Hello, and welcome to my corner of the web. I'm Tom, and I've been writing about the gaming industry for more, well, more years than I'd care to admit. I’ve seen MMOs rise and fall, I’ve analyzed countless patch cycles, and I’ve spent thousands of hours in dungeons. But every so often, a new game pops up that genuinely makes me lean forward in my chair. Right now, that game is Fellowship.
If you haven't heard of it, Fellowship is the brand-new title from developer Chief Rebel and publisher Arc Games that just hit Steam Early Access. It’s not another sprawling, theme-park MMO. Instead, it’s a "MODA" - a Multiplayer Online Dungeon Adventure.
What does that mean? It means the developers took the best part of games like World of Warcraft - the challenging, 4-player cooperative dungeon system - and built an entire game just around that. No endless questing, no crafting widgets for 10 hours. Just you, three friends, and a series of increasingly difficult, high-octane dungeon runs. It’s pure, uncut, cooperative gameplay, and I am absolutely here for it.
The game launched into Early Access on October 16, 2025. As I write this, it's been out for just over a week. The servers are buzzing, players are climbing the leaderboards, and the first wave of community feedback is flooding in. The developers have already pushed their first small balance and stability patch. But that leaves us all asking the big question: what’s next? What can we expect from the first big patch?
As an expert in this field, I've been digging through the developer statements, analyzing the first hotfixes, and listening to the community pulse. I have a very clear picture of what's on the horizon. So, grab your health potions, and let’s break down what's coming to Fellowship.
The First 10 Days: Stability is King
Before we can dream about new content, we have to look at the reality of an Early Access launch. The first priority for any developer is stability. You can’t have a "next big patch" if the game isn't running smoothly.
The team at Chief Rebel seems to understand this perfectly. On October 22, just a few days ago, they rolled out their first significant patch. This wasn’t a content drop, it was a "fix-it" patch.
It addressed the immediate growing pains. We saw "general improvements to the login queue to make it more reliable," which was priority number one. They also doubled the AFK timer from a very short 5 minutes to 10 minutes, a smart quality-of-life (QoL) change that the community had been asking for. On top of that, we got a slew of fixes for Gem Powers, Weapon Traits, and Relics that were not working as intended.
But the most important part of that October 22 patch, in my opinion, was the balance pass. The very first balance change the game received was a significant buff to both of the game's currently available tanks: Helena and Meiko.
Both heroes received a 20% buff to their threat modifier and a 12% damage buff to all their abilities, on top of specific buffs to their legendary items and core skills. This tells me two things. First, tanks were clearly struggling to hold aggro against high-damage DPS players, a common problem in new trinity-based games. Second, the developers are watching the data and listening to feedback, and they are not afraid to make big changes, fast. This bodes very well for the game's future.
The Official Word: The Roadmap is Coming
So, when do we get new stuff? I’ve seen this question all over the game's Discord and Reddit forums. The developers have given us a clear answer, and it’s one that I respect.
In their official Early Access launch announcement, the Fellowship team laid out their plan. It looks like this:
Gather as much feedback as possible from the initial launch wave.
Focus primarily on quality-of-life improvements, bug fixes, and game balancing (exactly what we saw in the Oct 22 patch).
Once the game is stable and balanced, they will "share a roadmap that details what’s in the pipeline for new features over the next few months."
This is the smart, sustainable way to build a live-service game. It means the "next big patch" might not actually be a content drop. It might be a "Major QoL and Balance Patch 1.0," a comprehensive update that smooths out all the rough edges the community has found.
However, once that’s done, the real fun begins. And based on what we know about the game, I have some very strong predictions for what the first major content patch will contain.
My Big Prediction: A New Hero Approaches (And It's a Tank)
This is my number one, most-confident prediction. The first major content patch for Fellowship will almost certainly introduce a new hero.
How do I know? I'm just connecting the dots.
In various developer interviews and previews, the team stated their goal for the 1.0 launch is to have a roster of 10 heroes. The breakdown they’ve aimed for is 3 Tanks, 2 Healers, and 5 DPS.
Now, let’s look at the current Early Access roster.
Tanks (2/3): Helena, Meiko
Healers (2/2): Sylvie, Vigour
DPS (5/5): Rime, Tariq, Mara, Elarion, Ardios
Do you see the gap? We have the full, intended roster of Healers and DPS, but we are missing our third Tank.
This makes perfect sense from a design perspective. The tank role is arguably the most complex to design and balance. It seems logical that the developers would launch with two, see how they perform in the wild (and buff them, as they just did), and then introduce the third one once the meta has settled.
