After last August, fans may have been convinced that Halo Wars 2 support had more or less ended. However, the latest Halo Wars 2 patch notes for December of 2019 spell out a few more last-minute fixes for 343 Industries’ Halo RTS. This is a fairly small update with a selection of balance adjustments all across the board. Keep reading to learn everything new and changed in the latest Halo Wars 2 update.
Halo Wars 2 Patch Notes | Highlights and Changes
The December 2019 Halo Wars 2 patch notes spell out several changes to unit balance as well as various damage adjustments. This update is meant to prepare the game for Season 14, with a 343 Industries representative saying the update addresses “a handful of housekeeping” adjustments meant to keep the game in working order.
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Among these are tweaks to damage for several units including UNSC Anti-Infantry and Anti-Air turrets, a buff for Vultures and Scorpions, and nerfs for Banished Shield Turrets as well as both Serina and Anders’ abilities. The update also provides a host of tweaks to Yapyap The Destroyer, including an increase in cooldown for the Surprise Party, Shade Drop, and Grunts From Above abilities.
Halo Wars 2 Patch Notes | Full December Update Patch Notes
Here’s the full list of Halo Wars 2 patch notes for December 2019 as provided by the team at 343 Industries.
UNSC
- Anti-Infantry and Anti-Air Turrets Damage Reduced by 7%.
Both have been overperforming and making it difficult to break bases. Both the anti-infantry and anti-air upgraded turrets are receiving a 7% damage reduction.
Vultures
- Base Damage Increased by 15%.
- Speed Increased from 9 to 11.
- Phoenix Missile Damage increased by 10%.
We have seen through data that vultures are rarely built compared to other units. To make them more viable in strategies they have received a damage increase and a slight speed increase to improve their capabilities on the battlefield. With these performance increases bringing them online into your army composition instead of needing to mass them will be easier to do.
Scorpion
- Base Damage increased by 10%
- Canister Shell accuracy improved.
- Canister Shell damage improved by 10%
Scorpions are struggling in the late game and having trouble pushing into bases. This increase to cannon damage will help them transition to late game more efficiently. As well, canister shell would often miss targets and would not get used in many cases. This improvement to accuracy and damage helps them to be more on par with other tanks special abilities and improve their overall effectiveness.
Banished
Shield Turrets
- Shield Turrets Recharge Time increased from 30 seconds to 50 seconds.
- Shield Turrets Recharge Wait Time (Time before the recharge starts once out of combat) Increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.
Shields are difficult to deal with currently as they recharge very quickly. Even if you dominate a fight at an enemy base, in many cases you will not be able to do any damage to a base if you don’t win outright in your attack because the shield will recover allowing a defender to rebuild. This makes it very hard to push into Banished bases. The increases in their recharge rate and the time required for them to be out of combat will improve this as well as help prevent exceedingly long turtles.
Wraith
- Plasma Mortar damage increased by 15%.
- Scorch Mortar damage increased by 10%.
Like Scorpions, Wraiths have been struggling in the late parts of games. These increases to damage will help carry them through into the later parts of matches where they have been struggling to remain effective.
Leaders
Cutter
- Spartan Jerome now has a small splash radius added to the Spartan Laser.
- 3 Radius 100% damage and 6 Radius 50% damage rings have been added.
- Close Air Support Pelican Health increased by 8%.
Cutter’s Hero unit, Jerome, compared to the others is not as efficient. This is due to him having a slower attack and only being able to attack a single target. Adding a small splash radius to his Spartan Laser attacks will help him to be more impactful in target rich environments when swarmed. In addition to improving Cutter’s hero unit, a small health increase to the pelicans in Close Air Support will help his toolkit all up. This will allow Close Air Support to be more of an impact in a fight instead of getting killed too quickly by Anti-Air.
Forge
- Scatter Bomb telegraphing reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.
- The Shield Increase on Forge’s Warthog Gauss Overcharge upgrade reduced by 10%.
- Vehicle Drop Cooldown increased from 140 seconds to 160 seconds.
- Grizzly Build Time reduced from 48 seconds to 43 seconds.
