Thursday, May 8, 2008

Kongai: Revamped Bars

Proposals for altered cards follow.


NINJAS

Amaya
55/100
2/0/6
Each turn, Amaya disables one of the enemy's attacks at random.

  • Shadow Wrath. 40en, 2spd, 12dmg(Dark). 95hit, 100proc. Attacks all enemies. Both.
  • Shadow Curse. 35en, 2spd, Dark. 95hit, 100proc. Reduces the hit rate of all enemies by 20% for 6 turns. Both.
  • Ninja-Step. 30en, 7spd, 15dmg(Dark). 95hit, 100proc. If this Attack hits, Amaya slips into the shadows and appears at far range. Close
  • Dark Chi Blast. 70en, 6spd, 55dmg(Dark). 100hit, 50proc. May burn foe for 3 damage each for 3 turns (12dmg). Far.

*5 en off everything but Shadow Curse. Curse is really dangerous, I don't want it to be cheap.
*This is basically what Amaya looks like with a Scroll and, like Rumiko, he works much better than way. He can chain a Port into a Blast into a Wrath. And that's enough to kill someone which is really important.
*Ninja-Step up to 7 speed. This makes it more likely to interrupt an opponents attack and makes it objectively better than Rumi's. I'd like to separate the two of them a little more since, you know, I hate duplicate skills and all.


Higashi
60/100
2/3/3
When Higashi successfully intercepts, he deals 60 damage to the foe.

  • Open Palm. 40en, 8spd, 25dmg (Phys). 90hit, 30proc. Can cause the opponent to be stunned for 1 turn. Close.
  • Dashing Strike. 20en, 5spd, 20dmg(Phys). 95hit. 25% chance for a critical hit. Far.
  • Sweep. 0en, 5spd, 10dmg(Phys). 90hit, 90proc. If this strikes first it takes the enemy's legs out from under them, interrupting their attack. Close.
  • Chi Wave. 80en, 5spd, 13x5dmg (Light). 100hit, 50proc. A wave of energy may burn the foe for 3 damage each for 3 turns (12dmg). Far.
*The biggest change here is chopping 20 maximum health off the Master. He's an old man, he should be fragile instead of a tower of health, right? It makes sense, though, since a Higashi with less health is a Higashi who has to get his opponent stunned. He doesn't have enough health to last in a slughfest so it makes Palm spam both more important and less of a problem at the same time.
*Open Palm loses a point of speed, going to 8. This means it trades blows with several more skills even when it stuns. And it loses 5% hit rate as well to be a little less effective.
*The single-hit Chi Blast becomes Chi Wave. This makes a General's less of a no-brainer. And means stepping away from Higashi isn't as big of a deal for cards like Phoebe or Juju. At 13x5 it still works out to 65 damage with that chance to burn pushing it past the one-hit point but it will still do at least some damage even against moderate resistance - which will hamper it enough that, perhaps, it ought to pick up a bit more raw damage, 14 or 15x, perhaps.

Onimaru

*No change.

Rumiko
70/100
2/4/0
Rumiko has a 55% chance to avoid intercepts when she switches out.

  • Shuriken Barrage 40en, 7spd, 6x6(36)dmg(Phys). 90hit, 100proc. A rapid stream of shuriken that hits even fleeing opponents. Far.
  • Ninja-Port. 30en, 2spd, 20dmg(Light). 90hit, 100proc. If this hits, Rumiko vanishes in a puff of smoke and appears at far range. Close.
  • Poison Dart. 20en, 7spd, 15dmg(Dark). Poison tipped darts have a chance to poison the enemy for 5 damage each for 3 truns (20dmg). Both.
  • Eviscerate. 70en, 8spd, 20dmg(Phys). 70hit, 100proc. High chance to stun the enemy for 1 turn. Close.

*Eviscerate switches its hit chance and proc chances. Why? This is something of a sanity change since you won't have to sit there waiting to find out if you've procced or not if it lands. But, also, it means that Eviscerate is hit harder by miss chances. Say you get blasted by Shadow Curse. Witht he current Eviscerate that's 80hit/70proc or a 56% chance that your target winds up stunned. My way around it's 50hit/100proc or, overall, a 50% coin-flip. That way it's a 1 for 1 tradeoff that makes each point of dodge or miss work harder. The old way, each 5 points of missing is worth only 3.5% chance of getting stunned.
*Shuriken Barrage loses 12 raw damage and, realistically, loses a lot more by getting a higher multiplier and lower damage value. But, it alo picks up the incredibly powerful hits fleeing condition that, I think anyway, makes it even stronger since that makes Rumi's Evis to Port to Shuriken combo unavoidable (Well, 70% of the time, anyway). And, to me, Rumicans is a character that shouldn't be doing a lot of damage but, instead, concentrating on disabling her opponents and destroying them that way. Giving her an "HF" skill means she's a character who's very focused on getting on and off the field.
*Finally, Evis goes back up to 70 and Ninja-Port comes down to 30. This is to keep that combo chain intact. But it also means that a Rumiko with a Scroll can't stand there and double stun an opponent - stunlock is nasty since it's no fun to play against and it really should be avoided wherever possible. I also think a cheaper Port is more flexible and, therefore, useful.

