The History of the Depths Import

Discussion in 'Underdepths' started by KTCAOP, Mar 3, 2014.

  1. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Importer's Note - This is not the work of the importer, KTCAOP, all credit goes to the original author - Sepulcher. This is only designed to archive this masterful work.

    (Since much of this information hasn't been updated in a year, I will be going through each expansion and slowly updating them. Stuff like Pit Dragon getting buffed with Colossal and ToB's recent fiascos are not in here yet.)

    When faced with the monumental task of migrating all the information in my "Ultimate Guide to UD" over to the new forums, I began sorting through everything and realized just how outdated most of the rune ratings and strategies were. It would take another "overhaul" to get the guide completely up to date. Considerating that I have had to do several "overhauls" since the Guide's inception, I decided to simply migrate the rune/expansion history that I had spent a good deal of time gathering.

    This is (from what I have been able to gather, at least) a collection of Underdepths rune history. Nerfs, buffs, old abilities, new abilities, etc... I will try to update each rune to document the changes that have happened to them over the years. I think this was the most interesting part of my old Guide anyway, and I would hate to see it lost to the forum switch.

    As always, PLEASE comment with any additional information and/or history you have so I can add it in. Thanks!

    RELEASE SET
    • Release Date- Late 2006
    • Total UD Runes: 27 (15 Champs, 7 Spells, 1 Relic, 4 Equips)
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    Bok Guardian
    Guardian, like many of the more boring UD runes, has undergone almost no significant change since its release except moving down to 5 base SPD in the revamp.
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    Deep Elf Assassin
    Assassin received a cost decrease with the revamp, gaining upgrades she didn't have before for the same price of 100 Nora.
    She also received a buff when Stealth was changed from 3 AP to 2 AP and Assassinate from 5 AP to 4 AP, which made her much easier to use. On April 17, 2012, DEA received a 12 Nora cost decrease from 100 to 88, and +1 DMG to 14.
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    Deep Elf Mercenary
    The one noteable change she has undergone is losing white hair and gaining black hair with blood on her sword with the revamp, for some reason.
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    Deep Elf Scout
    Scout has not undergone any overly significant buffs or nerfs over the years. He's always been pretty standard and pretty boring.
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    Deep Elf Temptress
    Temptress received an interesting change with the revamp: A cost decrease, Punish (!) and Liability. As far as I know this is the only significant change the Temptress has received.
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    Gahlroon
    They've tried to make Gahlroon more viable over the years, but it just hasn't worked. He's had small buffs here and there, but nothing that significant. Gahlroon used to be a solid include for a beater until UD received much better champs.
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    Goblin Archer
    Archer was once used as a 2x include for 59 Nora. He received a significant nerf when the UD ranged damage bonus went down from +5 to +2. He received a cost increase to 62 in the first revamp.
    No further changes were made until the February 2012 revamp when he went from 62 Nora to 57, and gained +1 DMG/+4 HP.
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    Goblin Brute
    Goblin Brute has a pretty epic history.
    He is vastly considered to be the worst champ rune in the game, and if not that, then definitely the most boring. He never had any abilities until he was given Berserk Attack 2 with the revamp. Brute has been the brunt of jokes in the PoxNora community, including trade jokes ("I'll trade you a Goblin Brute for that Harbinger") and jokes about his inclusion in a competitive BG.
    For April Fool's Day, 2009, the devs gave Goblin Brute "Sibling" and the ability to use 30 of him in a deck. This resulted in some laughs at first, though many top-ranked players abused this with 30-Brute decks. While I never did this, I did get an epic screenshot that day of my Sibling'd Brutes with Blade of the Snake smacking things around at a Pit Dragon DMG level:
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    He also gained Call to Arms in the February 2012 revamp. I'm guessing it was a joke, because it has had zero effect on his playability.

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    Grundelwulf
    Grundelwulf used to have 5 (!) base DMG, if you can believe that. It was increased to 9 in the UD Faction Review post-Grimlic's Descent.
    He got a pretty significant buff with the revamp. Regen 3 base and a cost decrease. Some UD players make fun of the artwork and his gargantuan head. Badgerale was known for running Grundelwulves when they were even worse than they are now.
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    Lavaflow Devourer
    Lavaflow used to be a pretty bad champ. He was given Amplify Fire some time ago, and with the revamp he was given Fire Feed and Death Nova- Lava and lost Fire Aura in exchange for being priced at about 58 with 5 SPD. As UD Moderator, I pushed for him to get 6 SPD, and he was finally given it for an additional 5 Nora. Later, he got Creep and Crawl and Race: Arthropod to push him into a more versatile role.
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    Nefari Reaper
    No significant changes to my knowledge.
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    Pox Harbinger (UD)
    Harbingers were first released early in Pox's history, and the relese was so limited that Harbinger's value was very high initially. SOE/Octopi has had "limited" releases of Harbingers twice since then, the most recent being the Winter's Breath release in December 2009.
    Harbingers have received indirect nerfs, mostly Initiative being changed to require an opposing champ to work, then later being changed from straight 5/7 AP to incremental AP gain. Harbingers also received cost increases, though the revamp somewhat canceled those out.
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    Scorpio
    Scorpics have remained unchanged, more or less, in the time that I have been playing. They received a fair cost decrease with the revamp.
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    Sheoul Demon
    Oh man, where do I start? Sheoul Demon originally did not have Essence Capture (he was given it in a Drums of War patch) and had Horrific Aura 4... Just to give you an idea of how much he has changed.
    In the time I have been playing, Sheoul has received a +5 cost increase, lost Volatile, received a -5 cost increase, then received a +5 cost increase AGAIN and lost Vulnerability- Frost. He finally lost 3 more Nora in summer 2012. His cost has fluctuated up and down over the years, and the result is finally his current 89 Nora incarnation.
    He received a buff when Flame Nova was buffed to give Inhibited. In August 2011, Sheoul Demon gained Horrific Aura 2 on base as the two abilities were fused into one, and also got Blood Rage base. In summer 2012, he gained +1 base DEF and some new upgrades along with -3 Nora.
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    ThunderHoof
    ThunderHoof was virtually unchanged (though he used to have Rend instead of Gore, and did not have Charge until the UD Faction Review in January 2008 ) until a buff patch in 2009 gave him Encroached, which boosted his playability. He also used to be only Beast instead of Demon/Beast, but then lost Race: Beast for Race: Minotaur in September 2012 with the release of Broken Shard.
    Since then, his main competitive role has been in UD/KF Shrine Rush. He's also used in UD/SL and SPUD Beast decks.
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    Warogg
    Warogg has not received any major changes until the revamp, when he received Unstoppable as an upgrade and his Race was changed to Demon/Beast instead of just Beast. This boosted his playability considerably, and made him a 2x include briefly. The next patch nerfed him with a cost increase and the addition of Vulnerability- Psychic.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2014
  2. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

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    Cauterize
    The only change I know that has happened to Cauterize is that it used to cost 45 (!) and it received a 10 Nora cost decrease to 35. And it still blows.
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    Darkness
    Darkness has been used in a number of trick decks over the years, mainly used to reset the Cooldown of runes. It has undergone virtually no changes to my knowledge, and has remained at a stagnant cost of 60.
    The most recent use of Darkness was a few years ago in a kthx deck with Divine Dispersal, Rapid Assault and Relics that won through attrition.
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    Demolish
    Demolish was originally a single-target Relic destroyer, and was buffed to AoE3 around the time of Path to Conquest/Nora Surge. SLavode was the one to take credit for it, but who knows.
    Demolish saw a rise in popularity at this time, because SL Egg Rush was everywhere at the time and Demolish was useful for clearing out the 31 HP eggs, taking out 6-8 of them at a time.
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    Windstorm
    Mindstorm used to Stun, a LONG time ago. So it was like a super-cool Hammerstrike! And now it's... this...
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    Retribution
    Though Ret has received many cries for a nerfing over its lifetime, it has never happened. Ret is the same as it always has been.
    Interestingly enough, while most current UD players run at least one Retribution, there was a time when Ret was not even considered for a slot. When Rune Docks were restricted to 20 slots, before the Sacrifice nerf, everyone simply ran 2x Sacrifice. There was no room for Retribution at all. After Sacrifice was nerfed, many players began running 2x Retribution instead, or 1x Sac and 1x Ret, or even a total of 3 combined. As Retribution grew in popularity, so did opponent's hatred for the unlimited range of the damage, the cost of the Spell, and finally its effect on Avatars.
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    Sacrifice
    Oh, what a history Sacrifice has. Long considered a 2x autoinclude through the course of early FF UD gameplay, Sacrifice was finally nerfed in November 2008 around the time of Dawn of the Elements, from a 100% refund to a 75% refund, after players like sinwind used it in UD/FW on runes such as Lich King.
    There was an uproar in the UD community, and Sacrifice disappeared from decks for a while. It began to slowly creep back into competitive play, and was finally buffed to an 85% refund, where it is now. Sacrifice is a sure 1x autoinclude, and many FF UD players run 2x.
    Sacrifice has been "abused" in many decks, mostly incarnations of UD/FW. The most recent example was the release of Eternal Lich, which received Bloodless due to Sacrificing it for a refund while it Reanimated at its Phylactery. Sacrifice has also been used on Lich King, Wandering Zombie, Forsaken Follower trick decks, in combination with Domination, and many others.
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    Shatter
    Not much of a history to Shatter, it has remained virtually unchanged except for the additon of Eviscerated 3 in a random buff patch.
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    Fire Ruby
    Ruby was priced at 40 Nora for a long time (it actually had it's cost.... INCREASED.... to 48... for a time.), until a buff patch decreased its cost by a whopping 15.
    Its rune cost was increased from 25 to 30 in December 2010, and a brief bug afterwards made Fire Ruby hit itself instead of other champions. It was corrected mere hours after the Maljaran War midterm patch.
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    Blade of the Snake
    Blade of the Snake used to give a DMG upgrade to ranged champs, and in early decks it was used in Shrine rushing before it was nerfed to melee-only and given a 5-HP loss-of-life effect.
    If I remember correctly, it was Demon-only for a while, and was buffed to be "any champ" recently. BotS also used to give +5 DMG and +8 ATK, but was changed to +7 DMG with the removal of the ATK stat in the revamp.
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    Helm of Chaos
    HoC used to be priced at 75 Nora, but when SOE/Octopi realized that this Equip was a giant piece of crap at that price, they lowered it to 60 in a buff patch. Originally, however, Helm of Chaos was a force to be reckoned with, though it used to deal 5 damage to the equipped champion per turn instead of 8, and also was able to have its Inhibited condition Cleansed.
    HoC has received many indirect nerfs, through more available Shatter/Disarm and Loss of Life attacks/effects. Soulreave being the major culprit, Reaper's Blade, Hex, Corrupted Cultist and others have made bypassing HoC's Impervious effect much easier over the years.
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    Night Blade
    Night Blade gave +10 ATK for the longest time, until the removal of the ATK stat it was changed to make the Equipped champ ignore DEF. It was also given Lifedrain Aura in a 2011 patch.
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    Shield of Flame
    Unchanged to my knowledge.
     
