Hello Guildmasters,
And welcome to our weekly update, which brings you
another major balance pass, including dev notes explaining the thought process behind some of the changes
some visual tweaks and optimizations, and
bug fixes.
As always,⭐ marks changes inspired by community suggestions.
Thank you all for playing Guildrun, suggesting improvements, reporting issues, and sharing your feedback. It's a blast improving the game with you, and we appreciate every one of you.
Now, let's jump into the changes.
Visual Changes
Battle tweak: Fixed Gustav AoE vertical position to smoothen transition with loop ending
⭐ Adjusted Rank up intro animation to also accommodate 16:10
Swapped red rift leaderboard title order
⭐ Updated frozen shop overlay
Recalibrated on hit vfx render
Minor change on character death desaturation
Updated damage numbers animations and included icons and color coding for additional information about the damage source
Bug Fixes
⭐ Fixed a bug with the Strange Fruits event where relics with permanent stat bonuses were not granted
⭐ Fixed a bug where hero growth could block the crossroads buttons by resetting their size after a battle
⭐ Fixed missing rush trigger tracking in the Russian localization
⭐ Fixed a couple of issues with text formatting in Russian and Chinese localizations
⭐ The “Red Fruits” option for the Strange Fruits event now correctly gives the reward immediately.
Balance Changes
By Aleco, Lead Designer on Guildrun.
Welcome to patch #3 for the Guildrun Demo! We’ve got plenty of changes in store this week, with a much heavier focus on buffs over nerfs than last week’s patch. I pay very close attention to all of the feedback I can find on Guildrun, and many players were clear in their feedback on last week’s balance patch that they were disappointed by the number of nerfs in comparison to the number of buffs. This feedback was taken to heart, and I hope that players who were disappointed by last week’s patch will be much happier this one.
If you’re only interested in reading about the balance changes this week please feel free to skip ahead to the “Gameplay Updates” section. If you’re interested in reading a bit about game design, my personal philosophy when it comes to balance changes, and how I approached this week’s patch differently than last week’s, then this next section is for you!
Balancing for Everyone
I’ve been working on balance patches for a while now - first at Riot, then at Blizzard, and now at Leyline - and the hardest part about making a good balance patch is that different groups of players have very different sets of expectations. One group of players might be expecting a nerf to a Hero that is dominating the meta and celebrate when it happens, while another group will be upset that you just nerfed their favorite Hero. One part of the Guildrun community feels like Red Rift is too hard and would like to see its difficulty decreased, while another part feels like Red Rift is too easy and would like to see its difficulty increased. When it comes to balance changes that have competing interests (and in my opinion, very few balance changes don’t have competing interests), how do I go about making decisions?
Since it just isn’t possible for every player to be happy with every decision I make, I try to think about each decision in terms of the “net fun” it will add to the game for each kind of player. I read through my list of changes from the perspective of each major player group, then add up the total amount of positive and negative “fun units” I expect these players to derive from each change. This way, even though certain changes add to the net fun of one group while subtracting from another, I can always aim for each player group to end up with a positive net fun score, which hopefully translates to a positive view on the patch. However, if even one player group ends up in the net fun negative then I haven't done my job well enough.
For Guildrun, the 3 major groups of players are the Climbers, the Endless Mode players, and the Red Rift players. The Climbers are players who are in the process of climbing through the difficulties to unlock and complete all of Guildrun's content, and are currently our largest group of players by a decent margin. Everyone starts out as a Climber, and for many of these players the quest to discover everything the game has to offer is the game. The experience that players have during their climb through the difficulties is incredibly important to us, and the feedback from Climbers helps make the game better for all Climbers, present and future. Since the primary goal for most Climbers is to progress up the game's difficulties, it's easy to understand why nerfs can feel like an obstacle standing between them and their goals, and why buffs feel like a helping hand.
