Arena Gauntlet - Balance Patch Notes 1.6.0

Arena Gauntlet - Balance Patch Notes 1.6.0

Introducing Drone Augments!

We're thrilled to introduce the Drone Augment feature! This exciting new addition adds a strategic layer to team-building, allowing players to choose a team-wide bonus that enhances their composition.

What Are Drone Augments?

Drone Augments provide team-wide bonuses, stacking additional synergies and effects onto your composition. This feature enhances key aspects of the game:

• Player Agency: Players can adapt by selecting the Augment that best suits their strategy.

• Game Variability: Increases the number of viable team compositions, making each game feel fresh. For example, a Tsunami/Harbinger build will play differently depending on the Augment chosen.

• Creativity & Synergy: Augments stack onto your team's mechanics, unlocking new creative possibilities.

How Does It Work?

• Players are offered a choice of three random Drone Augments at rounds 5, 12, and 19.

• Each Augment can be rerolled once at no cost if the initial selection doesn’t fit.

Augment Power Levels

• Each Drone Augment has three power levels, meaning the same effect can appear in varying strengths.

• While every player gets different Augments, all players receive the same choice of power level per round, ensuring fairness.

• Power level distribution is random, meaning players might get three stage 3 Augments in one game and one stage 2 and two stage 1 augments in another game.

Augment Pool

At launch, the first batch of Drone Augments will be limited but will expand over time.

• 15 unique Augments are available now, each with three power levels.

• More diverse and impactful effects will be added in future updates.

Updated Image Coming Soon

Balancing Changes 

This patch includes Base Affinity adjustments to reduce the dominance of vertical scaling synergies at higher thresholds.

• Inferno & Wildfire nerfed due to overperformance.

• Tiktaalik buffed to improve team-wide sustain.

• Hyper bonuses reworked into a single, more impactful effect for a consistent gameplay experience.

Base Affinity Adjustments

These changes aim to reduce the meta impact of vertical scaling synergies, particularly at higher thresholds, to promote more balanced gameplay.

Water (Energy Regeneration)

• Threshold 2: 4

• Threshold 3: 5

• Threshold 5: 6

• Threshold 7: Decreased from 8 to 7.5

• Threshold 9: Decreased from 12 to 10

Earth (Grit & Resolve)

• Threshold 2: 16

• Threshold 3: 24

• Threshold 5: Increased from 32 to 36

• Threshold 7: Decreased from 65 to 54

• Threshold 9: Decreased from 130 to 100

Fire (Damage Amplification)

• Threshold 2: 15%

• Threshold 3: 20%

• Threshold 5: 25%

• Threshold 7: Decreased from 35% to 33%

• Threshold 9: Decreased from 55% to 45%

Nature (Max Health Regeneration)

• Threshold 2: 1.25%

• Threshold 3: 1.5%

• Threshold 5: 1.75%

• Threshold 7: Decreased from 2.75% to 2.5%

• Threshold 9: Decreased from 4% to 3.5%

Air (Dodge Chance)

• Threshold 2: 20%

• Threshold 3: 25%

• Threshold 5: 30%

• Threshold 7: Decreased from 45% to 40%

• Threshold 9: Decreased from 70% to 60%

Ability & Trait Changes

Inferno (Nerf)

• Max Health Pure Damage per second decreased from 2 / 4 / 6% to 1.5 / 3 / 4.5%

Wildfire (Nerf)

• Omnivamp reduced from 20 / 30 / 50% to 20 / 25 / 35%

Tiktaalik (Buff)

• Energy Cost increased from 160 to 200.

• Healing increased from 160 / 200 / 280 to 225 / 300 / 400.

Komodo Dragon (Adjustment)

• Blind Duration decreased from 1/1.5/2 to 1/1.25/1.5 seconds.

• AoE Omega Damage Increased from 160/180/200 and 160/220/280.

Hyper Rework

To create a more consistent experience, class-specific Hyper bonuses have been removed and replaced with a single, impactful effect.

New Hyper Bonus

• Charge Up Range increased from 70 → 150 hex-radius

• While charging, units gain 0.5% attack speed per 1% Hyper charge (up to 50% bonus attack speed).

• At Full Hyper: Units gain +10% Damage Amplification and +10% Damage Reduction.

Leviathan Changes

To create a more controlled Leviathan experience in terms of balance, we have adjusted the bonus stats obtained from Traits and Level. These changes are not final, but we are introducing them to gather some feedback and test these new values.

Our goal is to set bonus stats at a level where ownership is clearly noticeable while ensuring that Leviathan gameplay aligns with the same balance as Standard gameplay.

The new Leviathan stat bonuses are as follows:

Traits:

• 5% bonus stats per trait threshold, up to a maximum of 25%.

*Trait Threshold refers to the quality of an illuvial’s stat, it can range from 0 to 5. And the trait distribution of an illuvial can be seen in charts like this:

Level:

• 0.4% bonus stats per level, up to a maximum of 25%.

This allows Leviathan to scale up to a 50% total bonus, making the difference between perfect ownership and no ownership highly noticeable.