My toughts about the game

Feedback and Suggestions
#1

Hello everyone !

Let me try to put some personal thoughts about the game in the state it currently is.
First of all, I came to Faeria via HearthStone because of GamersOrigin making some advertising on it. I immediately liked it very much, especially because of the very strategic gameplay and the skill involved. I was getting bored of things getting decided almost randomly in Hearthstone and the fact that you could win a game without really thinking much (the very famous Huntard was not very hard to play).

I really liked Faeria because those things I didn’t like in Hearthstone seemed completely different here. Strategy was central, games were longer and you really had to think before making some moves.

Currently, I am less happy with the state of the game and its balance. I really regret that aggro decks have become so strong and that the strategic part of Faeria is quickly fading away. In my opinion, the last balance changes were not enough to keep the game attractive and to give control decks a chance so I decided to make a list of « the most broken cards » in my humble opinion.

Blood Singer : it was really hard for me to decide between number 1 and 2 but I decided that Blood Singer was even more broken than Zealous Crusader. Let me state the reasons.It is hard to evaluate how strong an effect is in faeria, but I would say dealing one damage to the face is a little less than 1 faeria worth. So, how strong is Blood Singer’s effect ? Very strong ! Usually, the effect will trigger many times, if it triggers two times, the effect is huge already, opponent got a 2/4 and 2 damage to face. The big problem is that it often activates even more than two times. Let’s say your opponent plays a Blood Singer turn 2 (it very often happens), how can you deal with it ? Let’s state the cases from best to worse :
You play yellow and have a Shocking Sand in hand. Great deal and you make an even trade (unless BS’s effect activated already in this case you make a small loss)
You play red and have a Firebomb in hand. It’s a negative trade but I don’t hesitate a second to do it.
You have last nightmare in hand, I would even consider playing it, even if it’s a disastrous faeria loss
You trade it, but unless the opponent is really dumb, it’s gonna be tough to do so.
You play green (green ? Is that a legal color ?) or blue and basically you have no way to kill it apart from trading it. The effect should apply at least 4 times till it’s dead.
Im making a comparison between BS and another very played 3F creature : Lore Thief. Which effect is the strongest ? To me it’s not very clear, both are very strong but I would even think that BS is stronger because it can snowball so badly and in the worst case, you’ll lose your creature for one card and 3F so it’s an even trade. So why is Lore Thief a 1/1 and BS a 2/4 ? I have absolutely no clue.
I’ll compare BS to another card : Ignus. Ignus is a legendary card, and therefore should be stronger than a common card, especially because you can only use one card in each deck. Well I think, BS wins the battle so easily, its effect is way better and it costs one faeria less !
Recommanded nerf : I think BS deserve a huge nerf, I would suggest to make it a 2/3 (no reason that Garudan cannot kill it) and change its effet to « When an enemy creature dies IN COMBAT, deal one damage to the opponent ». That would still leave BS as a good card, but would make it way more balanced. Especially, that would leave the sacrifice deck a chance. I play sac decks, and when 2 of those are on the board, you can just resign, pointless to go on.

Zealous Crusader : I hate aggro decks. I feel like I could teach my grandmother to play an ago deck (and she’s 85 yo). « See grandma that shiny orb in the middle ? This place is called FACE ! Just throw everything you can in there. Got me ? Good ». I don’t mind that aggro decks exists, because normally, once you get to recover and control your orb, you’re usually winning the game. They don’t gather faeria and will have to resign. This is fine, playing aggro is a bet, a kind of all in, sometimes it works, sometimes not. Im good with losing to those decks from time to time. The big problem is that when this moment arrives, a 12/12 Zealous Crusader pops in front of your orb, and you can just resign the game. How come this creature is that strong ? Again, I’ll compare it with the only creature that can become insanely strong : Soul Eater. Both creatures cost 5, both can become 16/16 creatures. The main difference is the moment. Soul Eater costs 6 lands and requires many turns to become strong. Before turn 10, don’t count on a decent SE and the whole deck must be built around the sacrifice theme. It also forces you to play a two colored deck and therefore being less stable than a single colored one. ZC doesn’t care about all that, it may have become a 12/12 turn 6 or 7 without any problem. How do you deal with him ? Again, I’ll list the cases :
You play yellow and have a list nightmare in hand, good. But you still lose one faeria in the process.
You play blue and have a Mirror Phantasm in hand. Not a good deal but it can solve the problem with a pretty negative trade.
You can Unboud Evolution it, but you will still make a negative trade.
You can sacrifice your whole board on it (sometimes it’s not even possible).
You can block it, but usually a Last nightmare or a Flash Wind will follow and game over.
As you can see, even the best case from this list is a bad case. I don’t get why such a card was even created It totally ruins the game I think.
Recommanded nerf : totally rework the card, I think it’s broken. If not, why not making it a 2/5 instead of 2/2 but boost only the attack ? At least it would be possible to kill it on board more often.

