This game has devolved into who can get golden knight or archer queen first.
First of all, I think some of the new additions this season have been great. I love quests despite rewards being horribly random and the utility is a great way to vary gameplay.
People have complained about single traits to death and while I’m indifferent to this change, I feel it’s caused a massive issue this season which is the prioritization of Golden Knight and to a lesser extent, Archer Queen. Every single game I play devolves into who can get these troops first and it results in gameplay feeling stale and restricted. The rare exception to this rule is the occasional endgame full-undead, but that really only works if you’re playing with one specific ruler.
Again, while I’m not as against single traits as much as others, they’ve really narrowed down your options if you want to win.
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In most cases, any other comp is just not worth it.
- Forest is just simply garbage. Boss Bandit is clearly the worst out of all the 5 stars and the rest of the troops are too underpowered with a lacklustre ability to make up for it.
- Undead is expensive and requires either RNG or playing with a specific ruler to reach max potential. By the time you’ve set up your comp, you’re likely on 1 health about to be wiped out by a team of royals.
- Clan isn’t terrible, especially if you’re playing Dagger Duchess. Three star Archer Queen can be very powerful and it’s the main thing that can contest max/near-max royals. However, it still falls short to royals if your front line is too squishy and gets wiped out by Golden Knight.
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If you still don’t believe royals is overpowered (which no one actually believed this), let’s take a look at the actual comp:
- Golden Knight blows everything out of the water with its dash ability. Musketeer is very useful in stunning troops. Prince is amazing for messing with the opponent’s layout. Princess’ range makes her untouchable for much of the game. The stat boosts from building up royals combined with these abilities is also amazing.
What other comp has this many troops with this many useful abilities?
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There are many ways to fix these fundamental issues. Hell, you don’t even have to nerf royals.
- Rework utilities.
Right now, aside from magically getting a Monk from a drop, utility is the best way to counter a fed royal comp. A shield, crossbow, or crown is enough to turn the tides but they’re much too random. Maybe instead of a random orb, you’re guaranteed a choice to choose from 3 pieces of utility so you can pick what best fits your comp while still maintaining some RNG. Either that or you’re guaranteed a utility drop that best fits your current comp rather than pure RNG.
- Buff other traits.
Forest definitely needs a major rework to become viable in the current meta. I’d say give clan healing again to make it more viable against royals. Undead is tricky since it can become literally unstoppable but it so rarely makes it to endgame.
- Buff/rework other cards.
As I said, most cards in forest are pure garbage. They’re too squishy without any worthwhile abilities to make up for it. I’d also recommend reworking elixir for some of these cards; Bandit most definitely isn’t worth 4 elixir, I wouldn’t buy Boss Bandit for 3, Magic Archer is worth at most 2, and Firecracker is barely a 1 elixir card (harsh, maybe).
Clan, while strong, lack a lot of useful abilities like royals. Archer Queen, Wizard, and Giant are fine. Valkyrie is okay but anything below a three star is, again, useless. Maybe give Archer or Barbarian a rage ability to even the scales against royals.
Again, undead is in a weird spot. It can be game breaking with enough luck but most of the time it’s not enough to compete. Suggestions are welcome.
- Of course, bring back multi traits.
As I said, I’m not against single traits as much as others. My main issues with it stem from a lack of balance between the current limited options and immense RNG. Multiple traits were useful since it felt you could actually put some (limited) thought into your gameplay. It’s true that just as we have troop domination now, we used to have trait domination. I’m sure there’s a way to reach a balance.
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Thank you for listening to my long winded evaluation on the current state of the game. I’m looking forward to seeing if people agree with me and what other kinds of suggestions they’re thinking of. If any developers read through this sub, hopefully they’ll take into account our thoughts and keep improving the mode!