Edit: I have two new ideas farther down; be sure to give them a look as well :)
Not 100% happy with my first idea, mostly because it seems weird for Sapphiron to be a Shaman card, but that's what I get for pushing poor ol' Freeze Shaman.
I too was surprised. Although honestly: I am more surprised at the underwhelming Frejlord buffs buff. The region has been persistently dead last place in tournaments, ladder, and 3rd party meta reports, yet the only change is giving Tavernkeeper vanilla stats. The region is still weak on 1-3 drops and has very few catchup mechanics.
Personally I think 20 Nexus HP is appropriate but that they should make healing more accessible. It's pretty nutty that right now if you want to make a control deck, you pretty much have to include either Ionia or Shadow Isles to reduce your opponents' reach.
I looked over previous competitions and i was surprised by how low the scores actually are. None are over 4, most are between 2 and 3, maybe 3 and a bit. That to me seems super low, like if someone bombed them with 1 star ratings. How do you people vote on cards? What are your rating systems? Just curious cause now i feel i gave everyone way higher scores than they deserved.
For a card to get over 4 stars, it'd have to be impressively good. Remember, the only option that will push a card above a 4 is a 5 - that means that a card needs to be good enough to consistently get 4s and 5s.
40 5-stars, 40 4-stars, and 10 each of 2 and 1? Sounds like a really well-liked card, right? 3.9 stars overall.
It's not always completely intuitive, but a rating of 3+ is actually really good. Even ratings like 2.5 can mean your card was well-liked, it was just polarising.
Great guesses everyone! I count my final tally as 2 hits, 2 close, and 9 misses out of 13 total. DoubleSummon had the most hits--6 direct, 2 close--but he also had a lot of misses so I don't know how you want to weigh that. :-P Shout-outs to CursedParrot on coming close to Badgebear and Hellcopter for close on Boomcrew and Ranger.
I get a lot of these changes, but why the update to Jinx? Just because they added Noxian Fervor and Gotcha! to the game?
No, I think Shen and Jinx need buffs strictly due to their playrate & winrate. And honestly: even before Rising Tides, she was just too easy to pick off. She would die to all the stuff old Yasuo died to: Get Excited, Thermo Beam, chef + challenger, kamikazi Fiora, single combat on anything with 3 attack, frostbite, barrier, etc. 2 new direct 3-damage spells plus AoE plus vulnerability have only hampered her survivability, and dumping your hand to level her only to see her picked off is almost always GG.
I was close with Shen (although honestly I think the HP would be much more appropriate than +1 attack--he needs to level to justify playing him, and most of the time he just doesn't live long enough to see 4 things get barrier), but then they went with Vladimir and Hecarim which surprised me. They are both on the unpopular side, but I still at least see them both on occasion. Honestly I think Hecarim is still quite strong as a 4/5 overwhelm that summons two 2/2s; I'm surprised he hasn't found his way into a meta deck. But meanwhile I can't remember the last time I saw a Jinx in constructed.
Consider this: one of the most popular decks on the ladder right now is a P&Z/Noxus deck composed almost entirely of 1-3 mana cards, and you have a P&Z champion who's ability is "once your hand is empty, start drawing 2 cards at the start of your turn" of whom everyone gets 2 free copies, and everyone's like "nah, I think I'll just run some Decimates and Statikk Shock instead--they are more consistent". That's really sad.
Tham kench is a confirmed bildgewater champion I know he doesn't technically belongs there but that's how riot decided..
striking an enemy 3 times in LoR is impossible, I know it's his league passive but it doesn't make sense, the champion spell is too specific, we saw one for nautilus but it has a use outside of having the champion, you need to remember every champion spell is also collectible so..
I would make tongue lash his champion spell to stun enemies
I see pyke's idea of being toxic, just like in the real game! (not salty at all :) )
While not all cards I would have liked to see changed are included here, I am very happy with the buffs and nerfs that we did get. I always thought Vlad was a pretty solid champion already (the problem is that the archetype he fits in isn't very strong), but I really like how flavourful his buff is.
I do feel the health is a bit too low personally. Especially given the fact that you can't heal over the starting amount so you have to often hold back your cards in burn heavy match ups.
Great changes all around! The one thing I’m surprised about is the nerf to Legion Rearguard and not the actual burn cards, I was sure that they were going to nerf another burn card (like the Demolitionist or the Used Cask Salesman). This change should make it a lot easier to remove the Aggro/Burn units though, so hopefully it will be enough to bring Burn/Aggro’s winrate and playrate down.
