After looking into your feedback and monitoring data we have came to conclusion to revert experimental balance patch. We might see some changes returning to the game in the future once we establish direction to move forward.

• All experimental update changes were reverted.

• Fixed Dark Bargain of Diligence not increasing damage permanently.

Massive experimental patch went online brought by massive effort of our community members Astrogear and k1las! Heroes, items, pets, neutrals and bosses were updated. And additionally to it Armor and Magic Armor returned to the game.

Like the previous experimental patch this one will be temporary to collect your feedback and make more adjustments on the way. For now we don't have exact duration, it will massively depend on opinion of our player base. Therefore we encourage you to share your thoughts in our community Discord server[discord.gg].

Patch notes for the update are massive, so we gathered a document here[docs.google.com].

Over the last two weeks, you were able to experience Mitigation and Resistance reworked as Armor and Magic Armor. Today, those temporary balance changes were reverted as previously announced. We hope you had enough time to feel the impact of the changes, even if the adjustments were not fully polished.

We are now looking for your feedback to help us decide if this is a direction we should follow. Please join our Community Discord server[discord.gg] and vote in the #polls channel to help us make this decision.

Hey, Chosen Ones.

This time we've decided to check some changes to balance that come from the times of open beta. In this patch we are switching Resistance and Mitigation to act as Magic and Regular Armor like it was before the patch 0.9.0. There are arguments for and against those changes, therefore we decided to give it a try but not fully commit to it yet. For now they will still look like Resistance and Mitigation in the interface and tooltips are going to be slightly inaccurate. These changes will be available for you to test for two weeks until January, 9th, after which we will revert those back. This should give us enough time to review the effect of the change, decide if we should make it permanent (and done properly) or get back to Resistance and Mitigation as they are now.

We would like to hear your thoughts about the change in our Discord server[discord.gg].

• Resistance will only reduce magic damage;

• Damage reduction from Mitigation will be calculated like Resistance and reduce only physical damage;

• Every hero now starts with 10 Mitigation;

• Melee heroes start with 20 Resistance, ranged heroes start with 10;

• Adjusted following items to add/reduce/ignore Mitigation instead of Resistance:

  • Woundsplitter of Ruin,

  • Crushing Mace,

  • Thundercaller of Devastation,

  • Silver Buckler,

  • Captain's Crest,

  • Ranger's Vest,

  • Iceforged Plate.

• Everwinter Charm now grants 5 Mitigation in addition to 5 Resistance;

• Adjusted following abilities to add/reduce/ignore Mitigation instead of Resistance:

  • Aemon's Hope (W);

  • Buford's Poison Slug (Q);

  • Claudessa's Scale Shield (W);

  • Eanu's Tidal Flow (E, only Inward Tide);

  • Fetterstone's Crystal Shot (Q);

  • Flak's EMP Cannon (R);

  • Jin She's Firefall (E);

  • Malph's Healing Rations (W);

  • Rip's Smoke Cloud (Q);

  • Shank's Ground Pound (Q) and Frenzy (E);

• Pincer's Defense (passive) grants Mitigation instead of Resistance;

• Tink's Enhance Defenses (active) grants tower both Resistance and Mitigation;

• Stats of bosses, buildings and Dharkwaves were adjusted for the change.

• Matchmaking screen now shows number of players in matches currently.

• In buy queue indication showing if item can be bought now properly accounts components that have been bought already.

• Players will no longer be punished for leaving matchmaking matches against Bots if they were the only human player.

• Player status in lobby will now be saved between game launches.

• All implemented bots now will be able to use all active abilities of their heroes.

• Some ridiculous usage of some abilities and items fixed (e.g., Gokong spending illusions after using ultimate right away, using Pyrostaff on creeps, Vex using ultimate on neutrals).

• Bots now will be able to use more items.

• Bot item builds were updated and should make more sense now.

• Bots will be less eager to spend all their mana on creep waves.

