Balancing the game, Part 292, Shoebox

Hi everyone. There has been a lot of talk about powercreap, unbalanced champ strength and so on and so on. Since there are more powerful champs, or lets say runnable, than unrunnable, it makes more sense to buff the unplayed ones, than to nerf the hell out of the magiority of champs. So i spend some time and looked at all factions. I decided to pick 6 champs of every faction that really really,... really need some love. My main criteria was, when was the last time i saw this champ? Now, i know some of you will say hej this dude is OP i play him all the time. Well i hope there really are infact some of you wich play some of these champs in some yolo BG, but to be honest, i am here since ST expansion, and i never see the following stuff.

FS
Almsgiver - i guess the main reson why almsgiver does not see play is its range. The worst possible range on a 5 speed champ. Anything is better than 3-4 range, seriously anything. Make it really ranged or melee, but please change the range into anything else.
Boghopper Bull - when you look at him, he is not so bad, i mean in FS-terms, but his nora cost is killing him. It is just too much. Compare him to boghopper Elite or Huntmaster, cuz they get his slot in a BG, and he cant compete with them. What he needs is some synergy with other FS stuff.
Boghopper Mentor - now tell me, when did you see this dude in action? I seen him, once, 3 years ago, in one game, and the guy lost. 36 Hp is pretty low, even for a boghopper, other than that i dont really know why he is not played at all. Oh yeah 5 speed and 0 damage, that could be it.
Dreadwing - no i am not talking about Slicks ability, i mean the champion, the mosquito. I really dont get how he can have vulnerability desease and danage shield desease, but nvm, i shouldnt approach this with logic. I guess what he needs is a big range, or a compleate change, cuz fast speed combined with beeing ultra squishy with 2 vulnerabilities while beeing almost melee range is not a winning combination.
Marsh Raptor - i know you all love the campaign against the OP marsh raptor, but that is the only time he is ever considered OP, in fact, he is sooooo far away from beeing OP, that he does not even reach the O. He needs one of the following 2. Damage or durability.
Salaman Dervish - now please, before you all freak out and cry how good he is, why dont you run him than? I like him a lot. I like his abilities and how he works, but at 85 nora cost, he will stay where he is, shoebox.

FW
Bonemauler - ye, that is an actuall champion, not a summon you get from fracture. What this guy needs to see play is serious nerf, to justify nora cost decrease, wich he actually needs, cuz in a skelly BG champ cost is everything.
Dark Enchantress - here i came to the point, wher i dont understand why this one is not played. I like her abilities, i like her cost, she belongs to a theme, a nice support. Life siphon is kinda useless without damage, but other than that, she looks fine.
Deathcaster - this one is exotic. Most exotics dont suck, but this one sucks dragonballs. At first look he is solid. Yes he got a vulnerability, but nothing too hard, you see sacrifice ability and you think well i am just not gonna use it till he is a goner anyways. But your opponent does. FW domination- sacrifice, SL enslave- sacrifice, SP possess- sacrifice,... Instant deat, and you dont even need a chasm. Greens, please, never put sacrifice on a champ with nora cost higher than 50.
Gravewatcher - i dont know, i like him. The main problem with him is he does nothing till he reanimates someone, till than he sids there,... he needs some passive utility/support ability, like nora miner 1 or mason or so.
Necromancer - no, not Neuromancer, Necromancer. Who? Yes, Necromancer. What can he do? Nothing. But he is cool, the only champ with red electricity in game. Red electricity, does it any extra thingy or so? No, i said he does nothing. -.- That is him, Necromancer.
Soul Collector - while most champs i listed just horribly suck, this one does not. He is a vampire, he got his special tricks, his stats are OK, but he lacks something. Some love some gentle touch, something. When you make a vampire BG, and you realize you really need more vamps in, he will be your last pick, cuz he is somewhere inbetween. Not a real fighter, but not a true support either, i dont know....

