You've read the roadmap. You've waited patiently. Now it's finally here. Season 3 begins now!
Welcome to the first Game Update of Season 3, Champions!
We're kicking things off with a powerful new Hero - one with a storm inside her that blurs the line between good and evil!
That's not all however! We're finally pushing live our new user interface - a complete visual overhaul of how you navigate and interact with Predecessor outside of gameplay, as well as sharing the new ways in which you'll acquire Heroes now that Season 2 has ended.
No more delays - let's jump right in!
Serath wages war on evil!
The steely soldier Serath joins the conflict, wrestling with darkness on the battlefield as well as within her own heart.
Serath may appear angelic at first, but don't be fooled! She hides a ferocious dark side that if unleashed, can burn anyone to the ground!
Watch Serath In Action!
Want a head start before jumping into the battlefield? Check out how Serath plays in our latest Hero Ability Overview video.
Abilities:
Fallen Grace [Passive]:
Taking down an Enemy Hero will spawn a demonic visage that lasts for 10s at the site of execution. Serath can step through it to consume it.
Upon consuming the visage, Serath activates her Heresy ability (regardless of cooldown or level) and reduces her current basic ability cooldowns by 75%. This does not affect the cooldown of Heresy.
Angelic Smite [LMB]:
Cleave: 25%
BAT: 1.15
Effect: Melee basic attack dealing 58 (+90% Bonus Physical Power) physical damage.
Heaven's Fury [Q]:
Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12
Cost: 50/55/60/65/70
Effect: Serath marks a Target and vanishes, striking Enemies at the Target's location 5 times, with the first and final strike guaranteed to hit her mark. Each slash deals 45/65/85/105/125 (+60% Total Physical Power) physical damage and applies on-hit effects at 75% effectiveness. Additional strikes against the same Target deal 20% damage.
On her final strike, Serath will teleport to the marked Target's location based on her current position.
If the marked Target dies, Serath teleports immediately.
Ascend [E]:
Cooldown: 18/17/16/15/14
Cost: 80
Effect: Serath rises into the air and hovers for 1.8s. During this time she can target an area up to 1350 units away. Upon confirmation or at the end of this time, Serath dives down and deals 80/115/150/185/220 (+60% Bonus Physical Power) physical damage in the area.
Chastise [RMB]:
Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6
Cost: 50
Effect: Serath claps her wings in front of her, dealing 80/120/160/200/240 (+80% Bonus Physical Power) physical damage and applying a 35% Slow for 1.25s.
Chastise cast speed increases with additional attack speed and resets Serath's basic attack cooldown on use.
Heresy [R]:
Cooldown: 90
Cost: 100
Effect: Serath takes on a demonic form, dealing 60/110/160 (+50% Bonus Physical Power) and setting them ablaze.
For the next 7s, Serath gains 15% movement speed, 20/30/40% attack speed, and empowers her basic attacks with Infernal Strikes.
Infernal Strikes sets Enemy Units ablaze on-hit, dealing 30/45/60 (+30% Bonus Physical Power) true damage over 4s. Stacks with successive applications.
Morning Star Serath
Things aren't always as clear as night and day. Wield your weapon and conquer the crimson skies with Serath's new Morning Star skin [Common]!
Crack skulls at the crack of dawn, available from V0.11!
User Interface (UI):
You've waited patiently and we're pleased to finally deliver it. Our new user interface is here!
As already discussed in a number of other blogs (check out July's Predecessor Report or our more recent Season 3 Roadmap blogs for more), the user interface reflects the visual identity of Predecessor. It dictates everything from menu layout to colours, store functionality to Hero Acquisition
As with all things during Early Access we'll be reviewing and building upon this first implementation of the new UI, tweaking and polishing with every passing update. We're excited to hear your feedback as we cross this massive milestone in our development!
Hero Acquisition:
Speaking of Hero Acquisition, we're implementing a new system through which you'll permanently unlock Serath.