Next up are our Endless Mode players, who are roughly equal in number to our Red Rift players. Endless Mode players tend to view the game in terms of how fun the current state of Endless is, which comes with a very different set of goals and expectations from the other player groups. Perhaps the biggest expectation that Endless players have for balance patches is that they increase the variety of viable Endless builds. This means that buffs are often welcome, but that nerfs are only improving their Endless experience if they hit something which is too dominant compared to other Endless strategies. Most Endless players are also invested in keeping the difficulty of the game stable. Increases to the difficulty of the game mean that fewer are able to survive long enough to reach Endless mode and get their chance to shine, while decreases to the difficulty of the game lead to situations where the greediest builds start to outshine the others and the role that luck plays in the game becomes too big.
Then come our Red Rift players, who are easily our most dedicated group. They play many more runs per patch than the other groups, and consequently tend to identify Guildrun’s powerful Heroes and specializations quite quickly and rely on balance changes to them to keep the game fun and engaging. Things which stand out as overpowered or “auto-pick” tend to be much more frustrating for Red Rift players than the other player groups, which means that the highest impact and most desired balance changes for Red Rift players are usually nerfs over buffs. Buffs to anything “unpickable” are still appreciated, but it's the nerfs that do the heavy lifting for the Red Rift audience.
Red Rift players are very important to us, which makes it hard for me to imagine putting together a patch where I don’t listen to their feedback and make a few high-impact nerfs. I understand that nerfs are often in direct conflict with the goals of the Climbers and Endless Mode players as well, but my hope is that I’m able to make enough positive changes for the other groups that everyone ends up happy with the patch. Last patch I simply didn’t do a good job at calculating what the “net fun” would be for our Climbers and Endless players, who ultimately weren’t happy with the ratio of buffs to nerfs. I did my best to learn from their feedback, and in this week’s patch I made a serious effort to improve the buff/nerf ratio in a way that I hope everyone will enjoy.
All in the Timing
Something I spent a lot of time focusing on in this week’s patch was the importance of “timing”, especially when it comes to Heroes. Run-based winrates simply don’t tell the whole story when it comes to determining how powerful something is, and for a game like Guildrun, if you want to know how powerful something is then you need to take a close look at how they perform in each of the game’s 5 major timings: Act 1, Act 1 Boss, Act 2, Act 2 Boss, and Endless.
Let’s start with the example of Karsu, who is currently the #2 overall winrate hero in both Red Rift and SSS. When you take a closer look at how she performs over time though, you’ll see that she does fantastic against bosses but is in the bottom half of Heroes when it comes to non-boss fights. The opposite is true for Funke, whose overall winrate suggests that he might be one of the game’s worst Heroes despite the fact that he is arguably the strongest Hero in the game in non-boss fights.
While putting together today’s patch, I went 1 by 1 through each Hero in the game to assess how they were performing across each of the 5 timings. I wanted to ensure that each Hero had a clear identity in terms of their power across the 5 timings, and that no Hero was underperforming or overperforming in 3 or more of the 4 pre-Endless timings. I also did my best to ensure that each Hero had specializations which were strong in different timings, and that no specialization was clearly better or worse than the other two specializations across the board.
This resulted in a hefty number of Hero changes this week, with 16 Heroes receiving some kind of update. 10 of these Heroes purely received buffs, 5 received a mix of buffs and nerfs, and only one (Sal) purely received nerfs. I’ll do my best to call out these timing-based changes in their individual descriptions, and hope that everyone enjoys the changes!
Gameplay Updates
Red Rift Leaderboard Reset:
Due to the expected impact of the balance changes in this patch, we will be resetting the Red Rift leaderboard.
We are currently aiming to reset the Red Rift Leaderboard tomorrow, as some technical issues prevented us from being able to warn players in-client about the upcoming reset on time.
Starting Bonuses
Notes: I’m super happy with last week’s changes to starting bonuses. None of the bonuses which had their Shard penalty removed appear to be out of line, while all of the nerfed bonuses are still very pickable and playable. The one bonus which changed more than I would have liked to see was All In, which saw its winrate fall after the bug fix to Emergency Rewind.
