Serena in [SF]

[Acatacka]

Hi Gondorian,

I would be interested to hear why Serena's play style is regarded as negative and not to be encouraged, except as a niche hero?

We all try to get card advantage as a win strategy, mostly by boosting our own draw. Is it negative to use Serena's ability to gain card advantage?

Baduruu resource denial decks work by using cobra skin wrap and here be monsters to deny an opponent of resources. Is resource denial so different to card denial? Baduruu being buffed in DP was a celebrated success.

As one of the original heroes with a loyal following, I believe Serena deserves a boost and should not get left behind.

[BlackAngel]

Until recently I was on the same boat as the rest of you. Wasn't having any luck with Serena on my current builds and then a guild mate of mind was play testing me with his new Serena deck and was kicking my butt. Don't know if you have notice but AP competitive decks have been doing quite well in recent tournaments and he beating the majority of them with his Serena deck. It all boils down to knowing the right card combinations. Not for sure if this Serena deck is actually good enough to win tournaments or not since have not tried to do so but only time will tell. In my opinion Serena but be a more difficult hero to play but she's not as bad as you guys might think.

[feljurcross]

I was always amaze of Serena since I started playing SE, She never fail to amuse me and I still worship Her as a Goddess..

I know with all this cards from SF, its kinda hard to catch up but that's what makes the game balance, thinks of the new cards addition that we can use for Serena, for me its alot better now that we have cutlass. It amplifies the discard and having to have your opponent discard atleast 2 out of 3 turns really is a big difference.

I would day cutlass and viska are the only 2 SF cards i got. Also added 2 from DP and those are FFM and night owl and the rest are the basic. I even kept Retreat! On my least that in some match ups, its still ensure the victory when your opponent stars playing one card and cant discard no more for not having card in hand, retreat opponent's ally then force a discard. Really basic. :-)

I would say that the Goddess is still the same Goddess that I worship and I love playing with Her more than any other Heroes..

Let us not loose hope guys..

[bobrossw]

I think he meant "negative" in the way that players react to it. Mill, resource destruction, hand destruction and stall decks all have the potential to really annoy other players because they make for one-sided unsatisfying (and sometimes long) games, where one player feels like they don't get to do anything. For those of us who play those types of decks, we know that they each have their weaknesses, but you can go a whole game and never see those weaknesses in certain matchups. The Devs have to balance those styles so that they aren't obviously better than other decks (i.e. tier 1). How annoying would it be if Stalladar got a buff and became the flavor of the month deck, and to beat it you'd have to build specific counters into your deck, and also play skillfully and get lucky with certain heroes? The devs are (rightfully) treating Serena as a lesser version of that. I always play control style decks, but I definitely get more player hate when I'm winning with Serena than most other heroes (maybe when I used to play priest resource destruction back in call of the crystals). Since the goal is to make sure that the most people possible have fun (since it's a game) they also want those highly competitive play-styles to be both fun to play and fun to play against.

The whole reason I liked playing Serena in the first place was because it represents a challenge. If they buff her to the point of obvious advantage, the challenge goes away, and then I'm just annoying people, and I don't even feel like I've achieved anything when I win. That's not what I'm aiming for.

[Gondorian]

Hey, I just wanted to bump this to say thanks for all your feedback and that we have not given up on Serena for SF. We still have time for some balance changes to her help and we are considering some at the moment.

[snipnigth]

Hey, I just wanted to bump this to say thanks for all your feedback and that we have not given up on Serena for SF. We still have time for some balance changes to her help and we are considering some at the moment.

Much love for you and the design team gondorian <3

[Gondorian]

Much love for you and the design team gondorian <3

Back at you!

One thing I have been wondering is how many Serena players get the kick out of the cards opponent lost versus making opponents lose cards?

The former is all about the joy of seeing a poweful or relevant card that was in their hand to be played hitting the graveyard. The latter is more about taking away opponent's options and gaining card advantage. I have a bigger problem with the latter, and it's why I didn't really think we could afford to buff Serena, but I am hoping there are ways to cater for the former and raise Serena's competitive level at the same time.

If you can share your own preferences, that would be useful to us, since it's hard to know the split when her ability does both (as does the current Cutlass).

[Khamya9]

For me it is first about "antidraw". So someone gets a better draw engine going than I have, but Serena let's me slow them down. And, it also slows down the game, which I prefer.

Second, I do enjoy seeing a card they didn't use on me hit the graveyard. Especially if its mind control or similarly devastating.

"Ha ha I took your card" doesn't factor into it at all for me.

[bobrossw]

I'd say it's a bit of both. There's some security in getting the opponent to start top-decking, but there's certainly some satisfaction when they discard an important card (like vs another rogue when you play anklebreaker T5, and make them discard their stop thief). It also makes cards like retreat really worthwhile - since you can bounce a card and then force it to be discarded. Of course, since I don't know for sure what cards are in hand, I'm looking to achieve a lock on the board and a small hand, since that will most likely lead to victory.

I always check what card I got them to discard, and there's some satisfaction when it's a card that would have turned the game around. I also congratulate opponents who play Serena when they made me discard a card I needed...if you're suggesting cards that would preferentially discard certain specific types of cards (i.e. abilities, items, ally with highest health, etc.) I think it would be a very welcome to her playstyle. Anticipating opponent moves and playing the appropriate counter at the right time is great. Such cards would of course be less useful if the opponent were top-decking since they have at most one card in-hand.

Playing as rogue I've found myself jealous of that wulven scout card...if only I knew what was in their hand-and solid stats to boot!!

[bobrossw]

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