Dev Note #81: 3.6 Update Preview #2: Potential & Servant Balance Notice

MEME

Greetings Heirs, In today's Dev Note, we want to go over Potential & Servant Balance. 1. AoE Damage Reduction Potential Equation Change / Numerical Value Change AoE Damage DPS servant started from [A] Sphinx, and currently there are several AoE Damage servants including the most recent Mildred. If we say that the main target of AoE servants' attack takes 1 damage, the rest of the servants take 0.3 damage. While numerically AoE servants are supposed to do less damage to other servants beside the main target, we see more and more battles where even the 0.3 damage kills enemy servants as we added more servants capable of doing even greater damage. Currently, there are 6 Normal Potentials regarding damage reduction: 3 potentials that reduce damage received by Multi-Hit Combo Skill by 20%, and 3 potentials that reduce damage received by AoE damage by 10%. Since these values add up, servant will receive only 10% of the damage equipping all the Potentials above. This means that a servant will still take 70% of the damage against Mildred that does a Single-Hit AoE attack or any other AoE servant who's Combo Skill is set to a Single-Hit even with the 3 Potentials that reduce damage received by AoE damage by 10%. When we first implemented Potential system, we wanted to provide a mean for Heirs to improve on what their servants lack to defeat the opponent. Given such intention, we judged that current AoE Damage Reduction Potential is rather underwhelming. In the 3.6 Update, we will be changing the equation for damage reduction due to Potential from Addition Equation to Multiplication Equation. Also, we will be improving the numerical value of AoE Damage Reduction from 10% to 20%. To provide more details of the equation: Current Equation: Damage = ( 1 + Potential Damage Increase - Potential Combo Skill Multi Hit Damage Reduction - Potential AoE Damage Reduction) After 3.6 Update: Damage = ( 1 + Potential Damage Increase - (1 - (1- Potential Multi Hit Damage Reduction)*( 1- Potential AoE Damage Reduction) ) ) To make the change more visual:

MEME

After 3.6 Update:

MEME

Ultimately, when attacked by a Single-Hit that is not related to Multi-Hit Damage Reduction, there will be increase in Damage Reduction from AoE Damage Reduction. If both Multi-Hit Damage Reduction and AoE Damage Reduction applies, the final amount of damage received will vary depending on the number of Potential. Also, we added 25% AoE Damage Reduction to Normal Potential 2 of DPS, Support, Healer servants to reduce AoE Damage even more. AoE Damage Reduction Potential will be automatically changed to 10% to 20% so that Heirs that already have their Potentials set toward AoE Damage Reduction wouldn't have to change their Potential. As we are expecting various changes in the meta due to the big change in Potential, we believe it is necessary for us to provide Potential Change Stone to Heirs to adjust their Potential. Therefore, we will be providing 100 Potential Change Stone to all Heirs upon the Update. In this 3.6 Update, we tried to indirectly prevent excessive damage of AoE attack with Potential to improve current situation. We want to let Heirs know that we are even considering directly reducing the splash damage on other servants beside the main target of AoE attack in future patches. 2. Relation Effect Change We have been asking Heirs for their feedback on Relation Effect as we were preparing Relation Effect change. Please check out the post below: https://bit.ly/2P9wWZK

