WindHunter

Patch #400033 - Force of Nature Welcome to our newest patch, titled "Force of Nature"! This update contains our fifth 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 Wasteland Terror, Burning Spears, and Transcendence. - Major changes to the PvP game mode, including PvP Happy Hours, reward reworks, hiding player loses, and more. - Added 18 new, primarily PvE achievements for both beginners and veterans alike. Including one to earn the new promo Mana Wing! - Rebalanced Fire RPvE to provide a still challenging but less frustrating experience - Rebalanced over 40 cards, with a large focus on Nature cards. - Changed several PvP and PvE maps to improve player experience General Changes Updated in-game player banner colors for GM accounts to represent the current roles. Added ability to search for missing copies and charges in the Auction House. For example, writing `(charge=2 & copies<2) | (charge=1 & copies<3) | (charge=0 & copies<4)` in the textbox will show you all the cards you can still potentially buy to get a fully charged collection. Added ability to play cards by clicking on the upgrades in the upgrade scroll view or the upgrades in the upgrade window. Added ability to change the play speed in the forge, or to pause and unpause it. New hotkeys are available in the options menu. The default hotkeys are J, K and L for decreasing speed, toggling pause, and increasing speed. Added a responsive deck counter to the decks window that shows how many decks the player has, relative to the maximum number of allowed decks. Improved the UI that displays what is remaining to complete an achievement. Previously, players could hover over the progress bar to see a tooltip, but this was unclear. Now, there will be a clearly visible (?) icon next to the progress bar that has the tooltip instead. Added ability to press the Space button in the reforge window to reforge the current cards in the window. This removes the need to press the Reforge cards button. Increased unit icon (dot) size on in-game minimaps from 4x4 to 5x5 pixels. Added the new Force of Nature loading screen. Added ability to change how the automatically generated replays are named. There is an extra setting in the GUI section of the configuration file at `/Battleforge/config.json` called `savereplaysnameparts` for this. New Cards Burning Spears - 80p T2 Pure Fire You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Oracle. S-unit designed to counter Large and Extra Large units. For more information, check out our design spotlight below in the PvP Balance Changes, section as well as Community Update #23. Wasteland Terror - 260p T4 Pure Bandits (Fire and Nature Affinity) You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Blight (Fire Affinity) and Raven's End (Nature Affinity). Bandit dragon for those Bandits players who want other options besides Tortugun. Its ability acts as a mass Disenchant to let your army continue to more forward through crowd control. For more information, check out Community Update #14. Transcendence - 90p T4 Amii Spell You will find the upgrade for this card on the map Sunbridge. Our first Amii spell is castable on both enemies and allies, with different effects depending on the target. When cast on enemies, it buffs one unit and debuffs all of its surrounding allies. When cast on allies, it debuffs one unit and buffs and its surrounding allies. In both cases, it rewards careful target selection and micromanagement from the player side. For more information, check out Community Update #20. Mana Wing - New Promo Card While not a new card, we have also added a new promo to the game. Every player will be able to get a promo Mana Wing by completing the new achievement "A Force of Nature". The promo will not be available in boosters, but it will be trade-able. For more information, check out Community Update #24. PvP Game Mode Changes [ New Player Protection ] To protect new players from facing top players when they are just getting started in ranked play, it is no longer possible to get matched with players with a base ELO above 135.000 if your own base ELO is below 102.000. [ Made Player Names Anonymous ] To prevent players from dodging bad match-ups, player names have been anonymized in the ranked lobby. This does not affect the sparring lobbies. [ Losses are Now Hidden] It has been proven in other competitive games that showing losses on the ranked ladder results in demotivation and higher entry barriers. We have therefore removed losses from the ladder. The information is still accessible on your profile if you want to look it up. [ Updates to the Free PvP Decks ] We have made some changes to the cards contained in the free PvP decks to compete with the new meta. If we made updates to the free PvP decks you have currently selected, you will now have the option to either swap to the new cards, or keep your current set up. Changes have been made to Pure Nature (Parasite over Shrine of Memory), Twilight (Twilight Minions over Ghost Spears), Pure Shadow (Executor over Nightguard) and Pure Fire (Burning Spears over Scorched Earth). [ Improved Rewards ] We have removed the gold penalty that was currently active for playing sparring games. Quests that require you to play 2vs2 games, now also count 3vs3 games for completion. We have also allowed you to drain the reserve while looking for ranked a match. If you queue for at least 5 minutes, even if you don't find an opponent, you will earn BFP as if you were ingame, meaning you get BFP not just for playing, but also while searching for matches. [ Happy Hours ] Happy Hours are specific time periods where players will receive additional gold and BFP for playing PvP. The daily boost / reserve will drain at a factor of 1.5x, while you will also get 1BFP per minute extra for queuing. For Happy Hours, there will be an in-game announcement, and the icon on the world map will indicate Happy Hours are active. Happy Hours will take place during the following times: - 1vs1 happy hours: 7pm-9pm CET - 2vs2 happy hours: 9pm-10pm CET - 1vs1 happy hours: 4am-5am CET By clustering players together during certain time frames, players will have an easier time finding matches more frequently. New Achievements Skylords Reborn currently faces primary two issues in terms of content: early game progression is too steep, and endgame content is nearly nonexistent. These achievements are intended to make the first step in tackling both issues. Smaller, more digestible progressive achievements will mean a player will no longer finish the campaign on standard, with the next goal in sight being to play all the maps again on advanced before being rewarded. New players will now be slowly guided through the campaign and RPvE, allowing them to steadily accumulate cards along the way. At the same time, we are adding our first set of endgame achievements to the game. This will provide more content for our veteran players and give them a reason to replay old maps, often with a twist. We hope you all enjoy these new challenges, and we will continue to expand the endgame content into the future. [ Infinitely Scaling Achievement ] Reborn in Fire [1 Mini-booster] Reforge Cards (Unlocks every 20 reforges, scales infinitely) [ Beginner Achievements ] Just a Story [1 Twilight booster] Complete Viridya and Brannoc's story on standard difficulty or higher (Encounters, Siege of Hope, Defending Hope, Soultree, Crusade, Sunbridge, King of the Giants, Titans, Ascension) The Most Dangerous Game [1 Bandits booster] Complete Mo's story on standard difficulty or higher {Mo, Ocean, Oracle, Slave Master, Convoy, Blight, Raven's End, Empire) A Debt Unpaid [20,000 gold] Complete the story related to the Treasure Fleet on advanced difficulty or higher. (Bad Harvest, Treasure Fleet, Mo, Blight, Slave Master, Convoy) A Mile in His Shoes [2 Stonekin boosters] Complete Rogan's story on advanced difficulty or higher (Encounters, Siege of Hope, Defending Hope, Crusade, King of the Giants, Titans, Dwarven Riddle, Guns of Lyr, Empire) A Wrinkle in Time [250 bfp] Win the 4-player map Empire spawning at least 5 different Lost Souls cards from a deck containing only frost, shadow, and Lost Souls cards. Godslayer [250 bfp] Win the 2-player maps Sunbridge and Insane God on any difficulty. Apprentice [1 booster] Win 20 randomly generated PvE matches of difficulty 5 or higher. [ Veteran PvE Achievements ] The Road Not Taken [3 boosters] Win 20 randomly generated PvE matches of difficulty 9 or higher. Turn Back All Ye Who Enter Here [6 boosters] Win 20 randomly generated PvE matches of difficulty 10. Nevermore [2 Bandit boosters] Complete Blight's story on expert difficulty (Blight, Raven's End, Slave Master, Ocean, and Oracle) Make it Double [2 Amii boosters] Complete all 2-player maps on expert difficulty. (Crusade, Sunbridge, Nightmare Shard, Nightmare's End, The Insane God, Slave Master and Convoy) Never Thought of Him [100,000 gold] Complete the story of Mo becoming the new king of the fire tribes on expert difficulty with all players in the map using decks containing only Fire cards. (Mo, Ocean, Oracle, Slave Master, Convoy, and Raven's End) The Long Journey Home [2 Frost boosters] Complete the story re-establishing the Kingdom of Lyr on expert difficulty using decks containing only frost cards. (Encounters with Twilight, Siege of Hope, Defending Hope, Bad Harvest, Dwarven Riddle, and Guns of Lyr) Not Even My Final Form [Rogan Kayle Card] Win the 1-player map Encounters with Twilight on expert difficulty without using T3 or T4 cards. Forest for the Tree [Viridya Card] Complete the 1-player map The Soultree on expert difficulty using only Nature cards from T1 and T2. A City Strongly Compact [Stronghold Card] Win the 1-player map Defending Hope on expert difficulty with a deck containing only spell and building cards. A Force of Nature [Promo Mana Wing] Complete all 1-player and 2-player scenarios on expert difficulty with all players in your team using decks containing only Nature cards. Those who complete "A Force of Nature" will be rewarded with a Promo Mana Wing! This promo is unique to this achievement and will not be available from boosters, but it will be trade-able. We hope you look forward to the challenge!

Map Balance Changes PvE Map Changes Behind Enemy Lines: increased initial power wells from 2 to 3. All three have a capacity of 1200, equivalent to a 40 min lifetime. Behind Enemy Lines is a map with a high failure rate with non-Nightguard strategies, and is none to have substantial periods where the player is forced to wait. The primary goal is to keep the map strategic and difficult, while removing the tedious moments. A secondary goal is to buff non-Nightguard strategies in preparation for the upcoming changes to mind control. Convoy: buildings are now properly blocked from being built in the canyon in the center of the map in all locations. Nightmare Shard: increased initial power wells from 2 to 3 and increased the capacity of the T2 & T3 power wells from 600 (20 min) to 900 (30 min). Once the goal is activated to destroy the infected Twilight spawns (which occurs either after the player has reached the Shard or the first Twilight Witch spawns, whichever is first) the fog of war over each infected camp is cleared in a 35m radius. The average completion time for this map on expert is 48 minutes. The idea is to increase early power generation to reduce waiting, and to increase well capacity in-line with how long the map actually takes. Additionally, many players do not have a good idea of the strength of the various Twilight camps. The choice to remove the fog of war over the camps should help the players to make a better informed decision of where next to attack. Nightmare's End: increased initial power wells from 2 to 3 and increased initial well capacity from 900 (30 min) to 1200 (40 min). Increased the capacity of the T2 power wells from 600 (20 min) to 900 (30 min). Nightmare's End has an average completion time of 72 minutes. This makes it the longest map in the game, and it is notoriously frustrating, leading to low replayability. Initial power generation and well capacity does not match the map's actual difficulty or length, so we are hopeful these changes can help bring about a smoother gameplay experience. There are other issues with the map in need of changing, but they will need to wait for a future patch. The Dwarven Riddle: added a monument and 3 power wells on each side of the map, regardless of number of players. This change will allow both players to go T4. It should only affect players who play the map in a more "standard" method, in contrast to the speedrun method. Standardized all official single player campaign maps to have 4 gold chests. Defending Hope: added 2 gold chests to match the standard. Ocean: removed 2 gold chests to match the standard. The Soultree: added 1 gold chest to match the standard Introduction: added one gold chest to introduce new players to the concept of gold chests. PvP Map Changes While PvP has been moving steadily towards a more and more balanced state, a major issue we still face is the maps themselves. Just like we previously made changes to the 1v1 maps, we are happy to finally unveil our changes to all the 2v2 PvP maps (and Yrmia). These changes should create a more competitive and fair play environment, with many existing imbalances and cheese opportunities removed. All minimaps have been adjusted to reflect the changes and to be more accurate in general. [ 1v1 Maps ] Yrmia / Yrmia (Spectator Map): Decreased the capacity of all power wells with 900 capacity to 600 capacity (1). Decreased the capacity of all power wells with 1500 capacity to 600 capacity (2). [ 2v2 Maps ] Danduil: Removed the 4 fortification walls surrounding the Monuments on both sides. Added 1 power well of 600 power capacity at each of the 4 monument positions in the corners. Fixed an issue where it was not possible to spawn non-S-sized units by the ground presence solely provided by the outer power wells (2 and 3). Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Fyre: Increased the construction cost of the 4 outer fortification walls from 25 to 50 energy. Decreased these wall's distance to the power wells. These walls can no longer be built by enemies if the player or ally own the power well closest to the wall. Additionally, slightly narrowed the layout of the respective area around the wall in the bottom left to enable the same effect there. Added flying blocking at the 2 big lakes in the center to prevent sieging across them with long-ranged flying units. This is now visualized by permanently present clouds in the area. The power wells in the top left of the upper starting base now provide spawn presence for units and buildings. The power wells in the bottom right of the lower starting base now provide better spawn presence for units and buildings. Fixed various other minor blocking issues. Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Gorgash: Increased the construction cost of the fortification walls at each starting position from 25 to 50 power. These walls are no longer pre-built at the start of the game. Increased all player's starting void power from 400 to 425 to compensate for wall changes. Decreased the power cost of the walls at the central northern and southern bases at the border of map from 75 to 50 energy. Adjusted the position of the monuments and power wells in all 6 bases in the north and south of the map to decrease distance to the wall. These walls can no longer be built by enemies if the player or ally owns the power well or monument closest to it. Removed the 2 walls around the northern and southern bases in the center of the map. Changed the layout of power wells and monuments in these bases by rotating each cluster by 180 degrees. Moved the power wells and monuments in these bases outwards, hence further away from the center of the map. Removed the northern and southern power well in the well cluster in the middle of the map. Moved the 4 power well clusters near the outer left and outer right bases closer to the center. Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Koshan: Swapped the starting positions between players, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Added 2 ramps to the sides of the new start positions, granting access to the plateau behind. Opened up the plateaus in the corners by creating connecting ramps towards the diagonal of the map. Adjusted the positions of wells, so that they are further away from the nearby wall, and thus hostile units mounted on the wall cannot attack the wells anymore. Nadai: Added 1 power well of 1200 capacity at each side of the center monument position. Adjusted the positions of monuments and walls, so that 4 of the walls cannot be taken anymore if an enemy has taken the adjacent monument. Adjusted the positions of monuments, so that they are further away from the nearby wall, and thus hostile units mounted on the wall cannot attack the orb anymore. Swapped the starting positions including the starting power wells and monuments only within teams for consistency, whilst preserving map symmetry. Turan: Opened up the middle of the map by creating 4 connecting paths between the power well clusters and the central monument. Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Yshia: Adjusted the positions of the 4 outer fortification walls to prevent offensive walling, by moving them outwards and thus closer to the power wells and monuments there. Opened up the plateaus by adding 2 ramps to each of them. Widened one of the ramps leading up to the two small plateaus. Increased the cost of the plateau walls from 25 to 50. Moved the well clusters more towards the center of the plateau, but keeping them close to the wall to prevent offensive walling. Moved the monuments previously located off the plateau to add to each of them 1 power well of 600 power capacity. Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Zahadune: Added flying blocking at various places at the borders of the bodies of water to prevent sieging across them with long-ranged flying units. This is now visualized by permanently present clouds in the area. Fire Random PvE Balance Changes Fire was added as an enemy faction in rPvE in our Anniversary Patch. While we are currently working on adding Nature as the next faction to fight against, we have been keeping a close eye on the balance and player experience against Fire among all skill levels. With this patch, we will be making some changes to improve the experience. [ System Changes ] - Significantly reduced the difficulties 6 and below. - Volcano now only spawns in level 4 camps and beyond.* - Incoming attack waves should now be less oppressive on higher difficulties. [ Bosses ] Removed fire class from all fire boss units - Protector's Seal no longer blocks the damage of Fire bosses. Abaddon: - Rage: - Reduced the damage bonus from the second stage from 300% to 200%. - Gates of Hell: - Reduced the initial damage from 800 (2400 in total) to 400 (1200 in total). - Reduced the eruption damage from 2000 (6000 in total) to 1000 (3000 in total). Aspect of Summer: - Global Warming: No longer prevents ice shield from being applied to target units. Brannoc: - Reduced life points from 65000 to 60000. - Fire Sphere: - Increased channeling time from 3 to 5 seconds. - Reduced damage from 2000 (10000 in total) to 1500 (7500 in total). - Reduced the radius from 25m to 20m. - Reduced the casting range 30m to 25m. Fireback: - Increased life points from 30000 to 40000. Fiend of Fire: - Flamethrower: Reduced damage per second from 600 to 500. Molten Golem: - Blazing Surface: Reduced damage returned from 50% to 25%. Vulcanos: - Unit is now XL. - Can now damage air units. [ Units ] Emberstrike: - Fire Lance - Reduced damage from 1200 (3100 in total) to 1000 (2500 in total). - Only deals 50% damage to structures. Firesworn: - Fixed a bug that prevented the unit from attacking units other than L-sized units. Fire Dragon: - Rage: Reduced the damage bonus from the second stage from 300% to 200%. Fire Worm: - Earthquake: - Reduced the damage per hit from 1000 to 500. - Now properly deals L counter damage. Magma Spore: - Ground Blast: - Reduced the damage from 720 (1120 in total) to 350 (1050 in total). - Reduced the area Radius 15m -> 10m. Spitfire: - Fire Bomb: Reduced range from 50m to 35m. [ Buildings ] Pyromaniac: - Reduced the duration of the damage over time debuff from 10 seconds to 3 seconds. Tower of Flames: - Volcanic Ground: - Reduced the damage from 6 times 200/1000 to 6 times 150/750. - Reduced the range from 25m to 20m. Volcano: - Reduced life points from 5000 to 3500. - Reduced the size by 10%. New Building: Flame Crystal - Spawns in Level 4 and Level 5 camps* and will periodically remove debuffs and cc effects from allied units Fire can be extremely strong, but due to its high attack and low defense, it is extra vulnerable to Crowd Control spells. We want to counter this weakness with a brand-new building, while some major enemy damage dealers have been rebalanced * Level 3 camps are usually right behind the T3/T4 camp; Level 4 camps are the row behind Level 3; Level 5 is always the last row. Map Editor Changes Increased maximum allowed file size of community maps from 64 to 512 megabytes. Added optional verbose logging for LUA. This is relevant for mapmakers and can be enabled in the debug section of the configuration file at `/Battleforge/config.json` using the `lua` configuration. The logs can be found in the `/Battleforge/Diag` folder. Increased max brush size in the map editor. Fixed crashes for the height map generation for Random PvE in the map editor in certain cases. Allowed selection of the fire Random PvE preset in the map editor. Bugfixes Fixed issue related to character names becoming too long with the added `{GM}` prefix and not being able to be whispered. Fixed issue with deleting community maps while they are being downloaded by another player. Fixed incorrect ordering for all time rankings in the leaderboards. Fixed ability to add 21 cards or 21 boosters to trade, instead of 20. Fixed too large scroll step size for upgrade view when trying to scroll through the upgrades. It now scrolls with the same steps as the cards scroll view. Fixed inconsistencies in the Amii card frames. Card descriptions will no longer overflow into the card artwork. Fixed walk speed mismatch between respawned squad members and existing ones, causing the group as a whole to move at an unfavorable speed. This could be noticed for example with Werebeasts and Strikers. Fixed wrong displayed remaining card charges for Offering in rare cases Fixed incorrect handling of overkill stampede damage when destroying buildings. In general, this has a nerfing effect on stampede. Improved error handling and logging for issues related to starting BattleForge with DirectX10. and many more!

