Balance update: Game strategy got flushed along with common cards | Forums

[F2PIWN]

Hi everybody, I want to share how I feel about this game since the big balance update.

I play SPPD for like 6 month, I am level 14 and play in the silver shield level 46-47, I could go higher but then it’ll become too hard (time consuming) to finish events and get PVP packs so I stagnate until I feel I have a stronger deck.

I am not angry and I usually don’t like to complain but I have to express myself this time because that update was just stupid. It makes me feel that game strategy got flushed down along with common cards.

But first one comment: The game is awfully expensive. It's a shame !
Phone Destroyer should not be like these bad games where you pay a lot for meaningless play.
SPPD is that expensive that you can spend the equivalent of what you earn in 1 day just to get a few cards and most of them are useless now. This is just crazy to pay that much for so less content.
I invite you to check AvrgGuy777 ’s video on that it’s good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMmmfojd380&t=3s

Some PVE has become unplayable
What to do when a boss (such as Ninjew) is spawning level 5-6 legendary cards. And this is just 11/15 stage !!

The death of common cards
I agree with the fact that Rare, Epic and Legendary cards needed to become more attractive (specially the latter) and playable at lower level of upgrade since it’s so hard to collect copies. So it makes sense to give a huge boost at level 3 for example. It also makes sense that they get way better than commons the more you upgrade them.
But it wasn’t necessary to nerf commons at the same time. They’ve become ****. And well, commons are like their label implies, cards you get the most. In the end we get a lot more unworthy turds in the game now.

Deck building and strategy aren’t that great anymore
Those playing the game from the beginning now have plenty of cards in every theme, perhaps they are not touched.
For everyone else, as a consequence of the unworthiness of commons, we have a lot less choice when we build a deck. We are forced to play our Epic and Legendary cards. Thus we are forced to play the theme in which we get the most of them even if we didn’t play that theme before it has now become a better option.

It favors lucky players and/or whales to the detriment of skilled ones
Unless you play for a long time you need to be lucky to get legendaries and epics or simply buy them. You were lucky or stupid enough to be able to get a few level 3 legendary cards in a short time ? You gonna climb up the legendary ranks.
In the course of 6 months I only got 2 legendary cards and I was able to upgrade only 3 epics to level 3. It sucks no ?

New players are going to need way more time to become competitive !
And have more time to get bored.

Themes balance isn’t satisfying due to the crazy power of Epic and legendary cards
Just look at the Mystical theme : Medusa, Token, Ninjew are 3 good legendary cards to play with. They are not expensive nor hard to play.
I upgraded adventure and Sci-Fi and since that update, I replaced 3 adventure cards with Sci-Fi ones because my epics in this theme are better. I even consider switching adventure (my favorite) for another theme like Mystical that has 2 epic assassin cards and a better randy.

Another thing: Give coins + pvp tickets + cash in event rewards.
Lower level and new players are struggling to get some of those. Especially cash since you need a lot to upgrade cards in the beginning.

Oh and the challenge mode isn’t fun at all unless you are a long time player with a strong base of upgraded cards.

And finally, the game crashes too many times. How many more lost lockers will we lose until it'll be fixed ?

I like South Park and its atmosphere is the reason why I keep on playing. Please improve that game to the level SP deserves.

Thanks for reading.

[Void_Away-]

Hey buddy I have to disagree that challenges isn't fun unless you have a strong base of cards, I have an account that's one month old and can hold its ground, although that's only recently and on the other hand I have an account that can reach pretty high.

About the rest I agree with you, the pool of cards that you must have to stay competitive has been reduced. Their latest change was just plain disrespectful to many players because of the invalidated effort and grinding, and also because like you say, they are forcing many people to switch themes in what sometimes ends up being a futile effort to remain competitive, at least at the same level prior the update.

I also care about this game but now it's only because it's related to South Park, because although they'll tell you they take your feedback seriously, these guys don't really listen.

[StephenKahley]

So youre a deranker whos sad he cant spawn hoards of lower level cards to completely run the table? I think I love this update even more now.

[Void_Away-]

No I don't derank I was top hundred before the update and I didn't have all lvl 6 commons as you may think, and of course there's gonna be people's who can feel happy about the changes, thank you for letting us know about it without addressing any point that's being discussed in the thread.

[F2PIWN]

There's nothing to objectively love in this update.
Sure you see new decks, but you'll get used to it and you'll just see the same deck everywhere soon enough.

