After all the hype that preceded this 'Rebalance', I'd have to say overall I'm very disappointed.  Extremely underwhelming to say the least.  The tweaks and changes on 95% of the champs was so insignificant I'm not sure why you wasted your time with them.  Still have Void Legos that are  one trick ponies at best and dwarved by non-voids in comparison.  Vault guardians will still be in the vault.  3 or 4 got noticeably better, but this was WAY over-hyped.

Also, Belanor being a void legendary, you should have at least considered making his dec def and weaken an aoe. An individual veil buff?  Snore........

Dear Plarium, 

do you know what words "nerf" and "buff" mean? Try to find the meaning next time. What you did is just a cosmetic change, cheats like Siphi, Serris, Tormin, Lilithu (even now little weaker Rotos) still remain cheats. And these buffs? They do not help in any key areas of the game, most of the average and bad heroes remain untouched. 

If you listened to your content creators or community at least once.

Will you ever or is there any plans to buff the countless other legendary, dumpster fire champs that are currently useless? I get you want to water down the summoning pools with garbage champs, but does there really need to be so many when the odds are already terrible?

if Ford Motor Company recalled your 2019 v8 Ford Mustang for an issue they were the cause of, and returned it to you with a 4 Cylinder engine, you would expect to be compensated or a new vehicle.

I paid real money and time investing for my books on some of these champs, at least let me put them somewhere else.  this is just silly imo.

Aahzmandius said:

@BALEAN    for the first, why should I play Rotos now, ok after nerf I sould be able to kill 2 champs (depends on how much -dmg he got) why should I play him for that reason if there are champs able kill all enemy champs and cc rest who survive such as Rae, Ithos, BigUn, Trunda and so on.... Only reason why he was used, bcs of his passive and his a3 ability which was able to kill and prevent from revive most dedly enemy champ. For example enemy has arbitr, syphi and for example dutchess and skullcrown. Before nerf Rotos kill skullcrown and injure or kill another champ and here stay 3 reviving champs but no more deadly skullcrown. After nerf rotos kill skullcrown and someone revive him... In all cost, rotos efect is zero. If I use a2 first round on arbiter or another reviver efect is same bcs someine revive him with turn meter boost and skullcrown kill whole my team. He is pure single target dps. His only use in fight is kill one target and be sure hes stay death, after nerf he lost this ability and heres no point to play him more... I think this nerf dostnt makes him good but useless. For now hes op bcs of his passive skill which garants him survive and gives mu revange. Much better nerf will be if plarium change his passive. Insted of gain another turn will be gain counterattack. If he get this. He will get his revange with survive and with 30% chance on a1 (Im ok with this nerf) hes still got chance to get extra turn.

 About dutchessdutchess, this nerf makes her pretty useless on cb. Its nice she can still function with 5:3, but more speed needs make her weaker in all other stats and she get no survive, she get less shield. For now with top gear and def buffs, she can survive UNM boss a3 ability until round 35, after nerf I count she will be death in round 30 or 28 on UNM and this makes her total useless on CB.

I agree that the Rotos nerf might be a little too much. He was very clearly too OP and needed to be nerfed HARD (and this is coming from someone who owns him). They may have gone a little overboard, but time will tell. The biggest problem with the Rotos nerf is that it's essentially an Arbiter, Duchess & Siphi buff. Those are 3 of the strongest heroes in the game and instead of nerfing THEM, Plarium keep going after heroes who can counter them (primarily Tormin, but now Rotos as well). So much for changing the meta!

However, it's not nearly as bleak a picture as you paint it. Sure, anyone Rotos 1-shots on turn 1 will be able to be revived. But that's true of your Rotos as well. Yes, there are other heroes who can still 1-shot enemies and block revive (e.g. Bloodgorged), but the rest of the kit on those heroes isn't even remotely close to being as good as Rotos' was. There's a REASON you see Rotos in almost every Platinum team, but almost never see Bloodgorged. It's possible that they've over-nerfed Rotos and we'll now see the exact same teams, but with Bloodgorged instead...but that still makes those teams weaker (Bloodgorged doesn't get an extra turn when he kills, and his 1-shot skill has a 4-turn CD (compared to Rotos' effective 2-turn CD). He also has much lower DEF, can lose more than 50% of his HP from a single attack, and doesn't get a free turn if losing that amount of HP. 

As for everyone who whined about the very minor Duchess nerf, I truly hope you all get what you deserve (which is a proper re-balancing, because the one you initially got wasn't even remotely close to being enough). I sincerely hope she gets the Rotos treatment instead, and everyone who complained about this minor nerf will only have themselves to blame. Anyone who owns Duchess should have been ECSTATIC that this was all she got. Sure, it "ruined" her for CB (and by "ruined", I mean it made her much harder to gear since you'd need to put her on a 5:3 SPD tune instead of the much easier 4:3), but that's ALL it did. Duchess is a top 5 hero in pretty much EVERY piece of content, and you're whining because she's no longer top 5 in ONE?!?! I get it, CB is arguably the most important piece of content in the game, and it takes a LOT of work to setup your teams, and having to rebuild your entire team because of a hero re-balance SUCKS.

However, that nerf was MINOR. Keep in mind that they just buffed Blind Seer (another lego with a very similar kit), and if we use the buffed Blind Seer as the yard-stick, then this is what they should have done to Duchess (and thanks to everyone's whining about the inconsequential nerf she did get you've put this back on the table for the next big re-balance 12 years from now):

• A2: Places a 50% [Increase ATK] buff and a [Block Debuffs] buff on all allies for 2 turns. Places a [Perfect Veil] buff on all allies except this Champion for 2 turns.
• A3: +1 CD

Speaking of Khoronar, it was getting late when I wrote my previous post, so I forgot to include him, so here you go (plus a few others):

Khoronar

It's not the TM buff that makes him OP!!! Khoronar is OP because he's got one of the best combos in the game, and doesn't even need another hero to help him trigger it!

