[Balance] Card Discussion

I just want it to be a fire attack to pierce the wooden armor on those accursed trees!

 

I like Fiery Stab and use that illogical shortsword quite often. That said, I wouldn't mind if the burning damage would be lowered to 2.

 

As some people pointed out already, burn damage over time is not equal to immediate damage.
But there is something I just don't understand.
Fiery Stab is a silver- . Could be a bit higher but I am fine with that.
Strong Stab is a silver. Uh...what?Am I missing something? It is the same as Fiery Stab except without the burn and have HIGHER quality? Did the devs wanted it to burn yourself instead but switched it at the last moment and forgot quality or something?

IMO, we should switch the quality of Fiery stab and Strong stab.

 

This is impractical, as that would potentially invalidate a good portion of items with said cards appearing on them. Substituting all copies of Fiery Stab with Strong Stab (and vice versa) wouldn't be a viable approach either, as one is a common, the other a rare.

In cases like these, you pretty much need to fix the cards themselves by nerfing/buffing them so that "how good the card is" is brought back in line with its alleged quality. I.e. nerf Fiery Stab, if it is too good for a Silver (-) card and/or buff Strong Stab if it is too bad for a Silver card. Or, as an alternative (but equivalent) approach, substitute the offending card with some other card (be it a brad new or existing) which does not feature a balance problem and ofc is of the same quality and rarity.

We do have another Silver (-) stab: Puncturing Stab which is 4dmg (penetrating). Putting it side by side with Fiery Stab, I must admit the comparison is quite embarrassing. So, either Fiery Stab needs a slight nerf, or basically almost all other stabs need a slight buff.

 

I think fiery stab is fine where it's at. The items it's on are either really rare or have drawbacks. My question would be more regarding Strong Jab and Penetrating Stab.

 

I even believe that Fiery Stab is, on average, better than every non-purple and non-green attack on warrior weapons, aside from Impaling Stab.

 

Mhm..change fiery stab to 5 damage,burn 2 and add +1 damage to both strong and penetrating stab?

 

I agree with you on this. Now that it has been mentioned though, it does seem as though the items with Fiery Stab are fairly well balanced. St. Olf's Fiery Pike seems to lack a drawback (other than having two Stab, but hey better two Stab than two bludgeons or something else), Huetotl's Firebrand is pretty strong as well, but the other items for priest and warrior have drawbacks (eg combustible) and/or only have one or two copies of Fiery Stab.

You could probably say that Olf's/Huetotl's, along with all of the other Fiery Stab items, are well balanced items. This is one of those weird situations where a card is overpowered but the itemization balances it out. That's right, Fiery Stab is OP but it can probably avoid being changed.

I just find it interesting to point it out and talk about it. This is one of the finer points of game design.

 

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Card of the Day: Polearm Slash
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One of my favorite cards.

Polearm Slash could use a +1 damage boost. It's hardly usable as armor, it's basically a glorified Potent Stab with a 3 point cost increase. You can argue that it gets a boost from Harnesses, you can argue that it gets obliterated by Boiling armor and Sundering Strike, you can say whatever you want. But it's basically a Hardy Mail that doesn't stop magic combined with a Impaling Stab that does 2 less damage and isn't penetrating.
The only time you see this in MP is in the Basic starter party from White Halberd, or from the legendary weapon I call "The Salberd", which is a whole other story altogether.

Suggestions?

 

I find Polearm Slash to be pretty much well balanced. A weapon doubling as armor is pretty unique, even if it only activates on melee attacks. It also triggers 60% of the times, which is a darn lot, making for good average absorbed damage (~1.3 = almost as good as a silver armor). Not everyone needs to like it, ofc, and that's fine too.

