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Wekono's Wake Update Notes

Paladins® · Community Announcements · January 29, 2025

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Greetings Champions, and welcome to Year 8 of Paladins! We wanted to take a moment before we dive into our first update of the year, Wekono's Wake, to talk about where we are and our direction moving forward. Over the course of Year 7, we focused our small team's efforts more and more on improving the systems and features that make Paladins a standout in the genre: an emphasis on customization through Items, Talents and Cards, updating and deepening Champion kits, and bringing together older concepts and new features to enrich our Realm.

Headed into 2025, we plan to continue these types of efforts while also aiming to shift to smaller, more frequent updates and hotfixes to further improve our ability to adapt development to player feedback while ensuring our team can stay nimble. This will be most evident in our shift in cosmetic additions and a larger effort towards the aforementioned customization and gameplay focus. Without further ado, let's dive into our first update of Year 8: Wekono's Wake!

General Updates


Experimental Queue: Subclasses


Throughout the year, we want to test out various ideas we’ve had that are more drastic gameplay shifts than we usually release. These features are meant to be explorations of directions to take Paladins that could lead to new modes or enrichening existing experiences. The first of these we plan to tackle is Subclasses, a role within your class that provides a powerful effect to a specific aspect of your gameplay. You select these prior to selecting your Talent, and their effects stack with other customization options. We’ll be testing these in their own Siege queue for players to compare to normal Siege, as well as considering them for alternative modes like Arcade or Wave Defense. Here’s the list of Subclasses releasing this update:

Damage


Predator
On earning an Elimination, reduce the cooldown of your Movement ability by 40%. Imani, Saati, and Strix gain 20 of their resources.
Shock Trooper
While on the Objective, gain 10% Damage Reduction.
Triage
On earning an Elimination, drop a healing deployable at your current location.
Note: Octavia does not select a Subclass, instead opting for her own Commander options.

Flank


Duelist
Gain 10% Crowd Control resistance for 3s after dealing 1500 damage.
Rallyman
On earning an Elimination, regenerate involved allies ammo by 10%.
Skirmisher
Heal for 4% every second while on the Objective.

Frontline


Fireteam Leader
After using your Q ability, provide allies within 50 units 30% Slow resistance and 20% Movement Speed for 2s.
Dug In
While on the Objective, gain 15% Crowd Control resistance.
Wanderer
You exit combat 1.5s faster and have 15% Movement Speed while out of combat.

Support


Rabid
For every 2,000 damage you deal, gain 30% Reload Speed and 10% faster cooldowns for 3s.
Skulker
You exit combat 1.5s faster and your Cooldowns are 10% faster while out of combat.
Spotter
You can no longer apply Anti-Heal, but damaged enemies take 20% more Headshot damage for 1.5s.


Map Refresh: Serpent Beach


Wekono has reawakened as her temple sees growth! This version of the map shares almost identical sightlines and pathing as the version most players are used to, which will remain in game as Serpent Beach (Classic). However, various aspects have been visually updated or adjusted to bring Serpent Beach into the modern era. Decorations have been added to adorn the walls with effigies to Wekono as well as her Champion, Mal'Damba. Sand is more prevalent, with walking trails connecting the temple structures and washing ashore the beaches. Vegetation has been updated to bring out the beach, with palm trees lining the skybox. Looking out into the sea will let players bask in the greatness of a new Serpent, whose body coils around the map to create archways. You'll also catch glimpses of Jaguar Falls and Frog Ilse outside the bounds of play!







Map Restoration: Serpent Beach (Classic)


In addition to the new vision of this classic, we've also restored details to Serpent Beach (Classic) to truly represent the version a majority of players experienced during the Open Beta. Enjoy the added flora and flames as wind gusts throughout the map!

Newcomer Queue


We’ve slowly been working to improve various aspects of playing Paladins for the first time & to have a place to learn how the game works without frustration. The Newcomer queue is our latest addition to this process, a Siege queue that is available exclusively to accounts below Level 35. This provides those Champions starting out an option to play that gives them a space to discover their favorite characters and understand the game with lower pressure. This does not prevent them from queueing for normal Siege, it’s simply a choice we want to offer to allow people to learn at their own pace. The gameplay of the Newcomer queue is identical to casual Siege so it’s the perfect way to transition from new to dedicated!

New Customs Settings


We’ve added a few more settings to Custom Matches for those looking to play with a variety of LTM and Experimental features!

Ranked Season 8


Welcome to Season 8 of Ranked! Our goals with this Season are to make systemic changes that make the mode more enjoyable to grind as well as easier for players who have historically shied away from the queue to join. It’s some of the largest adjustments to the system we’ve made in recent years, and we’re excited for players to get their hands on it and give us feedback! NOTE: Season 7 Loading Frames will be distributed in our next major update.

