brawl stars balance changes brawl stars balance changes

Brawl Stars Balance Changes (September 2019)

Every one two two months, we see some balance changes in Brawl Stars and I always will give you some more information how these changes will affect the single brawlers as well as the whole meta in Brawl Stars.

Normally, Supercell will take a look at the brawlers that have the highest win rate and give them a nerf while the brawlers that are not performing well get a buff – but let’s jump right into the most recent balance changes 🙂

Balance Changes September 2019

With the introduction of Sandy and the two new game modes there also have been several balance changes for the Star Power that I want to deliver my two cents on:

Barley

Barley’s Medical Use Star Power will increase the healing from 300 to 400. This Star Power is already pretty strong but it looks like more people prefered to use his Extra Noxious Star Power and wanted to balance that out (but maybe the reason is because just more had the Extra Noxious because it was available earlier…). Anyway, if you have Medical Use it’s now time to use it.

Crow

Both of Crow’s Star Powers get a buff – Carrion Crow 20% more damage and Extra Toxic 33% more debuff to enemies. This will make Crow overall more useful and he had the lowest win rate according to stats above 500 trophies in all game modes before these balance changes and could come back to the game with it.

Nita

Hyper Bear Star Power will also get 20% more attack speed. This is actually not a huge impact overall and except for Heist the Bear with me Star Power is still the better choice if you ask me. If you have the Hyper Bear Star Power you should now think about using it when doing a Heist match.

Pam

Pam will get a main attack damage buff of 8% and this can bring her back to business. She has a very low win rate at the lower trophy ranges and wasn’t even used in the high trophy ranges much and could now become more viable with this buff.

Rosa

Rosa will gain 560 additional health and her Thorny Gloves Star Power will also gain an addition 10% damage buff as well. The health buff will make her survive one more additional shot from Brawlers like Bibi, Gene, Leon, Nita, Penny and Poco – all brawlers that are in the meta right now. After the recent nerfs she got she was pretty on the ground and I think it’s a good point to make her balanced.

8-bit

I think we don’t need to talk about how incredibly overpowered 8-bit and that he needs a nerf – and with this round of balance changes he will get a 0.2s slower reload speed.

I’m not sure if that seals the deal and actually I think that there will be more nerfs to him in the next balance changes but I think Supercell didn’t want to nerf him to the ground right away.

Bibi

The Home Run Star Power that will give her an insane speed when fully charged her homerun bar will also get a nerf and only add 12% instead of 15% additional speed. This is not the biggest nerf and makes her still faster than any other brawler without using an ability and I don’t see that changing much in how strong she is.

El Primo

His Meteor Rush Star Power also get a nerf and now only boost speed by 28% instead of 32% after using his super with this round of balance changes. As with Bibi, I don’t think this will change much in the overall power and viability.

Mortis

Mortis Coiled Snake Star Power, one of the strongest Star Powers in Brawl Stars, will take additional 0.5s to charge and this might come to play in specific maps or interacting in certain teams. It’s hard to tell how this actually changes how Mortis powerforms until we can actually experience it in real matches after the balance changes.

Piper

Snappy Sniping Star Power will get an additional nerf and the bonus reload will decrease from 0.4 additional ammo to 0.3 additional ammo. I think this is important as spamming shots have become a little too hard to deal with lately with that Star Power and this nerf feels right and won’t nerf it to the ground but makes it realistic to deal with when there’s a Piper in the enemy team.

Shelly

Shelly’s Band Aid Star Power will get another nerf in these balance changes. It was a full health heal before the last balance changes and was 2,000 health before today’s balance changes. Now it will be 1,800. It was still a great Star Power and this 10% nerf won’t change much about it, in my opinion.

Tick

His Automa-Tick Star Power will only reload 13% faster instead of 15%. This is not much and won’t change much and with this Star Power, Tick will still be a strong and viable Brawler to use after these balance changes.

Carl

Here we go again, another round of balancing Carl… His main attack will get 3% additional damage. This will help him take several brawler out with one less hit. In return, his main attack will get a cooldown of 0.5s (including the time when the axe is in the air) and this will impact spamming his attack right in front of a wall (especially in Showdown to get some chests really quick). Fells right if you ask me and he will still be a really strong brawler after this balance change.

Poco

The Da Capo Star Power gets 100 more healing while the damage from the Screeching Solo Star Power will deal 200 less damage. In my opinion this doesn’t change much and Screeching Solo is still the better Star Power and the one you should use, it will now only deall a little less damage.

