Your Thoughts on Balancing

[Gondorian]

The Design Team are considering buffs and nerfs to existing cards as top priority, so set 1 can be finished.

We could end up making no changes or we could end up with fifteen. Ideally, there will be very few nerfs and mostly buffs, and no complete reworks, but we can't promise anything.

So, in the spirit of community engagement, I'd like to know, if you were us, what would your top 5 card changes be, if any?

Please respond in this format:

1. Dirk Saber - Cost dropped to 2
2. Brutal Minotaur - Health increased to 6

Please put your justifications beneath your list.

I will personally review each suggestion. I cannot speak for other design team members.

Please do not discuss each others suggestions on this thread. If you like an idea, include it in your post. If you don't like an idea, don't mention that card.

Let the suggestions commence!

EDIT: I reserve the right to remove irrelevant posts here, for the sake of Design Team efficiency.

[Xander Spitfire]

1. Erika Shadowhunter. - Switch from 4/3 to 3/4

should be able to survive more often without being OP.

2. Raven + Anklebreaker + Marshland sentinel's ability - Same effect as crippling blow.

In all fairness they should all have the same effect. One way or another.

3. Assasin Training. - it should be an ability you can activate or not.

You should be able to wear off weapon or not if you want.

4. Bettle demon bow. - reduce SE cost or use ressource for activation instead.

4 SE is way too expensive.

[Drakkon]

Dark Flayer - Attack changed to 3.

His ability is really good. But he dies to every other turn 2, except Blake. He also is very weak against pokes. Cool ability. Bad ally.

Hellsteed - Attack change to 1. Health changed to 1. Change text to say "other than hellsteed."

We tried his ability at +2. It was slightly over powered. We tried his ability at 1. Needless to say... Very lackluster.

Here Be Monsters/Sandra Trueblade - Revert previous changes.

We aren't in 30 card formats any more. There are a lot more new allies. It isn't a race to play Aeon or Plasma Behemoth and win anymore. Let make Resource Destruction viable again.

Pack Alpha - Make this an ally.

I don't care how it's done. Make it an ally. Why is the pack's alpha an item? I'm really lost by this. Maybe this can help fangs out.

Blake Windrunner - Health raised to 2.

This is pretty much because he was needlessly nerfed. Why can turn 1 cards wreck a turn 2? Because there was an error in Nerfing him. Just like before. More cards means he won't dominate.

[ZakDyyaz]

[QUOTE=Drakkon;135861]Pack Alpha - Make this an ally.

I don't care how it's done. Make it an ally. Why is the pack's alpha an item? I'm really lost by this. Maybe this can help fangs out.
QUOTE]

This is the only one i disagree with, keep it the same, it has a home in several decks and is a good card, currently in the incompleat set there are 2 wolven allies thats 8 cards that this can attach to and im sure other allies will come out. I dont belive any card needs a nerf or buff currently apart from the whole rogue class anyway lol. Thats my thoughts on the subject

[sweetgab]

I agree with the Dirk (cost 3->2) and the Brutal Minotaur (6/5 -> 6/6), as well as the Beetle Demon Bow (reduce SE cost). BDB was used extensively in 1.26 because Gwen had no use of SE back then. Right now it's kind of hard to believe anyone would spend 4 SE for that effect - Shadow Energy simply matters more now.

3. Honored Dead (cost 4->3): Calmdown mentioned this change before, and having better lifegain effects will solve much of the issue with Eladwen right now. Most lifegain effects we have right now (Mugged!, Crimson Vest, etc) simply don't make the cut. Every class needs something so they can combat burn spells, and Honored Dead as a Human ability has the advantage of being available to ten of the heroes.

4. Ill-Gotten Gains (cost 5->3) This card seems like the draw engine for Rogues, except that many times it won't even draw you a single card (since you're behind and your stuff gets killed, not theirs). Rogues are supposed to be fast, they stab their enemy before they can react. And with each kill, they get loot which further increases their resource, and their deck strategy thrives on this kind of momentum. Reducing the cost to 3 will make it much more relevant early game (when Rogues still get stuff to kill), and frankly this card is just very underpowered right now. But it seems like it could be much more, even central to its class's strategy.

5. Blood Frenzy (cost 2->3). It's the only card in 1.26 - 1.29 that seems to offer such disproportional advantage for so little cost. Yes, losing 1 life a turn is a big deal against mages. But against the majority of classes (that is, anyone other than mages), an advantage of five cards is often so insurmountable that 5 life hardly justifies as a cost. If it was me, I would test it out at 3 cost - this will make the card slightly less powerful, since it will now have to compete with the powerful 3-drop allies on T3. Along with the introduction of attachment removal, I believe this will make it a bit less of a relentless card advantage machine that it is right now.

[Maldazar]

I think most cards are fine, indeed some are (very) underused, but I believe lots of them have potencial for the future, to be combined with new cards. As the ideia are as less changes as possible, I kept my ideas of changes to the minimal:

1. Logan - Ability changed to 4 cost AND +1 bonus removed (making Sandworms/Gargoyles/Reinforced Armor move viable counters)
2. Serena - Ability changed to '4: Your weapons gain +2 attack until the end of your NEXT turn. If Serena DOES damages, opponent discards a card at random.'. This would make her a lot more viable, she could help killing allies AND she would be 'kind of' protected her for one turn (or the guy will lose more cards)
3. Jericho - Change ability back to what it was OR change ability to cost 5, discard ALL attached cards in game OR lower cost to 3 and lower healing effect to 1.

