ImaginaryNumb3r

Increasing the range would make it synergize really well with support spells (Home Soil for example) as single target buffs (e.g. Unholy Hero) aren't worth using on a 100 power card. I can definitely see them being used then for those who don't like to spam LSS. What I definitely wouldn't advise is to do all the suggestions together (increased range, 2500dmg, changing orbs to ). Two of the three changes would be enough to make the card playable but all of them would make it OP for the current power cost. Of course the power cost could be adjusted then (to 130?) but I like the idea of this card still being a relatively small combatant on it's own compared to XL units who get those massive stats. It should be a damage support IMO.

TL;DR: You can use it if you want but generally i would prefer spells over this card as they have its use in later game stages as well. Support Units are with very few exceptions not viable as they simply do not fullfill the requirements for speedruns. Buildings are way more common, due to their often times global effects and use in a longer period of a game.
Actually thats one of the few cards that are at least somewhat viable in rPVE that i cant remember to use ever. In theory it can work with something against Lost Reaver or Shadow Phoenixes. On the other hand the shielding is random afaik and that is always a negative and on top of it generally you are fine with Lost Reaver or Shadow Phoenix alone, those are simply strong enough to take out most t3 bases alone( especially shadow phoenix). And for Lost Reaver i would much rather prefer cc spells( Coldsnap) and buffs ( Life Weaving) to do the work. I mean you can use Lost Wanderer, just for the sake of using it. However it is more a support unit with its shielding ability, but as it effects only 1 unit at a time you need a unit worth using it on and to minimize the randomness.
In speedruns this card is definetly not viable. What you want in rPVE speedruns is to get to t4 with in a reasonable time with using as less slots as possible As t4 is the major part of the map where you can 'win' most time. Thatfor a support unit is generally not usefull. You rather want as much damage as possible with as much defense as necassery, and support units generally offer not the right balance of those. You would even rather use support spells to achieve what you want than units or buildings, as spells generally offer at least some power in the t4 stages of a game as they do not bind power and you basically get the power back immediately by your void manipulation. The problem about most of those cards is that they do not offer more value regarding speed than other cards and are mostly optional.
There obviously are support buildings and units that are the exception and are core parts of all/ most of the rPVE speedruns. Those are:
Breeding Grounds Amii-Monument Flame Crystal Embalmers Shrine Furnace of Flesh Soul Splicer Shrine of War Construction Hut ( if you want to kill this a supportive unit Resource Booster ( if you want to kill this a supportive building) Incredible Mo Those are common cards that are kinda normal to appear in speedrun decks, even though some are more situational than others and you will never see all of them in the same deck. Some are more core than others but they all having their value in their respective decks.
However there are supportive cards that are like very situational and you only ever see them when you have to many slots or they come in handy very much. Most of the time those cards are used only 4 Player speedruns and one of those players has pretty much only the job to support the other players by buildings and spells as he doesn't have the power to do much else anyways due to whatever reason. He will build cards like.
Healing Gardens Wheel of Gifts Most of the supportive cards mentioned in the first list Other buildings that are used rarely but do have their moments to shine:
Decomposer Mark of the Keeper Portal Nexus Tunnel( with Burrowing Ritual) Warden's Sigil Stone of Torment ( even though that ones not a support building) Makeshift Tower ( even though that ones not a support building) As you can see those lists only include buildings. The only units that are generally not used for attacking and you can find in a speedrun decks are:
Fallen Skyelf Cultist Master Rifle Cultists I guess thats caused by the fact that there aren't all that many units that are usefull in t4 ( especially as you can not keep those alive that needs to be in the fights as they will just die to all the damage they will get as you army is generally very small. They'd straight up die. Fallen Skyelf you send in when the base is cleared besides a boss and you can focus the boss down. Cultist Master is used for void manipulation and Rifle Cultists to get your charges back. And before t4 it is pretty much pointless to get a supportive unit as it soakes up a slot for t4 buffing and its use is so limited.
Like the only exception might be Dryades and Snapjaws. However Nature t1 is the very last thing you ever want to pick in a speedrun and even if you do Dryade is optional( and no shamans are not viable). Snapjaws are super situational as well. The only real purpose i see is in 2 Player Lost Souls Map. If you have a massive t2 with Lost Vigils and Treefiends and get Lost Vigil incomes, they can be worth. On the other Hand you generally start fire yourself or get massive help from the guy on the other position( or both). You will generally not have enough slots to put this in when you are soloing the map, so well i guess you can use it if you really want. Besides that i couldnt think of any support unit that is worth it using in speedruns( i might let one slip through though or you might just blow my mind with a nasty new strategy?)
Anyways this one went really long so im sorry for that
 
 

The only thing that I have to say about this card is that I bought a lot of them hoping to sell them for higher price. Never got to selling them all though, since the servers shut down.

