V1.6.2 Patch Notes

Greetings, Champions!

It’s patch time again already, and this one’s all about tightening the screws!

We’re making a range of changes across the board with this update, with a focus on Augment balance, nudging some outliers back in the right direction and giving Midlane Mages a little more agency, especially against melee targets. 

Whether you're theorycrafting your next Augment combo, or just looking to win your lane a little more cleanly, there’s something here for you!

Let’s dive in.

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Balance Changes:

Nitro Mode:

We're generally happy with where Nitro has landed but we feel that too many games are lasting too long. All of the changes listed below are aimed to bring the average game time down to around 20 minutes. While trying to ensure only a small percentage of games last more than 25 minutes, and no game lasts longer than 30 minutes. We want Nitro to be reliable in terms of game length so you can always get one more game in.

Passive Experience Points (XP)

We are adding a small amount of passive experience from 8 minutes into the game, we have taken some of the xp out of siege minions to allow this. The goal is to ensure you are not too punished from roaming around the map. 

Passive Gold

Slight increase to passive gold income from 8 minutes to support players getting to the right amount of items at the right time windows.

Kill Gold

Small increase to early gold income and reducing some of the gold paid out on shut downs. We saw some teams were having too much success from getting shut downs and other teams were not getting far enough ahead from early kills. 

Tower Plating

Small change to make Tower plating a bit easier to take.

Minions 

Related to adding passive xp changes above.

Objectives

We are making changes to all of the big objectives. Increasing the gold they grant to push the teams taking objectives further ahead. We are reducing the respawn time of Fangtooth so its offset from Orb Prime to prevent continuous object trading that pushes games to stall. Lastly we are increasing the power of the buffs to ensure they provide an adequate advantage to the team able to secure them.

Fangtooth

Primal Fangtooth

Mini Prime 

Orb Prime

Minor Augment Balance Changes:

Voracity:

Voracity is receiving a small reduction in its healing factor to ensure it does not outshine other Minor Augments in its pool that are also being impacted with nerfs this pass.

Regenerator:

Regenerator is currently allowing too many Heroes to stall out through a lane and is in need of a slight reduction in efficacy. This is primarily being done through an increase to its Healing duration which results in an overall Healing per second decrease, meaning Heroes that keep up the pressure will have an easier time fighting through the Healing and securing kills on their target. 

Technocrat:

Technocrat reducing Ultimate Cooldowns would contribute to too many disparities between Ultimate Cooldowns and all-in attempts for certain Heroes, with many of its users no longer possessing meaningful windows of downtime between Ultimate uses. As a result, Technocrat will no longer reduce Ultimate Cooldowns.

Farmer:

Farmer is seen as difficult to forego for many Junglers due to its overall efficacy. A small reduction in Monster Damage should have the gap in clear speeds between Farmer and non-Farmer users feeling less noticeable, better allowing Jungles to consider other alternatives in the Pool. Likewise, the Minion Damage aspect of Farmer is typically only appreciated in specific matchups, so a small increase is being offered to make it more appealing to various Laners that are looking for some additional shove.

Alchemist:

Much like Regenerator, Alchemist is seeing an increase to its Regen Duration, meaning Heroes that kit dump in trades will restore less mana than those that spread out their ability casts over time.

Hero Balance Changes

General:

For this pass, we are looking at improving the efficacy and agency of various Mages by reducing the Magical Armor Growth of each Hero by an amount. The reduction is far larger for Melee Heroes, as typically these are the targets that many Mages struggle to deal with or deal meaningful damage to. Ultimately, alongside the changes to Health Growths that many Heroes have also received, this will result in many Mages dealing approximately 5-10% more damage to Melee Fighters and Tanks as a match progresses, better allowing them to contribute to fights and carry a match against a variety of targets, should they find themselves in the driver’s seat. It should be noted that various Magical Damage Dealers such as Tanks and Frontliners such as Steel and Kwang have received reductions to their base damage to ensure that they do not also benefit too heavily from these changes.

While dwarfs may be natural sprinters, Arcane Engine can allow Argus to ramp up in speed a little too quickly at the start of fights. It is receiving a small hit to ensure that Argus must commit to a fight for an extra second or two before he really starts to ramp up in speed.

