Two gripes... when healing occurs in turns, and slow play of AI

[Levgre]

So for one, I think it's bad that healing items activate at the end of the turn, after or during creature attacks, but before weapons. 

So, if you have 4 shards of divinity out, but take 2 damage during the opponent's turn and are knocked down to 98, you won't get elementary master if you win by attacking on your turn.

It really restricts getting element masteries.  Is mastery supposed to be just about preventing all damage on the 2nd to last turn or having enough feral bonds out?

 No... it's supposed to be about winning with 100 HP.  But you can have 100 HP 19 out of 20 turns in the game, and have 6 shards of divinity out, and you won't get a mastery because the healing waits to kick in.  But I think this deserves an EM just as much as having a feral bond out, or finishing off the opponent with a weapon instead of your creatures.

The same problem occurs with poison, if you have 2 poison counters, even if you are regenerating 20 HP a turn and take only 2 dmg per turn the whole game you don't get the Elemental Mastery... like that has anything to do with player skill?                                   



Second gripe, the AI draws and plays cards quite slowly.  I don't know if this is unavoidable due to computations, or by design.  But it'd be nice if some aspects of the AI were speeded up, perhaps the animation when they draw the card, or whatever.

[Justsoneguy]

I do believe weapon damage is done after your shards.  Time it so your weapon gets the last blow after all your heals (or heal yourself with a card).

Or how about putting down a shield to prevent dmg from getting to you in the first place?  You can also sundial to stall a turn to heal back up to full and then your creatures can attack next turn.

There are probably many other things you can do, but it depends on what you're fighting. You get rewarded for getting EM's, I don't think they should just be handed to you100% of the time.



But yes, I do agree with your second point. I've always whined about the animations/delays taking so long! I dream of the day for an option to disable animations.

[Levgre]

"I do believe weapon damage is done after your shards.  Time it so your weapon gets the last blow after all your heals (or heal yourself with a card)."

Considering how little damage weapons do to a false god, this can be awkward and may require long-term planning.  Although yes, sometimes I am able to use devour on my own creatures so the weapon hits last..

"Or how about putting down a shield to prevent dmg from getting to you in the first place?  You can also sundial to stall a turn to heal back up to full and then your creatures can attack next turn."

There are only three shields out of 10+ that prevents 100% of attack damage, that being bone wall, phase shield, and dissipation shield.   It is quite limiting to have to rely on those to get EMs, although regardless, those will do nothing to stop say 2 poison counters or 1 firebolt halting an EM.  Similarly sundial would stop creatures from dealing damage for that 1 turn but not stop poison or bolts.

"There are probably many other things you can do, but it depends on what you're fighting. You get rewarded for getting EM's, I don't think they should just be handed to you100% of the time."

Staying at 100% health isn't 'handed' to you... you think 100% of games a player finishes with max health?  My gripe is the cases that give you EM and don't give you EM are very arbitrary.  In BOTH cases the player would finish that turn with full health.  It's just the steps WITHIN the turns, where the opponent does NOTHING to interfere, that makes the difference between an EM and no EM.  It's just arbitrary, or favoritism, no skill involved... just certain healing cards give you the EM, while other healing cards do not give you the EM.

[Delreich]

You say "healing items"... why not be honest and just say Shard of Gratitude?

Miracle heals you whenever you cast it, as does Heal, Black Hole and Holy FlashLight. Bonds heal you as critters do their thing. Antimattered critters heal you as they do their thing. Vampiric things heal you when (if) they do damage. Staffs and SoGs heal you when they do their thing, which is after critters attack.
You know all this when building your deck. You know it while playing your deck. You know that if you rely on non-spell healing you'll need to either prevent damage or get the kill late enough in the turn for your healing to go through. How is it not about skill, when you know all the factors and can take them into consideration?
It's been this way since forever, more or less. The only thing that's changed is that SoGs are a lot more common now, and the problem wasn't quite as noticeable with Bonds. The shards are more than powerful enough as is, in my opinion. No need to make them guarantee EMs as well.


I fully agree with your second point.

[Levgre]

You say "healing items"... why not be honest and just say Shard of Gratitude?

Miracle heals you whenever you cast it, as does Heal, Black Hole and Holy FlashLight. Bonds heal you as critters do their thing. Antimattered critters heal you as they do their thing. Vampiric things heal you when (if) they do damage. Staffs and SoGs heal you when they do their thing, which is after critters attack.
You know all this when building your deck. You know it while playing your deck. You know that if you rely on non-spell healing you'll need to either prevent damage or get the kill late enough in the turn for your healing to go through. How is it not about skill, when you know all the factors and can take them into consideration?
It's been this way since forever, more or less. The only thing that's changed is that SoGs are a lot more common now, and the problem wasn't quite as noticeable with Bonds. The shards are more than powerful enough as is, in my opinion. No need to make them guarantee EMs as well.


I fully agree with your second point.

How would they be guaranteed EMs?  What's up with you people... way off on that point.  There are 100 health points you need to get an EM so there's no "guarantee" of an EM if a                          SOD activated before you attacked.  You need to be at 100 - (shards x 5) life, assuming you have no other healing items.

