Just for context, these are the changes I would make at this very moment with numbers that serve as placeholders. What I want to get across are the general ideas, but instead of explaining what I would change and have you try to form an image of it, I think giving solid numbers will help stimulate the mind a little more.
If something isn’t mentioned (For example, BreakingPoint is not mentioned in the items section) it means it doesn’t stick out to me as something that requires changing on a fundamental level. Maybe they require numbers adjustments, but I don’t want to mention them unless they’re large changes. This is already long enough already (as of writing this, it is 12 pages and I still need to provide an explanation to everything that I feel requires one). You’ve been warned.
Here are my personal directions that I would want the game’s balance to go towards. Removing CC from kits that don’t need it, particularly those in damage dealers
- Better defining character strengths & weaknesses / themes
- Nerfing 4 offence 1 defence builds
- Giving Captains more of a supportive role (You can go ahead and assume I nerf all Captain base damage. I’m too lazy to go through all their abilities one by one)
- Reducing the amount of burst healing/barrier captains can provide
- Changes to mobility for certain characters (Mostly nerfs)
- Alongside other character specific balance changes that I feel are needed
This isn’t to make a more ‘balanced’ game per say, but to make a more fun game. I can go on a whole extra page about how balancing is more about making the game fun than making the game fair for everyone but you don’t want to hear that and I don’t want to write that, so just know these are just opinions.
That are correct.
You might notice that a lot of this is reducing the power level of characters. This is intentional.
Item Changes
Notes
Tenacity: Reduces the duration of CC. Can stack up to a maximum of 50%
Now crowd control effects are separated from other negative effects.
When the statement ‘Receive additional healing’ or ‘Reduce received healing’ is used in that sort of context, this includes barriers. I just can’t be bothered to type it out.
Boots
Normalising boot costs
T1 remains at 300
T2 total cost increased to 800
T3 total cost increased to 2000
All T3 Boots will now only use ‘Journey Boots’ as part of their crafting tree.
Sprint Boots: +0.4 MS
Active: Gain a fading haste for one second (Gain a burst of movement speed which fades over time). 120 second CD.
Travel Boots: +0.5 MS, +100 Health
Passive (Travel): Gain +1 MS when out of combat with heroes, monsters or players.
Active: Gain a fading haste for one second. 90 second CD.
Journey Boots: +0.7 MS, +200 Health
Passive: Travel
Active: Gain a fading haste for two seconds. Landing an ability or an auto attack on heroes while ‘Journey Boots’ have a cooldown higher than 15/25 seconds (melee/ranged) will gain one ‘sprint’ stack. Once a hero reaches 3/5 ‘sprint’ stacks (Melee/Ranged), the cooldown of ‘Journey Boots’ will be set to 15/25 seconds (Melee/Ranged). 60 second CD.
Wartreads: +0.6 MS, +200 Health
Passive: Travel
Active: Grants a fading haste for two seconds to all nearby allies within 12 units. 60 second CD.
Halcyon Heels: +0.5 MS, +300 Health, +15% CDR
Passive: Travel
Active: Gain a fading haste for one second. 40 second CD.
Teleport Boots: +0.6 MS, +300 Health
Passive: Travel
Active: After channelling for 2.5 seconds, teleport to allied structure, minion or scout cam. Grant a 300 health barrier to the target while channelling. Gain a fading haste for two seconds after the channel is complete. 150 second CD.
(New) Dis-chargers [I am so sorry]: +0.6 MS, +300 Health
Passive: Travel
Passive (Lightspeed): Every time you cast an ability, gain +0.3 fading MS for 1 second. This effect can stack.
Explanation: Boots are too strong, plain and simple. If one person has boots up and another doesn’t, then they have the distinct advantage of ‘you can’t catch me’ or ‘I get a free engage’, which is too abusable with boots upgrades resetting the CD to be that powerful (or journey boots). The reasoning behind a fading haste is to still provide a relevant burst of movement speed that allows heroes to dodge skillshots or quickly close the gap, but not the amount of speed that would take you from the dragon pit to the safety of your tower. The changes behind Journey Boots are to prevent characters to refresh it simply by tickling your out of position top laner and force them to instead be aggressive with their boots activation to have it reset it. Halcyon Chargers lost its mana component to lose stop it from being a cheap, easy to pick up sustain item which nullified a large number of energy problems that would have otherwise been a weakness to many mages. Dis-chargers exist as an alternative choice for mages and WP ability casters aside from Heels. Personally I would also revert the movement speed changes made in 4.1/4.2 (I don’t remember) which increased the base movement speed for every hero; giving every character that much movement speed made ganking a bit too easy and made pushing an opponent out of lane not that big of a deal.
