Balance Update 0.1.0

Salutations, stalwarts of the storm!

Since our last update, we had one of the coolest Stormgate tournaments ever with BeoMulf’s Stormgate Nexus #1. In the tournament, we saw one of the most epic series ever in Elazer vs PartinG, and one of the coolest individual games ever in Elazer vs Percival, which showcased some of the awesome micro potential possible in Stormgate. It’s been a few weeks since our last update and since then we’ve both been gathering and digesting your feedback. Since this content update includes the most extensive balance patch we’ve ever done, we’d like to take a new approach and individually go over all of the major changes:

General

Command Post, Shrine, Arcship

All tier-1 to tier-2 upgrade times decreased from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.

We’d like to bring tier-2 units and upgrades into the game a bit more quickly to fight tier-1 options. As an extreme example, while Vulcans are theoretically a counter to Vectors, they’re not able to realistically counter Vector rushes due to how far up the tech tree they are. This change should result in players having more early game options.

Machine Lab, Shadowcleft, Ascension Matrix

Similarly, we feel like some of our highest-tier tech-options and their respective upgrades aren’t being used/researched very often. While we suspect a large part of the reason is the inherent strength of these units, we’d also like to grease the wheel a bit more and encourage players to choose teching more often by reducing the costs of the highest-tier upgrade buildings.

Creeps

• Creeps generally have between 0% to 40% more health.
• Creeps generally give 16% less bounty at level 1.
• Creeps now scale to give more bounty, Veterancy, and Animus when they level up. This more accurately reflects their additional bonus power.

We’ll be rebalancing Creeps with a special focus on how important it is to Creep early-game and how all-or-nothing they can seem. In the mid-game, while we feel Creeps are not gameplay-warping and fairly balanced, we’d like them to feel more interesting relative to their importance and impact. This set of changes is intended to do the following:

• Slightly increase the difficulty and decrease the reward given by Creeps in the early-game.
• Create more variance in the timing of taking Creep Camps such that the same set of units can’t capture every Creep camp easily back-to-back.
• Maintain and/or increase the bounty given at higher levels.

Another relevant topic to talk about here is that while the early-game focus on Creeps certainly has its issues, one positive thing they did do was speed up the early-game pacing/economy to a rate we were very happy with, so we’re likely to end up with a slower early-game than we’d like.

We view these changes as short-term fixes and we’ll be taking another hard look at both Creeps early-game pacing in the future.

Vanguard

Sentry Post

Build time decreased from 55 seconds to 45 seconds.

Sentry Posts initially took longer to build than static defense from other factions due to the fear of multi-building being too powerful in a tower rush situation.

B.O.B.

Build time decreased from 20 seconds to 17 seconds.

Similarly, we wanted to bring Vanguard worker build times more in line with that of Infernals. Initially, we wanted to give Infernals more of an advantage in this department due to the need to sacrifice workers to build structures. However, we currently feel Vanguard is disadvantaged in this tradeoff due to:

• The Charge system overall gives Infernals more flexibility over worker production.
• Not being able to build workers during tiering up while Charges are able to recharge.
• The cost of the Imp being built into Infernal structure costs.

SCOUTs

• Build time increased from 13 seconds to 18 seconds.
• Initial damage decreased from 8 to 5 (+3 vs Light).
• The Vorillium Claws upgrade improves the SCOUT’s damage by +8 vs Light, down from +16 vs Light.

The SCOUT was too dominant in all matchups because it was too cost-effective in a variety of roles: Creeping, harassment against key infrastructure, and direct combat against grounded Light units. While they’re certainly not an all-around unit, this combination of traits made them the clear choice for early-game, especially among high-level players. We felt this the most in VvV where the Lancer was insufficient of a counter and VvI where Gaunts received a damage nerf against light units in the last patch. In addition to the changes listed here, we’re also adjusting the Habitat, Lancer, and Gaunt, which should help with SCOUT dominance.

Lancer

• Lancer Health increased from 240 to 260.
• Lancer Armor increased from 5 to 15.
• Lancers damage increased from 10 (+5 vs Structure) to 10 (+5 vs Structure, +5 vs Light).
• Lancers no longer have “On-Damaged: Damage reduced by 2” innately.
• The Mitigative Guard upgrade no longer further reduces damage taken by Lancers from -2 to -4. Instead, it now grants Lancers “On-Damaged: Damage reduced by 2”.

