Stexe's Comprehensive Balance Analysis

Hello, everyone! I've been going over the balance changes coming up and stuff that's been missed. Feel free to leave your thoughts and if there's something you feel I've missed.

Part 1 of 4: Balance Changes General / Problem Areas

Economy:

Shop:
Daily deal is a great idea, although I'd go farther and suggest reducing the gold price by 5% to 10% for that shop. That will encourage people to check daily and to possibly get pizza to convert into gold. Plus it would actually fit the idea of a "deal."
Randimar giving 10 Legendaries, 10 Epics, and 10 Rare per week has a weird distribution. I'd heavily suggest changing it to 5 Legendaries, 10 Epics, and 15 (or even 20) Rare per week. 10 Legendaries per week is a HUGE change from the current structure -- I'd say it might be something to eventually go to, but right now testing with just 5 per week on live would be much better.

Pizza-to-Gold Conversion:
Change it to AT LEAST 10 gold per pizza. Maybe even 15 gold per pizza (which would make a Legendary item cost about $5). Heck, you could even go to 20 gold per pizza if you REALLY wanted to make it a good deal (although that might be a bit much). People will probably complain that the game has become "pay-2-win" but they'll do that with any economy change. This would allow people who don't want to farm a ton to get pizza to buy items that are decent. Would heavily recommend this with the changes to the shops.


System Mechanisms:

Encumber: Unsure on this change yet. Will have to do more testing once the game state is more balanced with other issues being addressed. Seems like a healthy change overall as things aren't so binary (either you can move or you can't). This definitely is problematic towards Humans as they get the raw end of the deal and are already the weakest race.

Impassable Terrain: Being able to target it and use AoE on top of it is awesome. I've been asking for that for a LONG time so it is glad to finally see it implemented. This could make some AoE attacks a lot stronger, but I don't think it will be a large issue.

Draw Limits: At 10 per turn they are basically ignorable. Unsure on the actual implementation to curb unlimited draw deck and other niche things. I'll comment after more testing and problem areas are fixed.

Problem Areas: These need to be dealt with before any meaningful changes can be made. Right now these are dominating the game and obscure other changes from being analyzed.

Harness (Stacking): Change to "One Harness may be kept from round to round" and then rename "Officer Harness" so it has its unique properties of stacking. This means that armor stacking and harnesses are still decent, but you can't stockpile them for insane damage reduction.

Cause Fumble / Defender's Block: Remove "Draw a card." The ability to stack Cause Fumble and re-draw more just makes it insane in shutting down all melee attackers. Even with "Draw a card" removed it still might be very strong due to the fact you can generally ignore facing. I'd suggest re-evaluating it after the "draw a card" is removed. Honestly, these were very strong cards on live but was just unused due to a few other things being much stronger (Mass Frenzy). Maybe keep Defender's Block lack of needing facing, but Cause Fumble will most likely require facing only because of how easy it is to stack and how strong and game breaking it could become.

Deadly Sparks: Lightning was very strong already, but was pushed out by Encumber / Control / Punishing. Buffing it while reducing other options made it INSANE. Change by removing "Penetrating." The other Lightning cards that gained Penetrating are not as problematic due to being harder to acquire, although Jumpspark might be too strong still (would need further testing).

Current Card Substitution: Overall a good idea, but I think leaving the older cards and slightly changing them to make them interesting choices would be better. There are also other cards that suffer the same problems and could use another substitution look.

Controlled Overswing for Violent Overswing: Change Controlled Overswing to 8 damage and Hard to Block 2. Keep Violent Overswing but remove "You may not play this card if it's the only card in your hand." -- This means both cards bring different things to the table while still being interesting. Controlled Overswing is a better way to finish someone off as it is Hard to Block while Violent Overswing is simply the old Controlled Overswing (more damage but riskier).

Sundering Strike for Shredding Strike: Similar to the change for Controlled Overswing and Violent Overswing... Keep Shredding Strike but add "Hard to Block 1 (or 2)" -- This is similar in that you're trading 2 damage but getting something else in the process: do you want better armor removal or do you want better damage.

Flash Of Agony for Flash Of Pain: This should be fine since it was such a fairly niche card already.

Elvish Scamper for Elvish Mobility: Perfect change. The previous one was super niche anyway so there's no need to bring back Elvish Mobility.

New Card Substitutions: Here are some new card substitutions and/or idea for changing existing ones to make them more interesting.

Healing Presence (Bronze Common) vs. Healing Benediction (Bronze Common): Add "May Target Self" and "within range 2" to Healing Presence. -- This means "do you want 3 heal but can only put it on an ally, or 2 heal but can also put it on yourself and be slightly more versatile."

Fire Spray (Paper Uncommon) vs. Magma Spray (Paper Uncommon): Change Fire Spray to "Burning 2 Duration 3" to match the same damage as Magma Spray (Burning 3 Duration 2) but give them slightly different flavors.

Force Blast (Bronze Uncommon) vs. Force Cannon (Bronze Uncommon): Change Force Blast to Range 6 and change Force Cannon to "Slide Back 3" (currently Slide Back 4 is INSANE with the reduction of step attacks and other movements).

Feinting Strike (Silver Common) vs. Skillful Strike (Silver Common): Replace all instances of Skillful Strike with Feinting Strike (under represented cards so making them different isn't really important).

Better Boots: Sounds like a decent change and is more focused towards single player, which I'm not the best person to give feedback on SP balance.

