I hated AP Spam like anyone else, but saying that the RAW buff overnerfed the strategy is an understatement.
Because RAW used to be a restriction it was given to all the best glass cannons in the game and then some (Novadrake, Scorpiogeist, Ahurizard, Centaurion…) with a tu reduction. As a result the meta is now filled with those, and speaking from experience: after the RAW buff playing protectors is asking to get protector locked.
As a result I’m changing team, which is quite bs because not every protector deserved to be trashed because of one annoying strategy.
> But what if AP Spam comes back?
The real problem with AP Spam was Bloomluga. Take that out and, with Dusicyon being a RAW monster himself now, you leave the AP Spam team without any sweeping power. Easy win.
Now, I know full well that killing Bloom is easier said than done, but first the True Hit buff should help a lot, and second… just nerf Bloom! Why should all protectors be nerfed instead? RAW Tsunami as an idea has been thrown around quite a lot at the time, and it was a good idea.
To be fair, I also believe that you can use Tagosenshi and Basher + Willow quite well too with AP Spam, but True Hit is quite common now, and its damage is nonsense. Without shields, they shouldn’t be a problem.
> What about those annoyingly overpowered protectors that would make a return?
Even if the RAW buff gets reverted I doubt we’d see protectors too much because of how powerful RAW monsters are today, but still as far as I’m concerned there are only 2 overpowered protectors: Sanctistag and Skeleviathan. (and Plumesilisk, but that’s besides the point)
Sanctistag could use a 200tu on Sleep All, and Skeleviathan could lose Petrify Revenge in favor of simple Death/Payback Revenge. Done, problem solved and both monsters would still be very strong.
> Still not sure?
Then let’s look at some healthier protector nerfs instead:
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Protector Killer: could use a damage buff. Been a long time coming anyway.
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Assassinate and Wrecking Ball: also could use a damage buff. Why does full attack Nagadia deal as much as damage with WB as full defense Lilithia does with Antidote? Makes zero sense.
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True Hit: yes, this move is incredibly powerful already, but after the damage buff does it really need to deal even more damage for every protector? We don’t need a PvE cheat code for the Terragar fight, but we could use some piercing! Make True Hit pierce with 2 or more protectors, then good luck running Bloom AP Spam with Orca and the titans in meta.
Doesn’t warrant a nerf.