6.03: Game Balance

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2020_0918_Patchnotes.jpg

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6.03 Patch Notes

We’re hard at work on the shop, so this is primarily a balance, bug, and quality-of-life patch

Game Improvements

Leak Percent Rework
- Leak percent is now relative to a wave’s bounty. This is a visual change that doesn’t affect gameplay
-- Old leak percent = Bounty Leaked / Total Bounty of Wave and Mercenaries
-- New leak percent = Bounty Leaked / Total Bounty of Wave
- This means you can leak more than 100%
- This means leak percent now reflects how much gold you leaked and gives a good idea of how much damage your king will take
- Adjusted big leak and color thresholds to account for the above changes
- Leak message now shows mercenaries received & shows a “x” icon on the mercenaries the player killed:

2020-09-18_15h38_48.png

Play vs. AI
- New Difficulty: Beginner
- Play vs. AI Easy is now more difficult

Chat
- Now automatically attempts to reconnect if it fails to connect after 7 seconds
- New party chat hotkey: hold CTRL + Enter to type to party (adds a “/p” similar to SHIFT + Enter for “/all” chat)

4v4 Surrender
- Players can now surrender with a majority 34 vote starting on wave 11. Wave 10 and prior still requires a unanimous 44 vote

Trophies
- New trophy: Ultimate Terminator - Defeat Insane bots in Play vs. AI mode as a duo party
- The original Terminator trophy is now only awarded for solo parties

Fighter Value
- If you Treasure Hunt a Pack Rat, it now decreases your displayed fighter value by 75
- Hydra’s value changed to more accurately reflect its power
-- Full power: 470 >> 420
-- 1-stack debuff: 400 >> 360
-- 2-stack debuff: 340 >> 300
- If you boost a Peewee, Veteran, Infiltrator, or Orchid, the boost gold is added to your displayed fighter value

Weekly Challenge
- Added a button “View my best build” to view your best build for the current week
- Fixed some bugs relating to score calculation and saved builds
- Fixed a bug where it didn’t display any message if you tied the challenge score
- Fixed a bug where you could use Treasure Hunt (it is now disabled)
- Mudman and Golem no longer become un-Hardened after resetting the wave

FairPlay
- Chat bans are now more aggressive
- Added extra protection against false positive bans
- Fixed a rare bug where players could be wrongly punished for being AFK

Avatars
- Fixed a bug where some badges were unselectable as avatars

Tooltips & Clarity
- Added “Flying” to the descriptions of all flying units
- If upgrading a unit causes it to lose the ability to fly, it is now clarified in the description
- Every ability that deals ability damage now specifically mentions it
- Auras now explicitly state they do not stack with themselves
- Improved tooltip clarity for all aura units and auras
- Improved tooltip clarity of value bar recommendations
- Improved tooltip clarity for Embargo, Haste, Mind Warp, Gateguard, Maccabeus, and Legion King
- Increased aggressiveness of eco strat warnings
- Spawn Bias renamed to Spawn Position
- Changed references of “deploy” to “build”
- Changed references of “undeploy” to “sell”
- Changed references of “creatures” to “waves”
- Changed remaining references of “spell damage” to “ability damage”
- Changed references of “day” to “battle phase”
- Changed references of “night” to “build phase”

Game Interface
- Tooltips: Fixed a bug where sometimes the wrong armor type tooltip was displayed when mousing over a unit’s armor icon
- Gameplay: Fixed a bug where ready button wouldn’t show “Waiting on” message below the button
- Gameplay: Selling a fighter with a Hero-style legion spell will now prompt a “Confirm Sell” popup to prevent accidental sells
- Game Camera: Camera bookmarks (most commonly: 1, 3, and spacebar hotkeys) now jump to the “action” (fighters) during the battle phase
- Game Camera: Fixed a bug in 2v2 map where F3/F4 keys didn’t properly jump to the opposing players’ lanes

