Paladins News

Greetings Champions! In this Developer Insights blog, we're going to be sharing some larger changes coming to various game modes in the Street Style: World Tour update! Oh yeah, if you missed our announcement, Street Style returns with all new skins for Tyra & Seris, adding a few more popular Champions to the Realm's fashion pop group. We also are sharing PTS Notes tomorrow, including a lot of changes to the previously revealed Talents of last Insights blog. All that aside, let's hop into the content of this blog!

Over the past year, we’ve had a difficult time balancing offering all the game modes we’ve wanted to while preserving quick queue times and pushing for improved matchmaking, usually solved by rotating modes in and out of the Core rotation to accommodate all players. In an ideal Realm, we’d be able to offer all of our Core modes in their own queues and allow players to Multi-Queue into whichever they want to most. However, Multi-Queue has a lot of flaws that make this increasingly hard as time has gone on. All non-Siege modes struggle to ever appear if in a Multi-Queue with the mode, leading to most uses of the Mutli-Queue system being “anything but Siege”. This still however leads to issues with splitting players into multiple matchmaking buckets (as each queue still uses its own when in Multi-Queue) and Onslaught often still overpowering the other modes. After running several data tests, we feel the best path forward is making Arcade a permanent queue.
[h2]How will it work?[/h2]
Arcade will feature all of the non-Siege modes that have ever been in our Core Rotation. This includes Onslaught, Team Deathmatch, Payload, King of the Hill, and Survival. We’ve curated the starting Map Pool in order to try and provide the best experiences in each of these modes as well as make it easy for players to not get confused by which mode they are playing on a map. Here’s the starting lineup:
[h3]Onslaught - 30% Odds[/h3]

• Foreman’s Rise
  
• Magistrate’s Archives

[h3]Team Deathmatch - 25% Odds[/h3]

• Abyss
  
• Dragon Arena

[h3]Payload - 20% Odds[/h3]

• Hidden Temple
  
• Frostbite Cavern

[h3]King of the Hill - 15% Odds[/h3]

• Marauder’s Port
  
• Trade District

[h3]Survival - 10% Odds[/h3]

• Primal Court
  
• Snowfall Junction

While we’re testing Arcade with a larger audience, the Onslaught queue will remain available as well! Team Deathmatch will be on hiatus as we want to have the largest number of people possible test out Arcade. Your feedback will help us shape this queue in the future and we want to ensure any changes to the queue brings the benefits players want in matchmaking and queue speed.
[h2]What about Quests and rewards?[/h2]
Starting in this update, Arcade will be compatible with all quests and rewards normally associated with a casual queue! This includes Daily Queue Bonus, Trials of the Realm, and any other places we call out certain game modes other than Siege!
[h2]Will modes within Arcade still see improvements?[/h2]
Yes, our goal with Arcade is to better support and improve all the modes within based on the fact that they will be permanently available, starting with changes to Survival and Payload this update. Speaking of updates to modes...

[h2]Map Pool Additions[/h2]

• Stone Keep (Day)
  

[h2]Map Pool Adjustments[/h2]

• Stone Keep (Classic) odds are normalized now.
  

• When looking for a match, these queues will now prioritize matching parties of 3 or less with each other. Parties of 4 or 5 will be prioritized towards other larger parties. After a significant time in the queue, this restriction will be dropped.
  
• Arcade and Onslaught now share the same skill rankings for players when searching for a match.
  

We’ve often gotten complaints about how frequently smaller parties would find themselves face-to-face with a full stack of opponents within the Onslaught queue. To help ease these pains, we’re adding some logic behind team sizes in both Onslaught and Arcade that incentivizes teams of similar sizes queueing against each other. This should only slightly affect queue times, mostly for those in a group, but also increase match quality in these faster-paced modes. Alongside this, we wanted Arcade to have a single ranking type to allow the MM to improve over time, so it will leverage player’s Onslaught stats as a baseline to iterate on.

• Now utilizes 2 Checkpoints on each map
  
  • The first attacking team will start with 3 minutes, then gain an additional 2 minutes per checkpoint passed.
    
  • The second attacking team will start with 3 minutes, then gain a scaling amount of time back based on how quickly Team 1 finished their push.
    

