If you saw my patch analysis earlier in the week, I had some brief thoughts on the update and its affect on Griselma. Having now played the update for a couple of days, I’m in a much better position to judge the changes. Firstly, they’re all for the better. In fact, I’d probably say she’s close to being the best she has ever been. However, there are a few small tweaks that could be added that would make her damn near perfect. To save you jumping about, here are her patch notes:

Griselma

Reach Out (LMB/RT)

This skill is now a beam attack, similar to Xenobia’s Gaze of Envy (LMB/RT).

We changed the Touch of the Master upgrade so it boosts a portal beast’s damage by 25 percent (it used to be 50 percent).

Portal Beast (RMB/LT)

Your portal beasts now do less damage. The visual indicator for the attack arc (120 degrees) is now more accurate.

We changed the Bestial Attunement upgrade so the damage and armor bonuses are now +15 percent (they were +25 percent), and they now last 3 seconds (it was 6 seconds).

Portal Call (Q/LB)

We reduced the cooldown on this skill to 7 seconds (it was 12 seconds). The cooldown gets 2 seconds longer if you take the Portal Trap upgrade, but the Heed the Call talent makes it 3 seconds shorter.

We improved the Quick Change upgrade so it completes faster and fully heals portal beasts.

Displacement (E/RB)

We changed the Exit Strategy upgrade so that you teleport forward if you’re more than 25 meters from your nearest trap.

To address all the changes, I’ll work my way down the list.

Reach Out

Firstly, the change to Reach Out is one that takes a fair bit of getting used to. I freely admit that I was apprehensive about the change and on first use, was disappointed. I like the fact that Reach Out required me to aim each individual shot because much of Griselma’s kit requires very little skill. Having said that, the skill of the new Reach Out is tracking targets to ensure the channel continues. My current concerns with it, are the following:

1. Its visual effect is pretty bland and I think loses some of the “fun” that the original Reach Out had. Seeing Griselma jump up in the air, poking away, fit her character perfectly. Having just a blue beam appear from the end of her staff feels rather drab and the sound effects are seemingly non existent.

2. I’m convinced that the channeled beam is actually a significant DPS loss during the channel, as it ramps in damage over time. The result is five to six seconds of very low damage, that seemingly comes nowhere close to the original Reach Out. At level 10 I used to be able to hit a creature for around 220 per hit but my attacks now start at around 60, reaching over 500 after a very long period of time. It’s a massive reduction and makes fighting enemies such as Tripp or Tyto very hard, as you lack reliable and static damage output. At the very least, I suggest letting Reach Out out do a standard amount of damage every tick, rather than increasing its damageover time. If you do lose your link on an enemy player, you start right at the beginning of your damage, resulting in further damage loss as you have to once again wind it up. I’d also add that it’s very hard to know how much you’re doing per hit - is it the number I’m seeing or the increment between the previous and the current?

3. Building on the above, the new Reach Out is incredibly difficult to hit melee characters with who are up in your face. I don’t know why or whether there is a bug with the hit registration but if the likes of Aisling or Tyto are “in your face” the ability to connect the skill is incredibly difficult and it has, on occasion, caused several deaths when I’d have previously killed said opponent with the old Reach Out. I'm wondering if there's a similar issue with the skill as with HK's cannon reaching past enemies.

Portal Beasts

Where Portal Beasts are concerned, they’ve changed very little outside of having their damage numbers reduced and their firing arc increased (it's now 120 degrees as opposed to what was previously 90?). Without being able to see the damage they deal (as we do when we attack) it’s impossible for me to know how much they’ve had their attack power reduced, but I’ll add that from experience, it feels a fair bit less (as much as 15% I’d estimate). With all three Portal Beasts you are still capable of doing good damage, but two or less and it’s difficult, especially with the poor damage from Reach Out. In addition to this, the change to Beastial Attunement seems somewhat bizarre. Considering the original upgrade provided 25% extra damage and armor, to lower this to 15% for each seems a little stingy when the first upgrade provides 10 to each. A second upgrade only providing an extra 5% damage and armor is no longer worth taking and as a result, the upgrade line is now pretty useless. Taking Beastial Aura plus Beastial Feast is so much more powerful as you gain the 10% armor and damage buff, but also a regular cleanse and big heal. I suggest that Beastial Attunement should have seen a reduction to 20% damage and armor, not 15%, whilst retaining the 3 second buff duration. At least then it would then leave players with a difficult choice to make (Griselma needs more variety, not less).

