Predecessor Patch v0.3 is live!

Get ready, folks!
Predecessor’s first major update of 2023 is nearly here and with it comes some epic changes!
Patch v0.3 is now live and we're thrilled to share ahead of time everything you can expect to find in it.

One of our main focuses for this patch is to empower Mages. We want to make them feel stronger before they even get their first item, without changing their late game power. The goal here is to make playing Mages more impactful and rewarding, especially in the early game.

But that's not all! We've got some great new game improvements coming your way with two new post-match screens and some weekly leaderboards for you to sink your teeth into. Let’s not also overlook the bounty hunter in the room - Revenant is finally here!

Speaking of additions, we've also slipped in a new mouse sensitivity setting, so be sure to tweak this to your liking ahead of your next game.

But wait, there’s more! We're already hard at work on Patch 0.4, where we'll be making changes to ADC itemization as well as improving ranged auto attacks. Plus you'll be thrilled to hear that we're also working on adding our AI game mode! But more on that closer to the time.

Last but not least we are looking to make our update schedule more consistent. Going forwards we’re aiming to deliver patches every two weeks, alternating between Balance Patches and our bigger Content Patches. This cadence might still change, but for now our goal is to ensure a steady flow of content and improvements that you can more easily predict and plan around.

This is just the beginning of what's to come in 2023. We can't wait for you to see what we have in store and to hear your feedback! Get ready for an exciting year of updates and improvements!
- Bloodmordius, Senior Game Designer

Check out the video overview for Patch v0.3

The ritual has been performed. The payment has been taken. The fearsome bounty hunter has been awoken, determined to pursue and punish those responsible for the destruction of his homeland.

REVENANT ABILITIES:

Passive: Bounty Hunter
Revenant starts with a rank in Hellfire Rounds. He does not shoot faster with Attack Speed but does gain 5% (+1.5% per level)(+0.1% per 1% Critical Strike Chance) increased Total Physical Power. When Revenant kills an enemy Hero he will gain 50 (+25 per Bounty stack) additional gold.

Basic Attack [LMB]: Hand Cannon
Ranged basic attack dealing physical damage.
After four basic attacks, Revenant will automatically reload.
The final round will always critically strike.

Primary Ability [Q]: Obliterate
CD: 12/11/10/9/8
Cost: 70
Effect: Revenant unleashes 10 ethereal missiles that home in and hit random targets within a wide cone, dealing 60/85/110/135/160 (+50% Bonus Physical Power)(+75% magical power) physical damage per missile. Landing subsequent hits against Enemy Heroes deal 15% damage.

Secondary Ability [E]: Scar
CD: 20/19/18/17/16
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80
Effect: Revenant launches a dark projectile that marks the first enemy target it hits, dealing 10/25/40/55/70 (+50% Bonus Physical Power) physical damage and applying a Scar that lasts for 5 seconds. The next 6/7/8/9/10 instances of damage dealt to this target by Revenant apply a 5% stacking slow for 1.25 seconds and deal 15% bonus magic damage.

Alternate Ability [RMB]: Hellfire Rounds
CD: 2
Cost: 0
Effect:
Passive: Revenant's 4th shot always critically strikes as well as dealing 6% (+0.5% per Revenant’s Level) of the target’s missing health as bonus physical damage. Revenant’s Critical Bonus Damage is modified to 125/135/145/155/165/175%.

Active: Revenant instantly reloads his Hand Cannon. Reload time is decreased with Additional Attack Speed.

Ultimate Ability [R]: Reckoning
CD: 140/120/100
Cost: 100
Effect: Revenant pulls himself and his target into the Nether Realm for 6/7/8 seconds, rooting the target for 0.5 seconds. Killing his opponent inside the Nether Realm will double the bonus gold gained from Bounty Hunter.

Profile Tab & Early Access Icons

Early access icons are here! You’ll notice that there is a new Profile tab on the top bar of the main menu - this is where you can change and display your profile icon, with the initial selection available to you depending on which Early Access Bundle you have. You might even spot a sneak peek at some profile-related customization features that are coming in future updates!

Creep Score Bounties

This patch we’ll be introducing Creep Score Bounties. These are designed to remove situations where teams are not rewarded enough gold when killing an enemy Hero from a significant deficit. This is normally because the enemy Heroes have gained a significant amount of creep score (cs) relative to your team's average.

Before we only accounted for a Hero's kill streak in the bounty system. Now these enemy Heroes will also increase this same bounty through the amount of creep score (cs) they have relative to your team. This will allow us to reward players that are significantly behind in economy from multiple sources to come back into the game through enemy misplays.