We went through lengthy internal discussion and 2nd (Class) Relation Effect is finalized as below: > Tank Servant: "If an ally Healer servant is present, HP increase by 70%" > DPS Servant: "If an ally Tank servant is present, ATK increase by 70% / DEF increase by 70% / Crit Damage Increase by 100%" > Healer Servant: "Decrease ATK of Boss Raid A by 90%" > Support Servant: "Increase damage dealt to Boss Raid A for all allies by 30%" - If 1st(Servant) Relation Effect applies, the new 2nd(Class) Relation Effect will not be applied on top of the 1st Relation Effect. - We have tested values between 60% ~ 80% and concluded that 70% is the most appropriate value with exception of Crit Damage which is increased by 100%. Also, all of the numerical value of Crit Damage Increase in 1st Relation Effect will be adjusted from 100% ~ 150% to 150%, which will be a buff to DPS servants that do damage based on enemy's HP. - There were a lot of discussions about sniping. Heirs have been suggesting both removing sniping from PvP or simply removing sniping all all. However, we decided to maintain sniping since removing sniping would be a nerf for Heirs who built a team for sniping purpose. - We will be making adjustment to the fact that sniping is focused on certain servants, and we will not be sniping certain element. Also, since the meta continues to change, new sniping Relation Effect will focus on other servants rather than Lenore, Heylel, and [A] Leto. Sniping for Lucrecia and Mildred, in which many Heirs are expecting a nerf, will be considered starting 3.7 Update. Also, we want to let Heirs know there can be further adjustments regarding sniping in the future. - One thing we learned through countless internal tests as we make change to Relation Effect is that many servants are actually viable. We are expecting some servants that are used for various purposes even without a relation effect to gain more popularity. 3. Servant Balance ♦Single Target DPS Servant Buff♦ On top of adjusting Potential to put a stop to current meta that AoE DPS servants dominate with excessive damage, we also want to place a buff on Single Target DPS servants to improve their performance. Therefore, following servants will receive increase in damage ratio on Combo Skills of the following servants: > [Dark] Ankou > [Water] Lenore > [Water/Forest/Light] Eimyrja > [Fire/Light] Sinistra > [Water] Sphinx > [Light][A] Lucian > [Water/Forest/Light/Dark][A] Leto Damage ratio of Combo Skills of all the servants above will be changed to 8316%. DEF-Based DPS servants, DEF-Ignoring DPS servants, and DPS servants that do damage based on enemy's HP that have their own characteristics were excluded from this buff. We will be making additional changes to these servants that didn't receive a buff yet after observing the situation. ♦Lucrecia♦ Many Heirs were against Lucrecia buff on 3.5 Update. Even though we were aware of potential impact of the Lucrecia buff, we wanted to make a servant that is strong against Multi-Hit, just the way Lucrecia was intended. Also, it was our understanding that Lucrecia can be defeated under certain circumstances. However, observing the situation after 3.5 Update along with increasing usage of Lucrecia, we came to a conclusion that Lucrecia needs some adjustments. As many Heirs have been suggesting, one of the issues with Lucrecia is that she is extremely difficult to kill because of the synergy between her Special Potential 4 "The amount of damage received at once does not exceed n% of Max HP" and her passive that reduces damage against Multi-Hit Combo Skill. While some Heirs suggested "Let's roll Lucrecia back to her previous status," we are afraid that such change might diminish Lucrecia's characteristics of being strong against Multi-Hit Combo Skill. Therefore, we want to make another change in 3.6 Update to make adjustment to her performance while keeping her characteristics. We are increasing the damage reduction on second hit from Multi-Hit Combo Skill from 70% to 90% so that Lucrecia is even stronger against Multi-Hit Combo Skill. We are also adjusting numerical value of Lucrecia's Special Potential 4 "The amount of damage received at once does not exceed n% of Max HP" to: > S: 49% > A: 59% > B: 69% > C: 79% While we buffed Lucrecia's Passive Skill, we concluded that it is inevitable to nerf Special Potential 4 of Lucrecia. We want to sincerely apologize for those who put in so much effort on the Potential. Even though we are trying our very best to avoid nerf, we believe that we must to fix balance issue between servants even through nerf when it is absolutely necessary. We hope that Heirs will understand our decision for the future of Heir of Light. In principle, we try not to make compensations regarding buffs or nerfs as we make character balance adjustments. The reason we avoid making compensation is because it could cause excessive requests for compensation even for the smallest change, and it is often difficult to distinguish if a change is a buff or a nerf. However, for this specific change, we are planning making certain amount of compensation so that Heirs could work on their Special Potential 4 again, considering how big the nerf is. (We will make an announcement as soon as we have a solid plan on this issue.) Today we went over the servant balance which is the most sensitive and also the most impactful change. For the past couple months, many Heirs have been concerned about the Balance while also making a lot of suggestions. From now on, we will try our best to facilitate an environment where all servants can be used evenly, rather than releasing an extremely strong servant. While this process will take some time, we will be constantly work on this balance issue starting 3.6 Update. We are aware that this Dev Note is going to be very controversial as it will impact gameplay and team formation of many Heirs. We hope that Heirs will understand our decision for the future of Heir of Light. If you have any concern, please feel free to leave comments. We will try to come up with the best solution through community's feedback. Next Dev Note will cover Boss Raid Improvements, Cult Training Ground, and New Collaboration. Thank you.