I’ve heard about removing “Difficulty” selector. Will it also be removed from Explore, Arena, Casual PvP? What will be then? Hardened modes? Level 20 defenders in Explore?
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My guess would be Satyr Musician @Nimhain , he steals magic before doing his damage, despite the spell clearly stating it should be the other way around…
Very true, and I fully agree… NOBODY likes it when doomblade is cast with an extraturn and the gem created breaks it, I’ve stopped using it because of that, and my doomclub will stay at +6 until something is done about it 
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They will be removing the difficulty selectors, but not in the next update.
I get the feeling the devs don’t truly understand why this is a problem. Possibly because they don’t have the opportunity to play the game in a properly stressful mode such as Guild Wars or Delves (where every win matters).
Regardless of the reason, creating a Doomskull is not the only possible fix for Doomed Blade and Doomed Club. Other alternatives:
- Change the gem-creation algorithm so it won’t overwrite (Doom) Skulls. (Ideal, but difficult to recode.)
- Create a Skull. (Duh)
- Transform a gem from a fixed colour, rather than creating a gem. (Both solves the problem and is easy to code.) @Sirrian
I’m sure I could think of more, but I like the last one enough that I’m going to stop there.
Why is the last option good? It doesn’t create more Skulls, therefore not increasing the power of the weapon. It does something that is already possible within the game, so minimal coding. It gives you an extra gem of the colour, which was the whole point of the affix. And it doesn’t break Skull matches, thereby directly addressing the problem.
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I don’t see any reason why it would make either more OP than Doomed Crossbow. 
I specifically didn’t want to compare to other weapons. My aim here was first to look at other options, but in the end to find a way for the weapons to perform as intended without the unintentional (board-breaking) side-effect.
I’ve no idea if Doomed Crossbow is actually stronger or weaker than Doomed Blade, for example. Unless they’re otherwise identical in every way, there may be trade-offs (just like there were trade-offs between Skeleton Key and Plunder & Peril that might have argued against that nerf). Even the difference in colour could make a difference in objective power, because there’s less blocking or different thematic synergies in a different colour (for example).
What I’m saying is, I don’t know enough about it to even consider talking about balance. Just trying to repair a disastrous, unintentional side-effect. 
Well they cast exactly the same (just transform different colors)… The only difference is the affixes.
Doomed Crossbow changes a random gem to a Doomskull… So it never interrupts a combo.
1st one is a lot of work and doesn’t solve the other weapons that have create a gem on a mismatching weapon (Eternal Flame as 1 example)
Skulls can actually overwrite Doomskulls, so its not really an answer.
3rd one is a lot of work for something kinda… not ideal?
Create a gem should match the weapon (Eternal Flame should be creating a Red, not a yellow! Doomed Weapons shouldn’t create a color, it should create a Doomskull)
The easier solution is just replace it with anything that doesn’t interfere with the conversaion/gem creation, include something like 10% chance to gain a treasure map.
But I like the ideas…
Edit: Even if Create a gem gets solved, Destroy a gem issues still remain lol. Darkshot (a purple creating weapon destroying 3 purple gems lol) and Razorclaw (2 color creator for Urskaya allies that creates a doomskull?!.. and destroys 3 random gems) are two of the bigger offenders
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So the way it used to work, many moons ago, was it would not over ride when creating new. So for instance, when Forest Troll was used, and it doubles green, it would not over ride any green currently on the board, generally allowing for an almost green board. This was removed.
Because it was once in the game, it would be possible to re-add it for weapon affixes and them only if deemed to OP for actual troops.
I dont really care what the stats say, or anything like that in this regard, the loss of a 4+ match that was guaranteed, due to that upgrade, is 1 of the single most frustrating things in this game and something needs to be done about it ASAP. Just leave the affix blank, 0 cares about that, but remove it as I have lost multiple battles due to getting a 4+ skull match when casting it, and then the new gem spawning in the middle of it, causing the board to be full of doom skulls and no extra turn for me due to that stupid upgrade.
It is not an every match turn, but it is a problem that causes undue anger at the game, for effectively going, here you can win the match, NOPE JOKING HAHAHA. Its not fun, its not fair, and its a pain in the arse for everyone using it.
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I thought that it was mentioned at some point that the affix was going to be change to a simple gain +2 mana - so you get a tiny boost and don’t risk the board state
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I have the same feelings.
Devs stated several times that there are players who “like” it. It angers me too. Only new players who believe that every affix is an upgrade and don’t pay attention to the board, “like” create/destroy gem affixes. When the situation is explained to them and they see how these affixes lose the games for them they quickly change their minds.
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That was when a gem exploded at the end of the Affix which really screwed up combos.
Of course, in the long run, it should affect the AI and us equally…
Unless Reboot was a documentary all along, the AI doesn’t get frustrated when the RNG spoils its plans.
At least one dev (I think Sirrian himself) has gone on record before saying that he doesn’t want upgrades to be negative—they should always feel worth upgrading to get. The example given was a trait that made a troop deal and receive double damage, IIRC. That at least is predictable. The offending affixes are not only random, they are more likely to screw you over than to help you (there is a third, neutral, outcome on these, which I could discuss if requested). How this doesn’t fail the “shouldn’t be negative” test is beyond me.
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Of course, no. Only players cast these Doomed weapons at the right time when it would create 4- or 5-match and extra turn for them. AI is extremely dumb and will cast it anyway. With correct play, AI will cast Doomed weapons much rarer than a player and often it will be less effective because player can destroy 4- or 5- alignments before AI cast.
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Was there any word on making level 500 Delves viable for pure faction teams without buying into potions? Those 50% extra hoard stats from kingdom levels don’t look like they’ll help much.
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Any upcoming fixes to ingame chat? It is really frustrating having your messages disappear into void because it disconnects while you’re typing, as it is having to wrestle with the interface to get the client to reconnect.
lol I know this is just a wording issue and the problem probably was a crash caused in some way by VIP 20 but it also sounds like, “We conditionally fixed crashes for VIP 20 players, other players will continue to crash.” 
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I like to imagine that they prioritise bugs and then were in a meeting and realised, like $%!T we need to fix that thing that impacts VIP20 mofos being able to play our game cause mama wants a jumbo coffee on Monday
Thank you for the recaps @Lyrian!
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