Interesting, but I was intentionally trying to do away with the situation where he eats all of your big units while simultaneously whittling down your Nexus every time he's replayed. One or the other is more than enough inevitability, in my opinion.
That YouTube video is 2 weeks old; in it he says he's going to tinker around with it more but I haven't seen this archetype in any of his vids since. Do you know if he's done any improvements?
In a subsequent video (but before the balance patch), he mentioned that it crashed hard when he started running into a lot of elusives.
I think it's doing much better after the patch, because I have definitely been seeing more of it.
I was under the impression that Riot's vision was more about paid-vs-unpaid, not casual-vs-hardcore.
I mean, it seems obvious to me that someone who plays more will always get more rewards than someone who plays less. To throttle things so severely that that's not the case will never be acceptable to the people who are enjoying the game the most.
As for the paid-vs-unpaid divide, I think that is also somewhat misunderstood. The idea is not to keep them completely even -- that is literally impossible as long as there are cards in the store. The idea is to make sure free players can get enough cards to have at least one or two viable decks fairly soon; I think they've succeeded in that mission.
I think the main reason is that with Stand United, the targets never actually leave combat, aka, the "space" where the spell was aimed at was always filled.
With Shadowshift the actual target disappears and there is a moment of an empty board beefore the Shadow is summoned, in which the spell will fizzle (as all spells that lack a target do)
it'S not the most intuitive, but it's consistent with how the game works
Stand United targets don't both have to be in (or out of ) combat, but I think the moment of empty space is still a relevant aspect of Shadowshift. Good call.
On the other hand, a spell targets a specific unit at that position.
At least that's how I think about it.
A similar question came up in D&D regarding why some spells require that the caster be able to see the target. (You can't just shoot polymorph magic an an area and hope it hits something.) The lead rules designer explained that part of the spellcasting process involves connecting with the life force of a specific creature, often by visual means. If that connection is interrupted or can't be made in the first place, the spell fizzles.
That's all well and good for Mystic Shot, but some Runeterra spells like Culling Strike represent physical combat maneuvers. For those, I just imagine that the Living Shadow appears in general area just far enough out of position to mess up the "caster's" aim, but not so far that the other unit can't fight it.
I suppose this latter explanation work for pew-pew spells, too, but whatever.
I'm mostly happy with the patch changes, although I have a feeling that Rhasa and Ledros will still be stupid strong.
Was also very surprised at the hefty buff to Jeweled Protector - total stats of 7/7 for 5 mana seems a bit crazy (I would've reduced the hand buff to +2/+3, myself). I might just pick him back up for my control deck.
I absolutely agree about Ledros. The fact that simply playing him over and over can no longer win the game is a big deal, but I still think he should be a Champion.
Jeweled Protector is still fine because it gives away information. Knowing there's a fatty in the works can make a big difference in how the opponent plays.
Ignoring the debate about the OP's sanity, I think the patch changes to XP were pretty much spot-on. For the past 2 weeks, I've slowly been feeling pressured into grinding out as many expeditions as possible due to the high bonus XP rewards. This has actually diminished my enthusiasm to try playing constructed. Now I might just invest a bit more time into building and playing my own decks.
I am so sick of Expeditions at this point, I may not even use my token this week.
But they did make those balance changes ... maybe I'll be ready for it by the weekend.
They didn't take that much XP out of Expeditions. If you were only playing one per week, you'll barely notice the difference. You can make up for it with just a few constructed wins. I certainly wouldn't call it a "full grinding session."
Also, people who wanted to outpace you were already doing so by grinding endless Expeditions, where there was never a daily or weekly XP cap. The difference now is that you have a choice of what mode to play if you want to grind infinite XP.
In the end everyone will have all regions unlocked and it won't matter at all.
Honestly, the whole economy experiment is making balance a whole lot harder than it needs to be. I think maybe they didn't factor in the impact of streamers and the extent to which influencers warp the metagame when they cooked up this throttled progression plan.
The original idea was that different people would progress in different regions, and the meta would be more diverse because of that.
The reality is that most people progressed in the regions streamers were showcasing, and certain archetypes became way more popular than they deserved, simply because yes, they were strong, but also because so many people locked themselves into those archetypes and had to open more Vaults before they could branch out. In fact, I'm sure a lot of free players are still stuck in one or two of those early flavors of the week.
Paying players have been able to branch out and try a lot of new things, but even so, very few people (if any) have a full set -- though it is technically possible at this point, with enough Expedition grinding to level up all regions.
My point is, what we see as overused, seemingly overpowered archetypes may in many cases have more to do with hivemind trends than actual power levels. When the vast majority of players sank all of their resources into very similar subsets of cards, it probably did not create an accurate picture of what's actually strong.
It recently occurred to me that Ledros is stronger than a lot of Champions, so why not make him a Champion, subject to Champion deckbuilding restrictions?
They could significantly water him down in the pre-leveled version and give him a fairly difficult "quest."
For example:
8 mana 6/4 Fearsome,Play: Cut the enemy Nexus Health in half. Level Up: I've killed 3 units.
Leveled up: +1/+1, loses Play effect, Last Breath: Return me to hand.
This would still make a good Champion, but it's not great for aggro decks, and it's just a lot more fair to play against generally. Most important is that you do not get to keep damaging the Nexus when he starts bouncing. There is some incentive to run multiple copies because he probably doesn't survive to level up on the first try. (But note that he does not have to survive as he kills the units to increment his counter.)
Interesting, but I was intentionally trying to do away with the situation where he eats all of your big units while simultaneously whittling down your Nexus every time he's replayed. One or the other is more than enough inevitability, in my opinion.
