Patch #400050 - 22 December 2024

[WindHunter]

Patch #400050 - Save Christmas

Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our sixteenth balance patch for the game, 1 new promo card, one new achievement, and much more!

Patch Preview

• Added three new featured community maps! Shadowy forces have mind controlled Santa and stolen his presents in these demonic re-imaginings of Bad Harvest, Treasure Fleet, and Slave Master!
• One new Christmas achievement; beat the new Christmas maps before February 2nd to receive the new promo Frost Mage!
• Reworked some T3 and T4 cards.

General Changes & Fixes

• Fixed a large number of incorrect descriptions in all languages.
• Fixed storybook page order for Unexpected Visitors and Into the Jungle.
• Updated scratch code description on marketplace.

New Christmas Event Maps
While everyone was brewing hot cocoa and preparing cookies below the chimney, the forces of darkness have kidnapped the elves and mind controlled Santa! The Skylords must act quickly to recover the stolen presents, free the captured elves, and return Santa to sanity to save Christmas. Re-experience three classic campaign maps and earn yourself a new promo Frost Mage in the process! The event lasts until February 2nd and will reoccur yearly. You can find the maps in the Community Maps section of the World Map. 

Christmas Fleet, 1-player map
Dark forces have stolen Santa's presents. The presents have been found, but you need to defend the sleighs full of presents until they can reach the North Pole.

Elf Master, 2-player map
Santa's elves have been kidnapped! Free the elves so they can make it home in time to spread Christmas cheer.

Naughty Harvest, 4-player map
Shadow units have invaded the north pole and mind controlled Santa! Defend Santa's sleigh while you help Santa return to normal.

 

New Christmas Achievement

Save Christmas [Card: Frost Mage (promo)]
Win the featured community maps Naughty Harvest, Christmas Fleet, and Elf Master on Expert difficulty during Christmas.

Promo Frost Mage will have a special Jingle bells spawn sound during the season, which will deactivate after February 2nd. 
 

Game Balance Changes

[ Card Changes ]

 Deepfang:
1. Icefire new effect: “If a building directly attacked by Deepfang is destroyed, a Stonekin Critter will spawn out of its ruins.”
2. Union general changes (both affinities):
   A. Radius: 20m ➜ 30m
   B. No longer requires a Stonekin Critter nearby to activate
3. Infused Union (r) buff:
   A. 50% ➜ 80% more damage
   B. Now buffs all friendly Stonekin, not just Deepfang and its Critters.
4. Gifted Union (g) poison: 50 ➜ 70 damage per second
5. Stonekin Critter’s Joyful Death: Now affects all Stonekin, not just Deepfang.

Deepfang is one of the worst designed cards in T3. It is full of little annoyances. The Union ability can only be triggered if a Critter is nearby, but Critters are low health and non-respawning, with a suicide ability to top it off. The fire affinity gives a +50% damage buff, but it has a small radius, only affects Deepfang and its Critters, has a long animation leading to a 660 damage loss, and is outcompeted by a 40p T1 Frost spell. The nature affinity actually deals damage, but it is a self-cast ability with a 20m radius on a ranged unit. Deepfang also comes with 2 Stonekin Critters, but they cannot respawn and their healing only works on Deepfang.

We are trying to fix everything in one fell swoop. Both Union affinities are being buffed by increased radius, increased effects, ability to work on friendly Stonekin units, and no longer requiring a Critter nearby. We are also adding a way to generate Critters by adding an Infect-esque effect to Deepfang's attack which only works against buildings. This should limit the number of Critters possible overall while making them feel like a real part of Deepfang's kit and identity. It also fits with our goal to add more building interactions to the Stonekin faction. Finally, we are expanding the Critter healing to all Stonekin.

