Balance Patch June 2021

The long awaited patch has hit and we are facing some of the most drastic changes in Rivals balance history that are surely to shake up the meta like never before.
From a nerf to the tiberium ramp-up (that marks the most significant change to the way tech comes out since Rivals was still at Redwood) to a complete Banshee re-work that finally gives nod another answer to light air, this patch is packed with interesting changes. A full list of changes is available at the bottom this article.

Banshee is back, baby! For too long NOD has had a hard time coping with light air, both vs itself and GDI. This new re-work expands NOD’s capabilities of fighting said struggle, offering a cheap, light & versatile solution to fight other air units. It is worth noting however that infantry damage on the Banshee was nerfed, meaning it will be primarily used to focus on air-to-air and air-to-vehicle combat, unlike it’s GDI counterpart, the Talon, which is primarily an anti-infantry air unit. Banshee now has the same HP as the Talon, but less aircraft damage. It can turn faster, but also flies slower, so in general this unit will feel very different.

Tiberium ramp-up has been reduced, meaning tech will come out later and in lesser numbers. The most notorious challenge when fighting tech was that even if you could manage to defeat a tech unit without tech of your own, the second one was right around the corner. This is due to the ramp-up of tiberium harvested per second, especially with two harvesters. While the exact values are not yet known, this marks a change that has been requested by many in the community for a very long time. 

The above table shows the previous and new tiberium harvesting values.

Speed! Or should I say lack thereof! Talon, Shade, Catship, Banshee and Jumpjets have all had their speed reduced. These units were all popular for flipping pads at the last second and should have a harder time doing so from now on. This should also reduce the intensity of battle a little, with less units available that have the “Faster” speed, and less money in the late game to keep them going.

Community Spotlight: we have reached out to some of the top players in the community to hear from them about their thoughts on the patch!

Maximus:

“They killed my deck! 😳”

“I am afraid raider units will be the new meta”

“shade nerf seems decent, but I think stank becomes unplayable. 100 cost unit which cannot kill vehicles”

13lade:

“jjts and talons will still be decent but you won't be able to endlessly spam them”

“Catship will be utterly unplayable, stealth tanks also seems like it will be terrible so overall I predict chuggy/mutant will be a huge winner and potentially we will see a return to the tank meta but with phantom as the primary anti air unit”

AliciaDestiny: 

“I will still play with jumpjets even after this change”

"mid-range decks that should be able to counter deck should and WILL DESTROY tech decks like the mid-range Kane deck that I frequently use in tournaments”

"Base killing will be a lot harder but I don't this will change anybody's playstyles as nobody creates a deck with the sole intent to blow up someone's base”

"I can guarantee you that I won't use fanatics after this patch and their losing matchup against riflemen/militants will not even warrant them a spot in anyone's deck”

Omeleet:

“Tech may be very difficult to field outside of flame tank and artillery”

“I expect most beefy units and snipers can re-enter the meta now that both”

“Meta seems prime for significant changes, may be enough reason to use the war factory again”

NaturalSky:

“With this patch we will hopefully see an end to Nod's struggle vs air. With heavy infantry such as chemical warriors and mutant marauders being the focal point for most decks”

“On GDI we will see less reliance on the current apc decks as they were mostly designed to combat air heavy decks. I suspect we will see a switch up into other anti infantry options such as snipers and razorback”

Some final thoughts on the patches notes:

Stank

• Things Stank can't one shot anymore: Pitbull, Rhino, Shatterer, Tick Tank unborrowed, MSV, Chuggy, Bikes!
• Chuggy is really close, if the stank has a level or maybe even a training advantage it can probably one shot (1528 vs 1550)
• Giga can be barely one-shot, maybe not with levels. (1528 vs 1455)
• Need to test new stank vs bikes. Bikes have 435 hp per squad member, thus stank needs more than one shot to kill it now, thus you leave one bike alive after every volley.

Catship

• Catship now needs 2 shots to kill these infantry models: flame trooper, laser trooper (200 vs 220 might change based on levels), snipers!, MG while moving
• 4 shots to kill chem warrior, mutant models (200 vs 620) maybe levels make it 3
• 3 to kill grenadier models (200 vs 550)

 Base

• Almost an entire Jade missile worth of hp increase (2250 hp increase for half a base vs 2500)
• You now need 6,9 Jade explosions to kill half a base

Full list of Balance Changes:

GDI changes:

Tech lab – Tiberium cost increased to 180 (from 150)

GDI MCV – Base health increased by 15% (from 30000 to 34500)

Strongarm – Tiberium cost increased from 40 to 50

APC

• Tiberium cost increased from 80 to 90
• Vehicle damage reduced from 65 to 45

Talon – Speed reduced from fastest to faster

Jump Jet Troopers – Speed reduced from fastest to faster

NOD changes:

Temple of Nod – Tiberium cost increased to 180 (from 150)

NOD MCV – Base health increased by 15% (from 30000 to 34500)

Banshee:

• Tiberium cost reduced from 60 to 30
• Health reduced from 1210 to 909
• Default weapon damage reduced from 382 to 211
• Infantry damage reduced from 55 to 42
• Aircraft damage reduced from 382 to 270
• Speed reduced from fastest to faster
• Turn speed increased from 300 to 450
• Attack speed reduced from 1.4 to 1.3

Catalyst Gunship:

• Tiberium cost increased from 50 to 60
• Tiberium cloud canister launch-time duration increased from 3.6 to 4.5 seconds
• Weapon damage reduced from 510 to 200
• Speed reduced from fastest to faster

Shade:

• Tiberium cost increased from 60 to 70
• Speed reduced from fastest to faster

Fanatics: Weapon damage reduced from 57 to 49

Stealth Tank: Vehicle damage reduced from 510 to 382

Misc

• Tiberium Harvest rate reduced during late game to balance usage of all units
• Disabling challenge battles in Tiberium League by increasing Unit Level Cap from 15 to 19. Units will not be able to level beyond 15.

Written by: Entsorger, Kennyemmy
Special thanks: Viper