Soooo... Spell Blockade costs 50 nora.

Counterspell Mastery costs 20, even though it can trigger more often and doesn't lower you champion's health to 1.

I am almost positive they didn't see the whole "loses all health" bit of this ability.

 

I think it's fairly priced, tbh.

 

It costs more than most spells and pretty much kills the champion it is on and costs 30 more nora than an ability that blocks spells more often with no drawback.

Would you deploy the Magister for 85 nora to block a 25 nora spell and then die? Would you expect the enemy to use a more expensive spell first if they see the magister is deployed?

 

Your assumptions:

1) "It costs more than most spells": it also cost less than other great spells, I fail to see how this is relevant;
2) "Pretty much kills the champion" isn't exactly killing it - there are a plethora of ways to use a champ even with 1HP, Sep taught us all that;
3) "Costs 30 mora nora than an ability that block spells more often with no drawback": there is the drawback of acctually getting the charges up to 6. In the meantime you can go after the champ and use spells to kill it, which you can't do to the Blockade ability.
If you want to say the Magister is too costy that's one thing, but I still think the ability is fairly priced.

 

- The ops approach has called in a certain type of response. Delivery typically kills your thread even if you have a good point sadly. Having said that...there are a number of "fairly" costed runes that will never see play. Countering spells is without a doubt a game changer...being able to control the exact moment is exponentially more so.

- This particular champ with spell blockade is most likely not the most efficient example especially with the current meta direction. I am worried about the next champions that get spell counters that are simple efficient champs that happen to counter spells.

 

Counterpoints:

1. " it also cost less than other great spells, I fail to see how this is relevant": If blockade was a hidden spell, this would be a fair point. But it is an in-game ability and you can cast any spell you want, knowing it will be blocked. Do you choose to have a very cheap spell blocked or a very expensive one?
2. "isn't exactly killing it - there are a plethora of ways to use a champ even with 1HP, Sep taught us all that": So you are saying the ability should cost the same whether or not it reduces the champion's health to 1 or not because being at 1hp "doesn't matter"? Or are you implying this ability would cost ~70 nora if it didn't do this?
3. "there is the drawback of acctually getting the charges up to 6. In the meantime you can go after the champ and use spells to kill it, which you can't do to the Blockade ability": If you kill the blockade champion, the blockade won't trigger, so you can hunt it down and kill it. And how is getting 6 charges different to an 8 round cooldown? I mean, anything with an ability that relies on charges is likely to have a way to trigger it more than once every 16 turns.

 

Well Pyro, we could go on with this exercise all day.

1) If I use a cheap spell (say, 25 nora), to trigger the Blockade to use my 50 nora spell, that has just cost me 75 nora and 2 spells on CD - how is that a bad deal?
2) All I'm saying is that even a 1HP champ can do a lot of things. You can heal it back, you can use it to feed surge, cap fonts, attack, etc. If it didn't reduce the HP champ, of course it would have to cost more;
3) Yes, if you kill the blockade champion, the ability won't trigger - however, it makes a lot harder to hunt a champ without being able to use spells to kill it. And how is gettting 6 charges different to an 8 round cooldown? This one is pretty obvious, acctually. The minute you deploy the Blockade champ you have a nice counterspell up, while on the other you have to acctually wait for it.

At this point there is no further arguing because all your statements are pretty fragile, tbh. Have a nice day.

 

1) I'm glad to see I blocked 75 nora worth of spells. Oh wait..
2) Not quite sure how you're saying an ability that is 99% likely to block a spell that is cheaper than the ability itself should cost even more without it's hefty drawback. If someone casts a 25 nora spell, who lost out here? Nora wise?
3) So if this ability started on a 6 round cooldown it could cost <20 nora and lose the health loss? Deal.

To be fair, if my statement is so fragile, I find it baffling that countering your arguments is so easy

 

You are not countering anything, you are just spitting reasons which you think are ok in your head. As a pro player you should know that. Oh wait...

