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The Big Dev Blog Page of Balance Changes - May 30, 2020



Due to the very large number of balance changes since the last dev blog update's balance changes, these have been placed as the final page of this update, as most of them are just technical trivia -- the changes listed here are already implemented and/or mentioned in this update's Character Guide pages and others. Even though the game was not released before these changes, this page is included for the sake of completeness and for players to see the direction re-balancing has taken over the months.



General Gameplay



NEW Dodge Cancel mechanic added -- at any point in the middle of a basic attack or basic attack combo, the player can dodge out of their basic attacks. Enemies cannot use this mechanic

Added to make basic attacks a more viable offensive option and not needing to rely as heavily on abilities to fight (particularly for Onslaught and Conquest)


NEW Stagger Tag mechanic added -- if a player character blocks an enemy's basic attack and the enemy is Staggered, the enemy takes 2x damage from THAT character's basic attacks while Staggered

Added to make basic attacks more useful, particularly for Onslaught and Conquest where abilities are fewer. Though Stagger's window at its base is just half a second, that is more than enough time to get in some higher damage blows as a counterattack


Basic attacks/combos for most characters have changed to the following:

Cherry - Attack x 0.3/0.3/0.4 -> Attack x 0.4/0.4/0.5

Knight - Attack x 0.4/0.6 -> Attack x 0.5/0.8

Alberto - Attack x 0.3/0.3/0.4 -> Attack x 0.4/0.4/0.5

Pound - Attack x 0.4/0.6 -> Attack x 0.5/0.8

Claire - Attack x 0.2/0.2/0.2/0.4 -> Attack x 0.3/0.3/0.3/0.4

Jimmy - Attack x 0.4/0.6 -> Attack x 0.5/0.8

Typically, all character basic attacks, whether just single attacks or full combos, would add up to Attack x 1. However, while this was fine for Tara, Cook and Brooks, who all had single attacks (and Cook could hit Attack x 1.5 while holding his ranged weapon), characters with combo attacks would need a larger amount of frames to deal out a full combo than single attackers. In order to keep basic attacks more balanced, these 6 characters have had their basic attack combo damage raised.


Enemy final Defense maxes out at 50 for damage purposes

Enemies felt too tanky otherwise; their original maxing out at 90 made fights take longer among tankier enemies. Having them cut damage at most by 50% rather than 90% makes for better overall fights


Your AI controlled allies takes half damage

While your AI allies will dodge when and where they can, it is better overall for gameplay if they suffer less damage when the player is not controlling them


Higher Block Heal rate from 2 HP/sec to 4 HP/sec

Block Heal did not feel worth it as a mechanic at its slower heal rate, and was boosted as a result for a more useful mechanic


Auto-revive timer for allies at 0 HP reduced from 45 seconds to 20 seconds

45 seconds was too long for auto-revive and 20 seconds is not so short that characters are reviving super frequently


The Mind Field Effect now has double cooldown recovery while active

Reduced damage in an action RPG is not as pronounced overall as, say, the Body Field Effect's double damage for more powerful damage, so the Mind Field Effect needed an additional factor to it that provided more versatility


Ability cooldown reductions across the board

All characters have reduced cooldowns for many of their abilities, so that they can be used more often and requiring the player to not have larger gaps between basic attacks and abilities. Cooldown reductions are noted in individual character balance changes below


All characters have Knockdown's cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 15 seconds

For an ability that just inflicts Knockdown (as useful a status ailment as it is), 30 seconds was WAY too high. 15 seconds is much more reasonable



Mode specific



Legend Endless Dungeon has higher reinforcement numbers and no 2x Soul Triad Points or 2x Mez Events and negative events trigger every level at a faster rate than Normal Difficulty

In order to have Legend Difficulty provide more of a challenge than just tougher enemies, having more frequent negative effects was made for more challenge variety


Legend Onslaught has more enemies at once earlier and now has cars that do large damage to allies and enemies (but kills to enemies made by cars do NOT count towards player's Onslaught kill count)

Cars were added to Legend Onslaught, partly to get more use out of them after their small addition as a hazard to Heist Mode, but mostly to give Onslaught an even more faster-paced and tense feel to it. The player needs to be able to focus on both the enemies and the environment as a result, giving Legend Onslaught a much more fast-paced action end-result.


Legend Conquest has enemy hordes arrive more frequently with less announced time and they always bring Field Effects

Nothing else needed to be changed for Legend Conquest to boost difficulty -- enemy hordes arriving with very high frequency and ALWAYS bringing Field Effects is more than enough to boost difficulty, making the player think on whether or not to engage on terrain with bad weather and needing to plan what to attack, what to guard and who to send on Mez Missions in a more considered fashion.


