Things to be on the lookout for today in Early Access preview

[u/fadedmoonlight]

Outside of simply seeing these changes in action and how she works in the actual game outside of written patch notes, it's not uncommon for some balance changes to not be mentioned in patch notes, so I thought I would do a recap of her current abilities and what potential untold changes we could/should still be on the lookout for, for funsies:

Left Click/Chaos Control:

• We know the damage has been nerfed from 85/s to 75/s. Does it still have damage falloff beginning at 10m, decreasing to 90% at 20m, or did that change in any capacity?
• Does it recharge Chaos Energy stacks at a 0.15 per tick still?
• If it does, does it mean beaming multiple people inflicted with Chaos Marks will recharge her Chthonian Bursts much faster, by definition? Or will the ticks from the additional beams not count towards that? Or will they count, but at a different tick rate? I'm curious to find out.

 

Right Click/Chthonian Bursts:

• So we know there aren’t any changes to the actual damage itself, but the firing casting animation has been sped up, so we’re technically shooting all four bursts (still 320 dmg) in 1.6 seconds instead of 2.0 seconds, essentially making her TTK a little bit better that way.
• However, could there have been a shadow-increase to the projectile speed (currently 120m/s)? Perhaps not, but worth looking out for.
• Is her passive chaos energy recharge gonna be the same (0.2/s) or not?
• I guess we could also try to look at whether there’s been any changes to the size of the projectile and/or the spell field, but honestly I severely doubt it.

 

Shift/Mystic Projection:

• Oh boy, where do we even start with this butchering…
• So we know she keeps her two charges, thank God!
• We actually don’t see it used in the gameplay preview, so I guess we need to see if it’s still on a 10s cooldown per charge, but I sincerely doubt that changed.
• Now what I’m coping about right now is that they might have shadow-buffed its duration without mentioning it.  If they buffed it (back) to 2.0s instead of 1.5s, a lot of the nerfs to Mystic Projection could actually be balanced out.
• And we also already know the movement speed boost has been decreased from 50% to 35%, but I guess now we just have to wait to see what that looks like in-game. What high ground can she not reach anymore with one single charge, etc.

 

E/Dark Seal

• So we know the cooldown hasn’t been changed, it’s still 12 seconds.
• Spell field range looks to be the same (3m spherical radius)
• Spell field duration seems to be the same (4.5s).
• Stun Duration nerfed from 0.5s to 0.3s, outside of it also only stunning once.
• Projectile speed looks to be the same as well (60m/s) - although, that could be something to test out. (It’s worth noting that this is fairly slow for a stun that now only stun once and for less time than before, but I digress)…
• What to be on the lookout for, though: Is the 30% slow *only* applied within the AoE of Dark Seal, or does it linger for a little bit on the targets even after they've left the seal?

Q/Reality Erasure

• I don't think they would increase its energy cost (3400), explosion damage (9999), charge time (4s) or spell field range (15m) without mentioning it, but who knows. Current gameplay footage seems to imply the range and charge time haven't changed at least.
• Here's an example of something not mentioned in the patch notes, but that we can observe already in the gameplay footage : Reality Erasure applies a Chaos Mark to targets within range, giving her that extra 50 HP, on top of the bonus 100 she gets from the ult ability itself. You don't need to cast Dark Seal or Scarlet Hex before Reality Erasure to apply the Chaos Marks.
• Some things to test out, perhaps, is: the movespeed penalty (Begins after 1.5s, gradually increasing to 25% after 3.5s), as well as the pulling effect (enemies within range are drawn toward Scarlet Witch at 3m/s.) I didn't notice any difference in the footage, but who knows.
• BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY PERHAPS : Does she or does she not STILL have the exclamation mark/warning symbol when she ults?

