Paladins News

[h2]Special Quests[/h2]
For the duration of 7.5, you can play one match to unlock the Coldsnap Furia skin previously given away during Hi-Rez promotions. Players that already own Furia will instead receive crystals.

In addition, playing 10 non-practice games of Siege, Team Deathmatch, or Onslaught will grant players an Anniversary Token to purchase a Limited Skin from the Anniversary Store.
[h2]New Chest: Voices of the Realm[/h2]
We’ve added 22 announcer packs to this new chest to make it easier than ever for players to acquire their favorites.
[h2]MVP Sale[/h2]
We’ve made MVPs available for direct purchase!

• Legendary MVPs will cost 100 crystals
  
• All other MVPs will cost 75 crystals
  

To celebrate this change, we’re also putting them on sale for 25 less than their new full price for the first 2 weeks of this patch, so from 09/04/24 - 09/18/24, so go ahead and grab your favorites now!:

• Legendaries will cost 75 crystals
  
• All other MVPs will cost 50 crystals
  

[h2]Event Pass Changes[/h2]
We’ve heard player complaints about our inaccurate in-game messaging about the Feudal Fables deadline, as well as the initial issues with the Buried Treasure Flashback Pass. These issues were uniquely severe for an Event Pass, and we apologize for their impact on players. As a one-time make-good, we’re doing the following:

• We’ve brought back the Feudal Fables Pass for a limited time so players have the chance to complete it.
  
• We’ve extended the Buried Treasure Pass by 6 levels, including the following new rewards:
  • 1 additional Avatar
    
  • 1 additional Death Stamp
    
  • 1 additional Spray
    
  • 5 Skin Boosters
    
  • 40K Gold
    
  • 1 Paladin’s Accord Chest - this contains the items from the Abyss’s Destruction, Magistrate’s Resolve, & Resistance’s Daring Chests, as well as the following:
    
    • Screech Androxus
      
    • Dasher's Antlers Androxus
      
    • Cangaceiro Androxus
      
    • Old Glory Fernando
      
    • Tough Cookie Fernando
      
    • Parasite Seris
      
    • Frosty Foliage Grover
      
    • Ghoulish Goalie Jenos
      
    • Resplendent Jenos

[h2]New Trials Rewards[/h2]
With another Trials reset, we're bringing back some rewards locked behind older Trials sets featured in the Tidal Surge's Flashback themes. Here's what players can look forward to earning:

• New "Shiver Me Timber" Limited Title
  
• Sunset Avatar
  
• Fearless Leader Spray
  
• Pirateer Avatar
  
• First Mate Announcer

[h2]Event Mode: Reality Warp[/h2]
Inspired by Siege Remixed & Truly Talented, Reality Warp is an Event Mode where Seris has combined Paladins' past and present into a single timeline, bringing back infamous builds and nostalgic sights. This sandbox is designed specifically to harken back to an era where Champions were overall stronger & there was a heavier emphasis on power plays. Consider it a love letter from us at Evil Mojo not only to the community who has stuck by our side, but also paying respect to all the players and developers who have been involved with Paladins over the years. Basically: we’re playing the hits.
[h3]Rules[/h3]

• All Card Levels are set to 5
  
• This LTM has a Talent pool mixing the current sandbox with select fan favorite (or infamous) options from the past & recent Truly Talented alumni.
  • Alternating Current Torvald (replaces Thanks, Grandpa)
    
  • Architectonics Barik (replaces Forgefire)
    
  • Artful Dodger Maeve (replaces Street Justice)
    
  • Bucking Madness Buck (replaces Bulk Up)
    
  • Celerity Furia (replaces Cherish)
    
  • Defensive Curl Yagorath (replaces Unnatural Persistence)
    
  • Efflorescence Grover (replaces Rampant Blooming)
    
  • Firefight Viktor (replaces Burst Mode)
    
  • Firing Line Khan (replaces Vortex Grip)
    
  • Heads or Tails Saati (replaces Spare Change)
    
  • Illuminated Jenos (replaces Luminary)
    
  • This Talent is a recreation of original Luminary: Allies affected by your Astral Mark deal 15% increased weapon damage.
    
  • Just Breathe Cassie (replaces Impulse)
    
  • Lingering Curse Androxus (replaces Defiant Fist)
    
  • Reign of Terror Drogoz (replaces Combustable)
    
  • Retaliation Zhin (replaces Yomi)
    
  • Sapper Rounds Vivian (replaces Suspect Everyone)
    
  • Scorched Earth Willo (replaces Nightshade)
    
  • Super Smash Ash (replaces Battering Ram)
    
  • Suppression Kinessa (replaces Octopressor)
    
  • The Law Won Lex (replaces Discovery)
    
  • The Void Protects Seris (replaces Infernal Torment)
    
  • Wekono’s Curse Mal’Damba (replaces Wekono’s Wrath)
    
  • Wrath of the Stagalla Inara (replaces Tremors)
    

[h3]Map Pool[/h3]
When selecting maps for this Event, we wanted to focus on our legacy as well as maps that have stood the test of time as players' favorites to compete on. While this Event is mainly meant for fun, we wanted to put an emphasis on maps that play well at all levels of play while also including 2 of the Alpha options. Balancing this list was quite difficult, so we’ll be listening to player feedback as well!