Yoshiro
70/100
0/6/1
When struck by an attack, Yoshiro has a 25% chance to counter-punch for 20 damage.

  • Open Palm. 20en, 9spd, 18dmg (Phys). 95hit, 25proc. Can cause the opponent to be stunned for 1 turn. Close.
  • Rising Dragon. 30en, 8spd, 25dmg(Phys). 100hit, 100proc. A fast attack that hits even a fleeing opponent. Close.
  • Chi Reflect. 0en, 10spd, Light. 100proc. Reflects any incoming light magic attack back at the foe. Both.
  • Chi Blast. 65en, 8spd, 45dmg(Light). 100hit, 50proc. May burn the foe for 5 damage each for 2 turns (15dmg). Far.

*Open Palm and Rising Dragon switch speeds. This is mainly so that Yoshi is not a clear loser in a game of Palm Slapping with Higashi. He'd actually be a clear winner if my proposed change was implemented. To pay for that extra point of speed, though, it goes to 20 energy. Rising goes down so there's more of an option - Rising will trade with more skills that way but if you don't like that then you can try to outpace them by rolling the dice on Palm.
*For his innate, I've dropped the 90% chance to do nothing for you and, instead, changed it into something that, I think, more accurately captures Yoshi's status as the Ninja's brawler. He's a weak card but a fast one and what this innate does is not help him stay alive longer but, instead, adds to his damage, making him more lethal overall. A 25% chance to hit for 20 (Which would be untyped damage and just cut through any defenses) works out to doing 4 extra damage every round Yoshi is attacked, on average. It's not enough in and of itself to keep someone like Ashi from pounding away but it is enough to make them pay - especially if they're just trying to chip away at him. The way it is here it would work against anything at either range but if that proves too strong it could easily be restricted to a single type (Physical) or a single range (Close).


VILLAGERS

Juju
80/100
0/4/5
Juju has a 30% chance each turn to cure a debuff on himself.

  • Hex. 30en, 4spd, 8x5(40)dmg(Dark). 100hit. Dark forces from the void rapidly strike at the enemy, knocking off a buff. Far.
  • Staff Strike. 30en, 8spd, 12dmg(Phys). 95hit. A deft blow. Close.
  • Healing Touch. 40en, 4spd, Light. 100proc. Heals you for +25hp. Both.
  • Touch of Doom. 80en, 4spd, Dark. 100hit, 100proc. Counts down for 4 turns, then deals 99 damage (Dark). Close.
*Hex gets a power boost by picking up a modifier. There are a lot that could apply here but, I think, knocking off a buff works best with the rest of what Juju does. It's really fine by itself already but I think Juju needs his dial cranked up a little bit so I'd be wiling to see what happens with this one.
*No miss chance on Touch of Doom because, honestly, if you can get that one to cast you deserve to have it go off.
*And, finally, Staff Strike goes from being a wimpy low-priority hit to being, well, a wimpy high-priority hit. But, I think, this could be all Juju needs to really pop since it gives him something that makes anyone thinking they can just interrupt his slow skills think twice. It's not going to kill anyone in and of itself but it creates a "will he or won't he" that people trying to avoid something like Healing Touch or Touch of Doom will have to deal with.


Popo

*No changes.


Ubuntu

*The only change here would be to make Spiritual Assistance a debuff that doesn't stack. That would make it kill cards in four rounds, then, instead of two - equal to Touch of Doom just a little bit different.


Tafari
80/100
5/0/3
Tafari deals 20 damage to any enemy that switches out.

  • Poison Dart. 10en, 5spd, 5dmg (Dark). 95hit, 30proc. Chance to poison the enemy for 4 damage each for 3 turns (16dmg). Both.
  • Leafy Trap. 40en, 1spd, Phys. 100proc. For the next 4 turns, the next enemy using a physical attacks takes 45 damage (Phys). Far.
  • Hide. 30en, 7spd, Phys. 100proc. For the next 3 turns you have a 30% increased chance to dodge attacks from all sources. Also, unlocks Ambush. Both.
  • Ambush. 50en, 7spd, 55dmg(Phys). 95hit, 100proc. Can only be done after hiding. Close.
*The biggest change of many alterations here is to his innate. Instead of simply locking out switching he now just hammers it by being a mega-caltrops. Cards will take a lot of damage if they decide to run. Maybe a little too much here since it's only a little bit less than they'd take if they were intercepted. But the important thing is that they can decide to run. Being able to bite the bullet means players have to make a choice. It puts them behind the eightball since it's picking between two very bad choices but that, to me, is what the game's all about. Tafari is still a trap character, one who's going to keep weakened cards out there and more than likely finish them off but by giving away that out, he's much more fair - and, I'd argue, interesting - about it. At the same time, because he's no longer so grossly powerful, the rest of what he does can be much more effective.
*Hide lasts longer. And Ambush costs less If Tafair had his original innate this would be criminally insane. Because the main point of Hide is to unlock Ambush and having it last longer means that Tafari has more than one round to work into position to pop it off. But, since opponents can always choose option B and take the guaranteed damage of slipping away that's no longer a problem - they can't get trapped into taking a kill shot but, instead, Tafair gets to work and move around and try to get them to take it in the chin. At the same time, the speed of both comes down from 10 to 7. That makes them vulnerable against stuns and interrupts - another way that opponents can avoid getting sliced to ribbons. Hide would also work against all attacks rather than merely the physical I suspect it to protect against now. That might be a bit much but I'd like it to have more of a purpose by itself, a reason to use it on its own. Your opponent might think you're using it for the Ambush but if it's a viable skill in its own right, that doesn't mean you have to.
*Next, Leafy Trap gets cheaper. Which, again, would be a bad thing if opponents still couldn't switch out against Tafari. At a lower cost, it doesn't stop him from changing ranges as much - although it would still be difficult to lay this down, Hide, then work into position for an Ambush - as it should be. There are, I think, two ways to go with this skill and the first is to cut the cost so it's easier to use. The second is to raise the priority so you can lay it down in the middle of a round and catch cards that have slow-moving physical attacks. Not giving them the opportunity to figure out a way to avoid it but, instead, having it go off in their face right away and leaving you free to slap down another one the next turn. I'm not sure the second option would work, though, so I go for the first.
*And, finally, Poison Dart becomes a 10en skill, losing a bit of damage and a lot of chance to poison the enemy. Now, it's largely about getting yourself out of an energy hole or helping to get off an Ambush rather than the focus of your attack.


