Outriders Worldslayer has been updated!
Patch Notes
The complete Patch Notes spans two Announcements, as they are too long to be contained in a single one.
- This thread covers all changes regarding the game balance.
- You can find all info regarding General Changes, New Features and Bug Fixes in this thread.
PREAMBLE
All changes made in today's patch have been very carefully considered and many of them are the results of direct feedback and discussions with and within the community.
For additional context around what we chose to address: A few weeks after Worldslayer had launched and we had been able to gather enough data, we drew up a full view of which Pax Nodes were being used by what percentage of the player population.
This task highlighted that a small number of nodes were seeing usages of 40% to 60% or more. On the other hand, some other nodes were seeing 1% or similar usage. The reasons for this are two-fold: Many of the highly used nodes were in a state where to
not use them would be to deny oneself a lot of damage output - they were must haves in the eyes of players. These are the kind of nodes that allowed players to kill bosses within seconds, to become immortal or to even entirely ignore cooldown mechanics and in a few cases these unintended performances were the result of bugs within the node mechanics. On the other hand, the lesser picked nodes were not considered valuable enough when compared to the others.
We primarily saw this behaviour on the Devastator, Pyromancer and Technomancer trees. The Trickster Pax Tree was seen to be very balanced overall, with most nodes seeing an average 25% pick rate, which indicates that players are much more able to play according to their style, without being forced into "must have" nodes.
As has ever been our goal, we want players to have as much choice and as many viable build options as possible. When new players join Outriders, we do not want there to be a single answer to questions regarding "what build should I play?"
While today's balancing contains a very large number of changes that will make many things more powerful and viable, none of those changes would matter if we left the over-performers entirely unchecked. However, please bear in mind that even if a handful of nodes and mods have seen their power curtailed, we have generally tried to compensate for that power loss in other areas of the game.
We hope you will enjoy the new balancing in Outriders Worldslayer - see you on Enoch!
General Balance Changes
General Balance Changes
- Apocalypse Tier Leveling
- Starting from Apocalypse Tier 20, the requirement to level up each Apocalypse Tier has been reduced by 10%.
- Resources & Anomaly Extract
- The amount of Anomaly Extract gained has generally been improved and the amount of Anomaly Extract gained in Tarya Gratar's Troves has been increased by 500%.
- A full run-through of Tarya Gratar (including Troves) should now net out at around double the amount of Anomaly Extract earned per run when compared to before this patch.
- Boss-rushing the final Arbiter will net slightly more Anomaly Extract than before, but this will not be the most efficient route for Anomaly Extract farming.
- Crafting and Upgrading
- Starting at Item Level 50, the Anomaly Extract costs required to upgrade gear has been reduced by 5%.
- Between the two above changes (Increased Gains and reduced Costs), players should be able to support upgrading two full sets of gear per Apocalypse Tier level. This should enable a greater amount of experimentations and limit the need to hoard resources in order to be able to upgrade the currently equipped set.
- Apocalypse Gear Drop Rates
- Starting at Apocalypse Tier 11, the "Increased chance for Apocalypse variant gear" has been increased for each Apocalypse Tier.
- Expeditions
- Expedition Rewards have been increased in order to make Expeditions feel more viable alongside Tarya Gratar. The "Loot Gained per X Time Investment" should now feel quite similar between Expeditions and Tarya Gratar.
- Players should now receive a greater amount of Epic and Legendary Items and comparatively fewer Rare items in Expeditions.
- Anomaly Extract farming should now also feel much more viable to do in Expeditions.
Balance Changes - Devastator
Balance Changes - Devastator
- Earthen Shell
- Added a 0.5 second cooldown.
- Note that due to a display rounding quirk in the engine, this cooldown will be displayed as being 1 second. It is, however, 0.5 seconds in actuality.
- Greatly increased shield generation values.
- Explanation:
- Earthen Shell has been identified as being slightly too strong, so we’re applying a brief
cooldown to the shield generation that was being abused through excessive animation cancelling. This will give some enemies a little more opportunity to be able to damage Devastators, who were otherwise immortal. We have compensated the implementation of the cooldown with an increased Shield generation per skill used so that Earthen Shell will still provide great value but without the potential for abuse.
- Multistrike
- Stored damage is now capped at 700% of Anomaly Power.
- Explanation:
- Multistrike’s untamed potency has been a topic of discussion since the launch of Worldslayer. In an attempt to not completely gut its numbers, we have applied a cap to add a movable (through Anomaly Power) ceiling to the node.
- Terms of Engagement
- Stored damage is now capped at 700% of Anomaly Power.
