V1.4.5 Patch Notes

Greetings, Champions!

It doesn’t feel like long since we last wrote these words — oh wait, that’s because it wasn’t! The mini balancing patch was only two weeks ago, wasn’t it? Well, we hope you’re ready for another set of patch notes, because we’ve got some more for you!

This balancing update is, well, all about balance — we’re making further adjustments to the big Hero makeovers introduced in 1.4. But we also have a few features we want to tell you more about, such as:

Store News

New Skins

Archangel Muriel [Uncommon]

Striking as always, this time in copper.

Construction GRIM.exe [Uncommon]

Sorry, 's'cuse me, this is a construction site y’know! No, we won’t be excavating anytime soon, we’re on break.

New Bundles

Archangel Muriel Bundle

Discord Integration Improvements

We’ve been thrilled by your positive feedback on our Discord integration and we’re taking it even further!
You can now link your Discord account to unlock expanded chat functionality. This allows you to send and receive private messages from your Discord friends even when they’re outside the game. You’ll also be able to message your party as early as the queue, or reach out to individual players directly.
You can still use in-game comms as usual, but with Discord linked, communication becomes even more seamless.

Coming soon: Linked Discord accounts in the future will also let you import your Discord friends directly into your Predecessor friend list — making it easier than ever to party up.

Game Server Location Changes

A long-awaited change has finally arrived — as of April 8th, the NA-EAST and NA-WEST servers will merge into a single server location: NA-CENTRAL. That means no more splitting our North American player base — and potentially shorter queue times? Count us in!

We’re also happy to confirm that OCE servers with location in Australia are staying - permanently!

We’re also aware of the questions about servers in other regions of the world - all we can say for now is watch this space!

In-game Tips

To support new players in learning the game more effectively, we’ve introduced a series of in-game tips aimed at improving awareness of core mechanics and gameplay concepts.

These tips will appear contextually during matches, most often after deaths, offering timely guidance to help players make more informed decisions next time. While primarily intended to ease the learning curve for newcomers, we believe even experienced players may find some of these reminders useful.

Minimap Update

If you’ve been following our social channels, you might be aware that we’ve been working on a minimap redesign to improve overall visibility. The first iteration of these changes will be introduced in this patch, and we hope the updated map will make in-game information clearer and easier to read.

We hope you’ll notice the following improvements:

• Increased lane visibility

• Objectives are now marked with the colour of the buff they provide, making them easier to identify

• A new outline helps the minimap stand out more clearly

• The increased minimap size makes icons and pings easier to see and interpret

This is just the beginning — further improvements to the minimap are planned for future updates, so stay tuned.

Toxicity

More tweaks have been done to our anti-toxicity measures. Hopefully you’ll see that toxicity will become less prevalent with this update. As always, if you witness undesirable behaviour in the game, please let us know about it through the in-game reporting system.

Gameplay Balance Changes

General:

Death Timers:

To begin with, Death Timers will be an ongoing topic that we will continue to monitor feedback towards. To provide some brief context, while it is important for kills to be convertible into Objectives for the structure and pacing of a match, we wish to be careful with early deaths not being too punishing to be on the receiving end of. 

For example, if Death Timers are overly long in the early-game, in scenarios where you kill your opponent at Level-2 due to a single mistake, are then able to easily crash a wave and reset into a wave bouncing back into you, secure the freeze on an opponent who is down on items and experience, just to kill them again - this can quickly cascade into an aggressive snowball that can be both unenjoyable and incredibly difficult to come back from.

While there are many other factors such as Objective/Tower TTK relative to Death Timers and how convertible they post-kill, the relationship of recalling and death, or how Death Timers can contribute to games ending too quickly or too slowly, etc; as a general note, we wish for the pace of the average Predecessor to be engaging and exciting for all parties, with healthy doses of snowballing, comebacks, and strategy all present in any given match, with matches ending in a satisfying manner. With this in mind, we’re being conscious of not accidentally undoing many of the pacing improvements the community has generally responded well to with the v1.4 changes by overshooting too hard on Death Timer adjustments in the short-term while the balance ecosystem continues to stabilise with each update.

