We are increasing the power of a number of Ancients to bring them in line with the popular picks. Note that shown spell details are for the first rank of the ability.

Banemaw

Banemaw offers some fantastic combat support if he can get going, but is held back by Wolf Pack being a prerequisite for his secondary effects. While we wish to keep this as part of his identity, we can soften the blow by lowering reliance on Mana. In addition, the flat damage component of Bloodthirst was quite undertuned for a spell 15 Mana and single target.

Old New Old New Wolf Pack - 5 Mana Wolf Pack - 5 Mana Blood Thirst - 15 Mana Blood Thirst - 15 Mana Selected allies are granted 10% increased attack speed and movement speed for 33 seconds. In addition, they gain other bonuses from Banemaw's other abilities. For 33 seconds affected allies are granted 10% speed and generate 2 bonus Mana from Troop Portals they destroy. In addition, other spells grant extra effects to troops in the Wolf Pack Hits a single building for 112 - 123 damage. In addition, all Wolf Pack allies heal for 20% of the damage they deal for 5.25 seconds. Hits a single building for 327 - 333 damage. In addition, all Wolf Pack allies heal for 20% of the damage they deal for 5.25 second.

Amani

Amani needs love in a lot of areas: a bump in power, her abilities pulled together into a more cohesive whole, and frankly just something unique other Ancients don’t offer. We tried to do this with her recent Entangle changes, but unless there was a base setup for it, ideally with Crippling Poison and Cursed Touch towers, she was not too much help.

We’ve reworked her Thorn Shield into a more unique spell called Bark Skin, which has one of our most impressive tooltips to date. Bark Skin can be stacked on troops to cause multiple effects. Her Restoration ability has also been reworked into a spell called Invigoration that will heal and cause troops to track down Entangled buildings! It’s a lot of mana, but if you get both of them running in tandem you can direct your troops quite well with the Entangle refunds. Finally, we’re going to experiment with giving her a new tower ability.

Old New Old New Old New Thorn Shield - 5 Mana Bark Skin - 5 Mana Restoration - 15 Mana Invigoration - 15 Mana Crippling Poison - Tower Ability Restoration - Tower Ability For 8.40 seconds affected units reflect 5% of damage taken back at attackers and are immune to Spell Tower: Crippling Poison. The selected troops are protected for 12.10 seconds. Recasting Bark Skin on affected troops refreshes the duration and may add additional effects: First Cast 20% less damage taken, and reflect 5% of incoming damage. Second Cast: All healing effects doubled. Third Cast: Troops that drop below 25% health recover 75 - 93 health (value includes healing bonus). This can only occur once but is refreshed with further Bark Skin casts. Affected units recover 70 - 77 health over 3 seconds and are immune to Spell Tower: Cursed Touch. Affected troops are cleansed of Spell Tower: Cursed Touch and recover 70 - 77 health. In addition for the next 30 seconds they will prioritise attacking Entangled structures. Deals 19 - 21 damage over 7 seconds while slowing movement speed by 50% and attack speed by 25%. Heals a damaged structure for 122 - 128 health and reduces incoming physical damage by 50% for 5 seconds. Prioritises defences and cannot target itself.

Golgogg

The new spell, Kindle, was a nice buff for Golgogg but he needs a little more help. Blood Pyre is a controversial spell, as it has a lot of potential to blow up in your face, but we think this is what makes Golgogg unique. The invulnerability period lasts longer, the speed also applies to movement as well as attack, and you can repeatedly cast the spell to keep your troops alive in the enraged state. In addition, it is a lot more explosive paired with his Greater Fire Elemental! You may also notice the speed has been increased but this is actually a tooltip fix. Remember that this spell is often best used on troops that are fated to fall, rather than your fresh new squad…

Old New Blood Pyre - 5 Mana Blood Pyre - 5 Mana Affected troops become immune to damage and gain 30% attack speed, but fatally explode after 5 seconds seconds dealing 16 - 19 damage to nearby structures. Affected troops become immune to all damage but fatally explode after 7 seconds dealing 16 - 19 damage to nearby structures. While primed troops gain 75% speed. Recasting Blood Pyre will reset the delay before detonation, but will not grant any additional damage on release. The explosion is amplified on the Greater Fire Elemental, which deals 88 - 96 damage globally.

