Arena Gauntlet - Balance Patch Notes 1.7.0

Arena Testnet Patch v1.7.0 Update – Major Balance Patch

This patch significantly overhauls several core systems, including Illuvials, Synergies, and Augments. We aim to simplify mechanics while addressing balance concerns related to team compositions and support/empath Illuvials. The following changes aim to adjust power levels and enhance the game's pacing by making combat snappier.

Instead of detailing every unit, we highlight the major changes and leave the finer details for players to explore in-game.

Illuvial Changes

To create faster-paced combat, we have decreased overall Health and Resistance while refining the DPS formula. Additionally, we’ve standardised Illuvial Attack Damage types and added a damage component to Empaths.

For more information regarding the current Illuvial stats, please visit Illuvidex.

• Overall Health decreased by 25%.

• Overall Resistances decreased by 25%.

• Attack Speed range adjusted from 0.5 - 1.2 to 0.5 - 0.9.

• Attack Damage adjusted by 5-25% (increase or decrease).

• Until now, Illuvials' basic attacks could deal Physical, Energy, or Pure damage. Now, all Illuvials' basic attacks will deal only Physical damage, except for Lynx Stage 1, which will continue to deal Pure damage.

• All Empath units now have a Damage component added to their Omega Ability.

• Added Omega Power scaling to all Omega Abilities, including Monkier’s passive attack.

• Removed the specific ability effects from Tier 0 Illuvials and Stage 3 Lynxes. (e.g., On Crit, gain Dodge Chance)

• Temporarily removed the Exploit Weakness effect from Dash, Rake and Umbre.

• Added utility for Attack Damage, Attack Speed and Movement Speed to Ebb, Fludd and Geyyser.

Augment Changes

We are restructuring Normal Augments in anticipation of new systems. Each Augment will now belong to a defined combat category. Players will eventually craft Augments using two components out of three, but until then, Augments will be acquired as usual.

Additionally, Augments are undergoing a name revision to better align with their attached abilities, though they will temporarily retain old images.

Component Types:

• Fury (Attack Offensive): +10% Attack Damage

• Defiance (Tank): +100 Health

• Apex (Omega Offensive): +10 Omega Power

Each Augment can hold up to three total stats, depending on category.

Augment Crate Categories:

• Strike (Fury + Fury) - Grants 20% Attack Damage

• Augments: Chronoflux, Titanbane, Shatterpoint, Vorpal Crest, Seismic Resonator, Prey Drive, Furyheart, Fatesealer, Riftstriker, Umbral Stride

• Brawler (Fury + Defiance) - Grants 10% Attack Damage and 100 Health

• Augments: Phoenix Surge, Phagefire, Bloodroot Charm, Entropy Sigil, Mendoskeleton, Ion Shroud, Cryonic Talisman, Crisis Module, Goliath Force, S.I.T.D.O.W.N

• Fusion (Fury + Apex) - Grants 10% Attack Damage and 10 Omega Power

• Augments: Power Diverter, Sunder Matrix, Shield Bane, Critical Surge, Battleborn Pact, Plasma Catalyst, Primeval Force, Veil Piercer, Barrier Reverb, Crimson Vow

• Shield (Defiance + Defiance) - Grants 200 Health

• Augments: Overguard, Lifewell, Guardian's Grid, Emberheart, Riftbreaker, Counter Shock, Abyss Rot, Adaptive Carapace, Titan Boon, Vengeful Mantle

• Support (Defiance + Apex) - Grants 100 Health and 10 Omega Power

• Augments: Duskfall, Empyrean Core, Hollow Repressor, Immunity Prism, Safeguard Protocol, Etherlock, Steadfast Pulse, Eldersurge, Flow Equalizer, Vanquisher’s Barrier

• Energy (Apex + Apex) - Grants 20 Omega Power

• Augments: Mindstorm, Echo Jammer, Arcane Accelerator, Spellweaver’s Aegis, Infurion, Essence Siphon, Blazewrath, Apex Supercharger, Aethersteal, Corroder

Legendary Augments:

• Once the new system is implemented, legendary Augments are now rarer but more powerful, with unique abilities.

• They remain three times more powerful than Forge Augments but do not hold embedded stats.

• Legendary Augments will still be acquired via the Legendary Augment Phase until the new system is ready.

• Warpwave Assault and Meteoric Onslaught were removed from the Legendary Pool. 

• These will be moved to the Drone Augment phase in a future update.

Synergy Overhaul

Synergies have been reworked to introduce distinctiveness between Primary and Composite Synergies.

Primary Synergies:

• Now empower all allies, with double effects for Synergy Units.

