[BALANCE] Balance Suggestion List (January 2014)

The purpose of this post is to highlight a number of outlier problems (overly powerful and/or overly frustrating) found in Card Hunter's multiplayer (MP) balance. This analysis was derived from personal experience (from 900 Elo to 1650 Elo), talking to a large number of the MP player base (primarily high Elo players), and from reading many forum posts on balance suggestions. The list deals with reducing power (nerfing) overly problematic areas. I'll be working on a similar list for improving (buffing) weak cards in the future, but at the moment weakening the worst offenders would have the most beneficial change to Card Hunter's MP.

These suggestions are fairly moderate as to not overly upset the game state or disrupt the game state too heavily. Future changes would most likely be needed after additional analysis. This list is not a "be all end all" comprehensive list -- it is merely a starting point before more re-evaluation. Additionally, these suggestions attempt to remain elegant solutions to complex problems -- there might be "better" ways to balance, but this is an attempt to remain succinct, simple, and straightforward.

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Currently, the biggest problem in MP is the undervaluation of cards that give "card advantage" -- the concept that a card has the power of either multiple cards, or requires multiple cards to overcome.

The most problematic of these are: Nimble Strike (NS), Short Perplexing Ray (SPR), Winds Of War (WoW), Whirlwind/Whirlwind Enemies (WW/WWE), Toughness, and Hard To Pin Down (HtPD).

In addition to suggestions about fixing the power of "card advantage" abilities, this list will also deal with a few other problematic areas. Namely cards that lack adequate counter measures; such as: Wall Of Stone (WoS), Impenetrable Nimbus (Nimbus), Resistant Hide (RH), Firestorm (FS), Mass Frenzy (MF), and Martyr Blessing (MB).

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Primary Problem Cards:

Nimble Strike
Problem: This card is highly undervalued as being classified as only a Silver Rare. It brings high mobility to low mobility teams (like Dwarves), lets users position as to avoid attacks or secure victory point squares, and does decent damage as well. It can be used to easily close gaps, pull out enemy Blocks, avoid Blocks due to facing, and more.
Solution: Changing from Move 4 to Move 3 would help alleviate some of the problems and move it from being one of the best cards in the game to a better version of Dancing Cut (a Silver Uncommon card). Additionally, removal of a single NS from Vibrant Pain (VP) and replace it with a very weak card (Unreliable Block?) would better balance the most problematic item in the game. Simply reducing NS to Move 3 while still containing 6 would still make VP a non-choice above anything else.

Short Perplexing Ray
Problem: Similarly to NS, this card is highly undervalued as a Silver Rare. Not only does it bring a card advantage (effectively trading 1 card for 2), but it reduces the enemy's cards (further limiting counterplay).
Solution: Reducing the range from 3 to 2 moves this card into a primarily defensive role. At range 3 the enemy can not retaliate with a Range 2 attack. This suggested change was also backed by the current ranked leader "turinturamba" who overly abuses it himself.

Winds of War
Problem: The ability to target 2 (enemies and allies), move 3, and draw out cards like Toughness, makes Winds of War one of the best cards in the game. It not only gives a card advantage by possibly removing 2 Blocks, but also completely negates Dwarf movement through the move 3. It also has respectable range (6) and is easily found on a large number of items.
Solution: Unsure on the best solution. Moderate change would be to change it to a "move 2" to maintain its power but not completely negate Dwarf movement. Other possible solutions would be to have it only target enemies, give it less range (4 or 5), or allow only a single target.

Whirlwind / Whirlwind Enemies
Problem: Randomness and the ability to completely remove positioning. Since the user can choose when to use them, it will on average heavily favor the user. It also provides huge card advantage depending on the map size -- sometimes costing the enemy team multiple move cards.
Solution: These are both extremely problematic cards without an easy solution. The best solution seems to change the functionality of the cards to be a global "Maze" -- something that still disrupts close formations but is not reliant on map size and RNG for determining its power. Perhaps increase it from Maze's 2 squares to be "Move targets three squares randomly then set its facing randomly. Stealthy." While still being a bit random, it would maintain its core use but not be overly problematic.

