[Locked] April Balance Update (4/2/2018)

Hey Everyone,

Here are the official patch notes for the balance patch we are publishing this Monday, April 2nd, 2018. We will get the word out that day of when we start the process and let you know when it is completed. Enjoy!!!

Global
More Crossplay Hoppers and Season 10
We are happy to announce that based on feedback we have received we will making 9 of the 11 playlists crossplay. Below are the playlists that will be available during season 10. We wanted to let you all know that we are listening and can’t wait to bring more fun and new things you want to Halo Wars 2!!!

Crossplay Playlists
Versus AI
Rumble
Team War
Ranked 2v2 Objective
Ranked Solo War
Ranked 3v3 x War
Ranked 1v1 Blitz Open
Ranked 2v2 Blitz Open
3v3 Blitz

Xbox Only Non-Crossplay Playlists
Ranked 2v2 War
Ranked 3v3 War

PC Only Non-Crossplay Playlists
Ranked 2v2 War

Air vs. Tanks and Colossus
The global buff to air vs. vehicles has seen a change to vary up unit production, but tanks have slightly fallen to the wayside in many respects. This is a partial revert to the buff air was given last patch of 40% for this specific interaction. We are reverting 25% of the buff it received where the modifier went from 1.0 up to 1.4 for core air vs. T3 tanks. This patch will make the damage modifier there a solid 1.3.

• Core air vs Tanks and Colossus damage modifier reduced from 140% damage to 130%.

Air vs. Anti-Air.
Banshees and Hornets were doing too well vs. AA from both factions. This was due to a rogue modifier on the fuel rod being too high (talk more about them later) along with air just performing very well against its direct counter when looking at them more closely across this last patch. We are slightly adjusting these interactions.

• Core Air vs. AA damage reduction of 5%.

Detect Range Increase
Breaking a cloaked banished base if setup properly is one of the most difficult things to do in the game, not including a turtling Pavium. A key problem in this equation is that the units have had to pretty much be on top of a base to detect it all the while units underneath the cloak and shields are destroying the army on approach. To help fix this all units with detect have had detect ranges match the base line of sight of the unit. Meaning that on flat ground the LOS of a unit is say 65, we are hard coding the detect to be that 65. Even if your LOS changes how it reveals fog of war, that detect will always stay at the same 65.
This range will never change and is not impacted by cliff mechanics where line of sight is increased. Detect ranges are a hard-coded value that will never change. I look forward to the hold positions of units cleverly placed behind a base to setup the siege of a cloaked base in the future. Banished might want to start utilizing more motion sensors to watch for these tactics!

• Engineer and Corrupted Engineer detect range was 40 and now is 65.
• Elite Ranger detect range was 40 and now is 70.
• Chopper was 35 and now is 75.
• Ghost was 35 and now is 80.
• Reaver was 50 and now is 75.
• Nightingale was 50 and now is 65.
• Sniper was 50 and now is 90.
• Jackrabbit was 35 and now is 80.
• Wolverine was 50 and now is 75.

Scouts
The goal with scouts is for them to beat rush infantry specializing in building damage and anti-infantry capabilities. They are however supposed to also lose to core infantry like marines and grunts with camo grunts being the exception here that we are still working on improving. They have been underperforming vs. those rush units so these changes are specifically here to target this interaction. Light armored units are Brute Grenadier, Brute Rider, Suicide Grunt, Cryo Flamers and Flamers. Lightrush units are the Jump Pack Brutes and Elite Enforcers.

• Jackrabbit damage vs. lightarmored units increase of damage by 10.5%.
• Jackrabbit damage vs. lightrush units increase of damage by 15%.
• Skitterers, Ghosts, and Choppers vs. lightarmored increase of 6%.
• Skitterers, Ghosts, and Choppers vs. lightrush increase of 10%.

Snipers and Rangers vs. Heroes
These units now have increased effectiveness vs infantry-based hero units of 7.5%.
Ram Damage Type Modifier Change
The WarthogRam damage type is shared across several units and we are reducing its effectiveness vs. core vehicles. This includes the ram for choppers, ghosts, warthogs, and the stomp of a Scarab. This will also increase the survivability of warthogs and scouts that do ram as they take reflect damage based on the damage dealt to other units. So this change will help several interactions that are not optimal.

• WarthogRam modifier vs. Medium armor type reduced by 28%.

