EARLY ACCESS 0.80.1 - New class Hellforged and new calendar.

Hello! this week's patch introduces the Hellforged class, includiong a new and improved Calendar that is now in place. The game is growing bigger so this is the first patch with a closed private beta, and also a quick open beta just to get more eyes for possible bugs. The patch is now ready for the main branch of the game and will be available now.

We are also adding some balance changes too (I'm sorry Shockmender but you were too OP) , new harder tier 2 challenges in the Hall of Legends, lots of UI polish, new advanced tactics options to set your ability priority or friendly fire setting, new VFX for spells and explosions.... and more.

As always, thank you for playing and for supporting Eslabong

EARLY ACCESS 0.80.1 Major Features

- Added Hall of Legends Tier II, featuring six extreme endgame challenges for teams of eight against Level 100 rivals.

- Added the new Hellforged class: a durable fire battlemage that sacrifices HP to cast explosive abilities. Every HP sacrifice also releases a fire nova.

- Added Skill Priority, Friendly Fire and AOE settings to specific skills with the new Advanced Tactics.

- Added an 8v8 League that replaces the Mid-Season Cup in the updated campaign calendar.

- UI polish across several panels and screens.

- Added recurring Special Event registration during Weeks 5, 13 and 21. Choose one of two free tournament offers to play the following week, including Rookie, Champion, Open Duel/FFA and rotating class tournaments.

- Existing campaigns using the previous calendar transition to the new schedule at the start of their next season. - New and improved spell effects and explosions.

Hall of Legends

- Added separate Tier selection and independent progression for every Hall challenge.

- Hall rewards now use persistent chests awarded once per challenge across all Threat levels.

- Tier II rewards include Gold, Renown, Rare Relic selections and Legendary Relic selections, culminating in a choice of three Legendary Relics for The Last Alliance.

- Existing victories and previously collected rewards are preserved under the new system.

- Rebalanced Tier II with individual difficulty curves for each challenge. Expect REALLY hard fights.

Academy

- The Time Chamber can now train a fighter directly to Level 20 for a clearly displayed total Gold cost.

- Fighters retain every earned skill, upgrade, specialization and stat choice for the player to assign.

- After Rebirth, fighters may optionally recover to Level 20 for free while retaining their progression choices.

- Reborn Momentum continues providing increased XP until the fighter reaches their former level.

- Academy matches can now autoplay when at least three fighters are assigned.

Tactics & AI

- Added Skill Priority to Advanced Tactics. Every equipped ability can be set to Low, Normal or High priority.

- Priority changes how strongly the AI considers an ability without modifying damage, cooldowns or costs. Requirements, safety rules, combos and emergency actions still take precedence, so it’s not a hard set but a priority selection boost. - Rival clubs now scout your previous lineup and adapt their tactics based on campaign difficulty.

- AI clubs rotate fighters based on Form, create more balanced 8v8 lineups and make better Market decisions.

- Melee AI now recognizes when a special ability has more reach than its basic attack.

- Improved Witch Hunter ability usage and AI handling of disappearing targets or summons.

Market and UI

- Watched Mercenary Union fighters are now preserved after weekly Market rotation and can be hired directly from the Watchlist.

- Improved Match pages, season histories, Draft presentation, event choices, trophy artwork, loading states and controller focus.

- Added clearer Stun information to combat statistics and improved the Development Tome tooltip.

Balance

- Healing abilities now combine % based HP scaling with caster Power. - Rebalanced % based heals due to the above change. - Rebalanced Shockmender’s healing, damage, revival strength, cooldowns and resource costs.

- Small adjustments to some champion´s base stats.

VFX

- Added and improved painted VFX across dozens of abilities. - Lots of new effects and explosions added to spells and abilities.

Fixed

- Fixed Fire Barrier projectiles failing when their original owner disappeared.

- Fixed Chain Heal and Choir of Whispers stopping when a previous target disappeared.

- Fixed Fear effects attempting to affect stationary summoned devices.

- Fixed watched Union recruits permanently disappearing from the Market.

- Fixed Railcaster decisions referencing expired targets.

- Fixed Grab and Throw failing when a held summon despawned.

- Fixed delayed Charge, Earth Spike, Echo Fireball, Glacial Surge and Leap Smash effects continuing after their caster left battle.

- Fixed visual errors affecting Swordmaster trails and Glacial Bash fragments.

- Fixed Battle Shout interactions with attack-triggered Relics.

- Fixed Hall rival references, reward processing, Grab Slam, Ice Pillar and several Market and UI issues. Thank you again!