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Math Mathonwy

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Everything posted by Math Mathonwy

  1. First of all, absolutely fantastic that you're doing an extensive errata to the new stuff ahead of the usual schedule and it looks like this addresses most of the high power outliers. Absolutely brilliant! Love how many profiles got looked at! I also really appreciate this post and letting us know the reasoning behind all this stuff. Very good communication! I am a bit saddened to see that Bayou wasn't touched at all so Somer and Wrastlers and such still won't see the table at all and I had hears some grumblings about the Madness Bayou stuff being OP as well. But all that said, I think that it's best to consider this one a bonus errata and hope that Bayou will get looked into in the winter errata. So yeah, great stuff - thank you for this!
  2. I actually think that Burns was remarkably well balanced considering the absolutely insane scope of doubling the number of Masters in the game. Sure, there were a couple of OP ones and a couple of lackluster ones but I think that no one could've gotten that amount of stuff right on the first try. Madness is a sadder case, IMO, since the scope was so much smaller and the OP stuff being so far above the curve. But all of that said, I very much doubt that they are intentionally making the new stuff OP. There is always the incentive of making new stuff appealing and erring on the side of too powerful instead of too weak kinda makes sense (making stuff that doesn't have any impact seems like a bad idea even from the players' POV) but I very much doubt that anyone in the design team is going "let's make Witness completely bonkers in order to make it sell well."
  3. Balancing all of the current stuff to a new system will be an absolutely monumental task. I wonder if balancing a smaller set of Keywords at first and leaving the rest into a "wild" format would be the way to go. Then they could balance the wild keywords and slowly add them to the standard format or even have a rotating cast of standard keywords. I dunno, it seems an utterly massive undertaking (especially since the balance of Madness is suspect and there's only a handful of models there). The switch from M2e to M3e with they keyword shuffle and Deadman's Hand very nearly killed the game in my neck of the woods and the meta never recovered so I would very much hope that they could avoid it but there's been so much added to the game that I dunno.
  4. I very much doubt that M4e would come this Gencon and that means that something else will come in Gencon. A new faction? A new set of titles for everyone? I dunno, maybe it's just a campaign system and a new model for every keyword or something. But can you imagine balancing all of the profiles for M4e? That will be absolutely insane.
  5. I love the art but the ridonculous balloon boobs really don't do it for on the mini - what on earth was the sculptor thinking there?
  6. It depends - she can work just fine without anything but all three have their uses for her. Intuition from The Whisper can be fantastic in setting up her turn and Killer Instinct can work when Ruthless is important. Most commonly I've ran her without any Upgrades as two extra stones is quite valuable in itself but it depends a lot on the rest of the list and what my plans for her are.
  7. I feel that Schtook2 excels in less-killy pools. His keyword is durable and he can make them very mobile and Interact-heavy while hampering the enemy. Necropunks play well into this style so I rather like them with him. He has good card draw which makes their Leap more reliable. Certainly like them way more than Canine Remains. Anna Lovelace is a fantastic tech piece - you take her against certain opponents that rely on Summons and buffs where her Gravity Well and Hostile Work Environment shine. If she doesn't get much out of those I don't feel that she is worth it so very match-up dependent. I really like Grave Spirit's Touch on Students of Viscera - makes them fantastically tough. Killer Instinct can be good against certain keywords that get countered by Ruthless. Schtook 1 and 2 are very versatile and can do basically any type of pool but Schtook 2 is especially good at Carve a Path.
  8. My gut feeling is that it would favour summoning as it is generally more powerful in smaller games and quite a few of the summoning Masters don't have the best actions outside of their summoning so losing an AP isn't as big a deal. Perdita2 was a good shouout from Maniacal as she does so much passively and summons on top of it. Dreamer1 would probably be very good as well since much of his power is in Chompy and he summons. I also wonder how it affects the various Schemes and Strats and how easy they are to score. Seems quite radical among the various alternate formats.
  9. And they still suck I haven't seen Witness use them and they have even less synergy and even less of a place in Wizz-Bang. A huge missed opportunity, unfortunately.
  10. This errata was very welcome - thank you! I was wondering - does this take the place of the traditional spring errata or can we except another one in a few of months?
  11. I am of the opinion that simply this sort of thing existing already kinda fosters the attitude that it's OK for a TO to alter their tournament in these sorts of ways. And I see that as a net positive. I mean, naturally a TO can run their tournament whichever way they like ("Arcanists get +5 SS for list building and Witness models gain Distracted +1 at the start of each turn") but that isn't normally done. Latter day Warhammer Fantasy Battle had several comp systems which all saw tournaments and were refined based on the results. If I were to organize a tournament next month, I would have to think long and hard between this version of Balancefaux vs simply banning Madness but I wouldn't go for "normal" Malifaux. Then the attendees can choose to participate or not based on how they feel about the format on offer.