Crystal
(New) Occultist’s Tome: +5 CP, +5% Vampirism
Passive (Blood Rites): Restore 30/10 Health (Melee/Ranged) whenever you kill a unit.
Total Cost: 300 Gold
(New) Ritualistic Robes: +10CP, +10% Vampirism
Passive: Blood Rites
Total Cost: 800 Gold (Builds out of Occultist’s Tome)
Spellfire: +80 CP
Passive (I don’t have a good name): Abilities dealing crystal damage to enemies (excluding lane minions) deal 20-60 (levels 1-12) crystal damage + 65% of your crystal power as bonus crystal damage over 3 seconds and applies 20% + 5% crystal healing reduction over the duration (Maximum 40% reduction).
Explanation: Spellfire should really be a niche item, but it’s used as a general purpose damage item on anyone who can built it simply because it’s so powerful. AOE wounds are pretty busted, believe it or not. The idea is that one needs to both build other damage items and be in a situation where it makes sense to build this item, instead of simply picking it up over other items because it’s good against fountain (I know I’m guilty of this one on my Baptiste).
Broken Myth: +70 CP
Passive (Shield Shatter): 30% Shield Pierce
Passive (Slayer of Legends): Deal % additional damage to heroes with higher maximum health based on how much higher their health is. For every 5% more health the hero has, the user deals 1% more damage capping at 20% additional damage.
Total Cost: 3100 (Builds out of Heavy Prism and Piercing Shard)
Explanation: Now further counters full tanks while being less effective against bruisers. Broken Myth is more suited for fights with solid frontlines that ranged mages love to shred.
Eve of Harvest: +40 CP, +300 Energy, +4 Energy Regen, +15% Vampirism
Passive: Blood Rites
Passive (Soul Harvester): Your next 200-800 (level 1-12) points of crystal damage to enemy heroes have +15% lifesteal, recharges over 40s.
Total Cost: 2700 (Builds out of Ritualistic Robes and Void Battery)
Frostburn: +90 CP
Passive (Crippling Chill): Slow enemies by 40% when they are hit by your abilities for 1.5 seconds. Reduced to 25% for AOE abilities.
(Reworked) Dragon’s Eye
Passive/_Explanation:_Something similar to BP in the WP Tree. Old BP was bad design because characters could have 0-1 damage items with it and dominate teamfights. DE doesn’t seem as bad since most CP characters are based on skillshots until you realise that mages have CP Ratios on their autoattacks. Especially Vox and Varya. Also they get free lifesteal which means their 2 item spike makes them go from reasonable to not okay with one 1300 gold purchase. Yes, I got lazy for the numbers on this one
(New) Cursed Locket: +35 CP, 10% Vampirism
Passive (Shield Shatter): 20% Shield Pierce
Passive (Desperate Might): Gain 5% Tenacity for every 10% missing health, up to a cap of 30%. When you reach 30% tenacity, fire out a small AOE blast around you that applies a 40% slow and deals 40-100 (level 1-12) + 50% CP damage. 40 second CD.
Total Cost: 2900 (Builds out of Ritualistic Robes and Piercing Shard)
Explanation: The idea of this item is to be more friendly to CP melees, providing a small spread of important stats and tenacity to the bruisers and assassins out there. The downside of the item is, of course, the low amount of Crystal. Although this item wouldn’t likely be built on many ranged characters, if it’s too strong it should only give half tenacity for ranged or something similar.
(New) Mirror Shield: +60 CP, +200 Health
Active (Reflex Block): Gain a barrier worth 100-600 (level 1-12) and block all CC effects for 1.5 seconds. 30 second CD, only ticks down out of combat.
Total Cost: 2500 (Builds out of Heavy Prism and Reflex Block)
Weapon
Book of Eulogies: +5 WP, +5% Vampirism
Passive (Blood Rites): Restore 30/10 Health (Melee/Ranged) whenever you kill a unit.