All In
Shards gained: 40 -> 45
Relics
Team Size
Notes: The buffs to team size relics will continue until morale improves.
Harmony Crystal
Cost: 45 -> 40
Legendary
Acceleration Legacy Crystal
Rush duration: 6 -> 8
Epic
Assassin's Supremacy Filigree
Rush duration: 4 -> 5
Deceleration Corruptor
Added Stall (45) trigger.
Rare
Notes: Codex relics were slightly underperforming across the board, so I buffed their initial stat bonuses by half a stack each.
All Codex Relics
Starting Attack: 6 -> 9
Starting Magic: 6 -> 9
Starting Omnivamp: 2 -> 3
Starting Max HP: 50 -> 75
Starting Defense: 10 -> 15
Starting Crit: 4 -> 6
Starting Attack Speed: 5 -> 8
Unique
Notes: I’m trying to be very selective with my nerfs this week, but nerfs to these two relics were hard to avoid. Duelist’s Outbreak was ~10% higher winrate then the 2nd best Guild Banner relic, while Shard Resonator was outperforming all other Event 2 relics by a similar margin. As always when it comes to nerfs, I fully expect that these two relics will still be amongst the top choices in their categories after the changes.
Duelist’s Outbreak (From Guild Banner Event)
No longer gives 1 Attack per Debuff.
Shard Resonator (From Fallen Beast Event)
1k -> 600 shields
Items
Epic
Notes: Rogue’s Cowl needed a rework for more than one reason. Firstly, it was discovered that you could use multiple Rogue’s Cowls to go infinite in Endless Mode with the right setup. It also just so happened to be the lowest winrate epic item in the game. My goal with the changes to Rogue’s Cowl is to make the item more exciting and powerful, and to break up the infinite potential in Endless Mode. The changes to Ring of Virality are intended to be a buff by having the item provide more relevant stats for its most likely holders.
Rogue’s Cowl
Removed Rush. Now gives Stealth to the holder at the start of combat and every 20 seconds for 3 seconds.
+5 Crit
-25 Magic
+20 Attack Speed
Ring of Virality
-200 Max HP
+2 Mana Regen
+10 HP/S
Rare
Squire’s Sword
Bonus Attack: 6 -> 10
Squire’s Helm
Bonus Max HP: 40 -> 50
Heroes
Niklas
Notes: Niklas is back on the menu, Red Rift players! Due to Niklas’s insatiable hunger for items in his left-most item slot, we had to remove him from the pool of potential starting Heroes in Red Rift to prevent him from eating the Rift Seal. We’re giving him an extra item slot to work with out of the gates, which means we can put him back in the pool of starting Heroes for Red Rift while also giving a much-deserved buff to our favorite item eater.
Red Hot Deals (Signature Passive Ability)
Now gives +1 item slot.
The Executive
Extra item slots: 2 -> 1.
Along with the Red Hot Deals change, this will result in Niklas having the same number of total item slots when he picks this spec.
Ming
Notes: Ming’s story is a tale of two acts. He’s one of the better Heroes in Act 1 and performs well enough in Endless, but was falling off a bit too much in Act 2. These changes are all aimed at improving his scaling potential for Act 2 and beyond.
The Enlightened
Duration increase for Rush abilities: 1 base + 1 per rank -> 0 base + 2 per rank.
The Searing (Active Ability)
Burn inflicted per Rush trigger this game: 5 -> 7.
The Tempered
Max HP boost: 25% base + 25% per rank -> 20% + 30% per rank.
Zuri
Notes: Zuri is doing great in normal fights, but is struggling a bit too much against bosses. The Cruel needed some buffs to catch up with her other specs, but it was already surprisingly good against the Act 2 boss thanks to its scaling power and built-in Stun. My hope is that these buffs make The Cruel a bit less of a liability in Act 1 while also providing Zuri with a solid boss-killing option.
