Greetings Champions, and welcome back to another series of Developer Insight blogs! In this series, we’ll explore various aspects of the October Update, including adjustments and additions to features and maps and several sandbox changes. To kick off this update, we wanted to sit down and chat about several of the new Talents coming when we release this patch and share our general philosophy for creating new playstyles in 2024. Without further ado, let’s dive right in!

NOTE: All the values shown below are test values from Dev. The exact effects and numerical choices will change based on testing and feedback from players.

Azaan

Azaan as of late has been struggling - consistently in the bottom two of Frontlines - while our other Frontlines are performing quite well. To help him rise above again we’re giving him some general buffs, but we also wanted to take the opportunity to spice up his Persistence Talent. Persistence in of itself isn’t a bad Talent, it has a fairly healthy win rate with an above-average pick rate, but we felt it lacked the “oomph” that Talents can bring to a Champion and spice up their gameplay.

In essence, it behaves similarly to old Persistence, giving Azaan health sustain throughout the match, but it additionally now Cleanses him after he takes enough damage. This provides the Talent with more late-game power and lets Azaan play around the trigger to facilitate daring escapes or aggressive dives. It remains a solid selfish Talent, but we’re excited for everyone to try this change out and see the combos that can be done with your team when this Talent triggers!

Caspian

Never one to miss a party, but seemingly one to miss out on good Talents, Caspian has been struggling with his Talents as of late. All of his Talents have below-average or mediocre win rates, and all but Measured Cadence have horrendous pick rates - with It’s Got Some Heft even being a single digit! We wanted to give Caspian more variety in his playstyle, so we took two of his Talents back to the lab and concocted some more, let's say devious, abilities.

While Everywhere At Once has remained mainly the same, it has received some buffs to make it more utilitarian. We’ll let you think on what those possibilities could be as we go into It’s Got Some Heft, since its new form is the first iteration of its ability in Paladins. Choosing this Talent now gives Caspian flat bonus damage when backstabbing an opponent (triggering within a roughly 120-degree cone) with either of his weapons, while most importantly draining 2% of their Ultimate charge! This gives Caspian a really unique and powerful reward while flanking, potentially turning off key Ultimates in important team fights. We wanted to facilitate a play style for Caspian where he sticks to the shadows and steals what his opponents value most, leaning into his thief origins.

Grover

Our resident tree has had a tumultuous past few years, from the various Deep Roots iterations to Keywords and Rampant Blooming dominance. When looking at his current position in the meta (or lack thereof), we reflected back on his various tribulations in the sandbox to forge a new path forward for him. Alongside some healing buffs we’ll detail in PTS notes, Rampant Blooming is being retired and a new Talent emphasizing him as an anchor for his team.

Wisps of Sylvanus takes Blossom’s passive aura and imbues it with small Movement Speed and Crowd Control Reduction buffs that give his team a bit of a boost when fighting around him. This also means that Grover no longer has a strictly Healing talent, now instead offering 3 different tools that augment him beyond his heal output. This is something fairly new to the Support class, but the experiment allows him to return to his place as either a synergy-based solo healer or a complement to a main healer in dual Support compositions.

Kinessa

Kinessa has always had an issue when it comes to her Oppressor Mines and their Talents. The ability has a ton of utility and can be quite frustrating if used with an ideal loadout, so we wanted to take one last swing at a Mine Talent by completely inverting her normal relationship with them.

Crystalline Battery turns an offensive tool into a personal stim machine, giving Kinessa increased fire rate and damage by charging her Carbine Rifle with the energy from her Mines. This buff only affects the Carbine Mode, keeping Steady Aim as the distinct Sniper option but giving her a unique way to become a proper threat to other rifle characters in the midrange. This does come at the cost of damaging herself, meaning it should be used in duels where Kinessa is confident she can keep the advantage.

Koga

With the inclusion of a bit of Adrenaline Junkie into base kit (spoilers), Koga needed something new for his Default Talent. We wanted to encourage an aggressive use of Shadow Step, one of Koga’s more notorious abilities, since his survivability was so high and bring about a more life-and-death playstyle.

