Thursday, July 9, 2020

Arcane Golem & Haste Poll + PTR Signups!

Minion Masters!

We've got quite a lot to talk about this week - We need your input regarding some upcoming Balance Changes, and we're opening up PTR Signups again. Let's not waste any time and get into it:

Arcane Golem & Haste/Slow



With the upcoming Balance Changes coming in Version 1.15, we've been giving heavy consideration towards changes to Milloween's Arcane Golem and the Haste mechanic in particular. While we're decently confident in our changes, we wanted to give the opportunity to get more input from you all about them which we can take into account, as they are likely to significantly affect the metagame. Here are the changes we're currently thinking of:

Arcane Golem
  • Mana Cost 3 -> 2
  • Health 300 -> 250
  • Damage 40 -> 30
  • Health Gain Per Level 40 -> 30
  • Damage Gain Per Level 6 -> 5

The main reason we're seeking to alter Arcane Golem is to rebalance Milloween's general gameplay. Currently Milloween is very frustrating to play against at Perk 3 due to how high its stats end up at from the Level 5 Boost. We're hoping with this change that the Arcane Golem, while still strong and forming the core of Milloween's kit, feels much less oppressive to fight against in the lategame and overall smoothes out her power curve.

Haste
  • Bonus 50% -> 33%
  • (Slow will also have its debuff changed from 25% -> 20% to match this)

Haste has been a fairly problematic buff for quite a while, as some of our veteran players can no doubt testify to. We've traditionally had to hide the explosive potential of the effect behind specific conditions, or remove them from cards that proved far too powerful with it - Examples of this would be Rabid Prowler and Woodsman. By reigning in the power of Haste we want to make it a more fair mechanic to play against, and open up more design space for us to utilise it when designing new cards.

This Haste change will also come with a buff to Ravager's perk 2 as he would be significantly impacted. This change will likely come in form of altering the threshhold required for his units to gain Haste in proportion to the change. Changes to other cards affected are also likely to be considered.

We've prepared a short survey that we would like you to answer so you can give us your feedback on this adjustments: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsX1IRLy-TNoWBHZCq9wKsJWBkx2OVIdWlQkh9nDTzSTatyg/viewform?usp=pp_url

Thanks a ton in advance for your time, Masters!

New Reveals Coming Soon!


We're swiftly approaching that time again, Masters - The Season Pass #3 reveals are due to start this Friday! Join us for another round of exciting card reveals that will expand upon your Accursed collection as Mordar makes his counteroffensive, on our Update Site!

PTR Signups

We're looking for willing PTR Testers and are opening signups once again, to help us test upcoming content for Minion Masters! Things are a little different, this time - We're offering you the option to reference another user when signing up to the PTR that you'd like to partner with that is also filling in the application for membership. If the two of you are selected, we'll ensure you're in the same group, meaning there'll always be someone you're familiar with to play against, or with for 2v2 testing. Signing up with another player is not a requirement to be accepted for the PTR.

As a PTR tester, you will test new content on the PTR and provide feedback for the Minion Masters design team through questionnaires and discuss feedback with the team directly in the Discord channel. Responses from the PTR testing group is an extremely important part of creating new content for the game.

To join, you must be able to write in English, be open-minded, and have time to test and discuss new cards, masters and other content with us. It is a requirement that you are open to testing new cards/masters through rigorous playtesting. You must also have a Steam account and be able to play the game on PC (you will have the full collection of cards at your disposal).

There is a minimum expectation of activity while you are a member of the PTR. If you do not participate in several PTRs in a row without contacting a developer as to why, you will be removed from the group.

To sign up, answer this questionnaire here and we'll contact you via your Discord account if you're accepted: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd2q6WF0xfushgM8ZYI-xYEeTQgBijulnA1tsINAvjpPoIuZg/viewform?usp=pp_url

Sinobii's Battleground Invitational #9



The ninth SBI is happening this weekend! Like previous SBIs, the tournament competition consists of active players that have performed exceptionally well in previous Team Mana Frenzy tournaments or are ranked at the very top of the Minion Masters Leaderboards - Meaning you can be certain there'll be some excellent quality gameplay on display! It's your traditional no-holds-barred double elimination tournament and will be livestreamed on Sinobii's Twitch channel.

If you want to find out more about the competition, check out their Toornament page here, and drop by their Discord!

Cheers from BetaDwarf!