Full notes
Full Malice & Greed update
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What changed
- Gameplay
- Balance
- Store
Malice & Greed changes
Channeled Skills
This update brings a new mechanic: Channeled Skills!
Instead of being cast immediately, you must finish a number of rounds to prepare the Skill. Once ready, it can be used on ANY ally's turn, causing the Channeling unit to cast the Skill for free, even if they are a corpse.
An icon appears on a unit, showing the progress of the Channel.
This gives you the freedom to play skills out of order for stronger combos, or prepare for a future turn where you expect to not have enough Crystals!
Will overwrite any existing Channel or Combat Technique. - All Skill costs are paid at the start of Channeling.
Channeling Slots
Some skills can create empty Channeling Slots on units, which can be used to Channel skills that do not naturally have the keyword. The next non-Channel Skill you cast will be placed into this slot, and Channeled for the specified number of ally rounds.
This allows you to integrate a wide variety of skills into your Channeling setups!
Amplify
Some Channeled Skills can be improved even further by giving them time to Amplify!
If the Channelled Skill is ready to cast, but you did not cast it, the effect is activated each time your round ends. Some Amplify effects improve the card's effect, while others trigger their own effects at the time of Amplification.
For example, Dynamo will continue dealing lightning damage each round that it is Amplified.
When Amplify is triggered by another effect, it will activate even if the Channeled Skill is not ready.
Countering Channel
Because the cost of Channels are paid upfront, the turns where they are activated can be extremely bursty and swingy. While Guarding is an effective option against a team of prepared Channels, you can also use Skills to interfere with the enemy.
Keep an eye out for other mechanics that might do a good job at dealing with Channels!
Enhancing Channel
Strength & Technology offer ways to enhance your Channel skills. This effect is much less common in Arcane & Dexterity.
New Items
Maximilian's Wrench [Boss Item] When an Elite or Boss Channels a Skill, delay it by 1 round.
Demon Skull [Boss Item] Pandemonium also affects you, but lasts an extra round.
Chaos Whistle [Boss Item] All Skills on all units have Expose Affinity.
Yellow Jacket[Rare Item] When an ally Channels a Skill, Amplify it twice, and delay it by 1 round.
Lead Pipe [Common Item] When an enemy becomes a corpse, cancel their Channeled Skill.
8-Ball [Common Item] Each round, the first time an ally Channels a Skill, progress the Channel's duration.
Pressure Cooker [Common Item] - When an ally consumes a fully stacked buff with affinity, they gain 1 stack of that buff.
All Channeling Skills
Here's a list of all 95 channeling-related skills in this update. About 60% of them are existing skills adapted into Channel skills, and 30% of them are new.
Edit: Since the time of posting, skills that buff/counter channel have generally been reduced in cost, and new ones added. New channel skills have also been added, and some of the listed ones have gained additional Amplify effects.
Other Changes
Fixed a bug causing multi-hit random-target skills to switch teams mid-attack. - Fixed a bug causing the Spin Orb to spawn in act 1. - Fixed a bug causing the camera to get stuck in a zoomed in position during combat. - Fixed a bug causing turn order issues when summoning in combat. - Fixed a bug where enemies would check their own team for corpses instead of the opposing team when deciding to cast a skill meant to target enemy corpses. - Various skill bugfixes.
Source
Changelog.gg summarizes and formats this update. How we read updates.