Instead, they should have removed his ability to apply the debuffs that trigger his counter-attack, and instead split his A2 into 2 abilities:

• A2: Has a 75% chance of placing a [Provoke] debuff on all enemies for 1 turn. Places a [Block Debuffs] buff and a 60% [Increase DEF] buff on this Champion for 2 turns. Removes all debuffs from this Champion before placing the [Block Debuffs] and [Increase DEF] buffs if Minaya is on the team.
• A3: Places a [Block Debuffs] buff and a 60% [Increase DEF] buff on this Champion for 2 turns. Grants an Extra Turn. Removes all debuffs from this Champion before placing the [Block Debuffs] and [Increase DEF] buffs if Minaya is on the team.

Jotun

These are actually really good buffs. Jotun can keep 100% uptime on CB, and now his regular attacks will also hit hard. He'll be a solid mid-game CB champ, and might even make it into the occasional end-game comps (depending on just how hard these abilities actually hit now that they scale off of his MaxHP).

Rowan

These are also really good buffs that make her an excellent choice for FK as well as mid-game CB teams. Not only is the increased 100% block Heal useful for FK, but the reduced CD on her 4-hit A3 means she can better help with getting the shield down (and put up a TON of POI once it's down). She'll also be useful for Dragon teams to help down the boss. 

Norog

Another really good buff (but I'm not it's enough). One of the ways to beat the overly abundant SPD meta is by using solid DEF-based teams that can take a hit. While shields SHOULD be a good way to help you survive, Serris can strip your shields and reduce your DEF with a single skill (and as I mentioned previously, THAT is why she's OP). With Norog on the team, you'll still want to have someone in a shield set, but his passive will help defend against the Serris buff strip. Again, I'm not sure if it's enough, but it's definitely a step in the right direction! It would probably be better if they made it 25% + 5% per debuff (and then Gurptuk might actually be useful!)*

*This is one of the MANY things that Plarium failed to realize with this "major rebalance": changes to 1 hero can affect the "OPness" of other heroes. Siphi, Duchess and Arbiter are 3 of the best heroes in the game (and their usage frequency proves that fact). The continual nerfs to Tormin, and the massive Rotos nerf this patch are essentially buffs to these 3 already incredibly OP heroes. This "major rebalance" was touted to be a meta-changer, but all it did was make 3 of the best heroes in the game even better!   

sfulga said:

Baelan said:

Drexthar Bloodtwin

Honestly, this guy didn't need a buff. He was already the #1 hero for Spider20.

---

No, he was barely useful in getting your first auto clear of 20 with him. Both venus and Ignatious are better than him in spider. ch and rg are better than him. 

He is in the 'works' category for spider.

• Drexthar: focus on RES & DEF
• 2 x Armiger (uncommon): focus on SPD, ACC & HP
• 1 x Apothecary (rare)): focus on SPD & HP

There's a comp that uses Drexthar, 1 rare and 2 uncommons who don't need spectacular gear and can beat Spider20 quite easily. Your 5th hero is irrelevant. You can throw in a nuker (like CH, RG or Septimus) to SPD it up, or toss in some food you're leveling. With Drex on the team, all you need to do is: 

1. prevent him from dying (high RES & DEF, plus a healer with a short CD)
2. prevent Spider from taking a turn (2 Armigers can handle that quite easily - Spider is SLOW)

1. She leads with her A2 (DEF debuff & Weaken, plus damage). That's actually BAD if you're using an HP Burn strategy, because it can result in the burning Spiderlings getting killed off. It's GREAT for a SPD nuke strategy though
2. Her HP Burn is only 75%, so not every Spiderling is going to be on fire
3. Her HP Burn is also an AoE nuke...against Spiderlings she's already debuffed DEF & Weaken on. Again, you do NOT want to klll Spiderlings if trying to kill the Spider with HP Burn
4. Her HP Burn has a 4-turn CD fully booked, but only a 2-turn duration, so after you accidentally kill off the Spiderlings, you need to wait before you can re-apply the HP Burn
5. She can't tank, so you'll need another hero to tank the Spiderling hits

Drexthar makes Spider20 easy-mode, which is why he's the #1 hero for Spider content, and why he didn't need a buff. The only challenge with him was gearing (and it wasn't even that much of a challenge), and that's been eliminated completely with this unnecessary buff. He can now debuff Spiderling ATK (reducing his incoming damage) AND gets even more RES (reducing his incoming POI damage). They've just made one of the hardest dungeons an absolute joke for anyone who owns Drexthar.  

Aahzmandius said:

@BALEAN    for the first, why should I play Rotos now, ok after nerf I sould be able to kill 2 champs (depends on how much -dmg he got) why should I play him for that reason if there are champs able kill all enemy champs and cc rest who survive such as Rae, Ithos, BigUn, Trunda and so on.... Only reason why he was used, bcs of his passive and his a3 ability which was able to kill and prevent from revive most dedly enemy champ. For example enemy has arbitr, syphi and for example dutchess and skullcrown. Before nerf Rotos kill skullcrown and injure or kill another champ and here stay 3 reviving champs but no more deadly skullcrown. After nerf rotos kill skullcrown and someone revive him... In all cost, rotos efect is zero. If I use a2 first round on arbiter or another reviver efect is same bcs someine revive him with turn meter boost and skullcrown kill whole my team. He is pure single target dps. His only use in fight is kill one target and be sure hes stay death, after nerf he lost this ability and heres no point to play him more... I think this nerf dostnt makes him good but useless. For now hes op bcs of his passive skill which garants him survive and gives mu revange. Much better nerf will be if plarium change his passive. Insted of gain another turn will be gain counterattack. If he get this. He will get his revange with survive and with 30% chance on a1 (Im ok with this nerf) hes still got chance to get extra turn.

