Outriders has been updated - Balancing Changes - 28.07.2022

Outriders Worldslayer has been updated!

Patch Notes

The complete Patch Notes spans two Announcements, as they are too long to be contained in a single one.

This announcement covers all changes regarding the game balance.
General Changes, New Features and Bug Fixes are in this announcement.

PREAMBLE

All changes made in today's patch have been very carefully considered and many of them are the results of direct feedback and discussions with and within the community.

For additional context around what we chose to address: A few weeks after Worldslayer had launched and we had been able to gather enough data, we drew up a full view of which Pax Nodes were being used by what percentage of the player population.

This task highlighted that a small number of nodes were seeing usages of 40% to 60% or more. On the other hand, some other nodes were seeing 1% or similar usage. The reasons for this are two-fold: Many of the highly used nodes were in a state where to not use them would be to deny oneself a lot of damage output - they were must haves in the eyes of players. These are the kind of nodes that allowed players to kill bosses within seconds, to become immortal or to even entirely ignore cooldown mechanics and in a few cases these unintended performances were the result of bugs within the node mechanics. On the other hand, the lesser picked nodes were not considered valuable enough when compared to the others.

We primarily saw this behaviour on the Devastator, Pyromancer and Technomancer trees. The Trickster Pax Tree was seen to be very balanced overall, with most nodes seeing an average 25% pick rate, which indicates that players are much more able to play according to their style, without being forced into "must have" nodes.

As has ever been our goal, we want players to have as much choice and as many viable build options as possible. When new players join Outriders, we do not want there to be a single answer to questions regarding "what build should I play?"

While today's balancing contains a very large number of changes that will make many things more powerful and viable, none of those changes would matter if we left the over-performers entirely unchecked. However, please bear in mind that even if a handful of nodes and mods have seen their power curtailed, we have generally tried to compensate for that power loss in other areas of the game.

We hope you will enjoy the new balancing in Outriders Worldslayer - see you on Enoch!

BALANCE CHANGES

General Balance Changes

• Apocalypse Tier Leveling
  • Starting from Apocalypse Tier 20, the requirement to level up each Apocalypse Tier has been reduced by 10%.

• Resources & Anomaly Extract
  • The amount of Anomaly Extract gained has generally been improved and the amount of Anomaly Extract gained in Tarya Gratar's Troves has been increased by 500%.
  • A full run-through of Tarya Gratar (including Troves) should now net out at around double the amount of Anomaly Extract earned per run when compared to before this patch.
  • Boss-rushing the final Arbiter will net slightly more Anomaly Extract than before, but this will not be the most efficient route for Anomaly Extract farming.

• Crafting and Upgrading
  • Starting at Item Level 50, the Anomaly Extract costs required to upgrade gear has been reduced by 5%.
  • Between the two above changes (Increased Gains and reduced Costs), players should be able to support upgrading two full sets of gear per Apocalypse Tier level. This should enable a greater amount of experimentations and limit the need to hoard resources in order to be able to upgrade the currently equipped set.

• Apocalypse Gear Drop Rates
  • Starting at Apocalypse Tier 11, the "Increased chance for Apocalypse variant gear" has been increased for each Apocalypse Tier.

• Expeditions
  • Expedition Rewards have been increased in order to make Expeditions feel more viable alongside Tarya Gratar. The "Loot Gained per X Time Investment" should now feel quite similar between Expeditions and Tarya Gratar.
  • Players should now receive a greater amount of Epic and Legendary Items and comparatively fewer Rare items in Expeditions.
  • Anomaly Extract farming should now also feel much more viable to do in Expeditions.

Balance Changes - Devastator

• Earthen Shell
  • Added a 0.5 second cooldown.
    • Note that due to a display rounding quirk in the engine, this cooldown will be displayed as being 1 second. It is, however, 0.5 seconds in actuality.

  • Greatly increased shield generation values.
  • Explanation:
    • Earthen Shell has been identified as being slightly too strong, so we’re applying a brief
      cooldown to the shield generation that was being abused through excessive animation cancelling. This will give some enemies a little more opportunity to be able to damage Devastators, who were otherwise immortal. We have compensated the implementation of the cooldown with an increased Shield generation per skill used so that Earthen Shell will still provide great value but without the potential for abuse.

