Recently, several content creators, including our very own Nubs and HellHades, were invited to a Raid dev update chat! Raid’s senior developers were on hand to discuss the state of the game, community feedback, and what’s in store for the future.
Hot topics included whether certain Champions Trunda and Armanz will be nerfed, what’s on the table for the infamous Polymorph skill, and what kind of new content could be on the way.
We’ll break down everything below, and you can also watch Hellhades’ and Nubs’ discussion in a two-part video at the end of this article.
Hydra Clash and Nerfs
Trunda and Yumeko combination teams have been dominating Hydra Clash for some time. The Raid community at large has been wondering whether Plarium will take action on this, with many expecting a nerf.
We know Plarium is hesitant to nerf Champions, and this case seems no different. That said, while the devs didn’t say nerfs were explicitly on the table for Trunda, they are keen to address the fact that certain Champions and team compositions are so easily able to dominate certain content.
That could be a roundabout way of saying these Champions will be nerfed, of course. Introducing counters is arguably a form of soft nerfing, and it will likely be targeted at the most problematic Champions (we’re looking at you Trunda and Armanz).
It’s important to note that none of this is confirmed. Until Plarium makes an official statement (or releases a patch), we won’t know for sure.
The good news is that whatever course of action they decide on, the Plarium devs are aiming to take the community feedback about Hydra Clash into account. If you’re looking for some help with Hydra Clash, check out our guide below.
View Hydra Guide
Infinite Shield Scaling
With the release of Vault Keeper Wixwell and the recent bugs with Togron the Conjoined, the infinity shield team has made a re-appearance. Whilst the Togron team was due to a bug and subsequently fixed, the new Yannica team championed by Bronko has become a hot topic. This appears to have made it back to Plarium HQ who are also currently discussing the team and its future.
For those who have yet to see these teams, it involves growing a shield value using Wixwell’s Shield Extension to deal huge damage to bosses. Champions such as Yannica are capable of utilising these shields to great success, some suggesting too great of a success.
As such, Plarium have confirmed that internal discussions are taking place regarding the future of these Champion features. Does this mean a targeted nerf to shield scaling in general? Whilst nothing has been confirmed or denied, we’ll have to wait and see what awaits the future of these shield extending teams.
Faction Wars
Plarium are actively looking for ways to introduce new content. One area that was mentioned in the discussion was the Faction Wars content area.
There’s certainly a lot of potential for harder encounters in this area, and it’s an idea that both HellHades and Nubs were excited about. Once again, nothing was confirmed, but this could certainly be something to watch out for.
If you’re currently building a team for the Faction Wars content, take a look at our complete Faction Wars Tier List below.
View Faction Wars Tier List
Blessings
There’s some potentially exciting news for Blessings, with confirmation from the devs that something is on the way soon. Unfortunately, they didn’t give much more than that away. On the other hand, we might not have to wait too long to find out.
There could be no discussion of Blessings without mentioning the infamous Polymorph of course. Once again, it seems Plarium’s approach is to attempt to fix or balance Polymorph with incremental changes first, so it seems a full removal or nerf won’t happen for now.
Introducing counters was also mentioned as a possible solution. This could mean that we might see more [Intercept] like buffs introduced, designed to scale back some of the Champions that are currently dominating the meta, like Armanz and Trunda.
If you’re considering which Blessings to get for your Champions, check out our complete Blessings Tier List.
View Blessing Tier List
Rare Empowerment
Given the success of Epic Champion Empowerment, many content creators had one burning question: Is Rare Champion Empowerment next?
For now, at least, the answer seems to be no.
Plarium’s reasoning is that Rare Champions are designed as a way to ease new players into the game. Once players start to get Epic Champions, Rare Champions are often so overshadowed that Empowerment wouldn’t serve much purpose.
That said, we know there are a few viable late-game Rare Champions too. Make sure to check out our Champion Tier List if you’re curious about which Rare Champions to keep.
View Champion Tier List
Raid Dev Update Roundup
Overall, here are some of the main things we can take away from this update:
- Plarium are keen to engage with the community and take feedback into consideration
- Hard nerfs are unlikely, especially for Champions
In general, then, there could be some positive things on the horizon, and even more so if Plarium is open to feedback.
The only downside is how fast they roll out any important changes. Past experience shows us that Plarium can be quite slow to implement major fixes, so it could be some time before any counters or rebalances hit the live game.
Check out HellHades’ and Nubs’ full discussion about all this and more below!