Client Interface
- Invites: New Invite UI (now shows confirmation window with that player’s name/avatar)
- Players: Fixed a bug where Send Message was grayed out unless you were friends (despite being able to whisper non-friends)
- Chat: Fixed a bug where Global Chat messages from Discord were displaying even if you had Global Chat disabled
- Chat: You can now click most links in chat messages
- Codex: Fixed a bug where animations would be frozen after quitting a game
- Inbox: Message now expire (auto-delete) after 30 days
- Inbox: Bottom-bar icon gold number now represents # unread messages rather than # total messages
- News: Added new maintenance messages that can display up-to-date information when servers are down
- Matchmaking: More accurate estimated wait time
- Tutorial: Now auto-selects first incomplete mission by default

Game Coach
- Less likely to wrongly say you’re overvalued on wave 1
- Less likely to wrongly say you’re overvalued with Sky Queen

Profile
- Fixed a bug where pick rates were not properly updating when playing non-Mastermind Legions. This will fix data moving forward, but unfortunately can’t fix data before this patch

Stability
- Fixed a rare bug where an error would cause a hidden crash popup that would prevent connecting to a new match
- Fixed a rare loading screen bug where the game wouldn’t load properly under certain conditions
- Fixed a rare bug where keyboard controls would become unresponsive after partially typing an emoji
- Fixed some cases of the client freezing on exit (other cases still remain)
- Potentially fixed a crash issue when changing options in-game (Disabled VFX plugin while adjusting options)

Gameplay Improvements

Pathing & Targeting
- Reverted a change from patch 6.02 where units wouldn’t aggro targets that were far away outside their range (this was causing some units to not aggro properly)
- Units should switch targets less often (no longer attempt to retaliate if they already have a target, even if that target is outside range). This should improve Wave 10 to be less dizzy when targeting your ranged fighters.
- Units are now a bit more conservative about “looping” around when they reach a blockage (May have side effects - please share videos on Discord if you can!)
- Fixed some cases where units would waste time moving to the position of an already-dead unit

Hydra & Alpha Male
- Hydra no longer debuffs Alpha Male

Sacred Steed & Pegasus
- Fixed a bug where they wouldn’t self-cast if a full-mana Angler or Bounty Hunter was nearby. They will now self-cast in those situations

Bots
- Fixed a bug where bots would sometimes not full-send when they should have
- Now smarter about using Guardian Angel
- Now smarter about using Pyro, Honeyflower, and Hydra
- Now smarter about valuing properly on wave 9 with ranged units

Giant Snails
- Fixed a bug where you could only train 7 or fewer Giant Snails when you should have been able to train 8

Legion Spells
- Fixed a bug where Hero-style legion spells became unusable on new fighters built after you used Harden on Mudman or Golem

Game Balance

Primary goals:
- Improve mercenary balance. Nerfs to Brute early game and Four Eyes + Shaman late game
- Shift power from base fighters to upgrades
- Shift power from tier 1 to higher tier fighters
- Nerf abusive combos (Leviathan + Lord of Death, APS + multi-attackers)

4v4 Dual Building green_arrow.png
- Value, recommended value, and workers now properly display a shared number on scoreboards. Workers display an average, and value and recommended value display a sum. This is a significant quality-of-life buff
- Haste: Enemy units no longer have bonus movement speed
- Banana Bunk and Banana Haven no longer count as area-of-effect units
- Soul Gate and Hell Gate now behave normally in the dual-build area, rather than spawning units too soon

Mastermind.png
Mastermind
- Aqua Spirit and Violet no longer satisfy the magic requirement
- Smarter auto-picker (default roll selection)

SkyKing.png
King green_arrow.png
- Now smarter about not wasting autoattacks when the king has Immolation (depriotizes targets that are close to dying from Immolation)
- Now smarter about target prioritization on wave 15
- Now smarter about target prioritization against Four Eyes (the king will now switch targets to Four Eyes if it’s damage has ramped up enough)
- Health increased by 25% in 1v1 and single-player games

Legion Spells

Pulverizer.png
Pulverizer green_arrow.png
- Stun duration: 1.5 seconds (0.3 for bosses) >> 2 seconds (0.5 for bosses)