Barbed Needle: +10CP, +10% Vampirism
Passive: Blood Rites
Poison Shiv: +35 WP, +35% AS, +10% Vampirism
Passive: Blood Rites
Passive (Infected Blade): Every 2/3 basic attacks apply 30% + 7.5% weapon healing reduction for two seconds (Maximum 50% reduction)
Serpents Mask: +70 WP, +15% Vampirism
Passive: Blood Rites
Passive (Flesh Harvester): Your next 200-800 (level 1-12) points of weapon damage to enemy heroes have +15% lifesteal, recharges over 40s.
Tension Bow: +60 WP
Passive (Armour Breaker): 20% Armour Pierce
Passive (Sudden Strike): Every 6s, your next basic attack will deal 20-140 (Level 1-12) + 100% of bonus weapon power bonus damage. Every time you land a basic attack while this passive is on cooldown, the cooldown of this passive is lowered by 0.2 seconds.
Explanation: A small tweak to make this item more of a squishy killer alongside making it viable for more characters.
Bonesaw: +20 WP, +40% AS
Passive (Armour Breaker): 30% Armour Pierce
Passive (Savage Shred): Your basic attacks shred 7.5% of the enemies maximum armour for 3 seconds. Maximum of 4 stacks.
(New) Curved Trident: +80 WP
Passive (Armour Breaker): 30% Armour Pierce
Passive (True Elegance): Increase the weapon damage on all abilities by 10%
Total Cost: 3100 (Builds out of Heavy Steel and Piercing Spear)
Explanation: More of a middle of the road time armour penetration item made for caster type weapon characters like with Rona or Kestrel who have a difficult time using both TB or BS to their full potential.
(New) Parrying Rapier: +60 WP, +200 Health
Active (Reflex Block): Gain a barrier worth 100-600 (level 1-12) and block all CC effects for 1.5 seconds. 30 second CD, only ticks down out of combat.
Total Cost: 2500 (Builds out of Heavy Steel and Reflex Block)
Weapon Infusion: Nerf the attackspeed on this it’s so stupid
Defence
(Removed) Slumbering Husk
(Removed) Aegis
(Removed) Stormcrown (Build path stops as Banner)
(Reworked) Reflex/Crucible: Cooldowns only tick down outside of combat. 120 and 40 seconds respectively.
Explanation: The cooldowns of reflex block have been lowered but have been set to only tick down while out of combat. This is mainly to stop players from abusing the ability to pop a crucible with an ultimate, then stall until that ability comes up again and repeat (We see you Phinn players).
Total Cost: 1000/2800 respectively.
(Reworked) Fountain of Renewal: +300 Health, +40 Armour, +40 Shield
Active: Fires out an AOE pulse with the range of 5 which heals allies for 50-200 health (level 1-12) and cleanses all negative debuffs on them and giving them an immunity to debuffs for 0.25 seconds. Healing is applied before cleanse. 40 second CD.
Explanation: Since CC blocks such as reflex block, San Fang A/B OD and Blackfeather ult don’t block negative effects anymore, they have to be cleansed. Since quite a few characters have debuffs, this item serves as a way to tell them to stop doing that.
(Reworked) Celestial Shroud: +95 Shield
Passive (Might of the Mysterious): Gain 20% Tenacity.
Atlas Pauldron: +75 Armour
Active: Fires out an AOE pulse with a range of 3 which reduces the attackspeed of enemies by 40%/65% (Melee/Ranged) for 4 seconds and applies a 40% second slow to ranged characters for 2 seconds.
Total Cost: 2200 (Builds out of Coat of Plates)
Explanation: Reducing the reward for hitting an Atlas on a melee hero and increasing the reward for landing it on a ranged hero. Essentially, the reward increases with difficulty. Since this is treated as a debuff, counter with fountain, not a block.
(New) Nullwave Gauntlet: +60 Shield
Active: Fires out an AOE pulse with a range of 3 which doubles ability cooldowns for 2/3 seconds (Melee/Ranged) and applies a 40% second slow to ranged characters for 2 seconds.
Total Cost: 2400 (Builds out of a Kinetic Shield)
Explanation: Simply an Atlas for more ability oriented characters. This can be used against certain abilities to put them on nasty, long cooldowns if you can time it right, but it the effect can be cleansed.
(New) Garb of Dragons: +700 Health
Passive (Sacred Scales): Whenever you take 10% or more of your maximum health within 3 seconds from a single hero, gain 5% + 2.5% armour + 2.5% shield damage reduction from all sources other than that hero (caps at 10% damage reduction per hero). This damage reduction lasts for 3 seconds.
