Discussion: The Ronin Midterm Patch Notes

Alternatively, if you dont want him to have those two abilities, you could remove reconstitute and add something else like one of the Rites.

 

I thought you wanted to move away from the sandbags

 

He's just filling them with slightly less sand. Easier to carry.

 

Rites.

Think about it.

 

Destroying your reconstructable champs for cool effects.

Think about it.

 

Ha Senshu, did you lose rank for obs'ing a 2v2?

 

Um the vashall isn't race beast

 

Finally, some sense.

 

Death Charged (rank 3)

• Nora Cost increase (+6)

Aspect of death is even more worhless than he was before. The short lived champions doesn't even drop double globes anymore either. Can't you just make the ability "Death Knell" a little bit cheaper..?

 

So... can the Tomb Raider become an undead of some type, maybe a zombie? Or a witch? Anything we can put in a BG?
Something?

 

Ew, and that's your boss? My condolences, friend. Also, update the Steam guide

 

He fits perfectly fine in my BG, but I'm playing a split, so that probably is a factor.

 

Out of curiosity could one of the owls or maybe an enlightened top 100 player explain the roles and uses of the new legends.
This isn't sarcasm or passive aggressive criticism. I would like to know the intended roles, in case they aren't that obvious for someone like me.

This isn't to say i don't like them, or i don't have criticisms or concerns. Which is also why im hoping with more discussion i may find error in my thinking.


Here is my humble analysis so far.

KF:

Low cost, decent dmg, quick to (in) battle. Great mobility and utility with illusions.
Low def, moderate health. Seal is good racial to lower his cost even more.
Assault and Reflexes seem a bit weird. He seems like a champ that waits for the right moment to make his attack.
I guess when he does he has a small dmg mitigation and could have a clutch assault to make you think about disengaging.
And am i reading Mirror Swap right? That it has 0 CD or AP cost?

Overall a decent unit that makes use of its speed and deceptive strikes and mobility.
Cant take too many hits but great for keeping the opponent on edge and making clutch plays.

SL:

Average dmg and speed. Great range at 1-3. Alternate attack type, great.
Take Prisoner seems like a great ability that could turn the tides of a battle. Bodyguard is really neat on it.
Terminus paired with punish is really good. Punish is very strong in its own right, so the combo is nice.
Terminus has alot of uses, especially seeming to be a global effect. Its nearly 4 free AP every turn depending on the BG and enemy champ management.
Terrorize and Envenom are nice alternatives to punish and give him a little extra range of effect and champ control.
There are plenty of "Drivers" in SL so i doubt i'd give him that upgrade. Doesn't really synergize with his kit from what i can tell either.
Tormented is decent if you want him to get a little extra dmg after he's been wounded and he has the HP and faction bonus to scrap up a fight and survive to gain a bit of dmg aswell.
Entangle seems to be the best option since it gives him more champ control and really 'punishes' the opponent with his kit.
With such a moderate cost, relatively low at 72, he's a solid champ that i think will be seeing play often.


ST:

Low, average cost. Great range, good hp (bonus), 'harassers' dmg.
He has no def so he is vulnerable to attack but has good hp to fight it out.
His dmg is low but his typing is good for his faction, lending itself to Amp.
Artic and disciplines and Savage dmg can raise his attack even more.
Quest: SA is really good with his kit since he can Swap (mobility, playmaker), Invigorate, Heal, and Shroud.
Getting a bit of regen and ultimately a area support heal is really strong.
Ranged harass, impeding movement to non artics, dmg mitigation and healing to allies, invig and swap to facilitate plays.
Strong support champ that fits in well with the Ferren playstyle.


SP:

Around the same average cost. Good dmg, great HP, low def, average speed. Amazing art.
As a Cyclops he suffers from 2x2, so he'll be looking for Alpines Mountaineer or the hindered play they all suffer from on some maps.
However, being 2x2 is an asset for his 1U's. Sonic Roar with small dmg harass and awestruck for dmg mitigation.
Trample and Dmg aura for those little dmg ticks that add up and are passive.
Tough helps cover his meager Def and helps accent his great health pool. Regen is a decent option aswell restoring about 1/9th of his HP a turn.
Absorb helps him stave off alot of ranges harass and focus fire and forces melee units to come in and subject themselves to his Roars, tramples, aura, and chains.
Binding Chains is great, especially with his size. You can tie up a large area, ensnaring them and hindering their retreat or advancement on your more valued units.
Being that Chains CD's on taking an attack the opponent must be careful while trying to focus this menace down.
Which is such a fitting name for Cyclopean Menace. Taking advantage, AGAIN, of his immense size, foes in 3 spaces will take a passive 5 dmg for a ally cyclop or construct deploy once a turn.
That deploy also gives him boosted dmg and 2 AP to use towards Trampling you or getting in another clutch attack, or maybe even retreating after a well placed Chains.
I think hes a strong menacing brute. Well put together and id hope he sees play.


