[Patch #400035 - 14 September 2022]

Card Balance Changes

Global Balance Changes

Changes to PvE Unit Orb & Power Costs: more details can be found here: Changes to PvE Unit Orb & Power Costs
   - Additionally, the general mind control immunity on the PvE versions of Bandit Windhunter, Twilight Deathglider, and all Lost Souls units and buildings has been removed.

Each NPC unit in both campaign and random PvE maps has orb and power costs just like player units, which might come as a surprise to players used to using Nightguard and Parasite Swarm to takeover nearly any unit in the game. This is because there has been a longstanding bug, going back to the game's release, where units which are spawned in via map script did not have properly assigned orb and power costs. The original developers knew about this bug, but they do not appear to have known how to fix it. By the time Empire and the Lost Souls RPvE faction were added to the game, the original developers decided to add a universal immunity to mind control to the entire Lost Souls faction to prevent further abuses of the mind control mechanic. They also added total immunity to Windhunter and Death Glider.

The bug in question has now been fixed and as part of this fix we have gone through and updated the power and orb costs of every unit in the game. The goal of this rework was to create situations where mind control is still useful, and indeed powerful, while tampering down the current situation where mind control units, especially Nightguard, trivialize a map and thus become the universally proscribed solution to nearly any difficult situation. As part of these changes, we are also making several changes to current campaign maps, which we already started last patch with the changes to Nightmare Shard, Nightmare's End, and Behind Enemy Lines. All map changes can be found in the Map Balance Changes section in the next post.

S-unit population count: decreased from 6 ➜ 4

Total root network support cap: 10 maximum support within a network ➜ infinite amount of support possible

Twilight Transformation duration: decreased from 2 seconds ➜ 1.2 seconds

Increased turn speeds of several units: 
   - Gladiatrix, Ice Guardian, Knight of Chaos, Lightblade, Mauler, Mountain Rowdy, Rogan Kayle, Shadow Insect, Slaver, Treespirit, Viridya's Treespirit, Twilight Brute, Warlock, and Wrecker.

Lost Spellbreaker (NPC Unit): 
   - No longer casts Disenchant on-hit, still makes affected units immune to further buffs.
   - Now makes affected units unable to use their special abilities.

Lost Spellbreaker has been a perpetual headache for us as a balance team because she hard counters some factions while barely affecting others. Every single mechanic we add to the game must face the question of how it interacts with Spellbreaker. If Spellbreaker does remove it, the question then becomes if that faction can still function, particularly against the already difficult Lost Souls faction. At the same time, we want to keep Spellbreaker as a major debuff unit. As such, we decided to remove Spellbreaker's Disenchant ability while leaving the immunity to further buffs and adding on an ability silence. This change should allow players to preemptively apply buffs to their units as a way to counter Lost Spellbreaker. Our hope is that Lost Spellbreaker will remain an annoyance and a priority target, without single-handedly countering entire deck archetypes. 

Hybrid Orb requirements have been added: A Hybrid Orb allows you to meet its requirements with one of its two colors. For example, a  card can be played with either  or . Hybrid Orbs can be found on our Twilight Slayers, Twilight Hag, Treefiend, Nightshade Plant and Deepfang. 

PvE Balance Changes

While changes are split here between PvE and PvP sections, many of the changes, such as Deep One, Nightshade Plant, and Twilight Creeper, have important consequences for both game modes. Our PvE and PvP balance teams work closely together to ensure that the impact of all changes are evaluated for both game modes. Below, we have listed both the changes and our reasoning behind them. 

[ Tier 1 ]

 Decomposer:
   - Now only works on own units

Decomposer has been a controversial card for a long time. When usable on friendly units, Decomposer allows players to transfer power between themselves. Practically speaking, this means that Decomposer turns previously multiplayer maps into effectively single-player maps, where one player can gain power far in excess of what should be possible at a given time, even if all Power Wells were given to one player. For this reason, it is a mainstay of speedruns and goldfarming alike, to the point of choking out other potential strategies. Decomposer also stands in direct violation of our fundamental design principle that power should only be generated via Power Wells. While violations of design principles are possible to justify via card restrictions such as high power cost, tier, or orb restrictions, the power generation principle is the most fundamental of all principles and Decomposer is able to violate it as a Tier 1 Shadow card. 

There is an additional consideration which is often forgotten in discussions on this topic, and that is the experience of the player feeding the Decomposer, usually called a "feeder." While there can be no doubt that many Decomposer-based speedruns, including the existing record on Bad Harvest, are matters of strategic brilliance in terms of planning, the same is not true in terms of execution for the majority of the players in the speedrun. While feeders do contribute in a minor sense, the runner does the overwhelming majority of the actions in the run and it truly succeeds or fails based on the skill of the runner. In more casual settings, this often becomes even worse, with the feeder doing close to nothing. Decomposer transforms the feeder from a teammate into little more than a spectator. The feeder is a mere battery powering the runner, a resource to be used instead of a person with whom you play alongside. Feeding makes for a gameplay experience where teammates give up almost all of their agency. It is not engaging, and we should not be creating a situation where the player must chose between efficiency and an engaging experience. 

The continuing preservation of this kind of gameplay has done great harm to new player retention. For that reason alone we should have made this change a long time ago. In fact, we have planned this change for nearly 18 months, yet have repeatedly delayed it in hopes of releasing a Decomposer-like mode simultaneously with the nerf for players who enjoy the mechanic and who wish to opt-in, even without rewards. This optional Map Modifiers game mode is something we are still desirous of completing eventually, but as we announced in Community Update #25, without further developers we can only commit to releasing card balancing changes for the foreseeable future. Given the many factors surrounding Decomposer and the strong negative impact it creates on the game experience of many players, we have decided to finally go through and change the card to no longer allow it to transfer power between players. 

[ Tier 2 ]

 Parasite Swarm:
   - Takeover limit: 150 power cost ➜ maximum of 175 power cost

Allows us to make some units able to be transformed by Twilight Curse and taken over by Parasite Swarm, while remaining out of reach of Nightguard.

[ Tier 3 ]

 Corsair:
   - Inspirational Call: deal 50% more damage ➜ 60% more damage

Corsair was previously changed to work not just on human units, but all Bandit units. This helped a lot, but the card itself as well as Bandit's T3 is still somewhat lacking. We are giving a slight boost to its aura to help encourage more Bandit-based unit compositions. 

 Frenetic Assault:
   - General Changes: 
      - Power cost: 80 ➜ 90p
      - Initial Amok effect duration: 20s ➜ 15s
   - Frenetic is now a two-stage effect:
      - Stage 1: Bewitches the targeted hostile target attracting the aggression of up to 7 of its allied units within a 20m radius for 15 seconds.
      - Stage 2: If the target dies within 10 seconds, up to 10 of its allied units within a 20m radius are bewitched for 10 seconds.
   - Affinity swap: Gifted Aggression (g) ➜ Infused Aggression (r)
      - Infused Aggression(r): No longer slows or prevents healing, change description to clarify it can be used on buildings and units. 

Frenetic Assault is potentially the strongest card in the game. It is also the strongest crowd control spell, has no downside, and has no death effect. While not necessarily wrong, it is a bit odd for such a card to exist in Shadow. All in all, it is more a Bandit card than a Shadow card. We as a balance team have endeavored to nerf the card from an S+ tier to an A tier card, while also giving it mechanics to make it feel like a Shadow card. 