Cosmetics so that I can make my portrait even more frosty, this is amazing!
People love new achievements, I am looking forward seeing all of you on the server once the patch hits! ^^

Goes in the same direction for me.

Coat artwork is just suuuuper awesome, and also like how the card plays.
Banzai voice lines are super awesome too, damn what a cool voice.
Also the gameplay is a bit underwhelming and tho it is a bit anti-meta due to how the game works, I have much love for the Wasteland Terror too. Just love dragons!
Evil Eye goes boom, who does not like it?!
And ofc, Bandit Minefield, just the best card in the game! @Hirooo 😉  (can't tag you here, cause I don't know whats your forums name, but perhaps you see it by chance)

Yeah, the Reborn edition is already a masterpiece, great job guys and girls!!


EDIT-PS: Patch when? 😛

Name: Scorchers
Tier & Orbs: T2, Fire Any
Type: Unit
Power: 50
Hit points and Size: 480 S
Attack value and Type: 660 ranged S
Attack Effects:
Every 2 seconds, unit fires bolts at enemies that deal 11 damage. The bolts sear the target, reducing any healing it receives by 60% and causing any Ice Shield on them to melt down by 20 points per second. Lasts for 3 seconds. (Repeated attacks will refresh the duration but not stack the effect)
Explanation of idea behind the card: At T2, Pure Fire, Fire/Frost and Fire/Nature all lack a s/s unit. Taking that into consideration and how reliant fire is on gladiatrix I decided to create a T2 s/s archer. When thinking about what ability it should have I decided it'd be nice to have something that was good against shielding and healing, both things which fire may struggle with sometimes (I do not consider global warming a good option as it does nothing vs non frost decks). To avoid it being too strong the effect only lasts 3s, meaning if you run away for a short while you can use a heal at full power. In addition the unit is also vulnerable to knockbacks (easy for frost and nature to do) and has a small healthpool.

Name: Nether Priests
Tier & Orbs: T2, Shadow Any
Type: Unit
Power: 75
Hit points and Size: 1080 S
Attack value and Type: 1020 melee M
Passive abilities:
Slow. (forgot about it in the card image)
Every 10 seconds, unit teleports the enemy unit that has moved farthest away back to itself. Has a range of 30m. Affected units are immune to this ability for 10 seconds. (This ability starts on CD)
Explanation of idea behind the card: Both Pure Shadow and Shadow/Frost lack a small unit with medium counter at T2. Thinking of filling that slot I decided to make an unit that could teleport others to itself, much like Stone of Torment. Having such an ability it needed to be slow to allow for enemies to stay away or run away after caught, as well as an immunity period to avoid multiple triggers from an army of these. The unit would be able to force enemy archers close but the ability would start on CD so you can't just abuse it on spawn.

Hello
First time to join a contest, but got some ideas for the Lost Soul faction, here's one:
Name: Lost Valkyrie
Tier & Orbs: T2, Frost Shadow
Type: Unit
Power: 80
Hit points and Size: 800, M
Attack value and Type: melee 770, Large
 
Passive Abilities:
Immortal Aura: Within a 20m radius every Lost Revenant's life time will stop to run out and they deal 25% more damage. Upon leaving the aura the hourglass will be reinstalled and remaining life time will again run out. this passive excludes Lost Valkyrie's Revenant.
Steadfast: Cannot be knocked back

Active Abilities:
Revenant's Doom:  Activate to bestow the unit with a curse that will make it resurrect in case it dies. The resurrected revenant will only be a shadow of its former self but it will be endowed with the same abilities and equal in strength. After 25 seconds the revenant will then die once and for all. May only be triggered once.
Explanation of idea behind the card:
As strong as the faction can be, they lack the proper support for the Lost Souls signature skill. This will give them some permanent support, while rewarding skill as you micromanaging posision with this unit (with some Steadfast as protection against "those pesky untimly knockbacks").

