So when you said "extremely bad Unreliable Block that's hard to get rid of." you actually meant "that's a bad card to have in your hand." Gotcha.
Nope. I was under a false assumption that having a card in my hand prevents me from drawing the other cards
Thank you very much. Still, drawing an Unreliable Block in a battle instead of a useful card can cost you a game.
But having one could win you a game when it triggers? Whenever you lose there is always going to be what if but the fact is an unreliable block in your deck is a small price to pay for ns IMO people use worse the barge on white glow I would trade for unreliable block every time.
The Barge works every time, not just with 1/6 chance. The Barge can move enemy character out of victory area and save your game. It can save your priest by pushing the enemy warrior away. It can push the enemy character on lava. Unreliable Block is just a signal to your opponent that your char is weakened and can be killed.
I mean, it's clear that some cards are better than others. If anything else, I love how much care BM put into designing objects: in most cases, good cards come along bad-ish ones, although this goes even further, as most "bad" cards still got some uses (i.e. the Unreliable Block can still roll against all odds when you most need it, adding to the tension and excitement, and Barge is pretty "meh" compared to what you ideally want on a weapon, but still is a great tool in the right circumstances). Even with the absolute top-items (the ones coming with good/great cards and no bad cards) usually are less commonly available and more expensive on the tokens side of things. So, in short, deck-building gets to be this involved process, where you're making tough decisions at all the times. I guess this post really is meant to be mor of a "big props" to the devs more than anything else
I should admit that Nimble Strike is poorly designed alas The good card design should provide a niche to various warrior strategies; now we have only Nimble Strikes and, to the lesser extent, Vicious Thrusts. Combining step 4 with attack for 6 is much more powerful than any other attack. Plus, it also serves as a remedy versus encumber and movement effects.
Poorly designed? I don't think so. Especially when you think about it being a rare (mostly comes with epic+ gear) and expensive card. Also, I don't think ns is overly monopolizing the meta-game. I can see how it's a popular choice for some warrior builds, but I do see all kinds of warrior decks being played in the rank 1000-1600 range. Some of those being centered on huge mobility, others on heavy hitting attacks, and many others on all different kinds of stuff. No matter how you put it, you can't stock a warrior with ns unless you give up on either hard-hitting cards or survivability. And that's assuming you have access to all those rare ns items to begin with. Lastly, a card being popular isn't enough to mark it as "poorly designed" I feel.
I don't know at what rank you are, but I can tell you without hesitating that at the 1600-1700 rank NS IS monopolizing the meta. 3/4 of my games are against warriors carrying 1 or 2 VP and/or lochabers. Most of the players that are up in the rank is because half of the cards they have in their decks are NS. Even in the 1500 rank you find several players with VPs and lochabers. About design, I also have to disagree with you. NS is the main problem in the actual mp, that is old news. The fact that an item like VP that provides you with 6 NS gives you so much advantage over the rest of the players that don't have one is bad design. It doesn't matter if it's rare or not, VP shouldn't exist. Lochabers are op but at least they have 2 very week cards to compensate. VP doesn't make sense. It gives your dwarf warrior the ability to run all over the map without taking into account his low movility. NS is the best card in the game. Period. And if you put an item that has 6 of them, that is bad design. What we can discuss is if NS should be nerfed, or if NS would be ok if VP and Lochaber Axe wouldn't exist. If NS only appeared once per weapon and with other bad cards to balance it like it happens with Excellent Rapier, I would be ok with it. It would still be the best card in the game, but no player could fill his build with NS. And you don't have to give up any hard-hitting cards. It's the opposite way, actually. As with VP alone you pretty much cover the step attacks you need for your warrior, you can put some heavy attack weapons on the other 2 slots, being Infused Greatclub the most common example. So they usually have one NS in their hand to reach one character and check for blocks, with some 14-17 attack card to follow the attack. On the other hand, if you don't have a VP, you have to make space in the 3 weapon's slots to have a decent amount of good step attacks to be competitive (as big attacks are useless if you can't reach them), so there is when you lose the big attacks, as you can't have any weapon without step attacks. I have some new weapons that I would like to use, like Bloodchopper and Shieldripper, but I can't afford to equip them because I don't have a VP and I only have 2 Lochabers.
This is a clear sign of a poor design, since the new players have no access to the strongest cards. The game designers obviously tried to make some good items available to everyone; that's why some good weapons are uncommon or even common. Every warrior is better with 6 or more step attacks, especially NS. The rest attacks may be heavy-hitting, long-ranged or even bashing - it doesn't matter. You either have NS and do well or not have it and perform poorly. Why? Because sometimes you need fast movement, and sometimes you need the attacks, and only NS provides both. As I've told, most successful builds have NS for consistency + some other attacks to taste. That isn't a sign of a good design. Many cards are popular, but no card is as versatile as NS. It can beat encumbrance, it can allow you to quickly reach the victory area, it combines fast movement with a decent attack.
I'm just a humble 1300-1400 player, but even there 6+ step attacks are mandatory for a warrior. I generally use Lochaber + Bejeweled Shortsword. Thanks Jacques, I feel absolutely the same. I also have Shieldripper, plus Petochl's Sword and many other interesting weapons, including the weapons with non-attack cards. But I cannot play them, since any build without step attacks is doomed! So I have to play Lochabers, Bejeweled, etc. etc.
