance
This is probably the hottest balance topic right now and we're addressing it with this release. We were hearing a lot of feedback on the Legendary Rank system, namely that it provides too much power, and that 10 ranks were generally worth more than 1 regular level. With this we want to bring down the overall power given by Ranks, which should also even out the 10 ranks to 1 level ratio. We are also reducing the credit and Varium prices to make the ranks more affordable.

Juggernaut Balance
We undershot a bit with the Juggernaut matching, especially since Underdog is now a thing. We want to keep Underdog buffs in Juggernaut to balance out the difference between getting, say, two level 32s vs two level 27s. This way we can keep the difficulty of each match relatively equal while keeping the level ranges large enough to try and get matches in a reasonable time. This gives us a lot more balancing levers to pull to get Juggernaut battles in a better spot

Look for all these features and more when our next release goes live Monday (probably sometime in the mid-afternoon). Why Monday? So we have as much time as possible to test and get last-minute feedback for this major update!


Tags: Titan

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If you want to talk about math, then let's talk about math.
The first 20 ranks are as strong as 2 levels.
The second 40 ranks are almost the same as 4 levels but the 4 levels are a bit stronger.
The last 20 ranks are much much much weaker than 2 levels.

I have told you many times that rank 49 is the strongest rank ever and I explained why to you many times so, there's no need to explain it to you again.
When I'm talking about high ranked players I'm specifically talking about rank 80 players.
The first 20 ranks can be used for maxing out Def and Resis.
So, you get 60 def/resis points in total. In 2 levels you get 8 stats and an average of 4 stats from your weapons and 8 defense/resistance from your armor. This means you get a total of 12 stats.
12 stats can give you an average of 36 defense and or resistance. This means you get a total of 44 defense/resistance if your dimishing returns are medium. 44 defense/resistance with 2 skill
points make levels exactly the same as ranks in the first 20 ranks not to mention that stats increase the luck chance/first turn chance and the damage of skills of course which would make
levels stronger.

In the next 40 ranks, you can max out your gun, primary, bot and aux.
You get a total of 150 damage points separated and you sometimes don't even use them due to your build unlike stats that can be spent anywhere to benefit the build you're currently using.
2.1 x 4 + 4 x 4 = 24.4 stats. You also get 4 x 4 defense points from your armor which means you get 16 extra defense points.
If we convert the 16 defense points to stats, we get 16/3= 5.333 stats. 5.333+24.4=29.733 = approximately 30 stats.
So you get a total of 30 stats that can be used freely anywhere you want and support the build you want to use and buffing your luck/first turn by a lot along with the damage of ALL
your skills with 4 skill points making 4 levels way better than the second 40 ranks. (Not to mention that skill damage and your health and energy go up when you level up slightly).

The last 20 ranks are absolutely nothing. They only give you 10 energy points (or 30 maximum if you use all cores) and 20 health points for field medic while you get 10 stats and 8 def/resis along with 2 skills that can be used in field to give you 50 health instead of 20. Sure the cost will increase, but your energy and maximum health also increase when you level up and you still have 10 stats that can be used in energy and you will still have a lot of stats left to use making the last 20 ranks a joke compared to two levels.

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Legendary Balance

This is probably the hottest balance topic right now and we're addressing it with this release. We were hearing a lot of feedback on the Legendary Rank system, namely that it provides too much power, and that 10 ranks were generally worth more than 1 regular level. With this we want to bring down the overall power given by Ranks, which should also even out the 10 ranks to 1 level ratio. We are also reducing the credit and Varium prices to make the ranks more affordable.

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Question to a tester can we have the new exp curve added to the wiki?

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I can only assume the simple version of that is the timer for adding NPCs at the cap is longer than at lower levels to give the system more time to pull players together