Draksar augmentor lost his negative shrine damaging ability, but can only pick 1 channel ability. Regen 1 and channel speed lowers him to 69 nora. The Dragon Handler lost all immunity abilities and can only choose between surge dragon 1/2 and regen 1/2/3 surge and regen 1 also bring him to 69.
Locust no have locust swarm anywhere. Skeez trapper now range 3-5? Sand ele no unstoppable. Resilient skeez now with more resilient.
SL insex is dead no more Creep and Crawl except for i think two champs. All the high end Kanen got nailed to oblivion while the lower guys seem unchanged maybe even cheaper. Still don't understand the nora to ability/stat ratio. Here is an example: Bloodhowler alpha 98 nora 11 dam 7 speed 2 def 60 health 4 abilities. Kanen Alpha 80 nora 11 dam 6 speed 1 def 54 health 5 abilities. Both their upgrades are similar...Kinda baffled tbh.
We should look at the bright side, now that abilities are limited "taint" and "horrific mutation" nora cost might be worth it
Kanens are god tier op imo. It's all about the cheap efficient meat... and boy does it deliver. Stick to the minimum Boost+Witch for Idol and go to town.
Very early thoughts: Akakios: I just don't even know. Cobra Spitter: I'm not even sure he's changed much but so many champs lost tons of base dmg so his 12 dmg looks real nice by comparison. He might make my beast bg now. Crazed Warmandrils: Now with no life drinker to be even more glass cannony. Dragon Engine: Tempted to start using him again in this new low dmg high nora world. Drak Consulate: So this rune was originally created to give SL a form of shatter and ghetto nora gen. She lost both these things and look pretty terribad right now. Drak Forunner: His cost is crazy. Pin Down is a completely useless upgrade on a 6dmg champ. Pin has to dmg to work and at 3dmg thats not likely to happen. Elusive on base and I guess he's just now completely font grabber and you might be able to get Combo Attack off. Way over costed. Drak Interrogator: loses drag and his anti nora properties. Now just seems like a drak master with 1 more range, 1 less base dmg and anti-def capabilities. meh. Drak Lord: I cant stop laughing. He's still fat and 6 spd but now costs over a 100 nora. Drak Maurader: This is more what I was expecting to see more of. His base stats are a little worse and he lost sunder, but he still gets attack charged and charged fire bomb. Still solid. Drak Marine: He used to have good abilities and solid base stats. Now he gets different ranks of dive. Beyond awful. Drak Master: Now with decapitating blow. Works for me. Drak Morph: Now fights bad but the option of haste is interesting. Drak Psion: No improve dmg and no mindwipe aura prob shoeboxes him. He now has nothing to differentiate him other than attack type psychic. Dreadnaught: heavy charger would be like 29dmg before violent starts to kick in. Not sure thats worth 127, but his stats look much more impressive in the new enviornment. Manticore: Sandstriker + trail sand means he hits hard. Picks up sting2 loses access to prognistication. Seems solid. Flame dragoleech: can take off nora leech for real nora gen ability. Pimp. Half Skeez: best suprise so far. Torien: This is the only Leg so far that seems to basically do what he did before. Kanen Howler: Now has swarm: mongrel? And still has call to arms.... ok. Kanen Scavenger: Soul Collection is new right? Seems hot with assimilate and dead eater Kanen Tracker: Can now get hidden sand for cross theme fun. Mauler: Oh hell yeah! 74 nora sibling hotness = 16dmg 8spd, 2def 54hp champs with both out. There has to be a way to do good things with this. Sandsnipe: I'm not sure I like this change in direction. Myx now have no range. Negation Mage: Eradicate is interesting but he needs an outside source throwing charges thrown on him cause death charged one isn't going to cut it. Priest of Fury: You can bump his cost up by 6 to reduce akakios cost by 10%... a 4 nora pt net gain. Except akakios doesn't look that good so yeah. Ravager: Lost detection, but otherwise looks old school solid. I'm not seeing good detection choices btw. Rip Demon: Surge enemy. Seems like a solid melee beater now. Sandhunter: Lost domain sand and turtle. Gained sandfall, which is a crap ability. ugh. Scythebill: Gained scrapper because, logic. Serpentor Paradigm: Still very solid. Skeez Alchemist: Loses Firebomb but can gain grant action potion. This is an interesting change. Losing init and gaining defenseless is not cool though. Skeez Cannon: I really don't like the trend of all good ranged units getting defenseless. Unless this carries across factions then I guess its okay... Skeez Drummer: Rallying cries is kind of awesome. Skeez Rioter: Lost that scourge ability that hurt shrines. In the new half skeez easy warcry enviornment you now put this guy in all skeez bgs. Scoundrel: Loses knockout and disarm gains relflexes and counter attack melee. Hard to kill with this change and dodge 2 but expensive and I'd honestly rather have knockout back. Torch: I miss loyalty already. Skithmaw: Arguably the