As you probably know, we will be continually adjusting cards and items to try to keep the game as fun as possible. We have things we consider when we make balance changes, but a major consideration is to stop any one strategy dominating the game. Anyway, I don't want to expound further on the "why" right now and just get on to some upcoming changes. I'll include some of our reasoning here as well though. Fireball Fireball has been considerably under-valued as a Silver card. This is a card with range 10, that does 4 damage plus 2 burning (total 6). In multi-player, it has the potential to do 6, 12 or 18 damage depending on how many enemies you can catch in the burst (which is 5 x 5 squares). Compare this Sizzling Bolt which also does 4 damage plus 2 burning but only ever hits one target. This is also a Silver card. We're regrading Fireball to a Gold card and replacing all existing occurrences of it with a new card: Ember Burst. Ember Burst will be a 3 damage plus 2 burning attack with a burst of 1. It will have the potential to do 5, 10 or 15 damage in multi-player with 15 being fairly hard to achieve. It's still a very good card in comparison to Sizzling Bolt and other Silver cards, but it's not quite as good as Fireball. Both Fireball and Ember Burst will have a range of 6. By the way, we think Fireball hasn't caused huge problems for multi-player so far because it is Rare. That's not a good long term solution though as it just turns the game into a hunt for the super-rare items. So, we think this change is better, even if it means that your Staff Of A Million Fireballs just got a lot less exciting. Unholy Wellspring Unholy Wellspring is a very cool card that lets you massively boost damage (+4 to any Attack). It's a Gold card, so we've already recognised it's high value, but the fact that it can boost damage from AoE attacks like cones and bursts makes it's +4 damage a bit too good. We're going to reduce it to +3. Further adjustments may be incoming, but hopefully that's enough. Elvish Mobility, Slippery and Pathfinding From nerfs to buffs: Encumber effects are very powerful in the current meta-game and rightfully so. Card Hunter is a game about movement and positioning, after all. However, we think the game probably needs some additional counters to Encumber and Elves are supposed to be a race that has a lot of mobility tools to deploy. As a result, we're going to add some abilities to these three cards that fight Encumber. Both Slippery and Elvish Mobility will now ignore Encumber effects. So Frost Jolt, Cone Of Cold and even Heavy Armor won't affect these cards' movement values. Pathfinding, in addition to searching up Move cards, will now also shed any Encumber inflicting attachments attached to you. So, it will really free your Elf up for some Dashing around after you play it. I should add that we've looked at the stats and Elves are moderately under-represented in successful multi-player decks. Hopefully these changes will give you a reason to reconsider whether an Elf might be a good addition to your MP party. Again, we'll be keeping an eye on what happens and whether Elves need more additions to their arsenal. Blind Rage Blind Rage is a Boost/Drawback card with a not-very-bad Drawback. It's currently a nasty Frenzy adder with the addition of the card replacement power of a Trait. It's drawback is relatively easy to play around if you are careful. So, for now, we're going to reduce it's Frenzy value from +3 to +2. It might well need further adjustment in the future. These changes are all going to be in the next build that will likely be deployed later this week. Feel free to comment on what you think in this thread. Suggestions for other balance changes are better off in the Beta Feedback forum.
For a any good/great game, balancing needs to be done often and ongoing for prolonged success. Looking forward to the changes! Keep up the good work!
Looks pretty reasonable, however the fireball nerf(replacement) goes a bit too far. A range, burst and damage nerf? Compared to other silver cards of course is still very good, but the problem is that most of the pure damage mage cards are grossly overvalued and never used in multiplayer. Sizzling bolt is a good example for a very weak silver card. On paper it has a damage of 6, but just one reliable mail turns it into a worthless 2 damage card. Why would I fill my deck with cards that can be countered so easily and even if they work don't do all that much for me? Why not use a stepattacking warrior instead if I want to do damage? So that relegates the wizards even more into their current control role with discards, encumber, winds of war and whirlwinds or the combo firestorm deck.
I am a little confused. So, Fireball will still exist, but won't be available on any current items? Also, I think that the elves needed some love, but this is only a circumstantial buff. If I run across a team that isn't running a frost wizard then I still made the wrong choice by bringing an elf.
I must say I am delighted to see changes. I'm sure more will be needed, but . . . FINALLY, more cards to eliminate Encumber effects! And some of them are Move cards! Let me just focus on the dream this day and pretend nothing else is happening!
Not to be pedantic but other circumstances include Icy Block, Heavy Armor, Stuck Arrow ,Soothing Darkness, etc. Actually brings up the question of whether it 'sheds' encumber effects will include cards like soothing darkness - i'm guessing yes.