Requirements


Tier Points System


Map Frequency


Draft Changes


We’ve heard a lot of complaints about the time spent in Ban Phase & its usage across skill levels, so we’re planning to implement a system that dynamically scales the amount of bans based on the skill of the lobby.
Our goal is to finetune this system to allow players to slowly learn the priorities of banning as they climb the ranks as well as giving lower skill players faster matches and more Champions to pick from to encourage them to give Ranked a fair shot!

Rewards


We’ll continue to have expected rewards both for the Season and the Split, provided at the usual milestones.
In addition to the traditional rewards offered via Ranked, we’re now also offering new rewards in addition to what was done prior!

Wekono’s Wake Event Pass


This update, the Event Pass we're offering has some changes to accommodate our focus on gameplay as well as simplify how we handle Flashbacks.

This pass will be 30 levels of exclusive Titles, currency, and for the first time ever multiple Diamond Troves and several other chests containing cosmetics from across the game. While there aren't many new contents, the value offered in this eclipses Flashback Passes and allows us to focus our time on other aspects of the game.

We did want to offer something new for the players who own almost everything or those looking for a chase, so at the final level of the pass you can earn Loci-Buster Ash, a recolor of Xeno-Buster that sees the fight taken to a more Arctic aesthetic.

Mode Rotations


Arcade


Limited Time Modes


Truly Talented


Jenos
Maeve

Balance


General


Anti-Healing


After watching our changes to Anti-Healing’s ramp speed from the latter half of Season 7, we saw the desired improvements in the late game distribution of healing. However, the effect on the early & middle game was a bit more heightened than we intended and led to some matches lacking proper pacing. To alleviate this, we’re shifting the starting value for Anti-Heal down a single interval to allow a bit more time in these earlier stages while still keeping the scaling fast.

Items


Blast Shields


Bulldozer


Deft Hands


Guardian


Returning Item: Resilience


Sentinel


Wrecker


To kick off the Season, we’re bringing a whole host of Item changes with two goals in mind: making Items a more powerful part of our gameplay loop as well as merging together various eras of Items to curate the most diverse offering we could have. The headliner changes are those around Wrecker, Guardian, and Shields. Shields used to be a much more prevalent part of Paladins’ sandbox, with the health values higher and Wrecker more impactful than has been the past few Seasons (circa Season 3 onward). As part of Season 8, we’re returning closer to that style of defensive gameplay, with some new additions as well!

Wrecker is having its price increased slightly, but its scaling nearly doubled to make it the new standout item of the Offense category and a powerful counterplay to Shields. Guardian is also getting a minor bump to still allow it some room to either encourage a Wrecker purchase from your opponents or augment a Shield-heavy composition. Speaking of, Resilience is returning as the premiere CC counter Item! With that change, Sentinel has been adjusted to offer a bit more value on Shielding.

Alongside these larger changes, we’ve also finetuned the pricing of Blast Shields to accommodate its slightly more niche use and Bulldozer is being reverted to its S2 values to encourage its purchase when team composition leans heavy into Deployables.

Effects


NEW: Shock


On various Champions in the balance notes below, you’ll notice a callout to Shock damage. We’ve been working on various ways to expand the way Champions kits interact and ways for them to influence drafting beyond Items or Class. Shock is our first foray into these goals, with select Champions now having a VFX on targets they hit and Kinessa having a Talent that interacts with these jolts similar to Tribunal Upgrades on VII, but with no additional effect at base.

This is a limited implementation that is meant to allow players to test the effect and give feedback on if the direction is something worth expanding or moving away from. Paladins is already an Effect-heavy game on the CC side, but expanding our Effects into more unique damage types and applications could allow for more interesting nuance. As always, community feedback will be key!

Champions


Androxus


Revolver

Ash


Siege Shield
Fortress Breaker
Due to the changes to Wrecker, we'll be adjusting most base Shield abilities slightly upward to compensate for the early game pressure Wrecker may cause. Our goal with the Shielding changes are not to make Shields irrelevant, so we'll be watching closely to make sure the push and pull still remains both with and without Items.

Barik


Blunderbuss
Barricade
Dome Shield
Accelerator Field
Bowling Ball
Bunker
Combat Repair
Double Time
Failsafe
Field Deploy
Forged Alloy
Healing Station
Palisade
Barik has slowly slipped from his comfortable spot as a safe Frontline pick to struggle to stay competitive against most compositions. After assessing where the weaknesses in his kit reside, we've decided to amp up his Cards to be more impactful and provide him stronger build options. We also are increasing Dome Shield's efficacy substantially to make it a larger threat to handle for opponents.

