Pre-Patch and Now

I imagine a fair amount of the people who frequently post and read this forum have played me, so I'll not bother to introduce myself. Anyway this is my take on pre-patch and now.

I personally think that they did a good job with the patch, the key areas were identified and dealt with, however sometimes the treatment of these areas may have been too harsh.

The two main problems that stick out in my mind from pre-patch;

The lion mega mage build, this may sound abit harsh, but this build was utter garbage, it allowed low skill players to win over much better players with ease. I actually made a post in the steam forums about this:(Slight rage post I know)

http://steamcommunity.com/app/219700/di ... 890640165/

So, sparks were nerfed(admittedly slightly too hard), primal was reduced down to 10(good idea) and Seal was nerfed to only one a turn(very good idea), it was utter trash that people could cast that 3 times and then send sparks like magic missiles into the heart of enemy armies. KotL was reduced making it viable and the healing side was dumbed down. All these combine to make a much better and more enjoyable meta for lions, rather than sitting at the back and shooting the enemy and then, as soon as they come close annihilating the enemy with a barrage of magic, lions actually have to think and use strategy now, a revolutionary concept to the people who played this build. (Cough, Cough How to kill the game with one patch post, that sounds like a complaint that this build no longer works and that easy wins are no longer readily available for lions). My apologies to lion players who did not use this build and actually used a decent composition, I do not mean to offend you.

The wolfen mage, archer and run away build(Guardian of Runes with middle way, lone wolfen with regen and lots of archers with harassment stance, when used properly this was devastating and very frustrating to play against. This was fixed, middle way was nerfed, archers were also nerfed(admittedly made too expensive and harassment stance was made worse(good idea)). Thus in general changing the wolfen meta for the better.

Moving on to the meta now,

Elites are viable, which is excellent and a step in the right direction.

The deployment needs some refinement, but in general this is for the better. Shorter distances, create a much faster pace and a dynamic game with less pussyfooting around.

The invisible boundaries, I am not such a fan of, they should at least be visible.

One glaring problem with the units taken are the fact that Golems and Worgs roam around almost uncontested, unless you take a build specifically designed to beat them. But this is very minor in comparison to the unit problems pre-patch.

A draw button would be awesome, would save a lot of time and effort.

Overall, problems were seen and identified, dealt with effectively, changing the meta into its current form, which is much more enjoyable. However, what players must be willing to do is to experiment with new compositions and tactics and not get butthurt when their super awesome build of death no longer works and then say see you next patch. The devs have done a great job and will some minor changes to the game can be make it near perfect, keep up the good work.

Thanks for reading.

P.S You may have wondered why I have not mentioned undead, this is because until recently they were near the bottom to the pile, but looking at the top 10(Which I am in XD) this is no longer true and I may make a follow up post about suggestions to undead balance.

As a Ram player, I feel that Ram is really balanced right now. What I foresee is the other factions being balanced around them, with only minor tweaks to the undead until something TRULY drastic happens, like new factions. As a quick breakdown of the units:

Skeleton Warrior:Really in a nice place as the definitive basic infantry. Sturdy, able to do damage if necessary, and cheap, the skeleton warrior is the ideal fodder frontline soldier for any Ram player.

Skeleton Archer: Most people criticize this unit for its piss poor accuracy, saying that is suks in comparison
to the other archers. Most of them are right. The key thing about this unit, though, is that, for an archer, it has a surprisingly high TOU score. In fact, it has the same TOU and a Lion Swordsman! This in only 1 lower then the Warrior, making this the best close to mid range archer in the game. I find that I can actually use these units as a shield for my Necro when I start running out of Warriors, and it works surprisingly well.

Gargoyle: I do not use the Gargoyle enough and can not make a valid opinion on him.


Necromancer: The pivotal unit to almost all Ram players. What needs to be stressed though is that the death of this unit does not mean instant loss for the Ram player. Yeah, you stole some utility, maybe some damage, but unless you killed everything else along the way, the unit that killed the Necro is almost guaranteed to be doomed. I have slaughtered many a PoB this way, and trading 1 for 1 with a Ram, even if it is there Necro, is always a bad idea. Balance wise, Necros are by far the most flexible of all the mage units, being able to be either a support, damage dealer, debuffer, you name it. If the Necro were to be nerfed, even slightly, it would probably ruin about 60-70% of all Ram builds, or at least severely gimp them. Losing a Necro is not always gamechanging, but never having him in the first place is.


Skull Warrior:Strong, sturdy, lots of fear. Can be a nuisance to deal with, but the presence of a Skull means there are up to 3 less hardboiled skeleton warriors, and thats at lvl 1. This trade off is what really balances the Skull; more wall or more pain?


Black Paladin:The nerfs on Exhaustive and Occult were mean... mean but necessary. It was kinda ridiculous to be able to occult and then ignore the enemy mage for the rest of the game(or turn em into a weak Fang in the case of the Lonewolf). Overall a tanky unit, the utility that Pally brings shapes the entire way a battle unfold. He discourages wolf rushes, he scare Lion mages and Ram Necros, and he can mop the floor with most basic units(minus skeleton warriors, ironically). He is expensive if you want all of that utility, though, so yet again; more wall or more pain?


Priest of Salaul(or whatever his name is): Strong late game, kinda tough to level up to that late game. Same importance as a necro post-lvl 4, but grinding to that is tough. Really risky unit that can pay off, though.


