JWA 1.9 Patch Notes: Creature Rebalancing

Explorers!

With update 1.9 right around the corner, and patch notes now live on the Ludia Forums, we’re here to do what we do best – Help you digest what in the world all this means for this game we love. As usual, we’re breaking down our patch notes content into six articles that we’ll be releasing today (and perhaps the next few days).

Patch 1.9 brings with it a bunch of awesome changes, and the biggest meta balancing shift we’ve seen since Thor entered the arena in 1.5. Bold statement? Maybe. But the highlights speak for themselves. We’ve got new terrifying hybrids like Carboceratops and Smilonemys (both sporting an INSANE 50% armor), a brand new meta-breaking move in Mutual Fury which makes BOTH you and your opponent stronger, insane new hybrids Indominus Rex Gen 2 and Indoraptor Gen 2 which use the beloved Raptor Pack DNA (Rip all that used up Blue/Echo DNA), balancing changes to Ceratopsians could be a nerf disguised as a buff, and a brand new Campaign Mode with some serious end-game level grit that’ll make an all 30’s boosted team shake in their boots – there’s just a lot to talk about.

And we can’t wait to dive in. Let’s do this.

There are some seriously interesting thing going on in the balancing of this patch. The two biggest themes, however, have to do with Ceratopsians and Immune dinos – which makes sense as we are now going to see specific “types” of immunity rather than just general immunity.

From the notes we get two pretty big reworks.

Ceratopsian creatures are no longer going to be the Jack-Of-All-Trades that they used to be. They are now being rebalanced to be focused on defensive moves, stunning moves, and slowing moves. Most of the Ceratopsians (notable examples like Triceratops, Einiosaurus, and hybrids like Monostegotops, Stegoceratops, and Einiasuchus) are getting a kit rework.

Part of this is exciting. One of the chief complaints many have had about Jurassic World Alive is the lack of “classes” – and the willingness of Ludia to break the class mold. Because, after all, by making hybrids we can strengthen weak points of certain creatures. We can give Tyrannosaurus Rex armor by fusing it with Ankylosaurus, making a Tanky Therapod (Chomper) that eats armor and is hard to kill. But the problem with too much of this type of fidigting is you end up with a classless system.

Therapods get beat by glass cannons. You beat a T-Rex with a Velociraptor early on in the game. Only, when you give a Therapod armor, or an instant stun, or the ability to distract and slow the opponent to gain speed advantage, you break the “class” in favor of creating something new and cool and interesting. Which is great. But it’s become so convoluted that we’ve gotten away from Glass Cannon beats High Damage, High Damage beats Armored Tank, Armored Tank beats Glass Cannon – etc.

Instead now we have a bit of a mess. Reworking a “class” of dinos to bring them more into line with one another is a wonderful thing. Ceratopsians are now perfectly aligned with stuns, a little distracting here and there, and slowing moves, to beat Therapods (I mean, Monostego was before, but it didn’t lose much by losing Nullifying Impact).

The second big change that is happening is the rework to Immunity, particularly the patch notes mention that they had overvalued Immunity and reworking the calculation meant they had a nice pool of points to apply elsewhere. It may be a little too much, in our opinion, particularly to a few key dinos but time will tell.

Still, having specific immunities (like Indoraptor now being immune to stuns and distracting) makes a biiiiig difference. And that pool of points? Well it certainly had an impact on every Immune creature on the board.

As always there are a lot of changes to creatures and rebalancing with a new patch.We won't go over all of them but here are the changes we feel are the most important. 

Notable Stat Changes

Ardentismaxima

This monster Sauropod got the kind of buff that makes even me (a massive sauropod fan) feel like it might have been too much. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to see more Tyrant-tier Sauropods, but this… this is a lot. Getting a damage buff to 1300 and an HP increase to 5400 is massive on its own, but in addition to that – gaining 15% armor and 30% crit really pushes this beast over the top. With the damage increase to Erlidominus (below) it actually means Max beats Erlidom in 1v1 pretty handily – despite not being able to slow Erlidom down.

Ardontosaurus

Similar to Max, Ardontosaurus getting that buff of attack and health means it’ll get a lot more mileage in the lower arena while people are still unlocking uniques, and maybe even after. Granted, it ends up with less damage (1200) and less health (5100) and no crit rate boost or armor.

Dilophosaurus Gen 2

Never thought I’d be talking about Dilophosaurus Gen 2 in any article. Unfortunately Dilo G2 doesn’t have anything but 1x moves (strikes) but still – kicking out 1800  damage every turn with 3000 health while effectively distracting to halve all the damage done back to you? I mean, this is no tyrant but it's no longer firmly in the hatchling category for the first time in 9 patches... and that's notable. HA!

Dimetrodon

Our friend the anklebiter got a pretty crazy attack buff. While this won't rock the boat on your team of eight, don't be surprised if you see more of Dime in the rare v rare tourneys to come.

Diplovenator

The distracting counter attack king is now Immune to Stuns and Immune to Distraction -- a duo of relevant buffs for three reasons: and their names are Trykosaurus, Tenontorex, and Thoradolosaur. The trio of terrifying therapods is coming back to earth -- in part because our hard counter to Thor just became even stronger. Don't be surprised if you start seeing this slimy rascal in mid and upper arena.

