Update v0.12 is here, with the latest Hero to sneak up on our roster, as well as the all-new Hero Affinity system, some slick audio additions and of course, lots of balance adjustments!
Before we jump in, a quick note to keep in mind when you next log in - Profile Cosmetic selection has been reset to default due to a server change, so you might notice your usual icons and effects aren't what you would usually have selected. So please head to the Profile tab in-game to re-select the ones you'd like again. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Let’s dive in!
Wraith reporting for duty!
Your favourite special-ops ADC sneaks his way onto the battlefield, scouting ahead and sniping enemies from range to secure the win!
Watch Wraith In Action!
Want to see what Wraith can do? Check out the Ability Overview for a detailed guide.
[previewyoutube=6pj59xFKgcc;full][/previewyoutube]
Abilities:
Who’s There? [Passive]:
Effect: Wraith's Vision item becomes a Sonar Drone that can be thrown. Sonar Drone becomes Camouflaged upon landing and will pulse every 3s, Revealing all Enemy Heroes within 1000 units for 3s, both in the area and through Terrain.
Additionally, Sonar Drone will Reveal Invisible targets for the first 2 pulses at level 6.
Sonar Drone cannot be Swapped and blocks Vision Item purchases in the Store.
Sonar Drone will Evolve into “Solstone Drone” upon completion of a T3 Support Crest.
Solstone Drone has improved functionality, with Revealing Invisible Units on every Pulse, its charges refilling in base, and the maximum Drones placeable at once increasing from 3 to 4.
Bang! [LMB]:
BAT: 1.4
Effect: Ranged basic attack dealing 53 (+75% Bonus Physical Power) physical damage.
Peekaboo! [Q]:
CD: 13/12.5/12/11.5/11
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80
Effect: Wraith launches a nanite grenade from his wrist launcher which pierces through Enemy Units and Explodes upon hitting Terrain. Deals 60/90/120/150/180 (+80% Bonus Physical Power) physical damage and Slows by 35% for 0.75s.
Enemies struck by Peekaboo! are Marked and Revealed for 5s. If Wraith snipes a Marked target with “Knock, Knock!” they take an additional 6%/7%/8%/9%/10% (+2.5% Magical Power) of their maximum health as bonus magical damage.
Surprise, Surprise! [E]
CD: 16/15/14/13/12
Cost: 60
Effect: After a short delay, Wraith enters Camouflage and gains 25% movement speed for 5s. Takedowns will reset the cooldown of Surprise, Surprise!
Wraith’s basic attacks and ability casts will not interrupt the Camouflage fade-in transition.
Passive: Wraith gains 8%/11%/14%/17%/20% Physical Penetration.
Knock, Knock! [RMB]:
CD: 12/11/10/9/8
Cost: 60
Effect: Fire a long-range sniper shot up to 2600 units that pierces Terrain and deals 25/55/85/115/145 (+95% Total Physical Power)(+65% Magical Power) physical damage to the first Enemy Unit hit. Enemy Minions take 75% increased damage.
Killing an Enemy Unit, or damaging a Marked Target with “Knock, Knock!”, refunds 50% of its Mana cost and reduces its cooldown to 1s.
Back it Up! [R]
CD: 120/100/80
Cost: 100
Effect: Wraith can choose an Enemy Hero he can see, up to 1350/1450/1550 units away, marking their location from 2s prior. After a 2.3s delay, the Target enters Limbo for 0.15s, after which they will be Teleported back to the marked location.
Lunar Ops Wraith
Sure, sniping your foes is cool, but it’s even cooler when you do it in style with Wraith’s new Lunar Ops skin [Common]!
Hero Affinity:
You may have seen our fiery Affinity skins going around on social media for the last week to show off our brand new Hero Affinity system coming in v0.12!
There's a lot of content to chew through here, and we've made some recent changes in response to community feedback, so we've made a dedicated blog post to show you exactly how you can get your hands on the new skins, as well as all the other awesome cosmetics you can earn.
Check out the Hero Affinity blog post here!
Hero Emotes:
Hero Emotes are arriving with v0.12 too, for now they are only rewarded from the Affinity system, but we will be adding more ways to obtain them in the future. Once unlocked, they are automatically equipped and can be triggered during a match via the Communication Wheel.
◆ Press C [D-pad Right] to bring up the Communication Wheel
◆ Press V [R1] to switch to the Emote Wheel
◆ Use the mouse [Face-buttons] to select the emote
In the future we plan to add a loadouts system so it's easier to configure all of your cosmetics items.
