The highlight of this update imo. They really listened to a lot of our outcries, and did largely what most of us were hoping for. Little summary for those who missed the patch notes, plus my humble opinions.
Tons of unevolved form nerfs, thankfully none of them are mythics. There was a lot of talk about them being low key too oppressive, so good on them I suppose. Most notable cases are probably blue flutter and Gearcroc.
My boy Scorpio finally got the hammer in the simplest form possible, and I’m honestly not upset because it really was well deserved. Will definitely make things a bit tighter for my team building though hahaha… Anyway, this really goes a long way towards making him more comparable to pumpking, without the sheer oppression that 80 speed offered I honestly don’t think Scorpio can be considered such a direct upgrade anymore.
Dolphins also got the hammer. Got off pretty easy imo, still able to keep stun immunity and a fair amount of stat boost(and let’s not forget the instant diamondoids). There’s undoubtedly a lot of critical attacks that will no longer struggle to bring them down, which is a big help in dealing with them. Quite a shame that they couldn’t give the poor derpy Dolphoenix any compensation for it, because I honestly would’ve liked to see that. He still really is just the weakest link.
Bomboid got dealt with, thank god for that. He still has purpose to be sure, the ability to voluntary take chip damage on your own team always has the potential for some crazy shenanigans. At least they’ll be reasonably fair now.
Minor Twig nerf… honestly, I understand it. 3 is still enough to make an impact, and also enough to get his killstreak going… not to mention he has 2 forms to do it with. I hope @Mr.X will be reasonably satisfied by this lol
Final nerf goes to the thlugs. All I really think needed to happen was for thlullaby to be put in check, with the change we got instead the Thlugs’ already meager last resort option is now even more meager. It even prevents them from being able to kill themselves off with recoil, however rare that situation may be. I’ll be honest, I’m not feeling this one so much.
And then we have the buffs. minor TU decreases for the likes of Nagandia, Arachnodrake, Astrogolem and Mojinator. Moji in particular is gonna be so much better for this imo, 100 TU mist sounds brutal and overall it just helps him feel more prevalent.
Regalion was undeniably buffed overall, and I am HYPED for it. Seal was already a pretty crazy move, now there’s no restriction whatsoever on who you can use it on…(barring protectors ofc) Not to mention, 250 TU + the 50 TU it takes to accelerate makes for a perfect segue into double drain survivor! I’m suddenly very happy that I never got around to bonusing mine lol. It’s true that I’d have to seal first or else I’d fall a few TU short, but I suppose a little bit of skipping can easily make it up.
Sanctiguard/Aethereon finally has proper stun nullification… good stuff. Now you can totally use stuff like Tygoron, Bloom and Zib without fear of their passives screwing them over. Also just, hurrah for consistency I suppose lol.
And finally, damage buffs for Hellblast Mortar, namely Sunlord, Sarcosphinx and Tricranium. It already hit awfully hard, so the damage we can expect from it will probably be pve worthy, only short of UC and hell mode. Mortar has always felt like a rather niche archetype, so hopefully this will be a nice little step in helping them come on out of the woodwork and show what they’re capable of.
Yeh probably. I just kinda take it upon myself to rise up to the occasion if no else has done it yet, and it’s just kinda fun to discuss each little bit individually, offer my thoughts, and invite people to either support or counter them.
I liked the vast majority of these changes, but there are some I dislike:
The Dolphins are in my opinion still a little too good, but we’ll see in action I suppose.
I like the Nagadia buff A LOT, since she’s my favorite monster ever and I’ve never seen her in game. I just wish my 2nd form would have gotten a little tu decrease on her own Petrify too.
Mojinator’s 100tu Mist scares me to say the least as a poison user, expecially since it was already a huge counter to my strat. I do belive this monster needed a little help, but I think it would have been better to let him trigger his own passive off of Heal All. The Salvation buff was needed though.
Regalion’s buff to Seal is completely nuts. I absolutely despise this change.
As a person who owns the monster, the nerf was well deserved but it still doesn’t affect its playability, it just makes so you can’t run a front line of it. I still think scorpio is the best poison monster just because it is one of THOSE monsters that can be splashed into anything. The only thing that would keep it down is how low its defense is.
I think it’s arguable now who the best poison monster is.
By sheer versatility Scorpiogeist for sure, no doubt about it. That said once we get into more specific strats Maggatsuoh’s Toxic Conversion can almost win you games in the right condition, and between Venom Chrono Killer, Double Poison Chomp and Stun Immunity, he’s quite versatile himself!
Finally we have Gorgodrake. This guy is as dumb as rock! No utility what-so-ever and not only he’s the single, only Awakened Mythic without 2 positive passive skills, but he even has a negative one. Give this guy a turn with the right set up though and you better hope he kills himself!
Scorp never was an absolute direct upgrade of Pumpking. Pumpking has a niche which Scorp has a harder time to fill, namely events with small buffs to enemies like IC. The only viable poison massacre in those situations is Pumpking’s with venom power active. Otherwise Scorp is better in every other way except defense.
I’m very annoyed about his nerf because for once I had a top tier sweeper for PvP, which felt to me was easy enough to handle. Therefore I fully acknowledge that my opinion is slightly biased. It doesn’t change the fact that one reason why I rolled for him on Halloween was the high speed and now that it got taken away I can’t help but feel a little cheated.
In my opinion Flocculasaurus is far more oppressive than Scorp ever was.
I didn’t say he was a direct upgrade, I only recalled a conversation I had a while ago here where people apparently did seem to hold that belief. I also probably should’ve chosen my words better, what I meant instead of “direct upgrade” was “objectively better overall”.
And believe me, I know, it hurts to have that one shining asset you have taken away. He really was my best option before the nerf. I believe there’s still a ton of potential in him though, he can still snowball incredibly hard with stun counter, and 60 still isn’t too terribly slow.
RNGesus in Neo Monsters is more of a malevolent god.
Sleep Revenge/Entrances either hitting Insomnia/Sleep immune monsters (if the monster is yours) or Stun Converters/Counters (if the monster is not yours)
Death Revenge always hitting your charged sweeper.
Death Roulette/Demon’s Glare consistently hitting your teammate when you’re down on 2v4.