That's right - Serath is the first Hero that won't be included for free in your Early Access Bundles, meaning if you want to keep her after V0.11 you'll need to unlock her!
All new Heroes will be unlockable in two ways, either by earning XP towards their unlock requirements or by purchasing them outright with Platinum. You can do either of these options at any time and with any locked Hero, regardless of who's currently on free rotation.
Free rotation is what we're calling the period during which a Hero will be freely available to everyone, regardless of whether they're unlocked. We'll change up which Heroes are available for free every now and then to ensure everyone gets a chance to play with a variety of Heroes, helping you narrow down which ones you might want to work towards unlocking.
Serath will be on free rotation for two weeks following the V0.11 game update, meaning everyone can try her out without needing to purchase or earn her.
To reiterate, you can unlock any locked Hero regardless of whether they're currently playable for free or not.
The amount of XP needed to unlock a Hero varies, with some (like Serath) having multiple 'unlock stages'. These are mini milestones that you'll need to reach in order to fully unlock the Hero. Alternatively you can skip this process entirely by simply buying the Hero with Platinum, which will become cheaper depending on how many of the 'unlock stages' you've already achieved.
Either way once you've earned enough XP or you've skipped the process with Platinum, Serath will be permanently added to your roster of unlocked and playable Heroes, forever!
We'll be going in depth with Hero Acquisition in a dedicated blog later in the month, outlining exactly what you can expect from V0.12 onwards.
For now though we hope you'll enjoy playing with Serath and working towards permanently adding her to your roster!
Match XP Changes:
With the Hero Acquisition system being added we've needed to rebalance how much XP is earned per match to ensure that the time it takes to unlock a Hero like Serath feels fair and right.
Rest assured however, that the overall time it takes to earn all of those end of season rewards we shared in our Season 3 roadmap blog will remain consistent with previous seasons.
Downtime:
We're anticipating a fairly large period of downtime during this Game Update as we deploy possibly our biggest update yet, alongside running the necessary checks and distributions to deliver rewards for your final player levels of Season 2.
We expect this downtime to last for up to 4 hours, but hope to complete it sooner. For more information please keep an eye on our social feeds or join our Discord server where you can find the latest news.
General:
Lifesteal Mechanics:
We're changing the way that healing is calculated when Area of Effect (AoE) and Damage over Time (DoT) damage is converted into healing via Lifesteal, Magical Lifesteal, or Omnivamp.
Previously, AoE and DoT damage sources would benefit from the full value of lifestealing effects when dealing damage to Heroes, resulting in excessive healing potential in Hero to Hero combat if multiple targets were struck at once by someone stacking sustain items (we're looking at you, Crunch & Countess).
To tackle cases of over-the-top healing we are now implementing a penalty resulting in 33% effectiveness for lifestealing effects when triggered by AoE or DoT abilities against Heroes, matching the existing penalty that's already enforced on Minion/Monster healing. Effectively you'll now get ⅓ the value from lifestealing effects on these damage types.
These changes will have a significant impact on the efficacy of the affected Heroes/Items. Before making too many follow up compensation adjustments to the fall out, we're interested in seeing how matches flow in a less healing heavy environment first. After this, if and where needed, we can better redistribute the lost healing either back into the Hero's kits and make them less reliant on specific Items, or provide Items such as Lifebinder and Mutilator a little more love if they underperform, as well as having the option of introducing more healing items into the game now that stacking them is less effective.
Change:
◆ When dealing damage to Heroes, Area of Effect and Damage over Time sources now heal for 33% effectiveness when benefitting from Lifesteal, Magical Lifesteal, or Omnivamp.
Dekker's ability to become rather durable in the later stages of the game can make her overly difficult to punish when paired with her natural elusiveness. To better accentuate her strengths and weaknesses we're dropping some of her natural durability via Armor Growth, while also shifting some of her damage output in the early game to her Photon Disruptor to emphasise her wave clear and a more dodgeable spell.