  3. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    SAVAGE TUNDRA EXPANSION
    • Release Date- Early 2007
    • Total UD Runes: 6 (5 Champs, 1 Spell)
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    Ash Demon
    Ash Demon used to be just terrible. Then, Fester got a 7 Nora cost reduction, and he was buffed again in the revamp. He's alright now.
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    Deep Elf Fire Dancer
    Fire Dancer used to be a 2-4 range champ that cost 52 Nora for a 9 (6) SPD build. She remained virtually unchanged until the revamp, when her range was changed to 1-3 and she gained Fascinate, Fire Aura and Damage Shield- Fire in exchange for 5 SPD at about the same cost.
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    Fire Elemental
    I haven't paid much attention to Fire Elemental over the years, but I can't recall any major changes it has endured at the hands of the devs. It was buffed a bit with the revamp, received a cost decrease with several changes to base abilities.
    It also was given Terraform- Lava as a very early buff. Terraform-Lava, he's META now!
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    Imp
    Imp is a beloved UD rune, and what I consider to be a classic champ. He was the first champion in the game with Shadowspawn base, and was used in early decks to Shrine rush. He's been changed many, many times since I began playing.
    A player named Milanda used to use Imps with super-upgraded DMG that cost nearly 100 Nora to surprise her opponents in PoxNora's early history. This build became known as the "Milanda Imp" and was used by other players even after Milanda left Pox. This build was useful because most opponents would assume the Shadowspawned Imp was a cheap build, not much to be afraid of... Until the Imp de-Stealthed to hit them for almost 20 DMG per hit.
    Imp fell on hard times in late 2008 to 2009 with the Volatile nerf (10 Shrine damage to 70, then later to 55), then even LOSING Volatile in exchange for a substantial cost increase. Imp also lost DMG from the UD ranged damage nerf (from +5 to +2) and it seemed the Imp was shuffed into the shoebox forever. Imp eventually regained Volatile with an appropriate cost decrease, regained its DMG to previous levels, lost Vulnerability- Frost and even gained Hunter: Savage Tundra to boost him back to playability.
    Imp finally lost Volatile in a September 2011 patch, and received Mischief during the Wild Alliance expansion for another small buff.
    Enragingly, Imp was posted with the Screaming Imp artwork for about two full years. It's fixed now, so the vein in my forehead can stop pulsing for now.
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    Nefari Dragon
    Not regularly used until around Path to Conquest/Nora Surge, Nefari Dragon has been powercreeped in recent memory, but remains a solid choice for a champ slot. Flamestrike 3 on a 7 SPD Flying champ with 16 base DMG is still dangerous even in today's meta.
    Nefari Dragon's cost was increased by 2 some time around the revamp, but has not changed other than that.
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    Banish
    Banish has been in many combo decks over the years, and indirectly nerfed through the abilities that it works well with. The only "nerf" that Banish itself received was going from an automatic Nora refund to at the beginning of the opponent's turn, preventing a broken combo with Nora Drain.
    Popular decks featuring combos that used to work were BBND (Banish + Banish + Nora Drain) and BBNL (Banish + Banish + 2x Nora Leech)
     
  4. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    SHATTERED PEAKS EXPANSION
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    Magma Bunny

    Magma Bunny used to be used to Replicate with Retribution or Sacrifice as a means to get either a free champ (by Sacrificing the non-Replicated form) or do a ton of damage without losing a champ (with Retribution). Magma Bunny has not served much purpose out of that in its Pox career.

    SaiTaan is a user who has collected thousands of Magma Bunnies, and the role of a collector's piece will probably remain the Bunny's most famous one.
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    Pincushion

    The first (although now there are five) champ with Arrow Eater in the game, Pincushion was once a 2x autoinclude. He endured a slight cost increase and the introduction of Vothsair Ireguard, and remains a good choice for a slot in most UD BG's.
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    Pit Dragon

    When Pit Dragon was introduced in this expansion, he was (and remained, up until Greater Pitspawn received a +7 DMG buf and the released of Maxxarek) the highest-DMG champ in the game. He was 2x auto-include from his release up until about Path to Conquest, when Sheoul Demon was given a 5 Nora cost decrease and made King beater. With 20-rune docks, there was no room for Pit Dragon and he fell from UD meta decks.

    Pit Dragon's DMG went down by 1 with the UD faction bonus nerf, to 24, and is no longer able to get 7 (11) SPD. He was also added Race: Dragon with the revamp. Other than that, Pit Dragon has remained unchanged.
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    Superiority

    No changes.
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    Nefari Torch

    Used in old Shrine-damage rush BG's (which are virtually dead thanks to Avatars) and briefly as a counter rune to Trucelock decks. Received a pointless cost reduction from 40 to 35 in a buff patch.
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    Traitorous Helm

    The only change I can think of, is that maybe at some point it changed from 40 to 35 Nora. That's about it.
     
  5. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    DRUMS OF WAR
    • Release Date- Mid 2007
    • Total UD Runes: 12 (5 Champs, 3 Spells, 1 Relic, 3 Equips)
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    Bok Gatekeeper
    Gatekeeper emerged from the shoebox extremely briefly when Ryvirath ran a deck pre-Avatars featuring Gatekeepers that spammed Price of Victory. This has been Gatekeeper's only time in the sun, and deservedly so. Gatekeeper has undergone no significant changes since I began playing.
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    Deep Elf Priestess
    DEP has endured a tumultuous history. Well, I say "endured" because even through a billion nerfs, DEP remains a viable rune.
    Originally, Beckon Demon was range 8 and worked on opposing Demons. You can imagine the havoc this wreaked in mirror matches, and after it was nerfed Beckon was range 6 and worked only on your own Demons. She also originally applied Poison on her Magical Attack, but that was nerfed as well. Her DMG was considerably higher early on, something like 10 or 11 base, before she was nerfed into more of a support role. Deep Elf Priestess also was affected by the Volatile nerf (10 Shrine damage, to 70, to 55), several cost increases, and a further nerf to Beckon Demon (range 5) in a Dawn of Elements patch when Relocate Foe/Ally were also nerfed due to Relocate/Mobi/Harvest decks.
    Priestess received a 3 Nora cost decrease in 2011 from 67 to 64, slightly boosting her viability. She received a further buff in a September 2010 patch giving her +1 SPD and removing Volatile.

    In February 2012, Beckon Demon was renamed to Relocate: Demon.
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    K'lzik
    K'lzik, UD's first Hero, received an indirect nerf when Grimlic was released because at the time you could only run one Hero in any BG. Thus, K'lzik's role was confined to "Spider decks" for some time (though there wasn't much of a theme... K'lzik, Scorpic, Protect the Nests.... Yeah.) until Hero was changed with Ancient Awakenings and K'lzik was allowed to run alongside Grimlic in any FF UD BG.
    K'lzik had some rough times upon first release, since she did not originally have Life Siphon, until a post-DoW buff patch gave it to her as an upgrade alongside a dozen other UD buffs. K'lzik's Spiderlings also originally had "Race: Angel"... Basically, I don't understand how anyone used her at all when she was first released.
    I was not around when K'lzik was first released, and I'm not aware of many major changes other than the massive change that occurred to her when she gained Surge 2 base along with a huge cost increase. UD players protested until K'lzik was changed back with the revamp, allowing players to choose which way they wanted to take her, full-Spider or a meta build.
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    Nightmare
    Nightmare has undergone a fair number of cost decreases over his time in Pox, including a 5 Nora cost decrease in the huge Dire Covenant buff patch, a 5 Nora cost decrease in an April 2009 patch, and a 5 Nora cost decrease in the UD faction review patch in 2008. He is no longer too expensive for his cost, and for the first time Nightmare is a prevalent force in Ranked Play.
    On June 17, 2011, Nightmare finally got Race: Demon, a change that the UD community has clamored for for... years.
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    Succubus
    Succubus was the runner-up of CorpsE's "shoebox buff" voting competition in February 2011, losing out to Deep Elf Fanatic. However, she ran away with a landslide vote in June 2011, getting buffed with a 12 Nora cost decrease from 85 to 73, as well as Charm 3 and Resistance- Fire 3 being placed on base. Her new upgrades in their place are Abash, Paralyze and Fascinate.
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    Hellfire
    If you can believe it, Hellfire used to be even worse. 8 single-target Fire damage and 4 to surrounding champs... It's 10 and 5 now, like it matters.
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    Protect the Nest
    Spiderlings were originally "Race: Angel", so you can only imagine how much this Spell originally blew. Received a 10 Nora cost decrease from 40 Nora to 30, and the summoned Spiders got Creep and Crawl.
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    Shattered Nerves
    There was briefly a bug with Multiattack; I believe they actually nerfed the Spell to fix it. Other than that, it has received a cost decrease from 40 Nora to 35, as if that would be enough to play it.
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    Mark of Sheoul
    It used to be that you could only receive Warbanners one of three ways: 1) Crafting them with Ye Olde Rune Crafter (Mark of Sheoul required a Sheoul Demon if memory serves correctly), 2) $15 spent in Ye Olde Single Rune Store, or 3) as the free Warbanner given with a subscription to Ye Olde Premium Account.
    Since all of these are obviously gone, SOE gave out Warbanners like candy when Premium accounts were deleted, giving one of each Warbanner to everyone who had a Premium account and making Banners not only tradeable, but added into starter decks.
    Warbanners were actually changed (GASP!) in August 2011. They no longer give a 10% Nora refund for champion deploys. In exchange for this, they now give +1 DMG and Annex in addition to +5 HP. Annex does not stack, unfortunately.
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    Demon Shield
    Demon Shield was originally released as a "midterm" rune, and was actually considered a rune from Skeezick Rebellion rather than Drums of War. You could only get a Demon Shield from a 100-rune or 30-rune Wrath pack. UD was doing so terrible during the Drums of War period that Octopi released Demon Shield as an emergency buff.
    The value for Demon Shield was so high that one notorious trade featured a user giving away a Boghopper Finlord (That is, Kartch, before he was a Hero), one of the top Exotics at the time in a one-for-one trade for one. At the time, Shields were scarce, and were able to be equipped to ANY champion, not just Demons, making it one of the most OP runes in Pox history for a brief time. Octopi acted fast though, and nerfed the Equip to be Demon-only within one hour of its release. No other changes have occurred to Demon Shield, and you can now find them in Drums of War packs/boxes.
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    Sheoul Brand
    Unchanged to my knowledge. Rendered obsolete by Flameheart Pauldron.
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    Sheoul Firebow
    Unchanged to my knowledge.
     
  6. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    SKEEZICK REBELLION
    • Release Date- Late 2007
    • Total UD Runes: 12 (7 Champs, 3 Spells, 1 Relic, 1 Equip)
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    Abyssal Fiend
    Abyssal Fiend used to be 2x autoinclude. He has suffered MANY nerfs at the hands of the devs, including losing Flamestrike, cost increases, the Scorn nerf, Amplify nerf, and others. Around the time of Grimlic's Descent, it was very common to see two Abyssals deployed for 50% Amplify Fire with a Grimlic in the back smashing things for about 26-27 damage per hit.
    The Fiend was a hated rune for a couple expansions, and unfortunately his current role is as a niche rune.
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    Deep Elf Fanatic
    Get ready for DEF's huge history of getting nerfed, getting buffed back again, then getting re-nerfed and re-buffed over and over.

    Deep Elf Fanatic is another victim of the Enrage nerf (it used to stack) and the Pounce nerf (it used to not be in the attack chain, and in Skeezick Rebellion beta, dealt double damage!). He was the target of a buff petition since the dawn of time, and all it got him after two years of literally every UD player putting it into writing that they want this rune buffed, was an upgrade to Pounce 3 and a minor cost change. He also used to have Zealot: Demon instead of Surge, and Zealot used to count himself in its DMG buffing before that was nerfed as well.
    Interestingly, around the time of Grimlic's Descent, Fanatic was one of the most valued Exotic runes in the game, alongside Skeezick General, Lich King, Grimlic and Frenzied Pirahnid. He dropped down to a bottom-tier Exotic until his February 2011 buff (discussed below) when he became THE most valuable Exotic in the game. Now? He's back to mid-tier value. Oh, Pox, how trade sharks loathe thee.
    In February 2011, Deep Elf Fanatic won a voting competition to become UD's "shoebox rune buff", finally after two years of picketing. He got Pounce 3 and Manic base, lost Enrage and stat increases for his upgrades, and gained Provision, Dodge 4, CounterAttack Ranged and Final Word in their stead.
    In a March 2011 nerf patch, DEF lost Final Word and Essence Capture was moved to upgrade.
    In August 2011, DEF lost Surge: Demon and gained Volatile.
    In February 2012, he lost Volatile and re-gained Surge: Demon! [​IMG] No, but really. -_-
    He also lost Spite and Provision and gained Call to Arms base in exchange for +1 Nora to 77. Too bad Call to Arms is pretty worthless.
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    Deep Elf Ritualist
    Ritualist used to deal Psychic damage but was changed to Magical some time ago. She's also seen minor cost increases and decreases throughout her time.
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    Deep Elf Summoner
    No notable changes that I can think of, and she has historically been used moderately as a support champ. DEP has almost always been a more popular option, but Summoner has hung in there, too.
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    Nefari Messenger
    Messenger received a cost decrease a couple years ago, but other than that she received no major changes until the February 2012 revamp, in which she lost Diplomat, gained Annex, and received two new upgrades: Aggressive and Afflict. The biggest change was that she could be run in pairs now.

