Discussion: Patch Notes: May 21st, 2015

First off @Moles , thx for the calm reply. Guess I will be marking you from now on cause I got on Soks nerves so I mostly get acid replies from him.
Since you guys will be doing this, aparently, just 2 cents: rune diversity will come when themes are viable, focus more on those rather than goodstuff; secondly, go ask around ib ST forums on what people want to see changed rather than what you think your bg is lacking.
JFQ is runnable now, but the patch as a whole regarding ST buffs was a unfair
e.please hear me out onthis.
thx

 

Poison is finally 100% viable! Arent FS'ers happy about it?

 

Yes, we are. We very much are.

 

I mean I'm happy, but this patch didnt really change nothin

 

Could you please explain me your reasoning behind Thunder's change? why keep the explosive attack for everyone but keep the other ability for attack: pistol champs, why change the nora drain nature when it would work better to the onhit tortun flavour which at the same time was maintaining versatility for splits
In my eyes SL got greatly disfavored by this change, i do understand that hero equips needed to be reworked and i do understand the split themes needed to get the most of this changes but please explain to me your thinking.

 

In the past, I did some researches and resumes of what people wanted in the ST forums. It was well received by the frosty community, but greens literally ignored all these suggestions, and we depended on our council member, and even so, greens took only what he wanted from his calls.

I will take your words and roll another thread full of suggestions. But please, don't ignore it this time.

This doesn't means I want the changes to literally be what we write in there. Just take what we LIKE and seek for themes from there, rather than on viability on some premade decks you might have in mind.

 

is it normal now that dashing maneveur doesn't allow you to surpass a champion so you can't knock back? I don't think so, I think is still bugged and now instead of passing trought walls it can't pass anywhere!!

tested 4 times @Moles @Wraith in this state the ability is completly useless ( ok one attack miss but that's it )

 

Im just here to read the replies

 

thx

 

All of our hero related equipment got very narrow conditions needed to be fulfilled:

Lets compare to explain what I mean.

Chillshard: Very nice buff to argol, but to get the maximum value out of the equipment he is the only champion where you can fulfill the condition without spending extra nora (by putting tundra discipline on a champion with attack: psychic) and even then there arent exactly a plethora of psychic champions in ST to choose from.

Destiny: Nice effect, got a cost hike but also gives an entire theme access to quest kill.

Darkmarsh Blackstaff: This is where it gets silly, you give access to boon to an entire faction and amphibeous to another, neither are particullary strong, wich is not what im getting at. Its the fact that you dont need to put any thought into playing the equip.

Tempest Crown: Pawn, and if champ costed at 80 or above they get majestic AND prestige. Now you generally want to use this equipment on an expensive champion as you want to protect it.

Lets compare another ST equip: Staff of ascendance. This equipment was very shoeboxed before change, but you actually managed to make it even more shoeboxed with the change. You give access to intensify wich is a very backloaded ability, and if equipped champ cost 100 nora or more they gain a rank of jolt. Thats accessible if you want full value to 3 entire champions in the entire faction.


Why do you keep mistreating ST? Im suspecting this ominous council ive been hearing about. But this is just bullshit from one end to another.

On a sidenote: Yes we did get some nice buffs, like everyone else did.. But overall this patch is just another let down for ST as anyone who even consider playing it will understand how far behind we are falling considering all the changes and how it affects us balance wise.

Edit: Dont think ive forgotten the lousy "amazing" relic we got for the expansion that added= zero to our role as a competitive faction.

 

I will not discuss balance here, just the "REVAMP habit" because it's really a bad thing: stop doing this THAT way. You can just fix things, bit by bit.

Now we have again many changes at the same time and it's not that good :
For people that dont spend their life around, it's hard to keep in touch. All this new stuff to check is too much time.
For people that have a few bg, now they are stuck with unplaybale stuff, they are stuck to shard or trade in pb at wrong value: They aren't helped with that either.
So we have a patch strategy that doesn't help new player and usual player : Poor choice.

And even if you are a Pox addict, 5-10 changes at one time is better, that change a bit the ranked contest: better have 1 month with 4 patch than Revamp times to times.
Thx for the work nonetheless even if my haunting spirit will complain.

 

Hello everyone,

I am a returning player, after more than a year absence. And I mostly play KF.

I would like to discuss changes to 3 runes:

1. murder - w/o precision this equip become absolutely USELESS in KF.

2. wisp - she used to be a great support champ with her magical bomb and nexus. The new changes takes all that from her and the only reason I see to play her is magic amp in a magic amp BG. I am very sad about this.

3. dusk druid - I don't understand the new changes, it's still shoebox. But I think the main question is why the heck he lost the ping in the first place? I know a pinger with stealth is annoying, so lose stealth, lose escape, lose whatever else, but keep his ping. We already have another 10 champs doing the same thing he does now, ping was what made him different.