PS: If you want to know the actual strengths and which Star Powers you should use on each Brawler you might want to check out my full ranked list of all Star Powers here.

Balance Changes August 2019

Welcome to the latest round of balancing changes in Brawl Stars with the August 29th, 2019 update and we have a lot of balancing of the new additional Star Powers but also some general adjustments to several brawlers.

Here’s what I think about it.

Carl

carlCarl gets 8% faster attack speed and his Protective Pirouette is going from 30$ to 40%. Cals is going back and forth in the balance changes between getting buffed and nerfed and hopefully he will get to a point where he’s finally balanced. These changes make a lot of sense and could be the small tick that makes him perfect.

Bo

Bo’s Circling Eagle Star Power now will add 3 tiles further sight in bushes than 2 tiles – a really good change but we’ll see how this will turn out in fights and if that makes that Star Power superior to his Snear A Bear Star Power.

Colt

The Slick Boots Star Power will now increase his speed by 10% instead of 8%. Not that much of a change but will make him faster than the tanks but slower than many other brawlers and this is still not the Star Power to use with him so I think there needs to come more than that to make Slick Boots the better Star Power for Colt.

Pam

Both her Star Powers got a decent buff and now heal more/deal more damage. I personally think the Star Power Mama’s Hug is pretty useless still with this buff as healing is simply not that important and enough to keep up with the additional damage Mama’s Squeeze deals.

Brock

brockHis Incendiary Star Power will now deal more damage when the rockets sets the ground on fire. This won’t make Incendiary a better choice over the” Rocket. No Four” Star Power but it can be useful in Heist mode to keep the ground under the safe on fire.

Tick

His range will be increased to 12 tiles and the mines now have a bigger radius – this means you can now hit one brawler with all 3 mines simultaniously.

I think this will make Tick finally a brawler that’s easier to play and also it makes it harder to dodge his shots. He won’t be OP with this buff but will get into the range of reasonable brawlers 🙂

El Primo

His El Fuego Star Power will deal 200 more damage when burning a brawler. It’s a nice additional if you use it but the damage overall is relatively small compared to the total damage his punches deal so it won’t change much in my opinion.

Frank

His Sponge Star Power gains additional 1000 health and in my opinion this is simply useless – once because this is not the Star POwer to take with Frank and second because 100 hitpoints when talking about 8k+ hitpoints is nothing more then homeopathic.

Rosa

Rosa gets 4% extra hitpoints and this should help her get back on track – I’ve seen her struggeling lately with Shelly’s Band Aid Star Power – still, it’s not that much that she will get back to the most OP brawler in Brawl Stars ????

Spike

His Star Power Fertilize will heal 20% more and as this is the Star Power to use with Spike it’s a decent buff for all of you that love playing with Spike. Will not crush the meta but a small gift is a gift, right? 😉

Tara

taraThis is one of my favorite changes here and that’s not that Tara’s Black Portal version gets more health, it’s the improved AI of the Healing Shade super that now doesn’t heal brawlers with full health anymore. This makes it a lot more useful and is a true thumbs up change!

Bibi

This is a balance change that I personally don’t understand. I don’t. Bibi is already super strong and now her Batting Stance Star Power gets 40% instead of 30% heal. Ok, it’s for those that have the Star Power but I don’t understand why she needed that buff actually. If you want to play Bibi do it now, I’m really sure she will get a big nerf in the next balance changes!

Leon

His Star Power Invisiheal that will heal him got a 33% buff and will now heal for 2400 health and I think it might get a solid alternative to Smoke Trails now as you can now use his super to actually escape and survive. Really interesting to see how this balance change out in the meta.

Shelly

Yes, that was more than expected! Shelly’s Band Aid Star Power now only heals 2,000 health instead of full health – come on, Supercell, what did you thought when initially making that Star Power that give her a second life?! It was way too powerful and now it’s in the region of being somewhat balanced.

Mortis

His Coil Snake Star Power dashes now 25% less (1.75x instead of 2x). This was also no surprise and the dash was pretty strong and I think this will not break Mortis but, well, put him back to earth and make him more balanced in the current meta.

Poco

His Screeing Solo Star Power now deals 20% less damage to enemies but will still be the Star Power to use with him because not many people expect the damage from him and get catched off-guard by it. Made fun when it got released and is still the stronger one.

Darryl

He gets his basic attack reworked and will now shoot from the center (so you can now shoot like Bull or Shelly with him). This will make it a lot easier to aim and hit targets that are close to him.