Isabeau d’Épée

Isabeau is pretty interesting but all her numbers are quite low for an Ancient focused entirely on damage and healing. We wanted to stress that people were participating in her event for a unique Ancient, not a future full of free wins, but she was handled much too gingerly. You may also notice some number changes in Inspirational Strike, but this is another tooltip fix where the heal was being pulled from the wrong

Old New Old New Fearless - 10 Mana Fearless - 10 Mana Coup de Grâce - 15 Mana Coup de Grâce - 15 Mana Affected troops gain 35% increased damage for 7.35 seconds. If a unit with Fearless falls then all other Fearless units heal for 12 - 15. Affected troops gain 45% increased damage for 10.50 seconds. If a unit with Fearless falls then all other affected units recover 12 - 15 health. Strikes buildings in an area for 88 - 90 damage. Deals double damage (177 - 181) to targets below 50% health. In addition, returns 1 Mana for each mana-producing building destroyed. Strikes buildings in an area for 147 - 150 damage. Deals double damage (293 - 299) to targets below 50% health. In addition, returns 1 Mana for each mana-producing building destroyed.

Karis Sunstaff

To be honest, Karis is not half-bad right now. Her new Flame Hex spell is really strong and Mana Stalkers are a handy unit to summon because it doesn’t take long for them to refund their Mana cost. Plus, all that Mana splashing around means her Fire Elementals charge quite fast, too. However, she could have a little bit help, so here is a small injection of power and spice to Flametongue to help her get inside a base and start the ball rolling for her expensive Flame Hex.

Old New Flametongue - 5 Mana Flametongue - 5 Mana Friendly units deal 35% increased damage for 8.40 seconds. For 8.40 seconds affected units deal 35% increased damage. This is raised to double damage when attacking walls.

Marionette

Marionette isn’t really using her concept to the fullest right now. While Puppeteer was thematically apt it just feels like a weaker version of Siku’s Aria and doesn’t really synergise with her abilities. This has now been replaced with a nuke called Ridicule that does bonus damage to targets that are frozen, burning, poisoned or confused, which can only be achieved through stealing other Ancients spells or some Dragon sweeps. If she needs a confuse she can always borrow one from someone else…

Old New Puppeteer - 15 Mana Puppeteer - 15 Mana Takes control of a targeted defence for 5.50 seconds, doubles its damage, and causes it to prioritise other defences. Targets receiving damage from the controlled defence also become cursed, causing them to receive 25% increased damage from all sources for 11 seconds. Deals 98 - 100 damage to all buildings in the target area. Deals double damage (197 - 201) to buildings that are frozen, burning, poisoned or confused.

Adhira

We like the gameplay of Adhira setting up her Conductive Blast to do huge damage and the last round of buffs focused on her being able to mark more targets with Lightning Storm. However, she suffers from a lack of utility and being extremely Mana hungry! We are going to double down on Conductive Blast being her signature ability, letting it now rip appart nearby walls, and rework her upgrade tree so she gains more Mana at the cost of Tower upgrades. As a Lighting Ancient some would say this is not a big loss, but keep in mind Arc Lightning will be getting some changes too.

Old New Old New Conductive Blast - 15 Mana Conductive Blast - 15 Mana Upgrade Path Upgrade Path All other spells leave behind a static charge. Conductive Blast hits charged structures for 238 - 263 damage. Buildings that fall provide 1 additional Mana. Strikes buildings in an area for 88 - 90 damage. Deals double damage (177 - 181) to targets below 50% health. In addition, returns 1 Mana for each mana-producing building destroyed. Standard path Half of the tower upgrades are now additional starting Mana.

Yagumo

Yagumo has pretty solid abilities and a unique playstyle, but he does need a little bit of help. Snake Blood currently doesn’t have any strong interactions with the rest of his skill set, which is kind of his thing, so we’re giving it some buffs within his Wind Vortex. We are also shuffling the tooltips around for Gale Cut and Wind Vortex, so you don’t have to flick between them to see their interactions, and reducing some of the visual noise on your troops within the storm - but there are no mechanical changes to either.

Old New Snakeblood - 10 Mana Snakeblood - 10 Mana Infuses troops with Snake Blood for 8.40 seconds, causing them to suffer 10% damage immediately, but gain 35% increased attack damage and 20% lifesteal. Infuses troops with Snake Blood for 8.40 seconds, causing them to suffer 10% damage immediately, but gain 35% increased attack damage and 20% lifesteal. While within Wind Vortex units with Snake Blood also gain 30% reduced damage from physical attacks.

Talasin

Due to some changes to Lightning Spell Towers the Lightning Shield ability is now ambiguous. Its description says it makes you immune to Lightning Spell Towers, but Lightning Spell Towers now dispel buffs. We decided that the Lightning Tower wins out in this situation, so Talasin’s Lightning Shield has lost that component and gained elsewhere. Honestly, considering how many Lightning Towers you currently see this is basically a straight buff to an Ancient who is already very strong.