Mechanically boost (like crazy) cards and double nerf commons as it was done cannot seriously be appreciated. This destroys the game as we used to know it.
Assassins deal less damages than epic/legendary range units and epic/legendary range units have more hp than fighters, etc. Does it make sense ?

Now it's only about getting legendary cards. And because they are so superior to any other rarities it doesn't matter what you do as long as you got lucky enough to get your legendary cards to level 3. Epics don't even matter anymore, they're deck fillers.

So think about it. How do you get legendary cards ? Are you lucky and get them in pvp or free packs ? Or are you smart enough to pay 20 bucks for 1 copy of them ?
Either way this doesn't sound like a great game to me !

Now, how do you seriously progress in the game if you're a F2P player ?

I do derank because I don't want to play 1 hour to be able to open my pvp pack or many hours to end an event. As a F2P player I already have to wait long enough just to get materials to build a decent deck. At least getting copies of cards used to be ok, but now that commons don't matter, it has become a problem.

[Void_Away-]

Yea indeed, legendaries should be obtainable some other way than luck for f2p. Other games like Clash Royale have them available in their shop for in-game currency that you can grind, still expensive but at least it's possible.The update just bypasses potential problems with the game system, talking about all the different upgrade items that now have been wasted in commons, and I'll be redundant but balance updates should never force people to switch themes to try to stay competitive, there is no equal number of epic and legendary warriors, assassins, ranged units etc, specially now that epics and legendaries have been given steroids. As F2PIWN points out mystic has a more than obvious advantage now with their library of cards, if you were playing mystic before the update or if you had epics close to lvl 4, you were lucky because you've been bestowed by the developers golden coating.

Edit: Forgot to mention, all of this is done while there are tons of bugs that have yet to be fixed.

[JR0MER0]

Although I can totally understand the frustration about the commons being nerfed (seriously poor lack of judgement by the devs, if they would have just left the commons as is and buffed the rest, most of the backlash could have been avoided), I totally disagree about strategy being thrown out the window.

I've only been playing since May and I actually did the opposite of most from the start by pouring all my materials into upgrading my Epics and Legendaries. ATM, I only have four common cards at lvl 4 (one from each theme), so I absolutely have had to rely on strategy to compete with everyone spamming high lvl common cards on me, and you know what? I think I've done alright being a lvl 14 New Kid who's been floating around the high 40 ranks for over a month (I can make it into Legendary with my best deck, but I'm not sure if I'm ready yet). I'm constantly fighting New Kids several lvls higher than me, and I've been able to hold my own (I've legit beaten four lvl 18s). Now the tables have turned a bit and maybe all the common card spammers will have to learn a little bit of strategy of their own to stay competetive.

Want to know something else? I haven't spent a dime on the game and have gotten 13 Legendary cards just from lockers and free packs (4 Master Ninjew, 2 Medusa Bebe, 2 Witch Doctor Token, 2 6th Element Randy, 2 Grand Wizard Cartman, and 1 Man Bear Pig). Once again, I've only been playing since May. As you can see, it's totally possible to stay fairly competitive without pouring money into the game. Yeah, I guess you can say I've been pretty lucky and I'm sure I'll never be able to compete with the whales as a F2P, but the way I see it, they actually spent money on the game whereas I haven't, so I think I'm ok with that.

EDIT: I actually have 15 Legendary cards now, I just got another Medusa Bebe in the last event pack and I forgot I had Shieldmaiden Wendy too.

[Void_Away-]

Although I can totally understand the frustration about the commons being nerfed (seriously poor lack of judgement by the devs, if they would have just left the commons as is and buffed the rest, most of the backlash could have been avoided), I totally disagree about strategy being thrown out the window.

I've only been playing since May and I actually did the opposite of most from the start by pouring all my materials into upgrading my Epics and Legendaries.

Yea clearly we've fallen in opposite sides of the spectrum when it came to deciding in investing materials since you've mostly used them in epics and legendaries, so you are going to have a biased opinion because now you have it "good" and you could say the same about me because I have it "bad" but my case is a bit different because I have multiple different accounts and not all of them had bad consequences. People that have been playing longer, or maybe some even from May like you, came to the realization that the way this game was designed, it was worth to spend your materials and thousands of coins in your common cards instead of wasting them on your epics, so many people committed to this path. These people didn't receive any kind of alternative to make up for the lost investment, and since you say you can understand the frustration I'm sure you can understand this part as well.

