Evil Mojo has released Paladins update 2.66 for all platforms today. This update introduces a big balance patch. Check out the Paladins March 29 patch notes down below.
Paladins Update 2.66 Patch Notes | Paladins March 29 Patch Notes:
BALANCE CHANGES
Azaan
Azaan’s Ultimate is a powerful tool, but leaves Azaan incredibly open to punishment after using it. We’ve decreased the lockout after landing to allow Azaan to get back into the fight more smoothly.
Ultimate
- Deliverance
- Reduced lock out time after landing from 1.6s ➡️ 1.3s.
Buck
Buck is a dangerous flank when he catches his prey, but can be awkward to play when trying to balance his Ammo usage in the middle of a fight. This quality-of-life change shouldn’t increase his power level by much, but make his general moment-to-moment gameplay more enjoyable.
Weapon
- Shotgun
- Increased Ammo from 5 ➡️ 6
Cassie
Cassie is a difficult Champion to master, requiring a lot of game sense to maximize her potential and properly combo off her Abilities and Crossbow shots. On top of that, her Ultimate is very niche and more often than not is just an opportunity to shout “go Zigs!” in non-hyper cooperative lobbies. With all this in mind we sought to increase the consistency of Cassie’s damage so that she can better utilize her damage outside of her high-burst combos to contribute to her team’s game plan. Statistically she deals a lot of damage compared to all other Champions, sitting comfortably in the 7th spot, though despite that her win rate could be better, sitting at around 47~48%. By increasing her Attack Speed on Crossbow she’ll put out more damage more often outside of her combos. With the buff to Disengage, she’ll be able to combo with it more often and makes the Ability feel more impactful on its own. Finally with the buff to Scout, she’ll be able to have a more meaningful presence on the battlefield when activating it and be more individually powerful.
Abilities
- Scout
- Now also increases Attack Speed by 20%
- Disengage
- Increased Damage from 200 ➡️ 300
- Cooldown Reduced from 12 ➡️ 11s
Weapon
- Crossbow
- Increased fire rate from .75 ➡️ .65s
Caspian
Caspian’s snowball potential is as notorious as his criminal record, and allows for very one-sided interactions when he ramps up. We’ve reduced his snowball potential by reducing the ways he can earn stacks for Love and War in combat, and by reducing the % bonus to Attack Speed earned per stack. To compensate however, we’ve increased his base Attack Speed on Love and War to make moment-to-moment gameplay more consistent and allow Caspian to be more effective even without being at max stacks. His first Talent, Measured Cadence, was often picked for the utility it provided by easily generating stacks off of the weaker Rogue’s Tempo that’s fired; allowing Caspian to snowball incredibly quickly. We’ve removed the ability to activate cards off of this weaker Rogue’s Tempo to prevent Caspian from ramping up to 100 instantly off of a few activations.
Cards
The following cards will no longer trigger off of non-Champion targets (Shields, Deployables, etcetera):
- A Brief Respite
- Casual Competency
- In The Thick Of It
- Shady Dealings
- Flurry
- Rogues Of A Feather
- The Finer Things
Talents
- Measured Cadence
- The weaker Rogue’s Tempo projectile no longer triggers Cards.
Weapons
- Love
- Can no longer generate Piercing Momentum stacks from hitting non-Champion targets (Shields, Deployables, etcetera).
- Reduced the bonus Attack Speed from Sharp Momentum stacks from 5% ➡️ 2%.
- Increased Attack Speed from .85s ➡️ .75s.
- War
- Can no longer generate Sharp Momentum stacks from hitting non-Champion targets (Shields, Deployables, etcetera).
- Reduced the bonus Attack Speed from Piercing Momentum stacks from 5% ➡️ 2%.
- Increased Attack Speed from .65 ➡️ .58s.
Jenos
Jenos is one of our older Supports, and as such sometimes falls to the wayside when compared to more modern Support’s healing capabilities. We’ve increased the statistics of Astral Mark across the board to make it more valuable as a healing tool in a match and to make Jenos more attractive at Champion selection. We’ve also reduced the Cooldown on Stellar Wind to give Jenos more survivability in a match and allow for more decision making while playing him.
Abilities
- Astral Mark
- Increased Duration from 10s ➡️ 12s
- Decreased Cooldown from 7s ➡️ 6s
- Increased initial heal from 330 ➡️ 450
- Stellar Wind
- Reduced Cooldown from 2s ➡️ 1s
Kasumi
Kasumi’s first Talent, Empowered Curse, was universally the more popular choice at Talent selection due to the increase in damage it provided throughout the match. We’ve removed the Attack Speed and replaced it with Ultimate Charge rate increase to have it still provide a meaningful buff to her gameplay without making it oppressive to fight against. We will continue to evaluate Kasumi and keep an eye on her and the health of the game.
Talents
- Empowered Curse
- Now increases Ultimate Charge gain rate by 3% per stack instead of increasing Attack Speed per stack.
Khan
Khan struggles as a Frontline to make an impact compared to the rest of the cast. We’ve buffed Battle Shout’s Cooldown and Heal to give Khan a powerful team utility Heal compared to other Frontlines, and we’ve buffed his Heavy Repeater’s damage to make him more intimidating on the battlefield.
