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Rebalanced Serena Sauce


Roadhouse

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The amount of whining I've seen about Serena is pretty ridiculous. She was severely overtuned before and now she is at a point where you take her when she is needed, instead of crutching on her.

Now that's out of the way let's turn our attention to the new possibilities that come out of Horrific Reality. 

Previously, being able to take the melee out of a friendly Nightmare was a front of card ability that also lowered the stat. Now it is part of the new action that has 2 very powerful triggers and keeps it stat 6.

My Loyal Servant means Serena has more healing potential than she did previously. SHE CAN HEAL MORE THAN SHE USED TO. If you've got the Rams you're looking at 2 more heal flips. Can't get to within 3" of the thing needing healing? Well if its a nightmare just punch through him to heal him.

Pulled Here and There is less straightforward but also very powerful. Being able to move your opponents stuff around, like off a Leyline or Symbol of Authority, or having additional movement to get Serena with 3" for Painkillers can be huge. There are alot of applications that only time on the table can demonstrate how good this is.

Instead of focusing on the nerfed aspects, look at all the changes as a whole. I wouldn't even call it a nerf, I think its more of a rebalance and I believe her application on the table is going to change dramatically.

The sauce: MIMIC CAN COPY HORRIFIC REALITY AND DRAW RANGE AND LOS THROUGH NIGHTMARES BECUASE ITS PART OF THE ACTION NOW.

Mimic'd Reality (Neverborn)
Size: 50 - Pool: 6
Leader:
  Lucius Mattheson
Totem(s):
  The Scribe
Hires:
  Serena Bowman
  Teddy
  Doppleganger
  Agent 46
  Guild Lawyer
    Ancient Pact
 

Forget what was and imagine what can be.

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I really like what they did with her. She will obviously see table play. 

I think the way horrific reality works give an incentive to play her in faction. As a versatile she's still a fine support models but not an auto-include as she use to be...

It will obviously require some playtest, but at first glance I think they hit a sweet spot at balancing her (unlike something as Yasunori that was to weak).

What I'll miss the most on her : the 2" melee! 

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One of the things I always loved about Serena was her ability to charge and strike something 8” away, now being able to heal at the same time, will make the maneuver even more fun.

It’s also nice to have a model that can make use of high rams.

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That said, *Horrific Reality* is fairly redundant compared to *Twist Reality*. It Auto-heals all nightmares engaging the target with no trigger, and uses a tome over a mask for its displacement effect.

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37 minutes ago, Regelridderen said:

One of the things I always loved about Serena was her ability to charge and strike something 8” away, now being able to heal at the same time, will make the maneuver even more fun.

It’s also nice to have a model that can make use of high rams.

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That said, *Horrific Reality* is fairly redundant compared to *Twist Reality*. It Auto-heals all nightmares engaging the target with no trigger, and uses a tome over a mask for its displacement effect.

You can't charge and use twist reality, and the different triggers mean you use different ones based on your hand.

And twist reality suffers from cover and concealment.

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I think Serena is going to be really good to support both Teddy and Chompy in an elite Dreamer list.

Something like

Dreamer

Chompy

Teddy

Serena

Candy

WW

Snatch

2 Beaters with big base and 2" melee support by 2 healers (with upside) while you Spiders do the scheme works. Also Dreamer can be use super aggressively in that kind of list. Summons Alp/Madness to denied your opponent and than go use that cricket bat and you annoying 4" aura. 

 

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1 hour ago, SEV said:

I think Serena is going to be really good to support both Teddy and Chompy in an elite Dreamer list.

Something like

Dreamer

Chompy

Teddy

Serena

Candy

WW

Snatch

2 Beaters with big base and 2" melee support by 2 healers (with upside) while you Spiders do the scheme works. Also Dreamer can be use super aggressively in that kind of list. Summons Alp/Madness to denied your opponent and than go use that cricket bat and you annoying 4" aura. 

 

That's very similar to what I run, but I find with that many elites you need more card draw. Replacing Candy (or any other model) with two daysdreams with ancient pact is my standard formula xD

Can even see Coppelius being worth hiring now that the summons can't do the strats.

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6 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

That's very similar to what I run, but I find with that many elites you need more card draw. Replacing Candy (or any other model) with two daysdreams with ancient pact is my standard formula xD

Can even see Coppelius being worth hiring now that the summons can't do the strats.

Yeah, I usually go for 2 Daydream with AP too, maybe they're still needed, but I think they won't be as good in such an aggressive crew...

But maybe I'll miss the +2 carda +2 init per turn... 

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17 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

You can't charge and use twist reality, and the different triggers mean you use different ones based on your hand.

And twist reality suffers from cover and concealment.

Absolutely. What I meant was that the difference in her two attacks are so minute, they could just as well have given her just the one. 

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I aplaude your enthusiasm... but the only good thing about Serena change is the fact the devs are trying to make factions less reliant in must picks; almost everything is a downgrade from the last version.

Better healer? No way, to funnel healing into a model now you have to jump through more holes than before and unless the other player is mindlessly throwing damage in your direction, that's way less useful to being able to patch up the one that the other player is trying to get killed.

