New Negative effect/trait ideas "Discombobulated" and "Dreaded"

The spell effect Discombobulated would reduce a troop/troops mana gain by 1.5x until the end of their next turn.

The Dreaded trait would be a tier 3 trait and would reduce enemy troops mana by 1 on 5 gem matches

Not to sound negative, but both disease and silence affect mana income. I think it would be better to give more troops those abilities than create another status for stopping mana gain.

As for the trait, it could be a bit overpowered, especially if you can create a loop to get 4 and 5 gem matches.

It could work if it was 2 mana from a random troop as the third trait of a mythic

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Sorry you feel that way but if you read the traits again its on 5 gem matches only not 4s because yes that would be abusable

I agree. The first sounds too much like disease, and the second… Having something activate only on 5 matches when literally every other similar passive trait effect in the game is on 4+ matches is just inconsistent. Single mana drain would also be quite irritating, but no more so than Psion, I suppose.

I will agree on the disease opinion but I feel with the current state of the game getting 5 gem matches is not too hard to achieve if you build around it. Plenty of teams design themselves around tier 3 traits anyways. I just feel 1 mana reduction of 5s is pretty balanced

Rather less, I think. Whatever is in trait and not in the main description can get altered. Psion drains mana, traited or not.

“Reduce mana gain by 1.5x” is… unclear. Also, disease.

Draining 1 mana may be rather more powerful than you think. Troops can’t store excess mana, so any full-mana troops would be left with slightly less mana than they need. Falling short by even 1 mana can push a spell back by a turn. That’s very influential, because many games are decided by a single turn’s delay. How often have you cursed the RNG for not giving you a mana surge when you really, really needed one? Disease is easier to balance because it reduces future mana gains instead of mana already collected from past events. A diseased troop can benefit from mana which would have been simply wasted excess mana for a non-diseased troop.

I also think that 4-5 matches are a somewhat overused effect trigger. The extra turn is rewarding enough on its own for 4-5 matches to be almost always the best move whenever they’re available. Rider effects on top of that should be carefully considered, especially if the effect might slow down your opponent’s team. Disease, silence, mana drain, freeze (I’m talking about you, Queen Mab), and so forth. Matching gems of a specific color (eg Great Maw, Sheggra, Leviathan) has quite a lot of potential, because it’s technically six distinct trigger conditions.

So overall I don’t think either of the ideas would really work as presented in the OP. However, something like “disease a random enemy when matching purple” would follow the same thematic lines, and could be fun to have in the game.

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Now that I am home from work and not dealing with the Iron Bowl. Ok first off the difference between disease and this spell is this spell lasts until the end of the next turn period no accumulative dispel. Second disease reduces mana gained by 50% or by .5x amount of normal gain. This skill actually TAKES AWAY MANA if the troop tries to collect any mana during their turn hence the 1.5x reduction in mana gained or 150% less mana.

Really don’t like either of these ideas, sorry. First is too much like disease as others have said. Second is just more mana drain which is the last thing the game needs. Both are net fun-reducers, which as I posted in your other thread, are not things I want to see continue to proliferate.

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I like to post in pros and cons ideas because I think everything in this game needs a mirror effect to balance itself out and have counter play which I think is the root of this games mechanic and troop interaction.