All I know is, people still surrender as soon as I play him.
Also, if you can make it to turn 8 as SI, you can make it to turn 9. The nerf was not a nerf, but +1 power is a real boost.
He's still the worst-designed card in the game -- possibly even more oppressive now than he was before.
You should definitely report this using the Support button in-game.
That's what beta is all about.
In a subsequent video (but before the balance patch), he mentioned that it crashed hard when he started running into a lot of elusives.
I think it's doing much better after the patch, because I have definitely been seeing more of it.
I was under the impression that Riot's vision was more about paid-vs-unpaid, not casual-vs-hardcore.
I mean, it seems obvious to me that someone who plays more will always get more rewards than someone who plays less. To throttle things so severely that that's not the case will never be acceptable to the people who are enjoying the game the most.
As for the paid-vs-unpaid divide, I think that is also somewhat misunderstood. The idea is not to keep them completely even -- that is literally impossible as long as there are cards in the store. The idea is to make sure free players can get enough cards to have at least one or two viable decks fairly soon; I think they've succeeded in that mission.
Gameplay reports indicate that this is not the case, and that everyone has been misinterpreting the "clarified" card text.
I guess Riot thinks it's obvious that it's the CUT being rounded up.
Well, these nerfs certainly didn't kill anything, and they've boosted several underperforming cards. So far, so good.
Stand United targets don't both have to be in (or out of ) combat, but I think the moment of empty space is still a relevant aspect of Shadowshift. Good call.
I am not surprised. I strongly suspected everyone was misinterpreting the text clarification. Thank you for confirming.
So, obviously, this will not do at all, Riot!
In combat, you are blocking a position.
On the other hand, a spell targets a specific unit at that position.
At least that's how I think about it.
A similar question came up in D&D regarding why some spells require that the caster be able to see the target. (You can't just shoot polymorph magic an an area and hope it hits something.) The lead rules designer explained that part of the spellcasting process involves connecting with the life force of a specific creature, often by visual means. If that connection is interrupted or can't be made in the first place, the spell fizzles.
That's all well and good for Mystic Shot, but some Runeterra spells like Culling Strike represent physical combat maneuvers. For those, I just imagine that the Living Shadow appears in general area just far enough out of position to mess up the "caster's" aim, but not so far that the other unit can't fight it.
I suppose this latter explanation work for pew-pew spells, too, but whatever.
I absolutely agree about Ledros. The fact that simply playing him over and over can no longer win the game is a big deal, but I still think he should be a Champion.
Jeweled Protector is still fine because it gives away information. Knowing there's a fatty in the works can make a big difference in how the opponent plays.
I am so sick of Expeditions at this point, I may not even use my token this week.
But they did make those balance changes ... maybe I'll be ready for it by the weekend.
Are there games that do expansions faster than 3-4 months? That seems crazy to me.
The schedule Riot seems to have set looks exactly right to me. It gives people time to complete all the regions.
Plus, with such frequent balance patches, no, it's not going to get stagnant.
They didn't take that much XP out of Expeditions. If you were only playing one per week, you'll barely notice the difference. You can make up for it with just a few constructed wins. I certainly wouldn't call it a "full grinding session."
Also, people who wanted to outpace you were already doing so by grinding endless Expeditions, where there was never a daily or weekly XP cap. The difference now is that you have a choice of what mode to play if you want to grind infinite XP.
In the end everyone will have all regions unlocked and it won't matter at all.
I'm getting the impression you haven't actually used the card yourself.
It's good for all kinds of things. It's brilliant after For Demacia!, for example.
Honestly, the whole economy experiment is making balance a whole lot harder than it needs to be. I think maybe they didn't factor in the impact of streamers and the extent to which influencers warp the metagame when they cooked up this throttled progression plan.
The original idea was that different people would progress in different regions, and the meta would be more diverse because of that.
The reality is that most people progressed in the regions streamers were showcasing, and certain archetypes became way more popular than they deserved, simply because yes, they were strong, but also because so many people locked themselves into those archetypes and had to open more Vaults before they could branch out. In fact, I'm sure a lot of free players are still stuck in one or two of those early flavors of the week.
Paying players have been able to branch out and try a lot of new things, but even so, very few people (if any) have a full set -- though it is technically possible at this point, with enough Expedition grinding to level up all regions.
My point is, what we see as overused, seemingly overpowered archetypes may in many cases have more to do with hivemind trends than actual power levels. When the vast majority of players sank all of their resources into very similar subsets of cards, it probably did not create an accurate picture of what's actually strong.
It recently occurred to me that Ledros is stronger than a lot of Champions, so why not make him a Champion, subject to Champion deckbuilding restrictions?
They could significantly water him down in the pre-leveled version and give him a fairly difficult "quest."
For example:
8 mana 6/4 Fearsome, Play: Cut the enemy Nexus Health in half. Level Up: I've killed 3 units.
Leveled up: +1/+1, loses Play effect, Last Breath: Return me to hand.
This would still make a good Champion, but it's not great for aggro decks, and it's just a lot more fair to play against generally. Most important is that you do not get to keep damaging the Nexus when he starts bouncing. There is some incentive to run multiple copies because he probably doesn't survive to level up on the first try. (But note that he does not have to survive as he kills the units to increment his counter.)
If you want to be a better player, learn to bait out or play around Deny.
Deny is one of the few cards making this Commander Ledros meta bearable.
The only thing that would make me unhappy is if Commander Ledros is not hit extremely hard -- harder than anyone has suggested in this thread.
If he continues to appear in every single Shadow Isles deck (especially aggro decks), I will consider it a failed balance patch.