Toughness
Problem: Pure card advantage with little to no counterplay. Simply put makes Dwarves the overall best race in the game. It effectively both reduces the size of your deck due to the draw and completely negates an enemy card in the process.
Solution: Require facing to activate and/or allow "Penetrating" cards to bypass it. It counts as "armor" for many things but apparently not for penetration. Others have suggested removing the card draw, but that would most likely be too severe of a nerf to Dwarves.

Hard to Pin Down
Problem: Extremely strong for a defensive card that gives a 1 to 2 card advantage (negating damage and a free move).
Solution: Unsure exactly. I'd suggest buffing Surging Shield Block while changing HtPD to a "move 1 when dodging" from a "move 3 when dodging." Maybe change it to something like Dodge where it only actually negates the attacking card if it breaks Line of Sight.

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Lesser Problem Cards:

Wall of Stone
Problem: Inability to counter outside of a few rare cards like "Teleport" makes it frustrating to play against.
Solution: The card is very reliant on the map and hasn't been shown to be overly problematic, so a simple solution would be to allow the cards to be affected by "Terrain Removal" cards like Cleansing Burst. Would increase the number of counters but still remain a very viable card.

Impenetrable Nimbus
Problem: Nearly no counter aside from Purge. Extremely strong, decent range, and may self target. Combined with Immovable it allows someone to easily camp a victory point square, which depending on the map could be huge. It is also easy to stack a large number of these in a deck (10 per Priest) effectively making at least 1 of your characters invulnerable per turn.
Solution: As one of the few cards that makes Priests viable, I'm not sure the best solution. People have made suggestions that it should reduce all damage to a maximum number (3 or 5) so the target can still be damaged, but not instantly killed by things like Obliterating Bludgeon or Almighty Hack. Others have suggested making it have a duration of 2 but only negating the first attack or two. Finally, others have suggested reducing its range and/or making it not able to be self targeted.

Resistant Hide
Problem: Ability to counter a large number of elemental damages and completely negate a large number of builds. Since there is only at most one per deck, it is highly reliant on randomness to draw but can turn battles completely without a counter. Low number of counters (armor removal, discarding) that further the problem of randomness (enemy must draw a specific counter). Thematic disconnect that a single hide armor removes all damage from "Lava" terrain. Also, re-emphasizes the already overuse of Cold damage, as it is one of the few types not negated.
Solution: Have it roll to see if elemental damage is negated. This means that it is still strong (66.67% chance of negating damage), but does not completely shut down certain builds or allow a user to Firestorm or sit on "Lava" with no fears.

Firestorm
Problem: Unlimited range combined with draw decks (Inspiring Presence) and the size of some maps makes Firestorm extremely deadly. The ability to wall oneself in a corner and constantly cast it with no counterplay is not only frustrating, but boring.
Solution: Limit the range of Firestorm to 10 (or even 8 if still problematic). Keep it from requiring "Line of Sight" but limiting the range will help against super large maps. It maintains its strength, but gets rid of edge cases where it is overly strong.

Mass Frenzy
Problem: Overly strong compared to similar Frenzy cards. It gives "Frenzy 3" to the whole team, while similar Frenzy cards are only "Frenzy 2" (Unholy Frenzy, Righteous Frenzy, and Blind Rage) or have "Frenzy 3" (Frenzy Aura) with some drawback or limitation (possibly removed by an attack).
Solution: Reduce it from "Frenzy 3" to "Frenzy 2" should be sufficient to keep the item strong, but not overly powerful.

Martyr Blessing
Problem: Potential card advantage ranges from 1 to 4+. If the enemy can not reach any other targets Martyr is effectively a 1 card advantage per attack, or a 2 to 4 card advantage due to the enemy having to discard cards by not attacking.
Solution: Unsure exactly due to it being one of the cards needed to keep Priests currently viable. Possibly reduce range of casting (from 6 to 4), reduce duration (from 2 to 1), or increase damage taken by a small amount (giving it some potential drawback).