Old New Lightning Shield - 5 Mana Thunder Force - 5 Mana Reduces all damage taken by 35% and grants total immunity to Spell Towers equipped with Arc Lightning for 8.40 seconds. Affected troops gain 35% damage mitigation and 5% increased damage for 8.40 seconds.

Tokemi

We did not want Space Rift to rewind buffs and debuffs because we did not want you to accidentally rewind time into a freeze or lose your Time Flux! However, now Space Rift will simply dispel debuffs on cast, so it can just be used to cleanse. Decrepify was a really underwhelming spell that took too long to do anything useful, so it has been replaced with something more fitting and unique.

Old New Old New Space Rift - 10 Mana Space Rift - 10 Mana Decrepify - 15 Mana Alternate Reality - 15 Mana Rewinds time, returning units to the position and health values they had 5 seconds ago. In addition, units take 50% reduced damage for 2.40 seconds. Rewinds time, returning troops to the position and health values they had 5 seconds ago while curing common debuffs. In addition, troops take 50% reduced damage for 2.40 seconds. Tokemi exchanges building placements with those in an alternative universe. Deals 0 - 228 damage to all buildings in the area while randomly swapping buildings of equal size.

Yelenati

Yalenati definitely needs a bit more help. Her biggest difference here is actually not accompanied by a tooltip change as it’s more of a mechanical switch: Now her Plague will refresh the duration of other Plague debuffs when spreading, rather than just looking for clean buildings. This means it’s less down to random chance whether it lasts a long time or not. She also raises more Noxious Dead, which is nice.

Old New Old New Raise Noxious Dead - 10 Mana Raise Noxious Dead - 10 Mana Plague - 15 Mana Plague - 15 Mana Summons x4 Noxious Undead (Level 1). Summons x6 Noxious Undead (Level 1). Affected buildings take 175 - 179 damage over 10 seconds and attack 50% slower. If a plagued building falls the spell will recast for no cost.Does not refresh duration on targets that are already plagued. Affected buildings take 175 - 179 damage over 10 seconds and attack 50% slower. If a plagued building falls the spell will recast for no cost. Will refresh duration on targets that are already plague

Kestra

Kestra’s Wind Fury ability no longer has an archaic troop limit and we reworded the tooltip to just say “speed” as this implies both movement and attack, and keeps it consistent with other spell descriptions.

She also gains a new ability called Marksmanship at level 31 that improves Wardens and Primus Mages. Being a Superior Ancient she needs to be ascended to at least Rare to gain this new ability. This is something we’re experimenting with to make older Ancients relevant in the late game, but we’ll see how it’s received. Her ascension materials, bringing her all the way up to Legendary, will take a new Ancient Trial and two extremely high level quests.

Old New Old New Wind Fury - 15 Mana Wind Fury - 15 Mana N/A Marksmanship - 5 Mana Empowers troops with Kestra’s agility. Improves movement and attack speed by 50% for 7.70 seconds. Max 20 targets. Empowers troops with Kestra’s agility. Improves speed by 50% for 7.70 seconds.No target limit N/A Affected ranged troops gain 50% increased range and 10% lifesteal for 7.70 seconds.

Spell Tower: Arc Lightning Rework

This has been the runt of the litter for a long time and we feel that lightning should be a choice for defence. If enemy troops wander into an active lightning spell tower they should be very sorry. Arc Lightning has had a few fixes and was renamed to Pulse Lightning as that’s more descriptive.

Old New Arc Lightning - Tower Ability Pulse Lightning - Tower Ability Radiates 164 - 205 damage over 1 seconds to enemies in close range. Radiates 164 - 205 damage over 0.5 seconds to enemies in close range and cleanses positive buffs.

On-Hit System Changes

Abilities that go onto units and then apply other effects through attacks, such as Anir’s Flame Touched that cause your units to disable structures, now operate a little differently under the hood. Ranged troops should have no problem applying them to their targets.

*Anir: Anti-Magic Zeal

*Anir: Flame Touched

*Banemaw: Wolf Pack (New)

*Viscaria: Poison Touch

*Yoshiro: Essence Boost

*Battle Boosts: Essence Boost

*Sceptre Relics and Crown Relic: Bonus Mana from Spell Towers

*Crown Relic: Bonus healing on Castle destruction

This also has some changes for defences where the On-Hit effect had a trigger that had to persist for several frames due to the order of operations. This is no longer the case and these will either happen after that damage instance is applied or not at all - not a split second later due to a different attack.

*Mithril Tower: Arrow Launcher & Watch Tower - Execute

*Malice Statue

Bugfix:

Fixed a bug where the damage was not scaling properly and would be triggered by air units but not damage them.