Aurora’s general ability to withstand incoming burst damage and ignore her opponent in lane after securing her first item creates too many cases of non-interaction. Alongside a small damage decrease to compensate for the lower Magical Armors on all Heroes, heavier general hits to her base stats are in order to give physical damage dealers an easier time at threatening her in duels and teamfights.

Alongside some general efficacy improvements to his Augments, Boris is receiving a large reduction to Ursine Burst’s cooldown. This is especially needed as Boris tends to forego Ability Haste items in his usual build, meaning his Ultimate windows are far fewer than most other Junglers with him struggling to keep pace in the earlier stages of a match.

Countess has emerged as one of the premier Offlane Heroes, able to function safely and effectively in a myriad of matchups and being considered one of the best blind picks in the role by many. Some general hits to her base stats and Blade Siphon Healing against Heroes are needed to better allow other Melee fighters in Offlane the chance at withstanding her early pressure and hitting their own power-spikes.

Crunch’s ability to cover vast distances with Lunge Crunch outshines his other Augments too heavily. As a result, it is seeing a small reduction to better allow other Augments to compete. Meanwhile, Combo Crunch is seeing a shift from Bonus to Total Attack Speed, better allowing it to curve throughout a match and pair better with Attack Speed buys such as Earthshaker.

Dekker is receiving a range of changes to her Augments, with Ionic Surge losing some general effectiveness to free up the space for other Augments to be considered, while Photon Efficiency is receiving a general damage increased to Photon Disruptor, better allowing it to serve those that wish to be aggressive in Lane, be that Support or Mid.

Drongo is receiving a suite of Magical Power Scalings across his kit, better opening up the possibility for new build paths with a more Gag Grenade oriented build - especially when taking the Smog Therapy Augment. Additionally, Bring the Boom is receiving a small quality of life change that will now have Rad Rounds Exploding in the event a Target dies with stacks already applied to them, increasing the consistency and use-cases of the Augment. Likewise there is a large Bug Fix to Rad Rounds, which will return his damage to normal levels as it would previously sometimes deal 1 stack’s worth of damage.

Feng Mao’s ability to snowball after picking up a few kills can lead to too many instances of him running away with a match with repeat Earth Shatter executions. Some general scaling adjustments are needed on Earth Shatter to reduce the pace at which Feng Mao can achieve god status should he find early kills. Likewise, Seismic Smash is receiving a reduction to its Knockup Height, thereby reducing the duration at which is Stuns those effected.

Ion Barrier tends to fall short in the Shielding department, often failing to offer enough bang for its buck to either Gadget or her team to feel worthwhile. To remedy this, it is receiving a significant increase to its Magical Scaling. Likewise Gadget is receiving an increase to her Sticky Mine Empowered Explosion Scaling, which when paired with the Magical Armor reductions to all Heroes, should have her Sticky Mine feeling far more lethal in those close range engagements where she can consistently empower it.

Gideon’s Abyssal Mantle is receiving a quality of life adjustment, with it now applying after Truesilver Bracelet's Shield, better allowing the Augment to act as a buffer the CC-immune shield and synergise more heavily with Black Hole focused builds.

While the previous rounds of adjustments to Greystone brought him down to a healthier level of strength, he’s still in possession of too much innate durability which can allow him with too much freedom to invest in damage-heavy itemisation while still feeling incredibly durable. As a result, we’re opting for further hits to Stoicism Physical Armor and Stone Forge Soul Healing, providing more Heroes with a better chance at dueling him due to a lower durability baseline, while also challenging Greystone to navigate fights with slightly less reckless abandon should he commit to damage-heavy builds.

Grim is receiving a range of adjustments to his Augments, with Reboot.exe now providing more value when dueling Heroes, and GTFO now executing and correctly resetting when a target is blasted with Instant Reload. Likewise, Grim is a large benefactor of the Magical Armor reduction thanks to his Magical Basic Attacks, so a reduction to the Physical Power Scaling of The Invertor is in order to ensure his rundown potential does not become too overwhelming. Fear not, however, as some of this lost strength is being redistributed into his abilities to ensure that Grim still feels adequately rewarded for investing in Physical Power Items.