General:
◆ Armor Growth decreased from 3.8 to 3.5.
Photon Disruptor [Q]:
◆ Damage changed from 80/125/170/215/260 to 90/130/170/210/250.
Stasis Bomb [RMB]:
◆ Damage decreased from 75/110/145/180/215 to 70/105/140/175/210.
Drongo's general versatility leads to a strong early game as a result of his ability to clear waves, duel, and blast out of danger, making him difficult to keep up with. By increasing the cooldown on his Shrapnel Cannon we're looking to provide slightly longer windows of vulnerability between Ultimate casts, better allowing him to be caught out in those intervals.
Shrapnel Cannon [R]:
◆ Cooldown increased from 100/90/80 to 110/95/80.
Feng Mao's ability to bully his opponent in the Offlane with short trades can be very oppressive in the early game and allows him to frequently snowball too easily. To slow down his early pace we're shifting his Passive damage to now scale with level (above its previous potential), providing a healthier damage curve while still allowing him to pack a punch in the late game. Likewise, we're also levying a small hit to his Guardian Shield durability to offer his opponents a better chance at blasting through it and reciprocating damage.
Precision Strike [Passive]:
◆ Percent Current Health Damage changed from 8% to 6/7/8/9% at levels 1/6/11/16.
Guardian Shield [Q]:
◆ Shield decreased from 100/135/170/205/240 to 90/125/160/195/230.
We're delivering a quick bump in Cosmic Rift scaling to better allow Gideon to stay relevant as a damage threat in the later stages of a match given his comparatively short range to other Mages.
Cosmic Rift [Q]:
◆ Magical Power Scaling increased from 65% to 70%.
Staying true to his namesake, Khaimera is a little too effective in hunting down his foes. We're taking away some of the raw power offered to his Unleash strikes, thereby reducing the short-term burst potential he possesses and giving squishier targets a better chance at surviving his opener.
Unleash [Q]:
◆ Damage decreased from 10/17/24/31/38 to 10/16/22/28/34.
Purge fails to act as a significant enough threat in the later stages of a match, despite the risk Kira puts herself in when using it. By offering Kira slightly more Purge scaling, alongside a small bump in mobility uptime, we should see her keeping better pace and becoming better able to find those pop-off moments.
Shadow Glide [E]:
◆ Cooldown decreased from 20/18.5/17/15.5/14 to 18/16.5/15/13.5/12.
Purge [R]:
◆ Total Physical Power Scaling increased from 330% to 360%.
Lt. Belica's dominance in both the Mid and Support roles is often supplemented by her ability to maintain pressure on a wave. By hitting her Drone's Mana cost, Belica will have to be a little more selective with its usage when looking to push and box between waves, while also not nuking as hard in the late game in the event she lands a Stun as a result of the scaling decrease.
General:
◆ Base Physical Power decreased from 54 to 53.
◆ Physical Power Growth decreased from 3.2 to 2.9.
Seismic Assault [Q]:
◆ Magical Power Scaling decreased from 70% to 65%.
Void Drone [E]:
◆ Mana Cost increased from 60/70/80/90/100 to 80/85/90/95/100.
Similar to Dekker, Phase's durability is slightly too high relative to her ability to remain elusive so we're lowering her Armor Growth. Alongside this, we're shifting down her early Mana Regeneration to make her run out of gas slightly faster in the earlier lane.
General:
◆ Base Mana Regeneration decreased from 1.8 to 1.6.
◆ Armor Growth decreased from 4 to 3.6.
Psychic Flare [Q]:
◆ Magical Power Scaling increased from 70% to 80%.
While it's important for Revenant to be able to burst a target due to his unique ammo system, his ability to blow through an opponent in a single rotation occurs too often, too quickly. To reduce the frequency of one-shot scenarios, we're pulling back on a previous change to Rev's 4th shot damage, alongside his general DPS output as a match progresses, meaning he will have to be more selective and creative when choosing how to approach a fight.
