Patch Review
May brought three significant Patches, addressing several bugs, improving visuals, and adding QoL changes based on your feedback. Below are the highlights from each update as well as links to each full Patch Notes post!
May 8th - Patch 1.2.3
- Fixed an issue where player was unable to properly use Flame Rush while channeling Focus with Mana Guide equipped.
- Fixed Crest of Unity not forcing Elemental Nova to have all elemental tags.
- Fixed a bug with Volatile Reversal where allocating Immutable Past did not prevent triggering effects that require being able to jump backwards in time, such as Warped Time.
- And More
May 15th - Patch 1.2.4
- Improved environment visuals in the Desert Canyons.
- Improved environment visuals in the Great College.
- Improved environment visuals in the Storm Swept Isles.
- And More
May 22nd - Patch 1.2.5
- Fixed a bug where effects which recover a flat amount of remaining time from a skill’s cooldown were recovering a percentage of the skill’s cooldown as if it had no sources of Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed.
- Fixed a bug where Rive, when used with a two-handed weapon and shield due to Forgemaster’s Might, would use the two-handed visual effects, rather than the one-handed effects.
- Fixed a bug causing Raptors to be summoned above the Companion Limit when the number of available skill points for Summon Raptor changed, while also having summoned other companions.
- And More
Hotfix Rollout
We released six Hotfixes this Month, below you’ll find a list for each Hotfix and a link to each thread.
May 2nd - Hotfix 1.2.2.2
- Bug Fixes[list]
- Fixed an issue where some players were blocked from unlocking Empowered Monoliths.
- Fixed issue where item links only showed white text with a colored underline.
- The time it takes for a tooltip to appear when hovering an item label on the ground has been reduced.
- Eternal Supporter packs have been removed from the store.
May 8th - Hotfix 1.2.3.1
- Fixed an issue preventing the use of abilities in WASD mode after interacting with objects.
- Fixed an issue causing items in the stash and vendor window to become greyed out.
- Fixed issue where loot filter rules could end up being endlessly duplicated.
May 9th - Hotfix 1.2.3.2
- Reverted a change that caused erroneous skill point loss notification spam. As a result, we’re still working on a fix for the skill panel blinking indicator that is meant to fire when an item with +X to skill is unequipped.
May 15th - Hotfix 1.2.4.1
- Reverted a fix for labels not always updating when you turn off the filter.
- This resolves an issue introduced with the 1.2.4 patch where item labels would move around making them hard to click.
May 23rd - Hotfix 1.2.5.1
- Fixed Minions and Companion portraits not showing in the top left corner.
- Fixed Stash Button not working in certain UIs.
- Fixed an issue that caused loot labels for Runes, Glyphs, Shards and Woven Echoes to not disappear after the item was picked up.
- This was a visual only bug and any Runes, Glyphs, Shards or Woven Echoes that appeared to not be picked up were correctly sent to the players Inventory.
May 30th - Hotfix 1.2.5.2
- Fixed an issue where some item labels would not be visible after a significant amount of loot dropped in a short period of time until the loot filter was disabled then re-enabled.[list]
- This was most noticeable when triggering Prophecies.
Eyes on Eterra
Season 2 Stats
New Season. New content. New Bosses. New Stats! With a significant amount of new content to explore and a near-complete overhaul to the Sentinel Class, it’s no surprise that a large portion of Travelers fell in to the Void Knight path or became a Paladin of Eterra before doing their best Lara Croft impressions.
Though once Tombs and Cemeteries were raided, after Woven Echoes had been exhausted and Travelers stood over the slain body of Aberroth, a new challenger called from the Threshold of Eternity. Uber Aberroth, and with a KDR 122.5 times higher than their classic counterpart, he was not merciful, likely contributing to a good portion of the 10.6 million SC player deaths.
The 392 player deaths that occurred at Level 1 cannot be blamed on Uber Aberroth however, so don’t try.
Twitch Drop Redux
While this Redux is now over, we hope you were able to snag any cosmetics or pets you didn’t grab the first time around! If not, not to worry, as this likely won’t be a one-off, so keep your eyes on our Socials and Discord for any future reruns of past Twitch drops. Please let us know below if there is a particular item you want to have the opportunity to earn again!
