Draconnor

Noooo.... i loved shadow affinity Elder for that aura 😞 It was great as "first/only t4 unit" on smaller or faster maps.
😭

Noooo.... i loved shadow affinity Elder for that aura 😞 It was great as "first/only t4 unit" on smaller or faster maps.
😭

Noooo.... i loved shadow affinity Elder for that aura 😞 It was great as "first/only t4 unit" on smaller or faster maps.
😭

Noooo.... i loved shadow affinity Elder for that aura 😞 It was great as "first/only t4 unit" on smaller or faster maps.
😭

As part of our upcoming tower rebalance, Stronghold will be receiving the following proposed changes. Please note that all changes proposed here are provisional and as such as subject to change:
Iteration 1
1. Power cost: 150p --> 200p
1. Life points: 3600 --> 4500
2. Cannon Turrets:
   (a.) Splash Radius: 5m --> 10m
   (b). Turret Firing Arc: Allow up to 3 turrets to attack a target at once. 
   (c). Damage: 74 damage, up to 110 in total --> 164 damage, up to 246 in total.
3. New Active Ability - Bombardment (40p): Activate to shoot a mortar shell that deals 800 damage to enemies in a 15m radius around its target, up to 3200 in total. Knocks back small, medium, and large units. Has a long range of 40m. Reusable every 30 seconds. 
4. New Passive Ability - To the Last!: If the fortress has equal to or less than 3000 life points left it will deal 25% more damage and take 25% less damage. If the fortress has equal or less than 1500 life points left it will deal 50% more damage and take 50% less damage. 
5. New passive - Slowed Construction: Construction time is increased by 50%. 
Iteration 1 Goals
Stronghold is an Ultra-rare T3 Frost fortress. With a description like that and the name Stronghold the player might expect to encounter a powerful and immobile bastion able to hold off hordes of enemies by itself. Anyone who has seen Stronghold knows this is not true and that the card is a disappointment apart from its aesthetic design. We intend to rectify this. First, we are increasing Stronghold's single-target damage from 2420 dp20 to 4000 dp20. Second, we are giving Stronghold two new abilities. The active ability will allow the player to defend against 50m siege units like Lost Dancers without needing an additional unit or building, and “To the Last!” will make Stronghold more deadly as it loses life points. This will synergize well with Frost building supports like Glacier Shell and Shield Building, allowing the player to keep Stronghold at a lower health threshold without endangering their defenses.

As part of our upcoming tower rebalance, Armored Tower will be receiving the following proposed changes. Please note that all changes proposed here are provisional and as such as subject to change:
Iteration 1
1. Ice Bolt splash radius: 5m --> 8m
2. Gift of Ice Rework
   A. Now grants Ice Shields instead of damage reduction, Ice Shields apply to walls
   B. Permanent mode-change instead of timed, can be swapped back to attack mode anytime.
   C. New Description: "Grants an Ice Shield every 3 seconds to friendly entities in a 25m radius without. Each Ice Shield absorbs up to 450 / 550 / 700 / 880 damage for 30 seconds. Target cannot currently have an Ice Shield. Lasts until deactivated."
Iteration 1 Goals
Armored Tower has a particularly small splash radius for a T3 tower so we are increasing it to reduce the possibility of it missing moving targets and dealing reduced damage to M-size squad units such as Bandit Lancers. We have decided to move a different direction with the ability to allow Armored Tower to take on a full support role. Right now, Armored Tower's damage reduction overlaps with both Glaciation and Ward of the North. By changing to Ice Shields and allowing the mode change to remain indefinitely without needing to be reactivated, Armored Tower can act as a continual sustain tool for T3 Frost defenses. With the current numbers, one Armored Tower will be able to provide up to 10 targets with an Ice Shield over a 30 second period. Additionally, we have added the unique ability for Armored Tower to apply Ice Shields to wall segments. This will stack with Glaciation's damage reduction and provide a niche defense option in some campaign maps and the upcoming defensive random PvE.
 

