There's been talk about this split on Discord, on it has come up repeatedly on the forums, just never in its own thread. So, here's a thread specifically for talking about this split combination and the kind of decks out there right now. Hoping for some lists to come out of this, if any feels inclined to share. Also, this is very much not a nerf thread, and I hope it doesn't become one, despite people complaining about the deck. The version that I have seen and played against is one run by Neokalak (hunter / multi-hit mechanics), but I have heard that other people have variations on this split, and I'm curious to see what those are as well. I think that the hunter/vortex deck is strong, especially on offense, but it has little ranged damage and, related, very poor defense; it needs to engage on the opponent, and if it gets engage on, things can get rough. Also, it can have a hard time with particular kinds of tanks -- cheap ones in multiples that screen Hunted triggers, and expensive ones with flat DR.
#Bringbackmatchfilter Honestly the main reason I'm not playing anymore is that anytime I come on for a casual game it's always against some try hard bullshit op split abusing horse Bane Shift BG. Splits break the game, they always have. Bring back the match filter so I can play vs other FF only players. I don't want to hear about que times or the playerbase being small because I know I am not alone on how I feel about splits and I think more people would play more games if the filter was brought back. Let the cheese kids play together and let people who actual want to enjoy Poxnora and it's lore play the game the way it was intended to be played.
The weakness of rune combos is you get punished if you don't draw the right combo. What makes this deck strong is 1st/2nd turn Spirit of Mountain. Against most decks you just sit him in middle font. He guarantees you draw your combos. Can you give an example of an expensive tank that's good vs it. Aura's go thru tough.
Meta > Combo. Why create weaknesses you don't have to when all your raw offense comes directly from your insane utility and support.
I think something like Drak Hunchback could be good, because you're looking at 4 DR on each aura, so even with a fully stacked Frostwing triggering Hunted, that's still 6 damage per aura rather than 10 -- pretty much cutting the damage in half. Stun followup makes it much easier to kill the opposing champ. I am unsure how Mirrored interacts with auras, because that ability is very inconsistent and I don't remember, but if it interacts well then a bulky Mirrored champ could be very good. Based on my experiences with worms, Putrid Creeper and Carrion Colossus also make fair tanks against it. For the Putrid, it has a mix of Tough and high HP, and so will likely survive an engagement long enough to get a full heal from Consume; Carrion Colossus spits out a ton of Carrionlings in the process, which can screen for subsequent Declare triggers or move in for aura damage. Of the two, though -- cheap ones versus expensive ones -- cheaper tanks work better. They can screen Declare Hunted, which is a big deal: the biggest aura damage multiplier comes from the +4 for that ability (which, unlike Cull and Psychological Warfare, isn't stuck to basic attacks). Cheap melee damage tanks are, incidentally, also pretty good against AoI, and can be alright at clogging up SotM summons.
I'm pretty sure tough doesn't reduce aura dmg. I've had a full hp, tough 3 Stonecaller get 1 rounded by that combo. His Frostwing was 9 spaces away! But he did have a Mika to grant sonic aura for the extra 12 dmg.
aura damage wouldn't be such a big deal if its counters weren't so hard and rare to get. just one day i'd like to see what'd happen if a new theme came out with combat awareness 2 as their racial. alongside several new spells and relics that handed out tough and resilient.
There was a whole mini-redesign passage pushed out more than year ago that spread Combat Awareness around specifically to give players the option to tech against indirect damage. Three factions can even spread it around to champions that don't already have it. http://s-qpoxdb.rhcloud.com/ability/3266
but did it really spread it out much kalasle? did it? only one theme a sl/is split(valdaci) can really take advantage of it and even they don't take much advantage out of it since they were already slightly tankyish to begin with. ( alongside it being the weak sauce version ca1 version ) ( also doesn't help that of the few units with ca2 only some of them use it well! ) like if i were sok and i really wanted to kick these declare hunted hunter aura bgs to the ground i'd release out several spells/relics or even new champ supports that gave out combat awareness 2/tough/resilient temporarily(or permanently) to multiple factions. and as for balance we could just give out huge drawbacks or limitations. like heres an idea i have. we could break down combat awareness into 3 separate abilities. ( can't come up with any names atm for them so i'll just call them ca1,ca2,and ca3 for now) 1st one would be combat awareness protection from only champion based indirect damage. 2nd one would be combat awareness protection from only indirect spell and relic based damage. and finally the 3rd one would the above two abilities combined together. ( so it'd be our old ca 2 ) also ca1 and ca2 have ranks between 1 and 2 that go between 50% effectiveness to 100% while ca3 has only one rank with 100% effectiveness. you know i even made a suggestion in the rune ideas forum for possible a new support that'd grant out these changed versions of combat awareness. ( and never got back any replies ) and since I'm wasting my time typing all of this i'll also give out an idea for a possible new combat awareness protection spell. ********************************************************** name : i'mBadwithNamingPleaseIgnoreThis faction: UD nora cost: somewhere between 25 to 40 nora skill description: friendly allied units take 8(or 10) health as loss of life damage but gain ca3 for 4(5) turns ********************************************************* ok so thats one example. umm lets move on to tough. hmmm. tough its insanely good in its current state and probably too strong so how about we break it down? ( and overcosted because of that strength ) and again i just wana point out here that i'm not that good when it comes to naming. so with tough we'll have to break it down to 3 separate actual abilities just like we did with ca. so here's the first of these tough-based abilities. Super Tough 1: tough with only protection against champ based damage. Super Tough 2: tough with only protection against spell and relic based damage. Super Tough 3: the above two Super Toughs combined. each of these super toughs has ranks between 1 and 3 just like our current tough. ( again i really suck with naming ) and the best part of it all is that these super toughs could be much much cheaper then the current overcosted tough we have on live.
