Dogs of War Online

I'll try to edit first post after any new idea.

Balance:

Major Issues

none

[b]Minor issues

- some units are more usefull than others - more info below.
- Game provides no way to spend money I have over 800 cyans right now and have nothing to spend it for... While Confrontation facebook card game was always heavily about Pay to win - this one don't have even pricy special skins/paints etc.
- No progres over Renown level 20

HUD issues

- Units no longer needs level counter.
- Units really needs Affinity markers (3 different colors of dots over a unit would be enough really)


Detailed Unit Balance/Usefulness opinions:
needs buff
needs nerf
needs small rework or something more


Alahan

Heroes:
Arinus - looks ok but needs Strategist 3 replaced by Strategist 4 and new icons for skills - btw why duel is not simple counterattack?
Silienne - Really nice with really great order
Chimera - much better than before


Swordsman
T1 - pursuit generator for wolfen units... nothing more
T2 - To many disadvantages for simple +1 STR and Mighty blow that is quite pricy (in term of drawback) skill. It should have less drawbacks or be slightly weaker and cheapest from all tiers.
T3 - Lets say ok

Bowman
T1- ACC 13 + Sharpshoter is to high for cheapest archer
T2 - "weakest" bowman that needs Divane Favor to be effective - low ACC and STR dont work with Double Shoot - its far more efficient to use Offensive stance on T1 or especialy T3 version. To be honest making him stronger (both by str and acc) but Savage would fit conception better that for all war fury units - becouse he won't use defensive stance anyway
T3 - this one is ok, but -1 STR would be acceptable

Mage
T1 - Nice and interesting but lacks of third buffing spell becouse he have only one buff (castable once per two turns) against non undead enemy.
T2 - OK
T3 - Far to weak and glass for its price, to many drawbacks or to high price. One primal spell per turn (mana recovery 3) and one Scourge per two turns looks terible... but nice idea would be add him Guardian Angel spell to make him more like C3 Meliador and recovery +1 (4 mana per turn)

Lion
T1 Best of Lions - nice and usefull
T2 Risky one with overkilling ACC 15 and strongly nerfed base STR that works terribly with Sneak Attack. Immune FEAR + high FEAR looks nice but unit as a whole is risky and less usefull than T1 Cat... its acceptable but current skill (sneak attack) don't work with this conception
T3 Terrible affinity - PAR 10 and Savage makes him glass as hell - War furry looks nice but mostly offensive stance (or especially Fire at will stance) on T1 lion is better and safer...

Valk
T1 - OK, great diversity and powerfull with Strenght of Virtue
T2 - Nice but why she have lowered will? as a PAR based fighter she needs good FEAR resistance
T3 - Didn't tested her or met her but there is too much drawbacks for +2 STR, PAR 10 and TOU7 makes her one use only with Incarnation of Justice ale Will lowered than for T1 is really werid.

Spark
T1 - Cheap and great support unit
T2 - Elusive + Prudent movement sounds like overkill with DOD 15 After pop-ups reduction this little fellow looks quite ok as long as not abused - when used in packs of 5-6 starts to be really annying suicide unit that should be limited of weakened slightly
T3 - must test him more after fix but his cost is quite pricy as for pure supporter with luck based skills

Ram

Heroes
Kerberos - lets say ok
Kain - weakest of all 9 heroes with really weak special order providing only +2 str in charge
Melmoth - strongest Ram hero - high fear+high PAP + combat instinc + counter and Ambidex is quite to much - so Melmoth can be killed only from the distance.

Units:

Skelleton
T1 - its 1-2 points to cheap but its close to ok mostly or too fast for such effective meatshield.
T2 - +6ap and -1 STR is really bad choice... Feriocious is his only good side
T3 - once again to many drawbacks.. high cost, reduced Str and Acc - all this for being better blocker

Bowman
T1 - Best one
T2 - its bit werid but have fierce and usefull active shot
T3 - Its weridest almost HtH unit ingame currently - at closes distance can deal 2x10 dam but at any other is random as hell... it would be ok as a turtle counter but IMO str 10 + double shoot is to much when it hits... and fact that it never hits don't make it ok

Necro
T1 - Ok
T2 - Current Puterfaction is terrible and one healing spel per turn is to small for 56 ap unit - he needs to have puppet summon or putterfaction should give constant TOU penalty.
T3 - same as Alahan Mage - glass and not exacly cannon.

Gargoyle
T1 - Ok
T2 - both -2 Str and Sneak Attack with -3STR dissadvantage looks bad. PAR 13 and FEAR 15 looks nice but this not work with Sneak Attack also.
T3 - same for Lion - War Fury with high cost and terrible PAR and Savage make him glass as hell. Mostly T1 one + Offensive looks better.

Priest
T1 - don't knew
T2 - don't knew
T3 - propably same as for necro and mage

Paladin
T1 - its quite pricy for a warrior and Martyr on 72ap unit is not a great idea - but its best from all tiers
T2 - again to many drawbacks for STR bonus
T3 - Nice PAR + Counter + TOU + Hard Boiled + Parry... but with low STR he will be mostly ignored.

Wolfens

Heroes
Emerok - it have much of everything, resonable Hth stats, ofensive spell and more... its bit too universal imo
Ryskar - OK
Kelrys - OK

Fang
T1 - ok
T2 - weakest and slowest, T3 is much stronger for same price while T1 is much more universal and cheaper.
T3 - ok - many drawbacks but bloodlust is really worth that

Crossbow
T1 - ok
T2 - imo even better than T1... but balanced
T3 - Acc 7 + mov 4 + Aim making him even less mobile... even with similar price he is still weakest and usefull only with tons of luck.