Ah the guy that never returned to answer any question?
Then I just put this thread under "trolling" too. At least for now

There are plans to eventually release T3/T4 archers for each faction. Issues with Twilight Slayer's orb restriction should be taken in light of this consideration. 

this totally shares my concerns.

Btw - about T1 hybrid unit - there is really simply sollution.... maybe a little bit bruteforce but lest say T1 twilight bug... sama unit, two affinities - one red orb, other green org... two cards, same unit - both for T1 nature and fire decks. Only con is that it need twice the upgrades... but hey... 😉

Twilight Slayers seem really weak for PVE for at t3.
It has the statline and abilities (and disadvantages) of a strongish ultra rare t2 pve card.
 
The Fire Affinity seems heavily designed to Shred Avatar of Frost and Stonekin XL like Deepfang.
Without that affinity, this card is like a strong t2 card.
 
>> PVE
++++ Fire Affinity slaughters Avatar, Stonekin XL
++high dmg
+low cost per charge
-*small size, so the 6 Pop per unit screws people over trying to mass in pve
--* Cheap 75 power cost made not great or practical by above pop cap problems.
---*negative close range passive ability causes further problems.
-*It has no multishot, or anything while only having an XL dmg bonus.
Not a great size dmg bonus at T3 for a unit size known to fly now. (Frost mage rdy!)
-*small size, so pathing and knockback will again be awful. They fly now?
They fly now.
 
Two slayers = 150 power
pop cap = 12
2,280k xl dmg
1,140k Xl dmg at close range trolled
Red affinity +50% dmg vs Elementals, aka all Stonekin.
Purp affinity +50% kills bandits i guess?
 
Swamp Drake = 120 ish
pop cap = 5
1,700k xl dmg.
 
Magma hurler= 100
popcap= 5
1,700k L dmg

It would be SO MUCH cooler if the Treespirits got spawned from the projectile, not from the unit itself. I mean, it is literally called a "Spore Launcher".
Having it on every auto attack (or every few ones) would be amazing but it would have some wonky quirks to work out. The amount of spawned Treespirits could even scale with the amount of spores shot and therefore with support, as far as I have seen. They'd have to be temporary though.

Imagine if attackers got swamped like that. Could take Spore Launcher into an entirely different direction. Nerf the amount of default spores it shoots from 3 to 1 but let every attack spawn a Treespirit, amount of spores and Treespirits scaling with support. Unfortunately, the Treespirits would take up pop cap as we don't currently have a way to introduce new pop-counts per unit ...

As part of our upcoming Nature balance changes, Shrine of Memory will be receiving the following proposed changes. Please note that all changes proposed here are provisional and as such as subject to change:
Iteration 1
1. Increase Orb Cost: 2 Nature --> 2 Nature, 1 Neutral
2. Power cost: 100p --> 120p
3. Void Return Cap: 20 void power per 2 sec --> uncapped (max 80 per 2 seconds)
4. Void Return: +200% --> +300%
5. Now affects allies
6. Reduce duration: 35sec --> 30sec
   A. Change U3 upgrade: + 5 seconds duration --> +50% faster power refund
Iteration 1 Goals
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 owning player.
Keeping it at tier 2, changes have to be considered with PvP implications in mind. Turning it into a tier 3 buildings opens up space, but will make it fall out of PvP, which is the desired outcome anyway. Shrine of Memory now affects allies again and has an uncapped void return. Additionally we have increased the void return percentage 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. 

