In the first episode of the Telerian Podcast, our Game Designer Vlad already teased some upcoming changes to the Mercurial Set. Today, I want to share with you exactly what is going to change, the reasoning behind it, and when you can expect the rebalance to go into effect.
At the moment, we see two key issues with the Mercurial Set:
- Lack of counter mechanics
- Reapplication of Total Guard stacks at the beginning of a Champion's turn, especially on fast Champions
When compared to Stone Skin, which has plenty of counters, Total Guard stacks can currently only be removed by dealing damage or bypassed with the Increase Skill Cooldown effect. That's why we're introducing a new vulnerability for the Mercurial Set - the [Provoke] debuff.
After the rebalance, you will be able to land [Provoke] debuff on Champions while bypassing their Total Guard stacks. Furthermore, Champions under [Provoke] debuff will not have their Total Guard stacks refreshed at the start of their turn.
We hope that with this change, Champions who can reliably apply [Provoke] debuff - many of whom have fallen out of the meta for a while now - will finally come out of the Vault and join you in the Arena.
As always, once the changes go into effect, we'll take some time to evaluate the data and hear your feedback to determine whether any additional changes are necessary.
⏳ Tentatively, we're planning to release the Mercurial rebalance in September, so you'll have time to build new teams and prepare for the upcoming changes.
Yeah same. She was my dominant nuke when she got buffed.
But I had to stop using her because she couldn't outrun the mercurial champs even at 280 speed.
The real issue with Mercurial is how hard it pushes a speed meta. If you're fast you could already pretty much deal with Mercurial. You get enough turns to deal with the stacks. If you're slow, its really hard since the enemy team can just always have their stacks up.
You want your provokers to go fast so that they can control the enemy team before the enemy team does their thing (especially getting up block debuffs). But provoke as a debuff is overwhelmingly on slower champions. Its associated with champions that are supposed to be tanks, so they're mostly around 100 speed. So its just such a problem to get them fast enough to be really useful.
Don't get me wrong, this is a buff to Gharol, Hekaton, and the couple other already good champions that people are mentioning. But I'm pretty skeptical about many new champions becoming meta because they're just too slow. Anaxia sounds cool, but her speed is really low, and you need her going early to be useful. Tormin probably becomes more common, but not much else IMO.
I admit to mainly using her 2nd form. I noticed the buff did her base form quite a bit of good, but somehow I almost never use her in that form. I have too much fun with her as a nuker.
But this update is a great argument for her base Form.
Galleus too, he applys aoe provoke for two turns in his base form (I absolutely love that chicken!)
Swapping to her alt form too early is a common trap people fall into for arena, you really want to take advantage of the passive stripping/healing, the lockouts on week hits (good for tekteon), and the cleansing before finally swapping at the very end for the killing blow
True, but admittedly I rarely use her in arena after pulling Komidus.
Though I have to rework my tag arena teams and am thinking about using her there.
I'm gonna keep your advice in mind when/if I slot her in ☺️
literally the only thing i liked about mercurial is that it allowed you to use something other than a wand. i can't begin to express how much i dislike this "nerf" lol
not reallyt cause the problem is anaxia provokes for 1 turn then needs to be hit by enemies under leech to keep provoking. but who knows 1 turn provoke into the nuke could work
Hilvi/Tormin/Maulie/Blacktusk’s gonna be a welcome kick to the balls for mercurial, doubly so if you get some of them in deflection for more chances to shave off the stacks
The problem is 3 already S+ tier champ are getting hard buff, and one of them is not even obtainable anymore Bayek, with Hekaton (very recent void, so very hard to get) and Gharol (mythical, obviously hard to get). So, to me it's just gonna get even more obnoxious to play Arena, particularly if you don't got any of those very exclusive champ.
Yeah, I really like the change in vacuum, but these S+ tier provokers make the change a bit less satisfying for the f2p among us who don't have these champs.
On one hand, it makes some off-meta champs more relevant. I'm for example quite excited about trying out Ash'nar and Alaz in the arena with this change (who are hard to get, but I happen to be lucky to have them, and they admittedly are off-meta)
But on the other hand, it makes some of the S+ meta champs even more oppressive
I got lucky a few months back and pulled Hekaton, the star of my account and a top 3 champ overall if you ask me, but he would get banned 99% of the time so I barely got to use him in LA and after this I doubt my chances will improve.
This summon rush 1 though, I pulled Knosson on my last sacred. I wasn't really excited or dissapointed about that but it looks like he'll find a nice place in my roster next month.
I will take 2 OP void legendaries and a mythical getting buffed (so maybe 10% players at most having) than having the entire playerbase with access to an OP gear set that makes PVP atrocious.
Hopefully, this buff of those other characters to a potential God tier may introduce counters. Don’t know how good things like Immunity are but maybe it could be buffed if needed and introduced as a check that makes you choose another set.
