Hollowed Oath Patch 0.09 Reworks the Wizard Class and Adds a New Dungeon

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Hollowed Oath, the EverQuest-inspired indie MMO, just pushed out Patch 0.09 while its Kickstarter campaign enters its final stretch. The campaign has blown past its $100,000 goal, sitting north of $125,000 with about a week left to go.

The patch is a chunky one, but the headliner is a full rework of the Wizard class. The team stripped out the old elemental attunement system, which locked players into specific spell schools, and replaced it with something more flexible. Wizards now have access to the full arcane spellbook and can mix and match abilities across fire, ice, and lightning without being pigeonholed. A new “Arcane Surge” mechanic also got added, letting Wizards burn extra mana to empower their next spell.

There’s also a new low-level dungeon called the Sunken Athenaeum, aimed at groups in the 10-15 range. It’s a flooded library tucked under the starting city, filled with spellcasting mobs and a final boss that drops a few Wizard-friendly unique items, which fits the patch’s theme pretty neatly.

Beyond the class rework and dungeon, the update touches a bunch of other systems. The highlights include:

  • UI scaling options are finally in, so folks playing on higher resolutions aren’t squinting at tiny hotbars.
  • Group XP bonuses got bumped up to encourage more party play during the early leveling grind.
  • Several legacy zones received a lighting pass and texture polish, with the team specifically calling out the new volumetric fog in the Eldergloom Forest.
  • Server-side performance improvements aimed at reducing the rubberbanding that’s been a known issue during peak hours.

According to the Kickstarter page, the campaign wraps up in about seven days. The team has been posting regular development updates alongside the crowdfunding push, using the new patch as a way to show backers where the game is headed mechanically. The game has a Steam page, but there’s no release date available.