I know the poison buff is coming and i am late to the party, but…
What if in addition to the damage, poisoned Troop lost 1 mana per turn?
Think about it. Not too strong, but definitely something annoying, since a poisoned troop would never be able to cast it’s spell unless it filled up on the same turn!
You wouldn’t be able to sit on a full tank and wait for the right moment.
It would be, i think, just strong enough that you’d want to avoid or cure it, instead of just laughing as the poison tics tics at your 70 HP “oh no, i’ll die in 150 turns!”
Yeah, with over 300 troops, its hard to see all the possible interactions. Sometimes, someone makes a suggestion without seeing how it totally breaks the game.
I’ve always though poison damage should scale based on Magic. NOT in a 1:1 ratio, but perhaps 2:1, keeping the same 50/50 Mechanic that makes it unique. All the Poison troops Magic stat would need to be reviewed obviously. This allows it to scale properly, its identical for early game and increases late game but doesn’t get crazy good.
Yes, it would fit disease.
But for disease, i’d just start by making it stick like poison (permanent unless cleansed). I think just that would make it super powerful and thus viable for meta.
@Venar that actually sounds super crazy, but on the other hand, just as crazy to be perfectly logically viable.
As of now, the only troops with Disease worth mentioning are Venbarak and Plague… And Plague is somewhat weak as of being a mythic and Venbarak hasn’t been mentioned, ever. No one’s going to choose it compared to Mab or Psion. So a completely viable buff. Back to poison, though.
I believe the best ideas that fit thematically are poison stacking. Since fire damage deals 3 every turn but cleanses… Poison that could be stacked with Webspinner 8 times per single turn, looping, is not fun. That is out of question. @Tacet 's idea of reapplication just dealing 1 bonus true damage… Feels underpowered in return and only worth mentioning for Webspinner.
What if the poison lowered healing received by … 25%? 50%? That would definitely give poison a unique role. It’s a pretty common context from lots of games.
One issue with the whole “-1 Mana per turn” thing.
Say I’ve got my Mercy ready to be cast on my next turn, she’s suddenly stricken with an ailment.
My turn: Mercy loses 1 mana and can no longer cast without a blue/green 4-match on the board.
This goes on for 4 turns when the ailment cleanses itself, and then a spell statuses her again.
50% chance at 1 damage when troops had 10 health was ok, but up to 10 damage when they have 60+ health is OP? Maybe, but the cap of 10 i threw out there could be lower if 10 is too much. And as for the looping webspinner, the opponent has to get a turn before the poison can even tick. poison lowering healing would be a waste of the devs time mostly because no one is using healers. Debuffing something people don’t use is kind of pointless.
I am liking this idea of drain on disease though. If you are worried about not being able to cast without a 4+ match, Enchant is already in game and a viable counterplay. -1 from the disease, +2 for the enchant. so if you built to counter, you could still cast.
The thing is - you do not get to play competitive at level 5 where troops have 10 HP.
… You cannot really compare the two, since they are very different. And yes, those numbers at level 1 are kind of powerful. But nobody cares because you are no longer able to get back to them after 5 days of game-play.
If the poison is able to stack - that would be fine, I’d say. But I’d definitely suggest a cumulative 10% chance to cleanse as all other debuffs, that way. If you build the whole team around stacking up poisons turn by turn, refreshing it - you could be rewarded by 10 true damage ticks - which is fine - you built around it. However, if this status effect NEVER ENDS - that is just way too unfriendly.
Also, Draakulis says hi, to “never used” heal mechanics.
And -1mana is concerned - enchant is extremely limited to 4 troops. Krystenax (self), Enchantress - random, Pony and Bard - both weak and slow.
-1 mana per turn is a toxic design, be it for poison or disease. As already mentioned, it prevents you from cleansing - which is supposed to be it’s counter.
[offtopic] If you want to buff disease, give it 50% chance to lower magic by 1 each turn.
Could make certain types of troops be affected by it more. Say humans take 3 or 4 damage, some take 1 or 2, and naga, or spiders could gain life when poisoned. Same with burning. Undead should take more damage when on fire. And dragons maybe take less, and some that use fire get bonus life? Just something to make it different
