Are we sure?
I couldn’t say about “more reliable” as I (generally) don’t use Wand (or Elementalist or, for PvP, Stellarix), but what I can say is that red/blue/purple, which I have felt like tackling so far, are rather easy without any of that. 90%+ winrate even with Bloodfrenzy. Sure, it might take a few moments longer per battle, but that’s not enough for me to really consider it a downside.
Is it unnecessary challenge? Depends on your definition. I see reading the board, knowing what you’re doing and predicting what might happen essential skill and part of the game.
RNG is a definite factor – one that has screwed me over many times on “simple” battles. But it’s what makes the game interesting – the “I’m GOING to beat that boss – next time” feeling.
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I’ve tested it on 3 separate occasions now over the past year: last year in a bug report, last month and again today. It’s been across multiple game modes as well: Explore (auto-play mode), old PVP, practice matches, guild wars, new PVP. Recently I’ve only re-tested it in new PVP and practice matches. As far I can tell on my own testing, it hasn’t changed since release.
It’s possible it doesn’t always hold true but I haven’t come across those exceptions yet. It’s always just copied my last WoS choice.
I can confirm as well that the AI will cast whatever you casted last with Wand of Stars. Can be used to your advantage as there’s less of a chance for umbral stars to match.
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Exactly. The whole game is built around progression. Early game players get a bump from getting higher VP battles. Late game gets blood frenzy.
I do think mid game players kinda suffer a bit, depending on their collection. That is mostly due to having no real easier battles. Something still needs some tweaking with match making.
But I honestly want to know what the point of progressing your account is supposed to be, if not to have an easier time of things. I don’t have Stella. (Stuck in dupe hell.) But if I ever get it, I want it to be worth the effort.
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Ive been using stellarix today. Its a liability on a player team cause the cheating rng likes to nail the computer opening freeze on stellarix. I dont use stellarix in blood frenzy.
The problem isnt stellarix. Its blood frenzy
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Yes, (an un-stunned, fully healthy) Boss/Tower Stellarix would still prevent a one-shot kill from a Godslayer/Siegebreaker, but it would still take a tremendous amount of damage from that enemy. Or from most of them, because there are those troops who can have enough of a boost to them to significantly increase their damage – e.g., this week’s Lion Commander.
But it would be another tool to work with as a counter tool, and one that would be available regardless of the zone restrictions – there are Siegebreakers and Godslayers in every kingdom, of every color, of every troop type. And that’s what I’d be looking to do, to nudge things in small ways as to provide reasonable counters to Stellarix without the need for a player to be an endgamer with (almost) everything in his/her collection.
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Wand of Stars isn’t “reliable” in the slightest, but it is “easy” to use. The benefits outweigh the risks thankfully, as if every cast felt like the umbral stars side, I’d never use the weapon.
There’s just a general lack of cleanse all + getting the turn back hero weapon options, and mana generation is a definite plus when it works. Having a curse all option is a benefit too, though it has costed me numerous matches trying to use the umbral stars side, then whiffing on a board I thought would be simple to land on.
There’s also a general lack of interesting 2-5 color weapons as most of the new weapons we receive are usually just Kingdom/troop type exploders or even worse, deal damage boosted by troop type… as those things stop being useful beyond level 1-100. 1 color Doomed Weapons can be useful, but just take too long to fill up to be competitive offensively.
Wand of Stars is going to look head and shoulders above anything when most weapons we have are junk. For every Rope Dart, we have Arrow of Slaying or Anvil of Might or Featherstrike or Moonblade etc.
If anything though, I find Essence of Evil to be the bane of my existence, more so than Wand of Stars. (Curse/Freeze/Silence and between Death Mark, Lycanthropy, and Terror… something is likely going to happen). I never like Giant Toading an enemy, yet it always seems to cause me grievances. It also cuts through Impervious like the trait doesn’t exist.
But, its not about me, so I’m not pushing for any Essence of Evil changes.
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Wand of stars is fantastic at making you either win or lose very quickly. In a game where win rates don’t matter, it’s almost the perfect tool.
I think essence of evil is stronger in almost all scenarios, but only if strength means consistency.
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Eoe is held back by its single color
I don’t have stellarix and yh, it’s a strong card… as is wabd of stars. But the fact is people have put in a lot of time and effort to forge these cards. They absolutely should not be nerfed to satisfy people who haven’t put in that same effort.
The solution is simple… in PvP you get a choice of three teams to play against. Preview each team and play the one you feel you can beat. If you have a 10,000 rated team the odds are against you if you choose to go against one rated 20,000.
I really hope the devs don’t nerf them but if they do they need to compensate everyone who has taken the time and resources to forge them
I crafted Stella when it was 2.1x, should I send some money back to devs for buffing it?
Stellarix is hard to get indeed but Wand of Stars was easy to get for alot of people.
Even with Stellarix nerfed the main combo of Elementalist and Wand of Stars still remains.
So do not support a nerf for Stellarix but the Elementalist class and Wand of Stars definitly need some work on or they could do a banlist in PvP.
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I disagree. No need to nerf anything.
There’s a choice of three opponents on PvP for a reason but I guess people just want to win at the top tier all the time and expect the game to changed for them when they can’t.
It’s taken me years to get a decent deck of troops and weapons. What’s the point if they just end up getting nerfed all because people want wins handed to them on a point.
Apologies if I appear overly blunt but I feel quite strongly about this, paticularly as you need a really strong hand to do the higher levels in weekly guild events like journey, invasion and raid boss
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Prefer a banlist but otherwise Wand of Stars + Elementalist needs to be looked at.
Even with 3 options to choose from had multiple times that all 3 teams were based on Wand of Stars + Elementalist. Not all had Stellarix though. So it’s still a question about which team has the least chance to cycle fast.
Having to go through that process of seeing what is fast doable takes away from the timer for getting more gold as well, or souls if people really care about it.
Don’t seen Stellarix as the problem but main culprit is defenitly Wand of Stars. Which can also easily be dealed with by having a banlist outside of Central Spire.
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Stellarix, maybe, but Wand of Stars is a completely different beast. What does it cost again?
- 1 Tarot Card (whenever it drops from Cedric)
- 10 Celestial Traitstones
…aaaaaaand that’s about it. For which you acquire an allegedly Legendary-tier weapon (think Mang, Runic Blade, etc) capable of exploding the board while generating AT LEAST 30 MANA (cumulatively across all colors) per cast, even if it doesn’t give you an Extra Turn to just immediately recast it (or cast something else).
^^ A major hallmark sign of something being broken.
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On the other side there’s lots of reasons not to use stellarix. Gray king is far far better jn this format
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The biggest problem with pvp is top 3 being the only ones rewarded. So its basically down to who can play the game more.
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While I largely agree with you, obtaining all the RNG dragons is entirely a matter of luck and it’s impossible to judge that someone has spent less time trying to get Stellarix compared to another player that just got luckier.
Where we do agree: don’t nerf Wand of Stars or Stellarix.
Players keep arguing for nerfs, but look at what happened when the journey troops were nerfed. Journey is now borderline unplayable or unplayable depending on your level and most top guilds have no incentive to bother with later stages. Nerfs harmed Journey. Let’s not harm another mode.
Even if we don’t always like the results, I believe the devs are doing their best and we shouldn’t add to the workload. They already have a mountain of things to fix, which includes PvP and nerfing things won’t fix it. Granted, PvP is more functional compared to Journey at this point.
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