|
Post by Zscout on Jan 24, 2015 6:28:36 GMT -8
My #1 least favorite card is probably Janika; I cringe when situations force me to put her in a lineup.
I find her to be way too fragile with not enough damage output. I never seem to get much out of her special ability and find sniper to be a superior alternative in almost every situation.
Look forward to hearing opinions on other cards.
|
|
|
Post by stillgrave on Jan 24, 2015 11:27:23 GMT -8
Oh Janika... Yeah I use her only in the first few battles of the campaign. I love the concept behind the card, her TP attack is devastating, but there are never enough cards in the back row or she dies before she gains enough TP due to her armor of 1.
My #1 least favorite card though is the Antimage. I would love to use this card more often especially in league against spell forkers, but his ability requires 12 MP and the majority of casters only need 7 or 8 MP to cast, so when it does go off it does damage of little consequence.
|
|
|
Post by xuande on Jan 24, 2015 14:16:22 GMT -8
Mages that require 10+ MP for too little payoff.
Spell Fork.
Beast Tamer (for forcing Spell Fork, unless you have a superior card library).
Water Wall, for being too good relative to Battle Tactician.
|
|
|
Post by radicalted on Jan 24, 2015 15:52:18 GMT -8
Spell Fork. Too good.
|
|
|
Post by Jota Balgorxz on Jan 25, 2015 10:46:40 GMT -8
janika is just terrible
|
|
|
Post by JD on Jan 26, 2015 13:22:38 GMT -8
Has anyone ever used blessed meek and won?
|
|
|
Post by URS on Jan 26, 2015 17:08:22 GMT -8
Has anyone ever used blessed meek and won? I lost against blessed meek in draft, instant rage quit after that.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 26, 2015 18:17:06 GMT -8
During development Blessed gave +2/+2 instead of +1/+1 and it was incredibly good. Maybe we could make it better again somehow.
In general in terms of balance I'm thinking the following:
Slow cards are weaker, and cards that act fast or allow acting fast are strong. This would cover Janika, a lot of TP-based guys, poison, mages with high costs, etc. There are some cards that allow games to end quite fast in some cases - Fork and Water Wall being the most obvious, Beast Tamer and Frenzy also examples. (Pretty happy with where Frenzy is though, since it has a chance to not go off at all or not have much impact)
A lot of cards are pretty good in campaign and draft, but can't compete in leagues where teams are fully optimized. This isn't dissimilar to how in Magic many cards are viable in limited but the constructed pool is much smaller.
Draft was intended to be the main competitive mode as it's the most fair in that it doesn't rely on your collection, and I'm pretty happy with draft balance. League is a bit trickier and people take it seriously, so we're thinking about it. I'm not sure it's possible to make every card viable in league, or it that should be a goal, but a few team types that can end the game very fast is probably unhealthy.
One thing I was thinking about was making it so that if a guy with poison tokens on it dies those tokens move on to another enemy. Right now one problem with poison is that a guy can die with 8 tokens on it and that damage is wasted. That damage is already deferred, so it being both deferred and wasted means poison decks do a lot less damage in some cases than they theoretically could.
|
|
|
Post by JD on Jan 26, 2015 18:59:29 GMT -8
Poison Mage targets highest HP, and Poison Frog dishes it out slow and steady. Don't think other cards give out enough poison to be worried about wasted damage (excluding uneasy sleep / carrier combo).
|
|
|
Post by JD on Jan 26, 2015 19:07:14 GMT -8
Right after I post that my mastodon gets attacked for 15 poison counters at a time in league...