Einiasuchus

Believe it or not, the rework of ceratopsians had a pretty large impact on Einiasuchus. But the impact here was veiled in some pretty unclear patch notes. While patch notes nonchalantly say "Attack becomes 900" it fails to mention how it went from 1300 to 900. And how it lost 900 health. For Dig In and Swap in Stunning Strike. Don't get me wrong, these are great move changes... they just tore out the soul of Einiasuchus and nerfed the stats like Monomimus in 1.6 to do it. RIP Einias. 

Erlidominus

The angry death chicken got a nice HP and damage buff, that should help it dispatch even slightly boosted Dracoceratops, and perhaps ones that are higher levels. I'm not sure it needed more attack. But it got it.

Erlikospyx

Gains Immune to Deceleration. It's hard to wrap the mind around this one, but essentially tanks can't do crap to gain priority anymore. Say goodbye to tank counters. I mean, it was a tank killer already but you just can't count on decel strike or Superiority Strike saving your bacon. 

Geminititan

Gains immunity and loses 100 attack. Fair trade. This makes Geminititan even rougher on the chompers, especially with some health boosts. Probably a net even change, though it'll be hard going forward on the king of sauropods with all these immunes running around and it has no shields. Max may give it a run for its money as king of sauropods.

Indominus Rex

The original gangster gets a massive 200 attack boost -- and that's gonna hurt tanks a lot. Especially ones that don't have a shield. Don't be surprised if you start seeing those who leveled this monster running it in upper arena.

Indoraptor

Suddenly the original OP monster is back in business. While making Indoraptor Immune to Distract and Immune to Stun may not seem like a huge deal, look at what it does to matchups like Thoradolosaur (can't stun on the instant charge), Trykosaurus (can't instant distract so it's taking a Defense Shattering Rampage), Tenontorex (can't distract so it's taking the full damage with or without smart play), Diorajasaur (see Trykosaurus), and Utarinex (no more distract and no more stun bud). Suddenly, evasive becomes useful as a damage reducer, and that Cleansing Impact and Defense Shattering Rampage become much scarier. Welcome back bud. It's good to see you again.

Magnapyritor

Gets some of the health it desperately needed back. That'll help keep it relevant. 

Marsupial Lion

Gains immune to deceleration and a weird buff to Rending Takedown. Not sure how this shakes up much.

Monolometrodon

In a meta that seems to be shifting in favor of immunes, Monolometrodon gets a much needed health buff that'll make it quite annoying going forward. If nothing else this should at least bring it on par with other legendary creatures instead of being in a league of its own at the bottom of the legendary barrel.

Monomimus

The original red chicken is also back from the dead, getting a much needed buff that brings it to relevance once again (and no longer meme worthy). Getting Distracting Strike and Distracting Rampage is pretty huge for this immune, and the health and attack buff help. Welcome back little guy. 

Monostegotops

The tyrant finally gets the nerf we all hoped wouldn't come. While it could've been worse, Monostego loses a hefty 350 attack and some health in favor of a regeneration/shielding move (Dig In) that's pretty strong, and a Swap in Stunning Strike that at least does damage even if it misses, but overall this is likely a net nerf that'll bring Monostego more towards the middle of the barrel of Legendaries, albeit still useful.

Postimetrodon

It gets a much needed attack buff which is great. 

Procerathomimus

We aren't exactly sure what they are thinking with this one. The notes simply say: HP increased to 3900. Wait it fails to mention is that is a 750 HP BUFF! That is huge for an immune creature with access to 2 distracting moves (that can stack for 0 damage). Start working on your Yoshi counters because if this stat stays as it is in the notes, you are probably going to be seeing a lot more of them in the arena. 

Pteraquetzal

They listened to feedback on this creature and gave it a rebalance. It loses Swap in Dodge, its speed is increased to 122, and Long Protection is replaced with Long Defense Strike. Hopefully these changes will make it more viable in the middle arenas where legendary creatures are still very viable.

Pyrritator

This was rebuilt to become a distraction-focused creature. It looses a little bit of attack, Ready to Crush and Distracting Rampage.It gains Pounce and Distracting Impact. It'll be interested to see how this one shakes out. When played correctly RTC used to help this creature completely rip through teams. It has a big distracting move and a rampage move on turn 1 now so it has a lot of options. It still maintains its Defense Shattering Impact as well so can deal with shields pretty easily. 

Tenontorex

Attack becomes 1680 (which is the same as Thoradolosaur) this seemingly minor buff is going to make a decent impact in the arena. With the same critical chance as Thor, it is now a viable Dracoceratops counter and still has a place on any end game team. 

Speaking of the ever present Dracoceratops, we noticed there is not any changes coming to that creature this patch. Hopefully changes to some of the other creatures make it easier to counter in the arena and we will have to see if it maintains its Tyrant status. We'll be breaking down the winners and losers based on these notes so make sure you keep an eye out for that!

We are really excited about the changes this patch. We believe this patch is going to result a major meta shift in the arena. Especially with the buffs to immune dinos as well as the changes to all of the Ceratopsian dinos. We'll be continuing our coverage of winners and loser as well as our prediction on the new meta so make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook where we will keep you up to date with information!  Make sure to join our discord for all the latest information and discussion as well!