(This is the first entry of my evil twon brother: Mynoduesp, but with a mustache.)
Mock-up #3:

Timeless Slumber
Create a temporary space rift in a 20m radius up to 6 / 8 / 10 / 10 units, buildings and Wall Segments are shifted to the in-between for 15 seconds.
in-between
Entity cannot be targeted, controlled, move, attack, loses its hitbox and effects are prolonged until this effect wears off.
Elaboration:
It's a Lost Souls-themed CC spell. For power level adjustments it can have an additional short wind-up time (like Coldsnap or more prolonged Creeping Paralysis). It can or cannot affect Amii Structures like Power Wells, Monuments and even Wall Segments. I feel like there's little to no interaction with walls. This could provide a new specific tool against walls.

Every 3 seconds, unit throws out its corruptive spit dealing 120 damage to enemies in a 5m radius around its targed, up to 200 in total. Friendly units within a 25m radius regenerate 100 life points per second.
IMHO, Lost Souls is the most perfect faction ever invented in all of gaming history.
Lost Shade is my favorite card, this is the reason my 11 year old dog is named Shade. 
What's more amazing is that both the game and my dog are still alive and incredibly healthy. 
I'd like to suggest a Lost Drake, not sure what the best mechanic would be to fit the faction.
But as a lover of Lost Souls and Lost Shade more specifically, I thought of something that would give them more sustainability. Taking concepts that already exist in Lost Spirit Ship and Lost Dragon (obviously a little nerfed).
To be honest I haven't been playing as much as I'd like to, so the numbers and even the ideas might be off.
Please, I accept suggestions to improve this card, my main goal is not the rewards, but to see Lost Drake in the game.

I CANNOT STOP! But truly, already submitted my entries, but my head just wants to keep going 🥲
 
Name: Possesed Fortress
Tier & Orbs: T3, Frost, Shadow and Frost/Shadow
Type: Building
Power: 175
Hit points and Size: 3195
Attack value and Type: 2400
Passive Abilities: 
Ghost Turrets - Every 3 seconds, 8 turrets deal 50 damage each to enemies in 5m radius, up to 75 in total. Knocks back small units. Can attack only ground troops.
Ray of Despair - Every 4 seconds, unit casts an energy lance that deals 110 damage to enemies in a 12m radius around it's target, up to 165 in total. Can only attack airborne entities.
Cadaver Walls - Possesed Fortress can collect corpses from fallen enemies every 5 seconds, storing the avaible energy. When damaged, the Fortress will use up this stored energy to heal itself, using 1:1 ratio of energy to HP. Maximum storage capacity is 750 lifepoints. Maximum healing is 150 hp every second.
Uses Stronghold model as a base.
Explanation of idea behind the card:
Well, Lost Souls buildings are mostly lackluster. Only faction defense is Lost Launcher, while on higher tiers player has to rely on pure Shadow/Frost cards. Time to change that!
Possesed Fortress provides that mid-to early late game defense, which can hold its own against both ground and air troops. It can also use the corpses to heal itself, while having only limited storage for balance purposes. Its not meant to be completely sustainable in every situation, but with perfect conditions (or some support) this building can hold the line very well.

Pure Shadow card, was thinking if it would also drain friendly units, but then wouldn't be that viable.
Main weakness is ranged entities.

Penumbra Shroud: [Power: 60] Activate to engulf own entities within 20m radius in a deep shadow. Those entities will be hidden from hostile players and cannot receive commands except move. This unit deals 50% more damage as long the ability lasts. Lasts for 15 seconds. Reusable every 60 seconds.
Essence Drain: Unit is surrounded by the anti-life aura that deals 120 damage to every hostile unit within 20m radius every 2 seconds.
Life Stealer: 100% of the damage dealt by the unit will be added to its life points.