Initiating with Shadow Step now gives Koga some strong buffs to bring his opponents down quicker, but putting him in a precarious position by spending Stamina. Balancing playstyles is an important aspect to us when it comes to Talent creation, we want all to be enjoyable and viable while offering different boons to the Champion. So when we see an almost always picked Talent (aka Adrenaline Junkie) we see that as a fault in the gameplay loop of the Champion and work to remove the stranglehold it has on the other Talents. Oftentimes this means giving a version of it in base to shore up the weaknesses of the Champion and make them more engaging by giving them a new tool to replace it. It's a delicate game of push and pull, but giving Champions more toys in the box gives players more expression and more importantly, more opportunities for fun.

Lillith

Lillith has been struggling a bit more recently, performing poorly regardless of Talent. We’re giving her some buffs to help her rise to power once again, but we’re also reworking Cursed Accord to give her a unique niche amongst her Support kin.

Giving her marked allies bonus Ultimate charge generation and healing her for more Blood Health when they get an Elimination, this Talent is focused on keeping her team marked and aggressively pushing. Uniquely it also gives them Damage Resistance penetration, ignoring up to a set amount completely and reducing anything past that by that amount. This lets Lillith keep her team on pace with overly defensive Champions and push through those tough-nut-to-crack Frontlines.

This will put a mark on your back as the supercharger Support, so make sure to play it safe and stick to your team! Supports usually rely on Healing to be the main way they support their team, so we wanted to experiment with ways to facilitate off-support playstyles and less healing-centric game plans.

Octavia

Octavia is receiving a lot of changes aimed around her fun factor next update, but one that has larger implications is the basekiting of Hell or High Water. There will be more details on that in the PTS notes, but here we want to talk about the replacement starter Talent for her!

Paratrooper takes what was once a weak spot for Octavia and makes it into a strength, allowing her to float for longer and deal more damage after using Commanding Leap. Damage amps are a quite potent effect, especially on a character with as much potential as Octavia, but this is balanced by asking her to put herself in a vulnerable position to utilize it. We think it can lead to a lot of powerful plays through smart positioning.

VII

After several refreshes and reworks to his Talents, we’re taking Overcharged around one more time. The effect is so hit or miss (literally) and boasts one of the lowest pick rates in the game, so it’s sitting out on the sidelines while we continue to improve VII’s neutral game. In its place, a new vision of an original option joins.

NOTE: This will still be his Level 2 Talent. We just thought he needed more sevens for this blog.

Execute Article VII brings back the eye laser Ultimate many early VII players may remember, with new potency added to make it a more compelling option than prior iterations. Now, the laser blasts in a 20-unit area for 1000 damage after lock-on, however, anyone left below 25% Health after that blast is Executed. It’s a unique version of an Execute, one that thematically fits the assassin of Corvus and offers him a strong burst-down option.

Vora

Finally, not to be outdone, Vora is receiving two new Talents next update! The first is replacing Relentless Presence as its effect enters Vora’s basekit. However, we still wanted to offer Tendril something to build into, and were inspired by other Flank’s options.

Parasitic Pull allows Tendril to attach itself to allies, meaning Vora can catch a lift from a Drogoz or Octavia launching into battle. When she does grapple an ally, she shares her Tendril Card effects with the target as a special thanks for the support. If you happen to Tendril an enemy, you apply a small damage over time to them as a way to kickstart a combo to Elimination.

Meanwhile, Deafening Silence hasn’t really made sense as an Obliteration Talent and never saw widespread play. Similarly inspired by other Flanks and effects that haven’t been available to Vora, we went back to the drawing board of her inspirations and narrative.

Eclipsed Affection allows Vora to chain Obliteration casts together more effectively, giving her 2 seconds off cooldown passively and 50% of the cooldown whenever she gets an Elimination. On top of this, if she uses it with max Darkness stacks, the Slow applied is much more effective. Her feelings may be doomed, but so are any foes that dare try and survive her flurry of attacks with this Talent.