 Deepgorge:
1. Orb cost: Frost, Frost, Nature, Nature (T4) ➜ Frost, Nature, Hybrid, Hybrid (T4)
2. Infused Cold Clutch (r):
   A. Aura now freezes instantly, not after 7 seconds.
   B. Fire affinity, remove current effect and replace with: “Additionally, the usual damage reduction of frozen targets will be removed from all frozen enemies within the aura.” 
3. Blessed Cold Clutch ➜ Cold Clutch
   A. Add Frost affinity to auto-attack: Ether Eruption ➜ Blessed Ether Eruption
   B. New effect: "Additionally, the building deals 100% more damage against frozen enemies and is able to ignore the usual damage reduction of frozen targets."

Improve splash-ability but still require all Nature or Frost orbs to keep it within Stonekin. Double hybrid will allow the card to be usable alongside Shatter Ice, so that players can do Shatter Ice + Deepgorge + Tectonic Shift combos. The goal is to make one affinity better on its own (Frost affinity) and the other affinity better as a support card (Fire affinity). While +100% damage increase against frozen targets might seem like a lot, please note that the last time we buffed Deepgorge we gave this card the largest stat increase in balancing history, and it is still barely viable. The frost affinity will have a 6k single-target dp20, which while decent, is still worse than both WBG and Volcano.

 Stone Warrior:
1. Blessed Shatter Lance (b) damage: 2600, up to 3900 in total ➜ 2600, up to 5200 in total
2. Gifted Shatter Lance (g):
   A. Now only works on paralyzed enemies
   B. Damage: 1040, up to 1560 in total ➜ 2600, up to 5200 in total (same as frost affinity)
3. Shatter Lance: Apply damage overflow fix

We want to give Stone Warrior (b) a slight buff to continue improving on its synergy with Rageflame. At the same time, we are taking this opportunity to change how the nature affinity works. Right now, it is an unconditional damage ability and this fact prevents us from buffing its numbers. It is also odd because the nature affinity has a paralyze extension effect akin to the frost affinity's freeze extension effect, but the Shatter Lance has no paralyze synergy. We are therefore changing it to work on paralyze targets like the other affinity works on frozen targets and buffing its damage numbers to be equivalent.

 Lost Horror:
1. Life points: 3730 ➜ 3230
2. Multishot - Both affinities may shoot at 3 targets at once.
3. Move affinity effects into the attack itself.
   A. Infused Lost Goo (r) - Knocks back small and medium units.
   B. Gifted Lost Goo (g) - Additionally, the goo is extremely toxic, poisoning every enemy it touches for 20 damage every second for 10 seconds.

Lost Horror(g) is one of the best beginner cards in the game. The same is not true for the fire affinity, which like many affinities is significantly worse. The damage difference between the cards is so high that it is difficult to ever imagine the player choosing the fire affinity. Therefore, we are buffing the fire affinity to also be able to target 3 enemies simultaneously and adding a minor poison effect to the green affinity. At the same time, we are chopping off 12% of the card's health as its life points are closer to a T3 melee XL-unit than a ranged unit.

 Ravenheart / Ravenheart Promo:

1. Passive ability Fleet Support: now works on any allied Raven unit, including the Raven Archwalker.
2. Updated status bar icon to be more consistent. 

 

[ NPC & Map Changes ]

New NPC Entities: Added several new Shadow entities available for use by official and community mapmakers.

Counter type fix: Fixed multiple NPC's to use the correct working armor type, so that they properly receive 50% more damage from attackers that have the matching counter type instead of 0% more damage regardless which counter attacked.

Teststrike: Added two additional abilities to Teststrike for maptesting purposes; one to drain own wells to get more power, and one to kill friendly units. 
 

 

[UltDragon]

Hotfix

22 December 2024

• Fix Stonekin Warrior green affinity being able to target non-paralyzed units with its ability.
• Fix Stonekin Critters from Deepfang being able to heal non-stonekin units with its ability.