Hey everyone, I just recently started playing and wanted to put in my idea for a new frost support card.
Name: Magus
Tier & Orbs: T2, Frost
Type: Unit
Power: 120
Hit points and Size: 620, M
Attack value and Type: 360, ranged
 
Passive Abilities:
Ice Barrier - Every 7 seconds, unit bestows a barrier of ice on a friendly unit which absorbs up to 250 units of damage. The barrier will slowly decay 10 points per second.
Snowball - Every 3,5 seconds unit casts a ball of snow that deals 65 to enemies in a 5m radius.
Active Abilities:
Freezing Winds - Activate to slow down enemy movement and attack speed for 10 seconds.
This will use the shaman as a base model, textures to be changed to match the frost aesthetic.
Explanation of idea behind the card:
I've always been a big fan of frost cards, but activating the shield mechanic could be tedious at times. My inspiration for this came from using the Shaman. I used this comcept of a healing caster and transfered it to its frost variant, the Magus. The unit will provide all around support for its allies by bestowing an ice barrier to absorb incoming attacks while having an active ability to impair enemy movement and attacks. 
 

 

Hi fellow Skylords! Im kinda new to this, but I was thinking, if we have Wheel of Gifts then why not we have Wheel of Curses. It would still give some buffs to ally units, but would also buff enemy units in some way, to give a bit more challenge for those Rpve lovers out there. (Also would work in campaign)
Name: Wheel of Curses
Tier & Orbs: T3 shadow, frost, frost/shadow
Type: Building
Power: 180
Hit points: 2000
Passive Abilities:
The Cursed Shrine - If Wheel of Curses is present in game then buffs from Wheel of Gifts will be ignored and wont be given to ally units. 
Curse of Leech - Once activated, enemy units will gain 10% leech of their max attack damage, but your own units will also gain leech 10% of their max health instead of attack, in addition your own units will leech friendly or unfriendly unit once per 15 seconds.
Curse of Shield - Once activated, friendly ally shielding will last only 60% of the original duration, but will be 40% stronger, in addition enemy unit shields will last 30% longer, but will take 20% more damage from all sources.
Curse of Bravery - Once activated, friendly units that are on their own will gain Bravery curse. Effected unit will gain 60% damage buff of their max attack and also will gain 30% increased damage taken in addition if unfriendly unit is alone it will gain 40% buff to damage dealt and also decreases damage taken by 30%.
Explanation of idea behind the card:
I always wondered why there isnt a different kind of wheel, that would not only benefit your own units, but also enemy units a bit, to make gameplay more challenging and interesting, there for I created this card.
Its a T3 Lost souls building type card (since I dont see a lot of use in Lost souls building cards) that would benefit both sides of the game. I also though if this card would be present with Wheel of Gifts then that would be too strong, there for I gave the card that passive that wont allow play the Wheels of Gift.  
Each curse is different and plays around healing, shielding and those one unit decks decks, so you would have to improvise and and think which curse is better and which one to keep active and which you wont want to keep active since players run different decks and it might benefit you, but might now benefit your allies. Since I have seen that you can almost permanently keep up your shields on units, but with healing its not that strong so maybe like a passive leech on units that drain life from nearby units would be cool and interesting,
And since the Batarial nerfs (he is still strong, but not that strong), I though maybe it would give some love also to him with that Bravery.

Fire tends to be able to clear these camps by tackling one problem after another to continously open up more room for units to work with.
If you want to summarize the problems on Stonekin maps it usually is:
Windhunters Nox Sniper Deepgorge towers Moloch Construct Just tackle these one by one, usually a front to back approach is the way to go, though it can vary.
Usually early on Windhunters and the Nox Sniper severely hinder your options due to oneshot potential or cc from dragons, but they are also fairly easy to take out so that's the first step.
After that I realized that the Tortugun would turn around later than the construct and can be kited with Nomads easily outside of the tower range. So very easy to take out with Mines aswell.
If that wouldn't have been possible you'd just continue with Skyfire Drakes and Sunstriders. You'd use the Skyfire Drake to lure the Tortugun to your orb slowly. Prepare a few Mines there. Sunstriders to not take damage from the tower while luring. Use Nomads to take hits from the Tortugun and it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Your orb might take damage but should be able to survive. Usually 4-5 Skyfire are enough.
After that there is no real thread any longer because of Sunstrider (for remaining towers) + Skyfire drake combo.
I'll attach a replay. I did not play perfect here, especially the Tortugun part was poorly executed overall - was my third try and just realized I could do the kiting strategy on this particular map in this run, so it was a bit scuffed.
T3 was fully cleared at 8:35. I think you can get it down to 8 flat for sure or a bit lower than that with a perfect run.
rPvE_1Player_Level10_Stonekin_Pure Fire example t3 clear.pmv
I hope this helped.