As part of our upcoming Nature balance changes, Mind Control will be receiving the following proposed changes. Please note that all changes proposed here are provisional and as such as subject to change:
Iteration 1
1. Power cost 300p --> 250p
2. Charges: 4 --> 8
3. Takeover limit: 300p --> 350p
4. Allow to be used past the population limit.
4. New effect: Mind controlled unit is cleansed of all debuffs and immune to all major debuffs for 10 seconds.
   C. New Description: "Grants permanent control over an enemy unit with a maximum of 4 orbs and 220 / 250 / 250 / 350 power costs. Immediately removes all debuffs and mind controlled unit is immune to all major debuffs for 10 seconds. Reusable every 60 / 60 / 30 / 30 seconds. The dominated target does not allow to play out cards next to it."
Iteration 1 Goals
With the recent PTS changes we have been able to properly assign power and orb costs to PvE units. As such, we will soon remove the mind control restriction on Lost Souls units. This means Mind Control as a card and other mind control units will no longer be dead weights against the faction. Even so, we think the card Mind Control will still need some help so we are reducing its power cost by 16%. Nature also usually struggles against buildings. We are introducing an initial Disenchant(g) effect on use to promote controlling enemies in the enemy back-line and using them to destroy key positions.

As part of our upcoming Nature balance changes, Grove Spirit will be receiving the following proposed changes. Please note that all changes proposed here are provisional and as such as subject to change:
Iteration 1
1. Semi-Swift (6.4 m/s)
2. Life points: 1100 --> 1900
3. New auto-cast "Woodland Blessing" - "Every 2.5 seconds, unit is able to cast a protective spell upon friendly units that lasts for 10 seconds and restores 60 life points per second, up to 600 in total. Target will additionally be immune to all major debuffs for 10 seconds. Only one instance of the spell may be applied to a unit at a time."
4. Healing Song Rework: "Activate to create a magical zone of 25m radius where friendly units will be continually protected. Grove Spirit continually applies Woodland Blessing to every ally unit in range. Lasts for 20 seconds. Reusable every 30 seconds."
Iteration 1 Goals
Equalize speed with units to be supported... increase life points to improve survivability... give new auto-cast to function as a better Crystal Fiend... change ability from pure heal to function as an anti-cc aura...

As part of our upcoming Nature balance changes, Colossus will be receiving the following proposed changes. Please note that all changes proposed here are provisional and as such as subject to change:
Iteration 1
1. Thunderous Roar Rework
   A. Releases a bloodcurdling roar that riles up Colossus. The unit will deal 75% more damage for 25 seconds. Additionally, Lumbering Step is activated for 25 seconds. Reusable every 35 / 35 / 35 / 30 seconds.
2. Lumbering Step: 
   A. Turn Speed - Increase turn speed by 50% for the duration
   B. Damages nearby units for 200 damage, up to 1000 in total. 
   C. Description: "While moving around unit knocks back small, medium and large units dealing 200 damage, up to 1000 intotal to enemies in a 12m radius. Affects ground targets only. "
 3. New Ability - Colossal Birth - When being spawned the unit is undazed and displaces the earth, knocking back small, medium, and large units. Can be spawned nearby enemy units and structures excluding walls. Affects ground targets only.
Iteration 1 Goals
Recent discussions suggested a trample mechanic for Colossus much in line with Worm Earth Dive and Thunder Wagon's Rampage. We think this is a good idea and dovetails well with Colossus's existing swift speed. After looking closely at Colossus's spawn animation, we think it would be fitting to give the unit an on-spawn ability similar to units like Emberstrike and Tempest. This will also give the player increased flexibility to spawn in a Colossus when needed and be able to immediately make use of its abilities. 
We decided to tie the trample "Lumbering Step" together with the Thunderous Roar rework. Thunderous Roar now gives Colossus a self-buff of +75% damage, allowing Colossus to function as a structure killer and the anti-boss unit that Nature frequently requires. Lumbering Step then enables Colossus to start trampling foes and make a beeline for priority targets as it knocks back all sizes except extra-large. 

