Upcoming Balance Changes (13 August 2013)

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Jon, Aug 13, 2013.

  1. Neofalcon

    Neofalcon Goblin Champion

    I really don't want to see this card get a die roll added to it. Having a die roll attached to something as hugely important as drawing a card puts way too much of an emphasis on RNG.

    It leads to situations similar to MTG where you draw no lands/nothing but lands, and then lose the game simply because you got unlucky, which is extremely frustrating.

    Having said that, Talented Healer may be in need of a nerf. I just posted a different idea in the thread on this topic. I think the effect should be changed to:

    "For each ally, the first time each turn you play a Heal card that targets an ally whose health is not already at maximum, draw a card."
     
  2. Assussanni

    Assussanni Ogre

    I've just noticed on the wiki that Talented Healer is listed as having a chance of 50%. Is this new? Is the wiki wrong? Was it always intended to be a 4+ die roll but it wasn't implemented for some reason?
     
  3. attog

    attog Mushroom Warrior

    The battlefield training cards are 'card disadvantage' and barring some strange combo deck they should never be played in any competitive deck. They are fun cards though and there is nothing wrong with that.
     
  4. Tajan

    Tajan Kobold

    I think in general these changes are positive.

    Vicious Thrust was obviously a bit too strong, and to be honest, it is the main reason that I ran Impaler on my warrior. I'm glad that the step function was not demoted, however, as warriors really seem to need the mobility in multiplayer matches.

    I can understand the adjustment to lava damage, but I really have to agree with the other posters who point out that the reason that lava is so widely used is because it is on so many mage items! I understand why arcane items don't all just have direct damage spells on them, but it would be nice to see more items with Sorcerous Bolt or Surging Blast. I run encumber and lava together because to be honest, that seems to be where item design is pushing me.

    Hopefully, this will not be the last balance change before launch, as still some cards like Barge need a second look.
     
  5. Neofalcon

    Neofalcon Goblin Champion

    My recollection is that Talented Healer originally procced off of every character healed, so players were using Holy Armor in conjunction with ally-damaging cards to draw an infinite number of cards on turn 1. As a temporary fix so MP wasn't broken, they put a 4+ die roll on it, and then re-worked the card so that it works the way it does now, and removed the die roll. The 50% chance on the wiki is probably just an error left over from when that was the case.
     
  6. grolibus

    grolibus Kobold

    I'd like to say that I was getting bored because my items didn't really allow me to play anything else than lava. Both because of its power and rarity. Nerfing it is *Good*, but you need to buff other stuff. Arcing Spark style multi-targetting would be very fitting.

    Also, I agree that the "Training" cards are still too weak. Adding a card draw making them cantrips would make them less predictable and on par with the ally-moving and card-drawing competition...
     
  7. Kalin

    Kalin Begat G'zok

    Good, but not good enough to convince my warrior to take off his Weakling's Helm. Making it available on other types of items would help a lot.
     
    Logan Hawkthorne likes this.
  8. Battlefield Trainings are on a weird spot, they offer card disadvantage and are predictable. I'm with all the votes about them having either Cantrip or Draw a Card on them, but i would rather choose Cantrip. The Cantrip aspect allows warriors to actually control the battlefield by giving mages Bashes or heavy attacks so they can fend off close-range enemies, or Human Wizards giving their better positioned teammates spells so they can lay siege on the enemy. Giving it Draw a Card would give way too much value, specially on Human Priests who could give their allies Unholy Power just so they could have it for themselves and continue the cycle shenanigans.

    Cantripping trainings would, imo, have a huge effect on multiplayer in the right hands by baiting enemies with an empty handed character, just to suddenly teach him how to Obliterate someobody
     
    xophnog and Forlorn like this.
  9. grolibus

    grolibus Kobold

    Actually, you're right. Cantriping them sounds much better.
     
  10. Phaselock

    Phaselock Bugblatter

    Fixed, thanks ! :)
     
    Farbs likes this.
  11. Question about (Advanced) Battlefield Training: does it give the card itself to the new guy or just a copy to hold? i.e. who gets to draw that card again if it gets discarded?
     
  12. Jon

    Jon Blue Manchu Staff Member

    It transfers the existing card.
     
  13. Blindsight

    Blindsight Ogre

    When I first saw Battlefield Training like of card I really wanted to create a combo deck around it. Sadly, I've found it is pretty hard to get enough items with cards useful enough to be swapping between characters to use with the 1-2 cards possible from each character. Even if I am able to get the items with the cards I'd like to swap, the chance of drawing the correct combination of cards is very low.

