[Feedback] Upcoming Balance Change MEGATHREAD

OK, I have to say something too

WW/WWE: Great changes. These cards will be dead, as they should be.
Firestorm: Why the change? This card never dominated the MP, and it's very important in SP. I guess the devs wanted to make the SP harder? Anyway, Range 5 is killing the card, as it's too close to the enemy warriors.
Why not range 7 at least?
NS/VT/DC: Great changes. What we'll see now is return of encumbrance, as encumbrance 2 will nullify all the step movement. That's great. Thus, I can predict the rise of Arrogant Armor warriors and elven warriors.
SPR: Why the change? The card was strong, but it couldn't win the game. Now it will become just crappy, as trading one card and the action to discard one opponent's card is simply bad.
WoS: I don't understand the need of change, but the new card will be probably more playable, especially by the long-range wizards.

OK, I can agree that SPR change could provide the warriors better chances against the wizards, but I still cannot agree with the Firestorm disqualification. This card was never easy to win with, especially vs. warriors, since they have more HPs and better armor compared to the wizards. Making it so crappy will nullify a huge number of items, as nobody wants to play the crappy cards.
There are currently 28 items with Firestorm, and most of them will be virtually destroyed. Note that VP will still remain quite playable, though not that overpowered - why do you destroy the double-Firestorm cards that many people have bought for a lot of gold?

 

I agree on Short Perplexing Ray being hurt maybe a bit too much. How about if you change the effect, to "Choose 2 cards in your opponent's hand; your opponent discards those cards and then draws 1 card." You can still strategically hinder your opponent, by choosing their hidden cards or their move cards/armor cards/etc, and with 3 range it is still limited.

*EDIT* There's two threads now? Well this is getting confusing.

 

I'm hearing some people talk about encumber changes, which seem key given all the other changes.

Can someone spell those out or point me to a thread discussing them?

 

Ok that is terrible, not because there shouldn't be a drawback to carrying tons of encumber cards but because I don't see them doing that without revealing what card it is when you try to move. Which for me kills any real form of strategy.

Go to move your wizard into position and not only can you not do so because you are encumbered yourself but it also paints a big neon sign over your char that say HEY GUYS LOOK AT ME I HAVE AN ENCUMBER CARD!!!!!!

 

I agree on Short Perplexing Ray being hurt maybe a bit too much. How about if you change the effect, to "Choose 2 cards in your opponent's hand; your opponent discards those cards and then draws 1 card." You can still strategically hinder your opponent, by choosing their hidden cards or their move cards/armor cards/etc, and with 3 range it is still limited.

I've had problems with Firestorm on the larger maps. First turn, all they need is 2 Firestorm, along with Savage Curse and a Nimbus or two. Absolutely devastating for 16 damage to my whole team before I can even reach the VP.

Encumber X: When you play a move card, reduce the move points by X. Only the highest value Encumber effect is applied that is attached to your character or in their hand.

 

Dude, ever since the first month I played Card Hunter, I would see my opponent move their wizard into position to sight one of my characters, and I would know they had a frost jolt without them showing anything. It's pretty obvious.

 

And 16 damage to the opponent's whole team as well, except for the Nimbused chars. If you have good armor, this can be even beneficial to you.
Anyway, if Firestorm becomes a problem, the devs just need to create an anti-fire armor for all classes. Then the firestormers will have to discard your armor first. Why to kill the Firestorm itself?

 

Oh. Encumber doesn't actually do that new thing that's been rumored. "Encumber in your hand" refers to things like Ill-Fitting Armor and Slowed, I think, not Frost Jolt.

 

Did you test this, Flaxative?

 

Yes.

EDIT: @Lucker and I just confirmed that encumber no longer stacks (you take the worst of the encumber effects on you), and that cards in your hand that can encumber do not encumber you (tested with Frost Jolt and Icy Block).

 

Just realized a weird thing with the Short Perplexing Ray nerf; you could target a friendly character with an empty hand to net them a card... hmm. That makes the nerf not as bad, but it still seems a little extreme.

 

Hah! It's a 'bigger' Lateral Thinking

 

Ok, thanks!

 

Dem rumors
So encumber will be nasty. Just as when I started MP and didn't have NS yet Good old times.

 

it is not only showing the opponent it is a freeze spell it is also showing them everything it isnt

 

OK so hold on...
Encumber reads, Whenever you move, subtract x move points from your move (if this card has the greatest encumber value of any card attached to your or in your hand.)

Now, the way it is worded is a problem.
This lead me to believe that simply holding Icy Block or Frost Jolt would encumber you. Also, Cone of Cold has lost the encumber tooltip.
It also leads me to believe that if you have 2 cards with equal encumber values you would get both effects subtracting at once.

So suggestion: Use Encumber for Frost Jolt and use a new keyword for Slowed and Ill-fitting armor that reflects this difference.

 

Don't always have to have anything sometimes you can just bluff with with a strong opening move or play like you have a card you don't actually have. Assuming you have an encumber is going to change how your opponent acts regardless of if you have one or not.

Phew, that sorta scared me. Not that I enjoy going up against an ice wiz just that I'd rather not have my cards (or lack of cards) revealed if they aren't trait cards. mini crisis averted

 

I agree it could use a bit of clarifying.

 

(This was fun reading the threads while they were being moved around. I think I read some posts 3 or 4 times!)

First of all, I'd like a month of testing on the test server to give us a chance to see the consequences of these changes.

Acrobatic Flip
Does it still move the attacker? That could make things interesting when Firestorming monkeys.

Slowed
This was already one of the least harmful drawbacks and didn't need a buff. Does it get boosted by Quickness Aura?

Defensiveness
Grounding Plates
Deadly Spark
Firestorm
SP just got much harder.

Invigorating Touch
I hope it gets changed so it actually counts as a gold card for priests (right now it's only gold for warriors).

Randimar
I agree with @Jade303: with the current system, I had to wait 9 months to get a Shielding Token; with only ten a week it's going to be insane. I'd prefer the current numbers (with maybe at least 2 legendaries a week?) and a "Spend 5 pizza to refresh" (maybe limit once per day).

(And I still think changing values to match effects is a better balancing method than changing effects to match values. Right now we have a pretty good idea how good each card is, but we won't know what these new cards will be for a while yet.)