I don’t see how any good can come from this troop. It feels like they’re taunting the players at a time when they can’t afford to.
3 Likes
I’m kind of ambivalent. I don’t think he’ll be a serious threat on defense, and I don’t have the resources to obtain one, so it’s kind of a no-op for me.
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AoE instakill via Death Marks got so bad that they nerfed the entire Death Mark debuff gamewide - and now they’re putting in an AoE instakill that ALSO selfbuffs?
I really don’t care about the unit itself so much (it’s a base Mythic so there won’t be many, and he’s fairly mediocre outside of the Devour), but if there is anything even vaguely resembling a cohesive design philosophy going on here, then I can’t see it. Both the proactive choices and reactive changes recently have been incomprehensible.
2 Likes
I think this is more a defense troop myself, as invading with him one cant rely on his devour chance. But I will of course give it a shot on invading if I get him.
Well, @Saltypatra did do that when discussing Wisp, so we know they are happy with how that troop turned out. Are you referring to something more abstract, like design philosophy?
Yeah, I was thinking they should just come out and say it as a statement and be clear about that any time they respond. A little more direct of a “tough shit” response would help. I read her statement much more as, “We don’t see a problem,” which then led players to believe they were out of touch. It’s one thing to be out of touch, it’s another to be in touch and choose a different direction.
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I just figured it out. They are going to introduce this guy and at the same time return all the old meta defenses from the history of the game for a week due to that post someone made with the poll. Then, when enough of the old timers who no longer spend money on the game rage quit they will revert back all the old meta defense troops to their nerfed current state and we will look at this assassibear as no big deal. Classic bait and switch.
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I can’t imagine Doomclaw being good as long Wisps are a thing. Was looking forward to it a few months back, now not so much.
I mean, at this point I think they may as well buff all the troops they previously nerfed. It feels like the power creep is so out of whack at the moment that all of those old metas would be pretty balanced at present. That would certainly accomplish the goal of having more diversity. It’s the classic “when everything’s OP nothing’s OP” approach.
Of course, it would also basically get us to a point where basically the first lucky match wins. Not that I want that. Just sayin’…
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Yes, it would be just awful if the first lucky Red or Purple 3-match could put the game away…
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You might want to be less subtle for the sake of the dev team.
No, just no…they have officially lost their minds.
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I think this troop looks AWESOME! It will work great with a mercy/valk combo! Hopefully i get me one but if not it will be the second one i craft!
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No, in the flood of mythics we’re getting on console I’m making a token effort as they are released, but I think this is the one I’ll save my gems to make my one legitimate attempt for.
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With the enrage on 4/5 match boosting his spell damage, I was thinking about a looping team to maximize the effect. For example: Green Seer, Giant Spider, Doomclaw then either Ragnagord or Elemaugrim depending on whether a quick start or attack reduction seemed more useful. Lots of possibilities for this guy.
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Agree. I wasted way too much chasing Euryali and didn’t even get her. I have a pitiful stash left now and Yasmine’s doesn’t look nearly tempting enough to waste what little I have on her. Will save for the next mythic.
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Oh. I thought they would change this to something more reasonable. Guess not!!
Freaking devour… I stand by Lyya’s opinion on the matter, should never have introduced it in the first place.
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Unlike certain other devourers, barrier as a counter might actually work for this guy. He has no board mod, doesn’t actually do a whole lot of spell damage for his mana cost without the whole party being enraged, and his trait is more to boost his own spell than for using skull based setups. He also can’t be set up with a free “fast” trait, so that 24 mana is 24 mana you have to actually get, and 24 mana and 3 colors that don’t lead into anything. He does at least have complimentary colors to be filled by a universal converter with the converter being behind him, but I don’t he particularly qualifies as a first slot with such a disgustingly low devour chance. Speaking honestly, he doesn’t even look particularly good or even that threatening on offense or defense.
The thing I hate, of course, is the thing everyone else is focused on - the fact that he can devour two things randomly, and that said random chance low, meaning he will waver from unusably bad to instant win button. If we are going to have enemy devours at all, can’t we just have enough devour counters where we don’t have to put low percent random chances on them to try to “balance” them out? And more setup based devours, like Wulfgarok?
I can’t recall where I saw it, but I’m pretty sure I saw this same troop previewed before but with a 25% devour chance. Which would mean they already chose to balance it down, and they chose to do so by making it more random. I’ll take a consistently OP troop over a randomly OP troop 9 times out of 10, because it is much easier to see what is wrong with it and add counter options or balance adjustments.
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I think you’re pretty spot on. I don’t think he’s particularly strong, and can’t imagine using it on offense, but the double devour has enough RNG to it that it’s sure to enrage people when used on defense. That’s sort of the problem with devour in general. Low odds mean not reliable enough to be good on offense but just good enough to frustrate the hell out of people in Guild Wars.
Edit: It just occurred to me that I think Great Maw is the only Devour troop that’s well balanced. It doesn’t feel like it b/c it’s out-classed by the current OP troops, but I think it’s much like Bone Dragon in that it’s appropriately balanced and the current OP troops need to be brought in line with it. (And I’ll grant that Kerby is likely only miserable b/c of FG.)
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He’s basically Reverse Jotnar, except worse in every way that matters* and with the RNG Annoy-o-Tron cranked up to 11. Assuming he gets released as is, I can’t see even bothering to try getting him.
- Regular damage instead of True. Boost only on Enraged allies and not (for example) Urska too. And “Enrage a random ally” is 75% useless, vs “Barrier a random ally” which is useful 100% of the time.