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Addendum: The primary fear I have about these changes is the increased rise of dominance of Frost encumbrance control Wizards. While I do not believe it will become more dominant than they currently are (especially with nerfing WoW and SPR), it should be an area that requires close monitoring. Suggested changes should they become problematic would be changing "Encumbrance" to be non-stacking so only the strongest encumbrance is in effect.

I know the devs fear the backlash for nerfing -- especially those who spent real money to acquire items that contain some of the nerfed cards (like users who bought Membership when they saw Vibrant Pain in the Membership slot). My proposed solution for this is to allow users to re-sell affected items for full value to the store for a few months afterwards. This would allow people who no longer want the item after nerfs to buy something else in Randimar's.

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Let me know what your thoughts are on the changes. Remember, this is not a definitive list, but simply a starting point to weaken the overly dominant builds and hopefully bring more diversity to Card Hunter multiplayer. Thanks for reading! =)

 

Too Long; Didn't Read (TL;DR) Version:

Nimble Strike:
- Move 3 from Move 4

Short Perplexing Ray:
- Range 2 from Range 3

Winds Of War:
- Move 2 from Move 3

Whirlwind / Whirlwind Enemies:
- Remade: "Move targets three squares randomly then set its facing randomly. Stealthy."

Toughness:
- Requires facing to activate
- Ignored by cards with "Penetrating"

Hard To Pin Down:
- Move after dodging to 1 -or- require breaking Line of Sight to actually avoid attack

Wall Of Stone:
- Removed by Terrain Removal cards (like Cleansing Burst)

Impenetrable Nimbus:
- Unsure. Investigate, but suggestion of "reduce damage to a maximum of X"

Resistant Hide:
- No longer automatically ignores damage but requires a successful roll

Firestorm:
- Range to 10 from Global

Mass Frenzy
- "Frenzy 2" from "Frenzy 3"

Martyr Blessing
- Reduce range to 4 from 6 (-or- possibly reduce duration or give drawback)

Vibrant Pain:
- Reduced to 5 Nimble Strikes from 6 Nimble Strikes
- Added "Unreliable Block" (or some other weak non-Trait card)

(Explanations for these change suggestions in the main post)

 

For Resistant Hide, I think I'd rather it maintain its current elemental absorb but be much worse armor against normal attacks. It's a strict upgrade on Hardy Mail (unless for whatever reason you want to hurt yourself with fire/lightning), and I think it should be modified so that it's not an auto-include—some wizards might choose to go for Reliable Mail items if Resistant Hide did close to nothing against warriors & priests.

 

The problem is that Resistant Hide is super dominant against many builds. It makes running Electric or Fire Wizards very risky and makes Firestorm builds that draw it early very strong. It is super reliant on luck drawing the card or a counter card. Just not healthy for the state of the game. Plus, it inadvertently makes Cold Wizards even better since they don't have to worry about a Resistant Hide completely shutting them down.

Imagine if there was an armor that said "Negates all piercing damage" or "Negates all bludgeoning damage" -- it would dramatically change the game, just like Resistant Hide does if drawn. When balancing you really need to consider the idea that the enemy could get it on all their characters on the first turn in theory.

 

I think it'd be more interesting to have a wider variety of playable armors, and a wider variety of answers to them, but yeah.

 

Nimble Strike:
3-step is a good start but I think it would also need a damage reduction, especially if they want to keep it a silver card.

Short Perplexing Ray:
I agree. Reducing the range by 1 is what I've been saying as well. It would still be a powerful card.

Winds Of War:
Move 2 is probably a good way to nerf it. One other, possibly better, option is to reduce the range.

Whirlwind / Whirlwind Enemies:
I would fix these cards by removing them from MP and only giving them to a couple of SP enemies. They add nothing fun or challenging to the game.

Toughness:
Not a big fan of either of those suggestions, although the latter makes sense. My favorite idea is to make it reduce damage by 50%, not prevent it.

