Game balancing provisional notes for game update 1.2.55 beta
Greetings. These are the game balance changes expected to happen with the upcoming beta 1.2.55 game update. PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT ANY CHANGE IS STILL SUBJECT TO REVIEW.
General
Items
Bosses
> Magroth now deals greatly reduced damage with his melee attacks, but his attack speed has been increased.
> Magroth Charge ability now deals 300% of weapon damage and stuns all targets in his path for 4 seconds.
> Magroth Meteor Strike ability now deals 1500% of weapon damage upon impact.
> Magroth gained the Enrage ability, increasing his damage by 300% and doubling his attack speed. Magroth does not possess the Enrage ability while under level 35.
> The Broken Dragon now deals greatly reduced damage with his attacks, but now his attacks are ranged and the attack speed has been increased.
> The Broken Dragon no longer follows the target while channeling Fire Breath. Instead, the Dragon locks on the target’s position and spews the Breath continuously for 2.5 seconds, then restarts the sequence. The Breath sequence repeats 3 times. Fire Breath now deals increasingly more damage the more time elapses, starting each new Breath at 100% weapon damage and peaking at 2000% weapon damage per second during the final second. The Broken Dragon is immune to crowd control effects while channeling the Fire Breath.
> The Broken Dragon periodically Overflows, shooting Fire Bolts around. Each Fire Bolt deals 275% of weapon damage.
> The Broken Dragon spews Molten Lava, creating patches of lava in the Hero’s proximity. After 1.5 seconds, the patch activates, and any unit standing inside the patch is afflicted by molten lava, taking 10% weapon damage per second and increases damage taken by 10%, stacking up to 10 times. The molten lava lingers for 7 seconds, and a new application refreshes the entire stack. Patches last for 21 seconds. The Broken Dragon does not possess the Molten Lava ability under level 35.
> Elban now deals greatly reduced damage with his melee attacks, but his attack speed has been increased.
> Elban Blood Leech now deals increasingly higher damage the more time the link stays activated and the closer Elban is to his target, and also heals Elban by a great amount the closer the target is to him and the more time Elban spent draining blood. Elban also slows the target while channeling Blood Leech. When the distance between Elban and the target is too great, the link breaks. The Blood Leech does not heal Elban during the first 1.5 seconds of channeling.
> Elban leaps into the air and then targets the player’s position, highlighted by a circle when his targeting is complete, unleashing a Devastating Assault, which deals 10000% weapon damage.
> Elban disappears in a cloud of smoke and then reappears next to the player, channels a frontal attack for 3 sec attempting to impale the Hero with great force. Impale deals 300% weapon damage instantly, and causes the Hero to bleed for 100% weapon damage every second for the remainder of the fight. The Impale bleed effect stacks multiple times. While channeling Impale, Elban is vulnerable and receives 200% more damage.
> Elban is immune to crowd control effects once he started channeling any ability.
> Elban movement speed has been increased by 50%.
> Elban’s health pool has been slightly increased.
Trials
Due to the trials redesign, a full reset of unlocked Trials will be performed.
Class changes
Warrior
Bounty Hunter
Mage
General
- Several stats have been converted into ratings. Parry Rating replaced Parry Chance, Dodge Rating replaced Dodge Chance, Block Rating replaced Block Chance and Haste Rating replaced Attack Speed. The formulas to calculate the new ratings are: chance=Rating / (Rating + K) for Parry, Dodge and Block ratings, where K varies per character level. K(70) is 2000 for Parry, 2200 for Dodge and 2400 for Block. Haste Rating formula is number_of_attacks=1+[6 x Rating / (Rating+K)], where K(70)=1000.
- Several boss and creature hitboxes have been adjusted, to reduce the chance of misclicking when a player wishes to issue an attack command.
- A Vitality counter has been added in the detailed stats panel.
- Champion levels now award smaller bonuses for characters under level 70. Extra gold and extra experience are exempt from this rule.
