APRIL BALANCE CHANGES – THE BIG ONE!

Hello, fellow brawler, it is time to brawl, it is also time for some balance changes guys. It’s only been two weeks since the last balance changes and Supercell is ready to mix it up again. Now by the time you guys are reading the article, the balance changes have either been put into the game already or they are currently being put into the game.

BALANCE CHANGES

• Bea – Increased Main Attack projectile speed by 5%

• Bibi – Increased Movement Speed from Fast to Very Fast

• Poco – Increased Main Attack damage from 660 to 700

• Spike – Increased Curveball effectiveness by 50%

• Crow – Decreased Defense Booster charges from 3 to 2

• EMZ – Decreased Friendzoner charges from 3 to 2

• Jacky – Decreased Health from 5500 to 5200

• Gene – Decreased Lamp Blowout healing from 1000 to 700

BEA ( PROJECTILE SPEED INCREASED BY 5%)

Let’s start off by talking about Bea. Bea’s attack projectile speed is increasing by five percent now Supercell wasn’t able to give me a developer build with like the changes so I can’t actually show you exactly what it looks like but based off of some calculations that I made you guys know how I love my calculations I think it’s gonna be about halfway between what Bea’s current projectile speed is and what Piper’s current projectile speed five percent is like a pretty small buff but I don’t think you can actually ignore this, okay the fact that Bea’s projectile is almost twice as wide as Pipers means that it’s going to be much easier to hit now and also if you think about the range where like ottawa will actually hit their target no matter what that range that distance is actually going to be increased with this buff as well I don’t think that this buff is too much I think I hope not but I would not be surprised to see a lot more bees buzzing around the game.

BIBI ( MOVEMENT SPEED INCREASED BY 7%)

Up next is Bibi who’s getting a movement speed buff by seven percent, in other words, her movement speed is going from fast to very fast. So now she’s actually going to be able to move as fast as Crow, Leon, Mortis and Max’s base speeds are this might not seem like a lot if you look at the before and after right here but it’s actually a pretty big deal. Personally I feel like Bibi’s biggest weakness is the fact that she has a hard time finishing brawlers off after she like knocks them back unless of course they like to get stopped by a wall and this is gonna make it much easier for her to catch up to her enemies and it’s going to give her a lot of extra mobility and then of course with the help of her home run star power which is getting kind of an indirect buff of like because of this as well she’s going to be even faster than she was.

POCO ( ATTACK DAMAGE INCREASED BY 6%)

Up next is Poco who’s getting a 6% attack damage buff now at max level the damage is increasing from 924 to 980. This is going to allow Poco to take out 12 of the 35 brawlers with one less attack now this includes Bea, Brock, Bull, Colt, Daryll, Dynamike, el primo, Jacky, Nita, Pam, Poco, and Rosa now of course with that said Poco’s never really been super great in 1v1 situations with Poco’s recent gadget he’s offered more healing than ever but you know he struggled with dealing damage. So I think that this is going to be a little bit better for him now I think this is going to make Poco just a bit stronger so that he’s more viable but I hope I don’t know we’ll see to me Poco’s one of those brawlers that’s like incredibly strong with the right comp and especially since he got his gadget so now it’s gonna be interesting to see if he starts to become a little bit more meta.

SPIKE ( CURVEBALL BACK TO NORMAL RANGE )

Next is Spike whose curveball effectiveness is increasing by 50 I really wish that I could show you what this looks like but to put it into perspective it’s going to be almost as good as when curveball was first released but not quite as good okay. I still think that Spike’s fertilized star power is going to be the better star power for really skilled players who are already good at aiming their shots with Spike’s attacks but I think the choice between fertilize and curveball is going to be a lot trickier for most players if you’ve been struggling to push Spike and you happen to have his curveball star power now might actually be a pretty good time for you to start trying him out again.

