Greetings Champions, and surprise!
JUST NOW, we’ve launched the Emergence Community Patch: a new, experimental type of patch designed to touch on various community wants between our larger updates. This patch is aimed at tackling various requests we heard the community mention throughout the end of 2022 and into Emergence. Without further ado, let’s dig right in!
Rise of Furia Returns!
A fan-favorite event from Paladin’s past, Rise of Furia is returning as an LTM every weekend for the rest of Emergence! Climb the Abyssal Spire as it chases after you in this parkour-based mode, with the team who reaches the top first and destroys the heart gaining a buff to their Ultimate in the following deathmatch. We’ve made a more modern iteration: Pick any Champion, including Champions released after, as well as equipping loadouts!
As part of the mode returning, we’ve also brought back the Abyssal Lord Drogoz skin, which has been limited to the event prior. It’ll be available in the shop for 1,250 Crystals for the first time in almost 5 years!
Long Road to Payload
As many of you know, we unfortunately had to disable two of the three Payload maps soon after Emergence’s launch due to issues involving crashes. After some investigation, we discovered the issue, which involved overly intensive background landscapes from Paladin’s past.
We’ve resolved these issues, so starting today Payload will once again have all three maps in rotation & will be available on Nintendo Switch!
A Splash of Fun to End of Game
With this update, we’ve added a new cosmetic category: endscreens! These will be art that you are shown after a match ends, before you reach the end of the match lobby. The initial wave of these include all of our Champion’s default splash art, making their triumphant return to in-game. We hope seeing your favorite character will help soothe you at the end of a tough match.
Mastering & Remastering Skins
With this Community Patch, we’ve finished and will be releasing the last of the Gold skins yet to be done: Evie, Fernando, Khan, and Zhin. Every single Champion in Paladins now has a Gold skin. That feels good to say.
Similarly, our Art team has taken another look at The Harlequin & Eternal Devilry Raum skins. At release, these skins didn’t meet our or the community’s bar for content in an Event Pass. We’ve updated various aspects of them in order to provide players with a better realization of the theme!
Balance Changes
As some players may remember, we ran an impromptu PTS a few weeks back in order to test out some spicy balance changes, and with your feedback we were able to narrow what we believe will lead to some composition shakeups and generally more enjoyable games.
Azaan
Azaan’s Ultimate is a powerful tool but leaves Azaan incredibly open to punishment after using it. We’ve decreased the lockout after landing to allow Azaan to get back into the fight more smoothly.
Ultimate
- Deliverance
- Reduced lock out time after landing from 1.6s ➡️ 1.3s.
Buck
Buck is a dangerous flank when he catches his prey but can be awkward to play when trying to balance his Ammo usage in the middle of a fight. This quality-of-life change shouldn’t increase his power level by much but make his general moment-to-moment gameplay more enjoyable.
Weapon
- Shotgun
- Increased Ammo from 5 ➡️ 6
Cassie
Cassie is a difficult Champion to master, requiring a lot of game sense to maximize her potential and properly combo off her Abilities and Crossbow shots. Her Ultimate, Scout, can be very niche depending on how effectively her team is communicating and can feel underwhelming for an Ultimate Ability. With all this in mind, these buffs target what we feel are some of the low points while playing Cassie and will make her more usable across all skill groups.
Statistically, while Cassie does have a high damage output compared to other Champions (she sits at 7th on the list of overall damage), her win rate of 47~48% leaves a bit to be desired. We’ve taken the PTS feedback and decided to roll back her Crossbow Attack Speed buff since she was performing a bit too well, and we’ve left the other changes intact to help boost her effectiveness in any given match.
Abilities
- Scout
- Now also increases Attack Speed by 20%
- Disengage
- Increased Damage from 200 ➡️ 300
- Cooldown Reduced from 12 ➡️ 11s
Caspian
Caspian’s snowball potential is as notorious as his criminal record, and allows for very one-sided interactions when he ramps up. We’ve reduced his snowball potential by reducing the ways he can earn stacks for Love and War in combat, and by reducing the % bonus to Attack Speed earned per stack. To compensate however, we’ve increased his base Attack Speed on Love and War to make moment-to-moment gameplay more consistent and allow Caspian to be more effective even without being at max stacks.