    She was seeing low amounts of play before the buff, but afterwards she started being run by a lot of UD players again.
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    Nefari Siphon
    Not any major changes to my knowledge.
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    Rust Demon
    Historically, Rust Demon's primary use has been Propogating Spiders for K'lzik via Damaging Aura, though he's sometimes been seen doing other things.

    Only change I have documented is in a March 21, 2012 patch when he received an 8 Nora cost decrease from 70 to 62.
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    Blood For Mortar
    It has always blown.
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    Dark Pact
    DP used to be restricted to Demon-only and was priced at 35 Nora. It was changed from only Demons to "any champion you own" and was given a 5 Nora cost decrease to bring it into playability.

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    Scorch the Earth
    I believe it used to be priced at 40 Nora, but now it is 35.
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    Scepter of Onus
    It's always been horrible, and no changes have been made.
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    Mindslicer Obelisk
    Mindslicer has a tumultuous history. Originally, it was 20 Nora (!!) to globally increase all AP costs of ranged attacks by 1. ("Ranged" included 1-2, 1-3 or any range other than "1") It was eventually "buffed" to only increase these AP costs for the opponent, in exchange for a 25 Nora cost increase. This caused MO to be used in meta UD BG's and stirred up a lot of complaints, especially when 1-2 range champs like Poison Elemental were being affected by it.
    Mindslicer was finally nerfed down to only affecting range 4 or greater, globally, for 30 Nora. I am pretty confused how the current version is 10 Nora more than its original incarnation, but is actually worse... I won't get on my soapbox on that for now, though.
     
  7. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    GRIMLIC'S DESCENT
    • Release Date- Early 2008
    • Total UD Runes: 9 (5 Champs, 3 Spells, 1 Relic)
    Grimlic's Descent, PoxNora's fourth expansion, introduced the first second Hero to the entire game, Grimlic.
    When Grimlic's Descent was released, Octopi was in the middle of faction reviews for every faction. The patch notes for UD's particular faction review, done about a month before the release of Grimlic's Descent, can be found here:
    http://poxnora.station.sony.com/news/pastreleasenotes.do?release=38
    ST's faction review was done simultaneously. Noteworthy changes included all champs with Fire Eater automatically gaining Vulnerability- Frost, Beckon Demon was changed to only work on your OWN Demons (before, you could Beckon opposing Demons... nasty!) and Fire Ruby received a random 8 Nora increase from 40 to 48. Honestly, the patch was full of ST changes, and not much significant happened to UD except nerfs.
    Once Grimlic's Descent was released in February 2008, Grimlic's value instantly skyrocketed to that of the highest-valued Exotic in the game. For a time, his value was equivalent to Lich King, and many traders would make 1-for-1 trades between the two. UD also received Fire Blast and Acrid Smoke, two staple AoE spells that we still use today. Deep Elf Monk was considered a 2x include, though Pit Dragon still reigned supreme when it came to beaters. This was the age of 2x DEP, 2x Pit Dragon, 2x Sacrifice and 2x Demon Shield in UD. The "glory days" of Beckon-style UD. Some UD players at the time were upset with the release of a 6-range champ like Grimlic, claiming that he didn't fit faction flavor.
    The rest of the game at the time of Grimlic's Descent was full of SL, SP and ST. Skeezick and Voil were the top decks, and the top ranked player in the game was usually either Lepakko or another SL player. (Dammit, I'm really piiiiissed that I can't remember any of their names!) ST was running Snowfall champs such as Jakei Snowcharger and Jakei Shaman, and Frost Cone champs like Ice Dragon were running rampant. Later in February, Draconic Benediction and Quickening were changed to not allow other Spells cast in the same turn, Leeches lost Nora Miner annnnd... HATCHING SEASON was buffed.
    I also cannot forget to mention the terrors of Oozing Slag. Vastly over-buffed in the SP faction review at the end of January, Oozing Slag become one of the single most broken runes in PoxNora history, and boosted Voil decks with stacking global Battle Hardens on each Replicate. I still can't think about it without shivering. Towards the end of the Grimlic's Descent cycle, TORMENTED PRIEST was buffed with Dark Healing 2, and was nerfed with the release of Path to Conquest. FW players have never forgotten this nerf; apparently, it scarred them for life.
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    Deep Elf Monk
    Monk is one of the last of the classic UD beater champs, and has slowly been phased out mostly due to powercreep. I am aware of no direct nerf the Monk has received. He has benefitted from the Dodge buff in 2009, and finally gained Dodge 4 as an upgrade along with a 4 Nora cost decrease in a November 2009 Maljaran War buff patch.
    Monk was indirectly buffed in August 2011 when Dodge was decreased from 4 ranks to 2, meaning Dodge 1 was now CD 2 instead of CD 4 and you no longer had to upgrade Dodge to play Monk.
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    Grimlic
    Grimlic, upon first release and continuing through the next expansion, was so powerful that he was the second most valuable Exotic in the game, high enough in value that players used to trade them for Lich Kings in 1:1 trades. His value has obviously fallen since then, but for a time Grimlic was very difficult to trade for.
    Grimlic's Deception ability has always been bugged. Opposing players have always been able to tell with a quick look at each illusion which one is the real Grimlic, though currently this can only happen if you pick the +2 DMG upgrade since the real Grimlic will have 19 and the illusions will have 17. Grimlic had Vulnerability- Frost until a May 2010 patch finally removed it from him.
    Grimlich as undergone zero nerfs since release, since he avoided losing any DMG with the ranged damage nerf. He was given +3 DMG in the same patch that the UD ranged damage bonus went from +5 to +2, so his damage capabilities remained the same.
    He lost Unequippable in a February 2011 patch. He also lost Volatile in an August 2011 patch.
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    Nefari Soul Torch
    Soul Torch was long overpriced unti finally Fester was given a 7 Nora cost decrease pre-revamp. Then, the revamp hit and all of a sudden it didn't matter because Soul Torch was crap again.
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    Scorched Dwarf
    Believe it or not, it took a while for Dwarves to catch on. In fact, it took until after the Sacrifice nerf in November 2008 for UD players to actually run them as a 2x include for Nora gen. I fondly remember non-UD players citing the Scorched Dwarf when UD players complained about the Sac nerf affecting UD's Nora gen, and we would all say "SCORCHED DWARF BLOW THOUGH".
    One interesting thing the Scorched Dwarf was used for that created great lulz in the UD community was the "War Dorf" or "Speed Dorf" build. The pre-revamp build for Speed Dorf was to give Dwarf 11 SPD and Nora Miner 2 for exactly 200 CP spent an 49 Nora. The build for War Dorf was simply 9 SPD and some extra DMG for a little less Nora.
    Screenie time:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    Shadow Master
    Shadow Master remained a fairly bad champ until he was buffed with Surge: Shadows and Cloak was made to last longer.
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    Acrid Smoke
    Smoke cost 45 at one time, then received a 10 Nora cost decrease to its current cost of 35 in late 2009. It's been spottily run ever since.
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    Fire Blast
    Fire Blast has been the same since the dawn of time, though it received a 5 Nora increase from 40 to 45 in the patch that nerfed AoE spells. Deep Freeze, Ice Storm, Earthquake, Fire Blast, most of them were hit with the same penalty.
    [​IMG]
    Grimlic's Treachery
    Treachery has long been used exclusively in Deep Elf decks, and has seen both a buff and nerf since release. It originally cost 55 Nora, but was bumped down to 45 largely due to comparisons it drew to Crowded Forces. (Which, at the time, was global and cost 45 for the same effect, except it did not need Deep Elves and only hit opposing champs) Then, in 2010, it was nerfed from doing double damage to Elves to doing 4 additional damage, since Treachery decks vs. FF KF was often an infuriatingly one-sided battle.
    [​IMG]
    Lava Trap
    Originally an Exotic (yes, an Exotic) rune in Grimlic's Descent beta, and created AoE2 Deep Lava (8 damage instead of 4, plus Impeding 1) and dealt 12 damage in the radius. That is, until everyone cried and it became its horrendous present form.
    Lava Trap saw some use when Imp-contesting was popular, since some players would use the Imp to plant a Lava Trap in the font, in order to lure the opponent into wasting an AoE or keeping their Imp safe for one more turn. Other than that, this overpriced Relic is shoeboxed by Erupt.
     
  8. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    PATH TO CONQUEST
    • Release Date- May 21, 2008
    • Total UD Runes: 7 (5 Champs, 1 Spells, 1 Equip)
    PtC, released in May 2008, is about when I started playing FF UD as my main. The most notable rune released with the expansion was SUMMON BORGHAS, which was nerfed so many times that I've lost count (You can review all of his nerfs that I actually remember in the Rune Compendium). Borghas was regarded by many as the most OP rune of the expansion, though Blood Fiend gave him a run for his money. Notably, PtC is also when Single Player mode was introduced.
    UD also got Maddening Echoes, which no one used initially (even though it INCLUDED illusions and Summons! Wow!), and Demon-Lich, which instantly became one of the most valuable runes in the game. Demon-Lich underwent an overhaul at least two times, both accompanied with drastic cost decreases, the last one finally making the champ meta-viable. This expansion also saw the release of Arachnodemon, and the first hints of a future workable Spider theme outside just K'lzik.
    UD players were disappointed with most of the runes in this expansion (other than Borghas). Demon-Lich never lived up to its hype, Firestarter was a disappointment from the beginning (even though he received insistent nerf cries in his Preview thread... mostly due to Lava-fall, oddly enough.) and Nefari Guardian was a really expensive shoebox champ at the time.
    As for the rest of the game, FW received Infected Zombie, which went on to become one of the most overpowered runes in the game before finally getting nerfed. ST got Gale Force, which originally granted Flying to champs in the AoE but was changed to being able to cliff them, and Conjure Ice Block, 20 Nora at the time. The most dominant faction during PtC, however, was easily FS. The additions of pre-nerf Marsh Raptor, Pirahnid and Dreadeye Symbiote (an Equip which gave Poison 3 to ranged champs for 15 Nora originally. Yeah, it was crazy.) gave FS a more potent deck than ever before. Combined with Tide Master's Amplify Poison, FS's ranged champs began hitting for 7 DoT damage.
    FS Poison, FW Disease, and ST Frost decks were running rampant, and this led to the Amplify nerf in July 2008. All Amplify abilities were nerfed from 25% to 10%. This also affected UD, since previously the combination of Grimlic with 2x Abyssal Fiend was an extremely powerful combo.
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    Arachnodemon
    Arachnodemon doesn't have much of a history; he was fairly vanilla on release in Path to Conquest. He did get a random buff in a 2009 patch, I believe he was given Climb and Flame Web was added to him at base for no cost change. Then of course, there was the Creep and Crawl buff.
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    Demon Lich
    Demon Lich, upon first release, was a pretty bad champ. Set Ablaze was an upgrade that nobody took because it did not work, it was a very squishy champ with bad range and a huge price tag. Eventually, it received enormous cost decreases, lost Vulnerability- Frost and Set Ablaze was buffed and put on as a base ability.