Card Balance Changes Global Balance Changes Each unit size has a defined limit of how many melee units of a given category can attack it at once. This limit directly affects the viability of melee units in a way that is not true for ranged units. As part of how balancing efforts, we have decided to increase the amount of melee units which can attack a given unit at a time. This should prove especially helpful for early strategies utilizing S-units or when fighting against boss units in RPvE with a primarily melee army. Numbers of melee attackers for creatures of different sizes: A single S creature can be attacked by at most 4 Normal, 6 Reach and 2 Huge attackers ➜ at most 6 Normal, 9 Reach and 4 Huge attackers A single M creature can be attacked by at most 6 Normal, 10 Reach and 2 Huge attackers ➜ at most 9 Normal, 15 Reach and 4 Huge attackers A single L creature can be attacked by at most 8 Normal, 12 Reach and 4 Huge attackers ➜ at most 12 Normal, 18 Reach and 6 Huge attackers A single XL creature can be attacked by at most 12 Normal, 14 Reach and 6 Huge attackers ➜ at most 18 Normal, 21 Reach and 8 Huge attackers Normal = S & M-units. Reach = Units with extended range. Ghostspears is a good example. Huge = L and XL-units. S-units count as 1 normal (or reach) attacker. M-units count as 2 normal (or reach) attackers. L-units count as 1 Huge attacker. XL-units count as 2 Huge attackers. Fortification walls: increased the gate's toggle cooldown from 1.4 seconds to 3.4 seconds. Some units were unable to attack or pass through a gate when it was rapidly toggled between closed and open. Twilight's Transformation ability: added scaling to the transformation cost based on tier. Tier 2 units remain at 85% Tier 3 units from 85% ➜ 80% Tier 4 units from 85% ➜ 75% Twilight Transformation is now as efficient as Breeding Grounds at T4. Changed all cone-attacker splash radii to 38m (ie. Frost Mage). This would reduce out-of-range issues faced by cards of this type. PvE Balance Changes The focus this patch for both PvE and PvP has been on the Nature faction. For more information on our vision for Nature, check out our Nature Deep Dive. While changes are split here between PvE and PvP sections, many of the changes, such as Parasite, Shrine of Memory, and Spikeroot, 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 ] Amazon (Nature): - Wildlife Protection radius increase: 20m ➜ 30m Quality of life change to make it easier to use Amazon(g) with Werebeasts in T1. Fountain of Rebirth - Ritual of Rebirth healing: 15 / 18 / 21 / 25 life points regenerated ➜ 20 / 23 / 26 / 30 life points regenerated globally A small buff to enable the Fountain to be used in more scenarios, particularly when supporting non-Nature players in multiplayer. Treespirit: - Unit cost decrease: 60p ➜ 50p - Life points reduction: 680 / 720 / 800 / 880 ➜ 560 / 600 / 660 / 730 - Thorns damage reduction: 100, up to 150 total ➜ 75, up to 115 total These changes to Treespirit were initially intended to turn the unit solely into a Root Network battery, but testing has shown increased viability in all game modes due to the ability to spam them out quickly, a trait that Nature T1 otherwise lacks. The cost reduction means a net benefit for Root Network decks, allowing them to set-up more quickly while binding significantly less power. [ Tier 2 ] Healing Well: - Water of Life: - Added initial healing capacity of 1500 life points. - Recharge rate increase: 20 life points per second ➜ 50 life points per second Purely support buildings typically need to provide a lot of benefit to be considered for inclusion in a player's deck. Currently, Healing Well takes 2 minutes and 30 seconds, or 150 seconds total, to fill its healing capacity of 3000. This is a recharge rate of 20 life points per second. Given that the building starts with 0 initial capacity, this means that the player must not only wait for the building to construct, but also well over a minute before the building becomes usable, and then only for a few seconds before they will need to wait again. In some sense, this mimics an initial and recurring ability cooldown timer, but we do not think this state of affairs is proper to this card. These changes should allow Healing Well to fulfill its purpose as a stable source of sustain in a localized area. Sunken Temple: - Orb requirements changed: 2 Nature ➜ 1 Nature, 1 Neutral - Building cost reduction: 120p ➜ 110p - Swapped Shadow and Nature affinities of the card. - Plague: - Changed from active ability to passive auto-cast ability with a cooldown of 30 seconds. - Now displays a respawn status bar indicator. - Summoned Pest Creepers: - Unit now dies after 40 / 60 / 60 / 60 seconds. - Added immunity against reviving effects. - Can no longer be infected with the Twilight Curse. - No longer grants ground presence. - Green affinity poison duration increase: 4 ➜ 5 seconds Sunken Temple is a spawner building with has a high upfront cost of 120 bound power and a continually high cost of 80p for each ability activation. Given that the units it spawns are unbound units, the building will eventually pay itself off. This payoff comes in the form of melee S-units, which already begin to struggle in T2, particularly in PvE. Additionally, while the building eventually pays itself off, the time it takes for this to occur is quite long, both in terms of power cost and in-game time. This is not helped by Nature's newfound lack of void manipulation in T2. In nearly all scenarios, it would be better to push for T3 with a different strategy than using Sunken Temples. One of the holes that currently exists in Nature's T2 is the lack of a splashable defensive tower. Even Pure Nature's tower, Living Tower, is often lacking when not supported by other root network entities. The idea with this change is to turn Sunken Temple into a shrine which continually spawns short-lived defensive units. These units can then be paired with cards like Infected Tower to create permanent Twilight bugs or Furnace of Flesh for some minor void manipulation. [ Tier 3 ] Northland Drake: - Unit cost increase: 240p ➜ 300p - Life points increase: 2435 / 2560 / 2820 / 3100 ➜ 3235 / 3360 / 3620 / 3900 - Frost Breath (auto-cast) damage increase: 265, up to 398 total (2370 dp20) ➜ 400, up to 600 total (3570 dp20) - Active ability Blizzard: - Duration increase: 10 seconds ➜ 15 seconds - Ability cost increase: 60p ➜ 70p - Infused(r) Blizzard's flat damage bonus to frozen units is now consistently dealt against all frozen targets damaged by the storm. We have done a lot to buff Pure Frost, but have thus far neglected Northland Drake. We wanted to give the card a substantial buff, but needed to sharply increase its power cost to avoid any potential issues with PvP. Overall, this constitutes a 20% total increase in stat efficiency and a much improved ability. Oracle Mask: - Mysticism: - Increased duration of the internal buff from 8 / 8 / 10 / 10 seconds ➜ 12 / 15 / 15 /15 seconds to match the external buff. - Changed the buff effect of the aura around friendly buildings from granting units invisibility ➜ units take 100% less damage. - The granted buff of the aura will now reapply to existing units in range. - Changed the displayed status bar icon on affected units and buildings from the card artwork icon to the ability's activation icon. - Added a proper global status bar description. - The visual effect of the activation no longer lasts an unlimited time on Oracle Mask. The old Oracle Mask was incredibly bugged and allowed the player to unbind their entire army and generate free units. This is a stopgap measure while we work on redesigning Oracle Mask entirely. Shrine of Martyrs: - Power cost increase: 125p ➜ 220p - Blessing of the Martyr: Now a permanent, passive effect. Only one Blessing of the Martyr can be active at a time per team. We have envisioned Pure Frost as a macro-based faction oriented around good preparation and diverse unit compositions. The recent changes have given Frost players a lot to do in terms of micromanagement, and the newly buffed Shrine of Martyrs has only added to that by requiring the player to check back every 30 seconds. Given Frost's nature as a faction, which we discussed at length in our Deep Dive into Pure Frost, we would like to test out a version of Shrine of Martyrs which applies a permanent global buff. By doing so, we hope to cut out some of the micromanagement we have added to Frost in recent patches. Shrine of Memory: - Orb requirements increased: 2 Nature (T2) ➜ 2 Nature, 1 Neutral (T3) - Power cost increased: 100p ➜ 120p - Echoes of the Past: - Void return percentage increase: 100% / 150% / 200% / 200% ➜ 150% / 175% / 225% / 300% - Maximum void return increased: 20 power per 2 seconds ➜ 80 power per 2 seconds - Also affects allies now, also only one Echoes of the Past can be active per team. - Decreased duration: 30 / 30 / 30 / 35 seconds ➜ 30 seconds on all upgrades. As a T2 building, Shrine of Memory sees play in PvP scenarios regularly, but falls behind in PvE compared to other void return mechanics. Its current effect is most efficient with medium amounts of void power, but actually loses efficiency beyond a certain threshold (333) and only works for the player which owns the structure. This means that Pure Nature as a faction has very poor void return tools, which is a major reason it is currently so weak. Turning SoM into a tier 3 buildings opens up significant space for buffs. Shrine of Memory now affects allies again, an ability which was originally taken away due to its strength in 2v2 PvP. Additionally, we have increased the void return percentage and allowed it to overcome the natural void return cap to allow it to compete with other void return options in T3. The goal is that after this change, all four factions will have competitive void return options which are thematically appropriate to the faction itself. Stone Warrior: - Damage increase: 1700 dp20 ➜ 1850 dp20 - Life points reduction: 1950 / 2020 / 2170 / 2360 ➜ 1750 / 1820 / 1970 / 2160 - Shatter Lance activation cost reduction: 100p ➜ 80p - Gifted(g) Shatter Lance: Can now target structures. Deals 50% damage against structures. The blue affinity was recently given the ability to damage frozen buildings. The green affinity's description suggests it can do the same, and we don't see anything wrong with the interaction, so we have modified them to be consistent. We also reduced the ability cost to buff both affinities slightly. Stat realignment is for PvP viability which leaves unit with identical stat efficiency, which is the same as Mutating Maniac, better than Mutating Frenzy, and slightly worse than Fathom Lord. Sylvan Gate: - Power cost reduction: 110p ➜ 80p - Add "Accelerated Construction" - Construction time is reduced by 50%. - Change Linked Fire ➜ Repeater - Range: 25m ➜ 100m - Sylvan Gate no longer provides support itself - Move affinities to their own passive: - Change Blessed(b) affinity to Tainted(p) affinity - Friendly entities connected to the root network within a 25m radius around Sylvan Gate will deal piercing damage - Infused(r) affinity - Friendly entities connected to the root network within a 25m radius around Sylvan Gate will deal 25% more damage. Sylvan Gate is in a prime place for a redesign. We would like to turn Sylvan Gate into a long-distance Root Network repeater, a role that fits perfectly with its existing tunnel ability. With these changes, a single Sylvan Gate will cover 200m and be able to connect support from every root entity within 100m in every direction. This means that Sylvan Gate can bridge massive distances, allowing the player to easily move their frontline root network unit while leaving their root network battery far away from the battlefield. Thornbark: - Linked Fire, out-of-combat support provided increase: 1 ➜ 3. One of the aspects of root networks that has always been a little weird is the fact that every unit provides the same amount of support. There is no scaling, so it is always best to use the cheapest option in terms of power and population limit. With this change, Thornbarks used as root network batteries will provide significantly more support. Now only 2 Thornbarks will be needed to max-out another root network unit with full support. [ Tier 4 ] Banzai Lord: - Counter added: Banzai Lord now has an S-counter - Bird Calling summon amount: 3 birds ➜ 2 birds summoned in total - Banzai Birds: - Damage (p): 1000, up to 3000 ➜ 1500, up to 4500 - Healing (g): 1000 life points ➜ 3000 life points restored - Life points increased: 800 ➜ 1200 - Explosion radius decreased: 25m ➜ 20m Banzai Lord has causing performance issues by spawning massive amounts of birds at once. To mitigate this issue, we reduced the birds from 3 to 2, but increased the damage and health of each bird proportionally. This means that Banzai Lord (p) will continue to deal the same total damage. At the same time, we reduced the explosion radius slightly to give the purple affinity a minor nerf. The green affinity was severely underperforming and each green affinity Bird now provides 3000 life points worth of healing, which should allow it to properly fulfill its healing role. Fire Sphere & Shatter Ice - Fixed incorrect handling of overkill damage. This is the first instance of us changing the way overkill damage works. It should provide a substantial buff for both cards by allowing them to always deal their full potential damage when a sufficient number of enemies are present. Forest Elder: - Flower Power / Pest Plants aura radius: 20m ➜ 30m. - New passive Ability, "Magic Link": Unit is surrounded by a magical zone of 30m radius where summoning friendly units requires 30% less of the usual power costs. Forest Elder is meant to be the apex Pure Nature unit, but currently is a walking Regrowth on steroids and a slightly improved Wheel of Gifts. Pure Nature is a unit-centric deck, and a major part of being a unit-centric deck is needing to summon units. Many players who splash Nature want to summon units in base, next to a Breeding Grounds. It thus feels unsatisfying when you have to summon a unit in the field and miss out on the major cost refund. We wanted to let Nature players stay in the field without waiting for other units to catch-up, as well as decrease the faction's bound power cost. As such, we thought it fitting to give Forest Elder a slightly improved mobile Breeding Grounds effect. More changes will be coming to Forest Elder in the future. Lifestream: - Life Link: - Damage absorption limit increased: 10000 ➜ 20000 damage - Removed maximum ability duration. - Range increased: 200m ➜ 300m - Implemented a new visual effect to prevent confusion with Regrowth. Lifestream is Nature's superweapon equivalent and is a sustain option in a faction overflowing with sustain. In order to be used, it needs to either out compete Regrowth and Forest Elder or possess its own niche use. We have striven for the second option. To do so, we doubled the absorption limit and made the effect last permanently until the limit is reached. This will both increase Lifestream's strength in existing situations, as well as allow it to be used with less active input required from the player's end. Overall, it should fit in better as a part of a fixed defense and compliment Nature's healing in more offensive scenarios. To achieve this second aspect, we also decided to increase its range to 300m to match our recent buff to Comet Catcher. Necrofury: - Unit's default attack: Melee ➜ Ranged. - Damage: 1100 dp20 ➜ 4160 dp20 - Range: 40m attack range - Needs to face enemies in order to target them. - Only affects ground units - Movement speed increase: 4.8 m/s ➜ 6.4 m/s - Nether Bomb is unchanged when switched into this mode. Necrofury is a card with a good concept that doesn't see play outside using its powerful Bone Shards ability to one-shot bosses with Unholy Hero and Fallen Skyelf. We are wanting to leave its current boss killing identity intact while opening it up for general usage. The goal is to allow Necrofury to function as a backline archer without the need to constantly micromanage her. Given Necrofury requires only 1 Shadow orb, it will be flexible enough to be used in a wide variety of decks and provide a reason to single splash a Shadow orb. Overlord: - Blood Share: - Effect radius increase: 15m ➜ 20m - Healing increase: 1000 ➜ 1500 life points - Self-inflicted damage remains at 1000 The ability is currently very thematic and fitting for Overlord but also quite lackluster, so we are giving it a small boost. Primeval Watcher: - Stasis Field targeting: Self-targeting ➜ Targeted area within a 30m radius Primeval Watcher is the primary backline damage dealer for Pure Nature. We want to increase its overall strength