Frenetic now has two stages. The first stage affects 7 targets for 15 seconds. The second stage, which triggers off the death of the initial target within 10 seconds, affects 10 targets for 10 seconds. This gives Frenetic a total possible duration of 20 seconds if used perfectly with up to 17 total affected enemies. It should remain one of the strongest spells in the game, without being so good as to single-handedly carry entire archetypes. 

 Healing Gardens:
   - Ritual of Recovery duration: 30 seconds ➜ 45 seconds

Healing Gardens' increased rejuvenation effect is strong, but its short duration requires two Gardens to be built simultaneously. This can significantly slow down deck archetypes dependent on the effect, so we are increasing Ritual of Recovery's duration to allow the player to utilize just one instance of Healing Gardens with the downside of a slight effect downtime. Additionally, the lack of regular activation is a common problem among all active global effects in casual play. This should help to alleviate that problem by making it so that when the effect is actually activated, it stays up for longer. 

 Ice Age:
   - Now allows multiple instances of the spell to be active at the same time.

Ice Age previously had anti-synergy with itself, such that multiple Pure Frost players could not cast it simultaneously. Given that this is not an issue with healing sustain options, we decided to remove this restriction.

 Sandstorm:
   - Power cost: 160p ➜ 140p
   - Ability radius: 10m ➜ 12m

We previously gave Sandstorm two large buffs, a 70p cost reduction and the addition of L-knockback on the blue affinity. Even with these changes, Sandstorm remains an uncompelling option. As such, we are further reducing the power to 140p while increasing the radius of the tornado, which should allow the player to more easily crowd control priority targets. 

 Twilight Creeper:
   - Tainted / Infused Spit, total targets: 3 ➜ 8
   - Infused Spit(r) debuff: 30% less damage ➜ 40% less damage

Small buff to Twilight Creeper's debuff and a large buff to total target count, allowing Creeper to debuff substantially more enemies in a camp.

 Wrathgazer:
   - Disintegrating Gaze: May only disintegrate units ➜ May only disintegrate units and buildings.
   - Pain Link: 100% damage distributed ➜ 50% damage distributed.

Wrathgazer's Pain Link distributes damage before Resilient is applied. This means that as-is, 100% of damage is done to surrounding units and 50% also to Wrathgazer (assuming non-piercing damage). The total damage is thus multiplied by 50% assuming there are any allies in range. With the changed numbers, 50% of damage is now done to Wrathgazer and 50% to surrounding units. This should make Wrathgazer usable in an army without being an active detriment. Additionally, only being able to target units severely restricts Wrathgazer's usability. To remedy this, we are adding the ability to disintegrate buildings as well, allowing Wrathgazer to be more useful offensively. Note, this change does not allow wall segments, Power Wells, or Monuments to be disintegrated. Wrathgazer will also be unable to disintegrate spawn buildings, as this causes a bug where the spawn building, despite being destroyed, begins phantom spawning waves of enemies. 

[ Tier 4 ]

 Altar of Chaos:
   - Enable overkill splash damage bug fix. 
   - Mass Destruction Nether Bomb life points: 4000 ➜ 4500

Nether Bomb will no longer lose damage when overkilling enemies, constituting a minor buff for unfed bombs and a major buff for fed bombs. Additionally, the small increase in bomb life points is intended to synergize with Lost Spirit Ship's recycle ability. One bomb will now provide enough life points for 3 Lost Spirit Ship Crystals. 

 Batariel:
   - Damage: 4400 ➜ 5600
   - Purgatory's damage is no longer affected by damage modifiers, including buffs on Batariel itself and debuffs on enemies. 
   - Stage 1 Activation Threshold: 1000(r) and 1250(p) ➜ 1200 damage (both affinities)
   - Damage/Effect per Stage Batariel (p):
      (a) Stage 1: 100 dmg ➜ 100 dmg + 25% increased enemy damage taken
      (b) Stage 2: 100dmg + 35% increased damage taken ➜ 100dmg + 50% increased enemy damage taken
      (c) Stage 3: 100dmg + 75% increased damage taken ➜ 100dmg + 100% increased enemy damage taken
   - Squad damage: Only damages a squad once instead of each member individually.
   - Gates of Hell power cost: 150p ➜ 120p

It would be uncontroversial to say that Batariel and the deck that surrounds it is the strongest deck in the game. The question has never been the strength of Batariel, but what to do with it. Some do not want it changed at all. Among those in favor of nerfs, many people have suggested nerfing Batariel itself, others Enlightenment, others Frenetic Assault, still others Unholy Hero as the main source of the problem to bring Batariel from S++ tier to closer to S or A+ tier. After much discussion among all segments of the playerbase, and especially with some of the game's top players, we have come to the determination that we cannot successfully balance Batariel unless we also nerf Unholy Hero or at least decouple it from Batariel. At the same time, we cannot directly nerf Unholy Hero without affecting a large portion of decks that are otherwise balanced. Frenetic Assault, while very powerful in combination with Batariel, is also overpowered in its own right. In the end, we have settled on nerfing both Batariel and Frenetic Assault while decoupling it from Unholy Hero.

Batariel's damage aura no longer benefits from any buffs on Batariel or debuffs on enemies, including Batariel(p)'s own armor shredding aura. With this drastic step taken, we have also increased Batariel's base damage significantly, along with adjustments to its stage 1 activation threshold. Batariel can now activate stage 1 in 2 attacks against XL-units and in 3 attacks against non-XL units. A Batariel buffed with Unholy Hero can now also one-shot a small spawn building, while the base damage buff helps Batariel substantially when fighting bosses. The cost reduction to Gates of Hell allows the player to quickly and efficiently activate Batariel's stage 3 in a single ability. Overall, our tests have shown that while Batariel is slower than before, the Enlightenment-Batariel deck remains intact as a top tier deck for both skilled and casual play. 

The bigger issue in balancing Batariel came from the purple affinity regularly used in Pure Fire decks. In the current meta, Pure Fire typically uses a mix of both affinities, with the purple affinity amplifying the already substantial damage of the red affinity to even greater heights. With the changes to Batariel's aura, this damage amplification is no longer possible. As such, we had to get creative in keeping the Pure Fire deck viable. Alongside these changes, we have also buffed other Fire cards such as Bloodthirst, Magma Fiend, and Fire Sphere. The changes to Bloodthirst help make a Batariel(p) + Fire Dragon deck much more viable and significantly more durable. We increased the synergy between Batariel and Fire Dragon by making the purple affinity increase the damage taken by enemies even further. When Batariel(p) and Fire Dragons are both fully enraged with Bloodthirst, Fire Dragons deal 30,000 damage per 20 seconds. We also increased the speed of Magma Fiend to open up the option of using it with other Fire cards. Finally, the changes to Fire Sphere have proven much more substantial than initially anticipated. A perfectly executed Fire Sphere (remember it has a 10 second wind-up period) that combos with a stage 3 Batariel(p) can one shot an entire camp. All in all, while Pure Fire will prove to be much different after the changes, it increasingly has a playstyle that feels all its own.

 Bloodthirst:
   - Power cost: 160p ➜ 140p
   - Unit count: 7 total targets ➜ 8 total targets
   - Duration: 20 seconds ➜ 25 seconds
   - Healing: 175 life points per second ➜ 200 life points per second
   - Damage buff: 20% more damage ➜ 40% more damage

Our initial testing for the last round of changes showed Bloodthirst far overperforming its intended power level. Unfortunately, the new Bloodthirst received a double nerf upon release when we not only reduced its healing, but we also removed its ability to heal stack. Since then, it has performed below what is appropriate for a card of its requirements and its weak state is keeping Fire archetypes from achieving their true potential. We have buffed up nearly all aspects of the spell.