New Post Match Screens

We’re adding two post-match screens in this update. The first is a screen that will allow you to add players after a match; why not start grouping up with teammates that you enjoyed playing with after a great game? The other new screen is a post-match statistics screen, allowing you to dive deeper into those juicy statistics from your last match.

Weekly Leaderboards

Each week we’ll be sharing a leaderboard showcasing the top 100 players! Initially, this will be shared on social media, but as we continue to develop the feature we plan to integrate it directly into the game so that players can easily compare their rankings with others. To qualify for the leaderboard, players must complete a minimum of 10 games per week.

End of Match Survey

We are adding a short survey at the end of a match that will require you to give us some feedback on your previous game. This data will help us monitor overall and individual community responses to matches on a daily basis, something that will help us to understand what’s going well as well as what we can improve. We appreciate you taking the time to fill it out.

Matchmaking Improvements & Bug Fixes

Since Predecessor launched we have been monitoring the matchmaking system closely and have identified multiple bugs that we believe have impacted match quality. This patch brings a number of fixes to these issues and we hope you’ll see an improvement to match quality as a result.

This patch also introduces one of our first improvements to our matchmaking system, the Party Modifier. Now, when queuing up in a group, the MMR of everyone in the party will be inflated based on the size of the party to compensate for the increased coordination and resulting win chance that parties typically have.

Matchmaking Bugs:

● Fixed a bug where players would gain or lose large amounts of MMR after a match when the server failed to return the player’s MMR.
● Fixed a bug where players could join a queue and incorrectly enter the wrong matchmaking bracket.
● Fixed a bug where players outside of a matchmaking bracket could be pulled into that bucket during the matchmaking process.

Penalty system improvements

Also in this patch we’re making improvements to our penalty systems. First we are separating auto-banning for dodging a queue and going AFK in game, allowing us to be harsher with the scaling bans for players that go AFK in game. Secondly we now have the ability to ban players from chat, one step among several that we’re taking to tackle in-game toxicity. We are continuing to improve these systems over time so expect to see more updates in the future.

Combating Toxicity - Chat Moderation Update

Combating toxicity and improving chat quality is something incredibly important to us. With this in mind (and in line with your feedback) we're taking steps to improve chat moderation beginning this patch.

Part of these improvements is the implementation of a new moderation tool. This tool will not only help us to better monitor chat logs and track disruptive users, but also impose snowballing sanctions based on repeat offences. This system will take time to implement and iterate on, and we'll be actively improving it as we go using benchmarks and player feedback.

Additionally we're also reviewing the Predecessor EULA alongside a brand new Code of Conduct that we hope to share soon; a set of community guidelines that will not only lay out the core pillars that guide our own thinking but also what we expect from our players, expectations that you can reference and that we can use to guide disciplinary measures. Like our in-game features and systems, we look forward to working with our community to iterate and build on these guidelines to help deliver a sustainable, healthy and enjoyable community and gameplay experience for all.

We value and appreciate your continued patience and support while we work to make Predecessor the best experience it can be, each and every time you log in.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

● Updated the decal for Murdock’s Static Trap.
● Added missing sound effects to the allied core for when it is under attack.
● Updated Dekker’s sound effects for her basic attacks, Rocket Boots, footsteps, and Stasis Bomb.
● Changed the visual effects for when a player dies.
● Added Hero names next to their portraits in draft and in collections.
● Updated Khaimera’s basic attack sound effects.
● Added a reject button to the match found prompt.
● Updated the desktop icon for Predecessor when installed via the Epic Games Store.
● Added a new sensitivity setting called (ADS).
● Countess Audio improvements
● Updated controller keybindings in the settings menu.
● Controller support now includes scrolling with Left and Right Triggers when using the virtual cursor.
● Party Overview has moved to the left of the screen. This is in preparation of a larger UI overhaul we are currently working on, but more on that another day!

HEROES:

Countess:

We’ve always felt that Countess should be starting Blue Buff in Jungle, so we’ve updated her recommended path accordingly.
● Recommended Jungle start updated to Blue Buff from Red Buff.

Crunch:

Crunch is currently in a decent spot balance wise. We’re looking to make his sustain only apply from Hero combat to help address some abuse cases that can still happen.
Re-Crunch [R]:
● Passive Healing no longer benefits from damaging minions.

Fey:

We’re giving players a little more counterplay to Fey’s ultimate so that we can increase the power budget of her overall kit. This will allow Fey to have bigger moments even without the use of Fly Trap, but also mean she has to pay more attention to her opponent’s cooldowns and ability to escape said Fly Trap.
Bramble Patch [Q]:
● Base Damage changed from 80/120/160/200/240 to 90/125/160/195/230.
Harvest Nettles [E]:
● Base Damage increased from 60/90/120/150/180 to 70/105/140/175/210.
● Scaling decreased from 60% to 55%.
● Projectile Speed increased from 11000 to 12000.
Fly Trap [R]:
● [Bug Fix] Now correctly deals increased damage based on its level.
● Tentacle Break Distance decreased from 1750 to 1100.
● Pull Delay increased from 0.6s to 0.75s.