We’ve missed the mark on Pulverizer balance, so here’s a big boy buff

Vampire.png
Vampire green_arrow.png red_arrow.png
- Life steal and ability vamp: 23% >> 22%
- Ability vamp is no longer reduced for area-of-effect abilities

Bringing back a long lost synergy

Fighters

Mana Adjustment
- In patch 4.05, we added 1 mana to some fighters to help prevent them from sitting at max mana. More recently, we implemented behavior for most mana users to autocast at max mana. This removes the need for the extra mana, so we’re removing it from the following units and compensating some of them with slight buffs: Gateguard, Harbinger, Desert Pilgrim, Priestess of the Abyss, Azeria, Lord of Death, Hades, Disciple, Starcaller, Witch, Shaman

Tier 1
Tier 1 fighters are some of the most-picked and highest win rate units in the game. In high-rated games, it’s not uncommon to pick 2, sometimes 3, tier 1 fighters to optimize and snowball early game with workers. This patch nerfs tier 1 and shifts power from base fighters to upgrades.

The goal is to make it feel better to pick higher tier units and strong late game combos (e.g. Starcaller + Soul Gate). There will always be a tradeoff between early game snowball and late game synergies, but right now, early game comps are too strong.

Looter.png
Looter red_arrow.png
- Damage: 8 >> 7

PackRat.png
Pack Rat green_arrow.png
- Damage: 55 >> 57

Win rate: 49.1%
Pick rate: Average

Pollywog.png
Pollywog red_arrow.png
- Health: 110 >> 80

Seraphin.png
Seraphin green_arrow.png
- DPS: 52 >> 54
-- Damage: 51 >> 50
-- Attack speed: 1.03 >> 1.08

Win rate: 50.1%
Pick rate: Average

BoneWarrior.png
Bone Warrior red_arrow.png
- Health: 130 >> 110

DarkMage.png
Dark Mage green_arrow.png
- Fixed a bug where Mind Warp was used on the wrong target

Win rate: 50.3%
Pick rate: Very high

Proton.png
Proton red_arrow.png
- Health: 180 >> 160

Atom.png
Atom green_arrow.png
- Health: 810 >> 830
- Damage: 36 >> 38

Win rate: 48.5%
Pick rate: Very low

Buzz.png
Buzz red_arrow.png
- Health: 170 >> 150
- Attack speed: 1.11 >> 1.05

Win rate: 52.4%
Pick rate: Average

ChainedFist.png
Chained Fist green_arrow.png red_arrow.png
- Health: 230 >> 200
- Damage: 7 >> 8

Win rate: 50.9%
Pick rate: Average

Peewee.png
Peewee red_arrow.png
- Health: 290 >> 260

Win rate: 52.3%
Pick rate: High

FalseMaiden.png
False Maiden green_arrow.png
- Damage: 24 >> 25

HellRaiser.png
Hell Raiser green_arrow.png
- Health: 1510 >> 1590
- Damage: 48 >> 50

Compensation buffs for APS changes

Win rate: 49.9%
Pick rate: Average

FireElemental.png
Fire Elemental green_arrow.png
- Attack speed: 0.73 >> 0.77

Win rate: 48.4%
Pick rate: Average

SeaSerpent.png
Sea Serpent red_arrow.png
- Attack speed: 0.93 >> 0.91
- Fixed a bug where Sea Serpents would sometimes never burrow if targets were far away
- Now burrows immediately when the lane is aggroed. This primarily affects backline Sea Serpents, which previously burrowed later.

Deepcoiler.png
Deepcoiler green_arrow.png
- Health: 1700 >> 1760
- Attack speed: 0.8 >> 0.81
- Fixed a bug where Deepcoilers would sometimes never burrow
- Now burrows immediately when the lane is aggroed. This primarily affects backline Deepcoilers, which previously burrowed later.

