my advice for you personally is to uninstall the game and learn to have fun. If elusives piss you off so bad, then the real issue is that you get upset over a card game.
OK, Ionia is my least favorite region by a mile, but these cards really make me want to start playing it. I love all the clever interactions--the Concussive Palm spell spawns a Tail unit who turns back into Palm when recalled, Retreat gives you the fleeting option the Return a unit for 3 mana total so long as that unit costs 3 or less, etc. And then there's Lee Sin, who's probably the worst vanilla 6-drop in the game but each spell you cast gradually turns him into God-mode. It reminds me a lot of Combo Rogue, where most cards have potential beyond their face value so you really need to plan how to optimize your turns. Good job, Riot.
Before the showcase of new cards, Darius was a semi viable champion pick. Having the strongest Power and overwhelm, and can level up mid combat to surprise lethal the Nexus was cool. But now, there are many champions that do damage to the Nexus in more interesting ways. Yes I do think his core should be simply strength. But that is all he has going for him. Plus it doesnt take much to kill Darius.
All these people crying. I could not care less about Bannerman decks being nerfed. I dont play Demacia. What I'm saying is that if you think Elusives are so broken, then you dont know how to counter.
The more I look at this card, the less I like it in constructed. Sure, fleeting burst is nice--it gives you a really efficient way to dump your mana, and there will definitely be some meme-y YouTube videos of this card creating lethal--but it's just so expensive! 3 mana for 2 temporary attack damage! Compare with Mystic Shot (2 mana for 2 direct damage, so if you kill off a blocker your unit takes 0 damage), Brother's BondBADCARDNAME (2 mana for 2x 2 permanent attack damage), and Elixir of Wrath (1 mana for 3 temporary attack damage). Maybe if you combo with Cloud Drinker, so it only costs 2 mana? It's convoluted, but then at least you're representing 1:1 ratio on mana-to-damage.
The obvious application is to accelerate Vi's level--each cast on her gives +3 attack--but even then you're investing a lot of mana and she still needs to strike, so this tactic gets hard-countered by stun or frostbite or recall or vengeance. I think Vi is going to see more play as just a 2+/5 challenger body than a win condition. The only decks I see actually wanting this card are control decks looking for efficient outlets to dump mana mid-game (think Karma or Anivia decks), and P&Z decks like that don't really exist right now.
But isn't this kind of what fearsome is? Fearsome is "you can only block if you have attack greater than 3". It's more or less giving the attacking unit partial elusive. Again I can't help but feel that all the mechanics in LoR feel disjointed, like they were each designed by a different person and then everyone got together and put their ideas into the pot but now none of them feel fully fleshed out...and the result is going to be inherently stronger mechanics than others.
I mean a perfect point I made earlier which i want to highlight is the "Tough" mechanic. This should not just be "1 damage" but should be "this unit has Toughness (or Armor) 2, and blocks 2 damage from any source. Tough the spell should stack with existing tough. This prevents that unit from incremental damage but not burst damage. It can be more useful than regeneration in niche scenarios. But anyhow, my point being that you don't see anyone building "Tough" decks because the mechanic is just inherently weak due to design. Conversely Elusive is a strong mechanic because of the way the game is based AND becuase of how Ionia (the biggest offender of Elusive decks) works with their bounce/stun mechanics along with their ability to buff cards.
I think printing more cards *might* work, but 1) that may dilute the region fantasy/theme. and 2) It might make matters worse printing all these niche cards to counter other cards to counter other cards. IMO keeping the core game simple is necessary because if the core game just prints a ton of cards instead of making balanced core regions, then the game is going to quickly spiral out of control into an unorganized mess.
Alright, I am willing to take back what I said about hero powers not being central to a deck strategy. But I still disagree with the 1 mana hero power. It is just too efficient and it makes the class feel boring when they do the same thing every turn. Even if your hero power provides a lot of synergy with your deck, you should still focus more on playing cards than just "hitting the button"
In most cases, you hero power shouldn't be central to your decks strategy. It shouldn't be as efficient as Demon Hunter's is. A hero power should just be that thing you do with your extra mana if you don't have anything else to play.