Abilities
- Battle Shout
- Cooldown reduced from 14s ➡️ 12s
- Heal increased from 1100 ➡️ 1350
Weapon
- Heavy Repeater
- Increased Damage from 190 ➡️ 210
Lillith
Lillith is unique as a Support in her incredible durability, to the frustration of some players trying to combat her. While we want to keep her unique durability a core of her character, we’re toning it down just a bit to reel back on the extreme cases where Lillith is seemingly unkillable during fights.
Cards
- Blood Cannon
- Reduced value of extra Blood Health from {250|250} ➡️ {200|200}
Ultimate
- Blood Moon
- Decreased Blood regeneration per second from 525 ➡️ 475
Nyx
While we have Nyx changes planned for this patch, we’ve encountered an issue that requires us to temporarily disable her for this PTS. We appreciate your patience as we investigate this issue and ask that you please keep your eyes on our Socials as we work to get these changes to you.
VII
VII’s hyper mobility and synergistic Cards / Talents allow him to be an intimidating presence in a match as he rolls and grapples across the map with ease. We’re hitting his mobility tools a little bit across the board to bring down his oppressive traversal, while still allowing him to have a powerful movement suite. The explosives left behind by Explosive Dodge also had a bit more power than we liked, so we’ve brought down the Damage and Range to make it a bit easier to fight against. Finally – Heavy SMG’s Burst and Auto fire modes are very consistent tools in VII’s arsenal, even at long range, so we’ve reduced their Range and Effective Range to make VII engage in fights at a more reasonable range and offer more counterplay when engaging against VII.
Abilities
- Explosive Dodge
- Reduced mines range from 35 ➡️ 30
- Reduced Damage from 250 ➡️ 200
Cards
- Latch And Fire
- Reduced Cooldown reduction from 1s|0.5s ➡️ 0.5s|0.5s
- The Night
- Reduced Cooldown reduction from 1s|0.5s ➡️ 0.5s|0.5s
Talents
- Spring Loaded
- Reduced % Cooldown reduction on Explosive Dodge from 35% ➡️ 30%
Weapon
- Heavy SMG
- Reduce Range on Burst and Automatic Mode
- Burst: Range 300 / Effective Range 130 ➡️ Range 200 / Effective Range 110
- Auto: Range 175 / Effective Range 115 ➡️ Range 150 / Effective Range 95
- Reduce Range on Burst and Automatic Mode
Skye
Skye is an interesting character in the sense that playing her can be a binary enjoyable / horrible experience depending on how many of the enemy team purchases Illuminate. Her ability to enter Stealth at will is unique, and as a Flank character she lacks the general mobility her peers enjoy due to it. As Paladins has evolved, Skye has remained a conditionally strong pick, but lacks the consistency other characters have. As such we’ve buffed her unique aspects and given her more utility to maneuver during a fight. We’ve increased the charges on Smoke Screen to give her a more viable method of engaging and escaping mid combat, while also giving her Smoke and Dagger Talent a bit more utility. Preparation has had the Movement Speed bonus removed and replaced with an Ammo refill to give Skye the ability to press the offensive at the cost of her Stealth, and we’ve given her a Movement Speed Passive to bring her mobility more up to par with the rest of our Flanks. Finally, we’ve updated her Default Deck for Preparation so that it now synergizes with the Talent.
Abilities
- Smoke Screen
- Now has 2 Charges
- Cooldown is increased from 12s ➡️ 14s
Deck
- Updated the default Deck for Preparation.
Talents
- Preparation
- No longer increases Movement Speed, reloads ammo when casting Hidden
Weapon
- Wrist Crossbow
- Now has a Passive, “Shadow Walker”, which increases Movement Speed by 30% while in Stealth (from both Hidden / Smoke Screen)
Sha Lin
Sha Lin can be powerful, but generally suffers from being a difficult Champion to master and as such doesn’t see much play. We’re increasing his Health to bring his overall durability and time in a fight before retreating up, and we’re decreasing his Longbow’s time to max charge to allow for consistent damage output when playing him.
Health
- Increased from 2000 ➡️ 2150
Weapon
- Longbow
- Reduced draw time from 1s ➡️ 0.9
Torvald
Torvald’s previous buff had the intended effect of increasing his general effectiveness, but the grandpa has become a little too strong because of it. We’re reducing the Shield and Shield Regeneration granted from the previous patches buff, but still have it buffed compared to before then so that Torvald still has a meaningful presence during a match.
Abilities
- Recharge
- Reduced passive Shield from 3000 -> 2500
- Reduced Shield regeneration amount from 3000 -> 2750
Willo
While Wilo does not consume ammo during her Ultimate, it could still lead to awkward moments where she needs to reload before activating her Ultimate or immediately after and breaks the flow of combat for her. With this change Willo will be able to engage in team fights more consistently without increasing her overall power level by much.
Abilities
- Fae Flight
- Now refills Ammo after casting Ultimate
RANKED ROTATION
It’s time for a switch-up! This patch’s ranked rotation will be seeing a couple community-requested changes to keep things fresh:
- Frozen Guard has grown tired after holding up the rotation for a bit, and will be swapped out in place of Frog Isle.
- The Orb and Hammer calls. Dawnforge has been added as a Ranked map!
- To sum it up, Frozen Guard, Fish Market, Timber Mill, and Bazaar are out for this rotation, and Dawnforge has been added in, making 11 playable ranked maps. Have fun!
KNOWN ISSUES
- Nyx is disabled as we continue to work on her!
- Skye’s Preparation has too long of a short description.
- Caspian’s cards will still gain stacks from Ying’s Illusions & Io’s Luna
Source: Paladins