Lancers have been one of the most polarizing units in our game. While they’re incredibly powerful as a tank against Infernal Gaunts, they’re very ineffective against large numbers of Vanguard Exos or Celestial Argents, two core units in their respective factions. We believe this is one of the key reasons matchup winrates have been so historically polarizing. In addition, we’re looking to give Vanguard players stronger tools against SCOUTs and a tier-1 answer to Kri.

Here is a summary of the relationships we’re targeting with these changes:

• vs SCOUT: Combined with the SCOUT changes, Lancers will be much more effective against SCOUT.
• vs Gaunts: MUCH less tanky, and more lethal. Large battles involving lots of Lancers and Gaunts will be much less one-sided.
• vs Fiends: Less tanky, more lethal.
• vs Kri: Becomes a solid counter, even in low numbers.
• vs Argents: Becomes slightly tankier.
• vs Exos: Becomes slightly tankier, can fight them head-on if there’s not good focus-fire micro.

Exo

Exo damage decreased from 13 (+7 vs Heavy) to 12 (+6 vs Heavy).

We feel like the Exo is still too centralizing as a core mid-game Vanguard unit and would like to redistribute some of its power elsewhere across the faction.

MedTech

MedTech Master Training, which unlocks System Shock, now requires a Central Command, down from a High Command.

We wanted to provide Vanguard a more solid counter to Debilitate and allow for some flashy plays on tier-2.

Vulcan

The Impact Thrusters upgrade has been removed. Its functionality, which increases the range of Jump Jets from X to Y and adds a stun to Jump Jets is now innate on the Vulcan.

This was a rarely used upgrade, so we decided to bake in this capability into the Vulcan baseline. This also removes an obstacle to the more powerful tier-3 Vulcan upgrade.

Hornet

Hornet damage decreased from 13 (+13 vs Light) to 13 (+4 vs Light).

The Hornet was too powerful against Prisms in particular. We want to keep the Hornet strong in its role against Light air units, even Prisms, but also temper its power.

Graven

Graven cost decreased from 125/125 to 125/75.

During internal testing, we tried the Graven at tier-2, and it was incredibly powerful and centralizing due to the necessity of requiring detection and static defense at every base in order to counter it. After we moved it to tier-3 during our Early Access release, it doesn’t see much use. While we still believe it is powerful, it competes heavily with the Helicarrier, which is seen as both more impactful and easier to use.

We’re going to try to slightly lower its cost as a first step, and will consider adjusting its abilities in the future if this change isn’t sufficient.

Helicarrier

Bombing Run range decreased from 40 to 25.

We wanted Helicarriers to be more in range of the targets they were trying to bomb. If the Helicarrier continues to be too powerful in the future, especially against Infernals, we’ll look to adjusting other values such as the health of the Bombers or granting Infernals more tools to deal with this particular unit.

Infernals

Nightfall Infestation

• Nightfall Infestation now slows down enemy units by 50% for 3 seconds.
• Nightfall Infestation cooldown decreased from 90 to 60.

This makes the ability more impactful while also making it a potential counter against Vanguard Infantry balls, especially as they grow in size. At the same time, there’s still plenty of counterplay in either dodging the ability or dispelling it.

Brute

• The Brute’s Sundering Soul Frenzy (Movement speed after Sundering Soul) upgrade has been removed. Brutes now gain 15% increased movement speed when they split by default.
• The Soulforged Ascendence (3 Fiend + Armor) upgrade no longer requires the Sundering Soul Frenzy upgrade.
• The Soulforged Ascendence upgrade no longer requires a Greater Shrine. It can be researched immediately upon building a Hellforge.
• Soulforged Ascendence research time increased from 60 seconds to 120 seconds.
• The Sundering Soulcraze upgrade no longer requires the Sundering Soul Frenzy upgrade.

The Brute’s Sundering Soul Frenzy upgrade didn’t feel very useful, so we decided to remove it and instead grant Brutes a more useful upgrade at tier-1, which allows tier-1 Hellforges to be more viable.

