Elves!!!!!!

I feel like elves are now too underpowered in the meta game. Thoughts on this?

 

Can you elaborate?

 

Well right now I have a decent mp ranking, and when I battle many different people of the same skill rank, I find that elves are nonexistent! The most commonly used are dwarves then humans. I personally am using a dwarven team now, even though elves are my favorite. The fact that elves have extremely low hp makes them vulnerable to not only melee but also wizards. A well set up dwarf wizard with will beat an elf wizard anyday.

I've seen many triple dwarf teams but never any triple elf teams at all. In fact, I've only seen an elf used 4 or 5 times in the higher tiers, and it was never a wizard.

I think we may need to consider somehow giving the elves a little help to actually be useful in mp! One obliterating bludgeon is all it takes to wipe out an elf wizard!

 

What do you consider "high rating"? I'm currently running 2 elf 1 human in the 1500s. And I do see plenty of other elves, but yes, the higher you get the less popular they are.

 

I don't think the issue is that Elves are underpowered, instead it is that Dwarves are overpowered, especially Dwarven wizards. Consider that the only non-dwarf with more HP than a dwarven wizard is a human warrior. If you don't have a wizard on your team a D-wiz is overpowered and very difficult to kill.
As for elven wiz being kill with a single oblit... well they should be squishy. Dwarves dont have exclusive domain over the game but with items being equal it is easier to overcome the step disadvantage of Dwarves than it is to overcome the HP disadvantage of Elves... especially with the nerf to encumberance.

 

When you play elves you need to put an emphasis on defense just as you would focus more on movement with dwarves. I've seen plenty of good elf builds that rely on Nimbusing up and rushing in for the kill, on Dodge to avoid damage, or using Quick Runs to get a massive first hit in. The problem with elf wizards is that wizards need movement the least and have nothing to compensate for low HP. Armored boots usually won't be enough to slow an opponent's damage clock so you have to rely on staves with blocks. The best staves with blocks only block melee attacks so you are at a massive disadvantage againt other wizards, both in loss of attacks and having dead cards in your deck.

 

I don't mean really high, I don't pretend to be good, I'm probably around average, (1400's) but it's where you can see people use builds that are reasonably good, and none include any elf wizards.

 

Yes to clarify I was speaking of elves in general, not specifically elf wizards.

Let's just talk strategy for a second... The advantages for elves are movement and movement based cards. Wizards are in the least need of movement as they can hit from range and can often move very little from turn to turn allowing them to save up move cards if they need. This means the advantage to elves is of no help to a wizard, resulting an elf wizard being generally a weaker strategy than any other kind of wizard that can take advantage of human/dwarf bonuses. So if we're speaking of elves in general I think you'll find still a decent amount and maybe you've just hit a meta-tier that isn't playing them at the moment. But, if you're looking for elf wizards in particular, it's just not likely to happen. And I'm not sure there's any change that will help; the reality is that unless elves across the board somehow become ultra powerful (in an unbalanced way) when it comes to choosing a wizard, either human or dwarf will virtually always be a better bet from a strategic standpoint. It's just the nature of that specific combination.

The one possible thing that could be done would be to create both an elf racial and wizard class item that each were middle of the road items by themselves but were super powerful when paired. But even this would require pulling those cards from the same character in combination.

 

Hmmm good point Scarponi. Your movement point is pretty sound.

 

I run an elf wizard in two different 1500s builds. Both builds might be better with dwarves, but it's possible to run the elves and they're fun. Shrug.

 

Yes, to piggy back on what Flaxative is noting, I absolutely encourage people to play what they enjoy, what is fun! I was merely noting that, since from a purely strategic standpoint elf wizards are squishy, you won't find them in the highest tiers. However being at a high ranking is not the only point of the game, and for some it's not a point at all. Remember the ranking system is designed less as a list of the who's who of CH and more as a way to match opponents on a similar plane. If one likes elf wizards, then one should play them. The system is set up so that person will find a rating equilibrium at a level where that build will be viable.

 

I think there is something broken from a role-playing aspect when Dwarven Wizards are superior to Elven Wizards.
I understand that in MP this is a tactical game first and the RPG element is minimal, but it feels wrong to me and will continue to feel wrong.
I almost feel like there should be a limit of 1 D-wiz per party since from a lore perspective a D-Wiz should be rare... but I know that is not a viable suggestion, just a feeling.
Honestly if I never faced another 3 D-wiz party I would be grateful, but if you want to play wizzies it does make the most sense.

 

I agree. Elves should be legendary for their magic. Maybe in the next version the game can add a magic branch in the elven skill tree.

 

Ayy, or increase an Elven wizards' base hp by 1 and decrease a dwarf wizards' hp by 1.

 

If elven mages can't handle combat, they should go back to their hollow tree and bake us more cookies.

 

Does this extend to the SP campaign? I was running an elf party a while back, but had serious issues. The one I'm doing now is okay, slow and steady progress.

I was under the impression that was my own playstyle issue, though. Is elf weakness really a deeper thing in CH?

 

It is definitely a deeper thing. Elves have been the underdogs of CH since beta. The most recent set of balance changes have made them decent choices in singleplayer, but they are still lagging behind in multiplayer.

• Elf priest make great vampires, and thus can be awesome in a melee-dominated meta. Unfortunately, the recent nerf to Team Run has shifted the meta towards more wizard-based teams, which typically crush vampires. This leaves the elf/priest a poor combo in MP.
• Elf warriors are the one solid variety of elf. Their mobility and racial skills make them one of the best counters to wizard teams, which as I mentioned are currently very powerful.
• Elf wizards are just awful. Their flimsiness typically counteracts any advantage that might be gained by their mobility. Like their more useful counterpart 'human wizard', they are perpetually overshadowed by the mighty dwarf wizard. They have been the weakest race/class combo since beta.

 

That definitely explains some of my newbie pains. I was definitely thinking of the archetypal 'elf wizard', so I though that should be awesome, right? And, I like elves, too, so I thought I'd make one a priest as well. Lol. That explains much.

Properly playing a dwarf does seem to require a bit more understanding of the importance of moves and steps and step/attacks and such. Maybe they should have a thing in the newbie portal that says "go human for now."

 

Ay Vakaz, could you explain to me why elf vamp priests are good? As a vamp elf being my favorite in mp, I have used them many times, I wouldn't consider them "good".