All these changes are subject to change and they are only informative.
Water element Heroes have been used quite consistently. As we showed in the last post, some of their most present mechanics have been adjusted (Madness, Fear and Lethal).
Reef
Reef is one of the most played Heroes in the game, his balance changes are quality of life improvements and a couple of needed adjustments.
Changes
Harpooned lost Enforcer tag and the damage has been adjusted.
After the Influx changes with Enforcer skills, it didn't make much sense that Harpooned had both Enforcer and Influx at the same time. We gave Enforcer to another Reef skill.
Exotic Brew expiration has been changed from playing a damaging skill to Rest*. Buffs values have been reduced.
Exotic Brew is a signature Reef skill but it didn’t see much play because of the inability to attack and keep the buff. With the change to Rest expiration, now you will be able to spam skills while keeping the Exotic Brew buff.*Rest = Expires when the character ends a full round without playing skills
Surf’s Weak amount has been increased.
To keep consistency with other AoE skills that apply Weak, its value has been increased by 5%.
Buffs
Octomadness damage and Madness values have been increased.
Because of the Madness’ expiration changes, we increased the Madness amount by around 25% and the normal damage has been doubled.
Ocean Wave now gains the Enforcer tag.
Because of the Influx changes, this skill gains Enforcer as it is one of the main signature damage skills for Reef.
Nerfs
Fresh Water cost changed from 3 to 4.
The value gained from both shield and Steelskin at the same time was too strong for the cost. Since this is Reef's version of Sacrifice, we want it to be impactful, so instead of reducing its value we are increasing its cost.
Ran
Ran was the least-picked Hero in the tournament, we are giving her a couple of buffs and a needed adjustment. We'll keep track of her usage to see if these changes are impactful enough.
Changes
Freezing Dash now freezes after dealing damage.
Minor change for consistency reasons, all skills that deal damage and apply an Status Effect use the same order.
Buffs
Iceberg now shields adjacent allies.
This is one of Ran’s signature skills, it now gives Shield to adjacent allies to allow for different strategies with Ran.
Lake's Avatar now has the Focus tag and it’s no longer Instant.
Having too many instants to choose from is a problem for some builds, so we made it non-instant and added Focus to make sure it always goes to the intended target.
Schooled by Fish now also applies Dizzy.
This skill didn’t feel Epic so we have given a non-conditional Dizzy to this skill without adjusting stats to give Ran better utility and synergies.
Nerfs
Lake's Blessing progression of Lucky Strike reduced from 20-50 to 15-30.
The skill gained too much power for levelling up.
Takeda
We feel like Takeda is in a good place but some of his skills were not very useful and had weird interactions.
Changes
Demonic Possession has been reworked:
No longer gains extra Critical Damage and Protection. Gains Strong instead.
We like the idea of having the combo of Demonic Possession and Aquawave in Takeda but most players didn’t feel it was worth it. We removed Protection from this skill and gave it a good Strong so it allows for better high-risk, high-reward plays.
Splitting Cascade has been reworked:
Purges 1 and deals normal damage to all enemies. Damage number reduced.
While True Damage has benefits, it was almost a “nerf” as you didn’t gain any benefits from items and Strong. Now Splitting Cascade is a powerful tool to remove enemy defenses and a strong finisher.
Buffs
Walk Alone now also gives Protection.
Instant defensive skills on damage dealers are hard to justify on a build. This is the signature defensive Takeda skill and as such it now gives him Protection.
Demonic Clones now has Triforce: All clones hit the same target.
To give it a more legendary feel, now you can direct all your clones onto the same target.
Nerfs
Water Fangs extra Critical Chance reduced from 50% to 30%.
This skill had too much value for its cost, with this change we believe it's still playable but not that strong.