Stronghold - Upcoming Changes

[WindHunter]

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.

[JarodDempsey]

the inability of frost buildings to passively knock mediums by t3 is a major oversight, could this be added to the small cannons?

Also just to reiterate one of my comments from the deep dive, having strongholds power scale on missing health is really dumb considering frost has 2 healer units and at least one spell to heal structures by that tier. From the direction armored has been pushed into, it looks like players are supposed to let it get melted then shield it but really this just ends up being a really clunky way to ignore all of the structure healing mechanics that should provide synergy.

[poisonapple95]

Love the changes and think this perfectly fits what stronghold should be. I understand that a change to the skyelfs are coming soon as well. I hope that they will be able to work well with these changes in mind.

[Dallarian]

The change sounds pretty epic.

Stronghold never felt powerful, hopefully with this change it will. The active ability is a great compromise between giving it long range or being sniped by enemy siege units, and the new passive....

As a Frost player I am very happy to put my PvP knowledge into practice and see how long I can keep the Stronghold alive. While obligarating everything around.

Perfect

[Eazay]

Ok lets crunch some numbers.

In theory it takes 5625 damage to fully destroy this building, while potentially dealing 738 single target damage every 4 seconds to 2 targets and 492 to a third target. While 1500 HP make it seem like it only reaches its' maximum damage capability while on the verge of collapse, the damage reduction buff it receives during this time makes it so that it will deal max damage during the last 40% of the damage needed to take it down (Assuming constant DPS), which makes it the longest lasting phase out of all 3 phases.

This seems kinda insane to me for 200 power if it is not locked behind 3 frost orbs. World Breaker Gun is 2 frost orbs and it is already the most popular T4 building, the fact that a deck can run 2 frost orbs and have access to these 2 monstrosities is sort of OP. WBG is t4 so its fine, but this is essentially a smaller WBG that can also damage air and is tankier, and cheaper.

A deck that runs 2 frost orbs, and 2 others, will potentially have access to the best 2 defensive buildings while also being able to use gemeye, bloodhorn, wyrm, lost spirit ship, etc etc. for a solid offense. Colors should not have their strongest cards readily available like that.

Edited March 2, 2022 by Eazay

[Hrdina_Imperia]

I always loved this tower, and it always felt quite weak. Really happy with the changes.