- Vitality now awards 30% more life per point.
- Life on Hit and Life Regeneration present on gear pieces now award 25% less of the respective stat.
- Champion points awarding Life on Hit and Life Regeneration now provide 20 of the respective stat (down from 25).
- Companions no longer gain any cooldown reduction bonuses from the Hero.
- Companion Maggie, the Potion Caster Silence Field ability now has 45 seconds cooldown, the effect no longer slows and now lasts for 3 seconds.
- Equipment with Parry Rating or Block Rating will no longer drop for Mages and Bounty Hunters.
- Ranged attacks, magic attacks and area attacks can no longer be parried.
- Magic attacks and area attacks can no longer be dodged.
- Area attacks can no longer be blocked.
- The Ability Rate calculation formula has been adjusted to cooldown_reduction=R/(R+K), where K(70)=1500 (was 1000).
- The passive ability giving attacks a chance to reduce active cooldowns has been named “Alacrity”. Alacrity now provides a 5% chance to lower the cooldowns (was 25%), but this chance is increased by Ability Rate (up to 30% at 1500 Ability Rate).
- Displayed damage that contains a proportion of critical hits should now be significantly larger.
- Dual Wielding now provides a 30% bonus to attack speed (was 40%), but all percentage increases are multiplicative with the number of attacks resulted from Haste Rating.
- Melee monsters attacks are now harder to avoid once initiated.
Items
- The Mage Apprentice 2-piece set bonus and The Encrypted Shield effect now reduce damage taken by 10% (was 25%). In addition, the shield stacks for a value equal to the Hero's Life on Hit stat, and can no longer exceed 25% of the Hero's HP.
- Block, Parry and Dodge ratings can now appear on more item slots, although generally at lower rate than offensive stats.
Bosses
- The Magroth encounter has been redesigned.
> Magroth now deals greatly reduced damage with his melee attacks, but his attack speed has been increased.
> Magroth Charge ability now deals 300% of weapon damage and stuns all targets in his path for 4 seconds.
> Magroth Meteor Strike ability now deals 1500% of weapon damage upon impact.
> Magroth gained the Enrage ability, increasing his damage by 300% and doubling his attack speed. Magroth does not possess the Enrage ability while under level 35.
- The Broken Dragon encounter has been redesigned.
> The Broken Dragon now deals greatly reduced damage with his attacks, but now his attacks are ranged and the attack speed has been increased.
> The Broken Dragon no longer follows the target while channeling Fire Breath. Instead, the Dragon locks on the target’s position and spews the Breath continuously for 2.5 seconds, then restarts the sequence. The Breath sequence repeats 3 times. Fire Breath now deals increasingly more damage the more time elapses, starting each new Breath at 100% weapon damage and peaking at 2000% weapon damage per second during the final second. The Broken Dragon is immune to crowd control effects while channeling the Fire Breath.
> The Broken Dragon periodically Overflows, shooting Fire Bolts around. Each Fire Bolt deals 275% of weapon damage.
> The Broken Dragon spews Molten Lava, creating patches of lava in the Hero’s proximity. After 1.5 seconds, the patch activates, and any unit standing inside the patch is afflicted by molten lava, taking 10% weapon damage per second and increases damage taken by 10%, stacking up to 10 times. The molten lava lingers for 7 seconds, and a new application refreshes the entire stack. Patches last for 21 seconds. The Broken Dragon does not possess the Molten Lava ability under level 35.
- The Elban encounter has been redesigned.
> Elban now deals greatly reduced damage with his melee attacks, but his attack speed has been increased.
> Elban Blood Leech now deals increasingly higher damage the more time the link stays activated and the closer Elban is to his target, and also heals Elban by a great amount the closer the target is to him and the more time Elban spent draining blood. Elban also slows the target while channeling Blood Leech. When the distance between Elban and the target is too great, the link breaks. The Blood Leech does not heal Elban during the first 1.5 seconds of channeling.