 

Edited January 4 by UltDragon

[UltDragon]

Hotfix

03 January 2025

• General Fixes and Changes
  • Fix Christmas achievement being hidden, progress will be adjusted and rewards will be given accordingly through in-game mail.
  • Remove Unexpected Visitors and Into the Jungle from old campaign achievements, progresses will be adjusted and rewards will be given accordingly through in-game mail.
    • Affected achievements:
      •   Make It Double
      •   A Force Of Nature
      •   Hero of the Realm
      •   Among the Old Gods
• Card Changes
  • Stone Warrior (Nature):
    • Active ability Shatter Lance:
      • Fix splash damage affecting non-paralyzed units.
  • Burrower:
    • Active ability Acid Spit:
      • Corrected upgrade 3 description numbers.
  • Frost Mage (Promo):
    • Fixed death animation (Tornado was stuck in the ground).
  • Lost Shade (Shadow):
    • Passive ability Tainted Union:
      • Improved description to be more consistent in French.
  • Nox Carrier (Fire) / Nox Carrier (Shadow):
    • Active ability Infused Necro Strike:
      • Improved description to be more consistent.
    • Active ability Tainted Necro Strike:
      • Improved description to be more consistent.
      • Now instantly applies the first instance of contamination damage to fix the issue where it would deal one damage instance too little throughout its duration.
      • The aura will now properly reapply to already present units in the vicinity.
  • Ravenheart (Promo):
    • Fix death animation to show correct promo textured debris.
  • Razorshard (Fire) / Razorshard (Nature):
    • Infused Bombing Raid:
      • Improved description to be more consistent.
      • Improved name to be more consistent in Russian.
    • Gifted Bombing Raid:
      • Improved description to be more consistent in Russian.
      • Improved name to be more consistent in Russian.
  • Satanael (Shadow):
    • Active ability Tainted Fealty:
      • Passive ability Tainted Dilution of summoned Snapjaws (Shadow):
        • Improved status bar tooltip description on affected targets to be more consistent.
  • Scorched Earth (Shadow Affinity):
    • Tainted Deconstruction:
    • Improved non-En description on affected entities to be more consistent.
  • Snapjaws (Shadow):
    • Passive ability Tainted Dilution:
      • Improved status bar tooltip description on affected targets to be more consistent.
  • Wrathgazer:
    • Passive ability Resilient:
      • Removed permanent status bar icon to make room for more temporary debuffs.
    • Passive ability Pain Link:
      • Improved description in German to be more consistent.
• Event NPC Changes
  • Frost Mage (Event NPC):
    • Added permanent passive abilities: ally Leader immunity, Teleport immunity, Un(-self)killable.
  • Gold Wagon (Event NPC):
    • Decrease orb requirements from 4 Neutral to 1 Neutral.
    • Fixed present disappearing when the wagon is damaged.
    • Fixed wrongly referenced flu and scratch textures.
    • Improved the death animation (debris).
    • Improved the sound played on death.
• Shadow NPC Changes
  • Skeleton Warriors (NPC):
    • Damage: 600 -> 510
  • Wrathblades (NPC):
    • Health: 600 -> 450
  • Unstable Demon (NPC):
    • Tier: T3 -> T2
    • Energy: 150 -> 175
  • Ashbone Pyro (NPC):
    • Tier: T3 -> T2
    • Energy: 150 -> 175
    • Damage: 2000 -> 1800
  • Overlord (NPC):
    • Health: 4000 -> 5100
  • Cultist Master (NPC):
    • Summoned Night Crawler Lifetime: 20s -> 15s

Edited January 4 by UltDragon

[UltDragon]

Hotfix

12 January 2025

• NPC Firesworn (2039011): Fix model to use the correct texture.

Edited Sunday at 09:47 PM by LEBOVIN
Hotfix 12 January

[Hrdina_Imperia]

Hype for Christmas patch! And also some great changes for Stonekin. 

The paralyze affinity for Stone Warrior makes sense, yet there is no much synergy still. Can we expect some new spell/unit with paralyze to the roster?

[NedDeppat]

"Now only works on paralyzed enemies"
Quite a nerf for the stone warriors. I have to remove it from all decks.