Lonewolf
T1 - lets say ok becouse peoples use him - but for me its rather weak - based on random buffing spells. He may nice medium tank but nothing more.
T2 - Im not sure about him, the price is quite big and Parry really low for counterattack even with nice Fear stat - for me cheaper Guardian of Equilibrium is much better option
T3 - Low tou, no regeneration and only 70% to cast rage + Savage ... terrible option

Hunter
T1 - lets say OK
T2 - DAM 10 + Sneak atack? srsly Assasin is nice but for wolfens is really no more than +4 even with Vs hero situations and PAR 12 is nothing great to be honest.
T3 - highest price and even more drawbacks... Savage makes him really terrible glass cannon not worth of War Fury

Guardian of the Runes

T1 Cheap tank but all his buffs are really situational... lets say ok but i don't see him too much on battlfields.
T2 Best one definetly and propably too strong unfortunately... generates multiple pursuits without chance to counter it.
T3 Propably only one strong War Fury unit... but War furry + MI miracle is quite werid combination


Grave Guardian

T1 - high cost but OK
T2 - 107 ap unit with DAM 8? Ok PAR 16 + taunt look nice but 107 ap shouldn't be magde for blocking one enemy unit only Additionally Will 8 without FEAR immune?
T3 - ACC 10 ald PAR 12 for +1STR and War Fury/Savage package... no way - especially not for additional 30ap... this guy is far to weak and still Will 9 is terrible for highest price elite unit

Dragon_Warrior wrote:IMO current warr furry needs one additional rule (resets current stances and makes unit immune to stances until next activation) - instead of savage and really high AP cost (current T3 Lion, Gargoyle, Hunter and Grave Guardian are terrible for their prices).

I agree.

- Wolfens have many similar units without real choice... they simply needs 2-3 fangs for elixir gathering/controlling purposes and with less than 180 points left they have really small choice of units left without old Pob and Worg... they totally lack of pure HTH killers.

This really comes from their lack of units on the field. Because of the way the game mechanics works they have compulsory picks. Also you can only do HtH in so many ways. I do agree they need a heavy hitter though.

I've been working on a rebalance for them I think might work with some discussion. The gist is
- add a cheap disposable unit, ie Dire wolf = sparkling
- change their costs structure.
- test their profiles for overall rebalance.

For me Wolfen simply lack of 50-80ap hth fighters
Maybe something like:

- one lonewolf tier as pure hth fighter with regeneration
- one Grave Guardian for 70-80 ap
- one Tank version of Hunter (low str and mov for tou and par)

Chimera really is too powerful, it's too easy for her to pick off enemy heros with her two cast Celestial Scourge and 6 range. Just about everything else about her suggests a more support hero, yet she is uncharacteristically strong herself. It doesn't seem like her other abilities get much of a look in because Celestial Scourge is just too easy to abuse.

Astralwyrm wrote:Chimera really is too powerful, it's too easy for her to pick off enemy heros with her two cast Celestial Scourge and 6 range. Just about everything else about her suggests a more support hero, yet she is uncharacteristically strong herself. It doesn't seem like her other abilities get much of a look in because Celestial Scourge is just too easy to abuse.

She is too strong even if she is mostly played in terrible way... without guardian angell and any support from other units (healing, taunting, STR boost) ...
At the time she can be used as a efective nucer that simply moves 5 hexes forward and casts 2x CS in last activation - running back in first activation of next turn...

Making her 300 ap hero should be really fast fix...

IT is the fast fix to be sure and I think the developers are hurting themselves with fixed Hero cost at 200. It is a balancing tool they are giving up.

So working in their framework we would need to address:
- Either the Range of Celestial Scourge
- The Cost of Celestial scourge
- The number of casts per turn/game
- Her toughness/survivability


Personally I think we should do something like this:

- Scourge should become a say 4 or 5x per game cast spell. That means you can still use it for a double cast but it may mean you run out in longer games. You would still need the mana to do it as well.

- Chimera should be come much more fragile both in TOU, PAR and DOD stats.

Those combined would make killing her much easier so playing her in striking distance is a risk and we don't take away her options but she can't just dominate the board like she does currently.

I think maybe they should give her an aoe debuff spell kind of like Chastisement, like for example a widespread spell that deals a small amount of damage to enemies and allies. All units hit suffer a fear malus or something like that. I think that would fit her current stats more provided the spell is only causing very minor damage (if it's going to be double-castable). Supporting the troops from the back line type role.

srsly - there is no way to make mythical Queen of Alhan 200 ap unit. She is ok or maybe even weaker HtH fighter that tabletop one with great sword in her hands... but not for 200 ap...

Dragon_Warrior wrote:srsly - there is no way to make mythical Queen of Alhan 200 ap unit. She is ok or maybe even weaker HtH fighter that tabletop one with great sword in her hands... but not for 200 ap...

That's fine but these powerhouse units need to be less 1 dimensional. One of the problems with the original legendaries is they were incredibly simple to play. I think it's a problem with a lot of champions now aswell where they are used to steam roll the opponent. The good champions in my opinion are Emerok, Ryskar and Silienne. They require some setup to be effective and aren't uncounterable. I think Arinius and Kain could be good champions but they seem a bit weak at the moment. Kain especially seems to suffer with how expensive loyalty units are and i don't think i've seen or used his order.

I think it's a bit dissapointing that none of the Wolfen champions have any different basic orders. Maybe if Kelrys had an order that would help him set units up to charge his special order would be more useful. Even though he is a weaker champion i think they could make up for that if his special order was more useable, he has certain advantages against certain opponents because of rising moon.