The Finals update 1.5.5 has just dropped, and it's focused on bringing the powerful Medium class closer in line with its Light and Heavy companions.
The headline change in today's update to The Finals is to revives, which will now offer a post-resurrection invulnerability window of 0.75 seconds, down from 1.5. That'll apply to normal revives, but also to the Medium's Defibrillator gadget.
🛠️ We just rolled out another game update with some balance tweaks for weapons and gadgets, crash fixes, and an improvement to tournament matchmaking. Full notes below! 🛠️https://t.co/d7zg2TSgOB pic.twitter.com/UX57NgJ45wJanuary 24, 2024
Elsewhere, there are adjustments to several Medium weapons. The .357 Revolver will be slightly more accurate, but it'll now do less damage at distance. There's a buff to the Medium's CL-40 grenade launcher, but that comes in tandem with a nerf to the far more popular FCAR assault rifle. Arguably the most important nerf, however, is to the Guardian Turret, which is the bane of any Light foolish enough to reach an enemy cashpoint after an enemy Medium has finished setting up on it.
Other minor buffs have been applied to the Heavy's MGL machine gun, and the Light's Throwing Knives - but given the extent to which The Finals' squishest class was gutted by the game's last patch, I think I might be waiting for a little more before I give up my Heavy build.
It does seem as though Embark is trying to rein in Mediums with this patch. The class's ability to heal and revive allies quickly, as well as set up plentiful crowd control around cashpoints with the aforementioned turret and multiple other tools, means that it's become an ever-increasing stalwart in my experience of The Finals, particularly in tournaments. The Heavy's health pool might have made it a powerful class at the start of the game, but it does feel as though the Medium has taken the crown since then, especially with Lights out of the picture.
