Constructive feedback on balancing the heroes - Blue

Hello everyone,

Before I get started, I’d like to say that, in general, I really enjoy this game. I’ve used almost all possible alliance and world energy since I began playing in August. Rather than just complaining about some issues I see in the game, I thought I would provide some constructive feedback to Small Giant. I read the forums daily, and I think the issue of hero balance is a sore spot for many people.

With alliance wars coming up, I think it is important for hero balance to be addressed. It (typically) takes a very long time to get a 5star hero, and an even longer time to accumulate all the materials (ascension, feeders, food) to fully level them up. Given the tremendous amount of time/luck/money it takes to max a 5star hero, I really think each one should be worth ascending. IMO, the second most “unfun” thing in this game is getting a 5star hero, only to realize they aren’t really all that great. The most unfun thing is having an alliance member finally get their first 5star hero after months of bad luck and watching alliance chat tell them their shiny new hero probably isn’t even worth investing in. What is particularly frustrating to me is that often even the best commonly available 5star heroes are vastly overshadowed by very expensive/luck dependent HOTM/event heroes. Every time a new hero is added to the mix balance gets more and more complicated, so I think this issue needs to be addressed ASAP.

I plan to make a post for each color and give an overview of each non-event/HOTM hero of that color. For each hero, I will give a suggestion on what simple change(s) could be made to their skill to make them worth ascending (at least to me). Obviously this is all just based on my opinion. Game balance is a very complex topic that everyone has a different opinion on, but I think a thoughtful discussion on the subject needs to take place. New skill mechanics would be fun, but a completely new mechanic and redesigns would take a very long time.

A top player, @Anchor , from the Seven Days Departed alliance made an excellent guide on hero rankings (linked below). The letter next to each hero in this post is the overall grade from that guide.
http://7ddgaming.com/2018/01/18/anchors-complete-guide-to-hero-grades/
Blue
I’m starting with blue because it contains one of the best (Magni) and worst (Thorne) commonly available 5star heroes and two others that I think could be much more appealing with minor changes. Other colors kind of have a theme to build on (yellow-blind, red-DoT, green-attack debuff), but blue and purple are sorely missing that.

Magni (A) - Fast - Magni is a great example of a 5star hero that is extremely well done and needs no changes. His special hits hard and fast, and provides defense, to make up for his glass cannon stats. Making the defense bonus apply to nearby allies is very fun, as it makes team positioning an added strategic element. No changes needed.

Richard (B) - Average - Richard is just OK, largely because the -attack% doesn’t really have much of a use. In raids it might help you live a little longer, assuming it isn’t removed via cleanse or an attack buff. For many specials the status effect is what you really want to avoid and -attack% doesn’t help with that. Yeah, you may take less initial damage from Colen/Azlar, but the DoT still hits the same. For titans, -attack% can be applied more reliably with items. His special may free up an item slot, but I’d much rather just take axes/bombs and use a better blue. Unfortunately, it seems buffing anyone with -%attack requires changing the whole mechanic which is far too complicated. Maybe changing his skill to fast and adjusting damage/duration would help. If his average mana speed charge is maintained he needs to give something else-possibly an attack buff to nearby allies or defense debuff.

Thorne (C )- Average - Probably the worst special of all 5stars in any color. This is the hardest skill to think of improvements for, because it is so lackluster and blue heroes don’t really have a skill “theme”, as previously mentioned. His special has a relatively high %damage, but his attack stat is so low it doesn’t really matter. The splash damage isn’t really high enough to do much either. A simple fix would be to introduce an attack or crit buff on his special for him and nearby allies. A DoT or defense debuff could also work. Either way, he needs something else because his “icecold finisher” is more like a “room temperature tickle” currently. Personally, I would love to see something a bit more complicated that took advantage of his top tier defense+health. A taunt ability would be really fun and add an element of strategy to having him on a team. It would be really fun to buff him up and taunt a titan to help keep a squishy (like Wu Kong) alive.

Isarnia (B) - Slow - Like Richard, Isarnia is just OK. She hits all and applies a defense debuff, making her skill somewhat useful for raids and titans. However, she is a glass cannon. Her low defense/health and slow mana charge means it’s very likely she’ll die before ever firing it. Also, let’s face it, Israrnia is just a poor man’s Athena with worse mana charge, worse damage, and a worse debuff. I think adding a team-wide buff (defense) or heal to her skill would give her the extra edge needed to make her worthy of a full ascension. Having a slow mana charging glass cannon is a risk, so getting it to fire should do more than just a slightly better ramming pulverizer. Slow heroes tend to be do better if the battle is extended, so adding an aspect that facilitates this would be helpful. Skill could also be left as is but with average mana charge.

As a sidenote, I think Isarnia suffers from a core problem all slow hit all heroes do - they have no best situation to be used. Single target fast hitters are obviously best against titans. But single target fast hitters happen to be great in raids as well because killing one hero increases mana gen and results in one less special and regular attack to worry about. Even event rounds typically only have 3 enemies per wave making single target and nearby enemy hits preferred over hit all.