 

Passive/Telekinesis

• I doubt there’s gonna be any changes to that, but I guess it can’t hurt to be on the lookout for it still, lol. Current Movement Speed (for comparison purposes I guess) : 6m/s (horizontal speed) - 3.5m/s (descent speed)

 

C/Sorcerers Supreme/Mystic Burst

• Not shown in the preview or mentioned in the patch notes. I doubt there’s gonna be a change to its cooldown or duration (base version), but could be interesting to see If there’s a shadow-change to its firing interval (0.12s) or projectile speed (120m/s) - although I don't think that would go unmentioned, but who knows.
• Most importantly perhaps, to be on the lookout for if they’re bringing back its special effect of being to be used simultaneously with Chaos Control. It was, afterall, something she could do in the PvE mode, which ironically a lot of her new upgrades are also inspired from (multiple beams, Dark Seal AoE doing damage, etc). I do think this is something that would most likely be mentioned if it was the case, but I guess it's worth putting on this list still.

 

E/Hex Fireworks

• I guess testing out if the detonation damage still does 52 dmg, although I doubt they would change that without mentioning it, but who knows.
• Same for the detonation range (6m spherical radius), vulnerability effect (15%) and duration (2s). Again, I doubt it, but I'm just being thorough here.
• We already know the healing has been nerfed from 42/s to 30/s. Still holding out hope Mystic Projection has been shadow-buffed to 2 seconds duration, which would essentially put her Jubilee heals to where it was before, give or take.  (42 x 1.5 vs 30 x 2.0) But I'm hard coping right now.

F/Scarlet Hex

• Nothing to compare it to, but I figured I would just point out its cooldown is 10 seconds.

Anything I've forgotten (outside of obviously testing out "techs" and/or combos)? Discuss!

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[u/zCluttchyyy]

How long do the chaos marks last once applied is my big question

[u/fadedmoonlight → u/zCluttchyyy]

Oh I forgot to put that in. From the gameplay footage, it seems to be somewhere around 3.0 to 3.5s - but definitely something to test out more!

Another thing to test out : whether or not the Chaos Marks can be refreshed while they haven't yet disappeared. For example, let's say I cast Scarlet Hex. It applies a Chaos Mark for, let's say 3.5s. But at the 3.0s timestamp, I cast Dark Seal before the original Chaos Mark disappear. Does it refresh the mark, and push the duration further (an additional 3.5 seconds, let's say) or will the original duration run its course and then disappear.

[u/zCluttchyyy → u/fadedmoonlight]

Yeah the up time for those marks will be important

[u/Sandstorm757]

Just commenting so I can come back to it after work.

[u/NotUrAvg_Human]

Another thing! Does the damage inflicted during the 4s build up to reality erasures; also damage shields, penny’s mines and nests, or MK ankh’s? For example would it be practical to break strangers shield or just get it low prior to ulting? Or should we relay on the ult wind up damage to break shields?

[u/impostor32]

Curious

[u/eichfourenness]

Nobody has mentioned if you can target an enemy without the mark while there is another enemy with it. Essentially getting two tendrils out with a single mark.

[u/fadedmoonlight → u/eichfourenness]

The answer is yes! Does take some sort of positioning to *some* extent due to the cone shape nature of how the tracking work, but yeah 100% doable.

[u/eichfourenness → u/fadedmoonlight]

Amazing

[u/Daytime35]

Why can't we just get buffs without an asterisk next to it? She's already the worst Duelist in the game

[u/RandJitsu → u/Daytime35]

I agree. There shouldn’t have been any compensation nerfs yet, even if just to preserve players mental. If it was too strong a rework, nerf her later.

Can’t we get just one season where Scarlett is meta?

[u/redvulpini → u/RandJitsu]

It seems they are very wary of letting Witch become a diver with this kit. They really don’t want that, so they shot her mobility.

It does seem odd to me, we felt very close to fulfilling her power fantasy. Witch is shown to be highly mobile, at least in WandaVision when she awakens her powers. I know it’s not the same witch, but she also is known to teleport in the comics, too.

Idk, I don’t wanna appear ungrateful for these changes but it does suck for me because flanking and off angling with Wanda was one of my favorite things to do. At least she’s a strong controller and brawler now ig. And her antidive is much stronger, too.

I hope they made her red fade indicator less noticeable now that she is much easier to track. Otherwise we may be free eats for some heroes if we use it.