Thank goodness for that, because I for one was getting sick of it, just sick of it, totally sick of it.  I was that sick of it it was making me feel sick. 

Could you give a small bonus defense for Defender for three step traits?  Like +1 Defense, +2 Defense, +3 Defense, for a total of 6 extra defense?  Then you have the option of choosing Warrior for higher Attack starting at +2, or Defender for higher Defense starting at +1.  Defense allows more survivability, so it is only fair that the bonus is lower.

Please make it a % bonus.  Also please make the Forge > Blacksmith > Armorer improvement defense boni percentage based.

I know the game isn't about realism, but it seems kinda silly to me that a forge would give an unarmored unit some defense.

I also understand it's easier to balance raw numbers.

Defense doesn't affect damage linearly, so for each point of attack you would counter it with equal or more defense, not less.

I do not like abilities with a % bonus, because they can get out of control (warlock + evoker + item), but i think if such a bonus is used carefully it would improve the game balance.

For example lethal is too weak at the moment and even with the next patch it will be probably weak, but if lethal would increase the damage by 25 % / 25 % it would be easier to balance the weapon damage. In that case the bonus of the axeman, bruiser, spearman and swordsman abilities should be reduced to 25 % / 25 %. These traits should be available to the following paths:

Assassin: marksman (damage of power shot is increased by 25% / 25%) and swordsman

Commander: archer (damage of rain of arrows (bow ability) is increased by 25% / 25%) and bruiser

Defender: bruiser and swordsman

Mage: evoker (damage of overcharge (staff ability (next attack ignores fire, ... resistance)) is increased by 25% / 25%)

Warrior: axeman, bruiser, spearman and swordsman

Wow, can't wait to try new defender traits in action.

The Turtle trait... I love it. "Are you turtle enough for the turtle club?"

This.  I have the same problem.  Sometimes I have to select a trait to see whether I've already got it or not.

If you're looking at heroes, can you pay special attention to the Trogg hero As a'Zoth if you haven't already reworked him?

He turned up in my game with the weak trait + a chain shirt + twin battleaxes and was so ridiculously encumbered that he could barely move until I stole his gear and left him with lighter stuff more suited to a caster (albeit one with Path of the Warrior). I guess this is from when PotW had an innate weight bonus and didn't place so much restriction on learning magic abilities - but he was kind of rubbish back then and is even worse now!

The new warrior tree is already nice, but the new defender tree is really amazing, but please make the trait lines in every tree as short as posible and give the other paths weapon abilities:

Assassin: marksman (damage of power shot is increased by 25% / 25%) and swordsman

Commander: archer (damage of rain of arrows (bow ability) is increased by 25% / 25%) and bruiser

Defender: bruiser and swordsman

Mage: evoker (damage of overcharge (staff ability (next attack ignores fire, ... resistance)) is increased by 25% / 25%)

Warrior: axeman, bruiser, spearman and swordsman

Since the other paths get weapon abilities the warrior should get the weapon mastery ability that reduces the cooldown of all weapon abilities by 1 / 1. The assassin should be very powerful against single units: the executioner ability should increase the damage against heroes by 5 / 10 and the hunter ability should increase the damage against single monsters by 10 / 20. The assassin should be immune to swarm and should get an ability that increases his dodge and defense for every adjacent enemy, because he should be able to fight behind the enemy lines.

now that's an interesting change. will be interesting to see how this will affect the global unrest percentage balance. i never considered the administrator line worthwhile before, but with this change, it may actually become a solid choice. admin 1&2 are still a bit of a waste, though, since the guy will be out in the field farming XP for admin 3. switching the whole admin line to -global unrest would resolve that little problem...

You make  good points wizard 1200. All the classes need both damage and defense traits, obviously not the same amount though. If the defender never gets any attack bonus it just wont have the damage to hurt stacks late game. Also with no defensive bonuses, warriors will be very much the glass cannon late game.

Assassins/Defenders should get the counterstrike bonus as well. I am just not sure counterstrike is a good trait compared to cleave or impale (The 25% bonus not the ability iteself). Does anyone find it useful? It seems underpowered to me as many skills and traits ignore it.

While a trait/artifact that ignores resistance seems like a great idea for spells, Staves don't really need them as resistances are so few anyway. I'd much rather we got some kind of short range friendly fire Aoe lines and cones for staves. Staves need abilities too.

First you say assassins should be the master of one vs one fights and now you want them to be masters of the melee? So he would be tougher one vs one and get stronger with every nearby enemy?

I think that the swordmaster abilities are very useful, because you increase the counterstrike damage and if you add the parry ability and a weapon with 2 counterattacks the damage is very impressive.

Not masters of the melee, but they should be able to survive behind the enemy lines to fight someone one vs. one and without the decimate ability the damage of an assassin against units is very low.

I think a better way to do that would be increased mobility.

Fleeting Strike Skill: Unit attacks than retreats 1 step back. Cant be Countered.

Swift Trait: +1 movement and ignores enemy engagement (Can walk past enemies)

Note - units made in cities get Endurance too (one of the options for level 3 fortresses). These units will probably now get +10 hp, which is quite a big bonus. At the very least, update the description of the building that provides this.

I actually thought Endurance was quite an interesting trait. More so than just +10 hp, imo.

These abilities are great assassin abilities, but an enemy unit would still be able to follow the assassin and attack him if he is alone behind the enemy lines. The Shadow Shift ability would be another option if it would work like this:

- Teleports the assassin to an empty square adjacent to an enemy

- The adjacent enemies are dazed for 1 turn

- Costs no action

- 3 turns cooldown

This is too powerful for units if they indeed get the bonus aswell.

I liked the +1 per level better.

Incredible! Great work, and keep it up.

Since it is listed under the "changes to the defender tree" I imagine it might be possible that this change affects only the hero trait. So the units with endurance would still get the +1 per level.

8.5:  changed "form" to "from" in all change logs

Oh, and even less ogre crotch.

I'm calling this the Parrottmath patch.

I use a workaround for much of the data that seems hard to find on city level up. First, when I settle the city, I add a prefix to the name. The prefix consists of three numbers, yes, the tile yield numbers. So Hope, if founded on those wonderful 3,3,3 yield tiles becomes "333Hope." Suffix: T = town, F=fort, C=Conclave (also reminds me x-tra crystal possible here). The only suffix I add after the city type is a note about what extra benefits troops get, like first move, or +3move/attk. This makes it easier to decide where to train that new batch of units. Some city names have to be shortened, or changed to get the addons to fit on screen. "333HopeFmove1st" = hope, built on a 3,3,3 yield tile, is fortress, with upgrade building that gives units trained here the first move. BTW, sometimes I forget to change name, so I go in later and add xx# where x means I don't know now, and # is the magic yield amount. Hope this helps a few players.

that's nice - looks like commanders are going to be really strong support champions for players who enjoy playing with trained troops. 

I think you should add the 'muggle' achievement to steam... win the game without losing or using any mana. Or something along those lines I think that would be a feat within itself...

I don't think the trait of a hero and the trait of trained units have to be the same, it is just they are usually the same, but only for intuitive purposes.  Heroes don't get multiple figure boosts to HP, so the hero trait needs to be bigger for the one unit.

I like it.  Just do not call it muggle.