6 Likes

Just to be clear on the -34% attack debuff. Do you really understand HOW WEAK it makes heroes? If you take a Sartana at 4/80 fully maxed and take 66% of her attack stat at max, guess what level that corresponds to?

Just think about it in your head for a minute…

I’ll tell you - it’s like taking Sartana from 4/80 and reducing her to 2/40 or so. Yes tier 2 not even 60th level. It’s a crazy damage reduction.

Now that doesn’t make Richard great, but do not sleep on the attack debuff heroes.

1 Like

Suggestion: and add a feature “gain 33% mana for each enemy killed by this attack”

Top 10 raid hero incoming

I really like the post and am keen to see the others, a lot of thought and some great ideas but

:rage::rage::rage::rage::rage::rage::rage::rage:

I think Purple’s theme is Poison. The thing Sartana has. It’s also present on some of the skellies from 3* and Laila. Sadly, it’s basically the same thing as the fire DoT red heroes have.

Here’s some post I smeared on the topic a good while back. It’s not the best or most educated, but it was fun to write and think of new mechanics at some parts.

2 Likes

I like the Taunt idea for Thorne. An idea I had for him was akin to Spirit Link, with a modest team-wide defense buff with Thorne taking some fraction (⅓?) of any damage to a linked hero.

3 Likes

I agree with @Dante2377 that Richard is OK as he is. But this also goes into explaining how weak Thorne is:
Magni 420% @ 793 = 3331 + defense buff - FAST
Richard 415% @ 644 = 2673 + spill damage + Attack debuff - AVERAGE
Thorne 445% @ 605 = 2692 + spill damage + nothing more - AVERAGE
IMO, Isarnia is for raiding attack and defense…if she’s well protected, when her special fires…there’s a good chance it is game over…at least if I’m attacking with my all 4* team :frowning: (have only received stupid Morgana as a 5* hero in more than 70 epic/elemental/event summons…to the point that I’ve given up :frowning: )

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Don’t give up on Morgan! She’s insanely fun to use on a raid attack team.

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I like the way you write this post, your thoughts have sense and many people can agree with you.
Sadly not me for reasons i already stated elsewhere and i don’t want to repeat.

Good topic anyway.

Merlin is fun…Morgana is useless!
So you mana her up, attack and nothing happens…you have to wait for your opposing team to attack to start inflicting the damage! Sorry, I dont get the fun in that :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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@Elpis
Maybe you can give us a link where you expressed your ideas in other post please?

My heroes have been made essentially useless at the moment, I have paid money I am paying the game and then this arbitrary decision is made to change good the game works, it is garbage, I din’t understand it, I get penalized for doing nothing wrong at all.

Thanks for nothing.

What heroes were made useless? Only nerfs were to Ares Alberic and Guin. My opinion is that they all are still very good heroes.

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And what does that have to do wth anyone in this thread?

Seriously?!?!?!?!?!?!

Surprisingly, all top players have kept these heroes in their defense team even though they are useless :slight_smile:

Do you want all my stable of heroes and you give me only your useless Ares, Alberich, Guinevere LOLOL

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I just got Thorne and although I should be thrilled, because he is so lack luster I am unsure if it’s even worth leveling him to replace Kiril. The fact that he has no secondary effects for ab5 star iis kind of a joke. Same problem Quintus has. Some type of defense buff would be great maybe even the remove negative effects on your own hero’s like Riggard and Vivica do or the defense reduction thing that Gormek, Tibertius or Grimm have. Kind of sad that those 4 stars are more useful to a team than a 5 star.

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Thorne
I think Thorne should have one of these improvements applied:

  • be switched to Fast while lowering the damage dealt (just like other 5* direct damage heroes, such as Marjana, Sartana, Lianna). It is true that he deals splash damage but Zeline is Fast and deals damage to all heroes.
  • kept at Medium and given an extra effect that is, however, not as good as Richard’s since they are both Average and Thorne’s damage % is higher (either Remove buffs or lower attack of three heroes hit)
  • kept at Medium and gets the damage % increased by say 20% (still lower than Lianna).

Quintus
I also agree on Quintus, who deals only marginally more damage than Isarnia but has no extra effect compared to a powerful one from Isarnia!
Tiburtus = 260% of 747 = 1942.2
Isarnia = 235% of 797 = 1872.95
Possible solutions could be

  • an increase in percentage of damage dealt - possibly too powerful
  • lower attack of enemies by 24% for 4 turns - similar to Horghall but less
  • deal some minor additional damage of time - popular with purples
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Do you mean Quintus?

Yeah, Quitus…I fixed my post…thanks…I think a coffee is long overdue :wink:

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@mrock42 This is a wonderful writeup on 5* blue heros. You are very thorough, though i disagree with Isarnia being last. I’d put her before Thorne.

I would like to see your writeups on red, green, yellow and purple, if there are some.

Thanks again! :wink: