Adajon's Feedback

Discussion in 'Castle Mitternacht Playtest' started by adajon, Sep 30, 2016.

  1. adajon

    adajon Thaumaturge

    Deck 1
    Games played: 5
    Characters: Acid wizard, werewolf warrior, vampire priest
    Lancolihoh
    Level 50 Human Priest

    Dhrosmindhildan
    Level 1 Elf Warrior

    char.2
    Level 50 Elf Wizard

    Observations/feedback:
    • In my opinion, Ethereal Form's effect is far too powerful. 'Immunity to untargeted effects' makes one immune to a huge range of attacks: burst spells, cones, linear attacks, firestorms, charges, terrain, damaging attached cards, Barbed Platemail - and many, many more.
    • In fact, Ethereal Form has the power to shut down whole decks. Take a typical fire-using wizard, for instance. Ember Bursts or Fireballs - immune. Volcano, Wall of Fire or Hot Spot - immune. Any attached burning card - immune. Of course, Ethereal Form expires eventually or could be pushed off by three other attachments, but for a silver-quality card it seems far too good.
    • It also seems way more powerful than the effects of the other Form cards ('Armor 2, Keep' and 'At the start of each round, Heal 3, Keep), although I guess this is because the other Forms have more powerful cards.
    • Another thing I noticed while playing is that Medium's Garb seems rather powerful. It provides great armor and also lets the character draw a Spirit card at the start of each round. If you go for an Acid deck, as I did, this is effectively an extra card draw per turn, and because it's from an armor card you can keep on drawing almost indefinitely. Comparatively, Accelerated Thought has a similar effect but only lasts for a maximum of three turns, must be cast by a different character within six squares (taking up a turn) and deals two damage when cast - and that's not even taking into account the lack of Medium's Garb's great armor, almost as good as Reliable Mail.
    • I used Vasyl's Ectoplasmic Raiments which grants two Medium's Garbs, and was lucky enough to draw both right at the start of the game; from then on, I effectively drew four cards per turn with my acid wizard. Of course, this made me win the match. I think Medium's Garb would be better suited with a less-powerful armor effect, perhaps a roll of 4+ instead of 2+.
    • One final thing. The new boost, 'Fleet', works almost too well with Werewolf-themed warriors. I found that I quite commonly drew Mighty Charge as a werewolf, and with the addition of free move, I was able to charge all over the battlefield dishing out damage of up to 18 at a time. Perhaps Brutal Charge would be less overpowered...?
     
    adajon, Sep 30, 2016
    #1
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  2. adajon

    adajon Thaumaturge

    Deck 2
    Games played: 10
    Characters: One acid-spray-focused wizard, two wizards with Hex of Dissolution and Ethereal Form
    Vornkinged
    Level 1 Human Wizard

    Westignagav
    Level 1 Human Wizard

    Macvornjerr
    Level 1 Human Wizard

    Observations/feedback:
    • Wow. Hex of Dissolution can be very powerful. I mean, VERY powerful.
    • I used one wizard solely to spew out Acid Sprays all over the board, both severely disrupting my opponents and powering up my other wizards' Hexes. Consider this; Acid Spray is a silver quality card, yet it can both create eight tiles of difficult terrain and increase the damage of another card by four points. Four points! That's better than Unholy Wellspring, a gold quality card (and generally, terrain is harder to get rid of than an attachment). Not only that, but Hex of Dissolution can benefit from your opponent as well if they play any Acid cards.
    • At one point, I got a Hex of Dissolution up to 22 damage. I'd set this up within two turns. In my opinion, that's too powerful for a wizard card.
    • Saying this, going all out with acid cards means you sacrifice other valuable wizard cards, like control spells. However, controlling the board in a tide of acid while raining down high-damage spells upon your opponents - and doing so with relative ease - seems too good. I suggest that Hex of Dissolution's effect is changed to only gain extra damage for every 3 squares of Acid terrain, instead of for every 2. Either that or decrease its range from 6 to 4 to prevent massive damage at the start of a match.
    • I occasionally drew a copy of Ancient Grudge in a few matches when in Spirit Form, and I don't think it's too powerful. Sure, it has the potential to deal massive damage, but you'll have to hold onto it for a long time to achieve this. That's what evens it out for me; having to keep an attack in your hand turn after turn, waiting for the right opportunity, hoping that when the time eventually comes to cast it your target doesn't block it or dodge out the way.
     