About HSReplays stats, do we know if they made adjustments in the way they compute those win-rate since new ladder came out?
From my own experience, many games in legend and diamond are actually irrelevant, for instance at rank 20k atm, I sometimes face some level 10-8 diamonds, and there can only be 2 outcomes : 1 - I'm playing a meme deck and they can win, 2 - I'm playing a real deck and I will probably not loose.
I think that at some MMR, games should just be thrown out their stats, just as they don't take gold league into account, and as they can't estimate MMR, HSReplay is currently unable to filter out irrelevant games.
Maybe if they had a filter with (rank 5-rank 1) + (top 5000 legend) only it would work better but I don't know if they can do this.
I believe Riot will adress Unyielding Spirit just as DoubleSummon suggested, but 1 mana higher: Unyielding Spirit -> 6 mana. Burst. Last until end of the turn.
From Foe To Friend - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Only Solo adventures (Naxx, Blackrock, League and Karazhan) or other Solo Content as well (like Dungeon Run)?
From Foe To Friend - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Edit: I have two new ideas farther down; be sure to give them a look as well :)
Not 100% happy with my first idea, mostly because it seems weird for Sapphiron to be a Shaman card, but that's what I get for pushing poor ol' Freeze Shaman.
Unyielding Spirit not touched...
I too was surprised. Although honestly: I am more surprised at the underwhelming Frejlord buffs buff. The region has been persistently dead last place in tournaments, ladder, and 3rd party meta reports, yet the only change is giving Tavernkeeper vanilla stats. The region is still weak on 1-3 drops and has very few catchup mechanics.
New Bilgewater Card - Slotbot
Any explanation on what shuffling does. Does it just swap the starts? Or does it combine both stats and redistribute each individual point?
Could a 2-5 turn into a 3-4? Or would it be 5-2
By Your Powers Combined - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
For some reason, a huge number of my submissions tend to have significantly more 1-star and 5-star votes than most of the other cards around it.
I think this is maybe the sixth or seventh time this has happened.
Is Nexus Damage Too High? Are You Sick of Card Stealing? Riot's Updated Watch List for Rising Tides
Personally I think 20 Nexus HP is appropriate but that they should make healing more accessible. It's pretty nutty that right now if you want to make a control deck, you pretty much have to include either Ionia or Shadow Isles to reduce your opponents' reach.
From Foe To Friend - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Competition Theme: From Foe To Friend
We're going on an adventure to find some new friends this week!
Conduit wants us all to get along this week - even with some of our greatest foes!
As always, I can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.
Competition Phases
Here are the phases of this card design competition
Discussion Thread Rules
No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.
Here's some art, make a card! [Legacy Game]
Next Art:
By Your Powers Combined - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
For a card to get over 4 stars, it'd have to be impressively good. Remember, the only option that will push a card above a 4 is a 5 - that means that a card needs to be good enough to consistently get 4s and 5s.
40 5-stars, 40 4-stars, and 10 each of 2 and 1? Sounds like a really well-liked card, right? 3.9 stars overall.
It's not always completely intuitive, but a rating of 3+ is actually really good. Even ratings like 2.5 can mean your card was well-liked, it was just polarising.
Unyielding Spirit not touched...
Really? -_-
They said its on their watch list. Just make it fast or it can't target champions. Its not that hard.
https://youtu.be/r_bndGWa_lM
Balance Patch Predictions?
Great guesses everyone! I count my final tally as 2 hits, 2 close, and 9 misses out of 13 total. DoubleSummon had the most hits--6 direct, 2 close--but he also had a lot of misses so I don't know how you want to weigh that. :-P Shout-outs to CursedParrot on coming close to Badgebear and Hellcopter for close on Boomcrew and Ranger.
No, I think Shen and Jinx need buffs strictly due to their playrate & winrate. And honestly: even before Rising Tides, she was just too easy to pick off. She would die to all the stuff old Yasuo died to: Get Excited, Thermo Beam, chef + challenger, kamikazi Fiora, single combat on anything with 3 attack, frostbite, barrier, etc. 2 new direct 3-damage spells plus AoE plus vulnerability have only hampered her survivability, and dumping your hand to level her only to see her picked off is almost always GG.