Mike’s Teasers
May 2nd
Mike’s in game deaths left us dying to know more about these teaser images, though try as we might, he wouldn’t give away anything else - stirring an almost primal rage in us….
May 9th
This week Mike showed off two new Acolyte teasers for Season 3 and to paraphrase his descriptions, we have something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue!
May 16th
Another week means another Stream means another teaser, and Mike shared this cutey with us as a preview for Season 3!
May 23rd - LORE STREAM!
Our very own Lore Master, Kyle, joined Mike to delve deep into the dark and bring to light to Last Epoch Lore! You can watch the entire VOD on our Youtube Channel
[previewyoutube=LHBg-65Epx0;full][/previewyoutube]
May 30th
To close out the month, Mike shared this bitey shield. If not defensive, why defensive shaped?
Community Build Spotlight
The month of May is always filled with possibility. Perhaps a more fitting title would be the month of “Maybe.” This month’s community spotlight goes to someone who took this into consideration and ran for the finish line.
PotatoFalz sought to create a Forge Guard build that went back to the roots of what Last Epoch is all about: having fun in your own way! William Weaver, The Oxy Moron, is a build that tries to utilize as many Weaver’s Will Items as physically possible. Now, PotatoFalz, by their own admission, has stated “This build is - in no way whatsoever - deterministic. Nor is it good. But, it did let me kill Aberroth.” and we feel like that’s enough. It’s fun, it’s a little wacky and relies on a whole lot of “maybe” but if you’re enjoying yourself, WHO CARES?!
Normally, this would be the part where we break down the build and explain what to expect, but… how can we when there is so much left up to chance? For this reason, we want to invite you to check out PotatoFalz’s reddit post and the Build Guide they created to see for yourself.
Meet the Team
The month of May was chock-full of new and exciting things, but it also brings with it a close to a beloved segment of our Blog. Meeting the Team here at EHG has been a joy and, in many circles, a highlight of this monthly review. With that said, I want you all to know that Meet The Team will no longer be a part of Eterra Monthly. Instead, it will be moving to a much more refined and deserving blog, Making Last Epoch. A once-monthly look behind the curtain at the development of the world of Eterra and the uniquely gifted individuals behind it.
We hope you will all join us there, but until then, please join me in thanking our Senior Digital Artist, Cory Freeman, for sitting down and answering our questions.
Tell us a little about your job and what it includes.
EHG is a pretty scrappy studio and there are plenty of us who wear a lot of hats. My official title is Senior Digital Artist (which is kind of silly because it’s not like we have any Senior Analog Artists). Most of my duties are in supporting the Marketing team with art and design assets. I lead the charge in developing our key art and logos for each patch along with creating graphic assets we need along the way (we make hundreds with each release). I also help to shape our trailers through storyboarding, art direction, writing, and more.
What inspired you to get into Digital Art, and how did you end up at this studio?
Like a lot of kids, I always loved to draw. And when I was six, my big brother bought a Super Nintendo. I already had a Pong system and a Gameboy and was already enamored with video games, but now I could play games in color! A couple of years later Mario Paint came out and introduced me to digital art (and using a mouse) and I’ve been making art with pixels since.
I always wanted to get into video games, but knew that would be crazy hard, so I followed the “realistic” career path of graphic design while I continued to hone my illustration and concept design skills. Over the course of a couple of decades, I worked on a few personal video game projects, created art for several board games, and had my illustration work licensed by brands like Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragons, Marvel, and more. I had no professional game industry experience, but I built up a portfolio that was plenty relevant.
After years of working a big corporate design job that wasn’t particularly fulfilling, I was on the hunt for something new and one day my awesome wife sent me a job opening for a Marketing Artist at EHG. I hadn’t heard of the studio or even of Last Epoch, and wasn’t sure what to expect but thought it was worth shooting in an application. And here we are… three years later and still having a blast!
How does working at an indie studio differ from working at a larger studio?
This is my first video game gig, so I have no frame of reference within the game industry, but I’ve worked for many companies, some much bigger and some much smaller, than EHG. For most people a job is a job. At EHG, people really care about their work and that passion means we’re always setting our own bar higher and higher.