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2016
    adajon, Sep 30, 2016
    #2
    Flaxative likes this.
  3. adajon

    adajon Thaumaturge

    Decks 3/4
    Games played: 5
    Characters: Priests with Vampire's Kisses, warriors with lots of free cards, wizards with Inquisition Bolts
    (I mixed and matched the characters each match)
    Dawidrung
    Level 1 Dwarf Priest

    char.1
    Level 50 Dwarf Warrior

    Dawidrung
    Level 1 Dwarf Priest

    Vornkinged
    Level 1 Human Wizard

    Observations/Feedback:
    • In my opinion, Vampire's Kiss needs a big change.
    • To start with, its healing capabilities are overpowered. Healing 2 for every point of damage... without any buffs, that's healing you 12 and doing 6 points of damage to the target. With a frenzy buff, even a relatively small one like Mass Frenzy, you're healing 16 points - more than half a Dwarven Priest's HP. Add in Unholy Wellspring and it gets ridiculous.
    • But it's Vampire's Kiss' second effect which really makes me dislike the card. Using the card on an enemy while they still have cards in their hand is pointless - they'll just draw vampire cards and heal right back up, damaging you in the process, and it all just turns into a pretty boring tactic-less fight.
    • Using the card on an ally gives them a bunch of powerful vampire cards (and the possibility of Swarm of Bats to get close to an enemy) so the 6 damage isn't a problem at all; I used my warrior's free cards to this purpose. However, again, it always inevitably descends into a boring vampire fight.
    • On a number of occasions, I tried using a tactic of converting an enemy's hand into vampire cards then using an Inquisition Bolt on them to deal a considerable amount of damage - but, of course, they just used their newly-created vampire cards to heal back up again.
    • I think the solution to this problem is to make vampire cards less powerful. Remove Sneaky Bloodsuck, Invigorating Touch and Swarm of Bats and both enemies and allies alike subjected to Vampire's Kiss won't have such powerful life-gaining capabilities.
     
    adajon, Sep 30, 2016
    #3
    Flaxative likes this.
  4. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Thank you for your feedback, I'm noting the games you've played.

    Can you please add the information of which opponents you faced, and some brief descriptions of each game. Thanks!
     
    Flaxative, Oct 1, 2016
    #4
  5. adajon

    adajon Thaumaturge

    Oh... I didn't record any information of who I played or details of specific games, sorry...
    I'll make sure to include that information in my next deck feedback posts.
     
    adajon, Oct 1, 2016
    #5
    Flaxative likes this.
  6. adajon

    adajon Thaumaturge

    Deck 5
    Games played: 8
    Characters: Human wizard heavy on Inquisition Bolts, Dwarven priest with lots of Vampire's Kiss, Elven warrior with lots of step attacks and Wind Dancer

    Dawidrung
    Level 1 Dwarf Priest
    Vornkinged
    Level 1 Human Wizard
    Andhonden
    Level 1 Elf Warrior
    Game 1 (vs. stupid531)
    The enemy characters were two control wizards and a dwarven warrior. I killed one of his wizards early on in the game; my warrior had Fleet attached and was able to dash past his warrior. The game ended with me killing his other elven wizard (who was at full health) in one turn. I used Vampire's Kiss with Talented Healer, and then an Inquisition Bolt, dealing more than 17 damage due to the number of vampire cards in his hand.

    Game 2 (vs. Rohndil)
    The enemy characters were humans of each class. One of his wizards was using an interesting combination of Boo! and Path of Knives, rendering my characters useless for the round and damaging them as I tried to move them away from his warrior. Later in the game, I killed his warrior with the combination of Vampire's Kiss and Inquisition Bolt before he had a chance to use the cards to heal up.

    Game 3 (vs. Fanturlurche)
    The enemy characters were 2 dwarven priests and a dwarven warrior. I killed his warrior in the second round using mostly Mass Frenzied Nimble Strikes, also allowing me to gain 5 Unreliable Blocks with Wind Dancer.

    Game 4 (vs. Khyle345)
    The enemy characters were 2 priests and an elven warrior. I dealt considerable damage to one of his priests using my warrior's Nimble Strikes. I was extremely lucky in blocking his draining attacks with Unreliable Blocks created from Wind Dancer. Khyle345 resigned at the end of the first round.

    Game 5 (vs. stupid531)
    The enemy characters were three wizards. I held the victory points for three rounds before he resigned.

    Game 6 (vs. TestingAccess)
    The enemy characters were 2 elven wizards and a dwarven priest. Both wizards had many Inquisition Bolts from Silverfire Vials, taking my warrior down to low health in the first round with 2 Inquisition Bolts, which were buffed by the Monstrous Hide in my hand, and Stone Spikes. Both wizards drew two Investigate cards early in the game, so were able to heal a lot when the other took damage. The game ended with TestingAccess using Walpurgis Night then purging his own characters, dealing heavy damage against me with Inquisition Bolts.

    Game 7 (vs. TestingAccess)
    The enemy characters were 2 elven wizards and a dwarven priest. His priest used Walpurgis Night in the first round, turning one of his characters into a zombie which proceeded to stun my dwarven vampire immediately. My warrior became a werewolf and drew two Monstrous Hides over two rounds, granting amazing defence; I was also lucky enough to draw an Inquisitor's Badge from my own deck, granting me immunity from his wizard's Inquisition Bolts. Over the match, my dwarven priest healed back up to full health after very nearly dying several times with Vampire's Kiss.

