Balance in the Works!

[[S2]DOGKaiser]

Many of you don't know that a HUGE balance patch is in the works but there is! There have been countless messages to go over in general discussion, balance forums, competitor forums, tournaments, IMs, and emails which have all been extremely helpful in creating the upcoming patch. Going through all of these sources takes considerable time (and we try to give attention to every source!) to get a good basis of what needs to change, what could change, and what should not change. Even after making this list we want more then theory crafting, we put our changes into extensive testing to make sure we are making proper balance decisions.

For your patience here's a sneak peak of some balance changes expected to come:

Gemini
- Fire and Ice will require both dogs to channel
There have been many complaints of how hard it is to kill Gemini and we agree! This change alone should help remedy much of that. Other areas to be looked at are movespeed and stats transfer.

Midas
- Lion's Pride will have healing reduced
Midas is a hero that many people, including us, would say needs a nerf and most agree that the heal is the biggest problem.

Zephyr
- Reducing the amount zephyr can heal
Zephyr's survivability is a little too high, as evidenced both by our observations of competitive play and community feedback.

Monarch
- Reducing the cast range on Crippling Pollen from 550 to 500
Crippling Pollen started with a higher cast range when compared similar spells. Although only higher by 50 it becomes much easier to snag those heroes trying to attack from 600 range. This slight touch on the spell seems to put it back into place.

Ring of Sorcery
- Slightly increasing the manacost to activate
Typically purchased selfishly this items focus is meant to be a team item (like astrolabe and energizer). Increasing the mana cost will make it less effective for the individual to use.

HotBL
- Expect changes to come! A big thanks to everyone who contributed on the balance forums for this one!
Too effective at all points in the game we're hoping to release a new concept to this item that will keep its current effectiveness in helping carries farm during the mid game but not make it impossible for other heroes to kill a hero with an early HotBL.



Our expected release date is Jan 27th. Many thanks to all our testers and everyone else who has helped contribute.

[TheWarrent]

Thanks for the update.

[HungLoSack]

cool

[BigBoss00]

DOGkaiser is a cool guy.

[Apostate]

Right on.

[[Drk]thestrat]

Thank you for stepping up the community communication

[[j8]BloodyTofu]

Stay bauss Kaiser.

[Ezzik]

tremble nerf?

[LikeABoss]

That only gives me approximately 270 games that I can play using Gemini.

I better get on that then, thanks for the update S2.

AP here I come.

[Ezzik]

hahaha Ekamo ^ made me lol

[Wolfrar]

Jan 27? Rofl.

It takes several months for those pathetic small changes?

[Dougletron]

I wonder if they are still implementing that Vindi rework.

[[eR]Ekamo]

Jan 27? Rofl.

It takes several months for those pathetic small changes?

For your patience here's a sneak peak of some changes expected to come:

Want it even bigger?

[thecats]

how is helm effective at all parts of the game when it becomes useless the moment someone picks up a shieldbreaker?

[[GM]Haruhi_sos]

Zephyr and HotBL nerf woo! Now hopefully the bird won't be the word in every single game

[[L4ST]innova3]

now thats something.

[[S2]MacroHard]

Monarch
- Reducing the cast range on Crippling Pollen from 550 to 500
Crippling Pollen started with a higher cast range when compared similar spells. Although only higher by 50 it becomes much easier to snag those heroes trying to attack from 600 range. This slight touch on the spell seems to put it back into place.

Alchemist Bones #5?? ^^

[[eR]Ekamo]

how is helm effective at all parts of the game when it becomes useless the moment someone picks up a shieldbreaker?

Assumptions:
- 10 second duration when factoring in Health Regeneration
- Health regeneration of 3 HP/sec prior to item purchase

75 incoming damage per hit
1000 health
5 armor
- Buckler = 255 EHP
- Beastheart = 325 EHP
- Lifetube = 65 EHP
- Hotbl = 1545 EHP
- Behe Heart = 1460 EHP


150 Incoming damage
1500 health
10 armor
- Buckler = 213 EHP
- Beastheart = 400 EHP
- Lifetube = 80 EHP
- Hotbl = 1270 EHP
- Behe Heart = 1857 EHP


225 Incoming damage
2000 health
15 armor
- Buckler = 217 EHP
- Beastheart = 475 EHP
- Lifetube = 95 EHP
- Hotbl = 1329 EHP
- Behe Heart = 2276 EHP

Remember that if you combine it and Behe's heart, you get a new kind of monster since Hotbl scales with HP of the hero.

[[RCT]Reldnahc]

Kblacktext

[[Yosh]CKMo]

great!