Bandit Card Rework Ideas

[Eazay]

Hello fellow Skylords,

I would like to show my love and appreciation of this game by posting some of my ideas for possible reworks of bandit cards. Note, these reworks do not take into account the technical limits of what could be added to the game at the moment, they are just ideas to spark thought into how we can approach reworking some cards that do not see the light of day due to being too niche or outright underpowered.

NOTE: All cards here (despite some visuals} are shown at maximum upgrades

Units

Bandit Lancer

The change here is to increase the unit count from 1 to 4 (like Silverwind lancers), increase the attack and HP accordingly, and increase the cost from 60 to 100. As a T3, having a single medium sized unit without steadfast and being in the front lines (of your ranged units) makes it too squishy to include in any deck aside from it being a fun thematic card. This change will make the card a solid front liner for gunners and commandos in order to make good use of its' branding ability.

Spells

Warrior's Death

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Infused Immunity: Casts a martial spell on the targeted own unit that makes it immune against all major debuffs for 10 seconds but will die at the end of the duration. Upon dying, the unit will inspire all friendly within a 30m radius of a smaller size to deal 30% more damage for 10 seconds. Reusable every 20 seconds.

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Blessed Immunity: Casts a martial spell on the targeted own unit that makes it immune against all major debuffs for 10 seconds but will die at the end of the duration. Upon dying, the unit will inspire all friendly within a 30m radius of a smaller size to become steadfast and take 30% less damage for 10 seconds. Reusable every 20 seconds

Warrior's death acts as an alternative to Disenchant which buffs the unit at the cost of it dying at the end of the duration. Running disenchant is always a much safer bet as it frees the target from existing Crowd control and does not kill your troop. Not to mention that Warrior's death cannot be looped in order to delay the death of the unit past 20 seconds, making it almost never worth it. Bandit armies at T2 usually rely on numbers rather than having 1 big unit to benefit from the spell, and its use is limited in PVP. This new version reduces the duration and the magnitude of the effect, but allows it to be more useful when when placed on a frontline L unit (shadow phoenix at T2) to inspire the rest of the S and M units that are attacking along side it. Not to mention that this spell now becomes useful past T2 when using it on units like Soulhunter or Corsair.

Sandstorm

 

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Tainted Desert Sand: : Creates a tornado that continuously moves forward, dealing twice per second 110 damage to all enemy units and 50 to structures, up to 300 in total. Whenever an enemy dies within the area, the duration of the sandstorm is increased by 1 second. Lasts 20 seconds. Covers a distance of at least 15 meters during its’ travel.

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Infused Desert Sand: Creates a tornado that continuously expands, dealing twice per second 110 damage to all enemy units and 50 to structures within a 10m radius, up to 300 in total. Whenever an enemy dies within the area, the duration of the sandstorm is increased by 1 second. Lasts 20 seconds. Expands at a rate of 1m every 2 seconds, increasing to a minimum of 20m.

Sandstorm in its' current form is very expensive and has very little usage. Its tainted affinity is a more expensive Aura of corruption with a little bit of damage, while the infused affinity is even less useful in PVE (since I'm assuming this spell is too expensive to be used in PVP). This new form gives it a new identity as a base clearing spell that intends to kill units affectively (not so much buildings) and rewards the player for good timing and placement.  

Amok

Effect name changed from "Friend or foe?" to "Bloodbath"

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Tainted bloodbath: : All units within a 30m radius will be no longer be controlled by the player and begin to battle all enemies within sight. All affected units will deal 100% more damage, receive 90% less damage from any units or buildings outside the targeted area, and become immune to crowd control effects. Lasts 20s.

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Infused Bloodbath: All units within a 30m radius will be no longer be controlled by the player and begin to battle all enemies within sight. All affected units receive 90% less damage from any units or buildings outside the targeted area and become immune to crowd control effects. Moreover, friendly units will all gain Rage until the end of the duration. Lasts 20s.

The idea here is that Amok does not offer much that Frenetic Assault wouldn't offer in a bandit deck, given that the orb requirements of Frenetic Assault is satisfied if you are to use Amok anyways. This new version of Amok allows all units to fight to the death with immunity to crowd control, and damage from outside the battlefield. Theoretically speaking, since bandits have life steal, they should have the upper hand when dealing increased damage.