    Similar to my 6 Traveling Curse build, I'm sure I'll try to force a deck with them eventually but I don't see it working out as something I can ever rely on enough to make it into a solid MP deck.
     
  14. Rogen Jemi

    Rogen Jemi Kobold

    My Humble Opinion, on each, in order:

    Impaler-10 pt. scale: 8/10. I felt bad that Slicer was only +1, where its two martial brothers were both +2. Also, as it was, I agree with the devaluing of armor, but I also felt it inflated the value of Block cards, as it is the only way to deal with Penetrating. This is also key in the next adjust, as we will explore.

    Vicious Thrust-Score: 9/10. This was going to be an 8, but it gets an extra point due to the above adjustment. They had three options on this card's adjustment; hike the grade, shrink the numbers, or, what they chose, lose Penetrating. My take: excellent choice.

    Frost Jolt-Score: 5/10. I might do a blow-up on my entire take on "cold" effects, but I'll be focused here: this adjustment didn't go far enough. It's still got too much oomph for a Silver Uncommon. A higher grade, lower range, or lower duration(note the OR, not and) would have completed this rebalancing.

    "Lava terrain cards"-Score: 0/10. No, I didn't forget a 1. This score would have been a negative value, but I have been instructed that they are not permitted on a 10-point scale. This single change has caused me to abandon my all-wizard team.(I am not kidding. I have restarted with a new team on a new beta key). Lava terrain was the equalizer between fighters, who get a FIXED 10-damage card at level One and every other Rare low-level(no token required) wizard staff(I actually couldn't find any Rare lv. 1 staffs; please reply if you know of any). Therefore, I cannot view this adjustment as anything less than a wholesale weakening of the Wizard Class. I could also make the case as to this also affecting the value of Move cards, but this entry has grown long, I have made my major point, and there are more cards to go.

    War Cry-Score: 10/10. This would have been a 9 based solely on the mechanics, but it gets a point for one simple reason: this change is super-saturated with FLAVOR. This card now far more closely matches how this ability would function in an actual die-and-paper role-playing campaign setting. The best adjustment in this round of rebalancing.

    Battlefield Training(s)-Score: 7/10. I was in the minority on this one: I actually used the original card form in my above mentioned all-wizard team. Normally, I was using it to pass move cards to my Dwarf bolt-chucker, but I still used it prior to this change. This may have scored higher, but there is one simple fact: this change changes nothing. My all-wizard team is still shelved until further adjustments.

    Overall Adjustment Score--6.5 out of 10, which I am officially rounding to a 7/10 score for one reason, which some may have missed in the Chaos:
    That's right: Open Beta is interpretively SOON!
    That's enough from me, and Boo-yeah on my longest post yet! Now please excuse me as I go shut the Ruby Demon Portal...again.
     
  15. so wow talented healer... you think you are curing it but it's adding heat to the fire.
    Imagine a priest w/ all life drain cards...perhaps he even has a mass frenzy in his hand... and after he casts them all his ally warrior can then use a super bash 17 dmg...
     
  16. karadoc

    karadoc Hydra

    That's nothing like the balance problem we had before.

    The scenario you're describing involves using a handful of specific cards in combo to do burst damage. It may well be a very powerful combo; but it requires a heap of cards to set up; and it's comparable to other massive burst damage combos that already exist in the game. For example, a warrior can already do 34 damage in a single hit with Obliterating Bludgeon + All Out Attack - and with additional cards they could do even more. (eg. Frenzy Aura, a second All Out Attack, perhaps War Cry to ensure it won't be blocked, etc.)
     
  17. Blindsight

    Blindsight Ogre


    Don't imagine, do it. Show that there is something wrong with it as it stands, or learn that it may not be as powerful as you think. I'm sure there will be a lot of people working on it and it may be very card dependent, but from what I've seen thus far is that it's strong, but not over the top.
     
  18. Jon

    Jon Blue Manchu Staff Member

    It may be very powerful - but the real problem we wanted to fix was infinite draw engines, which are both powerful and un-fun to play against.

    If it is too powerful, in the sense that it distorts the meta-game in a boring way, we'll look at adjusting it further. I think we need a lot more data before we'd consider that though.
     
    Oberon and Blindsight like this.

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