CROW ( GADGET USES DOWN TO 2 )

Up next is Crow whose defense booster gadget is getting a pretty sizable nerf by 33%, in fact, the number of uses that you can use it per match is going to be decreased from three times down to only two times per match. Now the shielding is going to just remain as strong as it was which I think is really exciting because it’s so strong and it makes crow really really fun because he can do some like really insane plays but the fact that Crow will now only be able to use it twice means that you’re gonna have to be a lot more careful when deciding to use it obviously in showdown you’ll want to make sure that you use it when you need to really survive a tricky situation or to get like a really important kill and then, of course, like in gem grab you’re going to always want to save at least one use to kill a gem carrier to escape so that your team gets the countdown but I mean you guys get the idea right I think that this is a really exciting way to balance the crow’s gadget and I think that it’s going to be a lot more fair while also keeping it a really fun one to use.

EMZ ( GADGET USES DOWN TO 2 )

Up next is Emz whose friend zoner gadget is getting the same nerf as Crows. Okay, it’s decreasing its charges per match from three down to two uses per match now if you ask me guys Emz was just way too strong with her gadget because it just does such a good job at countering every brawler except for brawlers who get a little too close and now if someone did get a little too close all you had to do is just push them away and you could do that up to three times per match the effectiveness of her gadget is just as strong but the fact that she can only use it twice will mean that you’ll have to be a little bit more careful about when you use it just like Crow’s gadget I think this is a really exciting way to balance this because it’s going to be just as good just you know not as often which I feel like that’s perfect for this gadget.

JACKY ( HEALTH DECREASED BY 5%)

Up next is Jacky who is getting another nerf that’s right guys. She got three nerfs in two weeks ago and now she’s getting a five percent nerf to her health at max level, her health is going from seven thousand seven hundred down to seven thousand two hundred eighty. This is actually going to make it so that Jackie is going from having slightly more health than Rosa down to having slightly less health than Rosa. It also means that she’s going to survive one less projectile from 21 of the 35 brawlers but the biggest interaction change is going to be between her and Barley, Bibi, Leon, Mortis, Penny, and Poco who will all be able to take Jackie out with one less ammo. Okay now I gotta be completely honest I actually didn’t play Jackie very much after the last balance changes because I pushed her up pretty high and then I was like I’m done then she got nerfed and I was like I’m done. So I can’t tell you exactly how I think this is gonna change but I do know that Supercell does look at the play rates a lot when it comes to choosing which brawlers are going to get buffs and nerfs which would indicate that a lot of people were playing Jacky and that she was still very strong one important thing to note is that Leon is now going to be able to kill Jackie with three ammo but of course Jackie can also kill Leon and with three ammo and she unloads her shots a lot faster than Leon does which means that she’s still going to win in a 1v1 situation up close unless she has less ammo than Leon does. I’m very interested to see how Jackie feels after this change.

GENE ( GADGET HEALING DECREASED BY 30%)

Up next is Gene who is getting a nerf to his lamp blowout gadget the healing is getting a 30% nerf and is decreasing from 1000 healing down to 700 healing I think that this is very fair especially because Gene’s gadget offers three uses just like Emz is used to and it can heal on top of it. I still haven’t unlocked Gene gadget yet so I can’t speak from experience from playing it but without playing it I’m actually really surprised that Supercell didn’t hit this gadget a little bit harder because of how much value it provides granted this gadget fits Gene’s kit a little bit less than Emz fits her kit but you guys get the idea. Okay, now we have covered all of the balance changes for brawl stars.

But I would like to talk about some brawlers that I feel like kind of deserve some love first off I’d like to talk about Dynamike, Daryll and Mortis. Gadgets now interrupt health regeneration only upon activation (not for the whole duration of the Gadget use). Gadget effects are no longer interrupted by using Main or Super attack. And in Showdown the Meteors are no longer focusing on a single Brawler during the early game and Poison cloud damage now scales up after the 5th consecutive hit from the poison.