Elves definitely need something. My first party, back when I knew nothing, had an Elf Fighter, because mobility sounded cool. But oh, the lack of hit points. As I leveled up, other races kind of seemed to have better skills, too. Or at least I tended to find more Dwarf/Human skills that had only good cards, while Elf skills almost always had a drawback, or at least stuck you with a Shuffle or a Walk. Then trying elves in other classes and seeing that they really had TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE hit points kind of sealed their fate. It's been a while since I played an Elf anything in any build.
All of the changes look good, and I agree that elves need a boost, but personally these aren't the changes that will tempt me to switch. Elves already don't have as much of a problem with encumber, so further emphazing that strength is nice, but isn't really that helpful. It's the other races that have a problem with it. I think what elves need are better trait/utility skills on par with the other races. When I'm building a deck, it's pretty easy for me to put mobility and step cards in the various non-race slots, but the racial slot is usually the best way for me to get nice traits and utility cards. At least on dwarves and humans. On elves, it's just more of the stuff I already get. It's more of a second boot slot than it is a race slot... The only elf skill that currently tempts me at all is elvish insight. Getting 2 of those on a common item is sweet. I think elves need more stuff like that, not more shoes.
Thank you for taking the time to post the reasoning behind your decisions. It's really interesting to see and judging from the interviews you've given balancing the game is (unsurprisingly) a very difficult task, but at least we can make sure it isn't thankless... so thank you again! I do have one question about this: My question is essentially the same as Heretiic's. Is this an initial step while you consider what to do, followed by a small number of the Ember Bursts then being replaced (re-replaced?) with Fireball? Will there be all-new items which have Fireball accompanied, no-doubt, with handicap cards? Or is it simply going to become a monster only card?
I think i can give my opinion on elves here, since i'm playing 3 of them in my most used deck. That deack is a triple wizard deck, so i use the added mobility of elves alot, but I do agree that they need a bigger buff, especially at warrior level. Encumberance isn't such a problem for them, but having your warrior getting killed so easily compared to other races is really a drawback. On the fireball topic, i think the nerf is needed but not that hard. Range 6 is especially painful imho.
I'm pretty sure we'll see fireball next time items are rebalanced. I think they just repopulated items (according to Rudolpho), so might take until next pass however - this is how they've handled quality changes before.
I'm pretty sure it already does. Cards are drawn before effects come into place I believe, or am I going senile?
You're going senile. Blind Rage only triggers "at the beginning of turn" but you don't draw cards at "at the beginning of turn" unless you have Accelerated Thought or something like that. Blind rage was easy to avoid by discarding any remaining attacks at the end of your turn. If all the Fireballs on Staff Of A Million Fireballs get changed to Ember Burst, is it still a Staff of a Million Fireballs seeing as it will then have no Fireballs? Love to see things getting adjusted as players find different optimal strategies. Not sure how the Elf Skill buff will change my game. I still find their associated drawbacks a bit too much for the race. (Vulnerability on an elf is just asking for death.) But I probably think most of the human and elf racial skills a bit "meh" right now and severely over underbalanced with the drawbacks that come with them (i.e. the utility cards power is not sufficient to merit the drawback associated with the item).
Darn I'm going senile to talking about the game more than playing it. I'm ashamed! (but also, it's refreshing to be wrong - hehe)
Balance changes are always good because even if they turn out to be bad then you know! Also i have to say i still think the best way to really make elfs viable is to give them 3 move free as a base instead of the one they got now. I know you tested with that and it didn't turn out well before but i just think thats what it would take.
Hello, I am agree with these nerf, for using these three card, they are very powerful.It is good for the game. But if you want balance the game. I think you need up some card or build. For example Quick Reaction. These card seems good : you can draw card versus wizard. But in reality isn't often the case. Why? At the end of the turn you keep two card : one "right card" and quick reaction. If you have normal luck you need to be target twice for draw one card. After draw one card you are in the same case as you keep two "right card". You need target by 4 spell for draw one more card (and you need to see these). This card is good but for me this card need a up for be playing. Another example is electrical wizard, I don't know staff with high damage electrical spell on 4 or 5 card. When you play electrical wizard, you need play average damage or weak card for have strong electrical spell. These staves confirm this : Overloade Staff , Mighty Sparkping staff or Deadly, Deadly staff. I you want more build in multi player you need offer more choice to the player. Friendly, Platouf.
On the subject of electric wizards, I've never seen electric attacks on arcane items. I've seen frosty attacks and fire attacks and arcane attacks, but no electric attacks. I'd love to see this rectified.