Banners:
Banners are a new type of cosmetic system arriving with the Affinity system, once unlocked players can equip a Banner from the Profile Tab to customise their Player Card.
End of Match Cinematic:
We’re always looking at ways to increase the overall quality and immersion of Predecessor. So with v0.12, we’ve added an awesome new end of match cinematic experience! Once the core is taken down, you’ll feel a new sense of epicness as the new cinematic shows an exploding core with the winning team poised in-front of it, ready to jump into the fight again! This is another place you can show off your Skins, Crowns and Emotes!
[previewyoutube=oKSuGSNb-Yk;full][/previewyoutube]
Music Changes
We're excited to announce our collaboration with Pawel Blaszczak, the talented composer behind notable titles such as "Dying Light," "Dead Island," and "The Witcher." Pawel has crafted a mesmerizing main theme that now graces the main menu music of our game. Building on our recent updates, we've also introduced fresh soundtracks for both the victory and defeat screens. Plus, we've revamped the audio and style for our hero overviews and trailers, ensuring a more cohesive and immersive experience for our players.
Minor Improvements
◆ Time on the Scoreboard increased from 15 secs to 30, but now includes a Continue button to skip
◆ Lane minions will now move more smoothly
◆ Core rings will now go down when vulnerable and raise again when the core is invulnerable
◆ Added social notification for friends activity (online, party joining and invites)
◆ Added a way to accept invites directly on the notification
◆ Added a way to leave a party directly on the social tab
General:
◆ Recommended Roles for Heroes have been updated in Hero Draft.
◆ Various Recommended Item builds have been updated in-game.
Crunch’s ability to build tanky while still having access to extreme healing makes him overly durable given his general damage output. We’re shifting the Scaling and Base values around on his Ultimate’s 3rd-hit Healing Passive to reward aggressive Crunch’s that build for damage, while Tankier Crunch’s will notice a drop in its base value. Alongside this, we’ve improved Forward Crunch’s [RMB] hit-detection to be smoother!
Forward Crunch [RMB]
◆ [QoL] Improved Hitbox detection and responsiveness.
ReCrunch [R]:
◆ Healing decreased from 20/80/140 to 10/55/100.
◆ Healing Scaling changed from 10% Total Physical Power to 35% Bonus Physical Power.
◆ Healing Magical Power Scaling increased from 10% to 25%.
Drongo’s combination of early game pressure, single target damage, and overall utility & safety makes him a jack of all trades that thrives in too many scenarios. Rather than remove power from his unique utility aspects, we’ve opted to bump down Drongo’s overall burst potential to ensure it’s more appropriate for the inherent safety he possesses.
Rad Rounds [E]:
◆ Additional Shot Bonus Physical Power Scaling decreased from 40% to 35%.
Shrapnel Cannon [R]:
◆ Bonus Physical Power Scaling increased from 80% to 85%.
◆ Base Damage decreased from 200/325/450 to 200/310/420.
Some quick compensation buffs to Feng to offset Nex’s nerfs and allow alternative Feng Mao builds to shine more while better allowing him to reach his lethal windows with, or without the need of a Nex in the bag.
Earth Shatter [R]:
◆ Bonus Physical Power Scaling increased from 70% to 75%.
◆ Execute threshold increased from 220/375/530 to 220/385/550
◆ Execute Bonus Physical Power Scaling increased from 80% to 85%
Similar to Feng Mao, Kallari is also getting some compensation buffs due to the nerfing of Nex, better allowing her to reach lethal thresholds on her opponents with or without it; alongside allowing her kit to shine further in the late-game due to some improved Scalings.
General:
◆ Attack Speed Growth increased from 2.8 to 3.1.
Crippling Dagger [RMB]:
◆ Bonus Physical Power Scaling increased from 85% to 90%.
◆ Range increased by 5%.
Currently, Sevarog has too flat of a power curve despite his theoretical identity of a ramping late-game monster that wishes to stack his way to victory. In spite of this, Sevarog is currently too hard to keep down and punish, and his presence as a late-game menace often becomes a question of “when he gets there”, rather than “if he gets there”.