Zina
70/100
0/4/4
Zina deals an extra 15% damage for each defeated card in your opponent's hand.

  • Tiger Pounce. 30en, 9spd, 28dmg(Phys). 95hit, 100proc. Knocks a buff off the enemy. Close.
  • Eye of the Tiger. 80en, 5spd, 8x5(40)dmg(Phys). 90hit, 100proc. Viciously mauls a single enemy at random. Both.
  • Tiger Frenzy. 35en, 5spd, 10dmg(Phys). 90hit, 100proc. Hits all enemies. Far.
  • Misstress's Command. 20en, 5spd. For the next 3 turns, all tiger attacks have a 40% chance to cause bleeding for 3 damage for 3 turns (12dmg) and a 40% chance to stun for 3 turns. Both.
*Tiger Pounce goes to 30. That's a bit scary since it's so fast but Pounce needs to be the skill that deters people from stepping close to Zina. Her main purpose is to stand-off and destroy their hand, of course, but a cheaper Pounce lets her attack and have more energy to step back once she does while working nicer with Command.
*Frenzy goes to 35. Zina's main point is to decimate your opponent's deck but that doesn't mean it should be easy. A 30en Frenzy hits for a lot of damage and can be slathered with additional damage from Command and Deadly Poison and Ubuntu. It all adds up into a huge DOT domb that takes off a huge percentage of your opponent's strength. At 30en, Zina can use it like Ashi uses Bleeding Slice - it's cheap enough that she can use it several times even with fighting through range switching. 35en means that an opponent who doesn't want to lose a good 100~200 of their total health can prevent it with skillful switching - it's a skill she should have to work in order to use well and a higher energy cost will force it out of brainless territory.
*Eye goes to a multi-hit. This is mostly because it goes nuts with my proposed innate. Multiplicative means it gets hit harder by even light resistance and won't be such an instant death skill.
*As for that innate, well, it junks the whole "uber-buff on kill" idea but, I think, still keeps the same flavor of Zina getting better when deaths are happening - it's just she no longer has to earn them herself. 15% might be too strong, especially in 5-card and I could see it somewhere around 10%. The general idea, though, is that it turns Zina into what I call a "closer". The last card you want your opponent to slap down in the closing rounds of a match when you're down to your last card or a few severely weakened cards.
*Zina's resistances rise from their current 1/2/2 which is among the weakest in the game to a more solid 0/4/4. She's got a big chink in her armor when it comes to physical attacks but it brings her up to about average with everyone else.


AMAZONS

Andromeda
70/100
2/4/2
Andromeda gains 10 extra energy when not resting.

  • Rain of Arrows. 35en, 3spd, 8x5(40)dmg(Phys). 90hit, 100proc. Hits even a fleeing opponent. Far.
  • Trueshot. 55en, 2spd, 50dmg(Light). 97hit. 25% chance for a critical hit. Far.
  • Pin Down. 30en, 6spd, 25dmg(Phys). Enemy's attack is 2 slower for 3 turns. Far.
  • Knee Cap. 20en, 5spd, 12dmg(Phys). 90hit, 100proc. Prevents the foe from changing ranges next turn. Close.
*Her innate's been reworked to avoid the infinite range setting loop that she has now. This way she gets 30 energy when she doesn't rest - that's rounds spent intercepting or attacking or whatever else - and 40 when she does. And, yes, the way it reads this does work at both ranges. What I'm concerned about with Andromeda is that she's too easy to switch ranges on. And, unlike Ashi or Helene and other single-range characters, she doesn't have anything that punishes someone for doing so (Helene gets to spend a turn not losing any energy to gain a nice buff if you shove her away. Ashi just pounds you hard enough that she doesn't care.). I think she needs that extra energy not to attack with but to make sure she can step back and fire away. So, while it's probably best to keep it working only at far range, I'd like to see what happens when it doesn't and, instead, Andromeda just has a better energy engine than everyone else.
*Also, Kick is changed into Knee Cap which is, basically, a slightly more expensive Kick with Cripling Shot's debuff attached. With this change when opponents close to get away from Andromeda's arrows they only get to do it once (Assuming it hits, anyway which, at 90% hit it's not guaranteed to.). And the next turn Andromeda will be able to step back away from them and they won't be able to do anything about it. Giving her, in other words, that elusive something to do when she's in her off-range (Another way of going about this would be to make Kick into something like Ninja-Port. A skill that could proc a range shift, in other words, but, well, hold onto that thought and wait a few characters.).
*Because Kick's absorbed CripShot's debuff, Crippling Shot has to change. So, I've given it a priority lowering debuff that should help Andie's slow moving skills land. And ticked up the damage slightly so Andromeda has a choice between a multi-hit and a single-hit damage skill. That makes it much easier to deal with resistances. Rain is still the go-to but if your opponent has enough physical resist to ward you off, you can still deal some damage - unlike now when you just get to plink away.


