Changes Coming to Delves in Season 2 of The War Within

Greetings delvers,

We want to take some time to go over changes coming to delves in the Undermine(d) patch and Season 2, along with our goals.

Changes in Undermine(d)

Tank Brann

Starting with the patch launch, players will be able to choose a new spec for Brann – tank. Tank Brann will wield a pistol and a shield while doing his best to taunt enemies. This spec is focused on improving the experience of running delves as a healer. There will still be damage and attacks for you to dodge as a healer, but you should see your delve run times be more comparable to those who play as damage or healing.

Modified Map Mechanics

We’ve modified several of our existing map mechanics. Our goal here is to add some variety to existing delve variants. Be sure to check out the modified sporebits in Fungal Folly.

Bountiful Delve Rotation Changes

We’re changing the logic under the hood for which bountiful delves are active. Previously it was one delve per zone chosen as bountiful. This led to some behaviors where it felt like the same delve was bountiful back to back, especially in areas like Ringing Deeps where there were only two delves available. The new logic will rotate through delves from the original launch until all of them have had some time in the sun as bountiful before turning on new ones.

New Delves and New Variants

We’re adding two new delves: Sidestreet Sluice in Undermine and Excavation Site 9 in the Ringing Deeps. Additionally, almost all existing delves have new variants.

Season 2 Changes

Brann will keep his level going from Season 1 to Season 2, and Brann’s level cap will increase to 80 in Season 2. When Season 2 begins, we’re adjusting the experience required to level up Brann, making it quicker to progress up to level 60 if you haven’t gotten there yet.

Your Coffer Key balance will be reset. Keys cannot be carried over from Season 1 to Season 2.

Improving Tier 9+ Rewards

In Season 1, we purposefully did not add extra rewards in Tier 9+ as we wanted to reserve those delves to run just for the challenge and for achievements. We did not want the majority of players to feel like they needed to reach tier 11 levels.

However, players seeking to tackle the higher challenges of delves, such as defeating Zekvir, had a very long road to upgrade their gear due to the availability of Runed and Gilded Crests. We still want the repeatable source of Gilded Crests to come from Mythic+ and Raids, but we also wanted delves to start to reward reliable Gilded Crests at a high level for players who want to push.

In Season 2, tiers 9, 10, and 11 delves will reward more Runed Crests. Tier 11 bountiful delves will reward Gilded Crests up to three times a week. This will be from a separate chest in the bountiful delve, so players will not be required to get a key to acquire the Gilded Crests. We will not change the Great Vault’s requirements in Season 2. Tier 8 will be the highest delve to run to get rewards from the Great Vault.

The Delve Map System

In Season 1, you have a chance to find Delve Maps at the end of a run. These maps give you a large boost in rewards when used on another delve, including acquiring Gilded Crests. However, some people never found a map during their runs due to bad luck. Other players received multiple maps a week, followed by nothing for months.

In Season 2 we’ll increase your chance to get a map with each run if you do not find one. We’ll also limit it so you can only earn one map a week.

Brann’s Missing Hat and New Curios

Season 2 begins with the introduction of our new nemesis, a mad goblin who purchased a deed to all delves from the one and only Gallywax. Gallywax? Don’t ask Underpin to check the contract for validity. Underpin ambushes Brann and destroys the curios he collected in Season 1. What’s even worse: he steals Brann’s hat!

Players in Season 2 will earn new curios for Brann. You’ll be guaranteed to loot rank 1 curios when you start running any delve in Season 2. We want to explore new strategies and metas for Brann in season 2, along with exploring more of what we can do with the curio system.

Most importantly, Brann will wear random hats and helmets he has acquired until you help him recover his hat from the Underpin’s lair. Don’t worry though, if you really enjoyed Brann’s random hats you can ask him to continue rotating through his collection afterwards.

New Affixes

With a new nemesis comes new affixes. In Season 1, we experimented with two types of affixes: one where Zekvir’s image would empower players, and another where the spawn group would be replaced by Zekvir’s minions. While Zekvir’s image was noticeable, it wasn’t always clear what impact he was having on enemies. Meanwhile it was abundantly clear what Zekvir’s minions were doing in tier 9+, but they often felt too punishing to encounter. In Season 2, the affixes will be focused on Underpin’s minions occasionally replacing normal enemies in delves. This will happen across all tiers, with a focus on these replacements not being as difficult as Zekvir’s. They should offer an increase in difficulty, but not to the level where your delve run is over when you encounter them.

Tier Reset and Item Level Changes

When Season 2 launches, we will reset tier progress, and players will be able to start at tier 4. The difficulty and rewards of tier 4+ delves will increase to match the new item level caps in Season 2.

New Vignettes and Treasure Powers

Players will find new vignettes and treasure powers to earn in Season 2. The goal with these original powers was that players would modify their runs to go after these when they were spotted. We also wanted to make sure they weren’t so powerful that a failed delve run would be blamed on not getting the exact power you wanted. A successful delve run should still be based on player gear, skill, and your curio loadout. However, season 1’s vignette and treasure powers weren’t rewarding enough to risk lives at higher tiers. We’re going to push the powers in season 2 a bit more.

Powers found in treasures will be shards of curios that were destroyed by Underpin. Players will find shards of the Amorphous Relic, Arrowhead Idol, and the (now) not-so-Unbreakable Iron Idol.

Powers acquired from defeating powerful vignettes will now focus on modifying Brann for your run:

• Shield Alert: When you fall beneath 50% health, Brann will shield you, reducing your damage by a massive amount for a short period of time.
• Silencing Potion: Brann will throw out a healing potion that will also trigger an AoE silence to nearby enemies. This means non-healer Brann specs can now have some access to heals, and healer Brann will throw out even more healing.
• Heroism Cannister: Brann can activate a smaller version of Bloodlust at the start of combat with a cooldown.

Only the team leader will be able to modify Brann with these powers. Other players will receive a buff for themselves.

We’re also adding improved rewards to the Treasure Wraith encounter. We understand there’s an aversion to trying this encounter with the high risk of death. There will be a special wraith-only power that will drop to increase player’s maximum health in addition to another existing power.

Our goal with these changes is to push the amount of power received from vignettes and treasure powers to help create more of a decision moment of whether or not you’ll take the risk to get these abilities.

Thanks for reading, and for testing delves with us on the PTR. Please note: most numbers mentioned here are subject to change.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on what we’re working on!