Shifting some power from Sea Serpent to Deepcoiler

Win rate: 50.8%
Pick rate: Average

Gateguard.png
Gateguard green_arrow.png red_arrow.png
- Health: 700 >> 620
- DPS: 24 >> 28
-- Damage: 35 >> 27
-- Attack speed: 0.7 >> 1.05
- Chaos Hound: Damage 25 >> 27

Harbinger.png
Harbinger green_arrow.png red_arrow.png
- Health: 1970 >> 1770
- DPS: 66 >> 81
-- Damage: 117 >> 77
-- Attack speed: 0.56 >> 1.05
- Cerberus: Health: 900 >> 860
- Cerberus: Damage: 75 >> 77

Shifting power from tankiness to DPS to solidify Gateguard’s role as a DPS summoner and giving them better damage thresholds to reduce overkill

Win rate: 50%
Pick rate: Average

Windhawk.png
Windhawk red_arrow.png
- Attack speed: 1 >> 0.97

Win rate: 52.3%
Pick rate: Very high

LostChieftain.png
Lost Chieftain green_arrow.png
- Health: 2450 >> 2500
- Damage: 170 >> 172

Win rate: 48.8%
Pick rate: Average

Butcher.png
Butcher green_arrow.png red_arrow.png
- Health: 1250 >> 1230
- Leech: Ability vamp is no longer reduced for area-of-effect abilities

HeadChef.png
Head Chef green_arrow.png red_arrow.png
- Damage: 110 >> 112
- Cannibalism: Ability vamp is no longer reduced for area-of-effect abilities
- Necromancy removed
- Mana regeneration increased by 100%

Necromancy as a mechanic on Head Chef was mostly unknown and ignored

Win rate: 48.6%
Pick rate: Very high

APS.png
APS green_arrow.png red_arrow.png
- Health: 830 >> 900
- DPS: 44 >> 57
-- Damage: 35 >> 38
-- Attack speed: 1.27 >> 1.49
- Energize: 3 damage + 12% attack speed >> 12% attack speed

MPS.png
MPS green_arrow.png red_arrow.png
- Health: 2020 >> 2180
- DPS: 106 >> 137
-- Damage: 84 >> 92
-- Attack speed: 1.27 >> 1.49
- Mythium Core: 6 damage + 18% attack speed >> 18% attack speed

Multi-attackers (Masked Spirit, Trinity Archer, etc.) were heavily balanced around APS and MPS. Without the attack damage buff, those units can be more viable on their own and less oppressive with APS and MPS.

Win rate: 51.5%
Pick rate: Average

EliteArcher.png
Elite Archer green_arrow.png
- Attack speed: 0.94 >> 0.97

TrinityArcher.png
Trinity Archer green_arrow.png
- Attack speed: 0.94 >> 0.97

Win rate: 48.9%
Pick rate: Average

PriestessOfTheAbyss.png
Priestess of the Abyss green_arrow.png
- Attack speed: 0.91 >> 0.96

Azeria.png
Azeria green_arrow.png
- Attack speed: 0.91 >> 0.96

Win rate: 47%
Pick rate: Average

Nightmare.png
Nightmare red_arrow.png
- Attack: 1.85 >> 1.79

Win rate: 53%
Pick rate: Average

Antler.png
Antler green_arrow.png red_arrow.png
- Health: 2180 >> 2350
- DPS: Unchanged
-- Damage: 93 >> 72
-- Attack speed: 0.74 >> 0.95
- Thick Hide no longer gives 2 flat damage reduction. Now clarifies that Antler receives 10% bonus damage reduction when built next to a Whitemane.

_Thick Hide was originally meant to make Antler a viable opening, back when there were far fewer viable openings, but it’s no longer serving its purpose.

