#ob62

Merci tout le monde!

Hey guys!  Unfortunately I’m in the line of a massive storm heading up through my area and it looks like I’m going to get slammed-- I wanted to write some early thoughts about the upcoming patch before any potential power outages.  If you haven’t seen, you can read the patch notes HERE.

Leading off with the obvious:  Soft reveal/Illuminate!

I feel like it should have been one or the other for this patch, not both at once.  I'm not particularly a fan of Illuminate's range increasing (natch), as the normal soft reveal range (it's always seemed to be about 5 feet/units?) plus 20 more units is I think enough to hit Skye's "damage starts dropping off" range-- for a character who is almost entirely dependent on dives and getting that first hit in, it's going to hit her the hardest as Sha Lin and Seris have the advantage of being projectile champs over hitscans.

I'm hoping that this buff is held "soft" and will be open to getting reduced back to 15, especially depending on how the soft reveal changes work out-- roughly 25 units of reveal for 200 credits feels a bit much, but I don't have the data.  Or hell, maybe this opens the door further to Skye adjustments/kit tweaks?  I know she's frustrating on console play with how run-and-gun blitz'y she can be, but as a PC player, I'm just worried about console control limitations and the reportedly super-heavy aim assist impacting my platform.

Ash's Battering Ram losing CC immunity feels like it will hurt, but to be utterly honest I run Resilience *a lot*, so barring an excess of stuns and slows I should be okay.  I liked Rally Here but rarely had a good comp to use it, so the change will make it a *lot* more impactful and I am hella down with that.

The Buck fix has me screaming "Hallelujah," I usually run Resilience as soon as I see a CC-heavy line and getting tossed from Frog Isle a pretty nutso distance drove me nuts.  I'm in a weird place where I could have never believed the Cassie Incitement nerf would be coming in real life; a bunch of folks I've talked to in the past were in the feedback loop of them complaining about it, but also *using* it.

I don't play a lot of Drogoz anymore, but I'm okay with the vertical getting reined in a little bit.  However, I have said and I still say that I hope mobility and vertical mobility are things that come around and stay in Paladins-- a light touch as required, rather than scare-slamming things with a hammer, etc.

Grohk's rework is a long time coming, and I'm glad it's here.  He and Buck were two characters I never really touched, but I like a lot of what I see with Big Blue, especially with that totem health increase.  Bulldozer value GOOOOOOO.

Big fan of Kinessa getting some love.

Lex getting more damage on Discovery makes me cringe a bit-- the entire purpose of the Legendary was that he was supposed to trade damage for utility, but I've written volumes about my problems with him and his kit, up to and including the drastic need for In Pursuit having separate, distinct SFX to his normal shots.  Shot cadence isn't enough, especially in a game where unique audio cues are critical to gameplay.

Terminus' tweaks give me a few up-and-down feelings; Power Siphon sticks out to me especially since I've heard conflicting reports to it and how it interacts with abilities:  Some have told me that Terminus can use Power Siphon to charge up to full charges off Skye's Time Bomb, but he still eats the damage, but others still have said they've charged, not lost any shielding, and flat-out 0 damage facetank it.  I haven't had enough time against him, I'm afraid.  It's bad enough that Zhin can counter a massive explosion! :cry:

Speaking of, I'm glad Zhin's Billow is getting that additional 2s, but the healing attached to it's associated Legendary still makes me frown a bit.  He's essentially a mobile Ice Block with way more healing than Evie-- she's got flight and teles on her side, so it creates a weird scenario where I can see why he can get more heals, but I don't necessarily agree with it.

I don't play a lot of Willo, but the reductions actually make me squint a little-- they weren't particularly egregious to me, but I think this falls back to the "soft touch vs hammer" analogy with mobility.

And as intrepid Palafan Tixxel points out, Inara’s Earthen Guard tooltip has been inaccurately showing the bonus healing to be 60% when as of OB52 it was buffed to 80%.  It hasn’t been changed since that I’ve found at a cursory glance, but the tooltip still claims it to be 60%.  Keep your eyes on your heals, Inara mains!

...right in the back of his net! I know!