That's not true. The Warrior, Priest, Warlock, and Hunter hero powers have been core to many of their decks since the start of the game. The only reason the DH hero power is so good is because DH is almost exclusively a tempo class. Once (if) we get more Control cards for Demon Hunters, you'll see that 1 mana discount be entirely pointless.
As someone who's tried to build a control list for Demon Hunters all throughout this expansion and failed miserably, nothing makes you appreciate that +1 Armor Druids get more than when your opponent has a big taunt and your hero power literally does nothing.
I have also thought, "Why didn't they have the Hero Power be +2 attack?" This would give a bonus of having a solid attack for 2 mana, and the draw back is that if you attack a minion, like the Rogue ability, you take the damage from that minion. This way it would scale much like the Hunter power. Again, the downside is that if you attack a minion you are taking the damage to the face.
The difference is that Rogue gets to keep their weapon for 2 turns per use, Hunter doesn't take damage when it's used. A change like this could show the versatility and the fact that his class in Hearthstone is essentially a blend of these two classes. At least that is my take on it. Rogue has a lot of spells to help it draw through it's deck, and Hunter likes to go face... a lot.
I agree that this class is still in it's infancy and future releases will let us explore the possibilities of what it can do. But for now, it seems like this class has been give a number of benefits without too many Achilles heels to strain it.
Now, if "allies" included your Nexus, it might be worth considering for some midrange decks, but I remember reading that a dev already confirmed it only affects units.
I think they've been quietly updating card text to clearly show what heals nexus, what heals units, and what heals either/both: e.g., Health Potion.
I agree that AoE healing for seems much less valuable for SI--their units tend to be high attack / low health. Honestly, I think I'd rather have this as "Heal Nexus 3 & units 0" than the reverse. The one caveat is that SI does have the potential for some fat lifesteal units--Soulgorger, Darkwater Scourge if you can combo Death Mark, Deadbloom Wanderer if you can get a buff on it--all of which would get a lot more mileage with Heal 3, so there is at least some potential. Again: it all comes down to how viable Malokai is and how impactful his level-up effect is.
Personally, I think the best thing to do would be to make the hero power cost 2 mana like everyone else's, and make it give +2 attack instead of +1. I think the 1 mana hero power is a design flaw in the class. In most cases, you hero power shouldn't be central to your decks strategy. It shouldn't be as efficient as Demon Hunter's is. A hero power should just be that thing you do with your extra mana if you don't have anything else to play. As it is now, it feels like every Demon Hunter is an Even DH only without the deckbuilding restriction.
I dont agree with you there. New class is a new concept and that alone breaks many the old stigmas, so saying that "Hero Power should just be that thing you do with extra Mana" doesnt sound like a good argument to me. Tho maybe it will end up like that, once it gets more cards and its archetypes can branch out. Obviously it feels very one dimensional on release when the card pool is small and cards are designed for a specific archetype to go along with everything else in the class, Hero Power included. You could look at it the opposite way, this is how every class should have been, their Hero Power be their calling card, not "something to do with spare mana" :)
I got really angry that they nerfed Bloodbloom making impossible to Mecha'thun with warlock, after also making the [Hearthstone Card (mogul cultist) Not Found] impossible to pull. I was trying the deck and didn't got much luck, until I traded one of the eggs by Emperor Thaurissan. Just my 2cents on this, hope it is useful.
even tho i think DH is already broken i say it should have some kind of upside. altho u cant let it have zero mana hero power, maybe being able to use ur hero power either twice a turn or perhaps make it cost 1 like it is but give it the opportunity to attack once that turn and bank an additional attack for next turn
The thing is that an even deck doesn't work very well with an even hero power. The idea behind Genn making your hero power cost 1 is that it gives you something to do on odd turns, where normally you wouldn't have a way to spend all your mana. Baku also has a similar dynamic, since your upgraded hero power is a strong option on turn 2, and on later even turns you can be mana efficient with 1 cost cards. Odd demon hunter doesn't disrupt this flow very much, since your hero power just acts as a 1 cost card in that regard.
