Greetings PTS Players!

There is a new build live on PTS right now with further balance changes (SEE BELOW) ! Please let us know what you think of these changes (and if you encounter any issues) here on the PTS forum.

Please note that this build is not representative of the final build coming in the next official Live Build update. There may be further features added/removed/shifted as well as additional PTS builds to test these. Also, the patch notes below will always be abridged versions compared to the Live Build. Understanding this is paramount.

Noobs to the PTS Mini-FAQ:

I’ve never been in the PTS before. How do I gain access? Great question Champ! Owning the Champions Pack grants you access! So whether you purchased it on Bethesda Launcher or on Steam you should now have access. It’ll look a little different on each client. On Bethesda Launcher , you should now have a whole different icon for Quake Champions PTS – it’s Black and White (and probably at the bottom of your list of games – so you’ll likely have to scroll down to find it). You can click and drag it up your list to make it easier to find in the future, at which point it’ll look like this:

On Steam , in your Library, you should now have what looks like a whole new listing for a game called “Quake Champions PTS” that should be right under “Quake Champions” in your list of games. Should look like this:

If you are a Champions Pack owner (from either Bethesda Launcher or Steam and you don’t see the “Quake Champions PTS” as above, please contact one of our lovely CS team and they can sort you out: https://help.bethesda.net/

I was already in previous PTS builds, what’s changed for me?

Only thing that’s changed is your heart; as your love has yet again deepened for this game and for the people in it. EVERYTHING ELSE STAYS THE SAME FOR YOU.

How does the ‘limited to 500 Users’ at a time work?

There is a soft cap of 500 Users on the PTS server, after the limit is reached, it’s a one-out-one-in queue system – like a super-hot Quake dance club that has a digital bouncer! So, if you launch and can’t get right in there right away, that means there’s already 500 Users playing, but it will let you know what number you are in line as you form a perfect line in the digital queue! Technology.

In the chance that you got into the game and you’re searching for a public match, but can’t find a game…

Due to the smaller population of players on PTS, there’s a chance you won’t be able to easily find a public match quickly; but you can also use the official Public Test Server forum (exactly where you're reading this) to add your fellow PTS players to your friends list and organize matches in Custom.

This is all awesome, but WHERE IS CTF?!?

As we previously discussed on stream, we’ve been moving ahead with development on CTF due to popular demand and want to have it in PTS as soon as possible. We’re targeting November (hint: it's not in this build) so stay tuned Champs!

Hey guys – I have some feedback!

Great news! Please keep all Feedback right here on these forums , cause the internet is a dark and full of terrors! And really, it’s just easier to keep the PTS conversation here. Look for a Feedback MEGATHREAD on whichever build we’re on.

Enough w/ all these Quakestions! Get to the super light abridged Patch Notes already! Fair enough. Here goes…

OK FAM,

Here's a super quick 'n dirty from PTS October 30th -> PTS November 6th change log: (read further down for full build details in-case you missed the October 30th build)

Performance

More improvements (more details coming when it goes to LIVE branch)

All Light Champions

Note: Reverting Starting AP from new PTS -> back to Live settings as we were seeing Lights dominating too much

Note: Max armor nerf still present

Starting AP 25 to 0

All Heavy Champions

Note: Reverting Starting AP from new PTS -> back to Live settings as we were seeing Heavies penalized too much

Note: Max armor nerf still present

Starting AP 75 to 100

Lightning Gun

Note: Players have reacted positively to the dps change, but felt that the rof change was highly negative. • Damage 7 to 6 • Rate of fire 52 to 48 ms (134 to 125 dps) • Knockback 6 to 7

Slipgate

Players can no longer join mid-round. Players & bots that join during the round will remain spectators until the next round begins.

Fixed inaccurate Quad VO that could occur between rounds.

Sacrifice

Note: From feedback on LIVE that Sacrifice Arcade was too short.

Increased Sacrifice capture time from 60 to 90 seconds

Increased Sacrifice Tourney capture time from 60 to 150 seconds

Armor Protection / Protection / Spawn Protection

Rate changed from 0.66 to 0.67 to address inaccurate health/armor split values.

