The Finnish Phoenix -> RE: =OS= Balance Discussion Thread (11/3/2014 22:13:53)
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When he was here, Beck was the best Ice player and I think it's fair to say he was the most capable Ice player the game's ever seen. He won the Ice tournament on top of other amazing feats like levelling Ice Beetle to 20 solely through PvP wins, but now that he's gone and new players have emerged I feel we'd need another Ice tournament to really judge. Ice also offers fair chances to players without many CC resources as it's been proven that minimal or no CC to facilitate drawing Freeze can be done quite effectively. Beck only used one 515 Defend CC on his Cosoma to win the Ice tournament even though he had access to Shatters and Ice Walls galore. A lot of strong players didn't get a chance to participate in that tournament though, and many who did participate including The Jop, clinton, DeathGuard, necro rouge, Hendrik, Asuka, and BJEBLE have gotten better since then. Other great players who participated included Leader, Mondez, Saturn, Valkyrie XVIII, and Skurge, although none of them have participated in the last three tournaments as far as I'm aware. I don't know who the best player now would be, but between players like The Jop, clinton, Axel, Real Deal, DeathGuard, Gorillo Titan, Signeous, Triadan, Elite Tuga, necro rouge, Hendrik, and myself it's not obvious who is the best with Ice. Then there are mysterious players like MapCurse and Kiazz with copious resources (pretty sure Kiazz has more Level 20's than the 60 I do and IDK about MapCurse but it's clear he can level as he has practically every evolved Legend instantly and is always at the gold cap in his videos) that rarely show their hands and could potentially decide to show up one day and give everyone a nasty surprise… quote:
Freeze is nowhere enough to compete with the new onslaught of double petrifying characters, energy generators, and DoT spewers. This is true for now (no thanks to your takedown of Xmas Elf), but as I keep reminding people, December is a month away and has never failed to bring Ice characters with it, some of which will hopefully break new ground. I would be surprised if we didn't see the introduction of an Ice/Neutral character at this time given the recent release of an Earth/Neutral. Ice and Energy are the only remaining elements (for the sharpshooters out there, I'm not counting Chaos) yet to include a character with Neutralize; it's just a matter of time until they do. quote:
Fire still has a way to make up for that deficiency with Incinerate. Incinerate is actually slightly less energy-efficient than Empower after including the cost of any buffed attack cards potentially native to Fire/Ice characters except Ice Needle (for which the slight different isn't worth charging a second element anyway), Empower being a compatible CC for characters of any element. 100-Attack: 100 for 1 energy. (10000% efficiency) Empower: 400/409 for 1 energy. (40000/40900% efficiency) Incinerate: 700/730 for 3 energy. (23333/24333% efficiency) 100-Pierce: 100 for 2 energy. (5000% efficiency) Empower: 400/409 for 2 energy. (20000/20450% efficiency) Incinerate: 700/730 for 2 energy. (11666/12166% efficiency) 200-Attack: 200 for 2 energy. (10000% efficiency) Empower: 500/509 for 2 energy. (25000/25400% efficiency) Incinerate: 700/730 for 4 energy. (17500/182500% efficiency) Bash: 300 for 2 energy. (15000% efficiency) Empower: 600/609 for 2 energy. (30000%/30450% efficiency) Incinerate: 900/930 for 4 energy. (22500%/23250% efficiency) 500-Attack: 500 for 4 energy. (12500% efficiency) Empower: 800/809 for 4 energy. (20000%/20225% efficiency) Incinerate: 1100/1130 for 6 energy. (18333%/18833% efficiency) Thrash: 600 for 4 energy. (15000% efficiency) Empower: 900/909 for 4 energy. (22500%/22725% efficiency) Incinerate: 1200/1230 for 6 energy. (20000%/20500% efficiency) Ice Needle: 500 for 6 energy. (8333% efficiency) Empower: 800 for 6 energy. (13333%/13483% efficiency) Incinerate: 1100/11300 for 8 energy. (13750%/14125% efficiency but can't be done without losing energy in charging a second element to the point where the advantage is lost several times over) As you can see, Empower is consistently more efficient with the gap closing at higher energy costs and Incinerate having extremely slight leads for some cards costing 6 energy or more, but the only other boostable attack cards at that point are Water Crash, Stone Strike (both