The Great Troop Buff A-Z thread

Gameplay Chat (PC/Mobile)
1

Okay, so the title’s not very modest. But we can all make this thread great :slight_smile:

The plan is to take each troop in the game, in alphabetical order, and suggest issues or changes with it, and whether we as players care. Many commons are pants, that’s fine, they’re gacha fodder. They might get used early game or in arena. Many legendaries and mythics, and most epics, are also pants. That’s not fine. Some leading (and more recent usually) troops are probably too strong and could get toned down a little (Khorvash, Mab, BD etc I am looking at you) - but let’s not dwell on those.

I don’t want this to be just another meta / balance / MMDBBD complaint thread, let’s give energy to the game’s other 280+ troops that are hardly used!

So it goes like this: pick the next troop in the list ( see @lyya’s excellent site here http://ashtender.com/gems/troops ) and comment on its usefulness, design fit, spell, traits, balance thoughts.

Then for comments, either quote and agree/disagree/endorse/suggestsomethingelse on one that went earlier in the list, or pick the next troop in turn and carry on.

Let’s not dwell on any one troop for too long though.

Ideally, put the troop name in BOLD CAPITALS so we can see which one we are on.

Also, please post a link to the troop page from @lyya’s site for the troop in question.

So I will go first…

ABHORATH
Used to be scary, two years ago. Time hasn’t been kind to this timeless daemon giant.
Issues currently:

  • spell is quite expensive for what it does, and the board reset is as likely to give the enemy a great boost as you
  • healing to full isn’t great when your life score is fairly average
  • attack gain is scary-ish, but only useful if you can create skulls, and this guy blocks purple mana
  • Arcane trait doesn’t belong here at all - it only buffs the attack gain and is of little use
  • his legendary trait Sacrifice is rubbish, can only trigger three times, and if you’re triggering it, you’re winning anyway
    So, what to do with him…
    How about:
  • rebalance his base stats with -10 to Armour and +10 to Life, or some such
  • replace Arcane trait with Regeneration or even Invigorated
  • rework spell to: gain Life and Attack, scaling with Magic/2, cleanse self and heal to full, and remove all gems from the board, for 14 mana
  • replace third trait with: Fell Fury: create a random Skull on the board when you match 4+ gems

Thoughts please? (I noticed a few other suggestions elsewhere that a devour would work well for this one)

Once we have some comments or complaints on those ideas for Abby, someone can do Abynissia.

4 Likes
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ABHORATH
i agree about the issues

but i think rebalance you suggest is too strong, like this he is too tanky and heals too much, could go hectic into only way to defeat him would be devour or something that magic damage scales with enemy hp…

i would like him to get a devour chance and generally leave the most of the rest untouched, maybe something like:

spell:
if there are at least 10 skulls - cleanse myself,
then (regardless) clear the board, heal to full and gain attack
traits:
frenzy
big
Unsatisfied Hunger: 1% chance to devour random (enemy?) on 4+ match

or
change his base stats to more health and less armor, but do not give him cleanse or frenzy, then giving invigorated is fine

in either way i dont agree on giving both life and attack on spell cast and especially not giving cleanse while more base stats, could go out of hand too easily

1 Like
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I think that the only fix Abhorath needs is to get his mana cost reduced to 10. We have yet to see a legendary with low mana cost, and it fits him well, I think.

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I really can’t agree with that, he’s supposed to be a monstrous great daemon, I don’t see that fitting fast and agile…

1 Like
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Well, his spell is too expensive for what he does, as you said in the OP.
Reducing his mana cost will solve that.

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Has anyone thought of simply adding the rider “and gain an extra turn” to his spell? Solves a lot of problems in my view.

2 Likes
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True, but making the spell do more / better stuff would also solve it the other way, and for me normally these legendaries feel big and nasty…

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The thing is that there is nothing wrong with his currently skill. So why change it at all?
His mana cost is too high, and can be lowered, that is the only problem, I see.
No big changes needed…

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@Jainus i request additional rule for this thread:

when adding next unit put a small poll so ppl could vote what they think this troop needs:
-Buff it!
-Nerf it!
-Remake/Rebalance
-Nothing, Not sure or I dont care

like this we could have a kind of small summary what ppl think before we read all the comments and try to patch it up

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Hmmmm for me that makes it too much process… plus I really struggle to create polls when I am on mobile or iPad… (today not so bad, am on pc)… so don’t mind if you add some, but in general I’m not sure it’s needed…

