Balance Changes for 2.86

[Gondorian]

Hi, everyone!

I'm pleased to be able to announce balance changes that will hit in version 2.86. We hope you enjoy reading the list!

Please don't ask when that will go live (there are a few bugs Kyle is still working on fixing) - just focus on absorbing these changes and building lots more new decks ready for when 2.86 goes live!

Without further ado, here we are:


NERFS

Fates 028 Viska, the Scarlet Blade: Ability changed to “Haste. All combat damage dealt to Viska from heroes is reduced to 1.”

Fates 046 Rampant Krygon: Ability changed to “Haste. 1: Target other ally gains +1 base attack and is reduced by 1 health.” (from “Haste. 1: Target ally gains +1 base attack and is reduced by 1 health.”)

Fates 054 Brimstone Devourer: Ability changed to “When Brimstone Devourer is discarded from anywhere, the opposing ally with the lowest health takes 3 fire damage.” (from “When Brimstone Devourer is discarded from anywhere, the opposing hero or ally with the lowest health takes 3 fire damage.”)

Fates 112 Bloodpack Shaman: Ability changed to “When Bloodpack Shaman is summoned, the top Wulven ally in your graveyard with cost 3 or less is returned to your hand.” (from “When Bloodpack Shaman is summoned, target Wulven ally in your graveyard with cost 3 or less is returned to your hand.”)

Fates 178 Living Armor: Ability changed to “0SE: Target card in your hand is discarded: Living Armor becomes a readied Homunculus ally that deals electrical combat damage, with base attack equal to its durability and health equal to its defense.” (from “0SE: Target card in your hand is discarded: Living Armor becomes a readied Homunculus ally that deals electrical combat damage, with base attack equal to its defense and health equal to its durability.”)

Fates 199 Lythian Sledgehammer: Ability changed to “When your hero kills an opposing ally in combat, that ally is exiled and its controller takes 1 damage. Lythian Sledgehammer can't be targeted by its controller, and can't be destroyed unless its durability is 0.” (from “When your hero kills an opposing ally in combat, that ally is exiled and its controller takes 1 damage. Lythian Sledgehammer can't be destroyed unless its durability is 0.”)



BUFFS

Fates 007 Raikka Spellseeker: Ability changed to "3SE: Until the start of your next turn, friendly allies have +1 attack and fire combat damage, and opposing allies and enemy weapons have -1 attack" (from "3SE: Until the start of your next turn, friendly allies have +1 attack and they deal fire combat damage, and opposing allies have -1 attack."). (The rewording about their fire damage is just cosmetic to be simpler and save space.)

Fates 027 Templar Champion: Stats changed to 2/6 (from 3/5).

Fates 061 Lythian Shackles: Ability changed to “Exhaust your hero: attach to target opposing ally until the end of your next turn. That ally can't attack or activate abilities.” (from “Exhaust your hero: attach to target opposing ally until the end of its controller's next turn. That ally can't attack or activate abilities.”)

Fates 062 Crown of Ages: Ability changed to “When Crown of Ages is destroyed, the opposing ally with the lowest health takes 2 damage. 1: Target friendly Warrior or Ravager ally has +2 attack until the start of your next turn.” (from “When Crown of Ages is destroyed, the opposing ally with the lowest health takes 2 damage. 1: Target friendly Ravager ally has +2 attack until the start of your next turn.”)

Fates 073 Fatebreak Familiar: Ability changed to “When an opposing player summons an ability with cost 3 or less, that ability has no effect and Fatebreak Familiar is killed.” (from “When an opposing player summons an ability with cost 2 or less, that ability has no effect and Fatebreak Familiar is killed.”)

Fates 074 Amulet of Conjuring: Ability changed to” 1SE: Draw 3 cards and remove 1 of your resources from play.” (from “1SE: Draw 2 cards and remove 1 of your resources from play.”)

Fates 089 Snowland Spotter: Attack increased to 1 (from 0).

Fates 109 Anarchic Looting: Ability changed to “All items are destroyed. Draw a card.” (from “All items are destroyed.”)

Fates 110 Oliver Fagin: Stats changed to 1/7 (from 0/6). Also getting some new art!

Fates 142 Thriss Almanac: Ability changed to "Sustain: 1cc. Ravager allies have +2 attack. When Thriss Almanac is destroyed, all opposing allies take 2 damage." (from "Sustain: 1cc. Ravager allies have +1 attack. When Thriss Almanac is destroyed, all opposing allies take 2 damage.)

Fates 168 Necromancer’s Shroud: Ability changed to “2D: Target Undead ally in your graveyard with cost 3 or less is returned to play readied, and it is killed at the end of the turn.” (from “2D: Target Undead ally in your graveyard with cost 3 or less is returned to play readied, with 1 health, and killed at the end of the turn.”)

Fates 198 Flameforged Scepter: Damage type changed to fire (from sword). Ability changed to “1SE: Until the end of your turn, Flameforged Scepter has +1 attack, and opposing allies that take combat damage from it are set ablaze.” (from “1SE: Until the end of your turn, Flameforged Scepter has +1 attack and deals fire damage, and opposing allies that take combat damage from it are set ablaze.”)