I would also take the opportunity to discuss the nerf to an old rune - Fairy Trickster
As you know, metamorphosis was her thing. With this gone, trickster is shoebox. So, I would like to question the reason behind this huge nerf, considering that the FS equip that gives the same ability is still in play. IMO you could take everything form trickster BUT metamorphosis and she would still be runnable.

Thank you.

 

Nefari Guardian

• Damage decrease (-1) Starting Abilities: Attack: Physical, Unstoppable
• Upgrade Set 1: Resistance: Physical 1 (default), Resistance: Physical 2

WHAT?!

edit: Him body guarding is never gone be a problem again with this ''nerf'' right

 

Keep in mind the cost of resistance physical went up, so he is now 3 nora more expensive with 1 less rank of res.phys. and -1 damage and with unstoppable added.

Still very runnable but definitely a nerf.

 

1 dmg is such a nerf in UD
And slapping unstoppable on him was the worse idea ever imo

 

I try to write down some things going around in my mind about the changes, especially ST because that is the faction I know the best. WAll of text inc, sorry for that. I hope this can be the beginning for a more constructive debate about balancing changes and themes.

While I think that pede is overreacting a little bit (he seems to be depressed about the direction of ST in general and the effort he spend for making thing better from his point of view) I do need to agree with some point he has.

1. Buff to ranged champs:
I like both changes. Both champs are very runnable now but I dislike the reason why you did that changes. I exclude the Shaman from my like list because do really wonder what happened with here. More about the shaman at point 2.

Moles said he felt that ST needs some meta worthy ranged options and I do agree with that. ST always had the most potent ranged stuff after KF, that was one of the reason why I started playing that faction in the beginning.

• But, why didn't you buff the new Frostseer? He is subpair and people where not satisfied with him after they spend MONEY for buying your product.
• Why didn't you try to bring back the Lonx Marauder as meta option? She and her core ability was hit hard with the Sunder nerf without any compensation. That champ is in a semi playable state right now. I really tried to include her in my decks but most of the time when it comes to deploying a ranged option I just think: "Na, I don't deploy her, hunter wont kick in anyway". Let her hunter ability kick in with 0 def on the enemy champ, reduce the extra damage to 30/40 %. Bum she is meta gain.
• Why a exotic and a leg and the leg even has a deck limit of 1. This is not newbie friendly and won't help attracting new players. There are so much common and uncommon ranged options that are in need of a buff.

2. Buff to a Jakei "theme"
Molest said he wanted to buff the Jakei as a theme a litte. Nice! The problem is, there is no Jakei theme and changing 2 champs towards that direction don't help a bit.
Even more problematic: There have been made major changes to champs for strengthening the crystal/jakei theme in the near past and now something is introduced that goes into a other direction? What is going to happen with the crystal theme? Everybody in the ST community was hoping for further buffs of that still underdeveloped theme.
And now the shaman. The only existing real crystal support champ, buffed just 2? patches ago is changed again and on top of that with the idea to push her into into a other direction?

Where is the masterplan? Where is the roadmap that leads to healthy themes? If there is something like a roadmap how could you deliver such a botched shippable product (in a lean sense)?

3. What could have been done from my point of view

• Lacking meta ranged options: Fix the Marauder. This would also help Lonx as a theme that got nerfed in several ways.
• Buff the Jakei Heretic in a way that she benefits the crystal/jakei theme. (But hey you just created the third 7 ranged champ in ST. Heretic is double dead now)
• If you really want to buff the jakei as a single theme "Commander: Jakei" on the Frostseer instead of Veil would have been a good idea. At least this would give her a unique role. In combination with the Queen this would have been a solid first step to develop that theme.
• Fixing Swap and Trail Crystal on the Crystal Crawler would have been a good idea.
• Looking for a good support champ for ST? Cool, changing AoI was a good idea but why 7 speed on a support champ? And the main problem with AoI was and will be duplicity. 8 rounds before it kicks in in FF ST? With the old charge mechanic that is abusable like hell? (Mail of Barbs, Processing collar? Hello?) That mechanic will under or overperform if used in splits. Just wait for the complaints.

Please decide if you want do develop the crystal theme or not. The Elemental Core without nora gem, this particular patch and Molest let me suggest that crystal is not on a good way. If not please hurry up and develop Jakei as a theme and put off all the nora gem stuff from crystal champs to make them cheaper norawise.

If you still want to develop crystal: Act like it and don't try to push non existing themes that no one was asking for.

 

Youre right that unstoppable was a bad thing to give him as it prevents a lot of the usual counters - knockback out of range, stun, paralyse.

Not sure if this was an oversight or if it was supposed to compensate against a perceived overnerf --- but yeah, it probably is about the worst ability he could of got lol.

 

Amen