    On April 17, 2012, Demon Lich received Cleansing Flame and Fire Acolyte on base, had his range buffed from 2-3 to 1-3, and lost Scorn/Ally: FW.
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    Firestarter
    Firestarter was another champ that received belly-aching nerf requests when it was Previewed before PtC. He came at a time when Snowfall was recently nerfed, and the idea of a Lava-fall champ was considered by some (read: ST players) to be an awful idea. Firestarter remains the only Lava-fall champ in the game, and at the request of the UD community has been buffed several times.
    He went from having Immunity- Fire and Lavawalker to gaining Fire Eater along with about a 10 Nora cost decrease and eventually had Lava-fall 2 put on as a base ability instead of an upgrade. He is still rarely run.
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    Incinerator
    Incinerator was largely untouched until he was given Incinerate 3 in late 2008, when he began to see consistent play for the first and only time. (This was during the time when Nefari Dragons were 2x include, so another pseudo-range melee Fire champ was very welcome)
    His popularity faded once it was discovered that a CD 3 ranged attack wasn't that great for his cost, and eventually he was outright replaced by Bok Warden. With the revamp, he received the viability death sentence known as 5 base SPD, and hasn't really been seen since.
    [​IMG]
    Nefari Guardian
    Nefari Guardian was instantly shoebox upon release. He originally cost 80 Nora for old-system 7 SPD (now 5 SPD) and Bodyguard. He received a huge cost decrease in a late 2009 patch and was run for the first time as a semi-cheap Bodyguard champ. In the revamp, he went all the way down to 58 Nora and became a 2x auto-include.
    Before Maljaran Frontier, he was hit with +3 Nora and a change to his upgrades that did not allow him to receive Loyalty, Resistance- Physical 3 AND Tremor all in one build. He is still seen in today's game, though not nearly as often.
    [​IMG]
    Maddening Echoes
    Echoes has always been the same, to my knowledge.
    [​IMG]
    Summon Borghas
    Wow, where do I start? One of the most hated runes in Pox history.
    In PtC beta, Borghas originally had 80 HP. Yes, an 80 HP font contestor. The devs almost immediately brought him down to 30 HP, but at the time Borghas still had Death Nova- Fire 4, no Planar Instability and no Resistance- Fire 2. He also cost 40 Nora. (Fire Blast did too, at the time) So for a mere 80 Nora, someone could Fire Blast a Borghas and Fire Volatility would deal 12 AoE 2 damage, plus Aura damage and eventually Death Nova- Fire 4 which dealt 16 Fire damage.
    Borghas was hit with many, many nerfs. They took away Death Nova completely, upped his cost to 45 Nora, reduced his HP to 20, stuck him with Planar Instability and gave him Resistance- Fire 2 so that Fire Volatility would not deal such tremendous damage. Initially, Borghas was widely considered overnerfed and shoeboxed, but so many hated him that nobody cared. He was largely unused until the Ember Wasp was released, which brought Borghas' popularity back.
    He was used again here and there, but gained notoriety again used by TheOutCast around the time of Dire Covenant. TheOutCast used Wasp to sneak up on the opponent's Shrine while he used champs such as Vothsair Ireguard and Corrupted Cultist to battle the opponent directly, then cast Borghas and double Fire Blasted for some big damage, using the champs' Fire Volatility to feed off of each other's Flame Pulses. If the Shrine had Transfigured, he ended it with a Retribution for a quick Avatar kill.
    caine1138 resurrected the Borghas-Shrine kill by combining it with Exile. Exile + Borghas allows you to bypass Planar Instability, and deploy TWO at once. Two Borghas with one Fire Blast at a Shrine deals about 36 damage. After a surge in Borghas popularity (I was also running 2x Borghas before this combo became well-known), Borghas received yet another nerf in a July 10, 2011 patch. His HP went from 20 to 10, and Fire Aura 3 was replaced with Fire Aura 1.
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    Hate Leech
    Has always given Life Siphon, has always given loss of life damage, and has always kind of blown. It originally was priced at 30 Nora, though.
     
  9. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    NORA SURGE
    • Release Date- August 13, 2008
    • Total UD Runes: 9 (5 Champs, 2 Spells, 1 Relic, 1 Equip)
    UD's Preview for Nora Surge was Bloodletter, a champ that many players claimed represented "powercreep" thanks to 12 (17) DMG. Pretty funny, right? The most influential rune of the expansion was initially Altar of Votaev. In these days of 20-rune docks, Altar could allow a player using cheap Demon champs to prolong the match in an attrition-style game that was lost once 30-rune docks were introduced with Ancient Awakenings. Now, the most influential rune of the expansion is Greater Pitspawn.
    The Titans, specifically Glacial Titan and Carrion Colossus, rampaged through the meta at the time. Carrion Colossus led to the famous "RMH" BG (Relocate-Mobi-Harvest, referring to the combination of Soul Siren with Necromancer for Soulharvesting shenanigans) which, combined with the old 2-font Lava Plains, Brood Pits, K'thir Forest and Ironfist Mountain maps, created one of the most "turtleriffic" times in Pox history. Glacial Titan also made FF ST a nightmare, at the time having 2-4 range.
    During this time, UD saw the rise of many now-famous players. Nethros and RasielCZ began showing up in the top 100 rankings, and Dalinski88 saw a top 10 ranking with his Rapid Assault Pitspawn + Retribution deck. Nethros ran a simple meta UD BG at the time, though later he would go on to play Spiders exclusively. Rasiel began climbing the ranks with UD towards the end of the expansion cycle, and only truly started climbing the top ranks with the release of...
    [​IMG]

    Bloodletter
    Hard to believe, but Bloodletter actually received nerf cries in his initial Preview thread for Nora Surge. Players pointed to his DMG stat and said it was "powercreep", while others claimed he was going to be too squishy for his cost.
    Bloodletter got a small Nora decrease from 80 to 78 somewhere around late 2008. He is also the subject of a running joke in the UD Forum from a poster named Zoltor, who claimed in a thread that Bloodletter was a better champ than Pit Dragon, mostly because his insanely expensive Resistance- Physical 2 build (then priced at around 90 Nora) supposedly lived longer. From this, he's earned the nickname "Zoltor" among some UD players.

    On April 17, 2012, Bloodletter got a big cost decrease from 78 to 70, received Bloodtracker base and two new upgrades, both of which happen to be in my Recommended Build.
    [​IMG]
    Greater Pitspawn was not too exciting on release. He underwent a couple crazy changes in beta, including gaining Resistance- 1 of every damage type at one point. He was average, even below average, for his cost despite a few attempts to buff him, like giving him Absorb. He was finally given 1-2 range and +7 DMG in a late 2009 patch, making him the then-highest DMG champion in the game with 25 DMG base and 29 in FF. Ever since then, he has seen moderate play.
    Pitspawn has also seen use in Rapid Assault tricks. Before Rapid Assault was given Bloodless, you could RA a Pitspawn and cast Retribution (then, an 80 Nora combo) and deal a virtually unpreventable 62 damage to the nearest opposing champ... Essentially, an 80 Nora instakill. This was fixed, but it wasn't long before RA and Pitspawn were used together again with the Imp Familiar's Doom to reset the Short Lived Cooldown. This was also fixed, and Pitspawn's use has declined since then.
    [​IMG]
    Hook Fiend
    Hook Fiend wasn't good for much until he got Pull in the revamp. He's been virtually unchanged other than that and a few minor cost changes.
    [​IMG]
    Screaming Imp
    Once considered one of the worst champs in the game, Screaming Imp has been buffed here and there enough to get some slight playability. It has never boosted him into full-blown viability, however. He got Mischief with the Wild Alliance expansion, though!
    [​IMG]
    Servile Brute
    Conditioned- Deep Elf was removed from the game in the February 2012 revamp.
    [​IMG]
    Demon Call
    Been the same, sucky rune for forever.
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    Rapid Assault
    RA has had a rough, turbulent history of abuse. Originally released with the Best Buy PoxNora game cards in fall 2008, Rapid Assault was priced at 40 Nora for a free Short-Lived 1 champ and did not give Bloodless. Here is a quick list of RA combos throughout the ages:
    1) RA + Pitspawn + Ret:[/u] Exactly what it sounds like. 80 Nora for 62 instant, unpreventable damage to the closest target.
    2) RA + Grimlic + Deception:[/u] Deception would Cleanse Grimlic of Short Lived, meaning you got a 40 Nora Grimlic.
    3) RA + Firemaw + RA + Firemaw:[/u] Known as the "lolmaw", it was an 80 Nora combo to trigger Fiery Death from having two Firemaw in play, dealing 20 global Fire damage every two rounds as long as the eggs stayed alive.
    4) RA + Firemaw + Rite abilities:[/u] After the former was fixed, it moved to simply one Firemaw, since he would revive himself from the Heart of Fire without Short Lived.
    5) RA + Pitspawn + Imp Familiar's Doom: [/u]Doom reset the Short Lived Cooldown, meaning you got an SL2 Pitspawn for 55 Nora.
    6) RA + Ash the Bandit Prince + FF UD: [/u]Cast RA in FF UD, deploy Ash, and he will die. Collect his globe for 30-odd Nora and you get two full-HP summons for about 25.
    All of these were nerfed at one point except the Ash combo, along with an early cost increase to 55 Nora somewhere around the time of "lolmaw".
    In a June 2011 patch, Rapid Assault was completely changed to what it is now: 35 Nora for Initiative 1, Equalize, Warding and Pariah. Initially, RA was deploying the RA'd champ completely FOR FREE (meaning you could RA a Grimlic for 35 Nora and he would have the abilities without paying the extra 99 Nora), but that was quickly nerfed.
    [​IMG]
    Altar of Votaev
    Has remained unchanged except for a nerf to the Cooldown reduction upon first release. (I may be wrong, but I believe it was originally including non-Demons)
    [​IMG]
    Nefari Mind Tomb
    Originally an Exotic rune in Nora Surge beta (shudder...), as were all the Nora Surge Equips, Mind Tomb originally was priced at 35 Nora. Even at 30 Nora, it's not great.
     
