A big shoutout to Dabor and Breakshift for their work throughout this patch, but for their time during the concept stages. Lots of calls and discussions passing over everything, and I’m really happy where it landed. And, of course, a HUGE thank you to the Internal Testing Team and the Localisation team for getting everything through so quickly, and all the great feedback and bug finding throughout the process.
So, with that, let’s dive into the great Hidden Balance Pass.
Goals
So what needed to change with the Hidden?Firstly, it's been known for some time that the Tempest is the strongest of the 4 classes. WIth each class’s Balance Patch, the goal is to edge them closer towards the Tempest, rather than edge the Tempest down. The Hidden, Enlightened and the Daughter all want to be nudge up a bit in win rate.
More specifically, when it comes to play style, the goals were:
- Make the starting decks feel more even - better Slash, weaker upgrade on Draw Blood. Give Quickness its own appeal compared to Lick the Knife
- Make spending Combo as appealing as Balance spam -- give more Combo, and make Combo spenders stronger in general.
- More Blade/Shiv and Combo generation in the common pool.
- Better longevity -- more ways to apply raw Bleed, and give the starting Artifact a way to scale in longer fights.
- Increase the card pool.
In total, there were:
36 changes to the current pool (34 buffs, 2 nerfs)
14 New Cards
If you’d like to see a full list of all the card changes, they will be listed below.
If you’d like to check out the new cards, you can head to the Compendium and type in 1.4.44 into the search bar and it will list all the new cards!
One of the big changes is to the Hiddens starting Artifact (Sneak Artist), which now reads:
At the start of each turn, if at Combo 0, Combo 1.
Starting from Turn 4, your max Combo is increased by 1.Great source of free Combo each turn, and a little bump if fights start to take a bit longer!
Overall, I hope you like the new changes -- feedback so far has been really positive! The next step is passing over each of the Artifacts and adding some more, and balancing where needed. This will happen over the next week or two as the dust settles on this change!
Thanks everyone for being patient with me as I finally got around to all this!
Other Things...
Whilst I’m trying to keep these notes short, I have gone through and worked through a number of bugs which have shown up in Bug Reports over the last little while. I’ve also worked on the UI of the Daily Draft (expect some bigger changes there in the next little bit), which will now show how many times a player has placed top 3 in the Draft, and also tracks how many times you have as well! I've also been tending to a few other wording bugs etc that go along each patch.One of the bigger changes is adding more visual feedback and clarity to Echo Wall. Right now, it was an effect that did confuse players a little bit because of its lack of visual feedback, but also due to poor wording. It’s been updated to reference Threat now (as it triggers when the creature attacks, not when you take damage), and I’ve added a slight pause and visual pow-wow when they get smacked back from it.
Feedback
Thank you to everyone for the lovely feedback and support over the last few weeks! Some really nice reviews have rolled through and I appreciate everyone who takes the time to share their thoughts! It's awesome to think we're nearly at 1000 Reviews, a milestone I never thought I'd see!I hope you all enjoy the new changes and updates, and I'll be swinging back in before too long to update the Aritfacts, and forge a plan for the next class's update!
Thank you everyone!
All for now.
- Josh
Full Change List
- Slash Changed to: Deal 6(9) damage. If at Combo 0, Combo 1. [[1 less copy in starter deck, replaced with another Underhanded Tactics]]- Draw Blood Changed: Make the upgrade "Add an upgraded Silent Shiv to hand" instead of "Add 2 Silent Shivs to hand."
- For The Throat Changed: Apply Bleed 6(9).
- Quickness Changed: Combo 1. Block equal to Combo. (Rebound.)
- Backpedal Changed: +1 damage both pre and post upgrade
- Bladestorm Changed: +1 bleed both pre and post upgrade
- Bleed It Out: Increase the purge-bleed on upgrade to 3
- Bloodlust Changed: +1 block both pre and post upgrade
- Bloodthirst Changed: Change damage to 8(11)
- Exploit Vulnerability Changed: Apply Vulnerable 2(3). Apply Bleed equal to (combined) Vulnerable(, Weak, and Slow).
- First Blood Changed: If target is below 10 Bleed, deal 14(20) damage. Otherwise, Apply Bleed 6(9).
- Hemolysis Changed: +1 block both pre and post upgrade
- Light It Up Changed: Deal 9(10) damage. Overcharge 1(2). Expel.
- Main Gauche Changed: +1 block pre-upgrade
- Scatter Shot Changed: +3 damage pre and post upgrade
- Slick Strike Changed: +2 damage pre and post upgrade
- Splatter Changed: Deal 9(10) damage. Clot 2(1): Deal 5(6) damage.
- Surprise Attack: Move to Neutral card pool.
- Thousand Cuts Changed: +3 bleed pre and post upgrade
- Underhanded Tactics Changed: Deal 4(7) damage. If the target is Attacking, apply Weak 1 and Vulnerable 1.
- Blender Changed: +1 bleed pre and post upgrade
- Blood Siphon Changed: (Trigger target's Bleed.) Remove target's Bleed. Gain that much Block. Purge: Block 4.
- Cease Exertion Changed: Both Clots go down from 3 to 2
- Grapeshot Changed: Deal 5(7) damage to a random enemy 8 times. Purge: Sift 1.
- Lacerations Changed: Lower the cost pre-upgrade to 1
- Opportunist Changed: Deal 5(8) damage, or 9(12) if the target is Bleeding, to all enemies.
- Response Changed: Increase upgrade to 4 cost.
- Rip and Tear Changed: +1 bleed pre and post upgrade
- Slice in Twain Changed: Increase the damage from 10(12) to 20(24)
- That'll Sting Changed: +1 damage pre and post upgrade
- Blades Upon Blades Changed: +1 damage pre and post upgrade
- Open Up Changed: Change the "15"s to "18"s
- Sustenance Changed: +1 block pre and post upgrade
- Flaying Flesh Changed: Just +1 damage pre and post upgrade
Changed files in this update