if you like shielding more than freezing then have a look at winter witch that got changed alongside it, providing you all the shields you need

Skylords invoking entities is just creating a mimic. However, if the game would not have died, there would've been another campaign expansion introducing new factions. Just like Twilight/Lost Souls/Bandits were first introduced as campaign enemies. As such Amii as a shadow/nature faction can very well be independent, real entities in the (not yet existing) lore and Skylords then summon mimics of them as they do with everything else.
Think of a "Rise of the Amii" or "Rebirth of the Amii" expansion that introduces them as an ancient, extinct race that just now attempted to re-create its former glory. Or maybe it was planned and before they were wiped out, they secretly wove a spell that created back-ups in their image which they now inhabit like vessels. It just has a massive delay.

Hey kYw, thanks for the comments and I am glad you enjoyed reading it. We had a lot more we wanted to say but didn't want to continue expanding an already long document. In the future, we are looking to put out individual documents for each faction (4 pure + 5 hybrid) describing our thematic vision for them and how we think that can translate into designing their gameplay. 

It's really not that complicated:
Frost is the strongest in close well situations. This has nothing to do with playstyle, meta or players adapting to mapping... Ice guardians are just really strong and in close well situations you actually get to use them. Fire and shadow really struggle cause they can't rely on their S sized M counters as usual, cause they get destroyed by master archers.
So: big map bad for frost. Small map good. There's no adapting to that, it's been like that for years. One of the reasons frost was never really popular, a lot of players don't want to be that dependant on rng.

We are slowly approaching unhinged levels of conspiracy theories.
You can literally learn "wtf they were thinking" by giving the patch notes a read. They are linked in the official announcement.
There are 650 people on the balancing discord, over 100 being online right now and probably also at most times. What sort of Illuminati are you fighting in your head where that qualifies as a secret? You can find the discord right here on the forum, in the wiki or by simply asking someone about how balancing decisions get made. Get a grip.

I don't mind for a poll like this, but this is not the correct way to handle it in my opinion, since there is a big noob inflation for whatever side.

So I think Skylords has a very unique relation to speedrunning that you usually never see in other games.
To illustrate my point, imagine this situation:
In some ego-shooter there is a very difficult room you have a shootout in and enemies come from all sides, there is little cover and ammo. Now imagine someone is searching for advice online and asks a community for help. What you can expect (aside from some "gitgud" replies) is probably people explaining where enemies come from, where to take cover at what moment and which enemies to focus on to get through. You know, normal gameplay stuff. Now imagine there is also someone that comes in and goes "lol this room is SO EASY, all you have to do is jump on the crate in the corner and shoot it with your revolver. the recoil makes it fall through the floor and you with it. now you are on the ground level. ezpz". What sort of reception do you think this sort of advice would get? Definitely not a positive one.
That's because speedrunning and regularly playing the game are usually kept as two very distinct and separate ways to interact with a game.
In Skylords, it's different. It has blurred together. Meta-gaming (approaching the game in a way that directly interfers with mechanics or uses hidden information of the game to gain advantages, playing outside the rules of the game) became part of normal gameplay.
You see it expressed in sentiments and advice like:
"the map is easy, just build Mark of the Keeper to mess with the ranged AI. if you keep them alive then scripted waves stop spawning"
"yeah, it's pretty easy with Nightguard. that absurdly strong unit can be take over by her on this map, so just do that"
"the timer doesn't matter. just block Jorne with buildings so he cannot follow his intended path"
Many people have accepted this as the norm, the regular way to play Skylords. I don't know any other game where meta-gaming and exploit-strats from speedrunning are normalized to the point where when anyone asks for advice for specific maps the very first reply will most likely be something along those lines. Even the ambitious guide to all Expert maps lists known exploits as possible solutions.
Some issues that come with this unique environment are:
People start to completely and utterly depend on meta-gaming. Not only does it seem that many have never even played some maps without it, I regularly see people argue that exploits are downright necessary to beat some maps.
Playing regularly gets looked upon unfavorably in multiplayer. If you don't do "whatever it takes" to win (as in, use the common exploits), you wasted everyone's time.
It warps perceived power levels. Completely overpowered cards may be looked upon as - and I have fallen into this trap myself - "not so bad" because after all, there is this speedrunning exploit that's way more powerful.
It warps perceived difficulty. Many Expert maps are extraordinarily difficult and require many tries and adjustments to deck and strategy if you attempt to solve them from scratch. But if you simply break the game, many hurdles downright vanish.
You can perceive campaign PvE as "done" much sooner. Meta-gaming makes many maps much easier and quicker. You can tick them off, probably never revisiting them again because they are "solved".

