Patch v829 Development Highlights

Lead Developer Dan Clark checking in. Today, I’ll be going over some of the last development changes that will be making their appearance in patch v829.As we prepare for Beta launch, we have been observing the forums and listening to the community’s concerns on Booster Draft, power level, and card design. Patch v829’s changes reflect that feedback as well as our own goals, and we believe these changes will provide a better play experience overall for new and experienced fans of HEX. This will be the last batch of changes we are expecting to make as we feel this should bring Set 1, Shards of Fate, to where we want it to be.

Power Level Buffs

Hideous Conversion: Cost reduced from 3 to 2

At three resources, this card just had too steep of a cost. We still want this to enable you to accelerate into big plays. By reducing the cost to play Hideous Conversion, we hope to make this card a more enticing option for you to build around.

Inferno: Cost reduced from 3 to 2

Cards that have a random element can have a high risk to play. We feel that since you’re already taking a risk in playing it, we could make it a little cheaper to justify the chance you’re taking when you play it.

Induction coil: Activation cost reduced from 3 to 2

We have had concerns about players being able to abuse their charge powers. The issue is that there comes a time where we have to evaluate a card, and if the cost is too much for players to be interested in playing it, then we need to reconsider our reservations of such a design. At that point, we must decide if we can make Induction Coil more appealing or if it should just become another design. In this situation, we decided that a reduction of the cost was appropriate.

Oath of Valor: Cost reduced from 4 to 3

We were concerned about this card’s power level, mostly in conjunction with Battle Hoppers. After seeing the format play out a bit more, we feel as though a cost reduction on this is pretty safe and should allow a bit more playability out of Oath.

Dream Dance: Cost reduced from 3 to 2

Our goal is simple here: make this a bit more appealing. We were always worried about this being part of a combo deck but it seems to be difficult to make that work. At two resources, we feel that Dream Dance is safe to exist and it helps you filter through rough draws in the later turns of the game.

Royal Falconer: Cost reduced from 5 to 4, DEF reduced from 2 to 1

While doing overviews of the set, we found that this guy wasn’t seeing a significant amount of play and that we had what we considered to be too many Ruby rares at five resources. Rares are usually scratching different itches for players but having too many in the same shard at the same cost is not optimal. Royal Falconer was the rare that could afford a power boost and did not cause more problems with a cost reduction.

Eurig the Robomancer & Elite Battle Tech: Both troops received increased stats to help block

Many of the dwarf troops have very low stats (which was intentional). With these changes we wanted to allow the Dwarf deck to be able to block some mid-sized troops in the late game. This way, you don’t have to keep throwing away Worker Bots to prevent damage.

Prophet of Lodegan: ATK increased from 2 to 3

Cards that cost 6 or more have more pressure on them to be appealing since there is the chance you are not able to play them in your game before dying too quickly or not drawing that timely resource. His main attraction is to work with inspire troops, but sometimes those plans unravel too easily. To make this troop slightly more powerful, an ATK boost can help him still be a game-changing play.

Mimic: Cost reduced from 4 to 2

We are still worried about this card but completely agree with the community that the cost is far too high. We decided to get aggressive with this as it seemed to be one of the cards the community really wanted to be playing with.

The Shin’Hare

During our testing we felt as though the shin’hare were in a very reasonable place, fine in Constructed and a lot of fun to play in Booster Draft. After seeing some of the results from the community’s drafts and feedback, it seems as though they could use a little boost to allow them to appear more frequently. Most of the changes are on just a few cards, but they should affect the whole archetype. Take a look at the patch notes next week to see all of the shin’hare changes.

Power Re-Adjustments

Zombie plague: Cost moved up from 2 to 3

We have concerns of how negative it can be to play against this with your average troop-centered deck. We feel as though the power level on this card is still quite high given that it is a one-time cost that can be a thorn in the opponent’s side for the remainder of the game.

Circle of Preservation: Cost moved up from 2 to 3

This card’s recurring use can lead to long and frustrating games. In order to properly balance that, we decided to give this a small cost increase to reduce the effect it will have in the average game.

Xentoth’s Inquisitor: Cost moved up from 3 to 4

Although we have already redesigned the ruby gem that Inquisitor was most frequently being socketed with, we felt three resources was still a bit low on a troop that can have a big impact throughout the entirety of the game. Any card that has the ability to be killed and come right back has a high potential for the opponent to become frustrated with and we want to scale the ease of doing that back a bit.

Jadiim: Game text changed to “Flight. When you play a non-resource card, Jadiim gets +X[ATK]/+X[DEF] this turn, where X is that card’s cost.”

Jadiim has been on our watch list for quite some time. Now that we are nearing Beta, we decided to make the change. Our main concern was how easy it is to win the game almost immediately after playing her. Particularly in conjunction with Mastery of Time, the opponent never gets a real chance to interact with the card except by dispatching her on sight. By making her power only last until end of turn, we increase the amount of interaction that can be had once Jadiim enters play. And hey, she’s still a 5/5 dragon for five resources, so you’re still getting a great troop for its cost.

Eye of Creation: Removed card’s ability to place resources into play

The original text on this had a different little bonus, but due to some issues before the community had access to it, a quick change was made. Allowing resources to enter play was the addition we made to replace the extra effect and we are not happy with the results of that change. We decided to just remove being able to put the resources into play in order to properly control the progression of the average Eye of Creation deck. The deck is still quite powerful, but the risk of playing the deck is slightly higher.

Chlorophylia: Cost reduced from 3 to 2. Game text changed to “Play a random Wild Shard from your deck.”

We weren’t happy with how much this helps you jump ahead in the game. We were looking for a card that allows you to accelerate that also does not give you card advantage in the process. With it only providing one resource now, it still allows you to play troops above the curve but not so much so that the opponent feels completely buried after a big troop sees an early entrance.

THANKS!

That concludes the run-down for the bigger development changes that will be coming with this patch. We want to thank the community for being so vocal and helping us narrow down the problem cards so that we can make the appropriate adjustments. With these changes, along with the final cards and the final gems having been implemented with the last two patches, you will now have access to the complete Set 1 in its entirety. I cannot emphasize enough how important the community has been in helping the progression of this set. From the forum feedback, bug reports, people who battled constantly, and tournaments, you have given us a better idea of where things were landing so we could guide Set 1 to be the best it can be.