Early Access Patch V0.15

Brace for impact Champions, the Soul Storm is almost here...

Patch Notes Mar 4, 2024

Introduction

Welcome to the final patch of Early Access Season 3 Champions!

The mad mage Argus emerges from the depths, harnessing the full force of the Soul Storm and ready to wreak havoc on the battlefield with his devastating blend of magic and machinery!

Argus isn’t all we have for you this week however! V0.15 is sending out Season 3 with a bang, literally!

New Explosive Flowers have sprouted up across the map, which combined with some major improvements to Jungle AI and pathfinding means the battlefield is more dangerous than ever before!

This patch also sees the introduction of Amber, a brand new currency that’s replacing our previous method of Hero Acquisition, and the implementation of an entirely rebuilt backend alongside initial improvements to matchmaking.

That’s still not all! Alongside the usual sweep of balance changes, we’ve also overhauled item descriptions to make them easier than ever to understand, along with a few more changes that we hope you’ll enjoy!

V0.15 is no small patch and we’ve got a lot to get through, so let’s jump to it!

A New Hero Appears!

Harness the Soul Storm, with Argus!

The mad mage of Rowark is ready to show his might!

Abilities:

Disintegrate [Passive]:

Effect: Argus’s abilities apply a stack of Disintegration for 3s, causing subsequent instances of ability damage to deal 2 (+1.5% Magical Power) bonus magical damage.

Each stack of Disintegration deals 40% more damage, stacking infinitely (capped at 12 against Jungle Minions).

Flux Bolt [Basic Attack]:

BAT: 1.4

Effect: Ranged basic attack dealing 54 (+60% Bonus Physical Power) physical damage.

Dread Nova [Primary]:

CD: 16/15/14/13/12
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80

Effect: Argus lobs an unstable orb of arcane energy.

Upon landing it explodes, dealing 85/110/135/160/185 (+60% Magical Power) magical damage to all targets hit and stunning them for 1.25s.

Ether Crystal [Secondary]:

CD: 14
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80

Effect: Argus summons an Ether Crystal at the target location for 2s.

The Crystal will produce a storm that deals 20/30/40/50/60 (+18% Magical Power) magical damage every 0.5s to nearby Enemies and Slow them by 40% for 0.5s. After the duration the Crystal will implode, pulling all nearby Enemies within to the centre.

Particle Shredder [Alternate]:

CD: 6/5/4/3/2
Cost: 8/11/14/17/20
Effect: Argus fires projectiles from his Abyssal Staff for up to 3.5s. Each projectile consumes mana and deals 18/26/34/42/50 (+10% Magical Power) per blast.

At maximum rank, Particle Shredder may be fired indefinitely (provided you have the mana to spare).

Synaptic Obliterator [Ultimate]:

CD: 120/100/80
Cost: 100

Effect: After a short delay, Argus channels energy for up to 8s as he deploys his ultimate weapon and fires up to 3 powerful terrain-piercing energy beams that can travel up to 5000 units of distance.

Each beam deals 90/130/170 (+30% Magical Power) magical damage (increased by up to 2.25x based on the Target's missing health) and Slows Enemies hit by 60% for 0.5s.

New Soft Currency - Amber

Last week we announced a brand new currency coming to Predecessor.

Amber is an earnable soft currency that replaces our existing Hero Acquisition process. You can earn Amber as season rewards, by levelling up or by completing PVP matches, and at the time of release it will only be usable for unlocking new Heroes.

Hero Price Overview:

In addition to the above, the following will be true for brand new Heroes during their launch week.

* Note, Argus will be available at a slight discount! He’ll only cost 8,600 Amber on launch.

Unlocking Argus

If you unlocked Argus before the V0.15 update using the old XP system you'll have him fully unlocked and ready to play once the update is live.

If you were part-way through unlocking him your progress will be converted into Amber along with other part-unlocked Heroes. This converted Amber will be added to your account as soon as V0.15 is live, and you can then use this currency to purchase new Heroes as you see fit!

Store Update

Dreadlord Argus Bundle

To celebrate Argus’s eruptive entrance into Predecessor we’ve put together a very special limited-time bundle!

Purchasing the mighty Dreadlord Argus Bundle instantly unlocks the new Hero ready to play, as well as his new Dreadlord skin and a collection of sinister decorations for you to show off your might!

Bundle Contents:

• New Hero: Argus
• Dreadlord Argus Skin
• Dreadlord Icon
• Dreadlord Banner
• Dreadlord Spray

Argus | Dreadlord

Show those airsick cloud sniffers the true meaning of power with the mighty Argus Dreadlord skin!

Price Changes

We are also changing the price of some Heroes to ensure that new players can build out a competitive roster at an enjoyable pace.