    Game 8 (vs. Frostguard)
    The enemy characters were 3 human warriors. Two of his warriors drew Vanguard in the first round, making the team extremely mobile. One of his warriors also drew Lycanthropic Form and, using Vanguard to move into perfect positions, killed my wizard with Mighty Charges early in the game.

    Observations/Feedback:
    • I tested out a dedicated Wind Dancer deck with my elven warrior, and it really wasn't very effective at all. Although I occasionally managed to draw four or five Unreliable Blocks per round by using several step attacks, only one of them actually blocked any attacks, leaving the rest to be discarded at the end of the round and then inevitably replaced by better cards.
    • As a side note, Wind Dancer only creates Unreliable Blocks when a step attack is used to attack an enemy; if one just moves and then cancels the attack, no Unreliable Block is created. I don't know if this is intentional or not, but I think it should create blocks even if the step attack is cancelled.
    • In my opinion, Wind Dancer doesn't quality as a silver-quality card. It's just not good enough. I'd suggest raising its duration to 3 to improve it.
    • I tried the tactic of Vampire's Kiss + Inquisition Bolt again, but it rarely worked. As soon as my priest Kissed an enemy, they'd either fly away with Swarm of Bats or just heal back up with their new vampire cards. That's the issue with using Vampire's Kiss. In order to benefit from the vampire cards created in an enemy's hand (using cards like Inquisition Bolt), they need to have several cards in their hand to start with - but the more vampire cards they have, the greater their healing potential. It only really worked when I had Talented Healer attached to make Vampire's Kiss a cantrip card, allowing my priest to escape before they used vampire cards on him and healing themselves.
     
    adajon, Oct 2, 2016
    #6
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  7. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Thanks, got you at 25.
     
    Flaxative, Oct 2, 2016
    #7
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  8. adajon

    adajon Thaumaturge

    Deck 6
    Games Played : 3
    Characters: Wizard with lots of 'attach' cards (such as Burning, Encumber), priest with radiation cards, warrior with lots of Inquisitor's Strike

    Dawidrung
    Level 1 Dwarf Priest

    Vornkinged
    Level 1 Human Wizard

    Andhonden
    Level 1 Elf Warrior

    Game 1 (vs. tmzerozero)
    The enemy characters were three dwarven vampire priests. They seemed to all have at least two Chiropteran Bundles each, allowing them fantastic dodging potential, flying away from all my attacks - not to mention their healing potential from Vampire's Kiss which they employed when I had used all my cards.

    Game 2 (vs. Fanturlurche)
    The enemy characters were two dwarven priests and a human wizard. Fanturlurche used an interesting tactic of combining Spark of Undeath and Accelerate Time to deal considerable damage to my characters through Blind Rage; on the whole, however, this seemed quite unreliable.

    Game 3 (vs. TimedTesting)
    The enemy characters were an elven wizard, a human warrior and a dwarven priest. By about round 2, the wizard had both Medium's Garbs, granting incredible card draws and four defense against all my attacks, rendering my wizard's burning attachments useless. In addition, Sacred Shroud on the priest healed up their entire team quickly from my burning attachments. The game ended with his wizard using Ancient Grudge, dealing 22 damage.

    Observations/Feedback:
    • The main theme of my deck was to use the attachments created by my wizard and priest to buff up Inquisitor's Strike a lot. While this was sometimes very effective, especially when my warrior had Fey Silversmith attached, the itemisation of Inquisitor's Strike meant that my warrior didn't have many movement cards and had trouble getting up close to enemies.
    • I thought of an improvement which could be added to Inquisitor's Strike, though; as well as dealing extra damage from the cards attached to an enemy, it could also remove those cards from the enemy after dealing damage, similar to Purging Strike. Thematically, this fits very well with the card, and gives it a reason to be played over other silver-quality cards like Powerful Hack and Powerful Bludgeon.
    • Sacred Shroud is incredibly effective against burning wizards. It grants 2 armour against burning attacks (most of the time), and then heals the character (as well as the rest of their team) as they take the 1 remaining burning damage from cards like Glob of Flame. It certainly shouldn't be a common card, in my opinion. Increasing the roll to 4+ would make it a bit less overpowered.
     
    adajon, Oct 2, 2016
    #8
  9. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Thank you for all your help with the Castle Mitternacht playtest.

    Unless you posted more in another thread (in which case, sorry I missed it), I have you at 28 games.

    You will receive 5 Epic Mitternacht chests when this content is released.
     
    Flaxative, Oct 21, 2016
    #9
    adajon likes this.

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