Duplicate Items: Not sure I like this as it takes some interesting choice items and adds more variety just to add it. Often I like knowing that I'll have multiple copies of a certain card in my deck. Not sure what this really accomplishes except by maybe making some items more random... but honestly I think this is just a weird change.

Too Much Cycling: Good idea, but Trembling Staff was already falling out of favor for Staff of Chask or Staff of the Inferno or Hotglass Staff. Probably not problematic to change Trembling though, even though Vulnerability became more deadly (which I'll go into later).

Healing Cards: Many weird rules regarding healing and the individual card quality and rarity. Definitely would suggest taking a look at them and re-evaluating all heals in the game. neoncat sums up some of the problems and has thoughts similar to mine here: http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/heal-versus-twin-heals.6242/#post-69570

THE BIG STUFF:

Whirlwind / Whirlwind Enemies: Good change, I've been pushing for that for a LONG, LONG time. Although maybe move 2 is too little and move 3 might be better. Would have to do testing.

Firestorm: Another change I've been pushing for. Although range 5 is maybe over nerfing it. I'd suggest changing it to range 6 to be on par with other spells.

Long Step Attacks: You might be going a bit far with this change. I'll need to see more of how it plays out with the removal of Harness stacking, Cause Fumble / Defender's Block spam, and Deadly Sparks. Nimble Strike needs to go back up to 6 damage if it is only step 2 -- simply having Flight doesn't make it significantly better as most players use it for closing the gap and checking for blocks instead of for the damage (save for Mass Frenzy spammers but that's another problem I'll get into later).

Short Perplexing Ray: Don't like this change much. It makes the card a lot, lot weaker and generally just worse than Perplexing Ray. At least the range should be increased one or two to compensate. Most people don't save their best cards and it is weird using this on your own characters to draw a card (when at 0). I'd say increase range to 4 or 5 to make it more useful.

Wall of Stone: Flash Flood is interesting, but also introduces a ton of new problems that Wall of Stone had that aren't solved. The low ability to get Flight (even with Flight Aura staying around and NS having Flight) doesn't mater much due to the fact you can put 3 tiles of water in a row (3 tiles of water + 1 tile for the character means even a Teleport Self or Elf with Flight giving 4 movement won't get you over it in a straight line ... ). I'd suggest reducing it to 2 tiles from 3 tiles and then do more testing. It still might be too strong as it lets casters be extremely defensive, but it should better balance it.

 

Part 2 of 4: Balance Changes Round 1 to 3

Telekinesis / Winds of War / Gusts of War: The change to Telekinesis was great. I remember reading that suggestion a long time ago and thought it would be perfect. However, the recent changes to WoW and GoW make them feel really underwhelming. I'd suggest improving WoW to Slide 2 again and remaking GoW to something else -- maybe Slide 2 Hard to Block 2... or increasing its damage... or something. Yes, it was overly strong at Slide 3, but changing WoW (a Gold card) to a Slide 1 makes it feel basically worthless compared to other things.

Surging Shield Block / Hard to Pin Down: Great changes, definitely makes them much more distinctive and interesting. I do think HtPD was overly nerfed -- I'd suggest maybe changing it to Move 1. That way both have a move on block, but one is better at blocking and worse at moving, while the other is worse at blocking but better at moving. Almost no one uses HtPD for the move itself because a decent Block is generally really strong regarding card advantage.

Forgetfulness and Counterspell: Interesting change, not sure on it yet. I do know that while you think Counterspell is better, it can also be worse in that the enemy can pull it with a weak attack (1:1 card exchange) while Forgetfulness is always going to be a 2:1 (if they have 2 spells) because it can't be pulled. Not sure this change really fits as both are better for different things and Counterspell isn't the definitely better card (especially with shorter range).

Bashes: Sounds good to me. They were under appreciated already. Might be something to look at with the combination of Crusher trait, but I don't think it will be problematic.

Sparks: Thankfully it has been reverted, but it was super problematic before. I'll go over the new changes farther down.

Harnesses: Similarly, glad that the stacking has been removed. I would be curious how it would work if you could keep 1 Harness from turn to turn (and re-named Officer's Harness so it keeps its unique properties). Is that not easily possible or what?

Scuttle: Yes, Scuttle with Cantrip was problematic in that it was easily available and basically made insanely strong attacks become a backstabbing step attack. I'll go over Leap later.

Draining Attacks: Not sure this is the best change. It makes draining attacks VERY strong because giving them range means they can stay away from damage while still dealing it. It also lets them hit targets easier and reducing the damage doesn't mean much as more Vampires get their bonus damage from buffs. I'm very, very hesitant about this change as Vampires were already a decently strong (1600 Elo) build... this might just make them insane. Will have to do more testing, but I think this change is very weird considering how strong they already were.

Non-Trait Drawbacks: Good changes. The loss of a card was already a draw back enough and not being able to get rid of them could be problematic. I'd suggest changing Slow to "Change your facing" from Move 0 due to the fact that it can be a non-negative card with the addition of bonus movement cards.

