Paladins Version 6.6.5488.18

# General Updates

### Dragon's Call Returns!

Imani has relit the Warder’s Beacon, welcoming in a new era of apprentices to compete in an ancient rite of passage. The Event mode Dragon’s Call returns in its original form for players to capture the Key Sphere and escort it to their opponent’s base!

* Players play on the special Flagball map
* First team to carry the Key Sphere & score 4 times wins!
* Players who hold the Key Sphere cannot shoot or use abilities
	+ They can throw & drop the ball
* Champion selection is restricted as some refuse to obey the Warder’s Rules
	+ Grohk
	+ Grover
	+ VII
	+ Vora
	+ Yagorath

# Aico's Vault Cosmetics

Rei has spent her time studying the secrets House Aico has within their vault and is now releasing them into the wild! Purchase new cosmetics like Admiration and Delight Rei: two versions of the archmage based on Grand Magister Lian and fellow Leipori Moji, complete with voice packs from the two original VAs! Alongside her, she’s brought new versions of fan favorites like Frozen Over Skye, Soul’s Animus Furia, and Soul Devourer Jenos!

# Mode Rotations

## New

### Magistrate’s Parade | December 29th – January 1st

Play as either Rei & Lian or Cassie & Grover in this match on Frostbite Cavern as House Aico and House Arturos settle their differences the traditional way, and stay tuned for a Chronicle related to this LTM!

### Roccer | January 5th – January 8th

Experience the latest sport to hit the Realm in Roccer. Play as all Terminus with increased movement in this chaotic version of Flagball. Rumor has it this is the greatest game since Dragon’s Call!

# Balance

This bonus update, we wanted to focus on Talents & Cards for Champions we felt deserved some changes in Valor’s End but didn’t make that initial cut. No worries, we’ve heard feedback on the changes made in Valor’s End and will make adjustments in the new year! Until then, enjoy this set of balance updates:

## Ash

* Talents
	+ **Slug Shot**
		- Now deals an extra 50 damage per shot

“
Ash is a notoriously durable Frontline, with her first and third Talents giving her efficient ways to survive in a fight even longer than her base kit allows. This left her second Talent as the black sheep, focusing on Ash’s damage potential as a skirmisher where she can poke and pressure enemies while hunkering down on the objective or defending choke points. We wanted to push the validity of this playstyle, and so we’ve buffed the damage on Slug Shot – allowing Ash to more aggressively trade blows with her enemies and assert her dominance on the battlefield.

”

## Betty La Bomba

* Talents
	+ **Fiery Disposition**
		- Damage over Time is now only applied by Grenade Launcher

“
Fiery Disposition pushed Betty’s damage a bit over the line that we’re comfortable with. With every stray hit racking up percentile damage – fighting Betty could become frustrating regardless of durability. This was especially apparent with Hail of Bombs, with its powerful area denial ability also burning enemies’ health away, cleaning up team fights a little too efficiently. Fiery Disposition now only triggers on Grenade Launcher hits, rewarding Betty for aggression and accuracy without her being able to snowball the damage into her other abilities.

”

## Khan

* Cards
	+ **Chokehold**
		- Old effect removed
		- New effect: Increase the travel speed and distance of Commander’s Grab by [4|4]%

“
Chokehold’s original implementation wasn’t really valuable for Khan – he had more efficient healing in his base kit already and more worthwhile cards to take up the valuable slots in his loadout. Thus, following some community feedback, we’ve reworked the card to instead augment Commander’s Grab’s range. With this new range Khan can more aggressively push and pick off valuable targets, as well as gain access to some cheeky traversal routes he couldn’t previously access.

”

## Koga

* Talents
	+ **Adrenaline Junkie**
		- Increased Damage needed to generate 1 energy from 80 ➞ 160

“
Adrenaline Junkie’s interaction with some Cards & Items can lead to situations where Koga has essentially unlimited energy – especially against Shields – if he lands his shots. This change is a stop gap measure as we investigate additional solutions to this problem, preventing Koga from generating energy as rapidly as he could before.

