PATCH NOTES:
General
- Season 5 Ranked has begun! Vonn has been added to Ranked Mode!
- Season 4 Prestige Points, emblems, overcons and titles have been given out to qualifying players.
>> Vonn in ranked! No idea how that will turn out, except for all the games where ranked was accidentally available and he made relatively little impact.
>> Season 4 Prestige Points, emblems, overcons and titles have been given out — yesssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
Balance
Firepower
Blackburn – Blackburn’s win rate is slightly under par, and for such a damage-focused character, his primary could be more satisfying, especially in spread mode.
- Equalizer and Blitz damage increased from 32/18 to 33/20.
>> Honestly a great change (though ironic since the last nerf was -3 damage off the nade — I suppose they preferred this to simply reverting that? I agree but still funny). Blackburn needed this, especially on the spray damage. Look forward to seeing him have a little more success.
Celeste – Celeste’s win rate remains high. This slight nerf is nothing to worry about for a character who is so good at obtaining might.
- Strong Arm damage reduced from 22/34 to 22/33.
>> wow such nerf
Elle – Elle was undertuned. She might now be overtuned.
- Plasma Volley and Combat Reflexes damage increased from 25 to 27.
>> does she have an over-overtuned mod on her overtune? I think that’s the real question. This isn’t the change I’d have liked to see for Elle, but I don’t think it’s terrible to give her a buff. She should be quite scary now.
Juno – Juno’s win rate has been solid, but sometimes her primary doesn’t threaten supports and firepowers as much as it should.
- Juno: Laser Barrage damage increased from 22/30 to 24/32.
>> hmmmmm this is a scary change to a lancer I thought was relatively fine. Shoulda put her at B tier in my last tier list. Dammit.
Kaigin – A touch of extra survivability and punch for Kaigin to compete with the new Frontliners. We’ll be watching to see if he needs more assistance.
- Health increased from 125 to 130.
- Twisting Blades damage increase from 32/16 to 34/20.
>> u wot mate?! My Kaigin…you better not have…wait, this is fine. I feel like I said “maybe add 2 damage to his primary or something” and Trion maybe added 2 damage to his primary or something. And 5 hp is nice. This won’t break him, and “should separate the good Kaigin players from the great ones.” #RiotMemes
Lockwood – Lockwood’s win rate has fallen ever so slightly, but the number on his ultimate were still overdue for an adjustment. We have put some of that punch back into his primary.
- Run and Gun damage reduced from 45 to 40.
- Trickshot damage increased from 32 to 34.
>> Run and Gun damage reduced from 45 to 40. Okay, sure? Seems fine?
>> Trickshot damage increased from 32 to 34. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL. Oh my god the first change I’m actually just dying at. This is such a bad idea. PLEASE give him a damage penalty on successive bounces. PLEASE. Think of the children. Do you want your children to grow up in a world where Lockwood can consistently do 48 mighted damage around walls and cover?
NEV:3 – NEV:3 is a top-tier dps despite her range, and we want to see if she can keep it up without the extra 5 hp.
- Health reduced from 125 to 120.
>> Seems fine. She’s doing well, this shouldn’t affect that.
Nix – I mean, he is hitting you in the head.
- Headshot damage increased from 34 to 35.
>> Also seems fine.
Oz – Oz’s predictable escape had become a little too easy to manage, and his win rate has fallen off quite a bit.
- Made You Look cooldown decreased from 5 to 4.
>> Sweeeeeet. My latest “preferred” buff to Oz is an energy buff to his primary, but a 1-turn decrease on his dash cooldown is something I had suggested in the past and is a welcome buff. Happy to see it.
Tol-Ren – Tol-Ren’s win rate only dropped slightly from the Frontliner patch, but we did want to tune him slightly to make him more reliable. Like Kaigin, we want to keep an eye on him in the coming weeks.
- Health increased from 145 to 150.
- Twin Slash damage increased from 26/34 to 28/34.
- Honed Blade mod cost reduced from 3 to 1.
- Cross Slash mod bonus damage reduced from 4 to 3, and cost increased from 2 to 3.
- A new energy mod, Razor Focus, was added.
- Showdown damage increased from 50 to 52.
>> Yeah, so I may have erred at putting Tol-Ren in D-tier on my latest tier list. I think he was properly in C-tier. Good Tol-Rens were already having great success. What I like about these changes, though, is that Cross Slash (which errbody took) was actually nerfed and the single-sword damage and mod were buffed. This should make Tol-Ren no more oppressive than he already was (unless you count 5 hp and 2 damage on ult, which is fine), but let him do a bit of a different thing too. Honestly, not sure Tol needed a buff, but if they had to buff him these changes seem fairly reasonable.
