“Hmmm….”
A woman is staring at the monitor in her room with a serious expression.
It’s a quiet, still space.
The only sounds are the occasional hums from her and the soft clicking of the mouse wheel.
The woman with glossy white hair is named Mun Ah. She is known as Kayak, a streamer who is broadcasting her usual content.
Today, Kayak is intently examining something with a very cautious look on her face. Her dark blue eyes, not visible to the viewers, rapidly scan the text on the monitor.
– The Snowflake Festival is starting!
A considerable amount of text with various illustrations.
It’s the Patch Note. She is currently reading the Patch Note which comes out every time there are new changes to the game.
‘Isn’t the white snow really beautiful? On days like this, my feet just move on their own.’
– New skin released: Snowflake Festival Camilla (Mythical) is available starting today.
Up to this point, everything is fine. The skin’s release was already anticipated, and since Kayak failed to win the movie watching draw, she has been eagerly waiting for the skin’s launch day.
The problem lies below.
In the section that says they changed various in-game elements and other minor things that had been mentioned in the presentation…
The most crucial part regarding the balance patch for each hero.
– Camilla
Increases the overall power of Camilla, who was showing weak performance.
Batman Tangdu (Q) Base damage 20/30/40/50/60 >> 30/40/50/60/70
…
From Camilla’s core skill, the Q skill, to her passive and defense.
They’ve touched upon quite a lot of things. One peculiar detail is that all the lengthy phrases are buffs.
From Eonix’s perspective, which usually adjusts hero balances based on statistics, this is a plausible patch. Statistically, Camilla always had poor records.
However, Kayak’s expression showed no signs of relief. She slightly frowned and kept staring at this particular part of the Patch Note for several minutes without saying a word, still wondering what the problem could be.
It was. And without saying a word.
The silence stretched on. The streamer, who was chattering away, suddenly seemed lost in deep thought, leaving viewers puzzled.
[What’s up with this person suddenly stunned?]
[Wow! Camilla buff!]
[Is Camilla finally going Tier 1?]
[‘Camilla becomes a goddess.’]
[How long has it been?! Is Eonix really starting to take care of Camilla?]
[This must also be thanks to Kayak… ]
[An all-time great skin comes out and immediately gets a buff ㅋㅋ It’s so blatant it’s actually off-putting.]
[Right? They released the skin and made her good, so it’s just a hurry to purchase.]
[If they end up with good stats again, they’ll probably hit her with a nerf harder than the buff.]
[They give and take back~]
[There have been so many heroes turned into stagnant puddles like this that it can’t even be called unfair now.]
[Is that why the teacher doesn’t like it?]
[There are already a lot more Camilla users because of Kayak, and it looks like it’ll increase even more.]
[Now we have to warn people in advance that Camilla will be picked in the draft ㅋㅋ]
[Who would’ve thought such a day would come for Camilla… ]
[Hey, while they’re at it, can they just fix the fear to last an extra 0.1 seconds? Damn it.]
[That’s definitely not getting fixed ㅇㅇ]
While viewers were sharing various impressions and speculations, Kayak finally opened her mouth.
*
Perhaps due to being overwhelmed by such a huge shock, she left the viewers hanging for quite a while.
Fortunately, it didn’t seem like there were many unhappy people.
While it was true that there had been a lot of new faces lately, fundamentally, my room mostly housed Abyss users. They, too, were as sensitive to patch notes as I was.
In that respect, this patch, the buff for Camilla, was a significant matter for them as well. This buff didn’t just seem like a minor tweak; it clearly had a considerable impact.
[You can roughly tell the tier just by looking at the chat ㅋㅋ]
[If you’re going to refute someone’s opinion, put your tier in front and go for it.]
[There are pros out there, and yet these guys act like they’re the authorities.]
[These guys definitely have never played Camilla.]