His first Talent, Measured Cadence, was often picked for the utility it provided by easily generating stacks off of the weaker Rogue’s Tempo that’s fired; allowing Caspian to snowball incredibly quickly. We’ve removed the ability to activate cards off of this weaker Rogue’s Tempo to prevent Caspian from ramping up to 100 off of a few activations. While these changes may take a bit of getting used to, we feel that these changes are in the best interest for when both fighting against and playing as Caspian. That being said, we will be continuing to monitor Caspian’s statistics and the health of the game.
Cards
The following cards will no longer trigger off of non-Champion targets (Shields, Deployables, etcetera):
- A Brief Respite
- Casual Competency
- In The Thick Of It
- Shady Dealings
- Flurry
- Rogues Of A Feather
- The Finer Things
Talents
- Measured Cadence
- The weaker Rogue’s Tempo projectile no longer triggers Cards.
Weapons
- Love
- Can no longer generate Piercing Momentum stacks from hitting non-Champion targets (Shields, Deployables, etcetera).
- Reduced the bonus Attack Speed from Sharp Momentum stacks from 5% ➡️ 2%.
- Increased Attack Speed from .85s ➡️ .75s.
- War
- Can no longer generate Sharp Momentum stacks from hitting non-Champion targets (Shields, Deployables, etcetera).
- Reduced the bonus Attack Speed from Piercing Momentum stacks from 5% ➡️ 2%.
- Increased Attack Speed from .65 ➡️ .58s.
Jenos
Jenos is one of our older Supports, and as such sometimes falls to the wayside when compared to more modern Support’s healing capabilities. We’ve increased the statistics of Astral Mark across the board to make it more valuable as a healing tool in a match and to make Jenos more attractive at Champion selection. We’ve also reduced the Cooldown on Stellar Wind to give Jenos more survivability in a match and allow for more decision making while playing him.
Abilities
- Astral Mark
- Increased Duration from 10s ➡️ 12s
- Decreased Cooldown from 7s ➡️ 6s
- Increased initial heal from 330 ➡️ 450
- Stellar Wind
- Reduced Cooldown from 2s ➡️ 1s
Kasumi
Kasumi’s first Talent, Empowered Curse, was universally the more popular choice at Talent selection due to the increase in damage it provided throughout the match. We’ve removed the Attack Speed and replaced it with Ultimate Charge rate increase to have it still provide a meaningful buff to her gameplay without making her oppressive to fight against. We have additional changes we are testing and iterating on, as Kasumi has proven an interesting case in terms of balance amongst our roster. Please continue to monitor our social channels for any further updates we make to Kasumi down the line.
Talents
- Empowered Curse
- Now increases Ultimate Charge gain rate by 3% per stack instead of increasing Attack Speed per stack.
Khan
Khan can sometimes struggle as a Frontline to make an impact compared to the rest of the cast. We’ve buffed Battle Shout’s Cooldown and Heal to give Khan a powerful team utility Heal compared to other Frontlines, and we’ve buffed his Heavy Repeater’s damage to make him more intimidating on the battlefield and to fill a unique and powerful Frontline niche.
Abilities
- Battle Shout
- Cooldown reduced from 14s ➡️ 12s
- Heal increased from 1100 ➡️ 1350
Weapon
- Heavy Repeater
- Increased Damage from 190 ➡️ 210
Lillith
Lillith is unique as a Support in her incredible durability and utility, to the frustration of some players trying to combat her. While we want to keep her unique durability a core of her character, we’re toning it down just a bit to reel back on the extreme cases where Lillith is able to escape almost any situation during fights.
Similarly frustrating to players, Swarm was able to lock down locations through the high damage over time it dealt or through the survivability it gave allies within. We’ve reduced the duration on Swarm to reduce how often Lillith can lock down areas with two Swarms and her total healing output per cast.
Abilities
- Swarm
- Reduced duration from 6.5s ➡️ 5.75s.