• Temple Ruins
  
• Enchanted Forest
  
• Serpent Beach
  
• Stone Keep (Classic)
  
• Brightmarsh
  
• Splitstone Quarry
  

[h2]Dark Tides: Champion Difficulty [/h2]
While we continue to work on performance & future iterations of Wave Defense, we wanted to offer an experience for those looking for a harder challenge in the mode. For select weekends throughout this update, Wave Defense will return as Dark Tides: Champion Difficulty. This version includes harder bots with more tools in their arsenal, a quicker ramp up in opponent strength, and the return of Death Speakers: one of Dark Tides' original bosses. Players who defeat this version during this patch will be rewarded with the Limited Title Champion of the Tides to distinguish their accomplishment in preventing an Abyssal Rift.
[h2]New TDM Map: Dragon’s Call[/h2]
Speaking of updates to modes, Dragon’s Call has slowly been given some work & will be added to Customs as a traditional shooter team deathmatch map. What does that mean? Unlike other Paladins TDM maps, this map still features set spawns to encourage teams to work together to take space control & have to coordinate to avoid getting locked down. It’s experimental, but we thought we’d let players be the judge of how fun it is while we continue to improve it before adding it to TDM proper.
[h2]Returning Map: Trade District (Classic)[/h2]
After the Classic Maps LTM, we heard a lot of players call out for us to look into restoring other older maps. Trade District felt like an important return, both to mirror Stone Keep once more as well as bring the Classic Map love to non-Siege modes! Both the TDM and KOTH versions of the map will be available in queues and Customs starting in this update!
[h2]Map Updates: Frog Isle and Stone Keep[/h2]
In addition to the excitement of returning maps, we wanted to take some time and clean up some of our current maps. This includes investigations into what causes “heavy walls” in Paladins to allow for their removal, making certain play spaces feel more fluid, and overall improving the experiences players have when interacting with maps. Our first ventures were into Stone Keep (Day & Night) as well as Frog Isle, and we hope to continue improving our maps!
[h3]Stone Keep (Day + Night)[/h3]

• Cleaned up collision around lampposts. This includes slightly reworking the collision volumes around the lampposts as well as lowering the player-blocking volumes above the lampposts to allow for more fluid navigation.
  
• Removed a heavy wall on the sides of the Cathedral near the second-floor bridge.
  
• Removed player collision on several fish downspouts around the map to reduce frustration with getting stuck on them while navigating around the map.
  
• Removed tall invisible collision on top of the wall in the back alley at Curve. This wall is now considered valid, base-able ground.
  

[h3]Frog Isle[/h3]

• Added small steps behind the Frogs on the Payload push path. This prevents players from getting stuck under the Frogs in multiple circumstances, and allows for players to get on top of the Frogs more easily.
  
• Removed heavy walls on the broken pillars near the drop-down towards the mid-point. These pillars are now considered valid, base-able ground, sharing that property with the walls next to them.
  

[h2]Daily Quest Completion Streak[/h2]
Our Quest system has taken a small backseat due to Trials' return, but now is time to revisit the system & help it feel more impactful and engaging for players who chose to log in every day. We’re greatly increasing the amount of XP and Gold you can gain from streaks to reward those who stay on track and allow a deterministic path to currency rewards.

• Increased 7 Day Rewards
  • 20,835 ➡️ 120,000 Event Pass XP
    
  • 145 Gold ➡️ 750 Gold
• Increased 14 Day Rewards
  • 41,670 ➡️ 240,000 Event Pass XP
    
  • 290 Gold ➡️ 1500 Gold
• Increased 21 Day Rewards
  • 62,505 ➡️ 360,000 Event Pass XP
    
  • 435 Gold ➡️ 2250 Gold
    

[h2]New Mastery Titles[/h2]
Players have often asked for more rewards to earn through Champion Mastery & the team has been exploring various ways to add to what can be earned by each Champion. This update, 16 select Champions are getting additional italicized Mastery Titles for players who reach Level 100 on that Champion. We hope to expand these to eventually cover the full roster & add more styles over time!

• Ash
  • Slayer of the Fallen
• Furia
  • Archangel of Reprisal
• Jenos
  • Demigod of Tau-Kor
• Kinessa
  • Self-Sure Shot
• Khan
  • Commander of House Aico
• Koga
  • Agent of Liberation
• Lian
  • Princess of House Aico
• Maeve
  • Purrveyor of Shiny Objects
• Makoa
  • Protector of the Ska’Drin
• Ruckus
  • & Bolt
• Seris
  • Foreseer of the Unknown
• Skye
  • Triple Agent
• Tyra
  • Spark of Wildfire
• Viktor
  • Leader of the Wolfpack
• Vora
  • Betrayer of the Moon
• Ying
  • Master of Illusions

[h2]Map Pool Rotations[/h2]
[h3]Casual Map Pool[/h3]

• Siege
  • Stone Keep (Day) has been replaced by Stone Keep (Classic). Its rate of appearance has been increased.
• TDM
  • Trade District has been replaced by Trade District (Classic). Its rate of appearance has been slightly increased.
    

[h3]Ranked Map Pool[/h3]
We waited to rotate maps for Ranked Split 2 in order to collect a bit more data on map-specific stats and popularity. This rotation is planned to persist until Split 3, which will be the final Split of Season 7 of Ranked in October.
[h4]High Frequency Maps[/h4]

• Brightmarsh
  
• Jaguar Falls
  
• Splitstone Quarry
  

[h4]Normal Frequency Maps[/h4]

• Ascension Peak
  
• Bazaar
  
• Frog Isle
  
• Ice Mines
  
• Serpent Beach
  
• Stone Keep
  • Night has double the odds of Day, but both combined is equal to one of the other maps.
• Warder’s Gate

[h2]Limited Time Modes[/h2]
This update, Wave Defense: Champion Difficulty will be featured 2 weekends over the course of the update in order to allow anyone who wants multiple chances to try for the Title. Reality Warp will also be featured 3 weekends in order to allow players who only play on weekends access to the mode. Finally, the other 2 weekends will host other Casual modes we don’t get to keep available often!

• Reality Warp (September 6th - September 9th)
  
• Wave Defense: Champion Difficulty (September 13th - September 16th)
  
• King of the Hill (September 20th - September 23rd)
  
• Reality Warp (September 27th - September 30th)
  
• Capture the Flag (October 4th - October 7th)
  
• Wave Defense: Champion Difficulty (October 11th - 14th)
  
• Reality Warp (October 18th - 21st)
  

[h2]General[/h2]
[h3]Anti Healing[/h3]

• Increased scaling speed in Siege from 50s to 40s.
  
• Increased scaling speed in Onslaught from 40s to 30s.
  
• Increased scaling speed in KOTH from 45s to 30s.
  
• Increased scaling speed in TDM from 30s to 25s.
  

Anti-Healing Scaling has long been a point of feedback from experienced players as something that should be quickened in order to reduce frustrations around healing in the early & mid-game. These changes are directly aimed at that feedback; however we’re closely watching the effects on the average lobby and players less intensely focused on this mechanic.