Anex
70/100
2/6/1
When Anex's healh is below 30%, she deals 50% more damage.

  • Boomerang Chakkra. 30en, 5spd, 7x4(28)dmg(Phys). 90hit, 100proc. Hits even fleeing opponents. Far.
  • Power Toss. 60en, 3spd, 58dmg(Phys). 98hit, 90proc. Has a high chance to knock the foe out of the battle. Far.
  • Chakkra Slash. 25en, 7spd, 20dmg(Phys). 95hit, 75proc. Has a high chance to cause bleeding for 5 damage for 2 turns (15dmg). Close.
  • Magic Blade. 20en, 3spd, Light. 100proc. All chakkra attacks are light magic and work from both ranges for the next 2 turns. Both.
*Boomerang Chakkra goes to a multi-hit. This is largely because it gets nuts with other changes and this way it's affected more by resistance and, thus, not as scary.
*Chakkra Slash loses the slow effect - which is juicy but a little off here especially since we need to tone down some things. Instead, she picks up a high proc rate bleeding.
*The big change here, though, is to Enchant. Which changes name to Magic Blade and functionality to make Boomerang and Chak Slash work from either range (As now, Power Toss isn't considered a chakkra/blade attack so it's not covered by Enchant. I wouldn't change that since having it work from both ranges would be incredibly game-breaking.). Realistically, what this change does is to let Anex use the hits fleeing Boomerang from close range (Although she does get a multi-hit and single-hit to choose from, if need be.) and that alone is, I think, worth the rounds she'll have to spend buffing up in order to get it. It still might be enough to push Anex into being the best card in the game but, you know, I'd like to see that happen.


Ashi
80/100
6/1/1
Ashi is immune to interupts.

  • Signature Slice. 55en, 4spd, 55dmg(Light). 100hit. A very damaging swing embued with holy magic. Close.
  • Power Swing. 40en, 4spd, 20dmg(Phys). 95hit, 75proc. Has a high chance to knock the opponent out of the battle. Close.
  • Axe Handle. 20en, 7spd, 15dmg(Phys). 90hit. A very fast attack. Close.
  • Bleeding Slice. 30en, 5spd, 36dmg(Phys). 100hit, 50proc. A powerful swing that may cause the opponent to bleed for 3 damage each for 3 turns (12dmg). Close.
*First, Sig Slice and Bleeding swap damage types. This does two things. First, it nerfs the default Bleeding because it now runs into the problems every other physical skill has as opposed to light magic - higher average resistance, and dodge chances from things like the Feather and Popo's innate. Second, it gives SigSlice a reason to be on Ashi's bar - it's the skill she can use when she wants to get around all that rather than just being simply a large set of numbers. Like Helene with Frenzied, she pays a premium for getting away from her natural damage type.
*Second, Sig Slice goes to 55 energy. This keeps Ashi from stepping close and swinging away with it (Which kind of runs counter to making it the skill that lets her toggle away from physical defenses but that shouldn't be easy for her). But doesn't stop her from punishing people who try to stay close by swinging away with it. Which, since most people are going to default to Bleeding Slice when playing the stepping game anyway, I don't think is a big loss.
*Finally, Handle and P.Swing swap energy costs. Axe Handle loses a bit of damage and Swing gains some because of it but, basically, what I'm worried about here is what happens when Ashi runs out of energy. Now, she can just play whack-a-mole with her opponent, knocking them back into their owners hand over and over as long as she feels like - won't always work because of the proc rate but it'll work more often than not. And this is a problem because there are some cards - especially when she's got a Valkyrie's Charm on - who can't do anything about it. Forcing someone to switch out is a big deal, it should be a pricey effect and it shouldn't be sustainable so I think it justifies raising the cost to 40. But that would leave Ashi with two 40 energy skills and nothing to do but Bleeding away - something I'd like to get her away from - so I've dropped the cost on Handle. That makes it dangerous since it's a fast skill and Ashi shouldn't be a fast character so I've lopped a bit of priority and damage off, too. Ideally, she wouldn't be killing anyone with it but she could use it as a finishing blow on those cards she hasn't quite managed to close out or as a psych out when she's up against a card like Constantine or Higashi.

Helene
85/100
8/1/0
Helene cannot be stunned.

