Though I did make a huge mistake with a Parley that dropped him to 20 when I totally didn't mean to. Then he dropped another boat and hit me for 12+24 unavoidable damage for the OTK.
So, I've cleared the new lab with Miss Fortune and Tahm Kench. I'm in the middle of a run with Twisted Fate.
So far, I think it's a lot of fun and fairly complex. There is a lot of player agency in deciding how to approach the lab as well, and a much wider variety to the encounters.
My tips would be: for the first few clears, don't really worry about your badges for the end of the run. Focus on maximizing your equipments and powers, because Gangplank is HARD to beat. VERY hard.
In my first run, I defeated him in one try, thanks to having Evolution and some absurdly overpowered units.
In my second run, despite having 6 really good powers, including Yipp's Genius, and having Zoe in the deck, I still died once on Gangplank before I defeated him. He's insanely strong. A much more fitting end boss than Viktor for sure.
Edit - After playing a few more times, I can say for sure that getting 6 powers is not normal. There isn't even a guarantee that you'll get an epic power at all, though you WILL get a random epic power offered if you spawn the Smooth Soloist '!' node. In any case, I've cleared all three champs, with TF being the hardest for me to finish. S-tier skill and wealth on both MF and Tahm Kench. I'll be going for speed badges last.
I'd strongly encourage you to come over and check it out again. LoR has stayed awesome pretty much all along, though there were a couple of rough patches related to live balance. But those are mostly in the past, and they are planning to get back to frequent and large balance changes to ensure a fresh and competitive meta.
And the new PvE mode looks really awesome, though I really cringe to try to imagine how it will be possible to make a run work with Tahm Kench as your starting champion.
Does anyone know the source that says that you cannot cast a card with the same name more than 15 times in a single round? I have tried, without success, to track down where that information was stated.
Teemo is actually Piltover and Zaun. And Howling Abyss can create ANY level 2 champion from the entire game. It is not restricted in any way. It can be any champion in the game from any region at any mana cost.
They have always said that they intended this game to be combat-centric and unit-based. I actually prefer to have a meta where board presence is the most important factor, because the game design overall is clearly meant to be focused on beating the opponent on the board, primarily using units, not primarily using spells (or massive effects like pre-nerf Watcher obliterating your deck).
And incidentally, the more combat tricks you put in your deck, the higher your chances that you just draw a handful of tricks with no units to use them on.
Let's just look at the filtered data before we make conclusions. Here is the most recent meta data for plat+, thanks to Kozmic. Viego/Nasus is the most played deck in the meta at 9% playrate. Its winrate is a whopping 50%.
The other two Viego decks that make the top 10 most played decks only have 2-3% of the meta each. Viego Plaza has a 44% winrate and Viego dragons has a 42% winrate.
Maybe he feels unfair when you're losing to him, but I don't think those numbers require any kind of response presently.
It's not "too f2p friendly" - it's monetized differently. Rather than paying for the privilege of getting to use the cards in the game, you pay for the cosmetics to look cool while you do it.
And there are plenty of people who pay to look cool. And even some who are impatient to get all the cards, so they pay for those too. But even there, you pay for exactly the cards you want to get, rather than paying for a random chance to maybe get the cards you want to get.
The one that is the most glaring to me is that Katarina got no changes at all. I would have thought maybe at least they might make her level 2 form not cost more than her level 1 form, seeing that she is literally the only champion in the entire game that has that feature.
I feel like Iterative Improvement should be at 3x and Counterfeit Copies at 2x. At least if you actually want Sumpworks Posse to be a main part of the deck's wincon.
I like the positive attitude about combo potential, as long as you're prepared to insta-surrender against any Ionia deck.
If this idea is actually meant to be viable, it probably needs to be focus speed or at least fast. I just hate them making things where you "just lose immediately" if the opponent has a certain card.
It's kinda still in its prime, TBH. The nerfs made very little difference. Not sure if you saw WhatamI against SirTurmund in the top 8 of the tournament ... but man. Let's just say that SirTurmund won the game with three absurdly lucky topdecks in a row, playing as Azir/Irelia. Most disgusting, tilting thing I've ever seen in a tournament.
(If you didn't see it, here's the summary version - he played out Dancing Droplet and 3x Dais, and his last card in hand was Homecoming. Topdeck 1 = Azir. Topdeck 2 = Irelia. Topdeck 3 = Ribbon Dancer. Using just Ribbon Dancer, Flawless Duet and one actual attack, he presented 60+ damage.) I woulda been so incredibly tilted if I were WhatAmI at that point.
I had a godtier deck and I lost the first try.
Though I did make a huge mistake with a Parley that dropped him to 20 when I totally didn't mean to. Then he dropped another boat and hit me for 12+24 unavoidable damage for the OTK.
So, I've cleared the new lab with Miss Fortune and Tahm Kench. I'm in the middle of a run with Twisted Fate.
