[Poll] Alozyo's Arsenal October Community Choice

I will say Reinforced Doris, or, um, Reinforced Dorf, now.....is a pretty decent item....wish I'd thought of that!

 

Thanks to @Pawndawan for the item details

As far as my picks:

Spoiler

I assume I understood correctly we're allowed to continue to discuss items.

Trained Panicking
Pros: Gives humans a compelling tokenless item with no massive downsides [for a ranged support character]. Helps firm up the support-human role, gives much needed variety to human tokenless items.
Con: Yet another human item based around handicaps.

The Avenger
Pros: Gives 4x step moves on a single item- something I believe is otherwise limited to Vibrant Pain and low tier/handicap-based items. Adds more firmness to bashing builds of all sorts. Well balanced.
Cons: Further emphasizes mobility builds.

Druidic Barkskin:
Pros: Gives priests a great control item [it's surprisingly hard to slot entangle efficiently] while giving them a decent defense card.
Cons: Has no downsides, which would make it a fairly desirable item. This is is mitigated by the fact that all the cards involved are low tier, so it'd end up being a solid low-cost armor, but still trumped by higher cost armors.


Ones I didn't pick:

Spoiler

Storge Probiscus: Adds nothing new. I get there may be some pvp reasons to favor it, but as far as pve, it's just another generic vampirism item. There's no real need for that.

Dog Dodgers: Not a bad balanced item, but lacks any real distinction from existing items. Dodge is a reasonably easy to get card, and this item offers nothing new in that regard.

Whammo's Battleaxe: Fun item, but again, adds nothing distinctly new (build-wise). However, unstoppable chop is a useful card to add to the game, and the item is well balanced for it, and it's a firm runner-up to my picks.

Magical Medallion: Feels just like another TK item, of which we have several. I'd use the crap out of it if it got added, but as far as filling a niche or addressing a lack, or really doing anything new, it's the least compelling of the lot. In fact, in many ways, it seems as though it'd just supplant a lot of existing TK items [in being the most preferable to slot].

Ziggurat Spike: Probably the most creative idea of the lot, but doesn't really offer anything fun build-wise. Useful utility shield, though, and I can totally see it being added and functioning well.

Reinforced Doris: Good as a dwarf skill, emphasizes a tanky feel dwarf skills are currently understating, and is a firm cycling item without the specific pros/cons of the 2x bloody rage skill. But it's not an item I'd see get much use, and dwarves need new skills a bit less than humans do, so I'm going to have to disfavor it. Yet another one I can see being added, however.

Cumberous Spear: Too bland for a gnomish-themed spear. My views on gnomes [wicked little demons that they are ] aside, it really adds nothing existing weapons don't already have. It's a 'oh, here's a single flavor card' item, with no real reason to use it (not like it synergizes well with the 2-range emphasis of the weapon). A lot of the other designs worked better for gnomes- ie, adding berserk spin to emphasize the range 1 factor of the spear, and giving the weapon concept more flavor. Just, too generic and conflicting a design for me to see any use in it.

 

You're missing the point that we can't edit our votes, so it's an unfair bias where anyone that votes for a niche item really just gets the dubious honor of being allowed to shout their desires into the void, without any real say on what item gets picked.

Perhaps the intent of this poll isn't to assess actual community favoritism, but generally that's not how you do polls on topics like this.
(Ie, instead of picking the item the majority of the voters favor comparative to other items, instead it ends up assessing specific singular favorite; which is what you do for response polls, not inclusion polls.)

Though, again, in this circumstance, it looks like it's moot, since probiscus has a distinct lead.

Didn't think about the Healing Dash element, ha.
Well, I don't really play vampires much, and it seems to be combining multiple item concepts into a vampire-beneficial item, so it ends up being A: a subjective preference I've no invested input for and B: a potential power amp for vampires in pvp.
While I have managed to start playing some pvp of late, I still don't play enough to consider my opinion there valid, either.

So in the end, I can only say: It's not an item I'm likely to use much, and it definitely doesn't emphasize any shortcomings in the existing dynamics.

If you all wanna boost vamps, go for it; not to my interest, though

 

A lot of good items here, I think I like most of these better than any of the winners. Tough choice, but in the end I had to pick the one that included all the cards of one of my ideas.

 

Gotta agree with you there:
While Medallion and Cumbersome seem unnecessary, the rest feel far more appropriate in balance, theme, and adding depth to the game, than Spiritatrophe or Argy Bargy did; and definitely follow the rules more than Tasty, Tasty does.

And for all my disfavor of Probiscus, I admit it's a good item for the Halloween Theme- though since it's not getting added with the others for Halloween, not sure how much that relevancy matters anymore

 

I second this.

My spiritual support goes to Punf's Trained Panicking and Hidden Jaguar's Druidic Barkskin.

 

Even I wouldn't vote for my entry as a Dwarf Skill

 

That's good to know. I think this is about the best resolution for the whole dilemma, looking forward to seeing what kind of crazy design people come up with trying to go for this sort of honorable mention

Maybe we'll finally see those 3-Stage Rocket Boots

 

Clearly this has been a learning experience for all parties involved but there shouldn't be a repeat in future competitions if the rules are strictly enforced. Oh, and we also demand Flax's head on a pike.

