Minion Masters!
While we get ready for the release of Season 2, we’ve decided to tune some of the balance of both this season’s cards and some common requests from the community. Enjoy the balance changes, and let us know what you think!
Balance
- Stormbringer
- Base Damage 30 > 40
--- Developer comments ---
Ever since the visual rework in Update 60, Stormbringer took a hefty hit to his overall effectiveness that he hasn’t quite been able to recover from since. Due to the decreased arena size and increased minion speed, he had far less time to get value out of his first perk in particular, and his third perk would ultimately make little difference in many matchups. With this change we hope to make Stormbringer on par with other masters by increasing the power of what he does best, while keeping his weaknesses so that he can be kept in check.
- Flightless Dragons
- Unit Count 2 > 3
--- Developer comments ---
Flightless Dragons was intended to be a defensive card with a high DPS for its mana cost, yet the value provided wasn’t enough for the card to see play. With this change, Flightless Dragons will have an extremely high DPS for its cost (The highest of any card, excluding Blood Imps), yet remain easy to kill for them to not be an oppressive threat when on the offensive.
- Lost Legionnaires / Legionnaires / Last Stand
- Legionnaire Health 150 > 160
--- Developer comments ---
Legionnaires have felt rather outdated for a while in terms of the high-cost cards they are involved with. They were too susceptible to removal which meant their efficient DPS would often get answered very quickly by cards like Fireball. At the same time, Lost Legionnaires by itself was by no means a bad card, so when buffing the base unit we took care to ensure that we would not be pushing that card over the line.
- Wall
- Mana Cost 3 > 2
- Health 1500 > 600
- Duration 30 > 20
--- Developer comments ---
Wall was considered by many to be the end-all of an enemy push, providing a consistent 1500 HP buffer to whatever was played behind it at a low mana cost. Understandably, many players found this unfun to play against, with a familiar choice quote being that “your twitch audience can interact with it as much as you can”. With this rework we aim to make Wall a card that requires more calculated usage in order to gain the maximum effectiveness of, as well as remove its ability to stop any push without consequence.
- Beam of DOOM!
- Mana Cost 6 > 7
--- Developer comments ---
Beam of DOOM! has always been a flexible card despite its cost, and its strength would often massively overshadow other spells, as well as the card being too oppressive towards certain strategies. With this change we want to make the card less of an auto-include in decks yet retain its effectiveness as a consistent Minion removal.
- Brutish Betrayer
- Now also spawns with Rage (+50% Damage)
--- Developer comments ---
Brutish Betrayer was originally designed to be a risk-reward card that put the original player in control of its effectiveness. Unfortunately the value that could be achieved from the card was considered not worth either the card slot or the damage that could be taken in return. By giving the card Rage, we hope to make the card far more interesting to play with, and more efficient to combo into your existing push strategies.
- Gor’Rakk Sacrifice
- Mana Cost 4 > 3
--- Developer comments ---
Gor’Rakk Sacrifice was struggling to see use at its current mana cost. It was often deemed too high for the risk involved and would restrict popular combos, with the card being too easy to answer for the Mana Advantage gained in response. This change should make comboing Gor’Rakk Sacrifice with other cards far easier, as well as making the loss less severe if it is countered by your opponent.
- Gor’Rakk Brutes
- Spell Card required to Activate Mana Cost 4 > 3
--- Developer comments ---
Similarly, the combined mana cost required to utilise Gor’Rakk Brutes was considered too high for the card to regularly see play. Hopefully, combined with the Gor’Rakk Sacrifice change, the card should be easier to implement in a variety of strategies.
Misc
- Hovering over a card in your deck will now show its Glory.
- Updated maximum number of shards to 500,000
- Fixed a grammar error when telling a player there are no featured streamers - Thanks Zgriptor
- Fixed a minor grammar error in World Cleaver Volco’s description.
Bugs
- Fixed the visual timer on 6+ mana cost cards jumping up and resetting at the start of a game.
- Fixed Incubus jumping towards a stunned Turret - Thanks videogamer77
- Fixed an instance where Hypnotise would not return all units to their original team
- Fixed Status Effect text appearing above invisible units - Thanks Sinilil
- Fixed Lightbringer and Storm Ranger skins not having the lightning bowstring - Thanks Greywolf
- Fixed Walking Blind Date having nothing in it - Thanks to everyone who reported it
- Fixed an instance where matches could freeze up, and no inputs could be made - Thanks Burning Scrat Tournament and King Puff Cup
- Fixed Incubus targeting its own master after being ghosted - Thanks Neo
- Fixed an instance where Incubus would jump to its own master after being hypnotised - Thanks HyperHobbit
- Fixed Azali granting you a shield if you possessed her while already controlling a bridge.
- Fixed an issue where Infested Settsu’s spells would come flying down from the heavens - Thanks Neo & truteo
- Fixed an instance where Incubus would jump to a master and then turn around to target a different unit
- Fixed an issue where the enemy master tower could become highlighted red for the rest of the match - Thanks Zgriptor & FFA
- Fixed Netherstep visuals and actual teleportation not matching up.
- Fixed an issue where there would be no Free rotation master available - Thanks truteo
Cheers from Betadwarf