Total Cost: 2600 (Builds out of Dragonheart. Preferably two of them, but we don’t know it technology is there yet, so we can come back to that.)
Explanation: The item is for facetanking or when against teams with more than the usual number of DPS to ensure that your tank still remains somewhat tanky. Doesn’t work for duels though, unfortunately.
(New) Ceremonial Robes: +400 Health, +30 Armour, +30 Shield
Passive (Blessing of the Crown): All allied heroes within 12 units gain the ‘Lifespring’ passive.
Passive (Blessing of the Light): For every allied hero within 12 units all allies receive 2.5% additional healing and gain 5% bonus mana regen.
Total Cost: 2400 (Builds out of Lifespring and Warmail)
Explanation: A niche item for games of poke and siege where Captains can buy this item to provide their team with regen. Although it’s the closest to a dual defence item, it has low enough stats that it hopefully won’t matter (and no combat active).
Hero Changes
None of these changes are meant to be a personal attack on you if you main that character. Except Gwen.
Adagio
Gift of Fire
Slow on self cast is reduced to 0%, scales on 5% of bonus health up to a cap of 70%.
Arcane Fire shreds 2% of armour and shield every half second up to 8/8/8/8/10% + 1.5% CP (up to 15%).
Agent of Wrath
Agent of Wrath boosted AAs now apply a slow to targets afflicted with Gift of Fire
Base damage reduced to 30/40/50/60/90
Arcane Fire Bonus reduced to 5/10/15/20/30
Additional Arcane Fire Bonus: Applies 0% + 2.5% of bonus health slow up to a cap of 35%.
Verse of Judgement
Applies Arcane Fire to all targets.
Explanation: In my personal opinion, CP Adagio and Captain Adagio don’t really have enough differences in playstyle to justify switching from whichever is more powerful at that moment. The idea is to make CP Adagio more about helping melee characters deal more damage to enemies while raining damage from the backline while captain Adagio peels for his specific carries while healing them. Note that Arcane Fire is a negative effect.
Alpha
Termination Protocol
Gains 20% Tenacity during the duration of the ultimate.
Ardan
Vanguard
Ardan now grants a fading barrier and speed boost. The barrier fades over 4 seconds while the speed boost fades over 2.
Barrier: 120/160/200/240/300 + 60% Bonus Health
Blood for Blood
Remove Overdrive
Additional Effect: Enemies have 5/8/11/14/20 armour and shield shred after being hit by this ability for 1.5 seconds.
Gauntlet
The duration of any stun applied beyond the first in one cast is halved.
Ardan now gains 5/10/15% CDR while inside gauntlet (goes beyond CDR cap)
Stun Duration: 0.6/0.7/0.8
Explanation: Ardan’s Vanguard is extremely strong against burst damage but its effectiveness against sustain damage leaves something to be desires, especially after what Vanguard used to be. By making it a fading barrier, it can be a more well rounded ability that still rewards good timing but not losing all effectiveness within 2 seconds. Blood for Blood now serves as a good way to mark out who to focus and help your carries focus them down. Gauntlet has a weaker CC component but increases Ardan’s utility while he’s inside it, giving his team the edge if the opponents decide to fight inside the gauntlet.
Baptiste
Ordain
Duration of Ordained: 2/2/2/2/2.5 seconds
Fearsome Shade
Fear: 1/1.2/1.4 seconds
Baron
Rocket Launcher
Has a reduced attackspeed modifier (60%)
Explanation: Bring back Baron weaknesses thanks. He was more fun and satisfying when he had them. This is just the beginning of what I would do; I would also switch his jump to scaling distance based on CP and switching the CD reduction on his B to being on every target hit by his A but this would require further rebalancing. I would increase his range on ultimate rank up too, but that’s just me.
Blackfeather
Heartthrob
Heartthrob cannot be cleansed.
Feint of Heart
No longer applies Heartthrob stacks (outside of the 1 from counting as an AA).
Execute is True Damage.
Missing HP%: 5/6/7/8/10% + 2% Bonus Weapon (Caps at 20%)
On Point
Applies a 0% + 10% Bonus Weapon Slow (Caps at 20%)
Can now be used during Rose Offensive, which causes a circular slash around Blackfeather, applying the damage but forgoing the slow and barrier.
