Patch Notes 02/22/23
WHAT’S NEW?
Old Shards are back! Try them out and see how you feel compared to New Shards
Focus on Combat Design and Balance for Base Heros
DESIGN
SHARDS
Use tomorrow’s Playtest to feel out how Shards feel. Old Shards have been reverted back except for the fact that the Shard just gives the benefits of the New Shard. Focus on the pacing and engagement of the macro strategy.
AUGMENTS (Tomorrow’s playtest won’t have Augments but I added this bit in here because someone requested it in Devstream)
We just finished up doing a design pass on the Augments and now we’re onto the implementation. So far, we’ve narrowed down the Weapons/Armor Augments to a total of 12 per Hero. We found that having MORE Augments didn’t lead to Augment diversity. Instead, unsurprisingly, it was the quality of the Augments that mattered more than quantity. But what does that mean exactly, “quality”? In our attempt to make Augment higher quality, we want to go through our framework with you: Playstyles, Choices and Synergy.
For Playstyles, we started off by giving each Hero 3 different playstyles they could do. This playstyle definition is a bit broad on purpose. For some Heros like Yanari that are more versatile, it meant breaking into Damage, Control, Heal. For others like Rose who have a more singular purpose, it meant breaking into categories like Damage: Attack Speed, Damage: Pull Back, Control. We want to find a balance where the playstyles were very different, but also intuitive enough so that a player could understand how to play differently in their first game. This means that we probably wouldn’t create a category like Tank Rayo because that’s the complete opposite of how any Rayo should be playing.
Once we got these playstyles, we looked at our Augments and made sure there were about 4 Augments that could fit into that playstyle. Since most rounds, a Hero has a choice of 1 Weapon, 1 Armor and 1 Flex, this means that even if players find the playstyle they want, they have to choose 3 of the 4 choices. This should add more play diversity since, if balanced properly, people should be choosing different Augment sets, even if they have the same playstyle preference on the same Heros.
Finally, let’s talk about Synergy. This is the harder design to talk about, and even harder to capture correctly. In essence, Augment synergy should have an ebb and flow of what benefits they provide. These are all levers that should affect the power and playstyle of a Hero. For example, Astrada Augments that synergize well with each other might play around with her Passive. Some Augments might make her Passive more powerful, like adding more damage or a heal to it. Some Augments might make her Passive more reliable, like adding a slow to other abilities. Some Augments might make her Passive more frequent, like making Passive trigger twice on an ability. These are all levers that should be pulled around with. Some might want a big impactful ability that’s harder to hit. Some might want to trade the power for frequency. But it’s this ebb and flow of benefits that make Augments feel like there’s limitless synergy to the different situations of a changing meta that we’re trying to capture.
BALANCE CHANGES
ASTRADA
Mobile control mage with mid level AOE threats
Flame Cage (Skill 2)
1.25 Root >>> 1.5 Incapacitation
BRUTUS
Hybrid tank/damage bruiser that can set up engages
Cleave (Basic Attack)
*NEW* 40 Heal per Enemy hit on LMB3
ETHRYN
Tanky peeler and engager with high CC
Shield Toss (Focus Attack)
65 >>> 55 damage
FIORNE
High mobility, high survivability, low to mid threat nuisance
Health
900 >>> 850
Swift Strike (Basic Attack)
30 >>> 35 damage
Grand Finale (Ultimate)
150 >>> 180 damage
ISHIR
High mobility, high threat killer
Health
900 >>> 850
Wraith Slash (Basic Attack)
55 >>> 45 Damage
1.5 >>> 2x Bonus Damage on Backstab
ROSE
High threat AOE damage
Summon Blades (Skill 2)
30/45 >>> 35/45 damage
Demonic Union (Ultimate)
75% >>> 65% Heal
SOMNIA
Immobile long range high damage high CC threat
Night Blast (Focus Attack)
65/105 >>> 70/110 damage
Delirium (Skill 2)
35 >>> 40 damage per second
50% >>> 40% slow on Empowered
ZOEY & BOO
Immobile healer with long range
Shield of Hope (Focus Attack)
45 >>> 55 shield
1.5 >>> 2 second shield duration
Duoblast (Skill 1)
5 >>> 6 second cooldown
Spirit Scratch (Skill3)
65 >>> 55 Damage
1.3 >>> 1 Root
BELROTH
Tanky engager with high CC
Ageless Aegis (Focus Attack)
75 >>> 55 shield
60 >>> 40 shield
5 >>> 5.5 second cooldown
2 >>> 0.5 second CDR per enemy hit
Old Shards are back! Try them out and see how you feel compared to New Shards
Focus on Combat Design and Balance for Base Heros
DESIGN
SHARDS
Use tomorrow’s Playtest to feel out how Shards feel. Old Shards have been reverted back except for the fact that the Shard just gives the benefits of the New Shard. Focus on the pacing and engagement of the macro strategy.
