I am Brother Eye. Surveillance is perfection. Balance is necessary. Character parameters have been recalibrated. Adapt… or be outmatched.
Today we are introducing a new update centered around character rebalancing called Brother Eye Recalibration. For this preview into the July 1st update, we want to unpack how we’re changing the game, the characters, and discuss these changes in more detail.
DC Worlds Collide is a game that balances individual strength with a team’s overall power. Strong characters with clearly defined roles become even stronger in groups. The game has some of the most iconic DC characters of all time, and the roster is only going to grow!
Our goal with Brother Eye Recalibration is difficult to achieve, but simple to understand:
We want every character to be exciting when you pull them, to have a team for them to work well with, and to have modes that they perform well in.
It will take some time for us to achieve, and not every character currently available is meeting this goal. But, with each update we intend to excite players with a mixture of buffs to weaker characters, occasional nerfs to over performers, and some delightful surprise changes to make characters more interesting!
As the roster for DC Worlds Collide continues to expand, we intend to offer up larger Brother Eye balance updates of this type going forward. We also intend to focus on individual characters, reinforcements, artifacts, game modes, and so on as needed.
For today’s Recalibration, we’re making a core mechanic change to Crit and Block, reworking and rewording a backwards speaking magic user, and giving lots buffs to characters who were not performing that well. Let’s jump in!
General Changes
Critical Hit Changes
Previously, when a character would land a critical hit, it would override any Block chance from happening. This meant that a Crit focused team would often dominate a Block focused team. Our intention was for Block focused teams to do well against Crit focused teams. And so, we have made the following change.
- Critical Hits can now be blocked
Character Allies & Enemies
We’ve added many more Missing Allies and Enemies to many characters. Each Affinity member is always chosen because they have some lore-connection to the Character! Do you know why each Ally and Enemy were chosen?
Characters with new Allies & Enemies:
- Sinestro
- Deathstroke
- Green Lantern – Hal Jordan
- Supergirl
- Superboy
- Grodd
- Ocean Master
- Green Lantern – Jessica
- Green Lantern – John
- Doctor Phosphorus
- Black Canary
- Black Manta
- Scarecrow
- Captain Cold
- Phantom Stranger
- The Question
Character Changes
Blue Beetle
Blue Beetle was always intended to help counter Critical Hit teams. The game-wide change that allows Critical attacks to be Blocked will majorly help, but we really wanted to secure his place as the Anti-Crit hero.
To that end, we’re changing his Legendary Passive Tactical Sharpness to apply not only to himself, but to all back row allies.
Legendary Passive – Tactical Sharpness
- During battle, every 1% of Block Blue Beetle has grants 0.5% Critical Damage Reduction to all Back Row Allies and himself, up to 30%.
Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor is the go-to Shield Character who holds the Shield Team Synergy. His Ultimate puts up a nearly insurmountable wall of defense for your whole team. He’s also a great Legendary to chase after, as there is a guaranteed way to craft him!
However, his win rates were sky high even against intended counters like Bleed. We tested a few changes, like simply lowering his Shield Amount, or making his Ultimate cost more Ultimate Points. But these didn’t give us satisfying results. At the end of the day, we still want Lex to be strong!
Our goal was simple:
- Keep Lex strong.
- Make him less of a no-brainer addition to any team.
- Make him even stronger in certain team comps (like pairing with Jessica Cruz).
The below change will make it cheaper to use his Ultimate right off the bat. And even increases his shield amount of higher ranks. However, he now has a longer Cooldown, and each activation of his Ultimate increases the cost of future activations by 1. With these changes, it’s important to plan out Lex Luthor’s ultimate so you can maximize his effectiveness in battle.
Ultimate: Defensive Shield
Cost: 2, Cooldown: 3
- L1 – Activates a defensive force field that grants all allies a Shield that can absorb damage equal to 16% of max HP for 2 rounds. Increases the cost of future uses by 1 Ultimate Point.
- L2 – Shield Dmg absorption increased to 19% (up from 18%).
- L3 – Shield Dmg absorption increased to 22% (up from 20%).
Note: Lex Luthor’s trials have been updated to no longer reference older Functionality. To make the encounter easier to complete, we’ve lowered the stats of the opposing team.
Kid Flash
Kid Flash’s Ultimate is the single target healing ultimate in DC Worlds Collide! His Advanced Ability, Quick Healing, was stealing a little bit of that spotlight so we’ve tuned it down just a little.
Advanced – Quick Healing
L1 – Heals the Ally with the lowest proportion of HP with HP equal to 120% (down from 195%) of Atk. (Initial cooldown of 1 Turn.)