• Some bots will reserve mana for their ultimates unless they have low health or ultimate is on a cooldown.

• Bots are less likely to engage bosses unprepared.

• Bots are less eager to keep pushing one line after destroying generator and should push other lanes and go for bosses instead.

• Bots will be more eager to use their aggressive abilities against bosses and defensive abilities on allies attacking bosses.

• Fixed a problem with effects of Ace's Avalanche (W), Carter's Yak Attack (W), Vermillion's Rocket Jump (R) never expiring and therefore staying in memory. This also should solve the problem with these effects popping up all over the map randomly.

• Fixed Chester's default build having no ability build.

• Fixed Hero Progress to display correct model and play appropriate voice lines for the hero chosen.

• Replaced expired SSL certificate.

• Sound and visual effects for Moxie were fixed.

• "Launcher music" option in settings now saves properly.

• The Chiprel

• Necropola

• 500 Gems
  
• 7,200 Seals
  
• 3,600 Elixirs

• Grimoire
  
  • Resistance penetration: 35% -> 45%.
• Shieldbreaker
  
  • Resistance penetration: 40% -> 50%.
  Both items seem underwhelming and at the same time both should help against heroes stacking resistance.

• An option to increase cursor size added to options.
  
• Item build editor screen improvements:
  
  • Button layout fixed for high-resolution monitors;
    
  • Editor window will no longer close by clicking background, which caused accidental loss of changes.

• The Chiprel
  
• strifeBot1

• Dark Bargain
  
  • Passive attack damage bonus: 40->46.
    
  • Permanent attack damage bonus on activation: 8->9.
    
  • Temporary attack damage bonus on activation: 20->23;
    
  • Restraint enchantment:
    
    • Permanent damage bonus on activation: 2->3.
      
    • Temporary damage bonus on activation: 8->9.
• Demon Edge
  
  • Attack damage bonus: 18->21.
    
  • Brutality enchantment:
    
    • Attack damage bonus: 5->6.
• Frost Prism
  
  • Attack damage bonus: 10->12.
• Woundsplitter
  
  • Attack damage bonus: 10->12.
• Crushing Mace
  
  • Attack damage bonus: 5->6.
• Oracle's Trinket
  
  • Attack damage bonus: 5->6.
• Stone skin
  
  • Attack damage bonus: 8->9.

• Fixed absurd damage dealt by swamp medium neutral creep (was fixed in hotfix 1.1.4.1).
  
• Fixed missing text in Fetterstone's Crystal Shot (Q) tooltip.
  
• Added CC reduction per level breakdown into Aemon's Hope (W) tooltip.
  
• Slow duration in Vermillion's Cheese Shot (Q) tooltip now shows only significant digits.
  
• Adjusted levels of power required for attack icon next to health bar to change (respective to starting power change).
  
• Adjusted levels of resistance and mitigation required for defense icon next to health bar to change (now it is possible to reach 4th and 5th icon).

• Starting power adjustments:
  
  • Starting power for all heroes reduced by 23%: 130->100.
    
  • Starting damage of all NPCs (lane creeps, neutrals, bosses) reduced by 23%.
    
  • Starting health for all units (heroes and NPCs) reduced by 23%.
    
  • First tower health and damage reduced by 23%. Other buildings damage and health reduced by the same amount as first tower.
  This is the biggest change of the patch. While the main focus of the change is to make power more intuitive as a mechanic, we also expect the change to make health, health regeneration and mitigation items to become stronger while resistance will become weaker at the same time.
  
• Generators: transferred some shield to health, shield to total health ratio: 19%->16%.
  While adjustment made to generator's shield was a change in right direction, the step was too big. While we were aiming to decrease efficiency of dealing slowly destroying generator by small damage each wave, we don't want to make single blow push the only option to destroy it.