As part of our upcoming Nature balance changes, Abyssal Warder will be receiving the following proposed changes. Please note that all changes proposed here are provisional and as such as subject to change:
Iteration 1
1. Decrease power cost: 250p --> 240p
2. New Active ability for large and medium sized golems - Reassemble - "Bond with two other Abyssal Warders of the same size in a 15m radius to reform into an Abyssal Warder of a larger size."
3. Increase Crystal Spikes damage: 570 / 600 / 660 / 725, up to 1710 / 1800 / 1980 / 2175 --> 645 / 675 / 735 / 800, up to 3870 / 4050 / 4410 / 4800
4. Change class: Giant --> Ancient
Iteration 1 Goals
Allow Abyssal to reassemble but require more smaller golems than are created when a larger golem divides. Initial ratio suggestion of 3 required for reassembly versus the 2 created on division. Will combo well with the upcoming changes to Promise of Life. Affinity of the mini-Warder doing the combining will determine the affinity of the reassembled larger Warder. Crystal Spikes is receiving a minor change to single-target damage and a major increase to total targets affected from 3 to 6. This should help Abyssal Warder clear out smaller units quickly and make the ability effect worth the power cost.

Map is really fun. Maybe enemy respawns are to fast/obvious and twilight dino don't look good between bandits, but gameplay and all the rest is nice. Great work.

Greetings Skylords!

It's been three weeks since our last community update so it's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!
 

As we mentioned in an earlier community update, new cards are in development. Last time we showed you our first new card: Coat of Protection. We are very excited to show you the second one today! 
New Card Reveal:
Please note: We are still testing the card. While we are generally happy about it and feel comfortable revealing it, numbers and effects might still change. We hope to release this card before the end of the year and will share more information at a later date. 
 
Joining Windhunters in the sky, Wasteland Wing is an extremely strong tier 4 dragon. With strong stats combined with Life Steal, this new tool will be a great incentive for playing Bandits. It will be uncommon and come in two affinities, each having a different effect for its Cleanse ability. Let's break down the card.
Breath of Embers
Every 3 seconds, unit spews fiery sand out that deals 630/660/690/720 damage to enemies in a 35m radius around its target, up to 945/990/1035/1080 in total. Knocks back small and medium units.
 
Infused Cleanse (Fire-affinity only)
Cost: 110 Power - Cast Range: 30m
Activate to immediately remove all debuffs from up to 5 friendly units in a 15m radius. Will also revert all status effects like Freeze or Paralyze. Additionally, affected units deal 100% increased siege damage for 10 seconds. Reusable every 30 seconds
Tainted Cleanse (Shadow-affinity only)
Cost: 110 Power -  Cast Range: 30m
Activate to immediately remove all debuffs from all units in a 15m radius. Will also revert all status effects like Freeze or Paralyze. Additionally, affected units will be immune to all major debuffs for 10 seconds. Reusable every 30 seconds.
Life Stealer
15% of the damage dealt by the unit will be added to its life points.
 

Wasteland Wing is a Pure Bandits alternative to Tortugun for those players who enjoy the Bandits playstyle and aesthetics but who do not want to interact with Tortugun's unique hunger mechanics. With an area-of-effect disenchant ability it will enable the typical Bandits playstyle of hard to pin down agents of destruction.
Artwork Reveal:
The artwork (and ability icon) has been designed by our talented artist Tweeto, and we gladly show it off in all its glory:

Just like with Coat of Protection, a lot of time and changes went into this artwork. We thought it would be cool to show you some sketches to show the progress. A big thanks to Tweeto for constantly accepting feedback and improving the artwork. We are really happy with the final result, and hope you are too! 

 
Vote for Cardnames
Just like with Coat of Protection, we need your suggestions for the final cardname. During testing we came up with the cardname ''Wasteland Wing'', and abilities named ''Infused Cleanse'' and ''Tainted Cleanse''. However, part of our promise to our Patreons is to let them help with naming new cards based on suggestions from the community. For this, we will need your help!
Please reply in the comments below what you feel is the perfect cardname for this card, and how you would name the ability. Please note that Infused and Tainted are part of the affinity name, and will not be changed. 

Example:
Name: Wasteland Wing
Ability: Tainted/Infused Cleanse
Please only suggest one name. We will collect all the suggestions and let our Avatar-of-Frost-tier (and higher) patreons vote for the final name. 
 
