My analysis of the new hero abilities, new cards and changes
EDIT: my final analysis (posted 10/31/11) of 1.28 heroes are on bottom of page 12 http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....changes/page12
SOOO, after extensive one day testing (haha, i know, right) here is my evaluation so far. overall, the new cards benefit shadow, thats a good thing. helps to even things out. dual wield was a surprise... as was Loganand Moonstalker. Boris
HUMAN HEROES:
BORIS: no brainer, already the dominate hero, even more dominate with ability upgrade and the change to dual wield. he lost nothing and gain a bit. still T1
AMBER: can only get +2 to attack every three turns. bonus is gone when weapon is destroyed. DOES stack with new dual wield... and berserker's edge still gains its bonus. she is still playable until they fix the non-stacking bonus then play Boris
GWEN: is less playable. has to choose between ability and beetle demon bows help. gravedigger is no longer a help either if you want the bonus. damage bonus is only one turn. im thinking gwen is nerfed.
VICTOR: (i thought victor was playable before just needed better card pool but then im not an aggro player) somewhat more playable, still more defensive style. repeating "into the forest" or "poison arrow" is OK. does make aimed shot more playable as a card BUT makes guardian bow even less played, if thats possible. he is somewhat more playable now. (HUGE AI BUG. victor can use his ability on your hero)
NISHAVEN: is the same. cant tell if new cards make him more playable except "poor quality", which WILL help him and Eladwen
FROSTMIRE: ability now affects opposing hero. add that with "poor quality" and she is much stronger. more playable than before. possibly a T1.5 hero now.
JERICHO: nowhere near as strong against warriors as before. 2 healing doesnt make up for that. no benefit from poor quality. much less playable than before. maybe nerfed.
ZHANNA: is the same with allies included. doesnt benefit much from any new cards. playability is only slightly better.
LANCE: basically the same, just every 4 turns instead of every 2... just add in haste. haste doesnt remove exhaustion only allows a unit just cast to to attack, like kris. slight benefit from "poor quality" and maybe even "honored dead" but not likely. basically, still the same, still just a rush hero.
SERENA: she is ruined. her abiliy only works once on a weapon (and you can accidently waste it when you have no weapon). next turn its gone. definate nerf to serena. was playable before, just needed a second weapon. now she is done.
SHADOW HEROES:
TER ADUN: his ability stayed the same. the nerf to shriek doesnt affect him doesnt affect him at all (and benefits him as much as human warriors). the dual wield is a great benefit, huge even. i see more berserker ter's coming as well. with war banner, blood lust and pleasure from pain with dark ascendant... equal big OUCH factor. im moving ter adun upto a T1.5 hero with the new cards to his pool. unlikely he can challenge boris, but who know, might replace boris as number one.
LOGAN: im a little mixed with him. his ability is good, very good. basically the same as boris, with killing any ally, yes, he needs a weapon but he is a warrior, they have plenty. PLUS the added benefit of Logan
BADURUU: its nice to be able to put a bow into play at no resource cost and have it +1 but its too expensive at 5se. (and i think there is a glitch, the bow didnt lose durability when baduruu was being attacked, can someone lese confirm this?) his new ability, like gwen's and victor's makes using certain cards nearly useless. you HAVE to choose using his ability instead of using SE cost on other cards like BdB, gravedigger's, etc. so you either have a useless hero ability or you can completely benefit from those cards. my personal opinion of Baduruu
MAJIYA: im sorry to say, after trying her out. she is gone. no one is going to play her. too complex anf too difficult to get the card advantage, very distracting and takes to much game play to accoplish. add in that trying to get the benefit from her ability distracts you from doing something you might be better off doing (burning or attacking this ally so you can attack and kill it with maj, instead of hitting the hero or taking out 2 or 3 units), add in the upgrage to Frostmire and she is over. im seeing most mage players who love Maj moving to Frostmire. she is dead.
GRAVEBONE: my take on his ability has changed a bit. he great strength was how fast he can recycle his allies. throw in portal and he is a very tough opponent. he new ability is very very slow. BUT it does have an advantage. putting into play a PB, SK or Bella at no cost is tremendous. add in portal and one use of his ability could change and win the game. popping a PB right into play with portal and having the resources to use him... and maybe another PB you had in play... 12 damage, boom. add in shadow font for faster recovery and im leaning towards upgrade at the moment, even maybe T1.5 ill wait to see more battles with him to be sure. i also need to test bringing allies into play, the only one i have been able to test properly is SK. he was buried under a snake, i brought him into play with gravebones ability and the snake came to my hand, and he could attack because of a portal already in play, so it looks good.
BANEBOW: he stays the same but does benefit from the new shadow cards. look for more rush decks from him (and most shadow decks im guessing). he might take the spot that gwen is holding at the moment of best hunter. i think he is more playable than before. new cards are an upgrade for him and all shadow. nerf to shriek is gonna hurt them all but ter adun but overall its good.
DARKCLAW: im not liking his new ability. it might be good in the late game when he gets 2 attacks but its still only once every 4 turns. his half damage is now, no damage once every 4 turns. thats a downgrade. so the only positive is the damage bonus of +2 which is bad at 4se and only usalbe for 1 turn. although... out of all the shadow heroes, i think he will benefit the most from shadow font. pleasure from pain/dark ascendant COULD be good for all shadow decks (except for shard decks), we will have to see. so, with shadow font... he might be better, i dont know for sure, we will see, but im leaning towards downgrade for him.
MOONSTALKER: Hmmm... this is most definately an upgrade for him with adding in the allies. might be damn near OP with shadow font. they can still have spells used against them but they can also attack and you cant attack them. im thinking big up swing in moonstalker play. possible T1.5 hero
ELEMENTALIS: i dont really want to talk about this one. testing her out and everything i thought is true. once every 3 turns you can give 1 of your allies a permanent +1/+3. with all the ways to kill/cripple/incapacitate/return to hand options, this is ability is pretty much negated. (was briefly fun using this on a dark flayer and a gargoyle). does work after shard is cast. it does stack with life infusion (i had a 2/13 brute running around and then a 3/10 spark). and is negated by a shard being cast after the ability is used. that being said, it is only minimally useful in a weenie rush deck which would be better to use with zaladar. she is dead.
ZALADAR: his ability is unchanged. he doesnt benefit as much from the pleasure to pain/dark ascendant as much as he already can use shard of power. cant use shard and dark ascendant together. suffers greatly from the lose of shriek BUT greatly benefits from shadow font. so im leaning towards a slight improvement, but then, he was already T1.5 right?
dead heroes:
Amber
Gwen (mostly)
Jericho
Serena
Gravebone
Majiya
Elementalis
watch out for these heroes:
Frostmire
Ter Adun
Logan
Moonstalker
Baduruu
Darkclaw
Victor <--- added 10/22
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