Other Changes (Round One):

• Advanced Battlefield Training: transfers two cards instead of one.
  • Not really helping the card. I'd say add Cantrip to it (instead of two cards). Also, maybe re-code it so it doesn't reveal the card that is thrown. Would make things a lot more interesting.
• Arcane Shell: this card will now not count for hand size when discarding (like Officer’s Harness).
  • Great change. Don't see any problems with this.
• Grounding Plates: changed to trigger on a 3+ (from 4+).
  • Not sure on this one. It makes the armor very strong and the armor is already very binary against Lightning. Will have to do testing after Harness changes. See more analysis below.
• Unholy Energy: range increased to 6, now does 1 damage for each non-Attack card drawn.
  • No opinion on this one. Probably for the best since I never see it.
• Stuck Arrow: changed to trigger on a 4+ (from 2+). Blocker draws a card when it is successful.
  • Should work out to be a better item. Might be a bit too strong due to the drawing of a card. Also, the artwork doesn't make much sense now, but not a huge deal.
• Cause Fumble: changed to trigger on a 4+ (from 5+). In addition, you (the card owner), do not need to be facing the attacker.
  • Insane beyond all reason. Thankfully this has been changed.
• Defender’s Block: if this succeeds, the ally blocked for now draws a card. In addition, you (the card owner), do not need to be facing the attacker.
  • Similar to Cause Fumble but harder to get. Still insane.
• Twin Heals: now heals 4 to 2 targets (used to be Heal 2). In addition, it may self target.
  • Way over done, but was toned down later. I'll comment on that later.
• Triple Heals: now heals 3 to 3 targets (used to be Heal 2). Range is reduced from 6 to 5.
  • Good change.
• Soothing Darkness: healing is increased to 5 (from 4) and the range to 6 (from 5).
  • Meh. This change is super lackluster. I'd suggest changing the card functionality heavily or giving it something unique. It is a GOLD card. Maybe "Target ignores all other Encumber effects" so they are at most Encumber 1. That's just a random idea I've had though (before the other Encumber changes). You could probably come up with something better and more unique.
• Acrobatic Flip: now blocks any type of attack, not just Melee.
  • Seems fine, but needs to add "Move Enemy 1 if Melee Blocked." That way you're not somehow magically moving an enemy who shoots you with a ranged attack.
• Mind Worm: range increased to 8 (from 4).
  • Probably an over buff. I'd reduce the range to 6 and see how it pans out.
• Force Cone: range increased to 4 (from 2), Slide Back increased to 2 (from 1). Damage reduced from 2 to 1.
  • This card is REALLY strong now. Probably overly strong now that it has a Slide Back 2 and the reduction in overall mobility. I've seen it used to amazing effect on the test server. I'd suggest probably changing it back down to Slide 1 but keeping the range (and maybe increasing the damage back to 2?) or something.
• Shrug It Off: this card now has Cantrip.
  • Yay! Finally! =)
• Flame Spit: Burning increased to 3 (from 2), duration reduced from 3 to 2. Ranged increased to 5 (from 4).
  • Good change, don't see any problems with it. Synergies with Instant Burn better (as it should).
• Toughened Hide Strips: Armor increased to 2 (from 1). Heal on discard increased to 2 (from 1).
  • Decent change. These rarely saw play so this might help.
• Mighty Hack: damage reduced from 14 to 13.
  • No clue about this change. Curious on why you did it. I don't mind since I'm all for reducing damage a bit (to make games last more turns and be more interesting), but just seems like a weird one.
• Mighty Bludgeon: damage reduced from 14 to 13.
  • Same as above.
• Weak Parry: now draws a card for the blocker when blocking an attack that does 4 damage or less.
  • Probably a good change overall. Need to test it to see if it didn't push some items overboard on power that used Weak Parry as a balancing card.
• Energizing Move: this now adds 2 move points to any move (increased from 1).
  • Probably a good change to keep up with the other bonus movement cards.
• Reaching Swing: damage increased to 6 (from 5).
  • Definitely good as this card is risky already (and primarily used just to pull blocks).
• Ill-Fitting Armor: Encumber decreased to 1 (from 2).
  • Helps Humans a bit, but shouldn't matter to Dwarfs with the new Encumber rule (can't be slowed beyond 1).
• Defensiveness: range that triggers this decreased to 2 (from 3).
  • Good change, but Defensiveness is still way too risky to use. I'd suggest changing it to be something that isn't so binary (either you play a spell or you don't).
• Vulnerable: now adds 2 additional damage (from 1).
  • Wow... this is actually a HUGE nerf from my time testing it on the test server. I'd heavily suggest changing it to additional 1 damage duration 3 (from duration 2). It really limits a lot of things and makes Vulnerability really hurtful.
• Wimpy: now reduces damage by 2 (from 1).
  • Seems like a decent change. Have to test it more to see.

Changes (Round Two):

