First of all, this thread was not meant to be a reproduction of willng3's topic (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,33547.0.html), nor it was meant to facilitate another set of ill-considered card ideas. Still, I know that it will be an unavoidable side effect, so - as one of the few who spends his Elements time mostly with Water-based decks - I'll try to share my knowledge and/or experience the best as I can to help out in this matter. I'd like to keep this topic as a generic discussion about Water and clean of random card ideas, so please post them elsewhere; I hope this point of view won't violate the spirit of this section. I'll explain why.
The idea of this discussion has been taking shape within me long before I gained my title or joined the ranks of War, but I never felt myself experienced (or known?) enough to actually start it. Recently, though, I noticed the many (Water and other) card ideas that have been posted in the CIA section, and while some of them are good or 'tolerable', a great portion of them just doesn't make sense, would be completely useless or would hurt the element even more if they were implemented. I don't really consider myself as one of the 'Card designers', as it is hard for me to come up even with 6 (good and
balanced ones) to make a portfolio, but I find many ideas out there (not only Water) lacking in care, throughout thoughts and balancing, or just playing experience behind it. Didn't meant offense to anyone, but I hope this topic will serve as a kind of guideline about Water's strengths and weaknesses, what it has and what it lacks in.
Warning: Wall of Text upcoming.
"Ice, alchemy and aquatic beings are under the control of Water elementals. Some examples of Water elementals skills are: “Freeze”, “Ice Bolt”, and “Purify”, which is used to remove poison. Water elementals have a good balance between offensive and defensive skills."
Water is considered amongst the weakest elements, and while I protest, I acknowledge its flaws and sadly, the Card Usage Statistics also support this common view. It is also maddening, that there is no real point using my favorite element in unrestricted and everyday gaming, because there are many better and more efficient ways to win games. I'd like to make a full overview of the element here, so that maybe these flaws and deficiencies can be highlighted, and though I have my personal thoughts and solutions, I would like to hear the opinions of various different players before making any final conclusions.
The in-game definition - which I find a little too limited when keeping in mind the theoretical (classical) element - covers Water nicely, but it has a quite interesting ending: "Water elementals have a good balance between offensive and defensive skills." This sentence persuaded me when I first joined Elements, only to reset my account later to try out the others (the starter deck is an extremely weak one), yet I wonder how fitting is it for the current setting.
So let's get started with a card by card breakdown:
CreaturesChrysaora | Physalia: 
The cheapest creature of all, close to useless by itself, though. But with available death-quanta and early drawn Arsenic/Poisons, a few of these can ramp up poison counters fast. Some people argue about the reasoning to upgrade them, but it literally triples the damage output they can provide and they can be played right from the start, so I say it's a nice investment. Nothing wrong with them.
Blue Crawler | Abyss Crawler: Often ignored unupgraded, mostly because it's compared to Frogs, but still it has its uses. Also, the game is starting to lack in plain hitting creatures, and I see no reason for giving them an ability too. Bless them, or bring out a Green Nymph with a few Forest Spirits (and maybe some Druidic Staves) and watch how deadly they can be. Abyss Crawlers on the other hand are your best friends overall. Great creatures.
Toadfish | Puffer Fish: 
Dubbed as the ugliest creatures around, with the buff they recieved long ago paired up with their average playing cost, formidable stomping power and an off-element CC ability as a bonus (furthermore their ridiculously cheap bazaar cost) makes them awesome mid-hitters. Puffer Fishes - aside from that they're the most happy when overdosed with Epinephrine - are expensive for their effect and need a real stall backup when relying on them. Still, there are decks that can make a great use of them, and they're somewhat durable. I haven't really made up my mind about whether it needs any modifications or not, and if yes, what exactly; the only thematic fix I'd love to see about Puffer, if it gained the passive 'Ranged' - they are
shooting those barbs anyway, and it wouldn't be a gamebreaking change, in my opinion.
Mind Flayer | Ulitharid: 
Walking Lobotomizers that are cheap enough to play them early; very destructive against certain decks, and also favored by many speedbow decks lately. Ulitharids feel a little expensive sometimes: many creatures gain huge stat boosts when upgraded for no cost increase, while they get a measly +1/+2, which - other than making them more durable and a nice Epinephrine candidate - isn't really worth it, especially when compared to Lobotomizer.