Golem:Only unit I have a problem with, and only because of the recent patch. Legendaries should stay in the 800s, where the fun matches are. At no point should legendaries fit into the lowest bracket, where newbies are trying to learn. Learning that a Flesh Golem can destroy most units on its own is not what they should be learning. That being said, for experienced players, Golem isn't a real problem in 400 bracket. Slow, easy to poke at around the map, or surround if you have the fodder, these behemoths hog up most of the AP. If someone goes to the trouble of leveling it up so that it is a bit more mobile, that is even fewer units they have to throw at you. If all else fails, they open themselves up to easy draws, for a Golem can't even catch a Necro without some kind of mistake being made, let alone a regular unit.


And that is my opinion on Ram balance.

tl;dr Ram awesome and balanced, do not touch, except maybe the golem price

[quote="Malice"][/quote]

+1000.About ram being balanced or not,it's hard to say because the 2 op from last patch with spark+mage and harass from wolfmens get nerf and now lion/wolfmen have yet to change/adjust their army.

obvious one army player is obvious

http://imgur.com/kgK2wcG

Sure everything is balanced now, Malice and Vahire shall point the way.

As opposed to the end of 3 weeks ago where the ranking were:

http://imgur.com/xCCuBuF

I admit theres a shortage of ram, and a lion and wolfen nerf was needed, but look at the victory ratios at top 10 now and before.

The game isnt doing better, you are.

Not really going to push this devs are not stupid, they know when they made a mistake (I hope).

http://imgur.com/kgK2wcG
Sure everything is balanced now, Malice and Vahire shall point the way.
As opposed to the end of 3 weeks ago where the ranking were:
http://imgur.com/xCCuBuF
I admit theres a shortage of ram, and a lion and wolfen nerf was needed, but look at the victory ratios at top 10 now and before.
The game isnt doing better, you are.
Not really going to push this devs are not stupid, they know when they made a mistake (I hope).

wow... i didn't expected that its so drastic right now as i still wait for fixed maps to play
and right 3 lions in top 10 - each with not great win:loss ratio
while maybe only one Ram but with best ratio.

as I remember I had similar win:loos ratio with both close to 10:3 per week.

I did not say everything is balanced,i said i dont know if it's ram that are stronger or the 2 other that are that much weaker.It's a matter of : do ram need a nerf or lion/wolfmen a up.And how big of a nerf/up it must be.For me the main issue for lions is the useless(compare to the ram warrior and the fang) swordman.For wolfmen is the ap cost of archers/fang.BUT,maybe in 1 week lion and wolfmen will find their ways,because i saw almost the same comps before and after the patch,despite the nerfs,and that's not what it should be.

And yes the game is doing better because now there is more things viable to play,not only 3 op comps.

And btw,no offense but being top 10 with a ratio close that close to 50% mean you farmed the ladder.Ppl had really good/better ratio and did not make it to top 10,juste because they played less.Even now it's the same.Also,the matchmaking unbalance the ladder.I played more games against top 75+ than top 10 to 50,and proly 5 max against the current top 10.
Ratios would be different with a better matchmaking,and some games less unbalance.

BUT,maybe in 1 week lion and wolfmen will find their ways,because i saw almost the same comps before and after the patch,despite the nerfs,and that's not what it should be.

And yes the game is doing better because now there is more things viable to play,not only 3 op comps.

So the nerfs are supposed to stop people playing certain compositions, instead of reducing its effectiveness, great insight into what you think nerfing means.

OP compositions that get 37-19, 45-40, and 33-10 win/loss ratios? As opposed to your 21-2 and Malice's 29-4? Now since both of you dont play the same comp I think that means only one thing. The nerf went way beyond the mega mage/sparks and the Xbowman and fang. They nerfed Valk (VALK omg i cant believe valk was actually nerfed), Swordman (yes they actually raised the ap cost of that piece of sh*t), and you still have to sacrifice too much to have 1 KoTL (1 KotL or 4 swordman? hum let me think surround mechanism ftw so still i'd take swordman.) Im sorry I cant speak for wolfen.

Edit oh and since you brought up my 45-40 i'd just like to say that that was my last week of vacation. Im now sitting comfy with 14-10 on my ram company which is the first week I play it and still get positive win-loss due to stupid OP golem.

Edit oh and since you brought up my 45-40 i'd just like to say that that was my last week of vacation. Im now sitting comfy with 14-10 on my ram company which is the first week I play it and still get positive win-loss due to stupid OP golem.

Sry but,how can you consider something stupidly op when you are "only" 14-10? We both know you played this game plenty of time,you know the mechanics and stuffs.If it was really that op,you would have a better ratio than that,exept if you played against really goods players all along.Dont get me wrong,i dont say it's not op but i wont go as far as saying it is.I played 5 times now against a golem and won 4 times.

For me it's too soon (just 4 days) to say what is op or not.

And as i said,the matchmaking is not good enought to have a relevant ladder.

From my point of view, at the moment the Ram has two main advantages respect to the other armies: Golem & Skeleton Warrior too cheap! In fact, the Skeleton Warrior is the main problem, since its lvl2 ability (-3 dam) allows it to take 4-5 attacks instead of the usually 3-4 needed by the other basic units to die, so that it can be used as a stronger & cheaper enemy blocker especially in the tiny maps the current patch has introduced. Probably a needed fix is either nerfing its res or its AP value (not so much, just respectively a -1/2 RES or a +5/10AP), but firstly I would eliminate the invisible walls and tiny maps that can allow to use it as an sturdy wall.

PS: also now, after all the healing nerf of the Lion units, the Necro lvl3 with the +20% bonus is the best healing unit in the game!