Aloyzo's Arsenal #13 - Community Choice Poll!

Hey everyone!

To celebrate a full year of Aloyzo's Arsenal, Blue Manchu is inviting the community to select the winners, yes winners, of this month's contest. We've curated a shortlist of items we would be okay with adding to the game and now it is up to you all to vote on the ones you want to see in the game.

You each have 3 votes, and we will add up to the top 3 most-voted-on items to the game.

Items' cards pictured below.

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Ninetynine Knives - Staff - 2x Nimble strike, 4x Path of Knives



3-Stage Rocket Boots - Boots - Rocket Charge, Brutal Charge, Charge



Purificator - Weapon - Unnerving Strike, 2x Startling Strike, 3x Purging Strike



Vanity Mirror - Shield - Reflect Missile, Reflect Missile, Loner



Oxha's Sparkpinger - Staff - 3x Mighty Spark, 2x Jumpspark, Arcing Spark



Syringe of Chemotherapy - Divine Weapon - Impaling Stab, Perforating Strike, 2x Radioactive Spray, 2x Gene Therapy



Classy Cane-sword - Weapon - Walk, Subtle Parry, Parry, 3x Skillful Strike



Near Depleted Shard - Staff - Laser Bolt x2, Unstable Bolt x2, Able Bludgeon, Parry



Death's Embrace - Divine Weapon - 2x Touch of Death, Entangling Roots, 3x Curse of Fragility



Nimble Nibbler - Divine Weapon - Invigorating Touch, 3x Nimble Strike, Spear of Darkness, Draining Touch
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But... but... but... mine isn't there! :-P I guess I'll vote for the one closest to mine (Purificator)?

EDIT: Oh, you can vote on multiple. Neat.

Could you also put the level and token costs for the items?

 

Can we also have a vote which item not to be picked for sure?

Oxha's Sparkpinger is way too strong in my opinion. It does not have a single bad card if you use it with electricity buffs and pretty much singlehandedly kills an elf or human without armor ... ?

I backed

Deaths Embrace
Vanity Mirror
and lastly - but kind of not to choose others lol 3 stage rocket boots (the least favourite out of those three)

 

Which class do I want to be OP? hm ...

Shall we have a discussion on which class we want to be meta?

I feel like it's unfair there's like three priest weapons compared to one warrior weapon and other items. Especially if vanity mirror is a divine trait

 

I shall vote for :
1) the Purificatorrgh
2) the 99 knives
3) the classy penguin cane-sword

 

I'm just gonna vote in the most OP one's guys - Oxha's Sparkpinger, Nimble Nibbler, Death's Embrace

 

Wizards vs priests! The ultimate war!

 

What's the point of winning a match if it's not won in style? A question worth deep reflection. Adventuring is hard work but that's no excuse not to look good, a Vanity Mirror is all but required to make sure your Priests and Warriors don't just win, but win fashionably. Just make sure to keep others away from you, you wouldn't want them to get too close to you and cramp your style while you're busy adjusting your hairdo.

Wizards of course shun the use of mirrors given their likelihood of reflecting spells at the most inopportune times.

 

It's a shield, as noted above.

 

Ninetynine Knives - Staff, level 9, , Legendary

Spoiler

3-Stage Rocket Boots - Boots, level 18, , Epic

Spoiler

Purificator - Weapon, level 7, , Rare

Spoiler

Vanity Mirror - Shield, level 21, , Uncommon

Spoiler

Oxha's Sparkpinger - Staff, level 19, , Rare

Spoiler

Syringe of Chemotherapy - Divine Weapon, level 17, , Epic

Spoiler

Classy Cane-sword - Weapon, level 11, , Rare

Spoiler

Near Depleted Shard - Staff, level 8, , Rare

Spoiler

Death's Embrace - Divine Weapon, level 7, , Uncommon

Spoiler

Nimble Nibbler - Divine Weapon, level 13, , Epic

Spoiler

 

I feel like about a third of these could change the meta... and not in a good way.

 

Nimble Nibbler would be pretty significant seeing as it adds even more versatility to the priest class. Three dwarf priests will be able to have Bless and MF and Blind Rage and Nimble Strikes and Mighty Bludgeons.. etc.

Death's Embrace is just Initiate's Glaive but with more style and less damage. I'd use it if Initiate's Glaive didn't already exist.