For this balance pass we’re skewing Sevarog’s power curve to rely more on his Passive Tier completions if he wishes to gain access to his maximum potential. This can be seen in the removal of the Total Physical Scaling on his Siphon [Q] (with level 1 damage being roughly equivalent to before), less Siphon Healing, less Health gain per stack, but greater benefits per Passive Tier that he achieves. As a result, Sevarogs that farm up and stack well may find even greater success when they snowball, but Sevarogs who are kept down by their opponents will find themselves struggling to keep pace and feeling more vulnerable without their shoulderpads.
General:
◆ Base Health increased from 615 to 630.
◆ Health Growth increased from 92 to 95.
◆ Base Health Regeneration increased from 1 to 1.2.
◆ Physical Power Growth increased from 2.8 to 3.3.
Reaper Of Souls [Passive]:
◆ Siphon Damage per Tier increased from 8 to 15.
◆ Health per Stack decreased from 2 to 1.
◆ Health per Tier increased from 50/100/150/200 to 55/110/165/220.
Siphon [Q]:
◆ Damage increased from 40/65/90/115/140 to 75/90/105/120/135.
◆ 60% Total Physical Power Scaling removed.
◆ Cooldown decreased from 6/5.75/5.5/5.25/5 to 7/6.25/5.5/4.75/4.
◆ Hero Healing decreased from 25% to 15%.
Colossal Blow [R]:
◆ Cooldown increased from 100/80/60 to 110/85/60.
Shinbi’s reliance on Obelisk as a Crest prevents her from being able to shine as a solo act. To compensate her for the Obelisk nerfs we’re granting her some increased sticking power via more dash uptime, alongside some additional damage Scaling to help her stay relevant as a late-game threat.
Biting Melody [Passive]:
◆ Cooldown decreased from 20-9.8s to 16-7.5s.
◆ Magical Power Scaling increased from 12% to 15%.
Rushing Beat [RMB]:
◆ Magical Power Scaling increased from 45% to 50%.
◆ Cooldown decreased from 18/17/16/15/14 to 18/16.5/15/13.5/12.
Inner Fire [R] tends to not feel meaningful enough as a buff when activated so we’re granting Sparrow a little extra speed to help her feel agile in those pop-off moments.
Inner Fire [R]:
◆ Movement Speed increased from 3% to 5%.
TwinBlast has been granted a fun new upgrade to his Rocket Dash [E], and now combat rolls instead when the ability is used on the ground!
Rocket Dash [E]:
◆ [New] While on the ground, Twinblast now combat rolls in his chosen direction instead.
◆ While airborne, Twinblast uses his thrusters to dash through the air.
Despite his relatively strong early-game, the mighty Lizard has a tendency to not feel so mighty in the late-game, often struggling to keep pace unless he is able to Snowball excessively. To bridge this gap, we’re making Zarus less reliant on securing early stacks from his early Ultimate casts and granting him some more inherent late-game Scaling in his Evade [E] and Spear Of Nyr [RMB] abilities, better allowing him to stay a meaningful threat in the end game outside of his Coliseum’s utility.
Evade [E]:
◆ Bonus Attack Speed changed from 15/17.5/20/22.5/25% to 14/18/22/26/30%.
◆ Cooldown decreased from 16/15/14/13/12 to 15/14/13/12/11
Spear Of Nyr [RMB]:
◆ Damage changed from 70/100/130/160/190 to 75/100/125/150/175
◆ Bonus Physical Power Scaling increased from 110% to 125%.
Coliseum [R]:
◆ Takedown Physical Power Gain decreased from 6/8/10 to 4/7/10.
Crests:
Nex:
Nex provides too much excess burst for its users, allowing too many Assassins overkill potential regardless of game state. As a result, we’re bumping down the damage:charge conversion to ensure the eventual Nex burst stays meaningfully high, but more reasonable.
◆ Sow Single Target Damage Store decreased from 30% to 20%.
◆ Sow AoE Damage Store decreased from 15% to 10%.
Saphir’s Mantle:
Saphir’s Mantle is another culprit of providing too much upfront durability to its users when combined with its general utility of increasing your Heroes size and range. To combat its general strength and make it less of a “better Razorback” we’re once again hitting its percent Health gain and opting to give a little more damage potential so that it can be stacked faster throughout a match.
◆ Atlas Maximum Health temporary gain decreased from 15% to 12%.
◆ Atlas Damage increased from 40 to 55.
Obelisk:
Obelisk scales too hard throughout a match and provides much overkill potential, in part due to its inherent scaling that is not reliant on stacking. Similar to Nex, we’re bumping down the raw burst of the item to make it less oppressive.