While we may make additional adjustments again in the near future, for now, Death Timers are seeing another small increase in the early levels to further increase the ability for Players to convert a kill into a subsequent objective, with further adjustments to be considered in the future as more feedback comes in.

Jungle:

Alongside some minor durability increases for various Objectives to provide a greater window to contest, we’re pushing back the initial spawn time of Fangtooth to provide some additional breathing room in the early-game for teams to navigate before the Objective rush begins. 

Additionally, the respawn timer of Mini/Orb Prime is being increased to better desync their uptime from Fangtooth, thereby reducing the frequency at which they can simply be traded for one another if the disadvantaged team chooses to avoid fighting over them. 

Finally, Fangtooth and Mini-Prime are seeing a reduction in the amount of Global Experience they award on death, decreasing the ability for a team to get ahead by taking them off cooldown and providing more of an opportunity cost should too many resources be thrown at them in the earlier stages of a match.

Fangtooth:

Mini Orb:

Orb Prime:

Towers:

General:

Tower Gold Drops have a habit of flying out of view when dropped and can often be missed by Players as a result. We’re making some small adjustments to their travel trajectory, alongside taking the opportunity to speed up their decent time, which should ultimately have Gold Drops feeling snappier and more enjoyable to collect.

Outer Towers:

Minor adjustments are being made to the durability of Towers in the early-game, making the ability to take the first Plate or two more achievable, while ensuring the Outer Towers later segments still remain durable and more difficult to chain together back-to-back.

Heroes

While its damage potential is immense, Argus’ Particle Shredder struggles to keep pace with the general increases to movement speed that came in v1.4, with him frequently struggling to land it against moving opponents. As a result, a small increase to its Projectile Speed is being given to provide some greater consistency to the ability. 

Given her disruptive and durable nature, Aurora currently possesses too much raw damage when committing to a tank build, often able to unreasonably explode less durable Heroes. To ensure there is a greater trade-off in damage to durability for tankier builds that forego any Magical Power, Boreal Sweep is receiving a heavy loss in base damage in return for some additional scaling. 

Boris’ ability to apply pressure through aggressive invade in the early-game, paired with his general healing capabilities, can allow him to make poor choices with relatively little risk for punishment. To combat this, decreases to his early game power and general durability are being given to ensure opponents have a better chance of dueling Boris and picking him off before he heals too much, should they find him out of position.

Despite possessing unique utility tools, Drongo has fallen behind other Carries, often feeling unable to make an impact in the laning phase before becoming eclipsed in the damage department by other Heroes. Some additional strength is being offered to Old Rusty to return some of his former lane-bully and poking potential, giving him a better foundation to get rolling from.

Feng Mao continues to have a hard time staying healthy during his Jungle clears, as well as struggling to keep pace in various Offlane matchups in the early levels. Increases to his baseline durability and Mana are being offered to allow for greater stability in reaching his post-6 Ultimate spike, whereby he has an easier time outplaying and duelling opponents.

Though subtle, Gadget is receiving a suite of Quality of Life and “Feel” adjustments to increase the consistency, readability, and reliability of her abilities, with her Sticky Mine having a more intuitive arc to its flight-path, and Speed Gate originating from a higher location to match targeting expectations more and unintentionally collide with floors less. Alongside this, her Seek and Destroy is receiving a slight increase to its homing capabilities to once again provide for greater consistency and chasing potential.

Gideon’s ability to out-shove, out-duel, and out-poke many of his matchups leaves him currently acting as a mighty jack-of-all-trades that many Mages struggle to match up against. On top of a shorter window to apply his Passive Tether once he gains it, decreases to his lane-clear via an increase to Void Breach’s cooldown will are also being given to provide other Mages more breathing room when playing against him in lane.

