Welcome to the June 2022 Balance Update!

This year, we've been rather conservative with the power levels of new Family Bonuses and certain Family-specific Passives. Unfortunately, this led to some of our most recently released Families not seeing as much action as we had hoped for.

Earlier this year, we gave neat little boosts to the Starfall and Magic Family Bonuses to make them feel more fun and satisfying to bring to battle. We were happy with the effect it achieved, so we're looking to do something similar for the Families below:

Sun Family Bonus

  • Activation chance for 1/2 Heroes: 10%/20% → 50%/75%
  • Activation chance upon defeat for 1/2 Heroes: 50%/75% → 75%/100%
  • Burn damage: 98 → 196 (for Legendary Heroes)
    • Similar increases for Heroes of lower rarities

Moon Family Bonus

  • Activation chance for 1/2 Heroes: 10%/20% → 50%/75%
  • Activation chance upon defeat for 1/2 Heroes: 50%/75% → 75%/100%
  • Water damage: 98 → 196 (for Legendary Heroes)
    • Similar increases for Heroes of lower rarities

Kingdom Family Bonus

  • Activation effect for 1/2/3 Heroes:
    • 2%/4%/6% mana →  3%/6%/10% mana
    • 2%/3%/4% heal → 4%/6%/8% heal

Gargoyle's Stoneskin

  • Duration increased by 1 turn for all Mana Speeds faster than Very Slow
    • Very Fast/Fast/Average/Slow/Very Slow: 1/2/3/4/5 turns → 2/3/4/5/5 turns

We've also identified some Heroes who have been putting up underwhelming metrics since their release, and may need something in addition to an improved Family Bonus. Just like how Lewena and Rayne landed in much better spots after receiving some love back in March, we hope that the Heroes below will see more playtime after these individual adjustments.

Sun & Moon Family Heroes

  • Horus
    • Direct damage: 205% → 250%
    • Max health reduction per turn: 110 → 150
  • Khepri
    • Scarab Bomb damage: 300 → 600
  • Khufu
    • Direct damage: 350% → 450%
  • Scoratek
    • Scarab Bomb damage: 300 → 600
  • Waqas
    • Max health reduction per turn: 110 → 150

Kingdom Heroes

  • Diaochan
    • Lackey Minion HP: 15% → 16%
    • Lackey Minion attack: 19% → 25%
  • Jing
    • Shu Soldier Minion HP: 9% → 18%
    • Shu Soldier Minion counterattack: 50% → 65%
  • Li
    • Wu Soldier Minion HP: 8% → 10%
    • Burn damage: 108 →
      • 156 (max level; not Limit Broken; no Emblems)
      • 171 (Limit Broken max level; no Emblems)
      • 195 (Limit Broken max level; fully Emblemed with left-side nodes)
  • Liu Bei
    • Shu Soldier Minion HP: 9% → 18%
    • Shu Soldier Minion counterattack: 50% → 65%
  • Lu Bu
    • Direct damage: 295% → 330%
    • Mercenary Fiend HP: 32% → 38%
    • Mercenary Fiend attack: 48% → 56%
  • Xiahou Dun
    • Wei Soldier Minion HP: 14% → 20%
    • Wei Soldier Minion attack: 20% → 25%
  • Yao
    • Wei Soldier Minion HP: 14% → 20%
    • Wei Soldier Minion attack: 20% → 25%
  • Zhou Yu
    • Wu Soldier Minion HP: 8% → 10%
    • Burn damage: 147 →
      • 207 (max level; not Limit Broken; no Emblems)
      • 225 (Limit Broken max level; no Emblems)
      • 255 (Limit Broken max level; fully Emblemed with left-side nodes)
  • Zhuge Liang
    • Shu Soldier Minion HP: 9% → 18%
    • Shu Soldier Minion counterattack: 50% → 65%

Gargoyle Heroes

  • El Duque
    • Direct damage: 295% → 355%
    • Defense reduction per Stack: -8% → -9%
  • Gaillard
    • Direct damage: 490% → 540%
  • Goseck
    • Direct damage: 325% (up to 650%) → 350% (up to 700%)

We hope these changes as a whole will nudge the meta just enough to bring some much-needed fresh air into top-level play, and restore the fun of experimenting with new compositions and strategies. All above changes are NOW LIVE! Please make sure to take these new values into account when setting up Defense Teams or finalizing attack plans.

As always, we will continue to keep an eye on all Heroes affected by this update in case further adjustments become necessary. Please refer to our Hero Balancing FAQ for why we occasionally make post-release balance adjustments. If you wish to share your feedback and discuss this update with fellow players, please feel free to join the discussion here.


Who's Next?

By the way, these aren't the only buffs we've been working on recently — as previously mentioned in the Beta Lounge, a new Family Bonus for Classic Heroes is already being developed! It's still a work in progress and won't be shipped with Version 50, but we hope to share more details once completion nears.

But more importantly, we're aware that many of our most seasoned and dedicated players have years-old favorites that they'd love to use a bit more often again. We're looking into the possibility of revisiting such Heroes and giving them a touch-up! As we're not mind-readers, please let us know HERE which older Heroes you would really like to see buffed. Once enough players have weighed in, we will check the threads and start exploring our options.

Best of luck in the battles!