[h3]Bot Behavior [/h3]

• All bots in the game now utilize more logic, with bots replacing players who have disconnected given additional difficulty.
  • This includes a tendency to stick with their teammates, reposition when low health, and chase low-health targets.
    

We’ve been investigating how to improve our bot’s behavior and logic in various scenarios, this specific update is aimed to ease frustrations around when a player leaves the match & a bot takes over their place. As a reminder, please report any malicious AFK behavior at the end of the match to help us cut down on rampant leavers, but this change should help along the way!

[h2]Champions[/h2]
[h3]Cassie[/h3]
Ability

• Blast Shot
  • Poison duration reduced from 3s ➡️ 2s
    
  • Poison strength reduced from 10 ➡️ 8%
    

The original buff to Blast Shot overperformed, so we’re bringing it down a bit in both strength and duration. We’re keen on Cassie keeping this additional utility to enhance her moment-to-moment decision making during a match, but we’ll continue to keep a watchful eye on her power level.

[h3]Jenos[/h3]
Ability

• Astral Mark
  • Duration increased from 12s ➡️ 13s
    
  • Cooldown reduced from 6s ➡️ 5s
    

Jenos has been lagging behind other Supports for a minute now, so we want to give him some basic but effective buffs to Astral Mark to help boost him back up. This also has the side effect of buffing his Astral Mark Cards, so its a win-win for our resident ascended monk.

[h3]Kinessa[/h3]
Weapon

• Carbine Rifle
  • Damage reduced from 215 ➡️ 200
    
  • Fire rate increased from .19s ➡️ .17s

Ability

• Oppressor Mine
  • Decreased Slow strength from 15% ➡️ 12.5%
• Sniper Mode
  • Decreased charge rate from 1s ➡️ 1.2s

While Kinessa’s refresh hit a lot of notes we were hoping for, her strength and utility has come in a bit more overtuned than we intended. We want to take a look at a few more problematic chunks of her kit (e.g. Oppressor Mines & moving away from a Talent for them) so these changes are intended as a continued effort of adjusting her to keep a lot of what players have loved about her changes while ensuring the frustration currently felt is lessened over time.

[h3]Lex[/h3]
Talent

• Heroism
  • Decreased Combat Slide cooldown from 8s ➡️ 7s

Heroism has been left in a weakened state for a while, and we want to slowly bring it back to relevancy without trivializing Lex’s other options. Shaving a second off the cooldown penalty feels right as a first step to letting the Hand of Justice improve at his duty.

[h3]Makoa[/h3]
Ultimate

• Ancient Rage
  • Collision growth reduced from 50 ➡️ 25%

Cards

• Barrier Reef
  • Trigger value reduced from 1000 ➡️ 900 damage
• Determination
  • Trigger value reduced from 50➡️ 60% Health
• Ebb and Flow
  • Reworked to instead fully refresh Shell Spin cooldown
    
  • Levels reduce Card’s Cooldown
• Harden
  • Now activates when Dredge Anchor is used
• Rampage
  • Increased duration from 4s ➡️ 5s
• Sea Legs
  • Now activates when Dredge Anchor is used
• Surf
  • Increased scaling from 10% ➡️ 12%
• Tidal Grace
  • Increased healing from 55 ➡️ 60
• Tsunami
  • increased duration from 3s ➡️ 4s

Similarly to Jenos, Makoa has been struggling in his category to make a splash, but we’re trying something a little different for him. Before we get to the buffs though, we’re currently still investigating Ancient Rage’s collision issues. The theming behind it is strong enough to us that we feel its worth to keep for now, but we’re reducing the total size growth of his collision to prevent some instances of the stuck-in-place bug. We’ll be continuing to investigate this and searching for a fix.

That being said, buffs! Makoa’s been on the weaker side of Frontlines lately (consistently in the bottom 3 in terms of winrate) so we took the kitchen sink approach for him today as we continue to work on his core issues. We’ve buffed a majority of his cards to give him more freedom of loadout while also increasing his overall loadout power to give players more options to optimize their turtle power. Most significantly, we’ve adjusted Sea Legs and Harden to always activate even if Dredge Anchor misses, greatly boosting Makoa’s average durability. Even if his durability is challenged, the reworked Ebb and Flow means Makoa can always try spinning to solve his problems and get out of sticky situations (or initiate some crazy dives if he’s got Ancient Rage), either way Makoa will be able to duke it out in the frontlines much more effectively.

[h3]Moji[/h3]
Abilities

• Spit
  • Now heals allies for 300 HP on hit at base
• Magic Mark
  • Area of effect reduced from 75 ➡️ 50 units
• Sparkle
  • Reduced Healing per hit from 75 ➡️ 50

Talents

• Spit Shine
  • Reworked to grant 10% bonus move speed to all allies in range of a max Magic Mark detonation. Lasts 4s, stacking 3 times, with each stack falling off individually.

We’ve been hearing frustrations surrounding Moji - and her data supports it - so we’re knocking some of her stats down as well as giving her a little quality of life change. We’re moving Spit Shine’s Healing into base as a reduced value so that Jubilation / Realm Runner can have more space to shine at Talent Selection, since Mojis tended to overwhelmingly lean towards Spit Shine to support their team while staying safe. To compensate for this increased consistency, as well as to bring her stats more in line with what we’re comfortable with, we’re reducing the size of Magic Mark and the Healing from Sparkle. With these changes Moji will have to be more aware of her team at any given moment to maximize her Magic Mark’s value, while also requiring more situational awareness to maximize her reduced healing against Anti-Healing. Finally, with Spit Shine moving into base, we’re revamping it to instead give allies movement speed on mark detonation. This’ll let Moji facilitate aggressive team wide pushes or escape from danger if she’s able to properly manage the marks range.

[h3]Pip[/h3]
Talents

• Combat Medic
  • Increased fire rate bonus from 10% ➡️ 15%

Combat Medic has slipped behind Pip’s other Talents in selection and viability, mainly due to being in a tough spot compared to the flexibility of Mega Potion and Catalyst. We’re giving Combat Medic’s fire rate increase a bit more strength to make it feel a bit more compelling and give Pip more DPS/HPS potential when using Potion Launcher.