Zuki – Rocket Jump is now slightly more effective against aggressive frontliners.
- Rocket Jump damage increased from 20 to 25.
>> Well everyone knows that Rocket Jump is an important damage-dealing ability for Zuki… Kappa Maxsilly…
Frontline
Brynn – Brynn’s excellent primary will now be slightly weaker against multiple targets. In other news, the Warforged mod had a +10% win rate.
- Warforged mod now increases the cooldown of Aegis by 1.
- Impale damage falloff increased from 4 to 5.
>> Totally fine with these changes.
Garrison – Good old Garry currently has the third highest win rate. These are minor QoL tweaks.
- Missile Barrage now can hit up to 5 targets, up from 3. He now brings enough for everyone.
- Hand Cannon cone damage increased from 12 to 15.
>> Garry has the third highest win rate in what? This week of PvP? AI games? Sewerlost videos? This honestly seems surprising. I think Garrison needed some additional help.
>> That said, these changes are nice and can only help him. Combined with a couple of nerfs to some of the other frontlines, it’s plausible that he could see some play. Trion can always reevaluate — that’s the value of small changes, and I’m glad Trion erred on the side of making relatively smaller changes with this patch.
Isadora – We wanted to ensure that Isadora’s periods of vulnerability were more guaranteed.
- Suit Up cooldown and lockout increased from 2 to 3.
>> Definitely not the nerf she needed, but we’ll take whatever we can get, I guess. Look for the rodent to become the new permaban in ranked, assuming people actually play her at a decent level.
Rampart – We don’t want Roflbukket to be a damage powerhouse on top of his strong binary defense, but we also didn’t mean for his damage to fall of quite so much when we revised his mods.
- Radamantium Flurry damage increased from 28/25 to 30/25.
- Bulwark damage increased from 25 to 28.
>> Roflbukket confirmed canon guys, pretty much the best buff you could ask for.
>> I think these changes are pretty reasonable.
Rask – The Rage Beast can clearly rage again, but his burst is a little too good. Further changes might be necessary.
- Uncontrollable Fury damage reduced from 25 to 20.
>> Well, it’s a start. “Further changes might be necessary.” Those words mean a lot to me. Knowing that the devs are willing to make further changes if needed, but are starting out with relatively more minor changes and reevaluating is great.
Support
Only one support change, as we want to get more data on supports before making any large adjustments. Looking forward to your feedback.
Orion – We like that Orion has found a strong role, but his survivability needed to be addressed in some way. He might get further changes after we gather more support data.
- Fate Transfer shields reduced from 20 to 15.
>> Like Isadora, not the nerf Orion really needed, but honestly not a terrible nerf nevertheless. Fate Transfer is insanely strong and reducing a bit of its raw power level does allow teams to punish the Orion a bit more once he’s low. Again, Trion has left open the possibility of further changes, so let’s see how ranked and PPL go in this new patch.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where winning games while in the contender tier would give more ranked points than the points lost for losing.
>> This might be the single most significant and best change of the entire patch notes. I am thoroughly delighted. Thank you Trion for changing this! Ranked players everywhere, let’s hit the ladder!
- Fixed an issue where Vonn’s Cold Snap ability could end earlier than intended when using the Lingering Chill mod.
>> Oh well fuck yes I love me some bug fixes so why not?
Overall, I think these patch notes are great. Other than the strange absence of meaningful Isadora nerfs and the freaking insane buff to Lockwood primary (PLEASE. THE CHILDREN. LOCKWOOD WAS PROBABLY A TERRIBLE PARENT DO YOU REALLY WANT MORE CHILDREN TO SUFFER AT HIS HANDS), I think these are reasonable and tempered changes, and look forward to playing in this meta with the knowledge that Trion are keeping their eye on most of the important parts. Not sure if our forum posts or any other community feedback made a difference, but to the extent Trion listened, thank you! This patch is honestly a lot better than I had feared, and a real relief. 🙂
The Lockwood changes scare me honestly, he was already a solid lancer yet they decided to buff his primary. The change to his ult is not that impactful outside of securing kills, but you only really cast it 1-2 regularly in matches, while his primary is a staple.
The Zuki buff is a knee-jerk reaction to the shift in meta, now that there are more people playing frontlines.
As an avid Kaigin player myself, the damage buff wasnt the buff I wanted, but i’ll take what I can get. Still praying for an overhaul with his smokebomb.
Im a bit ambivalent with Isadora’s changes, sure she still hits like a truck but now she is forced to stay 1 turn longer in foot mode, which is a good trade. Though honestly this just separates the good rodent players with the bad, than address the issue that she hits like a truck.
The others are mostly a step in the right direction.