Okay, so nearly every week there is a special exclusive weapon that is generally alright. Most of them are meh, occasionally you get something decent. And then occasionally you get a piece of garbage that after being made unobtainable is buffed to the point of being absolutely gamebreaking.
Divine protector is overpowered to a degree that even Dawnbringer doesn’t touch. It’s a weapon which can be cast in a single turn if you get a surge, given Ishbaala’s trait, and Divine Hero’s green enchant. On a divine team, where it will be used 100% of the time, it creates 30 gems; 15 of each of the two colors, and creating just 10 of a single color is a near guarantee for a 4-match or better.
One single match, then bam every troop on the enemy’s team is fully charged, one ally is weakened enough to trigger Ubastet’s auto kill AND the enemy gets a free turn to use Ubastet’s spell before the player can do anything about it. And to top it off, only people who happened to be playing the game for the week the weapon was available, and bought it in spite of it being trash at the time it was available are allowed to have it.
The only way this possibly makes even the slightest bit of sense would be as a social experiment. Like, are you trying to condition us that we need to purchase every weapon, every week no matter how pitiful the weapon is because “hey, we might decide to buff it into being the most powerful weapon in the entire game next week after it’s unobtainable. Better buy now so you don’t get curb stomped endlessly by the people who did get it.”
That is what really makes this weapon stand out as the worst part of the game though. The implications of a weapon being being buffed this much after being made unobtainable are astounding. At least with Dawn Bringer’s comparatively mild overpoweredness, you can see it is a goal to work towards long-term. But Divine Protector appears to exist purely as a reminder that if you don’t waste your gems on every single weapon every single week no matter how terrible the weapon is, you may be punished for not having it once it’s no longer available.
Not going to touch on whether this weapon is overpowered or just “very powerful because it buffs an already very powerful team,” but I do want to address this point:
Considering how many times the devs have reined in the strength of some of the most powerful troops shortly after they were introduced, they most certainly do not operate under the philosophy you predicate. If anything, an equally-cynical view of (say) Princess Fizzbang or the like might say, “What are they trying to do – get us to spend on powerful troops only to remove that power a week later?”
It is true that old weapons are weirdly scarce, though. As they’re monetized weekly, it’s unlikely there will be an easier way to obtain them as it risks losing that income.
It is a very good weapon, supported by the strong (base mythic flooded) trooptype it alligns with.
It is not gamebreaking imho, your numbers are off too, crappy spawns tipping the entire battle will happen sometimes, that is not exclusive to this weapon though.
As for the part @Lyya commented on, i do think the Devs did not aim for it but it actually did have the effect you describe. i know for me personally i won’t ever let another event weapon pass me by regardless of how useless it seems just for the offchance that it will be altered later on.
Your numbers are indeed off, as @gouki says. The weapon caps out at 24 gems spawned, in a random mix of red and yellow, not 15 of each as you say.
Personally I do think 24 gems is too many; I rarely see it misfire. 20 would still be strong. I think the weapon is a bit overpowered and it would be good for the game to tone it down slightly.
I don’t buy however the rest of your opening post conspiracy theory rant about forcing people to hack up gems. I do agree it would be equitable to make the weapon again available from time to time, in the forge or some kind of purchase - that goes for all weapons.
I wouldn’t call the timing of most nerfs “shortly after”. I’ve not been playing long enough to have witnessed all of the major troop meta dominations, but from what I had read, it does tend to be a trend that a troop will dominate the meta for months before being given a nerf. Uba is the most recent one, and also reigned supreme for months and overshadowed multiple new mythics before getting a slight nerf. The people who bought Uba certainly got their money’s worth out of it before the nerf hit. Fizzbang is already strong for a legendary, so I can see why she, specifically, may have gotten a swift nerf though.
I misread it then, sorry about that. Still, 12 of each color is well enough to guarantee a 4 match. 10 of a single color is enough to almost always get one.
It doesn’t matter if it’s 24 or 30. If you haven’t upgraded it to the +9 affix, it’s a very high-probability guaranteed free turn PLUS huge mana boost.
I’d say I think the devs thought more people would bite on the +9 upgrade and wreck it, but there was a thread this week specifically about the affix on Divine Protector and they seemed very confused that players would view this as negative at all.
We wouldn’t have a discussion at all about whether it was a problem if it wasn’t for the “Divine” part. They happen to already be the team most capable of assassinating entire teams in one go, so handing them free turns and mana boosts was irresponsibly bad for balance.
All in all I’m very unhappy with the weapon. The fully-upgraded version isn’t “bad”, but the +8 version is pretty nuts. And it’s especially chafing if you upgraded it to +9 because you didn’t believe it would be THAT bad.
As things goes being the worst things in this game: Have you even looked at the sinergy of some old kingdoms like Wild Plains? And have you ever looked at Arctic Fox art? Have you considered the design choices of some recent weapons and troops that, more often than not, makes no sense or are clearly underpowered?
I take it that regarding “pet peeves” it boils down into “to each their own”… But in a sense bad or flawed designs are a plague that breeds most frustration among players regarding metas and the game’s imbalances.
For example, you said:
Divine Protector and similar weapons were buffed equally, it’s not an isolated case of this single weapon being picked as the “golden carrot” to be chased… It just happens that all other weapons with similar effects (different colors and troop types) don’t have strong troops who work very well together.
So, is it Divine Protector the main problem or is it simply a consequence of bad design choices regarding the balance and distribution of powerfull effects/troops? I think it’s the later.
No, I have used this weapon in a full divine team in the past, and it have backfired me several times and given me instant losses. I don’t use the weapon anymore.
Why are you spreading misinformation? Because you can’t be cool without it?
I’m not spreading misinformation. Jarl Firemantle is notorious for being able to self loop effortlessly, and he only does 9 of each. 12 of each is 30% better than that.
Okay, now you’re well off the mark. Jarl is just notoriously bad and most here would say can only rarely loop itself, and only a few casts.
And your maths is just bad. 12 isn’t 30% more than 9, either as a simple percentage, or moreover as the combinatorics chance of getting an extra turn on the 8x8 board.
He sometimes happens to loop yes, and with lucky gem match patterns it can happen consecutively, but his notoriety for that is a thing from a time before changes to double colour spawns and Unity happened.
