Are we at a design stage where all factions get everything?

War Cry was always on the DK, it did get nerfed at some point (range lowered 4 --> 3 and it couldn't affect champs more than once per turn, having 2 DKs generate 12ap + a ****load of damage for everyone was pretty fun though).

As for the factions and how they were waaaay back in the day:

IS was about high defense, grouped up melee champs with strong healing. Defender, defensive stance, heal champ, divine favor, desperate heal etc etc etc. Used to have something called a 'phalanx' which was exactly as it sounds, a death ball of super high defense mutually buffing champs slowly rolling towards you that was a pain in the ass to kill, especially after IS's faction bonus was changed to reduce spell damage.

FS was about mobility and terrain/nora manipulation + single champ removal and hit and run. Amphibious + Monsoon, that entangling BS, nora drain + their faction bonus (which I think was +15 or +20 or something like that back in the day) made them a pain in the ass to deal with. Their thing was single champ removal via Drown/feeding frenzy, and they would wear you down by bogging you down and doing hit and runs with DOTs like poison + abusing amphibious. Made the Forglar Swamp map a pain in the ass the deal with. They also had a banish+banish+nora drain combo when split with UD which was OP as firk.

KF was about high mobility and hit and run as well, but without the terrain manipulation aspect. They had force barrier which I guess sort of counts, but their big thing was just wearing you down at range, running around you and moving quickly and suddenly via initiative + high speed. They had all sorts of spells to facilitate this, be it vortex, carnivorous vines, brambles, etc etc.

ST was about very high HP, tough to kill champs and terrain manipulation via Ice Storm and later Snow Storm. They played rather similarly to FS in this regard, especially once Snowstorm hit. Jakei Elders + Frost Queens + Shardmasters were extremely difficult to deal with; they would wear you down at range, and when you got close they could crystallise any vulnerable champs and engage and their lonx, sometimes throwing a frost queen into the melee as well for Majestic so that you did very little damage. They were sort of a tankier, more direct damage oriented version of FS with much better AOE spells and weaker champ healing options, but far better spells to ensure champ longevity.

UD was highly melee-damage oriented. They had extremely strong melee heroes who hit like tanks (especially Gahlroons, those things were extremely stronk back in the day) and were oriented more towards stealth. They were all about running in headfirst and pounding everything into the ground while using stealth to get key objectives, like capping fonts or assassinating key heroes (Deep Elf Assassins are still one of my favourite heroes in that regards, love them). They had zero healing, but to help this they had equips like Helm of Chaos and spells like Sacrifice + Retribution to offset this. They later tended strongly towards the stealth/anti range themes after Savage Tundra/SP got released. Made having unobstructed view a wonderful thing

FW was about recyclable champs and actually had a pretty strong possession theme via domination, crown of corruption, and even the dark enchantress/disturbed spirit. I can't tell you how many times someone dominated + ran my champ through a poison cloud, or used Crown of Corruption on a Lich King, attacked two of my champs then mobilised and ran them off a cliff. You always had to position champs next to each other so that they would be engaged same turn and couldn't be cliff'd. They had good globals and were a good attrition faction especially after the unholy tomb was released. Everything was always diseased. The global attrition theme was reinforced after the Tormented Priest was released, which made healing almost useless. They were all about wearing your opponent down. They caused me so much trouble in the past I started running a Holy Mace and an Exorcist, the latter specifically to kill those goddamn bile zombies if they didn't blow themselves up first.

SL was about extremely tanky champs via their defense bonus (it used to be the equivalent to 30% champ damage reduced iirc) who healed via regen and power turns. Draconic Benediction + Quickening + Skeezick Drummer was difficult to deal with. They were sort of like a bizarro version of IS, and much more aggressively oriented + they didn't need a set-up, they could just go. I hated Ravagers and those damn Draksar Knights. The proliferation of SL especially after the Skeezick Rebellion is actually what made me start running Axe Guards standard, because they were the only thing that I could find to actually counter SL's defense. Thank you based Sunder.

SP was all about Moga + G'hern, cheap champs, squishy champs harassing you down and tanky, extremely stronk G'hern (due to Surge: Moga) coming in to clean up. They had a decent AoE (avalanche was good champ relocation) and were fairly difficult to deal with for me as an IS player because I only ran 1 AoE, Earthquake, which wasn't really enough. I still hate Moga Slingers, even though no one runs them anymore. It's all voil + slags + cyclops now, I don't even know when I last saw a moga or g'hern.

That's as much as I recall.

 

REPORT!-abusive behaviour

Buff UD, give me cleanse, my demons are filthy
IS-OP

 

you brought back some memories man, this is the game i remember <3

 

Themes is the way to make factions feel really different:

Ferren.
Skellies.
Skeezies.
Frost, fire, acid, poison... May fall into amp category.
Firk.
Spirits.
Stealth.
Zombies.
Moga.
Etc... They all are played differently. No matter if the have or have not a particular tool. And I think all should have access to the basic toolset: shatter, cleanse, detection, dispel and some form of spot removal.

 

Just saying it feels really bad to lose because your faction does not have decent access to basic tools.

 

Welcome to FS for years and years and then some!

It has improved, though. Emergency provisions and cleansing aura on the new champ are fan-tas-tic. No spot cleanse, still, unless you want to run an 91 nora angel (lol no), but I guess that's fine

 

Having access to those basic tools wouldn't stop the whining anyway...

 

Firk botanist and Sacred temple have cleansing aura too

 

Who needs cleanses? I just need my 15-25 damage Aqua units to kill everything before those dot/CC sissies kill my glass cannons of boredom.
I just wish aquas had a better Nora/HP ratio by making most have at least 40 hp or 50 Nora...

 

Lol

You have little idea what you are talking about,clearly.