Merge Tactics: October Balance Changes
Maintenance: October 15th
NERFS ⬇️
Assassin
4/4: Critical Chance: 50% → 45% (-10%)
4/4: Critical Damage: 50% → 45% (-10%)
Assassin’s critical attacks put a bit too much pressure on the enemy backline, so we’re dialing back their Critical Chance and Damage to make things feel more fair and balanced.
Coaching
HP Buff: 100% → 50% (-50%)
Damage Buff: 50% → 30% (-40%)
Buffed Benched troops were too strong, encouraging players to keep them out of battle.
Master Arena
HP Buff: 100% → 50% (-50%)
Damage Buff: 50% → 30% (-40%)
Some troops became overly powerful when buffed, which made it frustrating for players when they needed to move or sell them.
Monster Drink
HP Buff: 200% → 100% (-50%)
Damage Buff: 100% → 50% (-50%)
Buffed high-cost units became extremely powerful, so we’re reducing their impact to keep things balanced.
BUFFS ⬆️
Electro Giant
Cooldown: 9/9/9/9 → 9/7/5/3 (-0/22/44/66%)
We wanted Electro Giant to tank using his special ability instead of just his HP, but he was taking a bit too long to charge up.
Skeleton Dragon
Ability HP Cost: 50% → 30% (-40%)
Splitting should be a strength for Skeleton Dragons, but their reduced HP left them too fragile over time.
Royal Ghost
Hit Speed: 0.9sec → 0.83sec (-10%)
Royal Ghost was haunting troops a bit too much last season, so we added a cooldown to his invisibility to make him less frustrating. But then, he wasn’t packing enough of a punch for his Elixir cost, so back up he goes!
Electric
2/2: Damage: 15% →20% (+33%)
Electrics’ stun bonus was tricky to trigger, so we’re adding a bit more power to make it feel better.
Ranger
Max Stacks: 15 → 25 (+67%)
Rangers were slow to ramp up, and even when they did, they had a hard time dealing with heavy tanks this season. We’re keeping their early appeal while giving them a bit more late-game power.
Ace
2/4: Heal from Damage Dealt: 0% → 40%
4/4: Captain Bonus Damage: 60% → 70% (+13%)
4/4: Heal from Damage Dealt: 50% → 70% (+40%)
Ace is a costly Trait that depends a lot on the Captain, so we’re giving it a little extra survivability to make it more reliable.
Noble
2/6: Buff Percentage: 20% → 25% (+20%)
4/6: Buff Percentage: 30% → 40% (+33%)
6/6: Buff Percentage: 45% → 60% (+33%)
Since the Noble Trait stopped buffing the whole team, it’s felt a bit weak, so we’re showing it some love to help it stand up to Clan and Goblins.
Goblin
2/4: Gain a 2-Elixir Goblin → Gain a 2 or 3-Elixir Goblin
4/4: Drop 3 or 4-Elixir Goblin: 60% → 100% (+67%)
Goblin Queen already shook things up with her randomness, but the Goblin Trait felt a bit too random on top of it, especially when you’re aiming for 4-Elixir Goblins but get 2-Elixir ones instead.
Maintenance: October 2nd
NERFS ⬇️
Baby Dragon
Attack Range: 4 → 3 (-25%)
HP: 690 → 650 (-5.8%)
Baby Dragon does massive AoE damage and has the best scaling thanks to its Fire Trait. We’re nerfing its range and HP while maintaining the damage output to allow opponents to better counter Baby Dragon.
Fire
2/2: Bonus Damage: 40% → 30% (-25%)
Fire units have strong scaling on their stats thanks to AoE damage, but it’s just too strong right now. Once a troop is KO’d, they become unstoppable.
Mage
2/2: Rabbit duration: 7s → 6s (-14%)
Everyone loves harmless Rabbits, but they don’t like being punched for too long. Given how this Trait only requires 2 troops for activation, we decided to ease their suffering, for the good of all rabbit-kind..
Blaster
4/4: Bonus Damage per Hex: 20% → 15% (-25%)
Blasters are doing pretty well for themselves, what with the additional range and built-in AoE attacks, but even close-range troops struggled to counter them…until now.
Juggernaut
Shield Duration: 12s → 11s (-8.3%)
4/4: Shield Percent of Max HP: 60% → 50% (-17%)
Juggernauts offer great utility and survival capability with some skills in placement which makes space for other tanks like Brawlers to shine. We are tuning the stats down a little bit to make the meta slightly more diverse.
BUFFS ⬆️
Spear Goblin
Attack Damage: 130 → 150 (+15%)
Since Blasters were nerfed, we are giving Spear Goblin a bit of his power back.
Witch
Skeleton Summon: 1/2/3/4 → 1/2/4/8 (0/0/33%/100%)
Skeletons take too long to summon, and they aren't strong enough for the Elixir investment to pay off, so we are increasing the number of Skeletons summoned.
Avenger
2/2: Bonus Damage: 20% → 30% (+50%)
4/4: Bonus Damage: 40% → 60% +(50%)
We over-nerfed Avengers while making a lot of changes to the Trait. Now Avengers are once again ready to take on fearsome foes!
Clan
2/2: Heal and Bonus Hitspeed: 30% → 35% (+17%)
4/4: Heal and Bonus Hitspeed: 60% → 70% (+17%)
They say Clan bonds run thicker than blood, but Clan troops lost core carry potential recently, so we are adding a bit of power back to the Trait.
Maintenance: September 19th
BUFFS ⬆️
Royale King
Hitpoints: 10 → 12 (+20%)
Royale King as a starting Ruler is pretty simple, but as players learned how to merge, he couldn't keep up with Spirit Empress. So we are adding 2 HP to help him out a little bit. A King should never feel smaller than his subjects!
Dart Goblin
Attack Range: 4 → 5 (+25%)
With more and more ranged troops being added, Dart Goblin feels like he’s losing his place in the game. We wanted to improve his range to make Dart Goblin stand out more strategically.
Giant Skeleton
Bomb Damage: 200/400/800/1600 → 300/600/1200/2400 (+50%)
Melee tanks are getting a ton of toughness from Traits in the new season, so the damage from the bomb starts to feel weak with the new setup. We decided to bump the damage up to keep his confidence booming.
ADJUSTMENT 🔄
Prince
Damage: 100 → 136 (+36%)
Hit Speed: 1,25 → 1,42 (-12,5%)
Prince has little impact after the initial charge, and we would like to see him contributing more to each victory. However, how to help him survive and deal more damage is highly dependent on the player’s skills.
Keep rulin' and merge on,
The Clash Royale Team