"Buy memory and play double green"
I liked my deck, I don't want to be forced, I like having the choice. I don't have memory either.
I have paralysis


But that's just my first impression, I haven't tested anything yet. Maybe the additional dps can be converted into free energy for paralysis

[DDrazard]

This is so nice. Awesome as usual.

[Majora]

55 minutes ago, NedDeppat said:

"Now only works on paralyzed enemies"
Quite a nerf for the stone warriors. I have to remove it from all decks.

Just to clarify, this only applies to the Green Affinity of the Stone Warrior. 

[This Is Halloween_2]

Good change for deepfang, I think I will now replace my enlightenment for him for my T3 stonekin rpve unit slot.

I will need to try the new deepgorge card in Guns of Lyr to see if it’s worth WBG slot, but I’m not sure. Still it is a necessary and welcomed change.

Not particularly fan of stonekin warrior G change, we don’t have as much interaction with paralize effect than with freeze one. In T3, stonekin going 2N rarely take creeping paralysis and rely on their T2 cc scaling up to T3. The unconditionality of the G affinity is what made it really different and interesting.

For Lost Horror however it’s a straight nerf, the poison damage is inconsequential, and the knockback doesn’t make up for the HP loss.

Considering that the card is one of the strongest T3 common unit that beginners have access to, while not being as much ubiquitous and sometimes problematic than magma hurler and swamp drake, I really do not understand the nerf. It’s not like the card was problematic in PvP.

Edited December 22, 2024 by This Is Halloween_2

[shaulani]

5 hours ago, Majora said:

Just to clarify, this only applies to the Green Affinity of the Stone Warrior. 

Exactly. the blue one was highly situational / useless and now the green one joins it's rank. It's impossible to kill flying immune bosses now. Usually I do prefer oink over paralyze, as it's faster. If I pick paralyze, I rarely use it more than twice in a match..

4 minutes ago, This Is Halloween_2 said:

For Lost Horror however it’s a straight nerf, the poison damage is inconsequential, and the knockback doesn’t make up for the HP loss.

Considering that the card is one of the strongest T3 common unit that beginners have access to, while not being as much ubiquitous and sometimes problematic than magma hurler and swamp drake, I really do not understand the nerf. It’s not like the card was problematic in PvP.

It's still playable. Managed to beat the christmas fleet and the lost horror contributed greatly towards it. And yes - there was no reason to pick a unit targeting 2 units if you can have the same unit targeting 3 units.

[This Is Halloween_2]

50 minutes ago, shaulani said:

Exactly. the blue one was highly situational / useless and now the green one joins it's rank

The blue was good even before the buff. Coldsnap, rage flame and frost shard give enough frost effect to make the synergy worth it.

For lost horror, the buff to the red affinity was necessary, not sure it means the hp needed to get a nerf.

Beginners are going to be the most affected.

Edited December 22, 2024 by This Is Halloween_2

[shaulani]

1 hour ago, This Is Halloween_2 said:

The blue was good even before the buff. Coldsnap, rage flame and frost shard give enough frost effect to make the synergy worth it.

Did you see people frequently using rageflame? Because I didn't. It might be due to the case that t3 parts are quite rare in pve. I feel that after t2, freeze often becomes a liability due to the extra armor it grants. Furthermore, coldsnap + lance is an invest of 160 mana to kill a singe aerial unit. But yes, I see that the damage increase for blue one is quite a buff. Maybe it will show up more often in future.

[This Is Halloween_2]

In rpve no, people prefer deep fang or enlightenment. In campaign T3 situation, yes. The ability is aoe, and you benefit from XL counter. So 3900 dmg to an abomination for example, and against a group of frozen ennemies (need them a bit stacked) you were at 3900, and now 5200.

[Metagross31]

Stone Warrior (b) works well together with Timeless One, especially in PvP, since TO has a super cheap freeze and the lance oneshots Juggernaut.

Tbf, I also don't see the green affinity being all that useful now, since there are barely any paralyse effects in the game, one being Creeping Paralysis, which has to compete with Oink for slots and has awkward orb requirements, and most others are at T4, where Stone Warrior is most likely outshined anyways.

