**Hello East Side High!**

Today I want to announce our first Balance update, and walk through some of the decision making. Our goal was to bring some of the overtuned damage elements down, and make CC more of a skilled use scenario. The goal is to bring a smoother balance between roles for the game, and we’ll be monitoring and adjusting as we go.

**Medic** has been changed to heal 3hp, 0.5 second to use the charge, 1 sec to recharge medkit charges, and maximum charges reduced to 6.

**Giant**: throw damage has been smoothed out to a minimum of 30 at short range and a maximum of 60 at furthest range. On top of that, his base attack damage has been dropped to 15 from 25, as he was dealing far too much damage in conjunction with his other abilities. Finally, we’ve added a 8 second cooldown to his missed throw ability, and a 15 second cooldown when it hits.

**Strangler**: this was a tricky killer to balance and realistically we know that a rework in the future is probably needed. However, we’ve done some changes in the short term to make him feel better to play. His chain speed was sped up to 3200, twice as fast. His chain now deals 18 damage on a hit with the chain, and its min damage total from short distance is 20 more, and 36 damage for max distance. This should make the chain a key element in his damaging output, more akin to a hit and run style. His base movement speed is now 270, which is faster than before but still below classmates speed. Lastly, his stranglehold now holds for the full duration of time regardless of chain distance pull.
All killer resistances/weaknesses were set to a miniscule value as to not be noticeable in gameplay. This should make Slasher easier to harm, and Spider able to live longer in a fight.

The **Scout** tracker flash duration was reduced to 2.5 seconds, from 3.5, and it’s recharge rate reduced to 20s from 25s. The idea here was to make flash an available tool for CC but minimize it’s length so that it’s still a skill shot. Smoke duration was reduced to 4 seconds as well, to make it more of a decision when to use it. The shotgun scrap cost was increased to 32, and it’s overall damage per charge reduced to 70. This was done as it’s a ranged weapon and thus less risk involved in using it.

For **Assaults**, the Molotov scrap cost was increased to 22 from it’s low 18 cost. Baseball bat scrap cost was reduced to 30, as it’s a melee weapon and thus presents more danger in using it.

**Technicians** only real change was the flamethrower. It’s damage was increased from 6.2 per proc to 9 for a larger potential damage boost. However as it’s a ranged weapon, we’ve upped it’s scrap cost to 34.

We’ve finally tuned some of the more overperforming spells. Pent Up maximum damage reduced to 25, Healing Hands bonus reduced to 25%, The Wall bonus reduced to 15% and Human Tank spell reduced to 30% bonus. These are sharp drops, we know, but the core mechanics come first and spells are the cherry on top in terms of power. In the future we’ll be redesigning spells entirely.

Now, the future. We love the reception everyone has had and we’re aware of the desire to see more. Our next step is getting the store properly relaunched, and new cosmetics made to come out periodically. We’ve also began work on the game engine updates and code cleanup, so that we can make the game run smoother and look nicer! Finally, Chapter 2. Yes it’s coming, after we do the hard work we’ll have more to share in later months, including the newest Fiend!

Hope to see you in the Nightmare!*