1.0.9 - Known Issues

No, that’s not it. The reason the other guy appears as Undead while you don’t appear as Archer must be because… they have unlocked their third perk (Unlife - 50 Victories), whereas you haven’t unlocked yours yet (Elf’s Friend- 50 Victories)? However, Perks don’t work in the Arena (I never had +2 Magic or +8 Life even when I selected them, for instance), so I believe this is just a display thing (like Traits showing up on troops before you launch an Arena battle, but not actually working).

What actually happens is that Hero Class color-based magic bonuses to weapons do work in the Arena. All of them. This has already been reported in this here thread and elsewhere, by yours truly and others, but the devs have not yet confirmed whether this is a technical issue or it’s working as intended.

I’m hoping they will respond eventually, and also that it is a bug, because this is completely crushing the Arena meta right now. Just pick an AOE weapon matching your class, and congrats, you take a very easy win, as long as you fire your gazillion damage to all enemies before they do the same (most often with Burning Scythe, indeed, the player pool being so imaginative and strong at resisting the temptation to abuse the flavor of the week)… No fun.

In the meantime, your Archer can abuse this too and join the current Arena meta, if you only picked a weapon with Green, since this is the bonus you get. Obviously, your “+5 magic when using Green weapons” won’t apply to the Red & Purple Burning Scythe…

And the second guy has 1 more Magic than the first one because he’s a Mythic Hero, and Heroes get +1 Magic at level 500.

I unlocked Archer and changed just to test this, in the middle of my Crescendo Arena run, since I happened to have picked Necro as my first Hero Class to level, so far, I had doubts after your post ^^. Tssk tssk.

Now let’s compare what the text tells me (whichever Class or lack thereof I happen to have) when I look at Crescendo in the Arena’s (still über impractical in 1.09, by the way) pick-your-weapon menu:

With what I actually get as a Necro (notice I too am still just a “Hero” in text, but with the subtle Khetar icon in the bottom-right corner :wink: you don’t need to have the 3rd perk glitched into being displayed to get this bonus):

And… what I also get as an Archer (Forest of Thorns icon, still “just a Hero”):

And it works with any weapon as long as you match the color with your class’ bonus, see?

On second thought, I take that part back. I hope it’s not a bug, I no longer believe it’s game-breaking at all, and I might have jumped to conclusions too soon reporting it as such.

The color-based magic bonus to weapons from Hero Classes is the only part of the 1.0.9 Hero rework we’re getting in the Arena, after all, and we did expect the Hero to become much stronger with this patch. Without this boost, it would still be the 1.08 Arena, only with some added and changed troops, and more status effects. The Hero would still be one troop among others, instead of the powerful leader it used to be back when troops were capped at level 10. Yes, this turns the meta on its head quite a bit, but isn’t this what a big patch should always do?

It takes some getting used to, but it’s definitely not for the worse. Sure, weaker players will jump on the most obvious easy advantage they can get out of it at first, and so should they. Let them spam their boosted Burning Scythes to their hearts’ content. After a few runs and a serious reconsideration of my strategy, I’m already beating that trick fairly consistently; it’s just the new Imperial Jewel, basically. Bring it on! I am not afraid. Actually, I’m having a blast. =)

Sorry for the tl;dr Arena analysis. I should save this for a guide. More importantly, sorry for being the one to cry wolf this time around! ^^ Please keep up the great work.

I hope it is a bug to be fixed. It kills one of the most fun aspects of the Arena - drafting a combination of troops you normally would not use and making the team work. Heroes getting the +magic completely trivializes that when combined with the high level AOE weapons. They hit for around half of a regular troop’s health and hit the whole team.

The hero is still powerful in Arena without the bonus. It has higher attack/armor/life than regular troops and has the flexibility of swapping weapons to a different color not covered by the drafted team.