Betty


Cluster Grenade

Buck


Net Shot
Recovery
Bulk Up
Ensnare
Concussion
Giga Siphon
Reconstruction
Buck is a strong yet niche Flank, mostly owing to his heavy reliance on Cards and Talents to cover gaps in his base kit. While this design is enduring and we intend to preserve most aspects of it, it has also led to his popularity and play rate dropping over time. We're shifting some of his cooldown Cards effects slightly into base, giving him a bit more room to create builds that don't spend the majority of points on those options. We've also reverted Bulk Up back to one of its stronger states and partially given Ensnare some damage back to bring back the version of Buck that lives in many veterans memories.

Caspian


Love & War
After the changes we made to Vatu's animation canceling, we wanted to go across the roster and ensure the cancel timings made sense for both animation and gameplay balance. As a part of that investigation, we found several cases where we could make animation canceling better and more fluid for several Champions. Any change you see like this one on Caspian is meant to make timings consistent across the game!

Cassie


Crossbow
Dodge Roll
Big Game
Drain Life
Onslaught
Intense Training
Incitement
Cassie has been in a similar spot to Buck, however her popularity remains higher despite lower efficacy. These changes are meant to buff the playstyles on Cassie that haven't had as much room for success, specifically ones that focus on her sustaining herself and surviving duels. Big Game is also getting a slight increase to also have its value on lower-health targets a bit more competitive with Exaction.

Corvus


Officer’s Pistol

Dredge


Movement Speed
Abyssal Reload
Broadside
Scuttle
Reworked: Hurl
Mortal Skewer
Abyss Cannon
Gun Deck
Plank Walker
Haul on the Bowline
Heave Away
Dredge has been performing well for himself after the return of Blast Shields, however there have been some long-standing areas of tension between his design, his balance, and his fluidity. We want to make Dredge more dynamic to play and also more interesting to fight, as such we're adjusting his Talents to reduce some of the efficacy of Scuttle and turn Hurl into a skill shot reward as opposed to a spammable option. We also are buffing a variety of his Cards to give him alternative build choices and to play around with and potentially surprise opponents with new game plans.

Drogoz


Rocket Launcher
Salvo
Follow the Scent

Fernando


Flame Lance
Chivalry

Furia


Cherish
Light Forge

Grohk


Lightning Staff
Spirit’s Domain
Shock Pulse

Imani


Pyromania
Affinity
Arcane Ice
Elemental Barrier

Inara


Crag

Io


Light Bow

Jenos


Star Splitter

Kasumi


Yokai Doll

Khan


Heavy Repeater
Bulwark
Overpower
Storm of Bullets
Vortex Grip
Shield Wall
Khan has been a bit stagnant in his loadout useage with Storm of Bullets providing a significant DPS that outweighed his other benefits. To shift him away from this, we've partially put Storm of Bullets into base kit while reducing its effect to match the Live version. In essence, this is a buff to his other Talents. Vortex Grip is also seeing an additional change, allowing Khan to enable his team to burst a foe he grabs by Weakening them. We've also tightened up his Ultimate pull time to make it feel more consistent on both sides of the cast. P.S. We're keeping an eye on Lian's Shield and still considering directions to take it into the future

Kinessa


Bag Em & Tag Em
Oppressor Mine
NEW: High Voltage
Here we go again. After Crystalline Battery's niche, fun but ultimately ineffective time in Live, we took a step back and considered all the change we've made to her the past few years as well as success we have had with designs elsewhere. This new Talent, High Voltage, gives her a flexible Carbine playstyle that synergizes both with her kit but select Champions across the roster to gain a potent damage buff.

Lex


Magnums

Lian


Heirloom Rifle

Maeve


Artful Dodger

Makoa


Shell Shield
Ancient Rage
Half Shell
Leviathan
Barrier Reef

Moji


Sparkle
Magic Shield
Jubilation
Morning Breath
Shimmering

Nyx


Abyssal Fortress
Unyielding Advance

Pip


Potion Launcher
Healing Potion
Weightless
Mega Potion

Raum


Hellfire Gatling

Ruckus


Miniguns
Emitter

VII


Heavy SMG
Tribunal Upgrades

Sha Lin


Passive
Longbow
NEW: Desert Shadow
Sand Trap
Poise

Skye


Tactical Reload
Twilight Armor

Strix


Talon Rifle
Pistol

Talus


Veracharger

Tiberius


Combat Trance
NEW: Borrowed Luck

Torvald


Health
Gauntlet
Nullify
Protection
Recharge
Hyper Beam

Viktor


Cardio
Shrapnel

Vivian


Light Machine Gun
Deflector Shield
Sentinels
Suspect Everyone

Willo


Wand of Overgrowth
Fauna

Yagorath


Piercing Quills
Devour
Unnatural Persistence
Sight Begets Strength

Ying


Ephemeral

Bug Fixes


Cards


Effects


Skins


Champions


Drogoz


Lillith

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