A new tank will completely shake up the game. It will offer new strategies, new team compositions, and a fresh way to tackle the hardest dungeon content. This, to me, is a guaranteed headliner for the first big update.
More Dungeons, More Problems (In a Good Way)
Fellowship is a "dungeon adventure." The core gameplay loop is the dungeon. While the endlessly scaling difficulty (similar to Diablo's rifts or WoW's keys) adds a lot of replayability, a game like this lives and dies by the variety of its content. Players need new bosses to learn, new trash mob mechanics to master, and new environments to explore.
The Early Access launch came with a healthy number of dungeons, including new ones like Silken Hollow, Godfall Quarry, and the Paragon Capstone dungeon, Ransack of Drakheim.
But "healthy" can become "stale" very quickly when the community is as dedicated as this one. The top players are already pushing the highest levels of the Eternal mode. The first content patch must include at least one, if not two, brand-new dungeons to keep the endgame fresh and exciting.
I expect we’ll see a new dungeon that introduces entirely new mechanics, perhaps a boss that heavily tests environmental awareness or a new "curse" or "modifier" that forces players to rethink their builds.
Let the Games Begin: The Real Season 1
Right now, Fellowship has competitive leaderboards. In fact, the very first "weekly reset" just happened, and players on the leaderboards were awarded the game's first-ever armor trims.
However, the developers were careful to note that this "isn't officially a season."
This is a classic "pre-season" phase. The developers are testing the reward systems, monitoring the leaderboards for exploits, and making sure everything works.
The first major content patch is the perfect time to wipe the slate clean and officially launch Season 1. This would likely involve a full reset of all leaderboards, a new, exclusive set of cosmetic rewards (like a mount or a full armor set) for high-ranking players, and perhaps a new seasonal modifier that affects all dungeons for the duration of the season, just to spice things up. This formalizes the competitive loop and gives all players, from the top 1% to the more casual, a fresh goal to strive for.
The Ever-Shifting Meta (And That Tier List...)
With a new hero on the way, new dungeons, and the first major balance pass already complete, the "meta" is in a state of beautiful chaos. This is my favorite part of any new game. The theorycrafting, the number-crunching, the endless debates... it's fantastic.
With all these changes, the 'meta' is shifting daily. It's a massive challenge to keep track of who is on top. In fact, I found an article about a fellowship dungeon tier list that does a fantastic job of breaking down the current pre-patch rankings. It's exactly the kind of analysis our community needs, especially for players trying to figure out who to focus on right now.
But what's truly exciting is knowing that the moment this next big patch lands, that whole list is going to be thrown into a blender. The analysis in that article is a perfect snapshot of this pre-season, but the arrival of a new tank and new balance changes will rewrite everything. That's the fun of a live-service game.
Current Hero Roster: A Pre-Patch Analysis
While a dedicated tier list can give you the full, ranked breakdown, here is my high-level analysis of the current hero roster and what a future patch might change for them.
The Community Wishlist (Please, Developers!)
Beyond the big content pieces, there’s a growing list of quality-of-life features the community is desperate for. I expect the next big patch, or even smaller patches leading up to it, to address these. Based on my time in the game and on community forums, these are the top requests.
A "Leaver" Penalty: This is the big one. In a 4-player co-op game, having one person leave 10 minutes into a 30-minute run is devastating. The game needs a system to discourage this, like a matchmaking timeout debuff.
Improved Solo Player / LFG Experience: Right now, the matchmaking system is functional, but many players report it can be a miserable experience. Better role-queuing, the ability to see a player's gear or progress, or an in-game "group finder" tool would be a massive improvement.
A More Robust Stronghold: The Stronghold is our central hub, but it's a bit barebones. Players want to see more customization, perhaps a guild-based system, or more useful vendors and features.
Expanded Social Features: Better guild management tools, improved chat functions, and other features that help build community within the game itself.
Conclusion: A Strong Start and a Bright Future
Fellowship has stormed out of the gate with a clear vision, a dedicated player base, and a development team that is already proving to be responsive and fast-moving.
While the next big patch hasn't been officially detailed on a roadmap, we can see the future taking shape. The developers are focused on stability and balance first, as shown by the excellent October 22 patch.
Based on my analysis, the first major content patch is crystal clear in my mind: It will bring our missing third Tank hero, expand the dungeon pool to keep the endgame fresh, and officially kick off Season 1 with a full leaderboard reset and new rewards. Intertwined with that will be a steady stream of the quality-of-life features that the community is asking for.
This is an incredibly exciting time to be a Fellowship player. We’re on the ground floor of what could be a long-running, fantastic game.
But that’s just my expert take. What are you most excited to see? What’s at the top of your personal wishlist for the next big patch? Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll see you in the dungeon.