Mines
Mines will no longer be allowed to be dropped on units that are stationary. This is to help reduce the overwhelming combo of stunning a group of units and then dropping a very cheap and effective set of mines on top of the units. You still are going to be able to use mines in fun ways and if this is not enough we will investigate other ways of changing this very low cost and very effective leader power.

UNSC
Marines
Combat tech is a very powerful upgrade that does a bit too well in certain situations it shouldn’t. As well, marines themselves don’t do well in certain situations that they should. In order to improve this, we are shifting DPS from the rocket of the upgraded Combat Tech marine down to the base marines prior to getting combat tech. To get all the math – please take a look here.

• Marines vs. air increase of 15% dps.
• Combat tech marine’s rocket damage reduction of 8%.

Hellbringers
In comparison to JPB or other building damage units for pure base damage, the hellbringers vs. buildings is a little low prior to upgrading them. With the upgrade being costly and there job not being quite perfect we are making them just a little bit better against buildings.

• Flamers vs. buildings damage increased by 5%.

Wolverines
AA and its effectiveness has been a very hot topic lately. We hear all sides of the argument and are working towards perfect equilibrium for these units. This patch we are lowering the power cost of AA as well as increasing the effectiveness of their ground targeting weapons to increase their viability in a mixed army comp.

• Power cost reduction from 150/190 to 150/180.
• DPS of grenade increased by 30%.

Scorpion
These guys need some love, so we have given the scorpion main cannon DPS a slight buff to make tanks more tank like.

• Base DPS increased by 12%.

Spartan Slam
Douglas, Alice, and Cutter’s Jerome all have spartan slam and it has been a very effective ability since we gave it a buff sometime back. We are bringing it down just slightly in its effectiveness by reducing the stun time, adding an additional falloff ring on the ability, and reducing the damage on impact.

• Stun reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Falloff ring adjustments.
  • Was 3/100%, 15/50%
  • Now 3/100, 8/50%, and 15/25%.
• Base DPS reduced by 5%.

UNSC Turrets
All UNSC turrets have been modified to help re-balance anti-infantry that were over performing, anti-vehicle that were underperforming, and a bug where the splash radius of a turret was not 100%. Lastly, we are lowering the damage of Siege turrets slightly but will be revisiting them to either adjust splash rings or escalation in cost for the future.

• Anti-Infantry turrets reduced damage by 5.5%.
• Anti-vehicle turrets increased damage by 10%.
• Anti-Air turrets – bug fixed where splash radius was not applying damage correctly.
• Siege Turrets DPS reduced by 3%.

Vulture
AA Missiles damage increase of 10% and Air to ground guns damage increase of 5%.

Decimus
One day Decimus will not be OP. On that day, boundless siphon might come back on the Warlord. Until the day he is balanced we will continue working towards slowly bringing him down so certain unit compositions are not so oppressive. His boundless siphon and active siphon are being reduced in effectiveness and there is a cost increase for his active.

• Boundless siphons heal reduced from 3% to 2.5%
• Siphon price increased at each tier.
  • T1 200/50 increased to 300/100.
  • T2 300/75 increased to 400/150.
  • T3 400/100 increased to 500/150
• Siphon effectiveness reduced at each tier.
  • T1 reduced from 7% to 6%.
  • T2 reduced from 9% to 8%.
  • T3 reduced from 11% to 10%.

Forge
Forge’s Grizzly Battalion’s cost increase was indeed too high. To help make it better, we are reducing the cost from 3000/450 down to 2750/450.

Isabel
The almighty Mac blast, eraser of worlds, and killer of anti-vehicle everything has had to be taken down a notch. The damage rings for Mac blast have been adjusted to make faster falloff of a higher damage percentage as well as had a cost increase and a base DPS reduction.

• Cost increase at each tier.
  • T1 300/200 increased to 350/250.
  • T2 400/300 increased to 450/350.
  • T3 500/400 increased to 550/450.
• Damage Ring Changes.
  • Old T1 radius and damage: 1.5/125%, 9.0/100%, 19/60%, 22/40%
  • New T1 radius and damage: 2/125%, 6/100%, 16/50%, 22/40%
  • Old T2 radius and damage: 1.5/125%, 9/100%, 19/60%, 26/40%.
  • New T2 radius and damage: 3/125%, 8/100%, 18/60%, 26/40%
  • Old T3 radius and damage: 2/125%, 10/100%, 20/60%, 27/40%, 33/30%
  • New T3 radius and damage: 1/150%, 2/125%, 8/100%, 18/60%, 26/40%, 33/20% Cost:
• Base DPS decreased for each tier.
  • T1 Damage reduced by 9%.
  • T2 Damage reduced by 6.5%.
  • T3 Damage reduced by 5%.