Grux’s Healing potential was heavily limited in previous balance passes to reduce the cases of early-game frustration. However, balancing around this healing baseline required a lower damage output for Grux, which has left his feeling ill-equipped to adequately threaten key targets in fights. To free ourselves up from being tied to limiting Grux’s strength to his early-game Healing and how uninteractive that can feel for a lot of matchups, we’re shifting around Double Pain’s scaling profile, with him now starting off with lower Healing in the early-game before normalizing back to it in the mid-game, which allows us to provide him with slightly more damage potential in the lane, and Grux ultimately ending up in a stronger mid-game spot while being less obnoxious to deal with in the early levels.

Alongside benefiting from the Magical Armor changes, A small increase in R2000’s Magical Scaling is being provided to ensure that Howitzer is not overly punished in the damage department when he fails to nail those direct hits and misses out on that bonus damage.

Iggy has found a large amount of success with Turret Maniac, with the extra Flame Turret allowing him to cook up a storm thanks to the damage and presence a 4 Turret Iggy possesses when allowed to set up in a fight. To ensure there’s an adequate tradeoff to the damage boost offered by Turret Maniac, we’re adding a negative to the Augment that reduces general durability of his Turrets, better allowing opponents to pick off his extra Turrets in fights. Likewise, we’re increasing the efficacy of his other Augments to make them more competitive with Turret Maniac and thereby open up more viable options for him to explore.

Kallari is receiving a small quality of life change for her Deadly Finesse Augment, with it now granting its cooldown refund then Crippling Dagger lands the killing blow on a Minion or Monster. This will allow it more general application should she wish to take the Augment in the Jungle Role, while also opening up more potential for her to function in a lane when using her Daggers to farm.

Khaimera is receiving some very small hits to his Level 1-3 strength, better controlling how oppressive he can be in those early invade scenarios with his Jungle Invasion Augment, or in the early lane should he opt into his Minion Regeneration Augment.

Similar to Kallari, the previous round of changes to Kira were enough to push her to the forefront of power now that she is more comfortably finding her way through lane and cleaning up team fights. Given the nature of Kira’s more ability-based nature and how much of a late-game threat she can become should she find a Takedown in a fight, we’re opting to reduce the raw burst potential of Mercy so that her upfront damage isn’t as high, while also reducing the efficacy of Attack Speed items on her to ensure she must utilize her Abilities fully, rather than being able to rely on Basic Attacking her way to victory.

As Kwang is currently rather successful in the damage and durability departments, he is one of the Magical Melee Heroes receiving some heavier damage adjustments to offset any benefit he would gain from the Magical Armor reductions that all Heroes are subject to.

Lt. Belica’s Devastating Bombs is receiving a small boost in damage to make it more competitive with her two other Augments as they both currently provide far more consistent value, better enabling her to opt into Burst builds should she desire.

A small bump in Ritual Of Death’s Cooldown refund is being granted, better allowing Morigesh to score Multi-Kills in late-game teamfights to reward her more appropriately for staying stable until Level 16 given that she must foregone laning the consistent laning strength offered by her other Augments.

Ritual Of Death [Augment]:

Mourn’s combination of durability and disruption makes him incredibly difficult to shut down, with him often being too durable to catch out, but too disruptive to ignore. Given his range of Supportive capabilities, some general reductions to Mourn’s durability are needed to ensure that his identity trends more towards that of a Warden that positions more between his backline and frontline, rather than him being as durable as a conventional Frontliner and allowed to position too recklessly.

Some small stat adjustments for Murdock that are simply in parity with the majority of other Heroes.

Muriel’s Essence Nullifier struggles to feel as impactful as one would expect. As a result we’re bumping up its early Mana Burn, better allowing her to play aggressively in the early-game and shut down some of the more Mana hungry Heroes should she desire.

Alongside some general durability reductions that are in line with other Heroes, Narbash is also receiving a small reduction to his Mana Growth, better ensuring that he can actually run out of Mana in the later stages of the game should he fight for too long.