Supergirl
Supergirl has a cool effect at higher ranks where her Ultimate will become cheaper when an enemy is Frozen. We think that functionality should appear a little earlier to help her synergize with allies who can Freeze.
Ultimate – Shattering Punch
- L1 – Deals Physical Damage equal to 250% of Atk to one enemy. Also hits all Frozen enemies and does an additional 100% damage to Frozen enemies. When an enemy is Frozen, the cost of the Ultimate is reduced by 1.
- L2 (No Change) – Damage increases to 275%, and 110% to Frozen enemies.
- L3 (No Change) – Damage increases to 300%, and bonus damage done to Frozen enemies becomes Real Damage. While an enemy is Frozen, the cost of the Ultimate is now reduced by 2.
Note: We are aware that Supergirl’s power increases based on having more characters with Frostbite skills and will be adding more characters to the DC Worlds Collide roster in the future.
Vixen
The core design around Vixen was simple: She is a Tank with higher than average Atk. She is powerful when all allies are alive, and even more so when enemies have Bleed on them.
However, she wasn’t quite living up to her potential. So, we’ve changed her Passive ability to no longer give you small bonuses for each standing ally, and instead give one massive bonus for having a full team! Her emblem is also much more powerful at the start, and more greatly rewards having a full-standing team.
Passive – Pack Hunter
- L1 – Vixen has 40% increased Atk (up from 5%), and 20% increased Block (up from 3%) when all allies are standing.
- L2 – (New) Vixen has 50% increased Crit Resistance when all allies are standing.
- L3 – (New) Vixen maintains Pack Hunter bonuses as long as 3 allies are standing.
Emblem – Tantu Totem
- L1 – Vixen gains 10% Attack (up from 5%) and 15% Defense (New) per enemy with Bleed.
- L2 – (New) The first time an enemy is defeated, Vixen gains a new Turn.
- L3 – (No change) – At the start of her turn, heal Vixen for 25% of her Atk if all allies are standing.
Star Sapphire – Carol
Remember that cool Conditional Ultimate Cost ability that Supergirl has? Well, we thought Star Sapphire could use it as well!
Now, when her Collected Healed Amount is at 100% or higher, her Ultimate will be 1 point cheaper. Also, to help her get to 100%, we’ve made her Basic Attack no longer consume the Collected Healed Amount.
Ultimate – Immortal Love
- L1 – Deals Superpower damage equal to 360% of Attack Power to an enemy target and additionally consumes 40% of the collected Healed Amount to convert into additional Attack Power for the current skill.
When Collected Healed Amount is 100% or higher, decrease the Cost of the Ultimate by 1. (New) - L2 (No Change) – Increases Damage to 410%.
- L3 (No Change) – Collected Healed Amount to be consumed increases to 50%.
Basic – Violet Blast
- L1 – Attacks an enemy target, dealing Superpower damage equal to 140% (up from 120%) of Attack Power.
- L2 – Damage increases to 150% (up from 130%).
- L3 – (New) Damage increases to 160% (up from 140%) if you have more than 50% collected Healed Amount.
Zatanna
We believe Zatanna is too narrow in her design. She’s really good at heavily buffing one or two allies with Crit Rate (Frantic) and granting them Lifesteal, but doesn’t do much else for the team.
Additionally, she is one of the few characters who can Dispel buffs from enemies with her Ultimate.
Our aim with these changes is threefold:
- Spread out her support to the whole team, instead of laser focusing in on two allies.
- Lean her into even more of a Dispeller role
- Give her some self-sustain
Her lifesteal previously applied more to individuals who had stacks of Frantic. Now, she will apply an even amount of Lifesteal to the entire team based on how many stacks of Frantic are on all allies. In addition, she now applies much more Frantic to the whole team, at the loss of no longer applying Strong Attack.
Basic – Nohpys Llab
- L1 – (New) Deals Superpower Damage equal to 120% of Atk and Dispel 1 Stack of a single buff type from an enemy.
- L2 – (New) Dispel 2 Stacks of a single buff type from the target.
- L3 – (No Change) – Increases Damage to 140%.
Advanced – Tel Ruo Sekirts Eb Eurt
- L1 – Grants all allies 1 stack of Frantic (Changed from Strong Attack) for 2 Turns. Also grants 2 bonus stacks of Frantic to the Ally with the highest Atk for 2 Turns.
- L2 – All allies gain 2 Stacks of Frantic (Changed from Strong Attack) for 2 Turns.
- L3 – (New) The Ally with the highest Atk now gains 3 Bonus Stacks of Frantic.
Passive – Leah Hguorht Mrah
- L1 – (New) Whenever an enemy buff is Dispelled, Zatanna heals 3% of her max HP per type Dispelled.