Portal Trap

I was initially concerned about the changes to Portal Trap, but I think all of them are fantastic. The ability to summon your Portal Beasts to you more often was much needed and having a 3 second additional cooldown when you take Portal Trap is a good trade off. I’d also add that the new teleport and the limited range of 25 meters is excellent. I love it because there’s a need now to place 2 traps in various “safe” locations, and utilise them cleverly. It takes real skill to know where to place them and when, but to also place them close enough so that you can retreat and portal. Best of all, there's no some counter play to Griselma as the enemy knows that if you do portal, you can't be far away. As for what’s now needed, I honestly think that Portal Trap is still too useful and I maintain that no Griselma will ever or should ever take Conservation of Energy, Time Dilation or Quick Change. Doing so is suicidal and you would be doing your team a huge disservice. Based on this, I’d suggest the following:

1. Make Portal Trap standard for Portal Call.

2. Make the ability to portal to your Portal Trap standard for Displacement.

3. Adjust Time Dilation so that enemies caught in your Displacement are also immobilized for 2 seconds (this should make it a viable alternative to Exit Strategy).

4. Replace the Portal Trap upgrade line with Portal Pool. Portal Pool would increase the width of your trap by 50% (this should make it a difficult choice to take against Quick Change as it would allow you to hit multiple targets with the trap).

Wider Issues

In addition to all the above, there’s still some wider issues that need addressing for Griselma and they largely revolve around her other upgrade lines (ensuring all of them leave players with a difficult choice to make).

If we’re working on the principle that Portal Trap and the ability to teleport to your Portal Trap are standard for Portal Call and Displacement, Conservation of Energy desperately needs changing. As mentioned previously, no one should - or does - use it in its current form because Portal Collapse and Exit Strategy are just too useful. I’d propose to change the upgrade so that your Portal Beasts attack at double speed, but also retain the reduced damage. I’d further adjust Gift of Annihilation so that your beasts deal 25% more damage during Conservation of Energy. This should, in theory, provide an aggressive upgrade path for Displacement, considering Portal Collapse is arguably the defensive path. I also feel it'd be fairly balanced because Displacement only lasts 3 seconds.

Ambush Hands, Grasping and Smashing is still a seldom used path because of the strength of Beastial Aura and its upgrade paths. I do like the thought of hands turning invisible but it’s the further upgrades that are relatively poor. They’re poor because after each of the first attacks, once the Portal Beasts have appeared, they go back to being normal Portal Beasts until they stealth again (which can take some time). In contrast, the upgrades for Beastial Attunement and Feast are permanent, reliable boosts to Griselma. What I’d suggest is to have Portal Beasts be permanently boosted with a new effect, even when they have fired. Grasping Hands should return health back to Griselma every time your Portal Beasts strike an opponent and Smashing Hands should still break armor, but it shouldn’t only happen after appearing.

Finally, there are two remaining issues with Griselma. Firstly, I still think she needs far more stamina. Your ability to dodge is so rare because of your poor stamina pool that it feels incredibly harsh to have a Hero with no mobility, a slow play style and a reliance on 3 upgrade points just to gain some form of escape. It’s nonsense to suggest she’s capable of surviving against the likes of Tripp or Tyto with three hands out, especially considering their now neutered damage. Being able to dodge at least more than once would go some way in opening up the possibility of not taking Exit Strategy. Secondly, the Hand Out talent is so useful that no one in their right mind would ever take Heed the Call. The biggest underlying problem with Griselma is that some upgrades or talents are so good there’s never any need to choose anything else. I'd currently recommend making Hand Out standard and implementing a new talent.

Despite my suggestions here, I think Motiga are doing a fantastic job of balancing Griselma and having seen her evolve over many months, I think she goes from strength to strength each patch in a balanced and fair way. Overall, it's a great update for her.