[h3]Seris[/h3]
Cards

• Blood Pact
  • Reworked to “Heal for 105|105 over 1.5s after casting Restore Soul”
• Spirit Leech
  • Reworked to “Regenerate 2|2 Ammo over 1.5s after casting Restore Soul”

Similar to Mal’Damba’s changes to his cards to accommodate his burst healing, we’re adjusting Seris' two channeled heal cards to now work with Forsake. Blood Pact is staying similar in power level and function, while Spirit Leech is seeing its numbers brought down slightly to leave a bit more value in putting the card at a higher level. We plan to continue to watch Forsake and Internal Torment’s performance to look for improvements, while keeping in mind the benefits of the older Talent set and considering them as needed.

[h3]Strix[/h3]
Weapon

• Pistol
  • Now generates 3 stealth energy per hit

Abilities

• Stealth
  • Now grants 20% movement speed bonus while in stealth
    
  • Stealth energy cost per second reduced from 12 ➡️ 8
• Flare
  • Cooldown reduced from 12s ➡️ 10s
    
  • Area of effect Reveal increased from 45 ➡️ 55 units

Ultimate

• Flashbang
  • Now turns players' screens a dark grey instead of bright white.

Cards

• Stalker
  • Reworked to instead heal for 15|15 every 1s while in stealth
• Roost
  • Reworked to increase stealth energy charge rate by 10|10% for 2s after a Talon Rifle hit
• Guerrilla Tactics
  • Reduced stealth energy generation from 15|15 ➡️ 12|12%

Talents

• Crack Shot
  • Increased Talon Rifle damage from 900 ➡️ 950
    
  • Removed Burn effect
    
  • Pistol now gains perfect accuracy
    
  • Now reduces Pistol's fire rate by 40%
    • .15s ➡️ .21s
• Nocturnal
  • Reworked to grant indefinite stealth while standing still
• Unauthorized Use
  • Reduced direct hit damage bonus from 250% ➡️ 200%
    
  • Now directly hit targets take 20% more inhand from all sources for 2s
    
  • Reduces cooldown reduction from 10s ➡️ 8s

Hot off the heels of Kinessa, we wanted to take a shot at one of our other notorious snipers. Strix faced a fair amount of issues, and with these changes we’ve tackled quite a few of his pain points while we continue to work on making Strix the best (and still enjoyable to fight) sniper he can be. We’ve added stealth energy generation into his pistol at base, giving more merit to swapping weapons to keep invisibility available. This will probably be one of the biggest changes feel-wise, since getting caught doesn’t mean there isn’t a chance anymore - landing enough shots opens up a chance to sneak away just in time. Speaking of stealth, we’ve incorporated a bit of Nocturnal into base, making stealth overall better for all Talents on Strix, since Nocturnal had a strangle hold on his selection rates. Now Nocturnal allows Strix to stay in stealth indefinitely as long as is standing still, letting him line up the perfect shot or narrowly dodge a scouting Flanker.

The stranglehold wasn’t just apparent in his Talent selection, Guerrilla Tactics also had a lion’s share of his loadout points on average. We’ve spread the power out a bit not only through his pistol change but by also updating Roost into an energy generation supplement while taking some of that generation away from Guerrilla Tactics. This requires the card to have more investment to get the same bang for your buck as before, but still keeping it in a powerful place with how much energy you get out of it. With more opportunities for stealth through duration and generation, we wanted to give all of Strix’s Talents some love to utilize said stealth. We’ve shifted Unauthorized Use into a more utility role, retaining its damage identity but also providing a powerful debuff that Strix and his team can capitalize on for aggressive plays. We’ve also moved Crack Shot’s stats around, giving his pistol perfect accuracy at the cost of fire rate, putting both his weapons into a new playstyle with one Talent selection and pushing Strix into a much more skirmisher oriented role.

There are a lot of game-feel changes to Strix that we can’t wait for you all to experiment with as we continue to work on our notorious snipers. Don’t worry though, all the extra Strixs running around doesn’t mean you’ll need to turn down your brightness. Flashbang now turns your screen gray instead of white. Hurray for eye health (remember to blink often)!

[h3]Yagorath[/h3]
General

• Added new Crit Spots to Yagorath on her Tail.
  • Her default skins shows these Crit spots glowing alongside her mouth.
• Critical multiplier reduced from 1.3 to 1.
  • This means Yagorath’s critical damage is now double the damage she takes in areas where her DR is active, not 2.6x.
• Increased curves on lateral & diagonal movement while in Travel Form
  • She now acts and reacts slightly quicker when moving diagonally.
• Increased stopping friction when pulling back & losing momentum in Travel Form
  • Yagorath now can come to a full stop in Travel Form.

Abilities

• Acceleration
  • Removed initial wait time for momentum, added a staggered speed curve
    • Yagorath will go from 0 to 100% speed over .5s, then reach 200% after another .5s
  • Increased max speed from 1270 ➡️ 1300
    
  • Reduced cooldown from 14s ➡️ 12s
• Hardening
  • Now places an Acid pool on the ground across Talents instead of just on Corrosive Acid
    
  • Acid Pool provides allies with 50% of bonus DR provided by Hardening
    • Base value of 12.5%, with the card End of an Era adding an additional 2.5|2.5%
• Piercing Quills
  • Damage increased from 170 direct / 50 area ➡️ 200/75
    
  • Removed charges requirement, ability now has a universal .5s cooldown

Ultimate

• Devour
  • Increased pull speed from 350 ➡️ 390

Cards

• Ancient Wounds
  • Reduced scaling from 2|2% ➡️ 1.5|1.5%
• Deadly Predator
  • Reduced scaling from 8|8% ➡️ 7|7%
• Dreadful Compact
  • Reduced scaling from .3|.3s ➡️ .25|.25s
• Futile Efforts
  • Reworked to “Increase the radius of Piercing Quills' detonation by 10|10%”

Yagorath has continued to be one of the most polarizing designs and disruptors of game flow, and the team has taken many swings at trying to balance her viability with her enjoyment to play and fight against. The goal of these changes is simple on paper but difficult to deliver: shift Yagorath to feel more engrained with traditional Paladins gameplay. This starts with how she feels to play, from her movement to her vulnerabilities. We’ve smoothed her movement in Travel Form to make her feel more responsive and fun to roll around as, while also slightly reducing the penalty for hitting her Crit Spots. We say Crit Spots because we’ve also brought back a discarded idea from her original design: multiple Crit Spots! Now, if you shoot Yagorath in her tail, it will also count as a Critical hit and deal double damage. This was done in order to allow more counterplay between her and opponents, as well as reinforce her fantasy of being a boss-style character by asking players to do something unique to counter her.

