Victims of the 4/5match trait update

I personally believe that the previous update of 4/5 match trait activated traits really hurt certain troops. And what is worse, most of those troops have been considered weak (in bold) even before the update.

The troops affected are:

Jotnar Stormshield
Ketras the Bull
Plague
Sekhma
Jarl Firemantle
The Great Maw
Tesla
Queen Mab
Kraken
Elemaugrim
Doomclaw
Queen Grapplepot
Emperor Khorvash
Moloch
Venoxia
Sheggra
Dracos 1337
Behemoth
Courage (reminded by @jeno)

EDIT:
Sekhma
Assassin Class
Archer Class
Yasmineā€™s Chosen
Shadow Dragon
(Thanks to @Mithran for reminding these)

From which only a few were considered overpowered (in italic), and even those were considered overpowered because their use with trolls and huge clusters they create (activating the trait numerous times), not the troops themselves. (Kraken, Mab speaking.)

Because of that, the core concepts of certain troops vanished from the most part.
ā€¦ Will we ever see any compensation to these troops, especially those highlighted ones (like Ketras and Plague)?

14 Likes

I have nothing constructive to add other than that I agree.

This nerf happened shortly after Iā€™d traited Ketras. At the very least give a refund to these troops.

5 Likes

I would like this feature reverted to like it was before. Currently the one match per move is very boring.

3 Likes

I dont see that happening. The devs seem to specialize in ā€˜fixesā€™ that are easy and if they affect something else, oh well.

They have more important things to do, like continuing to finish the UI everyone hates, and of course releasing as many new troops as they can.

6 Likes

Necromancer class with its 3rd trait might be a victim too.

4 Likes

Very good one.
ā€¦ Havenā€™t seen anyone use it, ever, but itā€™s a valid mention.

2 Likes

Hopefully glob resolution,cascade luck,trolls+4 is addressed, and the once per board conditions removed. That was what should have happened in the first place.

Plague probably is the biggest loser since so many immunity added in addition to the recent knee capping. Iā€™m in disagreement on the selection symantecs as most of those troops even under current conditions are still very powerful and can be played competitively.

3 Likes

Gog and Gud, not that anyone really used him much. Assassin class and Kruarg maybe, depending on if the number of checks were reduced. Sekhma for sure. Yasmineā€™s chosen took a noticeable hit, but she is spammy enough that you can often still get several entangles out for damage - her biggest hit was the frequency of entangling the first troop, which makes the team more vulnerable. Toss in Shadow Dragonā€™s already useless trait, and the Imps that nobody uses, anything tanky with a size trait or that benefits from it directly (eg., Treant, Tuskar) and some other ones Iā€™m probably forgetting.

Iā€™m especially irritated with Ketras. I had a few setups where I could boost him into one-shot range with his spell for most enemies if he was untouched by the time he was filled, and now he falls a few damage short unless I waste additional turns matching red that I donā€™t need at the time, which effectively kills the setup. Same with my Maw/Doomclaw skull spam combo where I would be one-shotting the 3rd and 4th troops if enranged before, now they take a double tap (and Maw is less likely to be enraged). This one still works, since I have control to the end and the first 2-3 kills go down easy, but it is so much slower needing to gather a bunch of mana or make half a dozen moves to get that last skull hit which makes me not want to use it.

4 Likes

Not an exhaustive list, but I completely agree that thereā€™s been a lot of side effects to this update.
The one that affected me the most was Sekhma wich isnā€™t in your list either.

1 Like

Updated the list. Sorry for the inconvenience.

1 Like

Courage too.

I donā€™t think Ketras the Bull, Plague, Sekhma, Tesla, or either class are considered weak, even after this change. I still see people using either archer or assassin while itā€™s been a very long time since iā€™ve seen any other class besides these two or deathknight.

personally i think this change should have happened back when they nerfed BD as this was the real cause of that troop being OP. One change i think that needs to be made is if there are two different ā€œglobsā€, these should count as multiple matches. if itā€™s all connected, just a single match has been made, doesnā€™t matter that itā€™s 17 gems.

3 Likes

What itā€™s strange is this nerf was added because of Krakenā€™s 3rd trait. Better than nerfing the trait (ie reduce the damage), devs nerf the whole mechanicā€¦
And now, they nerf Kraken! So why not revert the 4/5 match update?

Another issue is randomness: ā€œrandom allyā€ should be ā€œnon-affected random allyā€. So Jotnar and co. could be more useful.
Not sure if we want the same for ā€œrandom enemyā€.

5 Likes

conspiracy theory: they have been planning to nerf 4/5 match mechanic for some time but need a scapegoat for it. kraken is the scapegoat. now they can casually forgot to return to normal.

1 Like

i didnā€™t have my imps traited yet but by any chance this update also affecting the imps third trait?