Voice-actors Update 
Last Community Update we opened up applications for voice-acting the new cards. We are very happy with the results, and want to thank everyone for taking the time and effort to apply! We have made a selection of fitting voice-actors and will now work with them for the final script. If you applied but did not get a reply to your e-mail, please reach out to me. 
We hope you are looking forward to them bringing the new cards alive!
 
Updated 2vs2 Maps (test server)
We have released new versions of the PvP 2vs2 maps to the test server. Now we need your help to test them! Please go on the test server and try out these maps and share your feedback with us. The sooner we have good feedback, the sooner we can bring them to the live server (and create observer versions!). Toggy mentioned multiple times already that he will host another 2vs2 tournament if we have observer maps, so if you enjoy 2vs2, please test them out! 
You can find the latest list of map changes on the Wiki.
 
Promo Vote Results
As mentioned in our last community update, we plan to add a new promo to the game. The vote was locked behind Juggernaut-tier patreon, but we got permission to make it a community vote instead! Even though Sunderer was ahead on our Facebook poll, after collecting all the votes we have a clear winner: the next promo to be added to the game will be Mana Wing. 
We received both negative and positive feedback about our plans to add new promo cards. While some people were hyped about the upcoming new content, some felt the choice of promos was unfair, and others said more than one promo card should be added. We would like to remind you again that we are restricted in both time-resources and fitting artwork. We want to add cool stuff, but everything we do, no matter how small, will take time away from other areas. Currently our top priority is getting the new cards to you as soon as possible. We are always open for feedback, but please keep this in mind when voicing your opinions.
We will share the final look and how you will be able to collect the new promo in a later update.

Tournaments & Events
NEW: Skylords Open - 14.11.2021
The Skylords Open return! It's been a while since the last edition, so let's see if the players from the last Rookie tournament have made it to the top ranks since then and if someone has what it takes to take the top spot from RadicalX! Join Toggy on Sunday or watch the action on stream! Find all the information here. 

NEW: Official PvE Contest#3 Skylords Raid - Until 27.11.2021
We hope you didn't have a fallout with your team after the rPvE contest, because you will need a team for our latest event! For this event, show your skills on not one, but three different maps! There are prizes for just participation, so check out the rules and how to apply and have fun!

FINISHED: Official 4p rPvE Contest#1 The Bandit Hunt
Our rPvE contest has concluded! We hope you had a lot of fun, and we were glad to see some new players trying on rPvE. We will definitely do this kind of event again, so keep an eye out for that. The winners were announced on Twitch, which you can rewatch here. A big thanks to Volin for helping us with this event! 


• Host your own event / tournament
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizer Hiko to have your event prizes sponsored by us. If you have a cool idea for a PvE event, or want to host a PvP tournament, please don't hesitate to reach out to us, we will gladly assist you. 
 
New Team Members / Open Positions
We have added two new global mods to the team; a warm welcome to Lontzek and Parity! Together with the rest of the mod-team they will make sure everything is running smooth. 

We are also happy to add Progamer001 to our team. If you are active on our discord, you might have seen some of his alternative color schemes for units and buildings. He will help us with creating bosses for our rPvE modes and help out with our new cards. 

We are in dire need of Balance Developers! 
As mentioned in our last Community Update, we are in dire need of Balance Developers. If we do not get new members, we will not be able to release new cards in the future. Balancing will also have to be put on hold and/or drastically reduced. 
If you want to help, we would love to have you on our team. Below are two roles highlighted, but you can find more information, desired traits and all our open positions here. If you are unsure if you qualify, please reach out and have a talk! 

Open Position - Balance Developer
As a balance developer you are responsible to implement design changes to in-game cards using our internal balancing tool. In other words, you are responsible to implement new cards and changes to existing cards. These implementation requests can come from balance updates and content patches from our Faction Designers but also from the official Skylords Reborn map making team (for example, new bosses for a new map). An integral part of this role is learning our internal balancing tool, as that is the tool that allows us to perform all these changes. You are by no means required to have any programming experience. More information.
Open Position - Map Artist
As a map artist you are responsible to polish the aesthetics of a map. This includes texture the map, add decorations and add different effects and sounds. In other words, responsible for making the map look and feel good. More Information.
 

