One thing we have seen from feedback is that the aggression in the lane feels good right now so adjustments we make will be careful not to disrupt what is currently being enjoyed. Rather than fully removing we are looking to tone down Confounds damage in addition to Reachs damage. First up is Gilded Arrow. In the main patch we are fixing many issues players came across (and bringing back that chunky skeletal bone rush sound) and in the long term will look at more long term feedback such as her passive feeling underwhelming. Everyone builds Bluestone and the lane itself is quite aggressive. We do think its balance point however is quite narrow, given these items saw very little play for some time. The gold gain in particular allowed hunters to get key power spikes much earlier than their opponents. Decreased Reachs scaling from 35% to 30%. We have been watching Persephones rework very closely. Given her strong performance, especially as players learn the new kit, we do feel she needs a downward adjustment on her primary burst combo.
This should bring her overall damage to more normal levels while preserving the buff that brought her into contention after a long duration of being a low pick support.
YMIR IS HERE! We will continue to watch her closely and respond to feedback. While this extra damage really helped round out her kit, the raw damage add it provided was too high. Whaat? Executioner is a core aspect of many hunter builds, but especially the Critical Strike build. Ymir is everyones favorite! A decrease in his damage output with Critical Strikes paired with a long cooldown for short Bifrost hops, enemies can be a little less afraid of this vigilant god. Wall cooldown? Decreased Bite Magical Power Scaling from 50% to 40%. 50 should be a solid middle ground that makes it more comparable to the utility of other upgrades. This feature always existed but was not documented. As far as early metrics go we are seeing many new players try Persephone and see much more success; and while early feedback was worried she would be weak, players are learning how to use her new kit to maximum effect. In this patch we are adjusting this build overall down in power while bolstering some underused anchor items. In games that went even a little over a standard match length multiple 3K potions could be purchased as other roles are getting their first. This item asks you to keep gold in reserve for stats and it makes up for it in the long term by being efficient and providing value in longer games. While Diamond Arrow has not been built as much as Ornate Arrow we expect it will see a rise in purchase now that it is closer in power to Ornate Arrow. In particular his strong engage is followed up by a major zone control ultimate that gives time for his CC chain to come up again. While we have future plans for boots in general in the next patch (Mid Season) we did want to tone down one of its strong passive benefits; CCR. That is the strength of this item but at 10 gold it was simply too effective. This made him exceptionally hard to fight into and given the strength of this ultimate, it probably deserves to have the standard Ultimate cooldown. Supports will have to respect early CC more and be less resilient to strong CC chains. While not always resulting in a ban his pick at all level of ranked and in the SPL has shown this god to be quite strong. Asi is another potential anchor item that can bring forth a bunch of different build options. A bump in Base Power brings it closer to other options. Enemies should find Gilgamesh easier to escape and more likely to survive that drop kick to the face. Given its potential we want to be careful with how we bring this item up. Desert Fury in particular provides long duration Crowd Control Immunity and solid damage output on a lower cooldown. Hunters, given how damage per second focused they are as a role, often focus onto one build given time. The enhanced Purple Buff provides a large damage increase above the rest of the enhanced options. But wall already cold! The bites in particular from a Harvest/Flourish combo seem to be contributing too much to her primary combo and are seeing a reduction in scaling this patch. Scylla has done exceptionally well as a Mage who is capable of damaging strong frontliners, even with Magical Protections. We think given his strong performance, especially in the SPL, he needs an additional nerf. Atalantas has seen heavy adjustments through its lifetime and it has settled in an overall underperforming spot. Decrease 40/70/100/130/160 to 40/65/90/115/140, Burst damage scaling decreased from 65% to 55%, Bonus damage scaling decreased from 25% to 20%, Decreased Heimdallrs Critical Strikes from 70% bonus damage to 65%, Increased the base cooldown from 14s to 16s, Decreased Damage