Small bumps in efficacy are being offer to both Final Flash and Essence Catlayst, opening up more potential for aggressive Mage Phase builds, and ensuring she is adequately rewarded in the healing department should she opt into Magical Power Items in the Support role.

The formidable power of “Ankle Biter Rampage” has been experienced by many, with his ability to gain multiple Rocks thanks to his Ashbringer build making him especially difficult to deal with. While Ashbringer is also seeing a reduction in power further below, Tiny Titan still requires a larger reduction in Attack Speed and a larger trade-off in Damage Taken to ensure that opponents have a reasonable chance at surviving an encounter with Tiny Rampage. Alternatively, The Rumbling is receiving a lower Mana Cost and a small bump in damage in a bid to make it more competitive with other Augment alternatives.

Revenant’s general damage output, mobility, and potential to blast through frontliners thanks to his Fellfire Blast Augment has left him standing tall as one of the premier Carries in the current ecosystem. Various damage reductions and efficacy adjustments are needed across his kit to ensure that his damage and snowball potential does not eclipse that of other Carries. The majority of this damage loss being done in the form of lower Basic Attack and Fourth Shot damage, with Hellfire Blast also seeing a large reduction to its Armor Penetration component to provide Frontliners more breathing room when dealing with Revenant.

Some minor adjustments to Riktor, with Shock Therapy losing a small a chunk of damage to offset the Magical Armor changes, and Wanton Warden losing some of its inherent regeneration to ensure that Riktor does not become too overly durable compared to other frontlines, given his outstanding catch potential in fights.

Serath’s dominant strategy of relying on Ashbringer and Crushing Descent to dominate fights with repeat casts of Heaven’s Fury and micro-stuns is seeing heavy adjustments. Firstly, Heaven’s Fury will now no longer immediately go on Cooldown when used, meaning the value she gains from Ashbringer and Technocrat is greatly reduced. Likewise, her general damage output, durability, reset-potential, and Stun capabilities are also receiving slight efficacy hits to ensure that she must work harder to achieve her first kill in fights. Conversely, both the Vital Resonance and Wrath Unleashed Augments are receiving improvements to their effects, better allowing them to compete with Crushing Descent and encouraging alternative styles of play.

Sevarog is another Melee Magical Hero that is receiving damage adjustments to offset the gains from the Magical Armor adjustments, alongside some general efficacy reduction to his Passive Benefits at Tier 2 and 3 to ensure that he does not become as overbearing to fight against as a match progresses into the late-game.

As with many other Heroes, Shinbi is receiving some small adjustments to her general durability that is largely in line with other Heroes. Alongside this however, Natural Talent is receiving a significant increase in the amount of Ability Haste it offers, while also now granting the Haste gain when killing Siege Minions, allowing Shinbi to opt into the Augment in Lane with less drawbacks should she wish.

Skylar’s general autonomy and damage output in the earlier stages of a match are far more conditional than most carries with shorter poke and trading looping, resulting in her struggling to have impact until she progresses deeper into her build. To help smooth out this early weakness and exaggerate her strengths, we’re granting her some additional poke and trading potential with Plasma Grenade and Hypercharge, while ensuring her damage adequately scales further into a match to justify her slower start.

Sparrow is receiving a few changes aimed at reducing the overall burst potential of her Ultimate, especially when opting into the Inner Fury Augments, but in exchange she is receiving some efficacy improvements to her Veiled Stalker and Endless Hunts Augments, with Heightened Sense now going on Cooldown immediately when used, better allowing it to synergise with Cooldown Reduction and Ability Haste Itemisation, and now benefitting from Endless Hunt’s Cooldown reset.

Steel is receiving a range of changes aimed at improving the viability and consistency of his lesser used Augments, with Colossal Crash having a slightly larger area of effect and therefore being easier place efficiently, and Adaptive Force now possessing a lowe Cooldown general Mana Cost so that repeat shields may be used more liberally. Additionally he is receiving a larger range of damage decreases to once again offset any gains from the Magical Armor changes, but in return he is being granted an increase to various Magical Power Scalings to further open up the possibility for him to opt into damage alternatives and new potential build paths, should he wish to sacrifice some durability to reclaim this lost damage.

