Version 0.9.8

Patch notes
These are the official patch notes for version 0.9.8 released by Grinding Gear Games.

Features

 * We've added a Friends List to the Social panel. When you add someone to your friends list, it also sends them an invitation offering to add you to theirs.
 * You can now set your Account Status at the top of the Social panel. This status is broadcast to people who have you on their friends list.
 * Added a new player aura - : An aura that grants mana regeneration to you and your allies.
 * Added a new support gem - : Skills supported by this gem kill enemies reduced to 10% or less life.
 * Added a new support gem - : Ranged attack skills supported by this gem deal more damage to very close targets and less damage to farther away targets.
 * Added a new support gem - : Ranged attack skills supported by this gem have the strength melee damage bonus applied to them.
 * Added a new support gem - : Spells supported by this gem have the strength melee damage bonus applied to them.
 * Added a new support gem - : While you're on full life, melee skills supported by this gem deal increased physical damage.
 * Added support for queues at the login server if there are too many players online.
 * Empty game instances now close earlier if they have no side areas that would cause you to return to them. The values are roughly 8 minutes for areas that don't have side areas and 15 minutes for areas that do.
 * Your starting weapon now spawns again in the first area if you're disconnected before picking it up.
 * Continued to incrementally improve the art, effects, environments and sound.

Balance

 * All weapons have been revamped into new sequences that have better level progression and balance. These weapons are spread over three tiers that correspond to the three difficulty levels that will be available when the third act is released. Weapons in the third tier are balanced to not be strictly better than each other.
 * Rebalanced many item mods. Some will have changed levels, rendering certain items unusable if you don't meet the new level requirements.
 * Returned the defensive properties off armour pieces (that add Armour, Evasion or Energy Shield) to 0.9.6 values. We consider the 0.9.7 armour changes a failed experiment. Monster damage has been rebalanced slightly to accomodate this.
 * Most Unique weapons have had new levels and base types assigned to them. Mods have been rebalanced on many of them to take into account their new levels. Existing Unique items will not have had their stats or base types changed.
 * The default critical strike changes [sic] on weapons have less variance now. The high end ones are slightly lower than they were before.
 * The vendor recipe that used to yield 10 now only yields 7.
 * Items for sale in the vendors can now go up to one level above the player's level.
 * Reduced monster density in the Submerged Passage levels.
 * Increased the damage of Hailrake's on higher difficulties.
 * Reduced values of Item Quantity and Item Rarity mods and support gems.
 * Reduced the mana cost of.

Bug Fixes

 * Fixed a bug where Goatmen using would slide at the end of their jump.
 * Fixed a bug where hovers of items were displaced if the game had been resized.
 * Fixed a bug where the melee damage bonus from strength didn't affect certain physical damage mods properly.
 * The support gem doesn't speed up the  aura any more.
 * Hidden monsters can no longer be targeted, attacked or damaged until they un-hide.
 * Fixed character creation errors so that they're not hard to read any more.
 * Fixed a problem where screenshots taken with the F8 key would look wrong.
 * Fixed a bug that could cause area transitions to fail rarely.