Meanwhile, Acceleration has acted as a major crutch when it comes to her ability to poke and relocate from backlines to her team, so with the base improvements to her movement we wanted to shift this ability to a more skillful tool. On activation, she now reaches her base speed over .5s before rolling out at the abilities' enhanced pace. This is intended to allow players to punish her for using it as an escape in moments where she's not careful, so we’ve given it small buff to make it feel better to use frequently and to get from spawn to objective. Hardening also leans into the idea of Yagorath playing around her team more, with the Acid Pool she gains on Corrosive Acid now base kit with an added new effect: providing DR to teammates standing within her pool. Yagorath’s design lacks a lot of tools for her to maintain point presence, but now she has some tricks to help her team survive by her side and make a play for control.

Piercing Quills and Caustic Acid have always had a strained relationship, both being limited resource abilities that players tend to spam. We wanted to help make Quills in particular feel a bit more distinct, so we’re removing all the resource capping and instead giving it a simple cooldown between shots. This allows players to focus on Acid management better as well as makes for a more engaging tool to use at range, especially if done to help hold an objective or finish off an escaping kill in off-lanes. These changes also meant we had to adjust various Yagorath cards slightly down to account for the increased uptime, including a rework to Futile Efforts. Devour is also seeing a speed buff on how quickly she pulls people close to compensate for the changes to her survivability. All in all, these adjustments to her kit are meant to make her feel more fun to play as well as more manageable to fight against.

[h2]General[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where some Talents were not available to all players in Truly Talented.
  
• Fixed an issue where some skins were improperly ordered due to mismatching exclusivity and rarity settings.
  • This involved raising the rarity of various skins to match their Limited, Unlimited, or quality statuses.
• Updated various descriptions of skins and weapons to more accurately convey their acquisition methods.
  
• Fixed an issue where certain Trials were resetting progress even after completion.
  • This issue’s persistence is due to the sheer number of Trials challenges; however, we have done a more in-depth pass this time to resolve this.
• Fixed an issue where the Classic Maps and Siege Alpha maps did not have proper loading screens.
  
• Updated KOTH to have a unique loading tip description instead of sharing one with Onslaught.
  
• Fixed an issue where XP screens within the EOML didn’t hide the backlash when hovered.
  
• Fixed an issue where “Next Reward” was not shown in the EOML for newer Event Passes.
  
• Fixed an issue where Rejuvenate was not increasing the Healing of Pets or Illusions.

Greetings Champions! This Developer Insight blog is all about Wave Defense: its development, its release, and where we’d like to take it and alternative Paladins game modes in the future. Along the way, we’ll be sharing clips from the development version to give a glimpse as to how far the mode has already come from its original prototype.

It’d been a long while since Paladins received a new mode with the last “core” mode being King of the Hill, released in 2019. Ever since, the team has thrown around ideas and concepts for new modes and spins on existing experiences. However, with Siege being by far our most popular mode compared to all others, we wanted to ensure we were providing the most support possible for Siege, then add occasional fun LTMs to rotation.

This eventually led to Siege Beyond, considering changes to the Siege gamemode to keep it feeling new and fresh, similar to how MOBAs change their core mode format season to season. Some players didn’t resonate with those ideas either, so that pushed us to look into another route to adding a Siege-like mode: restoring Payload. Payload, however, is both an older mode with severe development limitations due to the age of the mode & its unique level design compared to modern gamemodes. Not any more popular than Onslaught, TDM, or King of the Hill also means balancing its support with all other side modes. This is what got us to begin exploring the original Siege maps and projects like Siege Remixed and Swift Siege as we looked to make LTMs more like mode variants.

During Siege Remixed’s development, our former level designer Shak had also been working on a side project a few on the team were passionate about: a small horde gamemode running on Primal Court. When they originally showed it to the team, it looked like this:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This video was recorded with God mode enabled as testing was mainly centered around spawning at this stage.

As you can see, it was very much a prototype & mainly played around the studio as a fun lunch break game. Over time, however, several people would poke at the prototype and add various features or aspects to it. Artists would recommend skins, a designer curated the bots being utilized, and a programmer was beginning the shell of a GameClass (basically what tells our game that something is its own game mode). As we entered Winter of 2023, the Primal Court prototype looked like this:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

It was around this time that the team was planning for 2024 and the official pitch was made to create Wave Defense, at the time simply called “Horde”. (It got a little confusing internally when talking about Horde, the Item Hoard, and the Wild Hoard update.) We got the go ahead & after Moji’s rework was fully complete we went to work.

Over the latter half of Spring & early Summer, we added the two other maps players would see and unique bots for each. We added its own rules and settings, officially branching it off of Onslaught. We also brought the powerups from a previous LTM back to emulate the feel of an arcade experience. Our goals with Wave Defense were simple and hopeful: create a PvE experience for Paladins; one that was quick, approachable, and replayable. This version was the one that was released in Public Beta.

Our hope when Wave Defense was released into Beta was that its popularity (measured by number of unique players) would start near Onslaught and over time become less played while we worked on a more refined version based on feedback. Instead of describing how it performed, here’s a chart of our main game modes during Wave Defense’s launch week:

Note: Competitive KBM is actually all of Ranked since we switched to Crossplay required.

