Ideas for underwhelming Cards - A 'short' List :)

[Xamos]

Hello fellow Skylords,

first off - I love how a lot cards already received so many good and interesting adjustments!
EDIT: Also, unfortunately I wasn´t able to keep up with discord the last couple of months. I noticed that there are discussions ongoing for cards I am going to mention (e.g. Lost Priest)
Nevertheless I´d like to share my personal Ideas because they are a bit different.

But balance is something that can probably never be fully achieved. In the meantime, I´d like to point out some cards (mostly units at first) which I feel got left behind in previous balance changes, or at least aspects of a card that got left behind like their rarity and usability.

There are quite a few cards that I myself find lacking the way they are right now and I was wondering if I´m the only one and thus should consider ignoring these facts or if someone else also thought about that already. This are things I just have in my mind and I´d like to take the opportunity of this forum to write them down so they bother me less because I don´t have to think about it anymore xD
And also because I have quite a few Ideas I´d like to share for them 💡

 NOTE: for Readability I tried to encolor the card names by their corresponding faction

 

There are 2 things about some cards that bother me besides being underwhelming: inconsistend orb requirements and inconsistend card rarities. Here are my Ideas how they should be adjusted in my opinion:

1. Card´s Orb Requirements: I love the new two-colored-orbs on cards like Treefiend, but there are many cards on which these new orbs would make a lot of sense in their orb-cost that got missed out. Especially because some orb-requirements have been changed recently (e.g. Volcano) or are new (looking at Twilight Slayers, Banzai Lord). 

Usually more play-restrictions would mean that the unit is better than more spashable cards, but that´s certainly not the case in this game.?! F.e. XL-Units ARE stronger than others but still LS and Bandit´s XL´s are splashable. WEIRD. And there is no clear line, which bothers me 😄 

Units:

• Lost Grigori, Lost Horror: you can play them at T3 while playing a T2 Stonekin- or Bandit-Deck before. Why? to me they look like core T3 LostSouls cards, why are they so spashable, while Nightshade Plant, Twilight Hag, Treefiend and Twilight Slayers are not??
  -> Speaking of which, I don´t really understand why Twilight Slayers on the other hand are so restricted. They don´t look like core Faction-cards to me and neither are strong.
• Souldhunter (and Corsair) Same questes comes up here - T3 XL Faction Units, that to me at least represent the Bandit-faction at T3. Corsair restricts itself by only affecting other Bandit-Units with its newly strenghened buff okay, but Soulhunter can also be used in any rainbow-deck which is weird.
• Banzai Lord: while it´s nice to be able to splash this card so much, it also makes the green affinity rather useless because you´ll almost always have better heal options available in your deck by just picking one nature orb. Also why does it get the same Orb-Requirements as another existing T4-Bandit unit, Bloodhorn?? 
  And why is Banzai Lord a Human? Yes I read in the discord somewhere that it "grew to ridiculous hights due to cannibalism, but that´s just werid to me. Why not make him a Demon like Overlord. Lore-wise he could have been a human that somehow transformed into a hugh demon, that´d make much more sense to me.
• Tortugun: This card probably needs a mini-rework (see idea below) to see more play but now that Bandit-T4 got Wasteland Terror as new faction-core T4 unit, it´d make sense to me to move this not-so-faction-related T4 to 3-bandit orbs instead of 4, to be able to have more variety. (Would open up the possibility to play it with second chance). Maybe change 2 orbs to mixed orbs, so it could be played with 3x fire or 3x shadow.

Spells: well i can understand arguments here that restricting these would not be appreciated by most players, but nevertheless I´d like to point them out here to have it off my mind.

• Stoneshell: is a pretty good card, which is why it should be more restrictive imo. Make use of the new mixed-orb here.
• Thunderstorm and Soulshatter: strong spells that imo is to splashable for its power. (Inferno and Frost Shard also need 2 faction-orbs. Where is the line?)
• Equilibrium and Regrowth: you need only 1 Nature orb to have access to the best heal-spells in the game? Make it 2 at least.