  10. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    DAWN OF ELEMENTS
    • November 10, 2008
    • Total UD Runes- 10 (5 Champs, 3 Spells, 2 Relics)
    The last expansion to have a beta, I got to experience a lot of OP runes that were nerfed pre-release. Fire Giant, the first Unleash champ in the game? Yeah, Fuel Rage used to have NO Cooldown. Fire Giant was OP as ****, and I fondly remember using him with Summoned Imps and Deep Elf Summoners for massive AP gain every turn. This expansion also gave UD Magma Elemental, Redcap Twins, Price of Victory and Globe of Deception, the latter of which was nerfed in the first week of release.
    Redcap Twins were considered UD's best new addition initially, though players like sinwind were quick to question why Magma Elemental and Price of Victory weren't 2x autoinclude. UD players slowly caught on (as usual :p), and Price of Victory was nerfed within the expansion cycle with a 5 Nora cost increase. RasielCZ, along with sinwind was one of the few players to pioneer the competitive use of Magma Elemental at a time when most in the UD community made fun of the champ.
    In an early December 2008 patch, about a month after Dawn of Elements was released, several changes changed UD forever (That is, until both runes were buffed back to viability). At the same time that Carrion Colossus and the RMH combo was nerfed, DEP lost one space off of Beckon Demon and Sacrifice went from a full Nora refund to 75%. As for the rest of the game, at the time it was dominated by RMH decks and SL Egg Bomb decks, until Hatching Season and Broodguard were nerfed in the same patch.
    The specific reasons for the Sac nerf are unknown, though it may have had something to do with the Lich King + Sacrifice combo that was being run in sinwind's FW/UD deck.
    [​IMG]

    Ember Wasp
    Not much has changed on the Wasp since release; it has always been an moderately costed Fire Volatility stealth champ. I think it was buffed at one point to get Evasive 3, but I'm not sure on that one. Ember Wasp has been a notable include in several prominent UD players' BG's, including TheOutCast, caine1138 and RasielCZ.
    [​IMG]
    Fire Giant
    In the beta for Dawn of the Elements, Fuel Rage (for Unleash) initially had 0 Cooldown, meaning as long as you had AP you could give AP to Fire Giant and up his DMG. This resulted in some insane synergy, particularly with champs such as Deep Elf Summoner whose Imps could Fuel 5 times per turn while they themselves could also Invigorate. The nerf to Unleash has been the only major change to Fire Giant.
    [​IMG]
    [Removed for Content] Tick
    Heck Tick was buffed roughly a year after release with a sizable cost decrease after complaints that he was too expensive.
    Tick has been a well-loved rune in the UD community. Badgerale has used Heck Ticks outside of Spider decks, and caine has used them with Imp Jester illusions and Latch On for a fun way to transport [Removed for Content] Tick across the map. General meta UD inclusion has eluded Heck Tick despite this.
    [​IMG]
    Magma Elemental
    Magma Elemental was originally 1x1 in the beta for Dawn of Elements, but was changed to 2x2 later in the beta. This hurt his initial playability, and many UD players expressed flippantly that they didn't care for his flavor.
    A couple weeks after DoE was released, Magma Ele was soon seen as a 2x include. 66 Nora for all that he did was incredibly efficient, at a time when efficient tanks were highly valued. Magma Elemental has still seen consistent play since then, though recently he has a competitor for the same role he serves, Lower Beast of Sheoul.
    [​IMG]
    Redcap Twins
    Redcaps were considered very dangerous upon release, and most UD players ran two. Towards the end of beta, some players created UD/X trick decks based on Raze that would decimate the opponent's Shrine in a matter of a few turns by using Sacrifice, Altar of Votaev, Darkness and other runes. This deck was short-lived, however, once it proved to not quite be fast enough.
    Redcaps suffered an unfortunate nerf from the Sibling nerf that happened due to Maulers in late 2009.
    [​IMG]
    Coward's Reach
    Has always done the same thing, but had its artwork changed with the revamp for some reason.

    On April 18, 2012, Coward's Reach received a 10 Nora cost decrease from 30 to 20.
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    Late to Battle
    Has always been a cool Spell, but was never used much at all. It was finally made Hidden with the revamp, boosting its playability but it has really only been used in Shrine rush decks.
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    Price of Victory
    Used to be a 2x autoinclude, this was one of those Spells that changed the way UD was played. The introduction of non-champ based AP gen, especially global AP gen, improved UD's "constant pressure" techniques and made some incredible last-minute spell-spamming possible. I have won many, many games from using PoV to kill an Avatar or just to get the extra AP to cap a font.
    Originally was priced at 35, it received a 5 Nora cost increase at the same time that Mobi went up to 50 and other AP gen spells received cost increases.
    [​IMG]
    Globe of Deception
    I'll try to contain my bitterness. Globe of Deception was declared OP on release, and was nerfed within the week. The way it was nerfed was in the bloodballs, whose damage/healing capacities were diminished to the point of triviality. Where Globe of Deception's bloodballs would deal 10 damage and heal 10 before, they did less than half of the effect post-nerf. It's sort of rotted in the shoebox since.
    [​IMG]
    Giving Tree
    A Limited Edition rune purchased for $10 each, Giving Trees are the same for every faction. All proceeds from the Giving Tree rune sales were given to Tucson, Arizona charities. Of course, the rune's not really supposed to be meta material.
     
  11. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    ANCIENT AWAKENINGS
    • Release Date- February 24, 2009
    • Total UD Runes: 9 (5 Champs, 2 Spells, 1 Equip, 1 Relic)
    Ancient Awakenings, in hindsight, is considered the worst expansion in PoxNora history. The introduction of 30-rune docks and Avatars coincided with a legion of average to below average runes, with a common complaint among players that they were boring. Ancient Awakenings also introduced the very first midterm LE release, the Angels. Something else to note is that there were a total of 2 (yes, 2) patches between this expansion and Rise of Serkan. It sort of makes me appreciate the number of patches we get today.
    Perhaps the only UD rune to note from this expansion is Shadow Hunter, a champ that became a signature rune of myself and TheOutCast. The first champion with Bounty Hunter, it became part of the Dire Covenant-era OutCast deck that reached great levels of success. As for other factions, there were a couple runes that were extremely powerful at first but were nerfed into oblivion (Rugolth's Fist, Turret Team), but aside from that, not much broke the game during this period.
    [​IMG]
    Angel of Pain
    When Angel of Pain was first released in the Ancient Awakenings midterm release, she was declared OP from the start. At the time, UD champs received a straight +5 DMG for the faction bonus, so Angel of Pain was hitting at six range for 14 DMG pre-Intensify, as well as costing 87 Nora for a cheap 6 (9) SPD build.
    When the devs nerfed UD's range bonus from +5 to +2, as UD Moderator I brought up to them that Angel of Pain (range 2-4) would actually lose 1 DMG when she Intensified. I thought the devs would buff Angel of Pain or change her range, because at the time she was rarely run thanks to a Week 1 nerf, but the devs instead nerfed her again.
    She basically rotted in the shoebox until the revamp. She lost Unequippable in a February 2011 patch.
    In September 2011, Paingel received a complete revamp. Her cost decreased from 97 (?) to 83. She lost her 2-4 range and became melee, as well as an overhaul to her upgrades. Aerial Supremacy was moved to base, Battle Harden was removed, and she gained Bloodtracker, Bleed, Rend 3 and Escalation for upgrades. She also received some minor stat buffs.
    [​IMG]
    Nefari Fireslinger
    Originally had 2 base DMG, which gave him 7 total with the FF bonus. When the UD ranged nerf was incoming, it was protested by UD players that Fireslinger would then have 4 DMG with FF bonus, which was unacceptable. The green response was to raise his base DMG to 10 in exchange for an almost 20 Nora cost increase.
    Got a pretty cool buff when Escalation was changed to activate every turn instead of every other turn.
    [​IMG]
    Puppet Master
    Puppet Master's main change over his time has been the addition of Resonance in fall 2009, which boosted his playability a bit. Before, he was only used for Puppet Mastering Flying champs because they do not get Lumbering, a bug which I don't believe has ever been fixed.
    [​IMG]
    RipDemon Alpha
    He's been the same horrendous rune since inception.
    [​IMG]
    Shadow Hunter
    At first bringing some ooh's and aah's, Shadow Hunter was the very first Bounty Hunter rune.
    He was run at 80 Nora pre-revamp for a cheap 11 (7) SPD build, though that eventually gave way to an almost 100 Nora build with maximized DMG upgrades. Some people credit TheOutCast for this, but if I can get on my soapbox for just a second, I was running this build 2x in my BG a mere couple weeks after Shadow Hunter was released, whereas TheOutCast's deck was not being played in the top ranks until post-Dire Covenant.
    Shadow Hunter received a nerf with the revamp when the greens stuck him at a watered-down build for 85 Nora, and then again when Bounty Hunter was nerfed to not proc on the first hit, a nerf intended to hurt Salaman Hunter. Shadow has been a sub-par rune since, even with the release of Cloak of Long Knives.
    Got a random buff in January 2012, replacing all his old crappy upgrades (+1 DMG and +2 DMG among them) with Evasive 2, Shadowspawn and Domain: Shadows, along with a Nora reduction to 80.
    [​IMG]
    Animosity
    Originally had an FF clause where it only did 5 of each effect in Splits, but with the revamp these were removed and it simply does 7 no matter what. It also received a 5 Nora cost decrease.
    [​IMG]
    Blood Exchange
    Been the same forever. No famous uses just yet.
    [​IMG]
    Widowmaker
    Received a cost decrease from 45 to 40, and had an FF clause removed with the revamp.
    Widowmaker first found use with Deep Elf Monk, who could Pummel and Widowmaker for a mere 2 AP for 3 attacks. It was later a staple of UD gameplay in early 2009, though it has gradually been phased out. For a while, Widowmaker didn't even WORK (The ability Widowmaker was put on the attack chain) but was fixed in December 2010.
    [​IMG]
    Nefari Exchange
    Been the same always and forever.
     
  12. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    RISE OF SERKAN
    • Release Date- May 19, 2009
    • Total UD Runes: 10 (6 Champs, 3 Spells, 1 Equip)
    Rise of Serkan introduces secondary Heroes for every faction that didn't have one already (just IS and UD) and the disdained Midterm LE set of "Doombringers", nicknamed "beachballs" among players because of their ridiculous look.
    UD's rune set was an interesting one for this expansion. Bunny Lord was the Exotic, a rune based on a long-standing joke from a user who collected thousands of Magma Bunnies, SaiTaan. Bok Warden was an instant hit, being run alongside Nefari Dragons for a 4x autoinclude set of pseudo-ranged uber-champs. Arthropod Frenzy revolutionized Spider decks, and Shadow gave Stealth decks a boost. Overall, UD players were fairly happy with the expansion.
    In August, Volatile was nerfed from 10 Shrine damage to 70. This severely damaged champs such as Deep Elf Priestess, who had received a nerf to the Beckon Demon range a mere six months earlier, and Sheoul Demon. It was eventually lowered to 55, but this was a huge hit to many UD champs.
    FW received Eternal Lich in this expansion, a rune that was temporarily abused in FW/KF with Grimlic's Mirrors and in FW/UD with Retribution until it was given Inscrutable Form and Bloodless a mere week later. Other notorious runes released this expansion included Firk Mind Shredder, Warcaller Fiorn, Vicious Harpoon, Draksar Rocketeer and Sonic Elemental. One of the most dominant decks in PoxNora history, in what is now commonly referred to as the "FS/SL era", FS/SL was all anyone played during this summer, banking mainly on champs such as Draksar Rocketeer, Acid Elemental, Feeding Frenzy + Draconic Benediction, Reckless Command and Firk Botanist for ranged domination combined with unparalleled power turns and spot removal.
    In a time when turtling was the name of the game, Valdac also made FF SL extremely powerful, so much that SL was the top FF for most of the expansion cycle.
    [​IMG]
    Bok Warden
    When released with Rise of Serkan, Bok Warden was considered to be a 2x include in most meta builds.
    Warden sat stagnant for quite some time until a September 2010 patch gave her Blitz and Pin Down fo' free. When the devs figured out that the buff did nothing to her viability, they gave her -7 Nora (from 77 to 70) along with Blood Offering 1 as a base ability in the February 2012.

    ...She still isn't that good.
    [​IMG]
    Bunny Lord

    Bunny Lord has been below average since release in Rise of Serkan, and while he had a time in the spotlight for a while, that time is now gone.
    "Bunny Lord" existed pre-release however, in the form of an inside joke with the user SaiTaan, who collected thousands of Magma Bunny and dubbed himself the "Bunny Lord". Many players pleaded that the devs create a rune in his honor, and thus this rune was born. Underdepths has received a couple "joke runes" over the years, and this is the second one. (The first was Undertortoise)
    Bunny Lord was overhauled after winning a "shoebox buff" competition in November 2011. He received all-new upgrades with Intimidating, Camaraderie and Lava Storm, while keeping Surge: Beast and having +1 SPD, Fire Eater, and Boost: Beast 2 put on base.