Near Depleted Shard would be fine. I predict no one would ever use it in ranked though.

Classy Cane-Sword seems like it would be pretty powerful in a warrior/parry map rotation. It would see use in ranked and I don't think it's overpowered.

Syringe of Chemotherapy would probably see use in ranked, though personally I wouldn't use it because I don't like rad spray.

Oxha's Sparkpinger would see use in ranked, being the only decent electric direct damage staff for . It's not really much of an upgrade from Mighty Sparkping Staff, though if someone doesn't want trashy cards (Spark) in their deck they may want to upgrade. Not overpowered in my opinion.

Vanity Mirror would see use in ranked, it wouldn't be overpowered, and it would be interesting to see.

Purificator probably wouldn't be used all too often given that Purging Strike is a pretty trashy card (usually--very situational) and if you do want it, Purging Mace has better purging consistency. Plus, purging burst is also great for block checking, so while it may not have the damage that Startling/Unnerving Strikes have, the block checking function is already partially covered.
EDIT: I thought Purificator was a Divine Weapon. As a regular Weapon it'd actually be fine.

3-Stage Rocket Boots would be my new go to boots.

Ninetynine Knives is Boxton's Razorstaff with more style. The nimble strikes can serve as movement to avoid warriors, similarly to how flash flood from Boxton helps avoid warriors. I don't really know how useful nimble strike would be as an attack.. but.. it would be interesting at least..

So I'm just voting for the three items I'd most want to use. Nibbler, Mirror, Boots.

 

Uh, another ballot where powergaming will rule supreme.

Let's go with style:

1. Classy Cane-Sword
2. Vanity Mirror
3. Near Depleted Shard

 

My review of the three items I picked. In general, I am in favor of items that enable new builds to be viable.

Death's Embrace
I have tried a variety of teams that take advantage of curse of fragility to combo with instant burn or jim's magic missile, but have never found a build that could reach the 1800s. The melee attacks on initiate's glaive do not match what the team is trying to do. By contrast, touch of death is much better because it does not trigger parry, and entangling roots adds some control cards to the team to make up for the fact that the mages are running damage spells instead of control spells.

Ninetynine Knives
I would use three copies of this item in my 3 dwarf wizard control teams. Nimble strike has similar value to flash flood against warriors, and is more valuable than flash flood against mages.

Nimble Nibbler
I have never run three priest teams, but this item might change that. Running two copies on a dwarf priest basically creates a vamp version of the warriors I normally use. It is too hard to evaluate how good this would end up being without actually trying it, which is a little scary.

 

Aww, man. I wish gulo gulo's staff with all the Big Zaps made it on here. RIP the Big Zap dream.

 

Nice item spoilers borrowed from @Hidden Jaguar - thank you Jaguar!
Ninetynine Knives - Staff, level 9, , Legendary

Spoiler

Decently classy. Agree with @Pyrious that it seems like a different take on the Boxton's Razorstaff idea. Probably about as balanced as the Razorstaff, just with a different niche (anti-wizard as opposed to anti-warrior)? I only count 58 knives, but that's pretty solid anyways (joke stolen from Flax and CT5).

3-Stage Rocket Boots - Boots, level 18, , Epic

Spoiler

I won't lie, I'm biased - I've loved this item since I first saw it. I haven't been able to get over that enough to actually think about its impact in the meta much, but it's an epic that seems about as strong as Bloome's Barging Boots (an item which contain no actual barges). Setting up rocket charges has always been a bit easier than setting up other charges, but I still think this item is tricky enough to use that it will make for interesting games.

Purificator - Weapon, level 7, , Rare

Spoiler

Whoops! Almost forgot this guy. I have no real beef or love for this item. It's alright, but it feels to me like an item created for the cards on it rather than because its an interesting item. That said, it does serve warriors decently, without being over-strong in it's role. It's practical, it's straightforward, it does what it sets out to do.


Vanity Mirror - Shield, level 21, , Uncommon

Spoiler

A classy, niche shield for wizard-friendly metas. Also tosses Entangling roots back at enemies as a bonus. Unique, powerful in its element and useless outside of it. Also, makes you feel pretty (I recommend watching for at least 30 seconds for full effect).

