My two cents: Goblins are fine, if anything maybe scale back the marauder or Zae’jin bonus by 1-2 points. Being fast and cheap is the goblins’ “thing” and changing that risks losing their identity. As others have already mentioned, there are numerous counters out there, so if goblins really bug you then invest in a countermeasure.
The only troop I see out of whack is Bone Dragon. He scales too well with high armor, even with the recent adjustments. A small increase in mana cost or a reduction in boost ratio or removal of armor-strip would help reign him in.
Edit: Removal of armor strip might actually make BD stronger.
I think there’s been far too much focus on nerfing troops. I’d rather there just be strong counters to tough troops. There have been a few along the way (Gob-chomper for goblin teams, Bunni’Nog for Knight Coronet).
Bone Dragon is fine as it is. It’s only effective if someone has a large shield. Without the shield boost, it’s incredibly risky adding several skulls on the board, but not enough to necessarily make 4 or even 3 in a row.
I am getting tired of so many people using goblins as their defense team. I wish people would be more creative with that aspect of the game. But I understand when you’re starting out, there aren’t a lot of other great options.
I think the “invest in a countermeasure” argument isn’t an adequate solution. Two key problems I see:
Goblins are so strong and efficient that they’re super prevalent in the early-to-mid game when folks are most resource constrained and thus unable to invest in a countermeasure. The reality is that you’re asking players to deal with it for about 3 months of regular play until they’ve gotten enough resources to do something about it. Or to make their own Goblin team, which only proves the point that they’re OP (and perpetuates the problem).
The countermeasures are not easy to come by. Goblin Crusher is a special events only weapon and thus not an option for most players (and for any new players). Gob-chomper is the other good option. However, it’s Epic, which means (a) it’s not easy to come by since there are more Epics than any other Rarity and their drop rates are quite low in Glory Keys and (b) much of its power is in its traits, which require 12 Arcane Mountains. I’m almost 190 and I don’t have those resources. Thus my Gob-chomper only has the first trait and it’s about 60/40 on whether or not my Gob-chomper team can take out a Goblin team.
I’m very supportive of the idea that counter-play is preferred. And having more options that are more accessible would really help the problem. However, I think it really does a disservice to early-to-mid stage players and if you just look at the costs of the spells of many of the goblins it should be clear that they’re too cheap. Seriously, look at the costs and effects of all the Rares and Ultra-Rares. Goblin Rocket and Boar Rider as crazy (as @Shimrra detailed)! There’s a difference between a troop being objectively OP and needing a nerf and a team comp needing counter-play.
I also completely agree. It’s not that they’re hard to beat, it’s the fact that many of us (like @Jainus and myself) see Goblin defense teams 30-50 % of the invades that we do (it varies a bit from day to day). We can beat them easily, but it’s incredibly boring to fight the same troops all the time.
@Sirrian has stated in the past that the devs like goblins where they are because they provide a econmical and powerful deck that allows newer players to compete. Allowing them to bridge starting content into the higher level pvp without hiding in the arena and maps praying for drop. (That last sentence was my interpretation on The paraphrased first sentence from Sirrian.)
I’m all for this. I just think Goblins shouldn’t be the de facto choice. There should be a number of different options based on your personal preferences. Making Goblins extra-strong just means an over-proliferation of Goblins, which does a disservice to everyone.
Goblins are an easy cheap team, well sort. only goblin is a common in that line up and everything else requires glory keys to obtain. Therefore ask yourself this. Is the mana cost worth the rarity or is it higher than the rarity deserves. What is op for a common is horrible for a legendary. Also bone dragon is only good at high level play and worthless in low level play. makes one more skull than skeleton unless it hits armour which is not going to be much and poor armour gain and does not guarantee an extra turn. !0/10 worthless spell in early game. only ones who play it are only 10% of players assuming all 10% do play them cause they are in that part of the game. Early game you can forget about traits too cause no one is going to have a traited bone dragon before level 100. You scream nerf for goblins which only 10% of people can effectively level and trait with no problem and beg for nerfs on bone dragon even though 10% of people can even use him to his full potential he is useless to the 90%. !0% of gamers are over level 200. Those under level that level are 90%. How effective is a bone dragon when he hits say 2-3 armore. only makes 9 skulls cool gains 1 armour great no extra turn and just gave my opponent the ability to attack me. Welp at least my opponent lost his armour right. You know cause that is a thing.
I gotta say that for this week’s PvP run, I saw maybe ONE goblin team on defense (and I’m not even sure about that, but I lost my notes).
You have the option to Try Another. If you see an Goblin team on def, maybe that person doesn’t want to be Invaded. So either fight him and take his gold, or defer to his unspoken “preference” and move on. And for all of this high level players who keep saying that they’re seeing goblin defense teams, paying the gold to Try Another shouldn’t be a problem in particular.
Personally what I would love to see is the lower end troops for dwarves, elves, dark elves, etc, get the same kind of boost that goblins have. Let’s make more teams have that kind if synergy!
Also a minor reduction in goblin attack power and boar rider spell damage.
I run a fully-Traited, Mythic, Goblin Team on Defense and it only wins 40-50% of the time. Considering I’m one of the strongest Console players, that kind of shows that Goblins aren’t much of a problem if they don’t even win half their battles.
@TaliaParks my dear, you’re missing the point (or mine at least); it’s not that Goblins are hard to beat, it’s that they’re so commonly used it gets monotonous and boring fighting them, and fights drag out because they spend ages looping turns…
Boredom is a big threat to the longevity and success of this game. Varied battles and a need for varied strategies are important to keeping players engaged and coming back… If half the battles ever are against (almost) the same annoying team, that soon gets old… And long serving (or big spending) players may drift away…
I tried to like this multiple times but it wouldn’t work. Could not agree with this statement more there’s even a. Of time that I took off two to three months because I got bored with it.
I very much agree with this, many of the troops @Machiknight mentioned are quite weak and bland right from the start and at all levels of play.
Also i personally don’t think Goblins should be nerfed, they are not too strong right now, and they provide a very interesting and engaging playstyle, one i wished more troops offered(preferably more cool looking troops than Goblins).
Like others stated, i’d rather see vastly underused common/rare/UR troops be brought up to their level instead of sacrificing Goblins to the Nerfgod for the sake of variety.
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And you should start right away with revisiting Rakshanin!.. Just kidding… but please do.
I think we need more Feedback from the whole Community. Its unrealistic to speak for others in this Way. The Forum includes maybe 3 or 4 % of all Players. Of these I suspect under 1% pretty active in the Forum.(But no Idea what exactly)
In my Opinion the smartest Way to find out is to induce optional surveys in GoW from time to time. The Devs could analyse the Data and introduce appropriate suggestions. Changes anytime possible for sure. But this could be a Way for more representative results to all this Issues.