 

2. Unit Card rarities: There have always been some cards which just don´t fit into their rarity in my opinion - XL which are common. The size, uniqueness and complexity should influence the rarity, but I don´t have the feeling that it does for cards like Northland Drake.
--> Especially recently new changed/reworked cards, that got their rarity left behind. When considering factors like card complexity and unit size, that doest really make sense to me. Focusing on Units here because buildings are still being reworked and i have hopes that f.e. Stronghold will get stronger.

• Northland Drake: it always bothered me that there are just a few XL-Units that are plain common, and thus don´t feel like anything special. Northland Drake was particularly weak before his rework so it was somewhat justified (tho he is the only unit that can summon an ice-tornado), but NOW this card is very strong and should totally be an uncommon at least, if not even rare.
• Lost Dragon: same as drake - also got buffed and it basically was weird from the start that this one is common, and should also be uncommon at least, if not even rare. I mean is there any other unit ingame that can disable ranged attacked on-hit? Yes he is not the strongest and has super high orb requirements, but why not adjust the stats a bit more too?
• Lost Horror: a very strong unit in PvE, which has a unique 3-target multi-shot (g) and considering he is XL would also justify uncommon.
• Giant Wyrm: this is the one which I can accept the easiest, because he does not have an extra ability and is a starter card. But would also feel way better if this was uncommon. GiantWyrm´s strengh is his versatility becauso of the unrestricted orb-requirements - compare that to Skycatcher(ultrarare) and it makes me think that Giant Wyrm should at least be rare.
• Wasteland Terror: definetily feels like this one should be rare with that unique area-disentchant. Tho I can understand that it got released as an uncommon to be easier optainable. Not a reason to not change it now in my opinion.

Then there are spells which don´t 'fulfill' their rarity, but would need reworks to do so I think, like Twilight Warfare, Forest's Vim, Evocator's Woe, Gravity Surge.

--> Gravity Surge: being one of the weirdest for me, because all it does is packed within an rare unit that does it better. (Yes disentchant is similar, but there the green aff is at least unique)
💡My idea: make it affect not just one air unit, but multiple. Gravity Surge (p) could affect 6 (this one has the tough drawback of making affected units immune to ranged tho), Gravity Surge (b) 3.

 

Now onto the Units that feel too weak. Either too weak for their rarities or in general - I´d like to see a buff sometime, not a rarity change there. Sometimes a small Stat-increase could already do the trick, but some cards need small additional effects to fit their rarity.

