The Amethyst Update

In honour of springtime and sunshine (yes, even in the UK), we’ve been cleaning our code and scouring the database for any pesky bugs following the release of The Prophet & The Warlock. As such, tomorrow we’ll be updating Total War: WARHAMMER II with some tweaks, fixes, and balance changes.

With spring cleaning in mind, we’re also going to be dealing with some of the public betas that are currently available to opt in to for Total War: WARHAMMER II. With each release we always include a rollback build that allows you to finish any save games or continue playing with mods, but from the next update we’ll also be closing down our oldest build. Over the next few weeks we’ll be including a breakdown of all the current betas available, listing what they include and roughly how long they will be open for. Stay tuned for more on this, especially if you’re a modding enthusiast.

Finally, as part of the Amethyst Update you’ll receive… the Amethyst Wizard (if you hadn’t guessed already)! The Amethyst Wizard will only be playable in Total War: WARHAMMER II within the Mortal Empires campaign, so remember this means you need to own both Total War: WARHAMMER and Total War: WARHAMMER II in order to get him.

Amethyst Wizard

The Scythe, the Hourglass, the Amethyst Skull, the Thorny Rose – these are the symbols of the Imperial Colleges of Magic. The Amethyst Order is represented by the inverted Scythe, indicating its affinity with the Purple Wind, Shyish, and, of course, death itself. In fact, the very awareness of mortality – that there must be an end to all things – creates its powerful magic. The Amethyst Wizard is therefore, by definition, a magister morbidly obsessed, able to strip vitality directly from Lords and Heroes and, crucially, diminish the will of those fighting beneath them, turning even the bravest warriors to ignominious flight.

Fixes

• The final battle will now trigger correctly in the “Eye of the Vortex” campaign, provided the final ritual has not already been triggered in the save game.
• Fixed issue where the game would crash when multiple Doomsphere devices detonated at the same time in the campaign.
• Fixed issue where the game would soft-lock when triggering a small selection of advice lines.
• Fixed issues where the game would crash in the end turn sequence
• Fixed issue where legendary heroes would resume the game with zero health after being wounded
• Fixed issue where on loading a saved game many Empire settlements would appear as ruins
• Fixed issue where the “Leech” achievement wasn’t triggering correctly
• Reduced the chance of gaining warp-fuel from agent actions to 50%
• Increased all Forbidden Workshop upgrades Warp-fuel cost by 1
• Increased Warp-fuel cost of Doomrockets by 1
• Removed the Winds of Magic cost reduction for Warplightning in the Forbidden Workshop upgrade “Warp-Spark Plugs”
• Removed the Cooldown reduction for Warplightning from ancillary “Warp Lightning Battery”
• Increased the Cooldown of “Endless-drum” ability in the Forbidden Workshop from 15sec to 25sec.  
• Increased maximum range of Jezzail projectiles
• Fixed missing front end start position map image for Volkmar the Grim
• Fixed front end start position map image for Tiktaq’to in Mortal Empire campaign
• Fixed issue with Ikit’s Storm Daemon quest not being issued after the character reaches level 8 
• Fixed Lord Kroaks spell browser videos
• Replaced “Foe-Seeker” with “Master of the Skies” ability in Tiktaq’to’s skill tree
• Replaced “Arcane Conduit” with “Unlimited Power” ability in Ikit Claw’s skill tree 
• Updated region of “Tlaqua” to “Jaluk Oasis” in Mortal Empires campaign
• Updated region of “Cuexotl” to “Wadi El Tebuk” in Mortal Empires campaign
• Updated province of “Western Jungles” to “Southern Desert of Araby” in Mortal Empires campaign
• Removed +20 Winds of Magic reserves from Ikit’s upgraded version of the Brass Orb ability
• Increased Physical Resist from +8% to +10% for Ikit’s “Power Armour” skill  
• Removed +20 Armour from Ikit’s “Double Insulation” skill
• Increased Magic Resistance from +15% to +20% for Ikit’s “Double Insulation” skill
• Added +20% Fire Resistance to Ikit’s “Double Insulation” skill
• Reduced Cooldown of all spells from -20% to -10% for Ikit’s “Power Overloaded” skill
• Reduced Cooldown of all spells from -30% to -10% for Warlock Master’s “Power Overloaded” skill
• Removed “Warpstone Tokens” skill from both Ikit and Warlock Master
• Added Level 7+ Salamander Hunting Pack buffs of Missile Resistance, Leadership and Melee Defence to “Spawn-kin” skill for Lizardmen characters
• Skinks and Chameleon Skinks will now receive Armour and Melee Defence buffs from Tehenhauin’s “Disciples of Sotek” skill
• Skinks and Chameleon Skinks will now receive Leadership and Melee Attack buffs from Tehenhauin’s “Tide of Sotek” skill
• Skinks and Chameleon Skinks will now receive Casualty Replenishment and Upkeep buffs from Tehenhauin’s “Reverence” skill
• “Skirmisher”, “Dextrous Warrior”, “Skink Leader” skills now clearly indicate which Skink unit types receive each buff
• Fixed issue with Paladin’s unable to complete the “Pledge to Manann” when embedded in an army
• Fixed issue with Paladin’s unable to complete the “Pledge to Order”
• Fixed issue with “Pledge to Campaign”, where defeating a minor settlement would count towards the completion conditions
• Fixed issue with “Pledge to Valour”, where defeating a minor settlement would count towards the completion conditions
• Fixed issue where a Vows Pledge completion message triggers multiple times at once.
• Feral Cold Ones now available at tier 1 for Lizardmen instead of tier 3.
• Vastly increased discoverability of Doomsphere and Warcamp buildings
• Increased food cost of certain buildings slightly
• Decreased food income potential of the Under-Empire slightly
• Increased passive discoverability value of agents when discovering Under-Cities (increased to 15 from 10)
• Increased A.I’s likelihood of destroying discovered Under-Cities by a fair amount
• Amended Red Crested Skinks description – No longer are they the fastest Skinks in the world.
• Updated Alberic mount description for Tempete in custom and multiplayer battles.