    In the February 2012 revamp, Bunny Lord received a huge nerf. -1 DEF, -2 DMG, -4 HP, lost Tame Beast 1, and +7 Nora from 82 to 89.
    [​IMG]
    Pox Doombringer
    Everyone kind of wants to forget about the LE release of the Beachballs. They looked the same for every faction except in color, and some even had the same range or abilities except for one.
    UD Doom was considered an acceptable substitute for the Pox Harbinger upon initial release, but especially after being nerfed by the UD ranged bonus nerf, it hasn't ever really lived up to expectations. As of February 2012, though, you can now run a pair of both Dooms and Harbs instead of just one pair of either.
    [​IMG]
    Siege Monger
    No changes, and no famous uses.
    [​IMG]
    Trap Spider
    Was used as a 2x include briefly by players such as sinwind and TinyDragon, though the fad quickly fizzles out once Summon Trap Spider was released.
    [​IMG]
    Weaver
    Rumored to come from a player-created rune that spewed "Web terrain", Weaver's only change came on April 17, 2012 when he received a whopping 10 Nora cost decrease from 79 to 69.
    [​IMG]
    Arachnid Frenzy
    Has always been the same.
    [​IMG]
    Befoul
    I'm not positive, but I think it was buffed at some point from lasting 6 turns to lasting 12 turns. Not that it really mattered.
    [​IMG]
    Shadow
    Has always been the same.
    [​IMG]
    Sword of Shadows
    Received a 10 Nora cost decrease from 55 to 45 around the time of the revamp.
    The only famous use of this rune was in a Kithros deck. Mass-producing Elven Illusionist illusions with the Sword in Relic mode, then killing them with an AoE created an army of spirits at your disposal. The deck was creative and was met with moderate success, but never caught on as a metagame BG.
     
  13. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    BROODCALL
    • Release Date- August 25, 2009
    • Total UD Runes: 10 (6 Champs, 2 Spells, 1 Relic, 1 Equip)
    Broodcall brought the Dragons to PoxNora, along with the Heralds as the Midterm releases. The Herald-Dragon era of PoxNora is a period which, devs have admitted, showed the lowest sale numbers of any expansion cycle. Heroes were buffed, particularly Xulos, after FS/SL domination over the summer caused many players to complain FF was not powerful enough.
    Firemaw was considered one of the worst Dragons, though he was among the most highly valued. He was originally regarded too expensive, until some stat changes combined with cost decreases finally brought him into line. Funnily enough, Icesnap was considered by far the worst Dragon, but was buffed to the point that now Icesnap would probably be considered the best one. Other noteworthy UD runes of this expansion were the Soulbleeder (not particularly good at the time, though now he's a solid include) and Imp Alchemist, who dominated support duties for UD until DEP was buffed in 2010.
    FS did well again this expansion, acquiring Boghopper Huntmaster, Firk Mindweaver, Salaman Negamage, Infuse, and Soulsphere. Soulsphere was the most notorious of the set at the beginning of the expansion, though it was soon nerfed. FS and SP were rampant during this period, particularly SP with Voil Stormflyers and Hyaenid Witchdoctors + The Exile. Awaken Brood brought back Egg Bomb decks as well, though they were short lived.
    [​IMG]

    Broodmother
    Broodmother has undergone a couple different changes since release. She was considered a Spider BG-only champ until the devs gave her Leap 3 and Web... At that point, all HECK (lolfilter) broke loose.
    Broodmothers began showing up as 2x includes in every FF UD Battlegroup, at the time having 20 DMG and were priced at a whopping 61 Nora for their meta build. The devs then nerfed Broodmother's DMG by quite a bit, increased her cost and now she only serves a function in Spider decks.
    [​IMG]
    Deep Elf Masochist
    Aside from a few minor cost changes, Masochist was unchanged until April 18, 2012 when she was completely revamped.

    She finally lost Unequippable and Thrash (an ability that damaged herself equal to her DMG stat and Feared everything in range 6, CD 1) and received Conqueror/Exertion 2 on base instead. She also had her +1 SPD upgrade replaced with Drive, her Enrage 3 upgrade replaced with Pain Split 3, and her +1 DEF upgrade replaced with Antagonize.
    [​IMG]
    Firemaw
    Boy, does Firemaw have a history. Originally considered one of the worst Dragons upon the release of Broodcall, Firemaw was priced at 100 Nora WITHOUT Lava Storm, had less DMG, less HP and Fire Eater instead of Immunity- Fire. A series of buffs helped increase his viability, though he has gained most of his notoriety from the "lolmaw" combo.
    Originally pioneered by myself, "lolmaw" was initially just two Firemaw deploys that triggered Fiery Death due to Planar Instability (now Mythical). When in combination with Rapid Assault, this was an 80 Nora combo that triggered 20 global Fire damage every two turns. In a Fire Eater BG, the combo was quite potent until SOE gave the Heart of Fire Planar Instability as well.
    Pic of the very first game with the first form of "lolmaw":
    [​IMG]
    The combo came back in a different form, which was simply with Rapid Assault to gain a cheap Firemaw. Most would use Rapid Assault with Imp Alchemists' Rite of Destruction to quicken the process of gaining their super-cheap Firemaw.

    Once this was nerfed as well and Rapid Assault suffered a 15 Nora nerf, Firemaw's role was reduced to an 80 Nora beater since Alchemists were autoinclude anyway. He received a bonus to playability with the release of Firelight Gem as well.
    [​IMG]
    Imp Alchemist
    A couple "fixes" have been made to Grant- Action Potion to make it worse, like making Use Action Potion have a Cooldown of 8. Other than that, no actual changes to the Alchemist.
    [​IMG]
    Murk Demon
    Originally way overpriced and squishy, Murk Demon has gained a couple sizable buffs, the most recent of which was giving him Shadow Shift and Weaken Spells as well as moving Poison to upgrades.
    [​IMG]
    Soulbleeder
    Soulbleeder was unchanged until a September 2010 patch put Life Siphon on base, gave him Soul Siphon, and added Exertion 3 and Tormented to his upgrades, a massive buff.
    [​IMG]
    Mass Web
    I think the cost went down 5 Nora at some point.
    [​IMG]
    Soul Feed
    Originally was 35 Nora instead of 30. Horrors!
    [​IMG]
    Orb of Protection
    The first change Orb received was on April 18, 2012 when it got Fire Acolyte and Searing Touch Aura 4.
    [​IMG]
    Arachnablade
    Originally was priced at 45, I believe. Was popularly used as a negative equip to spawn spiders under its owners' control until that functionality was nerfed in September 2011, along with a cost decrease to 30.
     
  14. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    DIRE COVENANT
    • Release Date- November 11, 2009
    • Total UD Runes: 10 (6 Champs, 2 Spells, 1 Relic, 1 Equip)
    Dire Covenant, the last expansion of pre-revamp PoxNora, was arguably a golden age for UD. UD was at its most competitive level in quite a while, and players like myself, TheOutCast and Nethros were consistently top 25 using FF UD. Even now, Dire Covenant probably contains the highest average viability for UD runes of any expansion.
    The most popular UD deck at the time was pioneered by TheOutCast, using 2x Corrupted Cultist and 2x Vothsair Ireguard to battle for fonts while Ember Wasp and Shadow Hunter stealthily moved in to Shrine rush. The match often culminated into either a pair of Vothsairs winning the font battle or an Ember Wasp Borghas Bombing the Shrine with help from Shadow Hunter hits. The deck succeeded because it fought the battle on two fronts: You were in your opponent's face, but kept them cautious with the Wasp and the threat of Shrine rush.
    KF was initially the strongest FF deck of the expansion, with pre-nerf Colossal Boas, Circle Messengers, Reclaims and Wilderkin Snakedancers, Reclaim was 40 Nora instead of 50, Channel hadn't been nerfed for Messengers, Snakedancers were substantially less Nora, and Colossal Boa had 15 DMG instead of 11. After these nerfs, ST and it's Yeti theme, now termed "the Yeti incident", rose to fame with the release of three new Yeti's and a racial ability. FS also received Salaman Hunter and Flood. Essentially, the expansion's top FF decks were all Protectorate (minus IS) and UD.
    It would be about 5 months until the revamped PoxNora, so the wait in between expansions was incredibly long.
    [​IMG]
    Captive Lorekeeper
    Got minimal attention in the February 2012 revamp, gaining Race: Wizard instead of Druid, losing Wisdom as an upgrade and gaining Weaken Spells instead. Too bad he still sucks.
    [​IMG]
    Corrupted Cultist
    2x autoinclude upon release, Cultist got a 3 Nora cost hike a few weeks afterwards. Corrupted Cultist was part of the famous OutCast deck featuring 2x Cultist, 2x Vothsair Ireguard, 2x Ember Wasp and 2x Borghas as its core.
    He's one of only a couple Attack- Loss of Life champs in the game, which gives him a constant reason for viability.

    Received a 5 Nora cost decrease from 62 Nora to 57.
    [​IMG]
    Imp Familiar
    Has historically only been used either for Flame Charge, or to Doom a Rapid Assault champ to reset the Short-Lived Cooldown.
    [​IMG]
    Imp Jester
    Gained Scornful base in the revamp and had his cost go up. Before that, he was regularly being ran at 73 Nora.
    He was buffed in a September 2010 patch, getting Scornful removed in favor of Spite and going down to 72 Nora in price. He then lost Spite in the February 2012 revamp in favor of Scorn.
    [​IMG]
    Nefari Griefsinger

    Was maligned from day one by the UD community, but received a surprise buff from a pure-melee champ to 1-3 range in a November 2010 Maljaran War patch that also buffed Deep Elf Monk.

    [​IMG]

    Vothsair Ireguard

    One of the most feared runes in PoxNora history, the best rune to come out of Dire Covenant and the most valuable Exotic for quite some time, I present to you... Vothsair Ireguard.

    Only the second Arrow Eater champ ever, Vothsair was the centerpiece of every meta UD BG at the time of release, and a 2x autoinclude until 6 months later in the revamp. He was nerfed by 1 DMG at the same time that the FF UD bonus was nerfed, so he received -2 DMG in total that patch. His cost also went up with the revamp.

    Other than that, Vothsair has simply been powercreeped and isn't seen as an auto anymore.

    [​IMG]

    Erupt

    Originally, the Lava Traps were Shadowspawned which was AWESOME. They were quickly changed to be visible within the week. Erupt also saw a 5 Nora cost decrease in a pre-Maljaran Frontier patch.

    [​IMG]

    Summon Trap Spider

    Originally priced at 80, STS saw a cost decrease to 75 a few weeks post-release, and its popularity boomed. STS became 2x autoinclude in FF UD, and even had entire decks centered around it. It received a 5 Nora cost increase back to 80 around the time of the revamp that brought it back down to earth.
    Received a fairly big hit when summons no longer contested fonts in a 2011 patch.

    [​IMG]

    Temple of Brutality

    When Previewed, Temple of Brutality's effect worked at the beginning of YOUR next turn, not your opponent's. It created some controversy, though when ToB was released, it was changed to begin on your opponent's next turn instead.

    Since it has blown from this point onward, it got a 5 Nora cost decrease to motivate us to play it. Hahaha.

    [​IMG]

    Flameheart Pauldron

    Aside from a 5 Nora cost decrease, no changes.
     