 About dutchessdutchess, this nerf makes her pretty useless on cb. Its nice she can still function with 5:3, but more speed needs make her weaker in all other stats and she get no survive, she get less shield. For now with top gear and def buffs, she can survive UNM boss a3 ability until round 35, after nerf I count she will be death in round 30 or 28 on UNM and this makes her total useless on CB.

I agree that the Rotos nerf might be a little too much. He was very clearly too OP and needed to be nerfed HARD (and this is coming from someone who owns him). They may have gone a little overboard, but time will tell. The biggest problem with the Rotos nerf is that it's essentially an Arbiter, Duchess & Siphi buff. Those are 3 of the strongest heroes in the game and instead of nerfing THEM, Plarium keep going after heroes who can counter them (primarily Tormin, but now Rotos as well). So much for changing the meta!

However, it's not nearly as bleak a picture as you paint it. Sure, anyone Rotos 1-shots on turn 1 will be able to be revived. But that's true of your Rotos as well. Yes, there are other heroes who can still 1-shot enemies and block revive (e.g. Bloodgorged), but the rest of the kit on those heroes isn't even remotely close to being as good as Rotos' was. There's a REASON you see Rotos in almost every Platinum team, but almost never see Bloodgorged. It's possible that they've over-nerfed Rotos and we'll now see the exact same teams, but with Bloodgorged instead...but that still makes those teams weaker (Bloodgorged doesn't get an extra turn when he kills, and his 1-shot skill has a 4-turn CD (compared to Rotos' effective 2-turn CD). He also has much lower DEF, can lose more than 50% of his HP from a single attack, and doesn't get a free turn if losing that amount of HP. 

As for everyone who whined about the very minor Duchess nerf, I truly hope you all get what you deserve (which is a proper re-balancing, because the one you initially got wasn't even remotely close to being enough). I sincerely hope she gets the Rotos treatment instead, and everyone who complained about this minor nerf will only have themselves to blame. Anyone who owns Duchess should have been ECSTATIC that this was all she got. Sure, it "ruined" her for CB (and by "ruined", I mean it made her much harder to gear since you'd need to put her on a 5:3 SPD tune instead of the much easier 4:3), but that's ALL it did. Duchess is a top 5 hero in pretty much EVERY piece of content, and you're whining because she's no longer top 5 in ONE?!?! I get it, CB is arguably the most important piece of content in the game, and it takes a LOT of work to setup your teams, and having to rebuild your entire team because of a hero re-balance SUCKS.

However, that nerf was MINOR. Keep in mind that they just buffed Blind Seer (another lego with a very similar kit), and if we use the buffed Blind Seer as the yard-stick, then this is what they should have done to Duchess (and thanks to everyone's whining about the inconsequential nerf she did get you've put this back on the table for the next big re-balance 12 years from now):

• A2: Places a 50% [Increase ATK] buff and a [Block Debuffs] buff on all allies for 2 turns. Places a [Perfect Veil] buff on all allies except this Champion for 2 turns.
• A3: +1 CD

Blind Seer is a good hero (especially after this upcoming patch). She's only bad when compared to others with a similar role (specifically Duchess). Since they're both non-Void legos with very similar kits, they SHOULD be very similar in quality. Plarium would need to apply BOTH of the above nerfs to put these 2 heroes inline with one another. And since this is the nerf that brings her into balance with a similar hero AND doesn't impact her usefulness in CB, I look forward to all of the thumbs up and replies supporting this change from the Duchess owners!

At least the majority of Siphi, Serris, and Khoronar owners were smart enough to keep their mouths shut after their insanely OP heroes were barely touched by this "major re-balance".

Speaking of Khoronar, it was getting late when I wrote my previous post, so I forgot to include him, so here you go (plus a few others):

Khoronar

It's not the TM buff that makes him OP!!! Khoronar is OP because he's got one of the best combos in the game, and doesn't even need another hero to help him trigger it!

Instead, they should have removed his ability to apply the debuffs that trigger his counter-attack, and instead split his A2 into 2 abilities:

• A2: Has a 75% chance of placing a [Provoke] debuff on all enemies for 1 turn. Places a [Block Debuffs] buff and a 60% [Increase DEF] buff on this Champion for 2 turns. Removes all debuffs from this Champion before placing the [Block Debuffs] and [Increase DEF] buffs if Minaya is on the team.
• A3: Places a [Block Debuffs] buff and a 60% [Increase DEF] buff on this Champion for 2 turns. Grants an Extra Turn. Removes all debuffs from this Champion before placing the [Block Debuffs] and [Increase DEF] buffs if Minaya is on the team.

This means you actually need to have someone with him to apply those debuffs. They also should have removed the Minaya buffs from his passive (or from his A1 and A2). No other team-up hero in the game gets a benefit on THREE abilities from that team-up. 

Jotun

These are actually really good buffs. Jotun can keep 100% uptime on CB, and now his regular attacks will also hit hard. He'll be a solid mid-game CB champ, and might even make it into the occasional end-game comps (depending on just how hard these abilities actually hit now that they scale off of his MaxHP).

Rowan

These are also really good buffs that make her an excellent choice for FK as well as mid-game CB teams. Not only is the increased 100% block Heal useful for FK, but the reduced CD on her 4-hit A3 means she can better help with getting the shield down (and put up a TON of POI once it's down). She'll also be useful for Dragon teams to help down the boss. 