Wall Of Stone:
I agree 100%. The fact that it doesn't do this already is a bug imo.

Impenetrable Nimbus:
I like the fact that it prevents all damage but it would be nice to see some kind of downside to it. Maybe something like.. attaching Halt to it? I don't know, just brainstorming. Could make the card even better actually because you could use it offensively as well.

Resistant Hide:
I dislike this armor. It's a cheap and lame "lol, I prevent all kinds of things!" armor. One of the immunities should be removed or something. The dice roll idea is not bad either.

Firestorm:
Range to 10 is a pretty good suggestion actually. I like it.

Vibrant Pain:
I think the 6th card should be Trip because it fits the theme better.

 

The problem is you can't balance a card based on its scarcity. Imagine a card that gave you full immunity to all damage and let you automatically win a game. That is sometimes what happens with Resistant Hide. Having it still negate all elemental damage (I'd maybe even add Cold to the list) but only 66.67% of the time would solve its biggest problems. It would still be *very* strong, just not insane like it currently is.

WW/WWE being completely removed would be a large change. Maybe one that is needed, but as I stated above my suggested changes are moderate. The WW/WWE change is the biggest change of all suggestions (changing core functionality while retaining flavor and basic usage). Anything more would be a drastic change. These proposed changes are primarily designed to be done together and then the rest re-evaluated in a month or two time.

The problem with "reduce damage by 50%" is that there is no precedent on any other card. All my suggestions are trying to use functionality that is already in the game. Not only to make it easier for the developers to institute such changes, but so it doesn't increase complexity. Penetration not ignoring Toughness seems like a bug to me, considering it acts as an armor. Having Toughness require facing would give more interesting decisions to the game and be in line with other complete damage negation cards (all Blocks).

Why do you like the fact it prevents all damage? It reduces counterplay and interesting decisions by simply being a "catch all" card. There is a single counter with Purge (outside of stacking buffs to push it out, which would cost 3 cards). Since Purge is only on Priest items, there is a problem of coming up with a solution for other characters. Granted, I do think it is one of the few cards that makes Priests viable -- but I'm working on a list of buff suggestion similar to this one (primarily with Priest cards).

Giving Vibrant Pain a negative trait is problematic. One, it encourages trait cycling (granted it would be a negative trait, but still lets them draw a new card), and two it allows a user to use it in Handicap Challenges in SP... that could be problematic from a SP standpoint.

 

... or arcane damage (blasts, zaps, path of knives, winds of war) or melee (bashes, step attacks)...

 

Yes, but that's like saying an armor that negated all slashing attacks would be balanced because "there is bludgeoning and piercing attacks out there." The thing is you have to compare the card to similar cards. What other armor potentially negates 8+ damage a turn 100% of the time? Nothing. Not even something close to that. It isn't even related to a glass cannon build -- 1 item can effectively shut down multiple builds (Fire / Electric Wizards) with the only counterplay being a lucky armor removal or discard ability.

The real question is this: is Resistant Hide healthy for the game? Does it provide something that makes the game more interesting or does it limit gameplay? Since it is so dominantly strong, it limits gameplay. That isn't the goal of having a robust multiplayer game with many viable choices and strategies.

 

Grounding Plates (though that's only good against one type of damage)
Amorphous Body, Only Bones, Scaly Armor (not available to players)
Impenetrable Nimbus, Hover (limited duration)
heck, Toughness can theoretically cancel hundreds of damage and give you a free card.

What if we changed it to an Emerald Rare so it costs more money/tokens/drawbacks to use?

 

I appreciate the effort you put into this, but I simply don't believe any of these cards are bad for the game. Sorry, but that's my honest opinion.

This is a game where it's possible to wear four sets of armor at the same time without encumbrance, and have each of them work or fail by a die roll. Nothing on your list is sillier or more powerful than that, and even the multiple armor thing works in the context of this game.

 

Regarding cards I care about:

Whirlwind / Whirlwind Enemies - I resign against scum MP opponents who use whirls, like I used to against the old drawspam builds. It's pretty much the same experience with both, except that whirls offer the pretense that I'm participating in the match.