 Cluster Explosion(p)
   - Initial radius: 20m ➜ 25m

Equalizing initial radii of both affinities to be 25m.

 Coat of Protection(b)
   - Increased Ice Shield total cap, which can be strengthened to absorb from to 2500 damage ➜ 3000.

The purple affinity of Coat of Protection has by and large been the better of the two affinities. Additionally, the current cap makes using the blue affinity of Ice Age with the blue affinity of CoP quite inefficient. This change rectifies that issue.

 Fire Sphere
   - Damage maximum: 8000 ➜ 10000 in total
   - Spell radius: 15m ➜ 25m (visual FX already appeared to be 25m)
   - Knockback: Small, medium, and large units ➜ Knocks back all unit sizes in the area (regardless of whether they are damaged or not).

Fire Sphere is not a good card. It also lacks identity due to how good its competitors are in its own faction. While thinking about the card, we realized it could keep its boss killing identity while providing 3 Fire+ decks with a thematically appropriate CC effect in knock back. By changing the way its knock back applies and increasing its effect radius to match its existing visual effect, we allow the Fire player to potentially knock back an entire camp. The changes to its splash damage last patch also mean that it no longer loses damage when overkilling an enemy. Our tests have found that a perfectly timed Fire Sphere combined with a fully enraged Batariel give Pure Fire the ability to fully wipe camps in both RPvE 9+ and expert campaign maps. 

 Fire Worm:   
   - Power cost: 210p ➜ 200p
   - Charges: 4 ➜ 8
   - Attack range: 30m ➜ 40m

Fire Worm is not a bad card per se, but it lacks a firm identity and a reason to choose it over other options. Its stats are also not great, having only 2640 life points, lower than several T3 units, with a real attack value of only 4000 despite its claim to deal 4800 damage. Thinking about Fire Worm more, we have decided to move it into the role of a disposable sniper unit. The longer range helps it to survive longer and pick out priority targets without placing itself in danger. Fire Worm will be the first and only XL-unit to have 8 charges. This, along with the lower cost, will allow the player to spam them out quickly, allowing them to function as skirmisher like units without having to fear losing a precious charge on an XL-unit. 

 Grove Spirit:   
   - Healing Song healing capacity: 5000 life points ➜ 5500 life points

Minor correction to allow Grove Spirit to actually heal as much as she claims. 

 Ice Tornado:   
   - Power cost: 145p ➜ 140p

 Jorne:   
   - Wrecking Hammer radius: 20m ➜ 25m
   - Wrecking Hammer damage total: 6600 in total ➜ 8800 in total

Minor buff to Jorne and the accompanying legendary deck. This should make Jorne's anti-building ability easier to hit on multiple targets and more worth the power investment.

 Lifestream: 
   - Life Link: 20% of absorbed damage transferred ➜ 30% of absorbed damage transferred

After the recent buffs, Lifestream is in a good place but is slightly too strong. We as a team do not want to encourage strategies which can functionally create invincible armies, particularly not in a faction with already strong sustain options. As such, we are slightly toning down Lifestream by making it take more damage. This should make the downside real, with the possibility of killing the Lifestream if the player does not pay close enough attention.

 Lost Dragon: 
   - Damage: 335, up to 502 in total (3000 dp20) ➜ 416, up to 624 total (3715 dp20)
   - Life points: 3780 ➜ 4080

Lost Dragon card is very weak for its requirements, even with its very strong passive debuffs. Given it is a support unit, we considered placing more of its power budget into its debuff effects, but after consideration determined that the current debuffs are already sufficiently strong and well-designed. Lost Dragons stats are just too low. As such, we decided on a ~23% damage buff and ~8% life point buff. We wanted to preserve the existing trait of Lost Souls units, where life points are generally higher than damage. 

 Magma Fiend: 
   - Burning Liquid cost: 100p ➜ 50p
   - Movement Speed: 4.8 m/s (run) + 2.4 m/s (walk) ➜ 6.4 m/s (run) + 4.8 m/s (walk)

Burning Liquids is a decent ability, but like many abilities in the game it is overpriced. We are reducing its cost to align the price more closely with the effect produced. Additionally, we are increasing Magma Fiend's movement speed from slow to normal XL. We think that slow speeds should fit the unit in terms of balance, theme, or both. In the case of Magma Fiend, there is neither a thematic nor a balance reason for its currently slow speed, so we changed it.

 Noxious Cloud: 
   - Power cost: 250p ➜ 230p
   - Initial damage: 13 (3750 total) ➜ 24 damage every second (5640 total)
   - Time between damage increase: 2 seconds ➜ 3 seconds

Noxious Cloud is one of the most expensive spells in the game. While theoretically having a large potential total damage of 37,500, this rarely occurs as it requires all 10 initial targets to both live for the full duration and to remain inside the area for 37 seconds in total. In practice, even the Tier 3 Thunderstorm is usually better. Even in perfect situations, Noxious Cloud is heavily outcompeted by rival options such as Plague and Cluster Explosion. We wanted to buff Noxious Cloud without turning it into a copy of these other spells. As such, it continues to only affect units and we kept the total spell duration at 37 seconds. This is similar to the other Nature damage spell, such as Thunderstorm and Parasite, which have long durations and are only capable of damaging units. The new Noxious Cloud should kill most XL-units that remain within its effect for the full duration, while also cleaning up more S and M-units units due to its higher base damage. It also remains expensive, as Nature's faction identity is centered around unit-based damage, not damage dealing spells. 

 Plague: 
   - Power cost: 150p ➜ 170p
   - Parasite duration: 15 seconds ➜ 10 seconds

Despite toning down the new Plague before release, it remains one of the strongest spells in the game and is capable of single-handedly clearing camps, any respawns, and even bosses. We have decided to increase its cost to reduce power efficiency and reduce parasite duration. This reduces each parasite's single-target damage from 1500 to 1000, while making it harder to proc the secondary parasites due to reduced duration. The reduced duration also nerfs the powerful non-immunity applying ranged silence. Overall, this should mean Plague is no longer a cast and forget spell; players will need to encourage the initial parasites to proc themselves if they want to make get full use out of the spell. 

 Primeval Watcher:
   - Orb cost: 2 Nature, 2 Neutral ➜ 3 Nature, 1 Neutral
   - Damage: 600 / 288 / 192 / 127 / 84 (6550 dp20) ➜  660 / 330 / 220 / 165 / 132 (7220 dp20)
   - Life points: 4650 ➜ 4850
   - Stasis Field:
      - Targets: 7 enemies ➜ 9 enemies
      - Ability cost: 0p ➜ 25p
   - New passive, "Siege": Deals 50% more damage against structures.

Primeval Watcher is Pure Nature's primarily damage dealer. As such, Pure Nature's viability as an army-centric faction rises and falls based on Primeval's performance. We have wanted to increase Primeval's stats, but its current orb requirements limited our options as it would have mainly buffed Primeval Watcher in non-Pure Nature decks. Due to this, we have decided to increase its orb requirements to 3 Nature orbs to make room for more substantial stat buffs. Additionally, given that Primeval Watcher is one of Nature's only ways to kill buildings, particularly in the back of a camp, we have given it Siege to aid in this role.

