I know there is a bunch of rebalancing coming in 1.0.9, but here is my input on troops that are relatively useless in all aspects of the game. Several troops are deliberately not on this list due to them being good in arena, a good early game farmer, or just good in early game in general.
Bombardier
Was never buffed when explosion was nerfed
Goblin Rocket superior in every way
(Doesn’t need too big a buff, but dwarves are horrible atm) Fix:
Add 30% chance to burn the target randomly hit by his ability
Dokkalfar
Only summoner that does nothing after his summon
Most useless summon
Nearly highest summon cost Fix:
Give spawn 100% chance to poison
Give spawn 50% chance for extra turn
Remove +1 magic gain
Add give all allies +3 attack
Remove sturdy trait (immune to poison) and replace it with 2x skull damage to poisoned
Reduce mana cost to 14 (down from 15)
Elwyn
Ability underwhelming at all stages of the game Fix:
Increase ratio to 2x per yellow gem destroyed (up from 1)
Give all allies 2 mana
Increase mana cost to 14 (up from 12)
Nymph
Cockatrice entangles AND mana drains for one mana LESS, both are rare Fix:
Reduce mana cost to 6
Poison Master
Not a master of poison
Was never buffed after explosion nerf, at which time it was already horrible Fix:
Remove poison random enemy
Add poison first and last enemy
Reduce mana cost to 7 (down from 9)
Change venomous to 2x skull damage to poisoned enemies
Rhynax
Gorefest doesn’t do anything for killing
It is a first kingdom troop, but the others were buffed, so… Fix:
Gain 6 mana per enemy that dies to this ability
Increase magic by 1 at a higher level
Increase mana cost to 12 (up from 10)
Replace sturdy (immune to poison) with fast (50% mana at start)
Skeleros
The middle ground between Skeleton and Revenant, yet weaker than both of them as an epic Fix:
Gain 3 attack per cast
Deal additional damage to the enemy’s first troop based on how much higher Skeleros’s attack is compared to the enemy’s leading troop. This bonus damage does 0 extra if Skeleros attack is lower or the same as the enemy’s lead. This would deal Skeleros’s full attack as extra damage if the enemy is entangled.
Sparkgrinder
Sunweaver is superior Fix:
If used on a construct, give the target an additional (0+magic) to a random stat.
Oh yeah one comparasion that always poked my eye. Sparkgridner to Sun. Spark gives 6 armor and attack at cost of 12. Sun gives 8 armor life and attack and 6 mana at cost of 13. Why would anyone if their sane state of mind pick spark over Sun? Team bonus? Meh Sun is far to better.
Yeah, I tired building a dwarf team earlier just for fun, for I was testing all troops of similar kinds. All dwarfs are so underpowered compared to many other species.
I used Aziris in my skeleton deck: Skel, Skel, Aziris, Green Slime. He was awesome at plucking a match 4 or 5 after a skeleton made skulls, letting me get more damage done before giving up control.
I use two Aziris in my anti goblin deck and now the matches generally last about a minute - since Gob Chomp deals 2x skull damage. Pre 1.08 I had a deck using Aziris/Abhorath which was very quick too. I think Aziris is ok at the moment. Quick to fill and good with a strategy in mind.
Agreed that Azyris ain’t that bad, I also use it from time to time.
I would like to see a side effect on its spell that’d have some magic scaling though… But I guess it’s not gonna happen.
Back on track, it’s spell cost 5, that’s a one fill turn with the good banner (and his magic link may help too) so reducing it to 4 is a little bit of an overkill in my opinion.
As for an extra turn… Why not.
Anyway, main issue in my opinion is that AI definitely can’t play it, wich is sad. An extra turn could help and wouldn’t be too powerfull to make the card so much more dangerous.
Wait, wait wait!
I’ll give that Aziris is useless as an AI-controlled unit.
BUT, as a Player-controlled unit Aziris is ALL kind of awesome!
I am using a lineup of…
Centaur (with True Shot)
Green Slime
Bone Dragon
Aziris
Can you imagine how useful Aziris is to clean up after Bone Dragon? Half of the time I even get to have a 4-gem skull match.
Anyway, my point is, you should redefine your “Useless Troops” title to “Useless AI-Controlled Troops.” At least Aziris is far from useless.
Useless AI controlled would be over 100 troops. xD
I still do find Aziris to be quite useless though for an epic. Skeleton can basically do what he does as a common. That is why I want him to have an extra turn. It would make him more versatile to work without skull spawning teams for doing 3 pairs.
I find Aziris to be quite useful, epic or not. Giving a free turn would make him to powerful. Being able to do a 3-skull match, and able to fill mana every turn is too much. Skeleton is fine with an extra turn because often the AI will end up with a skull match also.
Aziris should not be buffed at all. He is superb, only 5 mana cost ,as an epic, and consumes both red and purple mana. The thing is u need to choose a proper troop to deal skull damage.
I removed Aziris from the list. I still think it is fairly bad due to its dependence on skulls. At least an extra turn would help it a lot in teams that don’t depend on a board full of skulls. In those cases, the player is already getting extra turns from Aziris, so why not just take it a bit further?
Skulls are also strong in the current meta and will likely be nerfed to some degree in the future. When that happens, Aziris’s 1 skull spawn will be pitiful.
I first underestimated Aziris too, being able to place that one pitiful skull is an incredible advantage. Whenever two skulls get close enough together, there’s your high damage attack that will recharge in a single move. As a welcome side effect, it also prevents you opponent from smacking you with skull matches, there’s just not enough around for a regular match. An extra turn would be way too overpowered.
Bombardier seems to work amazingly well for me in arena, it’s really an auto-pick whenever I see him. Maybe Goblin Rocket is just too strong?
Yeah, it works fantastic in Arena. The main reasons I added it is its lack of ability in everything else. All Dwarves are towards the lower end of balance and his functionality compared to other brown/red troops is relatively low. He does such little damage that his only job is to accumulate mana from the gem he lowers into place. It’s why he does so good in Arena, for most commons - ultra-rare are around the mana point where Bombardier fills them well. I also just wanted it for synergy purposes. It works well with his 2x skull damage to burning and there is still a major lack of units that can burn.
@TaliaParks. Burn also has an additive stacking 10% chance to fade per turn or cleansed, whereas poison can only be removed with cleanse. Poison is also a 50% per turn to trigger, whereas burn always does 3 damage while active. There are also troops that do 2x skull damage to burning troops, but for some reason there are no troops that do 2x skull damage to poisoned troops. cough@Sirrian.