Explosive Flowers

“The Fey has been hard at work furthering the goals of the Amyyrn, spreading a new form of Explosive Flower across the realm. This dangerous and resilient flora has taken root and infested the lands, able to regrow even after being destroyed!”

Explosive Flowers have been added to the map.

These new environmental hazards explode shortly after being damaged by a basic attack. They don’t deal any direct damage to Heroes, but anyone caught in the blast radius will be catapulted back or up into the air.

This new mechanic brings even more verticality to Predecessor, providing new and unique opportunities for Heroes to navigate their way around the map, surprising their foes in creative new ways!

• Initial Spawn time: 4m.
• Respawn Time: 2m 30s.

Jungle AI Improvements

We're excited to share some significant improvements we've made to the AI in the Jungle!

Our team has been hard at work on a number of improvements, designed to make your jungling experience smoother, more strategic, and ultimately, more rewarding!

Clearer aggro, fewer frustrations

One of the biggest frustrations for Junglers, especially newer ones, was the unforgiving nature of minion aggro. Previously, minions would instantly de-aggro the moment they left their camp radius. This often led to situations where you felt punished for trying to maximise the speed of your clear times by luring them to the edge of their camp.

No more! We've implemented a new "Aggression Bar" displayed beneath the health bar of Jungle minions. This bar depletes as the minion moves further away from its camp, giving you a clear visual indicator of how much leash you have before it loses aggro. This allows for more strategic minion manipulation, opening up new possibilities for optimising your Jungle clears.

Smarter pathfinding, more outplays

We've spruced up the pathfinding of our Jungle minions. They're now better at tracking Champions and navigating the varied terrain of the Jungle, getting snagged on ledges and structures much less frequently. Better still, they can now even drop down ledges to pursue their prey, adding yet another layer of strategic depth!

Knowing when to strike

To further empower your Jungling prowess, we've added a handy QoL indicator in the Jungle Minion health bars. This indicator will let you know when your Jungle Item Active (Hunt) is strong enough to finish off a Jungle minion. Less guesswork, more strategic decision-making!

Raising the skill Cap, lowering the barrier to entry

These changes are designed to achieve a two-fold goal:

1. To increase the skill cap of the Jungle role by introducing new strategic possibilities.
2. To make the Jungle more accessible to new players by providing clearer information and reducing the punishment for minor mistakes.

Item Description Improvements

Item descriptions have received an overhaul!

In keeping with our previous improvements to Hero Ability Description, item descriptions now sport a much more digestible bullet-point format.

Matchmaking and Backend Improvements

V0.15 also comes with the unveiling of our brand new, fully custom-built backend!

Ever since Predecessor was first released into Early Access, we’ve been working with a backend provider to handle all of our game services, server scaling, and of course, matchmaking.

While this was absolutely crucial for getting Predecessor out to players around the world initially, we ultimately found ourselves repeatedly running into limitations when trying to match our own specific development goals to the provider’s more generalised offerings.

In the pursuit of independence and autonomy, and with an eye towards future sustainability and development, our team has been hard at work for many months now rebuilding the entire backend of Predecessor from the ground up, giving us complete ownership and control over all of our services and backend codebase.

This was a monumental task undertaken by our engineering team, but the value it brings cannot be overstated. This change fully unlocks the flexibility to make backend changes and improvements without reliance on the approval and development pace of a third-party provider. This means faster backend development for new features, a more consistent and reliable service, and better visibility into opportunities to continuously raise our own standards for the Predecessor experience.

End of Season Rewards

With Season 3 now over, you might be wondering when you’ll get those tasty rewards you worked so hard for!

We’ll begin distributing Season 3 rewards shortly after the V0.15 game update, based on your Player Level at the time of the V0.15 game update.

Rewards:

Our new currency, Amber, will be rewarded every single level with even more Amber being given every 4 levels.
On the way to level 30 there are a couple of even bigger Amber drops plus a pair of new Profile Icons and a new Spray.

Controller Updates

We're always exploring new ways in which we can improve the user experience of the in-game shop.

• We've added the ability to navigate through sections of the in-game shop using the D-pad.
• If you are moving forwards during a match when you open the shop, auto run will be temporarily enabled freeing you up to use the left stick to navigate the shop without slowing down! It'll have the exact same functionality as using the D-pad, giving you the freedom to choose how you navigate the shop.
• When you navigate to your items section, you'll now be focused on your last purchased item by default.

Hero Changes

Countess is receiving some damage/mana shifts to better facilitate her Laning and Jungle clear, making her less reliant on Mana itemisation in lane and Megacosm to clear the Jungle.

General: - Base Mana increased 350 to 370.

Hero Adjustments

Shadow Slip [Primary]:- Magical Power Scaling increased from 30% to 35%.

Blade Siphon [Alternate]:- Damage increased from 70/105/140/175/210 to 80/115/150/185/220.- Mana Cost changed from 50/55/60/65/70 to 60.- Magical Power Scaling decreased from 65% to 60%.

