So I've been away a while. I am curious to know what the current state of IS (and Pox in general I guess). How is IS playing these days? Is there a particular "IS" BG that is the standard or..I dunno. General question I know but I'm curious to know how my fellow dwarves are getting along out there and what types of BG are working for folks.
Welcome back Mixtli. I'm not sure about at top levels of play, but I don't see IS as OP. I just see IS as having more viable themes than other factions.
Dwarves work very well for getting back into IS. They are competitive enough in top ranks, and also offer a wide array of choices to fit everyone's playstyle. Take a look here for more info: http://forums.poxnora.desertowlgame...d-we-conquer-a-recreated-guide-to-dwarves.67/ Of IS's other themes, Paladins are far above the rest. They're quite expensive to play (most of the runes you'll need are LEG rarity and higher) but most of the top IS players these days play some form of Paladin deck. Constructs are a close second, I would say; they're under the radar atm because most people have had their fill of playing them. A decently built Construct deck will take you into exo league no problem. Grints and Barbs share a third place spot; they're good, but I find both themes boring to play, and they lack some of the niceties of other themes. Grints are basically about slapping Tales of Valor on Bouncer and laffing your way to a win. Barbs are more varied, but again Fist of Bastion + Tales of Valor carries the deck hard. Beasts/Griffins are at the bottom only because the other themes are better. They're competitive in their own right, but mostly in splits with ST. FF IS doesn't have much support for the Griffin theme, and in my mind it's not a full theme yet. I play more Dwarves than I do other IS themes, so I could really only advise you there.
i don't think of the stronghold as having a "state", other than drunken. disheveled. disorderly. d'ugly.
I don't know about paladins being top tier or even tier 1 for IS. The higher ranked IS players are using IS meta decks. Paladins are tier 2 IMO. Dwarfs have also lost a lot of their viability, tier 2 for all dwarf decks too.
Meta decks are just whatever is best. The meta is pointless to design around as it always exists and takes care of itself.
What has mostly kept IS out of the SP/FS type meta power is that are units are a bit slower on average, not as many meta-worthy super-efficient champs and we don't have champ movement. It used to be four-part, as we didn't have that much AP gen either. Now we have Magnate and Monk and you're just hamstringing yourself if you're not using those in meta. We still don't have the overall speed and champ movement (relocate ally, foe) to dominate in a meta sense and we're looking into mid to low 70s for our efficient champs instead of mid to high 60s. Even if a champ line up is hyperefficiently priced at 75 and a champ lineup is hyperefficiently priced at 65, as a general rule, 65 is going to win out just because it can get out numbers more quickly then get those early spell/relic aided kills and early contests/font grabs. But that's perfectly fine with me, we have a very powerful spell line-up that is extremely versatile to many of our themes, and as said before, we have many themes that are in a very good spot. From the perspective of anyone not trying to stay in the top 5-10 with FF IS, it's going to feel like a very powerful and wellrounded faction.
Well said. That's true but there are also themes that do just as well if not better than their factions particular meta. Take Zombies for example. They are the strongest deck FW has to offer IMO. Ferren, yetis, lonx are all top tier as well. I'd like to see a bit more theme balance in IS. Themes preform through synergy of their various units. This synergy should provide enough power to provide an equal footing for the theme vs meta decks built on efficiency. IS has taken a lot of over nerfs to theme enabling runes removing those themes from top tier contention as well as removing unique mechanics to said themes. This is a trend that needs to stop. Pushing players into meta decks because they are the strongest way to go strips a faction bare of its variety for the person playing the faction as well as those playing against the faction. Theme balance is achievable, we just need a dev team that's sees the importance of themes and designs around them, not cow towing to the IS nerf callers as has been business as usual.
