Malicna, Frosth, Yang Mai, Elradir & Devana nerf

I use xnolph with 23 mana troop, he Charges in 9 tiles, then Charges malicna that in turn Charges Alfrike. So Alfrike goes off in 9 tiles.

Now Malicna becomes Worthless. To bad. I have pretty much stopped spending because SG are f-ing disgusting.

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It will charge Alfrike per 2 turns, not per turn. For me seems OK, but I am pretty disappointed by this nerf(

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Is the mana gain enough to tick you back up to full after Bera/Freya die?

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After 4 turns instead of 2 turns. And in 4 turns a lot of things you probably will charge again anyway with tiles and you might take some extra hits from the opponent.

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For me the most frustrating part about the recent ā€œbalanceā€ changes is the lack of communication. At least with Telly/Vela they explained that it was because the heroes were too ubiquitous.

Why did they feel the need to nerf these HOTMs? The only think I can think of is to compensate for the eventual 2021 family bonus.

Why did they feel the need to buff Faline and Zuri who were already considered top heroes? AT LEAST give us an explanation, otherwise everyone just assumes it was so that they could re-open the portal and cash in on the reliable spenders

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I know that itā€™s in generally very tempting to complain and we all need to vent from time to time, but Iā€™m curious about your opinions which of these heroes are still worth it to max and in which situations?

For me the list is as following:

Malicna - no, unless your roster is made up primarily of S1 heroes without costumes. Maybe if you have Alfrike she would give an extra edge, but as itā€™s my case, I donā€™t have her so it does not matter.

Frosth - Not unless you have other minion heroes and I donā€™t. And if you already have two good minion heroes (like both Bera and Freya) he becomes redudantā€¦

Yang Mai - Low damage, the elemental link was her high light. No for me.

Elradir - Becomes even more nicheand the synergy with other greens becomes non-existent imo.

Devana - Mostly yes because of her dispell and minion and immunity to those.

Overall, their mana link becomes irrelevant imo and your focus should be on the rest of their specials, which in most cases are either niche or meh. Devana seems to remain the only one decent in most aspects of the game.

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Considering that these bonuses overwrite each other, there would have been no danger for them ā€œadding upā€.

In my opinion they are now trying to sell the same skill twice. They added mana gain passives to Russell and Hanitra who coupled with Yang Mai or Devana would charge quite fast. And probably they will introduce similar heroes in the future.

So basically they sold us a skill in the previous months and now they nerf the heroes with the skill they sold in order to be able to sell the same skill in a different form all over again.

And again, this change affects the average p2p and the f2p because the top spenders already considered these HotM as too weak for their roster.

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It sucks but in all honesty it prob depends where you are in the game with your hero supply as to how badly it effects each person.

I love pairing malicna with purple squid(xnol something) and the semi constant mana add is fun but thankfully my purple roster is deep enough that if itā€™s that bad i can remove malicna and add another 5 star and still be successful. For me, the only reason i use malicna is the mana. Her special is a little stronger than a wet noodle but not much. I donā€™t think about the 2nd part of her special until i see it in action as my luck with it while attacking isnā€™t great at all.

I also own Devana but i can honestly say until reading this thread i forget she added mana to my yellow stack. She is more important to me than malicna in general but i happen to agree that the elemental link is something people used as a tool to determine whether these HOTMs were worth obtaining.

I donā€™t think they will do anything to compensate but of course it would be appreciated.

So with the 2 heroes i own i would no longer recommend malicna to anyone. But I would still level Devana. Moreso because i donā€™t have a large staple of yellow 5 stars. I will now strip malinca of emblems as well but will alexandrine get nerfed eventually too lol

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As far as I know (and have tested it) mana bonuses from troops, costumes etc. increases the amount of mana per turn the link gives. But the question is, after this nerf, how much mana % increase is needed to get the 0.5% per turn once again (if its even possible?)

Not a fan of this nerf, the link was one of the selling points of Elradir for me, Devana and Frosth I wouldā€™ve ascended anyways. If I had gotten Malicna, she wouldā€™ve been ascended purely because of the link, so I guess I was lucky after all for not getting her.

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Count me among those who got all five of them and have ascended 4. (Yang Mai is on the ā€œascend if I ever get extra damascus bladesā€ list.) I donā€™t see any of them as game-breakingly strong (I think most even consider Elradir fairly weak), so hope fervently that rumors of nerfing them wonā€™t come to fruition, even if the nerf is small.

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The elemental link is just a cherry on top for a mono player.

I have Malicna, Yang Mai and Elradir ascended and heavily emblemed.

