I think a lot of the recent balance issues hearken back to the way the team bonuses work now. The bonuses are causing problems with the balance the cards had originally. Unfortunately it is a balance nightmare, because the card can’t be too weak when non-bonused but not too strong when bonused. Coupled with not knowing which bonuses someone might get makes things unimaginatively difficult I am sure.
To me, the problem stems from the size of the bonus. When you have cards doubling their base stats under bonus their original balance is lost. The skeletons are just another example of this same problem. To that end, a couple of suggestions to consider.
Decrease the static bonus
If the bonus were less then the comparitive alteration of a card’s base stats would be less. This would leave more of the original balancing intact. This would also make including your hero more attractive again. Currently giving up those bonuses is often just not worth it because they are so large. This however still results in lower power cards receiving disproportionate buffing from bonuses however. Static bonuses are simply “worth more” on lower power cards than higher ones respective to their normal balance.
Alter the static bonuses to percentile bonuses
If the bonuses were shifted to percentile bonuses then cards would benefit on a sliding scale from bonuses commensurate with their base power. Adding 50% attack power to a 4 attack card only yeilds +2 attack. However when applied to a 10 attack card it gains 5 attack. This would leave more of the original balancing in place as stats pumps would be directly tied to the original stats given leaving weaknesses still feeling like weaknesses and strengths feeling like strengths. Not that shifting the entire bonus system to a new concept is either easy or quick, but it does seem on paper to solve quite a few of the problems introduced with the bonuses.
I personally think either of these would help with a much heavier leaning towards the percentile option. You could do both by scaling back the expected final bonus when determining the percentiles, or you could do one or the other independently. Just a couple ideas to really get at what I see as the root of the issue. Card changes have been coming fast and furious since the drop of 107 with its bonuses. Many were based on previous issues that were able to be addressed, but I think the pattern is pretty clear that the ability to dramatically change a card’s “base” stats is changing how those cards function within the game system.
I love the bonuses and I love that they reward us for “choosing a faction” so to speak. I think the springboard they provide from a player mindset and lore standpoint are great. However, I worry about the effect they are having on the game and the community in their current form.
-Razlath