Legend Heist has Force Fighter squads spawn more frequently from enemy spawn doors, have squads of larger size, has more Force Fighters in battle at one time and has them at higher level

As Heist is a little more speedy than Conquest, Story and Endless Dungeon, and enemies do not level up overtime, Legend Heist focused on more frequent enemy squads and more enemy Force Fighters in those squads primarily


Endless Dungeon now has Soul Triad Points as a possible item from treasure chests

Larger treasure variety in the form of Soul Triad Points makes for better treasure


Endless Dungeon timed events begin as early as level 20 instead of 40

40 felt too late for timed events, especially with Legend Difficulty


Onslaught starts with more than one enemy

Onslaught starts too slow otherwise, and being the most action-oriented mode, it needs to start faster on Normal Difficulty


Conquest has not all enemies costing 500 Mez. Dark Knights cost 800 Mez and Ghosts cost 300 Mez

Done up as better balance for Conquest. Dark Knights were statistically stronger than other monsters, Ghosts were statistically weaker. This also adds an advantage to Ghosts, making them very cost-effective outside of combat for Mez Missions and guarding territory


Conquest Mode -> Temples no longer sell Field Effects to players

Removed to prevent camping on temples and nullifying enemy Field Effects with the players' own for more challenge


Conquest Mode -> enemies only bring their own elemental Field Effect, not Body or Mind

Enemy hordes bringing only their own elemental Field Effect means that they will in no way bring a Field Effect, like Body or Mind, which can be advantageous to the player, especially when it comes to Legend Difficulty


Conquest Mode -> Force Fighters and Necromancers on the player's side have reduced healing compared to enemies of the same type

Though monster stats and stat growths are intended to be kept the same for ally and enemy, player monsters that heal felt TOO powerful, especially due to how high their levels could easily reach, and therefore have a reduced healing rate



Cherry



Onslaught/Conquest/Heist preset change from Cutthrough/Line Overdrive/Dark Energy to Hyper Blade/Line Overdrive/Tornado

Changes made due to Cutthrough not being as reliable without Dark Cut and Dark Energy meant Cherry would need to be taking hits -- better to have a defensive knockback shield in the form of Tornado than simple damage reduction against enemy present at time of casting


Cherry's Pushback Distance changed to Pushback Launch -> Pushback inflicts Knockback instead of Stagger

Pushback Distance was, for lack of a better term, a useless ability -- while its goal was to keep enemies further away from allies, as per Cherry's defensive playstyle, it pushed them not far enough to make a difference, but too far that it may cause the enemy to "evade" ally attacks. Changing it to Knockback, especially a very long distance one, keeps the original goal of Pushback Distance's "push dangerous enemies out of range of attacking allies" while providing high likelihood of small collision damage


Cherry's Hyper Blade damage up from Attack x 2 to Attack x 2.5, and cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds

While all slices from Cherry's Hyper Blade deal massive damage together, there is a lower chance of ALL slices connecting to most enemies. Since its most important purpose is invincibility while damaging an area, its damage was boosted and cooldown reduced


Cherry's Wild Whetstone (Hyper Blade passive) boosts damage done by 4x instead of 2x during the Body Field Effect

All characters' big-damage-during-Body Field Effect ability have been altered to be effective mainly during only the Body Field Effect


Cherry's Cutthrough damage up from Attack x 1.5 to Attack x 2

Given the speed that Cherry moves through enemies, it was better to make the slashes that would hit deal more damage


Cherry's Indomitable (Cutthrough passive) now makes Cutthrough invincible while active, rather than just boosting Defense by 30%

A small defense boost for a high speed mobile attack feels rather underwhelming, and invincibility makes it more reliable to apply Dark Energy through Dark Cut without worry of being interrupted by status ailments or to counter an enemy starting to attack without taking damage


Cherry's Boundless (Cutthrough passive) replaced by Dark Cut, which applies Cherry's Attack-debuffing Dark Energy ability to Cutthrough

Cherry's Cutthrough needed something to set itself apart from her other stronger and more accurate abilities. Dark Cut allows Cutthrough debuff an enemy's Attack stat for a while, providing her with a larger variety of damage mitigation options


Cherry's Phantom Break has its cooldown reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds

Had a VERY long cooldown originally due to being a revival ability when auto-revive had a long timer, as well. However, a combination in needing ability cooldowns to shorten for balance and auto-revive reducing its length resulted in a major cooldown reduction here


Squall Strengthen reduces Violent Gust's cooldown while the Wind Field Effect is active by 10 seconds instead of 5 seconds

As Violent Gust is one of Cherry's more damaging options, having it power up further during the Wind Field Effect by getting more frequent use helps improve Cherry's generally poor offense


Fortify now prevents enemies under its area of effect from dodging

Holding enemies in position is all well and good, but it means little if they can still avoid attacks. To make Fortify more useful as an ability, dodge prevention was added


Phantom Protect (Phantom Break passive) -> boosted from 2 seconds of invincibility to 3 seconds

Mainly set to this to keep a similar amount of invinciblity as other invincible status abilities (like Cook's Steel Pushback)


Cherry Tornado nerfed from Attack x 1.5 damage and 8 second duration to Attack x 0.5 damage and 5 second duration

Tornado is already an overwhelmingly useful defensive effect, and its power and presence was too high previously


Holy Sword's Shield (passive from her Archrip weapon) went from triggering while Stand Ground is active and Cherry is blocking to triggering while EITHER Stand Ground or Fortify is active and the blocking requirement dropped

Holy Sword's Shield, which is an area-of-effect death prevention ability had far too strict activation requirements -- the 3 second long Stand Ground while blocking was limiting, so Stand Ground or Fortify (which can add up to 6 seconds total) provides more frequent death prevention and no blocking requirement means that Cherry can do more (fight, heal allies on the brink of death, apply other damage mitigation, etc.)