• Winds of War / Gusts of Wind: As mentioned above, it really makes these cards feel pretty weak. Gusts of Wind is strong, but it makes the Gold Winds of War feel horrible. I'd suggest changing WoW back to move 2 and changing Gusts of Wind functionality (maybe target 1 move 3, or target 2 move 2 with Hard to Block 2 or something else).
• Encumber 2.0: Not sure on this yet, will have to do more testing now that the biggest offenders are hit.
• Impassable Terrain: Great change. I've wanted to be able to select it with AoE spells for a LONG time. Can't really see that it will be problematic.
• Cleansing Cards: Seems like a decent change to give them more functionality so they aren't so binary (either the enemy has terrain and you cancel it or they don't and you have useless cards).
• Flight Aura: Not sure on this. Could be VERY strong in theory. The ability to move around with Fly for effectively the entire match could completely dominant and make anti-movement and zone of control pointless. Will have to do more testing.
• Nimble Strike: Giving it Fly is decent, but since it is only a Step 2 it only really matters for crossing a 1 tile gap or backstabbing someone. I'd suggest increasing the damage back to 6 as right now it really isn't useful for much except to finish someone off. Note: I suggest the "damage goes back to 6" change with the idea that Mass Frenzy will also be getting nerfed in the future, but I'll talk more about that in my next post.
• Cause Fumble: Reducing the range to 3 doesn't do anything because of its power to camp VP spots. But I see you realized this for Balance Changes Round Three.
• Draw Limit: Having a draw limit of 10 is basically ignorable. Not sure it is really needed since there could probably be better fixes to infinite draw decks than introducing an entirely new mechanism, but not a big deal.
• Harness Stacking: As I've said before, this was insane. Glad you removed it in Round Three, but you might want to consider changing it so you can hold one Harness over from round to round.

Changes (Round Three):

• Encumber + Speed Boosts: Good, now working as it always should have. =)
• Cause Fumble / Defender’s Block: Defender's Block might still be too strong and now Cause Fumble might be a bit weak (or at least compared to live version). Will have to test, but it should be a TON more healthy than it was before (which was a joke).
• Harness: As stated multiple times above.
• Rare Penetrating Sparks: Nice change. I've always wanted more line attacks so it will be interesting to see how these play out. Might be strong due to the AoE + buffing damage nature, but will have to test.
• Punishing Bolt: This might be too large of a nerf. It was very strong, but there were a lot of ways to go against it in counter playing. I'd suggest changing the range to 5 or 6 as 4 is REALLY short.
• Dodge: Good change, but Dodge is still extremely strong. I'd heavily suggest changing it to proc only on a 5+.
• Elven Trickery: Should pull back the strength of Elves with the new changes, but I think Elven Maneuvers will be still problematic. I'll talk about that in my next post.
• Quick Scuttle / Leap: Interesting change that should make it a lot more viable. Doesn't seem like it will be overpowered like Quick Scuttle was, but will have to test.

Other Changes:

• "Twin Heals was buffed too far in the original set of changes—this was an error. We reduced its healing from 4 to 3. We also buffed Heal‘s heal amount from 4 to 5, in order to make it more deserving of its quality without pushing it too far."
  • Good change. Might want to take a look at other healing cards too though. Not sure exactly what since I haven't studied Priests much outside of their problem areas.
• "We nerfed the damage on Jumpspark back to its original 2 in order to keep it in check. The card remains penetrating."
  • Sounds good. I was worried that it might be the new dominant spam attack, but I don't think it will be now.
• "Barge has received a damage bump in order to make it a more viable attack card for warriors."
  • Eh... this change is a bit weird. Giving it 5 damage makes it a much more offensive card than a neat utility card. Maybe if it was "does 0 damage if used on allies" or reverting it back to 1 damage and giving it Cantrip (push allies into enemies for an attack or vice versa). Or maybe even giving it Step 1 and then Push 2. Right now moving it to an attack just makes it a lot less interesting and more like other boring cards. I really liked how it was useful for pushing allies out of harms way, but with increased damage it makes it too risky to use for support.
• "Pushback Parry & Sparkling Cloth Armor were originally printed as answers to step attacks. Now that step attacks have had their distance reduced, these cards allowed too much movement. Pushback Parry had its push amount reduced to 2; Sparkling Cloth Armor had its move amount reduced to 2."
  • Great change, I was going to suggest the same thing in my next post.

 

Part 3 of 4: Other balance suggestions

Overpowered: These changes really need to be implemented or heavily looked at so the game is more fun, less binary, and not so heavily dominated by them making them a non-choice.
- Mass Frenzy: Giving +3 melee damage for 2 turns globally, including the caster is insane. This really needs to be changed. I'd suggest either +2 melee damage or +3 but only 1 turn duration.
- Resistant Hide: Extremely binary card that makes getting it give an insane advantage over certain builds. The only counter to it is armor removal, which means you have to wait and draw armor removal and then check to see if they have the armor, and then remove the armor. Very binary and unfun in so many ways. Suggested change would be to make it ignore all damage only on a successful roll and possibly add Cold to the keywords (to make it slightly more useful but still weaker than the current state). Could be problematic in completing 1-hp Challenges with it nerfed, but this change definitely needs to go through to keep multiplayer healthy.
- Dodge: This card is potentially an insane amount of card advantage, especially depending on the map layout. Another really deadly thing about this card is that the ONLY counter is Encumber -- it doesn't count as a Block so it can't be removed with Blocking Removal cards which makes it VERY strong. Not sure on the best way to nerf it, but I'd suggest changing it to "Discards on a 4 (similar to Altruism)" and/or "Dodges on a 5+ (instead of 4+)."
- Toughness: Not sure on this one after the upcoming changes, but I'd say keep an eye on it. Dwarves should be significantly weaker due to movement reduction from step attacks, but the ability to completely ignore damage without facing AND draw a card is huge.
- Martyr's Blessing: This is insane card advantage and can be very problematic. Back when Card Draw Limit was 5 it wasn't too bad, but at 10 it is still extremely strong. I'd suggest changing it to "If an attack does 5 or more damage draw a card" so there is some counter play on low damage attacks hitting them.
- Elven Maneuvers: Similar to Martyr's Blessing this card can result in some insane card advantage. I'd suggest reducing the duration to 2 (or even 1) at the very least.
- Impenetrable Nimbus: Since Priests are the only class easily able to remove buffs, Imp Nimbus is super binary in either you get it up and are invulnerable or the enemy has a Purge and removes it. Not sure on a fix yet (especially considering how changing Res Hide and this would make a ton of 1-hp Challenges in SP impossible), but it needs to be looked at. Even with 1 duration it can easily be stacked in a deck and spammed heavily with no real interesting choice behind stopping it. Maybe leaves a 1-duration buff after it expires that says "can not be targeted by Impenetrable Nimbus" so people can't spam it back to back and there is a window of vulnerability?
- Team Run: Extremely powerful card with the given mobility changes. Changing it to "Move 3. Allies move 2." would probably put it better in line instead of being one of the best cards for mobility and basically a required card for every Warrior (Savvy Attacker). Rename to "Team Move" or something since "Run" isn't really applicable.


