How do you fix Aionus?

[KID55]

Hi all. Our faction has the interesting model - Aionus. On first saw he is cool - marker tricks may bury models, cast damage reducing, nimble-to-casting-expert ability, can do mass slow, and can fast friendly model. Very solid model with df 6, wp 7 and 12 wd. 12 SS for that seems honorable. But his useless in most cases...

His marker abilities need not so often - with 12 SS you can bring 2-3 cheap schemers and get more activations and more markers where you need.

His range attack has Rg: 10. That not bad, but not excellent for 12SS henchman.

And his killer feature - A Stitch in Time - does not work. Give model fast for a card sound good. But in most cases, you want fast your beaters because schemers usually already fast models. And beaters cost 9+ usually. (Mad Dog 9, Alyce 10, Taelor 9, Lazarus 10, Hannah 10, Nothing Beast 10, Sue 7, Hans 7, Gunslinger 7, Killjoy 12, Johan 7, Strongarm 10, Desolation Engine 13, Wokou Raiders 8, Bishop 9). You need to discard a card higher than model cost. In most cases, it means 10 or 11. And that's too high because you want to keep it in hand to cheat fate. And you can only discard a card from hand, no flip from a deck.

My suggestions:

• Change A Stitch in Time ability something like this: When a friendly non-Peon non-Leader model with an SS cost of 1 or more activates within 4", it may flip a card from his deck (this flip may not be cheated) OR discard a card from its hand. If card value equal or higher then model's SS cost -2, this model receive Fast. - In that case, you need to discard or flip 7-8 to receive Fast: not an elite card, but and not a useless junk. And you need to bunch up near Aionus if you want Fast. I think it's fair.
• Increase his Out of Time range to 12.
• Maybe give his Bony Fingers range 9" projectile in addition to 2" close combat.

Your thoughts?

 

[DXXXVIII]

Aionius is Niche and a bit expensive. Esp. if you slap "ipaybetter" on top of him

But i came to the conclusion that he's actually really good wirt tara allready.

He took over NBs role as a Beast Bomb in my Tara-Crews.

[KID55]

Yes, Aionus is Niche and that's sad.

[daniello_s]

Adding 1AP which can be used in any way for the cost of 7-8 is really silly small price. 

[Rillan]

I would suggest to take out his Stolen Time ability, and replace it with Casting Expert + Nimble but immunity to Fast and Reactivate - This could be his 0-1 SS Upgrade. Aionus has pretty big potential but most often stuck with either he has not enough Mobility or Damage and sometimes both. Giving him extra Actions will solve this problem. No range or damage buff needed.

[Seadhna]

Aionus has already been buffed with Scramble cost reduction and AnD cost increase. Having a mobile durable henchman in crews like Hamelin and Parker is awesome, and he really pulls his weight for the cost.

[KID55]

2 hours ago, daniello_s said:

Adding 1AP which can be used in any way for the cost of 7-8 is really silly small price. 

Ok, it may be small for flipping from a deck, I agree, but it's not small for discarding from hand. Many abilities require ~7-8+ to successfully usage, and you to choose: give fast or keep it for something else.

[daniello_s]

Keeping 8 for vital model and knowing it will get Fast for sure for the price of single card is very strong ability.

[KID55]

Yeah, but that guy cost 12 SS.

[gribble]

[-] for not taking the golden opportunity to name the thread "how do you solve a problem like Aionus?" 

[WWHSD]

2 hours ago, daniello_s said:

Keeping 8 for vital model and knowing it will get Fast for sure for the price of single card is very strong ability.

Especially since you don't have to telegraph giving a model Fast before it activates. Your opponent needs to treat every model within 4 inches of Aionus as if it might have Fast when it activates..

[WWHSD]

4 hours ago, Rillan said:

I would suggest to take out his Stolen Time ability, and replace it with Casting Expert + Nimble but immunity to Fast and Reactivate - This could be his 0-1 SS Upgrade. Aionus has pretty big potential but most often stuck with either he has not enough Mobility or Damage and sometimes both. Giving him extra Actions will solve this problem. No range or damage buff needed.

