Protector’s Mask gets a nice boost of protections for upgrading to it from Mask, but at 50 it provides less health than the new Mask. This not only eases the build path but makes sure it never feels like a downgrade to upgrade to this mask.
- Increased Health from 50 to 100
Similar to Rangda’s Mask finding the sweet spot for the stat tradeoff is important. For Assassins and Mages shifting towards a more Guardian playstyle, the extra tankiness of 20% helped but the penalty towards healing and damage really limits how much they can contribute in fights with kits that often have less control. At 15% we feel this will be a stronger option for these types of shifts.
- Increased Health from to 250 to 300
- Increased Damage Taken Decrease from -20% to -15%.
- Increased Damage Dealt Decrease from -20% to -15%.
- Increased Healing Done Decrease from -20% to -15%.
Transcendence has strong potential for Assassins and Hunters alike but has struggled to see play. Its overall cost makes it a heavy investment that also takes time to pay off. We are decreasing the cost to make this more long term focused plan pay off.
- Decreased Cost from 2600 to 2450
The final item changes this patch are focused around Magical ADCs. Through Season 8 we have seen gods that really rely on strong Basic Attack focused play struggle. Freya, Olorun, Chronos, and Sol all feel this to some degree and we think their overall itemization can be improved. Death’s Toll will now provide some extra power, helping augment the abilities and Basic Attacks during early wave clear.
- Increased Magical Power from 25 to 30
Emerald Ring could be a strong option to pair with Death’s Toll but its lack of immediately useful stats and low stats in the T2 Enchanted Ring didn’t lend itself well to Magical Carries who wanted to build towards that path quickly. An extra 5% on both Emerald Ring and Enchanted Ring should make this build path more appealing.
- Now Provides 5% Attack Speed
- Increased Attack Speed from 10% to 15%
Ring of Hecate offers the potential for high power and sustain but with its last nerfs it never really found that spot. It was overvalued for its sustain and didn’t provide enough of a punch. These two changes should help in both respects.
- Decreased Cost from 2600 to 2500
- Increased Magical Power from 80 to 90
This change was done in the 8.5 Patch but went undocumented. In general Vampiric Shroud was underperforming and we wanted to better reward bruiser mages or mages looking for early safety with some extra gold to spend and some extra power on their abilities.
- Increased Magical Power from 25 to 30.
- Decreased cost from 750 to 700.
Gods
This change does not actually affect balance, as all balance changes are in the Bonus Balance. Reach was often confusing and the tooltip did not fully describe how this ability functioned. While it said it did 35% scaling what it really did was take 35% of “In-hand” damage, a combination of “Bot” power and “Item” power.
Combined with how Magical Gods only use 20% of their “Bot” power to get their “In-hand” damage it quickly got confusing and was not intuitive. It is much more intuitive and just as accurate to say that Reach deals 1.5x damage (after the latest balance changes) of your Basic Attack damage. So in short, nothing functionally changed here but it is all much more clearly written out.
- Reach’s previous description made it unclear how much Reach would deal in damage and missed describing key components.
- Rather than describing it as a scaling bonus we are now comparing its damage as a multiplier on your Basic Attack Damage. Nothing has changed but it should be more clear how to calculate how much damage reach does.
- Reach also did less damage on subsequent targets. This is also now described in the description.
Ah Puch is a low mobility mage that relies on slows, zone control, and the sustain from his passive to stay in a fight. This often leads to him fighting right in the thick of the whole team and encourages splashes of tank items. To further help him out in these situations we are giving him bruiser mage stats which should further assist in this playstyle. Combined with a standard ultimate cooldown Ah Puch will be able to better assist in teamfights.
- Increased Base Health from 400 to 450
- Increased Base Physical Protection from 9 to 13
- Decreased Cooldown from 100s to 90s
Artemis haters will now have to face a stronger early game Suppress the Insolent. As a god with a strong teamfight potential and high throughput damage, a more consistent and high pressure early may just be the extra push this low mobility hunter needs to see some success.
- Increase base damage from 80/130/180/230/280 to 90/140/190/240/290
Last notes Horus’ wings became 8% more aerodynamic and the mad scientists here have pushed that even further. With a 14% improvement Fracture can now travel a further range, allowing him to engage and lock down opponents who were previously just out of reach.
- Increased Dash Range from 35 units to 40 units
Hou Yi was a high contention hunter that has fallen from that position over the course of Season 8. A boost to Ricochets damage should give him some stronger early game potential and this bonus can be multiplied by a powerful triple hit.
- Increase base damage from 75/120/165/210/255 to 85/130/175/220/265.
Fade Away has strong telegraphing and counterplay towards the stealth component, which made the 20s cooldown feel too intense. This should increase Izanami’s safety during the early game and give her more flexibility when being aggressive as well.
- Decreased Cooldown from 20/19/18/17/16s to 17/16.5/16/15.5/15s
Kumbhakarna just took a power nap and is ready…for another power nap. However he did get some solid boosts to help him out. Throw Back’s initial damage will provide some extra lethality when used on gods and not on a minion wave while Groggy Strike should feel more rewarding for its long channel time.
- Increased Base Damage on the Initial Hit from 70/140/210/280/350 to 90/155/220/285/350
- Increased Base Damage 90/140/190/240/290 to 90/145/200/255/310
For a god as Fast as Mercury he struggled to keep up with other Junglers and their clear. Made You Look is getting some extra base damage to help close that gap.
- Increased Base Damage from 70/105/140/175/210 to 80/115/150/185/220
Dragonfire is seeing a solid update. This ability went on cooldown after the dragons despawned, making its cooldown significantly longer than listed. We are making this ability go on cooldown upon cast and adjusting the cooldown to compensate. This makes the ability easier to track and also lets it better interact with cooldown reduction.
- Dragonfire will now go on cooldown immediately, instead of waiting until the end of the ability’s effects
- This effectively buffs the cooldown by 3s at all ranks
- Increased Cooldown on Dragonfire from 16/15/14/13/12 to 18/17/16/15/14
- Combined with this nerf, this is a 1s cooldown decrease buff at all ranks
Rama is the final hunter we are bringing up. Rama saw heavy success for a long time but introducing proper conveyance and counterplay to the ult landing really hurt his success. This was especially felt at high levels. We are reverting a change we did to Astral Barrage now that more counterplay opportunities exist and also giving some extra reward for aggressive uses of Rolling Assault.
- Increase Scaling on the bonus damage shot from 25% to 30%
- Increased Base Damage from 180/265/350/435/520 to 180/270/360/450/540
The Smith of the gods has been busy cooking up a stronger Meatball. Vulcan is on the cutting edge of technology and balance so this boost to his base damage should round out his early clear when competing with other Mages.
- Increased base damage 70/120/170/220/270 to 80/130/180/230/280