IS
Armorer - i guess we all loved this guy, when we started playing pox. Deploy Talgar, deploy Armorer and make Talgar unkillable ;D But what you needed a champ for and several turns can now be done by equipping Talgar, fast and easy and waaaaay cheaper. Armorer does not see play cuz there is noone that needs his armor
Battle Rager - one of the few Dwarves that cant be found in any Dwarf BG. Why? I dont know, people just dont like careless champs, i guess. Maby he is simply too old, he has been battleing and rageing since the beginning of pox-time.
Dwarven Handler - jup, this guy is the reason i am doing this. He is the synonym of uselessness, the crappyest rune all time. Other champs have abilities you may choose from in battle, this one has one - drive. While drive is a pretty nice ability, it is not on a 5 speed champ. So this guy, can in one turn, move one space and drive twice. That is it. Since he has no passive abilities, that is the max. of what he can do.
Now i want you to compare him to dwarven sergent, who also have 5 speed and drive..... If you need a champ with drive, and you have to pick among those 2, there is no racional reason you should ever pick the handler.
High Mason - evolution killed him. At some point in distant history, dwarves began to buff constructs. Not what you think, the early dwarves could repair constructs, that is as far as buffing them goes. Theese days we have little dwarves honestly buffing constructs. They have so much more sinergy with them that the early age dwarves bacame absolete. There is no place on Poxanthuru for this dude, cuz evolution killed him. ( even if you pick his plus one speed upgrade, he is just at 5 speed than)
Ironfist Warsaint - he is ok. He is probably the only champ where you should not pick a heal upgrade, and you should deploy him when you are drowning in extra nora, other than that, he is ok.
Weaponsmith - i already mentioned that logic aint got nothing to do with our champs, but still.... Here we have a living legend from pox babystepps, the weaponsmith. Unlike a construct that has weapon forger, our dear weaponsmith can not create a weapon, but he can shatter it ;D obviously this dude got the wrong job.

KF
Elder Garu - since he got hybarnate from his racial, he is kinda funny to play. You ( elder garu..... a chunky high damage monster) pop out of nowhere and eat seomone alive with 3 attacks. But that is the only funny thing about him. Your grinn should fade away rapidly when you look at the nora cost of 92.
Elven Druid - the way he is right now, there is no reason to put him in your BG, exept you really dont own a single KF detection rune. He needs the ability to transform into something usefull.
Elven Sky Marshal - what the hell is this? some kind of joke? Dear Greens, please tell me, for wich type of BG did you create this one? What is his nieche position, or role in a BG? He obviously is the key element of any KF YOLO BG. Looking at his stats, he got good speed, and ,.............. that is it, he got speed, than again, he is KF, so,...Absolutely terrible, and on top of it he weakens your other champs with liability. Liabiliy is simply too strong. Make it minus one def or remove it cuz champs like Voil Skycaptain and Garu Primitive are not gonna be used till you change it.
Great Eagle - wonder what exactly is so great about this one? I guess if all the Vashals would not be beasts i could make a KF beast bg with him........ IF.
Spirit Singer - a nice support champ, used to be used, years ago quite a lot, but now her voice is not what it was and noone listenes to the spirit singers singing anymore. Just buff her stats a bid, she will be fine again.
Wilderkin - while KF has not been known as the faction of hard hitting melee champs, till lately, this dude has the same problem as elder garu. At the time they were put in a BG, there was no alternative to them, if you wanted to run hard hitting melee stuff, and high nora cost didnt seem so high, cuz they were efficient. Those days are over. This one is not worth his nora, just.... not,... nope,.... still not.

ST
Arctic Turtle - why is it not a tortun or tortalleon ( cant see the difference between those anyways)?Well the arctic turtle is a good tank, the problem is, since it is no thread to the enemy, it is pretty unlikely it will get focused. So if you have to time to slowly stampede into an enemy font do it. Than use the spell.. shield on it to get extra def and safety from spells and your opponent must use more nora than it is worth to get rif it. Other than that i cant see Arctic turtle beeing runnable.
Dwarven Mountaineer - man so many dwarves in this shoebox, even in ST. Well this dude is a God in comparison to Dvarven Handler, but he fits no existing theme in ST. Where can you run him, and why should you? Well the answer is nowhere, and you shouldnt.
Jakei Shaman - pretty weak for a rare rune. Even without the two vulnerabilities it would still be weak. It looks like it tryed to be a support champs, but lacks support abilities like heal, divert, drive, detection, shatter, charm, enduring aura, weaken spells.......
Jakei Wolfrider - he looks solid to me, no idea why i havent seen him in a game for 4 years or more. He never was ST meta, but i dont think he belongs to shouebox stuff. If anyone knows why he is not beeing played, please feel free to tell me.
Lonx Snowguard - this one might not be shoebox since the release of lonx chieftain, but he looks ugly and i didnt put him in my lonx BG, so..... i guess he just doesnt fit the lonx race. With chieftains out you dont really need a protector champ, when all your champs have 4-12 def and over 60 HP.
Wizend Wren - when someone talks about WW, than i am absolutely sure, noone thinks for the fraction of a second about Wizend Wren. Pretty likely this one has not seen play jet. Maby in the first week of release, but that should be about it. If you dont know wich champ i mean, and you had to look it up in the rune checklist, do not worry, it does not make a noob, since there is noone that knows Wrens abilities straight away, not to mention his upgrades. Last time i told a green to buff Wizend Wren, he replied: Wich one? That made me think. I went 3 times through checklist, to make sure there are not more unseen wrens that noone has played or heard of. Till today i could find only this one, if there are more, i appologize.

