Season 6 (Halo Wars 2)

Previous:	Season 5
Next:	Season 7
Season 6
Start date:	August 17, 2017
End date:	September 26, 2017
Includes content for:	Halo Wars 2

Season 6 was the sixth season of Halo Wars 2 to launch, beginning on August 17, 2017. The season followed Season 5 and was succeeded by Season 7 on September 26, 2017. The season launched alongside the release of the leader Yapyap the DESTROYER; as such the season's emblem is represented by a Banished Goblin.

Season 6 Title Updates

The launch of Season 6 saw the release of an accompanying Title Update.

August 17 patch

August 17 patch notes

High Priority Changes:

Forge’s Anvil Round

Fixed bug where air units caught in the splash zone would be damaged Splash damage drops off much more rapidly, making it much less damaging against groups of units Forge’s Anvil Round still does the same single-target damage, but the splash damage drops off much more quickly, greatly reduced the impact on groups of infantry for example. The splash damage was clearly too much and skewing lots of matchups, so we’ve adjusted this accordingly.

Reaver

Major weaponry bug fix (this was causing it to do 50%-60% of the intended DPS, and vastly less effective than intended) Build time decreased from 20s -> 18s (more consistent with the Wolverine’s build time, relative to cost) A bug was discovered with Reavers that greatly reduced their damage, causing incorrect interactions, such as their inability to beat Hornets (which is clearly not intended). This is now fixed, so Reavers should be a valid anti-air unit.

Serina

Ice Barrier No longer chills or freezes structures This was a serious bug that was allowing Ice Barrier level 2 to shut down bases by chilling them, which was not the intention of the power and a major exploit.

Tundra Bison

Upgraded Cryo Mortar splash radius decreased by 33%

Cryo Blast

• Reduced residual damage by 20% / 30% / 33%
• Radius decreased by 13% / 8% / 6%
• Cost 150, 220, 300 increased to 200, 300, 400

Seismic Charge

• Shatter radius decreased by 25% / 23%

In the late game, the maxed-out Cryo Blast and Seismic Charge combo was very strong, and was allowing Serina too much dominance once she built up that combination of leader powers, and was making late game repetitive when playing against her. These changes increase the cost of Cryo Blast and slightly reduces the number of units it can freeze, but – more importantly – reduces the number of units you can shatter once they are frozen, meaning much more of your army is left alive even if the combo succeeds.

Important Changes:

Banished Shield Generators now escalate in cost by 100 Supply and 100 Power for each Generator built (similar to how Power Extractors escalate in cost). The Banished have a significant advantage over the UNSC in terms of protecting their bases, which was largely due to the strength of Shield Generators. This change escalates their cost the more you build, encouraging players to try more diverse defensive set ups, and stunting Banished players’ ability to rapidly and strong protect expansions.

• AntiVehicle units (Cyclops and Hunters) damage multiplier changes:
• Multiplier against Medium units (tier 2 vehicles – Warthogs, Flamehogs, Mantises and Marauders) greatly reduced by 31%
• Multiplier against Heavy units (tier 3 vehicles – Scorpions, Wraiths, Colossuses, Grizzlies) increased by 7%
• Warthog population 4 -> 3 (does not affect Flamehog)

Tier 2 vehicles continue to lack viability despite the changes in earlier updates, and are still not seeing high usage or win rates. It’s important to us that core units are viable and have a place in unit compositions. This change specifically targets Cyclops and Hunters, which were too strong at countering the tier 2 vehicles, pushing them out of the meta. The Warthog itself had a population cost that didn’t match its cost in comparison with the other tier 2 units, and as a result it was pop inefficient. This rectifies that. Finally, situationally the tier 3 heavy tanks – in large numbers – could defeat similar armies of anti-vehicle units. This small change brings that interaction closer to how it’s intended.

Economy

• Adjusted the diminishing returns curve on Supply Pads. The result is that income from your 3rd and 4th bases is noticeably higher, whilst income from one or two bases is very similar.
• Income from on-map Energy Capture Points slightly reduced from 2/s to 1.5/s

Supply income was dropping off too sharply at high Supply Pad counts. This making it too easy for a player on two bases to be able to hold their own against a player on three or four bases, making map control matter less than intended, and making it too difficult for a heavily advantaged player to shut down a weaker player, especially in the late game, and artificially elongating games. We want map control to matter, and the taking and holding of bases in the late game to be more important. Energy income, on the other hand, often demonstrated the opposite problem – a player who lost map control in the early or mid game would be significantly behind in energy income, which would snowball too quickly.

Isabel’s Holo Decoy

Cooldown 130 -> 110 Tier 1 Cost 200/50 -> 100/30 Tier 1 max holograms 6 -> 7 Tier 1 duration 40 -> 50 Tier 2 350/75 -> 200/50 Tier 2 max holograms 10 -> 11 Tier 2 duration 60 -> 70 Isabel has low usage rates, and is considered a low-tier leader, especially in the early game. Holo Decoy is one of her signature abilities, and is available with the first leader point. This heavily reduces the cost of Holo Decoy, as well as slightly reducing cooldown and slightly increasing the number of holograms and their duration. The intent her is to give Isabel a powerful and unique early game option, and give her more of a chance to reach her strong late game powers.