Wave Defense launched at nearly double the players as Onslaught, and despite known performance issues and bugs managed to fall in line with our other main modes. This was beyond our initial expectations and encouraged the team to look into further improvements and PvE ideas. However, as Wave Defense has been developed over a year at this stage, those improvements will take some time & we’ll communicate when they are ready.

A brief tangent: Having 4 side modes that all are similar in player count is an honor, but also comes with issues. Rotating modes in and out has been our solution in the past to offer every mode players would like to see some of the time; but with Wave Defense being added and none of the modes less popular than each other, it’s a temporary solution. An idea being considered to make the Arcade LTM a full-time mode and merging modes like Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, and Payload into it so we can continue to offer more modes while not harming matchmaking quality or time further. We’d be curious about player thoughts on this topic!


Our current goals with Wave Defense are to improve performance & continue to iterate on what the mode offers. On performance, we’ve already noticed an interesting trend where consoles perform much better than PCs, especially the current generation of consoles. We’re planning to dig into this and see if there are optimizations we can spread to last gen & computers, but it’ll take more time than we’ve had this specific update.

Wave Defense will be less frequent from our August update until October, replaced by an Event mode we’ll share more on soon. However, we wanted to make something to offer those looking for a harder challenge and something to earn. For select weekends during this period, Dark Tides: Champion Difficulty will be available! This is a harder version of the current Dark Tides experience, featuring stronger bots with some added abilities, as well as a new final wave that brings back Death Speakers from the original Dark Tides Event.

Those who defeat this mode during one of these weekends will earn the Limited Title Champion of the Tides to signify their conquering of the Kraken. We’re excited for players to play and maybe work towards a high-score!

We’ll continue to share updates on Wave Defense’s development and availability over time as we balance improvements to this mode as well as taking care of other modes. We’ve got changes coming to the map pools of Ranked, Siege, and TDM as well…but we’ll chat about those another day soon. Until then, enjoy Wave Defense!

Greetings Champions! This blog kicks off a mini-series of Developer Insight posts detailing various aspects of updates released this year as well as small previews of what is arriving over the horizon. Our goal with these is to answer some frequent questions we see from the community, explain various changes and issues we’ve experienced and how we’re resolving them, and hopefully along the way showcase some of the behind the scenes it takes to develop Paladins. This first post is all about Event Passes, and specifically the 2023 variation of them.

[h2]Eventful Chests[/h2]
Throughout this year, we’ve made a lot of changes to the Event Pass meant to reduce the risk of bugs in future passes & standardize how passes work from release to release to provide content more often and consistently. This started with the transition to Chests being the main way of delivering content, a change that players rightfully felt was random. We went into a little bit of detail in the Wild Hoard Update Notes, but we think we should share more to elaborate why we made the change.

In the original Battle Pass & Event Pass structure, each level needed to be created and configured from scratch with no ability to reuse the structure of previous passes. Each reward, whether it was a whole new cosmetic item or a bunch of crystals, needed to be manually added and tested every time. This meant content that worked in one pass might break in the next pass if the new item configuration had a mistake that nobody caught. To cut down on both the effort of making new Event Passes and also the chances of errors happening, we came up with tools and systems that could include more automation. This is how we landed on using chests, since we could keep the same level reward structure by giving out the same chests each pass and only need to change out the items within the chests.

Once the kinks in the new chests have been ironed out, the reduction of manual configuration should prevent bugs that would previously have taken 3-4 days of testing and fixing per patch, which doesn’t sound like a lot but that’s often the difference between several balance changes, a new LTM, or general polish and bug fixing that our designers can do with that time. It also cuts down on human error, something that really began to show with passes like Midnight Masquerade and Valor’s End. Handling all the Item configuration manually meant often we would break Items in ways that made it not only impossible for players to receive, but harder for us to fix.

However, as players have noticed, the initial implementation of this new system came with new bugs and issues that we're working on addressing. Conveying the contents of a Pass, the need to open Chests in order to receive your rewards, and general frustrations with clarity are all topics we’ve listened intently to. We’re planning to take steps to address this, starting with the next update coming later this month. To begin with, we know that the auto-rolling tech has confused many players as to what items they’ve acquired, so for now we’re disabling it.

[h2]Flashback Passes[/h2]
Flashback Passes began as a way for us to offer previous Battle & Event Pass content for a great discount in-between normal Event Passes. In case some players are worried that the Flashback Passes meant less original content, so far that hasn't really been the case & was not our intent. For comparison sake, here’s 2023 versus 2024:

[h3]2023 Event Passes[/h3]

• Into the Abyss (February - May)
  
• Midnight Masquerade (May - August)
  
• Sand’s of Myth 2 (August - October)
  
• Valor’s End (October - January 2024)
  

[h3]2024 Event Passes[/h3]

• Wild Hoard (January - March)
  
• Flashback: Beat Botz (March - May)
  
• Feudal Fables (May - July)
  
• Flashback: Buried Treasure (July - October)
  
• New Event Pass
  
• Flashback Event Pass
  

You’ll notice that 1 new Event Pass is missing while 3 Flashback Passes were added, this was so we could invest more resources into the new skins this year to improve & test their visuals. Moving forward, we’re still figuring out how 2025 will look on the Event Pass front & will share info once we have it. However, we do have some changes being made based on feedback on this year’s passes and their cadence. One small change we plan on testing is adjusting Event Pass XP to be a mix of the modern curve & past Event Pass level curves to make it feel better for players.

[h2]Feudal Fables & Buried Treasure[/h2]
For Feudal Fables, players had assumed that Feudal Fables was running significantly longer than we had planned, because the in-game timer indicated as much, and we didn’t update this timer before launching Tidal Surge. That’s purely an oversight on our end, & we wanted to make up for that to players as soon as we could.

Feudal Fables is returning…and Buried Treasure is staying! This is something we’ve never done before (and is still deep in testing) but we felt the best remedy to the fact that we moved on too quickly from an Event Pass was to let the 2 of them run side by side.

Players who already made progress on Feudal Fables will still have that progress & be able to finish up their passes between now and the next new Event Pass currently aimed for October. As for Buried Treasure, as a one-time only offering, we’re adding 6 Items to the Event Pass to sweeten the deal and hopefully make up for the issues experienced around launch of this Flashback. Players who already purchased it will be able to earn these as normal, and new purchasers will have 42 levels they can progress between now and October. Both passes will progress simultaneously, no need to pick which you are working on at a given time!