SP
Calcified Lurker - buff this guy, i am desperately looking for a reason to run him in a BG. He is not bad the way he is, but right now, the only thing he is good at is eating owned relics, wich is not too impressive.
Cavernkeeper - the idea of this rune was quite good. Hardcore sinergy between this Moga and the Voil race. But. They released a healer voil ( infernal) and the Cavernkeeper lost his slot in the voil BG due to several disadvantages. He is too slow for a voil to keep up, he cant fly, his sustain ability can not challenge the infernals transfer life, and there is the high nora cost of 57, one of the most expensive Moga in game.
Cyclops Nemesis - so your goal is to kill enemy shrine, to get there you usually have to kill opposing champs, and what you really dont wanna do is give them free champs, like this one does. Than you play vs FW and they repurpose it to Serkan -.- Not funny. The reason this dude is not goonna see play is his nemesis ability, cuz you give your opponent too much potential to use it effectively aginst you.
Cyclops Youth - like the nemesis, this champ is not overal bad, it is one ability that makes him unrunnable. Most cyclops are big champs, so you have a hard time to manouver them around them map, on some maps it is really a nightmare, and than you have this big youth dude with damage aura 3, wich will pretty likely deal more damage to your own stuff than enemy stuff, or you will simply waste too much ap on him and your other champs, if you try to avoid it. So best is never deploy him, expecially not in a cyclops BG.
Ghern Rager - he sucks. In a Moga-Ghern BG you relly on sinergy between those 2 races, and overseer moga 1 just doesnt do the cut. And he is careless, people dont like careless champs if they are not unstoppable. He has 7 speed and careless so he will hit max. once per turn, wich wouldnt be so terrible if he had surge Moga, but he doesnt. He sucks.
Moga Babbler - ok, i take back everything i said about dwarven handler and elven sky marshal. You can at least use them as cannon fodder. Babbler is the worst thing all time. He is soo bad you would have to lay sausages around his neck so at least dogs would play with him. He is so bad, if TinyDragon had to play with a only babbler BG he wouldnt be able to win any game against any opponent above level 5. Babbler is soo bad, it is moraly and politically correct to surrender a game in wich your opponent deploys a babbler. Since if you dont, and play, and lose, it means you lost to a BG that contains a Moga Babbler, and the only answer to that is suicide. In the past i have seen people run Carrionlings and boghopper zombies and what not to taunt your opponent. The message sais, i dont need all 30 slots in a Bg to fight and destroy you, but those people didnt have the balls to run a Babbler in their BG. Surrendering when opponent deploys a babbler is legit, you cant beat that anyways..... Let us immagine you were hardcore drunk and misclicked and put a babbler in your BG, and made the mistake to not notice it, than you find yourself in a game and you somehow ( i dont know how) manage to deploy your Babbler. Here is what you do. If you run a flying champ in your BG, instantly cliff your babbler and pick up the nora globe with the flying champ. If there are no chasms, wait 20 sec, after you deployed it, cuz your opponent will surrender out of fear of the humiliation to be defeated by a moga babbler in your BG or cuz he laughs so much he cant control his hand to keep playing. Moga Babbler is the only champ in game with liability as upgrade, and if you choose it, you dont really make him worse, since he cant be worse. If The Devil himself would look at him, he would say: Holly sh.., you are worse than anything i have ever done or seen. Deploying a Moga Babbler is the highest form of insulting your opponent. There are no words to express what he does to opponents selfasteam.