Rose Offensive
Rose Offensive is much faster and provides amour and shield instead of fortified health.
50/75/100 + 25% Bonus Weapon shield
50/75/100 + 25% Crystal armour
Explanation: Changing the focus of BF from a failure of a lanebully to something more akin to a flexible counterpick. Crystal is all about poking at the opponent with the standard On Point outside of a snipers range and going in when they’re low while Weapon is about getting onto a mages face and finishing them off with the execute as quickly as possible. The reason Heartthrob can’t be cleansed is because unlike many other debuffs it effects the timing of his ability combos and disrupting them would be too powerful.
Caine
Peacemaker
Caine will lose 1 MS while reloading.
Triple Tap
Slow applies to all bullets except the last with a duration of 0.1 seconds.
Once more
No longer resets ultimate.
Always reloads 3 ammunition.
Cooldown: 24/22/20/18/15
Explanation: Caine needs distinct weaknesses, but currently he doesn’t have them. These emphasise his reload mechanic as a negative more than a positive while keeping his current damage the same.
Catherine
Captain of the Guard
Additionally, reduce all cooldowns by 1 second every time Catherine lands a CC ability or debuff.
Mercilesss Pursuit
Stun duration: 0.7 (all ranks)
Stormguard
Each reflection extends the shield duration by 0.2 seconds (can proc every 0.2 seconds).
Damage/Sec: 10/20/30/40/50 + 70% CP Ratio
Reflects any damage above: 7.5% - 0.8% bonus armour - 0.8% bonus shield maximum health (5% minimum)
Blast Tremor
Silence Duration: 1.4/1.7/2
Explanation: Catherine is difficult to change with the parameters I set for myself since without her CC, she’s not… much of a character, let’s just say. The buffs to her Stormguard reward her for good use of it while the additional perk gives her an actual passive early game that might be useful (which also has synergy with captain items).
Celeste
Julia’s Light
Damage: 65-125 (Level 1-12) + 60% Crystal
Solar Storm
Cooldown: 100/90/80
Stars outside of the lead star now deal 20% reduced damage for each additional hit of stars outside of the lead star after the first. (That was a mouthful)
Fortress
(Reworked) Packmates
Allies gain a speed boost when moving towards Fortress based on 20% of Fortress’s movespeed
Law of the Claw
Bleeding now stacks up to 10 times
Ability now initially applies its slow in addition to applying it at maximum stacks, no overdrive required. Overdrive doubles slow strength on the proc at maximum stacks.
Slow Strength: 20%
Percent max health: 4/5/6/7/8%
Each bleed stack now shreds 2/2/2/2/3 armour and shield
Attack of the Pack
Wolves can contribute to bleed stacks, but cannot apply the initial bleed.
Explanation: Changing Fortress to more of a team oriented character. Not a solo-maul you to death type. Personally I would change his A or B to some sort of more skill orientated ability, but I’m not exactly sure how.
Glaive
Bloodsong
Lifesteal per stack: 1/1.2/1.4
Slow: 0% + 20% Bonus Weapon (Caps at 40%)
Damage per stack: 15/20/25 + 6% Crystal
Grace
Retribution
Bonus damage: 10-65 + 5% bonus WP + 10% CP
Benediction
Passive damage reduction removed
Holy Shield: 30% + 5% Crystal (50% max)
Grace now only applies an omni-directional shield to herself for 2/2/2/2/3 seconds.
Overdrive removed.
(Reworked) Holy Nova
Grace rejuvenates the spirit of her allies and smites her enemies in an AOE around her. This heals allies, grants a weakened holy shield and speed boost for 2 seconds while dealing damage to enemies and applying a slow. This ability can be cast at any time including while CCed (exception being silence), while moving, while using other abilities ect.
To help visualise, imagine the current size of pre-OD Phinn B but without any delay.
Holy Shield: 15% + 2.5% Crystal (25% max)
Speed Boost: 0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5/0.6 MS
Heal: 0 + 40% Bonus Crystal
Damage: 0 + 80% Bonus Weapon
Slow: 0 + 15% Bonus Weapon (Caps at 40%)
Cooldown: 20/18/16/14/10 seconds
Divine Intervention
Holy Shield: 30% + 5% Crystal (50% max)
This ability can now be recast to cancel it at any time.
Heal is now applied every half second.
