Hello Warriors! Welcome to this installment in our ongoing series of State of Balance, where the Fight Team analyzes the results from the just-completed season and discusses where we are headed in the future.
In this blog, we will share data on the Win Rates and Pick Rates of our heroes with you, the community. We will also look at this data to discuss our perspective on certain balance issues, comparing the above data with the community-created Tier List, and where we see balance heading over the coming seasons.
A quick read on the methodology of the data presented
PREVIOUS TESTING GROUNDS
We know the results of previous Testing Grounds phases are hot topics with you, the community, so we want to quickly update you on their statuses. Based on feedback from the previous Testing Grounds phases, we are preparing to release 2 updates. We expect these 2 updates will bring variety to the meta, and will expect to be discussing their impacts in the future installments of the State of Balance.
- Centurion got a significant update based on the original Testing Grounds phase (which focused on Warlord, Gladiator, and Centurion). We’ve taken in the feedback from the original Testing Grounds phase and have since made a number of edits to improve efficiency to initiate and sustain offense, as well as reduce the frustration of stun, stamina drain, and the cutscene. The updated Centurion changes went live with the start of Y4S2.
- Fight System Improvements have been worked on since the latest Testing Grounds phase (which focused on improving the whole roster’s offensive tools, reducing inconsistencies such as delayed/buffered attack results, improving stamina costs, making zone attack input more comfortable, etc). We are continuing to make a number of edits to them to better set damage levels, and also to reduce the frustrations of Light Spam. We expect these changes to improve the meta of the game, and be a refreshing improvement to the state of play. We’ll communicate more during Y4S2 on the release date of the Fight System Improvements.
HOPE (Y4S1) - DATA
Now - let’s look at the Win Rates data, Pick Rates data, and Community Tier List!
DOMINION WIN RATES + PICK RATES
These are the Win Rate and Pick Rates based on player data combined from Y4S1.
This Tier is based on individual Tier Lists created by the community and combined by the community.
The Combined Tier List (the graphic reproduced above)
DISCUSSION
Kensei and Aramusha currently appear at the very top of the Win Rates for Full Population and Top for Dominion. Kensei and Aramusha have always appeared near the top of these data sets, with both having good damage on their attacks as well as good range. We’ve seen Aramusha rise in the meta as well, as players have learned to confirm a 40 damage 700ms Side Heavy off of, for example, a friendly Gladiator’s Toestab. This particular issue occurs because our Openers (which can be ganking tools as in this case, and/or defensive tools when used as Parry Punishes) often carry as much or more damage than our Finishers. In our ‘Testing Grounds: Fight System Improvements’ version, we tried to rebalance the damage to be generally lower on Openers, and more on Finishers. We would expect that this would reduce the rewards for defensive play, reduce the damage reward when ganking, and incentivise offense through continuing the chains toward the biggest damage attacks.
Lawbringer also appears at the top of the Win Rates. There seem to be a couple of reasons for the Lawbringer’s current power level – the ones most addressable, which are high HP and Impale not following the usual rules for binding opponents, were addressed at the start of Y4S2. Topics like Shove-on-Red or the global issue of target-swapping-in-the-lane are also problematic, though not simple to address.
Top of the Win Rates and Tier Lists are starting to converge a bit more than they seem to have in previous seasons. We note that Lawbringer was almost unanimously placed in the S Tier by top community players who created the Tier List, and he appears very high in the Player Win Rates as well. Kensei and Aramusha are placed highly in Win Rates and Tier List as well, and Warlord, Conqueror, Jiang Jun, and Hitokiri appear reasonably high on all results. It still diverges in respect to Shaman, Gladiator and Black Prior who appear lower in the Win Rates, but high up on the Tier List.
Raider no longer appears at the very top of the Player Win Rates for Dominion. Similarly, Raider was particularly high in the previous shared season’s data for Duels (for Full Population the Duel data was the #3 hero at 61% (is now 52%), and for Platinum And Above was the #1 hero at 63% (is now 56%)). The Storming Tap nerf and damage nerfs appear to have impacted the Win Rate as well as frustration of fighting against Raider, without making Raider unviable. We therefore don’t expect to have to make any other nerfs to reduce the frustration element on this character.