and the flexibility of Primeval Watcher's paralyze ability to allow for more offensive application. More changes will be coming to Primeval Watcher in the future. Promise of Life: - Orb requirements changed: 3 Nature, 1 Neutral (T4) ➜ 3 Nature orbs (T3) Allows Promise of Life to combo with Abyssal Warder and Pure Nature in T3, but otherwise has the same restriction for other decks, given it will still require 3 Nature orbs. This combo has proven to be quite powerful in testing and opens up a unique style of play, though one that can feel foreign to Nature. The idea is to attack a location with Abyssal Warder, purposefully allow it to die, and cast Promise of Life just before its death. This causes both a fully restored XL-warder and 2 L-warders to spawn, both of which are unbound. Promise of Life and Abyssal Warder will allow the player to quickly accumulate a large army of unbound units, while the new Shrine of Memory will grant fast void return, resulting into quicker transitions into T4. PvP Balance Changes [ New Card Design Spotlight - Burning Spears ] Burning Spears were designed as a new tool to increase deck building options in pure Fire. The faction currently has a limited pool of pure cards in PvP leading to a very M-unit centric deck design with a limited amount of deck building options and balancing levers to change specific matchup behaviors. The addition of Burning Spears will add a versatile small sized unit into the faction, that is supposed to help with some of the factions counter issues against L and XL units in T2, while demanding a deck slot investment in return. The passive ability enables very high back loaded damage potential to punish players that try to ignore them, whereas the slow and steadfast ability allows Burning Spears to stick to their priority targets while enabling further spell synergies with cards like Wildfire. [ Nature Rework ] Pure Nature has been struggling to find its place in PvP for a long time. The faction features some tools prone to snowballing games once a lead is established. This can be frustrating to play against. While these tools offer great snowball potential, the faction lacks ways to actually get ahead through more conventional means. At higher levels of play the deck could be considered the weakest, since it was possible to shut down the strenght points it has while abusing its weaknesses. To address these issues, we want to increase Nature’s pool of options in open field trades while increasing its capacities of defending structures more consistently. At the same time, we are toning down the snowball mechanics to avoid creating an overly strong faction, which can’t be dealt with at some point in the game. This should lead to a more enjoyable experience for all players involved. Considering some of these changes are quite drastic, follow-up tweaks might be necessary to reach the desired goal. Burrowing Ritual: - Cost reduction: 50p ➜ 40p Our previous plan of slightly buffing Tunnel in PvP didn’t work out for various reasons. As a result, we decided to add a bit of power to one of its combo pieces, making slot investments for Tunneling strategies a little bit more worthwhile. Creeping Paralysis: - Cost reduction: 60p ➜ 50p - Paralyze duration increase: 15s ➜ 20s - Target limit increase: 7 ➜ 10 total targets Adding more crowd control and open field trading options for pure Nature allows the deck to compete with nature splash factions. The listed buffs are supposed to enable its role at defending power wells against melee units by preventing them from focusing down power wells. The spell also excels at disrupting immobile army stacking strategies. Deep One: - Life points reduction: 1650 ➜ 1450 - Catch ability cost reduction: 25p ➜ 10p Deep One happened to be the most stat efficient T2 L-unit. Combined with Surge of Light, this led to very powerful snowball potential, allowing straight focus onto power wells ignoring any counter units. We reduce the overall health ratio to impact the effectiveness of Surge of Light support. On the other hand, we want to maintain Deep One’s ability during more defensive trades and are reducing its ability cost as a result. Deep One’s performance will be highly impacted by the upcoming Nightguard nerf as well. Energy Parasite: - Counter type change: S-counter ➜ M-counter - Power Drain: added 30s initial cooldown Any tool capable of generating maximum energy leads can snowball out of control very quickly. Therefore, preventing Energy Parasites from connecting to power wells at any given state is an absolute must if you want to beat pure Nature consistently. This necessary zoning of Energy Parasites often lead to a tempo loss by default, leading to heavily restricted gameplay options when playing against them. While this power level was necessary to keep pure Nature viable in the past, it did not leave a lot of room to buff the faction. This change is supposed to bring up more counter play options to Energy Parasites while keeping the unit strong and viable. The initial power investment can’t provide fast payoff, as counter unit spawns can be delayed. As nature often struggles with attacks based on M units, we also change the counter type from S to M. This might allow Energy Parasites to be utilized in combat before the initial cooldown goes off. Ghostspears: - Orb requirements changed: 1 Nature, 1 Neutral ➜ 2 Nature orbs - Weapon Change ability cost removed: 10p ➜ 0p - Damage increase: 900 dp20 -> 990 dp20 With the introduction of Amii Paladins, every nature splash has its own melee S-sized M counter nowadays. By moving Ghostspears to pure Nature, we can tweak each of these units to specifically balance them towards each faction's needs. This change opens up room to buff pure Nature’s overall trading capabilities. Parasite: - Orb requirements changed: 1 Nature, 1 Neutral ➜ 2 Nature orbs - Cost reduction: 100p -> 80p - Damage per second increase: 60 / 60 / 60 / 66 dmg/s -> 70 / 70 / 70 / 80 dmg/s - Max targets increase: 4 / 5 / 6 / 6 -> 8 / 9 / 10 / 10 total targets - Fixed damage interval from 0.9 to 1 sec without increasing total damage Pure Nature had little room to interact with air units in the past. Spirit Hunter poison gets countered by strong sustain tools (Ravage, Crystal Fiend healing etc.) and Parasite Swarm is too expensive and too susceptible to cc in order to work consistently. Parasite is supposed to be a strong support tool addressing this issue. Additionally, the card synergizes well with crowd control options to deal with stacked unit setups. We will move orb requirements towards pure nature to avoid interactions with splash factions, creating space for such a strong buff. Parasite Swarm: - Splash damage removed - Total damage increase: 16, up to 24 total damage (800 dp20) ➜ 24 damage (960 dp20) - Counter type change: M-counter ➜ XL-counter - Mind Control: added 10s initial ability cooldown Parasite Swarm is mostly reliant on using its active ability to generate value. This makes using the card rather inconsistent, especially in early T2 stages. The upcoming change increases single target damage by 50% vs L, S and buildings, while increasing damage by 125% against XL units (M remains unchanged). On top of that, its counter type is getting shifted from M to XL in order to provide a new option of dealing with XL units. This should make Rogan Kayle less mandatory in pure Nature. In return, we add a small initial cooldown on the ability to prevent undazed spawn into instant swap plays. Rogan Kayle: - Damage increase: 990 dp20 ➜ 1075 dp20 - It’s the Shoes range increase: 15m ➜ 20m While not a pure Nature card in the first place, Rogan Kayle often gets used in combination with crowd control spells to produce permanent cc-chains. Outside of that, the card is rarely used and has large drawbacks due to rather underwhelming stat cost ratios. We increase its power a bit to open up more situations where the Lyrish leader can actually lead to victory. Shrine of Memory: Shrine of Memory will be shifted away from a meta pure Nature card and redesigned as a T3 tool. The card used to be a catch-up mechanic to compensate for nature’s weak early T2 complementing its spell spam heavy snowball tools. With the upcoming buffs, a back loaded hyperscaling mechanic is no longer necessary. Considering gameplay with SoM point and click hard counters like Suppression or Matter Mastery would naturally get more popular if Nature would increase in popularity, we decided to rework the card entirely. For more information, head towards the PvE section, where SoMs new powerful role will be further discussed. Spikeroot: - Unit cost reduction: 120p ➜ 110p Root Network decks were kept in a rather weak state in PvP considering static siege setups are rarely fun to play against. That said, we think it’s safe to increase Spikeroots power level a bit considering the card can complement Nature decks in various ways and is not reliant on root network support to be functional in the first place. It can be used as another tool to address nature’s M-counter issues. [ Shadow L-counter Adjustments ] Nightguard has been dominant across Shadow splashes by shutting down a lot of L-unit centric strategies entirely across multiple matchups. The advantages of getting unbound units through mind control effects are more substantial than just removing units from the map. When kept alive, even a single unbound L-unit would lead to a huge long term advantage. Her omnipresence is preventing options to diversify faction identities, but also leads to numerous unhealthy interactions like shutting down L-unit centric factions entirely. We haven’t been able to touch Nightguard so far as a few L-units were at risk of getting out of hand without her (i.e. old Mountaineer). But since these outliers have received nerfs, we want to attempt to redesign the L-Counter role in Shadow splashes to enable more proactive skirmishing. Nightguard: - Unit cost increase: 65p ➜ 90p - Swap ability cost reduction: 75p ➜ 50p As the central change here, Nightguard unit cost will be increased by 25 energy, rewarding energy investments to prevent the swap from going through in the first place. On the other hand, her ability cost will go down by the same amount, so total swap costs remain unchanged. This will weaken Nightguard’s preemptive zoning power before the swap goes through and also strengthen any re-swap scenarios. Therefore, taking down the Nightguard after a swap goes through needs to be prioritized even more than before. As the total cost per swap remains unchanged PvE impact is minimized considering it is way more likely to be able to keep her safe compared to PvP. Executor: - Counter type change: M-counter ➜ L-counter - New passive ability, "Piercing Death" - Unit deals 60% piercing damage Executor has been redundant so far given that Shadow already has exceptional M counter options. To bring up a combat based alternative to Nightguard his counter type will be changed from M to L. In addition he will receive piercing damage to be able to help against buffed L units. This should help against early T2 or in 2vs2 matches. Knight of Chaos: - Chaos ability cost reduction: 50p ➜ 40p Pure Shadow was quite reliant on Nightguard to sufficiently counter L units. This buff should help compensate for the loss of power, and will also open up more opportunities for the less reliable purple affinity to finally cause real chaos. [ Miscellaneous Changes ] Dreadcharger: - Charge increase: 12 ➜ 16 Small change as a response to recent design changes in the Shadow vs Frost matchup. This should enable more extended T1’s given that Frost also receives Ice Guardian buffs in this patch. Eliminator: - Taming ability radius increase: 20m ➜ 30m - Added radius preview - Buff increase, fire(r) affinity only: 30% ➜ 50% - Fixed affinities not working together without allowing it to stack infinitely Helping Eliminator to reward very specific strategies in decks that are built around him. Ice Guardian: - Increased range from structures before Ice Shield decays: 25m ➜ 30m - Added a visual indicator when the Ice Shield is not decaying. After acquiring more data from the Master Archer change, the previous spam scenarios are less effective in PvP as predicted. That said, Frost often ends up being confined to its own structures. We are giving Ice Guardian a bit more room to chase units and add a little bit more power into close well combat, where Frost is supposed to excel. This is needed to avoid map cutoffs early into the game. We also added a visual indicator when the ice shield is not decaying. This should lead to more comfortable unit micro options. Mountain Rowdy: - Ice Block ability cooldown increase: 30 / 25 / 20 / 20s ➜ 40 / 35 / 30 / 30s While we are satisfied with the overall position Mountain Rowdy took in pure Frost, he currently has the potential to keep his ability active constantly. With the increased range, this is a very potent zoning tool and sometimes slows down the game a bit too much. Therefore, we want to provide a proper window for players to attack after the ability runs out. Phalanx: - Damage increase: 570 / 600 / 660 / 750 dp20 ➜ 600 / 630 / 690 / 780 dp20 Phalanx recently saw a bit more play in PvP. We think they still are on the weak side, therefore a small buff, which doesn’t impact their combo potential with Nasty Surprise should help them take a more consistent L counter role in Frost splashes. Slaver: - Cost reduction: 80p ➜ 75p Small buff to bring stat efficiency more into the line of other T2 L counters. Shouldn’t affect the unit performance too much. Stoneshards: - Life points reduction: 840 ➜ 810 Small tweak for Stoneshards considering Stonekin is slightly overperforming and will benefit a lot from upcoming Nightguard changes. Strikers: - Movement speed increase: 6.4 m/s ➜ 8 m/s While Strikers are underperforming as a unit, we do want to keep them in a niche role rather than buffing them back into a meta position. Increased movement speed should help to seperate the great Striker players from the good ones without inflating their power level. This should make it easier for them to isolate and pick off units more often. Twilight Brute: - Damage increase: 940 dp20 ➜ 970 dp20 Even though Twilight Brute is a strong tool in a few matchups, deck slot limitations are quite restrictive in Fire Nature decks, so the card doesn’t see too much play all in all. Increasing the attack should provide a small extra reward for selecting them. Twilight Minions - Damage increase: 900 dp20 ➜ 930 dp20 - Life points increase: 780 ➜ 840 Considering Fire Nature loses Ghostspears as small sized M counter, Twilight Minions need to step in and take their role. Despite their superior stat efficiency, they were rarely played due to ranged disadvantages compared to Ghostspears and a less flexible ability. As a result, we will increase stat efficiency a little further to compensate for this patch and also look to add a lot more value for Twilight oriented deck builds in Fire Nature in the near future. Virtuoso: - Damage increase: 1790 / 1890 / 2075 / 2265 dp20 ➜ 2025 / 2125 / 2310 / 2500 dp20 Even after the recent ability buffs, Virtuoso remained underplayed due to his inferior stat efficiency compared to most other L sized melee units. As a result, we decided to increase his damage output to help him at countering L units and sieging. Warden Sigil (Frost): - Blessed(b)Sigil ability: Can no longer be attached to structures that are still under construction. We are working on Wardens Sigil buffs to add more defensive tools in Frost T1. Unfortunately, the testing process isn't finished entirely, therefore only some technical preparations will be included this patch. We will follow up on this one soon. Warlock: - Cost increase: 45p ➜ 50p - Damage increase: 430 dp20 ➜ 600 dp20 - Blaze Bolt: 60, up to 90 total damage (430 dp20) ➜ 72, up to 108 total damage (600 dp20) - Attack speed: 3,5s ➜ 3s - Witchcraft ability now allows self-targeting After testing the Warlock sufficiently, we do think it’s safe to enable a little more combat power rather than keeping the unit just as a cheap supportive tool. Warlock still should remain as a part of growing armies, but once he can deal a bit of meaningful damage himself, the required amount of set-up to make him work is reduced. This should help Warlock become more valuable in earlier T2 stages. White Rangers: - Increased ability damage against non-Amii buildings from 50% ➜ 100% (orbs and power wells still do not receive any damage) White Rangers already perform well in PvP, but given there is a distinction between normal and Amii structures (orbs and power wells), we can remove their reduced damage output against buildings to open up more use cases in PvE without inflating their PvP power level.