[For real, there are so many clowns who pretend to be part of the Camilla fan club but have only heard about her. LOL]
As I opened my mouth to address the heated discussion,
“First of all, could you all stop fighting… Yes. I was just trying to think for a second. My head’s all jumbled up. It’s pretty complex. There are pros and cons. This is a discussion that includes everything you guys mentioned.”
I continued speaking to calm the heated chat.
“The buff… it’s pretty significant. For sure, we’ll have to test it in-game to know for certain, but I think the range of play we can do will be broader in terms of damage and defense overall.”
“But like someone mentioned earlier, it is a bit inconvenient. If they could have done this, they should’ve buffed it long ago instead of releasing a skin first… It feels too transparent, right?”
“On the bright side, the user base will definitely increase. That’s good news. Camilla was already seeing a steady rise in pick rates, but now with a new skin and a buff, we’re going to see new Karin players popping up. How did I know the pick rate was increasing? I check the stats every week on the stats website.”
[What if the Teacher loses Camilla?]
[Come on, but with structural issues, we almost only play Kayak even when we reach the celestial level.]
[Isn’t she showing up in tournaments?]
[No need for brain rot; what tournament?]
[Seriously, just because she got a buff doesn’t mean she’ll be in tournaments, lol.]
[Tournament picks are pretty tough though.]
[How does the Broadcast Host even play Camilla at that tier?]
[Hmm, yeah, yeah, it’s a good thing more Camilla followers are popping up.]
[So what’s the conclusion?]
“The conclusion is… I just hope she doesn’t get nerfed. Everything else is just secondary issues.”
It’s like taking a candy away and then slapping a band-aid on the spot, the classic Eonix-style ‘I don’t care’ patch.
It’s a name given to the way buffs and nerfs are dished out intuitively without even playing certain heroes.
Whenever the devs get wrecked by a hero, that hero gets nerfed while their favorite heroes periodically get buffed.
It’s a persistent urban legend among users and a conspiracy theory with quite a bit of credibility. After all, statistically, some heroes have consistently held their spots in the top tier.
It was predetermined.
Camilla was the daughter of Eonix.
“Anyway, I hope this time Camilla becomes Eonix’s daughter.”
[Is that even possible? LOL]
[Who knows, maybe they’ll treat her nicely now that she has a skin?]
[Eonix only gives skins to the ones they like.]
[Camilla was neglected for years and just got her skin now.]
[Does that mean they’ll actually treat her well from now on?~~]
[Back then, getting a skin was quite the challenge…]
[Gimme more skins of all types!]
[Day 1 of wishing for Bunny Girl Camilla’s release.]
“Is the patch applied? I’ll buy the skin today, review it, and feel the buffs while playing. If necessary, I might even rework my build a bit.”
Saying that, they launched Abyss. It felt like it had been ages since they last played, due to various reasons.
After the patch, the login screen was snowing to match the Snowflake Festival theme.
And right in the center stood Camilla, upright like a doll, striking poses like a piece of art. They couldn’t help but admire her elegant and beautiful posture.
“The skin is seriously well-made… They should’ve done this sooner— I keep saying this, but what’s done is done. What matters is the future, right? If they keep this up, I’ll really bury myself in Abyss.”
Nodding in satisfaction, they logged in and immediately purchased the skin.
*
And with the new skin, they were ready to start ranked matches with a fresh feeling.
Not long after starting the game, they sensed something was off.
“Wait, hold on. Guys. Something feels weird?”
[??? Why?]
[It’s just another carry show from the usual carry machine Kayak.]
[Whoa, LOL, Mammoth Tongs ㅅㅂ LOL]
[Is Camilla not cold in winter?]
[The hero of Abyss has a lore that ignores the cold.]
[That outfit really is something;;]
[Is there a problem?]
[The snow version looks pretty, yeah.]
[I can’t hold back, I’m getting it too.]
[Are you feeling the buffs?]
While the viewers seemed oblivious, they had played Camilla so much and were attentive to every detail, they could tell.
“They gave her way too big of a buff…?”
Eonix had done messed up.