Gaunt

• The Gaunt’s Plague Axes upgrade will now only apply Infest if the target is on Shroud.
• Gaunt primary damage changed from 8 (+2 vs Light) to 8 (+4 vs Light).
• Gaunt bounce damage changed from 2 (0.5 vs Light) to 2 (+1 vs Light).

While we’re happy with how Infest is performing in other parts of the game, the ability for Gaunts to constantly Infest enemy units is causing all factions to constantly need a way to fight Fiends at every stage of the game. While most factions are able to reliably do this, Celestials in particular are struggling, and it felt restricting that the game had to be balanced with the idea that all factions needed consistent AoE damage against Fiends. We still think Gaunts Infesting enemy units is cool and adds a lot of identity to the Gaunt, but we want it to happen in more specific ways. At the same time, we’ve been looking for more opportunities to inject interesting interactions with Shroud, so we ended up with a conditional on-Shroud activation requirement for Plague Axes.

After this change, you’ll still have a variety of options to spread Infest with Gaunts:

• While creeping, you can summon an Effigy to get five Fiends against certain camps.
• While harassing, you can use Gaunts in combination with Harbingers.
• In the end-game, Shadowfall can be used to spread Infest to your opponent’s entire army.

We realize this is a significant nerf to Gaunts. At the same time, we feel Gaunts aren’t as effective against Light units as they’re intended to be, so we’re also giving them some additional anti-Light damage to compensate.

Magmadon

After the Demonhoof Tremors upgrade, Trample stun duration decreased from 0.3 seconds to 0.15 seconds.

This change reduces the stun uptime of Magmadons from 75% to 38% while they’re Trampling with Demonhoof Tremors. We felt like this stun was too punishing, especially against Kri, which partially prevented Kri from being a particularly viable front-line unit for Celestials in the IvC matchup.

Weaver

• Weavers can now walk over other units.
• Weaver movement speed increased from 2 to 2.5.
• The Shroudwalk passive trait now increases movement speed by 60% in Shroud, down from 100%. Resulting movement speed unchanged from 4 to 4.

In this update, we’ll be reinstating the ability for Weavers to walk over other units, which we believe was one of the key reasons they weren’t being used much in the Infernals arsenal. In addition, we received feedback that even after these changes, Weavers would still not be used due to their slow speed and our increasingly larger map sizes, so we’ve decided to raise their base speed slightly.

Hexen

• Miasma energy cost increased from 40 to 60.
• Miasma cooldown increased from 0 seconds to 15 seconds.

After the changes from the last patch where Miasma’s radius was reduced, we still feel Miasma is able to be cast too often and we wanted to prevent Hexen from immediately recasting Miasma after it’s initially interrupted.

Spriggan

• Spriggan cost changed from 75/75 to 100/50.
• Spriggan damage increased from 2 (+2 vs Heavy) to 3 (+3 vs Heavy).

Spriggans have been one of the most underutilized units in our post-EA release, partially because they simply don’t deal enough damage, especially to the Heavy units they’re intended to counter (such as Helicarriers). In addition, we’ve changed their cost to be more Luminite-focused since Infernals are so commonly starved for Therium.

Celestials

Collection Array

Supply cost increased from 0 to 4.

Prism

Supply cost decreased from 3 to 2.

These changes are primarily intended to allow spectators to more easily judge the status of a match by the progression of supply counts. Previously, Celestial supply counts were misleading because a large portion of mining was done via Collection Arrays that didn’t cost supply.

Ascension Matrix

• Now requires Starforge OR Legion Hall instead of an Arcstation.
• Retaliation Matrix, Core Ascendency, Resolute Seal, and Animancer Adept Training upgrades now require an Arcstation.
• Saber now requires Arcstation instead of Ascension Matrix.

We received feedback that while certain Celestial upgrades were good (specifically the Recall upgrade), they were difficult to research due to how far up the tech tree the Ascension Matrix is. This change allows Recall to be a more viable upgrade and at the same time Sabers to be more easily accessible.

Argent

• Health decreased from 210 to 180.
• Movement speed increased from 4 to 4.5.
• Base energy regeneration decreased from 0.5 per second to 0 per second.
• Out-of combat energy regeneration increased from 0 to 2 per second.
• The Photo-Restoration upgrade, which increased the movement speed of Argents by 0.5 and increased out-of-combat energy regeneration by 1 has been removed.
• Max energy decreased from 50 to 30.
• New Upgrade: Photo-Capacitors: Increases Argent energy pool from 30 to 50. Researched at the Guardian Nexus.
• The Longshot Module upgrade now increases the Argent’s range by 3, up from 2.