 

Oh snap. Well you sure did explain away my reasoning.

Unless you want to point out why, if it had a 6 round cooldown on deploy, it would be any different to counterspell mastery?

Though tbh I think you just decided you wanted to argue today. Was kinda obvious when you decided to be condescending about it. Which is why I replied in kind and got this very childish reaction out of you I guess.

 

For Pete's sake, we already have a thread on the very first page to argue over the disparity on the cost of certain abilities, why the heck do we need to start another thread to talk about a specific example?

Having said that, I'll mention that both sides on this argument have brought reasons equally ridiculous.

At one hand, the mere presence of a champion with an ability that, or may not be active at the moment and defuse a spell is a game turner and forces the (good) opponents to adjust their playstyle. In theory, a champion with counterspell mastery tells away when is ready to blow up and counter a spell ("Does it have 6 charges? If Y, then cast cheap bait"), a spell blockade champion not. That "psychological warfare" aspect puts spell blockade ahead on cost. IIRC, it was a standard advice on the FW forums to deploy the magister behind the shrine on the last second and hit end turn so the opponent doesn't notice its pressence. And given that spell blockade can proc since deployment (while CSM have to wait), it was a trick quite popular. However...

At the other hand, the only champion with CSM right now is the fairy trickster, which happens to have shadowspawn and is on a faction with more than one way to stealth (meta worthy or not, is another discussion), so for the most part CSM is hidden from the opponent, playing a similar aspect to spell blockade. Getting 6 charges on a supercharged 1 champion is a drawback? HA! Oh, my God, I have to keep alive a champion for 6 turns! A champion which can be boosted by foment and the warbanner, have range 5-6 and potential hex and shadowspawn. Clearly such hefty drawback require to made CSM 20n cheaper than spell blockade. [/sarcasm]

TL, DR: stop polluting the front page with repetitive themes. SB is over-costed, but isn't cheaper than CSM. If anything, CSM is more efficient than SB because the champion is on, not because the ability itself is stronger.

 

See, this is exactly why I really dont join general discussion. Even a well reasonable guy like Shimaru starts the topic by offending two people, saying "both sides brought reasons equally ridiculous". Might be ridiculous to you will all your mighty knowledge of the game.
I could go babbling about what I think is trully ridiculous around this community and whatnot, but I will just let it be.
As I stated in my second post, you guys have a nice day.

 

But CSM is literally cheaper. (20 nora), compared to SB (50 nora).

Tbh it could just be a conversation about Fairy Trickster and the Magister since they are the only champions, apart from the spellsnare, with the abilities. And she possesses more speed, flight and utility than the magister while costing less and blocking spells more often.

 

I'm going to leave it there too tbh. In the end I think we both got agitated over the issue more than was reasonable. So apologies. It's just an ability after all

 

anyone who thinks an 85 nora undead magister is proper champ design is either an idiot or a troll. I could try to reason with them, but that would fail because idiots cant learn and trolls don't want to.

 

Since nobody said anything about magisters design, which are you - idiot or troll?

 

Me and Ped have already discussed this further in private chat (with mutual apologies (I can get pretty zealous) ^^). I can accept his argument that Spell Blockade is probably the right price, but that makes me think that it is a bad ability in the sense that it has to cost enough to make the champion's it is on unrunnable.

Plus, the ability is admittedly not a fun mechanic in general.

 

1 hp is not killed, but you assume so, if instead of leaving the champion with 1 hp it would kill it, I can see the ability cost going down a good amount.

 

85 nora is too much for the Magister, but I do remember that when I played the thing I would usually counter 2ish spells per game, so it can't be too cheap either. Maybe recost ability to 35 so Magister costs 70?

 

Pede......50 nora for spell blockade is out of line man. I mean cmon, are you really arguing that? Cancel magic or ancients protection are both waaaay better as they are hidden, and they are cheaper as well.