Fascinating, but potentially unhelpful topic, really…
How are we defining ‘nerf’ I wonder?
Nerf = a change that breaks a troop someone relies on, making their favourite team not work any more, and resulting in them quitting the game in childish pique?
or
Nerf = a logical term for any change that has a net decrease in a troop’s power - i.e. just the opposite of ‘buff’?
or
Nerf = a considered attempt by the devs after much testing (and 30+ years’ game development experience) to re-balance a troop that crosses a (slightly ambiguous) line into being broken and unbalancing, reducing fun and/or variety
So my problem with this topic is that we interchange between all of these meanings, and it’s hard to separate reasoned debate from emotive whingeing. Nerf as a word also has too many negative connotations.
Also, which I admit peeves me, the whole tone is slightly extracting the urine - as if the devs have no right to make balance changes to the game once troops are published. Don’t get me wrong - no harm in a little fun here, and dev-baiting - but I have to challenge a topic that seems to suggest that nerfing troops is the wrong thing for the devs to be doing.
Just to pick up on a few historic points:
- Crimson Bat wasn’t nerfed, it was fixed - dealing 5 AOE true damage and gaining 20 Life in one cast was broken
- Silent One was part fixed, part nerfed - its ability was too strong - it was in every PVP team and games weren’t fun - the devs addressed this - but I think the reductions in its stats were a bit too harsh
- Sheggra wasn’t nerfed - the devs fixed a serious coding bug that meant skull damage was overflowing down the team and hitting too many targets at once - it was only ever intended to hit the first enemy on the first skull matches
I think a topic making a list of troops the community considers un-balanced is useful. I also think that list will currently be pretty short.
My list has nothing I see that currently, urgently, needs attention, but could include (based on card comparison, mainly):
- Sunweaver - still feels strong in comparison to other buff troops
- Goblin Rocket - too many, too good effects, for the mana cost
- Hobgoblin - mostly okay now, still slightly high damage for the mana cost
- Druid - too high damage for the mana cost by comparison to most
- all other Goblins - not too bad, but commonly among the best in their rarity, and recent team bonuses may be helping them too much
- Peasant - well, no, just seeing who’s still reading
- Webspinner/Venoxia/Jarl/Celestasia - I think may now be okay, but need to see dust settle and what trends emerge from the recent changes
If none of those were fixed, the game would still be broadly fine - but for the sake of fairness and general parity and variety - a few tweaks would be good.
I disagree that some other troops currently being slated need attention - Sheggra, Gloom Leaf, Keeper Of Souls, Shadow Dragon - I think are all fine.
A better list might be of troops that would benefit from being re-designed to be better. Buffing them, or re-working them, whatever. I’d include:
- Moloch
- Goblin King
- Gar’Nok
- most of the Epics
- but especially Tyri and Tau
- Nymph (utter rubbish compared to Cockatrice)
Improving these sub-standard troops, especially the Legendaries, would surely help mix up the meta and improve variety - adding new ideas all the time.
I look forward to being attacked by the anti-nerf brigade 