Major feedback surrounding the Argent usually involved the following:

1. Early-game Argent pushes are too powerful, especially in CvC where it’s too difficult to tech to a unit that can counter it.
2. Argents are weaker in a metagame that focuses on early-game creeping, because their energy-based attacking mechanic inherently makes them ineffective at consistent combat.

As a result of this feedback, we’ve tweaked the starting stats of Argents and their upgrades to more finely tune their strengths and weaknesses throughout the game. After these changes, we expect unupgraded Argents will be less powerful at frontal engagements but more effective at Creeping. Hopefully, these changes will be enough such that players are more incentivized to tech to Kri as a possible counter to fully Argent armies in the mirror matchup.

Kri

• Health increased from 190 to 230.
• Damage decreased from 16 (+8 vs Light) to 14 (+6 vs Light).

The Kri feels like one of the most polarizing units in the game. Our thoughts are that it is sometimes slightly too powerful as an early-game unit and as a harassment unit throughout the game. At the same time, it is too difficult to tech into in the early-game in CvC and tends to fall hard as a late-game combat unit.

To address these issues, we’ve made changes to other units that Kris interact with, such as Lancers, Magmadons, and Argents. In addition, we’ve tweaked the Kri’s stats overall to make it a bit more tanky and less damaging. These changes will allow Kri to hopefully be more effective in a large-scale combat role and more viable as a transition from Argents in the mirror.

Cabal

• Debilitate duration decreased from 40 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Debilitate movement speed debuff decreased from 50% to 25%.

Cabals were a bit too punishing against Vanguard players that often rely on hit-and-run tactics and too greatly discouraged drop play. We wanted to reduce the effectiveness of this ability against general harassment but at the same time wanted to ensure it was still an effective counter against large units such as Vulcans and Magmadons. In addition, we’ll be giving Vanguard the ability to cast System Shock at tier 2, which should be another strong counter to Debilitate.

Saber

• Movement speed increased from 2 to 3.
• Movement speed bonus from Mass Accelerator decreased from 200% bonus to 100% bonus. Resulting movement speed unchanged from 6 to 6.

Similar to the Weaver, we received feedback that the Saber was unwieldy to use, so we’re going to give it a higher movement speed baseline.

Animancer

Dark Prophecy cooldown increased from 0 seconds to 15 seconds.

This prevents Animancers from immediately recasting Dark Prophecy after it has been interrupted.

Archangel

• Meteor Strike can now kill trees.
• When in an Avatar state, Archangels can no longer be pushed by Magmadons using Trample.
• When in its Avatar state, weapon shockwave speed increased from 7 to 15.
• After the Avatar state ends, the Archangel will now retain its current HP. For example, if the Archangel is at 500/1150 health when Avatar ends, it will be 500/750 afterward. Previously, it would decrease to 100/750.

These tweaks to Archangels should allow them to be more reliable in combat, especially against late-game Infernal armies.

Maps

Isle of Dread

• Added tree lines in multiple locations to limit early attack paths.
• Chokes into early expansions are now more narrow.
• Moved and added various Therium Nodes. There is now a double-Therium spot near the Vision Camp.

We received a lot of feedback that Isle of Dread was the most polarizing map due to so many entryways into various locations, so we’ve restricted the attack paths and entryways so players can enter into macro games more safely.

Jagged Maw

Removed from the Map Pool

New Map: Furious Resolve

There’s a few more balance changes and bug fixes in the patch notes, so we hope you read those as well. And with that, thanks for your continued support, and we hope to see you on the ladder!

Cheers,
Kevin Dong
Lead Competitive Designer

Balance Notes

General

• All tier 1 to tier 2 upgrade times decreased from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
• All trees now have the Light tag.
• Creeps generally have more health, between 14% and 68% more.
  • Slime health increased from 120 to 140.
  • Ooze health increased from 300 to 400.
  • Shadow Mastiff health increased from 100 to 120.
  • Shadow Demon health increased from 250 to 420.
  • Bruiser health increased from 270 to 320.
  • Cleaver health increased from 140 to 160.
  • Piper health increased from 140 to 160.
  • No changes for Skull Squisher

• Creeps generally give 16% less bounty at level 1.
  • Slime from 30/0 to 25/0.
  • Ooze from 30/30 to 25/25.
  • Shadow Mastiff from 30/0 to 25/0.
  • Shadow Demon no changes.
  • Bruiser from 60/0 to 50/0.
  • Cleaver from 30/0 to 25/0.
  • Piper from 0/30 to 0/25.
  • Skull Squisher from 60/30 to 50/25.

