[Balance] Card Discussion

I don't have any strong feelings about Unreliable Block but Lochaber is nothing compared to what it used to be. NS is not a must any more and the same goes for Lochaber/VP.

 

Replacing UB with Flimsy Block or another Weak Chop would be overdoing it?

 

Unreliable block is too weak I feel like it is nearly a dead card on items like worst then weak strike(which has a -3 rating), even though it isn't really worst but it feels that way. Maybe add a if discarded instead attach to yourself: add one to your next block roll. duration 1.

 

That's a neat suggestion timeracers.

I'm probably going to call it a day, so take some time to think about Unreliable Block. There will be a new Card of the Day tomorrow- There are only a few cards left!

 

Alright, it's time for a triple whammy!
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Cards of the Day: Leap+Scamper+Scuttle, Team!
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Now, it's been a while since the change from Scuttle to Leap and I am interested in what people think of these cards. Note that Scuttle, Team! is only available on helmets.

From a paper quality Walk up to silver... or look at Scamper, which takes a bronze quality move card and upgrades it to gold immediately... but realistically, good gold movement cards do a whole lot more than just move 1 character a few squares. It has to do something more.

As for Silver movement cards, you either have Sprint (which moves an astonishing 8 squares) or Escaping Run/Spin Around (Cycling ability) or Jump Back (which can be reused to avoid damage). While cards with Fly and Free Move have a place in Card Hunter, they don't do enough in most circumstances and they end up becoming a handicap, essentially.

Suggestion: Increase move points by 1 each.

 

Suggestion:

 

In case any of you want to make suggestions that might actually be considered, note that adding card draw to existing content is something we basically refuse to do at this stage.

 

What I would suggest is that the quality is lowered on all them. I suggest for leap bronze+, for scamper silver-, for scuttle team silver.

 

Leap and Scuttle, Team! are so sort range that it's quite rare to gain any benefit from their fly / free move powers. Scamper isn't so bad though. I sometimes Mithril Mesh Slippers on league maps with lots of blocking terrain. Scampering through blocking terrain and Illusory Barrier can be pretty handy. But I like timeracer's suggestion - decreasing the quality rating on all of them.

 

It may have just turned April 1st here,
but im not quite the fool yet.
The discussion of leap has gone on for far too long on the forums, unfortunately the card is weak, and when you consider that the boots with 3 copies of it requires a major token, adding 1 extra movement to the card is not going to throw out the balance of things.

Also 2 more cents, another pro for my idea of adding 1 damage to frost jolt, cold snap and chilling rime, would be that maybe we wouldnt see blue destruction and ember bursts dominate proceedings as often. In addition, i believe it would make sense balance wise anyway considering freeze was given 3 extra damage last time round.

And finally, unreliable block doesnt have to change, its meant to be bad, if we simply made nimble strike 5 damage, lochaber might be playable again. Im sure people will say no, then vp is overpowered, but is it? Compared to step 4 damage 6, hardly. And if anything it would mean that it will promote a greater variety of builds as we wouldnt need as much mass frenzy buffing.

 

Leap is simply a novelty, it is a useful tool in some situations and a weak card otherwise. Since it is not a card that shows up too often I've never thought about using it and decided against it. So Leap is a Silver card when it would be desirable and otherwise no one is going to intentionally equip an item with it.
Scamper is a bit more of an issue since it is a gold card it should be powerful. I like using a QD scenario to think about... ignoring it is a gold card how many move cards would you select a Scamper over? Certainly it is better than a vanilla shuffle, walk, run or dash. But beyond that it is certainly not as specialized as a Violent Spin or Muscle Through, with Violent Spin being particularly useful in a variety of ways. Most of the time it is not as good as a Quick Run, with the exception being your wiz is pinned by an opponent and Free Move allows you to Scamper away or there is a lot of difficult terrain to deal with. So it is kind of underpowered.
Scuttle, Team is well an odd card much like the other 2 that is situationaly great, but most of the time is underpowered. Is it on the same level as Team Walk? Probably close, even if it is no better than a Walk, Team in most situations.

 

+1 to adding a move point to these cards.

 

Leap being silver is kind of silly, and with Flight Aura and such existing, it's pretty much unplayable even on the water maps. At +1 move it would... still be pretty much unplayable, but less glaringly so.

