DEV NOTE: Over the past few weeks, we’ve examined the primal meta closely in response to the unlimited duration change made in Patch 0.17. Sunder and Issia will be seeing a cooldown time increase because of their frequent availability and effective combat. Sunder has been dominating the new Hydra mode with a Primal Roar build, proving too effective at rushing down the Overseer without much counterplay opportunity.

 

Torden is doing great, but the usage of his support tools is very low, necessitating substantial increases to his power in order to encourage players to experiment with a more supportive playstyle.

 

Jainx is performing mostly OK but can be oppressive when combining his Dread Relic with Corral against larger groups of enemies. On the other hand, Savage Charge is proving lackluster and is subsequently receiving an increase to its base damage and a slight reduction to its cooldown to be more forgiving when used ineffectively.

 

Nock has had a bumpy time, coming out of the gate weak but ramping in win rate in recent days. As a result, she is receiving only a few minor buffs, particularly to her basic attack cooldown to restore some of her previous mobility.

Assault Rifles

Battle Rifles

Sincerity and Commotion were slightly underperforming, so a slight damage buff is in order for these weapons to make them more competitive. Tetrad was actually shooting farther than was intended and has been brought back in line with its fellow Battle Rifles. It was also putting out more DPS than other primary Battle Rifles due to its 4-shot volleys, necessitating the small damage reduction. Dispatch has been consistently performing poorly, so several buffs have been applied to hopefully make it a more desirable heavy weapon option. The shot speed has also been dramatically increased to align it with other Assault and Battle Rifles.

Chainguns

Splintered Fate is not providing anywhere close to the output we expect from it, so it’s receiving some pretty large buffs to make it an attractive weapon choice for more experienced players again as well as more reliable for newer players the way Northern Warmth has been.

Flaks

Flaks have been struggling to keep up with other weapons for a while now despite being buffed repeatedly. This time around, they are receiving some fairly extensive buffs. First, their damage falloff is being removed. This will help distinguish their damage spread from Mortars and Rocket Launchers. Next, the baseline slow that they apply to enemies is being increased, especially for Miser — one of the least used and weakest Heavy Weapons at the moment. As the slow amount has been so heavily increased for the Miser, the clip size has been reduced to compensate.

Flamethrowers

Ol’ Brighton has been on the struggle bus lately. Hopefully this damage increase will bring it back to form, and the shot speed increase should make it easier to apply damage to enemies who enter your range. Overall, Brighton should feel much better to use!

Mortars

All Mortars are performing quite a bit better than other weapons at the moment, so they’re all receiving a minor damage reduction to keep them in line. Arrival and Luma Arrival are receiving a pretty hefty buff to their falloff damage to make them more forgiving when grazing enemies since their time to impact is much longer than other Mortars.

Pistols

Both pistols are putting out a little too much burst damage, but their damage per shot is feeling pretty good. Just ever so slightly decreasing their attack speed so their DPS remains closely aligned with other weapon types.

Rocket Launchers

Rocket Launchers have undergone a significant rework. No longer will they explode automatically at the end of their path but will instead only explode upon impacting terrain (such as a wall or an obstacle) or an enemy target. Alongside this change comes a large damage boost as well as a range and explosion radius increase. This should make them much more powerful against clustered targets or enemies in narrow areas but prevents them from being used as an area denial weapon, which Flak are now much better at. The reactivation delay of many Rocket Launchers has been increased to prevent their use as instant point-blank burst damage weapons.

Shotguns

Shotguns have risen to the top of the food chain in recent patches and are putting out a sizable amount of damage too quickly. While we want Shotguns to be the premier close-range weapon, they are able to take down targets a bit too quickly relative to other weapons, so we’re dropping their damage down. Caretaker and Aught Mandrel are particularly heavy offenders here. Trine Plane, on the other hand, is in need of some serious help, so it has received an increase to its shot count to help achieve its infusion perks more quickly as well as a larger clip size and increased ammo pickup to help keep the bonus rolling for longer periods of time. Its damage has also increased as a result of the shot count increasing from 3 to 5.

SMGs

We’re happy to see Writhe being adopted by more players, but it could still use an increase in damage to help. The reload time is also long for a close-range high-DPS weapon, so we’re cutting it down quite a bit which should help with longer engagements.

Sniper Rifles

We’re planning to do a larger overhaul of Sniper Rifles in a future release, but for now, we’re just tweaking some numbers to keep them competitive with other weapons. Luma Prodigal and Objection are particularly egregious here, boasting a very high win rate at the moment. All Sniper Rifles have also had a handling delay added, which prevents them from being fired alongside other weapons at the same time. This effect was greatly contributing to their power in a greater way than intended. Finally, Negate Siren is performing rather poorly, so it’s receiving a healthy round of buffs to bring it up with the other heavy Sniper Rifle options.

Hydra

• Map
  • Removed Mistral Fragments from the map rotation
  • Updated prototype map visuals
  • Flipped the jump pads to face the correct direction
  • Radius for shard turn-in decreased: 8m ➔ 5m
• Overseer
  • NEW: The Overseer now has two totems that spawn nearby making it invulnerable until destroyed.
  • Health decreased by 20%
  • Health ticks decreased: 70/40% ➔ 66/33%
  • Drones now count for Boss Damage
  • No longer spawns drones outside of its invulnerability phase
  • Drones spawned during invulnerability phase now spawn at fixed locations
  • Follows standard vision rules instead of revealing all nearby enemies
• Paragon damage bonus decreased: 25% ➔ 20%

Eventide

• Buffs
  • Purple Crystal Speed boost decreased: 400% ➔ 50%
  • Meganaut buff duration decreased: 150s ➔ 90s
  • Meganaut minimum buff transfer time decreased 60s ➔ 30s
• Paragons
  • Damage bonus decreased: 35% ➔ 20%
  • Bonus health decreased: 1750 ➔ 1000
  • Essence health decreased: 750 ➔ 250
  • Essence damage bonus decreased: 15% ➔ 5%
• Monsters
  • Left and right Meganaut respawn times increased by 30s
  • Central Meganaut respawn time increased by 15s
  • Team Overseer spawn score decreased: 20000 ➔ 15000
  • Dreadnaut spawn score decreased: 22500 ➔ 20000

Slayer

• Score to win increased: 20 ➔ 30
• Match length cap decreased: 6 min ➔ 5 min

• Kill streak window increased: 7s ➔ 10s
• Bonus damage from pentakill decreased: 20% ➔ 10%
• Hunter’s Gift Buff is no longer granted by any monster
• Dreadnaut buff granted on kill now only affects allies of the killer within 30m of the Dreadnaut