Athena

Note: Because of her increased charges, she’s dealing more damage over time than our other champions. We’d rather lean into her ability as a utility.

Collision damage while grappling 50 to 25

BJ

Increased VO volume

Updated low pain sound (alternative pain 100 scream from Brian Bloom)

Note: BJ was overnerfed, became very noticeable once we were playing other humans. J

Disable shooting after initiating dual-wield 1000 to 500 ms

Disable shooting after dual-wield expires 500 to 0 ms

Clutch

Note: We had these planned, but they hadn’t make the prior builds.

Shield hide time 0.9 to 1 sec

Disable shooting after active ability expires 0 to 500 ms

DOOM Slayer

Note: This fixes the bug where Doom could punch early and deal damage, without any punch animation.

Hands raise time 0.4 to 0.8 sec

Galena

Note: We wanted to lean a little more into Galena as a healer, but the damage nerf felt a little heavy handed, as many noted that a 25 dmg totem could just be walked into without any real concerns.

Normal Totem damage 25 to 50

Upgraded Totem damage 50 to 75

Keel

Note: Keel hadn’t received any damage reductions like the others, and the firing delay hasn’t been quite enough.

Grenade damage 75 to 50

Nyx

Note: Nyx telefrag was rare and overnerfed, slight readjustment. Fade time allows you to understand that you’re not able to fire immediately when leaving Ghostwalk.

Ghostwalk leaving ghostwalk fade out time 400 to 500 ms

Ghostwalk telefrag damage 75 to 100

Ranger

Note: Telefrag felt slightly overnerfed

Dire Orb telefrag damage 75 to 100

Scalebearer

Note: Scalebear has been struggling on both LIVE and PTS

Bull Rush / Heavy Weight 75 > 320 ups to 100 > 320 ups



Strogg

Note: This delay was initially introduced to combat his drone charge that dealt heavy damage, with the recent reductions, we can also reduce the delay

Peeker delay before charge 750 to 500 ms

Nov 6th PTS Build Highlights

New Champion: Eisen Health 125/100 Armor 50/100 Speed 310 Active Ability: SENTRY TURRET - Places an automated turret that tracks enemies and fires hyperblaster laser bolts. Passives: REPURPOSE - Reduce ability time cooldown by 10% when collecting Light Armors. SALVAGE - Reduce ability time cooldown by 20% when collecting Heavy Armor.

New Arcade Modes: Instagib Classic: Visor-only, no abilities. Insta Mystery: Random Champions, Active & Passive abilities deal insta-damage. Mystery Sacrifice: Utilize the random champions you receive to capture and defend the obelisks.

Future Map in testing: Citadel

Feature: Post-match Victory Animations

More Performance improvements, optimizations (will be more specifics later on LIVE build)

Added Weapon Position game option, allowing players to force all weapons to the center or right of the screen, or choose to keep them at their vanity weapon defaults.

Decreased round transition times in Slipgate

Fixed Enemy Outline ‘ON’ option

Fixed Enemy Outline Color options to correctly apply the chosen color to the arrow, outline, and Fresnel lighting.

Fixed options resetting to default every time the game is launched

Capture time in Sacrifice Tourney restored to 150 sec (from 60s)

Centered the Boomstick (DOOM 2 SSG) by default

Fixed AFK Timer for viewers of streams in the Watch browser

Misc Changes & Fixes

Champion Balance

All Champions

Reduced damage of all damage dealing abilities

Cooldowns unified at 45 sec

All active abilities disable shooting for 500 ms

Walk speeds unified at 160 ups

All ability explosion radiuses unified to 3 m

All explosion min splash damage unified to 10

All explosive weapon splash radiuses unified to 3 m

All explosive weapons min splash damage unified to 10

All Light Champions

Starting AP 25 to 0

Max AP 50 to 75

Overmax AP 125 to 150

View Height 0.66 to 0.9 (Anarki only)

Crouch Height 0.38 to 0.5 (Anarki only)