Knight



Onslaught/Conquest/Heist preset change from Power Drive/Energy Flow/Monster Bubble to Power Drive/Energy Flow/Unexplained

Monster Bubble was nice for disabling enemy movement, but that was about it. For modes like Onslaught and Conquest, more offensive abilities are required, so Unexplained made for a good replacement as an all-range high damage counterattack


Knight's Absolute Zero Extreme appears around Knight instead of random locations

Given how limited Knight's defense is and his focus on high offense, his Absolute Zero is much more suited to appearing around him


Knight's Pushback Damage Enemy final value up from 5 to 50

Improved to give better reason to invest in Knight's Pushback. Having an ability that deals decent damage and Stagger for its cooldown while influencing better toward the Body Field Effect (which improves damage and Stagger time) gives Knight better offensive options for Body builds


Power Drive now has invincibility during the leap, has its damage raised from Attack x 1.8 to Attack x 2.5 and its cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds

Power Drive, especially being his direct attack ability in Onslaught/Conquest/Heist, needed a number of improvements -- higher damage, more frequent use and safer approach -- to compensate for its low execution speed and timing its distance


Knight's Hyperdrive (Power Drive passive) boosts damage done by 4x instead of 2x during the Body Field Effect and his Soul Triad now reduces his Power Drive Damage total from 200% to 100%

All characters' big-damage-during-Body Field Effect ability have been altered to be effective mainly during only the Body Field Effect


Nightslash has cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds

With a successful triggering of his Good Night passive, Nightslash has a cooldown of 2 seconds, meaning he can deal frequent area Stun, and is a powerful choice for the Body Field Effect


Knight's Lasting Meta (Metastrike passive) has its duration boosted from 3 seconds to 10 seconds

3 seconds was too small a duration for the investment needed for Metastrike, with 10 seconds allowing Knight to get a lot of use out of his boosted basic attacks, especially with the Exorcist Sickle, making Metastrike a stronger option


Knight's Death-Defying damage up from Attack x 1.5 to Attack x 3

Death-Defying's damage boost makes it more usable for straight damage, as opposed to just an Instant Death ability


Monster Bubble now prevents enemies affected by it from dodging

Like Cherry's Fortify, Monster Bubble's use is improved by having enemies not only unable to move, but be incapable of dodging


Drown (Monster Bubble passive) damage up from Attack x 0.3 per second to Attack x 0.6

For its investment and Knight's higher-than-normal offensive skills, Drown felt weak at its previous damage level


Knight's Deep Freeze has cooldown increased from 15 seconds to 30 seconds and his Soul Triad now reduces his Deep Freeze Damage total from 200% to 100%

Deep Freeze, when powered up fully and has Fumarole's Eruption at the ready, becomes massively powerful with easy application, so the frequency it could be used and its power had to be nerfed


Knight's Fumarole has cooldown increased from 15 seconds to 30 seconds

For the same reason as Deep Freeze, Fumarole's combination with Deep Freeze was easy to use and very powerful when maxed out, so it has a cooldown nerf


Knight's Force Guard (Force Spear weapon passive) -> boosts area of effect for ally Defense boosts by 5 body widths radius to 10 body widths and now applies a bonus of Defense + 10% per level to Knight while Defiance or Sustained Faith is active

Since a lot of defensive characters have gotten offensive boosts and builds, Knight was an offensive character lacking heavily in defensive capabilities. Knight's Force Spear weapon not only boosts ally defense, but lets Knight use Defiance for more offense or Sustained Faith for cooldown reduction/movement without sacrificing his defense



Alberto



Onslaught/Conquest/Heist preset change from Deadly Arts/Light Magic/System Shock to Deadly Arts/Thunder Storm/System Shock

As much as Alberto's focus is as a healer, stopping to use Light Magic to heal 20 HP in the middle of a fight when solo is not too useful (especially when enemies can lop it off while Alberto is casting Light Magic). Thunder Storm replaces it to give Alberto better offensive power


Alberto's Heaven's Wrath Extreme now heals himself for 20 HP on use

Added mainly to keep the same level of healing from Light Magic without needing Light Magic itself, keeping Alberto's healing playstyle around for Onslaught/Conquest


Alberto's The Punch To End All Punches (Haymaker passive) boosts damage done by 4x instead of 2x during the Body Field Effect and his Soul Triad now reduces his Haymaker Damage total from 300% to 100%