• Creeps now scale to give more bounty, Veterancy, and Animus when they level up. This more accurately reflects their additional bonus power.
  • Level 2 bounty bonus increased from 100% to 125%.
  • Level 3 bounty bonus increased from 200% to 250%.
  • Level 4 bounty bonus increased from 300% to 375%.
  • Level 5 bounty bonus increased from 400% to 500%.

• The Shadow Mastiff, Bruiser, Cleaver, and Skull Squisher creeps will now prioritize ground units over air units with their attack.
  
• Fixed an issue where Oozes and Slimes did not reduce armor of surrounding units when they were killed.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Shadow Mastiff creep was dealing too much damage to air units.
  
• Reduced the duration of the active speed buff from Speed Towers from 20 to 10 seconds.
  
• Stealthed units can no longer claim capture points.
  

Vanguard

• Habitat and Solar Habitat
  • Habitats and Solar Habitats now have the Heavy tag instead of the Light tag.
  • Solar Habitats will no longer autocast on Habitats or Solar Habitats.

• Sentry Post
  • Build time decreased from 55 seconds to 45 seconds.

• Machine Lab
  • Machine Lab cost decreased from 100/100 -> 100/50.

• BOB
  • Build time decreased from 20 seconds to 17 seconds.

• SCOUT
  • Build time increased from 13 seconds to 18 seconds.
  • Initial damage decreased from 8 to 5 (+3 vs Light).
  • The Vorillium Claws upgrade improves the S.C.O.U.T.’s damage by +8 vs Light, down from +16 vs Light.
  • Scout selection priority changed (101 to 119).

• Lancer
  • Lancer health increased from 240 to 260.
  • Lancer armor increased from 5 to 15.
  • Lancers' damage increased from 10 (+5 vs Structure) to 10 (+5 vs Structure, +5 vs Light).
  • Lancers no longer have “On-Damaged: Damage reduced by 2” innately.
  • The Mitigative Guard upgrade no longer further reduces damage taken by Lancers from -2 to -4. Instead, it now grants Lancers “On-Damaged: Damage reduced by 2”.

• Exo
  • Exo damage decreased from 13 (+7 vs Heavy) to 12 (+6 vs Heavy).

• MedTech
  • MedTech Master Training, which unlocks System Shock, now requires a Central Command, down from a High Command.

• Vulcan
  • The Impact Thrusters upgrade has been removed. Its functionality, which increases the range of Jump Jets from X to Y and adds a stun to Jump Jets, is now innate on the Vulcan.

• Hornet
  • Hornet damage decreased from 13 (+13 vs Light) to 13 (+4 vs Light).

• Graven
  • Graven cost decreased from 125/125 to 125/75.

• Helicarrier
  • Helicarrier Bombing run range decreased from 40 to 25.

Infernals

• Nightfall Infestation
  • Nightfall Infestation now slows down enemy units by 50% for 3 seconds.
  • Nightfall Infestation cooldown decreased from 90 seconds to 60 seconds.

• Shadowcleft
  • Shadowcleft cost decreased from 100/100 to 100/50.

• Brute
  • The Brute’s Sundering Soul Frenzy upgrade has been removed. Fiends created by a Brute split now gain a 15% increase to movement speed.
  • The Soulforged Ascendence upgrade no longer requires the Sundering Soul Frenzy upgrade.
  • The Soulforged Ascendence upgrade no longer requires a Greater Shrine. It can be researched immediately upon building a Hellforge.
  • Soulforged Ascendence research time increased from 60 seconds to 120 seconds.
  • The Sundering Soulcraze upgrade no longer requires the Sundering Soul Frenzy upgrade.