Hitokiri also no longer appears at the very top of the Player Win Rates for Dominion. While the Win Rate has gone down somewhat (especially in Duel), we introduced more changes to Hitokiri at the beginning of Y4S2, to reduce the frustration element when fighting the character in 1v1 and group fight scenarios. Our examination is that Full Population players are having a difficult time with the Light Finishers, and Uninterruptible Stance.
Jormungandr is currently appearing in the middle of the Win Rate data, and the Tier List. However, we also see that Jormungandr repeatedly is marked as the most frustrating character in the player surveys that we’ve been performing each season. Some of this appears to be stamina-related, some on the early timings of Uninterruptible Stance, some on the frame advantage after a finisher, and some on the survivability given by the Feats. Also – we noted the Jomungandr was much stronger when played in ‘Testing Grounds: Fight System Improvements’. In the short term, we introduced a variety of small nerfs to Jormungandr at the start of Y4S2, and in the longer term we will investigate the survivability benefit given by the Feats (as this was a big part of the higher power level Jormungandr enjoyed in the Testing Grounds).
Reflex Guard Heroes still have a difficult time in Dominion. All Reflex Guard heroes currently appear at the bottom half of the Win Rates. We’re keeping an eye on this as it is a trend that is problematic. At the same time, we recognize that their Win Rates increased in ‘Testing Grounds: Fight System Improvements’, likely due to a combination of attacks hitting more often as well as assassins having generally higher damage than heavies/vanguards/hybrids in that version.
When it comes to Duel, we note that there is a reduction of the highest Win Rates in this season’s Duel Win Rate data. Full Population’s highest win rate this season is 63% for Shugoki (was 68% for Hitokiri in the previous shared season’s data), and Platinum And Above now has a highest Win Rate of 60% for Hitokiri (was 63% for Raider in the previous shared season’s data). This is currently moving in the correct direction.
Uninterruptible Stance / High Damage Heroes still have a large presence at the top of the charts. This seems to suggest that these properties are very strong when used in the context of Full Population or Platinum-or-Above play in Duel. The main outlier is Berserker, who has an Uninterruptible Stance but appears quite low in Full Population play. We changed the Uninterruptible Stance timings on Hitokiri, Shugoki, and Jormungandr in 2.19.0 – and expect this to reduce them marked as frustrating to fight by players in our seasonal surveys.
Zhanhu comes into the middle of the Dominion Win Rates, but is low in the Community Tier List and in Duel data. The feeling is that the character does come in generally weaker than hoped. For example, the Superior Block Palm struggles to find a niche, and the Zone Attack is too slow to be as effective as desired – while the fire AOEs and general chaos of a Full Population Dominion game seem to keep Zhanhu more relevant in player data.
Warlord and Gladiator have both moved up quite a bit in the competitive Tier List. Warlord also moved up quite a bit in the Win Rate data, both in Dominion and Duel. While the Gladiator hasn’t moved up nearly as much in player data Win Rate in particular, the buffs that the two have received from Testing Grounds (and the other patches around this time) have moved each up into relevance in the meta.
Centurion generally appears low in all results. Centurion requires parry-fishing for damage in 1v1s, and the ganking power of the cutscene (especially vs Revenge) in Dominion. Otherwise, Centurion finds itself lacking in most respects. We expected the Centurion rework to have made a positive impact once we’re able to analyze Y4S2.
Defensive Meta is still the dominant meta, and the Fight Team’s analysis is that this meta is stale and needs to change. We look forward to introducing improvements to offense in the Live game during the course of Y4S2, and we expect this to reduce staring contests and freshen up the way the game is played.
DUEL + BREACH DATA
For interests’ sake, we include the Duel and Breach Win Rates and Pick Rates here.
DUEL FULL POPULATION WIN RATE
DUEL PLATINUM AND ABOVE WIN RATE
DUEL PICK RATE
BREACH FULL POPULATION WIN RATE + TOP 4% WIN RATE
CLOSING NOTE
We would love to hear more from you on the results of the Player Data for Full Population, Platinum-or-Above, and Top, as well as on the Community Tier Lists Please remember that we look at all this data, information, feedback, player survey results, and a whole lot more when we make our decisions.
Keep sending us your feedback, and we look forward to sharing the next installment of the State of Balance!
We hope you’re enjoying Y4S2! 😊
- The Fight Team