General:
◆ Basic Attack Time at levels 1-18 increased from 1.01-0.78 to 1.01-0.84.
◆ Physical Power per level decreased from 2.8 to 2.4.
Obliterate [Q]:
◆ Cooldown increased from 12/11/10/9/8 to 14/13/12/11/10.
Hellfire Rounds [RMB]:
◆ Missing Health Damage Scaling per level decreased from 0.7% to 0.5%.
Reckoning [R]:
◆ [Bugfix] Root duration now correctly lasts 0.5s instead of 1s.
TwinBlast has been seeing too much success with Physical Penetration itemisation, resulting in a burst loop that is both oppressive and difficult to interact with. Killing the viability of all Pen' options is not the explicit goal here, but to help remedy the oppressiveness of the general build path we're shifting TB's damage profile to further encourage On-Hit itemisation as it struggles to keep pace. This can be seen in his Vortex Grenade's shift to a Magical Damage typing thereby not being as reliant on Physical Penetration builds to remain relevant (due to baseline Magical Armor being around half of Physical Armor in the late-game), alongside more aggressive tuning of his scaling values, particularly to his Ultimate.
On the flip side, to ensure TwinBlast remains relevant as he progresses into the mid-game, we're improving his level 7-13 window by redistributing his Growth Scalar. Previously, his lower Scalar resulted in his general base stats and durability being significantly lower in the mid-game compared to other Heroes, which resulted in many polarizing insta-death scenarios due to his extremely low durability. The combination of these changes should reduce the frustrating elements of being on the receiving end of TwinBlast's arsenal, while still ensuring he remains a fun and engaging Hero among the roster that better fulfills his theme of a Gunslinger, rather than an Assassin.
General:
◆ Growth Scalar at levels 1-18 increased from 59%-141% to 73%-127%.
◆ Base Mana Regeneration decreased from 1.8 to 1.5.
Doubleshot [LMB]:
◆ Basic Attack Bonus Physical Power Scaling decreased from 100% to 90%.
Vaporize [Q]:
◆ Mana cost increased from 40 to 50.
Evade [E]:
◆ Cooldown decreased from 18/17/16/15/14 to 18/16.5/15/13.5/12.
Vortex Grenade [RMB]:
◆ Damage type changed from Physical to Magical.
◆ Total Physical Power Scaling decreased from 90% to 75%.
Ventilate [R]:
◆ Base number of bullets decreased from 25 to 22.
◆ Damage per bullet decreased from 12/21/30 to 12/20/28.
◆ Number of bullets Attack Speed Scaling decreased from 6% to 4%.
◆ Bonus Physical Power Scaling per bullet decreased from 16% to 12%.
◆ Magical Power Scaling decreased from 15% to 10%.
Crests:
Witchstalker:
Witchstalker's ability to stack its bonus damage from multiple Debuffs being Cleansed could result in scenarios of extreme burst and healing. We're limiting the bonus damage on Cleanse to a single debuff to make Purifying Strike's damage potential less variable and overwhelming in scenarios where multiple Debuffs are removed.
◆ Purifying Strike additional bonus damage now limited to 1 debuff cleansed.
Saphir's Mantle:
Saphir's provides too much durability on activation when it already comes with the powerful benefit of increasing a Heroes size, and therefore general range. Once again, we're pulling back on some of this durability to bring its strength into greater parity with other Crest choices.
◆ Atlas: Maximum Health temporary gain decreased from 18% to 15%.
Carry:
Ashbringer:
Ashbringer has seen minimal play, typically as a result of its high Gold cost and how unappealing it is to the majority of the roster when weighed against other options. To better define its identity we're shifting it back to a Critical Strike option for Carries to utilize and streamlining its Passive effects and statline. This allows us to make the item cheaper and more accessible, as well as making it a relevant DPS choice for anyone looking to pump out more abilities such as the Serath's and "[i]Critmeras" of the world.[/i]
◆ Cost decreased from 3400 to 3000.
