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kYw

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Everything posted by kYw

  1. The Balance Philosophy document was a really interesting read, but I felt like an important piece is missing: in your opinion, how does each faction look like ideally? You briefly mention how "the game helps us by providing clear archetypes via the four elements", so I was really expecting you to follow that up by describing how you see those four elements and how a mix of them is supposed to look like. You later briefly touch on this when discussing the design goal of "Thematic Correctness" by giving the examples of Stonekin and Lost Souls, but I really feel like it would be interesting if you expanded on that. In the context of PvE here's how I think the elements ideally look like Fire - Pure offensive playstyle Strengths: Units with the best DPS Best bursting spells Extremely good at sieging (think Firedancer, Wallbreaker, Juggernaut, Earthshaker, ...) Weaknesses: Bad at area defense (lack of good defensive buildings or wall-mounted units) Little to no CC Frost - Slow and steady playstyle Strengths: Tankiness (large HP, wide access to damage reduction and shielding effects) Access to freezing effects Extremely good area defense (best in class defensive buildings, wall-mounted units and building-supporting spells/units) Weaknesses: Slow movement Very low DPS (even their main CC reduces DPS) Nature - Supportive playstyle Strengths: Healing (duh) Wide access to different types of crowd control and ways to debuff enemies Better in large groups (Linked Fire mechanic, chain effects, ...) Weaknesses: Not particularly high stats in either damage or HP Unimpressive damaging spells Tends to depend on other elements/players to get the job done Shadow - Daredevil playstyle I think it's hard to define Shadow via a comparison of strengths and weaknesses, because this element is all about having drawbacks to each strength. It's also about bending the rules of the game and forcing you to play differently in order to not hurt yourself. Shadow cards also tend to be better at working alone and impatiently. In my opinion, examples of quintessential Shadow cards are Lifestealer, Stone of Torment, Shadow Phoenix, Ashbone Pyro, Church of Negation and Soulshatter. These cards are all extremely strong when used adequately, but they can be terrible when used carelessly. So I guess in a way it's all about high-risk and high-reward, which rewards good micro execution. But then it gets a little more complicated to describe the hybrid factions. As you pointed out, Stonekin indeed feels like a very good mix of the characteristics of frost and nature... but then Lost Souls has none of that "playing on a knife's edge" feeling that Shadow is supposed to have. I think ideally Lost Souls would have some of those Shadow mechanics that bring drawbacks to its strengths, but at the same time the Frost element in it would allow a slower less mechanically intensive playstyle. Meanwhile, I feel like Bandits have no good identity other than the lifestealer mechanic (which is good thematically IMO, but not enough to carry the whole faction), while Twilight cards are all about being good stat sticks (they can be strong, but most of them aren't particularly interesting). As for Amii and the potential Fire-Frost faction, honestly those hybrids confuse me a bit. This is mainly because I see Fire as an opposite of Frost and Shadow as an opposite of Nature, so I have no idea how they should play like. It seems like it's easy to run the risk of them being "jack of all trades master of none" sorta factions. Maybe they could be cool if they worked around a cool new mechanic, but I can't think of anything in particular. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these things!
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