I don’t play arena, so don’t have strong views or emotions on this one…

…but just thinking about it, yes the Hero becomes stronger, but for PVP and the late game, not for Arena…

All the traits, buffs etc from 108, and team bonuses from 107, all affect PVP and the late game, not Arena…

So to me it looks like @grrarg is right - heroes with a magic gain and AoE weapon will trivialise the Arena battles…

No, you still have this aspect, it just evolved. You’re still thinking your draft with a 1.08 mindset, which leads to frustration (I’ve been there, as seen a few posts above ^^). Free your mind from your 1.08 habits and embrace the new meta! You will find that there are still as many subtleties and intricacies to a successful draft and run as ever (arguably more than ever, even, since the troop and weapon pools are so huge now). You just need to build your team around your Hero, since the Hero is back to being the driving force it used to be before 1.08. If you keep your focus on balancing the three other troops and then pick your Hero’s weapon accordingly, as a supplement, you’ll have a much weaker draft most of the time.

Yes and no. Ever since troops were bumped from Level 10 to 15, the Hero has retained better overall stats than almost any given Arena troop, yes, but not by a huge margin, and multiple troops beat it in one or two areas. The Druid’s spell is better than any weapon’s spell (without the new class bonus). The Berserker is tankier (and eventually hits much stronger with skulls as well). Multiple troops hit harder by default (or just as hard, if you’re Level 1,000 and your Hero has 9 attack). So in the 1.08 Arena, the Hero was one troop among others, like I said. More often than not, the best one, or at least one of the top two of the team, but hardly ever the powerhouse it used to be up to 1.07, when the others could barely muster 6 attack at best, and their spells did around the same damage wise.

This brings back a Hero-focused meta, as expected. It’s not a bad thing, it’s a nice change of pace once you consider the new, bigger picture.

Also, many troops were changed, for better and for worse, and some very neat new ones were introduced. Your Wolf Knight hits for 11 True Damage now! Your Musketeer hits for 8, still at a bargain 2 regular moves mana cost! Every other troop gives you a now-deadly Burning or Poison effect! This is not the place for a moderate Hero. This is a place for a STRONG Hero.

Incorrect. That was my first analysis as well, but I was utterly wrong. If anything, this will widen the gap between the top Arena players and the kind of guys who take Imperial Jewel no matter what and still put their Hero in the first position. There’s so much more to the Magic boost than “be a Necro with Burning Scythe and kill everyone”, now that I’ve given it some thought. I’ve just had a no-loss 8-wins run with Crescendo as an Archer. Now I’m well on my way to a third no-loss 8-wins run with Slay Bells and I can’t wait to try Yasmine’s Chalice! Among many others. In all of these runs, I faced a truckload of lazy, uninspired drafters who had the 11-12 damage Burning Scythe or the 17-18 damage Imperial Jewel, and no oomph! beyond that. A few of them even fired their weapons a couple of times before I killed them dead. It was fun! =)

No, it was always announced that the Hero would become stronger for the Arena too. Trust me, that’s something I followed closely. We just didn’t know what we would get exactly. Again, since this specific buff is the only one to have appeared in the Arena, I’m now convinced that this was always part of the plan and I don’t think it’s a bug at all. It makes sense, too, as it’s focused on your weapon choice, which is the most crucial aspect of the Hero in the Arena.

If the devs eventually remove this, either because it turns out to have been a bug all along, or due to our hasty wolf-crying (mine first and foremost, once again, and I’m still blushing for it), I’ll be very disappointed.

New patch, new meta! Enjoy! =)

Looks like it is unintended.

Sirrian: “* hero class does not apply in the arena… Unfortunately it just
dominates the entire game if we allow it (sorry arena folks), but I
think the wins still count towards the weapon unlock”

from this patch preview post:

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No, there is no need to even look at your picks anymore. I’ve played maybe 10 full arena runs and at least twice I just clicked the cards before I even saw them.
What you do is put your hero as far down as possible without getting mana blocked. Then ignore every other color, even skulls, to fill your hero weapon.
When you have cast it twice you have won

I seriously think this needs changing, 7 damage to all and a random burn+disease would be powerful enough

Absolutely agreed, basically just get whatever you can to boost your hero mana and just shoot your AoE over and over. You get a stat that is completely overpowered compared to other stats and to other troops.