I was close with Shen (although honestly I think the HP would be much more appropriate than +1 attack--he needs to level to justify playing him, and most of the time he just doesn't live long enough to see 4 things get barrier), but then they went with Vladimir and Hecarim which surprised me. They are both on the unpopular side, but I still at least see them both on occasion. Honestly I think Hecarim is still quite strong as a 4/5 overwhelm that summons two 2/2s; I'm surprised he hasn't found his way into a meta deck. But meanwhile I can't remember the last time I saw a Jinx in constructed.
Consider this: one of the most popular decks on the ladder right now is a P&Z/Noxus deck composed almost entirely of 1-3 mana cards, and you have a P&Z champion who's ability is "once your hand is empty, start drawing 2 cards at the start of your turn" of whom everyone gets 2 free copies, and everyone's like "nah, I think I'll just run some Decimates and Statikk Shock instead--they are more consistent". That's really sad.
Favorite champions not yet in the game?
Tham kench is a confirmed bildgewater champion I know he doesn't technically belongs there but that's how riot decided..
striking an enemy 3 times in LoR is impossible, I know it's his league passive but it doesn't make sense, the champion spell is too specific, we saw one for nautilus but it has a use outside of having the champion, you need to remember every champion spell is also collectible so..
I would make tongue lash his champion spell to stun enemies
I see pyke's idea of being toxic, just like in the real game! (not salty at all :) )
List of Runeterra Daily Quests
Runeterra's Patch 1.2 Offers Balance Updates, Expeditions Archetype Changes, and New Personalization Options
While not all cards I would have liked to see changed are included here, I am very happy with the buffs and nerfs that we did get. I always thought Vlad was a pretty solid champion already (the problem is that the archetype he fits in isn't very strong), but I really like how flavourful his buff is.
Favorite champions not yet in the game?
I'd say Graves is the next one on the list, given he shows up in the Bilgewater promotional video.
High Winrate Hearthstone Decks for the Last Week of the Ladder
No love for wild?
Is Nexus Damage Too High? Are You Sick of Card Stealing? Riot's Updated Watch List for Rising Tides
I do feel the health is a bit too low personally. Especially given the fact that you can't heal over the starting amount so you have to often hold back your cards in burn heavy match ups.
Is Nexus Damage Too High? Are You Sick of Card Stealing? Riot's Updated Watch List for Rising Tides
instead of nerfing fan fav cards like Ez they could just ya know, bump up the nexus health to 25
Runeterra's Patch 1.2 Offers Balance Updates, Expeditions Archetype Changes, and New Personalization Options
I predicted some of those changes (good thing I didn't mention every single under powered card in the game XD)
Runeterra's Patch 1.2 Offers Balance Updates, Expeditions Archetype Changes, and New Personalization Options
Great changes all around! The one thing I’m surprised about is the nerf to Legion Rearguard and not the actual burn cards, I was sure that they were going to nerf another burn card (like the Demolitionist or the Used Cask Salesman). This change should make it a lot easier to remove the Aggro/Burn units though, so hopefully it will be enough to bring Burn/Aggro’s winrate and playrate down.
Runeterra's Patch 1.2 Offers Balance Updates, Expeditions Archetype Changes, and New Personalization Options
Yass my free champs vlad and hec got some loves, time to tinker again!
Love those arcade theme as well.
Runeterra's Patch 1.2 Offers Balance Updates, Expeditions Archetype Changes, and New Personalization Options
I am in love with the addition of Arcade themed stuff!
Fan Community Spotlight - Phoenix's "Ascella Academy"
What do you know, maybe Armpit Academy would teach you things beyond your wildest dreams! :)
High Winrate Hearthstone Decks for the Last Week of the Ladder
About HSReplays stats, do we know if they made adjustments in the way they compute those win-rate since new ladder came out?
From my own experience, many games in legend and diamond are actually irrelevant, for instance at rank 20k atm, I sometimes face some level 10-8 diamonds, and there can only be 2 outcomes : 1 - I'm playing a meme deck and they can win, 2 - I'm playing a real deck and I will probably not loose.
I think that at some MMR, games should just be thrown out their stats, just as they don't take gold league into account, and as they can't estimate MMR, HSReplay is currently unable to filter out irrelevant games.
Maybe if they had a filter with (rank 5-rank 1) + (top 5000 legend) only it would work better but I don't know if they can do this.
Balance Patch Predictions?
I believe Riot will adress Unyielding Spirit just as DoubleSummon suggested, but 1 mana higher:
Unyielding Spirit -> 6 mana. Burst. Last until end of the turn.
They Who Endure cannot cost 7 without nerfing Ezreal first.