• Gaunt
  • The Gaunt’s Plague Axes upgrade will now only apply Infest if the target is on Shroud.
  • Gaunt primary damage changed from 8 (+2 vs Light) to 8 (+4 vs Light).
  • Gaunt bounce damage changed from 2 (0.5 vs Light) to 2 (+1 vs Light).

• Magmadon
  • Magmadon Trample stun duration decreased from 0.3 seconds to 0.15 seconds.

• Hellborne
  • Attacks will now target the ground if a targeted enemy unit walks out-of-range.

• Weaver
  • Weavers can now walk over other units.
  • Weaver movement speed increased from 2 to 2.5.
  • The Shroudwalk passive trait now increases movement speed by 60% in Shroud, down from 100%. Resulting movement speed unchanged from 4 to 4.

• Hexen
  • Miasma energy cost increased from 40 to 60.
  • Miasma cooldown increased from 0 seconds to 15 seconds. The cooldown begins at the start of channeling.

• Harbinger
  • The Seismic Slam upgrade now additionally increases the Harbinger’s Shroud coverage by 100%.

• Spriggan
  • Spriggan cost changed from 75/75 to 100/50.
  • Spriggan damage increased from 2 (+2 vs Heavy) to 3 (+3 vs Heavy).

Celestials

• Sovereign’s Watch
  • Fixed an issue where Sovereign’s Watch was losing some damage output when it finds a new target. After this change, Sovereign's Watch will deal much closer to its full potential damage versus large numbers of small units.
  • Attack beams will now prioritize non-creep units over creeps.

• Purify
  • Now only dispells debuffs on friendly units and buffs on enemy units.

• Morph Core
  • Fixed an issue where Morph Cores couldn’t be rallied onto Luminite Mines into the fog of war.

• Arcship
  • Cost decreased from 300/0 to 250/0.

• Collection Array
  • Supply cost increased from 0 to 4.

• Prism
  • Supply cost decreased from 3 to 2.

• Aeon Gate
  • Cost decreased from 100/100 to 50/50.
  • Aeon Gate build time decreased from 40 seconds to 20 seconds.

• Ascension Matrix
  • Now requires Starforge OR Legion Hall instead of an Arcstation.
  • Retaliation Matrix, Core Ascendency, Resolute Seal, Animancer Adept Training upgrades now require an Arcstation.
  • Cost decreased from 100/100 to 100/50.

• Argent
  • Health decreased from 210 to 180.
  • Movement speed increased from 4 to 4.5.
  • Base energy regeneration decreased from 0.5 per second to 0 per second.
  • Out-of-combat energy regeneration increased from 0 to 2 per second.
  • The Photo-Restoration upgrade, which increased the movement speed of Argents by 0.5 and increased out-of-combat energy regeneration by 1 has been removed.
  • Max energy decreased from 50 to 30.
  • New Upgrade: Photo-Capacitors: Increases energy pool of Argents from 30 to 50. Researched at the Guardian Nexus. No other requirements.
  • The Longshot Module now increases the Argent’s range by 3, up from 2.

• Kri
  • Health increased from 190 to 230.
  • Damage decreased from 16 (+8 vs Light) to 14 (+6 vs Light)

• Cabal
  • Debilitate duration decreased from 40 seconds to 25 seconds.
  • Debilitate movement speed debuff decreased from 50% to 25%.

• Vector
  • Fixed an issue that caused Recall to sometimes fail.
  • Fixed various issues with Delta Jump and Recall being inconsistent.

• Saber
  • Now requires Arcstation instead of Ascension Matrix.
  • Movement speed increased from 2 to 3.
  • Movement speed bonus from Mass Accelerator decreased from 200% bonus to 100% bonus. Resulting movement speed unchanged from 6 to 6.

• Animancer
  • Dark Prophecy cooldown increased from 0 seconds to 15 seconds. Cooldown begins at the start of channeling.

• Archangel
  • Meteor Strike can now kill trees.
  • When in an Avatar state, can no longer be pushed by Magmadons during Trample.
  • When in its Avatar state, weapon shockwave speed increased from 7 to 15.
  • After the Avatar state ends, the Archangel will now retain its current HP. For example, if the Archangel is at 500/1150 health when Avatar ends, it will be 500/750 afterwards. Previously, it would decrease to 100/750. This includes when the Archangel flies from the Avatar state.
  • Fixed an issue where this unit could walk through light forest.