-- Balance Notes --

Lance:

We've been hearing concerns for a while that lance has become too strong. While lance winrates are still fairly normal for the average player, they've definitely become dominant at high ranks, and their winrates at all ranks are continuing to increase. On top of that, playing against the lance felt frustrating for many players, so it was time to give lance a second look.

The primary goal with these changes is to lessen the effectiveness and ease of use of some combos that have made lance too effective.

The risk/reward of Side Light and Side Air felt too strong when compared to combos on other weapons, and both have been toned down, especially when using the Side Air as a grounded approach tool. Recovery as a combo finisher has a great deal of Force for how reliable it is. We've kept Side Light into Neutral Air a true combo, but made Side Light into Recovery escapable with good timing. Finally, Lance Side Light only gets its second swing on hit similar to the Sword Down Light.

To balance out these reductions, we've given small buffs to Down Air and Down Light.

• Lance Neutral Light: Rehitboxed to better match animation.
• Lance Air Down: Rehitboxed to better match animation. Slightly decreased Recovery times. Movement is angled more downward.
• Lance Side Light: Rehitboxed to better match animation; Upward swing only occurs on hit; Slightly increased Time to Hit; Increased Recover Time on miss; Decreased distance traveled on miss. Slightly decreased Stun time.
• Lance Down Light: Increased Damage.
• Lance Air Side: Rehitboxed to better match animation; Increased Cooldown Time; Increased Recover Time; If the move lands on the ground it will travel a shorter distance, have decreased Stun Time, and longer Recover Time on miss.
• Lance Recovery: Rehitboxed to better match animation. Increased Time to Hit.

Spear

Spear issues have a tendency to be underreported or dismissed because they're so widely used. Frustration with the Spear's ground pound in particular comes up on occasion, but is typically countered by pointing out how little protection the hurtbox has from underneath. While this is true, it's a much faster move than most ground pounds, and has a great deal more threat. We've given more opportunity to react to and punish it (and to a lesser extent, the Spear's Recovery).

• Spear Ground Pound: Decreased Hitbox height; Increased Time To Hit; Slightly increased Recover Time.
• Spear Recovery: Increased Recover Time.

Katar

There was a sense from the community that we would be hitting katars almost as hard as the lance this patch, focusing primarily on the recover times of their air game. The thing is, currently Katar winrates don't seem to be especially high, and their recover times aren't much lower than comparable powers.

However, Katar cooldowns are very low, especially for those who enjoy flying through the air assisted by Neutral Airs. We’ve adjusted some of their air cooldowns to discourage this type of play and open them up to punishing just a little bit more.

• Katar Neutral Air: Increased Cooldown Time.
• Katar Side Air: Increased Cooldown Time.

Blasters

Blasters are doing a little worse than desired at the moment, and the reductions on the Side Air several patches ago have made Blasters overly reliant on the Down Air. We're slightly improving the speed of the Side Air to make the air options more uniformly viable, but are being careful to avoid returning it to its former state.

• Blasters Air Side: Slightly reduced Time to Hit.

Bodvar

Bodvar's something of a concern. His winrates aren't that far off, but he's the most widely used character in high level ranked play. His Down Sword has always been a strong move, but can be especially devastating when combined with gravity cancels. We've slowed it some.

• Bodvar Down Sword: Slightly increased Time to Hit.

Cassidy

Cassidy has fallen pretty heavily out of favor, and doesn't feel like a strong choice at the moment. We're giving a little more of her characteristic quickdraw to a few of her signatures.

• Cassidy Down Blasters: Slightly reduced Time to Hit.
• Cassidy Side Hammer: Rehitboxed to better match animation; Slightly reduced Time to Hit.

Ada

There's a case to be made that Ada's Side Blasters are punishable, but she's shooting for most of that window, making it difficult to attack with more than a simple down air. We've given opponents a little more opportunity to retaliate.

• Ada Side Blasters: Increased Recover Time.

Gnash

We're pushing some of the strength around on Gnash's signatures to fix places where there are a little too much or too little opportunity to punish him.

• Gnash Hammer Side: Increased Recover Time.
• Gnash Down Spear: Slightly decreased Recover Time.

Sentinel

Sentinel's signatures have had issues with lingering hitboxes in such a way that it's difficult to tell when the lightning stops striking. We’ve adjusted his Side Katar slightly to better match the animation as we did for his Katar Neutral and Down in previous patches.

• Sentinel Side Katar: Reduced Hitbox height; Removed some lingering hitboxes that didn't match animation.

Vraxx

Vraxx's Blaster signatures have some of the shortest Recover Times of any character, which can lead to some particularly abusive combinations. The biggest offenders have been given a little more window to punish.

• Vraxx Neutral Blasters: Increased Recover Time.
• Vraxx Down Blasters: Slightly increased Recover Time.

Thatch

Putting some extra Recover time on Thatch's Side Sword is a frequently requested change, and it has been made more punishable. That said, Thatch himself is one of the lower winrate characters, and his Force values don't seem to match his 7 Strength. We've dialed those up slightly.

• Thatch Side Sword: Increased Recover Time; Slightly Increased Force.
• Thatch Down Sword: Increased Force.

Asuri

While Asuri continues to shine in the hands of a few players, her winrate is typically low. The chase mechanic of her Side Sword was always situational, but has been particularly hurt by the increased base run speed changes since her release. She now gets a burst of sprinting and a faster swing, but less Force on hit.

• Asuri Side Sword: Reaches a higher max speed; Decreased Time to Hit; Decreased Force; Increased Cooldown Time.

Barraza

Barraza needed a little extra kick in his fuel. The Down Axe is generally considered his most situational move, so we added a little more reward.

• Barraza Down Axe: Increased Force.

Fixes