Version 0.9.5

Patch notes
These are the official patch notes for version 0.9.5 released by Grinding Gear Games.

Features/Content

 * Added the ability to refund individual skill points on the passive tree by spending "Passive Skill Respec Points". These can be gained from quest rewards or by using a rare currency item.
 * Enabled the "Golden Hand" quest in the Church Dungeon. This currently gives two skill respec points per difficulty as its reward, but this will change in the future.
 * Added two new world areas, currently called the "Ancient Pyramid" and the "Old Fields Cave".
 * More than doubled the number of Unique Items in the game.
 * Added some new monster types which can be found towards the end of Act Two.
 * Added new currency items, improved vendors and the ability to sell items to vendors. See the section below for more information.
 * Added a new unique monster to the Rocky Climb - "Ironpoint the Forsaken".
 * Revamped how stats on items and skills are displayed so that many of the confusing cases are explained more consistently now.
 * Improved the character selection cargohold scene and added the Quartermaster to its background.
 * Added new level topologies to the Submerged Passage, Tidal Island and other areas.
 * Improved the environment of the Twilight Strand.
 * Removed the Submerged Passage Level 2 waypoint. Added a Rocky Climb waypoint. Moved some other waypoints around to random locations within their maps
 * Continued to incrementally improve the art, effects, environments and sound.
 * Added dividers between the NPC talk items such as shops and quest information.
 * Added a new Raised Zombie run animation.
 * The new Strength skill, "", has been moved to a (hopefully soon) future patch because of issues that occured during testing.
 * Disabled the skill gem from being found until we have it working properly.

Currency/Vendor Changes

 * Added new currency item - "": Grants one passive skill refund point when used.
 * Added new currency item - "": Rerolls the value of the implicit (built-in) mod on an item.
 * Fixed up the vendors that sell you items so that they offer a more reasonable selection of items at more appropriate prices. They now have some permanent currency items in their offered goods.
 * Added the ability to sell items to vendors. The vendors have many complex recipes for combinations of items that they accept, so we encourage experimentation.
 * Added "", "", "" and "" currency items which can only be obtained from vendors. These cannot be used in their shard form, but when they reach their maximum stack size, they automatically transform into the appropriate type of normal currency item.
 * Implemented mod-pricing for selling identified blue/rare items at the vendors. Different types of mods on your items can yield different numbers of shards (many are worth nothing). Some mods offer increased prices if they are at their maximum value.
 * Added new art for most currency items. In some cases, you'll only get the new art if you find new currency items.
 * Renamed some currency items. "Chaos Sphere" became "". "Orb of Transformation" became "". "Gem Quality Upgrade" became "". "Flask Quality Upgrade" become "". "Armour Shard" became "". "Whetstone" became "".

Item Drop Changes

 * Reduced the drop rate of, and  (scrolls can easily be obtained from vendors now.)
 * Increased the drop rate of.
 * We're now biasing towards higher item base types extremely strongly for most item types. This means that it's much easier to stay up to date with the current highest item type for each slot. For example, if a bow drops in the Maelstrom of Chaos, there's a ~40% chance that it's the level 58 bow.
 * Magic/Rare/Unique monsters can drop currency items and skill gems again, at an adjusted fair rate. Their chance of dropping these items is higher than that of normal monsters.
 * Changed how Unique Items are generated so that low level Uniques can still drop in high level areas.

General Balance

 * We've changed how flasks heal your life and mana so that they are slower than before but heal substantially more in total. They also take more monster kills to refill. This change should make your life and mana totals more relevant than just the speed your flasks recover at. There are more (drastic) flask changes scheduled for 0.9.6 but we're interested in feedback on these ones first.
 * Made higher difficulties harder.
 * Removed the 10% damage bonus that monsters get per additional party member.
 * Changed how Stun Threshold Reduction works so that it makes more sense now. A 50% decrease in Stun Threshold now means that you only need to deal 50% of the previous damage to cause a stun.
 * Applied the "currency drop penalty" to Skill Gems and Scrolls also. This penalty applies if you're playing in an area far lower level than you are.
 * Reduced the bonuses granted by Frenzy and Endurance charges.
 * Changed enemy critical strike damage multiplier reduction so it only reduces the part of the multiplier above 100.
 * Nerfed the unique dagger. Old versions of this item are unmodified.
 * Most flasks in the vendors don't generate with quality now.
 * Reduced the number of Scrolls of Wisdom you start with to 3.
 * Rebalanced most of the mods on flasks around the new behavioural changes.
 * "Low Life" on Cautious flasks is now defined as 35% rather than 50%, to be consistent with other uses of the term.

Active Skill Balance

 * Modified Firestorm's behaviour so that the explosions have a larger radius and are more likely to fall near the centre of the affected area. Doubled the number of fireballs that fall and rebalanced damage around these changes.
 * Reduced Frenzy damage per charge.
 * Increased damage progression of Freezing Pulse.
 * Raise Spectre now raises better Spectres at higher levels.
 * Made Explosive Arrow more powerful. The damage has been increased and the fuse time is now one second.
 * Split Arrow mana costing increased based on number of arrows.
 * Increased the chance that Warlord's Mark will grant an Endurance Charge.
 * now increases damage taken from projectiles.
 * Increased the damage bonus granted by the Added Cold, Added Lightning and Added Chaos Damage Support Gems.

Passive Skill Balance

 * Cold, Fire and Lightning damage passives have been increased from +4% to +6%.
 * Chaos Inoculation now grants +80% energy shield rather than +20%
 * Increased the sizes of mana regeneration passives.
 * Reduced area of effect passives.
 * Added additional life passives and increased the size of existing ones so that players are able to gain more life than before if they choose to specialise in it.
 * Removed connections to increase distance between the Witch and the unannounced class.
 * Reduced the size of some cast speed passives.
 * Minor other passive tweaks.

Bug Fixes

 * Opening the passive skill screen no longer closes the overlay map.
 * Fixed a bug that allowed curses to be cast through walls.
 * Cast time/attack time on skill popups now updates when stats change.
 * Fixed a bug where chests opened with damage would not have the currency drop penalty.
 * Fixed a bug where the energy shield of a raised Spectre was not scaled properly.
 * Fixed Poison Arrow and Viper Strike so that damage from their degeneration is scaled properly for PvP.
 * Fixed a bug with bow attacks where they would miss at long ranges.
 * Fixed a bug where multiple conversions of one monster with Dominating Blow would not be applied correctly.
 * Fixed a bug where the stun duration increase stat for staves and two handed weapons were interpreted in a swapped way.
 * Fixed a bug where "Increased Evasion" did not apply to converted evasion for Iron Reflexes.