Paladins News

Greetings Champions! Here's what happening in the Realm this week:


Over the past few major updates, we’ve spent time restoring details to various maps from Paladin’s early years. From Brightmarsh in the Anniversary update to Primal Court in Wild Hoard, it’s been a joy to bring back the little touches that make these maps feel closer to how veteran players remember while showing new players what they can look like in their best states. For Banners Fall, we wanted to spend the added time we took to bring as many of these back to form as we could in a single update. Next update Ascension Peak, Ice Mines, and Splitstone Quarry will be receiving their details back from the beta era! Here are some glimpses, check out the maps when Live for all the added props:

[h2]Ascension Peak[/h2]





[h2]Ice Mines[/h2]





[h2]Splitstone Quarry[/h2]





As well as all these lovely notes, we’ve also restored the original render distance of Greenwood Outpost! That means players will no longer experience any pop-in when pushing the Payload on this map. We hope players are as excited as we are for all the content coming in the Banners Fall Update next week!



Of the changes we tested on PTS, none was as polarizing as Mal'Damba. Our lovely Chosen has long stood as both one of the most beloved designs by our community as well as a unqiue playstyle for the Support class. Historically, changes to Mal'Damba had been frequent throughout his time in Paladins until 2022, where he took a backseat to larger shifts in the Support class like universal Anti-Healing and the emergence of Double Support.

We tried some smaller buffs for him near the end of last year to shift him, but he remained a potent pick for players in Masters+, and much rougher for everyone else. As we begin to transition out of Keywords, we wanted to revisit him again and think about how to keep his venom-inspired heal while acknowledging that he has fallen far out of grace for most players.

After testing on the PTS, enough players melded with the concept of a Mending Spirits that provides him more burst while not enhancing his overall healing values that we plan to keep it for release. We did, however, hear from players that his Cards took an undeserved nerf alongside this change. We've worked to rectify that & have adjusted the following Cards:

[h2]Possession[/h2]

• Adjusted to "Reduce your damage taken by 4|4% for 4s after hitting an ally with Mending Spirits."
  

We're no longer buffing the values of this card as we now intend to make it continue for the original duration of Mal'Damba heal and watch players' feedback prior to further adjustments.

[h2]Ritual Magic[/h2]

• Description updated to "Heal for 4|4 every .2s for 5s after hitting an ally with Mending Spirits."
  

This is actually how it already functioned; our current description was incorrect.

[h2]Swift Spirits[/h2]

• Description updated to "Increase the Movement Speed of allies hit by Mending Spirits by 5|5% for 3s."
  

This is actually how it already functioned; our current description was incorrect. This does mean technically it isn't for the whole duration of Mending Spirits, but we'd rather not buff this until we see it in the wild.

All of these changes mean that his Cards will provide him just as much benefit as before, while his heal still receives its hastened delivery. We know Damba players are some of the most passionate ones we have, so we'll be continuing to listen to feedback and work to bring the Support class closer to the best parts of him after this change.

These aren't the only adjustments we hope to make from PTS to Live, so stay tuned for refreshed Update Notes close to release!



[h2]Raeve Returns[/h2]
[h3]Artist: CaptainDan98[/h3]

Watch on Twitter!

[h2]Restful Pause[/h2]
[h3]Artist: Paulo Munir[/h3]



[h2]Death's Howl[/h2]
[h3]Artist: KIIL[/h3]




To celebrate our upcoming addition of these maps to Customs, play Siege on 3 earlier versions of beloved maps. Stone Keep, Timber Mill, and Warder's Gate all return in their classic iterations for players to enjoy while also earning twice as much Event Pass XP all weekend long!

- EvilMojoKryptek

Speed is key in this shortened & heightened version of Siege! Each team starts out at 2/4 score with increased starting & earned Credits and a minor bump in movement speed, so make each play count as the game can end in one push!

• Score reduced to 2
  
• Respawn Time set to 5s
  
• Starting Credits at 1000
  
• Credits per second raised to 3/s
  
• Credits for Objective Play raised to 7/s
  
• Anti-Healing scales 5% every 25s
  

Greetings Champions! Here's what happening in the Realm this week:


Support Keywords was one of the most polarizing changes we made in Season 6, so as we release Season 7, we want to address it. Starting with Furia & Grohk in 7.2, we are planning to phase Support Keywords out of the game as feasible. Our goal remains to keep the balance between traditional team composition and double support strategies healthy, however players have given us ample feedback that Keywords did not feel to be the deciding factor in that. We know many players desired their removal quickly, however we wanted to ensure that all 4 Supports affected are still viable and become more interesting due to this transition, so we are focusing on each individual case and taking our time.

For Furia, the 2 significant changes to base kit are restoring Kindle Soul’s base healing value from before Keywords released (900 ➡️ 1000) as well as nerfing Inflame’s charge gain from healing and dealing damage by 15%. These changes alongside the removal of Curative, Remedy, and Surgery ensure that she is still potent as a hybrid healer but her Ultimate requires more thought to utilize best.

As for her Talents, Exterminate will remain as is minus the damage bonus, but both Cherish and Solar Blessing will be receiving small buffs to help them out of Keywords. Cherish’s AoE range will be increased to 50 units, making it a bit better at allowing Furia to pocket while not ignoring the rest of her team. Combined with Cards, this allows her to share some effects wider than a single target like Shielding. Solar Blessing will see its heal increased from 150 ➡️ 175 per tick, meaning that it's actually receiving a healing buff from its Keywords state. This Talent is niche but we want to reward those who spend time mastering the different beam mechanics.