  15. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    MALJARAN FRONTIER
    • Release Date- April 26, 2010
    • Total UD Runes: 14 (10 Champs, 2 Spells, 1 Relic, and 1 Equip)
    Maljaran Frontier, the first of three expansions in the "Maljaran block", was one of the most maligned expansions in the game's history, mostly because of the four new Races it brought with it: the Leoss, Stitched, Kanen, and Tortuns. The Leoss were initially the most infamous, hated far and wide for their new player-friendly playstyle and comeback potential. A defining moment of this expansion was when MaxCyrus achieved a #1 rank with a Leoss + Last Stand deck, causing outrage for many players.
    Originally, the order of viability was: Stitched, Leoss, Tortuns, Kanen. As Tortuns and Kanen were buffed, and abilities for Stitched like Reconstruct were nerfed, it quickly became: Tortuns, Kanen, Leoss, Stitched. Tortuns became dominant towards the end of the expansion, after some champs were given Accrue and others cost decreases.
    As for UD, the one rune that will plague the memories of Pox players forever is Fading Recollection. One of the most hated Spells in history, FR is still hotly debated on the Forums and many players hate it for no reason other than they don't like it and view it as "un-fun". I won't get into much of this here, but D*MN is it annoying to hear the same things said over and over about FR. Moving on...
    Maljaran Frontier is comprised completely of Stitched champs except for Prince Malandur. Since I'm not a primarily Stitched player, I thought that I might just link to Krebmart's Stitched Guide where he analyzes every Stitched champ anyway:
    http://forums.station.sony.com/strategygames/posts/list.m?topic_id=37313
    His assessments will be more accurate than mine because he has played with Stitched far more than I have. I'll review the remaining cards in Maljaran Frontier that are not Stitched champs. I will also not include Stitched champs from Heroes of Maljara that are in Krebmart's Guide.
    I know when to yield to a more experienced authority, and this is just such a situation. I'll also be linking Krebmart's Guide later in section 3 when I talk about how to build different decks. Just take Kreb's advice when it comes to Stitched and I'll cover the rest of UD.
    [​IMG]
    Prince Malandur
    The only notable use of Prince is in a KF/UD deck that relied on Truce together with non-attack damage like Psychic Ping, Trample and Searing Aura. He also has not undergone any nerfs or buffs.
    [​IMG]
    Fading Recollection
    Been the same forever, despite hashinshin's obnoxious, constant nerf cries.
    [​IMG]
    Cloak of Long Knives
    Upon first release, it gave Assassinate 2 and Shadow Shift, and was used with great success in combo with Salaman Hunter. With the Cloak in an FS/UD, Salaman could Assassinate with Bounty Hunter for about 67 damage per hit at 8 range.
    Salaman Hunter lost Class: Assassin. After Long Knife Adept was released, LKA lost Class: Rogue so she couldn't use it. Kind of ridiculous that the Long Knife ADEPT can't use Cloak of Long Knives, but that's when sokolov took over the game in January 2012 and revamped the rune into +2 DMG, Shadowstrike and Shadow Shift, along with a 15 Nora reduction to 30. LKA regained Class: Rogue after the nerf.
    [​IMG]
    Griefbearer's Fountain
    Boy, was there a ruckus about this thing. It originally had something like 21 HP, so the amount of healing you could milk from it was just ridiculous. It was eventually nerfed to its current form, and subsequently its use has fallen drastically.[/u][/u][/u][/u]
     
  16. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    HEROES OF MALJARA
    • Release Date- July 14, 2010
    • Total UD Runes: 13 (7 Champs, 4 Spells, 1 Relic, and 1 Equip)
    Heroes of Maljara, or HoM, introduced Split Heroes to PoxNora. While not as unpopular as Maljaran Frontier, Heroes of Maljara received more complaints that the game was being slanted towards Splits, even though factions such as UD only received two Stitched out of seven champs.
    FF UD was initially viewed as the faction that benefited the MOST from the expansion, with many agreeing that runes like Deep Leviathan and Votaev's Grasp were among HoM's most powerful. Deep Levi topped many top 5 lists at his initial cost of 72 Nora, though the hype died down fairly fast, and Grasp was outright nerfed a few weeks in.
    Just as summer 2009 was the "FS/SL era", the summer of 2010 quickly because the "KF/ST era". Snare Fairy, Fairy Trickster, Lonx Hunt Leader, Orb of Frostfall, K'thun the Ancient, Furbull Mother, Ospryan Valkyrie and Shardseer K'aeyun were the core of an extremely dominant BG focused on Summons, unkillable champs, and a strange kind of attrition that resulted from ranged Debilitate on Snairy and Orb of Frostfall.
    Some other combinations received notoriety, such as Barricade + Snowburst (nicknamed "Bursticade"), Frostbite + Black Ice (now called Hypothermia) and Zeventrech the Last + Last Stand.
    [​IMG]
    Ash the Bandit Prince
    Originally priced at 93 Nora, Ash first got hit with a 7 Nora increase to 100, then a second hit to 105 with Volatile added on top of that.
    Ash gained Multi3 as an upgrade along with a 4 Nora cost reduction in the February 2012 revamp. He also lost Pariah and gained Warding at some point.
    [​IMG]
    Aspect of Oblivion
    Received a 6 Nora cost reduction from 81 to 75 in the February 2012 revamp.
    [​IMG]
    Bok Mistress
    Originally had Paralytic Feedback and was AWESOME. Then she got nerfed with Absorb instead, but it's OK because while she is less awesome, she's still plenty viable.
    [​IMG]
    Deep Leviathan
    Originally cost 72 Nora and was declared by many to be the most OP rune of the expansion on release.
    He got nerfed to 78 and things settled down. iPox still used him in a trick deck with Stitched Librarian and Exile + Mimic to get a Cataclysm off in just a couple of turns. The deck's demise came when the Exile + Mimic combo was nerfed.
    In one of the most inexplicably batsh*t nerfs of all time, Deep Leviathan lost Tough 2 and Burn 2 in a February 2012 and gained their rank 1 upgrades instead. It still hasn't been reversed.

    Destorum and Yobanchi both have recently run trick decks to get Deep Levi to use Cataclysm, such as using Slum Market to give him Assault, Exiling him, running Firestarter next to him to get 15 charges in one turn, then using Dragon God's Staff to Cleanse him and use Cataclysm. With Amplify, it can deal up to 58 Fire damage globally.
    [​IMG]
    Lower Beast of Sheoul
    Originally priced at 66, Lower Beast received a nerf in 2011 when he got Absorb in exchange for a 5 Nora cost increase to 71.

    In the February 2012 revamp, LBoS gained +5 HP from 47 to 52, had Spell Charged 3 put on base instead of Spell Charged 2, and had Absorb moved to upgrades as well as a 3 Nora decrease from 71 to 68.
    [​IMG]
    Sheoul Magus
    Originally priced at 84 Nora, Magus recieved a 3 Nora cost decrease in a September 2010 buff patch.
    Before that, Magus' Recharged was bugged to completely lower Cooldown on his abilities, and was nerfed to reduce Cooldowns by only 1. This hurt his playability some.

    In February 2012, Magus inexplicably gained -1 DEF, leaving him at 0. Finally, in a March 21, 2012 patch, Magus received the buff he's waited so long for. He lost his horrific 2-3 range and gained range 2-4, along with a cost decrease from 81 to 77.
    [​IMG]
    Breath of Ash
    None.
    [​IMG]
    Burnout
    It was the Preview rune for HoM, but other than that there's not much to talk about.
    [​IMG]
    Exile
    It's already been used in quite a few tricks. Exile + Mimic was nerfed, and so were other combos such as Exile + Mercy, Exile + Banish, Exile + Borghas (for double-Borg Shrine bombs) and Exile + Votaev's Grasp. It was nerfed from 25 to 50 Nora and its description changed to give "ownership" to your opponent.
    [​IMG]
    Votaev's Grasp
    Originally, really broken. It spawned the champ at the site of death, which made it a kind of super-Swarm for only 35 Nora. It was nerfed to deploy the champ at your nearest deployment area, but at first the champ was bugged to not receive Initiative. That's been fixed, and the Initiative was changed from Init 1 to Init 2 to soften the blow of the nerf.
    [​IMG]
    Ethereal Pool
    None, though we all wished it was buffed to not be so horrifically useless.
    [​IMG]
    Firelight Gem
    Originally released at 35 Nora, it received increases to 40 and then finally to 50. With the release of Heroes' Dawn in February 2011, it finally was nerfed from 200% damage to 150% and a return to a 40 Nora pricetag.
    Its main use was actually outside of FF UD, in FS/UD or KF/UD decks on Tortun Mortar or Tortun Grenadier. It's pretty awesome when your runes get nerfed because of Split abuse, but Mortars smashing things for over 30 damage at 8 range got pretty ridiculous with only a 35 Nora price tag.
     
  17. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    MALJARAN WAR
    • Release Date- November 9, 2010
    • Total UD Runes: 12 (9 Champs, 2 Spells, 1 Relic)
    Maljaran War was the last expansion to include Split Heroes, and the final expansion of the "Maljaran block".
    Some overpowered runes were released, such as Mindwarp Frog, Dragon Engine, the original Death Lily, Kanen Slipped, Fishkisser and Tortun Portalmage. However, the general consensus among PoxNora's players was that Maljaran War was more balanced and more interesting than Heroes of Maljara. Forglar Swamp was a powerful force early on, boasting the new additions of pre-nerf Death Lily and Mindwarp Frog in their arsenal. FS also received arguably the best midterm, Neuromancer.
    UD didn't get much for Maljaran War, so their midterm was Balefire Knight. While unoriginal, Balefire did give UD a slight competitive boost two months after the expansion.
    [​IMG]
    Balefire Knight
    Received a pretty substantial buff with "Quest: Kill Enemy" in May 2011. He also got a very slight nerf in a July 11, 2011 patch when Swoop was nerfed from 4 AP to 5 AP and CD 2 to CD 3.
    In February 2012, Balefire received a huge nerf. He gained 6 SPD base instead of 5, with +1 SPD as an upgrade instead of +2, but also lost Melt and suffered a 10 Nora cost increase to 91 Nora. On March 20, 2012, he got his cost decreased back down to 83 and claimed viability once more.
    [​IMG]
    Flame Skitter
    UD's Preview champ for this expansion, Skitter received mixed reviews upon first showing.

    Skitter was unchanged until a February 2012 buff that removed Scorn and Escape, and replaced Evasive 2 in the upgrades with Evasive 3 and added Shadowstrike. Shadowstrike alone skyrocketed his playability.
    [​IMG]
    Hraken Bloodbow
    Originally cost 91 Nora, Hraken was nerfed to 97 Nora before being buffed back to 90 Nora in the February 2012 revamp. He also lost Horrific Aura as an upgrade, had Hostile moved to upgrades, lost Fearless altogether, and received Reinforcement as a new upgrade.
    [​IMG]
    Kiergana
    Indirectly nerfed once Kanen Cultist received Designate Scapegoat, an ability that was only on Kiergana before.
    She received a buff with a June 2011 "shoebox buff" patch, the most notable of which was Life Siphon base. She was then nerfed in the February 2012 revamp when she went from 91 to 98 Nora and lost Designate: Scapegoat. In a March 20, 2012 patch she was placed back at 91 Nora and lost Soulsift 2 instead, for Soulsift 1.
    [​IMG]
    Lavaspout
    Was briefly "abused" by Kithros in a UD/ST BG with Permafrost Obelisks for global HP buffs to hundreds of spouts.

    Received a 4 Nora cost decrease from 72 to 68 in the February 2012 revamp. Didn't affect anything, though.
    [​IMG]
    Zoalt, Sky Serpent
    Received a cost decrease to 85 Nora after originally being priced at over 90.

    In the February 2012 revamp, Zoalt had his range reduced from 1-2 to 1, recieved -5 HP and +5 Nora (back to 90), as well as losing Groundstriker as an upgrade in favor of Evasive 3.
    [​IMG]
    Smoke Cloud
    Originally released at 40 Nora, a quick patch a few weeks post-expansion gave it a 10 Nora cost decrease and a tremendous boost in viability.
    [​IMG]
    Volcanic Burst
    No changes, no famous uses.
    [​IMG]
    Cursed Epitaph
    No changes, not surprising once you figure out how hard it blows.[/u]
     
  18. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    HEROES' DAWN
    • Release Date- February 15, 2011
    • Total UD Runes: 13 (7 Champs, 2 Spells, 2 Relics, and 2 Equips)
    Hereos' Dawn was released under indications that it would be an FF-themed expansion. As shown by the 4 Stitched champs, however, it was apparent that SOE thought the same number of Split champs as previous expansions was appropriate.
    There was an uproar from the playerbase as a whole, and subsequent expansions saw a much more thematic approach to them.

