Season 9 (Halo Wars 2)
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
Season 9 was the ninth season of Halo Wars 2 to launch, beginning on January 16, 2018. The season followed Season 8 and was succeeded by the Yappening in-game event on March 29, 2018. The season's emblem is represented by an Infused Scarab. The season's accompanying balance patch mostly saw balance changes for the new Pavium and Voridus leaders, among other tweaks. ContentsSeason 9 Title Updates[edit]The launch of Season 9 saw the launch of two accompanying Title Updates for Halo Wars 2. January 16 patch
January 16 patchHalo Wars 2 Patch Notes - January 16, 2018[1] Gameplay Fixes
Balance changesVoridusInfusion damage and duration reduced
All Infusion Duration reduced by -11% except for:
All Blitz Infusion Duration reduced by -11% except for:
PaviumReduced overall cost effectiveness of Ultra Mines and increased arming time to improve player ability to avoid them.
Reduced duration and increased cost to balance cost effectiveness.
Increased cooldown time and decreased damage to help bring the power in line with cost.
Anti-Air VehiclesSlight increases to HP and Splash damage values to improve survivability and damage versus massed air units.
Anti-Vehicle & Tier 3 VehiclesHealth and effectiveness of Anti-Vehicle units improved versus Tier 2 Vehicles. Tier 3 Vehicles improved versus Tier 2 Vehicles, AA Vehicles, and Scouts.
February 8 balance patch
February 8 balance patchBalance Update - Feb. 8, 2018 A server-side balance update was released today that includes a variety of adjustments to leaders, abilities, and units on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC.[2][3] Global
Air is meant to be an anti-vehicle option in your army but has never been as effective in the damage triangle as needed. These changes will help players choose more diverse ways of countering vehicles in various stages of the game for both Banished and UNSC armies. As a result, air units will increase damage in the following ways:
This change is to help reduce the effectiveness of Warthogs and Marauders vs buildings in mass, as well as vs. core air, to allow infantry and AA be more effective.
A buff that was implemented last patch is being brought down a little bit as AA had become too effective vs. air. This reduction of damage for the outer most splash ring, as well as a small radius decrease, will bring these in line with what they should be.
Tanks have struggled vs. tier 2 units for some time and haven’t really felt, well, tanky. This change will make tanks vs. all lower tier vehicles stronger and increase the damage against buildings in their core damage shots (not Y ability shots) increase.
Leaders
Chill rates on power nodes often made it so a power node could not be taken when uncontested. This will force a player to defend them. As well, frostravens have been buffed to keep up with survivability vs. AA. Her unit drop as well has been increased to be slightly above the cost to build the units themselves.
Johnson has been helped slightly surrounding his hero unit, colossus unit, and fixing a bug when obtaining a passive leader power.
An army with a Forgehog mixed in is slightly more dominant than intended. To make his hero unit slightly more fair and balanced, we have reduced his heroes’ health and the aura armor mitigation. On top of this, cost changes to *leader drops have been made to better reflect what it would cost to build them plus some.
To help make early Mega Turrets a higher risk-reward scenario, the initial costing has been increased. In addition, wraith invaders were a bit too powerful for what their roll in an army is supposed to be.
This cost of Devastating Host is increased because it was cheaper to drop the units than build them.
Phantoms in many cases for the Arbiter were over performing so the ability to heal them has been reduced and they’ve been made a little less durable.
YapYap has a tough time early game with no true anti-infantry unit. This buff will help him get through early game scenarios when rushed by infantry.
Fury is a very damaging leader power but is rarely utilized by players due to the health drain on use. This change in intended to make Fury a more viable choice for players.
Shipmaster has fallen from top tier to bottom tier across the board over several seasons. These changes will hopefully give him some of his toolbox back to help regain his previous status.
Over time, Atriox has had numerous tuning adjustments that have reduced his effectiveness and usage a bit more than intended. These subtle changes are aimed at giving him a small boost to make him more viable and appealing to players.
UNSC
Hornets have been improved to reflect the splash damage buff AA has received. Changes made to improve Air vs. Vehicles will result in more players building more AA, so a slight adjustment to them was needed.
These changes are to slow down the build-up of a turtle game as well as making a strong Kodiak build a bit easier to counter.
Nightingales were healing each other a bit too quickly – this change will slow down that rate as well as make them a bit more durable with a slightly larger health pool.
This change will allow Snipers to deal with base infantry just a little bit faster when upgraded.
A rush to tech 2 and pushing Warthogs out has become a highly effective strategy. This change will make the rush to tech 2 a little less attractive to hopefully diversify builds and reduce the effectiveness of a Warthog dominated mid game.
This buff is to help with the survivability of the Condor to make it feel a bit more ultimate.
Banished
These units are the glass cannons of the air units, with changes to how air interacts with vehicles, these units are being made more accessible and receiving a slight health buff to help them deal better vs. the increased effectiveness of added anti-air units. Health increased by 7%
For a tier 3 unit they were underperforming compared to Kodiaks. These changes make their artillery mode a near match to how Kodiaks perform when locked down. Increase to the splash damage while in artillery mode.
A buff to their modifier vs. air was made to help reinforce the infantry vs. air role. Since Snipers received a buff on their upgrade and Elite Rangers require an upgrade – these units are getting a subtle buff to damage. Base DPS increase of 5%.
Slight health buff to increase survivability
It’s hard to be anti-vehicle when most vehicles are faster than you are. This change was made to help them be more effective in combat vs. vehicles.
Shrouds were a bit too hard to use in front line combat on account of their slow speed and low durability. A slight movement speed and health buff will help them be more viable. Movement speed increased from 10 to 11.
This unit is meant to be a very scary ultimate but has been underperforming vs. armies of units. The beam damage buff will help it incinerate armies more effectively. Hitpoints increased by 5%
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