All characters' big-damage-during-Body Field Effect ability have been altered to be effective mainly during only the Body Field Effect


Alberto's Light Chi damage up from Attack x 0.5 to Attack x 2 and Wallbreak (Light Chi passive) has its collision damage up from 8x to 12x

Light Chi was a weak ability, but these boosts give it more power and make it a good finisher for a Body ability combo of Haymaker -> Deadly Arts -> Light Chi


Revive has its cooldown reduced from 35 seconds to 25 seconds

For the same reasons as Cherry's Phantom Break, Alberto's Revive has its cooldown shortened due to being a revival ability and auto-revive timer's being reduced alongside general ability cooldown reduction


Alberto's Inner Strength now reduces Light Magic's cooldown to 0 on trigger and Force of Mind (Inner Strength passive) adds so when both it and the Mind Field Effect are both active, Alberto's Photon Ray deals 6x damage and has zero cooldown on trigger

Changed to make Inner Strength a more appealing option by allowing for frequent usage of Light Magic/Light Zone and Photon Ray rapid-fire for more damage and to exit the Mind Field Effect easily


Alberto's Soul Triad now boosts his Photon Ray Damage passive ability total to 100% rather than 50%

Alberto's Photon Ray has low damage output, so this gives it more use, as well as makes it more useful for Force of Mind


Alberto's Spark (Static passive) damage up from Attack x 1 to Attack x 2.5

Spark was rather weak before and less worth the investment of Soul Triad Points and Augmentors. Since Static/Spark would get more frequent use out of a Wind Siphon build, Thunder Storm is somewhat inaccurate, Planet Destroyer needs time and accuracy, its increased power is a welcome addition for more damage/Stun


Thunder Storm damage boosted from Attack x 1.5 to Attack x 3

Due to its random striking and the general power of other characters' Siphon builds, damage boosts were in order to make Thunder Storm more viable


Mega Storm (Thunder Storm passive) has had its area of effect boost removed and replaced with 2x damage and 2x bolts per second

A larger area of effect is actually bad for Alberto's Thunder Storm, as its negative is meant to be its random strike positions -- having a larger area of effect made it even less accurate. To have Mega Storm help improve on this weakness, it provides more power and more strike opportunities



Tara



Onslaught/Conquest/Heist preset change from Kill Chop/Backhand/Reaper Shield to Kill Chop/Backhand/Chasm

Reaper Shield is useful to hold on when about to die, but as Tara has no non-medkit source of healing, something more offensive was needed for her


Tara has cooldown reduction on the following abilities:

Kill Chop cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

Hatchetwirl cooldown reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds

Cleatqueen cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

Willpower cooldown reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds

Skill Strike cooldown reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds

Reaper Shield cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

General cooldown reduction was what contributed to most of these changes, in order to keep these abilities to be somewhat similar to cooldowns of other characters' similar abilities and to keep cooldowns no higher than 30 seconds where possible (though higher cooldowns is meant to be one of Tara's weaknesses)


Advantage Pushback (Pushback passive) -> boosted from 50% more damage and Combat Movement + 50% to 2x damage and Combat Movement + 100%

Improved mainly to make Pushback more viable and to help combine better with Willpower (for getting more out of one attack) and Cleatqueen's High Velocity (2x damage threshold hit more easily by running faster)


Tara's Confirmed Kill (Kill Chop passive) boosts damage done by 4x instead of 2x during the Body Field Effect and her Soul Triad now reduces her Kill Chop Damage total from 200% to 100%

All characters' big-damage-during-Body Field Effect ability have been altered to be effective mainly during only the Body Field Effect


Tara's Skill Strike has a duration of 8 seconds instead of 5 seconds and Highly Skilled (Skill Strike passive) boosts Defense by 80% instead of 25%

Makes Skill Strike a more reliable and potent ability for Tara to tank hits, especially since her playstyle involves her being in the fray frequently


Styxpath boosts Bottomless Pit Chasm instant death threshold from 60% to 70%

Since Tara's Earth Siphon build focuses on Instant Death, and many characters have gotten boosts to their Siphon builds, Tara gains a boost through increased threshold



Pound



Basic attacks sped up

Pound was always meant to be a slower basic attacker, but he was TOO slow. His basic attacks are now faster


Pound has cooldown reduction on the following abilities:

Claymore Crash cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

Stone Gauntlet cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

Vampire cooldown reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds

Planet's Power cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 15 seconds

Magic Blast cooldown reduced from 45 seconds to 15 seconds

Some cooldown reductions for Pound were to aim to keep base cooldowns no longer than 30 seconds, but in the case of Planet's Power and Magic Blast, it was also meant to have more flexible handling of Death Forest


Pushback Energize (Pushback passive) increased cooldown reductions from 2 seconds to 5 seconds

2 seconds is not an overly noticeable cooldown reduction to invest Soul Triad Points and Augmentors into. 5 seconds makes investing in Pushback more feasible and gives Pound more frequent ability usage


