Balance Change Preview - April 27
With the release of the Colony DLC today, there will also be another patch that includes a variety of bug fixes and improvements (check out the patch notes here) along with some design/balance changes in response to player feedback and game data-mining.
Please see below for a list of the next round of balance changes coming to Halo Wars 2: (note - due to forum post character limits the balance change info is split into two different posts)
Everything below is in-progress and subject to change!
ANDERS
Anders had some cheesy strategies with players turtling around their base, using the Lure beacons from Kodiak and Siege Cannon shells to hold up armies that should have destroyed her. With the reduction in Kodiak fire rate and the reduction in spawned Sentinel patrol duration, this should stop the cheese!
We’ve made Research and Development better by affecting the unit-specific upgrades too! This will give Anders a big advantage in getting better units, faster than other leaders.
The Retriever sentinel wasn’t very cost-effective, so that’s had an increase to general damage and survivability.
Ark Cleansing
Archer Missiles
Isabel was suffering from a low pick and win rate. For one of the most potentially interesting Leaders, this simply could not do! We’ve really pumped up her key abilities to let her stand amongst the other Leaders. For example Ghost in the Machine is now a very scary ability! Fancy losing control of your units for 13 seconds? No .. me neither!
By using Holograms to bait out enemy leader powers and armies, Isabel has the power to run riot like no other leader.
Ghost in the Machine
Heavy Metal
Kinsano was well received by the community, with a high pick and win rate. We’ve had to push back Turret drop to bit further back in the Leader Power radial for a few Leaders, it was just too strong early on in the game. We’ve made some fixes to bugs that were making her Redline ability perform much better than it should have done. With this and a few other issues fixed, Kinsano will settle in amongst the other leaders, instead of burning them alive!
Firestorm Battle Group
With the release of the Colony DLC today, there will also be another patch that includes a variety of bug fixes and improvements (check out the patch notes here) along with some design/balance changes in response to player feedback and game data-mining.
Please see below for a list of the next round of balance changes coming to Halo Wars 2: (note - due to forum post character limits the balance change info is split into two different posts)
Everything below is in-progress and subject to change!
ANDERS
Anders had some cheesy strategies with players turtling around their base, using the Lure beacons from Kodiak and Siege Cannon shells to hold up armies that should have destroyed her. With the reduction in Kodiak fire rate and the reduction in spawned Sentinel patrol duration, this should stop the cheese!
We’ve made Research and Development better by affecting the unit-specific upgrades too! This will give Anders a big advantage in getting better units, faster than other leaders.
The Retriever sentinel wasn’t very cost-effective, so that’s had an increase to general damage and survivability.
Ark Cleansing
- Cooldown increased by 9%
- Level 1 Cost increased from 225/225 to 360/225
- Level 2 Cost increased from 325/325 to 450/385
- Level 3 Cost increased from 425/425 to 550/450
- Cooldown increased by 20%
- Cooldown increased by 9%
- Retriever now receives a 20000 SP shield if the player selects Sentinel Synergy
- Retriever Beam DPS increased by 50%
- Retriever Large Beam damage increased by 20%
- Retriever Y ability Area of effect rework
- Now affects unit-specific upgrades like UNSC Marine Grenades or Scorpion Canister Shell.
- Spawned sentinel patrol time reduced from 6 seconds to 3.5 seconds.
- Turret drop switched with Lotus mines:
- Lotus mines are now level 2 leader power
- Turret drop is now a level 3 leader power
Archer Missiles
- Level 1 Cost increased from 275/275 to 450/275
- Level 2 Cost increased from 375/375 to 550/400
- Level 3 Cost increased from 475/475 to 650/525
- Cooldown increased by 17%
- Pelican Gunship cooldown increased by 9%
- Orbital Battle group cooldown increased by 9%
Isabel was suffering from a low pick and win rate. For one of the most potentially interesting Leaders, this simply could not do! We’ve really pumped up her key abilities to let her stand amongst the other Leaders. For example Ghost in the Machine is now a very scary ability! Fancy losing control of your units for 13 seconds? No .. me neither!
By using Holograms to bait out enemy leader powers and armies, Isabel has the power to run riot like no other leader.
Ghost in the Machine
- Cost increased from 1200/300 to 1400/750
- Now controls all units for a flat 13 seconds
- Area of effect increased by 12%
- Level 1 Duration increased by 25%
- Level 1 Damage resistance increased from units taking 60% to units only taking 40% incoming damage
- Level 1 Slow modifier reduced from 50% basic speed to 60% basic speed.
- Level 2 Damage resistance increased from units taking 50% to units only taking 35% incoming damage
- Level 2 Duration reduced by 12%
- Level 2 Damage resistance increased from units taking 40% to units only taking 30% incoming damage
- Level 2 Slow modifier increased from 70% basic speed to 60% basic speed.
- Cooldown decreased by 13%
- Level 1 Cost reduced from 450/0 to 200/50
- Level 1 Radius increased by 16%
- Level 1 Max holograms increased from 4 to 6
- Level 1 Lifespan reduced from 60 to 40 seconds
- Level 2 Cost reduced from 650/0 to 350/75
- Level 2 Radius increased by 16%
- Level 2 Max holograms increased from 8 to 10
- Level 2 Hologram Lifespan reduced from 90 to 60 seconds
- Cooldown Increased by 17%
- Level 1 Cost from 250/250 to 400/250
- Level 2 Cost from 350/350 to 500/385
- Level 3 Cost from 450/450 to 600/500
- Level 1 damage increased by 33%
- Level 1 AOE from [10m(100%),15m(60%),20m(40%)] to [1m(100%), 5m(75%),11m(50%),20m(25%)]\
- Level 2 damage increased by 35%
- Level 2 AOE from [10m(100%),17m(60%),24m(40%)] to [1m(100%), 6m(75%),13.2m(50%),25m(25%)]
- Level 3 damage increased by 30%
- Level 3 AOE from [10m(100%),21m(60%),30m(40%)] to [1m(100%), 7.2m(75%),21m(50%),30m(25%)]
- Turret drop switched with Lotus mines:
- Lotus mines are now level 2 leader power
- Turret drop is now a level 4 leader power
Heavy Metal
- Level 1 Duration increased by 25%
- Level 1 Damage resistance increased from units taking 60% to units only taking 40% incoming damage
- Level 1 Slow modifier reduced from 50% basic speed to 60% basic speed.
- Level 2 Damage resistance increased from units taking 50% to units only taking 35% incoming damage
- Level 3 Duration reduced by 12%
- Level 3 Damage resistance increased from units taking 40% to units only taking 30% incoming damage
- Level 3 Slow modifier increased from 70% basic speed to 60% basic speed.
- Level 1 Cost increased from 275/275 to 450/275
- Level 2 Cost increased from 400/400 to 525/450
- Cooldown increased by 17%
- Incoming strike warning time reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds
Kinsano was well received by the community, with a high pick and win rate. We’ve had to push back Turret drop to bit further back in the Leader Power radial for a few Leaders, it was just too strong early on in the game. We’ve made some fixes to bugs that were making her Redline ability perform much better than it should have done. With this and a few other issues fixed, Kinsano will settle in amongst the other leaders, instead of burning them alive!
Firestorm Battle Group
- Cooldown increased by 9%
- Cooldown increased by 10%
- Initial damage reduced by 16%
- Redline damage bonus reduced from 10% to 8%
- Cooldown increased by 18%
- Level 1 Cost from 175/175 to 280/175
- Level 2 Cost from 300/300 to 425/325
- Level 3 Cost from 450/450 to 600/500
- Turret drop swapped places with Heat of battle