From Software has patched Dark Souls to v1.05 in English-speaking territories, bringing the RPG up to speed with similar patches released earlier in the month for Asian territories. The patch addresses a lot of gameplay imbalance issues, evening up the odds between you and your foes to make for an easier – just kidding, the good stuff's been downgraded and the hard stuff's been bumped up.
The 1.05 patch addresses a number of glitches, reducing the instances of freezing, graphical snarl-ups and bugs in the game's map section. Of course, in a game designed to remind players of how effing hard videogames can be, the most persistent bug of all is player survival, which is why many of the most useful player abilities have been scaled back to give your absurdly overpowered enemies a fighting chance. Honestly, what else did you expect from a title whose makers released unbeatable bastards into the game to deal with players being alive when they weren't supposed to be?
Here's the complete changelist, courtesy of Pastebin.
Magic Changes:
Pyro Glove nerfed from 270 to 230.
You can see resonance signs now.
Vow of Silence range increased.
Sorcery spell damage as a whole was slightly buffed, but Homing Soul Mass and other pursuit style spells were nerfed.
Magic Shield duration lowered to ~11 seconds.
Strong Magic Shield duration lowered to ~11 seconds. Invincibility removed. Effect on Stamina drastically reduced.
Tranquil Walk of Peace and other Slow duration reduced to ~10 secs. Effect supposedly changed from 100% encumberance to 50%. Rolling possible if your equip burden is lowered. Slowness is similar to swamp effect.
Iron Flesh effectiveness nerfed.
Invisible Body duration remains unchanged.
Status Changes:
Base Equipment Burden increased (~6-10 points)
Humanity Item drop rate increased from 10 to 210
Medium roll recovery faster? (unclear and unconfirmed)
Defensive bonuses gained via Humanity reduced. Other defensive bonuses remain unchanged.
Item discovery gained via Humanity improved. Capped at 20.
Equipment General Changes:
Reported some weapon scaling gets improved at higher normal upgrades (+15 uchi dex scaling goes to A)
Some scaling reported as changing from A to S with higher upgrades
Upgrade Changes:
Normal scaling buffed by 5-20% (20% at +14).
Crystal scaling buffed by 5-20% (20% at +4).
Lightning +4 nerfed by 2% (+5 remains unchanged).
Raw scaling buffed by 10% (all levels).
Magic stat scaling buffed by 10-20% (20% at +9).
Enchanted stat scaling buffed by 15-20% (20% at +4).
Divine stat scaling buffed by 10-20% (20% at +9).
Occult stat scaling buffed by 15-20% (20% at +4).
Fire +9 nerfed by 2%. (+5 remains unchanged)
Dragon stat scaling buffed by 5-20% (20% at +5).
Specific Gear Changes:
Grant scaling changed to Strength:B and Faith:A
Gold-hemmed nerfed, still can't be upgraded.
Dust skirt nerfed hard (streamlined to match the other pieces).
Silver Knights, Sun, Hollow Soldier's Shield and other medium shield stability nerfed to ~70 at max upgrades to improve Great Shield viability.
Crystal Ring Shield scaling drastically nerfed. Does around ~200 +-50
Dragon Greatsword buffed from 360 to 390.
Silver Knight's Sword lightning effect removed. Now enchantable.
Elite Knight gear nerfed, then buffed slightly in 1.05
Combat Changes:
Lock-on acquisition range increased.
Lock-on changing/switching got easier (more responsive).
Ring of Fog users can now be locked on.
PVE Changes:
Overall increase in souls gained (~2-2.5 times more)
Damage reduced on some mobs?
HP lowered on some mobs?
Reduced acquisition range on normal enemies.
Supposedly reduced poise on some enemies.
Bosses drop Humanity and Homeward Bones
Ghosts and Skeletons give souls now.
Twinkling Titanite drop rate improved.
Pyromancers in Catacombs drop Skull Lanterns.
Darkwraiths in New Londo drop Dark Hand.
Online Changes:
You can see resonance signs.
Some invasion restrictions possibly changed? Darkwraith upperlimit confirmed as unchanged.
1.05: Summon restrictions improved slightly again.
Amount of souls the Master of the game gains changed.
Cracked Eye Orbs no longer get consumed on failure. Confirmed
You can hit Select to rate messages.
1.05: Fixed 1.04 bug where summon signs were invisible.
Covenant Changes:
Covenant Material drop rate improved.
Lowered requirements for Sunbro covenenant (requirements moved from 50 to 25. 3/4 assists should do the trick)
Other Changes:
Official Guide nerfed.
Forest Hunter NPC farming remains unchanged.
Dark Anor Londo NPC farming remains unchanged.
Kiln Skip Glitch still works in 1.05
Merchant stock updates:
Male Undead Merchant: Also sells bottomless box
Female Undead Merchant: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts
Andrei: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts
Domnhal of Xena: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts, Master Key (5000)
Giant Blacksmith (Fapsmith): Sells Arrows / Crossbolts, Small Titanite Shards, Large Tit Shards, Twinkling (8000 per, inf amount), Green Shards, Repair box, upgrade boxes
Vamos: Arrows / Crossbolts, Small Tit, Large tit, Repair box / upgrade boxes
Inglwood: Sells Transient Curses
Fixes:
Fixed some freeze issues
Lvl up screen displays souls needed properly now
Dragon-head glitch, snuggly, and magic shield glitches fixed.
Fixed a bug where your inputs come out 1 second later.
Fixed a bug where the second solaire event wont progress.
Fixed a bug where feeding frampt a titanite stone then going over 99 resulted in having zero.
Fixed some specific map areas where you'd get stuck or be unable to progress.
Changed some english subtitles on the overseas port.
Demon's Souls modder creates a "demastered" edition that looks straight out of the PS1 era after being "inspired by early FromSoftware games"
After 65 failed attempts, Dark Souls speedrunner suffers their worst no-death randomizer defeat yet as a single rat chooses violence and shoves them off a rooftop