Pound's Claymost (Claymore Crash passive) boosts damage done by 4x instead of 2x during the Body Field Effect and his Soul Triad now boosts his Claymore Crash Damage passive ability to a total of 100% rather than 50%

All characters' big-damage-during-Body Field Effect ability have been altered to be effective mainly during only the Body Field Effect


Pound's Stone Gauntlet damage up from Attack x 0.5 to Attack x 2

Though Stone Gauntlet is meant to be large area Knockdown with its Tremor passive, before this its damage was very poor, especially for a Body ability. To be more viable before gaining Tremor and during the Body Field Effect, its damage was raised


Pound's Feign Death (Explosion passive) timer reduced to 8 seconds

Since auto-revive has a reduced timer, Feign Death needed a reduction to match it


Pound's Vampire increases Attack + 40 instead of Attack + 20 and its duration lasts 30 seconds instead of 15 seconds, Potent Sacrifice (Vampire passive) boosts Attack + 100 instead of Attack + 40 and Defense + 80% instead of Defense + 50% and Vampire Ancient (Vampire passive) has a duration of 30 seconds instead of 10 seconds

For the massive sacrifice Pound makes using Vampire, it had a rather lacking power and duration. This makes Vampire a VERY viable option for its high costs


Pound has the following changes for his Death Forest build:

Pound's Soul Triad now reduces his Mindspike Damage total from 100% to 50%

Pound's Aura now moves 4x faster and cooldown is reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds

Pound's Mindspike has a duration of 10 seconds on the battlefield rather than 5 seconds

Pound's Magic Blast has its damage boosted from Attack x 2 to Attack x 5, its cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 15 seconds, boosts damage of exploding Mindspikes from Attack x 3 to Attack x 6, boosts damage of exploding Germinated Mindspikes from Attack x 5 to Attack x 12 and boosts damage of exploding Death Forest Trees from Attack x 8 to Attack x 20

Pound's Nature Amplify (Dark Arts passive) now boosts duration of Mindspikes/Germinated Mindspikes/Death Forest Trees by 8 seconds instead of 3 seconds, but its damage boost of all Mindspikes/Germinated Mindspikes/Death Forest Trees in play is reduced from 100% damage boost to 50%

Pound's Stone Tree (Germinate passive) now boosts duration of Mindspikes turning into Germinated Mindspikes by 5 seconds instead of 3 seconds, and boosts damage of Germinated Mindspikes by Attack x 3 to Attack x 6

Pound's Death Forest (Planet's Power passive) now boosts duration of Germinated Mindspikes turning into Death Forest Trees by 5 seconds instead of 3 seconds, and boosts damage of Death Forest Trees by Attack x 5 to Attack x 12

The above alterations to Pound's abilities were meant to mainly give Pound more flexibility over his Death Forest building and more damage from Soul Triad Point and Augmentor investment in specific forest stages rather than the general damage boosts of Mindspike Damage and Nature Amplify to all Death Forest stages. In particular, higher duration and lower cooldowns were especially needed given the time needed to create forests and how enemy positions would change quickly in battle



Cook



Cook has cooldown reduction on the following abilities:

Stun Strike cooldown reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds

Pummel cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

Viper Cudgel cooldown reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds

Fatality cooldown reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds

Strength cooldown reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds

Provoke cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds

Discus Doom cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

Field Flame cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds

A majority of Cook's cooldown changes are due to aiming to keep base cooldowns no larger than 30 seconds (Cook is meant to have more power behind a lot of his attacks in exchange for higher cooldowns), while other cooldowns like Provoke and Discus Doom are more support abilities, and Field Flame requires team investment to be effective


Cook's Phenomenon Flare Extreme now deals 5 damage every 1/5 second per flame rather than 1 damage and it appears around Cook rather than in random locations

Cook was always meant to be stronger in the fundamentals and weaker in abilities overall, but Phenomenon Flare was TOO weak and scattered, and felt like it was not worth focusing on building up Extreme for


Steel Pushback (Pushback passive) -> boosted from 1 second of invincibility to 3 seconds

1 second of invincibility is barely noticeable, enough for 1 or 2 attacks from Cook. 3 seconds make Pushback worth using, especially with Provoke active


Cook's Legend Viper Cudgel (Viper Cudgel passive) boosts damage done by 4x instead of 2x during the Body Field Effect and his Soul Triad now reduces his Viper Cudgel Damage total from 100% to 50%

All characters' big-damage-during-Body Field Effect ability have been altered to be effective mainly during only the Body Field Effect


Cook's Discus Doom now has his ranged weapon move at double speed when active, and Discus Doom's cooldown is reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds, and his Discus Defense (Discus Doom passive) boosts ally Defense by 50% instead of 25%