 Skycatcher:
   - Damage 520, up to 780 in total (4660 dp20) ➜ 600, up to 800 in total (5000 dp20)
   - Fixed bug where killing the initial unit would reduce all splash damage to 0.
   - Twilight Infection power cost: 50p ➜ 0p
   - Twilight Infection cooldown: 20 sec ➜ 3 sec

Slight buff to Skycatcher to allow it to better perform its role as a backline attacker. The changes to Twilight Infection will allow Skycatcher to quickly transform a T2 or T3 army into a T4 army. 

 Transcendence:
   - Radius: 25m ➜ 30m
   - Kenosis, healing buff: 50% ➜ 75% more healing
   - Tyranny:
      - Healing debuff: 50% ➜ 75% less healing
      - Damage debuff: 25% ➜ 40% less damage

We are happy with Transcendence in concept but not in practice. The stats it released with have proven too low for it to be a compelling option in decks that might otherwise want to make use of it. We are buffing up its buffs and debuffs and increasing its radius to make it easier to use in chaotic T4 fights.

[ Tower Changes ]

It is the general principle of the faction design team not to change abilities or introduce complex mechanics needlessly. Cards should generally perform a single function and perform that function well. A lot of the buildings in the game are already well-designed but lack sufficient stats or possess too strict of requirements. As such, we have opted wherever possible to introduce simple changes to bring the tower to the appropriate power level. If you would like to learn more about our thought process behind the tower changes, please head to Skylords Reborn Documents to read our design Deep Dive on Towers, as well as other design documents. 

 Artillery:
   - Orb requirements: 2 Fire, 2 Shadow ➜ 1 Fire, 1 Shadow, 2 Neutral
   - Power cost: 190p ➜ 150p

 Deepgorge:
   - Power cost: 225p ➜ 200p
   - Damage: 480, up to 720 in total (3000 dp20) ➜ 675, up to 1015 in total (3760 dp20)
   - Cold Clutch freeze radius: 20m ➜ 25m

 Frost Crystal:
   - Power cost: 70p ➜ 60p
   - Damage: 72, up to 110 in total (728 dp20) ➜ 92, up to 138 in total (920 dp20)
   - Frost Wave freeze radius: 20m ➜ 25m

 Hammerfall:
   - Power cost: 150p ➜ 130p

Hatecaster:
   - Orb costs: 2 Fire, 2 Nature ➜ 1 Fire, 1 Nature, 2 Neutral

 Howling Shrine:
   - Life points: 3160 ➜ 4260
   - Linked Fire support: 1 support ➜ 4 support provided while out of combat
 Living Tower:
   - Splash radius: 5m ➜ 10m

 Mindweaver:
   - Splash radius: 5m ➜ 8m
   - Damage: 250, up to 375 in total (1900 dp20) ➜ 290, up to 435 in total (2200 dp20)

 Necroblaster:
   - Splash radius: 10m ➜ 12m
   - Corpse cost per shot: 500 life points ➜ 825 life points
   - Maximum corpses storable: 4500 ➜ 6600 life points
   - Corpse gathering radius: 33m ➜ 40m

 Primal Defender:
   - Cloudstrike damage: 220 ➜ 225 per hit

 Rioter's Retreat,
   - Splash radius: 5m ➜ 8m

 Stone Hurler,
   - Splash radius: 5m ➜ 8m

 Time Vortex: 
   - Life points: 2820 ➜ 1830
   - Splash radius: 5m ➜ 8m

 Tower of Flames:
   - Damage: 216, up to 324 in total (2160 dp20) ➜ 266, up to 399 in total (2660 dp20)
   - Splash Radius: 5m ➜ 10m

Twilight Bombard:
   - Splash radius: 10m ➜ 15m

Volcano:
   - Orb cost: 3 Fire, 1 Neutral ➜ 2 Fire, 2 Neutral
   - Gifted Eruption(g):
      - Self regeneration: 150 ➜ 200 life points per second
      - Regeneration duration: 5 sec ➜ 10 sec

[ Miscellaneous Changes ]

 - Mind controlled units can no longer be targeted by revive effects.
 - NoClaim and NoCardPlay have been removed from the effects list of The Incredible Mo and Dryad(g) as neither are debuffs nor weakening effects. This means that these two cards will no longer prevent the removal of ground presence or the removal of the ability to claim walls, Power Wells, and Monuments. 
 - The temporary immunity to revive effects on units recently resurrected by Promise of Life is now displayed as an effect. 
 - Viridya / Ravenheart: Now spawn summoned units one at a time, no longer requiring the player to kill one unit to spawn a third unit.
 - Changed several more units with unbound power costs to show 0 power as the power cost when hovering over them in-game.
 - The following units have had their class changed from Beast to Primordial: Deepcoil Worm, Deep One, Fathom Lord, Fire Worm, Magma Fiend, Shadow Worm, and Twilight Horror
 - The ability "Accelerated Construction" has been renamed to "Fast Construction" to conserve space on cards.
 - Added visual effect for Dying Breed on air units.
 - Magma Spore now properly shows it is Swift.
 - Portal Nexus's Explosive Death now has a range preview when hovered over. 
 - Viridya and promo Viridya's Treespirits have been renamed to Viridya's Treespirits.
 - The Bandit random PvE boss Equestrian Twins debuff duration has been decreased from infinite to 30 seconds.

PvP Balance Changes

 [ New Card Design Spotlight  - Twilight Crawler ]
Twilight Crawlers will be a new addition to Twilight decks in T2 and widen the pool of potential transformation targets. They will be a Twilight oriented replacement for Scythe Fiends with the upsides of lower costs and an increased durability against ranged units and spells, creating synergy with healing effects like Ravage. Their transformation ability grants a faster animation, leading to a lowered risk of getting interrupted in PvP scenarios. With fast movement, they will add more versatility to the Fire Nature T2 and even more so when opting for a Twilight unit deck.

 [ New Card Design Spotlight  - Tranquility ]
We are happy to add a second spell to the Amii faction. Tranquility was designed as a flexible T2 support spell, emphasizing Amii's current PvP identity with a strong early game oriented around low energy trading. As the majority of units accessible by Shadow Nature are very cheap, the existing single target buffs from shadow splashes exceed the unit cost, makes buffing units less efficient compared to playing a second unit most of the time. The Foreboding Whispers effect should add more counterplay when facing buffed single units, which opt into focusing down Power Wells. Beside Nightguard, who has been nerfed recently, Amii lacks direct counters for L/XL units, making them slow to take down key targets. As the spell scales fairly well into higher tiers, it might also see play in late game battles, as well as PvE scenarios.

[ Twilight Rework ]
 Twilight Transformation:

The Twilight Transformation mechanic has been perceived as disappointing by most of our players. The existing aura effects were not cost efficient, and the upside of creating strong units with reduced bound power was overshadowed by Breeding Grounds. On top of that, the transformation mechanic was very clunky. A two second channel time made it difficult to use the ability in the midst of battle. A unit would risk taking a large chunk of unnecessary damage during channel time, or even have its transformation canceled by crowd control. As we have wanted to buff Twilight Transformation effects across the board, the clunky nature of this ability needed to be addressed first. To achieve this goal, we reduced the channel time of all Twilight Transformations. To address the issue of weak transformation effects, we will buff up existing ones while also adding several new mechanics, rewarding players for engaging in smart transformations. We intend to keep working on the Twilight archetype into the future, including focusing on more PvE centric changes following the same design approach seen here. This should ideally solidify the transformation ability as a powerful mechanic and make Twilight as a faction more rewarding and fun to play overall.