• Multistrike
  • Stored damage is now capped at 700% of Anomaly Power.
  • Explanation:
    • Multistrike’s untamed potency has been a topic of discussion since the launch of Worldslayer. In an attempt to not completely gut its numbers, we have applied a cap to add a movable (through Anomaly Power) ceiling to the node.

• Terms of Engagement
  • Stored damage is now capped at 700% of Anomaly Power.
  • Explanation:
    • Much like Multistrike, Terms of Engagement suffered from a bug that allowed players to store up an unlimited amount of damage and then release it as a one-hit kill against any enemy in the game, including bosses. Our approach has been the same as with Multistrike, whereby we have applied a cap to the total amount of damage these nodes can store.

• Finishing Touch
  • Increased the Ammo-to-Weapon Damage coefficient provided by this node.
  • Explanation:
    • As part of our drive to make Firepower Devastators more viable, we are increasing the conversion of missing ammo to Weapon Damage by upping the value to more than it's previous 1:1 relation.

• Impact Point
  • Increased damage scaling from 30% to 50% of Anomaly Power.
  • Explanation:
    • This buff forms part of the overall power shift this patch is introducing for Devastators. The overall aim is to move the Devastator meta way from it's current form and instead open up multiple new viable options for play.

• Obliteration
  • Increased base Anomaly Power and Resistance Piercing from 6% to 10%.
  • Explanation:
    • Obliteration is being buffed to make it a more competitive choice when considered against Puncture. This buff forms part of the overall power shift this patch is introducing for Devastators. The overall aim is to move the Devastator meta way from it's current form and instead open up multiple new viable options for play.

• Upheaval
  • Increased the percentage of stored damage from 10% to 15%.
  • Fixed a couple of bugs that caused the Devastator's "Upheaval" Pax node to act in unexpected and inconsistent ways, such as acting differently when triggered by the Impale skill.
  • Explanation:
    • As we have applied a cap to Multistrike and a bug fix will now make Upheaval only store the activating player’s own damage (as was always intended), we are increasing the amount of stored damage as part of the overall Devastator power shift.

• Elitism
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the Devastator Pax node "Elitism" from correctly working on Bosses.
  • Reduced the cooldown on Elitism from 5 seconds to 1 second.
  • Explanation:
    • The bug fix supported the node's core purpose: providing power when fighting Elite and Boss enemies. However, during our analysis of Elitism's usage and behaviour, we identified that its previous uptime was clocked at around 50% at best. Reducing it's cooldown should allow players to maintain Elitism almost perpetually when fighting elites and bosses.

• Overwhelming Force
  • Increased Armor-to-Damage conversion from 40% to 60%.
  • Explanation:
    • Overwhelming Force's conversion is being buffed in order to incite more players into trying playstyles it supports while also providing a competitive synergy between this Pax node and changes we have made to some Devastator Legendary Sets.

• Paladin / Champion
  • Removed the PROTECTION keyword requirement and changed both nodes to activate on any skill.
  • Explanation:
    • After long discussions, we came to the conclusion that in order to truly unlock Devastator build variety, we had to remove the hindering factor of Protection keyword on both of these multiplier nodes. This change is part of our overall power shift to make more Devastator sets and playstyles more viable.

• Mighty Tank
  • Increased the percentage cap from 40% to 50% for both Anomaly Power and Firepower.
  • Explanation:
    • We are raising the ceiling for Warden Devastators so they can reap more benefits from fully committing to Armor stacking.

• Despair
  • Reduced the percentage of it's Anomaly Damage multiplier from 100% to 30%.
  • Explanation:
    • Despair-empowered Gravity Leap has dominated the Devastator meta as an omni-tool since Worldslayer launched. It has providing both uncontested survivability and damage debuffs while also being a powerful gap closer. While the survivability is a unique characteristic of Gravity Leap, with Worldslayer we introduced a systemic solution to debuff mods. At the time, we equalized them across the board to 30%, but Despair was the single outlier. This led to the Anomaly Power Devastator meta becoming extremely static, with the most dominant build continuing to be "Leapquake", as it already was during the base game's lifecycle. This was the result of being able to access both the old Paladin node and Despair at the same time and acquire effects that other build permutations could not achieve. Today's change removes the ‘must have’ nature of Gravity Leap, allowing it to be traded with other skills that can provide a comparable debuff. Coupled with Unshackled, Paladin should greatly expand the Devastator build variety.