  12. What are the TT feelings on Mei Feng and Yan Lo title nerfs? Both got hit pretty hard but are they still fine choices? At least with Mei Feng, the title is still probably way better than the original? Is three Scrap for a Gamin a fine price to pay?
  13. Out of interest, were there other versatiles besides Yannic that were deemed as problematic balance-wise? Also, there's no mention of the Bayou starter in the list?
  14. I am extremely worried about the Madness stuff. But I guess time will tell. The errata probably makes it so that Burns can now be included into BalanceFaux so on that front it delivered. Though I was really looking forward to some buffs as well.
  15. Yeah, I'm not saying that a nerf wasn't needed - it was an extremely silly ability originally that really shouldn't have passed playtesting.
  16. But now it's only when Brew moves the model so the number of pings per turn went down from like ten to something like two or so. It's an enormous nerf. I feel like you could simply put a cap onto how many times you can do it per turn. Wouldn't matter to Youko as she cannot generate enough Poison.
  17. I think that the changes were probably needed though they seem quite heavy-handed. I really wish that Brew2 would've received some help against his weaknesses along with the absolutely massive nerfs. I kinda disagree about it being a side grade in that even though the absolute ranges in Pushes might've gone up a bit but the number that he has access to lowered quite drastically so I think it's quite clearly a net loss in his Pushing ability. That said, both look like valid choices in some situations over to their original versions so they weren't completely gutted, I guess. But the weirdest part is that the Clampetts look absolutely insane in comparison now and the way that they nerfed the other powerful Burns Masters it really looks like it will be Madness Masters for the next year and a half. It looks like most of the nerfs were against stuff like "this thing also does this additional good thing for no particular reason" and "this randomly has no range restricting it" and Madness stuff is brimming with it. It's really weird to think that the Burns stuff got through playtesting and then needed these absolutely massive nerfs (Nexus2 for example got hit so incredibly hard) to be balanced and now they do it all over again with Madness. I also really hoped for some buffs as well. Somer, Wizz-Bang, Wrasslers, McTavish, and so on and so forth. So I dunno, kinda mixed feelings. I feel that the nerfs hit the correct Masters that were certainly in need of nerfing so this errata should make the game better but I was hoping for a bit more and I'm really really dreading what Madness will do to the balance of this game. Edit: Oh, and they didn't fix the Pass Token silliness of Brew2+Shojo which I think is the biggest thing wrong with him. So that's a bummer.
  18. First, Zoraida is an excellent Master to start with. She will take quite a few games to learn thoroughly and get used to her playstyle and tricks but she is extremely versatile, can work in any Strat and against any other Master. She can work with an elite force where her Obey is a force multiplier or she can work with Silurids and be very schemey dancing around the opponent. The collection that your friend has is perfectly fine to start with so I would suggest playing a couple of games with her before buying anything more. Now, that set of minis does kinda lack in heavy hitters so the shemey dance is probably what you'll be doing but it can be a very powerful playstyle. As for the minis themselves, Bad Juju is a fine beater. He does have his weaknesses but I do like him. Adze is a tricky model to use but has performed well for me whenever I've taken him. Just needs very careful play and picking the right targets to engage with. He is a sidelines harasser that bullies the enemy schemers. Silurids are absolute money but again need care in use. Three is a lot, one or two is more common to include in a list. If your friend is handy with green stuff, adding a cap to one and giving it an anchor and a cigar can make you an excellent First Mate pretty easily. You might be able to find a suitable anchor for cheap as a pendant. Just make sure to use the correct size base for him. Willowisps are pretty strange. One is fantastic for tormenting the Voodoo Doll but they are paper thin. Gautreaux Bokor was nerfed massively in the latest errata and he really isn't what he used to be. He is kinda fine but Zoraida is already a support Master so including lots of support models with her is always very awkward. Waldgeist has always been a bit strange in Zoraida. They don't seem to have a clear role with her but they aren't awful by any means so testing one is certainly sound. McTavish is in dire need of some buffing but he isn't unusable just a bit lacking in stats and durability. Depending on the strat and schemes, a core list from that collection could be Zoraida, Bad Juju, Wisp, two Silurids, and then test the other models and see how you like them. If you do convert a First Mate, replace one of the Silurids with him.