- L2 – (New) When Zatanna is present, she grants all allies 2% Life Steal for each stack of Frantic on the team.
- L3 – (New) Dispelling buffs now heals Zatanna for 5% of her max HP per type Dispelled.
Slleps esu wen sdrow!
Since we updated Zatanna’s skills, we decided to have her use magic the way Zatanna is known for!
Two Face
Two-Face is great for defeating Owl Man, but we want him to be a stronger support option outside of Evil Falls.
This change adds an Offensive benefit while in the Front Row, and a Defensive Benefit in the Back Row.
Passive – Two Faces
- L1 – At the start of battle, if in the front row, his good side will be revealed. If in the back row, his evil side will be revealed instead.
(New) When his Good Side is revealed, Front Row allies apply 1 additional stack of Bleed whenever they add Bleed. When his Bad Side is revealed, Back Row allies gain 15% Life Steal. - L2 (No Change) – When his good side is revealed, grants front row allies 18% Dmg Reduc. When his evil side is revealed, increases the Damage Amplification of back row allies by 14%.
- L3 (No Change) – Damage Reduction increases to 21%. Damage Amplification increases to 16%.
- L4 (No Change) – Damage Reduction increases to 24%. Damage Amplification increases to 18%.
Constantine
Constantine is a key hero for the Sacrifice team. Sacrifice should be a mechanic where you lose out on HP, so that you can gain some other benefit. However, it felt that he was healing you too much, and the Sacrifice part of his abilities was rarely felt.
To address this, we’ve lowered the Recuperate gained in level 1 of his Basic kill to 1 stack for two turns, down from 2 stacks.
Passive – Arcane Aid
- L1 – At the start of an ally’s Turn, they lose 15% of their current HP and gain 1 stack(s) of Strong Attack and 1 stack of Recuperate (down from 2 stacks) for 2 Turn(s).
- L2 (No Change) – If the ally’s HP is lower than 60%, additionally gain 1 stack(s) of Strong Attack for 1 Turn(s).
- L3 (No Change) – If the ally’s HP is lower than 40%, Shelter for 1 Turn(s).
Weasel (DCU)
Weasel bites his allies just a little too hard and he feels really bad about it.
So, he now nibbles much softer. And when his Team Synergy is at level 2, he also applies Recuperate to his ally nibble-victims. Big thanks to our Discord community for highlighting this concern, we took your feedback under advisement when building out these changes.
Based on Community Feedback! Advanced – Just a Nibble
- L1 – Weasel gloms onto his Front Row ally with the highest percentage of HP remaining and takes a lil’ bite, dealing 5% of his Attack in Physical Damage (down from 100%) and healing Weasel for 20% of his max HP. The attack cannot Crit or defeat allies.
If no Front Row allies remain, Weasel instead targets the enemy with the lowest percentage of HP remaining, dealing 100% of Attack instead. - L2 (No Change) – Weasel now receives 1 Stack of Firm Stand after taking a bite.
- L3 (No Change) – If Just a Nibble restores Weasel to Max HP, he gains 2 Stacks of Hard Hit.
Team Synergy
- L1 – (No Change) At the start of battle, the Front Row ally with the highest Max HP becomes Weasel’s “Buddy”. Weasel can only deal 1HP of dmg to his buddy, and will always target them with Just a Nibble. Any time his Buddy is damaged, Weasel gains 1 stack of Hard Hit.
- L2 – (New) Just a Nibble applies 2 Stacks of Recuperate for 3 turns to the Nibbled ally.
- L3 – (No Change) When Weasel Nibbles his buddy, he eats all of their debuffs and heals 1% of his Max HP for each debuff eaten.
Doctor Phosphorus (DCU)
Doctor Phosphorus needs to simmer down a little. Doc will now hurt his allies much less.
Based on Community Feedback! Ultimate – Go Nuclear
- L1 – Deals 100% of Attack as Superpower Damage to all enemies. Also damages all allies for 5% of Attack as Superpower Damage (down from 100%). Cannot defeat allies.
- L2 (No Change) – Enemies take an additional 10% damage for each Stack of Burn on Dr. Phosphorus.
- L3 (No Change) – The amount of additional damage increases to 15%.
We Value Your Feedback!
Today’s Recalibration update is built from many different types of information. We use a combination of community feedback, raw data of use-rates and win-rates, and our own design-intuition to inform who and what we’re changing in these updates.
We wanted to give a brief shout out to our Community for their ongoing discussions around characters and for participating in our regular feedback sessions. Our team combs over our official discord and engages whenever we can to hear your opinions on all manner of topics. Today is no different, we would love to hear what you think of these changes, and have set up a dedicated topic for further discussion here – Join the Discussion!