July 2018 Patch

The July 2018 Patch is a balancing patch for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 that was released on July 12th, 2018. The patch focused on Rose's crowd controlling abilities and Super Brainz' close ranged playstyle.

On July 26th, another patch was released addressing concerns about Nec'Rose, Cozmic Brainz, Electro Brainz and Heroic Kick.

Dev Notes for July 12th patch

Here are the details for the latest patch in Garden Warfare 2!

Rose is doing her job as a disruptor extremely well but with a little too much ease, making her a very punishing plant for the zombies to play against. Thus, Rose has undergone changes to give zombies a fighting chance against all the crowd control she dishes out. Time Snare had its duration reduced, meaning Rose and her allies need to react faster to take advantage of snared targets. When using Goatify and Psychedelic Goatify players will need to think ahead and place their shot because the projectile now travels slower, giving the zombies a fighting chance to dodge it. Additionally, Rose has had her hitbox adjusted to be more forgiving to play against.

On the zombie side: Super Brainz was always intended to be a high-mobility brawler. However, players generally snipe with him due to his Laser Beam’s effective ranged damage and accuracy. To address this, Super Brainz Laser Beam had its ranged damage reduced, among other changes, to better align him with his brawler playstyle. His Heroic Kick has an additional charge, which can be used in quick succession to cover larger distances. Finally, Turbo Twister grants a major burst of armor and move speed, enabling Super Brainz to survive in the most chaotic of situations.

There are still a few known issues with these characters that we aim to address in future content updates. Stay tuned for more info.

Balancing Notes for July 12th patch

• Rose
  • ▼ Reduced the Magic Thistles' ammo clip from 30 - 20
• Nec’Rose
  • ▲ Increased the Staff of Jinxing's impact damage from 6.5 - 7.5
• Abilities
  • Time Snare:
    • ▼ Reduced the duration of effect form 2.5 - 1.5 seconds
    • ▼ Initial position of projectile raised
  • Arcane Lotus:
    • ▲ Increased the healing per tick from 25 - 35
  • Goatify:
    • ▼ Reduced the projectile speed from 100 - 35
    • ▲ Reduced bullet drop of projectile from -9.8 - 0
    • ▼ Reduced the radius of effect from 4 - 3.5
    • ▼ Initial position of projectile raised
  • Psychedelic Goat:
    • ▼ Reduced projectile speed from 100 - 35
    • ▲ Reduced bullet drop of projectile from -9.8 - 0
    • ▼ Reduced radius of effect from 4 - 3.5
    • ▼ Initial position of projectile raised
  • Goatified Player and Goatified Player (Psychedelic):
    • ▲ Increased jump height from 1.65 - 2.5
    • ▲ Added a 1.5x jump and speed multiplier for Psychedelic Goats
  • Rose Hitbox:
    • ▼ Increased hitbox on all variants
• Super Brainz:
  • Heroic Beam
    • ▲ Increased close range damage from 4.5 - 6.5
    • ▼ Reduced long range damage from 3.5 - 1
    • ▼ Reduced damage drop-off start distance: 30 > 15
    • ▲ Increased damage drop-off end distance: 45 > 50
    • ▼ Increased the Heroic Beam's overheat time and overheat penalty
• Cozmic Brainz:
  • Cozmic Fists
    • ▲ Decreased charge time to medium charged fists from 1.25 - 1 second
    • ▲ Decreased charge time to fully charged fists from 2.5 - 2 seconds
  • Cozmic Beam
    • ▼ Reduced long range damage from 7.5 - 1
    • ▼ Decreased damage drop-off start distance: 20 - 15
    • ▲ Increased damage drop-off end distance: 40 - 50
    • ▼ Increased the Cozmic Beam's overheat time and overheat penalty
• Electro Brainz
  • Electro Beam
    • ▼ Reduced long range damage from 3 - 1
    • ▼ Decreased damage drop-off start distance from 20 - 10
    • ▲ Increased damage drop-off end distance: 30 > 50
    • ▼ Increased the Electro Beam's overheat time and overheat penalty
    • ▼ Reduced electric splash damage to 1st enemy from 5 - 3
    • ▼ Reduced electric splash damage to 2nd enemy from 4 - 2
    • ▼ Reduced electric splash damage to 3rd enemy from 3 - 1
• Toxic Brainz
  • Toxic Beam
    • ▼ Reduced long range damage from 2.5 - 1
    • ▼ Decreased damage drop-off start distance from 30 - 15
    • ▲ Increased damage drop-off end distance from 45 - 50
    • ▼ Increased the Toxic Beam's overheat time and overheat penalty
• Party Brainz
  • Party Beam
    • ▲ Increased close range damage from 4.5 - 5.5
    • ▼ Decreased long range damage from 3.5 - 1
    • ▼ Decreased damage drop-off start distance from 30 - 15
    • ▲ Increased damage drop-off end distance: 45 > 50
    • ▼ Increased the Party Beam's overheat time and overheat penalty
• Breakfast Brainz
  • Break-Fists
    • ▲ Increased punch damage from 4 - 5.5
    • ▲ Decreased maximum move speed debuff from 60% - 40%
    • ▲ It takes Breakfast Brainz longer to reach maximum move speed debuff
  • Batter Spatter
    • ▼ Reduced long range damage from 3 - 1
    • ▲ Increased the effective range from 20-40 - 15-50
    • ▼ Decreased damage drop-off start distance from 20 - 15
    • ▲ Increased damage drop-off end distance: 40 > 50
    • ▼ Increased the Batter Splatter's overheat time and overheat penalty
• Heroic Kick
  • ▲ You can now carry two Heroic Kicks at once
  • ▲ Reduced ability cooldown from 15 - 12 seconds
  • ▼ Reduced damage from 35 - 12
  • ▼ Removed knockback
• Turbo Twister
  • ▼ Decreased damage from 6 - 2
  • ▼ Removed speed reduction to enemies
  • ▲ Increased movement speed multiplier from 1.1 - 1.35
  • ▼ Increased cooldown from 22 seconds - 25 seconds
  • ▼ Reduced duration from 5 seconds - 3.5 seconds

Dev Notes for July 26th patch

Thank you everyone for the feedback that is continuously provided and for being such a passionate community. We’ve heard you and are excited to make a few tweaks to the recent balance patch. Here are the details!

Nec’Rose received a damage increase in the previous patch, and since then has been the premier variant in the class. The intention was not to make her shine above the other variants, so the change has been reverted to bring parity among them.

Cosmic Brainz and Electro Brainz were struggling as brawlers in comparison to the other variants. Therefore, Cosmic Brainz melee now takes a shorter time to charge the first punch, allowing for combos that are out of this world. Electro Brainz also received a jolt and will now punch faster with electricity jumping to other enemies more frequently!

Finally, Heroic Kick having its knockback removed made it feel like a ghost kick and not very impactful. The removal of knockback also took away counter play mechanics that were extremely useful, and for these reasons knockback has been added back to Heroic Kick.

Balancing Notes for July 26th patch

• Nec'Rose
  • Staff of Jinxing
    • ▼ Reduced damage from 7.5 - 6.5
• Cozmic Brainz
  • Cozmic Fists
    • ▲ Decreased charge time from 1 - 0.2 seconds
• Electro Brainz
  • Electro Fists
    • ▲ Increased rate of fire
    • ▲ Added electric splash damage to the first, third and fifth punch (now deal 3 damage each)
• Heroic Kick
  • ▲ Added Knockback