In Conclusion
We hope you liked this Community Update, thanks for reading! 
As is tradition, this community update comes with a scratch code. But this time you get to choose!
One code will reward you with a mini-booster, the other will give you 100BFP. 

Once you select one, the other one will be blocked. Choose wisely!
100 bfp: COMM-UNIT-YNEW-S14P
Mini booster: COMM-UNIT-YNEW-S14B
The code is valid till December 3rd.
We will update you again on December 4th. We will reveal another new card, so you don't want to miss it!
As always, we are open to feedback so please let us know! 
Archive
Community Update #11
Community Update #12
Community Update #13

I go with your opening post @Draconnor. but it is not "baerly" better - it is simply far worse then Regrowth.
Lifestream binds energy, comes with limitations (must be buildt, must be in range), has a longer cooldown, only reduces but does not heal dmg and has even (a quite small) limit to that. Finally it needs 2 Green which is very popular among casual players but rarely played by more expert players.
 
Thats why we see Regrowth in more then 9 of 10 decks and Lifestream in less then 1 deck out of 10.

Hi! It would be great to have an option to show all cards / unowned cards in the inventory. I'd like to see which cards I'm missing for a certain faction.
I know there is allcards.skylords.eu, but seeing missing cards of my collection ingame would be very comfortable.

Greetings Skylords!
We are happy to bring you the first official community update, a biweekly update to give you an overview of whats happening (and going to happen) in Skylords Reborn. We have heard your desire for communication loud and clear, and as your fresh Community Manager, I will do my best to deliver. 
The goal of these updates is to give you an idea of the things going on behind the scenes and cool stuff that you might have missed. Not every update will have the same content, but we hope to provide you with some cool details and insights. 
Without further ado, lets get to it!
Balance Patch #2
What better way to start than with a new patch announcement! Balance Patch #2 is hitting the live servers soon, bringing with it a lot of PvP balance changes and map updates. We have decided to wait with the release until Toggy's PvE contest is finished to not cause issues for the contenders. You can expect the patch to go live at the beginning of May. The patch notes will be posted soon. 
In-game Tournament tab
Once logged in, you will now be greeted with a tab showing upcoming tournaments and events in Skylords Reborn. Full event details will still be posted on the forums, but we hope this will help tournament organisers with spotlighting their events. 

We would like to take this moment to point out we are still looking for an Event Manager. If you are up for the task, please apply! Check our Open Staff Positions for more information.
Upcoming Community Tournaments
There is a 1v1 tournament hosted by Toggy this saturday. Because we had to delay the patch, it will be played on the test-server.  

Toggy is also giving PvE players a challenge with his speedrunning contest of the map Ocean. 

Both tournaments will reward booster prices. 
PvE
Don't worry PvE players, you are not forgotten. We are not ready to bring you a PvE patch just yet, but rest assured that a lot of work is put into improving the PvE experience. 
There have been a lot of heated arguments in the forum and the discord about what the ideal PvE scene should look like. We will release a philosophy document in the near future explaining our stance on certain topics and what you can expect from the balance team going forward. We cant share any details yet, but WindHunter will soon be in touch with you with more information. 
Balance Discord
Most of you might be aware, but alongside the regular discord we have a discord specifically focused on balancing PvE and PvP. You are encouraged to discuss potential changes and ideas with us here. 
Card Description Project
You might have noticed that cards in Battleforge aren't always very consistent or clear. A group of volunteers has started the huge undertaking to fix this. Not only are they clearing up sentences and details for every single card, they are also adding relevant hidden information like gender (girl-power anyone?), abilities, movement speed, a better reflection of a cards true damage output and much much more. Here is an example:

