Dark Souls III Patch 1.11 Features Improved PS4 Pro Support, Going Live March 24th

Dark Souls III's final DLC, The Ringed City, is just around the corner on the 27th and a huge patch is coming on March 24th in anticipation of the expansion. Patch 1.11 comes with a host of additions, rebalancing, and bug fixes, but the headline feature is increased frame rates for gameplay on the PlayStation 4 Pro. The patch also adds in the recently unveiled PvP maps to Undead Match, Dragon Ruins, and Grand Roof. For the uninitiated, Undead Match is Dark Souls III's arena PvP mode added in the previous Ashes of Ariandel expansion. The patch goes live on March 24th at 18:00 JST (15:00 CET / 19:00 PST), and game servers will be down for maintenance an hour before and after this release time. Other Additions include:

• System Updates for The Ringed City
• Added function to Undead Match where, if password matching is used, players can split into teams.
• Added function to Undead Match that allows one team of players to match with one password, and the other team to match with another password.
• Added function where various hosts could be displayed on the bonfire warp menu.
• Added warning text that advised player if he/she has dropped too many items in a single location on the field.

There are also numerous balance changes aimed at improving the ongoing PvP community experience based on recent gameplay trends. Some of the most significant include: nerfing of bleed buildup on non-infused weapons while strengthening blood infusions; improved attack power for daggers along with a balance for critical hit to ensure critical power remains the same; reduced stamina costs for Ultra Greatswords, Greathammers, and Greataxes; a huge amount of improved attack motions; and increased defense and decreased weight for certain Heavy Armor. Due to an error in the patch notes, the last one has been incorrectly reported elsewhere as increased defense and increased weight for heavy armor, but it has since been confirmed that this should have read as decreased weight.

There are many more balance tweaks, too numerous to list here, to be found in the full patch notes, which also details the usual round of bug squashing fixes. There has been no confirmation at this stage as to whether the update will allow players to pre-load The Ringed City DLC prior to its release. The patch will be going live at different times depending on whether you're playing on PC via Steam or Xbox One/PlayStation 4, so make sure to check out the full breakdown of times so you know which set applies to you.

How do you think these changes will affect the PvP scene in Dark Souls III? Are you sufficiently hyped for The Ringed City? Let us know what you think down in the comments!