This system is highly experimental, being based on what we did for Anniversary back in 2023. We’re doing our due diligence to ensure this system works as players would expect and are excited for you all to get your hands on it later this month.

[h2]TL;DR[/h2]
[h3]7.5 Update (August)[/h3]

• Feudal Fables Event Pass returns alongside Flashback: Buried Treasure!
  
• Flashback: Buried Treasure has an additional 6 Levels added.
  
• Chests will no longer auto-roll on acquisition. We will revisit this system in the future with improvements.
  

[h3]7.6 Update (~October)[/h3]

• A New Event Pass will be released!
  
• XP adjustments will be made to make progression feel closer to past Event Passes.
  

Thanks for all of your support and patience while the team has been hard at work on this upcoming update. We have a lot more going on with the update coming in a few weeks, we’ll be sharing details in future blog posts touching on topics from specific Champion balance, Ranked, Wave Defense, and even a special Event! Stay tuned!

• Fixed an issue where players who purchased the Event Pass weren't receiving the bonuses and some rewards.
  • We're rolling out an additional fix any players who remain in states without earned rewards over the next few days.
• Fixed an issue where some chests within the Event Pass weren't auto rolled on acquisition.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Event Pass would hang on the purchase screen when bought.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Diamond Trove listed duplicate skins within its collection.
  • We're working on an additional issue where 2 skins (Outlaw Sha Lin & Ebon Star Zhin) appear as unowned even if owned for some players.
• Fixed an issue where bot names were incorrect within TDM Training.

• Fixed an issue where Io's Sacrifice Talent could end up in a state where she was invincible to damage.
  
• Fixed an issue where Lillith's Blood Hex was not healing targets past its initial tick.
  • Both Champions have been reenabled across all queues.
• Fixed an issue where Rei's Magic in the Blood was activating during Chain Heal as opposed to on the next cast.
  

• Dark Tides still has issues spawning players and offering Loadouts. This issue runs a bit deeper and will be fixed next update.
  
• Rejuvenate does not affects Pets or Illusions, which is unintended and will be fixed. We're continuing to watch sentiments around the new version & will make other non-fix improvements based on feedback as well.
  
• The Trial missing from Crosswind Hold is still hidden, however players will not need to complete it and can earn rewards as if it's not there. We're investigating within the Trials system issues with not receiving repeat rewards and will share more info as soon as possible.
  
• Makoa can get caught in terrain mattering when and where he activates Ancient Rage. We're looking into potential solutions, but in the meantime, we recommend not jumping against walls or ceilings during activation. Being BIG can be hard sometimes.
  

• Our Customer Support site has been updated and revamped with a new link & more features. Start a chat as needed with the blue icon in the bottom right of the Support page & be sure to bookmark this link for use if you find yourself in need of assistance in the future! https://support.hirezstudios.com/en/

PvE experiences are nothing new to Paladins, from LTM scenarios to past Events like Dark Tides, we’ve always toyed around with moments where players can fight AI combatants.
However, we’ve slowly worked on a passion project that looked to create a new experience that allows players to play a more-developed vision of what those modes could be like. Presenting Wave Defense, a new rotating game mode for Paladins.
[h2]Basics[/h2]

• Survive 10 minutes against waves of combatants who slowly escalate in number and difficulty.
  
• Protect the objective in order to prevent the horde from draining your tickets.
  
• The horde wins if you lose 30 Tickets.
  
  • Dying to the Horde loses you 2 Tickets.
    
  • The Objective drains 1 Ticket every 3s it is left uncontested.
    
• Random powerups have a chance of spawning after a kill, allowing players to claim brief buffs.
  

[h2]Queues[/h2]
[h3]Matchmade[/h3]
This version allows players to queue with randoms and enjoy Wave Defense with a full team! This is the primary method of enjoying the mode and what we intend to balance for in the future.
[h3]Private[/h3]
This version allows players to play on their own or with up to 4 friends without worrying about other players. Want to try a fun challenge or test out builds? This version scales based on the number of players, with our goal being an enjoyable experience regardless.

• This queue is in the Training tab, and the Tutorial has been pushed offscreen. To access the Tutorial, use arrow keys or the D-Pad to navigate over.

[h2]Experiences[/h2]
[h3]Corrupted Burrow[/h3]
Directly following the events of “Burrowed Within”, protect Brightmarsh and the Burrows from Yagorath’s brood of hatchlings and various monstrosities that are attempting to infect its heart. Moji managed to weaken the Maw’s grip on Nature, but only together as friends can you fully push back the Darkness to its seal.
[h3]Forgotten Altar[/h3]
Deep within Ska’Drin ruins of Primal Court, the Pyre has hidden away an altar preserving an ancient weapon. Curious Champions are encouraged to look into it by Tiberius, but Azaan refuses to allow them to do so with ease. Acolytes and Arbiters of his will stand in between you and uncovering more about the Realm’s most ancient force.
[h3]Dark Tides[/h3]
A reimagining of the original Event mode, Dark Tides takes place on Marauder’s Port, where corrupted cultists are performing a ritual to amplify the powers of the Kraken to attempt to open another Rift to fully destabilize the Realm. Once you interrupt them, prepare for denizens of the Abyss to arise and punish you for your heresy against their Lords.

Our goal with Wave Defense is to gauge player interest with this initial beta experience, and if enough enjoy it look to make updates/improvements in future releases. We hope you all enjoy!