Stoicism [Passive]:- [ Bugfix ] No longer gains 2x stacks under certain conditions.

Flame Turret [Primary]:- Damage Magical Power Scaling increased from 16% to 18%.

General:- Base Health Regeneration decreased from 1.6 to 1.4.- Base Armor decreased from 32 to 30.- Base Mana decreased from 375 to 355.- Mana Growth increased from 40 to 44.

Surge of the Heavens [Secondary]:- Knockup Height decreased by 20%.- Stun Duration decreased from 0.75s to 0.65s.

Light of the Heavens [Alternate]:- Shield decreased from 70/105/140/175/210 to 70/95/120/145/170.- Shield Magical Power Scaling increased from 45% to 50%.- Added 8% Bonus Health Scaling to Shield.

General:- Base Mana decreased from 395 to 355.- Mana Growth increased from 38 to 42.

Hive [Primary]:- Projectile Gravity decreased by 15%.- Projectile Speed decreased by 5%.

General:- Armor Growth decreased from 4.2 to 4. Song Of My People [Secondary]:- Magical Power Scaling increased from 8% to 9%.

• Healing per Rhythm Stack decreased from 0.2/0.25/0.3/0.35/0.4 to 0.2/0.225/0.25/0.275/0.3.

Telekinetic Link [Alternate]: - [ Bugfix ] No longer fails to cast when swapping between Allies.

Rumble [Secondary]: - Total Physical Power Scaling decreased from 90% to 85%. Behemoth [Ultimate]: - Temporary Health decreased from 300/450/600 to 250/350/450.- Cooldown increased from 120/105/90 to 130/110/90.

General:- Health Decreased from 635 to 620.- Base Physical Armor increased from 24 to 28.- Mana increased from 300 to 320.

General:- Base Mana decreased from 320 to 300.- Base Mana Regen decreased from 1.6 to 1.3.

• Shock Therapy [Primary]: Damage changed from 65/100/135/170/205 to 60/100/140/180/220.- Magical Power Scaling increased from 50% to 55%.

General:- Mana Regen increased from 0.8 to 1.3. Fallen Grace [Passive]:- Cooldown Refund decreased from 75% to 70%. Chastise [Alternate]: - Damage changed from 80/125/170/215/260 to 85/125/165/205/245.- Bonus Physical Power Scaling increased from 75% to 85%.

Bow Shot [Basic Attack]:- Bonus Physical Power Scaling increased from 80% to 85%. Heightened Senses [Secondary]:- Attack Speed increased from 30%/35%/40%/45%/50% to 35%/40%/45%/50%/55%.- Cooldown now occurs when the Buff ends.- Cooldown decreased from 20/19/18/17/16 to 12/11/10/9/8.- Mana Cost changed from 40/45/50/55/60 to 50.

Bang! [Basic Attack] - Bonus Physical Power Scaling increased from 80% to 85%. Peekaboo! [Primary] - Damage decreased from 60/85/110/135/160 to 40/60/80/100/120. Surprise, Surprise! [Secondary] - Percent Physical Penetration changed from 8%/10%/12%/14%/16% to 6%/9%/12%/15%/18%.

Item Changes

Cooldown decreased from 90s to 60s.

Cooldown increased from 40s to 45s.

Font Mana per Stack increased from 4 to 5.
Font Kills Required decreased from 100 to 80.

Potent Font Mana to Physical Power Conversion decreased from 2.5% to 2%.

Physical Power decreased from 60 to 55.\n> Precision Critical Strike damage increased from 15% to 20%.

Multishot damage increased from 13-39% to 15-45%.

Physical Penetration decreased from 12 to 10.

Magical Armor increased from 30 to 35.
Scourge Bonus Physical Power decreased from 20 to 15.
Sinister Shield Damage Reduction decreased from 25% to 20%.

Attack Speed increased from 15% to 20%.

Physical Power decreased from 50 to 40.
Ability Haste decreased from 20 to 15.
6 Physical Penetration added.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where Riktor’s Riplash would still fire when Stunned mid-cast animation.
• Fixed a bug where Steel could fall through the floor when using Shield Slam in some parts of the map.
• Fixed a bug allowing Feng Mao to execute Towers with his Earth Shatter.
• Fixed a bug where respawned Inhibitors could play a targeting sound when damaging Enemy Heroes in their vicinity.
• Fixed a bug where Iggy’s “Catch Me If You Can” emote would not display a description in menus.
• Fixed a bug where Kira’s Mercy description would not mention it benefitting from Lifesteal effects.

That's everything this time Champions, what do you think?
Let us know your feedback over on our Discord server or the Predecessor Subreddit.

Until next time!

Kari Community @ Omeda Studios