The Cruel
Poison inflicted per stack of Stone Skin: 1 -> 2
Base Damage: 150 -> 200
Yuuna
Notes: Yuuna has a strong Act 1, but she falls off a bit in Act 2 while also being awful in both boss fights. My goal with these changes is to give her a stronger act 2 while also hopefully raising her floor in boss fights so that she is no longer a liability in them.
Shuriken Shadow Strike (Signature Active Ability)
Max Shurikens: 8 -> 10
Shurikens per Crit: 50 -> 40
Now places her behind the enemy based on the direction they were facing. This should help her better avoid AoE damage in the boss fights.
The Shadow
Mana gained: 30 -> 40
This change allows her to instacast when she has an effect that gives her Stealth at start of combat.
Hoyoung
Notes: Hoyoung is in a similar position to Yuuna - he has a strong Act 1 but a weaker Act 2 and poor boss fight performance. These changes will hopefully allow him to secure a few more kills per run and scale better into the late game.
Base Stats
Max Mana: 80 -> 75
Starting Mana: 45 -> 40
Killshot (Signature Active Ability)
Attack and Magic scaling: 250% -> 300%
The Sniper
Attack per hex per rank: 8 base + 8 per rank -> 10 base + 10 per rank.
This change is a bug fix, as the text said it was giving 10 Attack but the code was only giving 8.
Crit per hex per rank: 3 base + 3 per rank -> 4 base + 4 per rank.
Grace
Notes: Grace is intended to be the Mystic that scales the hardest. Along with Ratna and Logan, she is one of only 3 Heroes in the game that have different scaling values for their signature stat per rank. Since Grace wasn’t performing as well as I would like to see in Act 2, I’m increasing her scaling values to help her realize her late-game-scaling-Mystic dreams.
Salvation (Signature Active Ability)
C Rank Magic Scaling: 125% -> 150%
B Rank Magic Scaling: 250% -> 300%
A Rank Magic Scaling: 500% -> 600%
S Rank Magic Scaling: 750% -> 900%
Fiona
Notes: When players bring up the question of “who is the worst Hero in the game?”, Fiona's name comes up a lot. Her data tells the story of a Hero that actually isn’t bad in any timing, but also isn’t great at any timing either. Her 3 specs are basically equally powerful and each have their own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to timings, which suggests a change to her core kit is needed. I want to position Fiona as the “casts most frequently” Mystic, so I’m decreasing her Max Mana by a good chunk and her Starting Mana to (almost) match.
Base Stats
Max Mana: 115 -> 100
Starting Mana: 45 -> 25
Pollen
Notes: Pollen has one spec, The Fae’s Kiss, which just isn’t up to snuff with her other two.
The Fae’s Kiss
First Stall duration: 20 -> 10
Second Stall duration: 40 -> 30
Funke
Notes: Funke has established himself as Guildrun’s definitive mob crusher over the past few patches, but has become a bit too definitive for much of the Red Rift community’s liking. I like that Funke is a character with clear strengths and weaknesses - he’s strong in non-boss fights and weak in boss fights - but his strength at stabilizing boards across both Acts has made it too easy for players to play greedy and cover up for his weakness by buying a “boss slayer” like Karsu. All 3 of his specs rank among the top performers in Act 1, which suggests that one of his base numbers is a bit too high. Meanwhile, his Detonator spec is widely regarded as the best spec in the game for Red Rift, and the data largely backs this up. It’s not all bad news for Funke fans though! His Inferno spec has some room for buffs, and I hope to position it as his best boss-slaying spec after these changes.
Wildfire (Signature Active Ability)
Base burn per Fireball: 15 -> 12
The Detonator
Ticks of Burn per cast: 10 base + 10 per rank -> 7 base + 7 per rank
The Inferno
Notes: The in-game text on this ability said it was only inflicting 15 base Burn, but was actually inflicting 25 in the code. I’m keeping it at 25 base Burn correcting the text.