Cards
- Blood Cannon
- Reduced value of extra Blood Health from {250|250} ➡️ {200|200}
Ultimate
- Blood Moon
- Decreased Blood regeneration per second from 525 ➡️ 475
Nyx
Nyx’s descent into the Realm was received well, though we wanted to take this opportunity to update some of her kit based on our statistics and community feedback. We’ve reduced the max charge time on Rift Slash to make it a more valuable tool in Nyx’s kit during a fight and improve her combat flow when weaving the move in between Realm Breaker hits. We’ve also removed the Knockback on her 1st Talent, Show of Force, so that Nyx no longer hurts her own gameplan when hitting enemies with Rift Slash. Show of Force’s Rift Slash now Cripples directly hit enemies, allowing Nyx to close the distance and keep enemies in her desired range.
Her other Talent, Subjugation, was performing a bit too well with the Root duration, so we’ve reduced the duration to keep it useful, but not suffocating to play against. For Realm Breaker, there were concerns that Nyx couldn’t keep up with other Frontlines, and suffered when engaging other Champions. We’ve increased the damage on each hit to make each punch more meaningful and allow Nyx to be a formidable opponent against other Frontlines, while also changing her VFX to make it easier to follow where her shots are landing.
Combined with the Center of Combat fix, these changes make Nyx a more consistent Frontline while toning down some of the more frustrating aspects when playing as or against her.
Abilities
- Rift Slash
- Reduced time to reach max strength from 1.5s ➡️ 1.1s.
Cards
- Center of Combat
- Now properly increases additional max Health Poison damage by 2% (previously only increased it by 1%).
Talents
- Show of Force
- Removed Knockback on projectile direct hit, and now instead Cripples enemies for 2s on direct hit.
- Subjugation
- Reduced Root duration from 3s ➡️ 2.25s.
Weapon
- Realm Breaker
- Increased damage per punch by 25 (175 x 3, 400 x 2 ➡️ 200 x 3, 425x 2).
- Has new VFX.
VII
VII’s hyper mobility and synergistic Cards / Talents allow him to be an intimidating presence in a match as he traverses across the map with ease. We’re hitting his mobility tools a little bit across the board to bring down his oppressive traversal, while still allowing him to have a powerful movement suite. The explosives left behind by Explosive Dodge also had a bit more power than we liked, so we’ve brought down the Damage and Range to make it a bit easier to fight against. Finally – Heavy SMG’s Burst and Auto fire modes are very consistent tools in VII’s arsenal, even at long range, so we’ve reduced their Range and Effective Range to make VII engage in fights at a more reasonable range and offer more counterplay when engaging against VII.
Abilities
- Explosive Dodge
- Reduced mines range from 35 ➡️ 30
- Reduced Damage from 250 ➡️ 200
Cards
- Latch And Fire
- Reduced Cooldown reduction from 1s|0.5s ➡️ 0.5s|0.5s
- The Night
- Reduced Cooldown reduction from 1s|0.5s ➡️ 0.5s|0.5s
Talents
- Spring Loaded
- Reduced % Cooldown reduction on Explosive Dodge from 35% ➡️ 30%
Weapon
- Heavy SMG
- Reduce Range on Burst and Automatic Mode
- Burst: Range 300 / Effective Range 130 ➡️ Range 200 / Effective Range 110
- Auto: Range 175 / Effective Range 115 ➡️ Range 150 / Effective Range 95
- Reduce Range on Burst and Automatic Mode
Skye
Skye is an interesting character in the sense that playing her can be a binary enjoyable / frustrating experience depending on how many of the enemy team purchases Illuminate. Her ability to enter Stealth at will is unique, and as a Flank character she lacks the general mobility her peers enjoy due to it. As Paladins has evolved Skye has remained a conditionally strong pick, but lacks the consistency other characters have.
As such we’ve buffed her unique aspects and given her more utility to maneuver during a fight. We’ve increased the charges on Smoke Screen to give her a more viable method of engaging and escaping mid combat, while also giving her Smoke and Dagger Talent a bit more utility. Preparation has had the Movement Speed bonus removed and replaced with an Ammo refill to give Skye the ability to press the offensive after a quick Stealth, and we’ve given her a Movement Speed Passive to bring her mobility more up to par with the rest of our Flanks. Finally, we’ve updated her Default Deck for Preparation so that it now synergizes with the Talent.