I like this balance change and it might get Darryl to a point where actually could get a mainstream brawler, finally.

Of course I will turn these changes into my Brawl Stars Tier List and my Star Power Tier List as well – so have a look there 🙂

Balance Changes June 2019

We just say some balance changes and they are not small at all and will change several things – in perticular the OP-ness of some brawlers like Rosa and Carl will come back to a more normal level.

Bo

In these balance changes, Bo will get 4% more damage from his main attacks and this will help him a little bit – he will also now need 10 hits to charge up his super instead of 11. Also not a really big change since he will still land 4 full attacks with his 3 arrows. If you’re a frequent Bo player you will like it but I don’t see that this balancing changes much for the meta in general.

Dynamike

Dynamike will get a 10% damage buff for his main attack in this balance changes but this is also not really a game-changer to keep up with Barley and the new brawler Tick that are still a lot better in controlling the field – I think we need more than that to make Dynamike stand out of the field.

Ricochet

Rico will be one of the winners of these balance changes! He will get 7% more damage for his main attack and his super plus his Star Power will get 25% more damage increase. That’s a lot. When looking at the current meta this won’t change that much for the main field of players since Rico is not a brawler you see that often, but in the higher trophy ranges there are more player using him (well) so that’s where he will become a really tough guy to handle.

Mortis

He gets a 4% faster reload speed and I really don’t see that bringing him back into the field – he is already not easy to play and tricky to master and in the current meta you will see Rosa and Bibi a lot, his direct counters. I don’t think that this buff is enough and he probably needs a more significant buff to keep up there.

Shelly

20% longer duration of her Star Power that slows down enemies after getting hit by Shelly – and I really think this is a perfect buff for her. Shelly is really strong in the lower trophy ranges but gets quite weak in the higher ones because many know how to deal with her. Buffing her Star Power – something that is more used in the higher trophy ranges – makes completely sense and might bring her back into the game there. For most players this won’t change much.

Penny

I’m an avid fan of her so this change here is something I really like – her Star Power now don’t randomly shoots 6 bombs 4 bombs when her cannon gets destroyed (the most useless Star Power in the game so far!), it will now target nearby enemy brawlers 🙂 This doesn’t mean you can’t get away or that destroying her cannon will become a suicide mission, you can still do it but need to be more careful.

This can become a game changer because her cannon now will stay active longer plus can deal a couple thousand damage if the enemy brawler is not careful! Also, placing it near the safe in Heist or the IKE in Siege will land all of them if no other brawler will cover the damage with his life!

Frank

He will get a 20% buff on his star power extra damage and also 25% diuration buff on it – this makes this star power a lot more useful because it was often times that the extra damage after taking someone down wasn’t simply long enough to get a real benefit from it – Frank player will like that but I don’t see that making a lot changes to the meta.

Carl

carlCarl is getting some major nerf in this round of balancing changes with dealing 9% less damage with his main attack plus 19% less speed bugg from his star power. This means that almost all brawlers will require one more hit now from his axe to get killed and this will really bring him back to earth.

Carl used to be THE strongest brawlers so far so I think this nerf was no surprise and I still think he will be a strong brawler, but that makes him more balanced.

Gene

His super range will be 7.66 tiles instead of 9 tiles but in return interrupt the healing process of the pulled brawler. So this might feel like a nerf but it can also help him, because often times you pull an enemy brawler with Gene that is healing right now, so the brawler would gain extra health on the way and might be still too hard to kill.

This nerf will perticulally nerf him in Gem Grab where he was a beast pulling the gem carrier of the enemy team, but I still see him very strong in the meta with thse balance changes.

Rosa

Another balancing that is not surprising as Rosa was still overpowered after the lans balancing changes. She now has 4% less damage from her main attack and needs one extra hit to charge her super – this will not change that much because you still need 4 full attacks to charge her super but I know think she is somewhat beleanced in the meta.

Bibi

Bibi gets 5% more health and this will help her against her direct counters like El Primo or Rosa where she can survive one extra hit now. In return, her Star Power will get nerfed by 20% which makes her insane speed a little more balanced, before she was just too crazy fast.

Darryl

His health is getting buffed by 10% and this will help him survive one extra attack from many brawlers – in return, his shield will get nerfed by 25%. Overall this will make him more on option for many players since he was not really good without his star power but strong with it – now he’s getting more useful before having is star power.

So, looking forward to discuss the changes with you in the comments below 🙂

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