• Aemon
  
  • Concentration (Q):
    
    • Cooldown: 18/16/14/12s->12/10/8/6s;
      
    • Base damage: 10/20/30/40->20/30/40/50.
  • Hope (W):
    
    • Now reduces stun and slow duration by 25%/30%/35%/40%;
      
    • Base heal: 7/12/17/22->10/15/20/25;
      
    • Duration: 1.5s->2s.
  • Courage (E):
    
    • Duration: 1s->1.5s.
  • Justice (R):
    
    • Cooldown: 10/8/6s->16/14/12s;
      
    • Base Damage: 75/100/125->100/125/150;
      
    • Base Returned Damage: 15/25/35->20/35/50.
  With the changes above we hope it will be more rewarding for Aemon players to stick consecrated land, while not making him weak immediately once he leaves it.
  
• Malph
  
  • Healing Rations (W):
    
    • Total heal value reduced: 140,180,220,260->100,135,170,205;
      
    • Resistance: 20,30,40,50->15,20,25,30.
  • The Underground (R):
    
    • Mole Holes are concealed for enemies until they stay next to it for 1 second.
  Malph's W was one of the most absurd abilities in the game, giving incredible amount of health (in comparison to other abilities) and granting even more absurd amount of resistance on top of it. However it felt unfair to take something from the hero without giving something in return. Enhancing Malph's core mechanic was our choice to achieve that.

• Giant's Visage
  
  • Power gain multiplier increased for base item (0.9%->1%) and enchantment (1%->1.1%).
  The change is part of Starting Power adjustment change.
  
• Healing Rod
  
  • Base item base heal: 100->130.
    
  • Enchantments reworked:
    
    • All enchantment additional gold 0.
      
    • Utility: Also gives target 50 Mana. Cooldown increased by 15 seconds;
      
    • Focus: Increases Base Heal by 30 Health, but range is decreased by 100;
      
    • Generosity: Decreases Base Heal to 100 Health but also heals allies in 600 radius around target.
  First of all basic item definitely required some love and therefore the base heal value was increased. However this was the item we decided to test our approach to enchantments: to focus on giving some benefit in exchange of some other property. Enchantments as a system currently is a pay2win/play2win mechanic, that was mostly designed to encourage gem purchase and giving advantage to players with many matches under their belt. With the new approach we hope to both make the game less punishing for new players while giving experienced players more variety.
  
• Inertia Boots
  
  • Movespeed bonus: 55->65.
  Melee heroes (who mostly by Inertia Boots) it should be able to get in touch with ranged heroes. And while CC-break is still considered one of the strongest mechanics in the game, it was incorrect choice to harm movement speed.
  
• Vampiric Dagger
  
  • Thirst enchantment: gold cost changed to 0, but no longer grants resistance.
  The Thirst enchantment is the best effect in the game, which alone was able to turn tide of battle. However we decided not to adjust the effect, but take away another item's benefit in exchange, following new approach to enchantments.

• Tortus
  
  • Rejuvenate (Active):
    
    • Now restores 15% of Max Health.
  • Harden (Triggered):
    
    • Now reduces damage from basic attacks by 50% for 2 seconds.
      
    • Cooldown: 13-7s->12s.
  Our last change to Tortus proved how hard it is to balance ability with static values in Strife: we made Tortus extremely hard to deal in early game, but it was still not a big deal in late game. And since every other pet scales with power or is %-based we did the same with Tortus for consistency. We still will monitor and expect to adjust the value slightly one way or another, but we are confident that is the correct way to make him impactful but not overpower through the whole match.

• Malph's The Underground (R) now have proper limit on Mole Holes as intended.
  
• Aemon's Consecration (Q) and Justice (R) no longer deal damage to neutrals in opponent Aemon's consecrated area.
  
• Captain's Crest now reduces damage minions receive from all structures correctly, not just the first tower.
  
• Magic Lifesteal now works properly with Trace's Bomb Toss (W).
  
• Values of attack damage bonus in tooltip for Blazer's Overcharge (E) and Vermillion's Dead Eye (E) now scale with power.
  
