Redesign mana potion

Feature Requests and Game feedback
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Currently, mana potion works as follow: after all cascades and refilling the board, create 7-11 normal mana gems of that color for each mana potion that is matched/destroyed/exploded. 7-11 gem creation is roughly the same power level of spell of an epic troop. Clearly, back to when it was designed, it’s expected that only one mana potion was matched/des-ed/exp-ed at the same time. The first generation of mana potion troops (The Guardians: Aransi, Helgor, Jakal, Moshu, Rok’Gar, and Urielle) also reflect that.

However, PvP environment and Maelstrom Dago’Nath make mana potions flood the board now these days. Multiple potions matched, or more commonly destroyed/exploded at the same time creates great amount of gems, that makes extra turn almost guaranteed, and greatly drags out cascade sequence.

Moreover, MD’s 12-mana-potion-creation spell demands built-in extra turn, or it’s equivalent to giving opponent team a full mana charge, due to all those mana potions. But with built-in extra turn, it becomes more or less stoppable killing loop. That clearly shows mana potion needs a re-design.

Here’s my proposal:
When mana potion is matched/destroyed/exploded, first give all allies of that color 3 mana, then process normal match/destroy/explode effect as a normal mana gem of its color.

Basically, it becomes a weaker giant mana gem that also doesn’t explode, if there is only one ally use that color. If there’re two allies, it’s comparable with giant mana gem (potion’s +3*2 from effect and +1 from match/destroy vs. giant’s +5 and explode). If three or four, it’s stronger.

This proposal eliminates drag-out cascade sequence. Also it removes the demand of built-in extra turn in MD’s spell. Remove built-in extra turn makes MD more on par with Ctharrasque.

3 Likes
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You can always run a boss killer troop. I hate md in pvp too, but wouldn’t want a nerf. And mana potions are really popular, so the people have spoken, even if it’s not what I want.

The solution imo is to be able to easily switch teams when you know you’re going to face md, in central spire at least, as anything is allowed there - give us access to all our teams there.

4 Likes
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The proposal doesn’t focus on MD. It’s on making mana potions more in line with other heroic gems.
It just opens the way of making MD more on par with Zuul and Cthar. If people really prefer power creep, MD’s spell can remain unchanged.

1 Like
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At that point, just remove them from the game and replace all references to them with giant gems.

The gem would give up to 12 mana, based on the way you want it. A giant gem gives 5 mana, plus explodes, which destroys 6-7 extra gems (9 destroyed but the middle and one other must be part of a match) usually, adding 3 mana. So, it does seem like your gem would be better, but that explosion can trigger other heroic gems and create cascades, so in practice it usually won’t be better.

I actually like this idea as a new gem type, rather than redesigning an existing one. Having a way to give your mana-blocked troops some mana by using heroic gems could be useful. 3 mana to each troop feels low, but like you say it does stack up to 12 mana from a single gem, if the whole team shares colours. Make it something like a mana pool gem and give it a new look, and it could be an interesting addition.

That’s only really an issue in PvP zones with mana potions. And the solution there is that they NEED to dial down the spawn rates of mana potions to less than a quarter of what they are now, as it’s just insane.
Everywhere else, it’s no different than other troops that self-loop, like goblins and stella. And I don’t see them clamping down on all the troops that can self-loop.

Under your proposal, MD would create 12 mana pool gems (as I’m calling them), probably just 2 of each colour, and then get no extra turn. So most of the time it would end the turn and give the enemy a ton of free mana. That is pretty bad.
Ctharrasque creates 18 gems and it still often fails to get an extra turn and thus, gives the enemy a ton of match options. I prefer not to use it most of the time. Even Zuul creates 12 skulls and skulls are easier to match than coloured gems.

Exactly. Any changes to mana potions would cause a huge upset to a lot of players. I don’t even like them much, and get annoyed with how many there are in PvP games, but most players vote for them, so I doubt the devs would want to mess with them and risk upsetting the (heavy) majority of players.

5 Likes
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Before MD was introduced, Cthar was actually my favored insta-killer (over Zuul). I didn’t feel giant yellow gems left on board were a too-much trouble in most cases. Zuul’s skulls were more troublesome to me. So I think Cthar is a pretty decent benchmark for insta-killers.

We don’t know if mana potion gem’s drop rate can be dialed down individually. What if it’s not possible? My proposal don’t have such disadvantage. New potions can drop as much as it does now. It will be less disruptive to board than giant gems and dragon gems, which are my second and third disliked heroic gems in PvP.

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We don’t know if a heroic gem can be changed after introduction, either.
Although, technically, it definitely CAN be. It just might be that they would see it as too much work to change the code. In which case, they won’t do it. But it’s always possible to rewrite the code to do something different.

We don’t know anything about what they will and won’t do, though, because they never tell us. But I think it’s more likely that they would refuse to redesign an existing gem in such a massive way. More likely they’d add a new gem that works how you suggest.

The problem there is that the devs seem to be leaning heavily into the idea of board disruption. Lots of new stuff disrupts the board and we keep getting troops that use that stuff. If they wanted to get rid of board disruption, they wouldn’t keep adding more of it.
I agree with you, though. I like to be able to plan my moves, so stuff disrupting the board and making it harder to plan ahead, is annoying. I’d prefer less random, disruptive options. But that’s just not the way the game is being pushed, unfortunately.

1 Like
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They just need to let people vote for their own choices for PvP restrictions and most current and future problems would be resolved. You can’t convince me that it would be difficult for them to change the PvP voting system from everyone in an alliance to just an individual. How naive do they think we are?

But maybe they have plans to implement some QOL features and requests in 9.2, so I am going to try to be patient.

1 Like
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It does generally feel like if the Heroic Gem type for a PVP region comes in all six colors (Giant, Potion, Dragon) then there will be WAY too many of them at any given time.

2 Likes