Forge has one of the most effective and impactful sets of units and leader powers in the game. His Forgehog is quite difficult to deal with in the late game because of the hit and run tactics he is capable of. To weaken this unit a small reduction to the shield increase he gets from his Tier 3 upgrade will help balance out this Hero unit. As well, the Vehicle Drop leader power cooldown is receiving a small increase to lessen the frequency of units on demand forcing the player to build more units and manage population more effectively. In addition to these changes, scatter bomb telegraphing is getting reduced by .5 seconds to make it more viable in competitive play as well as help reduce the latency caused by the drop. Forge’s Grizzly tanks are also receiving a reduction in build time to encourage players to build them more instead of mainly using his unit drop due to their long time to build. Because of how effective they are, they will still require a longer build time than Scorpions or Wraiths.
Anders
- Sentinels spawned with Sentinel Beacon damage reduced by 10%.
- Research and Development reductions reduced to 15%/30%.
Anders is currently banned in most competitive tournaments due to how effective she is across the board. To help lessen the gap on how effective she is we are reducing her cost reduction leader power by 10% each tier. This change will slow her ability to have Tier 3 upgrades too quickly. In addition to this the damage from her lure beacon sentinels is being reduced by 10%. This will help shake up her current meta which is favoring spamming of siege with her to mass these sentinels.
Serina
- Cryotech Advances Chill Rate reduced by 50% for Kodiak shots.
Massing Kodiaks on Serina is a difficult army to fight into, a reduction on the chill rate for Kodiak shots will balance this out so that a single AoE shot will no longer freeze multiple infantry.
Pavium
- Hero Unit Paint Target Ability now correctly slows units.
- Hero Unit Paint Target Ability increased to 20%/40% slows.
- Mega Turret Cost Escalation increased from 150 to 200.
Pavium’s hero has not been performing the way intended. To shake things up a bit with him we have reintroduced slow to his Y ability and improved it in order to help players combo abilities and improve overall effectiveness. In order to not push him over the top with these changes we are also increasing the cost escalation for his Mega Turrets. They are quite difficult to fight into for ground forces. This cost increase will help avoid Pavium players from forcing long turtles by making it harder to rebuild a turret if it is destroyed.
Voridus
- Brute Grenadier Base weapon damage increased by 15% and Brute Grenadier Siphon ability buffed.
- Brute Grenadier Corruption Consumption sized reduced by 50% for siphon upgrade. Tier 1 Damage Buff modifier increased by 15%. Tier 2 Damage Buff modifier increased by 30%. Buff Duration increased by 5 seconds.
- Brute Grenadier Weapon Modifiers improved vs vehicles. Grenadiers will now do the correct damage to vehicles.
- Corrupted Wraith Scorch Mortar damage increased by 15%
Brute Grenadiers are not being built by players as a viable unit to enter engagements with. Instead, they have been primarily used from their leader power the drop to get more infusion on the map. To help improve their overall unit capabilities we are increasing their base damage, siphon ability damage increase, duration of the siphon buff, and lowering the amount of infusion it removes from the map when used. These changes will improve the viability of the unit and make their Y ability more worthwhile. Voridus wraith buffs are being done in order to keep the Corrupted Wraith in parity with the standard Wraith improvements made.
Decimus
- Boundless Siphon Healing Reduced by 20%.
We are reducing the healing for boundless siphon as this ability is still too effective.
Yapyap The Destroyer
- Surprise Party Cooldown Increased from 90 seconds to 112 seconds.
- Shade Drop Cooldown Increased from 180 seconds to 225 seconds.
- Grunts From Above Cooldown Increased from 165 seconds to 210 seconds.
- Methane Party Drop Area Increased from 10 to 15 (This is the radius of the circle increased giving the bombs a larger area to drop, not a flat size increase).
- Methane Party Buff Area increased by 25% from 16 to 20.
Yapyap has been at the top of the tier list for a while due to his drop abilities being on such a short cooldown, this was not addressed before as he was not a highly played leader. Over time more and more people are using this strategy and we are seeing how effective it really is. We are addressing his unit drop ability cooldowns to bring them more in line with other leaders. His specific leader play style will still be viable as he is intended to be a constant annoyance. In addition to these changes Methane Party is receiving a performance increase which will allow the ability to cover a larger area with methane.