- Explanation:
- Much like Multistrike, Terms of Engagement suffered from a bug that allowed players to store up an unlimited amount of damage and then release it as a one-hit kill against any enemy in the game, including bosses. Our approach has been the same as with Multistrike, whereby we have applied a cap to the total amount of damage these nodes can store.
- Finishing Touch
- Increased the Ammo-to-Weapon Damage coefficient provided by this node.
- Explanation:
- As part of our drive to make Firepower Devastators more viable, we are increasing the conversion of missing ammo to Weapon Damage by upping the value to more than it's previous 1:1 relation.
- Impact Point
- Increased damage scaling from 30% to 50% of Anomaly Power.
- Explanation:
- This buff forms part of the overall power shift this patch is introducing for Devastators. The overall aim is to move the Devastator meta way from it's current form and instead open up multiple new viable options for play.
- Obliteration
- Increased base Anomaly Power and Resistance Piercing from 6% to 10%.
- Explanation:
- Obliteration is being buffed to make it a more competitive choice when considered against Puncture. This buff forms part of the overall power shift this patch is introducing for Devastators. The overall aim is to move the Devastator meta way from it's current form and instead open up multiple new viable options for play.
- Upheaval
- Increased the percentage of stored damage from 10% to 15%.
- Fixed a couple of bugs that caused the Devastator's "Upheaval" Pax node to act in unexpected and inconsistent ways, such as acting differently when triggered by the Impale skill.
- Explanation:
- As we have applied a cap to Multistrike and a bug fix will now make Upheaval only store the activating player’s own damage (as was always intended), we are increasing the amount of stored damage as part of the overall Devastator power shift.
- Elitism
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Devastator Pax node "Elitism" from correctly working on Bosses.
- Reduced the cooldown on Elitism from 5 seconds to 1 second.
- Explanation:
- The bug fix supported the node's core purpose: providing power when fighting Elite and Boss enemies. However, during our analysis of Elitism's usage and behaviour, we identified that its previous uptime was clocked at around 50% at best. Reducing it's cooldown should allow players to maintain Elitism almost perpetually when fighting elites and bosses.
- Overwhelming Force
- Increased Armor-to-Damage conversion from 40% to 60%.
- Explanation:
- Overwhelming Force's conversion is being buffed in order to incite more players into trying playstyles it supports while also providing a competitive synergy between this Pax node and changes we have made to some Devastator Legendary Sets.
- Paladin / Champion
- Removed the PROTECTION keyword requirement and changed both nodes to activate on any skill.
- Explanation:
- After long discussions, we came to the conclusion that in order to truly unlock Devastator build variety, we had to remove the hindering factor of Protection keyword on both of these multiplier nodes. This change is part of our overall power shift to make more Devastator sets and playstyles more viable.
- Mighty Tank
- Increased the percentage cap from 40% to 50% for both Anomaly Power and Firepower.
- Explanation:
- We are raising the ceiling for Warden Devastators so they can reap more benefits from fully committing to Armor stacking.
- Despair
- Reduced the percentage of it's Anomaly Damage multiplier from 100% to 30%.
- Explanation:
- Despair-empowered Gravity Leap has dominated the Devastator meta as an omni-tool since Worldslayer launched. It has providing both uncontested survivability and damage debuffs while also being a powerful gap closer.
While the survivability is a unique characteristic of Gravity Leap, with Worldslayer we introduced a systemic solution to debuff mods. At the time, we equalized them across the board to 30%, but Despair was the single outlier. This led to the Anomaly Power Devastator meta becoming extremely static, with the most dominant build continuing to be "Leapquake", as it already was during the base game's lifecycle. This was the result of being able to access both the old Paladin node and Despair at the same time and acquire effects that other build permutations could not achieve. Today's change removes the ‘must have’ nature of Gravity Leap, allowing it to be traded with other skills that can provide a comparable debuff. Coupled with Unshackled, Paladin should greatly expand the Devastator build variety.
- Bullet Acceleration
- Increased base damage from 33 to 60.
- Explanation:
- With Paladin and Champion unshackled from the Protection keyword, we are keen to add offensive value to Reflect Bullet, so that it is not a lost and abandoned skill. This should give players incentive to keep the skill for its full duration.
- The Strongest First
- Increased damage to the enemy with the highest HP from 50% to 75%.
- Explanation:
- With Paladin and Champion unshackled from the Protection keyword, we are keen to add offensive value to Reflect Bullet, so that it is not a lost and abandoned skill. This should give players incentive to keep the skill for its full duration.