You might think that it could be worth it to change the card anyways, as it would let you use your hero power on even turns without penalty, and you'd be right. Still, such a change could pose problems in the future. If at any point a new class with a 3 mana hero power were to be released, genn would bring its cost down to 2 mana and not 1, giving you 1 floating mana on odd turns. Less powerful, yes, but also not very well designed, and I think wild's high power level could deal with the extra discount relatively well.
Then again, they've almost killed odd hunter by nerfing all its good odd cards into even cards, so maybe it's not such a bad idea.
Personally, I think the best thing to do would be to make the hero power cost 2 mana like everyone else's, and make it give +2 attack instead of +1. I think the 1 mana hero power is a design flaw in the class. In most cases, you hero power shouldn't be central to your decks strategy. It shouldn't be as efficient as Demon Hunter's is. A hero power should just be that thing you do with your extra mana if you don't have anything else to play. As it is now, it feels like every Demon Hunter is an Even DH only without the deckbuilding restriction.
Elusives aren't the problem. YOU are
my advice for you personally is to uninstall the game and learn to have fun. If elusives piss you off so bad, then the real issue is that you get upset over a card game.
Lee Sin is Legend of Runeterra's Latest Champion - New Ionia Cards Revealed
OK, Ionia is my least favorite region by a mile, but these cards really make me want to start playing it. I love all the clever interactions--the Concussive Palm spell spawns a Tail unit who turns back into Palm when recalled, Retreat gives you the fleeting option the Return a unit for 3 mana total so long as that unit costs 3 or less, etc. And then there's Lee Sin, who's probably the worst vanilla 6-drop in the game but each spell you cast gradually turns him into God-mode. It reminds me a lot of Combo Rogue, where most cards have potential beyond their face value so you really need to plan how to optimize your turns. Good job, Riot.
Lee Sin is Legend of Runeterra's Latest Champion - New Ionia Cards Revealed
I think Lee Sin is supposed to be the body, right?
Darius needs a buff or rework
Before the showcase of new cards, Darius was a semi viable champion pick. Having the strongest Power and overwhelm, and can level up mid combat to surprise lethal the Nexus was cool. But now, there are many champions that do damage to the Nexus in more interesting ways. Yes I do think his core should be simply strength. But that is all he has going for him. Plus it doesnt take much to kill Darius.
Elusives aren't the problem. YOU are
All these people crying. I could not care less about Bannerman decks being nerfed. I dont play Demacia. What I'm saying is that if you think Elusives are so broken, then you dont know how to counter.
Lee Sin is Legend of Runeterra's Latest Champion - New Ionia Cards Revealed
So there's the tail, the scales, and the claws, but... where's the rest of its body?
New Piltover & Zaun Spell - Vault Breaker
The more I look at this card, the less I like it in constructed. Sure, fleeting burst is nice--it gives you a really efficient way to dump your mana, and there will definitely be some meme-y YouTube videos of this card creating lethal--but it's just so expensive! 3 mana for 2 temporary attack damage! Compare with Mystic Shot (2 mana for 2 direct damage, so if you kill off a blocker your unit takes 0 damage), Brother's BondBADCARDNAME (2 mana for 2x 2 permanent attack damage), and Elixir of Wrath (1 mana for 3 temporary attack damage). Maybe if you combo with Cloud Drinker, so it only costs 2 mana? It's convoluted, but then at least you're representing 1:1 ratio on mana-to-damage.