> Elban leaps into the air and then targets the player’s position, highlighted by a circle when his targeting is complete, unleashing a Devastating Assault, which deals 10000% weapon damage.
> Elban disappears in a cloud of smoke and then reappears next to the player, channels a frontal attack for 3 sec attempting to impale the Hero with great force. Impale deals 300% weapon damage instantly, and causes the Hero to bleed for 100% weapon damage every second for the remainder of the fight. The Impale bleed effect stacks multiple times. While channeling Impale, Elban is vulnerable and receives 200% more damage.
> Elban is immune to crowd control effects once he started channeling any ability.
> Elban movement speed has been increased by 50%.
> Elban’s health pool has been slightly increased.
- In addition, Magroth, the Broken Dragon and Elban now possess the Break Free ability. Break Free removes all crowd control effects from them, and causes them to become immune to crowd control for 4 seconds.
Trials
Due to the trials redesign, a full reset of unlocked Trials will be performed.
- Trial levels 1 to 7 now contain normal mode monsters and bosses of levels 10 for Trial level 1, 20 for Trial level 2, 30 for Trial level 3, 40 for Trial level 4, 50 for Trial level 5, 60 for Trial level 6 and 70 for Trial level 7. Trials levels 8 and higher now gain scaling coefficients, as detailed below.
- Trials damage scaling is now 3.5% compared to the previous level. Trial health scaling is now 8% compared to the previous level. Thus, monsters in Trial level 100 will deal roughly 24 times more damage and have roughly 1300 times more health than a normal mode monster at level 70.
- Trials no longer drop loot from monsters. Instead, the boss at the end of the Trial drops 3 items (quality varies depending on Trial level), a quantity of gemstones of random colors and gold.
- Experience gained from monsters in Trials now increases by 5% per Trial level above 7. Thus, a monster in a Trial level 100 will yield over 131 times more experience than a normal mode monster at level 70.
- Loot quality in Trials has been readjusted so that harder Trials will yield better loot. Trials drop 3 pieces of loot for completing the Trial, one of which has higher chance to be of superior quality if the trial was completed in time. Some breakpoints for the new loot system are: at level 42, all items will be of at least Epic quality, and at level 80 all items will be of Legendary quality. Any item dropped has a 20% chance to be a set item, if applicable. The item awarded for completing the Trial in time beyond Trial level 80 have an increasingly higher chance to have their roll improved. Trial bosses never drop common quality or uncommon quality items, regardless of level.
- The Parry Rating, Dodge Rating, Block Rating, Extra Experience, Extra Gold, Damage Reflect and Life Regeneration stats have a greatly decreased chance to occur on gear dropped by Trial bosses.
- Trials can only spawn the Magroth, Broken Dragon or Elban bosses.
- The option to resurrect upon death using gems has been disabled in Trials.
- Completing a Trial with a high portion of time remaining unlocks a larger number of Trial levels.
Class changes
- All classes gain a class specific “Innate Passive Ability”. These are detailed below, under each class entry. These new passives will not be highlighted in the Heroes’ Spell Books in the beta, and although their effects are functional, they will remain hidden. The aim is for them to be introduced and highlighted in the Spell Books at a later date.
Warrior
- All Warriors gain an innate passive ability at level 1, named “Juggernaut”. Juggernaut grants the Warrior vitality and armor per level.
- Cleave (rank 10) now deals 275% weapon damage and no longer causes targets to bleed. Cleave now reduces damage done by targets it hits by 10% (was 30% attack speed).
- Frenzy (rank 10) damage has been increased to 580% weapon damage (was 520%).
- Bash has been renamed to Rending Slash and redesigned. Rending Slash deals 390% weapon damage to the primary target and 75% weapon damage to all enemies around it’s primary target. Rending Slash also causes all targets hit to bleed for 400% weapon damage over 5 seconds, stacking up to 8 times.