Ice Needle clones) and Power Strike. Void Rebirth could CC a Power Strike and use Incinerate on it without losing charges. This could be entertaining but he'd do better to use the Neutral charges for his native Iron Hides or possibly a Corruption imo. I'll list the numbers for non-Ice/Fire boost-compatible cards just for fun (read: no Blood Rage and Sacrifice sadly). Holy Strike: 700 for 5 energy. (14000% efficiency) Empower: 1000/1009 for 5 energy (20000%/20180% efficiency) Incinerate: 1300/1330 for 7 energy (18571%/19000% efficiency, possible but for no practical reason) Tazer: 500 for 5 energy (10000% efficiency) Empower: 800/809 for 5 energy (16000%/16180% efficiency) Incinerate: 1100/1130 for 7 energy (15714%/16143% efficiency, ridiculously close on the CC'd efficiency, you could try Incinerated Tazers with Mana Guardian I guess) Stone Strike: See Ice Needle Water Crash: See Ice Needle Power Strike: 800 for 7 energy (11429% efficiency) Empower: 1100/1130 for 7 energy (15714%/15853% efficiency) Incinerate: 1400/1430 for 9 energy (15555%/15888% efficiency) Of course, Incinerate is a native card for many Fire characters and Empower generally isn't for most Ice characters, but having more than 2/3 for your CC's and native deck combined increases the chances dead cards as it takes three cards to use either, so characters with two Incinerates to begin with can't CC more than one Incinerate/Empower effectively while other characters can. I actually prefer Incinerate because it's effectively Empower and Might in the same card, Might being 15000% efficiency and generally worth using. This goes back to the importance of cards that convert energy at a high scale AND efficiency, as converting all energy at a slightly-higher-than-normal efficiency can be more valuable than converting a small amount of energy at a much-higher-than-normal efficiency and the rest at normal efficiency. A good example of this is that three Mountain Strikes would do 3000 damage for 18 energy where an Incinerated 500 + Meteorite would do 2600 for that same 18 energy even though the Incinerated 500 is more efficient than the Mountain Strikes. Fire characters in particular can suffer from this a lot due to cards like FireBall and Meteorite that sacrifice efficiency to save hand space and make Incinerate plays possible while fully converting energy. Corruption is so good that it can convert 10 energy into an eventual 2000 damage with just one card where it would take two Incinerated attacks and a total of *six* cards to convert into 1800/1830/1860 damage for the same 10 energy. Of course, Incinerate has no delay so it can't be reacted to in medias res with Iron Hide or interrupted by the end of the battle, but it's still worth taking note of and a good way to demonstrate that cards of similar efficiency aren't necessarily similarly valuable due to overlooked benefits like saving cards. quote:
Every single point that Ice characters use can be the difference between having just enough for a Victory, or one too little in Defeat. Depends on the circumstances of the battle. It's obviously not nearly as necessary to worry about efficient conversion against AI Young Paladins or new players with Blood Voids who unwittingly send duel requests as it is against our fiercest PvP rivals. Ice Orb can be used pretty freely when farming but is one of a many cards that generally shouldn't be used in a competitive match alongside cards like Nature's Gift, Tree of Life, Snow Orb, Inferno, Blessed Strike, Water Crash/Ice Needle/Stone Strike, Catlike Reflexes, Frost Bite, Refresh, attack cards without boosts or combos, etc. You just happen to be more focussed on Ice Orb for some reason, which I suspect has to do with your prolific use of a certain blue humanoid character that happens to have two. quote:
Every other element has some great power card they can use to heavily damage their foes in a short amount of time without spending an unreasonable amount of cards or energy, that doesn't require a contrived series of events. Ice simply doesn't, and I demand a remedy for this glaring lack of balance, sense, and fairness. Ice was never meant to operate "in a short amount of time" and doesn't suffer competitively for being defensively-oriented. Shatter is among the best offensive cards in the game and Ice characters' general high amounts of native shield cards as well as Freeze supplement its drawback quite effectively.
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