Choosing the 'correct' healing cards to get EMs is not realy skill gameplay wise, because both empathic bonds and SOGs (and any other healing on your turn) operate identically.  They heal you to keep you in the game, and all healing occurs during your turn without any chance of damage or opponent intervention, so the exact point at which they heal is irrelevant to whether you actually win or not.

So sure there's 'skill' in getting an EM, but that EM skill is totally separate from gameplay skill and a quite minor part of the game. It has nothing to do with 'winning' or 'losing', so I think all healing cards should be evened out when it comes to obtaining EMs.

And shouldn't EM really be linked closer to gameplay, and not a very small arbitrary mechanic in the game?  Elements Mastery... 'to master the match, you must manipulate the healing sequence'.  I think it should  be about the broader 'winning with full health while your opponent has 0 health".

If everything was ideal imo, the Jade Staff would also heal at the beginning of the turn and attack at the end, but splitting up the actions for one card may be too complicated.  I also think the empathic bond should heal all at once instead of trickling in and possibly not getting you to 100 health because you kill too quick.  The vamp dagger obviously needs to heal at the end of the turn when it strikes.

[Kamietsu]

What you are doing is just whining about wanting to get EMs more. I get EM's easily 9 out of 10 times, and usually that one time is a stupid mistake on my part (not using a sundial, forgetting i'd be killing them this turn, etc). Em's are already easy to get, no point in making them easier. Just change your strategy. Add one or two bonds to your deck, maybe add one in place of a SoG. Or simply add a Heal or a Holy Flash to your deck. It's a very simple fix, way more simple than recoding when SoGs do their healing just to make EMs easier.

[Tea is good]

You guys are saying that Shards of Divinty heal you after ferals, but before weapon. SoDs are spells, they only can be cast once. Shards of Gratitude heal 5 each turn.

Also EMs are going to be harder for now that Feral/Empathetic Bonds are getting more expensive.

My strategy for EMs = miracle on last turn + ferals or Liquid Shadow on the first creature to attack.

[Levgre]

What you are doing is just whining about wanting to get EMs more. I get EM's easily 9 out of 10 times, and usually that one time is a stupid mistake on my part (not using a sundial, forgetting i'd be killing them this turn, etc). Em's are already easy to get, no point in making them easier. Just change your strategy. Add one or two bonds to your deck, maybe add one in place of a SoG. Or simply add a Heal or a Holy Flash to your deck. It's a very simple fix, way more simple than recoding when SoGs do their healing just to make EMs easier.

Wow you really know how to debate.  Just say the person with a point is "whining" and don't argue the points.

I am a top 15 score player and I definitely know 'how' to get an EM and how EMs work, so you can spare repeating the advice that has already been stated in this thread.   I don't really need more coins so I am fine either way if EMs stay the way they are, I just think it's bad design.  There shouldn't be a separate 'meta-strategy' for EMs, it should just be if you are able to finish the game with 100 health.  I'm not going to design my decks around EMs because those 60 coins are minor compared to getting even 1 more up'd card from slots versus FGs.

[Kamietsu]

What you are doing is just whining about wanting to get EMs more. I get EM's easily 9 out of 10 times, and usually that one time is a stupid mistake on my part (not using a sundial, forgetting i'd be killing them this turn, etc). Em's are already easy to get, no point in making them easier. Just change your strategy. Add one or two bonds to your deck, maybe add one in place of a SoG. Or simply add a Heal or a Holy Flash to your deck. It's a very simple fix, way more simple than recoding when SoGs do their healing just to make EMs easier.

Wow you really know how to debate.  Just say the person with a point is "whining" and don't argue the points.

I am a top 15 score player and I definitely know 'how' to get an EM and how EMs work, so you can spare repeating the advice that has already been stated in this thread.   I don't really need more coins so I am fine either way if EMs stay the way they are, I just think it's bad design.  There shouldn't be a separate 'meta-strategy' for EMs, it should just be if you are able to finish the game with 100 health.  I'm not going to design my decks around EMs because those 60 coins are minor compared to getting even 1 more up'd card from slots versus FGs.

Whining. That is all you are really doing, as far as i see it. Since you are such a high ranked player, then work around it. Adding one card to your deck will not all of a sudden break your entire deck. You add one card and you get Em more often, still going as far with your deck.

The reason why I just repeated what has been said is because you are being stubborn. I doubt this will be changing soon, if at all. There isn't a large demand for it. One of these types of threads come up like once a month. And they all basically die away.

I don't disagree. I think the healing should come sooner, just because it makes sense to me in my mind. But at the same time, it does not hinder my Element Mastery at all. I like the level of difficulty it is at now, and any change would make it just a cake walk, offering no challenge.

[Kyarss]

I think to make it easy on the coding, instead of ending a match once the damage is done to the enemy, the match should end at the end of the attackers turn.  Thus all the abilities and effects would still occur.

[xdude]

I think to make it easy on the coding, instead of ending a match once the damage is done to the enemy, the match should end at the end of the attackers turn.  Thus all the abilities and effects would still occur.

But then having an antimatter'd creature as your last one will make the opponent invincible.