Hello Slayers!

1.7.0 is just on the horizon, and we wanted to give you all a heads up about the end of the Faction: Past and Faction: Future skill trees.

The TL;DR

• Faction: Past and Faction: Future will be removed from the Slayer’s Path on July 8
• Both corresponding abilities will be deactivated

We’d like to take a moment to talk about the design behind these seasonal abilities and what they taught us.

The Original Plan

When we set out to make Infinite Radiance, we wanted to add seasonal abilities that played into the fantasy of various timelines intersecting in the Shattered Isles. The idea was to create an exciting moment in Dauntless that worked within the seasonal story we were telling.

On the design side of things, we wanted to see what seasonal abilities would feel like in Dauntless. The goal was to provide a fun progression reward within the Infinite Radiance season itself. This was also a great opportunity for us to explore unique abilities without altering the balance of Dauntless forever. It provided a space for players to experiment with their builds and try new things. In the end, these seasonal talent trees worked towards these goals, and we learned a lot.

Design Lessons

First up, we learned these abilities shouldn’t negate the powers of new Behemoths. We don’t want these abilities to disable what makes new encounters unique, but rather, we want the abilities to add to them. Whatever shape a seasonal ability takes, it should interact with the new encounters in interesting ways.

With the case of the drone’s ability, it actually worked against the design of the Elder Behemoth’s shields: The AoE damage was negated. We ended up patching this ability, so it worked in these battles. Whatever seasonal abilities we add in the future need to work hand in hand with new encounters. Synergy is key.

Another lesson we learned was to communicate the seasonal ability timeline early. Ideally, the communication around the limited availability of these abilities should be in advance. We’re rolling out communication now around their end date, but in the future, this timeframe should be upfront. We apologize for this lapse in clarity, and we hope this news doesn’t come as a complete surprise.

Future of Seasonal Abilities

The Heroes of Ostia season will not have seasonal abilities. This doesn’t mean that we won’t do it again in the future. In fact, we want to! By putting seasonal abilities aside for now, we’ll be able to focus solely on Omnicells. We will see how they impact the meta on their own.

As for Perfect Strike and the Friend Forever abilities, we’re currently taking our favourite parts and asking ourselves if they can be their own Omnicell. This brief window gave us lots of insight into their design. After taking in feedback and data, it’s clear that they provided interesting builds and twists on combat. We will continue to discuss this, so don’t be surprised if you see these abilities return in some form or another.

On the note of feedback, how did you like these two Factions and their abilities? Which parts did you enjoy and which parts should we leave in the past?
Let us know in the comments!

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