AUGMENTS (Tomorrow’s playtest won’t have Augments but I added this bit in here because someone requested it in Devstream)
We just finished up doing a design pass on the Augments and now we’re onto the implementation. So far, we’ve narrowed down the Weapons/Armor Augments to a total of 12 per Hero. We found that having MORE Augments didn’t lead to Augment diversity. Instead, unsurprisingly, it was the quality of the Augments that mattered more than quantity. But what does that mean exactly, “quality”? In our attempt to make Augment higher quality, we want to go through our framework with you: Playstyles, Choices and Synergy.
For Playstyles, we started off by giving each Hero 3 different playstyles they could do. This playstyle definition is a bit broad on purpose. For some Heros like Yanari that are more versatile, it meant breaking into Damage, Control, Heal. For others like Rose who have a more singular purpose, it meant breaking into categories like Damage: Attack Speed, Damage: Pull Back, Control. We want to find a balance where the playstyles were very different, but also intuitive enough so that a player could understand how to play differently in their first game. This means that we probably wouldn’t create a category like Tank Rayo because that’s the complete opposite of how any Rayo should be playing.
Once we got these playstyles, we looked at our Augments and made sure there were about 4 Augments that could fit into that playstyle. Since most rounds, a Hero has a choice of 1 Weapon, 1 Armor and 1 Flex, this means that even if players find the playstyle they want, they have to choose 3 of the 4 choices. This should add more play diversity since, if balanced properly, people should be choosing different Augment sets, even if they have the same playstyle preference on the same Heros.
Finally, let’s talk about Synergy. This is the harder design to talk about, and even harder to capture correctly. In essence, Augment synergy should have an ebb and flow of what benefits they provide. These are all levers that should affect the power and playstyle of a Hero. For example, Astrada Augments that synergize well with each other might play around with her Passive. Some Augments might make her Passive more powerful, like adding more damage or a heal to it. Some Augments might make her Passive more reliable, like adding a slow to other abilities. Some Augments might make her Passive more frequent, like making Passive trigger twice on an ability. These are all levers that should be pulled around with. Some might want a big impactful ability that’s harder to hit. Some might want to trade the power for frequency. But it’s this ebb and flow of benefits that make Augments feel like there’s limitless synergy to the different situations of a changing meta that we’re trying to capture.
BALANCE CHANGES
ASTRADA
Mobile control mage with mid level AOE threats
Flame Cage (Skill 2)
1.25 Root >>> 1.5 Incapacitation
BRUTUS
Hybrid tank/damage bruiser that can set up engages
Cleave (Basic Attack)
*NEW* 40 Heal per Enemy hit on LMB3
ETHRYN
Tanky peeler and engager with high CC
Shield Toss (Focus Attack)
65 >>> 55 damage
FIORNE
High mobility, high survivability, low to mid threat nuisance
Health
900 >>> 850
Swift Strike (Basic Attack)
30 >>> 35 damage
Grand Finale (Ultimate)
150 >>> 180 damage
ISHIR
High mobility, high threat killer
Health
900 >>> 850
Wraith Slash (Basic Attack)
55 >>> 45 Damage
1.5 >>> 2x Bonus Damage on Backstab
ROSE
High threat AOE damage
Summon Blades (Skill 2)
30/45 >>> 35/45 damage
Demonic Union (Ultimate)
75% >>> 65% Heal
SOMNIA
Immobile long range high damage high CC threat
Night Blast (Focus Attack)
65/105 >>> 70/110 damage
Delirium (Skill 2)
35 >>> 40 damage per second
50% >>> 40% slow on Empowered
ZOEY & BOO
Immobile healer with long range
Shield of Hope (Focus Attack)
45 >>> 55 shield
1.5 >>> 2 second shield duration
Duoblast (Skill 1)
5 >>> 6 second cooldown
Spirit Scratch (Skill3)
65 >>> 55 Damage
1.3 >>> 1 Root
BELROTH
Tanky engager with high CC
Ageless Aegis (Focus Attack)
75 >>> 55 shield
60 >>> 40 shield
5 >>> 5.5 second cooldown
2 >>> 0.5 second CDR per enemy hit