Version 0.8.4

Patch notes
These are the official patch notes for version 0.8.4 released by Grinding Gear Games.

Features

 * Enabled forum item linking!
 * Added new skill prototype: Ice Spear (fires an icy projectile that pieces and chills nearby enemies. After a short distance it will arm, exploding on and freezing the first enemy it hits)
 * Added new skill prototype: Raise Spectre (raises a ghostly copy of a monster from its corpse which will follow you as a minion)
 * Added new skill prototype: Enduring Cry (taunts nearby monsters to attack you and adds Endurance Charges based on how many are nearby)
 * Added new support gem: Pierce
 * Made the "Synchronise with server" (=) key bindable
 * Set up new currency item icons (colour shifted for now) so that they are easier to distinguish
 * Incrementally improved effects, animations, sounds and world areas
 * There's now a UI option to disable items being picked up unless alt is held down
 * Overhaul of chat box that now supports partial scrolling of multiline messages properly
 * Tweaked UI colouring on the waypoint screen
 * Corpse targeting is now key-bound by default (rather than starting as "Always")
 * Added new gems as quest rewards. The new skills are available from the difficulty 1 Merveil quest, and the new support is available from several difficulty 2 quests
 * There's now a text notification as gems level up
 * The client should now be unable to log in to the server while it is not sufficiently patched

Bug Fixes

 * Fixed a client crash that occurs sometimes when a skeleton caster with attached arrows dies
 * Chests can now drop more than just equipment
 * Irrelevant monster mods won't occur on casters any more
 * Fixed a client crash with whispering
 * Spark can now pierce the same monster several times if it has bounced between each pierce
 * Fixed a crash bug that occurred when resizing the screen after linking an item in chat
 * Fixed up many incorrect world area names
 * Fixed a bug where whisper messages from someone in the same instance would appear as local messages
 * Whispers to offline players now warn you that the character is offline
 * Merveil now shouldn't fail to spawn her second form or her minions if you're too far away

Balance

 * Improved Energy Shield on items by 34%
 * Made unique monsters a lot harder
 * Made Merciless difficulty harder again
 * Disabled Multiple Cast/Multiple Attack gems. Sorry!
 * Substantially increased Flicker Strike's damage
 * Made spark do 45% more damage and increased its mana cost per level
 * Changed most lightning damage in the game to be a wider range of values
 * Decreased Act Two outdoors monster density slightly
 * The damage dealt by a shield charge is now proportional to the distance charged. Also increased shield charge damage and disabled it being usable with wands.
 * It's now more common to find two linked sockets on items. It's less common to find three-six linked sockets.
 * Epic chests now have a substantial bonus to dropped item rarity
 * Normalised all weapons in each series to have the same str/dex/int ratios and speeds. Additional series are planned.
 * Elemental bosses can now get damage increase mods
 * Reduced the "Stun Threshold Reduction" stat on items/passives/supports by 25% globally
 * Raised zombies now follow you
 * Improved movement speed and damage reduction of raised zombies
 * Merveil has equipped a multiple projectiles support gem