Balance Report: May 14

At the beginning of the sixth league there was a patch that fixed bugs that had to do with Characters resolving their abilities without taking into account their own Planning. This highlighted the inconsistency with which some triggers were working. These problems were worked and fixed on along with some changes that we believe were pertinent given the results of the previous league.

Structure adjustments

We have perceived how the structural position of the Factions help shape a healthy metagame by determining how some colors are more resistant than others to avoidance and siege strategies. In order to fine tune this relationship and support HQs that are overshadowed we have slightly adjusted the Structure of several HQs.

Fine-tuning while maintaining focus

These are HQs that have been fine-tuned beyond their structure.

The Elephant is the HQ of the Non-Binary genre. We don’t want it to remain the home of direct damage if it means that male and female characters hog its slots. We’ve changed their condition to encourage their archetype while improving the pay for following their recipe.

We believe The Unifier’s new approach is correct. We fell short in power level and believe that the impact of its ability was underdeveloped by the team at the time of its release. We also think that the HQ responds well to direct damage decks but should be better equipped against the rest of the strategies or, at least, propose more in some way. We hope that this time it will crystallize into a clear formation or at least define 5 slots for use in high level competitions.

The new Stoneward

Stoneward was the only HQ that failed to win a single tournament in the last league. We consider this reason enough to make a rework of the HQ and today we present a new Stoneward. We hope that this time he can find his place in the hall of fame when we do the count next month.

The condition of sustaining all three genders at the table is very difficult. That is why through this Toughness we seek to pay the user in a consistent way. In addition, Stoneward now has an ability that allows you to receive table value more consistently by relying on the variety of genders on the table but being able to pay before the arrival of the third one. We believe that the build of this version is more focused than the previous version (independent of power level) and we expect to see a sort of healing dreamteam emerge. If you have a base C it might be time to take it to the next level.

Balances cards

Casemira Kutuzov was falling short. We have removed his positional status so that he can support the blue offensive more freely. We have also raised her base attack so that she takes less turns to gain weight and increased her triggers so that her help arrives in time.

The Panther has gained Automated to be able to play better with the whole Faction. We have raised their massive ATK bonus a bit. We think Renee’s is the best HQ to receive this news.

This is another legendary card that was not giving the 100%. We think a 20 base attack for the pick up and some RES may be what it lacks. Anyway and even though green has no ways to alter his own formation, we have given him Grip so he can accomplish his goal.

It has been difficult to get Jack to talk. We believe that this is where Owner could see his way out of the difficulties he finds himself in today by not having an efficient way to fight against HQs focused on the use of Technologies.

We believe Blood Witch’s ARMED condition has not allowed him to stand out as he should. We believe that that and giving an extra trigger to his damage ability can give blue a breather. We have also raised his HP so that he can see one more turn in case his attack isn’t growing as expected.

First Grader L2 was well above the Adept level. We believe this change can make the card more meaningful by guaranteeing a sufficient base bonus and stating its clear intentions to be part of the BTS roster.

This extra RES point may seem irrelevant, but we are confident that it will allow this red tool to achieve the resilience needed to help the red machine defend its ground against a metagame with a lot of technology hate.

Dancing Dazer L2 has been elevated a bit and we expect it to make a difference. Mainly in matches where the player on your side opens the table by putting this Technology on the table in the first or second turn of the match.

Last month’s Bugfix highlighted just how strong Double Boomer really was. We think it became an unfair card and hope that with Armed’s condition, it will be much more grounded. Mainly by offering the opponent a contingency plan in case they have no way to deal with his resistance.

The Fix: [Attack], [Struck] and [Kill]

We have arranged these letters so that they finally behave as they should. We take this opportunity to explain their behavior in depth to make sure there are no misunderstandings.

It is a default condition of all abilities, triggered and continuous, that the source card is on the table so that its effect can be resolved. [Attack], [Struck] and [Kill] are an exception to this rule, as they are triggers that happen in fight step combats. That is why in a previous patch it was determined that these abilities would not depend on their source still being on the table when resolving. Today that is the way they behave although some specific cases may be unintuitive.

In order to more accurately represent the interactions of the Characters during their fights we have determined that the Triggers that the Characters trigger upon death will resolve as long as their last instant of consciousness allows them to do so. This means that the Characters will be able to resolve their abilities if those who are affected are clear candidates for it, according to the state of the table, at the moment of the death of the Character trying to resolve if triggered. For example: “…rightmost Technology…”, “…most wounded foe…”, “…Inhuman allies…”, etc.

On the other hand, those effects that look for adjacent allies or foes cannot be resolved as these effects refer to a range that the Characters have to perform certain actions. Spilling Nick could be serving drinks and a bullet piercing his chest will not allow him to reach the next table before collapsing.

On the contrary, if an effect refers to the opponent, this has to do with a more intimate context, that is why we assume that those who are face to face could throw a last punch before falling down.

The result of all this is that we will see cards that trigger their triggers and resolve them regardless of whether they have died in the course of the stack. On the other hand there will be Characters with these triggers that cannot resolve them if they have died and, a few cases, where the Characters can effectively resolve a part of their effect, as their abilities contain actions that affect the opponent or depend on the table state on the one hand. But they also look for Characters in positions relative to the source card on the other hand. Basically the latter does not occur because the Character that dies is no longer on the table.

To illustrate all this clearly, below are the Characters with [Attack], [Struck] or [Kill] triggers that would resolve their effect regardless of whether they have died since the instant their ability was triggered.

Those Characters that cannot resolve their effect if they die, although corresponding to these triggers are:

Finally, those cases in which part of the ability is fulfilled and part is not:

In the case of Spilling Nick and Spilling Nick L2, if he dies when firing his ability, he will damage the opponent but not the adjacent foes.

We believe that the game has come a long way in terms of balance and we announce a substantial decrease in the frequency with which these patches will occur.

Stay tuned.