For Markoth: Regarding Constructs

Since your other thread requested a compilation of issues for the council at large pertaining to IS, I decided to sum up what I know best here for your consideration. Bear in mind, these are only my personal observations and opinions

Regarding Constructs as a whole:

While they are not BAD in their present form, they are also not as fun to play. Yes, you can still win games, but it is methodical to the point a program could be written to run the deck for you, as it has been boiled down to "Advance. Attack. Manic. Repeat. Repair."

Contributing Issues:

Pretty much everything particularly distinct about the wide majority of the run Constructs and their Supports was neutered in the revamp, including the enjoyable inter-unit synergy we once had. Some examples:

• Tinkerers are all very slightly different flavors of Boost/Mason. Base stats and cost vary, but there's nothing particularly interesting about either. Dwarven Engineer has a giant hit me sign, but a solid summon, and Tink has a tiny bit more utility. Tink can no longer be a Mass Production Line unit thanks to losing Recharge and Charge abilities, and Engineer is both squishier and no longer has the option to get a stunning hit in for his creations. ADMITTEDLY Silverclan Tinkerer is amazing, and Dwarven Handler getting some long-needed REAL synergy was a nice surprise...however.
• Handler is still something of a mess. Rev as an actual ability is great, but he's also just ANOTHER Booster. Forge Hammer was a good idea, but he's a 5 spd champion with no defensive abilities, meaning you don't WANT him up in front hitting things.
• Unequippable. UNEQUIPPABLE EVERYWHERE. It's like suddenly part of Construct Immunities practically. Even champions who are equipment BASED have it (Lodestone Armory).
• Speaking of Lodestone Armory, between losing its basic attack and Improve Speed, it is no longer the midrank support/utility range it once was, and the vast majority of constructs were left in 5 spd hell.
• Hoplite was one of the more interesting constructs to come along in a while, with his Enduring Aura and Aid Defense, also Vigilance giving you a further reason to Phalanx around him. That's gone now, but at least he got a point of speed for..y'know. Something.
• Complex Machine remains broken.

Essentially, any other potential things you could do before with Constructs have been removed as options. Before the revamp, I had a 'traditional' construct deck, a deck focused around making the slowest Constructs speedy, an equipment-synergy construct deck..Now it's all 'Boost and Manic, Boost and Manic."

 

Less hp more nora on the little ones

I thank you

 

you should not be able to make a rugolths revenge "speedy"

 

Another rune that was over nerfed was clock work swarm. It was turned into a unit that cannot reproduce its swarm.

The magnetic rover has helpless and no basic attack 40 hp. but cost 70 nora.

 

Honestly, I haven't even bothered trying RR lately.

 

Whats wrong with the 74 nora swarming clockwork swarm? Also, adding some more Tinkerers would be fun imo. DMC, Seige engine, basically all dwarf/construct hybrid races.

 

Unless is isn't allowed to get carried though swarms like SP or fw does, nothing I guess. But as it is currently used the summons it swarms have no upgrade. And swarm is an upgrade on the rune. Swarm as a game mechanism has already been destroyed piece by piece mostly cause of zombies who retain everything after the festering corpses.

Swarming with the old clockworks felt rewarding. The new swarm is more of a liability.

 

I can understand it feeling weaker since the swarms cant swarm or split but liability is a bit of a stretch on a free champion.

 

All swarm units are designed to make you focus them down so your opponent doesn't get overwhelmed and punish them if they fail. The old clockworks used to epitomize this. Now its nothing more than a melee unit that you deploy for a maybe one time, maybe 2 if your lucky. Its in a worse spot than the post nerf Drake wing swarm that SL hardly ever played. At least that thing had multi attack and life drinker to keep itself along those lines of a "carry" swarm. What does clock works have now? Boost and a ability that gives regeneration that doesn't even work? Its just a niche complex machine type of unit now. Meanwhile vkc provides its own swarming force for 60 Nora that always are a threat as long as one exist. You kill the original, end of threat, that is the new story for the clockwork.

But what am I saying of course IS shouldn't get things that are on that level because we too OP bro.

 

Thoughts on having 'rev em up' and 'build em tough' on the same CD and moving one of them to base for Dwarven Handler and giving him sustain: Rock Defiance?

Makes sense to me with sustain being a new mechanic and the revamp adding groble into the mix of Rock Defiant units. However I don't know the intricacies of constructs and wouldn't know if this would ruin Handler or make either theme op.

 

Another contribution to the list of wishes:
Fix dwarf driven, and if possible, change it so it removes lumbering when a dwarf is adjacent to it, or a tinkerer is at 2 or less spaces of the unit. Would be a nice QoL change to make catapult and siege see a little more play.

BTW, another patch has gone, and still no fix for complex machine.

 

Not sure about further merging Rock Defiance into Constructs. The ones that have it right now are the elemental-themed ones so it makes a sort of sense there, but anything that's constructed like Grobles shouldn't have it. Not sure WHY Groble got it, to be honest.

As for a shared CD, eff no. That'd kill them both.

 

Hello, would anyone be willing to post a sample construct BG? I'd appreciate it.

 

Currently the inverse of dwarf driven is happening. If a dwarf is adjacent the unit gets lumbering but if there is no adjacent dwarf the unit moves like normal for only 1 ap per space.
My big complaint is the catapult lost race dwarf.

 

This is what i'm playing now, but just against the AI. However it's pretty competitive, and you should give it a try at ranked. If you can't afford Whitestone Gargoyles, you can replace them with Silverclan Hoplites or another pseudo-ranged unit (Ideally you want 6 ranged units in a BG).

http://poxbase.com/deck/calCoTC4Bc5jCfhcfgC1HC8YCwTCwWs4Bsls4Gs7Hs6Ms43sPs7_rirYe5e2Ye_

 

Thanks! I'll try something like that, all of the runes in there should be easy for me to get, except the rock eaters but I already have one of those. I wish RR was more viable, and the hoplites are really cool, I might try them instead of turret team for a few games and experiment.

 

I take it you use Rock Torrent on a GRE? Since he's immune to unstable ground, right?

 

Yeah, you got it, GRE heals from unstable ground. Also is a great spell for terrain control, to keep the distance between your enemy and your engineers/ranged units; and it should sinergize with Gurad Tower for the knockback (though I haven't tested if the KB occurs before or after the unstable ground dissapears)

 

Ohh nice. I haven't been able to find a guard tower yet, though, but I do have Earthshaker that would definitely work for the knockback, and the lumbering helps keep them away. I'm actually really glad Whitestone Gargoyles are runnable, because they look really cool. Have you considered running Drakon? Or what upgrades do you take on the statues?

 

I run Gargoyles with Sonic Roar and Preparation as upgrades. I know Preparation is expensive, but it helps with the lack of ranged power. The problem is that Drakon is just another 2x2 melee beater with charge, with no real sinergy with constructs. For that price, I'd pay 5 more nora and run a RR , which I can boost, tough and manic.