We’ve heard feedback from the community that some of the new challenges are too long-term focused. With that in mind we’ve made the following changes:

• Damage And Heal Players For 2,000,000 total Health ➡️ Damage And Heal Players For 1,500,000 total Health
  
• Expend 15,000 Ammo ➡️ Expend 1,500 Ammo In Non-Training Siege, Team Deathmatch, Or Onslaught Matches
  
• Expend 150,000 Ammo ➡️ Expend 15,000 Ammo In Non-Training Siege, Team Deathmatch, Or Onslaught Matches
  
• Expend 500,000 Ammo ➡️ Expend 50,000 Ammo In Non-Training Siege, Team Deathmatch, Or Onslaught Matches
  
• Get 100 Headshots ➡️ Get 80 Headshots
  
• Heal 3 Allies Within 5 Seconds 75 Times ➡️ Heal 3 Allies Within 4 Seconds 40 Times
  
• Heal 4 Allies Within 5 Seconds 50 Times ➡️ Heal 4 Allies Within 4 Seconds 25 Times
  
• Kill 40 Frontline Champions ➡️ Kill 30 Frontline Champions
  
• Kill 60 Damage Champions ➡️ Kill 45 Damage Champions
  
• Kill 60 Flank Champions ➡️ Kill 45 Flank Champions
  
• Kill 60 Support Champions ➡️ Kill 45 Support Champions
  
• Spray 200 Times ➡️ Spray 50 Times
  
• Spray 30 Times In Onslaught or KotH Matches ➡️ Spray at least twice in 5 Non-Training Onslaught or KotH Matches
  
• Spray 30 Times In Team Death Match or Payload Matches ➡️ Spray at least twice in 5 Non-Training Team Death Match or Payload Matches
  
• Spray 40 Times In Siege Matches ➡️ Spray at least twice in 10 In Non-Training Siege Matches
  
• Spray 100 Times In Non-Training Siege, Team Deathmatch, Or Onslaught Matches ➡️ Spray at least twice in 25 Non-Training Siege Matches
  

We will of course continue to monitor Trials and player feedback regarding them.

What happens when you mix together surfers, pirates, and sea creatures? A Summer full of Flashback Fun! The Buried Treasure Flashback Event Pass brings back some of the most beloved cosmetics from the Shore Patrol and Pirate’s Treasure Battle Passes, as well as the Dark Depths Event Pass! 5 curated skins from those passes, as well as a whole host of previously exclusive cosmetics alongside a new set of Titles, are available in this trifecta of summer themes! As with the previous Flashback, players who own items within will be able to earn boosters and Crystals so everyone can join in on the party!

[h2]Skins[/h2]

• Mermaid Ying
  
• Pirate's Treasure Maeve
  
• Shore Patrol Kinessa
  
• Shore Patrol Fernando
  
• Sea Queen Saati
  

[h2]Avatars[/h2]

• Beach Vibes
  
• Bubbly
  
• Charming
  
• Sea Queen's Gate
  

[h2]Loading Frames[/h2]

• Azure Depths
  
• Beach Bash
  
• Deep Sea
  
• 
  

[h2]Sprays[/h2]

• Bruh
  
• Fierce Flanker
  
• Pirate's Treasure
  
• Sea Maiden
  
• X Marks the Spot
  

[h2]Death Stamp[/h2]

• Dead Man's Chest
  
• Grilled
  

[h2]Mount[/h2]

• Sky Orca (NEW!)
  

[h2]Play 5 Placement Matches[/h2]

• Reward: Golden Cache

[h2]Play 25 Matches[/h2]

• Reward: Sacred Stone Avatar

We've continued to bring back these Closed Beta recolors, now bringing some more classic styles that have changed or characters with specific details that required additional work. They'll be available for 160 Crystals/30,000 Gold or within the Heroic Hues Chest!
Barik

• Artisan
  
• Tinkerer

Buck

• Alpine
  
• Mesa

Cassie

• Amaranthine
  
• Azure

Drogoz

• Lust
  
• Pride
  
• Wrath

Fernando

• Gallant

Grohk

• Deathcap
  
• Lichen
  
• Toadstool

Grover

• Lavender

Jenos

• Capricorn

Kinessa

• Hunter
  
• Tracker
  
• Sharpshooter

Lex

• Justicar
  
• Peacekeep

Makoa

• Aruba
  
• Bahama

Mal’Damba

• Hexer
  
• Juju

Pip

• Iodine
  
• Uranium

Sha Lin

• Charisma
  
• Renowned

Skye

• Aqua
  
• Canary
  
• Blush

Strix

• Ghillie

Viktor

• Olive
  
• Navy

Active from Friday - Monday 12 AM ET throughout the Tidal Surge update
[h2]New[/h2]
Lian, I Shrunk the Realm!

• Enjoy a version of TDM where every time you manage to get an Elimination, your Champion shrinks by 10% in size and health while moving faster and jumping higher. This effect can stack up to 5 times, so watch out where you step as tiny Champions fight to see who can become the smolest bean!
  

[h2]Updated[/h2]
Truly Talented

• Bomb King
  • New Talent: Pop n' Lock
    • Poppy Bomb now deals 500 extra damage and cripples for 2s.
• Imani
  • Added to the Champion Pool
    
  • New Talent: Equilibrium
    • For 3s after using Elemental Shift, your cast speed is increased by 30%
• Mal'Damba
  • Wekono's Curse
    • Reduced damage from 900 over 3s ➡️ 560 over 2s
• Pip
  • New Talent: Lead Vial
    • Healing Potions now only activate when directly hitting a target, and may persist in the world for 10s after hitting a surface. Reduces cooldown of Healing Potion by 3s.
• Seris
  • The Void Protects
    • Now caps at 500 Shielding per target
• Zhin
  • New Talent: Blademaster
    • Deal 30% more damage to enemies within 20ft of you
  • Retaliation
    • Now makes Counter last 1s longer.
• Yagorath
  • Added to the Champion Pool
    
  • New Talent: Defensive Curl
    • While in Hardening, you are immune to Anti-Heal.

Player feedback around Truly Talented was beyond what we expected, so we wanted to meet the moment and provide additional support. First, we made some focused balance changes to help existing Talents function closer to their historical versions. We also are giving Seris a limit to her Shield dominance. In addition to balance changes, we've added additional Talents to the pool including 2 new Champions: Imani and Yagorath.
While many enjoyed this mode's lack of more contemporary Champions, these two allow us to explore some ideas that make them meld better with this era of Paladins design. Let us know how they feel and whether we should continue or leave this LTM a pure nostalgia fest!

[h2]Items[/h2]
Armor Plating