Patch dissapointment, taking a break.

Usualy I support the patches, even when they nerf things I like, because I know they sometimes deserve it. But this latest one really has me upset.

They are continuing with the adding crappy attacks to support units, last patch was fairy, now my poor whirling quary and Spell Kaiser got hit really hard. Kaiser not only gained a crappy attack but they screwed with his upgrades to. I do not like this direction at all.

They randomly nerfed stitch across the board and hard, it is the only theme in the entire game I like. And I am pretty sure they did not deserve it. (I don't like theme play on principal since I feel the decks are built for you, and most of the themes flavor are not my cup of tea, but stitches flavor and mechanics I just love and make an exception for.)

They murdered my Centaur Skirmisher deck by removing blitz. I don't see why they would do this, I rarely beat the same opponent with it twice. But I sure had alot of fun with it, no one really seemed to have a problem with it, but yet again they murdered another of my decks just because it was a combo deck. I play pox for the combos, and they keep killing them. You should let people play the types of decks they want to play, be it combo, attrition, shrine rush, super champ, or just a normal tempo champion skirmish game.

Goblins are still a joke. I was hopeful that finally the only other theme I might actually like was finally going to get some attention but no, new goblin is meh, racial is untouched, and they even nerfed several of the existing goblins.

So much for focusing on balance and avoiding complexity creep, there are quite a few new abilities and key words in this expansion. Ranged needed a nerf, but I am not overly fond of the route they are doing, really just needed to give range nora value. I hate the support direction, and I truly loathe the changing deploys to summon direction, as well as the summon nerfs.

There are more limited edition Non Reskin runes. This is the single worst thing for the game. It makes it pay to win, it really doesn't matter if the rune is strong or not, the fact that it exists only as an option to those who spend money is just not ok, its especially bad when said rune is actually good. This needs to stop, and all current ones need to be released as non limited reskins.

There were a whole host of nerfs again, this is a bad approach, buff whats less used, dont destroy what people already use. Increase diversity dont decrease it, rare exceptions can be made, but they should be rare, there should be faarrrr more buffs then there should be nerfs. This is a negative direction, not a positive one.
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TLDR
I hate the patch, nerfs are bad, non reskin limiteds are reallllyyyy bad, stop killing combos unless they are game breaking/exploit, doesn't matter how strong it is if its winrate is low because its not consistent, let people have there fun and play how they want.

This patch has really killed it for me, I will be taking a break, I will check in with the next patch and hope for some fixes. If not I will probably see you guys next expansion assuming things don't worse. I will probably be playing duelysts in the mean time. (However that game just got an even worse patch then pox did yesterday, which is part of the reason I am extra salty today.)

 

all lims should have a forgable counterpart, I cant imagine joining a game where players have access to runes/weapons etc. simply because they were there longer,,
having special edition counterparts (borders and such) for status and so on is one thing , and I def see a place for it...I dont mind going after lims myself... but not being able to get a power another player has,, whether through test, time or trial is simply messed up.
one can argue that the cards are not that powerful,, yet still knowing there not obtainable and having to face them in combat is a bit insulting to me.

 

Thanks for the reply @Sokolov , dont get me wrong, I love all the good you have done for the game, and I am by no means giving up on the game, I did mean take a break as I just did not like the current state this patch put things in.

To address a few points, I understand the design direction on passive offensive champs, I just am personally not fond of it. I don't think its bad, it just messes with another aspect of my play-style, nerf the champ a little if needed, but nothing wrong with having a cool efficient champ as long as its not to broken. Again personal opinion, but I dont like the passive supports so it bugs me even more that they are getting hit less hard then the offensive ones.

I am also fond of indirect damage, and that one I do think is a problem if you reign it in, because its far to easy to stack defense and or counter ranged attacks. Reducing passive damage without also drastically reducing defensive stacking or abilities like Nokundoh will cause problems, and as always I prefer buffs to nerfs, so I would rather you leave passive damage alone, then I would see the need for nerfing the all to common basic attack counters.

I do appreciate some of the major stitch bug fixes, and I understand that alot of it was a sweeping change for them due to range, but they are a primarily ranged theme who already had lower then average stats so it hurts them hard. Aside from tyrant there close range options are meh. While I realize sweeping changes make things easy, and also consistent, it often hits somethings that it shouldn't, and they rarely get compensated for it.

Most players or not, its typically best to appeal to as many playgroups as possible, better to let people play what they want, rather then have one group of players tell the others they have to play how they like it. I loathe attrition, and I bet more people hate facing it then they do combo, yet I would not support removing attrition playstyles. Just because I dont like it, does not mean I should deprive those that do. Removing playstyles removes players.

Ehhh fair enough, goblins are supposed to just be for fun, but they really could use some love. While the new goblin has a neat ability, I was really hoping he would come in with something that really syergised the race as a whole, rather then his ability not caring whether you play goblins or not, something along the lines of "Goblin Theivery can choose the upgrade it takes.", or at least something that gave the other goblins some nice buffs, was really hoping for a proper goblin support unit.

My complexity creep comment was mostly salt, sorry for that one, between this patch, and the dulyst patch I was exceptionly grumpy today. I will leave it in the op so that it properly shames me. I think you have been making lots of progress on that front, and new stuff is always cool as long as it doesent creep.

