Patch Highlights

• Stealth and Lock-On changes

Mechanic Balancing

Stealth
Stealth has been a complicated mechanic for a while. On one hand if it fails too often, it does not provide the cost benefit for the caster, whilst on the other hand, the opponent is forced into a roulette where they roll a dice to see if their attacks succeed. We feel further nerfing/changing the percentages will not bring any aid to the problems nor is the mechanic inherently a failed design. We have decided to tackle stealth on two main aspects, its continuation throughout the game, and the methods in which the opponent can interact.

The first change will be a continuation of the previous balance patch where we will add an additional scenario where stealth will be removed. After the patch, Stealth will be removed if the evasion chance remains at 30% at the end of turn. This will make one application of Stealth at most last for only two turns with it only being at full strength on the turn it is applied. The second change is not directly on the Stealth mechanic but is a change to Interrupt. All attacks that can Interrupt will now always hit a target in Stealth, effectively making the keyword a direct counter to Stealth. The opponent will now have three options to deal with stealth, the first being the most traditional attack till it hits, the second is to stall until it dissipates and the third will be to use Interrupt attacks to break through and combo off.

Currently, we are making these changes with the notion of them being temporary. Stealth and Susan in general will be reviewed once again after a few weeks of testing and feedback.

New Keyword Text : Stealth. You have a 60% chance of avoiding active damage. This is dropped to 30% when you attack, counter and at end of turn. Attacks with Interrupt will always hit. Stealth is removed when you take any form of damage and if you end the turn with 30% evasion chance.

Interrupt
Added ability : This attack will always hit a target in Stealth.

Lock On
The highs of Critical hits is certainly one of, if not the highlight of a Sniper’s gameplay. But sometimes when luck (or misfortune) comes too early on, a huge health advantage will be applied completely out of the blue. We are making a change to Lock-Ons mechanics by mitigating the early game potential of it by removing the increased damage at level 1 but instead apply stun to the opponent whenever critical hits. The triple damage will return only when Susan applies multiple levels of Lock On whilst maintaining the stun. Given the huge changes we are making to Susan through the rework of Stealth, we are going for a lighter approach in this first change of Lock On.

New Keyword Text : Lock on. For each level of Lock on, there is a 20% chance you will take Critical damage after your reaction. At Lock-on level 1, critical attacks will apply Stun and at Lock-on level 2 and above, critical damage will be tripled as well.

Character Balancing

Susan the Sniper
Mercy Killing and Mercy Killing X
During Turn 1, most to all champions are at their most vulnerable with minimal resources and a lack of options from the cards in hand. It is very frustrating to be hit with a death mark on an unlucky initial draw, but what is more frustrating is the threat of a second death mark that will come when you show any opening. For certain classes and champions this essentially means, you completely cannot play the game and the game has been lost since turn 1 purely from a bad hand. We are making Mercy Killing a Single Use card and keeping its cost and stats as we felt this will give ample time between death marks for the opponent to ramp up and fight quickly. Of course, Susan can be lucky sometimes and redraw the card in subsequent turns, but that will come down to deck building which we think can create new and interesting dynamics for the character.

Ammo Cost : 3 > 2
Added Card Text : This is a Single Use card.

Bugs and Fixes

• Fixed a bug with Enrage not reducing when damage is partially blocked