Hey everyone! Aleco, lead game designer reporting in. After returning from a little vacation which led to a smaller gameplay patch last week, I’ve been hard at work putting together an extra-special update for you all this week.
In addition to the balance changes, bug fixes, and QoL improvements you’d normally expect in a weekly patch, there are a huge number of changes in this week aimed at reducing both the frequency and the effectiveness of a gameplay pattern which has been dominating the Endless Mode leaderboards - feedback loops. In order to cut down on the number of feedback loops in RR, I ended up making changes to almost every kind of content in the game, including updates to Hero passive and active abilities, rank modifiers, items, and relics.
What is a feedback loop exactly? The best example I can think of is the (now changed) design of Yuuna’s “The Nightshade” specialization. This spec inflicted Poison on enemies based on the amount Crit Yuuna had, while also giving her Crit based on the amount of Poison on her target. The Crit boost enabled her to inflict even more Poison, which gave her even more Crit, which inflicted even more Poison… you get the picture.
Given how important these feedback loops were for topping the Endless Mode leaderboards, and how making them harder to assemble is going to be highly disruptive for some of our most dedicated players, I’m planning to write an article soon (likely this week) where I go into much more depth about my thoughts on them. For those who are more interested in a quick summary of my thoughts on the matter: our goal with these changes is not to remove these feedback loops from the game entirely. Discovering and assembling these loops in order to “go infinite” can be really fun! We’re just looking to cut back on how often these loops occur by making them harder to assemble (no more loops-in-a-can like The Nightshade), and to reign in their top-end power level a bit when they do occur by making them slower to get going.
Anyways, enough about feedback loops! There are a few other major gameplay changes for players to explore this patch, including changes to Mana/Mana Regen/Starting Mana and a major pass on many Backup effects. Given the higher than normal volume of change coming y’alls way, I’m expecting a few balance outliers to have slipped through cracks and am planning a hotfix balance patch tomorrow to address the loudest of those. As always, I can’t wait to read everyone’s feedback on the new patch and hope you enjoy it!
Major Gameplay and System Changes
Feedback Loops
A large number of effects have been redesigned or adjusted in order to address both the frequency at which feedback loops occur, and the dominance of feedback-loop-based strategies in the Endless Mode leaderboards.
All effects which give stats to Heroes based on the amount of Debuffs on enemies have been updated to happen only at specific timings or triggers - such as whenever the Hero attacks, every 2 seconds, or whenever an enemy in range of the Hero takes burn damage. These effects are no longer state-based and updated every frame.
Some effects which give stats to Heroes have been given relatively large max stat gain caps in order to prevent runaway feedback loops.
The goal with these changes is to reduce the frequency in which these Debuff-based-stat-gain effects led to runaway feedback loops, while also making these effects feel more predictable and consistent to the player.
Mana System Updates
The amounts of Max Mana, Starting Mana, and Mana Regen have been updated across the board (roughly doubled).
The Mana required for Heroes to activate their active ability (Max Mana) has been increased across the board, depending on the role of the Hero. Auto-attack focused Heroes (Duelists, Warriors, Vanguards) had their Max Mana requirements increased less, while caster heroes (Mages, Mystics) had their mana requirements increased more.
The amount of Mana Regen and Starting Mana provided by all effects has roughly doubled.
The amount of Mana gained per attack has been increased from 4 to 5.
The primary goal for these changes is to allow more granularity in how we balance the Mana costs, and in particular the Starting Mana of our Heroes. Compared to the last patch, more Heroes have comparatively higher Starting Mana totals and can be more clearly defined as “first-cast” based Heroes.
The intention for the vast majority of Heroes is that they should be casting roughly the same number of times per combat as they did previously. If any Heroes stand out after this update as casting significantly more or less than they did before, please let us know!
Backup Specialization Updates
Many specializations with Backup have been updated to increase their effectiveness based on the rank of the Hero that owns them.
