What are your hopes for balance changes next patch?

Crucible needs a cooldown buff. Contract items need to be thought about, while still useful in 3v3 they do nothing at all in 5v5. Nullwave Gauntlet needs to be reworked entirely, not just buffed. Spellfire needs a nerf, potentially also poisoned shiv and spellsword but they may be ok. Heroes I more or less agree with you, although I still think Anka is overrated and not actually that OP. SAW also needs a rework.

@Guest_78

Good points all around.

Magnus ult in my opinion is fair. The wind up to me however isn’t as noticeable as some others of similar design. It kinds of fades into existence and becomes most clear half way through the wind up I feel.

It’s true that Rona relies on her ult’s Fortified Health in tandem with Serpent’s Mask (and a few stacks of BP maybe). I did recall she was meta in 5v5 for a little bit, though I don’t recall what was the state of the meta at that time.

As for Kensei, I feel his design itself is flawed.
Scaling with the opponent is fine, but I think they should have controlled the bonus damage he gets from his perk by capping it like how Grace’s damage reduction is capped at a certain amount even if she gets more crystal power.

I have a slightly bad habit of rushing tier 2 boots in most of my games, so Phinn’s A is generally not much of an issue for me. Plus, I guess I don’t feel Phinn’s A being as impactful because I play Skaarf usually and buy a Tier 1 shield item shield early too.

I think Vox’s best identity is the “I’m the bounce maker that’ll make you cry.”
The problem I see with making him full CP based (as in getting rid of the weapon part of his basic attack entirely to become like the CP basic attackers we have) is that he competes with Varya.
Though he’s much more reliable in kiting and easier to use overall than Varya in my experience.

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@RiseChu SAW to me started becoming less and less relevant when the longer ranged heroes started getting more early game damage and newer heroes being able to trade better into him. Not to mention newer Captains being able to essentially halt him and/or reel him for easy pickings.

I think SAW in the past had relevancy in the older days of VG because he had the best early game damage and could farm faster than any other hero in the game. Now, he’s outclassed by newer heroes and even some older heroes can farm better than him.

The only places I see SAW shine is in ARAL where his Talents boost him and/or give him a style that has impact. SAW nowadays in normal matches tends to not capitalise his early game pressure well in 3v3 and cannot function in a 5v5 most of the time.

SAW’s Legendary Talent is one that I feel could be incorporated into his normal kit for a decent and newer playstyle, with a few adjustments so that he doesn’t stab everyone into oblivion.

Other than that, a full rework would be nice. Though, given Petal has nlt been reworked for over a year, I doubt they’ll get around to reworking anyone else for a good amount of time.

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Hah, I agree that a good WP Adagio can be a pain to deal with early game. It’s a bit sad he falls off pretty hard past that.

As for Skaarf, I think it’s the fault of the Captains that are in the meta and the strength of Spellfire that brought him up.

As someone who plays Skaarf decently in 5v5, I can say that Clockwork, Halcyon Chargers and Spellfire is my most successful build. The sheer amount of chipping damage when my Spitfire lands has carried games and blow up turrets once the build gets online. Add Frostburn to it and enemies are rarely ever able to get close, hehe.

I barely use his ult, but I do max it out and usually use it when enemies have burn through their CC and are trying to retreat. Slows them decently for my team mates to close in the distance and then keep up the chase as I somehow boost their speed while not roasting them alongside the enemies. #GameLogic

That said, if he gets nerfed, I’m fine with it. I don’t play as much 5v5 and I don’t farm his Talents (cause I feel his Talents are too much of a crutch and degrades ones performance on him.).

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@MacAulay

A slight buff to Reflex Block items would be nice. I think they cannot revert it back entirely though, as Crucible before this was too relevant and made some hero abilities less imoactful than they should be.

Contracts just need to be reworked alongside the removal of Stormguard Banner and Stormcrown. At the same time, I think they should consider introducing Captain/Support specific item like League’s by removing Ambient Gold.

Nullwave Gauntlet to me has it uses in mostly baiting out a Reflex Block/Crucible from the opposing Captain. When that got item silence application got nerfed, it loss its uses. Furthermore, with 5v5 having more CC to bait out the item and other defense items being more appealing, I think it needs a rework.

Spellfire I feel needs a bit of nerf to its base damage and slight tap to its scaling.

Anka doesn’t feel as bad now I think? Still wrecks people though.

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And Magnus. Right now Varya seems like an all in mage dashing and using your A to burst someone. Vox seems more like Magnus.

The problem is that some abilities were balanced according to the RB. Abilities like Blast Tremor or Verse of Judgement win the fight when are able to hit, and the RB is not enough due to the cooldown differences. Forced Accord is also a good example.

It’s not about you being quick enough. It’s about everyone on your team being quick enough. The Ult is broken because of the DPS and the Arcane Mark damage.

The problem with Magnus’ design is by linking his skills together he will be hard to balance. He needs his A nerfed because of it’s interaction with his Ult, but he still needs his A to do damage.

The solution is a flat nerf to the Ult and to have the Mystic Missiles that proc do 50% of their damage. I would take the base damage from 400/550/700 to 300/425/550 and drop the scaling to 120%.

Forced Accord needs a travel time speed reduction. So does Wolf’s Maw. I think the RB changes are ok, but they need to balance small details like skill movement speed instead of only tweeking damage and cooldown.