best detection option so far. Skywing Acidcraw: Loses reinforcement and swoop. Gains acid breath. I'd reduce scour to rank 1 and boost breath to rank 2 for 1 nora net reduction. Skywing Agitator: Loses call to arms, which was kind of his main point. Can still exhert 3 for fruit fun but costs more and gained vuln frost. Picks up flamestrike but I'd trade that back for call to arms in a heart beat. Skywing Eminent: No more majestic or evasive Skywing Patrol: No more ranged sunder. Snogvie: No more defensive turtle. Stuck with sonic aura and then you have to choose between his other 3 good upgrades. Sonic greeting is still going to be one of the best detect options due to so many other champs losing detect. Steelspine Bearcat: Gains defensive turtle. meh. Sunder Hellion: Seems much more playable now in comparison to other champs. Doomball: 93 nora..... I'm guessing doom is an extremely overcosted ability. Sunderpede: A few of our champs gained creep and crawl, I'm sad this isn't one of them. Totem of the Fallen: Now with absolutely no reason to play it in your skeez bgs. Also this rune displays buggy for me. Varu Dragon: lost antagonize which makes me a sad panda. Sand striker makes him a better beater for sand bgs though. Varu Howler: Hands down best detection. Sub 60 nora. He'll get a lot of play. Vex: Soooo no more flamethrower or immortal. Can get surge drak or dragon 2, which makes you want to use her as a melee beater, where she won't be the first thing your enemy kills. No Bueno. Vexian Neodrak: Lost that weird ability that punished you dmg based on your nora bank. Seems aiight. Vindrax: Surgedragon 1 on base is a sandbag to most bgs. 114 nora for res phys 3 and a breath 3.... I'll still run him. Wyrmpriest: Still one of the worst runes in the faction. Raise your hand if you're shocked.
Sand Elemental is much worse, losing unstoppable and deflect, and now is even more expensive by 10 nora. I'm not sure what he does exactly for 90 nora, except for tunnel. Sandsnipe now melee means sand has lost a major range and alt damage champ. Melee snipe is alright, but there's a lot more of that then there is alt damage. Dune Walker basically loses sandstriker base, which is a little odd but not as big as the other changes. Sandstalker Lord lost Desert Walker base, which is great since it means the opponent can't figure out where he is every turn. I think sand veil is worth trying. Varu Dragon got a major buff with sandstriker and multiattack 3 and now is cheaper. Lost 15-20 HP but kept sand spray and alt damage basic attack. Seems too strong now, but maybe low enough HP makes it alright. Definitely a major sand rune and general use rune.
MAULERS ARE BACK BABY!!! Also, predictions: Skeezick/skeezick mix will by very very tough. FF SL Kanen and Kanen/x will be a force to be reckoned with. Also, take a look at scythbill, and skeez negamage. Also THEDOCTOR, back in all his glory. *Save for supercharged or whatever he doesn't have, good cost champ for good utility imo. There are going to be some brutal bgs to build. Some upgrades are pretty weak, and I think they messed up on sandsniper, but oh man. This revamp really freshened things up. There are going to be some cool things to discover. We have Haste in faction, Eradicate, and some other things I can't recall at the moment. I'll update as I stumble upon stuff. Drakewings, Cannoneers, maulers, scythbills, fireleech, wardrummer, doctor, rocketeer, forerunner(!), and BEARCAT(!), that is essentially the BG i'm testing right now with the traditional SL power spells.
Akakios... was this guy considered OP before? I mean, I remember asking about him a while back and being told that he was pretty garbage outside of maybe one specific deck. Now, he seems to have gotten more expensive and his damage has been halved. So, a DRAGON who apparently gained the power of the Dragon Gods does less damage than a Doctor. I don't even know... Valdac - "Has anyone seen my Regeneration and my Cleansing Aura? I'm sure I saw the a minute ago. Also, are you sure I live in this shoebox? I could have sworn I had a nice, comfy deck to sleep in..."
RIP totem of the fallen... i need 5 skeezick to get the racial and now most of them have the racial in upgrades :S
the skeezicks will never be chosen .. as other BG, died with the revamp... sad...very sad.. and more sad---> Skeezick racial is a upgrade.. same that zombies...oh boy...
Akakios lost his melee rol years ago since he lost thirst of battle. Right now it seems he is like a pseudo Imperator, made for bombs and alternative damage sources. He might work somewhere im sure he wasnt butchered without deep thouts.
Skeez may be an efficient bg but you aren't running it because of skeez synergy. You are running it because of lots of cheap efficient champs. Given that you well proc skeez alliance very rarely the only thing that really ties it together add a theme at all would be the use of Marchof the skeez. Beyond that it's just a bunch of efficient stuff all shoved together in a bg. Bringing back the goodstuff bgs with the revamp.
