Leader and Assist Balance Pass November 2019
This update is meant to address the balance of the Warrior Meta in Power Rangers: Legacy Wars. We’ve been looking into how the current character roster plays and listening to your feedback on the character balance.
To determine who needs looking at, we get data on usage, overall win rates, win rates vs. all other characters individually, and average win rates vs. other characters that have high win rates, and we look at this data at several levels of play and in different contexts, such as auto-leveled challenges and ladder play.
The goal here is to not just shake up the meta, but to create a larger pool of viable characters. Mainly this is being accomplished by taking our top four Leaders down a notch, so that others may shine. It was essential to us to preserve the essence of how characters play while also making them fair. In addition, we have taken a look at a few characters who have been performing poorly and given them a bit of a buff. While we’d like to buff more characters into the viable pool, the goal here was to get a few characters feeling fun and unique rather than just give a bunch of characters a damage buff and call it a day.
*Note (November 15 10:20 AM PST) the following fixes have been released as well:
-Fixed Zen-Aku’s Savage Maul and Wolf Bite in Super Mode – EP cost increased to 4
-Magna Defender’s Valiant Combo now has invulnerability before first swing
-Fixed Black Dragon’s Chomp and Stomp Armor – Armor now only applies before first swing
-Devon Daniel’s Carnivorous Chase can no longer be dash cancelled
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Black Dragon
Minor changes to make Negabeam and Stomp and Chomp viable moves. Black Dragon is now a real brute, able to crush through defenses.
- Negabeam damage raised 20%, has 5 hits instead of 2, and starts up faster
- Stomp and Chomp gets 1 armor
- Stomp and Chomp can now be dash canceled after the second hit as well as the first
- Chaos Wave is now a breaker, but EP cost 2 -> 3
Dai Shi assist
Dai Shi’s is the only 2 EP assist in the game right now. Now it is 2 EP and more viable.
- Speed up, damage up 25%
Devon Daniels
Devon should now only get about one super per match, so will have to use it judiciously.
- Lower super meter grant from attacks
- Feral Flurry damage reduced by 20%
- Carnivorous Chase damage reduced by 25%, removed dash cancel
- Ferocious Fang damage reduced by 25%, now resets EP cooldown
Guile
Guile’s toolkit needed a bit of toning down. Since all of his moves could be used as pokes, we felt he needed a liability move: Bullet Revolver. He can still juggle with it if he can get you in the air, but now he can’t bluff with it anymore.
- Bullet Revolver can no longer dash cancel
- Sonic Blade hit now interrupts instead of stunning
Guile Assist
Guile’s assist should now be harder to combo off of and a bit easier to react to.
- Slower startup and later branch point
- First hit also staggers, making it harder to combo off of unless the opponent is close to the corner
Katherine Assist
This assist is laughably easy to react to if you have a blue. Making it cancelable makes it much more interesting.
- Cancelable after 1st and 2nd hit
Lord Zedd
Lord Zedd makes a brutal return to viability. He now has a bluffing tool, can combo well, and has a decent poke.
- Vicious Poke EP cost 3 -> 2
- Double Trouble is now dash cancelable after finger snap before first swing
- Shock Quake sweeps after the first hit
Magna Defender
Magna’s toolkit was far too easy to block, he had few options to open up his opponents. These adjustments will help him be able to compete again.
- Noble Blow is dash cancelable before the attack (like his assist)
- Magna Storm EP cost 3 -> 2, damage is reduced 10%, and is dash cancelable early
Magna Defender Assist
Magna’s Assist is one of the slowest startups in the game, but is also cancelable. We’ve increased the damage in order to properly account for the risk you are taking if you guess wrong and eat this attack.
- Damage up 25%
Ranger Slayer Assist
This assist should no longer let the player regenerate as much EP as before.
- Last arrow is now an interrupt, not a stun.
Ryan Mitchell
The primary concern with Ryan Mitchell is how easy it was for him to rely on cycling his primary attacks at very little risk to himself.
- Demon’s Bane EP cost 3 -> 4
- Lightspeed Kick EP cost 3 -> 5, damage increased by +55%
- Titanium Blazer damage reduced by 25%
Zen Aku
Zen Aku has two small changes, but they impact how easily he can sustain pressure with his primary attacks.
- Wolf Bite EP cost 3 -> 4
- Savage Maul EP cost 3 -> 4