Updates

Objective

• Bombardment
  • Damage increased from 2875 to 3000.

Updates

General

• Watch Towers
  • Watch Towers will now reset to neutral after 45 seconds of not being occupied.

Updates

Objective

• Bombardment
  • Damage increased from 2815 to 2875.

Updates

Objective

• Bombardment
  • Damage increased from 2815 to 2875.

Updates

Structures

• Fallback Towers
  • Fallback Tower added behind the top Fort.
  • Fallback Tower added behind the middle Fort.
  • Fallback Tower added behind the bottom Fort.
• Forts
  • The middle Forts have been slightly moved away from the center of the battlefield.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused the Objective to not start if a particular Treasure Chest is the last destroyed one.
• Fixed an issue that caused the help text for attacking a Treasure Chest to not disappear if a particular Treasure Chest is attacked.

Updates

General

• Watch Towers
  • There is no longer a Watch Tower between the middle and top lanes.
  • There are now 2 Watch Towers near Captain Blackheart, one on the left and one on the right.

Mercenaries

• Siege Camp
  • Initial spawn delay reduced from 60 to 30 seconds.
• Bruiser Camp
  • Initial spawn delay reduced from 60 to 30 seconds.

Objective

• Doubloons
  • Cast time to turn in Doubloons decreased from 7 to 5 seconds.
  • Doubloons required for each payment reduced by 2.
  • You will now only drop half your Doubloons upon death (rounded down).
• Treasure Chests
  • A new Treasure Chest spawn location has been added near the top lane.
  • During the first Objective phase, 1 Treasure Chest spawns near the top lane.
  • In the next 3 Objective phases, 2 Treasure Chests spawn in random locations.
  • For every Objective phase after that, all 3 Treasure Chests spawn.
• Bombardment
  • Bombardment now deals 20% reduced damage to Keeps and Cores.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where some Heroes would not be able to path around Healing Fountains near bottom Keeps.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing the color of the warning indicator for Doubloons to be incorrect when capturing Mercenary Camps or killing Heroes.

Updates

Objective

• Doubloons
  • They now feature a warning indicator at their landing location.

Updates

Climate Phenomena

• Weather events will occur periodically every 4 minutes, with the first event starting at the beginning of the match. Each weather event lasts for a few 2 minutes at a time before clearing up. While these weather events are active, Heroes can gain a unique buff based on the type of active weather.
• Rain Storms
  • Periodically Every 25-40 seconds strike all Heroes with lightning, increasing Movement Speed by 25% 15% and granting a Lightning Shield that hits nearby enemies for 64 46 damage per second for 8 seconds.

Updates

A Call For Help

• Cores (Blackheart's Bay)
  • Every 4 seconds, the Core will shoot a cannonball at 2 nearby enemy Heroes, dealing 5% maximum Health as damage, slowing them by 70% for 1.5 seconds, and knocking them back.

Developer Comment: We've heard feedback over the years that a lot of you would like to feel more protected by nearby friendly Structures. Currently, Minions, Summons, and non-Heroic units can hold a Structure's attention for so long that defending players feel that they're offered no additional protection when taking refuge under their Towers, Forts, Keeps and Cores. Furthermore, we want fights around the Core to feel like exciting ends to cap off great games, and we feel like we can do more to deliver on that front. To that end, this Nexus Anomaly will introduce themed abilities to non-ARAM Battleground Cores.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where some parts of Blackheart's Bay would be invisible when using Low graphics settings.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Blackheart's Bay to crash on load for Mac users.
• Fixed an issue where some parts of Blackheart's Bay would render with a strobing/flickering effect when using Low graphics settings on Mac systems.

Updates

Mercenaries

• Doubloon Camps
  • After defeating them, you will now have to stand on their Capture Point for a small time before receiving their Doubloons.

Updates

Mercenaries

• Siege Camp
  • Experience increased by 100%.
• Bruiser Camp
  • Experience increased by 100%.
• Boss Camp
  • Experience increased by 100%.
  • Now flagged as Elite, making it Unstoppable and Unbribable.

Updates

Objective

• The interface will now show when a team gathered enough resources to complete a turn-in.

Updates

Mercenaries

• Bruiser Camp
  • Knights
    • Defender
      • Spell Armor amount increased from 15 to 20.
    • Laner
      • Spell Armor amount reduced from 30 to 20.

Developer Comment: As expected, our Gameplay Update for 2018 resulted in large changes to many of our game systems. While we're overall happy with the direction of the update, there have been some unintended side effects that we're hoping to remedy. We overestimated how much more powerful unlimited ammo would be for Structures, and as a result pushing mechanics have become too strong, resulting in lower game times on nearly all Battlegrounds. We're giving Structures some of their teeth back with this update, which should help teams hold pushes from Mercenary Camps and Objectives. We're also making some tuning changes to some of our Mercenary Camps now that we have had some time to see how they have been performing. Hellbats and Knights in particular are pushing harder than we would like, so we're reducing their power. We're also taking a look at the Slime Boss on Warhead Junction and reducing its early and mid-game pushing power, as right now it is too strong when combined with Warheads. Lastly, we are reducing the power of Regeneration Globes. While we like the new mini-game that neutral ones provide in the laning phase, we are not comfortable with how much they are currently benefitting the team that is ahead while they are pushing into a defending team. We're also seeing players picking up more Regeneration Globes in general, so this will help to keep the game's overall sustain in check. These are some hefty changes, and it's likely that there will be more needed to be done over time as things continue to settle. We'll be keeping an eye on things, and are prepared to make more updates as they're needed.