Romdeau wrote:Scientiafide wrote:Overall I found this errata to be pretty good. I personally have just a few questions though over certain cards.
1) Why was folrart shield knight's buff so underwhelming? This buff is basically saying the card is fine as is, when it seems like most of the community is in agreement the card is underpowered.
2) Why was overdose nerfed? I never really saw this card as a problem card. How exactly is this card OP? I know I'm not the only one in thinking this since every time I've seen a thread about this card there are usually people defending it.
3) Why was Exploder Wizard SS nerfed? Personally, I've always found the SS to be pretty meh.
4) Astaforce and Miandela SS were nerfed (which I agree with, 3+ sp advantage is too much), but Psycho soldier SS was left untouched? Psycho Soldier SS is just as bad. What's refess doing with such an uncharacteristic SS anyway?
There might've been some other things I missed, but overall it seems like everything else is pretty good. Like I said, all in all a good errata, was just wondering about these points.
1) We may revisit, I am a fan of incremental buffs though-it's much harder to nerf a card then it is to buff one. Right now he has a unique trait which scales with max HP, a trait that Refess is good at increasing. At the end of the day, this is just a level 2 stall card-nothing more, nothing less. I'm not sure why the community is so focused on this particular card though.
2) Overdose was still one of highest used cards in the game and it was completely shutting out certain files from being played-it was thus reducing game diversity by its mere threat alone. We didn't want to nerf it's purpose, but discourage people from a) spamming it early and completely shutting down files from setting up and b) make users re-think sticking 3 of these into whatever file that uses Zu, Shavara, or MD Augment.
3) It had too much power and felt unfair compared to other souls. It still does quite a bit of damage, it just has a higher chance to leave a unit wounded instead of -50HP
4) Psycho Soldier SS is random, which is the ultimate saving grace IMO. While not in accordance to Refess themes or mechanic, soul skills tend to break the rules a bit anyhow so I don't think this is too out of line. There's been no alarming usage rates either, and nobody on the testing team (including myself) perceives it as a game-breaking threat.
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my inquiries, it's much appreciated. I do have a few follow up questions and responses if you'll indulge me a little longer.
Anyway, I guess with Psycho Soldier SS I was thinking the ability to return units without normally having to combo with a card from the file for just 1 sp was strong (which allows for a lot of flexibility), but I suppose the random element could be a good enough drawback. It ensures that the player using it has to play agi 2 or lower units, and there's a chance of returning a lvl 2 or 1 from the enemy's board (making it inefficient at times). I was thinking, though, that by putting it 3rd or 4th in the SS lineup a player could dramatically reduce this risk (thus more consistently gaining an advantage). As the game progresses, though, Sp advantage loses it's importance (compared to other types of advantages that can be gained), so maybe it's not as strong as I was thinking. But yea, the random aspect is something I haven't considered as much as I should've, it seems the card's drawbacks are sufficient.
As for Exploder SS, I felt that the SS generally had two advantages: It had significantly more raw damage output, and had the flexibility of being useful against enemy fields with both a few units and several units. The complete lack of control in damage is already a pretty significant disadvantage. It prevents planning, and sometimes leads to situations where an enemy that is dealt enough damage to be killed is damaged again. When it comes to damage SS, I find that being able to succesfully kill off an enemy is often much more important than total raw damage dealt. This SS often leads to situations where only 1 or (in the worst case scenarios) no units are killed when a 40/40 damage SS would have done the job (especially since a 40/40 SS allows you to coordinate more effectively with open skills). Furthermore, the better 40/40 SS also give stat bonuses which are also pretty useful. I never felt Exploder Wizard ever completely replaced these, in fact I often preferred the 40/40 SS with stat bonuses. Now I don't see any reason at all to choose Exploder Wizard SS over any damage SS given it only gives an average of 20 more raw damage (And now it's completely worse when defense enters the equation).
On the other hand, while I have used Overdose more frequently than the last two cards, I never understood spamming it early over, say, developing an early field. If someone was spamming the old overdose, they would be permanently using up 1-2 sp per casting while not placing a unit onto the field, which I always found to be kind of counterproductive early game. If this tactic worked against certain file types, I'd argue that it would probably lose against the file it's facing anyway without overdose (since all the file types using it have units that hit multiple enemies). Against opponents spamming the grim, I always found it kind of easy to win the sp race (and ultimately, the game). When using the card in a file using MD Augmented, I've found that I've only ever needed to pack 1; I've often gone games without even using it (I would actually argue that putting a 40 damage close ability on a free revive is more op). As for Zu and Shvara, the old effect often pretty much read as, "Close unit for 2 sp" which I don't really find to be that op at all. I'm wondering if this nerf might actually completely kill off it's use, though, since adding a 1 sphere loss is a pretty significant change. I don't see it being effectively used with MD augmented anymore, and I seriously doubt it'll ever be used with any other units ever again (such as other augmented sub-types).
I also would argue that use does not necessarily indicate power. It can also indicate the card's high availability, the high availability of compatible cards, good utility (ie useful in several file types), niche abilities the card possesses (the only other lawtia card that can close an allied unit is the expensive sacrifice) or other factors. Nearly every player in the game has a copy of Overdose and a working augments file due to the Set 11 giveaway. Given all of these factors (and the compounded issue of cards being really hard to acquire in this game), it's not surprising at all that the card sees a lot of play. I don't think that's evidence enough for the card being too strong and deserving of a nerf.
I support the idea behind how you guys choose to buff and nerf units (little by little), it's probably the smartest approach to take imo. It's also good to see that you're willing to revisit cards. I suppose it's good that Folrart Shield Knight is on the radar. The main problem I find with the card is that it's often worse than other options available to refess. I find that it's simply better to go with a buncles-> lvl 3 opening or opening with an sp generator. If I knew of a good filetype that would succesfully use this card over anything else then it would be a moot issue, but I can't think of anything (I think this is the main sentiment the community has about the card).
Anyway, once again thanks for your time in this matter. It's good to see some responses, and I'm glad to see Alteil's taking time to respond to player feedback (from what I can read in the original thread and in this one it seems to be the case).
@ Sunbunman
Yea Ortho's design just screams tech. Cem removal, high agi single-target engaging, the fact it's a refess card without team support... I mean it's too early to tell but I think there's some potential for a good tech unit there. Seems good versus certain mids/bigs or files that rely on cemetery retrieval. Definitely not a main-stay 3 copies card. Only time will tell if it'll be able to compete against other options though, I suppose.
