tl;dr: There’s no simple solution here.
There are many viable end-game invade teams that don’t utilize any of the “power seven” or whatever you want to call it. If that’s not reflected in the numbers, it is because people are simply copy/pasting other people’s successful invade teams (or defense teams) and calling it a day. That’s on them to change, not on @Sirrian and company.
On defense, the issue lies directly with the fact that a few troops are designed with traits and/or spells that are hard for the AI to mess up.
- Mab freezes automatically when the AI gets 4-5 matches. Her spell targets everyone and if the AI is lucky enough to have enough gems free, gives her a free turn.
- Maw grows automatically on skull hits. His spell is usually devastating no matter what random target the AI picks.
- Mercy “wins” a 4-5 gem match often enough, even if fired randomly. If she doesn’t, then she’s at least given Maw an edge.
- Gorgotha just is.
- Bone Dragon freezes when he’s hit (automatically). His spell doesn’t require careful target selection most of the time and will usually spam enough skulls for an extra turn.
- Famine reduces enemy stats automatically. If he manages to fill up, he drains mana from everything indiscrimantly and will probably kill whatever target he picks (the first time anyway).
- Valkyrie, at least when paired with Mab, can pick whatever color she likes (she doesn’t meaningfully rob anyone of another color except herself, and that’s not a huge problem). She’s also cheap to fill.
Endgame players pick these troops because of their fail-safe nature. The only way to “balance” these troops on defense is to neuter them so much that they don’t see competitive play on offense either, which isn’t fair, because there are many troops that are just as powerful as these troops when their targets are picked with care by a human player.
I don’t see how the devs can win here. What you want is more variety on defense; after all, who cares what other people are invading with? It doesn’t affect your enjoyment. The only viable paths I can see are:
-
Buff the enemy AI
While this could make many other troops viable on defense (converters, targeted removers/destroyers, spells with targets being selected with foresight), it’s a sgnificant investment in resources, and will ultimately serve to make people maaaad at losing more games. -
Introduce more autopilot-friendly defense troops
More choices are good, and a few new troops here and there that can be operated by the AI without too much chance of failure and are potent enough to be used at endgame would be welcome. However, this just expands the number of viable endgame defense troops by one or two, and doesn’t address the crux of the problem. -
“Balance” the autopilot-friendly troops so they are easier for the AI to mess up
How? And that just means an even higher win rate for a player base that is already winning 95% of its matches.
Do you see other alternatives?