Keeping Build Variety Strong

Heroes!

Build variety and viability are two of the most important parts of Ascension: whether you’re playing in Draft Mode or Free Pick, you want to play how you want! Sometimes, that means a few tweaks on the back end: both to make sure underperforming builds get a bit better, and overperforming builds don’t get so good that everyone’s forced to play them.

So here’s a few tweaks!

These tweaks are small balance adjustments, generally around 1-5%, that target underperforming and overperforming builds to accomplish two goals:

• Provide small buffs to underperforming abilities, talents, enchants, and builds to help make them viable
• Provide small nerfs to stronger builds to stop Heroes from feeling forced to play them

These updates specifically target PvE, while taking care not to impact PvP. They operate on the margin: you won’t feel any enormous game changing differences in your build. However, these tweaks will gently enhance build variety throughout PvE: all without being intrusive to the current builds you love.

Finally, you can expect small tweaks like this one to happen often! This will ensure that build variety stays open in between larger, more sweeping improvements: so things stay fresh! These tweaks are separate from larger Classless Updates. You can count on both happening, with each specialized and focused to solve unique problems. Using both, Ascension will continue to aim for build variety and viability across all its game types!

With more frequent tweaks, the overall balance and variety of builds will increase across Ascension gradually over time, making sure you can play how you want, get wild with build creation, and forge your destiny in Classless WoW!

See you in Azeroth, Heroes!

Changes this week

Here follow the weekly tweaks that will go live before the weekend. 

• Triggering Solar Eclipse while you have Total Eclipse Mystic Enchant increases your Nature spell critical strike chance by 15%, up from 10%.
• Triggering Lunar Eclipse while you have Total Eclipse Mystic Enchant increases your Arcane damage done to monsters by 15%, up from 10%. The PvP damage is unchanged.
• Lunar and Solar Bomber from the Astral Bomber now provide a 4% increase per stack from 3%.
• Hydromancer now grants an additional stack of the Conductor buff if your Water Bolt critically hits.
• Energy Bolt now has a cast time of 1.7 seconds, similar to Lightning Bolt. In addition, fixed a tooltip issue, clarifying you only get 1 combo point per cast.
• Brain Freeze now increases the damage of Fireball by 25%, down from 30%.
• Reduced the spell power scaling of Shadow bolt to 0.52, down from 0.531.
• Lightning Strikes Twice now reduces the damage of Chain Lightning by 45%, up from 40%.
• Midnight Flames now provides 6% damage per stack increase to Pyroblast and 8% damage increase per stack to Conflagrate.
• Soul of the Pyro now increases the damage of your Soul Fire on targets affected by your Pyroblast by 4%, down from 6%.
• The base damage and scaling of Soul Fire have been increased by 5%.
• Consumed by Fire now causes your Pyroblast debuff to increase the critical strike chance of your Soul Fire against the target by 10%.
• Reduced the damage dealt by Combo Shot and Combo Shot Bleed in the Compound Power Mystic Enchantment by 10% This change is intended to bring the AoE damage of the LRE more in line with other builds.
• The spell damage coefficient of Heart of the Crusader has been reduced from 18% to 15%, and the attack power coefficient from 9% to 7%. This change is intended to bring the power granted by this talent more in line with other talents.
• Master of Shadows now grants up to 75% of your Agility as spell damage, up from 60%.
• Ice Lash now also makes your attack power increase the damage of your Cone of Cold in addition to Frostbolt and Ice Lance.
• Ward of Light now increases the damage of Divine Storm against monsters by 20%, up from 10%. Its PvP damage is unchanged.
• Increased the self-healing buff effect from Touched by the Light stacks to 10/20/30% per stack, up from 7/14/20% per stack.
• Undaunted now only reduces the bonus health effect of Last Stand by 5%, down from 10%.
• Reduced the spell power and attack power scaling of Purification by Light by about half, but added flat level scaling.
• The 20% armor reduction from Nature's Fervor now lasts for 20 seconds, up from 12 seconds.
• Increased the coefficient of the Mending Tide heal over time effect from the Mending Tide Mystic Enchantment from 1.5% to 4.5%.
• Holy Spirit now triggers on cast instead of on hit to avoid having to wait for the travel time before you can use your Holy Shock with 4 stacks.

As you can probably tell, none of these tweaks are big enough to make or break builds, but over time these small changes will add up to a more dynamic game that is more fun for everyone.