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well maybe its just me but for now after those few ppl giving their ideas, to me it still makes no sense - what the community agree on in general about Abhorath? i guess everyone agree it should be buffed, but maybe not really? and there are many more units that this will get more complicated plus there is a lot of ppl who read and not like writing but they would still click a poll

this is suppose to be “A-Z buff or nerf” but lacking the poll feels incomplete to me :wink:

allright made one, we shall see does it work :slight_smile:

edit again: i really hope this will work as it will be only option for ppl to give their idea about previously discussed troops, since we only may have ‘few days’(?) then moving on to another

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ABHORATH, what do you think?

  • BUFF it
  • NERF it
  • Rebalance or Remake
  • Nothing, I’m not sure or I don’t care
  • Don’t make polls about other units in this thread

0 voters

1 Like
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Good idea, doubt there will be any troops needing to Nerf tho. But can have it in the poll just as decorations…

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there are 2 or 3 of them from my point of view (including you!)

1 Like
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This guy needs Devour in his spell (named “Devour the world”…). So… difficult… last troop with Devour is so “meh” that I’m not sure what to propose… It seems Devour is limited to “X% to Devour one troop” with X is chosen according to the rarity of the troop… Let’s try: “Remove all gems. If there are 13 or more Purple gems on the board, devour a random enemy. If there are 13 or more Blue gems on the board, devour a random ally.” Surely too powerful ;-).

For the rules, when someone add a new troop, he can maybe add @Lyya website link of the troop or directly the stat+spell+traits so it may be easier for everyone to know what we are talking about.

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I like this rule, will edit into the top.

1 Like
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Can I move us on?

ABYNISSIA

Recently released mythic. In terms of usefulness, personally she is not a troop that has ever really caused me problems when attacking, nor one that I would use for attack. I have got her but haven’t even bothered to level her and certainly cannot see myself traiting her.

Fits in well with Daemon teams due to third trait which can get really nasty in long games. Fits in particularly with the apocalypse horseman when combined with their traits.

  • At a cost of 24 mana her spell is very expensive, especially compared with Ragnagord who costs 14 mana for an explosion of the same scale (for end game players with magic bonuses). Ragnagord also has the fast trait, so his first cast costs just 7 mana and he is very capable of filling himself.
  • The summon mechanic is not widely used, primarily as it requires the user to plan on losing one of their starting troops.
  • The summon ability has synergy with the mechanic for troops to devour allies (Black Beast) or sacrifice allies (Sacrificial Priest, Sacrifice). However, Sacrificial Priest shares two of her colours (purple and yellow) so one blocks the other.
  • She summons Infernal King after she explodes, which means she fills herself not him. Infernal King will then block two of her colours (and those of Sacrifical priest, if using him).
  • Fireproof and Cursed are decent traits and fit well with her thematically.
  • It’s worth noting that Infernal King has the immortal trait, so summoning him into first place can make for a very resilient team.

So, buff or nerf?

Controversial perhaps, but I say leave her be. She’s a niche troop, no where near as useful or utilitarian as the apocalypse mythics but perhaps future troops with the ability to sacrifice or devour an ally may make her more useful in the future. I’ve made some very fun teams with her and Black Beast which are actually pretty effective (although not particularly efficient).

She is not the only niche mythic, as in my opinion Draakulis and Wulfgarok are in a similar category.

2 Likes
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It must be those 3 troops that is hindering us from maintain a stright 100% win rate when we invade, during a week? Those troops are the most important troops in the game at the moment. The win rate for midgame and endgame players is ridiculous high at 99%.

1 Like
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Thanks for this… I agree with the assessment points, and from that come to the conclusion that she’s little use and needs a buff… those Mythic troops should be worth the pain of seeking them and the cost of powering them up…

I have a few ideas on how to buff or rework her, but don’t have time right now, will revert later…

Right, let’s rule this kind of thing off topic, let’s not digress or dwell too much arguing about currently powerful or possibly broken troops…

I have edited the title and rules / aims above - let’s skip any of the strong / meta / broken troops in this thread

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Good points. I was also thinking that her mana cost could go down to about 20-22. And maybe that she could summon a troop which is not taking her manas. But have not come to mind which troop I prefer her to summon. Any ideas? :slight_smile:

Edited: A troop that is taking one of her mana colors would be fine, just not two of them.