Yeah, I even have 2 The Strongarm, so I tried using them along with Lochaber+Bejewelled but in the 1700 having only 3 NS and 3 VS attacks is not enough at all. I suspect in the 1300-1400 you could do well with Lochaber+BS, though, as NS is rarer there. Maybe Sharp Spetum replacing BS to have one more VS could help you.
Thanks, I was using The Strongarm and Beater, but switched to Maquah Of Ancient Blood and The Hackmaster. I have some nice legendary weapons too And both my warriors have Sliding Boots. The problem with VT (you've meant Vicious Thrust?) isn't enemy NS, it's enemy freezing. Step 2 is completely negated by encumbrance, Step 4 isn't. So I guess I will use White Katana soon...
Yeah, I feel you. You can't compare Vicious Thrust with NS, but maybe having one VS more could be usuful anyway. It's a step attack at least. Nice legendaries! I only have Strongarm and Beater from there. I use Savvy Attacker for Team Run, as I can't afford using a major token for boots, and Savvy Attacker is much better than a blue-token boot with Team Run, as it gives you 2 traits. But Sliding Boots are awesome.
Not necessarily, I generally roam around 1400 range with human 2war/1prst. 1 war has 3 step attack (1 VT and 2 dancing cut) and the other has only 2 (2 VT, that one does use a lot of stabs though). Overall though I agree NS is just too good. It nullifies encumber, can bypass blocks, a free dash if you need it. Primarily the reason I play less and less mp these days once you start going 1400+ you're pretty much guaranteed to be facing multiple teams of dwarf wars packing tons of NS, it gets so stale facing the same high tier decks again and again. That and whirlwind, I like the idea of it but think it should be a limited aoe (say within 4-5 spaces or so, that way, it can still be an O' SH-@! button but can't be used first thing in a match to say, whirl the enemy wizard team right next to your warriors for easy chopping. NS creates a "if you can't beat em join em" mentality, as these high level players attest the meta is absolutely dominated by 1 card, showing a skewed balance. The common theme both whirl and NS share is they can both nullify your opponents positioning to a large extent, which is a huge factor in winning games.
Well, the same could be said for a lot of different builds: vampire/mf priest -> you see them a lot. Control wiz -> you see them a lot. Etc. Etc. It's not like there is no response to ns. Pushback Parry is pretty good at dealing with ns and step attacks in general, for example. Also, I wouldn't say encumber is useless against ns. Rather, encumber can help you deal with the ultra-mobile ns builds. Now, if encumber was enough to nullify all kinds of strats, that would make encumber itself pretty broken, isn't it? I'll reiterate my thought. I would say ns is a pretty solid card. But, again, stocking on ns means you are likely to compromise on other cards, so it's not like ns builds are a no brainer. The fact a build is both popular and effective doesn't make a card imbalanced. I can clearly remember All Out Attack + Obliterating Bludgeon combo being all the rage a few months back, but even then the meta is always moving. Maybe try and play less "in your face" and rather outsmart the ns player, it can be done. I would consider WW/WWE way, way more broken than ns.
You rarely see 3DC in the top rank, and you never see vampire. The only thing you see is 2 war 1 priest or 2 war 1 wizard, both carrying tons of NS. I repeat, maybe you don't see it because you are lower in the rank. And I'm not saying that the low or medium rank doesn't matter, don't get me wrong. In fact, low and medium rank is much funnier these days because all the different builds you can find. What I'm saying is that you have to see what the top players are using to see if a card is broken or not, because they are the ones that are winning consistently. If there is an item like Vibrant Pain that it's a no brainer (meaning that nobody will hesitate to equip it if he has it), it means that item is imbalanced, and that is bad design. The meta will never adjust to this. It isn't a matter of the meta moving. Vibrant Pain was the best item from the beggining of the game. If you don't believe me, just check the older threads, june or july 2013 I think. The thing is that nobody had it back then. Now, the problem gets worse and worse every day it passes as more people get lucky and obtain VP from chests or Randimar's. And as it's a no brainer, they obviously use it. Everytime I find someone at the 1700 rank that I didn't know, I say: "mmh, he must have a Vibrant Pain or 2". And guess what, he does! Getting VP means inflating your rank 200 or 300 points (unless you play horribly). How is possible that a single item is capable of doing such thing? The best solution imo is nerfing NS. The other solution would be to release new cards that could counter ns some way, But I doubt this is going to happen. The only card the devs introduced as a counter to NS in the AoA set is Pushback Parry, but there is no way to counter ns with this card simply because you never have enough of them to deal with the 9-12 ns your opponent has. The only hope I had was Entangling Roots, I thought they were going to put this card in some better items, as it could be a good counter. Or maybe create a ER burst 1 card, or something like that. But they didn't. At this point, when so much has been said about this problem by so many players, I just don't get how the devs don't react to this. I'm thinking of leaving the game if they don't nerf ns by the end of the pvp season, because playing mp these days at the top rank is getting really boring.