Gideon:

Once again considering our general goals for mages, we’re looking to increase Gideons base damage and shift it away from his scalings. This should help make his early to mid game feel a little more impactful as well as decrease his reliance on magical power. We also hope that these changes open up more build paths for him, allowing players to feel more comfortable dipping into magical bruiser items to enable those big black hole moments.
Cosmic Rift [Q]:
● Base Damage increased from 90/145/200/355/310 to 100/160/220/280/340.
● Scaling decreased from 70% to 65%.
Void Breach [RMB]:
● Scaling decreased from 60% to 55%.
● Cooldown decreased from 9s to 9/8.5/8/7.5/7s.

Howitzer:

Howitzer's overall zoning potential has been very oppressive, especially combined with his ability to nuke out individual targets. We’re keeping his Slow Grenade damage relative but decreasing the amount of Grenades placed so that players can more easily navigate around or through them.
R2000 Missile [Q]:
● Decreased R2000 Missile Delay after firing by 0.2s.
Slow Grenades [RMB] :
● Total amount decreased from 16 to 11.
● Grenades now have a tighter formation.
● Base Damage increased from 5/10/15/20/25 to 6/12/18/24/30.
● Scaling increased from 4% to 6%.

Lt. Belica:

Belica felt a little too clunky after casting her Seismic Assault, so we’re letting players move and cast a little quicker after casting to help her feel less like a sitting duck when fishing for big stuns.
Seismic Assault [Q]:
● [Bug Fix] Description fixed.
● Decreased lock out by 0.2 seconds.
Void Drone [E]:
● [Bug Fix] 20% Scaling now correctly applies to the damage dealt.

ITEMS:

TIER 2:

Alchemical Rod:

Alchemical Rod was stacking far too fast and most players would have it fully stacked before even finishing Azure Core. We’re slowing it down a bit so that it needs to scale into a 2 item spike rather than being too strong as a 1 item spike.
Font [Passive]:
● Mana per stack decreased from 8 to 4.

Bloodlust:

This Bloodlust shared its name with Grux’s Passive, meaning it was overdue for a rebrand. Players should now be able to better understand which they’re talking about.
● Item renamed to Bloodletter.

TIER 3:

Mindrazor:

This does indeed stack with Vanquisher. We’re changing this passive name so that players who came from games where unique passive names exist can better understand this interaction.
● Passive renamed to Arcane Strength (from Arcane Power).

Astral Catalyst:

Spellslinger [Passive]:
● [Bug Fix] Description now correctly states 3 stacks instead of 4 stacks.

Azure Core:

As previously mentioned, we’re looking to open up build options for first buys to all mages.
Font [Passive]:
● Mana per stack decreased from 8 to 4.

Combustion:

Combustion has been overshadowed by other first-buy items due to its inability to keep a mage in lane. We’re giving it a little more mana to help players feel a little more comfortable in picking it up first.
● Mana increased from 200 to 300.

Lifebinder:

Lifebinder again felt a bit too niche to fit into any builds reliably. Instead we’re looking to enable Magical Bruiser builds by giving them a new capstone option. This newly improved Lifebinder should find a solid place as a third or fourth slot for mages that build a bit more durable with items like World Breaker and Dreambinder. It also helps give Sevarog a new offensive option to scale into when he gains a lead.
● Magical Power increased from 50 to 60.
● Magical Lifesteal reduced from 15% to 10%.
● Tenacity removed.
● Added 10 Ability Haste.
● Recipe changed to Blood Tome + Violet Brooch + Scepter (previously Blood Tome + Blood Tome + Tenacious Drape).
Passive Changes:
● Removed Leech Passive.
New Passive:
● Vital Bond: Gain (+0.5% bonus health) Ability Haste per 50 Magical Power.

Golem’s Gift:

We’re looking to shift some of Golems Gift’s power into its Haste, over raw power and armor. This should help it feel better as a more utility driven item in the final couple of slots for mages.
● Magical power decreased from 70 to 60.
● Ability Haste increased from 10 to 20.
● Passive renamed from Artillery Golem to Stone Skin.
Stone Skin [Passive]:
● Total Magical Power and Physical Armor decreased from 40 to 30.
● Stacks lost per physical damage instance received decreased from 10 to 6.

Oblivion Crown:

Oblivion Crown was a bit too catch-all in its previous capstone form. It also had no downtime as a spike and so we’re transitioning it to still be a strong general use item, but with a burst damage focused niche. The item should now find a more specialised niche for heroes like Fey and Belica who look to blow a target up quickly during particular windows of opportunity.
● Annihilate magical power bonus decreased from 35% to 15%.
New Passive:
● Oblivion: Your next instance of ability damage against an Enemy Hero will deal an additional 8% of their current health as magic damage and increase their magical damage taken by 10% for 3s - 30s CD.

Prophecy:

Hasty [Passive]:
● [Bug Fix] Collection Description fixed. (75% scaling to 60%).

Tainted Scepter:

Most Tainted Items tend to naturally scale or have a scaling of some form that makes them generally applicable across a game. Scepter, as true damage, does somewhat naturally scale, but this scaling is fairly minimal relative to others. We’re adding a small magical power scaling to rectify this.
● Malice Base Damage per stack decreased from 6 to 5.
● Malice 1% magical power per stack Scaling added.

Viper:

● Fixed item description.
● [Bug Fix] Gives the proper amount of Physical Power (50 from 40).

Leviathan:

Keeping our anti-heal item names to a theme!
● Item Renamed to Tainted Bastion.

● Fixed a bug causing Steels Shield visual effects to be stretched horizontally.
● Fixed a bug causing Muriel's Alacrity visual effects to not display correctly.
● Fixed a bug causing issues with button visibility.
● Fixed a bug causing Hunt to display overhead in place of Wild Hunt when activated.
● Renamed “Gamepad” to “Controller” in settings.
● Fixed a bug causing Murdock’s Static Trap stack counter to display when the ability is unleveled.
● Fixed a bug causing Stasis Bomb to appear as if it hit when it actually did not.
● Removed “BR Potion” from the collections tab.
● Fixed a bug in Practice Mode that blocked the player on the river buff stairs.
● In Practice mode, increased the amount of "dirt" on visual assets for better environment blending.
● Fixed all surfaces in Practice Mode to have correct footstep sounds on different materials.
● Fixed multiple collision issues in Practice Mode.
● Fixed some missing textures in Practice Mode.
● All surfaces now have the correct footstep sounds based on their materials.
● Fixed an invisible wall in the duo lane which could block player movement.
● Fixed a bug where the middle lane Tower could target and hit players through walls.
● Fixed a bug that sometimes caused players to get stuck in the blue and red jungle.
● Fixed a bug where Towers could incorrectly maintain aggression when someone uses Stasis.
● Fixed a bug where destroyed Inhibitors could still grant vision of stealth targets.
● Fixed an issue with Howitzer’s Hover Flight not being correctly interrupted when the rest of the ability is interrupted.
● Fixed a bug where Tower health bars on the minimap would not reduce below 20% health.
● Fixed an issue where a Core’s health percentage on the HUD would show 0% when it had more than 0% health.
● Fixed a bug where the player keeps moving in the direction they were going if they open and close the Escape Menu whilst moving.
● Fixed a bug where some Settings descriptions were being duplicated.
● Fixed a bug where some True damage abilities were incorrectly dealing damage to structures.
● Fixed the sentry and passive items cooldown timer to use the correct visual timers.
● Fixed a bug that was making it difficult to navigate the Item menu using a D-pad on a controller.
● Updated the Sentry visual effects to use different colours for each team.
● Increased the movement speed of the virtual cursor while navigating the Shop menu.
● Settings are now properly highlighted when using a controller.
● Fixed a bug that caused the input method to be able to change when the game window is not in focus.
● Fixed a bug that caused the build info to display incorrectly when using a controller.
● Fixed a bug that caused the controller to be able to control the game when the window was not in focus.
● Fixed a bug that caused sound to not play when beginning matchmaking.
● Fixed a bug that caused "Hold To Level Up" becoming stuck on screen when reconnecting.
● Fixed a bug that caused ability descriptions to be missing from the draft screen.
● Capped Fangtooth stacks at 20 to prevent a crash in Practice Mode.
● Fixed a bug that caused some players to have a mismatch in their graphical settings.
● Fixed a bug that caused blue visual effects to show on Kallari’s feet while camouflaged.
● Fixed a bug that caused Countess to remain immune for a short duration after her second cast of Shadow Slip.
● Fixed a bug with Strength Tonic causing it to incorrectly display 100% lifesteal on the stats page.
● Fixed a bug that caused Howitzer’s Land Mine to affect himself in stasis.
● Fixed a bug where Murdock’s Static Trap would ignore Spell Shield.
● Fixed a bug that caused Demon Edge to scale improperly with Fangtooth stacks.
● Fixed a bug that allowed Countess to be able to incorrectly re-cast Shadow Slip.
● Fixed a bug that caused Time Flux Band’s active effect to display incorrectly.
● Fixed a bug that caused shields to be capped at a certain value.

- The Omeda Studios team