My thoughts on AW Season 42: The new #prowess Power global
pseudosane
Member, Guardian Guardian › Posts: 4,008 Guardian
So we have had two wars with this broken global in the offseason so far. We know it is broken and the game team is working hard at fixing the issues with this global (which is why offseason is very important). Let us first see what the global is :
Paired with the attacker tactic:
Basically, one can infer, that the global is passive power gain which can quickly out of control, but the attacker tactic provides a way to control this power and shut down these defenders. The attacker tactic has classes that counter the defense tactic as well.
How does this tactic work in tandem with the rest of the map?
This defense tactic, from the limited testing, is easily one of the most difficult tactics to date. The power gain is quite insane, and difficult to control. Even when fixed, one prowess= 2 bars of power. This can be triggered by the champions own abilities, nodes, AND shrug off/ crits, making it one of the MOST limiting defender tactics to date.
Let us first compare the champs in this defender tactic. You have mutants like RedMags and White mags, who themselves counter a lot of the attacker tactic, except Nimrod (not a tactic champ, and Omega Sentinel, among a couple others). Then you have shruggers like Kingpin and Moleman, and Agent Venom. Who have ZERO counters to them on the attacker tactic. Unless you have an HOX prefight, you cannot parry them because that will trigger the tactic, you cannot crit them otherwise that ALSO triggers the tactic, and this is BEFORE the nodes they are placed on comes into play. What is worse, the attacker tactic includes champions like sunspot and rogue, who laughably depend on crits for their abilities, and sunspot even places debuffs which can be easily shrugged off by most of these champs.
Why were these champs even added? There are zero counters on the attacker tactic to the debuff shruggers. Every single champ (except rogue and colossus) places debuffs. Also NONE of them counter korg specifically, possibly one of the worst champions in game to face on defense.
This tactic feels very reminciscent to conduit where there was a massive divide between mystic attackers vs cosmic defenders making it quite tough. This one is far worse since you CANNOT use any other champ other than a tactic champ to face these defenders. There are very few who can be used : Crossbones, Valk, shocker, maybe magik and quake? Even vision cannot keep up with the powergain. Doom might do some damage but it will be tough. Nimrod is another good counter too. But the pool is incredibly limited.
Also, this will 100% force the existing path 7 to be done AFTER the global is down, because the current counters cannot counter the defenders on this path. Most of the defender tactic champs have devastating SP3 so tanking those will be tough as well.
Some of the counters given, like colossus and Omega Sentinel do very well since they have easy access to a lot of armor ups, as does Howard/Civil warrior. But they are limited by nodes as well and are good targets for bans to make the map even harder.
How does this tactic compare to other attacker tactics?
Let us compare #armorburn to #subdue, #sick&Tired, and #defuffdetox ( the three tactics that preceded it).
#subdue was an incredibly strong tactic that shut down cosmics, and nodes that had buffs, other than the defensive tactic champs themselves. It was used to destroy a variety of paths and a lot of the subdue champs were instrumental in beating the map as well, other than the tactic defenders themselves. This led to very low deaths in the highest tiers, and was a very enjoyable tactic overall.
#sick&tired was also a really strong tactic that healblocked, and prevented unblockable, so beat multiple paths in AW as well stopping a lot of unblockable annoying champs. They also stopped healing throughout so the extreme regen nodes/champs had a strong counter. This had the drawback of not having the strongest mystics available to fight all the cosmics defenders so struggled in that regard.
#debuffdetox was a very powerful tactic that solved a lot of debuff issues, meaning champs could take a lot of hazard shift nodes, debuffers quite easily. The champs in this tactic were also very powerful so contributed to a lot of takedowns across the map.
#armorburn on the other hand…. Solves one lane only. Path6, and even that is tough with those who do not start with an armor up. They do not solve all the aggression prowess nodes alone and do not contribute at all to any other lane in the map. They are meant for a single purpose only : the defender tactic. This is quite a change from the previous precedents set. This makes this the weakest tactic available to us for the past few seasons. This along with the fact that a lot of the champs do not really sufficently counter the tactic at all, makes it an unbalanced tactic.
Final Thoughts:
This tactic is very unbalanced overall. Every other tactic before this had various ways to get around the tactic, and good champs that can be used to bypass the tactic.
#conduit: Don’t knock them down,/ use healblockers/ high damage champs.
#unsteadyground: Champs immune to debuffs placed/ debuff shruggers.
#subdue: powercontrollers, just hit block to stop the tactic.
#prowesspower: non critters only (which is incredibly few), and hit into block.
In my humble opinion, I think the game team needs to go back to the drawing board on this, and be more inclusive of champs in the pool. Maybe rebalance the powergain as well, or remove the “critting” aspect of this global, thus adding more possibilities to counter the global in general.
I hope the game team considers this feedback, because this season does not look fun currently at all.