The obvious application is to accelerate Vi's level--each cast on her gives +3 attack--but even then you're investing a lot of mana and she still needs to strike, so this tactic gets hard-countered by stun or frostbite or recall or vengeance. I think Vi is going to see more play as just a 2+/5 challenger body than a win condition. The only decks I see actually wanting this card are control decks looking for efficient outlets to dump mana mid-game (think Karma or Anivia decks), and P&Z decks like that don't really exist right now.
This Week's Tavern Brawl is "Battle of Tol Barad" - Play Minions and Get Free Spells of the Same Cost
An acceptable replacement. LOL
Elusive Balancing - Showerthought...
But isn't this kind of what fearsome is? Fearsome is "you can only block if you have attack greater than 3". It's more or less giving the attacking unit partial elusive. Again I can't help but feel that all the mechanics in LoR feel disjointed, like they were each designed by a different person and then everyone got together and put their ideas into the pot but now none of them feel fully fleshed out...and the result is going to be inherently stronger mechanics than others.
I mean a perfect point I made earlier which i want to highlight is the "Tough" mechanic. This should not just be "1 damage" but should be "this unit has Toughness (or Armor) 2, and blocks 2 damage from any source. Tough the spell should stack with existing tough. This prevents that unit from incremental damage but not burst damage. It can be more useful than regeneration in niche scenarios. But anyhow, my point being that you don't see anyone building "Tough" decks because the mechanic is just inherently weak due to design. Conversely Elusive is a strong mechanic because of the way the game is based AND becuase of how Ionia (the biggest offender of Elusive decks) works with their bounce/stun mechanics along with their ability to buff cards.
I think printing more cards *might* work, but 1) that may dilute the region fantasy/theme. and 2) It might make matters worse printing all these niche cards to counter other cards to counter other cards. IMO keeping the core game simple is necessary because if the core game just prints a ton of cards instead of making balanced core regions, then the game is going to quickly spiral out of control into an unorganized mess.
Genn Greymane and the Demon Hunter
Alright, I am willing to take back what I said about hero powers not being central to a deck strategy. But I still disagree with the 1 mana hero power. It is just too efficient and it makes the class feel boring when they do the same thing every turn. Even if your hero power provides a lot of synergy with your deck, you should still focus more on playing cards than just "hitting the button"
Genn Greymane and the Demon Hunter
That's not true. The Warrior, Priest, Warlock, and Hunter hero powers have been core to many of their decks since the start of the game. The only reason the DH hero power is so good is because DH is almost exclusively a tempo class. Once (if) we get more Control cards for Demon Hunters, you'll see that 1 mana discount be entirely pointless.
As someone who's tried to build a control list for Demon Hunters all throughout this expansion and failed miserably, nothing makes you appreciate that +1 Armor Druids get more than when your opponent has a big taunt and your hero power literally does nothing.
Genn Greymane and the Demon Hunter
I have also thought, "Why didn't they have the Hero Power be +2 attack?" This would give a bonus of having a solid attack for 2 mana, and the draw back is that if you attack a minion, like the Rogue ability, you take the damage from that minion. This way it would scale much like the Hunter power. Again, the downside is that if you attack a minion you are taking the damage to the face.
The difference is that Rogue gets to keep their weapon for 2 turns per use, Hunter doesn't take damage when it's used. A change like this could show the versatility and the fact that his class in Hearthstone is essentially a blend of these two classes. At least that is my take on it. Rogue has a lot of spells to help it draw through it's deck, and Hunter likes to go face... a lot.
I agree that this class is still in it's infancy and future releases will let us explore the possibilities of what it can do. But for now, it seems like this class has been give a number of benefits without too many Achilles heels to strain it.
New Shadow Isles Spell - Sap Magic
I think they've been quietly updating card text to clearly show what heals nexus, what heals units, and what heals either/both: e.g., Health Potion.
