Although Hypno Beacon + Path of Knives + Sparkling Cloth Armor = someone is probably not happy with their armor choice (or their movement choices). I don't know what Tier 3 means, but if you are running a control/terrain build, it could be very, very potent. Throw some cold in there, and....wait, I'm not posting my build here. So maybe, Tier 2.5?
Just picked up my first "Warp" pistol for my wizard team. O.M.G. This whole "Accelerate Time" thing is going to be insane when people start building around it (fire buffs, volcano).
Question on Accelerate Time: is anyone noticing if it is decreasing the duration of traits on characters? I plan on taking a look today, but since it is a beginning of the round occurrence, it seems that if I wanted to waste three Accelerate Times in one round, I could 'purge' off something like Eleven Maneuvers. I know it affects Dimensional Traveler (many an escape made that way already), but I haven't checked the duration counters before and after.
I've played against an accelerate time build, (shan't say whose or what he plays) more or less like the one I had in mind to play if I get the cards, and I can confirm it's pretty OP
AT builds can be strong(Double human wizard /w human bless priest?) but it forecasts itself. Can be countered in the same ways a normal blesscano build is. Pass to save your moves, keep a team move in your pocket as much as possible. Because they volcano and then have to move themselves or cast bless, you generally can get 2 chars off the terrian before they cast AT. If they can't catch at least 2 characters on terrian with AT then it becomes somewhat inefficient. You're only dealing 8 damage which is typical for any emerald card spell(subpar even). Of course if you've spent all your moves and then all your characters get stuck on lava you are out of luck... If they have 2 AT in their hands they will own you. Don't put yourself in that situation vs a wizard team.
If they have Dimensional Traveler, they don't have to move off the terrain before using Accelerate Time. Focused Teleportation, good stuff.
I'm not sure about Cushioning Armor being OP. Cushioning Armor seems to be more powerful than Reliable Mail in warrior vs warrior scenarios, whereas Reliable Mail is preferred against wizards. I'm comparing the two because they're your most reliable armor options. Cushioning Armor punishes lack of warrior tech as much as Reliable Mail punishes lack of wizard tech. In this sense, it's actually quite balanced. It even counters Bejeweled Elves. With something like Laser Thrust existing, I'm not quite sure if it deserves a nerf just yet. Hypnotic Beacon's design really seems to be for 3 warrior team punishment. There's absolutely no way to deal with it other than avoiding it (unless it's thrown right on you) when you're using 3 warriors, but wizards can easily trade other terrain cards (even Stone Spikes, a paper quality card) and priests can overwrite or cleanse the terrain. Well, that's the niche of beacons, I guess. Accelerate Time is one of those cards which require a rather large collection to make good use of, like Savage Curse with burst or fire wizard cards. Using it in conjunction with terrain, drawing effects, and fire seems to be the best idea, but I'm not sure how viable it will really be because you're spending major tokens on arcane items for just a single copy. Reality Warper seems great for control wizards; Caustic Warper seems viable for terrain wizards; and Flame Warper would be awesome for a fire mage. I think Flame Warper is the most viable, as it easily fits in an Ember Burst + Glob Of Flame + Instant Burn build. Mostly, though, it would be accessory. Curse Of Fragility along with flame, terrain, and Accelerate Time could be horrifying due to the number of applications of the curse, but that would require some time to setup and thus its viability is questionable. Scatter Laser isn't as scary as it seems. It's already emerald quality, so it's obviously not at the same level as bursts. It's not that formidable due to the sheer lack of it. What I would be concerned about is this: Radiation Bomb + Savage Curse + other frenzies. That's the new Fireball, and it doesn't even need wizards! Atomic Drop Console gives you 2 Radiation Bombs and Mind Worm for a major token. You can have up to 7 bombs per priest and have Savage Curse on those same priests. Pretty scary if you ask me. Oh, wait, did I mention that there's an item, St. Yatzie's Genetic Console, that gives 2 Genetic Engineering and a Radiation Bomb? Genetic Engineering can be used to purge allies and even remove your own Savage Curse if necessary. On top of all this, Radiation Bomb gives you handicaps, which range from near-useless to downright game changing (think Festering Guts). Additionally, Resistant Hide does not work against it. I actually think Radiation Bomb should be available on wizards, too, by the way. Cooling Laser is definitely interesting, but the viability of builds that use it is questionable because it's on not-so-good items.
This proved to be a kind of horrible gimmick build on the test server. I'd be surprised if it went far on live, but I am excited about people trying it because it's pretty hilarious.
Really? What cards/items were they using? The build actually looks good on paper, since you can incorporate melee attacks and whatnot, reducing the close combat weakness of the build.
Thanks for sharing thoughts 100% agree on this, but just to clarify, when I say OP, I mean really strong, not excessively strong! I think it's going to go in Tier 2, because it's so random, I had it used against me and it tked me right behind mage enemy mage This is an elite build, as you will need a lot of leggies, but it's real strong imo, you can go for a combo of burn+ terrain dmg. I've been testing it and super impressed, I thought you could target the same target more than once, but it's not the case, might move it to Tier 2. Nah, bomb does too little damage to be the new fireball, but it's fun to play Quite random, the buffs sometimes help you sometimes not, I used my healer like a kamikaze in a game for instance to take advantage of a debuff! And yes, cooling laser is fun, but not game changing.
When I opened my saved up chests, I happened upon two Supercooled Laser, so I'm testing out a build that uses cooling lasers, one on each wizard (2) with one priest buffing the damge. I haven't drawn a cold spell yet with the Cooling Laser, so hasn't been that effective in that sense, but I did win a few matches. Even won one against Inkfingers who is rated higher than me. I was lucky to draw my one volcano in my deck. The extra range on the laser is helpful, but it would be even more helpful if it buffed the range of the other cold spells as well.
I think the radiation bomb + frenzy builds are going to to do better than people think. They have looked pretty potent in the matches I've faced against it today (lost 6-0) in each one. I'm envisioning a radiation priest, a buffing priest, and a roots priest. Ugh. Priests are now better wizards than wizards, with encumbrance that actually encumbers. Wonderful.
Radiation is way over the line into "too random to be fun" territory imo. Laser malfunctions are questionable too, but there's only 4 and none would be considered among the best or worst effects in the game. Radiation is just dumb, whether giving random handicaps or boosts. The sheer number of possible outcomes, and the fact that they include some of the best and worst effects in the game, is not a feature that can work in MP.
Hypnotic Beacon affecting Dimensional Traveler or Slippery is a little silly, as you don't have to move at all if you don't want to. I understand why it does as such, but you get penalized for moving or not moving. Like a lot of the other items in this expansion, it's just too random. Killing one of my own characters because a radiation bomb gave them Festering Guts to kill a maneuvering elf was interesting, but not fun. The radiation priest (usually with two wizards) build is growing, and it's not fun to play against. Because it's practically demanding your play a priest of your own to purge everything off, and if you don't, there's no way to game plan for a deck such as that, other than 'I better kill them quick.' Which leads to what? More bejewled. More burrft. Good times.