  • Shield Bash. 50en, 8spd, 20dmg(Phys). 90hit, 100proc. If this hits first, it interrupts the enemy's attack. Close.
  • Frenzied Strike. 40en, 8spd, 8x5(40)dmg(Dark). 90hit. Slashes furioulsy, unleashing her inner demons. Close.
  • Sword Slash. 30en, 5spd, 30dmg(Phsy). 90hit, 50proc. Has a chance to restore 40 of your energy from increased adrenaline. Close.
  • Enchant Blade. 0en, 3spd. 100proc. All blade attacks are light magic and deal 40% more damage for 2 turns. Both.

*Shield Bash loses a bit of hit rate to make it less certain to interrupt practically anything under the sun.
*Frenzied Strikes multiplier gets dinged again, dropping to 5. This puts her base damage at 40 - not far off her value now at 7x6 - and her Enchanted damage at 55. I think that's important since a 60 hit can crit for instant death in the 90s while a 55 hit crits to *only* 82. That means a character with 85 health gets to live even before the resistance that means a lot of other cards can skate free that would others, too.
*Enchant goes from a flat bonus to a percentile one. This changes Slash mostly since 40% of 8 is 3.2 (And 2.8 out of 7) so it won't change anything for Frenzied. Slash, on the other hand, goes from getting a minor bonus to picking up enough damage (An extra 12) to make it a viable alternative to Frenzied even when your opponent doesn't have good light resist.
*Finally, all the other changes here are just shots in the dark. Tweaks for the sake of fiddling around with something that's not quite working in the hopes they change something. But the change to Slash's proc is the one that I actually care about. It goes from a 30% chance of getting 30 energy to a 50% chance of getting 40. Which is a big change - you go from getting 9 energy, on average, to a massive 20. With regeneration at the end of each turn that means you actually net energy for using Slash. But that's where it's going to have to be because the point of an energy proccing Slash is that using it buys Helene another chance to Slash. It needs to proc enough energy that Helene can sidestep the whole problem of her opponent continuing to push her away and swing away again. From a full take of energy that needs to a grand total of 60 (She spends 50 to move into range, leaving her with 50. She swings for 30 leaving her with 20 plus the 20 she'll get at the end of the turn. Now, in order to swing again she needs 30 energy, which she'll have. But to step close and make sure she can swing she needs another 40 energy. That's what Slash needs to proc. Otherwise, your opponent can potentially shove you away and that energy rather than giving you a bonus swing gets wasted.) or, to put it another way, every two swings of Slash need to be able to buy you a third (With a little extra to acocunt for movement). Because three swings is about what it'll take to earn a kill with Slash (Actually, a bit more if you're up against normal resistance. But, then, that's what Enchant is for.). And that gives a Helene player two options. They can go with Frenzied where it will take them, likely, two turns to get a kill but they'll likely also spend at least two turns cooling their heels since it costs so much. Or, they can roll the dice on Slash proccing and do it in three. Two different options, two different paths with advantages to each one. Proccing 40 does make her insane if her opponent does something weird - like not try to run away - but the skill needs to work when people are playing at the highest levels not when they're just goign to stand there and get bombed out. In the real world, people are going to shift ranges against Helene and Slash needs to reflect that.


Phoebe
70/100
2/4/2
Phoebe's attacks have a 20% chance of disabling the enemy's item. This increases by 5% each time they are attacked.

  • Rapid Lashes. 25en, 8spd, 7x5(35)dmg(Phys). 90hit, 60proc. Chance to causes the enemy's attacks to be 1 slower for the next 4 turns. Far.
  • Power Lash. 55en, 6spd, 58dmg(Light). 95hit, 30proc. Has a chance to stun the opponent for 1 turn. Far.
  • High Kick. 30en, 5spd, 25dmg(Phys). 90hit. A boot. To the face. Close.
  • Deafening Crack. 10en, 7spd, 5dmg(Phys). 90hit, 90proc. Chance to reduces the enemy's chance to hit by 20% for 3 turns. Close.
*The innate is a big of a flyer. Makes it more like Amaya's - more of a roulette wheel and less of an all or nothing gamble - that should help it be more relevant. As it is, whether you get that item might or might not matter depending on when you do it. By growing progressively more likely as Phoebe scores more hits it retains that sense that it's happening because she's whipping the hell out of them.
*Lashes loses the bleeding which, let's be honest, wasn't doing all that much. And, instead, she picks up a slow effect that can accumulate into a nice debilitating stack. Which, I think, plays better into the rest of what Phoebe does - she's a character that messes you up, ties you down, trips you up, and otherwise hacks away at what makes your character good.
*Kick transforms into High Kick. A cheap, mid-range damage skill that makes it risky to get in close with her in order to avoid P-Lash. The net result being a card more like a weak version of Higashi than a weak version of Andromeda.
*And Deafening loses a bit of proc and hit so that it's no longer a guaranteed attack. It gets really annoying to play against when it hits all the time and this opens the door a crack to it not working - which would be really important with the other changes here.


NECROS

Ambrosia
70/100
3/1/5
Ambrosia Thorn is immune to poison and burn effects.