Greystone’s Ultimate was subject to a range of Bugs that have impacted its strength, with it feeling underwhelming in many cases. These issues have now been resolved, with the Ultimate now correctly removing Anti-Heal effects on use, as well as it now correctly restoring more health the longer he holds out as a reward for risking his life to the wire. These fixes result in a notable increase in power for Greystone, and we expect he will feel more satisfying and powerful to play as a result.

As promised in the last patch, we have made some adjustments to Grux’s Smash ‘n Grab, increasing the time it takes for him to channel a max-range pull, as well as making some corrections to its hitbox to be more accurate to the in-world decal. This change should make the ability feel fairer to play against, while still allowing Grux to achieve clutch pulls if he times it correctly. As always, we will keep an eye on these changes moving forward to see if Grux needs additional adjustments based on community feedback.

Howitzer’s all-in potential at his Level 6 spike currently leaves little room for survival for those unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of Make It Rain. The ability is receiving a reduction to its raw damage, better ensuring that Howitzer must soften-up his opponent further, before he can blast them back to the afterlife.

Iggy & Scorch’s ability to spread fire (and chaos) across the battlefield is currently feeling limited, with the damage occurring from his persistent zones of fire not packing enough heat to thoroughly act as zone control tools that enemies must escape from should they value their life. They are receiving increases to their persistent damage capabilities, better allowing him to deny areas with his AoE tools, and cook enemies that find themselves stuck in the inferno for too long. 

Since the previous fixes to Khaimera’s Unleash, as well as the bump in strength he received in the previous pass, Khaimera has found a return to form. With those previous changes now stabilised, we’re stripping back some of his healing potential and Unleash uptime, thereby inching down to a healthier power level relative to other Junglers that are being adjusted around him.

With the emergence of Lt. Belica’s new On-Hit capabilities, so too have On-Hit builds surfaced as a strong build contender that offers her a powerful mid-game spike in strength. To ensure this build remains viable, but more in-line with other styles, we’re making adjustments to her Basic Attack Timer and general baseline potency. These changes reduce the value Belica gains from stacking Attack Speed to help keep the On-Hit builds on parity with other styles; alongside diminishing her early-game shove and bullying capabilities, ensuring she must work harder in lane to transition to the mid-game. 

While Morigesh has found an interesting home as a shorter range sustain-mage since the v1.4 shift, her damage currently falls short to the point she can struggle to possess agency in fights beyond her durability. She is receiving a suit of changes aimed at bumping up her damage potential to reach a more happy medium when paired with her healing capabilities. Bundle this with changes to Hive that reduce how unnaturally heavy it feels towards the end of its flight-path, and Morigesh should feel far more able to spread her Pestilence and work down her foes over time.

Similar to other Heroes, Murdock’s fix to his Movement Speed in the previous patch has allowed his strength to shine once again, with his general damage output eclipsing that of many other Carries. Given the range on control and utility tools he possesses, a reduction to his general Basic Attack potency is required to bring him back to a healthier level of strength.

Once again we’re adjusting Muriel’s Shielding capabilities given how difficult they can be to fight through for many compositions since the Armor changes, with them often stalling out fights for too long. These changes should still leave Muriel able to make an impact with well-timed shields, but leave opponents with a greater chance at pushing through them should they commit enough resources to a target.

Narbash’s general healing capabilities when paired with shielding effects from items and the general increase in armors for Heroes contributes to excessive durability in various teamfight scenarios that can be overly-difficult for many low-damage or DoT-based Heroes to fight through. To help remedy this, we’re bumping down the general efficacy of his Healing when not building Magical Power (and therefore being squishier), as well as reducing the Damage Reduction available on his Ultimate, increasing the viability of choosing to focus him down before he has too much impact, should he misposition.

A small set of improvements for Revenant, increasing the potency of his fourth shot to better deal with bulkier targets that give him trouble, as well as an increase to the Slow Duration on Reckoning to increase his chances at peeling off or chasing down a target in the Nether Realm.

Similar to other tankier Heroes, Sevarog currently deals too much damage for his durability, often able to single-out and burst squishier targets with ease in late-game scenarios. Similar to Aurora, we’re shifting Siphon’s scaling to ensure there is a greater trade-off in damage to durability, based on the item choices Sevarog makes. 

