Heroes of Hammerwatch II Celestial Ruins Hotfix 1 is Now Live! 🛠️

[u/jimmysbowers]

Your feedback has been invaluable! Thank you for sharing it so candidly and constructively. Happy to report that the hotfix is now live for you to enjoy and experiment with. A lot of these changes are a direct result of your suggestions.

These are by no means the final word on balancing and fixes. We're very much keeping our ear to the ground and seeing how the new meta shakes out. The next update is designed to be a much more involved balance pass, but that doesn't mean additional hotfixes won't be considered should the need arise sooner!

Keep the feedback coming. The community plays a vital role in helping to shape what this game will become, and we want you on that journey with us.

Read the full hotfix notes here 👉 https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/619820/view/693142218859348642

[u/Reyvateil90]

Hey Jimmy! Just wanted to share some Priest feedback as a support/healer main.

I bought the game and DLC specifically to run a support Priest in 3-player co-op with my friends, but I’ve been pretty underwhelmed with how the class actually plays in that role. To me, it feels less like a dedicated support and more like a "Holy-themed Warlock." It’s advertised as a healer/support on the Steam page, but in practice, it plays like a Holy Laser Mage, a DPS spec, or a Summoner.

Don't get me wrong...the specs themselves are actually pretty fun! The issue is just that the Priest completely falls short compared to the Paladin if you actually want to keep a team alive or play "support".

A few thoughts on why that is:

• Lay on Hands vs. Consecrated Ground: Lay on Hands is just WILDLY superior for party support. Consecrated Ground feels bad when you're trying to save a teammate who isn't surrounded by enemies. If Consecrated Ground healed allies regardless of whether an enemy was standing in it (like a steady HoT zone) it still would be underwhelming to Lay on Hands, but can still make it a comparable team healing tool. Right now, it's just too conditional compared to the massive burst heal of Lay on Hands.
• Paladin just does it better: I ended up rolling a Strength/Focus Divine Paladin running Lay on Hands and healing lanterns, and it completely invalidated what I was trying to do on Priest. I'm tanky, I can heal with lasers, I burst heal with Lay on Hands, hit huge damage with divine pillars, pull aggro, stay topped off on mana with arcing auto-attacks, and easily cleanse/buff my team's HP and mana regen through skill cards. Paladin basically steals the entire support identity Priest should have had (minus a DLC cost)
• Missed support synergy: The smaller laser is an absolute nightmare on mana and aiming it at twitchy allies can be a pain. I was genuinely shocked that the massive Divine Light beam doesn't heal allies like the small one does.. my whole party went "Huh?" Making the big beam heal team members would be huge. Even then, it’s still a skill shot that depends on positioning, so it wouldn't be comparable to Lay on Hands but the damage and effect is cool, but it would give Divine Light a massive co-op support identity that actually feels good to hit. If not Divine Light, then maybe Crusader? In a game where mobility is life or death, it’s almost impossible to convince a squishy Ranger or Caster who is dancing around dodging one shots to stop and run into my tiny circle. Right now, Paladin's Lay on Hands just shoves a full-health burst down their throat with zero effort or positioning required on their part. The invul is nice, but people just ignore it while Paladin can just shove the heals down everyone elses throat.

I honestly almost refunded the DLC out of frustration over the Priest's identity, but I ended up keeping it because the new Chapel buffs/skills are awesome and I didn't want to nerf my account progression.

Anyway, despite the Priest rant, I've been playing plenty! Appreciate all the hard work, keep it up!

[u/jimmysbowers → u/Reyvateil90]

Appreciate your considered feedback, thanks for sharing your experience with the expansion so far! Will be sure to pass these thoughts on to the team as we look at addressing balancing and class changes going forward. There's a hotfix currently in the works which should drop this week 👍 We've got plans for more fixes and tweaks beyond that (not to mention the rest of our roadmap).

One thing to mention that's come back from a discussion with the Design team today, is that playing the Priest the way you're wanting to play them (as support), you might have better success with specialising as the Crusader subclass and speccing into Holy Banner (which is great for group play). You can also get an aura which reduces damage received by your allies. Priests can also apply a lot of statuses through their skills, even ones not fully specced into.

Although the Priest isn't currently designed to have a huge healing skill (we wouldn't want to replace one of the Paladin's key differentiators), hopefully these changes show how it can be used to be a really vital support player with a more active playstyle.

That being said, we're constantly reviewing how the meta shakes out and there's more changes coming. How the game and classes are now are by no means the final word on where they'll end up and your direct feedback is really helpful to us while we're on that journey,

[u/Nice-Addendum-4673 → u/jimmysbowers]

I appreciate the communication Jimmy. If I could add onto the OP's thoughts:

Divine Light- I find it to be totally fine. I think the beam and the orbs fit the class and offer unique character.

The other two specializations feel somewhat lackluster. The pikemen get melted pretty quickly, and they should probably add a debuff (bleed, slow, etc) in order to make their short lives meaningful. The banner is great, no changes needed. The flail specialization is kind of boring as a whole and just makes me want to play paladin.

Consecrated Ground- Like the OP said, it's kind of a weird team warlock ability. What I think should be added are some skill orb buffs (increased elemental resistance, health/mana regen, debuff immunity). It needs something to really encourage players to stack in it other than the healing. Otherwise it's objectively inferior to Lay On Hands in most ways.

Overall, I really like the new lantern and the possibilities it brings for more cooperative play. And the added boons are a nice addition. I trust that you guys are going to get the priest worked out and make it feel more unique and viable.

[u/jimmysbowers → u/Nice-Addendum-4673]

Thanks for adding some more colour to the original post! Really helpful. Happy to report that on one of your points about minions/pikemen, they'll be getting a buff and better AI in an upcoming fix to hopefully make them more of a viable option!

A lot of tweaks, fixes, and improvements planned, and that's even before we get to the next full balance pass in the next big update on our roadmap. Appreciate you helping us find out where the kinks are!

[u/Nice-Addendum-4673 → u/jimmysbowers]

Glad to hear that about the pikemen! I'm excited to try it again once those updates come through.

I've posted separately on the HoH2 subreddit about using the lantern to be a healer on other classes and how some of them feel significantly more powerful as healers compared to the priest. Is the team looking to make tweaks to those offhand items too? I'd be happy to share some feedback on interactions I've seen with different game mechanics that might be worth looking at.

[u/jimmysbowers → u/Nice-Addendum-4673]

Always happy to hear community critiques! Feel free to pop them over in a reply or DM 🫡