Veteran players will remember the earliest iteration of Payload, where Checkpoints were available to increase push timers and help prevent spawn camping behaviors. We’re excited to get this system back up and running for Arcade, allowing Payload to play out at a pace much closer to the other modes within the playlist. However, the Checkpoint and multi-round versions of Payload have never coexisted, so some new mechanics had to be built to facilitate the merging of the two iterations. Checkpoints will provide the first team attacking a static amount of time, and the second team a scaling amount of time to ensure that Team 2 always has less time than Team 1 as the modern Payload functions. This is basically a brand-new iteration of how the mode handles Checkpoints, so please provide feedback as you play!

• Added support for Anti-Healing scaling throughout the match.
  • Scales 5% every 20s.
• Decreased timer of subsequent rounds from 30s ➡️ 15s
  
• Decreased timer for initial fog spawn from 15s ➡️ 10s
  
• Increased fog speed on Snowfall Junction from 125 ➡️ 150
  
• Decreased fog starting distance from 7000 ➡️ 5000

Survival hasn’t seen significant changes since its return earlier this year, but now that it’s joining as the most infrequent mode within Arcade, we want to start looking to modernize the mode in a way that makes it feel distinct and enjoyable to more players. We’re increasing the speed of the fog and round wait times to get players right back into what makes the mode unique faster.

[h2]Requirements[/h2]
We toyed around with it in waves and did some testing internally, but we’re now comfortable raising the Ranked level requirement from 20 to 35. This is a large shift in who is able to utilize the queue and will have impacts on matchmaking speed and quality. However, we’ve heard calls from the community to make this experience require more from players to achieve it so we’re giving it a proper shot!
[h2]Map Pool[/h2]
[h3]High Frequency Maps[/h3]

• Serpent Beach
  
• Stone Keep (Classic)
  
• Stone Keep (Night)
  

[h3]Normal Frequency Maps[/h3]

• Ascension Peak
  
• Bazaar
  
• Brightmarsh
  
• Frog Isle
  
• Jaguar Falls
  
• Ice Mines
  
• Splitstone Quarry
  
• Warder’s Gate
  

After positive feedback and player interest in Siege, Stone Keep (Classic) is replacing Stone Keep (Day) in the Ranked queue to provide the competitive experience with a version that has cleaner visibility.

We've still got some optimization work we need to do on the mode & a few bugs that have to be resolved (We're looking into Champion Difficulty not providing the Quest reward) but with Arcade's permanent status we have room to also offer Wave Defense Public Beta on a 24/7 cadence as well! In the future, we still want to make this mode run better and improve the core experience, and hopefully expand it once those goals are met.

All in all, this update introduces the largest support to existing game modes we have done in years, allowing for the most varied ways to play Paladins ever in a single update. Arcade allows us to invest and explore modes that have been neglected in the past. Survival and Payload are being modernized and made to fit Paladins as it is today & accommodate expansion in the future. Wave Defense returns to continue to offer a place for build crafting and low-stakes fun. This is a large shakeup to the game, so feedback will be key to both improving all the modes offered as well as making sure players can play what they want when they want.

Greetings Champions, and welcome back to another series of Developer Insight blogs! In this series, we’ll explore various aspects of the October Update, including adjustments and additions to features and maps and several sandbox changes. To kick off this update, we wanted to sit down and chat about several of the new Talents coming when we release this patch and share our general philosophy for creating new playstyles in 2024. Without further ado, let’s dive right in!

NOTE: All the values shown below are test values from Dev. The exact effects and numerical choices will change based on testing and feedback from players.

[h2]Azaan[/h2]
Azaan as of late has been struggling - consistently in the bottom two of Frontlines - while our other Frontlines are performing quite well. To help him rise above again we’re giving him some general buffs, but we also wanted to take the opportunity to spice up his Persistence Talent. Persistence in of itself isn’t a bad Talent, it has a fairly healthy win rate with an above-average pick rate, but we felt it lacked the “oomph” that Talents can bring to a Champion and spice up their gameplay.



