I have been gone for awhile and just recently started playing again. Just curious as to why this mechanic hasn't been touched. It has been a problem since their release. I dont think nerfing something out of play is good for the game, however I would like to see these changed to not be global. FW players can you please explain to me how making them ranged or changing the mechanic would ruin them? Even better maybe some good suggestions on how to make them playable without being as broken as they are now. All feedback is welcomed.
Blocks affect both players. While a BG dedicated to using them properly employed by a player willing to consider the nuances involved can be fearsome, even they are likely to end up under their own ax - and once the momentum has swung, escape is harsh. You are quite right to say they are broken: they are an unstable mechanic open to abuse. But Blocks remain balanced in that, for all their capacity to be manipulated, the tools and skills are not present in Pox at this time to abuse Blocks beyond their canonical mediocrity. That aside, they have only a marginal influence on a game. The global damage looks like a lot, but it is at most an additional attack on a champion. Ten damage is not a heck of a lot. While at times irksome to face and fundamentally broken, Chopping Blocks are by no means offenders to balance. Their flavor lies in them being outlyers. As this rune is balanced, flavorful, and different, at most promoting off beat Tier 2 BGs that require additional thought to play and play against, Chopping Block needs no changes.
i believe that it needs to be relooked the main problem is that chopping block has a global effect which is make it broken maybe we can have suggestions give it a fixed range will be good start
"You are quite right to say they are broken: they are an unstable mechanic open to abuse. But Blocks remain balanced in that, for all their capacity to be manipulated, the tools and skills are not present in Pox at this time to abuse Blocks beyond their canonical mediocrity." Its possible I may be to stupid to understand this. However it feel contradictory. That being said its the global damage that is the problem. It would be different if they went off at the end of every turn instead of just the owners. This would truly then put you at the mercy of your own play. However that my be to much of a change to even consider playing them. However the fact that you are powerless to counter this is bad. It fosters attrition and delayed engagement. That is one aspect I appreciate for the FW players. However being that there is no counter due to the fact they are global bothers me. I cant counter something that ends on their turn and relies on their own ability to get one of my champs to the lowest hps. I maybe not articulating my point to the fullest but I feel you get the gist of it. I do realize that some faction may be capable of dealing with this a lot easier than me. So I would like to hear feed back from as many different factions and players as possible.
They hit the owner too I even see them barely in game . How you think they are unbalanced? Edit: misspelling
My apologies for not clarifying, I should have elaborated on the broken/balanced comments. This is by no means some standard diction you ignorant to, I was merely remiss in my explanation. Here's a brief rundown: Balanced is the common concept, for which broken is often used as a synonym. Balanced means something is of comparable power to other elements of the game; a rune does not rule among others, and does not have undue influence or efficiency. For instance, Executioner is balanced: it has a nora cost that is average or slightly efficient to its amalgamation of stats and abilities, and no internal synergy that would suggest otherwise. It fills a common role, and other champions that fill that roll are similar in efficiency. Many people would consider Ancestral Avenger imbalanced at the moment, because of its superior expected payoff-to-investment and its resulting prevalence in BGs that can run it. As they stand now, Chopping Blocks are balanced, in that they will not produce a payoff that is in severe disproportion to their requisite costs - be those nora invested, space in a BG, or damage to the user's own champions. Broken works in parallel to balance. It is also a fuzzier concept. If something is broken, it has the potential to become severally imbalanced in extreme scenarios. The antonym of broken in this case is stable. While defining and analyzing the broken-stable situation for game mechanics deserves a much larger post, a great and intuitive example of this has to do with resistance systems across various games. In League of Legends, for instance, damage reduction from an attack is based on the following formula: Raw Damage * (100/100+Resistance) So at 100 points of resistance, the target takes 50% of the damage, at 200 points of resistance, the target takes 33% of the damage and so forth. To skip some of the math, this means that each point of resistance has an equal marginal utility. The 1000th point of resistance provides a comparable reduction to the 10th point. A good example of a system that is both broken but not quite imbalanced is the elemental resistance system from Dark Souls 2. In that game, resistance to non-physical damage is calculated as follows: Raw Damage * (1-(Resistance/1000)) In that case, each 10 points