• Bullet Acceleration
  • Increased base damage from 33 to 60.
  • Explanation:
    • With Paladin and Champion unshackled from the Protection keyword, we are keen to add offensive value to Reflect Bullet, so that it is not a lost and abandoned skill. This should give players incentive to keep the skill for its full duration.

• The Strongest First
  • Increased damage to the enemy with the highest HP from 50% to 75%.
  • Explanation:
    • With Paladin and Champion unshackled from the Protection keyword, we are keen to add offensive value to Reflect Bullet, so that it is not a lost and abandoned skill. This should give players incentive to keep the skill for its full duration.

• Bannerlord Legendary Set
  • Added extra functionality that provides 35% Anomaly Power bonus.
  • Note: Fundamental changes made to any gear pieces may not apply to existing items, due to the way the game spawns and stores loot. Any newly dropped gear pieces should include the stated changes if the existing items remain unaffected.
  • Explanation:
    • The Seismic Commander set has long been the dominant Devastator pick due to it's multipliers, required skill sets and its effective values concerning cooldown reduction when compared against damage multipliers. Giving the Bannerlord set extra Anomaly Power should help make it more competitive against the Seismic Commander set.

• Marshal Legendary Set
  • Increased both percentages of shared Physical and Anomaly damage from 30% to 50%.
  • Explanation:
    • As mentioned in the Bannerlord explanation, the Seismic Commander set is too much of a powerful all-rounder, which prevents other sets from being considered viable. Our philosophy believes that sets that fill a certain niche (such as the Marshal set) should excel in their tailored environments and should visibly outperform jack of all trades sets such as Seismic Commander.

• Concussioner Legendary Set
  • Primary attribute switched to Bonus Firepower.
  • Secondary attributes switched to contain Close Range Damage and Status Power.
  • Note: Fundamental changes made to any gear pieces may not apply to existing items, due to the way the game spawns and stores loot. Any newly dropped gear pieces should include the stated changes if the existing items remain unaffected.
  • Explanation:
    • The Concussioner set suffered from a severe case of identity crisis. The set was initially designed as an Anomaly Power bruiser, but progression layers within certain Pax nodes were not cooperating with the set’s premise. We have decided to shift the set to support Firepower builds in the same way the Deathproof set might. For both of these sets, damage is generated primarily from Armor stacking and the set bonus’ effect. This change for the concussioner set should also unlock better synergy with the Pax nodes through the Overwhelming Force path.

• Statue’s Legs Slot
  • Item now provides Bonus Firepower instead of Max Health.
  • Note: Fundamental changes made to any gear pieces may not apply to existing items, due to the way the game spawns and stores loot. Any newly dropped gear pieces should include the stated changes if the existing items remain unaffected.
  • Explanation:
    • With Worldslayer we rolled out changes to attributes for legendary sets to make them more coherent and appealing to players. This change is the ‘finishing touch’ of those efforts.

Balance Changes - Technomancer

• Lethal Devices
  • Added a 0.2 second cooldown to this nodes secondary effect.
  • Explanation:
    • Lethal Device's secondary effect was fairly overwhelming when used with a few builds that capitalized on an excessive amount of damage events occurring within a second. This change should control the excessive amount of events slightly without killing the node’s damage effect.
      

• Twin Reaper
  • Increased Echo damage from 25% to 35%.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the Technomancer's "Twin Reaper" Pax node from functioning properly after loading into a level.
  • Explanation:
    • In order to stimulate the Sniper archetype presence, we are increasing the Echo damage provided by Twin Reaper in order to support the fantasy of precise sniper shots being a deadly threat.

• Kinetic Converter
  • Reduced cooldown from 5 to 1 second.
  • Explanation:
    • The healing path for Technomancers has long been underrepresented, so we are increasing this Pax node's frequency to ensure the benefit for Overhealing occurs more often and can more effectively be utilized in combat.
      