I never really liked the dots anyways, so it barely phased me, and general efficiency tweaks are alright, but what I think it really needed espeacly since you have been fond of sweeping changes of late was range to actualy have a nora value just like an ability, and or to make it increase the nora of other abilities that are stronger on range. Currently I don't believe the current nora formula actually recognizes any difference between range and mele.

I was just whining about the adding damage to passive champ design direction again. I love death benefit, and its a theme that has been neglected lately, and every time you change a deploy to a summon it further nerfs it, and buffs ritual style. While I am complaining about design direction I also dislike the sweeping change to sacrfice effects, I cant stand that I am not allowed to do neat death combos since almost every destroy effect has become the new sacrifice thing. I would much prefer these combos to be nerfed, and just do away with sacrfice mechanic in general and make it all destroy.

Reskins are fine, and I should not have said last patch, I meant recent patches. You had the flaming skull, the axe, the iceblast relic thing, and of course the blood owl. The owl and the ice one are actually pretty competitive to.

Glad to hear the sweeps are over, I understand you have been trying to reduce complexity, and I have confidence you will start fixing the targeted issues that the sweeps have caused. But that is exactly why I was taking a break, because between some of my favorite things geting hit hard, or strait up removed, the targeted runes changes just need to start rolling out. And hopefully I will be able to get some new combos going. As for themes, its again personal opinion, but I do tend to avoid them on principal, so it does not matter to me. But It will be really good for the game, as many do love them.
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TLDR
I understand the design directions, I just am not fond of most them. Other then maybe the ranged one. But I do think you are doing a good job reducing complexity, and making things consistent, just the current direction really has been messing with my play-style. And I understand that its just my personal preference, and most of your changes are probably for the health of the game, I just wish the direction didn't effect me so much. Alot of the op is salt, and I apologize for the nastier bits.

 

amazing! an actual civil thread.

 

They are right Sok, Lim only runes are not OK...

 

Stitched have been experiencing second hand nerfs almost every patch,i remember this being a thing year or two ago with stitched seamstress.She even got nerfed a while ago with the charged heal nerf.

This is not a bonus or something to be proud of,these things should work in the first place and not be some kind of "reward."

Stitched are in a weird spot right now,because they can still snowball and dominate but they can also fall apart before they get going.
I wish they were a bit more stable and flexibile.

 

Alright,but my main point was that stitched could use some fine tuning after all the second hand nerfs.

 

but they are being nerfed indirectly every single patch,EVERY SINGLE ONE
can we get some lil boost for our favorite theme

 

arent you the same guy who was abusing centaur skirmisher shrine rush deck? lmao. He told me the deck would never be nerfed and that there was nothing wrong with how it worked, lol.

 

eroding winds is overpowered...

 

This patch is indeed a bit of a wtf, but I suppose i'll hold back my full judgement for a bit until things mellow out.

 

I did not realize range did have a proper costing; in that case I fully support your ranged direction, but the sweeps have been a bit rough. I look forward to the targeted adjustments.

Yes I was, was quite proud to have come up with it, and really did not think it was abuse at all, then come today I find it was destroyed and it hurt. It's a large reason I am taking a break. As most of the combos have been killed. And I think baneshift is stilllllll banned. So I figure when some new tweaks come out, or I get my baneshift back I can start looking for new combos, and or if stitched get buffed so I can play them in the meantime while I think up combos. But the current state of things are just not fun.

I really hope that the Johnny combo players out there get some love soon. The new Gob has some combo potential, but I think the random effect will make it awfully hard. Random in general is not good for a competitive environment, but I guess that is gobs thing, chaos and whatnot so it's fair at least with them.

 

Folks in PA were discussing ways to get guaranteed abilities. Because it doesn't take basics attacks or upgrades, most 4-ability champs can give the King a guaranteed ability. For instance, Demonvein grants Leech Vitality, and Crusader grants Thirst for Battle.

 

you werent the first one to abuse centaur skirmisher in a shrine rush deck and I told you itd be fixed...

 

buff stitched. if you don't, 10,000 kitties will die slow deaths crying 100,000 tears

 

Im going to voice a perhaps unpopular opinion; I think Unique Limited Edition runes are perfectly reasonable, and I rather enjoy seeing them.

That having been said.. Generally it is preferable that they somehow be replicable without possessing the Limited Edition rune, and they never should be runes that by merit of owning your battlegroup will be strictly better than someone's who does not possess it. Valdaci Emerald, for instance, can be replicated by means of the Valdaci Guardian. Then there is Glimpse of Death. You have to earn it, and what you get for it is a spell that makes it so the target champion is being hit by a soul strike 1/turn. It is a death sentence rune, but it is one that is replicable. The valdaci shield, while not replicable to my knowledge (giving a champion that particular ability when they wouldn't normally have it), isn't going to be the deciding factor in most matches.


I cannot think of any instance where they have deviated from this. Things are replicable, be it directly or indirectly. And even if they aren't, they aren't going to turn the tide in your favor by merit of including them in your Battlegroup.

 

A certain little bird told me that we will have access to Valdaci Shield through a champion in the not-so-distant future.