Am I alone in believing that death Mark is under performing? I’ve seen a lot of troops marked, but to date I haven’t ever seen a troop die from it, troops always seem to recover even after being afflicted for 6 whole turns.
I mostly attribute this to the first 2 turns where it cannot die, this seems a little out of balance as a troop can recover from the debuff during those turns. I was thinking that a buff to the debuff is in order and I was wondering what other people thought about it.
I have 2 ideas of my own that seem useable and would like some feedback as well.
1st: having the debuff healing chance not start until the after 2 turns, that way the troop can’t die the turn after being afflicted but also can’t heal before the debuff has a chance to trigger. There is a cumulative 10% chance to recover after the 2nd turn but only a flat chance to trigger after the 2nd turn.
2nd: have the deathmark have a chance to trigger starting on the very 1st turn it affects a troop, but at a smaller rate (I’m thinking a cumulative 5% chance that checks after the heal checks, this way there is always half the chance of it healing for the debuff to trigger)
I’ve seen it kill at times (Using Creeping Death ups your chances of seeing it )
I’ve be more in favour of option 1, as it would help troops with Doom as well. The second could work as well, but might be considered too random to have a chance to completely destroy a troop on a lucky chance in just 1 turn, meaning they have no chance to respond to it at all.
The 1st option I suggested still waits 2 turns but the troop doesn’t start the heal clock until that time (of course the game would roll to heal before rolling for the death trigger
I like both of these options. I’ve noticed it being somewhat negligible, but I have also gotten kills with it myself. Doom seems somewhat wasteful seeing as if you’re hitting them then they’re going to die soonish anyhow - admittedly less so for super tanks like Gorgotha or anything buffed up like Maw, Gloom, via Sunweaver, etc. What I still think is a more useful function of Death Mark is on Succubus, since she doesn’t actually bring them closer to dying in any other fashion.
While we’re here I would like to point out, once again, that the devs need to choose ‘Death Mark’ or ‘Deathmark’ and make that the text on all of them… my OCD is killing me.
None of the various spells that use Death Mark have been used enough by me for them to actually get a kill. It might also have to do with needing 2 turns to even have a chance at working, which is an eternity when you run converter or control decks. I have, however, seen it work a few times when I was testing out Wraith with Death Touch last week just doing some random kingdom based combinations (including a couple Great Maws). I’d love to see a Wraith summoner sometime down the line.
This is a fine line to walk, since “random, instant death” rarely spells fun for the player on the receiving end of it. Making it too prevalent (ie., as a match 4/5 trait) or kill earlier/ more reliably would just make cleanse even more desirable. Having it be part of a spell on a troop usable at mid to late game would be nice, though.
“Doom” is a horrendous trait and will likely always be so.
Can anyone help me? What type of troop does a weakest spell targets? How it is calculated? The one with the least HP or the one with the least Hp+armor combined? Never actually used such troops or at least I don’t remember… ;p
Deathmark is actually potent enough as it is. As an Arena only player, I can tell you that having half my line-up dies because of one cast (I’m mostly thinking of Death Breath, but even the Succubus has her moments) is pretty infuriating. Yes, most of the time it will be cleansed before it triggers, otherwise you might as well have a “kill now” card with no counter. It’s working just fine the way it is, buffing it would probably just make it OP.
Heh that’s fine, I’m guessing it was a translation thing I’ve used Creeping Death a lot lately, but I don’t think I’ve seen both Death Marks go off from one cast But I agree, it does hurt a lot to lose a troop to Death Mark, since it is so spikey in terms of chance, and it’s totally binary. You lose the troop or you don’t. So the balance line for it is extremely thin.
EDIT: Just checked the French xml file and it looks like the French name for Creeping Death is “Souffle de la Mort” and google translate tells me that Souffle is Breath, so yeah. I actually like Death Breath (or Breath of Death) better than Creeping Death
Yeah, I used to play in English but since I switched to French only these last few weeks, I sometimes gets the names wrong. @LegendMaker didn’t switch and our game discussions are becoming confusing… >_<
As for the Deathmark, I’ve had two of my units die at once, a couple of times actually. It’s a bit unnerving when that happens, even if it’s rare. The way the effect works at the moment is ok. You take a gamble on whether a unit is going to die, regardless of its stats. Either you lose or that unit goes straight to hell. It’s risky, there’s no guarantee, but when it works it’s a huge game changer. I have had my hero with full life and armour die almost straight away, it always feels unfair. On the other hand, the vast majority of the time the effect can be totally ignored, so the overall way the spell works feels fine to me. It’s a gamble but there is a lot to win if you do.
To be fair though, most effects are just very harsh on Arena players. Burning is most of the time a death sentence for the burnt unit - and it feels like tickling for pvp players. Poison is very powerful in the Arena - and is a small hindrance in PvP. Deathmark is very potent, Hunter’s mark can enable you to one-host almost anyone, and Barrier or Cleanse are excellent. So I’m never looking forward to discussions about buffing effects, because when your units have a small life/armour pool, the stakes are not on the same scale.
)
I’ve used Creeping Death a lot lately, but I don’t think I’ve seen both Death Marks go off from one cast 
But I agree, it does hurt a lot to lose a troop to Death Mark, since it is so spikey in terms of chance, and it’s totally binary. You lose the troop or you don’t. So the balance line for it is extremely thin.