This gives Cook's Discus Doom a lot more presence as far as ranged combat goes, by allowing larger defense boosts for allies and more frequent triggerings of large area ranged damage. Of particular importance is the doubled speed of Cook's ranged weapon, which not only allows for more frequent ricochets (and therefore more damage), but also more flames spread through Conflagration


Incendiary (Viper Blast passive) no longer requires other fire to be nearby when Viper Blast creates fire

Requiring other fire was a cumbersome requirement for Viper Blast/Incendiary to create 6 flames, especially when Viper Beam/Dragon's Breath had no such requirement and created 10 flames


Cook's Sunlight (King's Rays passive) -> No longer larger diameter, but inflicts Knockdown to all enemies not blocking or dodging if an enemy was caught in King's Rays' area of effect

Cook's King's Rays functioned too similarly to Claire's Fallen Angel and needed something to differentiate it gameplay-wise. Having it deal Knockdown to all enemies if one enemy touched the ray not only helps Cook protect distant allies, but also plays better into his Fire Siphon build, which would likely have fires spread across the battlefield and boosting their damage output


Cook's Life Regen (Life Shield passive) heals his HP by 40 instead of 20

20 HP felt too low for a healing effect, and 40 HP felt more worth the investment


Cook's Soul Triad has Field Flame Damage total up from 200% to 400%

Cook's base flames felt a bit weak, so going up from 15 HP/sec to 25 HP/sec made for a solid improvement


Cook's To Cinders passive boosts the base damage of all of Cook's Field Flames by 1 for every battlefield fire in play (his own, the enemy's or the Fire Field Effect's) while the Fire Siphon Field Effect is active

Cook's Fire Siphon build felt too weak to consider investing in, and was originally just more of a Field Effect support for Jimmy's Fire Siphon build, but Cook's own cooldowns were too high, and Fire Elemental weapon users were more reliable. Even though Cook is supposed to be stronger in the fundamentals than advanced techniques, this was too weak. To Cinders' new damage boost based off of number of flames also allows Cook to have a different playstyle in using their ranged weapon to spread fire as much as possible


Cook's Assault Drone now deals (Assault Drone Level x 0.3) damage instead of (Assault Drone Level x 0.1)

Assault Drone felt too weak, and powering it up to this level made it feel more rewarding for more precise calls of Far Shot on the player's part


Cook's Titan Boomerang boosts Strength and Fatality's effectiveness by 20% per weapon level instead of 5% and his Steel Echo and Multitasker boost effectiveness by 10% per level instead of 5%

Even though levels of Steel Echo and Multitasker can be obtained through his Soul Triad, the purpose of these boosts was to make Cook's Blade Boomerang, Chakram and Titan Boomerang stand out from his default Frisblade weapon



Claire



While active, Claire's Deluge of Doom Extreme heals herself by 5 HP whenever she uses one of her abilities (Throat Jab, Throwing Knife, Rainfall)

As Claire's overall offensive and defensive powers are low compared to others (her primary focus being defense debuffing), giving her some healing for using her abilities quickly gives her more survivability when fighting up close, while rewarding the player for speedy ability use with more healing


Claire's Throat Jab boosted from 200% power and 5 second duration to 300% power and 8 second duration

As Claire's focus is on offensive support, particularly debuffing enemy defense, it would be better if her offensive support had more weight to it -- simply doubling party damage output is nice, but it did not feel as worth it. Throat Jab's improvements were also based heavily on Legend Onslaught/Conquest, as Claire's movesets are generally low damage, and she needed to be able to fight on her own


Claire's Sore Throat (Throat Jab passive) applies Throat Jab to all enemies in play if Throat Jab lands successfully

Originally, Sore Throat boosted duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds, but this has been incorporated into base Throat Jab. Rather than boosting duration, which is less useful for defense debuff abilities (which kill enemies faster and need the duration less), Sore Throat now helps to REALLY emphasize Claire's defense debuffing role in the party by applying it to all enemies if it hits one successfully


Claire's Throat Jab Power nodes in her Soul Triad have a reduced total from 200% to 100%, and Assassin Blade gains Throat Jab Power + 10% per weapon level, rather than 20%

Given Throat Jab's base boost in power and Sore Throat's wide application of its defense debuff, having Claire's Soul Triad and Assassin Blade reduce their gains was needed. Originally, it was 200% minimum and 600% maximum; now it is 300% minimum and 500% maximum with Sore Throat's all-enemy application


Claire's Ninja damage boosted from Attack x 1 to Attack x 1.5

Claire's overall moveset felt too weak damage-wise, so strengthening one of her Body abilities makes it a more appealing investment, especially given Ninja's low cooldown


Cheetah provides Attack + 10 instead of Attack - 5 and Mega Cheetah provides Attack + 40, double Throwing Knife damage and no Throwing Knife cooldown while the Mind Field Effect is active

Cheetah felt too negative and too weak, even with Mega Cheetah active. These buffs, particularly to Mega Cheetah, also greatly enhance Claire's Throwing Knife ability (rapid fire long range damage that helps keep the Mind Field Effect active) and Poison Knife weapon