@grrarg Okay, then, this settles that. Thanks for retrieving the info. If it’s indeed unintended, then it’s a bit odd the devs missed all the posts on this so far, though. ^^ Enjoy it while it last, I guess (or dread it, whichever the case might be for each of us).

You still need to counter the opponent’s weapon, though, as well as any powerful troop they might have which could neutralize your Hero. Otherwise, it’s just a race to who will cast their double AOE first, which leaves a lot to RNG, especially if you do as you say and don’t give any thought to your picks.

I found it interesting to come up with the best/quickest/most reliable counter to this global burst when it comes from the other side. Of course, as far as having it on our own side is concerned, there’s no question if you run with it, you’re at a great advantage, especially when you happen to face a standard line-up that doesn’t have a Hero Class bonus (which is currently maybe 1 opponent out of 3, roughly).

Edit: oops, @grrarg beat me to it, didn’t catch his post at first. So just disregard this post

No actually it was explicitly stated that the classes should have no baring whatsoever in arena, cause it would dominate the arena. The exact opposite of what you are claiming was literally announced by the Devs when they previewed hero classes.
And with good reason so, cause the magic bonus absolutely does what the Devs were concerned about in the first place.

And by “new meta” in arena you mean everyone must exploit that obvious unintended behaviour of the class magic bonus or be at significant odds to win games, than this is clearly a very unhealthy “meta” for the game.

digged out the Sirrian Quote from the Hero classes preview thread

Didn’t try the arena lately but the pics kinda keep me away too. If all it takes 2 shots from scythe to annihilate the opposition there’s not much game I see. Maybe the way would be to restrict weapon use in arena banning some OP ones only there. The hero’s magic may not be the root of the problem.

Alternative to ban would be cost alteration.

Also, everyone lower/newer who doesn’t have access to the really nice AoE weapons is bust in Arena as is.
The best AoE weapon they can use is Scythe of Corruption with a purple based class… Which doesn’t compare at all to the crescendo’s, burning scythes etc.

This warps Arena too far, fix it!

Calm your knickers, Burning Scythe’s a mastery unlock as it is. So unless lower levels are being paired up against level 150+ opponent’s (with all mastery focused in Red/Purple) then that weapon’s not an issue.

Crescendo I understand. Though it’s still rather tolerable damage unless you let it power itself up one too many times. That extra turn though, powerful stuff on an AoE weapon. Is nice.

On a different note from the Arena, weren’t global chat channels 990-999 supposed to be totally silent? I’m on 990 right now, and I’m getting notifications about some person completing Arena runs, drawing legendaries, and ascending troops.

I think there is a summoning problem. Dokkalfar should summon gigant spider on 15 lvl (high lvl dokkalfar plus bonuses), but summoned spider has 5 atack and 6 def. its 1’lvl gigant spider or so. the same is, when I summon ghoul. this summoned “15 lvl” ghoul has 5 atack and 7 def. and its on different dificulty lvl. i’m not sure what happend. the kingdom bonus not count?

Is it normal that:
-as a level 15 Warlord (+15 red mana)
-with 12 red mana proficiency from hero leveling
-with 25 red mana bonus from cities
-with no red mana bonus from guild

I only get 37 red mana proficiency in my hero overview screen (missing the 15 bonus from warlord)?

Might also be missing in combat? This I can’t say, would only be a few percent.

See my question here:

@Nimhain Warlord I for the higher soul cap.

Not sure if mentioned already but the Sorcerer Daemon perk doesn’t seem to work with Daemon Bond. Team bonuses apply but not the trait from Webspinner to Hero.

I had a similar issue when using the dust devil. At the time, there were two enemy troops left. I used the dust devil, which killed one, but also moved both opponents around. The “dead” unit continued to haunt the opponent’s side of the board, but (fortunately) when I killed the other troop, the game ended properly.

Incidentally, I love the dust devil’s mechanic. Great idea!