SL
Cobra Spitter - This champ is just like Dreadwing, too squishy to be melee, give it a nice big range and Hunter Moga Babbler. The hunter ability will never be used, but at least the cobra gets some abilities.
Crokadar Guardian - i am pretty sure that is not how he was at release, they must have buffed him, but i guess after 6 years knowing this champ is not viable, it takes time to change your mind about him. he is still not something i would consider running, althou, ok maby in a beast bg he could be fine, nvm, he needs some love.
Draksar Augmenter - again a champ hindered to be played by one ability, scorn. Now immagine you run 2, and cuz he is quite cheap, you deploy him twice in a longer game cuz he comes off of cooldown. That is 32 damage to your shrine, no thanx.
Mauler - this one looks good. I dont like the sibbling ability, since any non-noob player will focus and kill one so that the other one loses buff, but ok, that is not himmain problem. The nora cost of 87 is just too much, taking into account that it is a non-fling dragon.
Scythbill - again we could argue about how viable this champ is in a beast SL BG, but i have see quite some beast BGs, and this guy is not really considered an autoinclude. Give him some sinergy with anything, or damage, or durability, basicly change him, make him snogvies brother or cousin or so.
Wirmpriest - i love this guy, used to be only magic damage in draksar BG. The rite abilities kinda suck, or i just dont find the right BG concept to make better use of it, his range is weak and his speed of 5 is not helping him with his low range. Give him a Dragokin hug.

UD
Bok Gatekeeper - looks like we dont have the same in mind when we talk about buffs. You said you buffed bok gatekeeper..... Lets make a short summary. This is a ultra situational champ that bacame shoeboxed on release and you buffed him by giving him short lived..............................yeah......
Captive Lorekeeper - he is not virtually useless, i have seen him beeing played quite some times. He is like the living version of obelisk of foresight, only that the obelisk scrys better and more, and is cheaper, and you dont need a deployment zone to deploy it, and it is revealed at start of the game, and you can later use it to contest.Now tell me how to use lorekeeper efficiently if he is the last rune that gets revealed?
Deep Elf Monk - oh come on. Stop it! I can hear you crying; nooo he is soo good, he is OP, he my main champ, he is......... overcosted. All he needs is like minus 5 nora of cost and he is fine. As i said at start, this is not a list of bad champs ( althou it should be, how else can i justify babbler beeing in it), it is a list of champs that dont see the ligh of day, or any battle arena from inside.
Deep Elf Temptress - ok i give up, yes, yes, she is OP, ok fine, she is till not beeing played thou. And the main thing must be, guess what..... liability. Damn i honestly hate this ability, it is just too strong.
Redcap Twins - this was my favourite champ when i started playing pox. The only way i can keep making use of the sibling ability is by playing 2v2 with ud teammate that plays them as well. You made the tribal hut to cure the problem with SP maulers, why dont you do such a thing for my loved redcap twins.

Thank you for reading. Greens, since you work on game balance and dont plan to release expansion jet, here is a tip, buffing old stuff, keeps the crowd happy ;D. And if you decide to buff some champs i highly recommend you start with those listed above. Since some of them have not been deployed in game for years.
Lukardian, the voice of the shoebox

 

Very well thought out and interesting. And I have truly put in thought of how to use babbler but I come up shot.

 

I occasionally run Dreadwings in my meta FS deck.

No, not budget FS meta.

No, not commons-only FS meta.

Just FS meta. He's really not that bad, just misunderstood.

 

Look, this is not abot finding a player that does play one of these runes. I am glad you do. This is about wich champs are not beeing used much or at all, by the magiority of players., wich is most likely linked to the the champs not beeing powerful enough in comparison to other champs. My english is terrible, i am pretty sure there is a ton of mistakes, but i guess any non-newby does understand what i was trying to say. Ty for your patience while reading this through

 

Wait for the revamp. every rune will be changed.

 

haha, you wrote priest.

 

Wizened Wren should cost 30 nora

 

On Heroes of Newearth, they just nerf the most used heros and buff the less used heros, in a way they dont lose or win that much power ofcourse, allway looking it with moderation.

 

Moga Babbler is actually secretely good.