• Hastened Influence
  • Increased the cooldown reduction from 0.5 to 1 second.
  • Explanation:
    • We feel the node didn't really hasten a Technomancer’s influence over enemies and are therefore giving it a boost. Winter is coming.

• Burrowing Charge
  • Reduced cooldown from 5 to 3 seconds.
  • Explanation:
    • Burrowing Charge is performing well in terms of numbers so we’re targeting the occurrence rate to make it more fluent during hectic multi-enemy encounters.

• Blightfire
  • Fixed a bug that caused the Technomancer's Flame Leper's Blightfire set bonus to consume and trigger off of Toxic that had been applied by other players, which in turn denied those players their application of Toxic.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Toxic multiplier mods from correctly working when applied to Blightfire.
  • Explanation:
    • Shit was broken. We fixed it.

• Downpour Legendary Set
  • Increased clusters scaling from 100% to 115% of Anomaly Power.
  • Explanation:
    • We are increasing the cluster scaling as compensation for some still visible issues with targeting, travel time and detonation time of Scrapnel.

Balance Changes - Pyromancer

• Carbon Footprint
  • Increased cooldown reduction from 0.5 to 1 second
  • Explanation:
    • The Immobilize path in the Pax skill tree is underrepresented so we are increasing the cooldown reduction from weaving both Immobilize skills to stimulate builds relying on constant Ash application.

• Carbonization
  • Increased damage multiplier from 20% to 25%.
  • Explanation:
    • The Immobilize path in the Pax skill tree is underrepresented so we are increasing the cooldown reduction from weaving both Immobilize skills to stimulate builds relying on constant Ash application.

• Convection
  • Reduced cooldown reduction from 4 to 2 seconds.
  • Explanation:
    • Convection launched in an undesired state with improper values. As a result of this, it has completely overshadowed the Arsonist path due to the positive feedback loop it generates. We are shifting its nature slightly to chip away cooldowns instead of fully resetting them. Low cooldowns and Skills on Tap remain one of Outriders Worldslayer's key tenets, but launch-day Convection went too far down this path.

• Arsonist
  • Reduced cooldown from 5 to 4 seconds.
  • Explanation:
    • Arsonist has been overshadowed by Convection, which fulfilled the former’s role entirely in the short cooldown environment Worldslayer introduced. In order to make Arsonist a more appealing choice, we are trimming Convection and increasing frequency of Arsonist through reduced cooldowns. Increasing the percentage chance to proc would be counterproductive to the node’s nature and its maximum gain, which is refreshing as many skills as possible.

• Solar Flare
  • Increased Critical Damage per stack from 10% to 15%.
  • Explanation:
    • Similarly to the Immobilize paths struggles, the Critical path was overshadowed by Bullet Frenzy. We are increasing the Crit Damage multiplier to make it a more appealing and competitive choice.
      

• Critical Mass
  • Increased duration from 2 to 5 seconds
  • Explanation:
    • Critical Mass was designed to be a baked-in Embalmer’s Rage and was meant to offer a competitive choice to Bullet Frenzy, but this was not achieved at launch. We are providing more leeway to this node through it's increased duration, so that players can enjoy guaranteed Crit Shots for longer periods of time while also offsetting troubles with scoring a Critical Shot on beast enemies or very mobile humanoids.

• Master Exploder
  • Reduced conversion rate from 100% to 50%.
  • Explanation:
    • Master Exploder has been overperforming when combined with the amount of Resistance Piercing players are gathering from multiple sources. Master Exploder completely outshined Trigger Sequence. We are committing to a power shift inside the branch, relaying power from Master Exploder into Trigger Sequence to make the apex node an appealing choice.

• Backdraft
  • Reduced Anomaly Power ramp per stack from 30% to 25%.
  • Explanation:
    • Trigger Sequence has been overshadowed by the value brought by Backdraft. We are trimming a bit of power in Backdraft and compensating Trigger Sequence in order to make it a more desired node.

• Trigger Sequence
  • Increased damage ramp per stack from 25% to 35%.
  • Explanation:
    • As stated in the Master Exploder notes, Trigger Sequence has been overshadowed by combination of an interim node and the Coming in Hot node. While we do not want to curtail players’ freedom of selection which Pax nodes they choose, we do still strive to make apex nodes provide the highest benefit so that using them feels worthwhile.

