Review of the Planar Disturbances Exotics

Many of the new exotics have major flaws in the way they are built or were released to themes that still are still in a bad state.

Centaur Commander: the new centaur exotic looks great but since its main ability is a racial its not going to be used much outside of centaurs. That would be fine except that centaurs are still an incredibly awful theme that hasnt improved much with this expansion.(so there isnt much use for this rune currently, which is really bad considering its an expansion exotic) Best exotic from the expansion imo.

Grade: Runes Strength A. Theme's Strength F.

Hyaenid Ascedant: This rune looks great and the hyaenid theme is coming together nicely. The only thing i dont like is that several hyaenids have major flaws in their builds. Some hyaenid dont even have access to dogpile(when every hyaenid should) and some hyaenid have very poor stat builds or ranges, like houngan, spearman, mundunugu, instagator, etc. Ascedant itself is a great addition to the game and the theme is almost where it should be strength/synergy wise.

Grade: Runes Strength B. Theme's Strength B

Lonx Wanderer: wanderer isnt bad but healing wind should probably be an upgrade and lonx arent exactly in as good a state as they could be currently. The hunter nerf was needed but several formerly hunter runes/abilities were ruined by the change including hunter cripple/lonx marauder(a core lonx rune) also most of lonx ranged units outside of adept are still very much lacking and several lonx that used to be core to the theme have been overnerfed severely such as channeler, recruiter, hammerfall, chieftain, and azaren. lonx also no longer have access to aid defense synergy because of it being removed from chieftain and because of recruiter now being overcosted, which has weakened a theme that was previously average a great deal.

Grade: Runes Strength B. Theme's Strength C

Mutated Drake: Dragons still seem like a strong theme but mutated drake has some problems. The main issue seems to be its signature ability not being worth its noracost and sabatoge acid being overcosted as well.( I also dont like that you have to manually cycle its signature ability, I think it could have been designed better.) Also it seems that this rune should have at least 1 more solid ability in order to be worth running in a dragon deck. Currently i dont see why anyone would use this rune, in dragons or any other deck outside of an acid theme which probably isnt playable currently.(bold makes it decent)

Grade: Runes Strength C. Theme's Strength A

Northern Cross Purger: the new reload ability isnt very good, especially on a unit that only has ammunition 1 base. ammunition abilities should get a nora cost reduction and reload should either be changed to be activated much more easily or purger should gain ammunition 2 or 3 base.

Runes Strength: C. Theme's Strength B

Salaam The Fell Rabbit: I am not 100% sure about the current state of UD FF or split faction beast decks but i would improve this rune in a couple of ways. First of all i would change its eater abilities to immunities, improve its damage, and probably consider reducing the cost of its pet ability. I might also add another useful ability to the rune.

Runes Strength C. Theme's Strength F(FF) C(Split)

Salaman Investigator: There are alot of problems with this rune. Salaman in my opinion are close to being a strong theme but currently they arent very competitive because of lacking 5+ range options and because of many salaman not being given enough hp to be useful in alot of situations.(hunter, trapper, etc) Salaman needed another solid ranged unit, not what it got.(salaman also needed more hp on several units and negamage and possibly fire salaman changed to 5+ range) investigators attack type is poor and so are both his upgrade lines, the rune is also lacking useful abilities and has very mediocre stats.(but decent hp) Easily the worst exotic from the expansion.

Grade: Runes Strength F. Theme's Strength D

Vothsair Monstrosity: fw split faction runes tend to be much weaker in full faction fw or in splits than in the full faction of whatever its split with. This is mainly a problem with the fw faction bonus itself and not so much the rune but means that this rune isnt going to be nearly as useful outside of full faction UD. Hunter small is overcosted(along with many other hunter abilities after the nerfs) and stun may be so as well by 1-2 nora. vivify is also overcosted and warmonger needs to be reworked into something more useful asap. Also they need to stop giving every arrow eater champ attack physical that isnt the way to balance arrow eater, thats just bad design. If arrow eater is problematic then change it.(I already recommended it being changed to an oblivion shield against ranged attacks that blocks 2 instead of 1, same thing with intimidation) The bind spells ability seems very situational and im not sure what I think about it yet, i think its probably not worth its cost but i need to take a close look at the ability and how it plays in games. Vothsair monstrosity seems like a solid addition to UD(even tho it may be overcosted), and not so much to FW.

Grade: Rune Strength C(UD) D(FW). Theme's Strength C(UD) B(FW)

I would make significant changes to all of the exotics released except for the new hyaenid and centaur.(i would probably move the centaurs racial to an upgrade line tho and add 1 or 2 abilities to its base. especially with centaurs being in the state they're in currently. I would probably give the hyaenid 6 speed base as well)

 

The art on the new runes look great.(havent taken a look at the lore yet)

 

This is brilliant! All of it!
10/10
I was wrong about you!
You know what you're doing!