Firebringer : Basically, the problem is the very same than the one with its fellow friend Zealous Crusader. The card grows insanely big for no reason. I suggest the same kind of nerf that for for Zealous Crusader.

Hateseed : Mid red decks are so frustrating. They have strong cards (6/4 Shedim Pest for 4, 5/4 Axe Grinder for 3) … but Hateseed. This card is basically a 4/4 for 0 !!! How are you supposed to deal with a 4/4 for 0 faeria ? I don’t understand why the cost reduction is not limited like for the colossus ? Makes mid red way too strong, you will always make a negative trade for this 4/4.
Recommanded nerf : put it back to 4/5 but limit the cost reduction to a 3F cost. A 4/5 for 3F is pretty strong, and Hateseed would still be played.

Why am I making this post ? I really love this game, I love the way developpers listen to the community. But recently, I’ve realized that many players start to dislike this game especially because of the current ugly meta. So I am - naively ? - hoping that maybe something will be done to solve this problem.

Thanks for reading me !

2 Likes
#2

Hey NezNuPhare !

Thanks for giving your opinion of the game :slight_smile:

Well, I believe it’s a little biased by you playing Sac Decks, and early Blood Singer being a natural counter to this type of decks. Still, it’s uncommon to see someone blame Blood Singer (which is truly a good card, there’s no denying it). However, OP ? Not so sure.

You compare it to two cards. One is a joke (Ignus is considered as a bad card, barely playable even if it’s legendary), the other completely different. How can you compare a card that has ongoing effect (BS) and a card that has a gift effect (Lore Thief) ? Of course, the latter doesn’t need a sticky body, as it would have done its job even if it’s removed next turn. But not BS. So it’s natural that BS has a bigger body.
Anyway, you should compare it with Windstorm Charger instead, that would be much more interesting comparison. They have the same body, same requirements, same cost. One has charge 2, which makes it both a good collector and a board presence, coupled to its ability. This one is definitely undercosted. The other has no effect whatsoever on playing, isn’t likely to get any board presence at all (actually, you want to move it away from danger). Now, when coupled with the right cards (and Red has plenty), it’s an efficient burn tool, but your opponent will focus his efforts on killing it, so it won’t make much damage (at least not on a player that doesn’t make 10 offerings to it in the game).
Against Sac, it’s overefficient, but burn on the whole is overefficient. Either you get tools to get rid of it (Choking Sand) or you get heals (Soul Drain, Ruunin’s Command), or you accept your losses when facing burn types, or you don’t play Sac. In other words, you adapt :slight_smile: (I’ve personally made the choice of getting heals in my Sac deck)

Concerning Zealous Crusader, I more or less agree with you, but don’t forget that it’s not a 16/16 from the get-go. If you don’t let your opponent hit you once, it’s a 5 cost 2/2. Ok, with charge. I would say, it becomes quite interesting to play after 2 or 3 procs (depending on what you face), so until you don’t have those hits in, it’s a dead card in your hand. That goes for Prayer as well.
Firebringer/Hate Seed is the same story.
I’m not sure it’s ok to reward the objective of a player. When you put Crusader or Prayer in your deck, it’s because you will hit orb. But even without it, you’d still hit, so why ? When you put Firebringer/Hate Seed in your deck, it’s because you would have an aggressive playstyle with minions able to deal high damage, that already synergise well (Shedim Pest). So, once again, why rewarding what you’d do naturally ?
Anyway, for these 3 cards, even if you’re not satisfied with it and look for something else to do (rework or whatever), at least put a hard cap on them, just like for Charger/Lancer’s atk in case of Crusader/Firebringer, or for Colossi’s cost in case of Hate Seed. I would personnally put them at 8/8 for Crusader, 7/7 for Firebringer, and 2 cost for Hate Seed (all of them wouold still be a bargain by far, but at least not out of proportions).