Claire's Mindgames (Sixth Sense passive) goes from 10% damage boost per dodge to 30% damage boost per dodge

Sixth Sense/Mindgames gives Claire very high offensive boosts to all of her abilities, an area that she is generally lacking in. Combines well with Mega Cheetah and Throwing Knife for very high damage projectiles at any range


Rainfall no longer applies to random areas, but placed around Claire

Makes Rainfall a more reliable ability and allows for multi-enemy Knockdown with one use


Claire's Jetpack (Waterjet passive) -> Adds invincibility and Knockdown to Waterjet

Gives greater utility to Waterjet while repositioning Claire safely


Claire's Fallen Angel -> Knockdown for 4 seconds instead of 2 and shorter knockdown lockout period of 1 second instead of 3 seconds

Claire's Fallen Angel tree in her Soul Triad had some nice passives for her Knockdown status ailment, Rainfall and Waterjet, but Fallen Angel on its own was less useful -- an ability that just inflicts Knockdown when Claire has so many abilities that can do that and more. These changes to Fallen Angel knock down an enemy for longer and allow her many other Knockdown abilities to apply much sooner, giving Fallen Angel better application


Claire's Toxic Gas area boosted from radius of 2 body widths to radius of 5 body widths

Too tiny an area, may as well not be an area. Boosted to the size most area attacks cover for better effectiveness


Claire's Torrent damage boosted Attack x 1.5 to Attack x 3

Since Claire did not have very strong offensive abilities for damage, especially on her Water Siphon build, Torrent needed better damage


Claire's Flood passive now allows her Torrent to deal 3x more damage while the Water Siphon Field Effect is active and there are 20 or more waterpools in play at one time, and boosts it by an additional 3x damage if the Water Siphon Field Effect is active and the enemy is poisoned

Claire's Water Siphon build felt as though it was more of a support for Knight's own Water Siphon build, and felt less worth the investment. Not only does this change to Flood make it more worthwhile for Claire in a Water Siphon team with Knight, but it also turns Torrent into one of Claire's most damaging abilities, improving her overall offensive options



Jimmy



Jimmy's Pushblast now heals Jimmy for 5 HP per enemy Staggered

To give more than just wide area Stagger and to keep in line with Jimmy's self-heal style of some of his abilities, Pushblast's added healing helps Jimmy's survivability, especially during the Body Field Effect


Jimmy's Dead Drop now has invincibility during its leap

Given the lengthy startup of Dead Drop and its requirement for positioning, invincibility felt better here


Jimmy's High Pressure (Pressure Point passive) boosts damage done by 4x instead of 2x during the Body Field Effect and his Soul Triad now reduces his Pressure Point Damage total from 200% to 100%

All characters' big-damage-during-Body Field Effect ability have been altered to be effective mainly during only the Body Field Effect


Beyond Eternity cooldown reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds, Timestream (Beyond Eternity passive) boosts Combat Movement for 15 seconds instead of 5 seconds, and Eternal (Beyond Eternity passive) heals himself for 100 HP instead of 25 HP

Cooldown changed entirely due to the aim to keep base cooldowns no longer than 30 seconds, and passives were boosted to make Jimmy's sacrifice using Beyond Eternity have more weight behind it


Jimmy's Spiritcharge increases his Defense by 80% instead of 50% and Spirit Blast (Spiritcharge passive) damage up from Attack x 4 to Attack x 12

Spiritcharge felt weak compared to Fiery Passion (both gave 50% Defense, but Fiery Passion applied to all allies, not just Jimmy) and Spirit Blast's boost gives Jimmy a more offensive use out of his self-tanking ability, especially to override the damage drop the Mind Field Effect has


Jimmy's Vital Pulse (Vital Shot passive) damage up from Attack x 0.5 to Attack x 2, and Vital Shot Healing (Vital Shot passive) now applies to the pulse

Vital Shot on its own felt weak. These changes make it a better projectile, inflicting solid damage to an area for its cooldown and granting high healing if Jimmy hits a lot of enemies


Vital Wave cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

As Vital Wave is primarily used as a Field Effect neutralizer, investing in it would be more appealing if it can more frequently be available to do said neutralizing


Jimmy's Crimson Force went from 20 seconds cooldown to 5 seconds

Meant mainly to provide Jimmy with more frequent Shuriken Fire Siphon Tag/Crimson Chain combos and to allow Crimson Force to be used as a general wide area attack and Fire Siphon Field Effect maintainer/influencer



Brooks



Onslaught/Conquest/Heist preset change from Crossguard/Flashbang/High Gravity to Crossguard/Blastback/Black Hole

Brooks' more defensive preset needed abilities that could deal damage; Flashbang and High Gravity may have been representative of his Blind/keepaway playstyle, but Brooks had a harder time dealing damage before these changes


Brooks has cooldown reduction on the following abilities:

