Arena of Kings update for 31 December 2021

v1.1.2.0 Changes:

• Stuck in pillars: we've added unstuck protection and reduced the chance to get stuck in pillars/rocks.
• Added limited edition profile backgrounds to celebrate the new year!
• Changed the global chat channels to General, LFG, and Help.
• Channel messages do not display during a game anymore to reduce spam while playing.
• Increased the drop rate of Legendary Items during games.
• Internally we're preparing for EU servers soon.
• We're monitoring the health of the Party Finder tool and will make adjustments to speed it up when Season 1 begins (soon).
• Fixed several client crashes.
• Fixed several bugs with targeting and attacking Nihilist Orbs.
• Fixed a bug with Lich receiving Wisdom gear during games.

Balance Changes

• Stage 4 Sudden Death damage per tick is now the same as Stage 3 but now also reduces all healing by 30%. This change is targeted towards double healer compositions and edge-cases with two healers in overtime.

Assassin
The Whirling build is pretty good - we want Annihilate to be a little better.

• Annihilate energy cost reduced from 50 to 45.
• Puncture damage increased by 3%.
• Slash damage increased by 3%.
• Temple Strike cooldown reduced from 14 to 13 seconds.

Champion
Champion has been overperforming, we're bringing it down to a more fair level.

• Basic attack damage reduced by 3%.
• Slashing Strike bleeding duration reduced from 3 to 2 seconds.
• Enrage no longer provides damage reduction. Fixed a bug that was causing Enrage to give 5% more Power than intended.

Lich
We know that Lich is overperforming at lower ratings - we'll continue to monitor it.

Nihilist
Orb of Smoke was basically a permanent Gospel of Onslaught (but better) with permanent uptime. This ability was way overtuned.

• Gloom amplify reduced from 3% to 2% per stack.
• Infusing an Orb of Smoke now also temporarily increases Health by 750.
• Orb of Smoke power reduced from 82 to 35.

Ranger
Ranger needed more raw numbers to compete with the other DPS classes.

• Elemental Arrow base damage increased by 2%.
• Rain of Arrows damage increased by 6%.
• Twisting Shot damage increased by 4%.

Wizard
Less damage on Frostbolt - bringing back the Ice Spikes playstyle - making Magic Missiles core to Frost's gameplay.

• Frostbolt damage reduced by 4%. Reverted the Mana nerf from 220 back to 200.
• Ice Spikes: reverted to require Chill instead of Freeze. Hypothermia now always roots for 3 seconds and counts as a Chill effect. Cooldown increased from 16 to 18 seconds. Stun duration reduced from 1.8 to 1.7 seconds.
• Magic Missiles now deals 2x damage against Chilled targets. We'll be looking forward to hearing your feedback