Cheers.
Paired with the attacker tactic:
Basically, one can infer, that the global is passive power gain which can quickly out of control, but the attacker tactic provides a way to control this power and shut down these defenders. The attacker tactic has classes that counter the defense tactic as well.
How does this tactic work in tandem with the rest of the map?
This defense tactic, from the limited testing, is easily one of the most difficult tactics to date. The power gain is quite insane, and difficult to control. Even when fixed, one prowess= 2 bars of power. This can be triggered by the champions own abilities, nodes, AND shrug off/ crits, making it one of the MOST limiting defender tactics to date.
Let us first compare the champs in this defender tactic. You have mutants like RedMags and White mags, who themselves counter a lot of the attacker tactic, except Nimrod (not a tactic champ, and Omega Sentinel, among a couple others). Then you have shruggers like Kingpin and Moleman, and Agent Venom. Who have ZERO counters to them on the attacker tactic. Unless you have an HOX prefight, you cannot parry them because that will trigger the tactic, you cannot crit them otherwise that ALSO triggers the tactic, and this is BEFORE the nodes they are placed on comes into play. What is worse, the attacker tactic includes champions like sunspot and rogue, who laughably depend on crits for their abilities, and sunspot even places debuffs which can be easily shrugged off by most of these champs.
Why were these champs even added? There are zero counters on the attacker tactic to the debuff shruggers. Every single champ (except rogue and colossus) places debuffs. Also NONE of them counter korg specifically, possibly one of the worst champions in game to face on defense.
This tactic feels very reminciscent to conduit where there was a massive divide between mystic attackers vs cosmic defenders making it quite tough. This one is far worse since you CANNOT use any other champ other than a tactic champ to face these defenders. There are very few who can be used : Crossbones, Valk, shocker, maybe magik and quake? Even vision cannot keep up with the powergain. Doom might do some damage but it will be tough. Nimrod is another good counter too. But the pool is incredibly limited.
Also, this will 100% force the existing path 7 to be done AFTER the global is down, because the current counters cannot counter the defenders on this path. Most of the defender tactic champs have devastating SP3 so tanking those will be tough as well.
Some of the counters given, like colossus and Omega Sentinel do very well since they have easy access to a lot of armor ups, as does Howard/Civil warrior. But they are limited by nodes as well and are good targets for bans to make the map even harder.
How does this tactic compare to other attacker tactics?
Let us compare #armorburn to #subdue, #sick&Tired, and #defuffdetox ( the three tactics that preceded it).
#subdue was an incredibly strong tactic that shut down cosmics, and nodes that had buffs, other than the defensive tactic champs themselves. It was used to destroy a variety of paths and a lot of the subdue champs were instrumental in beating the map as well, other than the tactic defenders themselves. This led to very low deaths in the highest tiers, and was a very enjoyable tactic overall.
#sick&tired was also a really strong tactic that healblocked, and prevented unblockable, so beat multiple paths in AW as well stopping a lot of unblockable annoying champs. They also stopped healing throughout so the extreme regen nodes/champs had a strong counter. This had the drawback of not having the strongest mystics available to fight all the cosmics defenders so struggled in that regard.
#debuffdetox was a very powerful tactic that solved a lot of debuff issues, meaning champs could take a lot of hazard shift nodes, debuffers quite easily. The champs in this tactic were also very powerful so contributed to a lot of takedowns across the map.
#armorburn on the other hand…. Solves one lane only. Path6, and even that is tough with those who do not start with an armor up. They do not solve all the aggression prowess nodes alone and do not contribute at all to any other lane in the map. They are meant for a single purpose only : the defender tactic. This is quite a change from the previous precedents set. This makes this the weakest tactic available to us for the past few seasons. This along with the fact that a lot of the champs do not really sufficently counter the tactic at all, makes it an unbalanced tactic.
Final Thoughts:
This tactic is very unbalanced overall. Every other tactic before this had various ways to get around the tactic, and good champs that can be used to bypass the tactic.
#conduit: Don’t knock them down,/ use healblockers/ high damage champs.
#unsteadyground: Champs immune to debuffs placed/ debuff shruggers.
#subdue: powercontrollers, just hit block to stop the tactic.
#prowesspower: non critters only (which is incredibly few), and hit into block.
In my humble opinion, I think the game team needs to go back to the drawing board on this, and be more inclusive of champs in the pool. Maybe rebalance the powergain as well, or remove the “critting” aspect of this global, thus adding more possibilities to counter the global in general.
I hope the game team considers this feedback, because this season does not look fun currently at all.
Cheers.
12
Comments
There is absolutely nothing that a player can do once the defender decides to go passive for a few seconds
The power gain is so much that even indestructible boosts might not be enough
And if the defender happens to be a Kingpin, then u'll be just stunned for rest of the fight
Luckily they listened to us!