In essence, it behaves similarly to old Persistence, giving Azaan health sustain throughout the match, but it additionally now Cleanses him after he takes enough damage. This provides the Talent with more late-game power and lets Azaan play around the trigger to facilitate daring escapes or aggressive dives. It remains a solid selfish Talent, but we’re excited for everyone to try this change out and see the combos that can be done with your team when this Talent triggers!
[h2]Caspian[/h2]
Never one to miss a party, but seemingly one to miss out on good Talents, Caspian has been struggling with his Talents as of late. All of his Talents have below-average or mediocre win rates, and all but Measured Cadence have horrendous pick rates - with It’s Got Some Heft even being a single digit! We wanted to give Caspian more variety in his playstyle, so we took two of his Talents back to the lab and concocted some more, let's say devious, abilities.



While Everywhere At Once has remained mainly the same, it has received some buffs to make it more utilitarian. We’ll let you think on what those possibilities could be as we go into It’s Got Some Heft, since its new form is the first iteration of its ability in Paladins. Choosing this Talent now gives Caspian flat bonus damage when backstabbing an opponent (triggering within a roughly 120-degree cone) with either of his weapons, while most importantly draining 2% of their Ultimate charge! This gives Caspian a really unique and powerful reward while flanking, potentially turning off key Ultimates in important team fights. We wanted to facilitate a play style for Caspian where he sticks to the shadows and steals what his opponents value most, leaning into his thief origins.
[h2]Grover[/h2]
Our resident tree has had a tumultuous past few years, from the various Deep Roots iterations to Keywords and Rampant Blooming dominance. When looking at his current position in the meta (or lack thereof), we reflected back on his various tribulations in the sandbox to forge a new path forward for him. Alongside some healing buffs we’ll detail in PTS notes, Rampant Blooming is being retired and a new Talent emphasizing him as an anchor for his team.



Wisps of Sylvanus takes Blossom’s passive aura and imbues it with small Movement Speed and Crowd Control Reduction buffs that give his team a bit of a boost when fighting around him. This also means that Grover no longer has a strictly Healing talent, now instead offering 3 different tools that augment him beyond his heal output. This is something fairly new to the Support class, but the experiment allows him to return to his place as either a synergy-based solo healer or a complement to a main healer in dual Support compositions.
[h2]Kinessa[/h2]
Kinessa has always had an issue when it comes to her Oppressor Mines and their Talents. The ability has a ton of utility and can be quite frustrating if used with an ideal loadout, so we wanted to take one last swing at a Mine Talent by completely inverting her normal relationship with them.



Crystalline Battery turns an offensive tool into a personal stim machine, giving Kinessa increased fire rate and damage by charging her Carbine Rifle with the energy from her Mines. This buff only affects the Carbine Mode, keeping Steady Aim as the distinct Sniper option but giving her a unique way to become a proper threat to other rifle characters in the midrange. This does come at the cost of damaging herself, meaning it should be used in duels where Kinessa is confident she can keep the advantage.
[h2]Koga[/h2]
With the inclusion of a bit of Adrenaline Junkie into base kit (spoilers), Koga needed something new for his Default Talent. We wanted to encourage an aggressive use of Shadow Step, one of Koga’s more notorious abilities, since his survivability was so high and bring about a more life-and-death playstyle.



Initiating with Shadow Step now gives Koga some strong buffs to bring his opponents down quicker, but putting him in a precarious position by spending Stamina. Balancing playstyles is an important aspect to us when it comes to Talent creation, we want all to be enjoyable and viable while offering different boons to the Champion. So when we see an almost always picked Talent (aka Adrenaline Junkie) we see that as a fault in the gameplay loop of the Champion and work to remove the stranglehold it has on the other Talents. Oftentimes this means giving a version of it in base to shore up the weaknesses of the Champion and make them more engaging by giving them a new tool to replace it. It's a delicate game of push and pull, but giving Champions more toys in the box gives players more expression and more importantly, more opportunities for fun.
[h2]Lillith[/h2]
Lillith has been struggling a bit more recently, performing poorly regardless of Talent. We’re giving her some buffs to help her rise to power once again, but we’re also reworking Cursed Accord to give her a unique niche amongst her Support kin.



Giving her marked allies bonus Ultimate charge generation and healing her for more Blood Health when they get an Elimination, this Talent is focused on keeping her team marked and aggressively pushing. Uniquely it also gives them Damage Resistance penetration, ignoring up to a set amount completely and reducing anything past that by that amount. This lets Lillith keep her team on pace with overly defensive Champions and push through those tough-nut-to-crack Frontlines.