As for Grohk, this opportunity led us to reassess his relationship between his base kit, Talents, and Cards to make him a more compelling choice across the board. At base, we’ve increased the frequency of his Healing Totem’s healing ticks from 6.6 per second to 10 per second, allowing him far more burst healing when committed to a fight. This change is mainly to prevent Grohk from losing all value out of quickly destroyed Totems, but also means he can heal much more effectively when stacking his Totems together.

As for his Talents, we removed Totemic Ward’s bonus to healing as basekit Totems become more potent, shifting its power into the additional charge it can provide. Spirit’s Domain will now also provide a Movement Speed buff to allies it hits to make it a more efficient dive tool and provide Grohk a more utility-centric playstyle outside his Cards. Finally, Maelstrom is receiving a small buff to help it not fall too far from where it was with Keywords.

These changes may be hard to fully understand without playing them, so make sure to test them out heavily when PTS comes later in March. These are just 2 of 24 Champions seeing balance adjustments in 7.2, but we wanted to provide a preview into this topic as we know players have been looking forward to this potential outcome. As we look forward to Season 7, stay tuned for more insights and previews!



[h2]Sunny Day Rei[/h2]
[h3]Artist: MrDorian[/h3]



[h2]House Aico Visage[/h2]
[h3]Artist: angryraccoon[/h3]



[h2]Deepening Corruption[/h2]
[h3]Artist: KIIL[/h3]




Return to the quickest way to play Siege as Swift Siege returns as the LTM. play up to 2 rounds on some of our smallest and most fast-paced maps to enjoy our primary mode in bite-sized matches!

- EvilMojoKryptek

Explore the dev maps that never came to be in this experimental limited time mode. Balance will be wacky, hazards will be plenty, and XP is TRIPLE across the whole game for the weekend!

Greetings Champions! Here's what happening in the Realm this week:


Since Ranked became crossplay in Split 2 of Season 6, we've heard feedback from players & watched the performance of various Champions across inputs closely. As we look forward to Season 7, we want to demystify aspects of our Aim Assist as well as adjust it for the future.

Aim Assist is a complex combination of systems designed to help gamepad feel closer in both experience and viability to keyboard & mouse, and we feel that's an important goal as Paladins has a near equal amount of players on both inputs. That being said, we know players have felt pain points around a specific aspect of our Aim Assist.

Bullet magnetism is a common assist in the genre that forgives pinpoint accuracy on critical hits due to the crude nature of joystick aim, specifically on hitscan weapons. Basically: it compensates for the fact that gamepad players can not track and land headshots as easily as a mouse. As players continued to compete in Season 6, this system stuck out as a frustration point among PC players, as those on PC with a gamepad received the benefits of platform & input while also discovering specific Champions where this system was strongly tuned.

In order to address this, we spent months building new tools to measure all our Aim Assist systems as well as track how the current settings fared in actual gameplay. We even made this special reticle for developer testing! The line represents the amount of bullet magnetism the Champion receives relative to their position and reticle location. This video is of Talus in the Wild Hoard Update:

[previewyoutube]Pre-7.2 Bullet Magnetism[/previewyoutube]
As you can see, he was by far an extreme example of this effect. It still requires good accuracy and tracking, but it felt far from fair due to his fire rate and recoil. This is why after testing across the entire cast, we're planning to reduce the minimum amount of magnetism by 25% universally. That means all Champions will have to be closer to the critical zone to begin receiving headshots.

“What about Talus, Lex, and Koga? They are the worst offenders!” For Champions that have fast-firing close ranged weapons, we've also reduced the maximum amount of bullet magnetism they receive by 25%. That means that even at higher framerates, with lucky recoil, or any other factors: they benefit less from this system now. Here is footage of Talus in the 7.2 Update:

[previewyoutube]7.2 Bullet Magnetism[/previewyoutube]
The system is still there, but is much more normalized and doesn't creep into the red territory of our tool. It also falls off much quicker at a medium distance compared to current values. This is our goal, as we feel this system is important to keeping Paladins a great controller shooter, but want it to have less of a factor in high level players' input choice. These values are still in testing, and will be available for players to experiment with on PTS and give feedback on. We know players have been anxiously awaiting us to act on this front, so we appreciate the patience as we worked on this.

This change – alongside other adjustments we are making in 7.2 – is designed to help improve the game overall, but especially the Ranked queue. Season 7 will be a great time to party up and compete to climb the Tiers, no matter what input or system your friends play Paladins on. 7.2 has plenty more for us to show, so stay tuned as we prepare for the full reveal!



[h2]High Priestess of the Moon[/h2]
[h3]Artist: Emma Marie[/h3]



[h2]Turbo Kitty Maeve[/h2]
[h3]Artist: Blerpsnurp[/h3]



[h2]Fallen Willo...w[/h2]
[h3]Artist: IngreseNombre[/h3]




As voted by the community on Twitter, this weekend's LTM will be Test Maps! Explore the maps that never came to be in this experimental mode. Balance will be wacky, hazards will be plenty, and XP will be triple for Champions across the game!

- EvilMojoKryptek