 Slaver:
   - Power cost: 75p ➜ 70p
   - Blowout:
      - Now also damages air units
      - Now also triggers after transformation
   -. Infused Blowout(r):
      - Max damage: 450 ➜ 900 total damage
      - Now knocks back S-units
   - Tainted Blowout(p):
      - Max damage: 350 ➜ 810 total damage
      - Now knocks back S and M-units

Slaver was outclassed by other L-counter options in Fire Nature decks. As we want to allow more options for Twilight oriented decks, the high slot investment for its various units needs to offer more value in return. With the listed changes, we want to allow Slaver to compete with other L-counter options and also add more room for creative usage of the blowout ability. Channeling a transformation or killing the unit by yourself to get extra burst damage in critical situations should create interesting gameplay options, especially since it has an in-built L-counter bonus that gets applied even after the unit dies.

 Twilight Brute:
   - New passive, "Bloodlust": If the unit is transformed, it will incite friendly units within a 20m radius to restore 25% of their damage dealt as life points. Lasts for 20 seconds.

Based on its stats, Twilight Brute has been a viable option to Fire Nature decks in the past. Its playrate was strictly limited due to deck slot issues though, as the unit was good at defending against key units like Bandit Stalker or Scythe Fiends, but didn’t add much pressure during counter-attacks compared to other M counter options like Skyfire Drake. To raise the incentive of playing him in Twilight decks, we will add a new Transformation effect, that can enable strong counterattacks after a successful defense. We will keep an eye on him to see if he can find his place in Twilight decks moving forward. We might also adjust his Burstout ability in the near future, which was not touched this patch cycle for workload reasons.

 Twilight Minions:
   - Gifted / Infused Incentive radius: 20m ➜ 25m
   - Gifted Incentive(g): Now also affects Fire and Nature units
   - Infused Incentive(r) damage buff: 50% ➜ 65%  

Twilight Minions fill the role of a main M-counter regardless of whether you want to pursue the current Fire Nature style or move towards a Twilight oriented deck. We want to make sure the transformations are a little more useful for both of these decks.

 Vileblood:
   - Gifted / Infused Liquids, radius: 15m ➜ 18m
   - Gifted Liquids(g) healing: 200 ➜ 250 life points per wave
   - Infused Liquids(r):
      - Damage: 100, up to 330 in total ➜ 130, up to 520 in total
      - Now knocks back S and M-unit
      - No longer damages structures

We are buffing the Vileblood transformation towards unit damage instead of cheesing for a guaranteed 600 damage on power wells. With the newly added knockback, it should be fairly useful to punish stacked melee counter units. Also buffing the green affinity a little bit to keep up in value.

 Mutating Maniac:
   - Removed "Hex" passive ability (both affinities).
   - New passive, "Infused Fervor"(r):
      - If the unit is transformed, it will incite friendly Twilight units within a 20m radius to move 40% faster. Additionally, they will deal 50% more damage. Lasts for 15 seconds. 
   - New passive, "Gifted Fervor"(g):
      - If the unit is transformed, it will incite friendly Twilight units within a 20m radius to move 40% faster. Additionally, they will be immune to all major debuffs. Lasts for 15 seconds. 

Since its previous changes, Mutating Maniac started performing fairly well in multiple decks. That said, the transformation ability remained fairly underwhelming. The effect was both very weak and there was no unit worth transforming into. Since moving Nightshade Plant to T3 will change the second part, we are remedying the first issue by replacing the current transformation effect with a more powerful one. If utilized correctly, this should make transforming worthwhile despite the significant power investment.

 Nightshade Plant:
   - Orb cost: 2 Nature, 2 Fire (T4) ➜ 1 Nature, 1 Fire, 1 Hybrid (T3) 
   - Damage: 6380 ➜ 4100
   - Life points: 5800 ➜ 3400
   - New passive, "Siege": Deals 50% more damage against structures.
   - New passive "Adept Mutation": Reduced transformation cost 208p ➜ 180p 
   - Tainted Tendrils, damage: 50 per sec ➜ 20 per sec

Nightshade Plant has been highly redundant in PvE due to being outclassed by Abomination. As the card's design doesn't enable a different playstyle for Twilight decks, we have decided to rework it into a T3 unit that is most efficient when being summoned through transformation. This should add more depth to the Twilight archetype in both PvP and PvE. In PvP, Fire Nature often doesn't have the option of playing more than 2 or 3 cards in T3. This led to late game issues against more defensive oriented decks. Closing out leads was often quite a tough task outside the top echelons of play. Adding a strong game finisher will help the faction to compete to a certain extent. Decks including various Twilight units from earlier game stages will have more strategic options to utilize the card through different transformation effects. Twilight Minions will provide a very cheap summoning, Twilight Crawlers can quickly move to desired locations before transforming, and Mutating Maniac will provide the most powerful transformation buff and unit synergy.

[ Bandit Touch-up ]

Bandits has been in a very strong position ever since the release of its new cards, especially in lower ELOs. As a result, we will tweak it from both ends by slightly nerfing Bandit Minefield and Bandit Stalker, while also buffing some of its most favorable matchups with Pure Nature and Fire Nature. We received a lot of feedback mainly regarding the Bandit Minefield being perceived as fairly oppressive and will closely observe whether this continues to be the case after this set of changes.

 Bandit Minefield:
   - Cooldown: 25 seconds ➜ 30 seconds

Bandit Minefield has been extremely popular since its release. We noticed the spell is getting spammed a lot, as it ensures great trades in almost any state of the game. Microing around the spell and punishing a player during its cooldown is supposed to be this spells intended counterplay. This downside demands a good understanding of matchup from the opponent's side as well as a solid level of execution, making the card even more efficient in lower ELOs. As we want to add more possibilities to play around the spell, we will increase its cooldown. This should open up bigger time windows to attack a Bandit player, who used the spell too recklessly. With reduced power on the Bandit Stalker, see below, there also should be more room to make use of beast creatures that can avoid the mines more consistently due to their mobility.

 Bandit Stalker(g):
   - Damage against Beasts: 100% more damage ➜ 80% more damage

Bandit Stalker received a powerful buff in the past to help Bandits deal with a lot of the beast units, against which the faction used to struggle. With new powerful cards added to the faction, Bandits has become a bit too good against beast reliant decks. As a result, we decided to reduce the beast bonus damage on the green affinity of Bandit Stalker, providing players with the opportunity to snowball a lead against Bandits without getting shut down by this powerful counter unit.

 Bandit Lancer:
   - Branding targeting range: 5m ➜ 8m
   - Added a targeting range preview to Branding when hovered over.

QoL changes which will make the ability smoother to use.

[ Miscellaneous Changes ]

 Deep One:
   - Life points: 1450 ➜ 1500
   - Gifted Catch root immunity duration: 20 seconds ➜ 10 seconds
   - Species class: Beast ➜ Primordial

Pure Nature did not perform to the level we had hoped after its small rework. While we do think it was the right move to reduce Deep One’s health pool, we went a little too far. Pure Nature started struggling to break through strong Frost Splash defenses. We will revert some parts of the health nerfs and also reduce the CC immunity duration applied by gifted catch, which had a much longer duration compared to the usual cc abilities. Outside of that, the Nature versus Bandits matchup has been perceived as fairly oppressive amongst most players that gave us feedback. Deep One will move from Beast to the new Primordial class to make sure it is not getting hard countered by units like Bandit Stalker in the future. With more freedom to use its various units in skirmishes, Nature should also gain more room to play around Bandit Minefield. The spell strongly punishes any misplacement of Ghostspears or Spirit Hunters, which were the only viable trading units in this matchup, assuming a normal nature deck build was being played.

