So when I got Mane Courser last week, and saw it’s spell before I saw it’s traits, it got me thinking that it might actually be balanced it it was empowered. I was thinking more than just that though, that each kingdom could get such a troop. Now I know what you’re thinking, but hear me out. I know how good Leprechaun is, and I’m not talking about another Leprechaun, or anything even close to another Leprechaun.
I’m proposing that we leave Mane Courser’s spell exactly as it is.
“Explode 1 gem, boosted by Leonis Empire Allies.”
The 1 is white instead of purple. So it does not scale with magic. The boost ratio could even potentially be changed to x2. Again, I know what you are thinking! Just hear me out! Full kingdom teams are the most difficult to make work, and thus the kinds of teams that need the most help. The reason I am suggesting an empowered exploder for each kingdom that explodes either 5 or 9 gems, pending playtesting, is for things like Underspire, Raid, and World Events that are kingdom based. Generating mana for these events can often be a giant pain in the butt, particularly in the Underspire where you don’t have potions. Having an empowered exploder, even if it only exploded 5 or 9 gems would be a tremendous help in kickstarting teams and mana generation. They could even potentially choose to make each one explode a specific color of gem instead of a random gem if they felt that 9 random gems was too powerful or versatile.
Now we all know why the devs haven’t made another Leprechaun, and it’s because 1 Leprechaun is broken enough as it is with how versatile it is. It can go in pretty much any team. Troops like what I am proposing though, would not be nearly as versatile, and would thus not have as devastating an impact on the PVP/GW metagame or experience.
Sounds like a good idea, though if you increase the boost ratio you’d probably need to increase the mana cost too. Wouldn’t matter on the first cast, since it’s empowered, but it would affect future uses.
I’d also point out that some kingdoms might need skipping, like Zaejin - empowered goblins would be too powerful - and Dragon’s Claw/Vulpacea - they already have Diamantina and Stellarix so they don’t need the added speed too - or at least balancing differently than the others. But given that we’re seeing some new empowered converters using hero gems (I’ve noticed a few that convert to coloured dragon gems, which basically explode but in a fixed pattern) I don’t see why we couldn’t have some kingdom-locked empowered exploders.
Yeah, Zaejin would naturally be skipped. The other ones that need the different balance could always drop down to the 5 gems, or start with a higher number like base 2 and still and a 1:1 ratio to end at 6 gems or so.
Do I really want to see 38 of these things? No, not really. Especially since it means they’d also spend 38 weeks releasing these things…
Then if we’re arbitrarily skipping some kingdoms, and then releasing weaker or stronger versions based on current power when the dev team makes minimal efforts to rebalance older troops to current times… doesn’t bode well for future power.
Almost have an easier time suggesting 5 other Leprechauns… Frankly, I’d almost encourage it. New players could use a Soul based Leprechaun.
The problem with more Lepr’s isn’t the boost ratio or what it’s boosted by, it’s the fact that it would be another infinitely versatile empowered exploder that scales off of magic. With how brutal the Zuul/Cth+double empowered transformer teams are, I imagine it just gets worse if you make 5 more Lepr’s.
As for some kingdoms getting skipped or getting a depowered version, I would even be fine with just one getting skipped if it came down to it, and that’s Zaejin, because goblins. The reason why goblins shouldn’t get one is the same reason why goblins should never get a 50% mana troop, which really shouldn’t need to be stated.
Yes, it would likely mean 38 weeks of troops that some don’t use, but that’s really no different than how it is right now. I don’t even remember the last time the glory troop was a top tier meta troop that wasn’t an empowered transformer.
I find all the Empowered converters/exploders to be a scourge as it already is. Much like when I used to play Magic: the Gathering in the very early days while I was still in college and the high-spending competitive players could throw out Black Lotus and a bunch of Mox Gems early and steamroll a match. Because it leads to situations where mana costs don’t really matter all that much when it’s very quick and easy to slap one or two of those onto your team and use them to fill your big, bad troops so swiftly that their mana cost becomes irrelevant.
So while I understand the germ of TC’s idea, I don’t want to see those. Or the continuing entry of ever more Empowered converters, particularly the newer incarnations that can capably re-fill themselves and/or generate an identical-colored storm to turbocharge things. Just the opposite: I’d like to see tools to counter-strategize against all these Empowered troops and maybe even make some bolder counters against them so that it’s not a situation where you have to match your own converters against them.
Maybe something like a Maid of Envy on steroids. Something that might not be particularly effective and/or efficient against a lot of things, but could be murder against an Empowered Converter or Exploder in such ways that it would tilt the balance of power within a match significantly.
The spirit walker class could have countered empowered troops somewhat reliably if their final trait drained 2 mana from all enemies instead of 1 random enemy. Mana shield, wood ancestry and sky ancestry could block the mana drain, but it would have given more variety to guild war and pvp strategies.
The more empowered troops they add, the more headaches they will cause. Guild wars worked well because you had to only worry about 5 battles a day for 30 battles in total for 1 week every month.
Having to constantly adjust teams and think about empowered troops all day, every day? I’d rather bash my head with a frying pan.
Spiritwalker draining from all troops sounds broken AF though, and is as likely to mess you up in the middle of the match as help you against Empowered troops in the beginning of the match.
It was partially with the PVP/GW metagame in mind that I suggested them be kingdom based like Mane Courser. The odds of full kingdom teams ever becoming meta is incredibly low, even if you have 5 defense teams to consider. Between Zuul, Stellarix/Diamantina, various Rope Dart teams, Queen Bee/King Gobble, the skull generator teams, and then book teams for each GW day, I just don’t see these troops disrupting the PVP/GW metagame.
I just want spiritwalker to become more of an alternative option, and like I previously mentioned, empowered troops like daughter of Yasmine and malcandessa would be immune to the mana drain. Monk used to be very useful in guild wars before Elementalist came along, and there needs to be more options for us to work with.
Elementalist is used all the time for good reason. It can shut down most compositions if u don’t have wand of stars to clean up the mess of status effects. And even then, it can be difficult to recover and get an extra turn to save yourself from another onslaught.
Takshaka (if u have 3) and leprechaun can jump start troops, which covers all colors except for brown. I do agree that there needs to be 2 more troops that act like leprechaun to cover any mixture of red/blue and yellow/brown mana to help with starting mana for unrestricted team compositions. But no more. These options need to be limited in order to control the chaos.
