Famine badly needs a nerf

Gameplay Chat (PC/Mobile)
101

The devs have to look into Famine because it is a frustrating Troop.
Remember, it’s good business to keep the game healthy, and that includes getting new players , and retaining them.

As vets, we know how to fight it, we have good, well trait troops to counter it.
But have you coached new players? Have you tried to get friends to play GoW?
If they join a guild, they will face Famine. And they have no chance against it. Double Famine is impossible to beat, and, mostly , frustrating for any players until he gets his troops, kingdoms and traits up.
That takes a while, and they won’t stay for the long road if they keep getting beat up by a Troop that does not let them play.
Losing to a cool combo, or heavy damage, or varied fights is ok, you learn stuff and you get better.
Losing because you just don’t play, to that one Troop that is always there is just maddening.

I brought 7 person to the game. Only 2 remains, the others have left because they figured that it would be too long and too much investment to stand their ground.
Losing is part of the game. But frustration, that is any game’s enemy.

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102

Yes I’m GL in bracket 1 on ps4 and we’ve shown folks how to try and counter him with mana draining troops etc but that’s not my point. My point was short and to the point! I’ll reiterate it, he’s the most powerful mythic and should cost the most.

There’s a lot of troops to counter but the ai cascades on console make things very difficult. I was watching tacet bait his pc ai with skulls and that simply does not work. Famine casts as soon as possible on ps4 unlike the pc version.
The ai is far better to play against on console despite the cascading crap that comes with it, that works both ways obviously, but it’s a pretty different kettle of fish to what the pc mobile crowd are up against.

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103

the problem i see is that ai has the tendency to fill famine first even he is in the last slot with somebody blocking his mana. as if he know i don’t want that.

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104

I don’t see any new players complaining about Famine. Those who are complaining mostly are veterans. If we talk about new players, they will also struggle to fight any other troops, not just Famines. I remember when I was newbie here, I lose way more often when I fought 3 trophy battle even if it was not against powerhouses cards, even against Goblins. If your friends decided to not play again, that’s their choice, not Famine’s fault.

Thing is, people tend to forgot that they win far more often than lose, even when they fought Famine(s). And when they lose, they tend to complain to nerf that troop. Famine is one of the very few troops in game that’s excellent on defense. Is he annoying to fight against? Yes. Is he overpowered? No. Why no one ever complained about Gard? In term of damage he’s more powerful than Famine. Because he’s sucks on defense but excellent on offense.

105

I disagree then. It’s not about losing, it’s about frustration.
Sounds like semantics, but it’s really important.
At one point in my life, i had a job that was related to the tabletop gaming industries, and we were testing a lot of games, PvP and Coop alike.
One thing that i learned is that the actual psychological origins of fun is actually playing. And so, any designer should be very careful about any mechanics that prevent a player from playing (skipping turns, losing ressources, losing cards, etc…)
I remember we were testing a coop game that was fun, but the lead design guy had trouble with the last boss fight. Somehow the game was fun, escaladed well, but for the last, big fight, testers ended up frustrated.

We discovered that in a attempt to increase the last challenge difficulty, he gave the boss some preventing abilities: making players discard, making player lose turns, making player lose ressources, etc…
So, we gave him some pointers and instead he just buffed the resistance of the monster, and the damage output. The fight was more frantic, with big damage, using healing, and shield, and it was a lot more exciting then : i can’t do nothing this turn, again…

Down the line, it’s really just psychology, but, most players will prefer casting a 4 damage fireball each turn on a 40 HP monster then casting a 10 damage fireball every 4 turns even if it takes the exact same time.

I’m rambling so much.
My point is, game mechanics that just removes a player’s ability to “play” (silence, insta-kill, mana drain, etc) should be very very carefully watched, because they are awesome to throw but frustrating to receive, and i think AoE mana drain on a 3 colour troop is not, and never will be a good idea.

I guess only the last sentence really matter, sorry, i tend to get passionate about “fun” and game designs. Old D&D veterans will understand :wink:

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106

Fixed it for you. That’s me, always helpful.

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107

Famine with a 22 mana cost, 3 colours and the right banner can be up in a couple of turns and drains your entire team and possibly killing a troop and with jinx it’s hard to get anything up before his first cast and after his first turn when you have taken all the colours you badly need off the board it isn’t even possible sometimes. Using Gorgotha against Famine helps because he can explode almost the whole board and can sometimes fill up a drainer or silencer but with Famines third trait taking away 3 skill points every turn usually by the time you can cast Gorgotha he doesn’t have enough magic to explode enough.

Death can take out your whole team within a few turns off one cast but with 24 mana cost and no jinx it isn’t usually too hard to get something up first to deal with him. Having impervious or warded or a bit of luck Death can be useless.