Norog

Another really good buff (but I'm not it's enough). One of the ways to beat the overly abundant SPD meta is by using solid DEF-based teams that can take a hit. While shields SHOULD be a good way to help you survive, Serris can strip your shields and reduce your DEF with a single skill (and as I mentioned previously, THAT is why she's OP). With Norog on the team, you'll still want to have someone in a shield set, but his passive will help defend against the Serris buff strip. Again, I'm not sure if it's enough, but it's definitely a step in the right direction! It would probably be better if they made it 25% + 5% per debuff (and then Gurptuk might actually be useful!)*

*This is one of the MANY things that Plarium failed to realize with this "major rebalance": changes to 1 hero can affect the "OPness" of other heroes. Siphi, Duchess and Arbiter are 3 of the best heroes in the game (and their usage frequency proves that fact). The continual nerfs to Tormin, and the massive Rotos nerf this patch are essentially buffs to these 3 already incredibly OP heroes. This "major rebalance" was touted to be a meta-changer, but all it did was make 3 of the best heroes in the game even better!   

The only meta-changing re-balance in this patch was Candraphon. They tried something similar with Elder Skarg, but failed miserably (because they very clearly don't have a good understanding of the game). 

Also, why has there been no mention on of the massively broken (as in bugged, not OP) Foli?

Instead of having a CD of 3 turns, this skill currently has NO COOLDOWN and is triggering the heal THREE TIMES. Did nobody wonder why Foli is showing up all of sudden in tons of arena teams?

How about the fact that if Arbiter rezzes allies with her A3, but gets frozen in the process, she immediately shrugs off the freeze debuff and takes her Extra Turn anyway. In fact, I think this happens ANY time someone gets frozen, but also triggers an extra turn.

Baelan said:

First off, great job making changes to so many heroes! You've clearly put a lot of work into this patch and although I think in general you've done an absolutely miserable job of it, it's better than nothing. As bad as these changes are, you've undoubtedly made the game better...just not nearly as much as you should have. The Artifact Forge and Advanced Quests are also really positive changes, and I wanted to thank you for that before I lay into for being so utterly inept with the balance changes. I won't cover them all, but I'll certainly cover a lot of them! 

Rotos

Honestly, I'm okay with this nerf. He was definitely too OP and needed to be scaled back. I think a lot of people are misinterpreting how the nerf actually works. If I'm understanding it correctly, you just need to use his A2 ONCE. As soon as you've used it once you've increased his MaxHP, and that's the only requirement for his A3 to gain block revive. He doesn't need to have MaxHP, or to have earned the absolute maximum possible. He just needs to have increased his MaxHP from using his A2 and then his A3 gains block revive. Rotos arena users are now left with a choice:

1. 1-shot someone, but they can be revived (still works great vs teams with only 1 reviver), or
2. build up your MaxHP first so that on your 2nd turn you can 1-shot someone and block the revive. Put him in Relentless gear and 18% of the time you'll 1-shot someone on his first turn. You also have a chance to get your 2nd turn if anyone deals 50% HP in a single attack

He's still really strong and is still a top tier hero, so great job with this one! The most legitimate complaint I've seen regarding this nerf is that it should have either been reduced damage OR the change to the block revive, not both. Time will tell whether or not this was a perfect nerf, not enough, or too much. Personally, I think you've probably gotten it just right, but it's possibly a little too much. However, if all balance changes were as good as this one, I'd be a happy customer! 

Siphi

Well, so much for being a happy customer! The only "balance improvement" that more blatantly shows how little you understand about your own game than this one is Serris! First off, great job recognizing that being able to spam 4 of the best buffs in the game every 3 turns was clearly OP. However, the "every 3 turns" is the LEAST OP part it!!!

Here are the things that make Siphi overpowered (in order), followed by the changes you should have made (and yes, you need to make ALL of these changes to make her just insanely good):

1. Too many insanely good buffs from a single skill (TM boost, Block Debuffs, DEF, and SPD?!?!?) . Just 3 of these are insanely strong, so pick 3 and remove the other. Barely nerfing just 1 of these and increasing the CD by 1 turn is not nearly enough. Not only did you not nerf this insanely OP skill correctly, but when you factor in the nerf you made to Tormin (a hero she ALREADY counters HARD), she comes out further ahead!
2. Her passive removes Fear & Freeze AND Heals?!?!?! Is she anti-control or a healer? Pick one, delete the other! Siphi was out-healing the best healers in the game. Bringing her healing more inline isn't enough. If she's removing control effects, then she shouldn't be a top tier healer AS WELL. 
3. Her revive gives full TM and ATK buff and CRI buff, allowing her to partner with a squishy nuker, who you can NEVER stop from 1-shotting someone on your team . Actually, you could...but you nerfed the only guy who could stop this from happening (Rotos). 
4. Her base SPD is the highest in the game...on a hero who has OP abilities that ALL benefit from taking as many turns as possible
5. The CD on her insane FOUR buffs skill is 3 turns. Good job correcting this one, but it's hardly the sort of nerf that's going to bring her into balance, now is it?
6. She has a built-in higher than average RES, making it impossible to control her (bc every Siphi player is going to stack RES)

You do realize that the nerfs you made to Tormin & Rotos end up being massive buffs for Siphi, right? There's probably no other hero who benefits more from their nerfs than she does. Seriously...how are you so bad at this? Literally any person who has played this game for more 6 months could have done a better job nerfing Siphi, while still keeping her as a top tier hero. 

Duchess Lilitu & Blind Seer

I'm going to discuss these two in tandem because they have similar skill sets. In fact, comparing similar heroes side by side is a GREAT way to determine if one is OP, as well as come up with creative ways to balance them. It's very clear from this patch that you don't do this!

How do you look at Duchess and think, "Okay, so we'll reduce her CD by 1" and then look at Blind Seer and think, "We'll improve her CD by 1" and think you've somehow brought these 2 heroes into balance?

Let's start by comparing their revives:

• Duchess: 70% Heal + 1-turn Veil + 2-turn 15% HoT (resulting in 100% heal)
• Blind Seer: 35% Heal + 1-turn block damage

Although block damage is nice, I think we can all agree that Duchess' rezz is WAY better...and yet, even after improving Blind Seer, her team revive is still on a 5 turn CD compared to Duchess' 4 turn CD. So Duchess gets a better revive AND it's on a short CD? Okay, so Blind Seer must be better somewhere else then! After all, balancing isn't about making every skill balanced, but about balancing the whole package. So let's look at their A2s: 

• Duchess: ATK buff (2) + xDebuffs (2) + Perfect Veil (2) on a 5-turn CD
• Blind Seer: Shield (2) + xDebuffs (2) on a 4-turn CD

Although the CD is better for Blind Seer now, Duchess's skill is still better. Duchess doesn't need to provide a shield, because if anyone dies, she just rezzes them back to 70% HP (with another 30% from HoTs). This nerf to Duchess is also pretty pointless. It doesn't impact her standing in arena (where she's OP), and only serves to make her harder to use for CB. FYI, everyone complaining that she's now "useless" is exaggerating. She now needs to be balanced to 5:3 SPD instead of 4:3. Much worse for sure, but hardly "useless". Also, if a hero is a staple on EVERY team, then that's an indicator that they're OP and need to be nerfed, so even if you can no longer use her on your CB team, she's still a staple on every other team, and thus still OP. 

They both have good A1s, but Duchess's aura is way better. These heroes are very similar and yet you utterly failed to balance them. The CD improvement on Blind Seer's A3 is a big improvement, but it's still not enough to close the gap. Duchess is also far easier to book! In addition to the 1 turn CD reduction on Blind Seer's A3, you should have also re-worked her books (and refunded any excess books). Take the healing bonuses from her A3 and apply them directly to the heal (ADD them, not multiply like they currently do), and have 2 books only for her A3 (both reducing the CD by 1, for a minimum of 4...the same as Duchess).

With these changes, you made an amazing hero very slightly less amazing, and made a useless hero useful. It's definitely a step in the right direction, but not nearly a big enough step (especially considering how rarely you make these changes). Your plan may be to continue to make adjustments over time, but I guarantee it'll be at least a year before you look at Blind Seer again.

Warlord

How do you look at Warlord and think, "This guy needs a buff"?!?! There are currently 3 legos who can extend debuffs in the game, and this is how most players would rank them:

1. Warlord (top tier, useful everywhere)
2. Septimus (very good, useful in CB, arena & Spider)
3. Vizier (very good, best extender, useful in CB and possibly FK) 

So how is it that you picked the BEST of those 3 heroes as the one who needed to be buffed? I get it, he's not nearly as OP as the other insanely OP heroes, but that's not a reason to buff him. He was already a top tier hero. I'm not saying you had to nerf him, but a nerf certainly makes a lot more sense than a buff!

Again, ANYONE who has played this game for 6+ months knows this. If you'd actually listen to your players, you'd stop making such idiotic mistakes.

Cruetraxa

Good buff! She does 1 thing, so she should be able to do it consistently. Well done!

Gurgoh

This is another hero with a similar kit & function as a different hero in the game: Shirimani, so let's compare them side by side and see if it makes sense to buff Gurgoh and not Shiri.

Both can have a 100% chance to AoE freeze (her A3, his A2). Both are on a 5-turn CD. Shirimani's gives her a 10% TM boost for each attacked enemy. Gurgoh gets an extra turn (which is clearly MUCH better). Gurgoh also removes 1 buff (allowing him to remove a shield or nullify an immunity set...the counter to a control team). So Gurgoh's freeze is better BY FAR. Again though, we need to look at their whole kit.

A1: Shiri hits 3 random targets with a 15% chance to freeze. Gurgoh hits 1 target with a 2nd attack vs frozen targets. This is about equal. The extra chance to freeze is nice, but since Gurgoh gets an extra turn from his A2, he's guaranteed to trigger the extra hit. He can also freeze from his passive, so there's synergy there too.

A2/A3: Shiri gets a big (50%) single target heal, plus 20% team heal on a 4-turn CD, plus a 2-turn 15% HoT on any allies with full HP after the heal. Gurgoh gets a duplicate version of his A1 (extra hit vs frozen target) on a 5-turn CD. Presumably this one hits a LOT harder (but I don't know bc I don't have him). Clear advantage to Shirimani here. Making Gurgoh's A1 and A3 essentially the same is pretty silly (and lazy).

Passive: Gurgoh has a 50% chance to freeze any attackers if he loses 20% HP (and since he's an ATK hero, that's going to be most attacks). Shiri has no passive.

Auras: Both have FW auras: 44% ATK for Gurgoh, 33% DEF for Shiri. Advantage Gurgoh, but not a big one. 

Stats: Shiri has 104 SPD, compared to 92 for Gurgoh. Since they both have the same main function (AoE freeze), this is a HUGE advantage for Shiri. Their survivability is comparable (slight edge for Shiri due to higher HP), but Gurgoh has much better damage (although that's not really what you're looking for in a control hero).

Overall, I'd say Shiri is slightly better. Even though Gurgoh's signature ability is WAY better, Shiri's heal is better than Gurgoh's duplicate A1, and base SPD is very important for a control hero.

So, slightly improving Gurgoh makes sense (at least compared to Shirimani. Most players would consider her to be a good, but not great hero, so a minor buff to Gurgoh seems in order (well done Plarium). However, not much of a buff is required since he's not much worse than Shirimani.