This change allows Antler to continue to be a safe 4-worker opening, but to be stronger at most stages of the game. Tuned damage thresholds to be stronger on waves 3-4 and to clear waves 1-2 faster._

Win rate: 50.3%
Pick rate: Average

Disciple.png
Disciple green_arrow.png
- Mana Burst: Mana cost: 9 >> 8

Starcaller.png
Starcaller green_arrow.png
- Asteroid: Mana cost: 9 >> 8

Win rate: 47.2%
Pick rate: Average

SoulGate.png
Soul Gate green_arrow.png
- Hellion: Damage: 62 >> 65
- Nightcrawler: Damage: 62 >> 65

HellGate.png
Hell Gate green_arrow.png
- Elite Hellion: Damage: 124 >> 130
- Elite Nightcrawler: Damage: 124 >> 130

Win rate: 47%
Pick rate: Very low

LordOfDeath.png
Lord of Death red_arrow.png
- Can no longer be buffed by Leviathan’s Aerial Command

In the future, we plan to make Aerial Command work with Undead Dragon, but it’s not possible right now due to a technical limitation

Hades.png
Hades green_arrow.png red_arrow.png
- Raise Imp: Mana cost 33 >> 25
- Necromancy: Now only applies to dying enemy units (wave and mercenaries)
- Necromancy: Mana gain: 1 >> 3
- Imp: Health: 1700 >> 1600

More generally viable, and no longer reliant on spamming tier 1 fighters

Win rate: 51.9%
Pick rate: High

RedEyes.png
Red Eyes green_arrow.png
- Thunderous Charge: Damage increased by 3%
- Thunderous Charge: Attack speed slow: 15% >> 25%

Win rate: 48.4%
Pick rate: Very low

Mercenaries

DragonTurtle.png
Dragon Turtle red_arrow.png
- Health: 610 >> 600

Brute.png
Brute red_arrow.png
- Maul: Attack speed slow per stack: 5% >> 4%

Mimic.png
Mimic green_arrow.png red_arrow.png
- Bounty: 48 >> 45

Bounty now matches its income

Witch.png
Witch green_arrow.png red_arrow.png
- DPS: 122 >> 123
-- Damage: 100 >> 80
-- Attack speed: 1.22 >> 1.54
- Defense type: Swift >> Arcane
- Necromancy renamed to Witchcraft
- Summon Froggo: Mana cost: 62 >> 60
- Froggo: DPS: Unchanged
-- Damage: 40 >> 34
-- Attack speed: 1 >> 1.18
- Froggo: Defense type: Swift >> Arcane
- Froggo: Bounty: 4 >> 3

Buffs, better thresholds against base tier 1 units, and adding in non-swift defense types for ranged mercenaries

Ogre.png
Ogre green_arrow.png
- Health: 2700 >> 2750
- Defense type: Natural >> Fortified

Differentiating Brute from Ogre and adding another fortified option between Dino and Siege Ram

GhostKnight.png
Ghost Knight green_arrow.png
- Health: 3200 >> 3250

FourEyes.png
Four Eyes red_arrow.png
- Attack speed: 2.38 >> 2.27
- Defense type: Swift >> Natural

Differentiating Drake from Four Eyes and adding non-swift defense types for ranged mercenaries

Centaur.png
Centaur green_arrow.png
- DPS: Unchanged
-- Damage: 110 >> 92
-- Attack speed: 1.52 >> 1.82

Better thresholds against base tier 1 fighters

Shaman.png
Shaman red_arrow.png
- Health: 2900 >> 3000
- Attack speed: 1.15 >> 1.25
- Mana: 10 >> 3

No longer casts 4 times at the start of the battle, which nerfs Shaman as an omnipresent late game option, with multiple Four Eyes, and against the king.

Waves

Boss Partial Bounty
- Minibosses on waves 5, 15, and 21 now give partial bounty based on their missing health. 25% of the bounty is in the kill, so it’s still better to get the kill than to leave them at 1 health.
- As a reminder, bosses on waves 10 and 20 also give partial bounty with 13% of the bounty in the kill. This is unchanged.

Sludge.png
(7) Sludges red_arrow.png
- Attack speed: 0.715 >> 0.7
- Blob: Attack speed: 0.715 >> 0.7

Kobra.png
(8) Kobras green_arrow.png
- Attack speed: 1.09 >> 1.11

KillerSlug.png
(14) Killer Slugs red_arrow.png
- Health: 2050 >> 2020

DireToad.png
(19) Dire Toads green_arrow.png
- Attack speed: 2.63 >> 2.7

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