Eleventh Hour Games has demonstrated a laudable commitment to community engagement by instituting key gameplay changes to their hit title Last Epoch based on overwhelming player feedback.
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Last Epoch Developers Course Correct Overpowered Builds Based on Player Poll
The move stems from a comprehensive survey conducted by the studio, garnering a staggering 69,000 responses which illuminated the playerbase’s pressing desire to address specific overpowered character builds plaguing the game’s balance. At the crux of the issue were builds inadvertently rendered egregiously powerful due to unintended coding bugs.
In their official report detailing the poll’s results, Eleventh Hour stated that a resounding 55.5% majority clamored for such bug-derived overpowered builds to be nerfed over the course of the current in-game season – a stark departure from the traditional approach of letting them persist until the next seasonal rotation.
Specific builds singled out for immediate adjustments include the Profane Veil’s Vampiric Pool and Sanguine Runestone combos, while mildly overtuned builds will be evaluated on a “case-by-case” basis factoring in further community input, the developers explained.
Perhaps most significantly, the poll also revealed players’ overwhelming preference – 73.2% in the affirmative – to receive direct advance notification regarding forthcoming balance changes and build nerfs via official forums and channels. This degree of transparency represents a pivotal evolution in developer-player dynamics.
Addressing the concern of potentially tarnished leaderboard integrity, Eleventh Hour announced it would eschew any comprehensive season resets. Instead, leaderboard entries will be annotated with the specific patch version and time period to provide crucial context, avoiding any punitive “marking” of players who may have benefited from overtuned builds.
As Last Epoch continues capturing the imagination of action RPG enthusiasts – accruing 265,000 concurrent players just last month on Steam – this decisive action solidifies Eleventh Hour’s commitment to a symbiotic relationship with its community. In the intensively competitive ARPG sphere, such responsiveness could well position Last Epoch as an increasingly formidable contender amidst juggernauts like Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2.