How do you balance working from home with your home life?
It’s honestly not always easy. Having a job you care about, where you can always elevate the project by putting in more time, means you have to be careful not to over do it. When my kids are around, it makes it much easier to unplug from work because I simply can’t pay attention to both at the same time. I’m also very fortunate that everyone at EHG seems to understand how difficult the balancing act can be, so there’s lots of support from my colleagues to make sure we stay on that tight rope.
How do you balance creativity with practical constraints like time, budget, or technical limitations?
We just never have the time or resources to do everything we want to do. But that’s pretty much the reality of any creative job. We earn our name, “Eleventh Hour” every patch, because we’re always trying to jam as many cool new features in as possible, even right up to our deadlines. Everyone on the team really wants to make the game the very best it can be.
What’s the most impactful lesson you’ve learned while working in an indie studio?
You can do a lot with a little if you have the right people.
We’re a small studio up against competitors who have teams and budgets many times larger than our own. I think it would surprise a lot of folks just how small our teams are, but I think we’ve gotten pretty proficient at making a big splash from a relatively low diving board.
How do you stay motivated and creative, especially during long or difficult projects?
Making a live-service game means there’s never much rest because we’re always grinding on something. Fortunately, everyone on the team is super passionate and that enthusiasm is always infectious for me. Plus, when we get a new launch out there, seeing players share their favorite builds or discuss new features always helps fill the tank.
What kind of feedback from players do you find most helpful or motivating?
This feels like a bit of a cop-out but I tend to find all kinds of feedback pretty helpful. Constructive criticism is always appreciated and those are probably the notes I spend the most time with because they tend to be the most thought-out and actionable.
Is there anything you’ve worked on that you are particularly proud of? Anything that stands out as an achievement?
When I first came on board at EHG, the studio was in the early stages of a visual rebrand. That kind of project is a dream design gig, but they had already started the process with an external design agency. Even still, I asked to be able to present some logo concepts. Judd said that for new employees (this was technically before my start date) they try to start them in the shallow end of the pool. I kept asking and he agreed to give me a shot. The concepts I showed were promising and ultimately I was able to design our new studio logo.
The lesson here: if you want something, ask for it. Be your own biggest advocate.
What advice would you give someone who wants to get into this industry?
From an artist’s perspective, make sure you show your work. Make a portfolio and fill it up with the type of work you want to do. Show that you can be really good at that thing, but that you’re curious and capable of doing more. And talk to others in the industry. When I was a middle-school kid (before social media), I would find e-mail addresses of artists I loved and just ask them questions. Few would respond, but those who did gave me loads of valuable insights, but also reminded me that the industry is made up of people who had a dream once and just kept working on it. It may sound cliche, but hard work really is a huge part of it.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell our readers?
I just want to say “THANK YOU!” for playing Last Epoch and supporting a small studio.
Community Fun
Discord
Discord user Olvrin continues to impress with their Item Art! We’d love to see what you can create too!
The Turtle giveth, the Weaver taketh away. Many Legendary Potential has been lost upon the back of the Farsight Turtle but not for An0therOne, who seems to have found all of it on their Palarus’s Sacred Light. In the words of EHG_KissingAiur - “bruh”.
We know it can take a while to get a Red Ring, but it doesn’t take this long! Reddit user kkassius_’s grandpa won’t stop searching though!
We all strive to make each attack count, though sometimes less is more. FadingGrin proves this on Reddit with their perfect Cinder Strike DPS. Nice.
Also, for the love of Eterra… please turn on Advanced Tooltips if you’re going to share an item
Looking to the past is part of Last Epoch, so we thought we’d share some of the amazing artwork shared on Reddit from days gone by. Here you can see Necromancer and Her Minions by Nerva1 , Heorot Fanart by Drikrystal and Character Select by leiftronbravo! You can see these artworks in all their glory by following the embedded links!
Thank You
This has been Eterra Monthly; a report on the happenings and changes in the world of Last Epoch. We hope you have enjoyed this month’s report and will see you all again soon.
