Like last Season, we have a list of balance changes we’d like to call out, and our thinking as to why we’ve made these changes.

Imara Vex
Fire Rate

• Faster Fire Rate: Decreased from 0.19s to 0.15s

Weapon Spread and Recoil

• Weapon Spread has been decreased on the first set of shots but has increased overall
• Weapon Recoil has increased by 10%

Missile Launcher

• Explosion Damage: Level 1-6 - Increased from 20 to 40. Maximum Damage stays the same

Developer Note: Imara Vex deals solid consistent damage for long engagements but her overall burst potential can be improved. Vex’s weapon has been given a sizable fire rate buff but is slightly harder to control if all ammunition is fired in a single set of shots. This makes her weapon more focused towards control, with quick bursts of fire being the key to success. Alongside this, we have increased the splash damage of Imara’s rocket, now making it more effective when attacking a group of opponents.
 
Pilbush
Health

• Reduced from 225 to 200

Weapon

• Reload Time: Increased from 1.25s to 1.35s

Overload Ability

• Duration: Decreased from 5s to 4.5s for Levels 3-6
• Fire Rate: Levels 1-5 - decreased from 15% to 10% fire rate increase
• Fire Rate: Level 6 - Decreased from 25% to 20%

Wistie Throw

• Slow: Level 1-2 - Decreased from 50% to 40%
• Slow: Level 3-6 - Decreased from 60% to 50%

Developer Note: Pilbush brings a lot of high octane fun and chaos to the Arena with her mobility and explosive damage. Her ability to fight up close and at a distance makes her extremely powerful, especially in combination with her Overload Ability. We have reduced several minor aspects of her kit to bring her closer to other Hunters from the same Class.

Nox

Poisoned Spread Shot

• Cooldown - Reduced from 8s to 6s
• Draw Time: Level 1-2 - Reduced from 1.4s to 0.9s
• Draw Time: Level 1-2 - Reduced from 1.3s to 0.8s
• Draw Time: Level 6 - Reduced from 1.2s to 0.7s
• Damage - Reduced by 10 damage per arrow across all levels (30 Damage per Arrow to 20 Damage Per Arrow at Level 6)

Developer Note: These changes allow for Nox to use her Poisoned Spread Shot in ability combinations more frequently. It should be a vital part of her kit but the draw time and cooldown impact its effectiveness. While the overall damage has been lowered, the ability itself should be more viable in the Arena.

J-3DI

Deflect Stamina

• With Stamina now being used by Mods the max level Stamina stats for this ability are now the base stats. Stamina will not be increased through ability levels, only deflected damage.
• Stamina: Level 6 - 230 at Level 6 is now Level 1
• Deflect Multiplier - 30% at Level 6 is now Level 1 and can be improved to 55% at Level 6

Developer Note: With the introduction of Mods in Season 5, with Stamina playing a key role in their design for J-3DI, we have revisited his Deflect Ability Upgrade path. To that end all of J-3DI’s Level 6 Stamina attributes will now become his base. In its place, J-3DI will begin with a 30% Deflected Damage increase and this will increase by 5% each ability level, finishing with 55% increased deflected damage.

Rieve

Deflect Stamina

• With Stamina now being used by Mods the max level Stamina stats for this ability are now the base stats. Stamina will not be increased through ability levels, only deflected damage.
• Stamina Regeneration Speed: Level 6 - 80/s at Level 6 is now Level 1
• Stamina Regeneration Delay: Level 6 - 2s at Level 6 is now Level 1
• Deflect Multiplier - 30% at Level 6 is now Level 1 and can be improved to 55% at Level 6

Developer Note: With the introduction of Mods in Season 5, with Stamina playing a key role in their design for Rieve, we have revisited her Deflect Ability Upgrade path. To that end, all of Rieve’s Level 6 Stamina attributes will now become her base. In its place, Rieve will begin with a 30% Deflected Damage increase and this will increase by 5% each ability level, finishing with 55% increased deflected damage.

Slingshot

Scatterboom

• Damage: Level 1-2 - Damage per rocket decreased from 15 to 14
• Damage: Level 3-4 - Damage per rocket decreased from 16 to 15
• Damage: Level 5-6 - Damage per rocket decreased from 17 to 16

Explosive Shield

• Damage: Level 1-2 - Explosion damage decreased from 40 to 30
• Damage: Level 3-4 - Explosion damage decreased from 45 to 35
• Damage: Level 5-6 - Explosion damage decreased from 50 to 40

Trickshot

• Cooldown - Reduced from 6s to 5s
• Minimum Damage - Now begins at 40 and eventually level up to 50 (50% of maximum damage)
• Duration for Maximum Damage: Level 1-5 - Increased from 1.5s to 2.0s
• Duration for Maximum Damage: Level 6 - Increased from 1s to 1.5s

Developer Note: Slingshot is a very effective Tank with mobility, survivability and strong burst damage with Scatterboom and Trickshot. All these abilities can be activated near instantaneously and can out burst a lot of Damage Hunters. These changes should bring Slingshot more inline with other Tanks while also allowing his Trickshot Ability to be used more frequently for mobility purposes.

