It's been a busy few weeks here at the office, but release is finally in sight, and there's a lot to discuss regarding it, whether you're playing on Steam, Discord or Xbox!
Version 1.0
With the release of Minion Masters also denotes a new versioning scheme for the game as we leave Early Access, with future patches following the schema of 1.0.X. This Update will include the launch of Bones & Bravery, our seventh Battle Pass, as well as a number of Balance adjustments and the full release of the game on Xbox One. The release of Minion Masters is currently scheduled to be the 24th of May and will include the Founder's Gift gift of a Legendary Card and 5 Power Tokens for everyone that purchased Minion Masters before we went Free to Play.
The Early Access period of Minion Masters has been a fun and exciting period in BetaDwarf's history, and we're glad we were able to share this experience with all of you since the game's inception. Thanks to everyone for your continued support!
Balance Changes
As mentioned before, coming in v1.0 are some much requested Balance Changes that we've been working on behind the scenes. Here are some of the Balance Changes you can expect to see coming in Version 1.0:
- Dragon Ball
- Mana Cost increased from 5 to 6
- The Card Mana Cost to activate Dragon Ball's effect has changed from being 6 to 6+
- Developer Comments:
- Dragon Ball has been a particularly efficient card ever since its inception, finding a home in aggressive decks of all shapes and sizes. We've tried to keep it at 5 Mana so that it met two particular goals; that it didn't feel too bad to play unactivated, and to be a viable activator for Shars'Rakk Twins. However, the value provided from the Dragon Whelp ultimately proved to be too much regardless of what mana cost the Activator was at, merely shifting around what kind of deck could make the most of the card. As such we're opting to push it to the 6 Mana mark, but in exchange make it slightly easier to activate in a deckbuilding sense by expanding the range of options you have to combo it with.
- Shieldguard of Light
- Mana Cost increased from 6 to 7
- Damage increased from 60 to 70 (It already has 70 damage due to a bug, but was intended to be 60)
- Developer Comments:
- Shieldguard has been a powerhouse card for a while, and how best to change him was a frequent topic of discussion internally after our previous smaller adjustment didn't have an effect on his prominence. Suggestions included lowering his health or cutting his damage and focusing on his charge, and while we did consider and work with these changes at first, we iterated into focusing on the "One Man Army" identity of the card. We wanted him to be powerful, and thus we are instead opting to put him at a higher mana cost without particularly reducing his effectiveness on the battlefield.
- AIM Bot
- Now also gains Shield when Summoned
- Developer Comments:
- AIM Bot's original intention was to trade off the increased Mana Cost by making it a safer supportive card through the use of Marksmanship, but the increase in range simply was never useful enough to justify paying the premium for it over Drone Walker. We'd like to reinforce the "safe" aspect of the card by making it much more durable against removal through the addition of a Shield, while not removing its weakness against cards that can close the distance quickly such as a Prowler or Incubus.
- Rampage
- Mana Cost decreased from 3 to 2
- Area of Effect reduced by 2
- Developer Comments
- Rampage is a card that has been in a weak spot ever since the Rage nerf removed its volatile nature. Increasing the usability of the card as such should make it an easier inclusion in the types of decks that would effectively make use of the Damage increase while hopefully not being as explosive to play against as the status effect was in its prime.
- Caeleth Dawnhammer
- Mana Cost decreased from 9 to 8
- Developer Comments
- This change to Caeleth is fairly straightforward - He was too difficult to make use of at 9 mana, with his Divine Shield effect, while strong, not being enough of a justification to include in most decks. Hopefully this change will give him the boost he needs to be useful for play.
- Demon Warrior
- Attack Speed increased from 2.5 to 2.2
- Developer Comments
- One noted weakness of Demon Warrior was when she had to face off against multiple units. Even as a win condition, she would suffer against even the smallest groups of swarm due to her slow Attack Speed - So we're giving that aspect of her a significant boost, but not to the extent that it removes her primary weakness. This change should make her more of an immediate threat that you have to answer.
One particular set of cards that we have received many requests for balance adjustments to is the Stormy/Priestess/Guardian decks that have been prominent since the release of Stormy. Guardian in particular is a card that has been in our sights as problematic for a long time, particularly as an enable of "cheese" decks. However, we want to make sure that when we make a significant change to the card that it's the right one that allows Guardian to retain its status as a tanky protector, but much less combo reliant in order to be viable. Hopefully we'll have more news we can share in the future as we investigate solutions to the card.
But in terms of balance changes, that's not all you can expect out of our big release update. Next week we'll be discussing a rework to a certain Buff mechanic, so stay tuned to hear more about that!
Cheers from BetaDwarf!
