Shadow Mage Rework - Balance Changes

[RadicalX 625]

Greetings! Since the 5-power nerf to shadow mage, we have been watching closely the PvP meta to determine if further balancing is required. Unfortunately, we have decided NOT to reverse the power cost of shadow mage. Instead, we will further double it, to a power cost of 110. This opens up a large rework concept I want to present you today. Eirias was so nice to make a short video showcasing all changes to give you a proper impression about what you can expect here. 

Here is a short summary: To compensate for this major change, we are adding three new abilities.

1. Teleport. This is a buff aimed at PvE usecase, to potentially replace nether warp. In PvP, nether warp is still necessary for quick defense, and nether warp will remain a staple of speedrunning decks. However, we felt that regular PvE usage would benefit from a large buff to offset the new power cost.

2. Time stop. This is a new cc ability for shadow mage, which is similar to knight of chaos, except that time stop also affects buildings and prevents units from moving. Time stop is particularly targeted to nerf to oppressive stonekin tower play. New tools for other factions will roll out in the coming months.

3. Death mark. This ability is used for the shadow mage to enable favorable trades, especially against targets that run away. It is also an indirect nerf to the currently-oppressive frost t3s, which cannot simply disenchant to get rid of death mark. Finally, we are pleased to announce that shadow mage will also be our next promo. Although there has been contention that a promo shadow mage would break the game's balance, we felt that it would be an interesting tradeoff to allow a player to have access to twice as many shadow mage charges, at the cost of losing a t3 slot.

We also felt that we should honor the original developers' intentions, which was to offer shadow mage as the next promo card. If you want to see any of these exciting new abilities in action, check out Eirias's video! There is also a booster code hidden in the description.

[Volin 507]

Nice try...

...not

"There is also a booster code hidden in the description." -> I can't find it, if somebody does please give a further hint

Edited April 1, 2022 by Volin

[Reverend830 7]

Come on Volin, dont blow it that fast xD

At the first two points I was actually - hm sounds OP but maybe...

But the third one well ... ^^

[Volin 507]

🤐

[Kapo 945]

I think it is too weak, I would suggest that the Death Mark should be a 50m AoE-effect killing every enemy around it (while keeping the unlimited number of uses of course).

Edited April 1, 2022 by Kapo

[LEBOVIN 284]

I wanted that time stop ability ever since the orignal video^^

[Kapo 945]

Just now, LEBOVIN said:

I wanted that time stop ability ever since the orignal video^^

Btw if you make that time stop a global effect, wouldnt that be the much needed Pause-Button? 😄

[Majora 1332]

13 hours ago, Kapo said:

Btw if you make that time stop a global effect, wouldnt that be the much needed Pause-Button? 😄

Releasing the pause button as a card would be the ultimate troll move haha

[Kapo 945]

4 minutes ago, Majora said:

Releasing the pause button as a card would be the ultimate troll move haha

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