This will put a mark on your back as the supercharger Support, so make sure to play it safe and stick to your team! Supports usually rely on Healing to be the main way they support their team, so we wanted to experiment with ways to facilitate off-support playstyles and less healing-centric game plans.
[h2]Octavia[/h2]
Octavia is receiving a lot of changes aimed around her fun factor next update, but one that has larger implications is the basekiting of Hell or High Water. There will be more details on that in the PTS notes, but here we want to talk about the replacement starter Talent for her!



Paratrooper takes what was once a weak spot for Octavia and makes it into a strength, allowing her to float for longer and deal more damage after using Commanding Leap. Damage amps are a quite potent effect, especially on a character with as much potential as Octavia, but this is balanced by asking her to put herself in a vulnerable position to utilize it. We think it can lead to a lot of powerful plays through smart positioning.
[h2]VII[/h2]
After several refreshes and reworks to his Talents, we’re taking Overcharged around one more time. The effect is so hit or miss (literally) and boasts one of the lowest pick rates in the game, so it’s sitting out on the sidelines while we continue to improve VII’s neutral game. In its place, a new vision of an original option joins.

NOTE: This will still be his Level 2 Talent. We just thought he needed more sevens for this blog.

Execute Article VII brings back the eye laser Ultimate many early VII players may remember, with new potency added to make it a more compelling option than prior iterations. Now, the laser blasts in a 20-unit area for 1000 damage after lock-on, however, anyone left below 25% Health after that blast is Executed. It’s a unique version of an Execute, one that thematically fits the assassin of Corvus and offers him a strong burst-down option.
[h2]Vora[/h2]
Finally, not to be outdone, Vora is receiving two new Talents next update! The first is replacing Relentless Presence as its effect enters Vora’s basekit. However, we still wanted to offer Tendril something to build into, and were inspired by other Flank’s options.



Parasitic Pull allows Tendril to attach itself to allies, meaning Vora can catch a lift from a Drogoz or Octavia launching into battle. When she does grapple an ally, she shares her Tendril Card effects with the target as a special thanks for the support. If you happen to Tendril an enemy, you apply a small damage over time to them as a way to kickstart a combo to Elimination.

Meanwhile, Deafening Silence hasn’t really made sense as an Obliteration Talent and never saw widespread play. Similarly inspired by other Flanks and effects that haven’t been available to Vora, we went back to the drawing board of her inspirations and narrative.



Eclipsed Affection allows Vora to chain Obliteration casts together more effectively, giving her 2 seconds off cooldown passively and 50% of the cooldown whenever she gets an Elimination. On top of this, if she uses it with max Darkness stacks, the Slow applied is much more effective. Her feelings may be doomed, but so are any foes that dare try and survive her flurry of attacks with this Talent.

Street Style Maeve has surprised the Realm with a block party! 😼

Cards to the Max is active as this weekend's LTM, raising the roof on everyone's Card levels.

In addition, Event Pass XP is doubled this weekend as the party gets started!

[h2]Io[/h2]
[h3]Talents[/h3]
Sacrifice

• When activated, the 50% Health back Io receives is now True Healing.
  

This was something that has felt true for a while due to how the Talent functions, but recent Anti-Heal changes showed that Io can indeed get hit during this transition. We've made this now a proper True Heal so the Talent's text remains accurate.

[h2]Seris[/h2]
[h3]Cards[/h3]
Spirit Leech

• Increased scaling from 2|2 ➡️ 6|6
  

We were overly cautious in how the transition in functionality would benefit Seris, leading to this card becoming too weak for lower-level use case. We're buffing it back to a place where it functions very similar to the previous version of the Card, providing 2|2 Ammo every .5s over the 1.5s period.

[h2]Yagorath[/h2]
[h3]General[/h3]

• Yagorath's Tail Crit Spot is now only active during her Ultimate.
  

[h3]Abilities[/h3]
Acceleration

• Adjusted speed curve, starts at 100% speed instantly then waits .5s to reach 200%.
  