UD:

GREAT dmg with bonus, average speed, expected range, nice def, hefty hp! High nora cost.
You get alot of good stats here, but you're paying for it.
Fire Eater, in a fire deck can really help keep this guy in the fight. Otherwise you have a good unit for mirrors and the occasional fire champs in other factions.
Trail Fire wall. The spell is great, but honestly i haven't found much practical use for this ability. This is something i hope others can give insight on.
It doesn't heal your fire eaters from what i've seen and it mainly serves as a hindrance to pathing when you are retreating.
Not a fan of the ability, but maybe my eyes will be opened to its utility.
Fire Aura, a little more dmg incase you were short 6 hp and a great harassment tool. Also great for perseverance. Personally i like using tinder box, but base doesn't hurt.
His U2's! I assume there is room for debate here. Or maybe not.
However Scale armor is great to tank some dmg. Paired with his good def and also with his Hunter ability you can really reduce some of the focus u may take.
Void paired with Eater or other healing can get you even higher resistance of the most used dmg types on board. Weak to focus fire but great asset if you survive the onslaught and can heal up.
Oblivion is reliable. You know you wont take 1 hit. Guarantee's. However you may get hit by a meager support champ before the cannons fire at you. Hard to compare if this will net you less dmg taken than the others.
Alot of the argument between these abilities are situational, hard to put one over the others. Id imagine Scale and Oblivion would get ran the most.
Hunter meek is interesting new ability. I don't know how much of the meta are runes under 65, but the ones that run into this guy are gonna get immolated!
The tanking capacity and dmg potential of this ability are really nice. You just have to pick your battles.
Ready is nice for getting around the board and saving AP for a big play.
Attack fire is good for amp and not too many things have immunity, you may find more counters to fire than to psy, elec, or sonic, acid...really frost even.
Mark of Osarius...this is another weird ability that i cant really find the practicality of. I mean its neat, but is it useful?
After he's attacked 2-3 times he gets the once in a lifetime opportunity to randomly place a Head of Osiris within 4 spaces.
Generally i place Heads where i need that 8 dmg to take out an opponent or in a font to contest.
Having a random 'summoned' relic that may never have use and cant contest....just seems .... why?
Maybe watching a few games with this guy i'll find some reason or functionality.
Im also not sure why he can only do it once when you have the SL's Blackguard that can get his ability proc'd as much as he likes.
Overall... an Interesting champ. As UD we always fight for slots when it comes to melee units. As much of a tank this guy is, he's not the best and doesn't really heal himself unless you provide him fire.
In a fire deck i think he may see some play, in your typical Good stuff BG i think he may see play for a short time to see if any1 can break him b4 he goes to find some shoes to cuddle next to.
Imma keep my eye on him to see if i'll gain the pleasure of sticking my foot in my mouth.


IS:

Great HP, nice def, average spd, moderate dmg, around the same average cost.
Dictate, great for clutch plays and also dmg ramping.
Opportunistic, great for dmg boosting while waiting for a critical strike on a big play.
Charge, great to cover distance and deal spike dmg. Also makes him even more affordable.
Fearsome Hunter, great for dmg mitigation if you happen to kill a champ.
Debilitate, great for hindering opponent movement and to pin them down.
Execute, great for spike dmg.
Clamp, great for pinning priority targets down, especially ranged units.
Imposing aura, great for pinning enemies down and hindering movement will you press your advance.
MS 3, great on this guy. Clamp usually forces an ally to come help engage and that gives this unit a boost in def and dmg.
Charge and Dictate help get you into position for big plays to move your forces into compromising situations where they are careless, frightened, clamped.
While MS is proc'd its really hard to focus down this guy and he is a huge hindrance to your forces.
Solid unit that can cause the opponent alot of stress and takes alot of ingenuity and good play to handle if used properly.
I think this guy may have his time in the Solari sun.