I agree that AoE healing for seems much less valuable for SI--their units tend to be high attack / low health. Honestly, I think I'd rather have this as "Heal Nexus 3 & units 0" than the reverse. The one caveat is that SI does have the potential for some fat lifesteal units--Soulgorger, Darkwater Scourge if you can combo Death Mark, Deadbloom Wanderer if you can get a buff on it--all of which would get a lot more mileage with Heal 3, so there is at least some potential. Again: it all comes down to how viable Malokai is and how impactful his level-up effect is.
Genn Greymane and the Demon Hunter
I dont agree with you there. New class is a new concept and that alone breaks many the old stigmas, so saying that "Hero Power should just be that thing you do with extra Mana" doesnt sound like a good argument to me. Tho maybe it will end up like that, once it gets more cards and its archetypes can branch out. Obviously it feels very one dimensional on release when the card pool is small and cards are designed for a specific archetype to go along with everything else in the class, Hero Power included. You could look at it the opposite way, this is how every class should have been, their Hero Power be their calling card, not "something to do with spare mana" :)
Swaguar's Post-Nerf, Turn 8 Mecha'thun Warlock
I got really angry that they nerfed Bloodbloom making impossible to Mecha'thun with warlock, after also making the [Hearthstone Card (mogul cultist) Not Found] impossible to pull.
I was trying the deck and didn't got much luck, until I traded one of the eggs by Emperor Thaurissan.
Just my 2cents on this, hope it is useful.
Legends of Runeterra - Third Teaser for the Next Ionia Champion
Likely braided leather like a whip based on the RL weapons they are modeled after.
Genn Greymane and the Demon Hunter
even tho i think DH is already broken i say it should have some kind of upside. altho u cant let it have zero mana hero power, maybe being able to use ur hero power either twice a turn or perhaps make it cost 1 like it is but give it the opportunity to attack once that turn and bank an additional attack for next turn
Swampqueen Hagatha
It's great how versatile it is.
Walking Fountain
Very accurate name.
Lucentbark
I really like this design.
Catrina Muerte
This card is wild!
Genn Greymane and the Demon Hunter
Genn Greymane should definitely be adjusted to accomodate whatever HP with a benefit, at the given conditions.
It will be fine until they release a Coldarra Drake for DH which seems a very unnecessary addition to the class, hence an unlikely problem.
Genn Greymane and the Demon Hunter
The thing is that an even deck doesn't work very well with an even hero power. The idea behind Genn making your hero power cost 1 is that it gives you something to do on odd turns, where normally you wouldn't have a way to spend all your mana. Baku also has a similar dynamic, since your upgraded hero power is a strong option on turn 2, and on later even turns you can be mana efficient with 1 cost cards. Odd demon hunter doesn't disrupt this flow very much, since your hero power just acts as a 1 cost card in that regard.
You might think that it could be worth it to change the card anyways, as it would let you use your hero power on even turns without penalty, and you'd be right. Still, such a change could pose problems in the future. If at any point a new class with a 3 mana hero power were to be released, genn would bring its cost down to 2 mana and not 1, giving you 1 floating mana on odd turns. Less powerful, yes, but also not very well designed, and I think wild's high power level could deal with the extra discount relatively well.
Then again, they've almost killed odd hunter by nerfing all its good odd cards into even cards, so maybe it's not such a bad idea.
Legends of Runeterra - Third Teaser for the Next Ionia Champion
Yeah, unless they’re controlled by magic, they seem way too long and unwieldy
Genn Greymane and the Demon Hunter
Personally, I think the best thing to do would be to make the hero power cost 2 mana like everyone else's, and make it give +2 attack instead of +1. I think the 1 mana hero power is a design flaw in the class. In most cases, you hero power shouldn't be central to your decks strategy. It shouldn't be as efficient as Demon Hunter's is. A hero power should just be that thing you do with your extra mana if you don't have anything else to play. As it is now, it feels like every Demon Hunter is an Even DH only without the deckbuilding restriction.