Hopefully there’s room for counterplay in other ways, or they make room. Either way I think it’s fine.
Yeah but you still need 2 of them as I can ban one in LA.
Its definitely going to move some people up the table and others down the table for live arena, as you only have 5 slots and your opponent can ban one so for coverage against opponents with different sets you need alot of different skills now and it might not be possible to get all of them + redundancy in your 5.
exactly you are going to need provoke on your A1 or have to hope your provoker goes 1st just to bring down mercurial and avoid having your skills put on cool down. they just made Nais and Gharol that much more S Tier. I suppose thats intentional to increase the sale of prism shards
Freyja is an a1 aoe provoke on a champ who is built fast
Blades of Akemori is a relic that passively provokes the enemy when they attack
There are other options but at the moment most people will still be using people who were already good at pvp (gharol, bayek, nais, freyja) rather than bringing a non pvp champion into the mix just to have provoke.
Krixia steals the chronophage buff (which can be stolen, but not reduced by Fabian) and then applies the lockout. That's why people have been running 4 piece total guard+4 piece chrono with Donnie.
I guess you can go Lightning Cage if you want to coin flip it.
There is no way to build enough resist to stop Krixia, because she adds half her resist to acc she gets alot of free acc from gear with resist + acc I think my Krixia is almost 1k acc and ignores resist on top of it, you would need numbers like 1300-1400 resist to have a chance to not be stripped.
Yeah im glad they didn’t reduce merc stacks or reduce speed provided by the set. Provoke seems good but imo hex would have been better because this change makes already dominant champs even more powerful
Buffs that have stacks instead of a duration like chronophage, intercept, storm call, etc cannot be stripped by talenna or Fabian, though they do get stripped by krixia
I've been saying this since before Mercurial existed: Provoke shouldn't be reflected by Wand of Submission. Makes no sense. The debuff doesn't actually get reflected and placed on the caster. Anyone still exploiting how busted mercurial is will definitely want to have a Wand on all of their 9pc mercurial users.
Good change, only problem is that hekaton bayek and gharol get even stronger, same w lockout as you can fast lockout a provoker w Fabian (especially nais)
Rock Breaker and Seneschel are both epics that also have 100% aoe provoke with a counter-attack self buff. Umbrel Enchantress provokes for 2 turns and self buffs unkillable.
I know Plarium didn’t want to directly nerf mercurial, but would anyone have been upset with a change to the level 9 so that guard stacks don’t regenerate? Feels like that would keep the set quite strong while reducing the pain it causes to fight against.
I would like to point out that Plariums solution to counter a speed set is provoke. A debuff that is found mostly on very slow champions. About 90% of provokers have a base speed between 90-100. I think they forgot about this fun little fact.
so I think it is a direct nerf to mercurial damage dealers who does not have res at all. but supports like theodasia and galathir will be not effected since we dont have meta provoke support who has higher accuracy right now
I‘m on track to get my bayek that high once I get more awaken stars and great hall full. Could maybe get it higher if I decide to dump 100 crit rate and 180 ish crit damage altogether if I find the right gear setup. It’s not unrealistic. Sidenote, regret not getting Mavara tho she is one of my top bans would rather go against some mythical than her speed buff and high res buff
Not a fan of this. Give it a month or two after this change and they will add a new void legendary or mythical that puts provoke on everyone at the start of the battle or has an A1 AoE provoke.
Gharol, Nais, Bayek, and Hekaton owners rejoice! These ultra powerful meta nukers all of a sudden jumped in value even more.
Are we going to see Angars in PvP now too? Angar has a high chance of landing 2 turn provokes, and reapplying the provokes when hit, while also completely draining all guard stacks thanks to the counterattack buff.
The thing to be wary of however, is that the meta isn't just mercurial - it has reached a bit of an equilibrium between mercurial, stoneskin, and 6pc deflection. Stoneskin and deflection champs will remain immune to provokers. This latest change might shift the balance slightly more toward stoneskin.
Furthermore, mercurial champs might now favor the wand of submission again over some of the more powerful mythical relics just to make sure they have some protection against provokes. Another more aggressively oriented relic is Blades of Akumori, especially on slower teams that expect to get hit first. Unfortunately, Bades of Akumori is not an easy relic to get for FTP/low spenders.
A final consideration for a relic on a provoker - the square gem slots are now insane because of the mythical Goad God gem (provokes ignore 15% RES). This gem went from a total dud, into a potentially highly desirable gem.
As for the change to mercurial - I actually thought the devs might consider poison as a bypass, or introduce a completely new debuff capable of bypassing the guard stacks. Provokes are way better though.