The reason you don't see this played a whole lot (save for a few items, as already mentioned) is that weapons coming with Polearm Slash are generally too unfocused and/or suck in their own regard (i.e. not b/c of Polearm Slash). Examples:

• Bec De Corbin (Almost nobody really plays bashes. Also the Dodge nerf and Flimsy Block).
• Bohemian Earspoon (Both Penetrating Stab and Able Bludgeon are trash and would need a buff in their own regard).
• Trident (Penetrating Stab, again).

Divine Weapons coming with Polearm Slash are actually way more viable, in general. The reason you don't see those played a lot is because people generally prefer to equip their priests with weapons holding MF or some other cool buff. That being said:

• Nimbus Blade is a great Divine Weapon.
• Spear Of Cozqui is fine for its tokens-cost, but people often prefer to spend the additional major token and go Healing Handmace over this one.
• Pearl-handled Gaive. Another fine weapon.
• Mindshrinker is not often played because the 3x Mind Worm sucks.
• Darkblood Glaive. Another fine weapon.
• Brightblood Glaive. Again, another fine weapon, if maybe a tad unfocused.

So, my whole point in short: Warrior Weapons with Polearm Slash generally suck, but often because of other luckluster cards found on them. Divine Weapons with Polearm Slash are pretty much fine, for the most part.

That being said, Polearm Slash is a Gold (+) card, so a +1 to its damage wouldn't be too out of place either. But I'm feeling the allegedly low damage is far from being the reason you don't see Polearm Slash being used a lot.

 

I think it's a good attack and don't want to see it buffed. And Crazy Sal is a great weapon anyways.

 

Polearm slash probably goes in the same category as raging strike. It's definitely overvalued, but it's presence on some powerful items (salberd, darkblood, nimbus blade) means it probably shouldn't be changed.

 

I don't really like Polearm Slash at all, but it definitely is on some really good items. This is a crazy thought and I don't think this should be implemented but: What if Polearm Slash could hit 2 targets? Discuss.

 

Really Impaling Stab - Range 2, Penetrating, Linear

 

Oh god...

That would be SO COOL. You run your sword through the first guy and stab right into the second guy.

 

Indeed, it is unique, but as I mentioned earlier it isn't as good as silver quality armor, it's more like bronze -low silver.

I think you might be missing the point. The reason that the cards on weapons with Polearm Slash aren't great (they aren't impaling stabs or nimble strikes or vicious thrusts or lunging bashes or anything you actually want) is BECAUSE the items already have Polearm Slash , and Polearm Slash costs 10 points- almost enough to take 1/3 of an item's point total. Heck, many items have TWO Polearm Slash, so after those two cards there really isn't much space left for anything else.
See, look at Pulverizing Bludgeon. Back when it used to deal 17 damage, you would use items like Infused Greatclub even though the other cards were crap because the Obliterating Bludgeons were worth it. Now, Polearm Slash is far from overpowered, so put that on top of the really... special items with the card and you have reasons not to go out of your way for Polearm Slash.
Crazy Sal's Halberd is a pretty nifty weapon. The token cost and three Blind Rage are really the important parts, I strongly believe that if there was an item with three Obliterating Chop instead it would be very much prefered over three Polearm Slash.

 

I think Jade already said everything with his first post about polearm slash. Is the armor worth losing 2 damage and penetrating? I don't think so.
It is worth mentioning that armor work best on magic attacks,which this happens to not work on.
Polearm slash deserve an +1 damage IMO.
Saying Salberd may become too good is not a reason. The problem would be blind rage being underpriced, not polearm slash getting an deserved buff.

 

I mean, unless you want to modify every card and establish a flat power curve—the former being outside our resources and the latter being a fool's errand—sometimes you make the decision to not upset the current state of the game. Don't get me wrong—this thread is cool, and I think some of you are doing fantastic analysis.

 

For the sake of discussion, I think it's interesting to talk about these kinds of things. But yeah, gotta go with Flax on this one, most cards don't need change and it would be a foolish endeavor to do so.

 

Pfft, only two guys? You could hit all three of the opponent's characters with this stab! Handy diagram included below.