We are taking a look at the latest patch notes of the MOBA Paragon and what the developers at Epic Games have to say about the overall balance. And if you are participating in Early Access, you will have the chance to surprise one of your friends with a free game code.
Free Early Access Keys
From today until Sunday, the gates will open for the first time for 500,000 players in the third-person MOBA Paragon, who have previously only registered for the Open Beta.
If you are one of the enthusiasts and have found enjoyment in Agora and its heroes after the stress test weekend, and perhaps you have a friend who is already in Early Access, you should keep this warm.
All players who reach level 20 will receive a key for free access to the Early Access phase, which they can pass on to a friend. This is the developers’ way of thanking all current players and giving interested parties another opportunity to check out the title themselves.
You will receive the code within a few days after reaching level 20. This can be redeemed at paragon.com/redeem by one of your friends (or those who might want to be).
Jungle Changes and Murdock Nerf
If you are an old-school Paragon player wondering where the easily irritated folks from the red and blue camps are after the game starts, you need to adjust your inner timer. The spawn time for both buffs has been moved from 1:30 minute to 2:30 minutes to reduce early chaos in the jungle caused by the respective teams and to have more action on the lanes.
Furthermore, the deck builder that was introduced in the last patch has been further improved, and 10 new cards have been added, which can be obtained in the card packs.
One of the most important changes, however, is the nerf of the character Murdock. In the later stages of a game, he was able to send opponents to the afterlife with 3-4 direct hits from his standard attack if he could build enough damage and critical chance (the author can attest to that…).
This has now been toned down a bit by setting the scaling of his standard attack from a maximum of 1.5 to 1.2, thus reducing the maximum damage from 74 to 59. However, to keep him relevant, the corresponding attack speed has been reduced from 1.5 to 1.2 seconds.
The Problem with Balance
Surely some players will welcome the changes as they do with every balance change, or curse them, depending on the perspective. Therefore, Epic Games’ Lead Systems Designer Joe Harrington offers insight into how difficult it is to find a certain balance.
He compares video games and sports, as in both, one’s own skill should be the decisive factor for victory. In both cases, the skills of the participants can usually be analyzed closely, and one can learn from it.
However, creating a fair relationship between all players proves to be significantly more challenging. Because no matter how statistically and mathematically one can find an absolute balance; if it feels wrong and unfair, it usually is, according to Harrington.
Therefore, these fundamental statistical values make up only about 80% of the whole. The fine-tuning is done over time through the gained experience of how a hero is played and how he scales compared to others throughout the game.
However, to keep a game as interesting as possible, changes are part of everyday life. If a functioning system were to exist forever, monotony sets in quickly, which can be the downfall of it all. Just think of Destiny in year 1. With Thorn and such, one had a clear advantage in the Crucible.
Thus, you also have an explanation for why the weapon and hero balance is frequently adjusted in all games. And as for balance changes in Paragon, you can look forward to the upcoming adjustments for Support and Tank, which will be presented soon.