All Heavy Champions

Starting AP 75 to 100

Max AP 150 to 125

Overmax AP 225 to 200

Anarki

Starting AP 25 to 0

Max AP 50 to 75

Overmax AP 125 to 150

View Height 0.66 to 0.9

Crouch Height 0.38 to 0.5

Disable shooting after injection 750 to 500 ms

Disable zooming after injection 1350 to 500 ms

Athena

Collision damage while grappling 50 to 25



Starting AP 25 to 0

Max AP 50 to 75

Overmax AP 125 to 150

Disable shooting after grapple throw 480 to 500 ms

Disable zooming after grapple throw 480 to 500 ms

Improved the physics behaviors when Athena grapples downward

B.J. Blazkowicz

Walk speed 155 to 160 ups

Disable shooting after initiating dual-wield 0 to 500 ms

Disable shooting after dual-wield expires 500 to 0 ms 0 = live

1000 = old pts

500 = new pts

Dual-Wield Rate of Fires Gauntlet 1.6x to 1.25x Machinegun 1.5x to 1.25x Shotgun 2x to 1.25x Tri-bolt 2x to 1.25x Rocket Launcher 2x to 1.25x Lightning Gun 1.45x to 1.25x Railgun 2x to 1.25x

Increased VO volume

Updated low pain sound (alternative pain 100 scream from Brian Bloom)

VO updated, now using the voice of Brian Bloom, BJ from MachineGame’s Wolfenstein series

Disable zooming after initiating dual-wield 0 to 1 sec

Disable shooting after dual-wield expires 0 to 500 ms

Clutch

Starting AP 75 to 100

Max AP 150 to 125

Overmax AP 225 to 200

Walk speed 150 to 160 ups

Mining Drill rate of fire 52 to 125 ms

Mining Drill damage 7 to 10

Shield hide time 0.9 to 1 sec



Disable shooting after active ability expires 0 to 500 ms

Death Knight

Walk speed 155 to 160 ups

Flame trail duration after impact 6 to 2 sec

Flame trail direct contact damage 5 to 0

Flame strike direct damage 40 to 25

Flame strike max splash damage 40 to 25

Flame strike min splash damage 20 to 10

Flame strike radius 2 to 3 m

Fire Dot 5 to 10 damage per tick

Fire Dot 5 to 10 second duration

Spit player collision projectile size 0.2 to 0.5 m

Acid Dot 5 to 10 second duration

Acid Pool lifetime 9 to 10 sec

DOOM Slayer

Walk speed 155 to 160 ups

Cooldown 50 to 45

Hands raise time 0.4 to 0.8 sec

Eisen

Health 125/100

Armor 50/100

Speed 310

Cooldown 45

Sentry turret fov 140

Sentry turret damage 15

Sentry turret rate of fire 250 ms (60 dps)

Sentry turret projectile speed 40 m/s

Sentry turret projectile accel 20 m/s

Sentry turret health 120

Galena

Cooldown 35 to 45 sec

Walk speed 155 to 160 ups

Disable shooting after totem toss 430 to 500 ms

Disable zooming after totem toss 430 to 500 ms

Normal Totem damage 75 to 50

Upgraded Totem damage 50 to 75

Totem radius 2.5 to 3

Totems now remove all debuff effects, like fire and acid dots

Keel



Starting AP 75 to 100

Max AP 150 to 125

Overmax AP 225 to 200

Walk speed 150 to 160 ups

Cooldown 50 to 45

Disable shooting after grenade 0 to 500 ms

Disable zooming after grenade 0 to 500 ms

Grenade swarm delay between shots 400 to 500 ms

Grenade swarm min splash damage 15 to 10

Grenade damage 75 to 50

Nyx

Starting AP 25 to 0

Max AP 50 to 75

Overmax AP 125 to 150

Cooldown 40 to 45

Disable shooting after leaving ghostwalk 0 to 500 ms

Ghostwalk leaving ghostwalk fade out time 400 to 500 ms



Ghostwalk telefrag damage 75 to 100

Ranger



Walk speed 155 to 160 ups

Cooldown 25 to 45 sec

Disable shooting after throw 250 to 500 ms

Disable zooming after dire orb throw 250 to 500 ms

Dire Orb Fly Through Damage 100 to 25

Dire Orb max splash damage 100 to 75

Dire Orb min splash damage 0 to 10

Dire Orb telefrag damage 8000 to 100

Scalebearer

Starting AP 75 to 100

Max AP 150 to 125

Overmax AP 225 to 200

Walk speed 150 to 160 ups

Cooldown 30 to 45

Disable shooting after Bull Rush 300 to 500 ms

Bull Rush damage Old 75 > 300 ups 100 > 400 ups 125 > 500 ups 150 > 600 ups 200 > 700 ups New 100 > 320 ups Knockback increased