Abilities
- Smoke Screen
- Now has 2 Charges
- Cooldown is increased from 12s ➡️ 14s
Deck
- Updated the default Deck for Preparation.
Talents
- Preparation
- No longer increases Movement Speed, reloads ammo when casting Hidden
Weapon
- Wrist Crossbow
- Now has a Passive, “Shadow Walker”, which increases Movement Speed by 30% while in Stealth (from both Hidden / Smoke Screen)
Sha Lin
Sha Lin can be powerful, but generally suffers from being a difficult Champion to master and as such doesn’t see much play. We’re increasing his Health to bring his overall durability and time in a fight before retreating up, and we’re decreasing his Longbow’s time to max charge to allow for consistent damage output when playing him.
Health
- Increased from 2000 ➡️ 2150
Weapon
- Longbow
- Reduced draw time from 1s ➡️ 0.9
Torvald
Torvald’s previous buff had the intended effect of increasing his general effectiveness, but the grandpa has become a little too strong because of it. We’re reducing the Shield and Shield Regeneration granted from the previous patches buff, but still have it buffed compared to before then so that Torvald still has a meaningful presence during a match.
Abilities
- Recharge
- Reduced passive Shield from 3000 -> 2500
- Reduced Shield regeneration amount from 3000 -> 2750
Willo
While Willo does not consume ammo during her Ultimate, it could still lead to awkward moments where she needs to reload before activating her Ultimate or immediately after and breaks the flow of combat for her. With this change Willo will be able to engage in team fights more consistently without increasing her overall power level by much.
Abilities
- Fae Flight
- Now refills Ammo after casting Ultimate
Ranked Rotation
It’s time for a switch-up! This patch’s ranked rotation will be seeing a couple community-requested changes to keep things fresh:
- Frozen Guard has grown tired after holding up the rotation for a bit, and will be swapped out in place of Frog Isle.
- To sum it up, Frozen Guard, Fish Market, Timber Mill, and Bazaar are out for this rotation, making 10 playable ranked maps until the addition of Dawnforge next update. Have fun!
Other Changes
- Lobby Timer Changes
- Reduced Champion selection timer in lobby from 40s ➡️ 30s
- Reduced Champion ban timer in Ranked lobby from 25s ➡️ 20s
- Increased bonus selection time in Ranked from 40s ➡️ 60s
- Removed the ability for players to have a private profile
- Skins Added to Direct Purchase
- Swashbuckler Barik
- Ripjaw Buck
- Copacabana Cassie
- Merrymaker Dredge
- Pyre Warrior Drogoz
- Brimstone Grohk
- Doom Shroom Grover
- Eternal Fervor Jenos
- Eternal Guardian Khan
- Safecracker Khan
- Overload Khan
- Shore Patrol Kinessa
- Eternal Retribution Koga
- Bounty Hunter Lex
- Eternal Conflict Lian
- Dark Monarch Lian
- Shore Patrol Lian
- Pirate’s Treasure Maeve
- Dutchman Makoa
- Beachside Octavia
- Sea Queen Saati
- Temptress Skye
- Hustler Strix
- Clockwork Torvald
- Revenant Torvald
- Marauder Tyra
- Gunslinger Tyra
- Mermaid Ying
- Carnival Ying
- Underkeeper Zhin
Bug Fixes
- Fixed issues related to crashing in Payload on low memory machines.
- Fixed an issue related to crashes on Ascension Peak
- Fixed an issue where Pip was not benefiting from Catalyst
- Fixed an issue where the Crystal buy screen was still showing the past Season Pass bonus amounts
- Fixed an issue where some references to the Bounty Store & Coin were still in game after they were retired.
Known Issues
- In Payload, it will show all Champions selectable by default, despite you only being able to play ones you own. (the latter is intended)
- Bare Bones Dredge and Shore Patrol Koga were incorrectly listed as direct purchase in these notes, but will actually be in a future update.
