What I'd like to see developed: FW: Worms UD: Imps SP: Slags FS: Aquatic IS: Grints KF: Aurora stuff ST: Strigs SL: Beasts? not sure on this. In terms of Split synergy Salaman FS/UD - Hero is already there and the fire thing just works Barbs IS/SP - Barbs in the mountains - hell yeah. Electric theme is begging for electric mountain barbs Hoarfrost FW/ST - the basis is there, just needs a spark of creativity to tie it together
Really? The themes/races/mechanics explored/expanded in the last 2 or 3 expansions: UD Blood Beast Fire Minotaur Vothsair Stealth Psychic Nefari? FS Boghopper Salaman Firk Circadian Monk Jelly Snaptooth Poison IS Dwarf Electric Barbarian Wings Drunk Dwarves Paladin Construct Grintmaw For this, for example: Last 3 expansions here are the number of runes each of the above got: Draksar - 3 Champions (and these have been largely in the AP Control subtheme, more so than the Draksar theme specifically) Skeezick - 3 Champions Arthropod - 5 Champions (not counting Myx) Myx - 2 Champions + 1 relic Acid - 4 Champions Beast - 4 Champions + 2 Relics Mutant - 3 Champions (Note: these didn't expand the Mutation theme in a real way, they are just Mutant race champs) + 1 Relic Sand - 2 Champions Dragon - 1 Champion + 1 Relic (There's double counting in some cases because some things fall under multiple categories) ~ I could go on, but seriously, I don't understand how you can make the claim that every expansion is supporting the same themes. Note too that just because something is Race: X doesn't mean it only plays in one theme - many runes fall into multiple categories. This is especially true for things like Jakei or Elves, which isn't really themes in of themselves (though there is support for running them together) and are often really designed for other themes (in Jakei, this is often Frost or Beast). Another thing that I keep mentioning is that expansion content lags behind. What comes out for you is planned months in advance (or is even art pushed from older expansions that I have to use because some other art came in terrible or late, etc.) and typically reflect what people were asking for in the past, so sometimes, yes, by the time it comes out, people are asking for different things, but there's no helping that. For example, I didn't design Maeck's original look, and when I got him I was like, "ugh, not another Dwarf Paladin" but I had to make do with what I had, and instead turned him into Drunk theme enabler. Good news (or bad, depending on who you are) is that I am mostly through the backlog of old art, so there'll be more freedom going forward. Lastly, expansions also aren't just random runes thrown together (some are random), but there's a plan for the expansion in terms of story and lore, and part of the rune selection is to tell that story (which you may or may not care about, but I know many players do care). In any case, the best way to make an unplayable theme viable, to me, is doing what I did with Salaman - unfortunately, that does eat up a good deal of resources to introduce a number of theme abilities and to also adjust most of their runes to fall in line with the new paradigm. So introducing a rune here or there, especially when we are trying to keep new mechanics/abilities down, is often not going to do a whole lot other than potentially give a new rune to play with. And there's the pressure of creating too many theme runes vs runes that allow for deck building (which again, are often the "main race" runes). And while we haven't been doing art/design contests, I will use the Rune Ideas forum and there have been things I've taken from there. In the next expansion, there's even a rune from @badgerale that is almost entirely his design
By the way, does anyone even want to play Elementals in UD? Is that even a thing? I think that's covered by Fire pretty well. But do chime in if you want to see non-Fire elementals in UD. I would like to do more Imps/Goblins tho (again, tho, keep in mind that any Imps and Goblins I pencil in today won't get in at least one expansion, possibly more).
Worms have gotten a lot of attention this year - both buffs, nerfs and reworks. They had a rune in Path of De'lim and will get another in the coming expansion, they even got a new ability on an old rune. Soultap is tough to expand on specifically because it's kind of a submodule of Psychic in general and there isn't a ton to do with it since it's largely just a condition (there isn't really a "mechanic" to work around to expand) and I am not even sure it qualifies as a theme on its own. Kind of like how you can't call DMZ or Rend a theme. Utterdark Leviathan did come out recently that works with Soultap tho.
What would you like to see here? Super suggested no more elves (honestly that seems impossible, given the faction is elves, and elves are the backbone of a number of themes), and Aurora are specifically elves. They mostly key of Illuminate as a core mechanic right now with a couple of unique abilities. My current plan is to keep them rare, but to couple them with unique mechanics like Aurora Investigations since they are like the FBI of the Forest
Now, playability and power level is another discussion altogether. I did recently buff the trees tho (which did get nerfed hard). What other "hard nerfs" are you referring to exactly?