  19. Well, yes, but moving them around isn't all that hot. Or, I mean, it could be, but the opportunity cost of hiring a Smuggler to do that is very high when you could instead hire another synergistic Fast Pig and just make more Scheme Markers. IMO Smuggler's marker shenanigans are good when they are utilized with markers that you have in a more limited supply and that effect enemy movement so mostly stuff like Pianos or Traps. Maybe the new Tidepools?
  20. I don't think so. Ulix really likes his keyword and he doesn't do anything special with Markers so I think that he is one of the Bayou Masters with the least to gain from Smugglers, unfortunately.
  21. Yeah, the good Master Shockwaves are stuff where the Shockwave effect on enemies is kinda incidental. Like Brew2 or Von Schtook2 and such. Masters who use Shockwaves primarily for damage are, I dunno, Wong1 and that's about it? And he kinda sucks? Maybe Zipp2 as well? For all the others that I can think of the damage is really just a random byproduct of Conditions and such like for Von Schill2.
  22. They are also in a bit of a catch-22 now. If they nerf the Burns stuff down to the level of the errataed stuff from before, then the new releases will be even further from everything else for over a year's time. But if they don't, they have shifted the power level up for good and, as @ShinChanpoints out, that will invalidate massive amounts of profiles from competitive play for the foreseeable future. I don't understand why the new models are so completely packed with stuff. If we look at John Watson, Warning Growl is an insane ability and then he's a healer - OK. Those should be the core. But why is Help Me Out Frederick 8" and no LOS? Why not 6" and LOS? Why is Emergency Syrette stat 7 and TN10? Why does the trigger let you pick two things one of which is drawing a card (yeah, two is in the name)? Why does his melee ignore HtW, HtK, and Armor? Why isn't his Heal limited to Living? At least he doesn't have baked in Triggers... But if you pack him this full, maybe give him Df 5 instead of 6? Maybe don't give him HtK as he can heal himself so effectively? And he isn't the worst from the bunch - it's just that everything seems to be set to eleven in the new set.
  23. I totally sympathize with the main problem of getting new people on board but I'm not sure that the starters are really the ideal way of starting Malifaux. I mean, I wouldn't suggest any of them as a first or second purchase that one should make when starting out. I think that starting out with the Master box that interests them the most and going from there. That said, I do see the appeal of having an easier and more generic starter to suggest as a starting point (I just don't see the current crop of starters really fulfilling that - they are more like a generic fine buy when you have settled on a faction and have a Master or two already). Yeah, the card draw has really gone crazy, hasn't it? And it's such a difficult mechanic to properly value compared to, e.g., stats or damage tracks. It's also weird in the sense that if you have a little card draw, it's especially valuable but if you loads it actually starts affecting the flips so I feel like the value keeps going higher but the effect changes somewhat. And then there are of course all the abilities that are balanced around the cost in cards. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that such programs were all ended because Magic the Gathering judges sued Wizards of the Coast and the verdict was that they were seen as employees which naturally brings all sorts of additional things to consider for the company. And as a result all of these "volunteer promotion of a game for swag" -programs were killed since there's a real risk of litigation (and treating them as real employees isn't worth it by a long shot).
  24. With the previews rolling in my gaming group is kinda on the verge of abandoning Malifaux due to balance issues. The titles were really bad but there I still upheld the hope that the errata will fix the worst outliers and managed to keep the more pessimistic in our group still invested. But now each preview seems to cement more and more that there indeed is a big shift in power level of the game and if they nerf the problematic titles the game will be completely lopsided to favour the new stuff. Cavalier has really been the final nail in the coffin hereabouts with just seemingly amazing stuff piled on top of other amazing stuff. Why are their stats so high? Why are they giving so many negative flips in Auras to enemies? Why are there two powerful Totems with Condition removal and healing? Why are there so many no-LOS things? And Bayou was kinda lacking in that protector role so why, when they get something for that role, is it the best in the game in that role (well, outside of Cavalier...)? Isn't that just madness? Now, I realize that I'm judging this stuff just based on cards and with zero actual games with these profiles but I'm the optimistic one in our gaming group - the rest have basically given up. Which breaks my heart since I've been playing this game since 1e beta and have an absolutely massive collection of painted models and love the world but without opponents it's not much use. And, as noted, I don't think that I like the direction that this game seems to be taking. M3e was supposed to tone things down and streamline but now it seems like it's going beyond M2e in all the wrong ways
  25. He seems kinda miserable to play against in Guard the Stash. And the 18" no LOS removal of Scheme Markers as a bonus action seems way too powerful. And Guild got themselves an Intrepid Emissary on steroids, for some reason. I do like the theme and the implementation of the artillery shelling is very cool but again it seems like the power level has gone way up with these (on paper, to me, that is).
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