  • Vamp Kiss. 40en, 3spd, 25dmg(Dark). 90hit, 100proc. Drains the life essence of the victim and restores an amount of health equal to the damage done. Close.
  • Spectral Choke. 50en, 5spd, 10x4dmg(Dark). 95hit, 100proc. Chokes even a fleeing opponent. Close.
  • Bleeding Ritual. 30en, 2spd, Dark. 100hit, 100proc. Deep wounds bleed the opponent for 8 damage each turn for 2 turns (24). Far.
  • Spiked Boots. 10en, 7spd, 12dmg(Phys). 100hit, 30proc. Chance to stun the enemy for 1 turn. Close.
*The only change here is to Bleeding Ritual, which loses a round of duration bringing the total damage down to a more sensible 24 instead of the original 32 - that's still killing most cards off with only three casts, it's just not as threatening now. Also, it goes from "Both" to "Far" range. Ambrosia already has plenty of nice tools up close so Bleeding gets reserved as what she does when someone pushes her away instead of what she defaults to all the time. Both changes together might be overkill but it's a powerful skill that could use some toning down.

Cain Solomon
70/100
3/1/5
Cain Solomon gains 1% damage for each 2% of health lost.

  • Voidstream. 20en, 5spd, 6x3(18)dmg (Dark). 100hit, 100proc. Reduces enemy's dark resistance by 1 for 4 turns. Both.
  • Rush of Bats. 35en, 3spd, 9x5(45)dmg(Dark). 90hit. The children of the night swarm your enemy, hitting them repeatedly - they're going to need a rabies shot. Far.
  • Tantrum. 40en, 7spd, Phys. 100proc. Pitching a fit increases Cain's damage by 4 for 3 turns. Close.
  • Stiff Arm. 30en, 7spd, 24dmg(Phys). 90hit, 50proc. Cain relives his days running the option, if this hits, it has a chance to set the range to far. Close.

*Solomon gains a few rounds of duration on his Tantrum which might be overkill. But the 40en cost justifies it, I think, especially when you compare the benefit of a few rounds of +dmg to what other, cheaper buffs kick out. It's either raise the duration to 3~4 or cut the cost to 20~30 and I think it works best at 40.
*Now, why Tantrum going to 3 might be nuts is because of the new combo. Reworking Tackle into Stiff Arm gives Solomon a cut-rate Ninja-port. One that's more damaging (especially buffed) and slightly faster but less likely to proc. When it works, though, it shoves the opponent away and sets them up for a Tantrum-buffed Bats chaser. And it's not that bad when you just hammer away with it, even. Or you could always just Void off. It opens up a lot of new avenues for Solomon. It might mean that the damage on Bats and even Void need to come down slightly in terms of raw damage because it gets into awfully scary "Chi Blast for 35en" territory even before Cain's innate kicks in.
*The new innate is different than Anex's while maintaining the same overall function. Anex's now becomes an all or nothing switch while Cain's becomes a gradual improvement - you won't get the full 50% until, well, you're dead but you will get more of a boost earlier in the round since each 7 health lost is 10% more damage on his attacks (Although since I don't know exactly how rounding works, it gets a litle awkward.). The basic idea being that if Cain spends a turn Tantruming off while his opponent wails on him, they're going to realize it was a very, very big mistake in a hurry.


Cornelius Constantine
80/100
3/0/6
Cornelius Constantine is immune to status effects.

Voidflow. 20en, 5spd, 8x3(24)dmg(Dark). 100hit, 100proc. Reduces the enemy's dark resistance by 2 for 4 turns. Both.
Blood Burn. 20en, 6spd, Dark. 95proc. Your target's blood boils over, reducing their resistance and damage by 2 for 5 turns and causing them to take 5 bleeding damage each turn for 2 turns (15). Both.
Pilebunker. 50en, 2spd, 50dmg(Phys). 90hit. High chance for a critical hit. Close.
Hypnotic Stare. 40en, 6spd, Dark. 100proc. If this strikes first, it reflects the enemy's move. Close.

*Minor changes here. Voidstream gets renamed to avoid confusion with Solomon's version. Other variations: Voidstorm, Void Torrent, Dark Stream.
*And Hypnotic goes to 40 instead of 30 so it can't be used as often. With 30 it's way too easy to chain it into Pilebunker, even when stepping. Now it would be a little less sustainable to stand there and toss them off without worrying about the consequences. Might be a bit much but I'd like to see how it played out before tweaking anything else upwards (Like the speed or making it work at both ranges).
*Finally, Blood Burn gains a DOT proc not unlike Thorny's Bleeding Ritual. This makes it a little nastier but the problem is that, now, dueling Constantines just stare at each other over and over since they'd both have to avoid the Pilebunker and that's round after round of doing nothing. Which is not good. This way, there's a bit of an RPS game being played. Burn beats Stare and Bunker beats Burn but Stare beats Bunker. It's a nasty little loop and you won't want to guess wrong but at least it's better than stalling the game out.


Le Morte
60/100
1/0/10
When Marquis Le Morte leaves play, he regains 20 hit points.

  • Vampiric Touch. 70en, 7spd, 50dmg(Dark). 95hit, 100proc. Steals half the life it drains. Close.
  • Life Drain. 45en, 3spd, 25dmg(Dark). 90hit, 100proc. Steals all the life it drains. Close.
  • Teleport. 20en, 3spd, Phys. 100proc. Sets the range to close. Far.
  • Blood Rush. 0en, 2spd, Phys. 100proc. Sacrific 25 health and gain 50 energy. Both.