Nimble Strike - a minor damage nerf (-2, to 4) would be the best start, with the intention of revisiting the card with further modifications in a couple months.

Winds Of War - range reduction (-1, to 5) would work best. It's not useful if you can't push warriors outside average step attack range.

Firestorm - I don't think Firestorm needs fixing, because there's a very easy counter: move in quickly and kill things (which you should be doing anyways). Firespam only works reliably in conjunction with a bunch of other parts (like whirls) that are more broken. Maybe a slight damage nerf (-1, to 3) would be ok. I love this card for the flavor.

Toughness - Drop the card draw and I think it's balanced. You should be testing for blocks anyways before hitting for damage, and you can't have more than 2 per character.

Resistant Hide - It's so scarce (1x per character) that I don't think it matters for MP, and it's awfully useful for SP. If you really think it needs tweaking, make it block only magic.

Impenetrable Nimbus - Nimbus reminds me an awful lot of star power. It's silly and abusable, but so many other things are out of whack (SP quests and elves, especially) that it's necessary in some form. I tend to run enough control that I can usually lock down a nimbused agressor, and position it for serious pain the next round.

 

I agree with most of the list (if not necessarily the specific suggestions for the fixes).

The only change I would want for resistant hide is for it to not reduce other damage by 2 on rolls. Immunity to fire/acid/lightning is more than enough, it should not also have armor.

Anyone suggesting nimble strike needs a damage reduction doesn't understand the card or gameplay balance. The primary source of ridiculousness as detailed in the 75 threads about it, is that you get to move 4 then damage 6 (before buffs). The damage alone is not the issue, and even nerfing the damage to 0 wouldn't be a fix. I'm more than happy to go into more detail as to why, but don't want to derail this comprehensive thread.

Re: Scarcity - Scarcity is not a reasonable argument as to why something is balanced btw. Tons of games have taken this approach to ultimately later decide that its an unreasonable, short-sighted approach to balance. The only time I've seen games do this have been when they were subscription based games like wow who wanted players to stay subscribed, so they would overpower the least powered class (and their respective items) for a while, to get people rerolling etc. This is a really cynical and terrible approach to balance.

As to Winds of War - this ability is problematic overall, particularly because there is a purple version of this card that is completely inferior at gold cost. So, either WoW is actually green quality, or imp TK is not Gold. The best way to balance the two abilities (and they should be balanced in tandem, otherwise you simply have one useless superfluous ability) is to make each distinct:

1) WoW - I would make wow be range 5, only affects enemies.
2) Improved TK - I would make improved TK be range 6, only affects allies.

This tweak would make each ability have a functional use and purpose, and make WoW less overpowered because wow range wouldn't be the same as frost range.

 

By scarcity, I meant the limit to the number you can have on a character, not how hard it is to get the ability into your collection. e.g., if nimble strike were limited to 1 per character, like resistant hide, it wouldn't contribute significantly gameplay.

 

I'm trying to stay away from changing card rarity as that requires dramatically changing a large number of items. It is much simpler to make the card equal in power to its rarity than to change rarity and items having the card.

Resistant Hide is currently a Silver Common -- which means it should be fairly weak. Instead it is INSANELY strong for its rarity. The other cards mentioned are all not available to players (Amorphous Body / Only Bones), rated much rarer (Grounding Plates), or are heavily situational (Hover).

I don't think you're understanding the point of what makes most of these cards overpowered -- it is about "card advantage." If you run "lots of armor removal / discard" (except SPR since that is currently OP) you're using multiple cards in hopes of drawing them to counter Resistant Hide (one card). That means the enemy has a card advantage on you. It doesn't matter if it is problematic in a very limited situation (which actually isn't that limited) -- it simply is just an "all or nothing" card which is bad for balance. If you get it then you're going to do significantly better than if you didn't. It isn't a single card that is used and gone -- it could effectively give you a HUGE advantage over the course of a game.

