Card Nerf: Why I think Nerfing Accelerate Time is a big Mistake

Cardhuntrian seers have prophetized that changes to card texts will be forthcoming this summer. And while some implementations make a lot of sense (such as changing telekinesis from teleport to fly [flyekinesis?] and buffs to so far unused blocks) others may make more or less sense., but one nerf makes no sense at all in my modest view: Accelerate Time


ACCELERATE TIME
This is what is anticipated on the Dev's blog: "

I find the argument of "complaints" rather weak, in the sense that there is nearly always someone that complains about something. In the case of nerfing Burfft, for instance, the decision to take action is based on solid data:

. And I think we all agreed that Burfftt needed some sort of nerf (while disagreeing on how to go about it). This is because, it was evident that on certain map rotations players playing burft had some an advantage [not a huge advantage, based on my personal statistics burft improved my win rate by about 13-14%.].

In any case, players playing burftt topped the charst for a couple of seasons, so there is hard evidence that it was a strong [overpowered?] build. But where are all these top-rate players playing Accelerate Time? In fact, where are the players playing Accelerate Time? I may hit an accelerate time deck every 40-50 games I play..if the card is so strong that it needs nerfing why is nobody playing it?

The truth is that a card needs nerfing when it casues an imbalance in the game. I personally don't like and don't play accelerate time already as it is, decks running it can be very powerful if they get the right combination of cards, but they are easily overcome when this does not happen. On the whole they are incosistent, which is why you don't see many players playing them (I recall only 2 players playing AT in the past 3 months!). Moreover, accelerate time decks are already subject to sprint teams and rushes as it is, without the need for nerfing the card further..

So, in sum, I think nerfing Accelerate Time would kill a card that sees little play-time as it is, let alone if it was nerfed. Players (most at least) tend to play what helps them win, and if AT was so strong, we'd see more of it. Therefore, and this is obviously just my opinion, if something is not broken it does not need fixing!

Just my 2 cents

 

This guy gets it.

 

Gotta agree. With this change, accel goes from niche to unplayable. I get the feeling that a lot of whining about volc has come from newer players who don't realise the critical nature of retaining moves to react; they rush in, run out of moves and get ganked hard.

There's pretty much only three maps I see much volc on, anyway: Waterways, Central Processing and Barrels.

Maybe a solution would be a drop from emerald to gold, idk. I do know that I won't be playing it (barely did, anyway, just a troll build on Central). And the players who are complaining about volc, maneuvres and burrft will be complaining about nimble dwarves and AoA humans before the month is out, bookmark it.

 

This would also make the card more complicated, which is rarely a good thing. I loved the balance the "Frenzy" mechanism gave us, but hated its poor transparency.

 

Maybe top players aren't playing AT because they're playing burfft instead? 2 posts ago it's even declared AT will become "unplayable". Time will tell but I doubt it. It encourages more active play and can even make AT better at times: you can position your team so that your warrior with burning attachments/Blind Rage won't be within 5 squares from your mage.

 

In theory that's true, but in practice it's usually suicide to position your mage 5 squares away from your other characters while also within 5 squares of your opponent's characters.

 

I was just about to say the same thing, the idea that the nerf would make card better and "encourage" mages to get near warriors (what kind of mage wants to do that? One with festering guts?!) makes no sense...

I also disagree that this has anything to do with burfft, the only player (who was probably one of best players in game) who hit 1700+ with AT build was Billiska, that was about 8 months ago and he soon dropped the build (which was as good as an AT build can get) because of its inconsistency.

I like facing opponents who play AT, gets you to think differently about your game strategy and think it would be a shame to see this card go into the bin. To be clear, I'm not against a NERF in toto, I think widening the nerf range to something like 8 squares would help balance it for certain maps (because that's what the DEV's concern is really about as you can tell from the other NERFS) while keeping it viable.

 

I'd just have accelerate time not trigger terrain attachments. Or reduce them by 1 upon being triggered by AT.

 

I think the first idea would break it, the second is interesting and definetly worth considering.

 

The Accelerate Time nerf isn't even a big one, you need to keep your Wizards close to each other most of the time to cover yourself more effectively with control cards. If anything the nerf will encourage people playing this card to play smarter.

 

Your'e not considering that you have to have the wizard holding AT 5 squares from your opponents if you want to affect them, which is suicide in most cases (this is the same as Dash distance from an Elf Warrior most of the time - not including blocking and difficult terrain).

Hey I did that too in Citajul But yeah, it's quite inconsistent. I've tried a lot of combinations with it and I still can't get it to work super consistently. My assessment of it now is kind of like Volcano, it's not going to be consistently at the top if it's your primary strategy. It's better as an add-on, like having the odd Flame Warper or Reality Warper in a fire or cano deck.

 

Personally the change to Accelerate Time is one that I'm not too thrilled about but for the most part wouldn't have changed how I played it too much. I think the primary reason it is getting nerfed is because of RNG. A stupid awesome opening hands can pretty much wipe out an enemy team in the first round.