 Emberstrike:
   - Fire Lance can no longer damage Monuments and Power Wells.

Small change to alleviate issues regarding the card in 2vs2 in order to keep games enjoyable without affecting any PvE unit interactions.

 Icefang Raptor:
   - Infused Reserve(r): 30% ➜ 35% of damage reflected to melee attackers
   - Blessed Reserve(b): 25% ➜ 30% damage reduction

With the addition of Amii Paladins and buffs to cards like Twilight Minions or Ghostspears, the impact of small sized medium counters has increased overall. As a result, Icefang Raptor has fallen a bit behind. Its issues are amplified by the bonus counter passives of some S-units it is supposed to fight against, such as Stone Shards or Bandit Spearmen. Adding more power to the unit's passive should balance this out and push the unit further towards decks that can provide appropriate support in the first place.

 Mumbo Jumbo:
   - Debuff (both affinities): 20% ➜ 25%

Adding a bit of power to Mumbo Jumbo as the spell is fairly difficult to use. The buffs should enable a small extra reward for nature players opting into a large T1 without altering the potentially unhealthy interactions around its spawn presence denial.

 Warden's Sigil
   - New passive, "Fast Construction": Construction time is reduced by 50%
   - Cooldown: 20 seconds ➜ 15 seconds

Frost T1 has struggled a lot against early T2 attacks centered around Nightcrawlers and Burrowers. These units were capable of ignoring any counters entirely by focusing down structures. This inherent weakness often pushed players in the direction of playing frost very aggressively instead of methodically securing map control and power leads over time. These changes to Warden's Sigil should add more options for Frost to keep power wells alive without altering its capabilities in unit trading. While Warden's Sigil will be able to help a player get through the early game more consistently, it will be at the cost of fewer card slots for higher tier options. Since we did not want to support forward siege building strategies, the ability to attach on buildings under construction will only remain on the green affinity (this already got added in the last patch).

[Patch #400035 - 14 September 2022]

Patch #400035

Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our sixth balance patch for the game, brand-new cards, and many other changes, enjoy!

Patch Preview

 - Three new cards are now available! Jump in-game to collect Twilight Slayers, Twilight Crawler, and Tranquility.
 - Our initial balance pass on towers, a large number of buffs to well-designed but underperforming cards, our first PvE nerfs, and a substantial amount of changes to Fire, Nature, and Twilight cards.
 - Changed several PvE maps to improve player experience.

General Changes

• Updated in-game player banner colors for GM accounts to represent the current roles.
• Added a search bar to the community map and sparring PvP map selection screens, which can be used to search for map names as well as map creators' names.
• Added a dropdown menu to the community map and sparring PvP selection screens to filter for player count. 
• Added a "reset all filters" button to the filtering widget in the deck control window.
• Added a "search in marketplace" option in the right click menu of cards in the inventory.
• All-time PvE rankings have been reset due to many times no longer being possible. 
• Made changes to the Shadow/Nature, Nature/Shadow, Fire/Nature, and Nature/Fire decks free PvP decks to keep them up to date with the new cards and balance changes. 

New Cards

Twilight Slayers - 75p T3 Twilight  (Fire and Shadow Affinity)
You will find the upgrades for this card on the maps Crusade (fire affinity) and Defending Hope (shadow affinity). 

Twilight Slayers are our first ever T3 S-archer unit. Like their NPC cousins, they deal less damage if enemies are nearby. In exchange, they sport a very high attack value for use with Nature's plentiful crowd control. One affinity deals increased damage to elementals, making them an ideal counter for Stonekin, while the other deals increased damage to humans and ogres, making them a good choice against Bandits. For more information, check out Community Update 26.
 

Twilight Crawler - 80p T2 Twilight  
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Encounters with Twilight.

A new M-sized S-counter for Twilight T2. Since changing Ghostspears to , Twilight has been reliant on Scythe Fiends as an S-counter in PvP. This opens up a Twilight specific S-counter which takes reduced damage from ranged attacks and spells, just like the NPC version. 

 

Tranquility - 40p T2 Amii Spell 
You will find the upgrade for this card on the map Nightmare's End.

Like Transcendence before it, Tranquility has a different effect depending on whether it is cast on an ally (buff) or an enemy (debuff). The card's flexibility should help it fill a much-needed role in Amii's T2, particularly in PvP, as well as remain relevant in T3. For more information, check out Community Update 27.  

 

[Changes to PvE Unit Orb & Power Costs]

Few changes:

Parasite Swarm's swap limits have been changed from 150p --> 175p.
Twilight Hag, Twilight Vileblood, and Twilight Treefiend are now T2 175p. This means they can be swapped by Parasite Swarm and transformed via Twilight Curse.
Twilight Whisperer is now T3 150p, meaning it can be swapped by Parasite Swarm. 

[Stop messing with the base game]

There has been a forum section to discuss balancing changes for the last 6 months. All major upcoming card changes have been announced in the Cards sub-forum since February. All major upcoming Map changes have been announced in Campaign Maps since September 2021. We even added a side bar so you can easily follow which discussions have new posts: 

 

We as a team understand people's worries about balancing changes and have tried repeatedly to respond to concerns, including on several of the issues brought up here relating to balancing and homogenization. Please see the quoted response below for our most recent answer to these concerns from July 15th.

Quote

The Skylords Reborn team decided very early on that all factions should have access to two core mechanics: sustain and void manipulation. At the same time, we determined to add these mechanics to all factions in a way that is thematically appropriate to each one. I think, by and large, that we have succeeded on this account. In terms of sustain; Fire's Bloodthirst requires units to deal damage; Shadow's Blood Healing requires sacrifice; Frost's Coat of Protection, Winter Witch, and Dreadnought use Ice Shields; and Nature's sustain is primarily non-conditional. This is appropriate to each faction and allows each faction to be viable without feeling like we are thereby destroying the properties that makes that faction unique.

In terms of void return, it is important to understand that an archetype that does not have access to void manipulation will be permanently held back in RPvE and most campaign maps. The compensation required to overcome this handicap in terms of card strength would be so excessively large it would inevitably unbalance the game. So, just as we did with sustain options, we too decided to give each faction a thematically appropriate source of void manipulation. Shrine of War requires fighting, Furnace of Flesh requires corpses, Shrine of Martyrs requires freeze, and Shrine of Memory is non-conditional. Again, this fits each faction. I would even argue that Shrine of Memory is more thematically fitting for Nature after the changes than before them. Before it was very weak and only affected the player. Nature support spells, buildings, and effects always benefit allies, and Shrine of Memory was the one exception to this rule. Nature is also the rule-breaking faction and now Shrine of Memory can break the normal rules of void return. This continues in the line of other Nature mechanics like Enlightenment, Mumbo Jumbo, and mind control (which is a Nature, not a Shadow mechanic).  

I understand the worry about the potential homogenization of factions, but I think this worry is overblown. Over the last year and a half, our changes have been carefully designed in such a way as to give each faction a unique niche into which it can fit. Pure Frost has its Ice Shield and freeze mechanics; Nature has unit-centric armies (most decks are spell-centric) as well as the Root Network; Bandits has several unique archetypes with Banzai Lord, Bloodhorn, and Tortugun; etcetera. We are right now trying to do similar things for factions such as Stonekin, Twilight, and Lost Souls. These changes will hopefully continue our work and make each faction possess fully unique ways of playing. To me, much of the reason there are worries right now are because many, even most, of the cards in the game remain unviable and many archetypes are underdeveloped or weak. As we continue to change this, I think the worry about faction homogenization will abate. 