REWORKS

Fates 003 Ythan Redthorn: Ability cost reduced to 3SE (from 4SE). Ability changed to “Target friendly hero or ally can attack 2 times this turn, and has ambush until the end of the turn.” (from “Target friendly ally can attack 2 times this turn, and has +1 attack and ambush until the end of the turn.”)

Fates 037 Rapacious Vermin: Tribe changed to Ravager (from Homunculus). Ability changed to “Sustain: 1HP. When Rapacious Vermin is summoned while an opposing player controls at least 3 items and/or abilities, target item controlled by that player is destroyed and Rapacious Vermin gains +2 base attack.” (from “Sustain: 1HP. When Rapacious Vermin is summoned while an opposing player controls at least 3 items and/or abilities, target item controlled by that player is destroyed and Rapacious Vermin gains +1 base attack and +1 health.”)

Fates 042 Cleric of the Asyn: Stats changed to 2/5 (from 3/4). Ability changed to “When an item or ability is targeted and destroyed, Cleric of the Asyn gains +2 base attack.” (from “When an item or ability is targeted and destroyed, Cleric of the Asyn gains +1 base attack and +1 health.”)

Fates 048 Grimghast: Damage type change to fire (from claw).

Fates 170 Pride of the Yari: Redesigned to “1D: Friendly Yari allies have +X attack until the end of the turn, where X is the number of Yari allies you control.” (from “1D: If an opposing player controls allies greater than or equal to the number you control, target Yari ally gains haste.”)

Fates 172 Cloak of Phasing: Replaced with “3cc - Flameforged Gauntlets - Mage/Hunter - 1def/4dur - 1D: If an opposing hero or ally was dealt fire damage this turn, draw a card."

Fates 191 Darkforged Knife: Cost reduced to 2 (from 4). Durability reduced to 2 (from 4).

Fates 195 Thoughtripper's Cutlass. Durability increased to 4 (from 3). Ability changed to "When your hero kills an opposing ally in combat, that ally's controller draws a card and discards a random card from their hand. While this weapon has at least 3 attack, cards discarded from opposing hands are placed in yours."



Feel free to discuss here or on threads for individual cards!

I will not be around over the next few days to answer reasons for the changes, due to doing a long drive from Spain back to the UK, but Mojumbo and Soothslyr will be here and folks from PFG3 will likely share some insights too.

[WrathOfCroft]

Whoa...totally trying to make Cutlass a thing? Kind of defeats the purpose of hand hate if you give them a card. But I kind if like the Flavor of Cutlass giving you the discarded card....we shall see...helps Serena at least

[maxi1230]

Wow that are some major changes.
I love some of them.
The card draw for Raikka and majiya is great. Love thoughtripper's Cutlass now. So cool!
Ythan could be worse now actually... the +1 attack was awesome witj bobcat and viska. Making it more spammable is interesting although.
New art for oliver? Yes!
Amulet of conjuring could actually be good now. Hmm...
Templar Champion needed that buff yes.
The nerf of Rampant and Devourer and LA was needed. Also there goes my Majiya deck.... :P
No more Hamber!
I can't wait for it!

[Pat Jay]

Awesome work guys. This all looks very promising

[Flamebringer]

Huh, some interesting things here.

I don't quite understand the Viska or Krygon changes - What was the reasoning behind that?
Brimstone and LA changes are... upsetting but understandable, haha.

To be honest, the only card I really thought needed a nerf at all was the Hammer.

[Pandevmonium]

All in all these changes should improve the current balance which is quite bad, good luck for anyone testing them

[tafkad]

Hey a lot of really nice looking changes, will be interesting to see the impact on game-play some of these will have. Great work so far guys and thanks for all the effort.

That said I have to say the new Raikka is no better in any way. Weapons were not the issue and this is just another weak situational ability "buff" if you can call it that (yay I can take 1 less damage from a weapon attack for 1 turn at 3SE but the turn after back to full damage). Put her head to head with Ythan's new change and see what I mean. He has gone to being able to allow himself to swing twice as well now, double Soul Seeker attacks or any other weapon, as well as allowing an ally to attack twice as before and both with ambush (his became useable when he is alone). Raikka needed a much better rework and I gotta say the new version is a total let-down in this area. Still no where as useable or strong as Skervoxs' ability either - she will continue to take a back seat to most. Yes I will play her, multiple variations, Undead Raikka, Haste Raikka, Whatever Raikka, but she will fall short in the big games. Why can't she set things on Fire instead of the -1 attack? fire could kill things and really help, -1 is just prolonging her weak stance and is Identical to Book of Curses and Grimghast which is fine for them but for her? sad :[ Her situational ability requires either: allies in play (not easy in SE) Haste guys (limited) or purely a desperate defense action against opposing allies and weapons now - all weak at best and keep in mind I like Raikka a lot.

[jacelkos]

That's a lot to absorb :-)

Quick question on the hammer nerf: does it mean that Reserve Weapon won't be able to target the Hammer in the graveyard?

[Mukuzin]

I wonder what result will come out if buffed cutluss makes tenacious buccaneer discarded.

Is it summoned on the owner's side or sent to opponent's hand?

[Fionn Maccumhail]

"This turn" for Flameforged gauntlets would only be for the current owning players turn I take it (for clarity).