Doom Eternal Introduces Balance Changes To Battlemode

Doom Eternal released an update which introduces balance changes to its Battlemode. Unlike the previous update, this one was released for all platforms.

If you’re not familiar, Battlemode is a game mode introduced in Doom Eternal which is a 2v1 battle. This one however offers something unique. Instead of just a typical PvP, it has one player taking the role of the Slayer and two others loading in as demons. If both demons are killed, the Slayer wins the round. Of course, the Demons win if the Slayer dies. The thing is, as long as their teammate is alive, the killed demons have a chance to respawn at half of its original health.

In a statement, Game Director Hugo Martin said that the purpose of Battlemode was “to push Slayers to reach the highest levels of skill in order to win.” This means doing DPS combos, good weapon switching, and even movement, among others. Ultimately this also means that Battlemode is all about testing the skills learned in the campaign. As such, Martin went on to say that “anything the negatively impacts the experience, any exploit that pulls players out of that fun experience needs to be identified and considered for an update.

One change that’s implemented for all platforms is on the Rocket Launcher Lock-On mod. The damage against demon players has been lowered to 200 per rocket. According to Martin, this feature has resulted in “a dull combat loop that was devoid of the type of skill we strived for in the mode for Slayer.” In addition, Demon players were having a difficult time, and they had limited options to deal with this. While the damage is indeed lowered for player-controlled Demons, it remains the same for AI-controlled demons in the Arena.

There’s also a change limited to the PC and this is the Ballista. Its damage against demon players has been lowered from 600 to 550. In Battlemode, there’s no question that a Slayer with enough skill can take down two Demons, no matter how well their coordination. However, there was still a need to balance, particularly for the PC, thus this slight reduction in the weapon’s damage.

There’s also changes coming for consoles. There are two such changes, and these are:

• Revenant
  • Unstable Trigger-Round Upgrade
    • Lowered effectiveness of upgraded rocket barrage attack
    • Lowered number of rockets with the upgrade to 24 projectiles
    • Increased cooldown with the upgrade to 11 seconds
• Pain Elemental
  • Dash
    • Increased cooldown on the dash to 8 seconds.

For the first balance change, Martin shared that the console Slayer doesn’t have the same mobility as those playing with the PC. With this update, “engagement levels for both sides now should increase as the Slayer has a slightly greater chance to counter or evade the attack and so the Revenant player must be more strategic in the deployment of his Rocket Barrage.”

For the Pain Elemental, the increase in the cooldown should force the “demon player to be more strategic when choosing to push the Slayer as his ability to evade won’t be recharging quite so fast,” Martin added.

What are your thoughts on these changes? Let us know in the comments section below.