• Synergy thresholds adjusted from 2/3/5/7/9 to 2/4/6/9.

• Synergy Units gain a special ability at the final threshold.

Composite Synergies:

• Reworked to provide unique abilities tailored to their identity.

• The final threshold now unlocks a special ability, which may introduce new effects, modify existing effects, or switch ability properties.

• Due to some system limitations, special abilities may display incorrect values (e.g., "0") in descriptions but will function correctly in-game.

Synergy Imprints (Future Update):

• Synergy Imprints will soon provide base stats, tied to Primary Synergies.

• Example: Psion Imprint grants +10 Omega Power, while Harbinger grants +5 Omega Power & +5 Resistances.

• Synergy Imprints will be available through Drone Augment Phase and other systems.

System Changes & Terminology Updates

We have simplified existing conditions to make them more intuitive:

• Removed stacking behavior from all conditions.

• Burn: Reduces healing received by 25%.

• Poison: Deals 1% of target's Max Health as Pure Damage per second.

• Frost: Reduces target's Attack Speed by 25%.

New debuff effects:

• Shatter: Reduces Physical Resistance by 25%.

• Corrode: Reduces Energy Resistance by 25%.

These effects are present on Augments and are stronger on Legendary Augments or certain Synergy thresholds.

• Addressed a core system issue causing all the percentage buffs to be applied from the current values instead of the base.

• In multiple scenarios, this caused the units to reach very high damage values, due to the buffs being scaled multiplicatively.

• Damage Amplification, Max Health and buffs based on a different stat (e.g., 10% Omega Power as Attack Speed) will still be applied from the current value.

• Adjusted the Energy gained by units when taking damage from 20 to 40. 

• This means that for every 40 damage received, the unit gets 1 Energy. 

• Fixed an issue causing the Damage Reduction to stack on specific units, like Seeforus, when chain casting.

• Grit and Resolve are now part of a single effect, instead of individual buffs and debuffs–Mitigation. 

• Physical and Energy Resistance are now part of a single effect–Resistance, but they can also be received as individual buffs and debuffs.

Gauntlet Changes

• Adjusted the Drone Damage formula to be less aggressive in the game's early stages.

• Adjusted the Credit drops from the PvE rounds from flat to per enemy tier.

• Default Credits per Tier: 1/2/3/4/5/6

Description Updates

• Rich Text descriptions are now extended to Augments for better clarity.

• Tooltip updates now display effect descriptions directly where needed (e.g., an item using Corrode will also explain what Corrode does in its tooltip).

• Reduced the amount of Rich Text on all tooltips to make it easier to read.

Overworld Changes:

As mentioned in the Arena section, all buffs will be applied from the base values. That change is also making its way into the Overworld encounters as part of the Encounter Mods and Consumables.

Consumables

• Gumbo Drop and Nanitic Discord are now calculated from the base.

Encounter Mods

• Attack Damage, Attack Speed and Damage Amp are now calculated from the base.

• Additionally, we slightly adjusted the power of Encounter Mods:

• Attack Damage: 10/20/30/40 → 5/12/20/30

• Attack Speed: 10/20/30/40 → 5/12/20/30

• Damage Amp: 10/20/30/40 → 5/12/20/30

• Crit Amp: 15/30/45/60 → 8/18/30/45

• Crit Chance: 8/16/24/32 → 4/9/15/22

• Dodge Chance: 5/10/15/20 → 3/6/9/15

• Energy Regen: 1.5/3/4.5/6 → 1/1.8/3/4.5

• Physical and Energy Resist: 10/20/30/40 → 10/17/25/35

• Max Health: 75/150/225/300 → 50/90/170/250

• Omega Power: 10/20/30/40 → 5/12/20/30

Closing Notes

This patch marks a massive step toward a more refined and balanced gameplay experience. We’re eager to see how players adapt to the changes and how new strategies evolve. 

As always, we’ll monitor feedback and make adjustments where needed. Now, go forth and explore the new possibilities—see you on the battlefield!

Known Issues

• In specific cases, the Player Health is not updated in real time, but updates in the following planning phase.

• There is no sound when rerolling a Drone Augment.

• The Drone Augments have a placeholder tooltip when hovering over the Drone interface.

• The Hyper effect text is not fully displayed in the Hyper tab.

• Hold Shift to display additional information does not work.

• The unit tooltip is displayed behind the card deck in Overworld.

• The Ranger tooltip is opened by default when entering an Overworld encounter or reconnecting to an active one.

• The Ranger tooltip displays a placeholder image when entering an Overworld encounter or reconnecting to an active one.