  *please note this is a mockup and not final yet
With hundreds of cards this might take a while before you see this in game, but I wanted to mention it already. I'm truly baffled by all the hours people put into this project behind the scene. If you want to help out with this project, they are currently in need of a French translator. If you know anyone, please reach out to them via the Description Changes Discord.
Map Testers
Some new map testers are helping us out with the project as well. They have already been a great help and we are grateful for their time. Thank you cswordmaster, LEBOVIM, LegitNacho, Liorans, Mister_Mv, Perthos and Wanky [CH][Ger]. 
New Team Members
To those who missed the announcements, we added two new members to the team in the past weeks. 
Going forward I will be your community manager and will be in charge of keeping the community updated on the latest information, while also making sure suggestions and concerns from the community reach the developers.
Tweeto has also joined the team as a 2D artist. He has already created two beautiful artworks for Amii Phantom and a possible new Amii card. We will have a staff meeting soon to get him underway to create even more awesome artwork. If you are interested in seeing how his artwork comes to live, we can also share that kind of information in the future. 
  
 
We still have some open positions on our team to help with the project. We are looking for map artists, designers, discord moderators and more. Please have a look at the Open Staff Positions for more open positions and information on how to apply!
Twitter and Facebook 
Are you following us on Twitter and Facebook already? They have been inactive for a while, but I have heard from a very reliable source that going over there might be.. rewarding for you. Expect us to use those channels to keep you updated from now on as well. 
In conclusion
And that's it for your very first Community Update! Just to set expectations: we definitely wont be releasing a new patch with every update and some weeks will have more news than others. 
In future updates, we would also like to take a moment to give some information on what we can and can't do in the game, and what a realistic flow of content will be. As you might have noticed, we have added quite a few members to the team lately and in the past week I have been absolutely blown away by all the work that is being done behind the scenes. I look forward to sharing more with you in the future.  
What do you guys think of this first biweekly status update? Is there something you would want to see covered more? We are open to feedback so please let us know. 
 

@PonniSince you asked, here are some stats, For each map, the amount of matches where any of the players has decomposer in their deck are divided by the total amount of matches on that map.

Campaign maps - Standard
name used_percentage PassageToDarkness 35.9955 Ascension 32.6199 Empire 15.1042 BadHarvest 13.5707 RavensEnd 13.1328 Blight 12.5150 Titans 11.2018 KingOfTheGiants 10.9950 Convoy 6.8841 PvECommunity4P 6.4888 SlaveMaster 5.8498 Crusade 5.3855 NightmaresEnd 4.7486 NightmareShard 4.5319 Sunbridge 4.2641 PvECommunity2P 4.2381  
Campaign maps - Advanced
name used_percentage PassageToDarkness 40.2985 Ascension 37.1483 TheGunsOfLyr 21.6562 PvECommunity4P 21.0884 KingOfTheGiants 19.2003 Empire 18.3099 RavensEnd 17.9451 BadHarvest 17.7158 Titans 16.4844 Blight 16.2293 TheDwarvenRiddle 13.9569 Convoy 9.8866 SlaveMaster 8.0141 Crusade 7.8074 PvECommunity2P 7.3077 Sunbridge 7.0674 NightmaresEnd 7.0041 NightmareShard 6.8242 TheInsaneGod 6.4232  
Campaign maps - Expert
name used_percentage BadHarvest 91.7773 PassageToDarkness 68.0524 TheGunsOfLyr 61.4198 TheDwarvenRiddle 43.1285 Ascension 42.9437 Empire 28.3441 KingOfTheGiants 28.3294 PvECommunity4P 26.7319 Convoy 22.1411 RavensEnd 21.5033 Titans 17.4075 SlaveMaster 17.3196 TheInsaneGod 16.5959 Blight 14.5030 Sunbridge 13.2432 NightmaresEnd 11.3855 Crusade 9.9595 PvECommunity2P 7.9137 NightmareShard 6.9473  
Random maps - Level 9
name used_percentage rPvEFourPlayers 41.5978 rPvETwoPlayers 12.2017  
Random maps - Level 10
name used_percentage rPvEFourPlayers 29.1335 rPvETwoPlayers 6.1983