of resistance reduces damage by 1 percentile (a more accurate tern than 1%); 300 points of resistance reduces damage by 30 percentiles, and 800 resistance reduces damage by 80 percentiles. Such a system is mathematically broken, but its implementation in that particular game allows it to retain an element of balance. The Dark Souls 2 system is broken because the marginal return at each point is not equivalent, as evidenced by the most extreme cases. The 998th point of resistance reduces previous incoming damage by 33%, the 999th by a whopping 50%, and the final 1000th point by a full 100% - complete immunity. Because each point is better than the last, stacking a particular resist provides compounding returns which makes the slightest potential margin become a gulf of power. In Dark Souls 2, at least, resistance values are difficult enough to increase beyond a certain threshold that extreme cases are only approached at distance, and the unreliability to the elements faced means that players are forced to diversify, and thus dilute the compounded power of, their armor choices. Here is a quick analogy that illustrates the differences between something being balanced-imbalanced vs being broken-stable: A set of scales are used for measuring sand, and these scales come with a set of weights totaling 1000 grams. The scales, however, have some faulty gearing, and if more than 700 grams are placed as a counterweight, the measuring apparatus will sink to the table and be unable to provide a reading. The scales are broken. If, however, a person only wishes to measure items below 700 grams of mass, the scales will function just as well as any other. For values under 700 grams, the scales are balanced. The allegory between the scales and a resistance system should be apparent enough, but for the sake of clarity will be spelled out. The mechanism itself - be it the scales or the formula - is used to provide an output based on inputs; the mechanism can be broken or stable, meaning it functions to its theoretical ends or has notable points of danger. The inputs - the weights used or the resistance values in game - and produce something that is balanced or imbalanced, meaning that the result can be useful and desired or faulty and poor. Broken is a term descriptive of an entire system, with no regard to the specifics of that system, whereas balance is descriptive of particulars, without a care for the mechanisms prescribing those particulars. An environment can be stable and balanced, broken and imbalanced, stable and imbalanced, or broken and balanced. That final category is where Chopping Block now lies - in the most extreme cases (read: ideal) Blocks can produce consistent, focused, and global loss-of-life damage for an entire game at a measly up front cost of 25 nora. (In the following defense I'll leave aside some other theory matters about ostensibly equal penalties to players, in this case global damage, being innately unequal as this post is long enough for now). Blocks remain, however, balanced because of the realities of Pox Nora. Despite giving one player slightly more control over the victim, this only persists for so long. As fighting progresses, the Blocks player's champs will be worn down as well, until the margins of damage and HP separating them from the ax are so razor thin as to be unavoidable. If their champions are always and consistently in a superior position of health than the opponent, then Blocks really aren't the problem. A player who is already on top needn't have Blocks to win. (I can elaborate if this point feels weak.) As to Chopping Block promoting standoffish play, they actually do the opposite; of all the runes in Pox, they do perhaps the most to mutually assure aggression. No player is liable to sit idle under the blade, and will instead feel incentive to press forward to place their opponents in their position. Once the fighting commences, there is no pitched battle; each turn both players are vying to bite and claw their way out of the pit of global damage. A player who has an advantage must press it and press it hard, because as their quantity of champions grows, so to does the percentage of targets which are their own. Chopping Blocks are broken, certainly. Their ideal situation is among the most nightmarish imbalances Pox has seen. Yet, like Dark Souls 2, the realities of the present game state prevent Chopping Blocks from being anything more than a Tier 2 deck component, an intellectual curiosity, and a rare remaining instance of pure thematic vision.
Don't tempt me. =P It's fun though. Great part of playing Pox is messing with and theory crafting all these systems, and getting to explain them to other people, however haphazardly.
Blocks actually shine in campaign and single player matches to be honest. While they are tier 2 or can catch some bgs off guard they are freakin awesome in campaigns. All those juicy targets and they are mostly all the same unit/hp so that 5 dmg turns to every champ of that type meaning you can effectively attrition the computer to your hearts content.
Personally, I really like chop decks. They require a change of tactics that is refreshing, and I think is healthy for the game. Part of me feels that adapting to alternative decks should be normal, not an exception.
Too bad RIP witch lost punish, punish+steal life was a basic combo back then. Didn't try blocks since revamp because of it.