 

Almsgiver, Cavernkeeper, Moga Babbler, Redcap Twins, Spirit Singer, Gravewatcher and Jakei Wolfrider are all good.

 

For FW; Deathcaster is actually really good, he just gets bumped out of slots because of more popular options in the price range.

Enchantress; Well. She has one or two abilities too much weighing her down and keeping her stats abysmally low for a vampyre. In a theme who technically is supposed to rely on life siphon to keep up, even with Bloodbinder on the board, she doesn't have the hp or dmg to stick around long. And she's not really quite important enough in the scope of things to try and improve that with Shield of Darkness, and a Hex Doll really, really doesn't help her situation enough.

Bonemauler I would actually suggest heading in the other direction. Instead of making him yet another insanely cheap melee beater for skeles, he needs to be made worth his cost. Unfortunately, that's also a buff to Bone Elemental, and while I think he could benefit from some love, making Bone Mauler a stand alone champ would likely be too much, and make Cloak out of control. My vote is make Mauler runnable, and have Bone Fracture summon another viably cheap unit instead (Moar Broakin Bohnez?)

Gravewatcher, while a really fun rune, I'm worried on buffing. He has a really potent ability, and it's really only kept in check by just how fragile he is, and that he pretty much screams 'keep me off the front line!' But, he has become increasingly more risky over the last few expansions simply due to the fact champions steadily get more powerful. I don't think nora gen is the answer, though, as it makes a reanimate even cheaper. Or at least not nora miner. Adding some death charged and....something that uses charges could be neat. An incentive to use him as more than a prop holding up the nora rock in a font.

Necromancer (First off, it's a she, not the skeleton bodyguard/armor thing behind her ). She's an extremely unfortunate case of replacement through power creep. Nothing else comes to mind that a champion was so wholly replaced by just a flat out better option (Corruptor). She was fragile, and at the time she came out, the only unit that had soul harvester, and her fragility wasn't quite as huge a detriment to run as she is now. Personally, I'd like to see her become a full on summoning unit. Axe soul harvester (signature ability be damned), Summon Skeleton 3 base, Summon Festering Corpse, and a couple other 'necromancer flavored' abilities. Maybe not zombie herder and boost: Skeleton, but I wouldn't be opposed, either.

Soul Collector- Yeah, he's actually pretty bad for what you pay for. But, if we ever see Pain Curse changed to an area effect instead of global, he'd be a pretty neat candidate for picking that up along with Elsari Coven and class: Witch. And actually, I think that would probably be enough to make him runnable.

Other factions I'll leave alone as I don't play them enough to feel confident in knowing what exactly would be a good direction to take any of those in, or whether any of those runes actually need any attention.

 

Ummmm.......yeah, cavernkeeper is an auto x1 in voils and moga babbler is good.

 

You know who's shoebox? Moga Trailblazer. Massively, massively overcosted, terrible stats and outclassed by any other melee Moga. It makes me sad, because I really like him (as you can probably tell by my avatar).

 

Redcap twins, wolfraider and gravewatcher is so good, so I never seen then.

 

Soul collector is currently a mish mash of vampyre/lich with their resulting racials so adding a third racial seems like it would clutter him up more then a mutant chimera.

In vetro he use to have soul collection and dead eater as his defining ability set as a nora generator until it was modified before release.
I'd like to maybe try seeing this (with his current set trimmed significantly) or at the very least replaced with more synergistic globe abilities.
For a 70's cost and with multiple soul collector abilities out there he really pales in comparison and could really use the defining synergy back to make him stand out in a role.

 

Goes to show how little I run this guy. I completely forgot he had Evil Aura, Bleed, and Soultap. I did that bit a disservice thinking he just had life siphon and soul collection. So yep, would definitely have to trim some of the fat, if pushing him to witches is deemed a viable avenue.

 

I do not care at all, if anyone thinks the champs i listed are strong or weak, cuz this is not about strength. It is about the fact, that almost noone puts them in a BG. That is why they are shoebox champs. I rarely or never see those champs beeing used by my teammates, guildmates, or opponents. So if you claim how good of them some are, please, explain why noone runs them.

 

I didn't bother reading after this if you think moga babbler is bad. I run it as an auto-include in SP meta.

 

- Mrpengypoo took 4 in a draft tourney so I know it's legit...