- Primal Chain
- Increased the damage provided by the Primal Chain mod from 10% to 15%.
- Explanation:
- This change will provide an extra nudge for Anomaly Power builds focusing on the Boulderdash skill to make them more viable given the nature of the skill and within the context of Terms of Engagement being capped.
- Bannerlord Legendary Set
- Added extra functionality that provides 35% Anomaly Power bonus.
- Note: Fundamental changes made to any gear pieces may not apply to existing items, due to the way the game spawns and stores loot. Any newly dropped gear pieces should include the stated changes if the existing items remain unaffected.
- Explanation:
- The Seismic Commander set has long been the dominant Devastator pick due to it's multipliers, required skill sets and its effective values concerning cooldown reduction when compared against damage multipliers. Giving the Bannerlord set extra Anomaly Power should help make it more competitive against the Seismic Commander set.
- Marshal Legendary Set
- Increased both percentages of shared Physical and Anomaly damage from 30% to 50%.
- Explanation:
- As mentioned in the Bannerlord explanation, the Seismic Commander set is too much of a powerful all-rounder, which prevents other sets from being considered viable. Our philosophy believes that sets that fill a certain niche (such as the Marshal set) should excel in their tailored environments and should visibly outperform jack of all trades sets such as Seismic Commander.
- Concussioner Legendary Set
- Primary attribute switched to Bonus Firepower.
- Secondary attributes switched to contain Close Range Damage and Status Power.
- Note: Fundamental changes made to any gear pieces may not apply to existing items, due to the way the game spawns and stores loot. Any newly dropped gear pieces should include the stated changes if the existing items remain unaffected.
- Explanation:
- The Concussioner set suffered from a severe case of identity crisis. The set was initially designed as an Anomaly Power bruiser, but progression layers within certain Pax nodes were not cooperating with the set’s premise. We have decided to shift the set to support Firepower builds in the same way the Deathproof set might. For both of these sets, damage is generated primarily from Armor stacking and the set bonus’ effect. This change for the Concussioner set should also unlock better synergy with the Pax nodes through the Overwhelming Force path.
- Statue’s Legs Slot
- Item now provides Bonus Firepower instead of Max Health.
- Note: Fundamental changes made to any gear pieces may not apply to existing items, due to the way the game spawns and stores loot. Any newly dropped gear pieces should include the stated changes if the existing items remain unaffected.
- Explanation:
- With Worldslayer we rolled out changes to attributes for legendary sets to make them more coherent and appealing to players. This change is the ‘finishing touch’ of those efforts.
Balance Changes - Technomancer
Balance Changes - Technomancer
- Lethal Devices
- Added a 0.2 second cooldown to this nodes secondary effect.
- Explanation:
- Lethal Device's secondary effect was fairly overwhelming when used with a few builds that capitalized on an excessive amount of damage events occurring within a second. This change should control the excessive amount of events slightly without killing the node’s damage effect.
- Twin Reaper
- Increased Echo damage from 25% to 35%.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Technomancer's "Twin Reaper" Pax node from functioning properly after loading into a level.
- Explanation:
- In order to stimulate the Sniper archetype presence, we are increasing the Echo damage provided by Twin Reaper in order to support the fantasy of precise sniper shots being a deadly threat.
- Kinetic Converter
- Reduced cooldown from 5 to 1 second.
- Explanation:
- The healing path for Technomancers has long been underrepresented, so we are increasing this Pax node's frequency to ensure the benefit for Overhealing occurs more often and can more effectively be utilized in combat.
- Hastened Influence
- Increased the cooldown reduction from 0.5 to 1 second.
- Explanation:
- We feel the node didn't really hasten a Technomancer’s influence over enemies and are therefore giving it a boost. Winter is coming.
- Burrowing Charge
- Reduced cooldown from 5 to 3 seconds.
- Explanation:
- Burrowing Charge is performing well in terms of numbers so we’re targeting the occurrence rate to make it more fluent during hectic multi-enemy encounters.
- Blightfire
- Fixed a bug that caused the Technomancer's Flame Leper's Blightfire set bonus to consume and trigger off of Toxic that had been applied by other players, which in turn denied those players their application of Toxic.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Toxic multiplier mods from correctly working when applied to Blightfire.
- Explanation:
- Shit was broken. We fixed it.
- Downpour Legendary Set
- Increased clusters scaling from 100% to 115% of Anomaly Power.
- Explanation:
- We are increasing the cluster scaling as compensation for some still visible issues with targeting, travel time and detonation time of Scrapnel.
