Stormgate Patch Notes 2/13

After much discourse on the state of balance during the Elephant test (and the EGCtv Qualifiers), Frost Giant has unleashed a new patch upon the game. Lets talk about it.

Bug Fixes

• High APM players should no longer experience total client freezes late in games.
• Unit active abilities should no longer have a negative effect on Frames Per Second.
• B.O.B. Overcharge can no longer be cast on Command Posts under construction.
• Launch Sensor Drone can no longer be launched from Command Posts under construction.
• Shroudstone Manifestation can no longer be cast near Shrines or Shroudstones under construction.
• Shroudstone Manifestation can no longer be cast near enemy Shrines or Shroudstones.
• Fixed an issue where Nightfall Infestation could “follow” a targeted unit.
• Health camps now provide the intended heal rate of 8 health per second.
• Fixed an issue where Lancers and MedTechs could unintentionally fit through certain walled off areas.
• The Magmadon's Trample ability can no longer affect air units.
• The Magmadon's Trample ability can no longer affect structures.
• The MedTech’s System Shock ability now correctly dispels Infest.
• The Vulcan’s Jump Jets ability will no longer be blocked by an enemy corpse.

General

• Level 2 Speed Camps have been updated to spawn fewer Goats.

VANGUARD

S.C.O.U.T.

• Vorillium Claws upgrade cost increased from 25/25 to 50/50.
• Vorillium Claws upgrade research time increased from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.

MedTech

• MedTech supply cost increased from 2 to 3.

Hedgehog

• Mobilized Hedgehog ammo recharge time decreased from 1.2 seconds to 1 second.
• Deployed Hedgehog ammo recharge time decreased from 0.6 seconds to 0.5 seconds.

Vulcan

• Range increased from 7 to 8.

Evac

• Release Skymine cooldown decreased from 120 seconds to 20 seconds.
• Release Skymine now has a 15 Luminite Cost.
• Skymines now persist until detonated or killed.

Hornet

• Reclaimer Stingers damage decreased from 10 to 8.

Flak Cannon

• Anti-air attack range increased from 10 to 12.
• Attacking an air unit will now only deal splash damage to other air units.

INFERNALS

• Hellspawn Resurgence Animus cost increased from 25 to 40.

Imp

• Enflamed Imp damage decreased from 100 (+100 vs Structure) to 100 (+50 vs Structures).

Brute

• The Sunder Soul ability now grants spawned Fiends max White Health (15).

Fiend

• All Fiends start with 0 White Health by default, down from 7.5. This includes both Fiends born from Infest and ones that drop from Brutes on-death.
• Movement speed increased from 6 to 7.

Gaunt

• Gaunt weapon bounce range decreased from 5 to 3.5.

Doombringer

• The Doombringer can now load units while in Mobilized mode.
• Doombringer inner radius decreased from 0.5 to 0.1.
• Doombringer outer radius decreased from 1 to 0.5.

Magmadon

• Consume cooldown increased from 0.25 to 5 seconds.

Hellborne

• Supply cost increased from 5 to 8.
• Cost increased from 150/150 to 250/225.
• Health increased from 200 to 260.
• Damage increased from 30 (+40 vs structure) to 50 (+50 vs structure).
• Cone splash damage increased from 15 (+20 vs structure) to 25 (+25 vs structure).

Shadowflyer

• The Shadowflyer now deals 125 damage to its primary target and 50 damage in an area of 3, down from 125 in the entire area.

Weaver

• Lash cooldown increased from 12 seconds to 16 seconds.
• Lash damage changed from 60 to 20% of a unit’s max health.
• Consume cooldown increased from 0.25 to 5.

Impacts

The most important change in this patch is the change to the number of goats spawning at the speed camp. It seems innocuous, but the number of goats was the primary driver of all early-game Infernal strategies - as 5/6 units (depending on the map) to turn into fiends is incredible powerful. This should take some of the priority off of those early game rushes - that, and the fact that fiends no longer spawn with white health.

Frost Giant took the axe to several other units as well. The hornets took a 20% damage nerf vs ground (after the truly monumental previous change moving them from 14 (+7 v Light) to 10), 9 imps no longer blow up a command post (it takes 12 now), the shadowflyer now does significantly less damage to slashed targets, Hellspawn Resurgence (the charge reset spell) costs almost double the animus at 40, and the SCOUT upgrade had it's research time doubled.

It wasn't all nerfs though. The evac should have a much better time dealing with Shadowflyers as the skymine cooldown was buffed by literally 100 seconds and no longer has a cooldown. Doombringers can now hotpickup units, which is a welcome change for players wishing to dazzle their foes. It was interesting having the unit only load/unload in deployed mode, but it's much more fun to be able to save units while in the air. You'll still have to land it to release units, though.

Finally, we get to the sidegrades - units that were buffed and nerfed in equal measure. Weavers are now much better at their job of assasinating high value targets (such as vulcans or atlases) but can do it less often and lashing lower HP units will not be as strong. Hellborne are much more espensive (+100 luminite, +75 therium, +3 supply) but do a net 20 more damage to units and 30 to structures - which means you'll only need 3 of them to burst an exo down instead of the previous 5 - which frees up 1 supply and 75 therium if thats your goal. They should also survive a bit longer with the 60 HP buff. This is likely a buff to players skilled at positioning their armies, but concentrates more power in fewer units - which provides an objective for flanks and surrounds to target down.

What does this mean overall? I think you'll see less aggressive sidemap creeping from Infernal players in the early game, as the Gaunt, Fiend, and Speed Camp changes all work together to make that less useful. You'll also see less S.C.O.U.T openings in Vanguard vs Infernals - the nerf in cost and time is a significant one. This should make the early game less binary, as the current dog openings don't really allow the infernal play to contest map control until they have an overwhelming force. On the flipside, the Vanguard should be able to contest these early game armies a bit more - Gaunts splash less, fiends have less effective HP (even if they are faster), and the nerf to Hellspawn Resurgence should significantly slow down Infernal macro. In the Vanguard mirror, you'll likely see less hornet openings - buffs to the hedgehog anti-air mode, already solid against Hornets, coupled the Hornet nerf and Flak Cannon buffs takes significant power out of that opening. Looking later, Evac Atlas play definitely received a buff with the nerf to the Shadowflyer and the significant decrease in skymine recharge time.

Things I'm Unsure Of

I'm not sure how much the doombringer change will impact the 8 Gaunt drop - on paper, this seems like something that will make it just a bit stronger, and certainly buff the magmadon drops we see later into the game. I'm also not quite sure how the consume changes will impact things - on paper its a tremendously powerful ability, but the derpiness of the weaver and magmadon makes it hard to use in practice.

I'm also not clear on how the midgame will shake out in the Vanguard v Infernal matchup. Gaunts have been nerfed, medtechs cost more supply, and vulcans have one more range, and hedgehogs do more DPS due to getting rockets back faster. On paper, this seems like we might see more Mech Bay-focussed compositions, with hedgehog openers into Vulcans, Atlases, and Evacs. I don't know that the scale of these changes will be enough to make that happen, however.

How to Get Involved

As always, if you want to engage with the Frost Giant developers and get information from them as they post it, you should sign up for their newsletter, head on over to /r/Stormgate on reddit, and sign up for the beta and wishlist the game on steam!