Charr

Regen Booster

• Duration: Level 1-2 - Reduced from 2s to 1.75s
• Duration: Level 3-4 - Reduced from 2.25s to 2s
• Duration: Level 5-6 - Reduced from 2.5s to 2.25s
• Damage to Healing Cap: Reduced from 200 to 175
• Damage to Healing Cap: Level 6 - Reduced from 225 to 200

 Snare Trap

• Damage: Level 1-2 - Increased from 10 to 20
• Damage: Level 3-4 - Increased from 10 to 25
• Damage: Level 5-6 - Increased from 10 to 30
• Trap Duration: Duration - Now scales from 2s > 3s to 1.75s > 2.25s over the 6 levels

 Tether

• Damage: Level 1-6 - Previously this ability had no tick damage but now deals 4 damage per tick when an enemy is tethered

Developer Note: Charr is a strong frontline Tank, able to shrug off most hits with his Regen Booster - this balance change still keeps it effective when engaging in combat. While the overall damage-to-healing duration has decreased, this in turn means the self healing this ability grants is applied quicker, placing more emphasis on skill to use this ability at the right moment. As for his Snare Trap, we felt upping its damage was a fair trade off for a shorter duration. We felt this duration could be quite punishing and on most occasions ended up in a guaranteed elimination for Charr or his teammates.

K-A0S

Shoulder Mounted Blaster

• Time between each shot within a burst - Increased from 0.1s to 0.13s
• Reload Duration - Increased from 1.56s to 1.78s

Developer Note: Since her release, we have seen K-A0S be able to deal high damage to her enemies, from the fast burst rate of her Shoulder Mounted Blaster, coupled with the weapons damage. By reducing the time between bursts, it’ll take more skill for K-A0S players to land all 5 bursts on their target, and the longer reload duration gives the weapon more downtime.

Sprocket Rework

Learning all he can about his fellow Hunters over the last few Seasons, Sprocket reinvents himself in the Arena! Still the wide-eyed inventor he has always been, but now packing much more firepower.

Old Sprocket Ability Kit:

Weapon: Blaster Remotes

• Sprocket controls a pair of fast firing, medium range blaster remotes.

Talent: Turbocharged

• Sprocket gains a movement speed boost when put to critical health.

Ability 1: Targeting Drone

• Sprocket releases a Targeting Drone that reveals an enemy and increases their damage taken.

Ability 2: Medical Droid

• Sprocket deploys a droid with decaying health that heals nearby allies.

Ability 3: Drone Defense

• Sprocket deploys drones to defend an ally and himself, granting Damage Reduction to both.

Ultimate: Ultra Turret

• Sprocket assembles a huge turret that attacks enemies, prioritizing opponents marked with Targeting Drone.

Season 5 Sprocket Ability Kit:

Weapon: Blaster Remotes

• Sprocket controls a pair of fast firing, medium range blaster remotes.

Talent: Turbocharged

• Sprocket gains increased movement speed when placed onto critical health.

Ability 1: Healing Droids

• Sprocket releases droids to heal an ally and himself, granting a burst of healing to the target & Heal over Time to both.

Ability 2: Turret

• Sprocket deploys a turret which automatically targets the nearest enemy.

Ultimate: Ultra Turret

• Sprocket assembles a huge turret which fires explosive blaster bolts at enemies.

Sprocket's Targeting Droid, Drone Defense, and Med Beacon abilities have been replaced with an improved Healing Droid ability. Sprocket can now distribute two separate droids to allies who need healing from a much greater distance, which also heals himself!

Sprocket can now place a smaller compact Turret as an ability that fires at his enemies, allowing Sprocket to play from vantage points and the high ground, able to heal and damage from distance.

Sprockets Ultimate Turret has now been improved, swapping out the blaster bolts for high powered Explosive Bolts! Able to damage multiple enemies within its radius.

This change pushes Sprocket to be more powerful at distance. Taking advantage of high grounds and strong sightlines supporting his team with blaster fire, turret fire and long range healing.

Additional Gameplay Improvements:

Numerous Hunter updates have been made to improve the responsiveness and readability of gameplay:

The reduction in jump height and distance when jumping multiple times consecutively has been updated to activate sooner. After 3 consecutive jumps the jump button can not be interacted with for 1.25 seconds.

• Diago can now act sooner after using his Ultimate.
• Diago can now act sooner after using Heightened Senses.
• Imara Vex's Grapple now occurs instantly on button down.
• Imara Vex now stands up more quickly upon finishing her Ultimate.
• Improved camera behavior when using J-3DI's Faux Pull.
• J-3DI can now jump during his Ultimate.
• Nox can now jump whilst charging a bow shot, without interrupting the bow charge.
• Nox can now clamber, zipline, double jump or ultimate whilst charging a bow shot. These actions will interrupt the bow charge.
• Fixed issue with Nox not being able to smoothly chain shots.
• Sentinel's Barrel Slam now occurs instantly on button down.
• Zaina's Bacta Bomb now occurs instantly on button down.
• Zaina's Bacta Bomb can now be used whilst combat rolling.
• Zaina's Bacta Bomb is now thrown much faster.
• Slingshot's Scatterboom is now more responsive when tapped quickly.
• Various Hunter movement animations tweaked to reduce jitter.
• Hunters now have a subtle lean animation when turning.

This also includes some audio changes:

• Utooni's Surprise! Passive Ability now has beeping warning audio, letting you know it is time to run away!
• Incoming damage hit marker audio has been added, to better inform you that you are being attacked.
• Added a critical health sting and loop, so you know when you are in danger and should probably get to cover.
• Increased audibility of combat sounds at long distances.
• Reduced volume of environmental sounds, as well as ally footsteps, weapon fire and abilities, to improve audibility of enemies.

Additionally:

• Deactivating a shield (K-A0S, Sentinel, Slingshot) no longer cancels poison damage from Skora and Nox.
• Repeatedly toggling K-A0S' Bulwark no longer allows her to melee attack faster than intended.