 

@DunDunDun It's mathematically proven that there's no such thing as a perfect voting system. It's best not to overthink it for a forum poll. But thanks for the compliment to my item. =)

All of you voting for the Proboscis have fallen into my trap. Once Storges dominate the competitive arena, the devs will have no choice but to turn to the hero they once cast out... Hemorrhage.

 

I propose that the Door item be renamed to simply "Doorf."

 

I'm torn and haven't voted yet.

Everyone else has already commented on Storge's Proboscus plenty. Yep, scary vampire item, good stuff, and so on and so forth.

I could see Reinforced Doris also working well in Wicked Waterway (or any other weird, single-VS league board for that matter).

Even moreso, Melvelous' Magnificent Magical Medallion's small adjustment in teleporting power could seriously reshape WW play, including most likely speeding it up and quite possibly making engagement more consistent (and perhaps franctic! heheheh). Well... that is for the rich aristocracy who can afford such beauties en masse... and the fortunate battlers who happen upon it in chests...

I'd personally love to get my grubby mits on Druidic Barkskin...

Ziggurat Spike: something to scare vampire priests if you can land it (housed between two decently helpful blocks if you're willing to give up the Parry and Defender's spam).

Trained Panicking: A wonderful, hilarious item. I love it. It just -looks- *beautiful.* I could see myself using it in Campaign where the GMs are novices. (Even if one GM thinks he's uh magnificent or something. Actually, how did that guy almost win the big CardStock tournament? Is like, everyone in the world inept at CH? Is {insert name here} the one and only decent CH player and therefore the best ever, ever?) But yeah, like KB a.k.a. @DunDunDun basically said, throw it on an assistant who hides in the corner (hey! just like a servant!) and it'll do fine.

Battleaxe of the Berserker is hilarious with an obvious, spot-on theme -- I can't help but whisper BLAAH! BLARRR! RAAHH! *AAHHH!* etc. while looking at each card in line. $X^ D However, I'm not sure if I'd use it. (I'm not big on drawback cards, although QD recently showed me Fumble isn't as absolutely terrible as I imagined -- but then, you can account better for drawing certain cards in QD.)

One nice thing about Cumbrous Spear is that even if its own Trip kicks in, it has a 2/3 chance to cancel adjacent mobile warriors. Like, semi-melee Defensiveness in reverse! $E^ b

Dog's Dodgers look scary in a good way. $:^ ] As it is, I hesitate at using Dodge due to 1/3 trigger... [Edit: Therefore, Skillful Dodge looks much pleasanter at 1/2 trigger.] But then, there's once again that drawback card... (Then yet, that drawback doesn't affect the reactive Move, so there's that at least.)

The Avenger doesn't really follow a monster theme of course, but then, this won't be in Halloween Shop anyway... Just as an item, it's something I could see myself using and enjoying.

Btw, why Reinforced Dorf and not Reinforced Doorf? $F^ J
Oh, heh, @Fry ninja'd me there.

 

Avenger follows the theme of Kobold Avenger, I thought.

 

Yeah, very tightly.

 

FLAVOR BATTLE

Cumbrous Spear trips and falls in the direction of Trained Panicking, which immediately has a heart attack from fear.

Seeing the movement, Dog's Dodgers happily fetches Cumbrous Spear and gnaws it to splinters in the process.

The villainous Storge's Proboscis leaps up from the grass and gives the Dog a nasty insect bite, sending him to exile among the Cone Heads.

The same Proboscis turns to the next victim, but its overconfident assault finds no sustenance against the allied duo of Druidic Barkskin and Reinforced Dwaououirfis. It shrivels and falls.

Vholes gets the flip back to work, someone take over.

 

You're on a different topic than I was, perhaps?
I was just noting a perceived shortcoming in the structure of the poll, based on my expectations of poll usage in similar situations.
Not sure how you got a desire for ideal or hyperaccurate or whatever voting structures from that [nor how such structures relate to this specific instance]

Keep in mind, the main issue I had was that the current poll doesn't let you change votes as well as being single-choice, which is problematic in a vote-visible poll structure, since it encourages people to vote for the leading choices.
Saying a structure isn't ideal isn't remotely the same as saying 'why isn't this perfect'.

As I believe I may have indicated, if that was Flax's intention- thus, adding a bit of random chance and favoritism to it, rather than being structured for better representation- then that was fine.
If it wasn't the intention, it was a topic worth bringing up

 

Avengers were renamed to Lungers when they got armor, so newer players may not make the connection.

 

Oh! Good point. New monster name makes a bit more sense, but "Lunginator" is already an item...

 

The Lunginator 2: Age of Koboldtron

 

To be honest I don't really follow your argument against this poll structure. Allowing multiple choices doesn't make anyone's vote more powerful, and increases the odds of a winner that doesn't match the community's desires. In any case, let's put discussions of Flax's intentions to bed and let the poll close this contest on a high note.