So far, I think it's a lot of fun and fairly complex. There is a lot of player agency in deciding how to approach the lab as well, and a much wider variety to the encounters.
My tips would be: for the first few clears, don't really worry about your badges for the end of the run. Focus on maximizing your equipments and powers, because Gangplank is HARD to beat. VERY hard.
In my first run, I defeated him in one try, thanks to having Evolution and some absurdly overpowered units.
In my second run, despite having 6 really good powers, including Yipp's Genius, and having Zoe in the deck, I still died once on Gangplank before I defeated him. He's insanely strong. A much more fitting end boss than Viktor for sure.
Edit - After playing a few more times, I can say for sure that getting 6 powers is not normal. There isn't even a guarantee that you'll get an epic power at all, though you WILL get a random epic power offered if you spawn the Smooth Soloist '!' node. In any case, I've cleared all three champs, with TF being the hardest for me to finish. S-tier skill and wealth on both MF and Tahm Kench. I'll be going for speed badges last.
I'd strongly encourage you to come over and check it out again. LoR has stayed awesome pretty much all along, though there were a couple of rough patches related to live balance. But those are mostly in the past, and they are planning to get back to frequent and large balance changes to ensure a fresh and competitive meta.
And the new PvE mode looks really awesome, though I really cringe to try to imagine how it will be possible to make a run work with Tahm Kench as your starting champion.
Great, thank you!
Does anyone know the source that says that you cannot cast a card with the same name more than 15 times in a single round? I have tried, without success, to track down where that information was stated.
Hey! A fellow Sentinel-enjoyer! Seriously, though, it seems like everyone else for whom I've seen any evidence of their choice, it was Ruination.
Great summary of the quests, thanks for posting it.
Teemo is actually Piltover and Zaun. And Howling Abyss can create ANY level 2 champion from the entire game. It is not restricted in any way. It can be any champion in the game from any region at any mana cost.
They have always said that they intended this game to be combat-centric and unit-based. I actually prefer to have a meta where board presence is the most important factor, because the game design overall is clearly meant to be focused on beating the opponent on the board, primarily using units, not primarily using spells (or massive effects like pre-nerf Watcher obliterating your deck).
And incidentally, the more combat tricks you put in your deck, the higher your chances that you just draw a handful of tricks with no units to use them on.
Let's just look at the filtered data before we make conclusions. Here is the most recent meta data for plat+, thanks to Kozmic. Viego/Nasus is the most played deck in the meta at 9% playrate. Its winrate is a whopping 50%.
The other two Viego decks that make the top 10 most played decks only have 2-3% of the meta each. Viego Plaza has a 44% winrate and Viego dragons has a 42% winrate.
Maybe he feels unfair when you're losing to him, but I don't think those numbers require any kind of response presently.
Yeah, that Ibex is a pretty nice addition to a Lulu support package.
It's not "too f2p friendly" - it's monetized differently. Rather than paying for the privilege of getting to use the cards in the game, you pay for the cosmetics to look cool while you do it.
And there are plenty of people who pay to look cool. And even some who are impatient to get all the cards, so they pay for those too. But even there, you pay for exactly the cards you want to get, rather than paying for a random chance to maybe get the cards you want to get.
That Denmother looks like an amazing finisher for Ashe.
*Sigh* I'm only just now finishing the current 15 of them on legendary. Three more to go (Lissandra, Zilean, and Taliyah).
Given that Homecoming exists at 4 mana currently, I highly doubt that dropping Will of Ionia back to 4 mana matters much.
The one that is the most glaring to me is that Katarina got no changes at all. I would have thought maybe at least they might make her level 2 form not cost more than her level 1 form, seeing that she is literally the only champion in the entire game that has that feature.
I feel like Iterative Improvement should be at 3x and Counterfeit Copies at 2x. At least if you actually want Sumpworks Posse to be a main part of the deck's wincon.
"Viability" - I see what you did there :)
You can't lurk twice, so this won't work. Fun idea though.
I like the positive attitude about combo potential, as long as you're prepared to insta-surrender against any Ionia deck.
If this idea is actually meant to be viable, it probably needs to be focus speed or at least fast. I just hate them making things where you "just lose immediately" if the opponent has a certain card.
It's kinda still in its prime, TBH. The nerfs made very little difference. Not sure if you saw WhatamI against SirTurmund in the top 8 of the tournament ... but man. Let's just say that SirTurmund won the game with three absurdly lucky topdecks in a row, playing as Azir/Irelia. Most disgusting, tilting thing I've ever seen in a tournament.
(If you didn't see it, here's the summary version - he played out Dancing Droplet and 3x Dais, and his last card in hand was Homecoming. Topdeck 1 = Azir. Topdeck 2 = Irelia. Topdeck 3 = Ribbon Dancer. Using just Ribbon Dancer, Flawless Duet and one actual attack, he presented 60+ damage.) I woulda been so incredibly tilted if I were WhatAmI at that point.