I found this game so fun back then that I ended up having multiple accounts, just to try all the possible decks and themes, one of them highest rank was 57 or so in legendary, and the other could go as high as 900, these two accounts went down drastically and other two went up just because they used mystic, but even so I'm not happy with the last update, because I can no longer use underused cards and expect to do well just out of skill, rather epics and legendaries will mostly trample their way, taking the fun out of trying underused cards, this is no longer possible, if you want to stay competitive, you are forced to use certain cards and in many cases change your themes, so yes in fact strategy has been affected, I can tell you that with total confidence, just out of my experience.

[JR0MER0]

Yea clearly we've fallen in opposite sides of the spectrum when it came to deciding in investing materials since you've mostly used them in epics and legendaries, so you are going to have a biased opinion because now you have it "good" and you could say the same about me because I have it "bad" but my case is a bit different because I have multiple different accounts and not all of them had bad consequences. People that have been playing longer, or maybe some even from May like you, came to the realization that the way this game was designed, it was worth to spend your materials and thousands of coins in your common cards instead of wasting them on your epics, so many people committed to this path. These people didn't receive any kind of alternative to make up for the lost investment, and since you say you can understand the frustration I'm sure you can understand this part as well.

I found this game so fun back then that I ended up having multiple accounts, just to try all the possible decks and themes, one of them highest rank was 57 or so in legendary, and the other could go as high as 900, these two accounts went down drastically and other two went up just because they used mystic, but even so I'm not happy with the last update, because I can no longer use underused cards and expect to do well just out of skill, rather epics and legendaries will mostly trample their way, taking the fun out of trying underused cards, this is no longer possible, if you want to stay competitive, you are forced to use certain cards and in many cases change your themes, so yes in fact strategy has been affected, I can tell you that with total confidence, just out of my experience.

Well, if there's any silver lining for players like you, I'd say it's this. Epics and Legendaries are still total crap in Challenge Mode. Their base stats got no increase with the update, so with the exception of maybe Mecha Timmy and SoMM, they're barely even usable and will pretty much get decimated by your rares and commons. Because I don't have many lvl 4 commons and lvl 3 rares yet, I've barely been able to break even in CM, I think the most wins I've gotten in one go is 5 (I've only taken the one free play every week and will continue to do so until I feel I'm competitive). So while guys like me are trying to get their rares and commons leveled up to be competitive in CM, guys like you can probably use us as stepping stones to get all those coins and materials to start levelling up your Epics and Legendaries. Just some food for thought.

[Void_Away-]

Because I don't have many lvl 4 commons and lvl 3 rares yet, I've barely been able to break even in CM, I think the most wins I've gotten in one go is 5... //guys like you can probably use us as stepping stones to get all those coins and materials to start levelling up your Epics and Legendaries. Just some food for thought.

I'll give you a perspective of my CM, what you say about rares and commons in CM, yea you can still use them, but the path that you need to follow to get a rare lvl 3 (and it doesn't need to be max upgraded lvl 3) is extremely short in materials and coins in comparison to trying to make epics and legendaries more competitive in normal pvp. I have an account that's roughly one month old that got 12 wins on the last challenge, it was a first for that account, but I just use it as an example because it's so young.

I can get 12 wins in the other accounts but the rewards that I get for one free try are not great, the amount of coins you get is around 1800 but last time I upgraded an epic to near max lvl 3 was around 20000. I can go again in CM but is not free and is not cheap, specially now that at the end of the season I can't get the 300 cash reward for being in a high tier in legendary, because the update also took that away when my rank was lowered drastically. So I can't exactly use people as stepping stones through CM, because I can't get all the copies I'm missing from it, or the gold, even if it was free to go let me tell you that getting 12 wins over and over is really time consuming and can be pretty exhausting as well. Last challenge I was 1st in the leader board for a good while before they took my spot away and my chance of getting 5 more epics as a reward (probably was gonna be awarded 5 transmogrifies anyways), and I didn't try to earn my place back because it's really difficult to get the right rng to get the best possible matchups to beat top scores, and because it's simply not worth the rewards. You may say that eventually I'll get there, but then I have to speak about forced theme switching again, and all the other points raised here, I still stand by them. If I were to project your philosophy of the stepping stones on my experience, those stepping stones would be maybe 1 cm away from the ground per stone.

Edit: and actually, I may get all epics to lvl 4 because they want to bring epic requests (I think) but my high tier position was simply translated away for good because I can't easily get legendaries to lvl 4 to try to sneak near my old position, and just to clear it up for you since I don't know if you know the perks of having a high position, is that you earn rewards based on your position, some people can't possibly get there anymore without dropping some serious amounts of money, the gap has been placed for a very long term, in the middle of a season no less.