[AotA] Expansion PVP cards discussion and feedback

This thread is for testers to discuss and feedback pvp based cards from the AotA expansion. Added in card comparisons and items found for easy reference. Some comparisons are straightforward, some not. Feel free to agree/disagree. Also, cards listed are not final and will be subjected to dev changes and balances. That's what this thread is for: playtesting, brainstorming combos, breaking stuff, feedback etc.

Kindly refrain from posting meta predictions, half-truths, untested conclusions, essay length whines etc... Thanks.

AotA exp 40 new pvp cards distribution:
a) 4 armors
b) 1 hybrid armor, boost
c) 5 assists
d) 20 attacks
e) 2 Blocks
f) 3 Boosts
g) 4 Moves
h) 1 utility

Barbed Platemail
compare with Spiked Mail. (Heavy Armor, Divine Armor)

Mystical Drakehide, Mystical Wyrmhide
compare with Arrogant Armor. (Robes)

Sparkling Cloth Armor
compare with Elven Maneuvers. (Boots, Robes)

Quickness Aura
compare with Rushing Aura. (Helm, Boots, Heavy Armor, Martial Skill)

Healing Benediction
compare with Healing Presence. (Divine Armor, Divine Weapon, Divine Item, Divine Skill)

Impetuous Heal
compare with Healing Pulse and Inspiring Presence. (Divine Weapon)

Stone Feet
compare with Reliable Hide Armor, Immovable. (Divine Armor, Divine Weapon, Divine Item)

Triple Heals
compare with Twin Heals. (Divine Armor, Divine Weapon, Divine Item, Divine Skill)

Wings of Faith
compare with Flight Aura. (Divine Armor, Divine Weapon, Divine Item)

Arcane Beam
compare with Flame Jet (Staff)

Arcane Burst
compare with Ember Burst (Staff, Arcane Skill)

Controlled Overswing
compare with Violent Overswing. (Weapon, Divine Weapon)

Feinting Strike
compare with Skillful Strike. (Weapon, Divine Weapon)

Flash of Agony
compare with Flash of Pain. (Staff)

Force Cannon
compare with Force Bolt (Arcane Item, Staff, Arcane Skill)

Illusory Barrier
compare with Wall of Illusion (Arcane Item, Staff)

Impetuous Blast
compare with Flash of Pain, Flash of Agony, Touch of Death(Staff)

Impetuous Slash
compare with Berserk Spin. (Weapon)

Instant Burn
UNIQUE. (Staff)

Arcing Spark
Compare with Jumpspark

Jumpspark
compare with Arcing Spark (Staff, Arcane Skill)

Magma Spray
compare with Burning Fingers, Ember Spray, Fire Spray (Arcane Item, Staff, Arcane Skill)

Melt Armor
compare with War Cry. (Staff)

Pressing Bash
compare with Able Bash. (Weapon, Divine Weapon)

Punishing Bolt
compare with Touch of Death. (Staff)

Punishing Strike
compare with Touch of Death. (Weapon, Divine Weapon)

Purging Strike
compare with Purge. (Divine Armor, Divine Weapon)

Startling Strike
compare with Dissolve Armor, War Cry. (Weapon, Divine Weapon)

Sundering Strike
compare with Shredding Strike. (Weapon, Divine Weapon)

Unnerving Strike
compare with Dissolve Armor, War Cry. (Weapon, Divine Weapon)

Bloodied Block
compare with Wounded Block. (Shield, Weapon, Human Skill, Dwarf Skill)

Pushback Parry
compare with Parry (Shield, Staff, Weapon, Divine Weapon)

Crusher
compare with Arcane Aura, Bruiser, Bash (Martial Skill)

Elven Maneuvers
compare with Pathfinding, Slippery. (Elf Skill)

Hot Flames
compare with Kindler, Firestarter. (Arcane Skill)

Brutal Charge
compare with Charge. (Boots, Elf Skill, Dwarf Skill)

Elven Trickery
compare with Dangerous Manuever, Flanking Move, Cowardly. (Elf Skill)

Elvish Scamper
compare with Elvish Mobility. (Elf Skill)

Healing Dash
compare with Muscle through. Stacks with Talented Healer to compare against Quick Step and Quick Run. (Boots, Elf Skill)

Purging Burst
compare with Purge. (Divine Armor, Divine Weapon, Divine Item)

 

There are currently no player-obtainable items containing these cards. All items having them are tagged with "noLoot". There is no way to draw them into your characters' hands as far as I know. This makes discussing them more theoretical and PvP play with them impossible.

 

Noted, thanks. Edited OP with noLoot for said cards.

 

Sorry, I accidentally seem to have deleted Controlled Overswing from my list. That's also one of the noLoot cards.