Problematic: Cards that need to be heavily watched as they will become extremely strong due to other balance changes.
- Smoke Bomb: Similar to other issues I have with the game, Smoke Bomb is extremely binary in that it can completely shut down people with extreme easy and little counterplay. It wasn't seen often before due to high mobility attacks and disruption abilities that did not require Line of Sight, like Whirlwind / Whirlwind Enemies, but after those are changed it becomes insane. I'd suggest reducing the size to 3-by-3 and/or reducing the duration to 1.
- Illusory Barrier: Much like Smoke Bomb, Illusory Barrier didn't see much play due to high mobility in the game. With less mobility this card becomes extremely strong, especially with the ability to easily stack it with the Legendary staff Illusion. I'd suggest reducing it to Duration 2 and/or reducing it to only placing 2 tiles.
- Grounding Plate: Instead of negating all Electrical damage entirely, change it to "this armor automatically triggers on Electrical attacks" so it isn't so binary, especially since it just got much better as a normal armor choice.


Underpowered: Cards that could use some love to make them more interesting, viable, or simply quality of life changes.
- Battlefield Training / Advanced Battlefield Training: They are pretty useless in their current incarnation. I'd suggest changing it to add Cantrip and making cards given not reveal (unless already revealed). Could be overly strong for throwing big attacks, so range might need to be reduced for ABT. Needs testing.
- Lateral Thinking: Extremely weak card as you basically give up a card (Lateral Thinking and another) to gain one. It can be useful if Lateral Thinking is your last card in your hand, but even then it is super situational and not very strong. I'd suggest adding Cantrip to it, which makes it more comparable to Shrug It Off. You can remove "Free Draw" as Card Limits aren't really an issue at the moment and it just adds unneeded complexity.
- Forward Thinking: Not as bad as other human specific cards, but still not as good as the quality and rarity would suggest. I'd suggest changing to "draw 3 keep 1" or simply adding Cantrip to it (which could make humans more interesting with a large access to Cantrip effects).
- Inspirational Thinking: Just like the others, this doesn't warrant its Green / Emerald quality. Change to "draw 3 keep 2" or "draw 4 keep 1" with Cantrip.
- Hit The Deck: Having "Halt" from a block makes it very risky and weak. I'd suggest something like "Add Encumber 3 (or 4)" or something so targets can still move but barely (with the new Encumber rules they should be able to move 1 and still play Step Attacks to attack adjacent targets).
- Spiked Mail: Add "Penetrating" to the damage similar to Barbed Plate.
- Retreat: Very conditional and generally is only going to activate on a single target. Usually better to just have Escaping Run because then at leas you have a Move 3. Suggested change to at least "each ally and yourself."
- Team Shift: Really weak in comparison to Team Run but it about the same value (Gold Uncommon to Gold Rare; from 4+1 move to 4+3 move). Most likely if Team Run was changed to "Move 3. Allies move 2" this would be more interesting (trading moving yourself for more and allies for less or your allies for more and less for yourself).
- Charge: Change to "Move 6" in a straight line -or- Step 1 then Move 5 (so it has some slight versatility over Brutal Charge when comparing Tochtli Boots to Boots Of Aggression (under the idea that no one items should be useless and simply worse than others for the same token cost).
- Bad Medicine: Increased to "Heal 3. Poison 3" to make it slightly more meaningful as even in low level campaign things 2 life / 2 damage is laughable.
- Bad Luck: Increase to duration 3 or some other very minor buff. Right now it is basically just a wasted card. I do understand it is Paper quality so it shouldn't be strong, but it could use some minor love. Not super high priority though.
- Wavering Faith: Increase range to 8 make it slightly more useful. It is already a 1:1 trade at best, and more likely a 2:1 card trade. Giving it long range might make it useful in niche circumstances.