Heal per tick: 60/80/100 + 25% Crystal
This ability grants bonus WP + CP to the target for the duration
Bonus WP/CP = 0 + 15% Bonus Weapon (50 Max)
This ability can now last up to 5 seconds.
While casting this ability Grace takes 50% more damage.
Explanation: Changing Grace to more of a team oriented character. Not a solo-maul you to death type. Grace isn’t meant to be a Captain with these changes though: more of a bruiser who can go CP to support or WP to deal damage and occasionally assist.
Grumpjaw
Living Armour
Grumpjaw no longer regains stacks from basic attacks, but he now regains stacks for every hero he has hit with an ability
Grumpy
Slow Strength: 70%
Slow Duration: 0.5/0.5/0.5/0.5/1
(Reworked) Hangry
After a delay, Grumpjaw slams the ground with his body, stunning enemies and dealing damage.
Damage: 150/200/250/300/450 + 140% Crystal + 100% Bonus Weapon
Stun: 0.6
Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/8
Note: Swap ability names
Explanation: Since Grumpjaw’s currently playstyle ‘Spagetti onto them with really big numbers and win’ which surprisingly ISN’T FUN TO PLAY AGAINST, I decided to explore the thematic of having a big body. His A can set up for his B slam and you can also pre-emptively slam as you spit out an opponent, giving him a more strategic feel while being more of a caster-type damage dealer.
Gwen
Movement Speed: 3.7
Buckshot Bonanza
60/105/150/195/240 + 80% Bonus Weapon + 200% Crystal
Skedaddle
Passive movement speed removed
Cleanses both CC and negative effects and gives a fading sprint for 1 second
Cooldown: 20/19/18/17/14
Explanation: Gwen shouldn’t one of the easiest laners in the game, be the most difficult to punish thanks to her free movespeed and have a cleanse at the same time. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what I removed. It’s not… that hard to figure out.
Joule
Thunderstrike
it can crit yay
Big Red Button
Damage: 500/850/1000 + 220% Crystal
Additionally, Joule now gains a stack for every point of damage that she nullifies with her passive, which fall off during combat at the rate of 200 stacks per second. When using her ultimate, she consumes these stacks to deal bonus damage (+1 to total damage per stack, crystal damage).
Explanation: I get that SEMC wants for Joule to be a tanky WP bruiser character, but removing thunderstrike crits was unnecessary and killed off a fun build path that wasn’t particularly powerful. Now the ultimate rewards the tanky WP bruiser playstyle though, with bonus damage being on the ult based on how much damage Joule’s effectively negating with her passive.
Kensei
Immovable Mind
Changed back to the old formula. You get the idea.
Path of the Ronin
Distance of dash halved
Stun from Kensho changed to a 60% slow
Kensei now executes enemies under a certain health threshold after applying damage
Execute Threshold: 5/7.5/10% + 1% Bonus Weapon maximum health (Max 20%)
Explanation: Kensei is the tank killer. Instead of making him a ‘play like a coward till you can spagetti’ character, Kensei should be countered by the enemy team and their picks while countering teams with 2 or 3 tanks. He has his old formula on his AA’s which is much healthier for the state of the game (Suddenly doing 20% more damage because they have 5 more health is stupid). His ult provided access to the backline much too easily for a tank killer, so it’s been changed to be an execute similar to Caine’s. The stun has been changed to a slow as well (because it’s unneccesary).
Kestrel
Active Camo
Stun duration: 0.1 + 0.25% Crystal (1 second max)
Weapon required to fully remove cooldown upon getting hit: 150
Explanation: WP Kestrel already has very high damage against melee targets and a powerful escape ability. She shouldn’t also have a long stun. Fight me.
Kinetic
(Rework) Tracer Shots
Landing Plasma Driver grants Kinetic stacks of tracer shots. Kinetic consumes these to enhance her basic attacks. Stacks fall off one by one after not gaining any stacks for 5 seconds (1 stack every 0.2 seconds).
Additional Damage: 15-60 (Levels 1-12) + 25% Bonus Weapon + 40% Crystal damage
Plasma Driver
Plasma driver grants stacks of Tracer Shots. The number of stacks gained are halved on targets outside of heroes, miners and mythic creatures, rounded up.
Stacks gained: 1/2/3/4/5
(Rework) Inertial Dash
Dash now goes further but is slower (Similar to Skye B).