Elemaugrim can loop enough to take out your entire team in a single turn but with a 25 mana cost it’s the same as Death he can be dealt with easy enough. Without extras turns he is just a worse version of Krystenax.

Pharos-Ra can one shot everything but with him needing souls and a 24 mana cost he is pretty easily dealt with.

A lot of mythics can one shot your troops but with no drain you should still have something up or close to it to keep the match going and even if all your troops are empty without jinx it isn’t too hard to get something up before they can get another mythic powered up.

Fighting Famine is not fun and at level 1000 he is everywhere. In GW bracket 1 and 2 you are fighting Famine everyday usually at least twice. GW is boring and frustrating because of him and I don’t even want to do it anymore.

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108

:sunglasses:

640×1136 471 KB

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109

Good to see Famine getting +25% this week.

:rofl:

110

Why are people so insistent on fighting Famine with Mystics? He’s specifically built to punish high mana cost troops. There are several drainers and snipers below 12 mana that you can fill and cast to keep him in check- Manticore in particular is still nice against him.

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111

Cockatrice

112

If you want to drain him and then give him all his mana back then sure :laughing:

113

Laughter? How strange. Aaaaanyway…
When I used it above gorgotha he refilled himself and part of gorgo too. Yea occasionally he’ll miss but as a cheap drainer he’s pretty good.
In a difficult week on console last week it was a pretty decent troop in a brown team against OP mechs and bombots.

114

I’m going to be perfectly honest and raw in my opinion here. Please, nobody be hurt as this is just my opinion and it is not aimed at anybody.

The only reason anybody loses to Famine is because they didn’t play/build/etc correctly and that INCLUDES MYSELF so I’m not talking sh__ here lol

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115

With all due respect krudler you’re a pc player, as a level 1081 player in bracket 1 on ps4 I have plenty of experience in playing the game and building decks. Outrageous cascades and different ai means he’s indeed a right proper bastard!

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116

The “magic cascade” claim holds no water and never has. No evidence has ever been shown. The video people are passing around as “proof” is nothing of the kind and actually deeply undermines the claim. I’ve asked for an example on multiple, multiple occasions and none has been delivered. Others have asked for this in different ways; I won’t iterate them as these simple requests have never been satisfied.

The different AI, well I can’t comment as I don’t play console as much as I would like to have that experience.

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117

Sorry Dan, I didn’t mean to come across as harsh in my previous comment. I want to edit it but I don’t want to soften it. I do feel an apology toward you is in order though. I can see that so much of my unspoken frustration came out there and I guess you were the target, again I’m really sorry and you don’t deserve it.

118

Don’t worry about it mate, we’re both entitled to our opinion and although I don’t play the mobile version much anymore I do have experience of it, but I do play the PS version every day so I’ve actually played both so I feel like I’m in a good position to comment.
Let’s see what happens if you get our ai and ridiculous cascades, which ARE a thing.
No offence taken by the way.

119

First off this isn’t a PC vs. Console thing. I don’t want to be right… I want to know the facts. Big difference in case anybody is questioning my motives for making these comments.

Just because something is talked about a lot doesn’t mean it’s a THING it just means it’s a TOPIC.

I do respect the experiential aspect of what you’re saying. It is hard to debate that one can ‘feel’ any subtle change after playing as much as you and I have. I feel a lot in the game. The day I had my freakout I was feeling lots.

But all I am saying is just give me a credible example. One. Just one. Not an anecdote, a credible example that shows this mysterious thing people are claiming exists. I’ve been asking for 6 months.

Why hasn’t anybody taken a video considering how passionate console people are on the subject?

For any topic, on any forum in the world, but especially here the second you suggest something that isn’t factual the counter-proof mounts rapidly. Where is for this? Seriously? Think about it.

Will SOMEBODY step up and get the glory for documenting this? Or is it time to face facts and accept that it’s not real or the video would have been live the first time I suggested that this isn’t really happening?

I would love to have a console, believe me. I put my money into my existing PC and that’s just what it is.

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120

That little video ryuu did that stan shared showed the freakish behaviour to a tee, the fact is I had to get help from stan with a broken rowanne video I’d accidentally recorded via the record function! So I’m the most useless person to ask for videos!
That video shows up what is we have to put up with pretty much every few games.
AI match three and you can see him fill all 4 troops after that after 5 or more freaky drops, L shapes, T shapes of single colours or skulls will fall. You’re down to the last troop, you yourself have your last one too, but it’s OK because you’ve got three times as much hp as he has and you’re only a skull match or cast away from winning… Oh, he matched three yellows then three skulls dropped in three times in a row and killed you. Get used to it, it’s coming!
I’m not turning it into a console vs PC mobile but you told me why famine wasn’t a massive issue, and I told you why he is!
That’s it really.
Regards
Daniel

2 Likes