◆ Condemn Magical Power Scaling decreased from 25% to 15%.
T2:
Barbed Pauldron is too strong of a standalone item and becomes especially potent on some of the beefier Supports. We’re reducing the effectiveness of Pauldron by reducing its Attack Speed reduction Passive to ensure the durability spike remains reasonable.
Barbed Pauldron:
◆ Stickle Max Stacks decreased from 6 to 5
◆ Stifle Attack Speed Slow per Stack decreased from 4% to 3%.
◆ Stifle Renamed to Lesser Stifle.
Carry:
Dust Devil:
Dust Devil struggles to fit into many builds due to the competing options. While by no means a silver bullet to making the item bought more, by decreasing the stacks needed to trigger its Passive, Dust Devil should feel a bit more attractive to slot in for some builds
◆ Cost decreased from 3200 to 3150.
◆ Menace max stack count decreased from 8 to 6.
Assassin:
Nightfall:
A quick damage bump for Nightfall to help it compete with other options in the Assassin class.
◆ Physical Power increased from 35 to 40.
Mage:
Golem’s Gift:
Golem’s Gift doesn’t provide enough durability compared to the damage you give up from other options. Increasing its base armor will allow its users to feel like the purchase is more efficient and justified when looking for extra durability against physical damage dealers.
◆ Physical Armor increased from 30 to 40.
Tainted Sceptre:
Discount Season.
◆ Cost decreased from 3100 to 3050.
Life Binder:
After the changes to Healing mechanics and the 33% effectiveness for AoE damage, Lifebinder predictably has fallen out of favour. To help bring it back to greater parity as a standalone curve option, we’re granting it slightly more Magical Lifesteal and raw Health.
◆ Health increased from 275 to 300
◆ Magical Lifesteal increased from 15% to 18%.
Dreambinder:
Similar to other Mage items, Dreambinder currently is not justifiably to slot into many builds due to its overall niche effect and the opportunity cost of foregoing other damage or Haste options. A quick power bump will help it feel more worthwhile as a purchase.
◆ Magical Power increased from 80 to 90.
Wraith Leggings:
Less zoom for the leggies.
◆ Spectre Movement Speed decreased from 100 to 80.
Magnify:
Though Magnify struggles to find its place in the item shop right now, in the few scenarios it is an attractive choice, it still lacks on the damage front. Like Dreambinder, a small bump in Magical Power will help it feel more potent in on-hit Mage builds.
◆ Magnifying Strikes Bonus Magical Power increased from 6 to 8.
Prophecy:
Same as Magnify & Dreambinder - another quick Power bump for another niche Mage Item to make it more attractive, as Prophecy currently does not provide a hard enough spike upon completion given its investment.
◆ Magical Power increased from 70 to 75.
Fighter:
Draconum:
Draconum users such as Khaimera, Grux & Crunch often do not find enough durability is offered by it compared to other choices, despite liking its effect and stat profile. Some additional armor for Draconum will help it better justify its place in builds and have Fighters considering it further instead of defaulting to Tank options.
◆ Physical Armor increased from 40 to 45.
Support:
Hexbound Bracers:
Hexbound is too close in price to competing Tank items, making it feel unattractive compared to items such as Frostguard and Raiment as their completion window is extremely close together. Therefore, a quick discount to extend the gap between it and Tank options helps to further differentiate it as a cheaper Haste spike.
◆ Cost decreased from 2800 to 2750.
Tank:
Frostguard:
Frostguard strength has been underappreciated for many moons, and now that it has increased in popularity and its strength is more widely acknowledged, it's time to drop the overall power level of this item.
◆ Cost increased from 2900 to 3000
◆ Chilling Presence Application Interval increased from every 0.5s to 1s.
◆ Stifle Stacks are now applied every 1s instead of every 0.5s from the aura.
◆ Stifle Max Stacks decreased from 6 to 5.
Stonewall:
Stonewall is great at dealing with Ability-heavy compositions, but the Stun from Shockwave can often impact a fight too hard. The ability to run into an enemy and rely on Shockwave as a follow up engage tool is unnecessary power and goes against its purpose as a disengage effect, adding to CC overload. Taking a slice out of the Stun’s duration will help it to feel less oppressive while keeping the item’s identity intact.
◆ Shockwave Stun Duration decreased from 1s to 0.75s.