Kinetic resets the cooldown on Plasma Driver when dashing and if it is cast during Inertial Dash will fire a much more powerful projectile.
Stun is unlocked at 300 CP (0.2 second stun)
Cooldown: 20/18/16/14/10
Slow duration: 1
Charged Pulse
Now applies the bonus damage from each stack consumed instead of increasing damage by 25% per stack. Each additional instance of bonus damage past the first does 5% reduced damage.
Damage: 300/450/600 + 70% Crystal + 50% Bonus Weapon
Explanation: Kinetic should actually has to land her skills on players to deal damage. Insane, I know. Although it’s more forgiving to not perfectly maintain stacks by sticking to the timer, it’s more punishing to be missing projectiles in the middle of a fight with this version of the kit. For the ultimate change, it just feels fitting and cool. Just for a visual, imagine Kinetic tracer shots following the pulse and whittling you to death in a humiliating fashion. Fun
Lance
Impale
Damage: 150/200/250/300/350 + 80% Crystal + 80% Bonus Weapon
Gythian Wall
Lance additionally gains Tenacity against abilities he is facing.
Strafing Damage Reduction: 10%/10%/10%/10%/20%
Tenacity: 10%/10%/10%/10%/20%
Combat Roll
Cooldown: 10/8/6
Damage: 50/75/100 + 80% Crystal + 30% Bonus Weapon
Explanation: Making Lance better as a character that can tank CC but nerfing his ability to full tank and still deal tons of damage.
Lorelai
Fish Food
Stun is now a Root
Splashdown
Slow Strength: 30% + 0.012% Bonus Health
Waterwall
Cleanses both CC and negative effects
Barrier Strength: 500/650/800 + 12% Bonus Health + 80% Crystal
Lyra
Bright Bulwark
Slow Strength: 30%
Slow Duration: 1/1/1/1/1.5 seconds
(Rework) Arcane Passage
Lyra can place up to two portal entrances on the map which allies can travel through when both are placed down. These portals can be destroyed by 5 autoattacks from enemies. After placing down both portal entrances, the portals take 5 seconds to activate. Portals can be used an unlimited number of times but they have an internal cooldown of 5 seconds for each hero. If Lyra attempts to place a third portal entrance, the oldest remaining entrance will be destroyed. Lyra can intentionally destroy portal entrances by casting Arcane Passage on it a second time (regardless of ability cooldown) which will not put the ability on cooldown. Lyra gains bonus range based on ability rank.
Cooldown: 60/50/40
Bonus Range: 0.5/1/1.5
Explanation: Currently, you can’t do anything about Lyra’s ultimate. Even with vision, when she has 60 range it’s absurd to expect players to set up cams to cover 60 units all around them when taking an objective. This version of the ultimate isn’t combat based but does reward clever players on both teams. This also gives a captain the ability to give their allies the ability to get back to lane faster, which is honestly healthier than a damage dealer just getting it for free because your name is Gwen (also you can do something about this one).
Magnus
Chrono Driver
Stun is now a 80% slow
Reza
Troublemaker
Charge time is reduced by 2 seconds every time Reza lands Scorcher on an enemy hero.
Charge time: 18/17/16/15/14
Ringo
Hellfire Brew
Whenever Hellfire Brew is available, Ringo stacks up to 5 stacks onto enemies when autoattacking, which adds a missing health damage component to the Hellfire Brew burn (Crystal Damage)
Execute (Per Stack): 2/3/4% over 4 seconds
Explanation: Giving Ringo ult a bit more of a kick to it when building WP alongside making it more of a viable debuff cleanse target.
Rona
Red Mist
Rona gains 30% tenacity while using this ability
San Fang
Tiger’s Bridge
Sans will not dash without countering
If Sans takes direct damage from abilities during Tiger’s Bridge, his next attack with dash to his opponent and stun for 1 second. Sans will ignore the effects of the first enemy ability applied to him during Tiger’s Bridge.
Overdrive: Ignore CC for 2 seconds
Big Boy Blessed Boom Blast
Overdrive: Ignore CC for 2 seconds
Explanation: Sans and his counter are straight up badly designed. It can proc from random captain autoattacks, fish puddles and other forms of damage so delayed that it goes from a counter to a game of finding what sort of gimmicky interaction you can abuse. Counters in general are really bad for games that are buggy and have connection issues (hint: Vainglory) so…
Just don’t! This should make it more bearable though.