The Annual Roguelike Release Party 2015 build of Demon is out! Go get it at the links on the right, or from right here if you prefer: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

The list of changes in this build is fairly extensive, but here are the highlights:

• Significant improvements to melee combat abilities: “charge” abilities such as Bull Rush and Pounce now have their own cooldown instead of using Breath (allowing them to be used more effectively with Breath cooldown abilities), “whisper” abilities such as Yellow Whisper that can be used at melee range for control effects are now free actions, and “support attack” abilities such as Reviving Cut, Guarding Cut, and other Crown of Glory abilities can now affect the user as well as allies.
• A review of melee characters in general was undertaken and completed: nearly two dozen of the Tower’s denizens were given new abilities or had old ones swapped out as part of this change. You can expect melee-oriented demons, summoners, and heroes to be more effective/dangerous, and to have some new tricks, even those found on the first floor.
• Over a dozen new abilities added, many of which appear as starting options on relics.
• A small number of new monsters have been sprinkled throughout the current 17 floors of the Tower to provide access to some abilities that needed to be made part of the commonly available set.
• Some polish work on relics in general: a few more primary and secondary options have been added to or tweaked for most of them, and the starting stats granted by the choices you make for each have been adjusted.
• ‘p’ is now an alternate hotkey for using portals to accommodate Spanish keyboard layouts a bit better. (Portal Search has been moved to Shift+’p')
• Tooltips for stats such as Strength, Agility, Vitality, etc. now give some information about the benefit your current amount of them is providing you with. The tooltips will also preview the results of pending changes, such as bonus points assigned during level ups, or during previewing a new modifier for a demon.
• Fixed a bug with Panic that was causing it to not properly randomize the target’s targeting most of the time.
• Reactions no longer trigger Guilt and Pariah.

I hope everyone enjoys the new build, especially anyone who was struggling to get melee off the ground before. It was certainly doable before (2 of 4 wins post-relics have been melee), but now it should be much more in line with magic and support in terms of fun, effectiveness and entertaining build options to consider.

Good luck in the tower, and please, consider playing some of the other roguelikes released for ARRP as well! You can find a list of them here at the RogueBasin: http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=2015_ARRP