The main issues with Gurgoh are:

1. Base SPD too low for a control hero (you sort of fixed this by increasing it from 92 to 98. Again, well done Plarium!). This fix alone makes him already better than Shirimani (remember, their main function is control, and his AoE Freeze also removes 1 debuff and grants an extra turn) . The problem is that you ALSO increased the number of debuffs he removes. Remember, this ability is already WAY better than Shirimani's, so why are you making it even better? If it ain't broke, DON'T FIX IT!
2. A1 and A3 are redundant. Both compliment his extra turn from his AoE freeze, but they should probably be unique. Maybe make the A3 ignore DEF against a frozen opponent, or extend the freeze debuff by 1 turn (allowing him to lockdown 1 hero for a bit longer). The CD on his A3 is already really long, so make it really good!
3. His passive doesn't fit for an ATK hero. ATK heroes don't do well with passives that trigger when they get hit! Being an ATK hero also doesn't work with his slow base SPD (even with his improved SPD, he'll still struggle to be quick enough). This is the fix you should have done: convert him to a DEF-based hero. Instead of making him another Shirimani (a fast freezer), he could instead be a freezer who surrdenders the first turn. Keep him with his slow SPD and keep the new "removes 2 buffs" improvement. This allows Gurgoh to basically say, "You can go first, but if you don't kill us, you're not going to get another chance!" . THAT is how you balance a hero: compare them to a similar hero, and find ways to make them equally useful, but different. 

As I said, increasing his base SPD is an option, but it's not nearly as good of an option as converting him to a DEF-based hero (and leaving him slow).

Elder Skarg

Oh boy...what were you smoking on this one? Why would I want my lego with 870 base DEF to be provoking? Oh, I see...its so that I can inflict my ATK in damage when they murder me? So Rotos/Bloodgorged/Cruetraxa/etc. hits Elder Skarg for roughly 10M damage, but it's okay because he'll do 4-6K in return? Oh yeah...and that's pre-mitigation isn't it? So....maybe 1K damage? Yup, that'll make him top tier for sure! Do you really think the 60% DEF buff and 15% reduced damage is going to save him? Bump his damage reduction up to 40% vs legos and he might be viable.

Candraphon

Holy smokes! You may have just introduced a meta-breaking new hero (and possibly pulled another Ma'Shalled massive over-buff with this one). Candraphon is now going to absolutely WRECK Arbiter SPD nuke teams (which comprise roughly 120% of all Gold IV arena teams)!

I really like this change, but I also think you may have gone overboard. I think the 40% damage reduction and the TM boost were required, but I think the damage boost is probably too much. This guy's going to survive the first attack, interrupt the enemy team, and then 1-shot EVERYONE (especially if paired with a Krisk).

It also begs the question of why you realized that 40% damage reduction was important to keep alive a hero with just 903 base DEF and 17,505 base HP, but thought that Elder Skarg's measly 15% was fine (even though Elder Skarg has both lower base DEF and lower base HP). I mean, these heroes are listed one after the other, so the glaring disparity should be incredibly obvious! 

Tormin

Ah yes, it wouldn't be a RAID patch without you guys once again nerfing Tormin! Why do you hate this guy so much? Seriously, it's becoming an unhealthy obsession at this point. Not a single patch has passed without you nerfing him in some way, despite the fact that he's not even one of the top 10 most selected hero in Platinum arena teams.

As always with your obsessive Tormin nerfs, I'm not overly bothered by the nerf itself. I'm bothered by your focus on him. If you'd correctly nerfed the other 10 heroes selected more frequently than him MORE than you've nerfed him, I'd be fine with it, but you've BARELY touched them, while once again nerfing the only guy who can counter most of them. 

Apparently I need to once again remind you that Tormin was the most difficult fusion you've ever released. He SHOULD be better than most other legendaries, so STOP.NERFING.HIM!!!

He's also one of the few counters to the existing meta. This patch was supposed to be about introducing MORE ways to compete in arena, so how does nerfing one of the only counters to Arbiter fit that objective? It's the EXACT OPPOSITE of your goal!

Also, why does this:

Does not work with effects from Artifact Sets, Turn Meter filling effects from Masteries, healing, or those buffs or effects that take place at the start of a Round. 

only apply to Tormin and not EVERY HERO & ABILITY IN THE GAME?!?!?

Let's say I have 50% HP and the LS mastery (heal 5% of damage dealt when at or below 50% HP). My target has a 5K shield up. I hit him for 5100. He takes 100 and I heal 5. If he's got the "Heal 6% whenever an enemy heals" mastery and 50K HP, he'll heal 3K!!! How does that make any sense. That hero then takes a turn and then my hero with 1 Immortal set takes a turn...and that hero heals ANOTHER 3K. That's just monumentally stupid. 

The ONLY effects that should trigger as a result of masteries or artifacts are the counter-attacks for control effects. So, this is a very good nerf but again I have to ask, WHY IS IT ONLY BEING APPLIED TO TORMIN?!?!?! Surely Tormin freezing someone for getting a TM buff from a mastery is no more stupid than someone healing because the enemy healed 5% from a mastery.

Astralith

This is actually a deceptively good buff. Her A2 is the only skill she needs ACC for, so my making it unresistable, you've eliminated the need for her to build any ACC. That means she can use an ATK banner for more damage, or HP/DEF for more sustain. I'm not sure it's enough to make her useful, but it's a far bigger step in the right direction than most players are giving you credit for! That said, she's got 10 base ACC, which is now pretty pointless. Take that 10 ACC and apply it to her 102 base SPD and I think she'll be a more competitive hero!

Gurptuk

Definitely an improvement. Needs about 10 more improvements of this caliber if you want him to ever get out of the vault though! 