Waystation -> Arsenal

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Tainted Supply: Activate to link to an own monument within 10m. Each monument can only be linked with one Arsenal. While linked to a monument, the Arsenal will increase your maximum unit limit by 6. Moreover, the recharge time and cooldown of all bandit spells will be decreased by 12%.

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Infused Supply: Activate to link to an own monument within 10m. Each monument can only be linked with one Arsenal. While linked to a monument, the Arsenal will increase your maximum unit limit by 6. Moreover, the recharge time of all bandit units will be decreased by 12%.

Waystation as a building is too cumbersome to use effectively and too niche at that. On offence, it does not construct quickly enough to be useful on the battlefield (like banner of glory) nor is the damage boost good since that space can be occupied by a defense tower with Bandit sorceress inside it. Arsenal, however, attempts to solidify the identity of the bandit faction as being an army building faction, allowing them to have bigger sized armies and recover their card charges quicker. Only 4 (possibly 5) can exist be used at a time, meaning card charges recover 48-60% faster.

 

 

And finally, I saved the most controversial change for last

Rioter's Retreat

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Uproar: Every 2 second, the tower delivers several shots each dealing 134 damage to enemies within a 5m radius, up to 166 in total. Knocks back small and medium units. It may attack three targets at once.

Gifted Retreat: Friendly Bandit units within a 25m radius around the tower regenerate 50 life points every second. Increasing by 10 for every other friendly bandit building within a 30m radius.

Life Stealer: 15% of the damage dealt by the building will repair the building and restore its life points.

 

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Uproar: Every 2 second, the tower delivers several shots each dealing 134 damage to enemies within a 5m radius, up to 166 in total. Knocks back small and medium units. It may attack three targets at once.

Gifted Retreat: Friendly Bandit units within a 25m radius around the tower takes 20% less damage, increased by 2% for every other friendly bandit building within a 30m radius.

Life Stealer: 15% of the damage dealt by the building will repair the building and restore its life points.

 

The changes here are not because Rioter's retreat is too weak, but because Bandit T2 is overloaded with towers while T3 offers nothing in terms of defense (aside from infernal machine). The idea here is that by increasing the damage, adding knockback, and slightly increasing the HP of the tower, now this card becomes an upgrade to your defensive build as a reward for reaching T3. The retreat passive getting stronger the more bandit structures you have surrounding the building synergizes with Bandit Launcher taking up a small patch of land, allowing you to clump a large number of them to boost up the power of this building.

 

Let me know what you think of these suggestions, and where you see some flaws in my judgement when assessing these particular cards. Thank you for reading this lengthy post.

[Asraiel]

nice effect idea

currently ongoing testing 

for balancing check out https://discord.gg/sTeSRFDeBg & https://skylords-reborn.fandom.com/wiki/Balancing#Iteration 3 (Live on Test Server)

 

if implementing a arsenal card i would also daa those for the other color typs so that every color combo has the benefit. adding also the twilight, stonekin and lost soul arsenal with the same effects or makeing it colorless (neutral)but with the addition that its not limited to 1 per map

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by Asraiel

[Darkroy]

Nice effort there! 

I generally like your ideas, especially the the new Arsenal card! However, I don't know if that would ever be technically possible to implement :/

 

As for the others - I remember that Sandstorme and Bandit Lancer were used in PvP back in the days, but they are currently not viable for PvE at all I guess. But changing them to 4.. idc, personally I liked the unit being solo - and if u want an army just play more of it

Rioters Retreat sounds also cool, even tho I like how it is now but would commit for that change :p

[LEBOVIN]

On 4/14/2021 at 10:47 PM, Asraiel said:

nice effect idea

currently ongoing testing 

for balancing check out https://discord.gg/sTeSRFDeBg & https://skylords-reborn.fandom.com/wiki/Balancing#Iteration 3 (Live on Test Server)

 

if implementing a arsenal card i would also daa those for the other color typs so that every color combo has the benefit. adding also the twilight, stonekin and lost soul arsenal with the same effects or makeing it colorless (neutral)but with the addition that its not limited to 1 per map

 

I reworked the page to be easier to understand, use this link now instead: https://skylords-reborn.fandom.com/wiki/Balancing#Current_Iteration