Alongside some general improvements to her lesser-picked Augments, Terra is also receiving a small damage bump to Ruthless Assault, better allowing her to pressure out various opponents in the early-game in slower lane matchups that she should be finding more success in.

Wild Growth’s Bramble Patch Range is receiving a reduction to make it less overwhelming as a poke and utility tool, better bringing it into parity with her alternative Augments. Additionally, Natural infusion is receiving a slight increase to its Ability Haste Duration, allowing Fey a little more leniency between Harvest Nettle casts before they drop.

Wraith is receiving two distinct changes this pass, with Sniper’s Bounty now providing a higher Gold Reward on Snipe Kills for conventional Physical Wraith builds, helping him scale into relevance faster. Alternatively, we are trialing the addition of a Magical Power Scaling on his Basic Attack, providing Mage Wraith a small, but meaningful bump in DPS and laning Capabilities when opting for Magical heavy builds that will help supplement his lack wave-clear and trading potential.

Alongside a reduction to Masterful Mimicry’s Stack Generation efficacy, Wukong is receiving a range of Base Stat adjustments that are once again targeting at reducing his early efficacy when played in a lane-based role. Many of these changes will not meaningfully impact Jungle Wukong, but in lane he should find himself with a slower start and having to work harder to hit a point of stability and come online.

Yurei’s ability to cut through her foes and vanquish groups of enemies with extreme speeds is on the fast side, largely in part the damage amp offered from Torn Souls and how it compounds across a fight as a 2x damage modifier. As a result, she is receiving general power decreases across her kit, with slightly less Mana efficiency and trading potential with Anima Burst and Whispering Echoes in the Offlane at early levels, and general reductions to her damage output across her Basic Attacks and Ultimate that will bring her burst potential to more acceptable levels, especially when ahead.

Small stat shifts for Zarus, alongside a reduction to the free Health Scaling offered but The Ascended to ensure he does not become too durable for free.

A small bump in Healing Scaling for Zinx, as the previous rounds of reductions diminished her healing capabilities a little too heavily in the mid-game.

Item Balance Changes:

Tonics:

Protection Tonic is receiving a bump to its Armors to make it a more competitive option to Stamina Tonic.

Stamina Tonic is incredibly efficient thanks to the raw Health and Ability Haste it offers, often being optimal for Assassins and Mages to consider over Intellect and Strength Tonics. A small reduction to the Haste is needed to bring it closer to the power of the other Tonics. 

Crests:

Various Carry and Mage Crests are receiving a small increase to the Physical and Magical Power they offer, better allowing these roles to curve through the early and mid-game.

Eviscerator is largely overshadowed by Liberator and Pacifier due to the lack of safety it possesses. To make it more competitive, we’re now granting it some temporary Omnivamp on activation, better allowing Carries to stick in a fight and capitalise on moments of high DPS. 

Tempest is once again receiving a reduction to healing it grants, as it is a large factor that contributes to cases of excessive durability for various Magical Bursiers.

A small bump down in temporary durability for Saphir’s to account for the fact that it offers infinite Health Scaling, compared to the temporary benefits of Nyr Warboots and Razorback.

T2:

Carry:

Ashbringer has received a surge in popularity in recent weeks, with many Heroes learning to appreciate the strength of its effect. Now that it is being used more widely by a range of Heroes, it is in need of a reduction in Cooldown Refund to ensure the volume of frustration cases from multiple ability rotations from the likes of Grux, Serath and Rampage are reduced. 

A small bump in Lifesteal for Sky Splitter as it is currently struggling to allow its users to stay competitive with the more popular burst-heavy Augmentation and general Bruiser builds.

Assassin:

More Power, Less Health, making it more desirable as a tech option that doesn't incur such a heavy damage-loss for the Carries and Assassins in need of it.

A small stat shift for Mindrazor, pushing it away from Ability Haste and more towards Power, better ensuring that its users have downtime between their ability rotations that can be capitalised on by opponents.