• Satanael: This is a hard one. I don´t play this card often because I dont play pure shadow much. Maybe a damage increase would do the trick here. Or can this guy maybe get an active ability to mode-switch to melee? should have a much slower attack than Grigori then, but hit hard.
• Nox Carrier: ultrarare.... Why is this only considered as a pure PvP card? Why not make it do more damage against normal structures, less dmg against orbs&wells?? why no extra-dmg against walls in the way that it also destroys adjacent wall-segments? (its a ram after all) .. after the recent drastic changes at least the unit got cheaper, but still feels weak. 💡Another idea would be that it gaines increased speed if small units are nearby, in the way that they would push it 😄
• QueekQueek: got a little better recently, but it would be cool if this card had a implied retreating-circle ability to teleport a group of units into safety.
• Tortugun: the hunger bar makes it quite unplayable casually. 💡idea: make the hunger-bar decline slower and let a certain unit-type provide double of their actual healthpoints as hunger - f.e. Beasts (Yes that would encourage cannibalism a little xd). Beasts have more flesh on them anyway. This would encourage certain strategies/combinations.
• Fathom Lord: could use an additional ability, like all enemies around him are paralized 15% longer. He is rare after all.
• Gladiatrix[P]: While the green one can be used in PvP because she is fast an can keep up with SkyfireDrakes, the purple one just sucks. Please give her something! 💡My idea: [Tainted shield: Gladiatrix (p) takes 50% reduced damage from ranged attacks and spells, but after the unit receives damage she will loose 10hp every second for 5 seconds.] - some tankiness with the drawback of being a shadow affinity. second optional drawback could be that This damage can not be warded off by other effects - if it´d turn out to be too strong in combination with ice-shields or lifeWeaving. Also I think this would not be a problem for PvP because Skyfire Drake can just kite the slow Gladiatrix or fly away.
• Grove Spirit: Already got some small changes in the past but that neither justifies her rarity nor a deckslot. But I heard more changes are planned.
• Icefang Raptor: should be nice on paper, but in play he very much is still lackluster right? 💡 idea: [Frosty bite: When Icefang Raptor attacks a unit, the unit will be frozen by his cold bite for a short duration of ~1sec. Afterwards the unit is immune to freezing for ~8sec)
• Mountain Rowdy: is in a decent state, but I had the idea that this card could also receive a small change on his active ability and add the void-refund-ability that ShrineOfMartyrs has to it but in a weaker form. That would directly combo with a changed icefang-raptor who would freeze enmies on-hit.
• Skyelf Commander: Stat-increase pls (accompanied with higher cost). She´s a rare T4 unit after all. As a commander, she should buff all nearby (sky-)elfes! 💡Idea: Every elf within 30m receives 50% less damage and gains 20% increased movement speed!
• Skyelf Sage: Would like to see another usecase than her ability. Idea: if 4 or more elfes are around, the unit deals +30% dmg. (Btw. the change to XL-dmg was already nice, but not enought 🙂
• Skyelf Templar: also very one-sided card. 💡What if she´d heal every elf within 20m for ~4% of their max health every 3 sec?
• Virtuoso: also imo lackluster as a rare unit: 💡2 ideas that both involve his active ability: a) after being used, the sound cheers every other friendly (fire-)unit within 25m to deal 30% increased damage for 10sec. b) every enemy-unit hit by the ability wont be able to attack for ~6sec and afterwards is immune against this effect for 15sec.
• Twilight Creeper: also still a bit on the boring side considering he is rare. 💡idea: gains +40% movement speed for 10sec after he attacked.
• Warlock[R]: The other aff Warlock[B] got changed into a somewhat playable unit (at least on paper), BUT the red affinity got left behind. +15% damage increase is quite (Rogan simply this way better with +25% as passive so why bother using Warlock at all? and keep in mind rogan isnt actually strong either) and thus Warlock does Not justify the extra deckslot this card needs. 💡 Something like "buffed targets get +20%dmg AND +20% lifesteal" would be nice.
• Deathglider: Pretty weak and very situational. The initial buff by the team to change its knockback into a cone was good, but his stats are too weak. They are hardly better than from Mana Wing which is T1 and also 60power (Deathglider has +60hp compared to ManaWing, but thats it). I think both affinities should knock back S AND knock off walls and his active ability should be changed. 💡 Idea: [Blessed Infection: After Deathglider infected the target, every twilight-unit around 25m will receive 35%less dmg for 20sec.] [Gifted Infection: .. every enemy-unit around 25m will be poisoned and receives 15dmg every sec for 15sec (=225 in total).] -> Should be worth using, because the Deathglider dies in the process after all.
• Lost Priest: not that useful and I never see it in play (Lost Dancer is just better). 💡 idea: let his normal attacks disable the enemy´s attack for 0,5 sec. (like rogans ability, but on target and super short) so that if you have many of them you could disable bigger targets in PvE, like a pacifist priest 😄
  OR -> make Lost priest  T4, Increase all Stats, make his ability affect up to ~20 targets AND give him a new passive ability that every Lost Revenant's life time will stop to run out, like the t2 spell. (But this might interfere with the new planned "Lost Obelisk")
• Lost Warlord: different topic, and I heard that changes are planned anyways which is good.
• Energy Parasite: niche PvP-Only unit, would be cool if this card could get another use for PvE. 💡Could be something like: Every enemy that get´s attacked by the parasite can only attack at lower speed because it´s energy to fight is being drained. The more Energy-Parasites are around, the lower the atk-speed of their targets would get (this way it would be good in PvE but have only little implications for PvP). 

Spells:

• Dying Breed: another topic, idea would be that all units of the same type within 25m of the target get damage, the longer they are withing the circle the more damage they get.
• Global Warming: The last changes to make it cheaper (and smaller area) didn´t do the trick for me. The card is unplayable in PvE and can only be used in two very specific matchups in PvP - it´s a high risk to waste a deckslot on it just in case you play against pureFrost/FireFrost as pure fire. Actually it only makes sense to use it as a direct counter to AreaIceShield right?
  I´d like to see something like "all enemies in the affected area receive 30% additional damage, AND their iceshields get damaged a little".
  OR - I just had another Idea for Global Warming: Every friendly fire-unit in the area has an increased attack-speed! Could work like an inverted Frostbite(r) 
• Architect's Call: Quite bad card to be honest. Sounds interesting on paper, but the 20hp heal for the blue aff is super weak (it´s staight off better to repair buildings) and the purple aff isn´t that good either. Some Number changes could do the trick here.
• Earthern Gift: I heard changes are planned (Stonekin rework), just wanted to mention it.
• Gravity Surge: mentioned above in the rarity-department. I think it definitely should get the change to affect multiple targets, please.
•  Twilight Warfare, Forest's Vim, Evocator's Woe Already meantioned on the rarity section, but what are they good for? Does anyone ever use them? Need reworks right?