Thanks for the video and congrats on your engagement! I decided to do a tier list for how good I think certain cards will be after we finish working on Nature as a faction. It takes into account both campaign and RPvE. Some explanation: S-tier: Either breaks the game on certain maps or in certain archetypes, and/or you are trolling not to include it. A-tier: Much stronger than other options in the same tier and/or archetype (ie. Windweavers); or only card of their type, often enabling unique strategies (ie. Sylvan Gate). B-tier: Strong options nearly always worth bringing (ie. Ensnaring), enable their own deck archetypes (ie. Abyssal & Spore Launcher), or highly excel in their given niche (ie. Living Tower & Thornbark) C-tier: Good cards, typically outcompeted by cards in higher tiers or more situational in use. All still strong enough to beat maps on expert, particularly if building on a budget. Might excel in 2-3 scenarios (ie. Giant Wyrm on PtD and Dwarven Riddle) but otherwise outcompeted. D-tier: Superfluous cards which are heavily outcompeted by other cards in the same tier (ie. Fathom Lord), or highly situational (ie. Burrow Ritual). F-tier: You never need these cards and you would only include them if you wanted to fill your deck and had nothing else. For people who want to make their own lists: Nature PvE Tier List Maker

Sorry for never answering these questions. 1. Disarmed units are units which cannot attack, either with melee or ranged attacks. Green Peace is a disarm effect, as is Rogan's "It's the Shoes," and Twilight Hag's charm. We are trying to use more standardized terms for crowd control effects to reduce player confusion. The intended goal here is that Forest Elder(p) will naturally synergize with the crowd control effects a Pure Nature player is most likely to use anyway in Primeval Watcher's paralyze and Green Peace's disarm. 2. Both affinities will have Magic Link. It is very possible, if not probable, that Pure Nature in general and Forest Elder in particular will remain too weak after the suggested changes, so we are ready to release additional ability powers or stat increases if that proves the case.