Well, that’s my opinion about these cards, but to me, they’re not the most troublesome of the pack (would be Bomb Slinger (funny nerf it got), Unbound Evolution, Triton Banquet, Aurora and Windstorm Charger). But that’s another discussion, I believe.

3 Likes
#3

Well, te fox dude explained very well above here, i think it’s ok some cards felling unfair as long as there is some risk attached to them (like being a dead card) or taking a long time to develop (like soul eaters).

HOWEVER… i do like playing sacrifice decks either, and I’d beeing luck avoiding burn while playing them… and i agree i shoul feel completely cheated if i face the blood slingers, but i go further with another “however”, because i actually love playing burn decks, and agree with @Foxclear in what regards to the wickness of the little guy.

So, concluding, i agree with studying the possibility of puting a cap on the three snowbolling monsters ('cause you don’t need to build arround, or change the gameplan to buff them), and concerning the not-that-broken blood slinger, i think you can restrict the effect to proc only if the creature is killed by a creature or spell of the BS owner, i think that way the card can still be a strong burn tool, and stop punishing sac decks that hard. =D

What you guys think?

(Forgive my imperfect english, I’m a brasilian fella)

#4

@NezNuPhare
Hello and thank you for your feedback.
I can’t add much more to this than Foxclear already stated. Just some thoughts:

Sac decks being bad against burn decks is really just natural. They aim for a slow and passive attempt to eventually win by building a big threat. That’s exactly what burn decks seek to punish. If you want to improve that matchup, add some choking sands and/or heals; you can also shift towards a more “controlled” sacrifice approach with Feed the Forest and stuff like Oakling and Living Willow. Burn has a hard time to remove those and with feed the forest, you might have the chance to deal with a Bloodsinger before sacrificing, where the usual 1/1 bodys, demon wings etc. die very easily vs any kind of red removal. Switching out Wrangler for Deathwalker might help as well (5 hp body). Also try to adjust your playstyle a bit, so you don’t play your village elders, bloomsprites, hermits and other low hp stuff right away, if you face burn. Try to wait for a moment, where you can place these creatures and immediatly sacrificing them to get a Deathwalker/buff your bone collectors etc. If there’s a BS on board, you might even want to draw some cards in order to get your choking sands.
Of course, all this won’t make the burn matchup favoured for sacrifice; but maybe you can improve your win ratio a bit. :slight_smile:

I wouldn’t like to see BS only triggering on combat death. However, I could imagine the idea of EbonyCross to only trigger, if the creature is killed by a creature or spell of the BS owner. Or maybe just exclude any sacrificing effects (Deathwalker, Demonwrangler, Doomgate) from triggering BS (so Feed the Forest, Plaguebearer, Famine etc. would still trigger it).

Regarding Crusader, Hateseed and Firebringer: Yes, a cap should do the stuff. In case of crusader, lowering the scale to +2/+1 or even just +2/+0 (with a higher base hp in that case obviously) could do the trick.
Hateseed as a 4/5 with a cost cap of 2 or 3 seems balanced as well. Firebringer capping at something around 7/7 - 10/10 should be fine. I agree though that those aren’t the most problematic cards.

Anyways, the devs stated that there will be another 10 cards before the 1.0 release. So maybe some of these cards offer some tools to help with those creatures. Right now, there’s no “dispell/silence” like effect in Faeria that removes all buffs from a target. Something like that would work as well.

#5

Hoy ! What about Unbound Evolution ? :wink:

#6

Yeah, Unbound, Frogify and Mirror Phantasm kinda do that, but they change the body as well. What I thought of was an effect that brings a unit (or creature) back to its original state; so I’d call it dispell or cleanse:

  • Remove all buffs and debuffs (scaling buffs like Crusader, Firebringer, Souleater or discounted costs from Colossi and Hate Seed would be reset as well, last of which would make an interesting combo with Unbound ;))
  • Fully heal the unit
  • Any current ability text on the card stays (so not exactly silence from HS; so permanent abilities like Bloodsinger, death touch, last words etc. stay; protection might even be recovered!)

Just a rough idea on an effect that might help to deal with those overbuffed creatures. Probably something that blue (or maybe green) can do, themewise. :slight_smile: