Patch releasing approximately 12.00 GMT December 5th, 2023.
Introduction
It may be getting cold out there Champions, but our newest Hero is turning up the heat!
That’s right, at long last Iggy & Scorch are finally here, bringing a blistering torrent of oil and flames to the battlefield! Need to cool off? Our new Winterfest event might be just what you need!
That’s not all though! V0.13 lets you tag the battlefield with a selection of seasonal sprays, while our controller improvements make it easier than ever to make epic plays from the sofa.
We also know you’ve been eagerly waiting for new items to sink your teeth into, so V0.13 adds 11 brand new items to the game, with even more items receiving reworks and tweaks!
It’s not just items we’ve hit this patch! We’ve made some great new changes to the ways that abilities buffer too, better reflecting player intention and hopefully making your abilities feel even more intuitive to use.
Last but certainly not least, V0.13 sees the dawn of Predecessor on PlayStation! It’s been a long and highly anticipated journey and we’re thrilled to finally be welcoming our console friends to the battlefield. Read on to learn more about when you’ll receive your code for the closed beta and more.
Strap in Champions, this is no small blog. Let’s! Go!
A New Hero Appears!
Iggy & Scorch are ready to torch… well… everything!
After literally years of community memes and badgering we’ve finally caved and added the pyromantic Hero pair of Iggy & Scorch to Predecessor!
Iggy & Scorch are Predecessor’s first Hero pair, combining their unique skills to deliver flaming chaos to the battlefield. Read on to learn more about these badland battlers!
Check out Iggy & Scorch in action!
Want to see what these flame-frenzied fighters can really do? Check out their Ability Overview below!
Abilities:
Badlands Critter [Passive]:
Effect: Scorch hurls up oil with his basic attack that applies Slick to enemies hit, Slowing them by 2% per stack for 3s, up to a maximum of 5 stacks.
Enemies affected by Slick become Ignited when damaged by Flame Turrets, Molotov or Inferno. Ignited Enemies burn for 7 (+1.2 per level)(+6% Magical Power) magical damage per stack, over 3s.
Spew [Basic Attack]:
BAT: 1.4
Effect: Ranged basic attack dealing 50 (+60% Bonus Physical Power) physical damage.
Flame Turret [Primary]:
CD: 20/19/18/17/16 per charge (3 Charges)
Cost: 50
Effect: Iggy throws down a Flame Turret with 105 (+25 per Hero Level)(+30% Magical Power) health that shoots homing fireballs at Enemy Targets within 1300 units.
Each fireball deals 10/16/22/28/34 (+16% Magical Power) magical damage. Up to 3 Flame Turrets may be placed at once. Hitting an Enemy with Spew redirects nearby Flame Turrets to attack the Target.
Flame Turrets take 60% increased damage from Melee Hero basic attacks.
Oil Spill [Secondary]:
CD: 16/15/14/13/12
Cost: 60
Effect: Scorch spews a ball of oil that rolls forward, dealing 40/60/80/100/120 (+30% Magical Power) magical damage to all Enemies hit. The oil will then remains for 5s, Slowing Enemies Units within it by 30% for 0.5s and applying Slick to them.
Iggy can ignite the oil with his fire abilities, refreshing its duration. While ignited, Oil Spill deals 10/15/20/25/30 (+8% Magical Power) magical damage per second.
Molotov [Alternate]:
CD: 8.5/8//7.5/7/6.5
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80
Effect: Iggy flings a Molotov that deals 60/85/110/135/160 (+45% Magical Power) magical damage to Enemies hit by the explosion.
A fire field will remain where the explosion occurs, dealing 30/40/50/60/70 (+20% Magical Power) magical damage over 2s.
Inferno [Ultimate]:
CD: 120/100/80
Cost: 100
Effect: Scorch unleashes a cone of fire, dealing 270/360/450 (+135% Magical Power) magical damage over 4s.
At the end of the duration or upon reactivation, Scorch belches, dealing 75/150/225 (+65% Magical Power) magical damage and Knocking Back nearby Enemy Heroes.
Winterfest Event
Celebrate this holiday season with Winterfest!
Winterfest is an in-game event that will start on the 12th of December 2023 and run until the 2nd of January 2024. Completing games during that time will net you XP that is used to earn a variety of exceedingly cool seasonal rewards.
Winterfest Rewards
And what exactly are those festive rewards?
- Five new profile icons
- Two new sprays
- A new banner
- Yuletide Feng Mao Skin [Common]
Winterfest kicks off on December 12th, so don’t miss out on unlocking these epic rewards! You might even spot some minions getting into the festive spirit too!
Store Update
Winterfest Skins
Alongside the Winterfest Event we also have a selection of Winter-themed skins available in the store for a limited amount of time.
The following skins will be available from the 12th December until the 9th of January.
Peppermint Kallari [Common]
Jingle Bombs Iggy & Scorch [Common]
Old Saint Riktor [Rare]
Frost King Revenant [Legendary]
Frost King Revenant is our first Legendary skin and includes new ice themed audio, a new VFX profile and modifications to his voiceover, along with his chilling new look.
Winterfest Bundles
During the Winterfest event we will have two Bundles available in the new bundle tab in the store.
Winterfest Mega Bundle
- Peppermint Kallari Skin [Common]
- Jingle Bombs Iggy & Scorch Skin [Common]
- Old Saint Riktor Skin [Rare]
- Exclusive Profile Icon
- Exclusive Banner
- Exclusive Spray
Frost King Bundle
- Frost King Revenant Skin [Legendary]
- Exclusive Profile Icon
- Exclusive Banner
- Exclusive Spray
Yuletide Feng Mao skin [Common] will be available in the store for one week after the Winterfest event ends.
Fireball Iggy & Scorch
The hottest flames burn blue, and the same can certainly be said for Iggy & Scorch!
published
Flambé your foes in style with Iggy & Scorch’s new Fireball skin [Common]!
Sprays
So you’ve just finished popping off. You’ve dominated your lane and executed the most incredible play this side of the PCC scene. What's next?
Well sure you can flex with an emote, but unless you’ve been sloppy with the clean up the enemy team won’t see it. The solution? Sprays!
Sprays are a fun way to express yourself in game by leaving lasting art in an area for all to see. In this update we’re adding six sprays that are unlocked by default, with more available through the Winterfest event and even more coming up in future patches. You equip them in the profile tab under “Sprays” and plop them in the world by hitting the [X] key on keyboard or pressing down on the d-pad if you’re using a controller.
Controller Improvements
To coincide with our console launch, we’ve completely overhauled the default control layout for PlayStation and PC players who will be using a controller.
This new layout focuses on allowing the player to cast all of their abilities without taking their fingers off of the sticks. It’s not final, so expect a few more slight changes as time goes on to better suit player needs (we recognize for example that having the item shop on the D-Pad isn’t really ideal etc).
Turn Acceleration
Alongside the control layout, Turn Acceleration has also been added to the settings menu. This comes with two parameters that can be freely configured:
Acceleration Strength: This value is a multiplier for your base turn rate. It will ramp up to its maximum strength over the value you set for Acceleration Delay.
Acceleration Delay: This value determines how long it takes to reach that maximum strength.
PlayStation Exclusive Features
Lightbar
Every Hero and skin now has its own colour that is shown on the controller’s lightbar. This is mainly tied to the colour of the hero’s VFX profile, but if the Hero doesn’t have a particularly vibrant VFX profile (Steel for example) the lightbar will instead represent the Hero’s dominant mesh colour.
Adaptive Triggers
DualSense players will have the option of playing with their R2 trigger in adaptive mode. This will make every Hero’s Basic Attack feel unique. For example, if the Hero uses a gun, the trigger will have a unique trigger weight and pull distance better simulating the feel of that gun.
Advanced Haptics
DualSense players will have the option of playing with Advanced Haptics. This uses the two haptic motors in the DualSense controller to replicate the feeling of casting each ability directly in your hands.
Hero Unlock Stage Adjustments
We’re making some small adjustments to the amount of stages required to unlock 3 of our Heroes.
- Shinbi now requires 2 unlock stages (she previously required 1).
- Morigesh now requires only 1 unlock stage (this has gone down from 2).
- Kallari now requires 4 unlock stages (previously this was 3).
To compensate players for the stage increase of these Heroes, any player who has already gained Unlock XP towards Shinbi or Kallari will be granted 1 full unlock stage of XP (10,000) for them, ensuring that these changes do not increase the time needed to unlock these Heroes for players already progressing towards them.
Note: This XP increase is currently a one-off and we do not plan on increasing the XP required to unlock any given Hero in the foreseeable future. Likewise, to ensure our Hero roster stays reasonably obtainable to unlock as it continues to grow, we plan on decreasing XP requirements over time for select Heroes as they become older releases.
Play Together - Win Together!
We're not done spreading festive spirit just yet!
We’ve put together some community goals that we can all work together to achieve to unlock rewards for everyone!
Total Community Referrals
20,000: Everyone unlocks an exclusive profile icon!
30,000: Everyone unlocks an exclusive exclusive profile banner!
50,000: Everyone unlocks a new Greystone skin!
Make sure your referrals are more than just numbers. Each referral counts only if the referred player redeems the code and completes at least one match. It's all about genuine engagement!
New Items
Still with us? Good, because this is the juicy bit!
In V0.13 we’re adding a range of brand spanking new items to the game! As if that wasn’t enough, we’re also reworking a bunch more for good measure!
We’ll go into full details further down in the Item Changes section, but to sum it up we’re delivering 11 completely new items, with 2 new or reworked items, per class!
There’s more to be discovered, so read on!
Ability Buffering Improvements
What Is Ability Buffering?
In Predecessor, when you are blocked from casting an ability due to an ongoing action - such as being mid-way through another ability’s animation - you may input another ability mid-way to “queue” it. Said ability will then attempt to cast at the next available opportunity.
Improvements:
Our goal is to build upon this, to make it truly reflective of what you’re trying to do in the moment. With that in mind, we’ve made the following changes:
- The last ability that you attempted to use while buffering will now be the ability that is actually used - rather than whatever you may have queued first.
- Abilities may now only be buffered for a short time before they are “forgotten” and must be input again - they are no longer remembered “forever”.
- Abilities that fail to cast under certain conditions, such as Grux’s Smash And Grab or Belica’s Seismic Assault mid-air, may now be buffered, and will cast upon landing on the ground.
- Abilities can now be buffered while under Hard Crowd Control effects such as Stuns, and will cast at the next possible moment once the effect expires.
- Jumping may now be buffered.
- Active Items and Blinks may now be buffered.
An ideal ability buffering system is one where your actions in game reflect your inputs and intent. With these changes, we’re taking another step towards a cleaner overall gameplay experience with less unintended actions occurring for the player, with further refinements to be made as we test this new functionality in a live environment.
Note: The issue where dashes do not register directional inputs after hard CC effects end is known and planned to be fixed in a future update!
PlayStation Closed Beta
December 5th marks the launch of the PlayStation Closed Beta - an important technical test and a huge milestone for our full release on console later next year.
Key Distribution
We will be sending out keys in waves based on your queue number (which itself is determined by how soon you signed up as well as how many people you’ve referred).
We will be sending out game keys in waves. We aim to deliver between 5,000 and 10,000 codes in each wave, with waves going out once or twice a day until we’ve reached everyone in the queue (excluding weekends). Once we’ve sent codes to everyone in the current queue, we’ll continue emailing further keys to anyone who signs up before the end of the Closed Beta period (January 5th).
The first wave of keys will be sent out to the first 10,000 players in the queue. This will occur at roughly 3pm UTC.
For additional support and information, check out our recent blog, PlayStation Closed Beta | What You Need To Know.
Other Improvements
- New player XP boost has been adjusted. We’ve reduced the boost at early levels and spread it out over later levels.
- Improvements have been made to the visuals of the active Hero on the Hero collection page.
- A 'Something New' notification will appear when you have rewards to be collected on the Affinity tab and in other areas and menus.
- The 'Buy Skin' button and price are now visible in the store when you do not own a Hero. These skins can also be purchased but you will be warned that ownership of the Hero is required in order to actually use the skin. We plan to improve this flow even more in a future update.
- The Skin Tab in the store has been improved, and clicking a skin will now navigate you to the Hero overview page. Pressing back will return you to the store.
- We've made some small performance improvements to the Affinity UI screen and the loading of Affinity related content.
- Improved Murdock’s Primary Attack SFX.
- Adjusted the Stim Pack siren visual.
- Imrpoved the sound/visuals of Silence Effect.
- Added some improvements to lane guidance SFX.
- We've made some small improvements to Rampage & Drongo's SFX.
- Made some improvements to Map ambience.
- Made some changes behind the scenes to the minimap to improve performance.
Balance Changes, New Items, Bug Fixes & More.
To see the full list of balance changes in this update, as well as a complete breakdown of the new items and the items we've reworked, please view the full patch notes over on our website.
That's everything this time Champions, what do you think?
Let us know your feedback over on our Discord server or the Predecessor Subreddit.
Until next time!
Kari
Community @ Omeda Studios