Just wanted to update everyone that we will be changing Banzai Lord birds in the upcoming patch. Banzai Birds A. Damage (p) / Healing(g): 1000, up to 3000 --> 1500, up to 4500 B. Life points: 800 -> 1200 (+400 life points on each upgrade) C. Explosion radius: 25m --> 20m D. Total Birds: 3 --> 2 E. Remove +1 Banzai Bird summoned from U3 upgrade. The idea is to condense the strength of the card from 3 birds to 2 to reduce performance impact, while giving a small nerf by reducing total explosion radius from 25m --> 20m. Additionally, as regards the main point of this thread, we are fixing the green affinity's heal. It will now heal the 3 nearest ally units by up to 1500 each instead of 1000 in total. This should help equivalize the strength of the two affinities and make Banzai Lord(g) a healing option worth considering.

I think the current mechanic for Altar of Chaos is a good one and fitting to Shadow as a faction, though I can understand both the current frustrations with using it around allies as well as its current strength. I would prefer suggestions which help to alleviate some of the current issues without wholly reworking the card from scratch. For some more transparency from our side: we as a team are not interesting in promoting any of the superweapons (Comet Catcher, WBG, and Altar of Chaos) into top tier strategies. Given their very long range (infinite in the case of Altar), they are strategies which the map itself cannot hope to "counter" as they can be placed in permanent safe areas and activated even if the player were to lose of all their orbs. While this is not so much of an issue in RPvE where there is a constant timer, it is an issue in campaign maps where timers usually do not exist and where enemy positions and objectives are often static. Additionally, the vast majority of overkill damage from spell effects does not overflow to damage other targets in BattleForge. While this is an ancient and well-known bug (at least in PvP), we recently developed a fix for the bug. Cards like Altar of Chaos with very high amounts of single-target damage are affected particularly negatively by the bug. I think fixing this bug to allow for full damage overflow combined with some minor changes will do a lot to improve Altar of Chaos to be good, but still niche.

I think the question of whether or not this will be strong enough is a fair one. As-is, Mind Control is rarely if ever used, so, as always, I'd like to cautiously move forward in the process. In the first step we can see if the card fits a distinct niche within 3N+ decks, and then we can adjust its power level appropriately. Whether that is through changing Mind Control's available targets, its cooldown, its power cost, or any other option we can determine once we see it in action. I would like to point out that there will be zero changes to NPC power and orb costs in the upcoming patch. As such, Mind Control will continue to work on all T5 units in the upcoming patch, as the existing bug will not be fixed until the fuller changes are implemented. This should provide us with plenty of testing data to determine if this is an issue which needs adjusted or if this is an appropriate power level for the card and for Nature as a faction.

When I say that it connects to everything in a 100m radius, that is exactly what I mean, both in terms of pulling and providing support. The battery can be 100m south of the Sylvan Gate and the frontline attacker can be 100m north, and the battery will still be able to support the frontline attacker.

A certain distant Twilight cousin of Primeval Watcher may or may not be on the horizon...

I think Core Dredge (b) should be considered the PvE variant of the card. In that context, if the player were intending to run a Core Dredge + Rageflame composition, Core Dredge(b) and Rageflame(r) would be the proper combination. Core Dredge(b) does not benefit additionally from the new Rageflame(b)'s freeze compared to normal freezes with damage reduction. Either way, Core Dredge(b) deals the same amount of damage. This leaves Rageflame(r) to combo with Core Dredge, while Rageflame(b) can combo with other units such as Stone Warrior, Deepfang, etc. We have looked into Rageflame's ability a bit over the last few days and it does not seem immediately possible to fix the issue where the timer completely resets when it stops attacking. The mechanic which is used for Rageflame's freeze typically works by applying a timer, which when it counts down to zero, automatically applies an effect. But, this seems to not be the case when combined with a Channel-style attack ability where instead the mechanic requires application for the entire duration in order to activate. We will continue to look into other potential options for the freeze application. On a different topic, the suggestion to reduce Stone Warrior's ability cost has been brought up a few times now. I would point everyone to the opening post where you can see Stone Warrior is already receiving a 20p cost reduction on its ability. In fact, the proposed changes to Stone Warrior are already live on the test server.