Oxha's Sparkpinger - Staff, level 19, , Rare

Spoiler

A strong upgrade to Mighty Sparkping Staff. MSS has a total damage of 27, or 39 if you manage to have Spark Generator up for every shot. This staff has a base single target damage of only 1 more, but the range on the weaker attacks is raised by two, and each of those attacks can hit multiple targets, for a total potential damage of 38 unbuffed, or a staggering 58 if you manage to hit maximum targets per shot AND have Spark Generator up the entire time. This makes a Lightning wizard without Deadly Deadly viable enough that we might start seeing more Grounding Armors hit the meta. The OTHER best lightning staff, Deadly, Deadly Staff, has a single target damage of 30 (42 with Spark Gen), and a much harder time with accidentally hitting allies, but a much higher maximum potential damage - if you hit two enemies per shot, it'll deal 60 unbuffed damage; 3, and it'll do an unmatched 90 damage. So the way I would look at this is it's not so much an upgrade to Mighty Sparkping as it is a easier to use, easier to acquire, less powerful version of Deadly Deadly. I thought about it for a while, and while my initial reaction was wary, I'm not really opposed to that.

Syringe of Chemotherapy - Divine Weapon, level 17, , Epic

Spoiler

This is solid, interesting, flavorful, and synergizes well with itself. Syringizes well with itself? No, no, that was terrible. But it has some solid damage, some solid terrain effects, and a couple of small heals that help clean up afterwards. I like it.

Classy Cane-sword - Weapon, level 11, , Rare

Spoiler

Classy as heck - I mean, it's in the name. Tells an excellent story in the cards, well balanced. Not a lot more to be said, really. I really like this item.

Near Depleted Shard - Staff, level 8, , Rare

Spoiler

I like the set of cards here. The Parry helps cover some of the weakness of the Unstable Bolts, the flavor is solid, and Laser Bolt will be nice to have at a lower token cost. This nearly broken item won't break anything, has good flavor, and is good fun.

Death's Embrace - Divine Weapon, level 7, , Uncommon

Spoiler

I like this. The singleton Entangling Roots makes it powerful - very powerful - but the two Touch of Death cards on a priest for whom being in range 1 is going to be risky business makes that alright. This is strong, and meta-capable, but doesn't look meta-defining. Works really well with wizards.

Nimble Nibbler - Divine Weapon, level 13, , Epic

Spoiler

Priests are already the most powerful class in the game, with incredible versatility, survivability, and the ability to vastly increase the power of their compatriots. They don't need this. This is too much. As much as I like vampires, the ability to have THAT much movement - flight, no less - alongside good vamping cards is too much for me. I cannot condone the support of this item, based on what I am afraid it would do to the meta. And that's what I would say if it had a or cost. Right now, the best answer to a vampire priest is to walk away and target someone else - but this vampire could just tag along behind you, wrecking your day as you went. At least you could burst down a warrior who Nimble Strike's into an engagement with you - this priest would heal with every swing they made. This item doesn't sound fun to play against, and removes what I see as one of the most interesting weaknesses in a Vampire Priest's kit.

I'll leave figuring out which ones I voted for to the academics.

 

Yet another reason to vote for that very dapper sword-cane.

 

Looks like this round of Aloyzo's will shore up quite a few holes!

So far, I've decided to vote for Purificator, Vanity Mirror and Classy Sword Cane. The first allows warriors to pack more tech into their weapon choices instead of going with raw damage, which makes for more interesting choices. The rather min-maxed Vanity Mirror gives an underused card a chance to shine, and who doesn't want to pull those pesky wizards away from their hiding holes? Classy Sword Cane is cool as well, a weapon choice that screams anti-melee.

One thing I'm surprised at is the presence of Nimble Nibbler on this list. As of now, the main weakness of the priest class is their relative lack of mobility. I'd argue that this is something necessary to give warriors something to do. Priests already have the ability to hit hard, recover health and all sorts of other shenanigans, do we really want them to fly into our faces with impunity as well?

 

I just wanted to run around with 75 Big Zaps. Maybe one day.

I'll be abstaining from voting on these, as none look like something I'd use or want. Voting just to vote might take away a choice that someone else wants, and I'd rather not do that.

 

I'm kinda disappointing in that poll.
I do like the boot and the shield though.
And I agree with the review of "Nimble Nibbler" , it should not be in the game.