|
|
|
Post by Roldan on Jan 27, 2015 7:52:03 GMT -8
During development Blessed gave +2/+2 instead of +1/+1 and it was incredibly good. Maybe we could make it better again somehow. In general in terms of balance I'm thinking the following: Slow cards are weaker, and cards that act fast or allow acting fast are strong. This would cover Janika, a lot of TP-based guys, poison, mages with high costs, etc. There are some cards that allow games to end quite fast in some cases - Fork and Water Wall being the most obvious, Beast Tamer and Frenzy also examples. (Pretty happy with where Frenzy is though, since it has a chance to not go off at all or not have much impact) A lot of cards are pretty good in campaign and draft, but can't compete in leagues where teams are fully optimized. This isn't dissimilar to how in Magic many cards are viable in limited but the constructed pool is much smaller. Draft was intended to be the main competitive mode as it's the most fair in that it doesn't rely on your collection, and I'm pretty happy with draft balance. League is a bit trickier and people take it seriously, so we're thinking about it. I'm not sure it's possible to make every card viable in league, or it that should be a goal, but a few team types that can end the game very fast is probably unhealthy. One thing I was thinking about was making it so that if a guy with poison tokens on it dies those tokens move on to another enemy. Right now one problem with poison is that a guy can die with 8 tokens on it and that damage is wasted. That damage is already deferred, so it being both deferred and wasted means poison decks do a lot less damage in some cases than they theoretically could. Thanks for everything, I think the game balance should focus in draft more than campaign. Janika is still bad in both modes, armor is too important in this game IMO. I wish having low armor had its advantages like being a little slower for every point of armor you have.
|
|
|
Post by Erik on Jan 27, 2015 9:07:47 GMT -8
least favorite? that's a hard question...
i would say the assassin is one of my least favorites - i find poison damage in and of itself to be a little gimmicky/unreliable. other than that? corpse eater is another one that i haven't quite found the right way to utilize. He seems way too fragile to start, and by the time you've pumped him up with counters, the battle has already been decided.
|
|
|
Post by xuande on Jan 27, 2015 15:42:39 GMT -8
I wouldn't write off Janika so fast, she does have a niche (specifically, Janika+Tactician vs any team with 2+ backrow means she's hitting them hard, basically every round, regardless of blockers). The problem is that this niche is hard to cash in, there's so many teams that are full front row that she is often "wasted", just like Mountain Troll/Anti-Mage.
Draft is self-balancing, in that you can see and control ten of the twelve cards picked. I would argue that the main thing determining who wins Draft currently is who gets the best 1st/7th cards, whether it be by luck of draw or because one player is bad at identifying the best card. There's just not enough cards being picked (since its essentially a five/six card deck) for variance to not be a big factor.
|
|
|
Post by Erik on Jan 28, 2015 11:34:32 GMT -8
I wouldn't write off Janika so fast, she does have a niche (specifically, Janika+Tactician vs any team with 2+ backrow means she's hitting them hard, basically every round, regardless of blockers). The problem is that this niche is hard to cash in, there's so many teams that are full front row that she is often "wasted", just like Mountain Troll/Anti-Mage. Draft is self-balancing, in that you can see and control ten of the twelve cards picked. I would argue that the main thing determining who wins Draft currently is who gets the best 1st/7th cards, whether it be by luck of draw or because one player is bad at identifying the best card. There's just not enough cards being picked (since its essentially a five/six card deck) for variance to not be a big factor. i've really enjoyed drafting, it's just a shame that there can be some really long wait times. But I agree, it does seem like first pick can make or break a team. I'm a huge fan of the change to allow for upgraded versions to go for second picks or cards, but that tends to rely on luck more than anything else. Is there a way to balance out the draft packs so everyone has the same number of rarity per pack? 1 rare 2 uncommon 3 common per draft pack?
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 28, 2015 18:49:21 GMT -8
"Is there a way to balance out the draft packs so everyone has the same number of rarity per pack? 1 rare 2 uncommon 3 common per draft pack?"
Yes. That isn't a bad idea. In general rares are not supposed to be strictly better than commons, but they do tend to allow for certain strategies. This is something we can do pretty easily, I'm putting it in our bug tracker now!
|
|