The idea of not touching any of the old cards seems to me misguided. In my estimation, when I first joined the team as a faction designer, I would say the breakdown of card viability in PvE was approximately this:

Overpowered cards: 5% of total
Well-balanced cards: 20% of total
Viable but underperforming cards: 25-30% of total
Meme cards and worse: 45-50%

To not touch any of the old cards would have been, and still largely would be, to consign approximately half the cards in the game to permanent uselessness. We as a team do not think that is the path forward. I realize that not everyone will agree with all our decisions, which is why we also try very hard to be both transparent and open to feedback, both here on the forum and on our balancing discord which can also be accessed via web page. We have also released several design documents to allow players to get more insight into our thinking, which can be found here: Skylords Reborn Documents.

Not only that, but we also try to release changes to the test server to allow hands-on testing and feedback, which is rewarded with a booster when a replay is supplied alongside constructive criticism. While this has not happened as frequently as we have liked recently, the upcoming round of balance changes for next patch will be announced and released on the test server in the next few days.

[Campaign Story?]

On 8/2/2022 at 11:43 PM, MrTycoon said:

     So, a few members of the community today including myself came up with some possible campaign ideas.

Hello MrTycoon,

I like the map idea and I hope in the future we can have more maps with Shadow in them, as there is really only one right now (Dwarven Riddle) and even there Shadow has a very minor role. Given Shadow's lore as a kind of corruption, even predating the corruptive influence of the Twilight, I think the concept of a corruption-based Shadow map is quite a good one and could definitely be something we use in the future. In terms of any connection to Viridya, I do not think this fits the existing lore. Viridya also has already had a very large role to play in the game with a completed storyline, so I suspect we will not be returning to her in the future but instead moving on to using other characters.

[Completed Tower Changes - Old Thread]

All changes in the opening post, as well as the nerfs to Necroblaster and the buffs to Deepgorge, will go live with the next patch. The only exception to this is Infected Tower. We are currently working on designing a more interesting set of changes for Infected Tower. The more complex tower changes which have their own threads (Lost Launcher, Rocket Tower, Stronghold, and Bandit Launcher) will likely not be included in the upcoming patch. 

[Root network]

1. We changed the Linked Fire description last patch to be substantially more accurate. We are quite happy with this description as it fits with the existing in-game language while also including all necessary details

"Unit can connect to the friendly root network within a 25m radius, enabling more powerful attacks. As long as the unit is out of combat, it counts as 3 supporters for the root network. When in combat, the unit can benefit from up to 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 supporters itself; it will then be able to continuously shoot each wave of thorns ever faster."

2. This is not possible. 

[Pure Nature 2.0 - Main Thread]

Hello Sopwith,

We appreciate the constructive feedback and we agree with you on this topic. Forest Elder is intended to be a facilitator unit, even more so than Dreadnought (which is actually strong enough to be spammed due to Shattering Blow). We plan on adding a Pure Nature T4 pay-off spell similar to how we added Coat of Protection to Pure Frost, alongside major buffs to cards like Mind Control and Colossus.

We mentioned this new spell in our recent Deep Dive in the design of the Pure Nature faction, which you can read here: Pure Nature Deep Dive

[Why does Wheel of Gifts suck...]

1 hour ago, PrincessKenny said:

Right now wheels actually force it.

Since Wheels Mo and Sow are all T3 it's impossible to catch up with units after building all of them. They cost 940 power which is MASSIVE hit so early. As I said only option that I have after support buildings is this:

You are not forced to build Wheels. The fact that they are currently inefficient in most scenarios makes this more obvious. If we were to buff them, to the point of being good, one player would feel forced to build them and therefore not play the game. We will not do this. You can play a mostly support deck with spells and the new Lifestream and still actively participate, I would recommend attempting that if you are set on functioning as a support.

[Why does Wheel of Gifts suck...]

7 hours ago, PrincessKenny said:

Wheels should be definitely cheaper compare to buffs they give. They were totally worth using (price was "Infect-like" sick) and now it's... ~600bfp?).

Also as I mention Shrine of War. It would be much better to reduce initial cost of SoW and then just put cost for ability cast. Throw 300 power right after getting T3 is dramatic. Often it forces me to just watch doing nothing and if we are attacked it's even worse (power of spells or units to the power requirement). I would propose cost 150 => 100 and cast cost 0 => 20 or even 50.

The only change Wheel of Gifts will be receiving is the ability to reapply buffs if said buffs have been previously disenchanted. We as a team do not want to encourage a playstyle where a person functionally plays a city builder in his own base while his teammates actually complete the map. In terms of ability strength, the following hierarchy should generally be followed: Active > Conditional Passive > Passive. We want to encourage the player to interact with the game itself, not create a scenario where the game can essentially play itself.

In terms of Shrine of War, this card is already incredibly strong and is easily the best option for multi-person void manipulation. Any cost decrease would have to come with major reductions to its void return percentage. Additionally, an active cost is functionally pointless on a void shrine, it would be paid back immediately. Void manipulation methods are balanced around three factors: orb cost, bound power, and void return rates. The strongest void shrine correspondingly has the highest bound power cost, which is exactly how it should be.  

2 hours ago, Metagross31 said:

Wait, isn't Wheel an external buff and Adamant Skin an internal one, meaning they should stack?

I know you know this Metagross, but as a clarification for everyone else:

All damage reduction and damage buffs are either external or internal. Internal buffs (Counter damage, Bloodhorn's self-buff, Stonekin's Adamant Skin etc.) can stack infinitely. On the other hand, external buffs choose the highest buff or damage reduction only. There are a few exception to this, such as absorb mechanics like Ward of the North, Revenge, or Ice Shields and ammo mechanics like Unholy Power, Death Ray, and Dreadcharger, but generally 1 external and infinite internal buffs is the rule.

[Frost Sorceress]

This is a card I am personally content to see remain solely within the PvP ecosystem. I do think lower tier shielding options are currently sparse and hopefully something we can work on improving in a patch or two. 

[Shrine of Martyrs]

The Skylords Reborn team decided very early on that all factions should have access to two core mechanics: sustain and void manipulation. At the same time, we determined to add these mechanics to all factions in a way that is thematically appropriate to each one. I think, by and large, that we have succeeded on this account. In terms of sustain; Fire's Bloodthirst requires units to deal damage; Shadow's Blood Healing requires sacrifice; Frost's Coat of Protection, Winter Witch, and Dreadnought use Ice Shields; and Nature's sustain is primarily non-conditional. This is appropriate to each faction and allows each faction to be viable without feeling like we are thereby destroying the properties that makes that faction unique.

In terms of void return, it is important to understand that an archetype that does not have access to void manipulation will be permanently held back in RPvE and most campaign maps. The compensation required to overcome this handicap in terms of card strength would be so excessively large it would inevitably unbalance the game. So, just as we did with sustain options, we too decided to give each faction a thematically appropriate source of void manipulation. Shrine of War requires fighting, Furnace of Flesh requires corpses, Shrine of Martyrs requires freeze, and Shrine of Memory is non-conditional. Again, this fits each faction. I would even argue that Shrine of Memory is more thematically fitting for Nature after the changes than before them. Before it was very weak and only affected the player. Nature support spells, buildings, and effects always benefit allies, and Shrine of Memory was the one exception to this rule. Nature is also the rule-breaking faction and now Shrine of Memory can break the normal rules of void return. This continues in the line of other Nature mechanics like Enlightenment, Mumbo Jumbo, and mind control (which is a Nature, not a Shadow mechanic).  