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Also it has like no sound effect, which is the most annoying part. I hate it, not because it’s stupid strong, or because it’s impossible to dodge (it isn’t that hard tbh) but because the animation is retarded and it has no sound effect. If it has one at all, I am yet to hear it, and the animation looks like something out of mobile legends. It’s ugly. What happened to those beautiful graphics they like to boast about?

Thats agreeable, his animations/effectss are so lack luster.

DBC and Ironguard are both used quite frequently in ranked (at least in higher elo).

I just want to clarify, and I apologize if this is an obvious clarification. When I mentioned nerfing the range of Vox’s resonance bounce, I am not talking about the radius/range of casting his B. I speak in regards to how far you need to stand from an ally marked with resonance for the bounce to now come to you and mark you. That range I believe needs to be decreased. I’ll position myself to what I feel is more than a fair distance, while also wanting to stay somewhat a part of the lane scuffle and give myself a chance for a few last hits, and the bounce stil reaches me at a tremendous range.

I know, but before it was buffed he was useless due to how easy was to separate enough to stop the bounces. His range + bounces isn’t something longer than other mages.

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@Guest_78

Yeah, I agree with the points related to Crucible.

When Crucible has a shorter cooldown than high impact CC, those abilities become crucial to not waste as they can easily lose value.

When Crucible has too long of a cooldown that high impact CC, those abilities become too oppressive.

I think the problems with Reflex Block, in general, was when they started messing with the duration of the block early in 2018.

It’s still is quite impactful when used right and the player has the skill to pull it off, but I feel that the current state is meant to force a double defense style build that wants the player to build Aegis alongside Celestial Shroud.

But damage item is more impactful and enticing, so that doesn’t quite work. Plus, I think it has been drilled into players minds a long time ago that their hero only needs one defense (Aegis when it was the go-to item) or two defenses if their hero is the type that’s already tanky and can use the extra defense to stay alive for a long time.

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@Bayou

I think the design of heroes overtime has faster projectile speeds.

In my opinion, the faster projectile speed was given in tandem with the overall buffs and increase in movement speed and related items that started ever since 5v5 was introduced.

Some projectiles remained relevant and don’t need any adjustments to their speed.

However, some abilities have never received relevant wind-up and/or projectile speed increase to go in concert with the movement speed increase overall - such as the case with Ringo’s ult for one I think.

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@MacAulay @RiseChu I think Magnus’s overall simple graphics and fast projectiles/cast effects draw away from his great kit design.

His kit I think was designed well with consideration to making him a heavy combo mage, but visual effects for them while ok feels a bit unsuitable because they aren’t really eye-catching enough and/or too fast to admire.

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@Lebatron The distance of Vox’s bounces I feel is ok. The slow that he gets from his B and the damage of the bounces is what I feel at times a bit unfair.

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There is a reason why carries build with just 1 defensive item, they have 3 roams to protect them due to the triple tank meta we’ve had for the past 3 updates. Thats a lot of protection, and at that point what their team needs is damage to kill the enemy tanks. There isnt heroes that may try to kill those carries because those Who can are banned, and the rest are either weak or cant survive the massive CC of the meta, in which the RB nerfs dont help either.

The slow is almost non existent though, only a 22% when at the center? Im not sure. He in general has less damage than most carries (WP), less CC than carries or mages, less range… You have to give him something in exchange off all that, and as they keep nerfing his mobility…

True. I think the only period where tanks were kind of less relevant was when Tension Bow was busted.

Can’t say I like or dislike the meta because my style of playing 5v5 tends to be mainly either a meta Captain or Skaarf in the mid lane.

Other carries are ok for me, but even with Vox, I tend to find my success rate in the side lanes to be rather poor. Guess I just don’t understand how to be safe at the sides without a buddy there all the time or how to play the lane effectively.

As for Vox, his slow at the very centre at max level of the B is 25% that tapers off to 20% towards the every edge.

Despite the straightforward kit that is mainly kiting, I wonder why he’s has one of the top two highest pick rates this patch.

The reason is quite simple. He has been meta for a long time, most Carry players know how to use him due to that, making him a comfort pick that its still solid.

Agreed. I wonder… considering that some heroes were meta for less time than Ardan and Vox but still got nerfed hard and constantly or fast… would the devs nerf them to oblivion like they did with poor Fortress?

Hope not, cause that will leave me with Flicker as my only viable Daily Talent Chest grind pick. Fortress is already knocked out, so I don’t want Ardan and Vox to be entirely nerf to the point their Talents can’t make up for those nerfs (like Fortress cough cough).

No, they nerfed Fortress that hard because he was maintaining the highest win Rate for various updates, not because he was meta.

Still doesnt warrent such a hard nerf.

Fortress is like the least used captain in high tiers

Thats what happens when you keep nerfing a hero and when you buff all the heroes in its class but him.

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I would like a hybrid Idris nerf and a CP idris nerf, but a buff to WP Idris. WP Idris is the hardest to play at high tiers but has the least reward kms.

True. I just feel it’s like having the easiest “skill shot” in the game. Other mages have to have actual skill in their shot to have similar range and damage. Vox = B, basic attack, A to kite, basic attack. Would you be opposed to a cp ratio or damage nerf to his resonance?

But he has to commit a lot more and isn’t as safe, he also doesn’t have the cc other mages have.

Nop. But I don’t consider necessary either, he seems quite balanced right now. He isn’t even the strongest mid laner.

Edit: I wouldn’t complain too much though. In fact, I would like them to kill CP Vox and bring back WP Vox. He is IMO more fun to play both with and against.