*Vamp Touch goes back up to 70 but it gains 10 damage. This makes it hit for 50 and steal 25. Combined with Life Drain, that's a total of 75 damage and 50 healing. That is lethal. And that's what Le Morte needs in order to be a threat. If he can't destroy cards in two turns in doesn't matter how much energy he is or isn't spending. If he can, then what matters is that he blows through most of his energy to do so. Which he does here. He's a canon, he goes off and then you have to swap him out or rest up before he can go again - but it won't work unless he can carve through most of the playing field. Oh, and the hit rate goes to 95% because...well, because it keeps me sane.
*Teleport loses the damage, loses a lot of priority and drops to 20en. This way, you cannot get step away from Marquis. He will catch up to you and you will be forced to deal with his two-hit combo - you're just going to lengthen the number of rounds it takes place over. 20en is priced to move, of course, but it's really the only way it works - it cannot be any higher or else it starts encroaching on that damage combo. If Life Drain was 40 then it might pass at 25 but then Life Drain can get used like Open Palm - you can spam it over and over again for a long time before resting and, so, I like it better at 45. I think, though, at 3spd it's weak enough to be a null cast 20en skill. It's a cheap way of changing ranges but you're going to spend a whole turn sitting there while your opponent gets a free shot at your weak health bar.
*Blood Burn gets dropped - it's a stalling skill, something you do while waiting for your energy to come back that doesn't really fit on a bar for a card that wants to play fast and heavy. And, in its place we get Blood Rush. This skill lets the Marquis take advantage of all those hit points he'll be sucking up. Rather than staying on the field and being a pesk, it lets you risk getting spiked out to gain enough energy to blast away again. 50 energy is enough, with natural regeneration, to throw a Vamp Touch on the next turn. And the 25 health you'd gain is enough to wipe out what you've gambled on it landing.


Voss

*No changes. I'd like to make Feast more viable but I can't figure out a way right now.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Few comments on your proposed changes.

I like the higashi changes. Lowered HP makes him less godlike, though I think the weakened chi blast might be a bit too far. Maybe if it was 8x8 or something so that it still does SOME damage through light defense? It is his power move after all. I still think his open palm should be 25 proc instead of 30, maybe less.

I dunno about your rumi at all. Shiruken barrage is nice as is, switching it around the way you're proposing would completely change how she's played and kinda ruin part of what makes yoshiro good (superfast hits fleeing move). Also, I really don't think that lowering the cost of ninja-port is good, even with the corresponding raising of eviscerate. Even if it is slower, range changes are supposed to be expensive.

Love the yoshiro change, maybe have it be for 12x2 phyiscal damage instead?

I think your change there would massively overpower juju. Hex is already a VERY cheap move for how good it is, and your proposed change makes it better damage AND buff removal to boot. The buff removal thing really shouldn't be part of a character's primary damage move (sorta like how I don't like higashi's main close range damager also having the stun proc).


Tafari... your changes make him better. That's not something we really want. Honestly I think his energy issues with leafy/hide ambush are intentional and should stay that way.

Also, though I agree that zina's innate needs to be better, I don't think the 15% per dead opponent is the answer. Maybe make her innate be a 25% bonus and stack with itself... the 15% per dead opponent means you could have her come in late and be doing 160% normal damage without having even been used yet in a 5 card.

I like the andromeda move changes but I think the new version of her innate isn't quite what she's designed for. The extra energy in close makes her extra dangerous, and the lack of resting boost makes her less able to really take advantage of her ranged attacks. I assume your pin down was long range only as well, giving her a even decent close range move is insane.

Interesting idea for anex but that power-up might be gamebreaking. would be interesting to try though.

For ashi, axe handle is SUPPOSED to be expensive. I like the damage switch on bleeding and sig but I'd leave her other moves alone. I'd consider raising sig's damage and lowering bleeding's too.

Helene is too powerful as is. This would make her more powerful, letting her hit harder with the sword slash. If anything her frenzied needs to be slowed down.

For Phoebe, I'd give the "boot. to the face." a 50% interrupt proc as well.

Le morte... he might deserve a change but nothing of this magnitude. Teleport MIGHT be ok going down to 35 energy but 20 is ridiculous. The other changes are ok though.

Love some of the ideas though. I'd say you should come up with new card ideas instead of some of the changes, in a lot of ways I would like to see some of your ideas work but I'd rather not have the original card get changed so much XD.

Sausaletus Rex said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sausaletus Rex said...

Whoops, that was actually never meant to go live. Must have hit the wrong button - I meant to save this as a draft so I could work on it while I was on the road.

Ah well, it's out there now. Just keep in mind a lot of this is super-extreme "Sirlin goes nuts and leaves balancing to me for a day" stuff...

Higashi- Thing is he's already at an effect 25% rate with his 95% hit rate. Lowering it to 25proc is only shifting it a few percentage points and I don't think that's enough. I'd rather drop the speed to 7 if it needs to be weaker - and I don't think it does although I'd like to see more use out of Sweep. As for Chi Wave, yeah, I put it at the extreme so that Higashi could be destroyed by cards like Phoebe or Andromeda but I could easily see it at 8x8 or even 13x5 given the cost.