Home Run cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 10 seconds

Pickaxe cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

Multi-Shot cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

Eagle Cannon cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

High Gravity cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

Field Tactics cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds

Power Drag cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds

Pandemonium cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 15 seconds

Black Hole cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

Brooks' cooldown reductions were based partly on keeping his cooldowns closer to those with similar abilities, but a major part was due to the fact that a lot of Brooks' abilities are basic attack buffs and general support in the form of repositioning allies and enemies, which did not need high cooldowns (his high cooldowns were originally meant to keep him similar to his original-Demon Rush low MP stats). As a result, Brooks went from one of the higher sets of ability cooldowns to one of the lowest


Pushbreak (Pushback passive) now lasts 5 seconds instead of 3 and has the target suffer 5x Knockback collision damage instead of 3x

Due to Pushbreak being of high importance to Brooks' Knockback Collision build, longer duration and higher damage make the build more feasible, especially given the limited number of abilities that can be used for collision and the requirement of getting close to inflict Pushbreak (going against Brooks' general longer range playstyle)


Grand Crossguard (Crossguard passive) now deals 4x collision damage from Knockback instead of 2x

Boosted primarily to keep Brooks' Knockback collision damage build dealing good damage


Grand Slam (Home Run passive) now deals 10x collision damage from Knockback instead of 4x

To better differentiate between his other Body abilities (Crossguard being defensive, Pickaxe being Body Field Effect oriented), Home Run focused on Brooks' high Knockback collision damage. Combined with Pushbreak and his Collision Damage passives, Home Run becomes a very high damage ability if Brooks can position himself and his enemy at a wall or battle boundary properly


Brooks' Strike Gold (Pickaxe passive) boosts damage done by 4x instead of 2x during the Body Field Effect and his Soul Triad now reduces his Pickaxe Damage total from 200% to 100%

All characters' big-damage-during-Body Field Effect ability have been altered to be effective mainly during only the Body Field Effect


Blastback now has Knockback and invincibility at its base. By extension, Leaps and Bounds, which is a passive for Blastback that granted invincibility during Blastback, has been altered to apply Pushbreak

Blastback at its base was fine for use, and had little reason to aim for investing Soul Triad Points and Augmentors to improve it. Giving it the ability to inflict Pushbreak if available allows many enemies to suffer more Knockback damage and makes it easier for Brooks to make use of his high-damage Knockback collision build


Brooks' Eagle Cannon needs less distance to deal more damage, but has an upper limit of 3x damage

Makes Eagle Cannon easier to use for damage boosts, but prevents it from being too overpowered


Multi-Shot speed reduced to a new shot every 1/2 second instead of 1/10 second

Though 1/10 second is truly rapid-fire, it was also WAY too powerful. Attack x 10 every second while active at unlimited range hitscan made for a far too powerful ability even at its base


Brooks' Field Dressing (Field Tactics passive) now heals allies for 40 HP instead of 20 HP

20 HP felt too low for a healing effect, and 40 HP felt more worth the investment


High Gravity now prevents enemies under its area of effect from dodging

Like Cherry's Fortify, High Gravity's use is improved by having enemies not only unable to move, but be incapable of dodging


Pandemonium affects all enemies in play rather than an area in front of Brooks

Running up to inflict random Knockback directions to an area in front of Brooks was rather underwhelming (especially if the Knockback directions don't collide with walls or boundaries). Having it affect all enemies in play emphasizes Brooks' long range playstyle better, while transforming it to an all range interrupt for enemy attacks, protecting allies at a distance


Brooks' Black Hole damage up from Attack x 0.4 per second to Attack x 0.8 and Explosive Evaporation (Black Hole passive) damage up from Attack x 3 to Attack x 5

Brooks plays more of a support role in Legends Corrupt, and has little damage options that are not buffing his basic hitscan attack or needing to get right up to his enemies. These boosts to Black Hole provide Brooks more offensive options, and also makes his offense stronger in Onslaught/Conquest


Brooks' Golem Spirit passive boosts damage done by Body abilities by 4x instead of 2x during the Earth Siphon Field Effect

Since Golem Spirit is meant to let Brooks mimic the Body Field Effect to a degree during the Earth Siphon Field Effect, his Body abilities receive the boost the big damage Body abilities would during the Body Field Effect


Brooks' Druid Psyche passive now lowers cooldown of Mind abilities by 5 seconds instead of 3 seconds during the Earth Siphon Field Effect

5 seconds felt like a more worthwhile cooldown reduction than 3 seconds


Brooks' Crushing Gravity passive (from his Plasma Shot weapon) boosts the damage dealt by High Gravity by Attack x 0.3 per level of the weapon as opposed to Attack x 0.1 per level of the weapon

Since High Gravity is a movement/dodge disabler to a large area, boosting its duration for more than 3 seconds would be too strong. Crushing Gravity's damage output during these 3 seconds would be way too low, especially since it involves full investment in his Plasma Shot weapon. The higher damage output makes High Gravity a more versatile ability, providing decent damage while immobilizing enemies









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