A 4AP Henchman is a little crazy. I haven't played him a lot but Stolen time tends to give him the extra walk AP on the turns that he needs to walk and the extra casting AP on the turns that he's probably already in place. It's rare that the extra AP goes wasted.

[Cedar]

He would benefit greatly from either increase of damage track to 3/4/5  or changing his additional turn related AP for Swift.

[Nukemouse]

I would like some new triggers or improvements to his ranged slow, to make it feel more useful. Spending the AP of a 12 cost to slow something does not feel good, even if sometimes models are clumped and he can cause many simple duels. Another alternative is simply to make his damage better. For a 12 cost a situational min 3, even ignoring armor needs to be a little better than his. Perhaps keep it min 2, but up the damage against fast/slow to +2 instead of +1? Or perhaps rather than damage, change his bury trigger to work after damaging, if the target has slow/fast rather than on severe damage.

[Freman]

10 stones.

[Stewbert]

5 hours ago, Freman said:

10 stones.

With the recent price changes to the riders this would be a great move and would see Aionus hired as a merc a lot (at least for myself)

[Seadhna]

He's got too much stuff going on to be 10 stones, sadly. But I'd be happy to see 11ss to fit a Scramble or Bigger They Are on him

[Von]

He is a master of time so i will give him    ill omen ability.

[DXXXVIII]

5 minutes ago, Von said:

He is a master of time so i will give him    ill omen ability.

Ill omen would break the outcast faction in a way yasunori broke 10T.

Wouldnt be healthy to give the unofficial Alpha-Strike-Faction the ability to cheat initiative.

Just think Viks and stuff

[Von]

22 minutes ago, DXXXVIII said:

Ill omen would break the outcast faction in a way yasunori broke 10T.

Wouldnt be healthy to give the unofficial Alpha-Strike-Faction the ability to cheat initiative.

Just think Viks and stuff

Yehh i konw.  Ill Omen ability should give   to initiative  flip 

[Freman]

People would take him though. 

[Nevercast]

A Stich in Time should also do something If a enemy activates in 4. 

Non-master Models must discard a Card  Higher than their soulstone Cost when activates in 4 or gain Slow. 

[KID55]

On 4/7/2018 at 4:03 AM, Nevercast said:

A Stich in Time should also do something If a enemy activates in 4. 

Non-master Models must discard a Card  Higher than their soulstone Cost when activates in 4 or gain Slow. 

Sounds interesting, but maybe too cool. Aionus is tough, and this maybe gamebreaker.

[Manxfaux]

I'm not sure he needs fixing does he? As an Outcast player I'm glad he's not a little bit better otherwise all the other factions would find a place for him.

He has a master's stat line, a master's AP (kind of 😁), solid abilities that can have a big impact at the right time, great (0)s that, while often situational can win you a game and can't be countered by your opponent, a ranged cast that can heavily dent an opponents hand if they've bunched up, his attack ignores armour and it has some really powerful triggers. The only weak part of his entire card is his damage track, which incidentally jumps to a nice 3/4/6 if you hit them with the slow trigger first, and is hardly terrible at 2/4/6.

Sure, it would be great if he was Ca 7 or the Slow trigger was built in. It would be great if his native damage track was better or that all enemies in 24" are immediately sacrificed unless they have the red joker but I think he's pretty well costed as he is. Burying an opponent is way too powerful to be done easily and yet its still pretty easy for him if you take 'I Pay Better' and have a couple of decent cards in hand. That alone can ruin a whole turn for your opponent.

I would agree that if he doesn't get the opportunity to use any of his more interesting abilities then he's a 10SS model just as a mobile tank, but even the ability to make half your crew fast in turn 1 when you may not need the cards is super useful.

I think he falls into a similar category as Parker in that he needs quite a lot of practice to get to know the real finesse in his powers. It's hard to know what the right thing to do is at one particular moment and you always have to second guess yourself as to what to do and when to do it.

My first use with him was pretty poor. I ran him round making stuff slow, tanked a horseman (who eventually gave up and pushed away) and booted around a few markers. He was decent but not really 12SS, but in my next game he was a god and was worth 20SS. Admittedly it was due way more to good flips than my skill but it showed me that his potential, even in my hands, was massive, and I intend to use him often.