Unbroken Will:
Unbroken Will in its current form may as well be called “Broken Will”. I know it, you know it. This is due to the item being balanced around the previous “bugged” values, which were subsequently patched not too long ago. To bring it back down to acceptable strength we’re opting to reduce the Healing aspect from Persistence instead of the temporary Armor gain from Undying. This is to ensure the item remains attractive as an anti-CC/anti-Burst option, but does not completely hard counter and unfairly outheal the damage from Heroes such as Crunch, Grux and Steel, who often have little choice but to CC their targets.
◆ Magical Armor increased from 30 to 35.
◆ Persistence Max Health Healing decreased from 6% to 3%.
◆ Persistence Healing duration decreased from over 4s to over 3s.
◆ Fixed a bug where Serath could avoid damage from Revenant’s Obliterate (Q) with Heaven's Fury (Q)
◆ Fixed a bugged interaction between Revenant and Saphirs Mantle
◆ Fixed a bug causing Phase’s Telekinetic Link (RMB) to become invisible
◆ Fixed an issue where Recall was uninterruptible during the first frame of the animation
◆ Fixed a bug causing towers to sometimes become un-damageable
◆ Fixed a bug where Morigesh’s Curse [R] SFX is not played for the player
◆ Zarus' Coliseum [R] Now correctly grants stacks regardless of who gets the kill
◆ Zarus now has a button prompt for cancelling Spear of Nyr [RMB]
◆ Fixed a bug causing Zarus’ Spear of Nyr to become un-cancellable
◆ Fixed issues with Zarus' landing audio
◆ Fixed a bug with Twinblast’s Vortex Grenade [RMB] having inconsistent audio when launching it
◆ Fixed a bug where Riktor’s Skewer’s [R] ready voice line would play twice
◆ Fixed a bug causing Kira to not play audio on landing
◆ Fixed a bug causing Fey’s Fly Trap [R] to sometimes not pull Heroes
◆ Fixed a bug causing Seraths hair to scale with FPS
◆ Fixed a bug causing Grux’s Crush [E] to not play hit SFX
◆ Fixed a bug causing Grux’s Jump land audio to not play
◆ Fixed VFX issues with Sparrow’s Ascended and Autumn Fire skins
◆ Fixed a bug causing Hero ability animations to break the jump pads
◆ Fixed issues with Serath using Heaven's Fury [Q] playing hit sounds out of sync
◆ Fixed Serath’s Heavens Fury [Q] impact audio during Heresy [R]
◆ Fixed a bug causing Gideon to play two voice lines during Black Hole [R]
◆ Fixed SFX for Phase’s Telekinetic Link [RMB] when at max range
◆ Fixed SFX for Belica’s Void Drone [E] incorrectly playing firing audio
◆ Fixed Steel’s Aegis Skin missing ability textures
◆ Fixed an issue causing Feng Mao not to play hit sounds
◆ Fixed a bug causing Hero level start voice lines to be heard by ally players
◆ Fixed a bug with the location of projectile audio
◆ Fixed a bug causing Dread’s Shield VFX to show through camouflage
◆ Fixed various map collision issues
◆ Fixed a bug causing Towers to play their target acquisition sound incorrectly
◆ Fixed a bug causing Towers to continue shooting after Core destruction
◆ Fixed the volume of players death and ping sounds
◆ Fixed Hero selection audio in draft
◆ Fixed a bug causing the scoreboard to not show items that are being hovered
◆ Now correctly grey's out the Play button when a player is banned
◆ Fixed the kill feed not displaying in Replay Mode
◆ Fixed various issues with the UI and Social Tab
◆ Fixed a bug causing players to appear to be in queue when they aren’t
◆ Fixed a bug causing the Hero Overview button to be hidden sometimes
◆ Fixed issues with the ambient audio slider
◆ Fixed a bug causing voicelines to play multiple times for Hero if switching skins
◆ Fixed an issue causing incorrect button prompts being displayed in-game when set to Dualsense
◆ Fixed an issue where the controller would work incorrectly when switching the hardware setting
◆ Fixed the camera losing focus on the target when skipping time while in Hero Chase in Replay Mode
◆ Fixed a bug causing the Core rotation to be out of sync in Replay Mode
◆ General UI cleanup
That's all this week!
Let us know what you think of this update over on Twitter, the official Subreddit or our Discord server!
~ Rei & Steggs (Game Design and Community Teams)
