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Well i would say Alastair has a much bigger foe than DM, which is true damage, but that is beside the point.
I get what you are saying and like i said at the start i tend to agree with you in general regarding instant kills.

But DM is far from an actual death sentence right now.
It results in running out and doing nothing more often than it results in actually killing its target, without having to interfere in any way. If you throw a dispeller in the mix its chances of actually doing anything become pretty slim, slim to none even when the announced change to DM arrives. Then again a troop like Famine oneshoots like there is no tomorrow.

I doubt we would be having these kind of discussions if the surviving troop bonus in GW wasn’t a thing. For many months we didn’t get much DM hate in here aside from the occasional rare rant of someone who got the outlier bad rng treatment from a Death. Now it has become the most pressing issue apparently.

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Just change Death Knights third trait to death mark 2 random troops so at least there is a chance of not losing a troop. DM on 4 troops almost always kill 1 troop on the first turn.

Now it has become the most pressing issue apparently.

It is because of the Death Knight class and being death marked just for killing the hero which results in (basically) instant killing 1-2 of your troops about 50% of the time.

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Yeah i am not getting into the argument about how easy it is to avoid Death Curse again, or about the statistic accuracy of your statement, but is losing 2 troops some point after you are already ahead enough to kill one of the enemy troops first really costing you many games? Because it doesn’t cost me any.

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Also i dont know how many times i have had troops DM and played on for 5-6 turns and nothing happens, but I am guessing this happens a lot. I have never had my entire team die from DM. I can only recall 1 time i have had 3 die from it, and that was because i didnt care and was going to win anyway. Mostly maybe 1, sometimes 2 if i let it keep going on.

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You forget traits stop either of those as well. No trait to stop spell damage.

Pharos, Ketras, Paladin, Rowanne are far more reliable than Deathmark at getting kills on cast.

Deathmark all is a 30% chance of at least one troop dying.

In the case of Death that’s a lot of mana spent for 66% of troops still being alive.

Hey guys, I know damage kills.
But I still feel like damage follows the game mechanics. Inflict more damage than the troop has life.
Instakill always comes with this frustration sensation that someone cheated :stuck_out_tongue:
I don’t know. It feels like bringing a grenade to a sword fight.

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But there is always ‘that guy’.

:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

i wouldnt mind if all instakill mechanics were removed from the game…

except from devour. i actually like that one and have fun with. i dont even mind the kerberoses

maybe its coz nobody added a devour debuff that tickes every turn, skull-devour has only 5% chance not the 20%, and there is no trait that applies devour debuffs at 100% rate (or any rate) :sweat_smile: plus it has two immunity traits for it (unlike some instakill mechanics)

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Well when barrier gets buffed to prevent devour, devour will be a very countable mechanics. Which is good, countering stuff is good.

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Balance is very hard to achieve when you have a game with so many Troops, so many game mechanics, and an active community always trying to get the best teams out.

So yeah, every time you twink and fiddle with some mechanics, you risk to cross the fine line that will break the meta.
Remember when traits were introduced, a few troops could bypass armour on attack, like Skelton. Bypassing armour already existed with “true damage” spells, and skull production also existed. But still, just this little modification imploded the meta so bad that they had to fix it, and remove the trait.
I guess we are lucky to have a team of devs that actually work to keep the game healthy, and yet add more content.

So, back to DM and Devour.
Devour was not a problem, i think, with some ok Troops and weapons having lower then 30% chances (Sand Shark, for example). Great Maw is a strong Troop, but it’s long to charge, and can be done only once.
With the introduction of 40%+ repeatable devours on good Troops with good traits (Kraken and Kerberos), we are currently walking a very fine line, as they are flooding the defensive meta pretty fast. Barrier will help. I think limiting copies of Troop would help too. We’ll see. But these 2 troops popularity is increasing, because it just fills the gap, and makes it possible for a new, low level player to beat a 9000+ deck because he can just eat you up and steal the high stats of the opponent.

Deathmark was also ok, even weak. Casting something for 10% chance is a wasted turn. Adding it to some effect, like skull-attacks, is nice. Or on a weapon that does AoE damage and marks 2 Troops.
When mass DM got in (hello Death!), it started to be annoying. It’s saving grace is that Death does not fill fast.
Death Knight broke the line. The spell is not only AoE, but close to unavoidable.
So now we get a small fix, we’ll see how it works out.

It’s very hard for the devs to foresee how the player base will embrace a Troop and use it, and how dominant it will become.
Finally, and most importantly, it is important to watch for player frustration. And, contrary to some beliefs, it does not always equal lost. I don’t mind losing, and i win games that were frustrating.
So far, i would advance that, from my own reading of these forums, the main sources of “frustrations” are Famine, Death Knight, Kerberos, and Mab-Looping. (not my personal, i think Mab is funny. But then i play Oracle)

I think i lost my train of thought. :steam_locomotive:

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GW in itself is a good idea, but the rules (points for surviving troops, colors, etc.) have created something not fun at all, and it’s actually a complete hassle in top tiers.

  1. The DM percentages are way off and DM happens way more than 10% of the time for the computer, same for bull’s eye 15%, etc. It seems to hit systematically within 2 turns!
  2. Famine is by far the strongest card in the game, especially at high level when players use cards that are expensive to cast. 2 surges + and a basic cascade, and the opponent loses ALL of his mana AND all but loses a troop. Its last trait is also way too good.
  3. Devour is way too good on troops like Kerberos, the game becomes a coin flip, sometimes as early as turn 1 or 2 since most players use Forest Guardian!
  4. As a result, 90% of defense teams are the same, the games are too long and boring, nobody feels like ‘playing’ 40 minutes a day against devour/DM/mana drain teams. And the weekly prizes don’t reflect the effort we have to put in, just so we can stay in a good guild.
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Remove YOU from the game entirely and keep deathmark the way it is :slight_smile:

who says fortnight anymore lol

well it sounds like you just dont like the game itself, if you dont want the hassle of guild wars taking “40 minutes” then dont do them or move to a lower guild

Most of Australia

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And the UK.

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I think the Fort Knight would make a great card.

“Deal X amount of damage at some point in the future”

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I think that it should deliver a Status Effect that lasts for two weeks.

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hope i didnt offend @zach i barely leave the state im in and just not heard anyone say that since game of thrones. i actually had to look it up and see how long they meant lol