 

I know, thats how i 1 rounded 10 of your voils the last time i played you. I should have recorded that game, ive never seen so many champs die in a single turn.

 

You would have liked the Corpse era.

 

i compare everything to ranked pvp competitive runes and battlegroups.(that are competitive at the highest ranks) thats how i assign grades and make judgements.

people play the game differently, if you arent putting in the time to be a top competitive pvper then your gonna look at things differently. Also even top pvp players look at things differently than each other based on their bias, playstyle, experience, and skill with each faction.

 

No, you look at how to make everything overpowered and then "equal" to everything else in power. This leads to the perpetual arms race of the Corpse era.

 

overpowered is relative. Most of the themes that are currently at the top i consider to be balanced. The themes that dont measure up to these I consider to be underpowered, generally speaking. But I guess you could say the top themes are overpowered compared to everything else and you could nerf them down but i dont think thats the best way to fix the problem. Mainly because alot of the top themes are similar in strength, while the lesser themes tend to vary greatly in terms of power level.(there are also many more of them)

 

Corpse also didn't think this was a good way to go about things. This is one example of why knowing history is a very important thing.

 

corpse probably made a ton of balancing mistakes as well. I dont think i make nearly as many mistakes when i give advice on how to improve the gameplay even tho alot of people people disagree with me.(people are always goin to disagree especially if they dont know how to change something properly) If sokolov listened to me and implemented more of the changes exactly how i advised, I think the game would be in a much much better state. Ive made hundreds if not thousands of posts on how to make improvements to poxnora's gameplay/rune balance.

 

One thing about purger. His second ability line is meant to synergize with 'branded' condition. I thought it's a useless abilit line, but when I realized that I came to conclusion it's really well designed. Maybe this will change your mind on the upgrades. I see how it could be problematic to play around ammunition and reload on a high level play though.

 

This is proof that even if your decent at the game sometimes you still can be clueless. I'm bad at the game but almost every exo rune from this expansion has seen a lot of play.

The only thing I agree with is the centaur theme being garbage, however with the new mulligan system I like running him in trees with vine touch pedestal.

Also salaman hunter is one of the most efficient high damage ranged units I've seen in a while. Salaman also have many other decent ranged options.

Not gonna go through the rest of the list because I'll lose my mind.

 

Centaurs don't deserve an F grade... wut

 

compared to competitive ranked battlegroups like dragon, voils, zombie, etc, they do.

 

They are more like a B/C, have you even played against them yet?

 

i ranked them F because they only have a limited number of runes and many of their champions are very underpowered/poorly built. There are major problems/shortcomings with the centaur theme.

 

Mw, what do you consider to be the top BGs right now?

 

I am not sure if you are just rusty or being dense on purpose because you are pretty off base with this one. First up, he has class Priest so he can proc the branded condition. He is a Barbarian so he benefits from Commander from the most common source (Inquisitor), Aid Defense (Bastion). He cannot benefit from Sermon but that has to do with race not class, or Boost from Angel of Mercy. Both of those are not exactly common in a Barbarian paladin deck.

Second, Ammunition DOES give a cost deduction. The dude has 12 base damage, 7 speed and 50 base HP and STILL comes in in the mid 70s. The guy is costed as a melee champion that gets to make 2 ranged attacks every few rounds.

3rd. The ability to switch between melee and ranged can be annoying when you are not used to it but with the amount of Arrow Eater, Elusive, Enigma Shield, etc all running around it is very helpful. Its also not hard to collect nora globes especially when he is attacking in melee.

4th. I could see you complaining about the first upgrade line but the second? Its almost like you want us to know you are trolling. Acolyte heals every time Branded procs (Which in paladins is a lot) and when he gets attacked in melee because of Damage Shield. If you take Purging Flames he turns every single one of your Paladins, Priests and Shamans into a True Blood Plainswalker since Branded procs before attacks. Even Flame Charge which will never get chosen over the others DOUBLES branded damage.

Lastly, He is supposed to have Attack: Pistol but it didnt exist anymore and got hotfixed to Attack: Physical until it can get switched to Attack: Gun but all of that only effects sound effects. Attack: Magical would be a terrible idea because Paladins already have a ton of it and Fire doesnt make sense when he is pistol whipping fools.

 

i still think he should have attack fire. ill think about the rest you said later.

 

Its feeding time at the Zoo. Dont feed le trolls.