Dracomorph (& Venus)

Another pair of heroes with very similar kits. Do a side-by-side comparison and you'll see that Draco (the one who ISN'T a Void lego) is far superior. Venus is a top 5 hero, and yet Draco does everything she does, but better! Giving Draco her signature A2 ability as his A3 way back when you buffed him from vault guardian to top-ranked hero in RAID was a HUGE mistake. He's an ATK hero, so why are you giving him the best ability from a Support hero? Giving him her A3 would have made far more sense. What idiot looked at a DRAGON, then looked at Venus and decided the DRAGON should get her AoE DEF reduction and Weaken and NOT her AoE HP Burn?!?!?

Serris

I've saved the worst for 2nd last. Serris is without a doubt the most broken hero in the game. She's not the most OP (that's Siphi), and probably isn't even top 5. However, she is without a doubt the hero who is the most OP compared to where she should be. She's a bloody epic, and yet would easily make ANY top 10 list of legendaries!

This hero is so badly designed that I kid you not, if anyone presented such a horrible pile of garbage in any other job, they'd be fired on the spot. I'm not trying to be mean when I say that the person who came up with this hero needs to seriously consider a different line of work, because they're really bad at this one. Serris feels like she was designed by a toddler. This is how I envision the conversation going:

• "and her 2nd abiwity it hits evewyone...
• ...and it can steal a buff from evewyone...
• ...and it can potect her frienz from debuffs....
• ...and it makes evewyone afwaid of her...
• ...and and and then...um...her 3rd abiwity...it can also affect evewyone....
• ...and it takes any all of their buffs..."
• "Um...you already said she can do that with her 2nd ability" 
• "DAAAADDDD!!!! Stop intewwupting me! I know! She can do it on both! 
  
• ...and her 3rd abiwity can also lower their defences...
• ...and...um...their attack too...yeah...and, um...
• ...those effects will last longer than anyone else's!"
• "That seems a little strong, but okay..." 
  
• "I'M NOT FINISHED!!!!! 
  
• ...she also gets a shield evewy turn...
• ...and if she gets attacked, she makes the attacker afwaid...
• ...and if she attacks anyone...they get afwaid...
• ...and she's my girlfwiend...and...um... 
  
• ...she says i can stay up as late as i want...and...um...
• ...i get to have ice cweam for supper evewy night!"

Bold text is the ONLY thing Plarium thinks is wrong with her (well, that and the last 3). Let's think about this for a second...does ANYONE care that they nerfed the debuff duration? You could make it 1 turn and wouldn't matter. You've just removed every buff on the enemy team, and applied 60% decrease DEF. They're not getting another turn!

Fixing Serris is EASY:

• A2: 40% to steal a random buff + True Fear if a buff is stolen (no block debuffs)
• A3: removes all buffs and applies ATK debuff (no longer applies DEF debuff)

No hero that removes buffs should also apply block debuffs. In other words, no hero should be their own counter! That's game design 101, and it's embarrassing that Plarium doesn't understand this very basic concept. 

Also, removing buffs and applying DEF debuff is WAY TOO STRONG. It's so strong that if that's ALL a hero could do, they'd automatically be included in EVERY Arbiter SPD Nuke team. Serris is a control hero, so build her as such. 

Think about this...those are two MASSIVE nerfs, and yet she'd still be an incredible hero! No other "balance fix" in this list is as laughable as this one is. No other change shows just how out of touch Plarium are with their own game than the non-nerf of Serris. And let's not forget, she's not just dominant in the arena, she's used EVERYWHERE (except on most CB teams). 

Drexthar Bloodtwin

Honestly, this guy didn't need a buff. He was already the #1 hero for Spider20. If you're the absolute best hero in the game at 1 piece of content, then you're already strong enough (and aren't supposed to be useful anywhere else). That's called "balance". Heroes should essentially be average everywhere, or the best in 1 spot, and trash everywhere else (with lots of combinations in between). Now, plenty of people will point out that he's not even used on most of the SPD farm teams and therefore my #1 assessment is ridiculous. However, the thing that makes Drex the #1 Spider20 hero isn't that he's a great SPD farmer, but rather that if you have him, he can carry a mediocre team. Miscreated Monster is the #2 Spider20 hero for the same reason. 

That said, I'm not upset about his buff. It just demonstrates how little Plarium understands about hero balancing. It's this inability to understand this very basic concept that results in Lyssandra not being identified as a hero badly in need of a nerf. Like Drex, she's the #1 hero for a piece of content (FK), except it's even worse than that because she not only carries mediocre teams, but is also used on every SPD run team. She's also incredibly useful in arena, as well as most other dungeons. It's not a difficult concept to understand. Think of it like the Olympics. Some athletes are the best swimmers, others are the best sprinters, others are the best pole vaulters, etc. And then there are some athletes who aren't world-class at any of these events, but are very good in all of them. These athletes compete in the heptathalon and decathalon. If Siphi went to the Olympics, she'd win Gold in every single event. That's some pretty awful hero balancing, and although this patch made things better, it's not nearly enough, and it once again very clearly demonstrated that Plarium:

1. don't have a clue how to balance heroes, and
2. don't listen to player feedback*

 *Actually, the correct statement here is probably that they don't listen to the right player feedback. The reason I say this is because these balance changes (specifically the non-nerfs to Duchess, Siphi, and Serris) are EXACTLY what I'd expect to hear the whales recommend. The whales are very happy with their status in the game (built on the back of these OP heroes), and Plarium very clearly don't want to upset their cash cows. 

If you made it to the end, congratulations! If you agree with what I've written, go ahead and give it a thumbs up. It won't make a lick of difference, since nobody who actually works for Plarium will ever read it, but it can't hurt. 

amazing post. i really hope they'll read it and take it into account (even though i'm a happy draco owner)

keep up the good work, maybe posts like yours and a mindset in the right place will make a difference in the future! 

