
Read the First Part Here
Signature Skills
The next big item on the block is signature skills, previously these were a small pool of active abilities, when reaching particular milestones the hero would get to pick a signature skill from a list of random options. This had several issues; A lack of control, wildly varying power levels and dilution of the heroes role. Everyone would always pick the same skills, and particularly the summon abilities were problematic. Thus to put it bluntly, these are no longer the same. Many of these skills have been reworked and used elsewhere. Affinity Dedications For Mortal Champions and Wizard Kings, the signature skills take the form of Affinity Dedications. These grant effects that empower the army that the hero leads and unlock a pair of hero skills that support the builds and identity associated with that affinity. To choose an affinity dedication, the hero must first reach the appropriate level, then the empire must have the appropriate affinity. At level 4, only Initiate dedications may be chosen and only of the affinities the empire has. At level 8 they may choose either Initiate dedications they do not yet have (with the same requirements) or any Adept level dedications their empire has enough affinity for. At level 12, Master level and lower can be chosen, and lastly at level 16, Paragon or any other level.


Art of the Hero Rework
For a (short) interlude here on the art side of this project I am including a section of Elle and Ana’s write up on the art of the Hero Rework, worry not I will return after the pretty pictures to provide more nerdy insight! Hi all, Elle here, 2D Artist at Triumph! I’ll be the one to present you with the full “Art of Ways of War” dev diary at a later date, but I wanted to barge into Thomas’ dev diary too so I could share a little bit of background on the art side of the Hero Rework. Before we bury the old interface permanently, have this very old pre-release mockup as a loving way to remember the admittedly-difficult-to-love listbox layout:






Governance and Renown



Ambitions


