Enough time has passed since the initial revamp to be able to declare that the Fae need a l0t of help. Most, if not all, Fae have about half as many HP as their nora cost, which means deploying any Fairy is a venture full of risk (from a risk/reward standpoint). Furthermore, the problem is only compounded when you run a deck consisting mostly of champions with terrible HP:NORA ratios. In addition, not only has the revamp raised their costs, but many of the Fae lost key abilities that helped them to survive (i.e. abilities like Deflect and Divert). As someone who had a part to play in creating the current costing formula, I should have a basic enough understanding of the current costing formula to know how to make them better. As such, here's a rundown of my suggestions to help the Fae.... New Racial Ability Fragile Flight- This champion has Flight as long as it has 20 or more HP. If this champion does not have Flight, it gains Defenseless (Nora Cost: 1 NORA). Reasoning- Almost all Fae are coming in rather expensive and almost all Fae have flight. It seems natural to change Flight in a thematic way that would help the Fae be a touch cheaper. The devs have been creating abilities like Sonic Flight and Arctic Flight to help certain themes out and so Fragile Flight is not without precedent. Fragile Flight will shave 5 NORA off the cost of most Fae. Champions Chained Fae- The revamp hasn't been too bad to this champ. One oddity of the ability costing matrix is that Stationary, which is a rather debilitating setback, only shaves 5 nora off the champion's cost. Also, Binding Chains is an upgrade selection but you have to miss out on a relocation effect to make the most of it. Recommendation- Recost Stationary from -5 NORA to -10 NORA. Replace Binding Chains upgrade with Swap 2. Conclave Warden- After the latest cost adjustments, Conclave Warden, with Guiding Light and Mental Net as upgrades, comes in at 65 NORA. She is looking pretty good and has decent enough upgrades (except Knockback 1). Recommendation- Replace Flight with Fragile Flight on base. Replace Knockback 1 on first upgrade path with Ignorance. Fae Enchantress- This champion is in need of a major revamp. She was given a manual cost adjustment that puts her price at 82 but she is just too expensive after her several ability nerfs (her relic drop became a summon and Fairy Dust had its duration reduced). Recommendation- Add +1 DMG to base. Replace Flight with Fragile Flight on base. Replace Fairy Dust with Spellsurge: Fairy Dust. Remove Summon Prismatic Crystals from base. Add Mystic Push on base. Add Summon Prismatic Crystals to first upgrade path (the one with Tempo and Soften). Faeguard Nullbeast- Though not a Fairy, this champion was designed with the Fae in mind. He's pretty decent for what he does. Recommendation- Just add Race: Arthropod since he is clearly one. Fae Oracle- This champ is just a touch too expensive but one should always be careful about buffing a champ with Adaptive: KF. Recommendation- Reduce RNG from 4-6 to 5-6. Replace Flight with Fragile Flight on base. Remove Force Barrier 2 from first upgrade path. Replace second upgrade path with Force Barrier 2/3. Fairy Trickster- She is just a touch too expensive but doesn't need much. If Nectar Fairy gains Add Charge, this would really help the Fairy Trickster out (see Nectar Fairy for details). Recommendation- Replace Flight with Fragile Flight. Replace Hex 1 on upgrade with Hex 2. Moonlit Fae- She is almost perfect. Recommendation- Replace Flight with Fragile Flight. Nectar Fairy- This champion accrues Charges like crazy because she has access to Heal Charged. With so many charges, she can Invigorate constantly if equipped with Horn of Order or can use Lightning Skewer quite frequently if equipped with Skystorm Spear. All in all, Heal Charged is problematic. Additionally, if given Add Charge, she could help the Fairy Trickster do her thing. Recommendation- Replace Flight with Fragile Flight. Replace Heal Charged 2 on the second upgrade path with Supercharged 2. Add Add Charge to base. Nymph- She has a couple sandbag abilities on base. She'd do well with a slight overhaul. Returning Grant: Flight to base, which she once had, would help those poor Fae who lose Flight due to low HP. Bastion of Will seems very thematic. Also, adding Race: Elf would explain why she doesn't have wings and why she looks so Elven. Recommendation- Add Race: Elf, making her Race: Elf, Fairy. Remove Resistance: Psychic 3 and Amplify Psychic from base. Add Grant: Flight on base. Replace Possess 1 from first upgrade path with Bastion of Will. Replace Charm 2 from second upgrade path with Abash. Rascal Fairy- He became quite nice with Shadowstrike but after the latest cost revamp, he has an amazingly bad HP: NORA ratio. Recommendation- Reduce RNG from 3-5 to 4-5. Add +4 HP to base. Replace Flight with Fragile Flight. Remove Shadowspawn from base. Add Shadowspawn to first upgrade path (the one with Initiative 1/2). Add Weary to base. Snare Fairy- Having access to Arctic Flight and Fragile Flight means those could be excellent upgrade choices. Recommendation- Remove Chill 1/2/3 from second upgrade path. Add Arctic Flight and Fragile Flight to second upgrade path. Add Chill 2 to base. Sprite- This champion was killed in the revamp due to her increased cost. In a perfect world, she'd be much cheaper and have a slightly bigger impact on the field. Recommendation- Reduce SPD from 6 to 5. Replace Flight with Fragile Flight. Replace Abash from second upgrade path with Stun. Starlight Sylph- As the one who came up with the idea for this champ, I know she is very useful in a Fairy BG. She honestly doesn't need much. Recommendation- Reduce DMG from 10 to 9. Replace Flight with Fragile Flight. Replace Swap 3 from second upgrade