I use them in my teams and get play from all of them. The only time the elemental link really matters would be when Freya/Bera die when Iā€™m fully charged. But this also means Iā€™ve already fired them so itā€™s only really of any actual use in Rush environments where you can fire them all before Freya/Bera have fired.

I like the specials from the heroes themselves. Malicna can be devastating and if you have Sergei/Panther then you should see how hard she hits following them.

Elradir has a decent hit 3 but also shines in Rush as he resists silence. Making him good against Alfrike and also he is clearly very very good against DoT casters.

Yang Mai is a loose cannon and perhaps the most RNG of all but if you get a good roll of the dice she can put out some hurt. In my mono red itā€™s probably the elemental link I most take her for so the change to the link puts Yang at the most risk.

To be ascended - Frosth and Devana

Devana is definitely going up unless I luck upon Odin next Valhalla. Her dispel can be vital and again has a decent hit and a very mighty Minion to keep her in the game

Frosth probably not as he just doesnā€™t really gel with my Blues and bar using him with Freya and Noor on auto play I donā€™t really have a use for him right now.

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Here I beg to differ. I am not a mono player, but that link counts even for two different heroes of the same element - making an average hero shoot with no matches after Frosth/ Yang Mai or a slow one after the other three.

As for the damage you mention, that has to be compared with the damage that your other heroes you could ascend incur. For example Costume Elkanen deals more damage than Elradir. and any dark damage dealer would be devastating after Sergei/ Pantherā€¦ Yang Mai deals less damage than Tyr and if the RNG favours you, the other hits will be minor damageā€¦ For example I was planning to max Yang Mai over Russell or Tyr, but now either of them seems better to me.

I am glad though that at least for you this nerf is no problem and you still enjoy your heroes and your decisions were not negatively affected by the fact that you were offered initially offered something only to be told after you implemented your decision that that something is no longer valid.

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If the bonus is calculated as a percent to the 0.5 tile, than it will be 5% of 0.3 tiles and 7% from my currently level 13 mana troopsā€¦ Basically you will need a mana bonus of 67% to that 0.3 tile per turn increase to get back to 0.5 tiles per turn.

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I consider any hero subject to change tbh. Some get better, some get worse. Iā€™m not going to get upset by changes to pixels when we all know they can happen. Iā€™m a big winner from Khagans buffs. Same again with the Dark Lord.

I understand Iā€™m a lot more pragmatic than most in here so others will get annoyed/upset by any negative changes. Thatā€™s cool, I just choose to shrug and not let stuff like this annoy me. Much easier on the stress levels.

That is highly dependent on the size of your roster and the resources you have available to put in the game. Itā€™s much easier to shrug it off when you can easily replace a hero that does not serve your purpose anymore or just ascend another one that could fit you better.

While I congratulate you for being so zen about these changes, there is something to be said also about empathy towards those for whom these changes might have a greater impact.

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Well as I said, people want to be annoyed/upset thatā€™s cool. Iā€™m not telling anyone they canā€™t be.

Itā€™s just not a path Iā€™ll walk myself.

People donā€™t want to be annoyed/ upset. People are annoyed/ upset as a result of an injustice/ unethical behaviour. Of course, according to a paradigm that ā€œeveryone is entitled to do what they pleaseā€, ethics and injustice are irrelevant. The only thing that matters is who has the power.

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I donā€™t think the question in this topic is - ā€œAre you annoyed/upset because of the element link change?ā€.

But rather, ā€œDo you think these heroes are still viable with their element link changed?ā€. Itā€™s as pragmatic as it gets.

I think it wonā€™t change much about these heroes, and I would still make the same pulling/ascension decisions if the link was this way from their initial release.

But having that said, it still baffles me why SG decides to nerf, even if slightly, some of the most mediocre and niche heroes in the game. While giving buffs to some of the very strong around the same time. With Telluria and Vela, even though I had them and benefited from their synergy like many, I totally agreed the nerf was necessary - it was obvious they were too strong and something had to be done. Here now, I have no idea. Itā€™s completely out of the blue, making you wonder - if keeping the game balance is not the goal, then what is? I could buy many excuses if any underlying, player-friendly logic was presented. Even if it was twisted and I wouldnā€™t agree with it. But these came with no explanation at all.

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Understood.

In that case, yes I do think they are still viable. Iā€™ll continue to use the ones Iā€™ve ascended and will likely still ascend Devana

Indeed, thank you.

That is good to know, though as I also said in the other thread with Russell, my opinion differs and I am missing some concrete data to understand your point of view.

What I can imagine here is what I said before. The mana bonus for Russell and Hanitra and other future heroes in combination with Yang Mai/ Devana would make them over powered. So instead of giving Russell and Hanitra other passives and make them less attractive that would discourage people to pull for them, they nerfed the old ones that do not bring them money anymore.

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