Rumicans - Yeah, I don't like how Rumicans plays at all right now. One big combo but otherwise a flat bar, I'd like her to be much more flexible but not quite as lethal. And while new and improved Shuriken does step on Yoshi a bit it's not quite as good since he's still a single hit while this would be multiplicative and, thus, hammered by resistance (Against the average character it's only doing 24 damage.). But field control through affecting swaps is a bit of thing with the Ninja and I don't mind them sharing - Anex and Andie both have hits fleeing, too, Constantine and Solomon share Voidstorm and plenty of other cards share mechanics, after all - it's a thematic thing.

Yoshiro - 12x2 Phys for the counter-punch? Maybe, I'd be more inclined to keep it type-less and scale down to 15~16. It's a bit random but it's all about pumping out a consistent level of damage.

Juju - Yeah, it is a bit much but we'll have to part company on staple attacks - those are exactly the skills that I think benefit most from interesting mechanics that expand gameplay rather than being bland "red bars go down" types of skills. A hex that chops off buffs turns into a real Helene killer (Juju's one of the few cards that has the resists to stand up to Frenzied so I think he can be one of those cards that matches up well against her. This way, it makes it into a contest to see whether Shield Bashes up close or Hexes from afar are going to carry the day without clearly favoring one or the other. I like that.)


Tafari - I forgot to include his new innate which would read: "Tafari deals 20 damage to a character switching out." (Working draft and all, I'm having trouble pining down the number exactly.) So he's better but he no longer stops people from escaping so he can tick up a lot in other areas.

Zina - I just think a card that gets stronger as your opponent gets weaker would be neat and it plays into her deck destruction theme. Yes, it does turn Eye of the Tiger into a really really scary skill (Although that's why I made it multiplicative.) if she's the last card brought out in a 5-Card match but I like the idea of that - Zina early on is about whittling away the deck, in the late stages she's about closing out the deal. It might be better at 5~10%, though, but that's what balancing is for.

Andromeda - I changed her innate to work at both ranges because I'm concerned she loses in the range changing game. Like Ashi, like Helene, she has to switch constantly in order to be at her best and that sucks a lot of energy out of her bar but she doesn't have the good, cheap skill like Bleeding to use to make up for it - Rain of Arrows is good but it gets hammered by resistance and Crip Shot isn't killing anyone, it's just annoying them. So, buffing up her energy engine at close range helps her to step back and fire away. I could live with it only working at far range but I'd like to see what happens when it doesn't. And, yeah, Pin Down is far (corrected) the idea there is to give Andromeda a single-hit alternative to Rain so you get that Frenzied/Slash dynamic especially since you'd have to junk Crip Shot by shifting its modifier over to Kick/Knee Cap.

Ashi - I know Axe Handle is supposed to be expensive, that's why I made it even weaker. I don't like the idea that an Ashi without energy gets to play whack-a-mole with your deck by swapping out cards for you - that's a really nice ability that's underpriced and potentially really dangerous (Especially when she has Valkyrie's and a lot of cards can't even get in an attack before getting withdrawn). I'd rather Handle was a cheap, quick finishing blow and P.Swing was expensive but more useful.

Anex - Oh yeah, it makes her one of the best cards around. Although I should point out that, just like now, it wouldn't affect Power Toss. So, really, it's just about letting her use Boomerang at close range which I think is worth giving up an attack round for. Probably have to tweak her hit values around a little bit so she's fair in the wake of this but, first, I want to make people drool over the Princess.


Helene - Sword Slash needs to be as good as Frenzied or it's an afterthought. I actually like Frenzied where it is - the key being to realize that no one's going to stand there and get pounded on by it so it's really a four round kill instead of a two-hit - although I think its enchanted damage needs to be in the mid-50s instead of the low-60s so you don't get secKill crits. I'm working on a revised Big List O' Balance where I'll go into this in more detail but, basically, I think Helene needs to have a choice between swinging away with Frenzied or gambling on Slash. For that to work, Slash needs to be a viable alternative with its own niche and that means giving it enough of an energy engine that you can press to close range and swing again after it procs for you.


Pheobe - I don't think a High Kick / Boot to the Face needs anything more. It's not there to be really scary, just there to give her a threat up close that makes getting away from range, where her real strength is, less attractive.


Marquis - Nope, 35 doesn't work. The idea is to have it cost low enough to let the Marquis get his Touch-Drain combo off - which is now actually threatening enough to kill someone. That's a whopping 110 energy and a 35en Teleport to Touch would leave him with only 35 energy and unable to kill anyone off. I could see it at 25 but I think at the low, low speed of 3 I think it's fair. That really only screws up Andromeda because she has ranged attacks that could get range-disabled but, otherwise, it's ceding a full turn to the enemy in order to save 30 energy on the movement phase - and they can always just step again if it bothers them so much.

I'd say you should come up with new card ideas instead of some of the changes, in a lot of ways I would like to see some of your ideas work but I'd rather not have the original card get changed so much

We're in beta. Don't so attached to anything. But, yes, there are some extreme changes but sometimes those get paid more attention to than the subtle shifts.

As for working on cards of my own, who says I'm not? Some of these ideas might have come from someplace very different, after all...

Sausaletus Rex said...

Updated.