path with Sunder. Sun Blossom- As the sole Fairy with Detection, she needs to find a way into a deck. To make her cheaper, she should receive some minor stat nerfs. Recommendation- Reduce RNG from 3-5 to 4-5. Replace Flight with Fragile Flight. Wisp- As one of the few melee champions, Wisp can serve an important role in a Fairy BG. The champion doesn't need that big of a change. Recommendation- Reduce RNG from 1-3 to 1-2. Replace Flight with Fragile Flight. Remove Grand Entrance from base. Move Soulsift 1 from second upgrade path to base. Add Magic Acolyte to second upgrade path. Spells Fairy Dust- With Fae Enchantress gaining Spellsurge: Fairy Dust, this spell should see more play. Recommendation- Make sure Fae Enchantress gets Spellsurge: Fairy Dust. Regulate- This spell could be made into a Fairy-specific theme rune. Recommendation- Change the spell so non-Fairy champions are affected. Swiftwind- Like Regulate, this spell could be made into a Fairy-specific theme rune. Recommendation- Change the spell so it gets cheaper the more Fairies are in play. Maybe -2 NORA for each Fairy, to a max of -10 NORA? Relics Bridge to Nowhere- It is hard to find room in a Fairy deck for this rune but there is certainly nothing wrong with it. Recommendation- Don't change a thing. Prismatic Crystals- Just like Bridge to Nowhere, it is hard to find room in a deck for this but there is nothing wrong with it. It can really be an annoying relic to deal with. Recommendation- Don't change a thing. Tower of Amareth- It seems like the Fairy themed relics are in a good spot. This one is the relic I tend to include in Fairy BGs (it effectively increases the Fae's damage output by a noticeable degree). Oh yeah, this is one of the few relics that I designed! Recommendation- Don't change a thing. Equipment Crown of Petals- This rune received an interesting buff with the revamp and so is in a good place. Recommendation- Don't change a thing.
Whew, that was a lot of text! Hopefully @Gedden and @Senshu will read these! If you absolutely hate any idea, say so, and if you like any particular idea, say so! The more support this thread receives, the more likely it is that the devs will take notice. Edit: Also, if you can summarize what the main problems are with the Fae, feel free to post your thoughts!
@allyorbase Thanks for the inspiration for the ability. I really do think Fragile Flight could be what it take to help the Fae even out their poor HP:NORA ratios.
As long as there's another choice for KF apart from Trees, I think changes to fae would be a good start.
The Fae are the "anti-plants." Most Treefolk can safely be played at anytime because their HP:NORA ratios are quite good and their damage can be notable. The Fae, conversely, are risky little devils to deploy.
That's exactly why revamping them would be a good start to bringing another viable theme back. I'm no KF player, and I don't want to cry about anything because I know trees can be beaten. The thing is, KF's only best option are trees. During SOE, there were Fairies, Trees, Magic, etc now it's just all plain trees and I'd like to see some variety. Different playstyles would give it alot more variety and would make it alot more fun.
Really!! really!!! like your idea on the spell Regulate,the art on the rune helps to justify your idea.That would be a fun include in Fairy decks and would be a way to balance out the low hp in game by letting fairy types keep the same stats while giving your opponents a taste of mediocrity. Awesome idea Just look at the art on this,It is a fairy taunting a 18 base damage pit dragon.
Love all of your changes. If I had to suggest anything for Fae in general, it would be to beef up the "trickster" aspect of Fae (a tad, here and there). They are notoriously roguish in lore, so I wouldn't mind seeing more mindgame abilities: Confuse: Attacker, Swap, Escape, etc. Otherwise, all kinds of kudos!
Although Tireless Harvester is not Fae, Fragile Flight seems like a good addition to the build proposal I was mulling over: Tireless Harvester Damage 0, Speed 6, Range 1, Defense 1, Health 39 Web Cocoon Harvest Fragile Wings Choice #1: Grant Flight (2) / Charm 2 (4) / Weaken Spells (6) Choice #2: Forage (3) / Fading Light (5) / Evasive 3 (7) Notes: Web has a 10 damage minimum, so it can make an occasional attack without a basic attack or damage rating. Cocoon can be used to buff other champs or to help contest fonts (ala Turtle). Grant Flight is anti-lumbering for treedecks. Other options to support other decks. Normally, I hate passive champs, but Tireless Harvester is supposed to be a support champ and is so non-combat worthy that it might as well have 0 Damage with a fixed damage secondary attack. Likewise, the Harvester's current high speed is kind of a waste. It's better off not paying the premium for it. It could possibly become a Fae too if one is willing to stretch a bit...
Since the revamp, Chains of Amareth (ability) has been bugged. If you have 2 Chained Fae in play, deployed Fairies gain +10 HP and cost 10 Nora less (i.e. the buffs stack). The text for the ability mentions that the buffs should not stack. Question: Should Chains of Amareth lose the clause that prohibits the buff from stacking?
Grimlic's Mirror the Chained Fae! Honestly though... Fae are fine as they are... You have to realize we're trying to bring powerlevel of certain themes down, so after that, Fae decks will be just as competetive as everything else. Your post was too long for me to read, so if all you want to do is add some more flavor without messing with powerlevel, I'm fine with that.
How can you comment on something you haven't read? <baffled> I love the ideas. We need variety in all factions. This keeps interest in the game and keeps the game going. We all want this conclusion.