I'd throw in a mini-healer... Illuminated healing: When this champion attacks an illuminated enemy, friendly champions within 3 spaces are healed 6hp. Other than that, I'm not sure. It just feels like part of a theme... but maybe I'm thinking about it wrong.
I hope you mean MORE Slags, because there was just 2 Slags and an updated/reskin Slag. Interestingly, there is an active discussion among SP players as to whether they want more 1x1 Cyclops or not: http://forums.poxnora.com/index.php?threads/a-problem-for-cyclops.19610/ Some interesting perspectives in there (and not all for 1x1 Cyclops, believe it or not). Ironically, Voil have LESS runes than Cyclops do, Moga also have less, but they do have G'hern. Constructs is interesting because it isn't really a thing yet, most players didn't seem to want it in SP tho so I haven't developed more of them. In any case, the best one fits in Cyclops anyway.
I mean, lorewise they definitely do feel "themey" but they function like a submodule now largely. While there's certainly additional things we can key off of Illuminate, and your idea is pretty cool, it's hard to flesh out a theme/subtheme just by keying off a condition, so we'd have to find something for them to do. In my head, I was thinking them more as interesting pieces that can potentially fit in various builds due to their unique mechanics.
Also: What? I get specific requests for the Maljaran races pretty often, actually. Maybe we'll hear from some of them here.
I like stitched and would like them to develop more.More relic synergy and more useful relics for FW/UD.Atleast do something with meld since it already exists. Aside from that,i would like to see element themes develop in: SL: Acid FW : Disease SP: Electricty Fire/ice are most developed and have more then enough to work with.I would like to see other elements on their level.
KF: centaurs is probally what we want more at the moment from the faction. ST: Yeti, Monk (without ferren), Crystal, Strig. FS: more Salaman and Jellebrium development, and Aquatic/semi. IS: Wings, Grintmaw, Construct (specially the split). SP: Eletricity, Slags (real ones, not disguised Feshs), use the new "Slags" to development the Fesh theme, so maybe we see Mika being viable. UD: Imps and Goblins. SL: Acid, Myx/Insect. FW: Worms, Zombies (it was a long time since the last releases). Also, Sok, make beasts from all factions viable, it was the original intention, to make a theme that all factions have acces to.
Maybe, but never see play. She just dont fill any role that others runes can do better. If an Fesh theme is dveloped, she will be an central piece.
Personally i think FS needs Jellies, Aquatics and Beasts expanded on more than anything else. Although Snapteeth and Salaman could maybe do with an extra rune for more variety. And in SL i really want to say Arthropods/Myx but you guys have expanded on them just not in the right areas (excluding Dartwing). Mutants, Acid and this emerging Anti Equip theme needs work. This makes me sad, i thought we were moving away from making expensive, hard to get legendaries theme enablers?...
How frequently do you actually take something and you it rather than for just inspiration? Any chance a certain sand champ idea got noticed enough for possible future things >.> <.<
Yes but all split themes are always either overpowered or terrible, because they are too hard to balance because as splits they get too much versatility from other factions spells, equips. In the context of more themes i suppose i should have been more clear, yes a lot of runes were released that were of different races but how many of them see play and how many of them are actually useful for the theme they are supposed to be in ? I wouldn't say any of the new slags fit at all let alone are runnable , and most of them look like fesh. You said yourself slapping a race on them doesn't make them a theme so how can you consider a lot of the new runes different ? Constructs for sp were the first very runnable thing in a while that wasn't boring and had a lot of interesting mechanics and abilities that fit really well together. All sp constructs served a purpose and the majority were used in-game because the theme gave a fresh look at sp and how to play them, and gave me the sense of gimmicky nonsense i want when i play sp. The same thing could be said for the new bleed runes which were very unique and gave new blood to the blood theme. A lot of k'thir runes were nerfed but trees being hit the hardest multiple times. Beasts were nerfed unintentionally because of vashals becoming their own race, garu and centaur aren't really a thing right now. My question for you here is why do only elves have to be the backbone of the faction in a game where your the designer and essentially write the lore ? You could pretty much spin this however you want to make it work for any race in k'thir. The fbi of the forest thing is pretty cool. The first thing i look at when looking at new runes are if their role is already filled by something else in that theme, their are very few runes from each expansion where their roles aren't already filled by something better. That's not always because the runes designed aren't cool or unique, but normally because so many themes have so many champs that it's difficult to create something new without making it crazy overpowered. I guess this is mostly my thoughts when i talk about themes that have too many runes like dwarves, elves, jakei, moga, demon elves, bog hoppers, skeezick, draksar. It's hard to add something new to those themes that doesn't exist already.
