Member
Hi guys,
I have some thoughts on this subject. There is, frankly, seemingly very little consistency in how ranged card HP pools are decided. There are many outliers (both under powered and overpowered) based on the health pool of the ranged cards in this game.
In general, ranged units should be tiered in health based on their energy cost, and whether or not they fly. Their abilities should probably have some level of impact on their health pool as well, but I do not believe rarity should be a factor (demanding that rarer cards are significantly beefier is actually a significant factor limiting meta diversity, but that’s another post).
When framing this discussion, I want to set some basic benchmarks to make comparisons easier. For simplicity, we’re going to use damage dealing spells. Poison is currently significantly underpowered so we’re going to be looking at the adventure spells and Incan Craig. Arrowstorm, Craig, Fireball, Lightning Bolt.
Examples:
BHK is a 3 cost flying unit. BHK dies to arrowstorm.
BEB is a grounded 3 cost ranged unit. She barely survives an Arrowstorm.
These are good examples of health pools that make sense given their cost irrespective of their abilities or rarity. This dynamic (that the flyer dies to Arrowstorm and the grounded unit survives, both with powerful abilities and both at 3 cost) is a basic rule of thumb for how ranged health pools should be decided. Note that BHK is a big example of how these damage benchmarks effect balance, as this card was running rampant before the HP nerf because it survived Arrowstorm.
Here are a couple of bad examples, which need their HP adjusted:
Amazingly Randy is a 4 cost grounded ranged unit that barely survives Arrowstorm but dies to both fireball and Incan Craig (post nerf). His health could be buffed roughly 10% - he would still die to Fireball, but survive Incan Craig and Arrowstorm. His summoned units die to all forms of damage spell.
Sharon is a 4 cost grounded ranged unit that survives Fireball(!) and heals herself and others. Her HP should be nerfed at least 5% so that she dies to Fireball. (and her heal should be reduced on the NK, but that isn’t the point of my post)
Ninjew Kyle creates immense value from his warcry, but also has 690 health at max level 3 which means he survives a Fireball quite easily. A 15% nerf to his health puts him in Fireball range.
Medusa Bebe is built on having high health and is an outlier, though I would argue that she should still die to Lightning Bolt for an equal energy cancel. A 10% nerf to her HP would allow lightning bolt to cancel. Her tankiness is a key factor of her strength, and her snakes are a big part of that tankiness (forcing the opponent to waste swings on the snakes instead of her). If she is too weak because of this nerf, increase her damage or attack speed slightly to increase the amount of snakes she is capable of producing.
Incan Craig just received a nerf, I realize that, but he also survives lightning bolt currently. At the very least he should die to lightning Bolt. It would require a 10% nerf to his HP to make that happen.
The idea that HP pools need to be normalized among the cards is not new, nor does it only apply to to ranged cards. But I think that looking at ranged cards and overhauling their HP levels to actually make sense rather than feeling like they’re completely random is a good start. Also, keep in mind that these are big aspirational type changes that would likely require other tweaks to cards to make them work (Medusa producing more snakes especially vs swarm, for example).
Thoughts?
Member
Bhk ia garbage. I remember before the nerf he was barely viable he is garbage atm. Arrowstorm the card is stupid to give to a theme that already had fireball lb somm incan i mean overkill much? Meanwhile sci fi has nerfed bhk and nerfed poison and worthless freeze cuz no one ever heard of frostbite......no damage.....yet sci fi stans freeze does dam......