Again, account progression and map rewards are different issues that just happen to overlap with Decomposer.
The problem with Decomposers function not being intended is just a small faction of the entire deal and not a main point. Although I highly doubt it would still be able to do what it does, had the game not faced an early decline and death. The question is what effects the card has.
The second the Decomposer tactic is used a good chunk of the game (if not all of it) plays out significantly different to the point where it isn't even vaguely comparable to a strategy without it. Supercharging one player has huge ramifications. The fed player has much more agency in the round and can progress at a much faster rate. Meanwhile every point of energy transferred from the feeding players equals less agency for them.
Since orb-tiers function as force multipliers (every point of energy spent on a higher tier nets greater results) the boosted players power grows exponentially as they use their advantage to skip ahead. That reaches a point where one players performance vastly overshadows what otherwise could be done by the entire team without Decomposer.
It also interferes with two parts of the game that no other mechanic can: The starting power of each player is theirs alone and players cannot trade power they have acquired.
This shows that the Decomposer tactic fundamentally warps the game when it is used.
It is so strong that even people that rely on it as a speedrunning tactic to achieve faster times on certain maps made the admission it's broken. But it is a tool that significantly boosts performance, so where things drift apart again is that some people want to keep it because its power is what they desire. A repeat argument is that some fastest times on multiplayer maps could no longer be achieved without Decomposer and by a big margin at that. So if that is true then there is absolutely no question about its excessive power.
Something being too strong is also not always related to it seeing play everywhere and all the time, that's a misconception. Niche tactics can be unreasonably strong when their circumstances align. Because what matters is how it plays out when it can be utilized. Nobody would argue Enlightenment is a weak card because it can be used to prematurely summon Emberstriker or because it isn't very useful on maps where T3 and T4 are very close to one another. Or, just to illustrate the point further with a different example, say in a team VS team egoshooter players only buy cheap pistols in one round but a certain pistol is much more powerful than others. So despite this strong pistol not seeing use in rounds where all kinds of weapons can be bought, it's still too strong within its niche.
You mostly measure its power by its effectiveness when there is an opportune situation to use it. Those circumstances being more plentiful only elevates an issue further. Similarly, while the Decomposer tactic cannot be used on singleplayer or maps where orbs (and their necessary force multiplier) are too far apart, when the situation allows for it, it provides power like nothing else.
Additionally, all of that has to come with the consideration that Decomposer is a T1 card. That means that one of the most powerful tools in the game, that can entirely warp how a round plays out, and intersects with the fundamentals on how energy works between players, is available at the very moment you start a map. If you'd compare tactics within their respective niches is there anything even vaguely similar to the power the Decomposer tactic enables? The argument that finishing times for maps would be much slower implies not.
And, like I stated previously, the tactic can always find its way into average play and warp it with its power and influence. Attempting to preserve it by changing other things in the game to accommodate it would mean that it's still there, waiting to be a problem again.
Not to mention it would always have to be considered when making future balancing/progression decisions. A repeatedly brought up concern is how PvP balancing limits and affects PvE balancing. But what about how a mechanic like this would unjustly limit design space on multiple fronts for the entire game? What can, cannot and must be changed because of how it would interact with this excessively strong mechanic is a question that will always have to be considered. And if something is missed the game is in shambles once more until that is addressed.
Finally, to touch on the aforementioned PvP again, it was already noted that Decomposer can be problematic in 2v2 and 3v3. Orbs are accessible from the start and therefore the force multiplier by one player ascending tiers faster could prove oppressive. It's simply not meta yet but that can change.
All of these problems have nothing to do with account progression and only with Decomposer.

Possible paradox: 2-3 min BH runs make some new people grind more than less. New players see/hear how easy it is to get gold and a shiny rank with these runs and stop caring about the rest of the game and don't check out other maps and modes. I don't think that's a good introduction to this game. Yeah, old players dont want to grind, but we're still on the same page when we say we want to get and keep new players, right?

Found it. ;-)
 
Fall_of_Feaorn.rar
 
I like the map art. We need Map good map artists...^^