Arctic Squid | Arctic Octopus: With the ability cost decrease the Squids became much more viable; despite this you'll often find yourself running dry on quanta after a few turns of squidlocking your opponent. They are weak, fragile, but the ability they posess is *very* powerful and they are also rare cards. Perfect.
Ice Dragon | Arctic Dragon: Well, it's a dragon, not much to say. When upgraded, it's a real aggressive one, one of the best.
Steam Machine: 
The latest addition to Water's creatures, a true powerhouse. Sadly, unupgraded they recieved a minor nerf to their health shortly after, which I think was really, really unnecessary. They are slow, but it compensates the potential damage output they might hold. The upkeep to maintain them is reasonable too.
SpellsFreeze | Congeal: Delay a creature for 3/4 turns for a single drop of Water? Always nice to have one nearby - and it also serves as one of the few possibilities to insta-kill a creature (like an Overdriven Titan..). Great card.
Ice Bolt | Ice Lance: Creature and (soft) weapon control, the latter was a great addition. The damage can't keep up with its Fire counterpart, but a great spell nonetheless. Quanta cap killed its OTK capacity though.
Purify: A hard counter to poison damage, and minor healing as a side effect. Yet it is often overlooked - with a reason. A single Purify completely removes all the poison counters, but a single Poison/Deadly Poison removes its respective Purify counter. Fair enough. The problem with it, is that it gives you card disadvantage, because there are many other cards that you could put into your deck instead for improving your chances to win, unless you're really expecting poison. And the healing it provides is just not enough to make it matter. Many suggestions are around how this card could be buffed; in my opinion, it's good as it is, it only needs - at least - another way to increase regeneration counters. Maybe with that, the card's use wouldn't be so limited, and it would qualify as a form of (real) healing too. Perhaps increasing its healing to 2 | 3 could also help.
Nymph's Tears: My personal favorite, the ultimate link with the other elements; a rightly timed nymph can turn around hopeless battles, but you should never rely solely on them. I don't know if a cost reduction is necessary or not, it is a powerful alchemy spell. Never underestimate girls.
PermanentsIce Shield | Permafrost Shield: A great shield overall with insane (creature) blocking potential, it surely deserves its high cost. It's just awesome.
Trident | Poseidon: 
A really underused weapon, with an off-element ability. Since Pendulums are available, it has been weakened even more. With other means of quanta-denial or in restricted settings, it can prove to be quite powerful, but often Earthquakes are still faster. There are many suggestions floating around for this also. The very first thing I'd do, personally, is to give Poseidon an additional +2 damage. If a dagger (Vamp) or a shortsword (Discord) can do that much of an injury (with automatic denial for the latter also), what horrors can a pitchfork do? Even then, Trident may need a fix.
Flooding | Inundation: Perhaps the most debated Water card but overall tagged as useless. I share the view that with the latest patch, it became quite fun and sometimes even useful. Of course, it's not the card that you'll put in your everyday rainbow, but now it serves its purpose better. Moreover, SoP was an.. umm.. 'nice try' as a first step to widen its use, yet it still lacks in something.
Well, so far it doesn't look that bad.
SynergiesWater is also known from its increased ability to synergize with other elements, as many of its tools are using other type of quanta to use them to full effect. I tried to mark those cards with the respective elements, and if we count Nymph's Tears too (which is useless on a pure Water Pillared setup), that's 6 out of 14 cards (I left out Nymph Queen willingly). Looking through the card ideas from time to time, the way I see it, many people are trying to 'patch up' Water with its missing direct synergies. This is not a bad thing, but I often find them overlooking already existing ones, or making cards that only focus on one single synergy without keeping in mind the usability of that card outside that duo/combo in subject. Perhaps creating a card that can stand in its own right while still providing possible synergies would prove more helpful than following the tendency of "duo-creatures".