You might be interested: GADGETS TIER LIST by KAIROS TIME

Okay now I like the idea behind all three of these brawler’s gadgets but the fact that you cannot move while using them feels really kind of like rough and like I don’t know I don’t want to say unfinished because it’s finished but like it just feels like something is missing if Supercell made it so that you could actually still move while using these abilities it would make the gameplay feel a lot more smooth and each of their gadgets would feel a lot more useful and less risky to use especially dynamics which by the way the fact that Supercell didn’t give dynamite’s gadget a buff tells me that they’re planning on doing something with it in the future possibly making it so it can move faster or just replacing it altogether. Okay now there are two types of updates there are server-side updates which is like these brawl stars changes where Supercell can actually do that whenever they want it does take some work for them but it’s a lot more simpler than a client update which actually requires Supercell to do an update through Google Play and the Apple Store client updates are for anything that like actually makes a change to the game whereas server updates they’re able to like change numbers and stuff like that as far as I understand changing the gadgets to allow them to move while they’re in use would require a client update and dynamite’s gadget is clearly awful and it hasn’t been touched in two server updates and that tells me that Supercell’s planning on doing like to change it quite a lot my hope is to make it so that it can actually move you know while you’re using it you get the idea.

SHELLY BUFF

Okay, another brawler I would really love to see get some more love is Shelly. Every time I play and randoms play Shelly I cry a little bit on the inside right she has the lowest win rate above 700 trophies and she also has one of the lowest win rates below 700 trophies. The one place where Shelly has some use is in solo showdown but she can be really terrible in the competitive meta unless you know for a fact that your enemy is going to play a brawler that she happens to counter in that one type of situation where you’re actually playing a competitive tournament that might be a situation to be playing Shelly right but when you’re just playing Brawlstars you don’t know what the enemy’s gonna be playing. I really feel like she needs some love okay, she’s an amazing early brawler in the game and I wouldn’t want to change her base stats instead I would want to change me to either her gadget or her star power so newer players wouldn’t be impacted. Personally I feel like the best change would be to increase the number of uses that she gets from her gadget from three times to four or maybe even five times per match right that would be a very simple way that would allow her to get in position to get some more kills a lot more often the fact that she has like this close range strength like Bull and Daryl and then has a normal movement speed unlike any of the melee brawlers is kind of what makes her really weak in the competitive meta and adding one or two more charges would really help her overcome that weakness.

COLT BUFF

I also think that Colt could use a little bit of love right now. Colt has a low pick rate and the seventh-worst win rate above 700 trophies. Colt is a high skill cap brawler but you’ll actually rarely see a cult in the competitive match because there are so many other brawlers that are just consistently better a pro cult can be amazing but a pro at most other brawlers will usually provide more value right I think that a really exciting way to buff Colt would be to increase his base movement speed from normal to fast then players could actually choose between their slick boot star power which would make him very fast or his magnum special for that increased range like it’s kind of like combining the two-star powers in a little bit away you get the idea I really feel like this would give Colt what he needs to deal with this new meta since a lot of brawlers have kind of like power crept him out of the meta.

8 – BIT BUFF

Another long-range sharpshooter that I would love to see get some love is 8bit. 8bit has the lowest pick rate above 700 trophies and he also has a pretty poor win rate as well really he’s just good in solo showdown and sometimes duo showdown as well when you have his extra life star power I know that he’s boring that’s a big reason why people aren’t playing him but the fact that he has a low win right now really tells me that he’s just not very good. I really think that his gadget needs some attention, there are a few situations when his gadget is amazing but most other brawlers have gadgets that are useful whenever you use them right or at least three times per match eight bits gadget is useful maybe one time per match. Part of me thinks that his turret should just like to stay on the field when he teleports but another part of me thinks that they just replace it with something else. I don’t know it’s a really cool gadget I just would love it if uh it was used a little I don’t know maybe even if it just like gave 8-bit like a quick speed boost after he used it as well as teleported or something like that one idea I had for a replacement gadget though is to increase apit’s movement speed from very slow to just slow so he’d still be slow for 20 seconds okay aphid would still be slower than every other brawler in the game but for three times per match he wouldn’t be so unbearably slow he’s at such a major disadvantage right.