This change was made specifically for PvE. Here is just a random assortment of Stonekin units in T3. As you can see, Earthkeeper makes them quite tanky as a group as long as you can keep the ranged units behind the unit being targeted by Earthkeeper (which should not be too difficult given the ability's long range of 40m). The ability scales well into higher tiers, with its primary limit being Earthkeeper's health. While it could be used offensively, it is mostly a component in a static defense, so its use will be limited to map which need defenses of this sort and the upcoming DRPvE. If we were to make any further changes, I'd guess we would probably do something like a health buff to Earthkeeper or allowing the damage to also be distributed to Stonekin buildings, and not just units.

We have the ability to make effects count as internal buffs, even when they are applied externally. So allowing stacking is not an issue. Lebovim and I tried to find the script for the attack waves which spawn to retake the Elemental Nodes as I wanted to reduce their strength, but the map has so many scripts it is like finding a needle in a haystack. In fact, when we did find what seemed to be the relevant files it had no information inside. The reason I am saying this, is that I am in favor of reducing the current strength of these particular attack waves as they are ridiculously strong. As pointed out earlier in this thread, the player is forced to bind way too much power to keep the Node safe, which is part of what encourages the player to just take it at the end. Given it looks like we are currently unable to reduce the attack wave strength directly, I would be in favor of considering localized effects as well (on top of the global buffs) to indirectly nerf the strength of incoming waves.

Thank you for all the comments so far. It is important for us as faction designers to receive feedback from a diverse set of players and typically speaking the more feedback the better. Feedback helps us to get a general sense for how the player base feels about our changes and if they think we are on the right track. I have a few comments in response so far: Matter Mastery: There is a lot of speculation about Matter Mastery already here from just a few tidbits of information and I would like to state that it is important not to get worked up over a proposal or an idea both before you have all the relevant information, but also before you have heard the reasoning behind the decisions and have spent time considering the various implications. As I already stated, we do not view Matter Mastery as a problem card, so we are not attempting to use the upcoming changes to building power/orb costs as a way to nerf it. Instead we are attempting to creating two affinities which are both viable in different situations. Too often balancing PvE cards really means balancing around RPvE, but campaign maps are just as important. We are attempting to account for both modes and will release more information on this subject in the future. I will admit a mistake of mine in forgetting about Fire RPvE when talking about Matter Mastery(g). Fire RPvE's building are the only ones in the game with assigned power costs, and so are the only ones the green affinity cannot takeover. Grinder's Taunt: I have not responded to the question about the damage debuff from the taunt working on bosses yet because a final decision has not yet been reached. Gemeye: Piercing damage is essentially true damage. It punctures all damage reduction effects, including Moloch's. We could make it so the effect only punctures Freeze, and I think we should generally be very wary about adding true damage to the game, but in this case I think Gemeye is a safe and fitting candidate for full piercing damage. Rageflame: The nice thing about the new blue Rageflame is that it can CC every target in range and these targets will not have Freeze's typical damage reduction. Additionally it grants the freeze condition to card's like Core Dredge(b) which deal extra damage against frozen targets. One thing I'd like to note here is that Rageflame(b)'s freeze will have zero damage reduction. The description sounds like it only works on unit attacks, but targets frozen this way also receive full damage from spells. In terms of some of the suggestions offered: I am somewhat conflicted on giving Rageflame the ability to target air. Not opposed, mostly unsure. About making it like Maelstrom: I think one of the issues becomes, are we encouraging Rageflame to be a 1-2 unit support group or a 5-6 unit support group? By making it like Maelstrom we make groups of Rageflame freeze near instantly, but then you bound a lot of power in a unit with a low stat efficiency and particularly very low damage. I'm not sure if we should be encouraging that. The idea was more to enable mixed compositions and potentially make a "pure" Stonekin deck finally viable from T2 to T4. Lastly, I want to mention that none of the proposed changes will happen this upcoming patch, but the patch afterwards. We are in the finalizing stages of our current change ideas and we cannot add more to the table without continuing to delay the patch.

Right now Matter Mastery (g) can takeover every building in the game that is possible to be taken over, so there is no reason to use the tainted affinity in PvE. 80% of the current buildings will remain within reach for the gifted affinity, but by putting some minor limit on the card we give a reason for the tainted affinity to actually exist without hopefully impacting gameplay in a major way. We don't actually think Matter Mastery is a problem card so we are looking to keep at least one affinity useful for existing situations while giving them distinct reasons for existing. It is possible though that our current suggestion fails in that respect, if people think so they are welcome to offer other suggestions. All units taunted by Grinder(p) will receive the -75% damage debuff and be forced to attack Grinder. We are hoping the transition to an AoE ability instead of a single-target one will help Grinder better fulfill its role as a tank as well as provide a reason to use the ability.

I think this is a good idea, and I would assume easy to implement.

