I don’t think it distracts from the underlying problem. I actually believe this IS the underlying problem.
I don’t necessarily like it as an older gamer but let’s face it, the vast majority of gamers nowadays want achievements, sometimes more than they want simple enjoyment.
Yes, Maw appears to be broken. But the real issue isn’t Maw, it’s that most people using him want to win as many games as possible, as fast as possible, without ever having to think about team composition.
At its core this is a strategy game. It’s really not a genre built for quick thrills. Again, JMHO.
It’s the devs’ responsibility to ensure the meta doesn’t get stale given the assumption that players will min/max. It’s a design problem they can solve, not a human psychology issue. This is no different from any game out there. For example, it’s the same reason why League of Legends regularly buffs/nerfs champions every patch.
Yeah the refund system they have set up works really well for fast nerfs/buffs. WITH THAT SAID though, you would start to make people think twice before putting gems, keys, souls, etc into a troop knowing it is just going to be nerfed. Putting fear into people and actually halt rapid spending. All F2P games have a period of time where a certain troop shines the most and everyone cries out OP. Then it gets nerfed to the ground, and a new OP troop gets introduced. I suspect we’ll be seeing a similar pattern. I don’t think devour is a bad spell at all. I just think the third trait needs to be reduced and maybe only one maw per team can be used. It is a beast of troop. I would actually like to see them implement the one troop per team option. I think it could really make people be a bit more creative, and it opens the door for new troop types and spells. No it may not fix most peoples issues though.
Yes it’s ridiculous and the fact they can invade as much as they want is ridiculous too… Why? Because it limits other players, I don’t have time to use multiple teams because I will never be able to compete with them… I need a quick effective team that can invade fast to compete… I get that there is other opinions out there but come back to this thread when your competing for top 10.
Anyhow this practice with unlimited invades and defense being jack chit important as come to my realization that GoW is not the game for me, I will not compete in PvP anymore because of obvious reasons.
Every game that I played in the past made defense a priority and you couldn’t invade as u wanted there was a limit… so skills was the number 1 factor in determining the PvP leaderboard… This game is obviously not interested in doing that and it’s fine… let the bots keep going under the radar at a slow and steady paste compared to the top 3 that got banned.
I might be alone in this logic but i think maw post nerf is stronger than prenerf. Sure you could rely on rng to grow big with 15% chance of devour but now they gave maw a trait that no longer does rng which do to almost every team he is in focusing on skull spam makes him way more viable on offence and defence. Infinite loop teams are really strong so why add maw to one when it could devour? I think the maw spam on offence is going to only grow from here.
I personally rarely cast maw, I just keep loop spamming skulls, sometimes I get a devour or 2 sometimes I dont, regardless it’s a fast team, sometimes are just faster than others, when maw gets nerfed on console I doubt I’ll have a use for the poor guy.
In that case (if you are truly looping skulls, as in matching 4+ with Sheggra, IK, KoS, or Bone Dragon), your Maw will grow fast, and reliably. It’s really quite strong in practice; I don’t think you have anything to worry about.
Maw is still very strong on offence, the average battle time might be slightly longer now, because no extra fast wins due to devour on skulls. On defense he’s a lot less cancerous.
To be honest, I am getting a bit of tired of complaints everytime a new troop is tougher than older one’s. I liked Maw the way it was. I am starting to get the point of irritation on the constant changes to new troops and nerfs happening over and over again…Mab too tough…lets nerf it…Maw too tough…let nerf it…Astral too tough…lets nerf it…I would rather see new troops tougher and tougher coming out…not constant nerfing…
So you’re saying that everything that’s been released should be obsoleted as newer, stronger troops come out? Say they didn’t nerf Mab, or Maw, or Astral Spirit, but just introduced troops that were far more powerful or countered them very effectively. Would you be happy with their relative power then, with troops you like becoming useless and weak compared to what’s available? New troops should provide new options, new ways to play, but shouldn’t displace existing ones entirely. There needs to be a standard level of power that everything’s balanced around. Anything far above it should be brought down, and anything below it should be brought up. Where that point is isn’t really all that important, though lower numbers are easier for both the human mind and the server to process.
As well, if everything new is strictly more powerful than what came before, players without unlimited purchasing power would have to settle for traiting a team they know will be outclassed not far down the road. That’s not a fun thought, and right next to: Maybe I’ll just stop playing then…
This is not a war of escalation. There will always be some troops that are stronger (and see comparatively more play) and troops that are weaker (and see comparatively less) but a responsible dev team like the one shepherding this game needs to keep the outliers in check, particularly at the high end.
As a Maw user, I like the change. The card feels more balanced. I appreciate the DEVs effort to keep the power creep down and give us a variety of cards to work with.
So, an endless cycle of buffing and power creep? It’s the relative power between troops that really matters, not whether the overall power goes up or down. But smaller numbers across the board are easier to grasp and mentally manipulate. The most cost-effective means is to address outliers – if a troop is exceptionally weak, buff it. If it’s exceptionally strong, nerf it. Buffing every existing troop every time a new powerful troop is released would be a lot of work, and runs the risk of disrupting the balance between them. It’s simply not a smart strategy, and I have a hard time understanding why people are drawn to it. 1 damage vs 10 health is the same as 10 damage vs 100 health. It takes 10 hits either way, so why prefer the bigger numbers?