Given Steel’s immense durability and disruptive potential, we’re once again we’re trimming down his damage potential to provide for a greater tradeoff, as well as reducing his baseline armor to ensure he must position with more care in lane, and thereby providing opponents with more room to take trades and poke him out when he oversteps.

TwinBlast currently struggles to live up to his mobile-gunslinging motif, with his Vaporize not currently not packing enough punch, and his Rocket Dash being relatively low uptime until the late-game. To better facilitate his hit and run playstyle, we’re granting more damage and uptime to the respective abilities, bringing him closer to the strength of the more dominant Carries.

Wraith has found incredibly success at various levels of play, largely thanks to the reliability of his Peekaboo! which can feel incredibly difficult to dodge, even at range. Pair this with his incredible Attack Speed relative to other Carries, he can accel in the box or from afar with little room for other Carries to fight back. Reductions to his overall short-range DPS through Attack Speed reductions, and long-range consistency through a slower and less frequent Peekaboo! are required to ensure his overall strength and flexibility in combat do not eclipse the capabilities of other Carries. 

Yin has been a benefactor of the various Lifesteal and Item changes that came with v1.4, resulting in a surge of power that becomes incredibly difficult to deal with should she get ahead. As a result of this, we’re stripping back some of her inherent healing capabilities to ensure it does not become too excessive when paired with her typical item choices, alongside increasing her BAT to provide less excessive Attack Speed once she gets a few items online.

Zarus continues to struggle in the current ecosystem, often feeling unable to duel opponents in extended lane scenarios before running dry on Mana, and having limited options to navigate fights unless his Barricade is available. Some increases to his overall Mana, and further increases to Barricade and Coliseum’s uptime, are being granted to alleviate these issues and provide Zarus with more windows for success.

Items

Crests:

Sanctification’s Shield is currently too potent as a result of the Armor changes, and needs trimming back to ensure it does not result in excessive durability when used.

Silentium’s Silence Duration is receiving a reduction as it can feel overly long for various Heroes when hit by it, especially in the case of the more fragile Assassins where losing access to their abilities at close-range can be a death sentence.

Typhoon, in general, provides too much Attack Speed in mid/late-game scenarios thanks to its Scaling factor, which is especially potent on Heroes such as Lt. Belica or Shinbi that can make great use of its effect. As a result, we’re dropping down its Scaling, ensuring it still feels meaningful as an upgrade, but is less excessive as the game progresses.

Carry:

Another hit to Quiver’s Lifesteal, further trimming out some of the sustain creep that has occurred since v1.4 to help bring it back down to more enjoyable levels.

Despite being a valuable staple that provides various classes with a tool to deal with bulkier targets, Sky Splitter’s general strength has left it feeling superior to many other options without enough tradeoff. To help ensure it does not overshadow Critical Strike options too heavily or benefit Fighters too much in damage and survivability relative to other alternatives, Rend will be losing some of its damage potency, which will also reduce some of the sustain it offers in turn.

The previous buffs to Spectra were a little heavy handed, contributing too heavily to On-Hit builds possessing too much potency and overshadowing Critical Strike builds. As a result, we’re pulling back on the On-Hit damage change from the last pass to bring it back to a happier middle-ground. 

Fighter:

A discount on Basilisk’s cost is being provided, better allowing Fighters to access it when dealing with tankier targets and making the cost tradeoff to other items less severe. 

Draconum is another item that has contributed to the sustain-creep since v1.4, with even the non-healers such as Serath favoring it over options. A reduction to its bonus healing is required to help further strip out some of the excess healing present throughout the average match, 

Overlord, though strong, can feel overly difficult to stack up to its threshold due to the faster pace of the average match. To make reaching its stack condition more consistent and achievable by the 20-minute mark, we’re shifting down its stack threshold. In exchange, we’re reducing the amount of bonus health it provides once its threshold is met, ensuring that the item does not spike too hard at this interval. 