• Burnt Offerings
  • Increased damage ramp per tick from 10% to 20%.
  • Explanation:
    • Burnt Offerings is ramping too slowly in the encounter pacing that emerged post launch, so we are expediting it to make the node reach considerable amounts of damage from Burn Offerings faster and more reliably.

• Wildfire / Conduction
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the "Wildfire" and "Conduction" Pyromancer skill tree nodes from being effective if players were pushing the limits of their Cooldown Reduction.
  • Explanation:
    • The nodes were not working as intended and was being diminished by the global cooldown reduction cap which is achieved rather easily in Worldslayer.

• Mark of the Anomaly
  • Increased the damage against Marked enemies 10% to 12%.
  • Explanation:
    • This is part of an overall change in which we are providing some extra power across all Firepower builds in the base game's Class Trees.

• Susceptibility
  • Reduced Resistance reduction from 40% to 30%
  • Explanation:
    • In Worldslayer, we introduced a systemic solution to Resistance reduction mods, but Susceptibility evaded that adjustment. We are amending that in order to even it out with mods such as Asunder.

• Reforged Legendary Set
  • Increased Thermal Bomb damage from 100% to 200%.
  • Increased Feed the Flames damage from 100% to 200%.
  • Explanation:
    • The niche that Reforged was filling was overtaken with the introduction of the Heatseeker set. We are therefore looking to differentiate them by making Reforged play around BIG Thermal Bombs in comparison to the MANY Thermal Bombs that Heatseeker provides. Additionally, this change is another step in making Feed the Flames a competitive choice for Anomaly Power builds who want to play around single target / cleave profile.

• Torturer Legendary Set
  • Increased damage shared from 30% to 50%.
  • Explanation:
    • Similarly to the Marshal set, we want to make niche sets excel in their designated environment (for the Torturere set this is the "Cleave" environment), without letting them be outperformed by ‘jack of all trades’ sets.

Balance Changes - Trickster

• Quantum Entanglement
  • Increased shared damage from 20% to 30%.
  • Explanation:
    • Quantum Entanglement is currently competing with the Pain Transfer mod and much to our dismay it consistently loses the arms race. We are therefore increasing its value so it can shine as THE cleave node while also alleviating the overwhelming need to play with Time Rift.

• Special Tactics
  • Increased duration from 3 to 5 seconds.
  • Explanation:
    • We are adding a bit of breathing room for players running Special Tactics when searching for new Elites on the battlefield so that they can keep stacking the ramp.

• Cheap Shot
  • Increased debuff duration from 5 to 10 seconds.
  • Increased Armor/Resistance shred from 30% to 40%.
  • Explanation:
    • Cheap Shot is greatly underrepresented so we are adding duration and increasing shred capacity to allow players a bigger scope of debuffing enemies across the battlefield while also allowing the debuff to last longer without players having to get up close and personal every few seconds.

• Spectral Spike
  • Cooldown reduced from 1 to 0.5 sec
  • Explanation:
    • Similarly to the Pyromancer's Burnt Offerings change, we are shortening the time for the Spectral Spike's ramp to reach its max potency. This should make the buildup more fluent in the emergent Worldslayer combat pacing.

• Temporal Blade
  • Base cooldown reduced from 19.8 to 16.8.
  • Explanation:
    • We looked at Anomaly Power builds which run on a singular damage source (Temporal Blade) and this change is a slight push to make its combat loop more fluent through faster access to Temporal Blade.

• Wind Slash
  • Increased base damage from 6.5 to 13.
  • Explanation:
    • Cyclone Slice is having a hard time fitting into the Worldslayer environment so we’re giving it a boost to base damage to make it a more viable choice.

• Slow Trap
  • Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
  • Explanation:
    • This change is another step in making Slow Trap more portable for the dynamic playstyles that the Trickster represents.

• Terminal Velocity Legendary Set
  • Weapon Damage bonus increased from 60% to 80%.
  • Explanation:
    • Firepower Tricksters are underperforming slightly in comparison to Anomaly Power Tricksters so we are adding extra power into the set bonus to even it out with the Shieldbeast Set.