Heavy Weight damage: Old 50 > 400 ups 75 > 320 ups 100 > 500 ups 150 > 600 ups New 100 > 320 ups Knockback increased



Slash

Starting AP 25 to 0

Max AP 50 to 75

Overmax AP 125 to 150

Revert to Sept movement by popular demand: Crouch speed 160 to 272 ups Crouch slide friction 1.0 to 1.3

Cooldown 30 to 45

Plasma trail max explosion damage 50 to 25

Plasma trail min splash damage 12 to 10

Sorlag

Starting AP 75 to 100

Max AP 150 to 125

Overmax AP 225 to 200

Walk speed 150 to 160 ups

Cooldown 35 to 45

Disable shooting after first acid spit 750 to 1300 ms (500 ms after last spit)

Disable zooming after first acid spit 600 to 1300 ms (500 ms after last spit)

Spit direct damage 40 to 15

Spit direct knockback 5 to 10

Strogg & Peeker

Walk speed 155 to 160 ups

Cooldown 35 to 45

Peeker hyperblaster damage 20 to 10

Peeker hyperblaster rate of fire 110 to 125 ms

Peeker hyperblaster shot accel 13 to 20 m/s

Peeker delay before charge 750 to 500 ms

Visor

Walk Speed 155 to 160 ups

Cooldown 50 to 45

Weapon Balance

All Weapons

Rocket Launcher

Projectile speed 27.5 to 25 m/s (1100 to 1000 ups)

Min splash damage 15 to 10

Lightning Gun

• Note: Players have reacted positively to the dps change, but felt that the rof change was highly negative, so...

• Damage 7 to 6

• Rate of fire 52 to 48 ms (134 to 125 dps)

• Knockback 6 to 7

Tri-bolt

Direct damage 45 to 40

Max splash damage 45 to 40

Min splash damage 4 to 10

Gameplay Balance

Ammo

Unified weapon ammo pick-up behaviors between modes, so the behavior you experience in FFA is also now present in Duel. Now all weapons will fill you to their starting pickup value if you are low on ammo. If you have the starting ammo value or greater for a weapon and you pick-up the gun again, it will only grant you +1 for low rate of fire weapons or +10 for high rate of fire weapons.



Power-ups

All power-ups, in all modes, now initially spawn at 90 sec and then respawn every 2 minutes afterwards. (Doing away with inconsistent rules between game modes. Previously power-ups spawned at 45 sec in Sacrifice, 80 sec in Slipgate, and 120 sec in DM/TDM.)

Health Pickups

All health pickups now remove all debuff effects, like fire and acid dots

Small Health can now be consumed when over max health, if the player has a debuff effect

Blood Pools

Blood Pools now remove all debuff effects, like fire and acid dots

Teleporters

Exit speeds are now based only off of your horizontal velocity (ups), no longer taking your vertical (falling) velocity into account

Exit speeds are now capped at 1000 ups

Armor Protection / Protection / Spawn Protection



Rate changed from 0.66 to 0.67 to address inaccurate health/armor split values

Mode Changes

Instagib

Abilities are still present but only deal normal damage.

Only Railgun and Gauntlet deal insta-damage.

Slipgate

Players can no longer join mid-round. Players & bots that join during the round will remain spectators until the next round begins

Fixed inaccurate Quad VO that could occur between rounds

Sacrifice

Increased Sacrifice capture time from 60 to 90 seconds

Increased Sacrifice Tourney capture time from 60 to 150 seconds

Special BUG Note

This latest PTS build has a lot of Spectator bugs, we're aware of that and are working on it, so no need for feedback on that topic.

Again, if you have any issues with launching the PTS build, or gaining access after having purchased the Champions Pack:

Step 1 - Don’t panic.

Step 2 - Contact CS at https://help.bethesda.net/

GLHF!