Markoth's Desk (August 18th patch list and next patch discussion)

If we ever get around to reworking Magnus, I think him having 'Equip: Holy Blade of Valdec" is way more interesting than Bounty Hunter. Could even drop Consecrate from him so he wouldn't be as redundant.

 

that would be a cool replacement for consecration but not to replace bounty hunter.... BH is an awesome ability that people need to stop hating on because its not cheap. some players myself included like playing with bigger champs instead of moga style weenie hoards. if it needs to be moved to upgrades thats fine but removing it to make everything fall into the cheap/efficient category screws over the "Timmy's" power champs. i happen to like the big champs and statistically a 1/3 of all new players will fall into this category. it may fly against the grain of popular meta but these kind of champs still needs to exist.

an argument can be made that it is unbalanced but that is a different discussion for a different time in it own thread. i miss him having adaptive as well and his current stat line is gimped by the ghost of it. that is also a different conversation but more relevant to this thread. 1 unique ability and an unseen combo of abilities is all a 150k champ needs.

 

You are right. @Pedeguerra I apologize, I let emotion cloud my judgement on that last post. I pride myself on remaining objective and didn't enjoy being called a zealot but it's no excuse for reducing my post into a rant.

 

Interesting but i do not like it. I like blade because ir is paladin equip and all can use it with full power. If it become magnus equip then others would have restrictions.

Though i would like for Magnus to get new own equip because Magnus right now is one of if not the crappiest paladin in IS.

 

What do you mean by "others will have restrictions?"

 

If Magnus loses Bounty Hunter he'll need to be completely reworked or else he'll just be another melee beater (a Bane Shift one at that)

 

Well if Magnus lose concentrate the earth only he will be able to concentrate earth with blade or something like that if blade becomes his equip. Nevermind. Blade is perfect as is. I would like him to get own equip.

 

...Dear Diary, Markoth showed contrition and an adult attitude, his eventual fall to a lynch mob will wait another day.

 

I don't think you understand, it would be exactly like the Elite Skirmisher in that he just comes into play with the equip on, not making the blade only work on him.

 

But you can deploy holy blade on earth and equip it with another champion.
That would be broken. 35 nora free equip which would lead to nerfing magnus or even worse nerfing holy blade which is perfect

 

It wouldn't be free, it would be associated with Magnus cost and giving it away or not its just an idea that has been around for a while.

 

I'm sure its low priority, but was talking with Tarth and we think a good idea for the Sarnghaven Herder would be to give it Pet: Hound. She's already very similar to the Houndmaster but inferior in a lot of ways. This might give her enough of a boost to be a nice alternative since you wouldn't have to spend precious AP on summoning.

While we're on the topic of Pets, what do you think of giving the Dwarven Engineer Pet: Groble Piledriver instead of Summon? It would make him all around an easier champion to balance and a much more consistent deploy.

 

Recruit: Hound. I would laugh oh so hard.

 

I think the only real thing needed to bring her into a decent position is to fix "Grant: Mobility" It's a 7nora ability which has an unwritten 7nora cost to use and it lasts a grand total of 2 turns. Just drop the cost of it to 5nora and remove the weird hidden costing clause and she'd be 65nora of occasional poking/Boost 3'ing/Invig 2'ing happiness.

Beyond that how much would the ability cost? The summon ability costs 12n, what price would the pet alternative be to keep the cost low, I mean sure it's a one use ability but if it costs anything more than 4/5nora her costs is jumping up past the 70's mark and at that point I'd just use Houndmaster.

But sure if she'd stay around 69nora I'd run her with a Pet: Hound, though we then have the issue of overlapping roles similar to what we see across Constructs, that of Tinker/Mason/Silver all having very similar loadouts and the same roles. Right now Herder presents a cheaper option to Houndmaster, both providing AP and Boost while Houndmaster provides spot meat and Herder provides spot Mobility in a relatively fragile package, I would stress against pushing for more overlap and would instead argue that the aforementioned fix to Grant: Mobility would see them in distinct roles and both playable in their own right.

 

All you have to do is look at the other 5spd support units in faction let alone out of faction and you can see she comes up short. As a boost champ she directly competes with Houndmaster who is all of ~7ish nora more for better stats, a detection summon he can boost, and ap gen/dmg boost as well. She already has spot overlap, but I aggree that direct role competition is already bad which is why I would ideally of wanted a different pet such as a goat or something for her to herd of the bat. Can you honestly say that as she is now (with your fix) she makes you want to run her over Houndmaster, over EP, or Sarg, or attendant even? Shes 2nd choice in the only bg shes likely to see play in, beast based barbarian. Kinda sad.

 

I mean, the reason I even mentioned it is because I do run her over Houndmaster, In Gryphons to be exact. I tend to find that her lower cost, her better damage and her ranged attack mean that with the AoE Buffs Gryphons put out she can not only function as an exemplary support champion with Boost 3/Invig 2 at a decently low cost, she can also throw out a decent poke when the situation demands it. Beyond that Blessing of the Fallen makes killing her a double edged sword for my opponent and thus I can usually rest safe in the knowledge my support option is nice and safe.

Finally I tend to rate Invig 2 higher than Drive and if Grant: Mobility got the suggested change she'd be a good 7 nora cheaper than Houndmaster while providing arguably better support (The Boost/Spot Mobility/Invig 2/Blessing Combo) at the expense of a more fragile nature and without the source of free meat.

As to your other comparisons: If Sarg is providing better support in a Beast BG than a dedicated Beast support champion than something is going wrong, Ethereal Priestess provides Healing/Soften both of which I run on Ivory Wing, Haste is arguably less effective outside of BG's without horrendous lynchpins like Euan/Talgar and beyond that is a good 10 nora more expensive, finally I would always run her over Attendant in a non Paladin BG.

 

Well, thats a good point in that sigil bgs have some advantages. I did laugh at "decent" poke when its 1dmg higher at 2-3 range but point taken. I guess I don't value Blessing too highly considering its a deterent and not something I can control and I like invig 2 but find drive to be a bit more general seeing as it can hit multiple people each turn and grants +2dmg.

Do you not run griffin rider? I ask because bastion of mobility would sort of make grant: Mobility redundant, or is tailwind your cup of tea? Tailwind, most likely needs a range but yea, tailwind in wings seems like the better option for sure.

 

If I was to run Griffin Rider I'd most likely run it with Tailwind, but no I don't, he's not that great for the cost compared to what else I'd like to bring (Similar to Emerald Wing but that's another issue).
To explain my "Decent poke" comment you'd need to take into account the various Sigil Bonus', by that I mean she'll usually have anywhere between 11-13dmg and 2-4rng after a single deploy and the ranged attack, as opposed to the melee of Houndmaster, means she can usually put it where she needs it especially when you take into account most of her ap is getting saved between the odd-invig turns.

While I'd never argue a 11-13Dmg ranged attack is game changing the fact that you choose from a Attack: Fire and Attack: Physical and ok damage at ranged means sometimes it's just enough to push the kill through, or just deal decent damage by herself as an aside.
Finally relating back to Sergeant I honestly believe the little buggers brings well too much to the table for his cost and needs something of a cost hike once we deal with the main issues that are Hero's, ST Beasts, Tree's and various other bits and bobs.

 

NAh he should lose his surge options. He doesn't need to hit like a truck and do all that he does.

 

Sarge should loose the surge, and get back the scramble.