• Damage % increase in Rip's Dark Empowerment (E) tooltip is no longer colored orange.
  
• Fixed link to Newbie Checklist on main screen.
  
• Black and Guardian colors of Rook's Dawnbringer skins are now shown correctly in preview.

• Eye of Tempra: cooldown increased: 45 → 90s.
  Eye of Tempra is one of the best items in the game (if not the best), allowing players both to engage and disengage a fight with no counter to it. Its low cooldown (with combination of cooldown reduction it granted) allowed using it carelessly with no risk of missing it in the right moment or even twice during a single teamfight. With its cooldown now increased, missing an opportunity to use Eye of Tempra will carry greater consequences, while properly timing and positioning the item remains just as impactful as before.

• Captain is assigned correctly now in the custom game lobby.
  
• Fixed right-click menu for hosts to work properly in custom lobby.
  
• Switching to spectator slot in custom lobby works properly now.
  
• Adjusted UI to make it more clear, when captain is able to choose heroes.
  
• Adjusted UI to make it clear for spectator which team picked a hero.

• Enabled again.
  
• After accepting Scrim mode game now both teams will be added to captain's mode lobby instead of diving into a match right away with no time to prepare.
  
• Scrim lobby will be disbanded if any player leaves the match.

• Buford
  • Fire Slug (W): ability no longer triggers tower and minion aggression when an enemy hero steps into fire, but triggers it if projectile creating fire hits an enemy hero. This aligns with behavior of other similar abilities.
• Harrower
  • Predator Strike (Q): now properly grants bonus damage after leaping around walls.
    
  • Grendlefang (R): While in beast form first use of ability now properly switches Harrower to human form after using Razer's Into the Shadows (Active).
• Malph
  • Tunnel Bomb (Q): now triggers tower and minion aggression when dealing damage to heroes.
    
  • Mud Field (E): fixed missing headlines in level breakdown in tooltip.
    
  • The Underground (R): now tooltip displays maximum number of holes on each level.
    
  • Is no longer able to use Retreat (H) while underground.
    
  • Russian translation added.
• Midknight
  • Absorb (E): no longer triggers on debuffs that are not slows or stuns (e.g. Harrower's Feast on Wounds (E)).
• Pal
  • Roll Out (W): move speed bonus is now shown in level breakdown menu and no longer colored orange (which usually means parameters scaling with power).
    
  • Russian translation added.
• Rip
  • Added missing short descriptions of his abilities.
• Zen
  • Wisdom (passive): ability description was updated in the Russian translation.
• Iceforged Plate
  • Desperation enchantment now grants resistance when health is below 20% as intended.

• Fixed background images scaling for high resolution monitors in launcher.
  
• Charge bar for abilities restored in the Legacy UI.
  
• Fixed white texture showing on Child of Light screen if any language but English is chosen.
  
• Attack speed is now calculated properly in shop tooltips.
  
• Fixed the following issues with replay screen:
  
  • Local replay information no longer wipes on replay list refresh/switch filter, resulting in an empty list of local replays.
    
  • Vertical scroll bar no longer handle disappears on filter switch.
    
  • Hero icon no longer blinks when replay is selected.
    
  • Inconsistent match name/comment behavior resolved for recent and downloaded replays.
    
  • Match information will be shown properly when downloaded replay selected.

• Fixed an issue with memory leak when exiting game in particular scenarios (e.g.: in captain's mode lobby).
  
• Fixed ability ping announcing abilities with charges and no cooldown (e.g. Caprice's Quick Draw (R)) as ready even if a hero has no charges and can't use ability.
  
• Many simple descriptions of abilities on hero select screen were modified to be more detailed.
  
• Fixed some values rounded to integer in tooltips in launcher (e.g. Aemon's Hope (W)).

• Pad
  
• The Chiprel
  
• Bot1
  
• Renjirox
  
• Amompharetus