I'll try to list some basic (mostly duo) synergies with each and every element in the following:
Aether- Dimensional Shield and Fractal is always good to have. The latter is a bit tricky with Water creatures, though.
- Quintessence is the best thing that can happen to your Squids for example. Steam Machines like it too.
- You gain access to some very hard CC with Lightnings - combined with Flayers and Freeze-effects, many things can be stopped. Many.
Air- Toads, Squids, Arctic Infection. Enough said.
- Paired with Ice Bolt, Shockwave is a form of weapon control. Paired with Freezes, even Gravity creatures will fall to CC.
- Access to cheap shields, and better weapons.
- Very nasty surprise nymphs.
Darkness- With Cloak made available recently, not only your Squids are safe, but your Permafrost remains untouched too.
- It is also easier to operate with Crawlers, Drakes and Liquid Shadow (Black Nymph).
- Access to PC, a better weapon and an alternate shield.
- Voodoo is the only way to destroy immaterial/protected weapons.
Death- Chrysaora, Poison, Arsenic, Puffers: everyone loves Speed Poison.
- Aflatoxin and Flooding can end up in a very nasty table-lockdown. Grey Nymphs can also help with that.
- Access to other cheap mid-hitters and mass CC.
Earth- Tridents/Earthquakes, naturally.
- Wardens as cheap alternatives for Squids. Mixing stacked delay with Freeze is annoying.
- Your expensive shield gets stolen/blown off? Protect it!
- Don't underestimate Armored Squids.
Entropy- Nova/Supernova: Using more than one off-element is always nice.
- Access to Healing, PC, instakill.
- Cheap Buffs and Mutation can help your weak creatures.
Fire- Steam Machines.
- Access to PC, (Mass) CC, and other cheap, 'immortal' or strong hitters.
Gravity- Momentum can eliminate Water's one main weakness: shields.
- Piranha style CC with Gravity Pull.
- Access to better weapons and surprise nymph (Black Hole) for more denial.
- Increased Catapult damage.
Life- Forest Spirits. Life needs Water.
- Access to various healing cards, alternate shield and of course: Adrenaline.
Light- Access to various healing methods, alternate shields and weapon.
- Roleplaying with Bioluminescence..
Time- Freeze with Rewinds and Turtle Shield: really annoying lockdown.
- Highly increased drawing power, and also additional tough hitters with Golden Nymphs.
- Access to alternate shield and weapon.
- Sundial softens the Shard of Patience handicap.
And so on..
The way I see it, there is no 'missing' synergy. It's just that only some of them are more obvious than others.
Now the question is, what
is the problem then with Water? It has creatures to hit (and they hit hard), an outstanding shield, loads of control and insane amount of synergies. Sure, it has no real Permanent Control, but only 3 (and 2 half) elements has those, and it holds all the support to splash in some, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem. Still, it lacks in something to let it compete with other elements in popularity or power..
Let me adress one thing - then I'd like to hand out the discussion to the community -, that I couldn't find a way to get around, namely: it's slow. And I'm not talking about Tsunami-like rush decks, but in general; it has tools to compensate its speed, but the thing is, every other Water card is expensive, require off-element to function or somekind of an upkeep to maintain. And while many other elements are having similar 'symptoms', most of them have their alternate means to generate quanta. This and the fact that there is no real support in the game for other than Duos and Rainbows, paired with the current, "domination-style" metagame provides a real hard time for Water to succeed. I belive this is one (or two) of the main weakness(es) that limits the element so much. Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying playing with it, and I also prefer games which needs more than mindless clicking - and Water provides just that. I only feel that it's underestimated more than it deserves, and with the introduction of the new set of shards, it didn't get the care/attention that it really needed.
Please remember, this topic was not meant to be a host of card ideas - I'd like to see it as more of a generic discussion; but I believe one of the assigned staff members will make a seperate topic for those sooner or later. Also, Daguerreo promised to collect a bouquet of links to already existing ideas (which I won't comment in any way), so no need for you to do that.
I'll update this post when there will be solid conclusions and suggestions in which most of the community agrees. So please, share your thoughts and/or your experiences, or feel free to correct me if you think I'm wrong. Thanks for your time; discuss.