What I don't intend is to discredit speedrunning as a way to interact with the game and enjoy it. There is a lot of planning, learning, trial and error going into each speedrunning strat and many solutions people come up with are really clever. Trying to strain the games mechanics to their limits until they break and finding quirks to exploit for that one additional advantage that shaves another minute off your time is an impressive process. Not to mention some speedrunning strategies are very high-execution.
What I am talking about is the various ways this game is affected by the blurred line between speedrunning and regular gameplay. The various exploits and meta-game strats that are commonplace in this approach across all video games do affect this game in very unique ways.
What are some thoughts and experiences with this special environment?

The biggest problem I see in Executor is not it's ability. The problem is the abundance of (ranged) M counters for Shadow T1. Forsaken and Nox are both fantastic M-counters and Skeleton Warrior's also perform this role well. All of these units are commonly used and Executor can't take away their key roles. So why bother with having another M counter? For Executor to be worth taking, it's ability would need to be borderline overpowered and this is not desirable.
Instead I suggest this: Make Executor an S-counter.
Executor could be an alternative to Dreadcharger who trades "swift" for "less power cost". In pvp, Dreadcharger would still be a favourite because it's swift and has amazing synergy with Forsaken. However, Executor with S-counter would make for a superb pve unit. You can use Executor as front-line tanks that kill S-units, while your Forsaken/Nox Troopers kill the M-sized ones.
It would make for a greater beginner card, since it is common and would combo well with Forsken.
The goal should be to make each card useful, even if it is only a niche. If a small change can make a unit useful, you should always prefer that to a more exotic rework.

Indeed, it is a common complaint that the building protection of frost splahes are too powerful. However, our focus in pvp lies at stabilizing all the T1 matchups at th emoment. 
Nature and Frost have some severe disadvantages that can be exploited. However, Frost and Nature also scale very well as the game goes on, so we really need to focus on the T1 before we should move on with substantial T2 changes.

Hello everyone.
I'll keep it short. Past few months, I've been working on our web API that is completely public and available for everyone to use. I've also created simple, functional (but stylistically not very pretty) user interfaces that visualize and consume the said API.
User interface applications are open-sourced on my GitHub. The repository also contains complete instructions on how to consume the API yourselves, if you were to decide to create your own frontend applications. But, you have to be somewhat profficient in web development to understand and begin doing stuff on your own. 
Issues tab is to be used freely for any and all suggestions and bug reports.
Pull Requests that improve and extend the existing UIs are more than welcome. After manual review, they might get merged into the master branch and appear as a part of the next website update. 
Links:
GitHub repository: https://github.com/fiki574/Skylords-Reborn-API-UI Statistics: https://stats.skylords.eu/ Auctions: https://auctions.skylords.eu/ Leaderboards: https://leaderboards.skylords.eu/ All applications are caching data periodically, so you're actually "querying" the in-memory data, and not the database directly, which does not have any kind of impact on the game servers and database itself. Have in mind these applications are also the first version, they will definetly get improved and extended, as well as the API.
For some of you, these applications and the API open up whole lot of possibilities.
For example, now you could create an application that tracks the average price of every card and makes a nice graph. You could even extend the search options with card orbs, expansion, rarity, etc. 
Or you could create an application that tracks all auctions for a specific card and sends you a mail or push notification when a card appears on the auction house, but is equal or below the specified price.
Average concurrent players/matches graph could be visualized by querying the Statistics API every 2/5/X minutes.
Those of you who understood everything said and know what you're doing, will use this to its maximum potential.
Have fun!

I encourage everyone to try the code PROM-OMOU-NTAI-NEER after the release. You'll get something nice!