Version 0.8.1

Patch notes
These are the official patch notes for version 0.8.1 released by Grinding Gear Games.

Features

 * Added the Rhoa quest in the Mud Flats
 * Added the Medicine Chest quest to the Terraces.
 * Quest rewards added to all Act One quests. Higher difficulties give special items instead of skill gems.
 * Added proper quest text to Act One
 * Added skeleton casters to many areas (ranged elemental foes)
 * Many dungeons now have Epic Chests at the end. These drop a lot more (not necessarily better) items.
 * Changed how rare item names are generated
 * Added new weapon types to decrease the gap between weapons at higher levels. They have borrowed art for now.
 * Partied members in the same area can now be seen on the minimap regardless of distance
 * Flasks are now refilled by more than one charge when bosses are killed
 * Stability improvements to the server backend
 * Improved doodads in the spider grove
 * Some more variety of Act Two areas added
 * Named most of the Act Two monsters
 * Added waypoint to the start of the Flooded Depths
 * Increased variety of moss monsters
 * Updates to sound effects, visual effects and world environments
 * New Rhoa charge animation
 * Improved the flowing water in Act Two town
 * Some quest text now displays in a more readable way
 * Default chat type is now local chat (not party)
 * Improved the size, branchiness and challenge of dungeons in Act Two
 * Rhoas can now charge past the player (with an improved animation)
 * Chat now won't fade away when a linked item is hovered
 * Set max party size to 6
 * Added limit of 24 characters per account

Bug Fixes

 * Fixed a bug that resulted in most monster movement speeds being slightly wrong
 * Ghost Pirates should now be holding the correct coloured weapons
 * Fixed size of the Massacre Club
 * Fixed some problems and crashes related to linking items
 * Scroll wheel should work in chat now properly
 * Fixed issues where items would be positioned wrong in chat if the window was resized
 * Fixed a bug where skills could get stuck repeating
 * Fixed a bug where item icons would not fade from chat
 * Fixed various leaks and crashes
 * All party actions now display messages
 * Following a party member into their own portal no longer disconnects you
 * Fixed a bug with hover names displaying wrong when entering an area
 * Area transition names now appear at reasonable heights
 * Minimap is now once again underneath item hovers
 * Fixed bug where the minimap moves as you type certain characters
 * Coloured names in chat now fade out properly
 * Chat word wrap problems fixed
 * Inappropriate monster mods should not spawn on the wrong monster types now
 * Volume of many sounds is corrected
 * Fixed a bug in the display of portal names
 * Fixed a crash when the client was closed on the main menu
 * Chat text containing the "@" symbol is now coloured correctly
 * Unique items linked in chat now display properly
 * Realm shutdown messages now appear at the right times
 * The Alpha ladder now displays the correct character classes
 * Made non-interactive NPCs non-interactive
 * Fixed various temporary names and spelling mistakes
 * Fixed a bug that allowed access to the Inca Dungeon before killing two bandit lords
 * Moss monsters will bleed stone now
 * Players are now unable to transition directly back to Merveil's cave when they enter Act Two

Balance

 * Improved benefits of armour by 25% to aid Marauders and Duelists
 * Bonuses to attack speed and cast speed are now substantially smaller
 * Dropped item base type selection is now biased towards items at 70% of your character's level
 * All player weapon attacks are 10% faster by default now
 * Nerfed elemental damage on items, support gems, Elemental Hit active skill
 * Improved difficulty of Act Two bandit bosses
 * You can now only gain one charge of each type per action you perform
 * Made monsters even faster in higher difficulties
 * Merciless difficulty is now a lot harder
 * Blood Rage skill is now more dangerous to use
 * All stats gained per active charge are now slightly worse
 * Spell area of effect is slightly harder to obtain now
 * Made progression of Ruthless difficulty shallower. There's more of a gap before Merciless now
 * Whetstones/Armour Shards now improve quality by different amounts depending on the rarity of the item. Normal = 5, Magic = 2, Rare/Unique = 1.
 * Increased overall monster density
 * Granted Mana and Hybrid flasks 10% more recovery
 * Made "Multiple Attack", "Multiple Cast" and "Multiple Projectiles" support gems require more mana
 * Biased currency item drops towards the common ones more
 * Reduced effect of "Reduced Mana Cost" support gem by 20%
 * Added ranged skeletons to the Prison and the Ledge
 * Reduced experience penalty in Merciless difficulty to 15% (from 20%)
 * Made starting difficulty Hillock harder
 * Nerfed some implicit mods on items such as cast speed
 * Decreased Ice Nova damage
 * Increased Fireball damage and mana cost
 * Changed knockback passives to be knockback-on-crit
 * Changed the stun calculation to be probabilistic
 * Reduced default stun duration to 350ms
 * Block rates nerfed substantially
 * Many passive skill changes to balance individual stats (mostly damage going down)
 * 30% additional penalty to ranged monster accuracy
 * Halved monster energy shield recovery delay time
 * Ranged monsters now have more life and do more damage