If you don't think NS and VP is bad for the game I don't know what to say. There is no reason to not run them on a Warrior if you have them. They provide everything and more. When an item isn't a choice, simply because it is better than everything else in every way, then it is harmful for a strategy game. Games are about having interesting choices -- Vibrant Pain removes that because it is simply always a good choice no matter what.

Nimble Strike is strong because of the step ability, not the damage. Honestly, it could do 1 damage and still be very strong. At 1 damage it would essentially be a dash + attack card that combines with other damage bonus cards (like Blind Rage, Unholy Frenzy, Mass Frenzy). Reducing the step makes it more inline with its current rarity. It would simply be a slightly more damaging Dancing Cut. Still very strong, but not insane.

Winds of War range reduction might work too -- but honestly the ability to move targets by 3 is huge. It negates Dwarf movement completely and gives a basic card advantage to humans (who can Run back).

Firestorm isn't that easy to counter. On a large map, if the enemy has a Wall of Stone and huddles in a corner with Savage Curse + Firestorm and Team Heal he is going to have huge advantage. Plus, it is more about being extremely frustrating to play against and not necessarily OP. Against lower Elo players it is extremely dominating with no counterplay and isn't healthy for the state of the game.

Toughness removing the card draw is another suggestion I've considered. I'm not sure if people would even consider running it (or Dwarves) if it didn't have the card draw though. And as I've said before, just because you can "only have 2 per character" doesn't really matter. Every single card advantage card is a "no brainer" choice at the moment which reduces meaningful strategy in a strategy game.

Resistant Hide being scarce doesn't matter (see above). You have to plan that the enemy could draw it on turn one. It heavily reduces the viability of certain builds because it is a hard check to them, and makes Firestorm and Lava spammers extremely strong if they cycle cards to get it. It might be useful for single player (SP), but the game should be balanced towards MP. I'd say add Cold to the description life and remove physical damage but keep it roll to reduce damage. However, I'd want to see how strong or viable it remains with a die roll before considering that.

Regarding, Imp Nimbus -- the game shouldn't be balanced around SP. You need to balance it around MP first and foremost. That is what keeps people coming back after SP is done and an unhealthy MP game won't lead much to replayability.

Maybe Resistant Hide shouldn't negate physical damage, but it definitely shouldn't completely negate Fire / Acid / Electric. It is extremely strong and easily found in good items with no cost. Grounding Plates is very difficult to find on cards (only 5 have it all rare+) and only negates a single type of damage (Electric). Compare its rarity to Resistant Hide in terms of functionality.


Making Improved TK only affect allies would be a fairly drastic change. I'm trying to keep my change suggestion list moderate and maintain the core use of the cards with simple slight number tweaks. If WoW was still problematic at target 2 move 2, then the next step I'd say would be to reduce its range to 5. Outside of that I doubt it would be overpowered compared to alternatives.

 

But unlike Nimble Strike, Resistant Hide isn't a single use. If it was then it might be comparable. Balancing around scarcity is not a good idea. You have to assume the enemy could get the card on every character with it on the first turn and balance around that. Resistant Hide is a Silver Common but has the power of a Gold Rare. Just because you can only have 1 in your deck doesn't mean it isn't super powerful.

 

I am going to start off by making some assumptions.
-Card quality cannot be changed easily or at all.
-Devs want to spend time making new content instead of tweaking dozens of items /cards.
-Anyone reading this has heard of Staff of a Million Fireballs and knows how Fireball was upgraded in quality whilst Ember Burst was born, and it became Staff of a Million Embers. This is how we can deal with overpowered/undervalued cards without screwing with the item system too much. I would suggest such a change for Nimble Strike, Whirlwind, Impenetrable Nimbus and possibly Winds of War.

In example:
Nimble Strike: I would like to see this card upgraded to Gold status and used on new, higher level items in a more sensible format. Then I would like to see all current items with this card replaced by Dancing Cut or a new 3 damage/step 4 card.
It would also be great to see Vibrant Pain add a card or two like Fright/Trip or Slowed added to it.