[ElementG]

Do not forget the paralysis crab with double nature. 😄

[This Is Halloween_2]

So after testing :

Deepfang : Great change. I've cut enlightment from my 2 stonekin rpve decks because of him. On some maps, I can even bring him with the rest of my army to benefit from the +80% dmage boost.

It's not perfect though (he's still slow, I can't stack that 80% bonus with earthen gift, and because he's short range, he tends to be the 1st to take damages in my bedrock-gem eye P battle line).
Need more test to see if it's worth keeping him to push at T4 with the rest of my army, but at T3 he makes the cut.

Ravenheart : QoL change in hero decks with raven archwalker & promise of life (B). It slighly speed up the army because you don't need to wait to use his summoning ability. Not a significant change though.

Stone warrior : The blue one is stronger. Basically you use him as a T3 shatter ice with coldsnap or frost shard. If you got 2, you can clear big waves that don't include a twilight drake. He was strong already, but this change justify even more the combo, particularly in an AOE purpose (before it was a 3900 burst vs XL units).

The green one got worst, there's no point to combo with primeval watcher (you're T4 and with NNNF, so not great), & as stonekin you don't take creeping paralysis (you can't use it until T3, so you likely have oink or coldsnap at T2, & the delay before cc is too long to justify the combo).

Overall, good change for the B affinity, not so much for the G one, until stonekin receive some T2 or T3 paralysis support.

Deepgorge : The card is better. Now is it enough to justify using it ?

In tectonic shift rpve deck, it's hard. Worldbreaker gun does more damage, & now that we have bedrock which helps to make our WBG thougher to kill after tp, it's hard to justify deepgorge (which could reduce incoming dps by freezing ennemies).
Second problem is that boss are immune. Clear speed can sometimes be faster than WBG in early T4 with shatter ice, but the problem is to find the spot for it if you also want bedrock (and later in the game, boss are a problem, too slow to kill).

In PvE, it's good on map like crusade, or nightmare's end, where you have waves to defend at T4, short time to set up defences, and no boss, units immune, or siege ennemies. Here a solo  deepgorge on a lane can do the job with little help. It's also good on dwarven riddle, where as the T4 drake player, you can quickly summon it in defense after clearing the last crystal, or on convoy at T4 for farming charges with little bounded power.

In GoL, there's better to do than deepgorge, it's not adapted. Same for unexpected visitors, ascension map 2, into the jungle last wave, ... 
 

Overall, he's used in the same way hatecaster is currently used, quick T4 def vs late game waves with average power level with no preparation, combo or pre-requisite required.

Lastly, I find the F-N-F/N mix-F/N mix orb requirement ugly on the card. Would be better looking if it was F-N-Mix-Unrestricted. Doesn't change a lot (you still need at least 2F-1N or 2N-1F), just that it isn't good looking (I would avoid more than 1 mix orb in the futur). So I don't think the last mix orb should be required.

Lost Horror : 1 thing, of course the R affinity is now useful. That's great.

Now, the bad. I'll compare the current version vs the previous G affinity (I'll ignore the previous R one, there's was no point to that card).

The card (both affinities) got slightly better vs swarm of S & M units compared to the previous G affinity. However considereing how strong it was vs such swarms, it's an insignificant buff.
The card got clearly worse in lategame vs stronger units. The hp reduction not only means less durability (so less damage over time), but also less heals from viridya or equilibrium G often played in rainbow beginners decks.

Clearly, new players can no longer use it as a supplement in their late game army for harder advanced map, or expert. Before that, the previous g affinity allowed them not to be completely carried in some situations by advanced players with more complex decks.
Considering the card was never problematic in the 1st place, i have a hard time understanding that big hp nerf. I now the card was strong, but it was not on the watch list (cards like razorleaf might be more problematic than lost horror was).




 

Edited January 1 by This Is Halloween_2