Stonekin is a faction which we have slowly been working on in the background for awhile. Given our previous changes to Frost and our upcoming changes to Nature it feels right to also touch-up the hybrid faction which exists between them. For other topics, we have split the discussion into a main thread and threads for individual cards. In the case of Stonekin, the faction has so few cards we thought it best to keep everything combined in one thread. Please note that all changes proposed here are provisional and as such are subject to change. Balance Changes Tier 2 Earthkeeper: 1. Back Up A. Remove steadfast from ability. B. Duration: 30 seconds --> Until interrupted C. Power cost: 0p --> 25p Earthkeeper has a very powerful ability, particularly the blessed (b) affinity. By making it last indefinitely absent interruption, Earthkeeper can be used by Stonekin decks to set up incredibly durable defenses that do not need to be constantly maintained. We removed steadfast to allow Earthkeeper to be knocked back while channeling (similar to Timeshifter Spirit), requiring good positioning, and added a 25p cost to increase initial set up cost in exchange for the indefinite duration. Matter Mastery: 1. Gifted Takeover (g) - maximum of 2 orbs and 100 power costs --> maximum of 3 orbs and 140 power costs 2. Rework Tainted Takeover (p) - "Grants permanent control over an enemy building and causes the building to lose 3% of it's maximum life points every second. The controlled building does not grant ground presence to play out cards or claim structures next to it." Preemptively changing Matter Master before building orb & power costs are fixed to ensure Matter Mastery remains relevant. Changing takeover limit to 140 power to avoid interaction with Church of Negation in PvP. We can adjust PvE building power costs around the 140p limit. Reworking the purple affinity to give permanent control but cause the building to slowly die. Should give it use cases in campaign and RPvE without the player having to double back to kill the previously controlled building afterward. Tier 3 Deepfang: 1. Change name: Stonekin Critter (ability) --> Budding A. Now a passive which generates a Critter every 20 seconds instead of 2 on spawn. B. *New Description:* "Every 20 seconds, Deepfang spawns a Stonekin Critter that will follow it loyally and that can be sacrificed in order to restore its life points. Stonekin Critters are unstable and have a lifetime of 60 seconds." 2. Stonekin Critter (unit): A. Joyful Death healing: 1000, up to Infinite --> 800, up to 2400 life points (800 healing to 3 targets) B. Damage (Steam Boiler): 60, up to 90 in total (500 dp20) --> 72, up to 108 in total (600 dp20) C. Lifetime: Has a lifetime of 60 seconds instead of being a permanent summon 3. Union requirements (both affinities) : No longer requires a Stonekin Critter. Deepfang uniquely spawns with two Stonekin Critters (Crystal Fiends in PvE). These Critters can be sacrificed to heal Deepfang and also function as a prerequisite for its Union ability. Unfortunately, there are several issues with the card's current design. First, the Critters have an unlimited cap on their healing, meaning a single Critter can heal every Deepfang in range. Second, the Union ability of every Deepfang can be activated if there is only a single Critter alive from any Deepfang (including from the other affinity), but, third, there is no way to replenish Critters except spawning a new Deepfang for 250p. Unlike with Legendary cards, it is not possible to introduce a spawn limit for non-legendary minions, which might explain why Deepfang lacks the ability to summon more Critters. The question arises though, if the player cannot access more Critters, then why are the Critters so central to Deepfang's design? The Critters are incredibly fragile and die to any moderately difficult camp leaving Deepfang a permanently crippled unit, particularly when the Critters are calculated into the unit's power budget. With these issues and Deepfang's strict orb requirements (2 Frost, 1 Nature), it is unsurprising the card see so little play. Without discarding Deepfang's existing identity, we have opted to make major changes to the card. First, we are making the Critters spawn passively but with a limited lifetime. Second, we are limiting the group healing ability of the Critters and slightly nerfing its single-target strength to account for the more plentiful supply of Critters the player will be incentivized to kill before they expire. At the same time, we are giving the Critters themselves a minor buff and decoupling the Union ability from Deepfang to stop the unit from being crippled unnecessarily in tough situations. Rageflame: 1. Frostshower: A. Freeze Duration: 10 sec --> 15 sec B. Revert previous damage increase - Frostshower Damage: 1600 dp20 --> 1400 dp20 C. Allow to target air units 2. Rework Blue affinity: A. *Blessed Frostshower*: "What is more, the unit is able to ignore the usual damage reduction of frozen enemies and will deal its full damage against them." --> "Additionally, units frozen by this ability will receive full damage when attacked." 3. New passive, Shatter Ice (both affinities): The unit is able to ignore the usual damage reduction of frozen targets. Take description from Core Dredge. A few community members pointed out last time that they thought the previous Rageflame buffs were misguided as they lessened Rageflame's identity as a support unit. We agree with this assessment and have attempted to move in the direction of emphasizing Rageflame's support identity. To do this, we have reverted the damage buff, increased freeze duration by 5 seconds, and changed the blue affinity to have the same effect as Frontier Keep(r) where it allows frozen units to receive full damage when attacked. Stone Warrior: 1. Damage: 1700 --> 1850 2. Life points: 2360 -> 2160 3. Ability cost: 100p -> 80p 4. Gifted Strike (g): Allow ability to target and damage structures. Deals half damage to structures. The blue affinity was recently given the ability to damage frozen buildings. The green affinity's description suggests it can do the same and we don't see anything wrong with the interaction so we have modified them to be consistent. We also reduced the ability cost to buff both affinities slightly. Stat realignment is for PvP viability which leaves unit with identical stat efficiency, which is the same as Mutating Maniac, better than Mutating Frenzy, and slightly worse than Fathom Lord. Tier 4 Earthen Gift: Earthen Gift Redesign 1. Charges: 4 --> 8 2. Infused Earth (r) --> Blessed Earth (b): A. Damage buff: 30% --> 50% B. Every friendly building played out will be constructed 100% faster. New Description: "Every friendly structure in the current game will deal 50% more damage, be constructed 100% faster, and restore 10% of its maximum life points per second, up to 4000 in total per structure. Lasts for 20 seconds. Reusable every 20 seconds." 3. Tainted Earth (p) --> Gifted Earth (g): A. Affects Stonekin units, not structures B. Remove "Every hostile building in the current game will deal 50% less damage." C. Damage buff: +50% more damage D. Healing per second: 10% --> 5% New Description: "Every friendly Stonekin unit in the current game will deal 50% more damage and restore 5% of its maximum life points per second, up to 4000 in total per unit. Lasts for 20 seconds. Reusable every 20 seconds." Earthen Gift is one of the worst cards in the entire game. Before Reforging its normal price was 3 bfp despite being a Rare spell. As Stonekin's Pure T4 spell it should be one of the reasons why a player goes 2 Nature + 2 Frost orbs, but right now it is a waste of a card slot. The card's existing identity is as a combined buff and healing card but it is restricted to only work on structures. Even on structures it is not usually useful. Instead of completely rejecting the card's initial design we are attempting to improve on it for the one affinity by increasing the damage buff and giving it an effect akin to Kobold Inc (b) which will speed up the construction of friendly buildings. On the other affinity, we are swapping its effect from structures to Stonekin units and modifying its heal and damage buff accordingly. The idea is to potentially allow the spell to replace Regrowth while also giving Stonekin access to a minor damage buff for itself and any other friendly Stonekin players. Gemeye: 1. Damage: 2750 dp20 --> 3250 dp20 2. Tainted Spit (p): A. All damage from purple affinity spit now deals piercing damage, not just the poison effect. 2. Gifted Spit (g): A. Paralyze Targets: 4 --> 5 B. Paralyze Duration: 10 sec --> 15 seconds The goal here is to break the two affinities into two different deck paths. By allowing the purple affinity to always pierce through damage reduction, it means that its damage will not be reduced when attacking frozen targets. On the other hand, the green affinity's built-in crowd control will synergize with splash options lacking CC and the to-be-buffed Noxious Cloud which deals significantly more damage than previously but needs time to work. The changes should also allow the green affinity to do a better job when utilized as part of static defenses for its built-in crowd control. Grinder: 1. Harmony: Either add a timer to Grinder's harmony effect on the unit itself or a yellow bar akin to Mountaineer to visual when the next tick of healing will occur. 2. Provoke: Single target --> All enemies in a 10m radius 3. Infused Provoke Buff: 50% more damage --> 75% more damage Quality of life change for Grinder's harmony ability to help the player make better use of it. We also added some increased strength and flexibility to Grinder's taunt by allowing it to affect multiple targets in a small area (10m radius is the same size as Eruption). This will also allow Grinder (r) to taunt the empty air versus bosses to still generate the damage buff which has been increased to +75% to account for the fact that in the case of Grinder taunting multiple enemies and reducing their damage by -75% is substantially better than buffing itself by +50% damage.

The last time we collected data for map completion times, the average time to complete Nightmare's End was 72 minutes. Nightmare Shard took 48 minutes on average for comparison. Nightmare's End is by far the map with the longest average time to complete.

Significant changes to proposed changes, see initial post for details.

Significant changes to proposals. See initial post for updates.

Behind Enemy Lines is a well designed singleplayer map which provides an challenging experience for the player. Unfortunately, the map is also very slow initially, requiring the player to wait for significant periods of time before advancing to T2 or T3. This slow initial start combined with the map's high initial difficulty causes harm to its replayability, as a player needs to both wait around at the beginning while also very carefully micro'ing their units to ensure a Twilight Disciple does not sneak through and put a swift end to their run. The way around this slow initial start is to use Nightguard, which will see indirect nerfs as part of the upcoming changes to PvE unit orb & power costs. While Nightguard will remain relevant on the map given its ability to swap with Twilight Devastators, the strategy as a whole will take a major hit due to no longer working on Twilight Horrors. Outside of using Nightguard, the map is incredibly difficult for many players and many factions struggle with the transition from T1 to T2 and T3, particularly if the player does not "exploit" the map's mechanics to delay the spawning of Twilight Dancers and Deathgliders. While we think it is good for maps to be difficult and to provide long-term challenges for our more veteran players (and we hope to soon be able to announce information on upcoming endgame content), in this particular case we think it would be beneficial to increase initial power generation to help reduce player downtime. The map should still provide a significant challenge while hopefully also being a smoother and more enjoyable gameplay experience. Upcoming Changes: 1. Increased starter wells from 2 to 3.

Taunt will not be changed to affect bosses. Stonekin does not need this change anyway. Gemeyes have 50m range and are thus very safe, while the player can rotate Grinders in and out of melee range to change the boss's focus while waiting for Grinder to heal itself.

I think we could create a thematically appropriate Nature Suppression, a Nature Earthshaker, even a Nature Shatter Ice/Frost Shard combo where you paralyze a target then "shatter" it. The question though is, should we do this? As we mentioned in the Deep Dive in the "T4: Nature Army Deck" section, we think giving Nature mechanically identical options to deal with its weaknesses would be a mistake. I think we enter dangerous territory very quickly by blurring the lines between factions and intermingling their mechanics. We could easily end up with a game where the player is playing functionally the same deck, just with a different color and different styles of aesthetics. Our idea with thematic design though is not just that the spell feels externally like it could be a Nature spell, but that it is internally a Nature spell. I think you have rightfully identified that a player right now purposefully dips into various other factions to get access to their unique mechanics to cover Nature's weaknesses. But I do not think this means that we should add these mechanics to Nature itself. What then would be the difference between the decks? The answer, I think, is to create new mechanics which are particularly and uniquely Nature's. Given the major issues Nature faces, this will be difficult to achieve. Yet, I firmly believe the game as a whole will be substantially richer if we spend the time and effort to make each faction a truly unique experience. The rule is: Internal buffs (including counter) stack, but external buffs do not. The strongest external buff applies. The exception is Unholy Power because it is a different mechanic entirely. Unholy Power uses the strength/ammo mechanic that is also used for Dreadcharger and Death Ray. Unlike these two cards, Unholy Power does not show its strength gauge. Whenever the unit deals an additional 1 point of damage (or takes 1 point less damage) it consumes 1 strength/ammo from Unholy Power's initial pool of 2000. When the pool reaches zero, Unholy Power ceases to buff the unit but the effect remains as if it still were. So Forest Elder's damage buff does not stack with Rogan's or Wheel's buff. Wheel of Gifts is actually quite inefficient as a card because its damage amplification is so small that it is easily overridden. The nice thing about Forest Elder(g)'s buff is that it works against buildings while purple affinity's damage does not (because buildings cannot be paralyzed). We are still monitoring the card's current strength to make buffs either to one or both of its aura effects.

Sylvan Gate never really "added" support, it only subtracted it. If it is within the 40m necessary to heal a unit, and that unit is damage, Sylvan Gate pulls support to heal faster, taking support away from the frontline unit and no longer providing support itself. The change is superficial because the scenario in which it actually provided support was nearly nonexistent. And if you were using Sylvan Gates as your root batteries you were building very inefficiently. There was a slight error in the description as it was an older one I forgot to update, but even then I think there is some misunderstanding occurring regarding the suggested changes. 3 Root Nexus cover 100m linearly, while a single Sylvan Gate covers 200m and connects support from every root entity within 100m in every direction. Sure on some maps that is not necessary, but this change is not oriented towards those maps. The buff effect is nice but not strictly necessary and barely factors into the strength calculations of the card. It is what you call in D&D a ribbon ability, nice when it works, but not a major loss when it does not.

The announced changes are not yet on the test server.