Other: Changes that could improve the quality of life on cards that don't fall in the above categories.
- Force Cone: Have back (farther away) targets moved first (so targets in the front can get pushed into their spots).
- Arcane Aura: Add "Keep" to the armor component or increase the armor and die roll (2 or 3 armor and discard on a 6+). It still counts against hand size but gives +2 damage which means there is a trade off in comparison to Arcane Shell where you'll always keep it around.
- Dwarven Battle Cry: Incentives playing all of the same race which is boring and can be overly strong or weak depending on the enemy racial choice which is completely determined before the game. Suggested change to "All characters within X range draw a card."
- Elvish Insight: Similar to Dwarven Battle Cry, this rewards / punishes people who play one race over another without meaningful decision making. Suggested change to "All enemies within X range reveal their hand. Draw a card" or simply "All enemies reveal their hand" but you no longer draw a card.
- Elvish Scamper: Similar to the above, the game shouldn't reward or punish people for playing a certain race. Replace with Team Shift or something? Elves already have a ton of super unique cards (more than any other race) and this doesn't seem to add much except pigeonhole all Elf teams.
- Jump Back: Change to "move back 1" from "move back 2" due to the reduction of mobility in the game. Also, see Encumber Rules below.
- Dimensional Traveler: See Encumber Rules below.
- Reflexive Teleport: See Encumber Rules below.

- Bash Cards: Make the hit target face the attacker. Right now you can keep bashing from behind and the enemy will never turn to face.
- Attack Card Classification with No Damage: Flash Flood for example has it even though it could be considered a defensive card instead of an "attack" (for example, Maze used to have it, which I never understood) -- weird interactions with cards like Blind Rage triggering with it held in the hand.
- Encumber Rules: The minimum of "move 1" for Encumber only applies to cards played. Cards that activate (Dodge, Jump Back, Dimensional Traveler, Reflexive Teleport, Surging Shield Block, etc.) can be reduced to 0 movement through Encumber.


Drawbacks / Handicaps: I'd suggest balancing Drawbacks / Handicaps a bit more to make them more usable and less varied in how negative they are. That way more items become interesting for a risk-reward / push-your-luck trade off. Plus, it would help balance out forced negative card challenges and Quick Draw with negative cards.
- Demonic Revenge: Negative trait that does 5 unpreventable damage to yourself is REALLY bad. When compared to other cards like Traveling Curse and Ouch! this is just brutally painful. I'd suggest changing to 3 unpreventable damage. It still is bad, but it might be semi-usable for cycling, but very risky.
- Brain Burn: Change to "reveal Magic cards and take 1 unpreventable mental damage each." It is similar to Ouch! but revealing magic cards is a lot worse due to the larger number available and the trickiness behind their use. Additionally, casters have less armor and thus the damage they take from it is harder to reduce than the damage from Ouch!. Also, it makes more sense if it is unpreventable mental damage thematically, and so it doesn't strip armor cards.
- Superstitious: Instead of discarding your hand, I'd suggest changing it to "your 2 (or 3) oldest cards." That way it doesn't completely knock out a character for a full turn. It is still pretty brutal, but might be playable. Either that or reducing the duration to 1.
- Cowardly: Change to "discard your oldest 2 (or 3) attack cards." It is still super risky, but at least it won't have the possibility of completely decimating someone and leaving them useless.
- Dropped Guard: Possibly consider a similar change to Cowardly (discard oldest 2 or 3 armor and block cards). Not as problematic since armor isn't as useful in general, but might be a decent change due to the fact it hits both Armor and Block cards.
- Loner: Drawing this early on depending on the map can be a game changer due to simply luck. I'd suggest changing it to "Deal 3 unpreventable mental damage for each enemy figure within 2 (or 3) squares." The damage is about the same, but you won't get hit by having poor luck at the start.
- Mind Leak: Losing magic cards every time you take damage is huge. I'd suggest reducing the duration to 1, or increasing the duration to 3 but having the trait removed if it triggers.
- Slowed: With the new Encumber rules any type of boost to movement works with this. Changing it from 0 Movement to "Set your facing" makes it still discardable and usable for something, but still a drawback.
- Trip: Can be very problematic and risky. Making it "Encumber 4" or "discard your oldest one (or two) movement cards" would mean it would still be risky, but not overly so.
- Defensiveness: Extremely binary where your ability either goes off or doesn't. Way too risky to use in its current state. Maybe change it to "if an enemy is within 3 spaces cancel the next Magic card you play then remove this trait. Duration 2" (or maybe have it still roll but remove the trait when a card is canceled in this way).
- Large Weapon: Similar to Defensiveness, this card is extremely binary and very risky (although less so than Defensiveness). Maybe change it to "if next to blocking terrain cancel the next Magic card you play then remove this trait. Duration 2" (or maybe have it still roll but remove the trait when a card is canceled in this way).
- Raging Strike: Change to " when you take damage add 2 damage to that attack" from 3. Make this less punishing if you get unlucky and draw it early with no chance to use it.

 

Part 4 of 4: Balance Changes Round 4+

Acrobatic Flip renamed to Disorienting Block: Makes sense now, but also makes that one of the best blocks in the game due to mobility / Encumber changes.

Short Perplexing Ray: Still fairly weak as a Move 1 is really conditional (even though with the new Encumber rules it will always let you move 1), while the old "Discard 2; Draw 1" was probably better (giving allies a draw when at 0 cards). The increased range is good, but I'd suggest increasing the range to 5 or 6 (it is hard to compete with a range 8).

Team Run & Team Shift: Their mobility is still insane within the reduction of mobility overall and they will still be used as the new Encumber rules mean they will still move 1 (which makes Team Shift really weird since it is the same as before despite being "Move allies"). It does make Cone of Cold a lot stronger as an Encumber card, but I still think Team Run will basically be a non-choice because it is so good.