Thats it.

[Pretty Pretty Princess]

1. Dirk Saber - Health changed to 4. Shadow has Medusil and Thaddeus who have the same effect (essentially) with 4 health. Humans need more useuful 3cc allies. Shadow has 6, currently humans have 2.

2. Brutal Minotaur. Remove its ability. The card isn't good enough to merit a disadvantage to the controlling player.

3. Sandra/HBM - they should cause both players to lose 1 resource. There can be some intricate strategies coupling this effect with cards like Cobra Skin Wraps or Plague, while keeping the game balanced.

4. Crippling Blow - revert to the old ability (i.e. Raven's wording) or increase the cost to 3 to keep stride with Captured Prey.

5. Mages - Yes, I know you said cards, but there's a glaring imbalance regarding the class as a whole. Mages have both more numerous and more cost effective direct damage abilities than any other class. It should be one or the other, not both. Especially considering the other potent control and special effect cards in their arsenal. It's no surprise that Mages have remained in the upper echelons of gameplay for the past 6 or 7 updates.
Raise Fireball's cost to 4 and lower Arcane Burst's cost to 3 (for parity with Ice Storm).

Something else should be done about Supernova, but I'm unsure what.

[Sisyphos]

1. Wooden Staff – Lower durability to 2 and change effect to:
Your hero takes 1 less damage from attacks and may not attack when wooden staff is in play.

2. Dirk Saber – Give him ambush & defender.

3. Darkclaw – Change to:
3 se: Until the start of your next turn your weapons have +2 attack and Darkclaw has ambush.

4. Net Trap – Increase duration by 1 turn.

5. Fangs of the Predator - +1 attack, -1 durability



1. It's currently a weapon you can't attack with and that has nothing going for it in exchange. With the proposed change it would make a damage difference of 4 (prevents & deals 2) which seems just right for a 3cc weapon and still account for the staff's defensive nature.

2. Going first Dirk could attack a 3/4 3cc ally and after that not be removed by it (due to defender). Going second he'd at least do 2 damage when attacked (comparable to deathbone, though that one can retaliate against direct damage and kill abilities as well). Dirk wouldn't be as strong as a 3-drop gets, but playable.

3. Darkclaw is currently not one of the best heroes, but as more ways of gaining SE are introduced he will get closer and closer to 100% invincible and that puts an unnecessarily huge restraint on card designs. As an ambusher DC could still be played solo, but would have to make sure that the board doesn't get out of hand.

4. Clinging webs has already gotten that buff and is now playable.

5. An epic 6cc weapon that deals 4x2 damage with a mediocre side-effect doesn't seem right. 3x3 is more like it.



Runners-up:

Careful Planning – Up casting cost by 1 and change to:
You can view the top card of your deck. If it's a weapon or a trap, you can put it in your hand for 1 se.
(Took it off my top 5 because i like CodeD's suggestion (next page) even better.)

Violet Thunderstorm – Increase retaliation damage by 1

Here be Monsters – Drop cost to 2.

Brutal Minotaur – Increase health by 1.

Campfire stories - Change to:
All of your allies gain (not: heal) +1 health. Draw a card.

Cover of Night – Drop cost to 3

Lay Low – Drop cost to 2

Old Iron Dagger – Drop cost to 2

Jericho – Change to:
4SE: Remove target attachment. Choose a target that takes damage equal to that effect's cost.

Crippling Blow – Revert it. (Used to lower target ally's base attack to 0.)

[Scion]

1) Replace Sandra's and HBM resource destruction with shadow energy destruction ie When Sandra comes into play enemy hero loses 1 shadow energy.

2) Increase Net Trap's cost to 3. Add to it's ability for each turn that the trapped ally remains exhausted draw an additional card at the beginning of your turn.

3) Careful Planing. You can view the top card of your deck. If it's a trap you can play it for free.

4) Make Dirk resistant to spell damage.

5) Increase Violet Thunderstorm's damage by 1 as Sisyphos already proposed.

[TripleHBK]

1) Nightshade - raise hp by 1 or make it cost 1 or give him haste too.
Right now, it dies too easily and in too many ways to be considered a valuable 2cc ally

2) IGG - reduce cost to 3 or 4.
For how good it is, it's not the best draw engine ever. Of course it can replenish your hand of cards in certain situations, but 5cc is really too much. Oh, and make it an ability, 'cause it's really hard to figure it as an item.

3) Stop, Thief - reduce cost.
No matter what. If the new item destruction card will be the spoilered one, it will be an insult for rogues. This is a class card, so it should be better than a neutral one which does the same thing.

4) Lay Low - reduce cost and allow the player to destroy it when wanted for 1 or 2 resources.
I already proposed that in another thread, I'll stick to that suggestion.

5) Serena - Make her ability last until the start of her next turn or lower its cots by 1SE.
Confront her ability with other weapon based ones and tell me if it's really worth 4SE.

Those are the first 5 I had, and of course they are all for my favorite class. When time will come for other suggestions I'll think about other classes too.
Anyway: it's simply GREAT to see the new design team interacting so much with the community.