Atriox

• Dying Breath cost 250/20 -> 300/80
• Unbreakable cost 2000/1000 -> 1200/800

Kinsano’s Hellcharge

• Buff AoE radius increased by 33% / 83% / 100%

Kinsano’s Hellcharge buffed an extremely small number of units, making it not worth the cost, and making Heat of Battle clearly the superior choice.

Classic Spartans (Jerome/Alice/Douglas):

• Ground Pound damage 1250 -> 2200
• The impact fall off/radius for max AOE damage has been reduced by 70%
• Speed 13 -> 15

The classic Spartans still lag behind other heroes in terms of usefulness, this is step towards allowing them to compete with more powerful heroes.

Glassing Beam

Tier 1 damage +9% Tier 2 damage +5%

Decimus’ Boundless Siphon lifesteal increased by 250%

Decimus’ Vortex Lightning

• Tier 1 damage -10%Tier 2 damage -10%
• Shroud cost 550 -> 450

Siege Turret

• Cost 900 -> 750
• Projectile Velocity increased by approx. 128%

• Hunter Captain lifesteal increased by approx. 32%
• Arbiter’s Enforcer Drop now spawns three squads instead of four (cost and pop adapted accordingly)
• Wolverine reduced AOE splash damage against ground targets by 70%
• Johnson’s Bunker Drop no longer has a pop requirement
• Anders’ Beacon Sentinels no longer provide LoS
• Kodiak artillery damage to non-infantry targets increased by 20%

Blisterback

• Pop 8 -> 7 Supply cost 700 -> 600

UI/Navigation

• Clarified messaging when a player becomes disconnected and then is re-connected to online services.
• The Store button no longer remains highlighted after pressing.
• Added keybinding for text chat using mouse and keyboard on Windows 10.
• Fixed an issue on Windows 10 where players were unable to use keybinds to open the radial menu or access building slots if the base was not completely in camera view.
• Improved single unit selection when using mouse and keyboard on Windows 10.
• Teammate camera indicators are now colored with each individual player color.
• Fixed a mislabeled starting army icon in Blitz.
• Clickable Leader Point icon no longer displayed during Blitz gameplay on Windows 10.
• Blitz control point icons now display their proper state in 2v2 matches.

AI:

• AI will now use the Forge Pelican Transport Leader Power in Skirmish.
• Legendary AI now recycle buildings just before they are destroyed.
• Improved Skirmish AI retreating behavior.
• Made AI pathing improvements.

Buildings/Units:

• Fixed an issue where commands could not be queued for Spartans in hijacked vehicles.
• Nightingales no longer continually heal units after they are at 100% HP.
• Grunt Squad health bars now increase in size when a Skitterer is attached.
• Rally points no longer persist after their associated base is recycled or destroyed
• Fixed an issue where in attempting to use a special ability on a portal caused units to become unresponsive.
• Fixed an issue where in Detectors could remove temporary ability cloaks on some units instead of only revealing them while in range.
• Detect units now reveal bases when it touches the obstruction radius of the building instead of the center point.
• Melee units are no longer able to attack out of garrisons.
• Apex buildings placed on the corner base slot will no longer be missed by special abilities such as grenade throw.
• The Command Mantis now behaves correctly when being called down on a Lightbridge.
• Omega Team Spartans now refund energy after death in Blitz.
• Fixed an issue where some units’ attack cooldown could be reset if moved while attacking.
• Players can no longer stockpile hijacked vehicles in Campaign Co-op.
• Improved Marine pathing around resource crates.
• Fixed a base plot on MP map Vault which allowed players to build buildings as the main base is constructed.
• Enduring Locust can now regenerate full shield health over time.
• Attaching a Skitterer to a damaged unit no longer replenishes all HP.
• Fixed an issue with erratic unit movement when attempting to ram a teleporting target.
• Spartans in vehicles can no longer be given infantry based commands.

Campaign:

• Fixed some AI pathing issues in Campaign.
• Fixed an issue with the Canister Shell special ability rendering Scorpion Tanks unresponsive in Mission 9.
• The Pestilence skull no longer affects the Retriever Sentinel in Mission 8 while it is repairing.
• The After Party skull now works as expected when activated on Mission 3.
• Leader Power icon button is no longer displayed during Campaign cut scenes.

Leader Power:

• Fixed input lag on some Leader Powers for Windows 10.
• Serina’s Leader Powers can no longer be seen through Fog of War.
• Serina’s Ice Barrier Leader Power can no longer be used to freeze all base production.

Engine:

• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred at the start of Mission 2.
• Trooper units no longer remain in game when a player resigns from a Blitz match.
• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when using an Nvidia device with “SLI” enabled.
• Fixed some performance drops that occurred during 3v3 Strongholds gameplay.
• Fixed a crash when running the game with a 3GB AMD GPU.
• Fixed a crash when using Holo-Decoy on the Jerome hero unit and his Command Mantis at the same time.

MISC:

• Kills from the Blast Unit Ability in Blitz will now count toward the player’s score.
• Leader Power mines no longer count toward units built, units killed, and units lost stats.
• Fixed several save load issues in Campaign.

August 31 server patch

August 31 server patch

A game patch was released today to address the recent increase in online disconnects and de-syncs. There are no other content items or code changes included with this patch.

• Background:
  • Following the Aug. 17 YapYap update, the team has been investigating reports of online instability and did discover that something was awry. Today's patch should improve online connectivity and reduce instances of disconnects and de-syncs.

Thank you for your feedback and continued support of Halo Wars 2!