Previously, many specializations with Backup were either tied to a flat value or increased in their effectiveness based on the Hero’s stats. Now, the vast majority of these effects have been updated to upgrade in effectiveness with the rank of the Hero.
Most of the aforementioned Backup specs were also among the most powerful specs in the game, and have had their numbers adjusted so that they are a bit weaker at B-Rank while potentially being even stronger at S-Rank.
Example Changes:
Aria, The Resplendent (Before):
Aria, The Resplendent (After):
Grace, The Angel (Before):
Grace, The Angel (After):
Whenever a Mystic Shields an ally, give that ally 5 Attack and Magic per Rank of Grace. (B-Rank = 10, A-Rank = 15, S-Rank = 20).
The goal with these changes is twofold. Firstly and most importantly, we want players to feel rewarded much more often when they rank up Heroes which are being used for their Backup specs. Previously, there wasn’t much incentive to rank up these Heroes and it would often feel bad to skip out on ranking them up when offered to do so in the shop. Second, it was clear in the data that many Backup effects with flat values (such as Resplendent Aria and Angel Grace) were outperforming the Hero’s other specs to such an extent that these Heroes were being relegated to “bench Heroes”, or Heroes which provide far more value to the team when they’re in the reserves than when they’re on board. By shifting the power on these specs away from B-Rank and more towards A and S-Rank, we hope to open up more viable options for these Heroes and eventually allocate a great portion of their power budget toward their on-board effectiveness.
Minor Gameplay Changes
All projectiles move slightly faster.
The cap on attacks per second is increased from 4 to 5
The stats of enemies in SSS has been tuned to on a per-stage basis to create a more smooth difficulty curve and to address outliers.
The overall difficulty of Act 2 has been slightly increased.
Stages which were too challenging across the board have tuned down in difficulty. This includes all fights in stage 4 (the fight directly before the Act 1 Boss) and all fights in stage 6 (the fight directly after the Act 1 Boss).
A few individual fights within stages which stood as notably easier or harder than other fights within the same stage have had their difficulty adjusted to bring them more in line with the rest of the stage.
The difficulty of the Demon, Frost Dragon, and Poison Dragon bosses has increased.
In addition to changes from the “feedback loop” pass, many relics and rank modifiers had their numbers adjusted to address balance concerns.
Most effects which care about shop rerolls have been adjusted to be back-looking.
For example, the Momentous Legacy relic now gives your Heroes 2 Attack Speed for each time you’ve rerolled the shop this game instead of giving your Heroes 2 Attack Speed for each time you’ve rerolled the shop since acquiring the relic.
These changes should bring these effects more in-line with the standards set by other mechanics, such as Shard generation, Stall, and Rush.
Endless Mode Crossroads:
The “increase endless score” event is now less likely to appear.
Several relics have been added or removed from the pool of relics which will be shown to the player during endless mode crossroads. In particular, most (but not all) shard-focused relics have been removed from the pool.
Hero Balance Changes
Note: Several Hero specs which were updated due to the aforementioned Backup Specialization Updates are not specifically called out in this section.
⬇️ Yuuna
⬇️ Funke
⬇️🔄 The Stoked:
Mages no longer gain Mana and Mana Regen based on the state-based amount of Burn on enemies in their range.
Now grants Mages Magic per Rank of Funke whenever an enemy in their range takes Burn damage.
Now gives Funkes 4 Mana whenever an enemy in his range takes Burn damage.
⬆️🔄 The Detonator:
⬇️ The Blaze:
⬆️ Rip
⬆️ Rowan
⬆️ Logan
🔄 Hoyoung
⬇️ The Sniper:
⬆️ The Exacting:
⬆️ Irini
⬇️ Zuri
⬇️ Blade Master:
⬇️ Stats:
Base attack speed -.01
Defense -1
⬇️ Pimenta
⬇️ Kai
⬆️ Ratna
