Am i the only one who thinks the range on the new terrain spells is way too short? Most of them only have a range of 4, meaning you basically have to be in melee range to cast them, which is so bad for wizards, especially in the new maps, because you can't properly utilize the fact that they are so open. The cards in question are: Laser Beacon Dual Laser Beacon Hypnotic Beacon Radioactive Goo Radioactive Spray Healing Beacon
Most of them seem alright to me. They do only have a low range, but they have a much greater area of effect (per terrained square) than old terrain cards, allowing you to target all the vp squares with one card (if grouped together) and they are good for choke points. They are essentially range 5 cards, as you can place them below the enemy character. The only one that I think needs some sort of a boost, be it range or otherwise, is Hypnotic Beacon, but that might just because I can't use it properly.
I would like Radiactive Spray to have enough distance that my casting priest stops ending up with more tiles next to him then the enemy character who miraculously moves away in reaction anyway. I think hypnotic beacon could use some more reach as well.
Yes, Radioactive Spray should probably either have its range increased by 1 or its 'splash range' reduced by 1, preferably the later. This would allow you guarantee that you won't hit yourself with it when casting at max range, which seems reasonable to ask of a silver quality card.
No one complains about Volcano popping up under you, why is Rad Spray backfiring a problem? So, this was a conscious decision done for balance reasons, because a lot of these terrain cards are pretty strong. They do multiple things, to multiple dudes. Hypnotic Beacon in particular can get gnarly if you can cast it at huge range. =)
Because you can't Bless away the radiation? More seriously, because nobody thinks Volcano is under-powered. It's not necessarily a problem, but I'm certainly not very inclined to use it in its current state. You already have no idea what sort of handicap(s) the terrain will even generate, it would be nice to at least know that you won't be receiving any of them without enemy intervention. Similarly, it would be nice to have a guarantee that Genetic Engineering will actually leave you with 3 boosts attached. If something has a chance to not work as intended, the usual effect should at least be good to compensate. With these cards, I just don't see that due to the already random nature of the usual effects.
I can see Rad Spray being tweaked, it needs a bit more love than its current state [it's really not worth using in PvE as-is (and I love random effects more than anyone, but it's just too self-destructive in my experience with it)], but the rest all perform perfectly well and balanced [in PvE] for me. Laser/Dual Laser Beacon especially is so good against swarms or for adding even more damage to a volcano or lava pool by self-targeting your own tile, it doesn't need any more love, and hypnotic and healing can be potent enough in the right situations that they don't need a range increase.
Good point. For the record, I hate it when my volcano pops up under me. But I kinda had the impression that Rad Spray was supposed to be a risky/bad card.