 

Scuttle, Team! being replaced with Scamper, Team! is something I wholeheartedly support, considering that Sprint,Team! is also a gold card and is currently so much better it's insane. Monkey Magic is a league that really showcases how useful Scamper, Team! can be. Leap has always been underpowered (Except for that time on the test server it was replaced with a cantrip version of Scuttle), and Scamper can be useful, but almost always has a better choice elsewhere. Giving them all a +1 movement bonus would be a definite improvement.

EDIT: Whoops, forgot to mention that Leap greatly improved Lizard Boots because of the amazing pun. Keep the name, change the movement!

 

As a 3x Wizard team, anything with Free Move is greatly desired, as warriors tend to want to get up nice a close ALL. THE. TIME. And the lack of step moves for wizards (in comparison to warriors, and even priests), leads to the need for MOAR MOVEMENT.

I'm personally a big fan of Retreat, but playing 3 of them in a match can get to be too much, and often leads to wasted cards to want to save the Retreat(s) for when needed. I'd love to see more Free Move options available, perhaps on human skills instead of something like Walk, Team!. I'd even take Scuttle, Team! over Run, Team!, to be honest (or even an uncreated Fly, Team!).

Until there are other options than Retreat, I guess I'll have to stick with it as the current time. And I love me some Scamper, but I can't seem to sacrifice the extra armor Quellic's Boots give me over Mithril Mesh Slippers.

 

Sure, at their current state Scamper and Scuttle, Team! may seem a bit bad, but I can certainly see them fitting in effective strategies (mostly countering team movement and being cornered, esp. useful for mages) so I think they're more of situational rather than straight out bad. Adding +1 to Scamper and Scuttle, Team! would help, but I think reducing their tier would make them a bit too powerful.

Leap, though, is a different issue. I think one can do great things with Leap; the decks just haven't been built. For example, Leap is a wonderful card on a remote blocking priest (Defender's Block and Cause Fumble type of priest). I would even say that the 3 Leap boots can be useful on such priest. I'm just afraid it would be too overpowered with +1 move since it's already a Spin Around wherein the card you draw is a Walk card in reverse order (lol).

 

Your theory is sound, unfortunately, it is all way too circumstantial. I mean, when are you going to be in a position where leap is going to make one of those blocks effective, when it wouldnt already be on a pair of boots with better cards? I mean, you can get 2 flank moves and a wild run for no token. To dedicate a major token in the hope that your priest will require a leap to hopefully make a block is quite farfetched, given you need the cards and the perfect positions all at once. Similarly, im not sure cause fumbles and defenders blocks are worth banking on anyway. Spin around is already more useful because it is effectively a trait with a minor action. Im still surprised when people say adding one movement would make it too powerful.

 

You're right. Though, I don't think now's the time to change Leap. There might be some good strategies that would work with it with the new expansion. I think if it doesn't find its place after the expansion then maybe it should be changed.

(Actually, I really wanted to post to add these cards to the waitlist:
Spark Generator (and probably Spark Inductor), and Firestarter (and probably Kindler)

Why? I think that at the moment drawing Spark Generator or Firestarter for your electrical or fire mage respectively has too huge impact.

Firestarter makes a Glob Of Flame do 16 damage instead of 10. Flame Jet would deal 11 instead of 7, Flame Spit 12 instead of 8, and so on. To me, this is what makes fire mages kind of unreliable. You're relying on a trait for roughly 30-40% of your damage. Why not redistribute the damage to the cards themselves and make Firestarter impact less (change it to the current Kindler)? This also means you will see Hot Flames impacting play wonderfully (and erase Kindler altogether).

Here's an analogy for the electrical mages. Spark is a paper quality card (2 damage, -2 blocks). For +1 damage and same -2 blocks, you have Powerful Spark, which is bronze quality. For another +1 damage, you have Devastating Spark at 4 damage, which is silver quality. Mighty Spark deals 7 damage at gold quality, and Obliterating Spark deals 9 at emerald quality. Basically, with Spark Generator, you're upgrading Spark, Powerful Spark, and Devastating Spark roughly TWO TIERS, and Mighty Spark one. Now, think about Arcing Spark with the potential +2 to +6 damage, and Jumpspark with double damage (penetrating, too).

EDIT: One figure was wrong. Sorry Flax

Peace out. )

 

Well, those cards suck and are overvalued, so maybe a bad line of comparison.

 

Actually, that's exactly why I thought of adding Spark Generator there. Why not just give the Spark cards better value for their quality rating and decrease the value of Spark Generator?

(I'm so sorry for derailing the thread a bit. Flax replied, so what could I do? )