Balance & Map Pool Changes May 1 2019

The April season has ended, and Redwood announced a number of balance and map pool changes for may.

Balance Changes affecting both Factions

Nuke Charging Times for the first two missiles have been reduced by 5 seconds each.

• Before: First missiles/nukes both needed to 45 seconds of pad-charging time, and the last just 30 seconds.
• After: All nukes need 40 seconds of pad charging time.
• One clear advantage of this change is to make the game easier-to-understand for newer players. Most players don't have access to such data, and all nukes taking the same charging time is more intuitive and easier to learn. I recall that I wondered as a new player why I had such trouble with the third nuke.
• What puzzles me about the change, though, is the rationale the devs give: "allow for late-game players to have more time to mount a comeback if they successfully delay the game until the third missile"
• Because the usual situation for the "late-game player" is that they lose the first nuke, so have to win the second nuke. The total charging time needed for the first two nukes together was reduced by 10 seconds!
• This is a significant nerf to Tech decks, and they get counter-buffed only in some niche areas. Together with the odd explanation of the devs, this seems not well thought-through. Except if it's step 1 in an overall rework for Tech (but then it should have been delayed until then.)

Harvester bounty (for destroying it) reduced from 100 to 80.

• I  this is a good change, as it improves comeback mechanics against certain rushes
• On the other hand, it would be bad if makes Bike and Tank rushes fully unviable – they are already rare at top-level play, but the fact that you have to account for their possibility is still impactful
• It's a minor buff for Tech, as the Aggro player gets a bit less Tiberium to lock down the first two Missiles
• It's a minor nerf for certain decks that look for Harvester snowballing, like ZeroHours no-harvester deck, or some Tech decks that incorporate harvester kills as a key way to fund getting tech out early

ZeroHour often looked to score a harvester kill to fund a key Stealth Tank with this deck

GDI Balance Changes

Buffs:

• Disruptor – whilst it cannot hit the base twice with a single shot anymore, it got a +30% buff on anti-vehicle damage (whilst not huge, it might be nopticable in combined-arms situations) and the oferall structure damage (base, obelisk, turret) got buffed by +60%! So in various situations, it's base destruction potential even increased, especially if the opponent has a single blocker (which he often will have on higher-level play)
• Mammoth speed increase by +25% (and damage increase by +3.5%) . The Mammoth didn't see much play in April, but towards the end of the month, I actually saw some more Mammoth decks. This buff is significant, as it comes out very late, and it's issue is often getting to pads/base/harvesters fast enough to make an impact. It also makes it even more powerful against infantry. So it feels like the only viable counter against it now is air, and it takes a long time to kill it. Whilst I would not call it overpowered, I predict a significant increase in Mammoth play, especially as GDI has more options to play Infantry-only (or Infantry/Air) whilst saving for Tech.
• MLRS reload time reduced from 6.5 to 6. This will not be enough to bring it back into play, as MLRS + Jackson is still weaker than before Jackson was nerfed in the recent patch. Plus, the meta is harsh on MLRS with e.g. Orca seeing so much play.
• MG got a bit more damage back (+8%). It might not sound like much, but the situations to narrowly kill (or not kill) an MG squad with e.g. Wheels are quite common. And they can be very deciding, especially in Liang decks, where not killing the MG means it's quickly back to full health. Especially with the popularity of GDI drones though, I don't see this making MG too popular in coming weeks.
• GDI Anti Air got buffed by a new unit, the slingshot (see Captain Benzie's video below). In my first tests, it's indeed strong in it's role (and cheap at 50 Tib), but it is so specialized that it creates strong counterplay potential for the opponent. 
• For example, you can lure 1-2 of them out and then stop building air whilst not destroying the opponent's Slingshots, yet. Then, before the Nuke, you have superior counter units on the field, as the Slingshots use up precious pop cap for the opponent. 
• I don't think it's a great combo with the Borca by the way (contrary to what Benzie says in his video), as it's so slow that you will often kill it along with it. I think it will be better as the anti-air cover for in factory-heavy decks, e.g. revolving around the Predator tank.
• So I believe it will not see much play at higher level. But I might be proven wrong!