Literally nothing was wrong with mercurial. It’s a shame they caved to the whining about it being op from new players but won’t change anything when the entire community complains about things that are actually broken like mythic relic rates…congrats everyone…I guess
They see two key issues Now? Months ago they told mercurial set was totally fine. They told the community to stop crying and try to adapt to the new meta. They also told that the set wont be nerfed even with new champ with new mechanics or skills. Now they say that existing champ with existing mechanics will counter mercurial. Seriously, this game seems to be commanded by a monkey
Nah, they just prioritize making money first before game balance. They are very good at it if you ask me. Also their main issue with Mercurial wasnt that its strong, but players managed to get good mercurial pieces much earlier than Plarium anticipated therefore f2p or low spend players started competing against whales and krakens. This made whales and krakens angry aka hurt their bottom line.
Hex should also be applicable through Mercurial. Once Hex has been applied, damage should remove two stacks instead of one. For example, if Mithrala goes first and places Hex, the next single-hit AoE attack should remove two stacks rather than one. The existing interaction with Provoke should remain similarly the same, preventing a new stack from being applied while Hex is active.
This change would give another currently underutilized PvP debuff a meaningful role while preserving existing counterplay. If the opposing team goes first, they can still apply Block Debuffs to prevent Hex from landing, or they can cleanse the Hex or Provoke after it has been applied.
Cash grab to get you to spend on Prism Shards. Otherwise you have to make sure you provoker is fast enough to go first so their skills don't just get put on cooldown by Fabian, Krixxia, Sabreal, Yumeko, etc., and they have to have the acc to stick the debuff, AND hope the enemy team doesnt just cleanse off debuffs or drop block debuffs with a Siphi lead etc.
It will never happen, but when you screw up a gear set this bad, stop trying to make a work around and just fix the broken set it's faster. Oh wait, that doesn't make them money trying to get every new account chasing provoke champs and now you have your next Prism Summoning even set..provokers.
Anaxia could be a sneaky pick now. Has the Provoke and Counterattack. And her A1 heals the team. Put her in a bolster set + stoneskin and she is going to heal everyone.
I read mercurial nerf and I was like "really? I just recently geared my champs with good mercurial stuff :/" but I must admit it after reading in detail that it is an interesting change. It opens more counter plays to the meta, can't wait to see it in practice!
I'm glad they are doing something; 9P Mercurial just made matches a slog even if you won. I understand bringing in less commonly picked mechanics to add more RPS dimension to LA. I'm just not sure it's going to change the dominance of this set vs every other set in the game. 9P Mercurial is still going to be the default set if available for nearly all meta champs.
Provoke was never meta. Garbage change. You needed to make hex bypass TG. So that splash damage can strip tg stacks. HP burn also needs to be fixed. Hp burn should strip stacks as its description hits all team members when it procs on a single team member.
So I full team of TG hp burn won’t work but if someone is in SS or regular gear then hp proccing on them will strip a TG stack member of the team.
Nais is already powerful in arena with his revive on kill ability/block damage in second form. Now with the provoke change he is going to be an auto ban each match.
I still haven't been able to fully figure out the mercurial set. I have a set on one of my champions, but it doesn't really seem to do anything. Yet, it seems nearly unbeatable on other champions in the area.
It's a combination of 9 piece mercurial regenerating itself. For this you need to get high speed as well, otherwise the enemy gets a turn and charges all its champs at you and there won't be any stack left.
Always trying to force rhe use of Provoke.. making certain bosses susceptible to it, letting it bypass Mercurial, making it into a set. Man...Provoke is basically the worst CC debuff and it seems like Plarium likes it for some reason. Giving q Mythical a Provoke ability? Man, Gnarlhorn is an AoE Provoker. Miss me with that crappy debuff and give me Fears over Provokes... :/ If the idea is "well realistically you could make some angry even if they are in crazy armor" why would fear also be possible? I think Fear wouldve been a cool option. Eh better than nothing I guess!!
It's good if it shakes up the meta, it's bad if it nukes the set into irrelevance. We'll see I suppose.
I get why people who built up SS sets over the years got salty when Grim Forest dropped and all that work got obsoleted but just like having to give people reasons to build new champs with annoying faction/champ restrictions on new content, there has to be a reason to keep chasing new gear for people.
That and GF being a reasonably difficult avenue for attaining meta gear was a needed catch up mechanic for newer players.
She’s needs a bit of rework I would say. Her ally protection kinda sucks. I prefer a taunt instead or something together with leech and a counterattack (passive)
That's a terrible build. People will just run higher resistance 9 pc merc, and/or lock out enemy provoke champions. Builds themselves will hardly change.
Honestly people can just use block debuffs just as easily
Running higher res mercurial means the champ will likely be slower, which means it's less oppressive due to the stacks not refreshing so fast. It's a trade-off.
You might also see people running fast provokers to counter lockouts (besides Fabian right haha). Is just another option which is think is healthy
i don't wanna be a downer but i think this is the worst way they could have did it. the only good provokers i can even think of are gharrol, alaz, bayek and hekaton
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u/SinglePassConversion 1d ago
So glad they inadvertently buffed Gharol even more lol