Mitigation from 1.5% per Stack to 1% per stack (6% to 4% total). We are lowering the slow and protections provided by Lurking in the Waters to give enemies more opportunity to punish a risky pluck. Supports and many Warriors are heavily valuing the early protection spike these boots provide and can make it feel too difficult for damage dealers to punish poor positioning or play. Athena has been confounding her enemies to great success. Sobek is another top contender for the Support role in the SPL and Ranked. Steadfasts passive damage mitigation makes King Arthur exceptionally difficult to take down and synergizes well with Protections. This value however was simply too intense. Ornate Arrow has a similar story. Serving as a high attack speed and high Lifesteal option it has the potential to shape builds early. Decreased Percent Penetration from 20% to 15%, Decreased Slow from 20/25/30/35/40% to 25% at all ranks, Increased Cooldown from 12/11/10/9/8s to 14/13/12/11/10s. Even at 5% this item will still provide a high amount of value, especially in longer games. The Critical Strike build, bolstered by the strength of the Gilded Arrow starter and tree, has become the build of choice for every hunter. In this latest round we are targeting his frequent slow from Sun-forged Scimitar and the raw burst more offensive Gilgamesh builds can bring with Drop Kick. Decreased Attack Speed from the Enhanced portion 15% to 10% (25% to 20% total), Decreased Gold Gain per successful marked target kill from 10 to 7, Decreased Gold Percentage Gain from 20% to 5%, Decreased the bonus gold per minion kill from 10 to 7, Decreased the bonus gold per god kill from 30 to 21, Increase Cooldown from 75s to 90s at all ranks. We are mirroring the change we did to Gilded Arrow, lowering just how much gold this item can generate to prevent a difficult to overcome surge in efficiency at level 20.
We are decreasing the Attack Speed provided from the enhanced portion only to bring these enhanced effects closer to each other. King Arthur in particular benefitted from a strong Bluestone Pendant, but even before it was the go to choice he showed himself to be a strong solo laner. Crushs Rank 5 really pushes this identity but is currently pushing it too much. Heimdallr has a decrease in how hard Critical Strikes can hit given his slower, heavier hitting attacks but this decrease was not enough to offset just how hard these could hit. As described in her rework patch and blog post; she had a very unique style but created unhealthy gameplay scenarios. Bluestone Broochs bonus damage increase really pushed Warriors ability to dive backliners and succeed in killing them individually. This starter is both potent in its own right and builds into Ornate Arrow, the main choice for top end hunters. Through little effort, items like Executioner allow Hunters to reach strong combinations of Power, Attack Speed, and Critical Strike chance. We rewrote the whole description to better describe this as well as to more clearly describe the damage Reach does as a multiplier on her Basic Attack damage rather than a scaling on bot her Bot Power and Magical Power from items. Gilgamesh has simply drop kicked all his previous nerfs away, proving quite resistant in attempts to bring his performance down. A small adjustment here can help Hunters make more meaningful item decisions later in their build when they look to specialize in a particular build path.
A decrease here should be a noticeable decrease to his raw tankiness. Bluestone Pendant has pushed the Solo meta into a single direction. At 25 base damage on the proc it felt underwhelming but 75 was too much. Ymir nerf?! Reinforced Shoes and Greaves have really taken a step forward in build placement. While a 5 Physical Power increase feels small, Asis combination of Attack Speed, Lifesteal, and Penetration amplify this power increase. While it provides strong conditional utility the base stats made it undesirable compared to a higher throughput build. The slayer of enemies has sure been living up to his name. This build provided a strong power curve, high end game damage, and the gold generation confirmed a lead through the early purchase of the 3K damage potions. Why nerf? At 15% enemy tanks still need to respect Crush but this makes it less devastating to face. We are cutting the HP5 in half, lowering just how much health is restored in between each wave. Decreased Reachs subsequent hit scaling from 25% to 20%. Ymir have words with Ajax! Bluestone itself provided aggression through power and wave clear, but also a lot of defensive sustain.
Ymir should always be picked. Heimdallr has been a fun god to watch, from his heavy hitting Critical Strikes to his fancy start with Bifrost to get to lane quickly he has been interesting to watch.