Battle Balance Changes

Abilities

• Invocation of Nehek: -2 duration
• Invocation of Nehek Upgraded: -2 duration, +1 power cost, max 4 targets
• Earth Blood: max 4 targets
• Earth Blood Upgraded: max 4 targets
• Guardian: tweaked to 15% physical resistance.
• Wraith Storm (Noctilus): slight tweak in accuracy
• Brass Orb: now has a wind-up of 3 seconds.

Beastmen

• Cygor: +800 health, +35 base melee damage, +15 ap melee damage.
• Giant (all): -15 base melee damage, +15 ap melee damage
• Ungor Spearmen (unshielded): +4 leadership, -4 charge bonus.

Dark Elves

• Cold One Knights: -1 melee attack, -1 melee defence.
• Cold One Dread Knights: -1 melee attack, -1 melee defence.
• Cold One Chariot: -1 melee defence.

Lizardmen

• Lord Kroak: +100 mp cost, -10% damage on Deliverance of Itza I, II, III
• Ancient Salamander: -25 projectile range, -5% explosion damage, slight increase in entity size, -1869 health, removed speed reduction from contact effect, +2 ammo.
• Thunderous One: +100 mp cost, +5 ability recharge.
• Red Crested Skink Chief – Ancient Stegadon: +50 mp cost
• Star Chamber Guardians: +50 cost
• Pahuax Sentinels: +50 cost
• Bastiladon Ark of Sotek: -50 cost
• Tik’tak’to: Drop Sphere of Tepok is now free in MP and is a default ability for Tik’tak’to.
• Kroxigors: -2 ap melee damage.
• Horned Ones: +100 cost
• Cold One Riders: -1 melee attack, -1 melee defence.
• Cold One Spear Riders: -1 melee attack, -1 melee defence

Skaven

• Warplock Jezzails (and RoR): +1 reload time, -3 melee defence
• Poison Wind Globadiers: -50 mp cost, -150 cost
• Warpfire Throwers (and RoR): +30 armour
• Ratling Gunners (and RoR): +50 cost, small reduction in accuracy
• Stormvermin (Halberds): -1 base melee damage, +2 ap melee damage
• Doomflayers: -20% health, -10 armour, -20% mass. 
• Warlock Master – Doomwheel: Added Terror, can no longer hide in forests, -4 melee attack, -10 charge bonus, -1 melee defence.
• Ikit Claw – Doomflayer: no longer causes fear or hides in forest.

Vampire Counts

• Crypt Horrors:  +1 melee attack
• Helman Ghost – corpse cart: -50 cost, reliquary corruption is free and on by default in mp.
• Varghulf: -10 base melee damage, -20 ap melee damage.

Vampire Coast

• Mournguls (not including Night Terrors): removed Terror.
• Noctilus on foot: -5 armour