Sgt. Johnson
So, this guy has been in an interesting spot for some time and we have been playing with ways to improve his toolkit from units to leader powers. For now, what we have decided on is to help improve his mech units, increase the health of his destructible healing beacon for his hero unit, and normalize his veterancy gains and bonuses for his hero unit.

• Colossus 10% speed increase.
• Mantis Upgrade cost reduction from 600 power to 400.
• Shields once upgraded increase of 10%.
• Normalized Veterancy by reducing his requirements at 2% per level.
• Each veterancy level has been increased in effectiveness by 2% per level.
• The destroyable beacon for Johnson’s hero ability has a health buff of 343%.

Serina
Frostraven’s ability cooldown reduced from 90 seconds to 60 seconds.

Pavium
Pavium is a very tricky Brute to mess with because of his intended role. He isn’t the best at offense, but he is hands down the best at saying “though shalt not pass my defense,” and has been showcased many times as being such. So much so that we had to bring him down a notch on defense and up a bit on offense. On top of that, we also had to touch on a how strong his ability on his hero unit was for essentially trapping units in rain of fire for a bit too long.

• Lich damage buff of 40%, decrease in duration of 25%, and unit spawner buff of 15% to health.
• Pavium’s Stand has been reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Slow on Pavium’s Hero ability reduced from 40%/50% to 10%/20% on the upgrades.
• Hero reflection damage reduced by 10%.

Shipmaster
A few changes have been made for shipmaster to help improve his advanced cloaking ability and mines.

• Scout mine line of sight increased by 25% first point and 20% second point.
• Advanced cloaking reduced the power cost on shrouds by 30 at first point.
• Advanced cloaking shroud cloaking range increased by 15% on second point.

Jerome
To make Jerome’s leader powers a little bit more affordable we took the top off on Omega Team and Field promotion. As well we have increased the speed of the mastodon slightly to make his troop carriers more versatile and attractive for players.

• Omega Team reduced from 2000/2000 down to 1800/1800.
• Field Promotion reduced from 1000/1000 down to 800/800.
• Mastodon speed increase of 8%.

Voridus
Voridus’ abilities effectiveness is being reduced because it is simply put too strong. As well his hero is getting a slight health bump up which we can keep pushing upwards to make his hero unit better in the future.

• Combat spoils effectiveness reduced by 15% at first point and 28% at 2nd
• Voridus hero health buff of 5%.

Kinsano
Last patch we fixed a bug with Kinsano’s Flame Hog Tier 3 upgrade Incendiary grenade. Now that it does the damage the upgrade was intended to do we have found it is performing too well vs other vehicles. We have reduced the modifiers for this upgrade vs. other core vehicles. As well we are increasing the cooldown on hell drop to account for the buff to flamers vs. buildings and fixed a bug with Kinsano’s hero unit and how she gained veterancy.

• Incendiary grenade flame hog damage to core vehicles reduced by 20%.
• Incendiary grenade flame hog damage to buildings reduced by 7%.
• Hell drop cooldown increased from 90 seconds to 110 seconds.
• Fixed bug with Kinsano veterancy gain.

YapYap THE DESTROYER
This little guy has been a thorn in my side for a while. Not only does he have the highest win rate in the game, but he also has some of the fastest cooldowns on leader powers. To bring him inline we are nerfing his face with cooldown rate increases across the board. This is Yappening.

• Methane Party increased from 265 seconds to 300.
• Grunt dome cooldown increased from 180 to 210 seconds.
• Shade Turret cooldown increased from 150 to 180 seconds.

Blitz
These changes were made to make these units more viable in comparison to the counter units. Cost reductions were made to help improve these interactions.
Banshee cost reduced from 60 to 50.
Hornet reduced from 70 to 60.
Atriox Chosen cost reduced to 200.
Warlord cost reduced to 170.
Pavium cost reduced to 205.
Voridus and Serina Mines increased to 50.
Super unit durations increased from 40 to 60 seconds.

Terminus Firefight
Shrouds can now cloak the Terminus like Nightingale smoke.