◆ Physical Power decreased from 45 to 35.
◆ Attack Speed increased from 20 to 30.
◆ 25% Critical Strike Chance added.
◆ Ability Haste removed.
◆ Recipe Changed from Temporal Ripper + Sabre + Composite Bow to Claymore + Rune Bow.
◆ Accelerate Passive renamed to Chrono Strikes.
◆ Chrono Strikes cooldown reduction per Clockwork stack increased from 0.15s to 0.2s.
◆ Chrono Strikes on-hit damage removed.
Kingsbane:
A light bump in Omnivamp for Kingsbane as one of the only compensation buffs arising from the Lifesteal Mechanic changes.
◆ Omnivamp increased from 5% to 6%.
Sky Splitter:
Sky Splitter is a little too cheap given its overall strength. Time for a small price increase.
◆ Cost increased from 2800 to 2900.
Stormbreaker:
Stormbreaker does not function well as a first buy clearing option for Junglers due to its reliance on other item pairings and relatively low AoE damage output. To help it stay attractive compared to options such as Overlord or Malady and better facilitate on-hit heavy Heroes such as the newly arrived Serath, we're giving its Zap effect a little extra kick against Monsters. As a result, Stormbreaker will serve as a better standalone option and better fill the void where you lack the gold to get your new item online.
◆ Chain Zap's damage effect now deals 100% additional damage to Monsters.
Assassin:
Infernum:
Infernum's burn damage scales slightly too well into the late game, so we're dropping it down another peg.
◆ Cinder Bonus Physical Power Scaling decreased from 100% to 90%.
Fighter:
Bonesaw:
Bonesaw provides too much durability and health scaling, especially when paired with other items. We're shifting around its stat profile to be more power heavy, better complimenting ability scalings rather than its damage output being overly carried by Colossal Sunder's on-hit effect - especially when stacked with other Health items.
◆ Physical Power increased from 20 to 25.
◆ Health decreased from 600 to 550.
◆ Colossal Sunder Maximum Health Scaling decreased from 3% to 2.5%.
Support:
Hexbound Bracers:
A slight shift in Hexbound's durability and more towards its Mana generation abilities to prevent its users from becoming too tanky in the early game given how much Haste it provides.
◆ Armor decreased from 60 to 50.
◆ Mana Reactor mana conversion increased from 10% to 15%.
◆ Fixed a bug where Unbroken Will would not heal or grant bonus armors on various Immobilizing effects.
◆ Fixed a bug where Dread's VFX would stop working upon death.
◆ Fixed a bug where Heroes could stand on top of archways near Gold and Cyan Buffs, and Orb Prime.
◆ Fixed a bug with various ability descriptions damage values would not match the actual output.
◆ Fixed a bug where Narbash could cast March [Q] while recalling.
◆ Fixed a bug where Morigesh could no longer use Jump Pads after casting Swarm [E].
◆ Fixed a bug where Minions could get stuck on Dusk T2 Towers.
◆ Fixed a bug where Tectonic Mallet would lose all its stats if its owner died.
◆ Fixed a bug where Gold and Cyan Buff minimap timers would not display on death.
◆ Fixed a bug where some targeted abilities could be cast on Heroes in Stasis.
◆ Fixed a bug where Leafsong's VFX would fail to play on activation.
◆ Fixed an error with Typhoons description not stating On-Hit as a trigger.
Known Issues
◆ Friends may sometimes incorrectly show as offline, despite being online.
◆ When you queue for a game you might show as in a party to your friends, even when you're not.
◆ The prompt to play Player vs AI sometimes shows when it shouldn't.
◆ Some controller functionality isn't working as expected.
◆ Various issues and oddities with the New UI that will be fixed soon.
That's all this week!
Let us know what you think of this update over on Twitter, the official Subreddit or our Discord server! If you don't, after all, we'd have no eye deer what you're thinking!
~ Rei & Kari (Game Design and Community Teams)