Balance Changes - All Classes

• Maxwell’s Demon Legendary Set
  • Fixed an issue with the set bonus only accounting for Bonus Firepower instead of Total Firepower.
  • Explanation:
    • The Maxwell's Demon set was drawing from only a part of the player's Firepower which
      was not the intended outcome. This fix increases the power of the bonus.

• Trigger Twitch Legendary Set
  • Increased the Firepower coefficient from 40% to 280%.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the Trigger Twitch set from prioritizing targets properly.
  • Explanation:
    • Trigger Twitch was launched with incorrect values, making the set severely underperform. This is an adjustment to bring it to the intended power level.

• Mage’s Rage
  • Fixed a bug that was causing unforeseen issues with the amount of stacks and the Anomaly Power calculation
  • Fixed a bug that was preventing stacks from dropping away as intended when player's swapped weapons
  • Explanation:
    • Mage’s Rage provided over twice of what it was supposed to give in terms of Anomaly Power. This change sets the mod into the right place power-wise. While this change may feel significant for any players who were exclusively relying on Mage's Rage, our overall balancing has ensured that not all the excess power has been lost. Rather, it has flowed into other mods and combinations in order to provide a greater spread of viable builds.

• Self-Medication
  • Fixed a bug that caused the "Self-Medication" mod to fully restore players' health every time it triggered.
  • Explanation:
    • This is a simple bug fix, as the mod was clearly acting different to what it's description said.

• No Resistance Against the Fortified
  • Reduced conversion rate from 100% to 65%.
  • Explanation:
    • No Resistance Against The Fortified (NRAF) was launched with unintentionally high value. However, after seeing how dominant it has since become in builds, we are only trimming some of its power instead of fully reverting it. This change should diminish the ease of exceeding 100% Resistance
      Piercing, which was the main cause of unintended, unfixable damage increases.

• Dark Sacrifice
  • Reduced Health drain from 50% to 25%.
  • Increased damage boost from 25% to 35%.
  • Explanation:
    • Dark Sacrifice was hit too hard with the launch of Worldslayer so we are restoring some of its power while also reducing the amount of drain.

• Killing Spree
  • Increased damage boost per stack from 10% to 13%.
  • Increased duration from 8 to 15 seconds.
  • Explanation:
    • Similarly to Dark Sacrifice, Killing Spree was hit too hard with the launch of Worldslayer so we are restoring some of the power it lost.

• Fortress
  • Increased damage boost from 20% to 25% at max stacks
  • Explanation:
    • We are restoring some of the offensive power it previously lost, so that the mod can keep up with other amplifier mods that are getting buffed with this patch.

• First Things First
  • Reduced Armor Piercing value from 50% to 30%.
  • Explanation:
    • We previously increased the value on First Things First but this had led to the overbearing gameplay patterns of players intentionally not shooting guns at all. We tackled this to an extent when reworking Fortress last November. With that in mind, we have reduced the value of First Things First to encourage more active gunplay, as we want players to go into combat thinking about what they're doing rather than relying on stat sticks and skill spam.

• Tactical Retreat
  • Increased base damage from 54 to 62.
  • Explanation:
    • We are increasing damage of this mod to make it more competitive with golden standard mods like Thunder’s Legacy. As Tactical Retreat requires additional planning and effort in using the mod effectively, it should feel rewarding to rely on.

• Shock and Awe
  • Increased range from 5 to 10 m.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the "Shock and Awe" mod to trigger more often than intended.
  • Explanation:
    • We are increasing range to make the mod compete better with similar mods from the same category which do not require being struck by enemies.

• Anomaly Power class nodes
  • Increased Anomaly Power value from 10% to 15%.
  • Explanation:
    • As part of our compensation for power vacuum created by fixing Mage’s Rage, we are amplifying the class nodes to return part of the power lost.

• Weapon Damage class nodes
  • Increased Weapon Damage value from 8% to 15%.
  • Explanation:
    • This change is intended to bring Firepower builds across all classes in line with Anomaly Power builds.

For all General Changes and Bug Fixes, please visit the other announcement.