    Bastion the Avenger (third IS Hero) was possibly the most overpowered rune of the expansion initially, though he was rivaled by the new Nora Gems, all of which received cost increases and a range nerf from 5 to 4. Bastion was eventually nerfed though, and other runes like Tortun Repeater took the nerf spotlight.

    Heroes' Dawn also introduced the Gold Store in Player Rewards, and with it came Inquisitor Magnus (150k) and Sarinda (75k), two champions available only through spending Gold. Inquisitor Magnus, with Hunter: Wrath, was met with outrage from the Wrath community (UD in particular, since he also totes Resistance- Magical 3. Anyone else have flashbacks to pre-nerf Thirion...?) and he was eventually "nerfed" to get Bounty Hunter instead, though that didn't happen for several expansions.
    [​IMG]
    Bok Enforcer
    Nerfed from 65 Nora to 69 Nora in the February 2012 revamp.
    [​IMG]
    Demonbarb Spider
    He originally had 1-5 range but lost it for 1-4 range in the February 2012 revamp. He also lost Climb as a starting ability and received a 4 Nora cost decrease to 71. This nerf was almost completely reversed in a March 21, 2012 patch, except that Demonbarb didn't get Climb back.

    He's still the only 1-5 range champion in the game!
    [​IMG]
    Maxxarek
    Received Portal in a March 2011 buff patch.
    [​IMG]
    Brand of Brutality
    --
    [​IMG]
    Mindslicer Boomerang
    --
    [​IMG]
    Defiling Spinel
    Nerfed from 30 Nora to 35 Nora and 5 range to 4 range within the first week of expansion.
    [​IMG]
    Soultap Garnet
    Nerfed from 30 Nora to 35 Nora and 5 range to 4 range within the first week of expansion.
    [​IMG]
    Bracelet of Mirrors
    --
    [​IMG]
    Murder
    Was briefly abused with Aspect of Divinity and Nightmare. One would equip AoD with Murder, who would then have Heal Charged 2 and Nora Thief (an ability with 0 Cooldown), and have Nightmare walk in the background. This resulted in the ability to steal up to 90 Nora per turn from the opponent and give it to yourself. This was nerfed very quickly to only give Nora Thief to Ash.
    Used to cost 40 Nora, now it's only 30.
     
  19. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    "HERITAGE"
    • Released- March 23, 2011 and May 16, 2011, with a third Legendary release on June 15, 2011
    • Total UD Runes- 4 (3 Champs, 2 Equips)
    "Heritage" was a new mini-expansion that was released in place of the midterm packs, although "Heritage - Legends" was released two months afterwards with the usual midterm runes. "Heritage - Legends II" was released another month after that, making this the first time in PoxNora history that three midterms came in between full expansions.
    It's important to note that the original "Heritage" was renamed to "Mini" after the full expansion titled "Heritage" was released in August 2011.[/u]
    Aside from the Forum ruckus over so many midterms/Legendary releases, the reaction for UD was pretty poor for the first expansion. The only truly useful rune is Protean Chains. The next two Legendaries released, Demonologist and Vothsair Reaver, were both autoinclude upon release, causing some complaints about UD's legion of autoinclude Legendaries (Nefari Messenger, Balefire Knight, Demonologist, and now Vothsair Reaver, with Prince Malandur being another meta champ.)
    As for other factions' "Heritage" releases, the Protectorate Knights released in "Heritage - Legends" cause quite a stir. Condor Fury, the KF Knight, was nerfed a couple times, and Charge Knight for IS also received a cost increase. When the Protectorate Knights were released with Quest - Kill Enemy, SOE also buffed the Wrath Knights from before (see Balefire Knight) with the same ability. Once Balefire was buffed with Quest, he returned to autoinclude status... Which didn't help the complaints about autoinclude UD Legendary champs.
    [​IMG]
    Phase Spider
    Received +5 HP in a July 11, 2011 patch.

    Received Regen 2 as an upgrade in 2012, and skyrocketed to God Mode status afterwards. Lost Regen 2 for Confuse Attacker on April 18, 2012.
    [​IMG]
    Mail of Barbs
    None yet.
    [​IMG]
    Protean Chains
    None yet.
    [​IMG]
    Demonologist
    Originally released at 76 Nora with the ability "Spell Siphon" (You receive 50% of the Nora used for single-target Spells against Demonologist, e.g. Fading Recollection on Demonologist gives you 27 Nora, etc.). He lost Spell Siphon and went up to 79 Nora shortly after release.

    Received +6 Nora to 85 in the February 2012 revamp, along with Race: Wizard and Summon Imp 2 as an upgrade instead of Summon Imp 1.
    [​IMG]
    Vothsair Reaver
    Astoundingly, Reaver hasn't had any major changes to him since release. Huzzah!
    HERITAGE
    • Released - August 4, 2011
    • Total UD Runes - 8 (4 Champs, 2 Spells, 2 Equips)
    [​IMG]
    Demonvein Vampyre
    Nerfed from 78 to 86 Nora in the February 2012 revamp, though he gained Rabid 3 as an upgrade in exchange for Mobility. His new cost made him pretty bad, though.
    [​IMG]
    Grundelwulf Alpha
    Received a nerf in the February 2012 revamp. -5 HP to 48, +5 Nora to 84 and Pain Split trading places with Improve Speed on base/upgrades.
    [​IMG]
    Long Knife Adept
    LKA was quickly declared the most overpowered champ released in Heritage, and received several major nerfs over the first couple of weeks.
    She was originally 69 (!) Nora, had range 1-2 and Safeguard 6, was Class: Rogue, had Rend 3 base, and Provision as an upgrade. Within four days of release, after many players complained about a Combat Awareness champ with Cloak of Long Knives, her Class was changed to Warrior, her max range capped at 1, and she received a cost increase to 73.
    Three days later, she received another cost increase to 78. A few more days after that, Safeguard 6 became Safeguard 5, she lost her Provision upgrade, and had her cost decreased to her current one, 76. In that span of time, LKA has gone from auto to a slightly above-average tank champion.
    [​IMG]
    Nefari Caverunner
    Received a cost increase from 67 to 72 a week after release. Gained Volatile in an October 2011 patch.
    In the February 2012 revamp, she lost Gore, Climb and Volatile, as well as getting Fire Bomb 3 and Tunnel: Earth 2 downgraded to Fire Bomb 2 and Tunnel: Earth 1 respectively. She also lost her Domain: Rock upgrade for Mountaineer.
    [​IMG]
    Nefari Griefbearer
    Received +8 Nora from 63 to 71 in the February 2012 revamp. Dispel was also changed in that update to no longer be an attack, meaning Griefbearer could Dispel things like Zephyr Shield now.
    [​IMG]
    Avenging Flame
    It has had its fair share of bugs, but they've all been fixed to my knowledge. No balance changes.
    [​IMG]
    Pillars of Flame
    A week after release, Pillars received a cost decrease from 45 to 40.
    [​IMG]
    Molten Cloak
    None.
     
  20. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    WILD ALLIANCE
    • Release Date - November, 2011
    • Total UD Runes - 9 (6 champs, 2 Spells, 1 Equip)
    Wild Alliance continued the trend that Heritage began of expanding races into themes, this time around focusing on Snaptooth for FS (previously only seen on Snaptooth Rider, a Release Set rune), Hyaenid for SP, Witches for FW, Constructs for IS and Treefolk for KF. For ST, this expansion introduced Strig, and for SL, Myx.
    UD saw the release of a cohesive Imp theme through 4 new Imp champ and a racial ability, Mischief. Mischief ended up getting nerfed a couple times; originally, you could use it on your own champs who had Mischief, and it would also give AP even if none was taken. Even after those changes, Needleclaw Imp and Imp Vixen were nerf-cried heavily and eventually both were nerfed. Imp decks aren't seen much anymore, outside a split with Tailwind.
    Constructs ruled the meta initially, between pre-nerf Rugolth's Revenge and Dwarven Engineer summoning full-HP Grobles and handing out Tough 3, they were a tough deck to beat. As they were put in line, Witch decks started taking over. At the time, Elsari Coven gave Witches the ability "Rise" when there were 3 or more out. It was nerfed at the end of the expansion cycle, but until that point Witches were everywhere.
    Probably the most notorious runes of the expansion were in FS, though. Jyx the Shadesworn is definitely the "Bastion the Avenger" of Wild Alliance, being the central focus of nerf riots in General Discussion and receiving several nerfs such as losing Oblivion Shield, 2 DEF and some cost increases. In addition to Jyx, towards the middle of the expansion, Snaptooth became such an overpowered force in the game that their racial, Murkwater Frenzy was re-worked and several of the champions, specifically Snaptooth Deadeye and Snaptooth Crawmangler, ended up getting nerfed pretty hard.

    The sleeper runes of the expansion were undoubtedly Strig. Galerider was rarely complained about the first half of the expansion, though the second half saw a huge surge in Tailwind decks and bandwagon ST players (I can include myself in that group... Those decks were fun!), which peaked with the release of Strig Warlock as a midterm rune.
    A community joke rune, "Snogvie the Antbear", based on a comment originally made by the user Faxtar, was released as a 150k gold rune for SL. I really hate Snogvie...

    [​IMG]
    Imp Strangler
    Nerfed in the February 2012 revamp when he was hit with a 7 Nora cost increase from 64 to 71, and lost Constriction in favor of Ensnare. The nerf was completed reversed in a March 20, 2012 patch, and he was returned to his original form.
    [​IMG]
    Imp Trickster
    Buffed from 65 Nora to 60 Nora, lost Spit (Blind) in favor of Escape in upgrades, traded Attack: Poison for Attack: Sonic, nerfed from 1-3 range to 1-2, and gained Trickster as a starting ability.
    [​IMG]
    Imp Vixen
    Was nerfed in January 2012 with the simple change of the Abash upgrade being changed out for Charm, as well as the loss of Psychic Aura 1. Nerfed again in the February 2012 revamp when she received +4 Nora to 78 and Liability as a starting ability. She also got Psychic Aura 3 put back in upgrades, but it's pointless when Leech Vitality and Soul Siphon are auto.
    [​IMG]
    Jyx the Shadesworn
    (If someone could organize a full list of Jyx nerfs, complete with dates, for me that would be great. If not, I can try to find them on my own but maybe someone knows them off the top of their head.)

    Was nerfed again in the February 2012 revamp with -2 DEF to 0 and +1 Nora to 96.
    [​IMG]
    Needleclaw Imp
    Received his first nerf in January 2012 with the loss of 8 SPD for 7 SPD and 1-2 range changed out for 1 range. In exchange, he got a cost decrease from 76 to 69.

    In the February 2012 revamp, he received +3 Nora from 69 to 72, and exchanged Weary for Debilitate in his upgrades.
    [​IMG]
    Eye for an Eye
    Received a range of 8 on April 18, 2012 instead of unlimited range like Retribution.
    [​IMG]
    Sheoul's Fireball
    No changes.
    [​IMG]
    Spinners Greaves
    No changes.

    [​IMG]
    Goblin Spellkaiser
    Spellkaiser was used in pairs in most UD battlegroups before he got nerfed hard in the February 2012 revamp. He went from 12 DMG to 9, went from Regen 2 to Regen 1, had Reckless Teleport 3 removed and Reckless Teleport 2 moved to upgrades instead, Cast: Cauterize from 5 range to 3 range, and +2 Nora.

    He still sees a good amount of play, though, mostly because of One With Nora and Teleport.[/COLOR]
     

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