Nightfall has been incredibly powerful for quite some time, but the Hero Roster didn't quite have anyone able to make perfect use of it. With the addition of Yurei, we now have a Nightfall wielder that can utilise it to its full potential thanks to the range of AoE tools she possesses, and as such it is in need a reduction to the overall healing it offers.

Omen is another item that can contribute to excessive ability uptime, especially when paired with Technocrat and/or Ashbringer. To ensure Cooldown refund effects are not as prevalent across the game, it is receiving a loss in its refund in return for slightly more burst potential, better fitting the shape of the Assassin playstyle.

Spear of Desolation is largely underrepresented in builds, often feeling difficult to slot into builds over other alternatives. To make its use-cases more distinct, we’re shifting some some of its Ability Haste into Ultimate Haste while also offering it more raw penetration, better allowing the item to serve as your go-to should you desire more frequent Ultimate Burst.

Fighter:

Less Health for Aegis, making it less valuable as an early-game game buy while ensuring Fighters there is a healthier ratio of durability to damage when it is picked up.

Augmentation has also seen a surge in popularity, largely in thanks to the mix of damage, durability and cooldown uptime it offers. Given this, it can stand to be slightly more expensive and offer slightly less durability, better ensuring that bulkier Heroes cannot pick it up as freely without feeling the durability tradeoff.

Salvation is another Fighter Item that serves as an incredible durability spike for those that need it. While overall it fulfills a strong need within the Fighter Class, especially when playing against CC-heavy compositions, it currently provides too much raw power and bulk as a standalone purchase, so it is being met with a stat reduction on both fronts, in return for a slightly lower cost.

Mage:

While dreambinder is incredibly gold efficient, it feels like a luxury buy in many cases due to it needing to come online later in builds once other stats have been acquired, such as Mana, Haste and Penetration. To better allow it to slot into a build we’re dropping its cost, allowing faster access to its Slowing Effect in exchange for lower stats.

Alongside a small bump in power, Entropy’s cooldown is being reduced to 0.2s, further cementing its identity and synergizing with Abilities such as Gadget’s Seek & Destroy, Argus’ Particle Shredder, and Iggy’s Inferno, which deal damage at intervals at rates faster than 0.3s.

Less Health, more Sustain, better rewarding Magnify’s owners in drawn out fights, while making them more vulnerable to burst damage and catch attempts should they get caught out of position.

Oathkeeper contributes to Magical Bruiser durability being too high considering the damage amp it provides. Less health is needed to ensure this ratio is in check. 

Oblivion Crown struggles to feel like a significant late-game spike in damage for Mages and has room for a little more potency in its effect as a result.

Given the strength of its effects, Soulbinder is an incredibly powerful damage spike, especially when poached by Supports. A small increase in gold cost is needed to ensure it does not outshine other alternatives too heavily.

Tainted Scepter is frequently picked up by a range of Heroes, often providing too much general value alongside its strong effects. A small reduction in Magical Power is needed to ensure that its buyers are making an adequate damage trade-off when opting for it over the alternatives.

Tank:

Giant’s Ring already offers a significant reduction to its owner’s cooldowns thank to its effect, while also possessing a very desirable set of stats. Due to its overall effectiveness, it can stand to lose some Ability Haste and thereby be less of a catch all buy for Tanks and Fighers alike.

Tainted Bastion is currently the only Blight item without Ability Haste, which makes it feel less satisfactory to pick up for a range of Heroes that need its effect to deal with specific Heroes such as Morigesh and Countess. To improve its general use-cases, we’re granting it a small amount of Haste in exchange for less Health, while also bumping up its Damage Reduction effect to grant it more general value.

Tainted Guard is an incredible standalone purchase, often directly shutting down many Healing Heroes while providing a very desirable stat line. With Tainted Bastion receiving some Ability Haste, the “Double Tainted” pairing with Bastion becomes even more powerful. As a result of these factors, we’re opting to reduce Tainted Guard’s Ability Haste to trim off some of its general strength. 

Bug Fixes

That’s a wrap on v1.6.2!

Thank you for reading and keep the feedback coming. We’ve got plenty more cooking behind the scenes and we can’t wait to show you what’s next in v1.7!

Rei & Steggs 

Game Design & Community @ Omeda Studios