Tho that opening hand needs to consist of at least one volcano and two accelerate times, plus either a bless or multiple move cards. It also relies on your opponent not having ANY way to counter it. I think when I used to run Accel/Volc I pulled off ~24pts of damage across someones entire team in one round exactly once. I eventually ditched it because there where more effective ways for my wizard to actually deal damage and be more utilitarian than play "wait/hope the enemy runs out of moves before me and has no steps/team shifts/smokescreens/Illusions(if close together)/etc". Which really doesn't work when you are stacked with not but Volcano and have an angry step warrior breathing down your neck.

Usually when I encounter multiple wizards.... I simply assume volcano (or control) and play as if they have Volcano until they are dead. The other thing about Volcano is generally if someone gets you with it once, you conserve moves in the event they might play it again.

Again the only thing I think this might change since generally the cards tend to take a little while to rotate around/collect is you won't be able to use that once in a blue moon devastating opening hand card combo. In most games tho by the time you get the cards you need to pull that off things have gotten down to being fairly close quarters anyhow.

Similarly to how I don't really like the change to Telekinesis but I so seldom actually threw people through walls that significantly slowed them down that the change to fly really doesn't seem like it would change too much of how I used it on a regular basis.

The change that still gets me is the change to Flash Of Agony, it's like slapping a spell that requires LOS with all the downsides of Firestorm without the benefit of not requiring LoS. But that is probably a topic for another topic

 

Being five squares away from your opponent is suicide? What?

 

For a volcano wiz to go withing 5 squares of his enemies would probably be stupid most of the time, but the enemies are gonna come to to the wiz so there might be an opportunity to use the Accelrate Time anyway.

 

It's off topic but LOS damage can be an advantage -> Good positioning = you hit yourself + 3 enemies

@FinalCheetah yeah it is pretty suicidal as VLamona and others are saying, have you tried playing Accelerate Time builds?

that can be solved by narrowing the range, but keeping it more than 5 squares ( 6-8 ? )

 

I ran an accelerate time speed draw build last rotation but I don't understand the range 5 thing. Do people not realize that control cards exist or something?

 

I've been out for a bit so I didn't see this, but I did want to throw in my two cents on the issue - before the rotation to the AI maps, I played a very successful AT team that had me hovering in the low to mid 1700s for pretty much the entire time I played it. AT was VERY powerful, allowing me to sometimes deal as much as 40 or 50 damage in the FIRST ROUND of the game when in combination with the right cards. I had one perfect storm of a game where I managed to get Vulnerable or Combustible on each of my opponents characters in the first round, and dealt them 20, 17, and 17 damage respectively with Glob of Fire and two Accells - and then drew into a Instant Burn, via Unholy Energy, which dealt another 14, 7, and 7 (killing their dwarf warrior, and leaving their other two characters at 1 and 5 hp). Then the turn ended, and everyone died. . While that level of damage output was not super consistent, when it happened, I'm sure it didn't feel good to play against it - you used your moves to press forwards towards the VPs, and then your world becomes fire, without any real way for you to respond.

I think the goal is like with the Firestorm nerfs, though perhaps less obviously critical. Accelerate Time does not, at the moment, have any really interesting counterplay options. Its very easy to hold on to it, hard to predict how consistently its going to be drawn, and the only meaningful thing you can do to stop it is purge attachments and terrain, which are so plentiful in well constructed decks that if you want to stop it essentially all one of your characters is doing is purging. Because you still don't need LoS, certain map rotations will still find it very powerful, but at least now you have to think when you're using it.

 

Thanks for input on the matter @Inkfingers I have not really played much AT so good to have your feedback. 2 questions: would you not think that a slightly wider range would accomplish the same task and make the card viable (say something between 6-8 squares) and would you still run an AT build if it was nerfed down to 5 range (please give sincere thoughths!) Thanks!

 

/me can't help but notice this thread...

Fwiw, when I played AT builds, the counterplay was pretty much always both chars loading up terrain and character attachments, making it difficult to want to play AT after someone had already set up for it. Of course, I'd only gotten up to the 1400s or so with an AT+Rad Spray+Burning party when the world turned upside down (AI maps came in, Purge changed function), thus I can't speak for high-rankers.

 

I suppose what I was saying was that I agree with the logic behind the nerf, even if I don't know how much the nerf will impact the card's usability. I haven't tested it rigorusly enough to actually be certain, but I'd guess if the map rotation I played Accell in came back around, I'd probably start rolling the same team again, even with the nerf. However, that's just a guess - I'd be happy to test out Accell if someone wants to schedule some time on the Test server with me...

But I guess the gist is that Accell right now, with good setup, can reliably do 10-15 damage to the enemy team at any range, and that's pretty rad, even if it does require a bit of work ahead of time. And it'll still do comparable damage post-nerf, you'll just have to be a little closer to do it... which you were probably going to be anyways, what with all the good range 5 fire attacks. There will be some edge cases where you want to be further and cant, and people will be able to flee from you if you suspect its coming, but that just means you're fleeing from a wizard, which, unless you're another wizard, isn't generally a good idea.