Burn inflicted per Magic: 1/4 -> 1/3
Karsu
Notes: Fire and Ice. Karsu is the anti-Funke, she crushes against bosses but struggles a bit in non-boss fights, especially in Act 2. I’m happy to maintain this identity for her, but I both want to raise her floor in non-boss fights and lower her ceiling slightly for boss fights. The 3 extra Base Attack Damage should make her a much more threatening auto-attacker and all around Duelist for non-boss floors, while the adjustments to her Mana values will make her casts beyond the first one stack up a bit slower for the boss fights she’s already dominant in.
Base Stats
Base Attack Damage: 30 -> 33
Max Mana: 80 -> 85
Starting Mana: 40 -> 45
Skorn
Notes: I’m happy with the overall state of Skorn, who does a great job of scaling up in power as the game progresses. His Bristleguard spec has been his least popular by a wide margin, and even though I don’t expect these changes to suddenly make it popular I do hope that they make players consider it a bit more often than they might have before.
The Bristleguard
Base Defense per Tank: 5 -> 10
Base Poison per Tank: 5 -> 10
Ratna
Notes: The Fashionable was Ratna’s top spec in 3 of 4 pre-Endless timings, while The Ostentatious had the opposite problem. I’m adjusting both of these specs with the goal of making all 3 of her spec choices more equal.
The Fashionable
HP/S per item rank: 8 -> 6
Mana Regen per item rank: 4 -> 3
The Ostentatious
Magic given on cast: 20% -> 25%
Magic given on backup: 20% -> 25%
Dragomir
Notes: Dragomir is overall in a solid spot, with strong Act 1 and Endless performance. He falls off a little more than I’d like to see in Act 2, so I’m increasing the Magic scaling on his Active Ability so that he can keep up with the kills.
Chomp (Signature Active Ability)
Magic scaling: 200% -> 250%
The Sanguine
Now places him behind the enemy based on the direction they were facing. This should help him better avoid AoE damage in the boss fights.
Sal
Notes: Sal is the only Hero in the game that is a top performer across all 4 pre-Endless timings. Unfortunately for Sal fans, this made a small nerf to her base kit hard to avoid. I’m aiming to maintain her identity as a flexible, all-round Hero who can perform well in a variety of team comps and in both boss and non-boss fights alike, so the only change I’m making to her this week is a reduction to her Base Attack Speed.
Base Stats
Base Attack Speed: .45 -> .42 (the same as Pimenta now <3)
Pimenta
Notes: Pimenta was one of the biggest risers this week, becoming the most popular Hero in Red Rift and top 3 in SSS. My intention is for this change to be a burf - equal parts buff and nerf - where she shifts a bit of her power from the runaway-HP/S gains in the second half of her Active Ability and towards the offensive output in the first half of it.
Pepper Spray (Signature Active Ability)
Magic damage scaling: 50% -> 75%
Poison inflicted per tick: 1/25 Defense -> 1/20 Defense
HP/S gain per tick after Stall: 3 base + 2 per rank -> 2 base + 2 per rank
Kai
Notes: Kai had two specs which stood out when viewed across the 5 timings, The Bold and The Intrepid. I’m sure some players are tired of seeing The Bold in the patch notes at this point, but it remains Kai’s top spec in every timing (including Endless). The Intrepid has struggled with low pickrate and poor boss performance since launch, and deserved a mini-rework this week to make it both more exciting and more powerful. The new and improved Intrepid now gives Kai a permascaling option, which I hope will transform it into an enticing choice for Act 1 rankups. I’ve been very cautious not to over-nerf The Bold as it ranks among many players’ favorite specs, and spent some time this week trying out different changes to ensure The Bold will remain playable and interesting after the changes. I’ve added Stall (15) to the on-cast bonus Shields half of The Bold, which in the vast majority of cases means that just his first cast each combat will not receive the bonus Shields from The Bold.
The Bold
Added Stall (15) to the second effect which gives Kai bonus Shields on cast.
The Intrepid
Reworked the first effect to give Kai permanent Attack and lasting Shields on Crit.