Hey Brawlhallers,

Welcome to the 1st edition of Brawl Academy’s Patch Analysis Newsletter. We know lots of players either don’t pay attention to patches or don’t understand some of the terms, so we want to help. Starting with Patch 8.03, we’re going to take the key changes in major patches and explain the impact in a way that’s hopefully easy to understand. Let’s get started!

Welcome ‘Seven’ to Valhalla!

The big new addition in this patch is Brawlhalla’s latest legend, Seven! Seven is a new Spear/Cannon legend with a special mechanic attached to her Spear Down Signature. When you use this signature, it changes the elemental properties of the spear signatures between electricity and fire. The electricity-based attacks are good for strings and combos while the fire-based attacks do more damage and have better KO potential.

If you’re interested in playing Seven, Brawl Academy is preparing a Mini Gameplay Guide for her that you can get by clicking here! We’ll be shipping an infographic that you can keep handy while you’re playing that will explain the basics of how her signatures work, how to utilize them effectively, and tips for Spear and Cannon if you’re new to those weapons. We’ll also send you some more updates with other cool things on the legend after we’ve had a chance to lab and practice with her.

Weapon Balance

This patch includes mostly buffs. Here’s a quick summary:

• Buffed: Blasters, Gauntlets, Orb, Lance, Sword
• Nerfed: Axe
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Details are below.

Axe

• Axe lost a bit of damage on Neutral Light.
• Axe Down Light is now slightly more punishable on miss.

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Axe is still quite good after these changes. It was extremely clear how good nLight and dLight were after watching BCX ‘23 and how much value axe players get out of these moves with the new dash changes.

Blasters

• Blasters Down Light now has more stacked coverage.

The hitbox was very slightly extended back closer to the user, so it should be easier to hit opponents that are stacked on top of you now.

Gauntlets

• Gauntlets Neutral Air stun time was increased.

The nAir change from the previous balance patch was partially reverted. The big functional change here is that it’s now possible to get nAir > gc nLight as a true combo again in specific situations. Other nAir follow ups will now be a bit more consistent again.

Orb

• Orb Side Air now has slightly more force vs damaged opponents and will knock out sooner than before.

Rocket Lance

• The ending part of Neutral Air has increased stun over the previous patch.

This should return some consistency to reverse nAir follow ups that was lost in the last balance patch.

Sword

• Sword Down Air stun time was increased slightly.

Follow ups out of dAir should be more consistent and certain legacy follow ups that fell out of the weapon’s arsenal for a few years may be possible again.

Signature Balance

This patch includes mostly buffs. Here’s a quick summary:

• Buffs: Ezio, Fait, Mako, Vector
• Nerfs: Zariel

Details below.

Ezio

• Orb Side Signature does slightly more damage and most of the damage has been moved into the final hit.
• Sword Side Signature has slightly more force vs damaged opponents.

Ezio’s Orb sSig barely did any damage at range so this change mostly fixes that case. Sword sSig gets increased knockout power because that move was feeling pretty weak.

Fait

• Scythe Down Signature is now quite a bit faster.

Fait’s Scythe dSig should be a more reliable punish option if you’ve mastered the spacing of the teleport. It’s also fast enough now that it could be a surprise option that you can use in neutral vs an opponent that might not be expecting it.

Mako

• Katars Side Signature is now quite a bit faster.

Vector

• Lance Down Signature now has more damage and force.

Zariel

• Gauntlets Side Signature is slightly slower.

Tournament Map Pool Update

As with the previous patch, the tournament map pool has been unified so that 1v1 and 2v2 both share the same maps. This patch, Small Brawlhaven and Apocalypse have been removed to make way for Small World’s End and Bikini Bottom. If you’re familiar with the instant KO bug on Bikini Bottom, don’t worry: The patch also fixed that bug.

The Tournament Map Pool is a bit controversial because there are some competitive favorites that are absent from the options, but it’s clear from looking at the new list that BMG is favoring maps with pillars to make it easier to limit under-stage mobility as well as making it possible to force at least one platform into the selection during banning.

Halo’s stage art was also adjusted to more align to the boundaries of the stage and I honestly think it looks much better. If you learn how to play well around Halo’s funky 4-platform layout, it could potentially be a good counter-pick stage to use in tournaments but I personally think most people are going to ban this map immediately.

New Test Feature

Hold to Dodge is a new test feature that has been enabled in the Experimental queue. This basically makes it possible for you to hold down your dodge button while you’re being hit to immediately dodge after the stun ends.

This is going to be a controversial change for a lot of players because dodge timing is a big part of the skill-based aspects of the game, but I’m generally in favor of things that make the game more accessible. Some people might feel like this dumbs the game down, but most really good players are going to be more choosy about when they spend their dodge and likely won’t even utilize this much if at all.

What are your thoughts on features like this?

Important Bug Fixes

These bug fixes are a really big deal and a long-time coming. If you’ve ever been in a situation where you feel like you caught someone after they performed a Gravity Cancel and they somehow got their dodge back too quickly, chances are one of these bugs was the reason. With these fixed, it should now be significantly more consistent to always get the full air dodge cooldown worth of punish time if you catch someone after they perform a Gravity Cancel.

Thanks for Reading

Thanks for checking out our Patch Analysis. You can get these and other content on improving at Brawlhalla straight to your inbox by subscribing using the box below.

Have a good day!

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​Atrophius
​Founder @ Brawl Academy
​https://www.brawlacademy.com​