There are some troop traits that work really well as buffs (positive status effects). We can get a whole new class of support troops that enable new uses for other troops. We already have Enchant and Barrier as really nice buffs. Imagine being able to cast Stoneskin on a troop that has high attack but is really fragile. Or you can cast Accuracy to allow a troop to deal True Damage on the next skull match. Or cast Regeneration to heal life every turn.
These buffs can be set to have a fixed duration or last until a set condition is met (until troop deals skull damage, until troop takes skull damage, etc.). With these, we can also have a new effect called Dispel, which will remove buffs on troops.
Intellectually I love the idea of buffs. Being able to have a spell give a trait-like effect to a troop.
However, the speed the matches go make them less impactful. If it takes 2 turns to charge a spell, a turn to cast the buff, and then another turn or two to use it (like a buff to make skull damage true damage), many matches are going to be over before you get much out of it. So you’d be better off just casting an AE or a board sweeper.
If matches were made longer (5-10 minutes instead of 2-3 minutes), and you needed more strategy, buffs would be very useful.
I think these are great ideas, but as Rasper pointed out the current amount of time a match lasts would make it less important or desirable to build around.
But… We are (sort of) always in need of more game modes that maybe will become the right place for those troops. If we assume that the configurable A.I, currently present on console, paired with the upcoming Guild’s War will change things around, then, we will have more matchs where these buffs will play nicely on both attacking and defending sides.
Keep working on your project, even if just for the sake of exercising your creativity, and let’s see how things will unfound in the next weeks.
A quick suggestion: Make the “Stoneskin Buff” or “True Skull damage” something that targets the first troops, this way the A.I won’t cast it incorrectly most of the time at least.
Yes I think you’re right. Maybe if we had something like an event boss every month which will be far stronger than any regular troop and will have different strengths and weaknesses (huge armor, immune to strip armor effects, but has more manageable life, or devastating AoE attack but takes a large amount of mana so that you can barrier all troops beforehand). Maybe they can introduce new Mythics with an overpowered boss version.
Dungeons with “Boss” fights would really be something. Like the existing kingdom challenges, but harder, and your troops carry over between matches, with longer fights and progressive rewards comparable to PVP.
Things like that would make buffs far more attractive.
Imagine a Krystara where you could go on a Mythic Hunt in each Kingdom!!
A series of battles ala Questline, at something along the lines of WL5-6 difficulty.
If you make it to the end, you face an Uber version of that Kingdom’s Mythic plus cronies.
If you win, you get draw from a special chest.
Rewards:
The Kingdom Mythic- 25%
5 Arcane #1 and 5 Arcane #2 (needed for Kingdom Mythic) 25%
3 Copies of a Kingdom Legendary and 3 of his/her Arcanes 50%
This would have to be really difficult to even have a chance of being implemented. And getting the kingdom Mythic would probably have to be dropped down to say … 10% or so. But really neat idea!