Short P. Ray: Reducing the range to 2 would make this card trickier/more dangerous to use but leave it powerful. This is another card that is definitely under-valued. At the moment it should be ok.

Winds of War:
I love this card. That being said, it is a strict upgrade from Improved TK with the addendum that it is actually an attack card. When you target your allies you reveal their armor cards or lack thereof. You can boost the damage too; otherwise it seems irrelevant. You can play with the range and the slide distance if you want, however I have a new idea: Add an effect that would attach Winds to yourself and you cannot play any more attacks until the end of turn.
On another random note, it would be nice to see Winds have some actual synergy with fire attacks.

Whirlwind/Whirlwind Enemies
I think that for the most part these cards take a certain degree of strategy out of the game and make it just crazy random. Sometimes the result is fun, but most of the time it is just frustrating. And when your opponent is spamming them like crazy it is extremely frustrating. I would like to see these cards downgraded (like a Mass Maze, as suggested-call it Twister/Twister Enemies) and/or I would like to have Whirlwind cards limited to 1 per deck, especially if their effects are at full power.

Toughness:
When you use tokens to get Toughness, you get A: damage negation and B: card draw. With human skills you can get some card draw and/or team moves, which can function as a 2-for 1 move, but it simply isn't the same thing. Forget about elf skills. Dwarf skills are just a little too good. Between Raging Rock/Solid Rock/Perfect Toughness we have traits being cycled, damage being negated, and card draw. That is raw advantage. That is power.
What was I saying? Oh, well requiring facing on Toughness is stupid. It's armor.
Speaking of which, the card text on Toughness is misleading. According to the keyword "Penetrating" it ignores armor unless that armor negates all damage. Toughness does not state explicitly that it prevents all damage, and so the text should be rewritten to reflect that, OR penetrating attacks should go through. Cutting the damage in half seems like a neat idea.
I would suggest Toughness only triggering on damage of 8 or less.
Removing the card draw seems like the way to go seeing as in most situations people will try their weakest attacks first, anyways.

Wall of Stone:
Whether it was intended for Stone Walls to be indestructable, bug or not, it would be nice if you could at least remove these with Cleansing Ray/Burst/Presence if you were possessed to do so. Not that I would run Cleansing anyways...

Impenetrable Nimbus:
Yes, this card is a necessity for doing Quests in campaign. However, it is a big pain in multiplayer. It stops damage for a whole turn, plus terrain and burning attachments the next turn. I think that the card is undervalued and it would be nice to see some more counters. On the bad side, you can run 10 per deck. On the good side, doing that makes that priest pretty vulnerable. Except that said Nimbus can self target. That has to change.
I think that nimbus adds a strategic layer to the game (such as tricking your opponent into wasting one when you have no attacks) but that it works too well.
Another idea: Nimbus prevents you from using attack cards while attached.
It would also be good to see a "Durable Nimbus" as mentioned before, which reduces damage without total invincibility.

Resistant Hide:
I would like to see Resistant Hide negate Fire and Acid damage only. That being said, I could care less since you can only use 1 resistant hide per deck anyways. If you want to run one super-amazing card in the hopes that you will actually draw it and shut down an opponent with an entire party of non-versatile characters, than go right ahead. Good luck with that, the math says you will need it.
Side note: Why are wizards wearing smelly, patched up zombie hide as robes? >.<

Firestorm: Range 10 is a rather strange suggestion. The maps I have seen aren't any bigger than 13X13; and if your wizard is at the very edge of said map there are only 2 squares that Firestorm wouldn't hit. Considering that your opponent is going to move towards you (and you can move towards them!) I would make the range 8 or just not bother changing it at all.

On Cold spells and Lava terrain:
I think that an effect should be added to Lava terrain that it discards Cold attachments.

On yet another note:
I think that balance should be about keeping powerful cards in check, in order to create more diversity in gameplay. I would like to see several cards buffed as well for the pursuit of balance. That deserves it's own thread though.