Battlefield Training & Advanced Battlefield Training: Good quality of life change, but won't be enough to see these cards used. Giving yourself a card disadvantage just to effectively increase the range of a card is probably not worth it considering the alternative for humans (Leadership or All Out Attack + Parry).

Bad Medicine: Yay! No problems here (although I'm biased because it is the suggestion I made).

Cones (Force Cone): Same as above. Definitely a good quality of life fix. Although I suspect Force Cone will see a LOT of play now with the reduction in mobility and the increase in its power (and ability to ignore Smoke Bomb).

Utility Spells: And more love to changes I suggested. Makes Blind Rage more usable for cycling on casters who rely on conditional cards that were previously classified as attacks.

Demonic Revenge: Good compromise between current values and the values I suggested. Don't see a problem with it as it is still very bad of a choice to use overall.

Still Heavily Problematic:
- Mass Frenzy: Still not nerfed even though it was one of the best cards and meta dominating before. Control Wizards kept them in check a bit, but with weaker control I suspect 2 Warrior + 1 Priest with MF will dominant everything.
- Resistant Hide: Guess we are still playing the binary "Res Hide lottery" as whoever gets it first will have a huge advantage.
- Elven Maneuvers: Elves are definitely going to see a lot of action with SSB on weapons being drawn from this. Imagine getting a block every other time you're damaged...
- Martyr's Blessing: Similar to above. Going to be insane card advantage.

 

tl;dr Version and Holder for other things (COMING SOON)

 

For these, what if the Encumber rule "not below 1" only applied to Move cards you play, and not triggered moves? (Movement boosts already work this way, so it's easy to code.)

 

Yeah, that could work. Would also fix problems with SSB always being a move 1 block which seems problematic. I'll add it to the list.

 

I agree that smoke bomb will probably become a problem. Even if you wanted to bring terrain attachment removal, you can only clear at most 6 of the 25 squares with a cleansing burst.

The priest cards you list as overpowered are also the main reason to run priests. In practice stacking nimbus is hard to use effectively, and there is counter play (besides purging) by securing first move next turn or attacking other targets. Mages make positioning more interesting by threatening damage at range and pushing other characters around. Priests make positioning more interesting by it less desirable to attack allies, forcing the enemy to either attack anyways or re-position to attack a different target. Nerfing these priest cards would take away or lessen that dynamic.

Making jump back move 1 would be a huge buff. If a character has no cards except jump back, the number of squares behind them are basically the number of times they can dodge attacks. Also, move back 1 lets warriors use all step attacks to re-engage after jump back triggers. There should be positional costs to running a card that has the potential to generate so much of a card advantage.

I like the changes to the drawback cards, too many of them are completely unplayable right now.

 

another thread on the balance changes, just what we needed can someone please merge all the threads again its starting to get silly.

 

Stexe, I'm going to say from the outset that this post is an attempt to understand further what you're going for in a certain aspect of your balance changes, if parts of it come across as a rant that is not my intention, you clearly have put a fair amount of time and thought into what you think would improve the game, but there's one part that I've never been able to figure out and I'm going to lay out my thoughts/confusions on it merely looking for an explanation of where you're coming from/where you'd like to see the game. Also this isn't so much a response to anything specific in this thread as much as a concept you've cited often throughout balance discussion; however, seeing as this is your balance thread it seemed like an appropriate place to broach the question.

I don't understand what you're looking for when you say you want to avoid "binary" or "rock, paper, scissors" scenarios and that the game should be won by game play and not deck building. It might appear that you're advocating that a person should be able to take any three random characters throw on them an entirely random set of items and be on equal footing as an opponent who thought out their build and tried to put together a synergized strategy that revolves around a certain theme of game play. Now I suspect that is not what you're saying and this is why I'm making my post. Because if you recognize that an intentionally built team should beat a random team that may have cards that don't even work together then it's clear that things are working properly that when both teams hit the board there should already be an advantage to the one team over the other. Therefore a frenzy priest paired with 2 wiz should be a weak team as one member is entirely useless in matching with the other two, and this team should lose to most well built builds in a binary fashion. But I suspect that you wouldn't argue against this.

However, if we agree (and I don't yet know if we do) that the best builds should be ones that are intentionally built and therefore have synergy and thus also a certain foundational strategy they will revolve around (whether that be control, or shadow games, or big damage or what have you), then it would seem that we agree that each strong build will have in some form a thematic strategy. Now in a game with wizards, warriors and priests, if one is to keep the distinction between the races, then chosen races are also going to play into what thematic strategy is implemented. This only furthers the extent to which teams will be by their makeup focusing on this or that strategy. But here's the thing with thematic strategy - every strategy has strengths but to gain these strengths they have to emphasize something which leaves them by nature vulnerable to that specific thing's weaknesses. That means that the top strategies, whether they are few or many, while they should result in balanced game play against other top strategies most of the time, will by their very nature have binary/rock, paper, scissor scenarios where they're not equipped to compete. So I guess my question is, if I'm correct in thinking that you don't believe any random deck should be entirely on equal footing with build that has focus, how do you not get binary/rock, paper, scissor scenarios since all card groups of a similar strategic nature (control cards, avoidance cards, etc.) have card groups that counter them? Aren't good decks going to be built on thematic strategies that will probably focus on a few of these card groups which potentially counter someone else's card grouping they're strategizing around?

