There are a lot of troops out there that are just horrendously bad, and there’s no need for that. They do so very little, but they could be better with some very simple tweaks, and I sure wish we would see more of those tweaks to troops here and there in patches.
Updated Ability:
- Deal [Magic/2 + 9] damage to a random Enemy. Gain [Magic/2 + 9] - [Magic + 9] Attack and Life.
This would allow Roc to cast its ability more than once, but it would do half damage to a random enemy instead of targeted, and Roc would gain attack/life in a random amount based on a range of half magic to full magic.
Reworked Ability and 3rd trait:
- Create 8 Gems of a chosen Mana Color, boosted by Purple Allies and Enemies (1:1). Give 3 Magic to all other Allies.
- Change Arcane (Gain 1 Magic when an Ally casts a spell) to Spell Armor (Reduce damage from Spells by 25%).
This would allow Tassarion to cast his ability more than once, but his ability would no longer be tied to his Magic which would address scaling issues (if I cast him for instance on a team, I’d create 50+ gems, hence the one cast only). Instead it would be a fixed amount, as is with most other Epic troops that create gems, but boosted by purple allies+enemies (“Forbidden Lore” after all). It would then get rid of his Arcane trait, because he doesn’t need Magic, and give him some Spell Armor, which wasn’t around when he came out.
Updated ability for Sand Scuttler:
- Current ability is to gain [Magic + 20] Life and Armor. Change to: Gain [Magic/2 + 10] Life and Armor. Gain Barrier.
This would halve the life and armor gained, give him Barrier, and remove the one cast only limitation.
Mad Prophet needs to be more mad. Reworked:
- Death mark a random Ally and Enemy. Give all other allies 5 Mana and 2 Magic, boosted by Death Marked enemies. (x5)
Now he’s a little crazy, but usable in a niche way that could potentially make him very powerful with granting Magic than currently, with a proper set up, albeit with a drawback (deathmarking your own troops!)
Could this poor fella do any less? Updated ability:
- Explode a random Gem. Gain 5 Attack, boosted by Brown gems destroyed (x2).
Updated:
- Deal [Magic + 2] damage to an Enemy. If they have Hunter’s Mark, deal 8 true damage.
Pixie is one of those weird troops where it feels worse to cast it than to use it and gain the extra turn, because if it’s in front of any other troops (presumably why it has dodge), it’s going to color block 8 green/purple mana. If it’s in the back, the dodge is kind of strange considering it’s supposed to be its third trait, which is the most expensive one, and its only purpose is to faerie fire a single enemy troop. Not only that, this is supposed to be a Rare troop, but its ability is worse than most Commons. Revamped ability:
- Faerie Fire an enemy. Gain an Extra turn. If the Enemy is already Faerie Fired, Burn them and drain 2 Mana.
Where to start… well, let’s start with the fact that he creates 9 purple gems and provides a bonus to purple mana, but doesn’t use purple mana himself, and summons a troop that uses Brown mana.
Sand Cobra isn’t exactly a troop I’d want to summon either. Poison, Disease and Stun on a randomy enemy? For 6 mana that’s good, except those effects are just annoyances. And why is it random anyway? You’d think a Cobra would have pretty good aim. So there are a lot of things wrong with both of these troops. But I don’t especially think anything needs to change with Sand Cobra, just the Snake Charmer. Reworked ability:
- Mesmerize: [Mana cost increased from 11 to 13] Create 8 Purple and 8 Green Gems. Summon a Sand Cobra. Allied beasts gain [Magic + 1] Attack.
- Anubite Warrior: I’m not sure why it summons a Fortress Gate, a Construct troop from Broken Spire, when it’s a Monster/Mystic from Khetar. Surely there are better troops it could summon, like a Pharaoh Hound or Wall of Bones.
- Probably the worst Boost in the game – each Skull being worth only 1 Armor, and they get removed, not even destroyed.
Last one I’ll touch on in this point (even though there are so, so many more…)
When Sybil of Lust came out, players knew exactly how awful she was just by looking at the ability. Sometimes abilities look bad but in play they perform better. This isn’t one of those cases. She explodes 2-5 Purple gems: 1 gem boost by daemon allies (with herself being a daemon makes 2 the minimum).
Are there any other troops that do nothing except explode gems? Why yes, there are. Ogre, which I touched on, explodes a single random Gem for 6 mana. It’s a Common troop. And that’s it. That’s the only other troop that only explodes gems with its ability. The next closest is Leprechaun which explodes [Magic/2] +1 Green gems – and that’s boosted by gold, AND he gives gold and is empowered and has Nature Link (+1 Green Mana). He’s Ultra-Rare too, just like Sibyl.
But Sibyl is only Swift and just explodes a purple gem at start of battle. Her boost is capped at 4 and the ability is called “Dark Fire” – you’d think such a sweet ability name would do more. My expert rework for her ability:
- Convert all Red Gems to Purple. Burn a random Enemy, boosted by Gems converted (5:1).