I understand the worry about the potential homogenization of factions, but I think this worry is overblown. Over the last year and a half, our changes have been carefully designed in such a way as to give each faction a unique niche into which it can fit. Pure Frost has its Ice Shield and freeze mechanics; Nature has unit-centric armies (most decks are spell-centric) as well as the Root Network; Bandits has several unique archetypes with Banzai Lord, Bloodhorn, and Tortugun; etcetera. We are right now trying to do similar things for factions such as Stonekin, Twilight, and Lost Souls. These changes will hopefully continue our work and make each faction possess fully unique ways of playing. To me, much of the reason there are worries right now are because many, even most, of the cards in the game remain unviable and many archetypes are underdeveloped or weak. As we continue to change this, I think the worry about faction homogenization will abate. 

[Necroblaster - Upcoming Changes]

With the exception of Hatecaster, which has more of its stats in life points, Necroblaster is the most stat efficient card in the entire game and it is only T3 and completely splashable. In terms of damage per power, it is the most damage efficient card in the game. To pay for this incredible level of efficiency, the card is supposed to have the downside that it costs corpses. Except it only does at the beginning, and then never again. As it currently stands, Necroblaster would functionally be no different if we just removed the corpses entirely and gave it slow construction to simulate waiting for initial corpses. We are making Necroblaster's interaction with corpses a real mechanic, and not just the facade it is currently.  If we did not move in this direction, we would have to substantially nerf some other aspect of the card to bring it down to a reasonable level. 

[Pure Nature 2.0 - Main Thread]

We are very happy with the initial Nature changes but we still have a few more lined up, including ones which failed to make it into the last patch. The threads for Forest Elder, Mind Control, Colossus, and Primeval Watcher have all be updated with new information, while Spore Launcher and Grove Spirit are both still awaiting implementation. Other minor changes which were missed or are upcoming can be found below.

Nature Iteration 2 Changes

Tier 2:
Sunken Temple:
1. Add Mode-change, "Hibernate" - "Pest Creepers enter a state of dormancy and are not longer summoned. Has an initial cooldown of 30 seconds. Reusable every 30 seconds."

Tier 3:
Wheel of Gifts:
1. Change effect to aura to allow it to reapply if disenchanted. 

Tier 4:
Noxious Cloud:
1. Initial damage: 10 / 10 / 10 / 13 (3750 total to a single-target) --> 21 / 21 / 21 / 24 damage every second (5640 total to a single-target)
2. Time between damage increase: 2 sec --> 3 sec
3. Power cost: 290 / 275 / 250 / 250p --> 270 / 255 / 230 / 230p

[Primeval Watcher - Upcoming Changes]

Primeval Watcher has been updated to include an Iteration 2. Most of the changes did not go live last patch. The only two additional changes are that we will be adding Siege to the unit as well as increasing the amount of enemies Stasis Field can affect by 2, to a total of 9.

Additionally, New units are currently in development for   and  to replace Primeval Watcher in these decks. 

[Mind Control (T4 Card) - Upcoming Changes]

Mind Control's changes, which did not make it into last patch, have been updated to include the ability to bypass the population limit.

[Colossus - Upcoming Changes]

Iteration 1 and its goals have been completely revamped for Colossus.

Additionally, we are interested in the community's thoughts on removing Colossus's normal Swift ability and connecting it to Lumbering Step instead. The idea is that this way Colossus would be the same speed as the other units a Nature player typically makes uses, such as Forest Elder and Primeval Watcher. 

[Forest Elder - Upcoming Changes]

Added an Iteration 2 for Forest Elder.

[June 2022 Patch - Feedback Thread]

Thank you for all the feedback so far and please continue to give it. We also have an active discussion on this topic ongoing over in our balance discord which we invite everyone to check out: Skylords Balance Discord

As regards Fire RPvE:
Our map team received a substantial amount of feedback over the last few months and the vast majority of players, of every skill level, told us two things: The damage was overwhelming and too punishing for some decks, while the faction was a wet noodle against decks with powerful CC. We aimed then to remedy this situation with the changes made, which experienced a very long testing period with a lot number of our map testers. If anyone wants to join this Map Tester group, we are always looking for more help!

About Achievements:
I am glad to see the overwhelming support we have had with our new achievement set, both here, in-game, and on discord. We are currently looking into ways to carry this momentum forward and continue to add more replayability and end game content to the game. This is one of my top priorities right now.

 

4 hours ago, DefAnske said:

Now to the new cards: I absolutely love what you guys did with bandits! Not only the Wasteland Terror, but also the Minefield, Banzai Lord and the Bandit Sniper feel super rewarding in what they are supposed to do. I always liked the bandit theme, but the gameplay was just missing something, I think the only kind of bad state from bandit units is now on t3 but that can be balanced with the very strong t3 of fire or shadow.

Really glad you enjoy the changes. We are currently looking into some follow-up changes for Corsair, Sandstorm, Tortugun, Amok, and even Waystation. These likely will not have high priority (ie. likely not coming next patch) given how much love we have shown Bandits in recent patches, but once they are finished I think we will have achieved something pretty wonderful with the faction overall. In many ways, Bandits is an image of what we want to do with each faction. It contains multiple archetypes and has viable strategies for all levels of play.

[bandit walker in "Mo"?]

Did you kill the Walker before fighting the Raven ships in your second run but not your first?

I always kill the Walker, so at least assuming that is done: The Bandit Command Walker does not spawn until a certain point after you initially engage with the Raven ships. If you kill the Raven ships fast enough in the initial engagement, the map will end before the Walker can spawn, meaning you never have to fight it as part of the final battle. 

[Void Maw Ability doesn't work properly]

We have identified the cause and will be fixing it. 

[June 2022 Patch - Feedback Thread]

Hello everyone,

It has been a week now since the patch has released, and while this is not exactly a long time, I wanted to open a discussion and encourage everyone to provide feedback on the changes we have made to the game. Below are some of the topics of which we are most interested in soliciting feedback, though feel free to offer any suggestions regarding the patch and the current direction of the game. 

Do you like the changes to card and factions? Why or why not? Where did we hit the mark, and implement something exciting you'd like to see more of? Where did you miss the mark and what should we avoid in the future? Do you enjoy the new cards, are they balanced?

What do you think of the map changes? Are you happy or unhappy to see changes to original maps? Would you like to see more such changes or less? Is playing Fire RPvE a better experience now?

What do you think of the new PvP features? What do you think of the new achievements? Do you have any suggestions for future features, achievements, or changes along these lines?

[Pure Nature 2.0 - Main Thread]

Not all Nature changes made it into this patch. Additionally, the discussions today show that the balance discord is still very much active. 

[Being inactive makes maps not counting for Achievements]

Personally I think there isn't a reason for many of the achievements to be excluded from achievement due to the AFK timer. The issue is that some of them (reserve) should be excluded, and I do not know if there is an easy way to differentiate between them. I think it is something which is possible for us, just question of effort.

[Twilight Evil Eye reflection true damage]

3 hours ago, Volin said:

Possible, I have no clue tho 😞

Live Weawing and Revenge are probably something different, as they say "transfer" and not "reflect"? If not, those two don't have true dmg

Life Weaving is true damage.