- Sword and Board Shield Slam now has a 25% chance to occur pending a successful block and deals damage equal to 600% of shield armor, but no longer knocks back targets. Shield Slam is also automatic, no longer displaying an icon over enemies.
- Shield Block now provides 2400 Block Chance. Successfully blocking an attack while Shield Block is active has a 100% chance to trigger a Deadly Throw of rank (hero_level / 14, minimum 1). Shield Block no longer doubles the amount of damage reflected and no longer provides damage reflect.
- Whirlwind now deals 720% weapon damage per attack (up from 380%). Whirlwind damage is increased by 25% for Heroes that are dual wielding. Whirlwind now reduces damage taken by the Hero by 8% per equipped weapon (was a flat 30%).
- Deadly Throw (rank 10) now bounces off 7 times (was 8) and deals 1500% weapon damage (was 2000%). The shield armor contribution to Deadly Throw is now 33% (was 40%), and the bleed effect for dual wielding Heroes is now 1000% weapon damage (was 750%), and stacks up to 5 times (was 3 times).
- Devastate now reduces damage taken during its channel time by 50% (was immunity).
- Shockwave now causes the targets it hits to take damage equal to 800% of the damage over time they would take the next second (was 1000%). In addition, Shockwave now heals for 20% of the Hero’s total heals over 4 seconds, stacking up to two times (was 5% per target hit, instant).
- Battle Rage (rank 10) now has a 5 second duration (was 7), and movement speed when moving towards an opponent has been decreased.
- In the Zone (rank 10) now has a 5 second duration (was 7).
Bounty Hunter
- All Bounty Hunters gain an innate passive ability at level 1, named Guerilla Specialist. Guerilla Specialist grants the Bounty Hunter 7 dodge rating per level, 20% movement speed and +100% critical damage.
- Concussive Shot has been renamed to Lethal Shot. Lethal Shot (rank 10) deals 800% weapon damage, but no longer has a chance to stun the target.
- Explosive Shot now deals 300% weapon damage (was 200%) and the Explosion proc deals 600% weapon damage (was 500%).
- Heatseekers impact radius has been slightly increased.
- Snipe now deals 5000% weapon damage (was 3000%) and always critically hits. Snipe causes the first target being hit to bleed for additional damage for a proportion of the projectile damage equal to the Hero’s critical strike chance, but no longer has a chance to reset the cooldown.
- Piercing Ammo no longer bounces to the same target the bounce originated from. It can still bounce back and forth between two targets.
- Rapid Fire now also increases the critical damage of the Hero by 200% for 3 seconds.
- Poisoned Ammo deals damage equal to the first tick regardless if it would apply a stack or not when the target already has 5 stacks. In addition, only the stacks with lower DPS can be replaced by other stacks.
- Smoke Screen stealth effect can now only last for 3 seconds. When the Bounty Hunter emerges from stealth, all damage is increased by 30% for 2 seconds and dodge rating is increased by 2000.
- Multishot now deals 700% weapon damage per projectile (was 480%).
- Charged Ammo no longer deals lower damage when using Scatter Shot.
Mage
- Mages gain an innate passive ability called “Adeptus Arcana”, granting them 7 Power per level.
- Arcane Missiles (rank 10) now deal 115% weapon damage per missile (was 100%).
- Arc Lightning (rank 10) now deals 180% weapon damage (was 140%).
- Fireball (rank 10) now deals 230% weapon damage (was 200%).
- Frostbolt (rank 10) now deals 300% weapon damage (was 250%), and damage dealt to frozen targets is tripled (was double), but can no longer freeze targets.
- Singularity projectile speed has been decreased, allowing it to damage the targets for a longer time.
- Time Warp now causes time to flow by 50% slower for opponents (was 75%). In addition, some boss mechanics cause them to be immune to the Time Warp slow time mechanic.
- Death from Above now deals 550% weapon damage per missile. In addition, it can now stack up to 24 times. Basic attacks have a 10% chance to generate a charge, and special attacks have a 100% chance to generate 1-3 charges.
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