FS:

Decent dmg, great speed, nice hp, poor def, sad range. Average nora cost.
The new batch of firk really help to set up this guy. He can also jump into FW splits to take advantage of the soultap mechanic.
Energy theif great to position this unit and force the opponent to plan ahead before getting their AP sapped away while trying to attack him.
Restraining Aura, an annoyance. I think this guy is better played mid to late game after you have many units soul tapped.
He's not a tank but RA and ET seem to be abilities that are better used while in a scrap and aren't being utilized while sitting in the back waiting for the chance to attack.
He has good HP but poor def. Wouldn't be that hard to focus him. However a Bubble could go a long way on this champ. Also, my preference, a Dark Marsh Helm.
Pawn helps this guy be the annoyance he is. Letting one of his allies suffer his injuries he can soak up more attacks and allow himself to heal from his Soul Channeling.
Soul Channeling is great to help him stay in the fight and also to inflict soul tap onto enemy units around him. Priming for a fierce Soul Wrack.
On a relatively low cooldown Soul Wrack gives this guy some range and a great utility attack at being LoL. Getting buffed by suffering foes of soul tap, really lets him snipe for heavy dmg.
Dark favor is good to bomb the field with LoL to get rid of someone surviving with low hp or just to soften enemy units b4 a fight.
Drain is great to keep this guy alive. Depends on your playstyle. Stand alone gives him some healing, personally id probably keep Pawn since FS has plenty healing to keep him healthy.
With a psychic attack it is hard to find immunity and is easily amped.
Fun and interesting unit that takes a bit of set up but pays off pretty nicely when his synergies are on board.
Less of a 'splashable' rune in my opinion but great in the BG he's meant for.
Interested to see him played.

FW:

Good dmg, average speed, good range, poor defense, low health. low average nora cost.
Mercenary taxes this units cost each turn. Turning his 72 nora into a potential hefty price.
Better watch that bank aswell or you'll lose this unit prematurely.
Don't fret, with the new relic destruction ability Ransack he is able to fund his own existence by salvaging a little nora from the destroyed relic.
Even though he's pretty inexpensive on deploy, he doesn't tolerate other cheap units.
With Hunter Meek he is able to dish out a hefty amount of dmg to units with 65 cost or less. And mitigate dmg from them aswell.
Seems our Tomb Raider likes to act in the shadows, having hidden rock and dmz for grabs.
Rock has its uses and can be an asset on many maps. In the right BG DMZ is far more reliable.
Both however have the nature to be unavailable at times.
For a guarantee you can just pick up Stealth in his U1's. You don't get passive stealth but this active will ensure you retreat into the shadows whenever you need.
Lay trap boulder gives this guy a little passive dmg at random. If the foes aren't careful they will trip a trap in your crypts and suffer 10 physical dmg.
He has a nice area disarm, great for those pesky dwarves and their drunken nonsense. It also provides him a little extra AP to act behind the scenes.
Eat Traps....well...this is just kind of weird. FW isn't known for putting down traps and your opponent probably will rarely have them aswell.
He has his own traps he can lay, but they are on the same U path.
Even if they weren't they would make his traps he spent turns laying rather useless and he would effectively do less potential dmg eating them (arguably the opponent would never of landed on them).
If their was a race of tomb raiders that all laid traps and you had a theme centered around that, i could see this making sense.
If multiple factions had trap layers in the meta, i could see this.
However i don't see traps often enough to see Eat traps ever being useful.
Seems like this is a sandbag, but maybe im not up on my meta game and their is a need for this somehow.
Detection, Pillage, Opportunistic, Banditry, Death Harvest, Toll all seem more practical. I get it, Eat Traps is a poor name for Disarm traps which a Tomb Raider would be able to do.
I just feel traps need to be more a a threat and more present to not have people feel its a useless U, and force them into one of the other options. On a plus side, he's -1 nora with it?

Intersting champ, i like Ransack and his range is nice. Not sure how much he will be played since Ransack technically is the only thing he offers. We have other stealth range units.
Ones that don't cost every turn at risk of dying. Also better attack types. Im not sure if Ransack and Hunter Meek is enough to qualify for a slot.





I'll now be taking replies about how this was too long and im a noob and don't know what im talking about. Thanks!

 

I was REALLY hoping acid ele would get a little bit more love, but -2 nora is a good start.

 

Also it would be nice if patch notes included the nora cost changes from the ability changes.

 

I for one will be running him 2x in my foul rite bg

 

Yeah, so far the best I've heard is that some people are gonna try to show-horn him into a witch BG because that's the least awkward place for him.

 

where on foul rite does it say witch?

EDIT: nvm about the 2x thing, didnt see he had mercenary