 

I can see the problems with resistant hide, but I personally think that most of the time, Trog Melter and arcane items with Dissolve Armor take care of this. If you're playing enough wizards that resistant hide becomes an issue, you're probably either playing Control wizards with mostly cold and arcane or some odd mix in which you're probably taking into account the fact that armor really messes with wizards already. If you aren't, just try to apply a warrior to the face of the wizard as soon as you can.

 

Resistant Hide is really only an issue if you're depending solely upon electrical and/or fire attacks. If you build such a team, it's foolish not to include armor removal. Other than that, Resistant Hide is essentially Thick Hide Armor without the move. Wizards are still squishy, even with Resistant Hide. It may be bothersome to have to walk all the way across the room to kill one, but these things sometimes happen.

 

Sure, seems like a good place to ask any questions you have about general balance theory. And I don't take it to be an attack -- I'm always willing to explain my position and offer insights. =)

Well balanced design should encourage people to make meaningful and interesting decisions first and foremost. Yes, players who create well designed synergistic builds should do better than those who slap together random combinations.

Building around strong synergies (I wouldn't call it thematic strategies since theme is different from actual mechanism) is going to give an edge over those who do not, but I believe a well balanced design will tend to emphasize actual gameplay decisions rather than "whoever has the best build will win." The primary problem with a lot of the balance in the game currently is that there are "hard counter" cards that completely shut down certain builds -- those hard counters make running those builds extremely risky and reduces freedom to play those competitively. The idea of binary and rock-paper-scissors gameplay means that the outcome is overly determined simply by luck over strategy.

For example, Resistant Hide is a very binary card -- it is either fairly useless as an armor or is insanely strong against fire, electricity, poison, and acid. Even if the enemy has a single fire wizard, if the enemy draws Resistant Hide the sheer advantage it gives makes it a potential game changer. Not only that, but the only counter to it is also binary: you draw armor removal and remove it. This means it boils down ultimately to luck in either the enemy draws the armor, or you draw an armor removal. There's no real decision making going on with the cards -- you either have it or you don't. With blocks and attacks there is positioning which is important, but with armor it is just overall damage reduction. Small damage reduction is fine -- it adds flavor and helps balance some aspects, but complete negation is something entirely different (as we saw with Harness stacking). Not only is it not fun to play against (Res Hide lottery), but it doesn't encourage interesting gameplay choices and severely limits huge aspects of the game.

That isn't to say the game shouldn't have counters (like building a Parry heavy deck if you're concerned about a large number of melee attacks). However, those have interesting decisions regarding them due to multiple counter play choices determined during the game (positioning, using weak attacks to draw out the blocks, using non-melee attacks). There are a small number of cards that instead don't have actual counter play choices and result in frustrating luck games around them.

Hope that gives some insights -- if not I can elaborate more on "anti-patterns" (see: http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=293417 for some good discussion around it) and on other design topics.

 

What is the difference between Resistant Hide and Parry? In a match between two melee focusing teams the one running Parry will win barring unlucky draws. Both are narrow cards that are meant to beat a certain type of card. Are you saying Parry shouldn't exist either?

 

Parry can fail against melee, and you can avoid it by attacking from the back. But there's no way to avoid Resistan Hide for a Fire or Electricity wizard except by removing it with armor removal.

That said, armor removal isn't the only choice to remove it, so it's not THAT binary. There are a lot of cards containing acid which works well with that, and then there are discard spells like Perplexing Ray, SPR and Memory Loss. But it's true that there are few choices.

 

Parry has counter play because it requires positioning, has a chance to fail, and has counters (many of which are useful for other things). Counters include: "Hard to Block" keyword, block removal from War Cry, Startling Strike, Unnerving Strike, and simply drawing it out with weak attack.

Imagine if Parry was a 1+ and had the Keep keyword. You'd still be able to get rid of it with War Cry and positioning + Startling Strike / Unnerving Strike -- but would you say that is balanced even if you can only have 1 in the deck?

It ignores acid damage but not the armor removal component -- so you still have to trap them on the acid. Additionally, PR/SPR are random discards -- so you're really only looking at armor removal and Memory Loss (assuming it is their oldest card) as counters. It is still insanely strong and a completely dominantly strong card and shouldn't exist in its current state.

I'm unsure why Jon hasn't changed it (and possibly Grounding Plates especially after they've become very effective armor in their own right). Arrogant Armor is similar, but also prevents positive traits so there's at least some trade off, and ultimately damage is what kills not debuffs.

Either way, it is not a well designed card and really limits a lot of potential builds simply due to how strong it is... even if you can only have 1 in a deck it doesn't justify its power.

 

That is not an accurate comparison. Would it be balanced if it had all that but only blocked say step attacks and bashes? I say go for it.

 

The only types of spell damage it doesn't affect is Arcane and Cold. So it would be more accurate to say "it blocks all BUT step attacks and bashes." Even then it would still be insane.

It just isn't a card that is healthy for balance because it is "I do well if I have it and the enemy had X damage type."

 

And the enemy has no answers. If you know a popular card exists that crushes your deck and you do nothing about it then you deserve to lose before the game starts.

If no cards beat other cards specifically this game would boil down to numbers. Whoever draws the biggest numbers quickest wins.

 

If there is a single card that crushes your deck and a single counter to said card then using it becomes a non-choice. That is exactly what you want to avoid -- every choice should have an interesting and meaningful decision behind it. Simply having to pack armor removal because one card can completely shut down your build is not fun at all (again, I'll point to Harness stacking on the test server).