Building-related changes that have been done and are coming look good to me. (Only Cards like Altar of Nihil, Fleshbender, Willzapper,  are questionable in their existance).

 

I´d like to hear your opinion on the listed cards aswell:

• What do you guys think about the orb requirements? Should they not be changed at all? Or do you agree that it should be done - either like I suggested or different?
• What do you think about card rarities?
• What about the mentioned weak cards - do you use any of them and are you having fun with them the way they are?
• What do you think about my ideas?

 

 

Edited March 8, 2023 by Xamos

[Xamos]

I think Gladiatrix(p) hates me.

 

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Xamos

[Loriens]

So many completely different propositions. 

[Hrdina_Imperia]

Some interesting thoughts. Cannot say I agree with everything, but the orb changes (especially) for healing spells could be nice to see, as it would promote some more interesting and original decks. Also, other spells with healing capabilities would get more spotlight. At the same time, I can see this being reeaaaally unpopular. 

As for the rarities, I generally agree that at least some seem off-place. Ice Fang Raptor, Forest's Vim, etc are on my mind the msot. Though, I think it might be a bit controversial if the rarities of original cards were to be changed. Personally, I would support some changes in this regard, since some cards are currently, at least for me, just instant sell/reforge fodder. 

All in all, the most interesting discussion could be, if the healing spells, as the core faction utility, should be more restricted Orb wise. As well as some of the T3/T4 faction cards. 

[Xamos]

22 hours ago, Loriens said:

So many completely different propositions. 

😄 I know it´s a lot that I want to see changed slightly

But what do you mean by 'completele different propositions' ?

[Xamos]

1 hour ago, Hrdina_Imperia said:

Some interesting thoughts. Cannot say I agree with everything, but the orb changes (especially) for healing spells could be nice to see, as it would promote some more interesting and original decks. Also, other spells with healing capabilities would get more spotlight. At the same time, I can see this being reeaaaally unpopular. 

As for the rarities, I generally agree that at least some seem off-place. Ice Fang Raptor, Forest's Vim, etc are on my mind the msot. Though, I think it might be a bit controversial if the rarities of original cards were to be changed. Personally, I would support some changes in this regard, since some cards are currently, at least for me, just instant sell/reforge fodder. 

All in all, the most interesting discussion could be, if the healing spells, as the core faction utility, should be more restricted Orb wise. As well as some of the T3/T4 faction cards. 

Thx for the feedback. Would be interesting to know how the majority of the community would think about the change of healing-spells to be more orb-restricted.
But yeah, I can also see this being unpopular and can imagine people saying "if you don´t want to use one green orb for heal simply don´t and get creative. Well I already do so, maybe that change wouldn´t be welcomed by many.

Icefang Raptor is an interesting one, because this already got changed by the Skylords a few times. It didn´t have stampede before, nor the speed when ice-shielded. But I can´t help but still feel like the unit is nieche and weak. The stampede also feels weird to me, because the card´s model brothers Fire Stalker and Razorshard don´t have stampede, even tho they are fast all the time.
Like I said, some "freeze-on-hit" sounds super fun for me and would fit it´s name.

 

For Forest´s Vim there has been a nice idea on discord by Kapo a long while ago, that would completely change the card to a buff. The idea was to use it on a rooted unit, that then gets the support of all other friendly rooted units on the map and thus can be used aggresively f.e. in rPvE. Sounded super fun. I can imagine that this would even be technically possible because you could just add the ability of the new sylcan gate on a specific unit for the duration of the effect, but increase the range even further to like 400m to cover the map.

 

On what things do you disagree in particular? 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Xamos