1) With the global chat and no more lobby chat, you don't know where people are anymore unless you /finger specific players. Sure this helps kill the dodgers, but say I'm in the top 20 and I want to play against equal rank opponents, I have no idea of my chances of getting a match because I can't see who or how many higher ranks are in the lobby with me. I can't see them, so I can't challenge people to games, etc. I like the global chat, but the players it shows on the left should be whatever room you are in. 2) I don't know if it was intended to be fixed, but avatars are still broken and can't select upgrades. 3) My gawwwwwd who approved that UD spell Drain Vitality? Holy balls nerf it now. Second nerf rune should be Pontiff of Al'mara. 4) There are a few weird consistency things some of which soulmilk pointed out in a thread, like melee champs that wield bows. 5) It was my understanding that commander was supposed to encourage themes, but giving commander to runes like FW ones with race:undead winds up buffing everything in the entire faction. 6) I'm prominently an Sl player and I have some issues that I'll list: -Please give us range. We have less viable range options than when I quit the game 4 years back (some range were converted to melee and other options nerved). This patch gave every faction 2-3 champs each that range 4-5ish, except SL. At best we got a 38 hp 0 def skeezick at range 4 (3 attacks at 6 range) and that's all. My faction is starting to become a clutter of melee champs that are losing diversity. They all serve the same purpose. Not much utility, not much range, just melee beaters. The cost was brought down on dustdevil cool! but he has no whirl anymore. now he's just a simple melee like the rest again. -Also, we have pretty much no racial bonuses besides Skeezick. I'd like some fun themes. >The Draksar racial was taken and given to dwarves (st semmirs/brewmaiden) and we are now left with a few melees with violent and some don't even have that, like the new runes or last expansion. And no range has it. >Dragon racial isn't even on half of the dragons. The only previous incentive to run that theme was to deploy 5ish drags to get the nora cost refund on dragonfear, and to do some power turns with rumbler. Now there is half a racial which is weak anyhow, and no surge 2 so rumbler is squishy and damageless unless your opponent lets you sit there and deploy for 20 rounds. Rumbler is now shoebox. Why even have short-lived now? He lost the initial racial, lost immortality, and now lost his "get in quick and do dmg while i can" feel. I know he's tough to balance, but he has lost what made him good and unique. And frankly, he has been the only thing that kept dragons a competitive bg. They don't have racial spells, no commander, no defender, no boost. Why not give them a racial that revolves around fear, fearsome hunter, or intimidation. Idk. My favorite idea I had isn't a racial, but I think a spell that gave all dragons flamestrike 3 or flamethrower for a turn would be cool. Or that gave flying and ground striker for a turn. Im a fan of the old SL power round strategy, but only skeez have that going for them right now. >Skeezick have great synergy all around. Nerfs were needed for sure there, but I'm sure people will be unhappy to hear that Skeezick remain the only competitive SL theme. I think the nerfs were appropriate. Though the rioter nerf kinda hurt. I think that could stand to be undone. We lost regal presence. Big cost increases to the warcry units and small cost increases to range, lost surge 2 netters, revolt nerf. Did we have to lose the rioters base swarm too? >Myx is just rangeless drone spam. Not much synergy there besides what commander? >For Sand, it still sort of lacks a solid theme. Was Dunes Manticore supposed to lose his basic attack? He was powerful but squishy before. Now he is weak and squishy with a lower cost and a heal, but no attack. Idk what to think there. Tainted vine creeper used to be a cheap 1-4 range flurry unit. He changed losing 1 range and to a mutation dmg building over time type. Now he lost his cheap cost, his range is back to melee. I just feel like theres a loss of diversity. I have so many basic attack only melee. What if sand had some type of moragen's siren song effect when within 3 spaces of a champ? Idk. We don't really have racials besides Skeezick in SL. Some stuff to consider
didn't realize ferrens were that bad :/ And to markoth 12 dmg 6 range in a theme that has regal presence, sermon, drunken buff, st semmers brew to stack dmg, warcry, commander, battle drum.. The amount of buffs to stack on dmg surpass skeezick. Not to mention the defensive spells to defend him, protect him and heal him. He even has great starting hp! And Pontiff does more than just auto attack. Illuminate, distract, verdict. He is one of the best runes to come out this expansion. Imagine it this way, if he came out as a skeezick how balanced would he be? Id run the sh*t outa him
So is Pontiff the issue or are all the other things you listed the issue? Also Noble lost Regal Presence.
Ah. oversight on my part. Well, stat-wise he passes the other runes that came out. I wouldn't have an issue if runes of similar strength were released in the other factions. By direct comparison to the other new stuff, he is the problem. By the logic of whoever took the draksar racial away and nerfed all the range because it was op, and then gave violent to dwarves, st semmirs and brew maiden is the issue; secondary to comparison.
Dwarves still have dwarven handler for regal, stop pretending like dwarves don't have these things when they do, start embracing the fact that dwarves are ridiculous and were long before the last few expansions. Armorer has been a boss for almost a year now along with battle matron, and they are not even the high tier runes anymore. Your factions broken man, the only bad theme left is wings and even they aren't bad compared to something like slags.
Never said they were not strong. But you cant just say X theme has access to A, B and C and pretend like they are out all the time. For example, Dwarven Handler that you just mentioned. Yes he has Regal Presence and yes he is a dwarf. But Regal Presence and Drive is literally all he brings to the table. The Dwarf Player has to spend 60 nora for a 5 speed champ that does nothing but move around and buff things. Is he worth it? That depends on the situation. 60 nora is a big tempo hit for a non combat champ that doesn't fill some utility roles. Once you throw Beerbabe into the mix the IS player is spending 130 nora on just support and utility and thats not even counting miners and such. This is an incredible amount tempo hit for a meta that strongly favors a fast paced game speed. Are they worth it? Absolutely. The thing about tempo hits are that they will be incredibly powerful late game. The more units they have to support the stronger they become.
I agree with all Markoth said. I don't have issue with regal though it is strong. semmirs is what gets me. While it is a fast paced meta, with proper play you can cycle your melee and sustain your range to that built up damage from violent. Violent on ranged champions is arguably much stronger in IS than SL. We don't have many great or powerful range in SL (very limited choices). We have regen on some, but IS has tons of healing, spot and global. spells that rule out range from damaging you, spells that make u invincible or give great defensive stats like scale armor. the units that stack stats are better protected and defended. Now dwarves have tons of synergy and draks are this half racial mess that lack :/