 

Jarmo, your list was incorrect. For example, Illusory Barrier can be found on this item:

(From http://test.cardhunter.com/data/gameplay/Equipment/Equipment.csv)

edit: oh, nvm, I see the "noLoot" tag in there

 

I'm still looking over the new cards, but I will say that my first impression of Illusory Barrier is that it seems ridiculously-OP. Especially with items like this:

Sure, all of its items are legendary, but if you can eventually equip a wizard with ~18-20 Illusory Barriers, averaging 1 drawn per turn (even without the aid of a drawbot), it would be able to lock down the entire board pretty easily because it has duration 3.

Throw in a Whirlspamming wizard, and your opponent will never be able to touch you.

 

Is Elven Trickery blockable? If not, that also seems unusually powerful. (A single use could be expected to reliably discard 10+ damage, and it works on your initiative, so it's strictly better than any block.)

 

Punishing Strike can be very strong against bosses in SP. Against the dragon it gets close to Almighty Hack levels.

Warriors added a couple of strong single token weapons, Blackeye Hammer at rare could be seen as better than the Beater . Maquah Of Ancient Blood is also a strong option.

Wizards got an interesting no token staff in the Trog Melter , Melt Armor is a good armor destroyer and you get 3 for no token cost.

I want to try Instant Burn but fire still seems to require too many cards to stack up before you can do good damage. This also added at least 3 epic arcane skills items that I've seen so far, the first epic skills we've seen in the game. Sadly, these seem to be a bit of a miss, they all offer the new Hot Flames and two rare attacks. The common skill with 3 traits seems far better.

Pushback Parry is very good for it's quality. This also makes Weak Parry a really poor rare.

Haven't seen much that excites me for priests in this release.

 

Hot Flames is buggy (doesn't do anything) ATM so it'll be hard to get playtest data on that before it's fixed.

Oberon—I've played with Instant Burn in singleplayer and it's sweet. It's especially awesome with Firestarter. I don't know if it'll be PvP viable but it's definitely a fun and cool card for PvE.

 

I've tested all the cards listed in OP. My tots to the questions so far:

Illusory Barrier is simply Wall of illusion with a longer duration. Virtually the same mechanics. It almost as powerful as Wall of Stone but the biggest plus is that it works even better with Winds of War and almost on par with Acid terrains.

Its not blockable. Behaves like a Cowardly with AoE, except that its a disabler for elves only.

Agreed, ditto for Punishing Bolt.

I've tested Instant Burn, it works with Kindler and Firestarter and all the other Burning Cards. But not with lava terrain, still great for pyromancers.

fyi:
Altruism - Purging Burst, Lockdown Blessing, Triple Heals, Impetuous Heal and Healing Benediction
Healing Spirit - Triple Heals
Talented Healer - Triple Heals, Healing Benediction, Healing Dash

Healing Benediction stacks with Healing Presence.

Nothing exciting per card but with what already exists, its a solid expansion, imo.

 

The expansion also gives player characters Touch of Pain for the first time, which is a vamp card worthy of note. But IIRC it's not on any PvP-playable items.

 

According to the eq list, there are 2 items with it. Both Divine items with 1 flagged noLoot. I guess vamps are tricky, easily OP in the right hands...caution warranted

 

My guess is elf vamps will want to run these two (boots and elf skill):

 

Damn, I came to post about Sparkling Cloth Armor and then got sidetracked...

Sparkling Cloth Armor: Armor 1. Keep. When you take damage, you Move 3.
Winds of War: Arcane attack 1 dam, range 6. Choose up to 2 targets. Slide 3.

Right now, SCA works with allied damage which puts it on par with WoW. The question here is, which card has a better card advantage ?

WoW gives a max of 2 Runs to 2 chars per use.
SCA gives a max of 1 Run per source of damage. With a max of 3 damage sources during attachment phase, you move up to 9 squares max per char.

 

Yeah, the new build is up and all of the cards are now obtainable on the test server. Phaselock, the noLoot tags above are now obsolete.

 

I can confirm this. One of my accounts got Barbed Platemail and Lockdown Blessing from his daily chest.

 

Yeah new cards are out. I opened a bunch of new chests today and saw many new items.

Lockdown doesn't seem to be working. I have to use ctrl click to target anyone, and when I did they still moved. Really looking forward to this, as it appears to be the best new priest option.

Fireball is back!!!

Elven trickery is every bit as good as it looks. I finished leveling up an all elven party today (priest, 2Xwarriors), elven trickery was amazing all the way through the lvl 17 adventures. Granted I had 3 of the legendary with 2 of the cards, so that was a big part of it. But it was very powerful when you can move up next to an opponent (say an ogre or dragon) force them to discard their attacks and then jump on him with everything you've got. I don't think it's OP, elves need the love, but will be curious what can be done with it in PVP.

The first rare trait, warrior's Crusher, seems like it will be popular. Though, I've only found it on a legendary item so far.

Quickness aura looks interesting for dwarves. Pretty much non-existent armor with a really powerful ability. It shows up on a wide range of item types, but I haven't found anything that doesn't require a power token yet. It's low enough quality that should be possible, and that's where warrior would want it costed.

 

Staff of the Fire God is crazy. O_O