”

## Lillith

* Talents
	+ **Murderous Intent**
		- Old effect removed
		- New effect: Hitting an enemy with Heart of Crimson while they’re affected by Blood Hex or Swarm increases your movement and attack speed by 10% for 4s. Stacks up to 3 times.

“
The original Murderous Intent was difficult to use and very niche, generally outclassed by her other two Talents. We’ve reworked it to maintain the essence of the original, which focused on landing shots, but instead made it a stim that rewards aggressive Lillith’s for accuracy and combos with her other abilities.

”

## Maeve

* Talents
	+ **Cat Burglar**
		- Reduced damage bonus from 30% ➞ 25%
		- Reduced bonus threshold from 5s ➞ 3s

“
We felt Cat Burglar was a little too generous with the damage boost Maeve received, both in value and duration. We’ve hit the damage bonus slightly to still maintain the strength of the Talent but bring its effectiveness down, and we’ve reduced the duration to encourage more aggression after Maeve triggers the bonus.

”

## Mal'Damba

* Talents
	+ **Ripened Gourd**
		- Now deals 60% damage to enemies instead of 0%

“
Supports bring a lot to the table during a match, mixing sustain with damage to uniquely alter the trajectory of a match. We felt that Ripened Gourd’s penalty was too harsh in the current era of Paladins, and as such we’ve reduced the penalty to bring Mal’Damba more in line with newer Supports and their impact during a fight.

”

## Omen

* Talents
	+ **Umbral Lance**
		- Changed effect to be “Aphotic Reaver no longer ramps down, but its spread is reduced by 50% and its fire rate is reduced by 30%.”

“
Umbral Lance was too effective at negating Omen’s trade off with his weapon, turning his adaptable mid-range damage into a consistent high-DPS long-range machine. We’re updating the Talent to instead lock him into Aphotic Reaver’s halfway point, providing the consistency this Talent aimed to originally give him, without having it overshadow a skilled player’s ability to optimize the weapon’s modes.

”

## Ruckus

* Talents
	+ **Flux Generator**
		- Increased Shield granted from 1300 ➞ 1500
		- Now also reduces Emitter’s cooldown by 1s & while Emitter is active, Ruckus gains Immunity to Crowd Control

“
Ruckus has always struggled to maintain the frontline as a Frontline, his high DPS being the main deterrent to engaging him directly on the point. His durability would often get the better of him however, as other Frontlines could soak enough damage to let their team take Ruckus out. Ruckus (and Bolt) have always been one of the more difficult Champions to master, requiring a non-intuitive playstyle for a Frontline to play effectively. So, we’re giving Flux Generator a much-needed buff to give Ruckus a more viable “in your face” playstyle to help him solo-tank for his team. It should be noted that the Crowd Control Immunity only applies while the Shield is up – so buy Wrecker or face the wrath of a very angry Goblin!

”

## Vatu

* Talents
	+ **Enveloping Shadows**
		- Now has an internal cooldown of 3s

“
Vatu is a very polarizing Champion – incredibly capable when piloted correctly but struggles when not played optimally. Enveloping Shadows embodies this, as it allows Vatu to steamroll a lobby if in the right hands, and we felt it gives him a bit too much value for hitting shots. It’ll still offer Vatu that prized cooldown reduction – but triggering less frequently will allow for some counter play against his overwhelming mobility being on cooldown more often.

”

# Bug Fixes

## General

* Fixed an issue where Quests were not showing the amount of Event Pass XP they awarded
* Fixed an issue where gamepad players could accidentally buy Items even when the Item Shop was closed

## Champions

### Bomb King

* Fixed an issue where players on poor connections could infinitely deploy Poppy Bomb

### Imani

* Fixed an issue where summoning Dragon’s Call would freeze some PC clients
	+ Imani has been re-enabled following this fix!

Source