Mage:

Though Combustion is a strong early-game option, it tends to fall off quite heavily in the late-game to the point it feels like it’s not contributing to a Mages build in a meaningful way after a certain amount of time. While we wish to keep it skewed towards being an early-game option, we’re offering it a small increase in Scaling to mitigate how extreme the fall-off can be in the late-game,

Support:

Truesilver Bracelet is another shielding item that feels too potent when applied, making it extremely difficult to cut through when used in the earlier stages of a match by Heroes such as Narbash and Gideon. A small reduction in its shielding potency is needed to ensure destroying the shield is a viable tactic when it appears. 

Tank:

Similar to Overlord, it can feel overly difficult to reach the stack threshold of Catalytic Drive in the average match, given the pace of the average match. We’re dropping the number of stacks required to better allow for 20-minute completions to occur on average, and in return, decreasing some of the healing its Deconstruction effect provides to ensure it does not serve as a free-ticket through the laning phase.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed various issue where certain Items and Hero Abilities could incorrectly draw Minion and Tower Aggression.

• Fixed an issue where Blink and other similar Targeting indicators would be slightly offset from the actual location they would arrive at.

• Fixed an issue where the previously selected Skin for a Hero would not be applied correctly in subsequent matches.

• Fixed an issue where the incorrect Skin Variant would be applied in-game when purchasing another Variant in Draft.

• Fixed an issue that could cause the “Play Again” input prompt to be difficult to read.

• Fixed an issue where different info text layouts would be displayed when cycling through the ShadowOps reward track.

• Fixed an issue where the Loot Core “Claim” prompt was spaced incorrectly.

• Fixed an issue where Kallari’s “Shhh” Emote was described incorrectly.

• Fixed an issue where FFE and Vibration would not play correctly for certain abilities.

• Fixed an issue where the Death SFX could incorrectly play upon re-joining a match.

• Fixed an issue where Heroes could appear invisible upon re-joining a match.

• Fixed an issue where the User’s Camera could briefly flicker to their death location upon respawning.

• Fixed an issue where the User’s Range Indicator could show while dead.

• Fixed an issue where Heroes could die again upon respawning when killed by the Enemy Base.

• Fixed an issue where the User’s Respawn Timer could become desynced upon re-joining a match.

• Fixed an issue where Sparrow’s Heightened Senses In-game Description would not update its damage correctly.

• Fixed an issue where the User’s name could disappear in the Social Panel after disconnecting from Voice Chat.

• Fixed an issue where the Voice Chat ON/OFF toggle could disappear for a short time after the setting is changed.

• Fixed an issue where Voice Chat could automatically disable during gameplay and not be usable until the User resets the game.

• Fixed an issue where a User’s Voice Chat Icon could appear blank under certain conditions.

• Fixed an issue where all Users could incorrectly be highlighted on the Leaderboard.

• Fixed an issue where the incorrect number of Party Members would be shown while navigating the Opal Store. 

• Fixed an issue where declining a Draft Swap request could block navigation to further requests in the Draft.

• Fixed an issue where the Muted Voice Icon would not appear for a moment when the User Mutes themselves.

• Fixed an issue where Muted Voice Icons would visibly disappear on the UI incorrectly.

• Fixed an issue where Users could scroll their Friends List outside of the Boundaries in-game.

• Fixed an issue where Users could crash when using Text Chat in the Settings Menus.

• Fixed an issue where Boris’ facial fur would not render correctly at certain ranges.

• Fixed an issue where Users could crash upon losing Connection.

• Fixed an issue where the Deafen setting would not correctly apply.

• Fixed an issue where the “Cluck” Overhead Emote description was incorrect.
  

And that’s it! If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. We hope you enjoy the new features, changes, and bug fixes included in this update, and that they enhance your overall Predecessor experience.

In the meantime, we’re hard at work preparing for V1.5 — aiming to deliver the ultimate Predecessor experience. Stay tuned, and watch this space!

Rei, Omeda_Zuzu & Kari

Game Design,and Community @ Omeda Studios