Stat 6 tickle through Nightmares... cute, the 2/4/6 was way better and while Pulled here and there is a good trigger, she lost 2'' range and a lot of tankness; which was as good or better to defend in those strategies and to defend other models; so she has less control than before.

And while the defensive tech is still somewhat decent talking in general, she had her weaknessess doubled down; she is a easy kill for things like Manos, Shenlong, Seamus, Alyce, Cooper... 

The only thing I agree is that's the Serena we have now, no point in complaining; but there are few new posibilities here.

 

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I just ran her in a game and got about 15-20 healing out of her over the course of the game (not counting what I could get with Demise).

So I'd say she is still pretty damn potent. She still feels mostly unkillable in a Nightmare crew, but the right enemy crew could probably pull it off. Which is good, no model should be unkillable unless that's their specific theme (Leveticus, Grave Golem, etc).

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That equals 3-4 HP/Turn (possible more, as less then 5 rounds could have been played and healing on turn one isn't most likely needed in the first place).

That means severe healing flip and/or trigger for additional healing on at least one action every every turn. Congrats to such awesome luck!

As for unkillable, i quess we have very distinct definitions towards surviability of 10 wound df5 model. Or you don't ecounter half decent ranged models as often, as i tend to :-k

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21 minutes ago, Tors said:

That equals 3-4 HP/Turn (possible more, as less then 5 rounds could have been played and healing on turn one isn't most likely needed in the first place).

That means severe healing flip and/or trigger for additional healing on at least one action every every turn. Congrats to such awesome luck!

As for unkillable, i quess we have very distinct definitions towards surviability of 10 wound df5 model. Or you don't ecounter half decent ranged models as often, as i tend to :-k

I was pretty lucky for sure.  But also you have a ~70% chance to draw a non-severe 4+ mask without stoning, so you should be pulling it off most turns. And you can save masks from one turn to another.

Also she can heal on any ram, doing 1/2/3 (so probably one damage) to most of her allies. 1 damage to a madness or 2 damage to an alp for a 1/2/3 heal on Lord Chompy is delicious. And of course the dream is to hit Teddy and have him regen it back up.

As for survivability... Sure, she can die, but between lots of 50mm bases and terrain, sight lines are an issue. And by turn 2 or 3 or so, every enemy model except the totem was engaged by my crew, so shooting wasn't really an option.

Sure, Kaeris could have done it and gotten demise off, but then I just heal up after and run away.

I don't think she is god tier, but I can't imagine a Dreamer crew without her. She brings so much to the crew.

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On 4/26/2021 at 10:30 AM, SEV said:

@Ogid I totally agree she's worst than before... But she was OP before.

I applauded to her rebalance specifically  because it makes her worst but still playable (and keep her even more relevant in keyword).

This 100%. She needed to be toned down. She is still playable and in keyword is the best way to play her, as it should be.

 

People also need to realize that of the models that got touched, Serena got a rebalance, most got outright nerfed. Yan Lo, Schtook, Leve, Somer: they all got a firm shove down in power level. 

Does taking the suit off Necropunk Leap open up new list building options or table strategies? Lol no

How bout an attack that can be Mimic'd that draws LoS through friendly models and has dope triggers? Yes, this is very cool, this is worth exploring.

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On 4/29/2021 at 1:35 PM, Roadhouse said:

This 100%. She needed to be toned down. She is still playable and in keyword is the best way to play her, as it should be.

She was definitelly very good; the main problem is the lack of other models that do what she did or that can offer support now when hard counters to her are avaliable; but everyone's best toys got hit so yeah, we'll adjust.

On 4/29/2021 at 1:35 PM, Roadhouse said:

People also need to realize that of the models that got touched, Serena got a rebalance, most got outright nerfed. Yan Lo, Schtook, Leve, Somer: they all got a firm shove down in power level. 

Does taking the suit off Necropunk Leap open up new list building options or table strategies? Lol no

How bout an attack that can be Mimic'd that draws LoS through friendly models and has dope triggers? Yes, this is very cool, this is worth exploring.

This is the point I'm not getting... she is as nerfed as any other model, there is no "rebalance", just the nerf hammer doing its thing.

I think we value his new mele attack this very differently; this is a fun gimmick but there are much better things to Mimic... a 2/3/4 attack with no damage trigger nor built in trigger isn't something I'd dedicate 18+ SS in a list to spam... specially when there are more holes to jump through to attack like having the target near of a Nightmare... Twist reality is an actually better Mimic target.

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She was better than very good. She was imbalanced. Def 6, can't be charged, 12wd model, that could potentially heal a single target 6 with a bonus action, had a Stat 6 2" 2/4/6, and a FF Arm ignoring gun with one of the strongest disruptive triggers in the game, Hole in the World. For 8ss.

She lost a Def, 2wds, and has to target a different thing with her bonus trigger but now her attack stays stat 6 and can heal. Her healing potential actually went up and she still has a ridiculous gun.

The nigh invulnerability and ease of her single target healing got nerfed *becuase they needed to be*

The damage of her melee was nerfed while its utility was buffed.

The fact that some players are saying her changes spell the end of Neverborn are indicative of their over reliance on her *becuase she was too good*

I've played her in GG2, she is still very strong.

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