Buff & Nerf: Orca Bomber health increased by +15%, reverting a very recent nerf, but increasing cost from 100 to 110. They justify the change with the new unit, the new GDI anti-air Slingshot, which indeed doesn't look weak. But to me, it rather a bit like devs flip-flopping, possibly noticing that the Borca became too weak against the staple Pitbull.

Nerf: Strongarm Turret health reduced by 20%. Probably a fair small tweak for the currently most-used GDI commander.

Nod Balance Changes

Buffs: 

• Avatar health increased by +7%. Probably fair after the array of nerfs the Avatar has recently seen. As some people really love playing the Avatar, I expect it (and the Mammoth) to see quite a bit of play in May. If you struggle with it, you can check this older article on playing against the Avatar, that, despite it's changes (incl. a speed nerf) still largely holds true.
• Artillery: Attack speed increased by a hefty +33%. This sounds large, but it's not clear if it will make the Artillery viable, as it's seen so little play recently. So I like the bold attempt. What I don't like as much is that they also increased the projectile speed with the argument to make it "more consistently hit targets without missing" – I think the option to dodge shots of a very long-range unit is actually a good counterplay mechanic and don't like to see the devs removing this.
• Chem Warriors vehicle damage increased by +115%! But: This change was already live since a couple of weeks, it just was not announced so far. As no one too loudly complained about them, I guess the change is fine, especially as just 16% of Top Nod decks played the Chem Warriors just two weeks ago.
• Flame Tank damage against infantry increased by +27%, and against vehicles by +44%. At top level play, I think this is largely inconsequential, as the Flame Tank can rarely by your "main Tech unit", so it is rather a supporting unit (e.g. for Cyborgs). And getting both Flame Tank and Cyborgs out on high level play will stay tricky, especially with the Nuke timing changes (see above).
• Rock Worm speed increased by +14%. Fair, as it's also seen little play. 

Nerf: Stealth Tank reload now takes +10% longer. Good change probably, considering how popular the Stealth Tank had gotten: Half of all Nod top decks played the Stealth Tank!

Master Map Pool Changes

I won't cover the new Tiberium Map pool in detail (Battlefield, Open Prarie, Lone Spire, Two Fuses,
Fighting Pit, Hot Zone, The Cauldron, Cracked Ice), but focus on the key change: Finally, a new map pool for Masters league!

The devs added exactly the three maps I recently suggested them to add:

Open Water (good enough for the Tiberium map pool, and quite different from other Masters maps)

Half and Half (very different from many maps, as the harvester harass scouting lane is very different from the pad control lane; on basically all other maps a 3-vision-range scout can cover both at the same time)

Down the Middle (another 2-pad map that still feels pretty different from Two Fuses)

The two other Masters maps will be one old one (Peaks and Valleys) and another one from the former Bronze League pool (Cracked Ice).

Peaks and Valleys (I like that it's also quite different from nearly all other maps, but it also can get old if you play it too often)

Cracked Ice (a solid standard map)

My overall verdict

• The map pool changes for Master were overdue. Thanks for that!
• What I like about the patch is that it's buffs over nerfs, just as StrikerVX and Omeleet argued. That way, you hopefully get less indirect problems that are created by the patch.
• At high-level, Tech got weaker. There's now 10 seconds less to get your Tech out, except if you get one of the first Nukes. This is a heavy nerf for decks with 2-3 Tech units, as they usually struggle to get the first Nuke. For decks with a single tech unit that don't rely too heavily on it, the change might not be as big.
• At lower leagues, some of the "standard Nod" Tech units got buffed, plus the "game enders" Mammoth and Avatar got buffed. I assume this will make Tech even more common there, with Mammoth decks, Avatar decks and the classic Cyborg-Flame Tank-Rockworm deck (maybe in Artillery variants?) being common.
• I look forward to the impact of the Artillery buff.