I don’t know if this is where suggestions can be made or if they are even still taking them. Looks like they mad some changes already based on feed back. 

I have a few:

1) Abbess-

Divine Wrath

Attacks all enemies. Places a [Sleep] debuff on this Champion for 1 turn. Damage inflicted is proportional to either this Champion's ATK or the target's DEF or ATK stat, whichever is highest.

Why is this placing a sleep Debuff on her now. It didn’t before. Why are our legendary champions putting themselves to sleep just to use an A2 ability.

2. Khoronar-

I get what people are saying about the change being for the doom tower but cutting his turn meter reduction in half is an extreme nerf for this hero. He is a VOID LEGENDARY!!!!  Tormin essentially gets a buff, warlord gets a buff but Khoronar is too strong? Even with Minaya on the team he is not overpowered. Not as much as some other heroes on this list. On his own he is not overly impressive and neither is Minaya. Putting her on the team just to get the perk between them is sacrificing a hero slot that could go to much more powerful heroes. And how many people actually have those two to use in combination? How much will it actually break PVE to keep him like he was? It will certainly ruin his PVP ability. Again, he is a void legendary. If the need to cut his turn meter reduction is so high then increase his damage output or don’t have him do half the damage when used with Minaya. Please, this change needs to be reconsidered. 

3) Gurptuk -

His changes are ok, helps him a bit but I think his A2 should do an AOE cleanse, heal, shield on a 4 turn cool down. This would make him great. 

Anyway, I hope someone reads this an takes it into account.

Thanks

Realy, this is what you call a balance patch.

Most changes look like you try to do something without changing anything.

OP Champions stay OP (Siphi, Rothos, Serris)

Weak Champions remain weak (Drake, Maeve)

Some alibi changes with small effort to the game won't close the gap between these champions.

Baelan said:

Aahzmandius said:

Khoronar

It's not the TM buff that makes him OP!!! Khoronar is OP because he's got one of the best combos in the game, and doesn't even need another hero to help him trigger it!

Instead, they should have removed his ability to apply the debuffs that trigger his counter-attack, and instead split his A2 into 2 abilities:

• A2: Has a 75% chance of placing a [Provoke] debuff on all enemies for 1 turn. Places a [Block Debuffs] buff and a 60% [Increase DEF] buff on this Champion for 2 turns. Removes all debuffs from this Champion before placing the [Block Debuffs] and [Increase DEF] buffs if Minaya is on the team.
• A3: Places a [Block Debuffs] buff and a 60% [Increase DEF] buff on this Champion for 2 turns. Grants an Extra Turn. Removes all debuffs from this Champion before placing the [Block Debuffs] and [Increase DEF] buffs if Minaya is on the team.

This means you actually need to have someone with him to apply those debuffs. 

I like some of your suggestions about khoronar. Very constructive. If they feel the need to nerf him, they went about it wrong. He is a good hero but he is only great when Minaya is with him and she is only so so at best. I don’t think he is OP. YES, I have him and Minaya but they haven’t sent me Soaring into Platinum arena. They have helped in spider. They have helped me back into gold 4 (where I was even without them until the speed meta started pushing me out over the past month). Yes, you can say I just don’t want him changed because I have him but he is the ONLY hero I have that is allowing me to keep up in this speed meta and changing his turn meter reduction will greatly affect that. Again, I do like some of your suggestions though, very insightful and well thought out. Something in that area could change but not his turn meter.

keenny0 said:

I'd say plarium has a diferent opinion on "enemy turn" than you, not me.

1 turn = 1 turn, each champ has it's own turn, it doesn't magically change cause you think otherwise.

No one knows what Plarium opinion is.

The Plarium Managers haven't said anything.

Tormin New Passive says "Per Enemy Turn" not Per Champion Turn.

I would like clarification on how Tormin New Passive works.

Not sure - why you are trying to debate with me about this?

You are not the Developer who coded the new Passive.

You are not the Plarium Manager who is suppose to answer my question.

In addition to the question I asked about Tormin, I have a few more questions which I would like answered.

The game has the following text:

Rotos the Lost Groom :

Fated Destruction

Attacks 1 enemy. Will ignore 60% of the target's DEF. Will also ignore [Unkillable] and [Block Damage] buffs. Enemies killed by this skill cannot be revived if this Champion has MAX HP from the Vitality Plunder skill. Grants an Extra Turn if this skill kills an enemy.

I need the Developer to tell me how the Block Revive on this move works?

I have heard people say 4 different things.

Group 1 ----> Says Players need to use Vitality Plunder Skill 1 time.

Than the Fate Destruction move will be able to Block Revive.

Group 2 ----> Says Players need to use Vitality Plunder skill X times till we reach the 60k MAX HP limit amount.

Than the Fate Destruction move will be able to Block Revive.

Group 3 ----> Says Players need to use Vitality Plunder skill 1 time + Heal Rotos to MAX HP

Than the Fate Destruction move will be able to Block Revive

Group 4 ---> Says Players can't use the Vitality Plunder skill at all

Than the Fate Destruction move will be able to Block Revive as long as you never do the Vitality Plunder skill.

The game has the following text:

Hope :

Holy Storm 

CD: 4

I need the Developer to tell me about the Holy Storm Chance Percentage

The Holy Storm move is 50% unbooked.

The Holy Storm move is 75% fully booked.

? 

If the chance percentage isn't 100% chance fully booked, The Cool Down Reduction you are doing is Pointless?

Is it not?

I don't understand.

The Holy Storm move is not applying any Debuffs or Buffs.

The Holy Storm move only function is to remove all Buffs, but it can't do it if the chance isn't 100%.