Yagorath's changes mostly put her in a spot we and the community were happy with, except for some pain point areas. Her Crit Spots made her more vulnerable than expected and led to her struggling to stay alive even in situations she deserved to, so we've now limited them to only being available during her Ultimate. This keeps the design fantasy (and helps counter her pull speed buff) while not impacting her neutral game nearly as much. As for Acceleration, players noticed an issue where Yagorath would slow slightly during the launch if she was already in movement. We've removed that so now she can continue to make jumps and feel fluid when using the ability, while still preserving a window for counterplay.

• Fixed an issue where Dredge would crash player clients when selected.
  • Dredge is reenabled across the game.
• Fixed an issue where Unauthorized Use wasn't applying a damage bonus & was still Revealing targets.
  
• Fixed an issue where Jubilation was not applying its bonus damage to marked targets.
  
• Fixed an issue where various added text was not translated into supported languages.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Trials reset Timer was incorrect.
  
• Fixed an issue where the shiver me timbers Title was not visible & unequippable.
  
• Fixed an issue where Octavia's Maverick Rifle was unequippable.
  
• Fixed an issue where Reality Warp was not showing up in Match History.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Damage Chest was giving Aki Oni Tiberius instead of Aoi Oni Tiberius.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Support Chest was giving Pirate's Treasure Io instead of Eight Oceans Io.
  
• Fixed an issue where bot Maeve would not select a Talent.
  
• Fixed an issue where Wave Defense Private Beta wasn't always available to players.
  

Greetings Champions! It's been a while. Now that Reality Warp is released, let's get a bit back on track! Here's what happening in the Realm this week:

Later this week, we plan on releasing a hotfix focused on resolving issues and quick changes to balance from Reality Warp. Major bug fixes include reenabling Dredge for play, Strix's Unauthorized Use having its damage buff and not Revealing, and Moji's Jubilation now functioning as expected. We also have a short list of balance changes coming in the hotfix:
[h2]Io[/h2]
[h3]Talents[/h3]
Sacrifice

• When activated, the 50% Health back Io receives is now True Healing.
  

This was something that has felt true for a while due to how the Talent functions, but recent Anti-Heal changes showed that Io can indeed get hit during this transition. We've made this now a proper True Heal so the Talent's text remains accurate.

[h2]Seris[/h2]
[h3]Cards[/h3]
Spirit Leech

• Increased scaling from 2|2 ➡️ 6|6
  

We were overly cautious in how the transition in functionality would benefit Seris, leading to this card becoming too weak for lower-level use case. We're buffing it back to a place where it functions very similar to the previous version of the Card, providing 2|2 Ammo every .5s over the 1.5s period.

[h2]Yagorath[/h2]
[h3]General[/h3]

• Yagorath's Tail Crit Spot is now only active during her Ultimate.
  

[h3]Abilities[/h3]
Acceleration

• Adjusted speed curve, starts at 100% speed instantly then waits .5s to reach 200%.
  

Yagorath's changes mostly put her in a spot we and the community were happy with, except for some pain point areas. Her Crit Spots made her more vulnerable than expected and led to her struggling to stay alive even in situations she deserved to, so we've now limited them to only being available during her Ultimate. This keeps the design fantasy (and helps counter her pull speed buff) while not impacting her neutral game nearly as much. As for Acceleration, players noticed an issue where Yagorath would slow slightly during the launch if she was already in movement. We've removed that so now she can continue to make jumps and feel fluid when using the ability, while still preserving a window for counterplay.

The full hotfix notes will be published when we are able to release it to players, so stay tuned! We appreciate players patience as we tackled the launch issues as well as take time to prepare further changes to balance, both new and retouching these in the October update.

[h2]School's Back In[/h2]
[h3]Artist: Mashtyx[/h3]



[h2]Shadow of Himself[/h2]
[h3]Artist: H_LILAS415[/h3]



[h2]Please...She's a Support[/h2]
[h3]Artist: Paulo Munir Uequed[/h3]




Wave Defense returns, with a sharp increase in difficulty! Fight against the Abyss once more at Marauder's Port and stay vigilant: All enemies have increased health and damage, Harpies will have Inflame, and Death Speakers appear in the final wave to test the limits of your team. Those who manage to make it through will earn the Champion of the Tides Title to flex their accomplishment. Good luck, Champions!

- EvilMojoKryptek