New Onslaught = Too much...

[Sensimilius]

Imagine if Invigorate from ST
Would give 1 power to ALL units in your hand when an enemy is damaged, now imagine ST had as much damage ability as SK, now imagine Invigorate ALSO had 2 charges of 3 dmg just for good measure! WELL THAT'S PRETTY MUCH WHAT Onslaught is right now (it's even 16 provisions lol).
90+% of the armor you get you CAN transform into points pretty damn easily (and if the opponent is trying to dmg you back then it's 100% of armor to points conversion since you're denying him damage and keeping your stuff alive which is actually over 100% worth cuz your stuff living allows them to continue to have effects AND you for example deny Deathblow effects so it may be a 150% armor to points conversion), and not just boost points but removal points as well.
Also any deck that relies on doing dmg is pretty much screwed cause his units will be loaded with armor so you can't do anything, though all of your stuff will die so the only damage you can do will be from specials.

Only no-unit decks (which happen to be so popular rn) can stand up to it (if the Onslaught player is a good one) since they don't give him as much targets to dmg so can't get his worth from the leader.

Now Imagine Mahakam Forge leader gave 1 armor to all Dwarves and machines in your hand every time you play a Dwarf (cept even this way, you can't proc it 2 times in a turn I think). :] Broken, right?

Suggested change:
Cannot give armor more then once per turn, only gives on the 1st dmg. It would only give 1 armor to ONE unit (ship/pirate) and only at bloodthirst 3 could it give to all units (make it include the unit you just damaged). Then still reduce it's provisions to 15 and/or make it 2 charges of 2 dmg.

The only difference between ST no-unit and this is that ST is "no units for anyone until my last big play" while SK is "units for me but no units for you. :}".

 

[ReaperTek]

Imagine if Invigorate from ST View attachment 11268634
Would give 1 power to ALL units in your hand when an enemy is damaged, now imagine ST had as much damage ability as SK, now imagine Invigorate had 2 charges of 3 dmg just for good measure! WELL THAT'S PRETTY MUCH WHAT Onslaught is right now (it's even 16 provisions lol).
90% of the armor you get you CAN transform into points pretty damn easily (and if the opponent is trying to dmg you back then it's 100% of armor to points conversion since you're denying him damage and keeping your stuff alive which is actually over 100% worth cuz your stuff living allows them to continue to have effects AND you for example deny Deathblow effects so it may be a 150% armor to points conversion), and not just boost points but removal points as well.
Also any deck that relies on doing dmg is pretty much screwed cause his units will be loaded with armor so you can't do anything, though all of your stuff will die so the only damage you can do will be from specials.
Only no-unit decks (which happen to be so popular rn) can stand up to it (if the Onslaught player is a good one) since they don't give him as much targets to dmg so can't get his worth from the leader.

View attachment 11268631

Now Imagine Mahakam Forge leader gave 1 armor to all Dwarves and machines in your hand every time you play a Dwarf (cept even this way, it's you can't proc it 2 times in a turn I think). :] Broken, right?

Suggested change:
Cannot give armor more then once per turn, only gives on the 1st dmg. It would only give 1 armor to ONE unit (ship/pirate) and only at bloodthirst 3 could it give to all units (make it include the unit you just damaged). Then still reduce it's provisions to 15 and/or make it 2 charges of 2 dmg.

The only difference between ST no-unit and this is that ST is "no units for anyone until my last big play" while SK is "units for me but no units for you. :}"

Agreed, It's actually kinda crazy that they thought the Onslaught they showed* in the pre recorded Dev Video during Masters is too weak and needs a buff because it already seemed crazy enough with the Bloodthirst 3 requirement but removing that entirely is totally busted.

*

 

[rrc]

Onslaught had been in dumpster for 2+ years now, so let it shine for some months. I can imagine this to be one kind of reply. But you shouldn't ask "Invigorate was also in dumpster (actually much more than Onslaught, as Onslaught was pretty damn good during HC) but didn't it get its time to shine even after 2 reworks and an mini expansion to support it?"..

This will be the top purple leader for many months to come and then slowly it will be nerfed (may be to 15 provisions initially, and after a few months to 14 provisions, and after a few months change the ability to not give 1 armor to all units or something which will completely phase it out and put some other Purple on top).

I was also thinking about Mahakam Forge. When I was discussing that MF is a garbage tier leader when it got introduced, people mentioned that, but Armor has significance and it has value. Pirates and Ships get much much more value than what Dwarfs can get and still, this leader himself can give 2 armor to pirates and ships and can give even much much more. This is just a leader powercreeping another leader.

 

[ReaperTek]

Onslaught had been in dumpster for 2+ years now, so let it shine for some months. I can imagine this to be one kind of reply.

The funny thing is that i actually encountered quite a few Onslaught Scorch Gigni Decks last season.

But yeah if we compare this with some Scoia'tael Leaders it gets even more embarrassing when it even has 2x3 damage charges (while Reckless flurry actually already is very similar in that point) as a cherry on top while ST spawns a lame Tempering or some vitality charges, heck and even Precision Strike will now be much less reliable with a Leader around that gives his unit's a insane amount of Armor.

It's also kinda Crazy that the in the beginning of the Year Strongest Skellige Leader Patricidal Fury now dropped down to being considered the weakest.

 

[quintivarium]

What we have seen with SK for the past year is a lot of change and a lot of revitalization. And I think we are beginning to see payoff with multiple different viable decks. I hope that with the current road map, we will start to see the same for other factions. If other factions were to get the 10 or 12 buffs (with occasional reworked abilities as well) that SK has seen over the last several balance patches think we would see a much healthier game.

Rather than complaining about SK getting needed buffs and variety, let’s request the same for other factions.

 

[Barracuda88]

It must be nice to have first-hand knowledge of the master plan (or at least blind faith and a lot of positive attitude), but I personally lack in all of those. So I have close to zero confidence that what we're seeing with SK right now is some sort of blueprint and promise of what's going to happen to other factions, and even IF it was, and this "year of SK" just happened to be "year 1" of the "big picture," then I'll probably need to take a 5-year break to come back in time for the ST buffs.

 

[Panos_Sigma]

Yeap, I'm not a big fan of the onslaught change too. Gameplay-wise even 4p and 5p engines could be untouchable with armor, so yeah... Another annoying thing added to the game's huge list. Lore-wise it makes zero sense to give pirates of all people armor!!! Pirates with armor so thick, they put Makaham Dwarves to shame. Whatever...

SK had already a huge pool of playable / competitive cards, archetypes and leaders. I just hoped that all the tiny amount of energy the devs give to balance the game could be spent to other forgotten archetypes of other factions.

 

[Sensimilius]

Rather than complaining about SK getting needed buffs and variety, let’s request the same for other factions.

No, because if you make 1 card overpowered then you've just obsoleted like 6 other cards (or more) by doing so. Same thing with leader abilities.
Now, if CDPR could buff 50-100 cards at once (or change all leader abilities in one go) then this what you say would make sense since then so many cards would be on the same level (one would hope).
But we've seen that the devs don't have the capacity to change that many cards per month (like most of the time it's only a few cards per faction, meanwhile the game has 1300 cards or so).

Conclusion: If you bring one card (or leader ability) back from the dead, but make it OP, you've just obsoleted an unknown number of other cards thus you've done more bad then good. :I
This is why it's so important to be careful with buffing and balancing stuff in general.
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Also I was a proud Onslaught player up until this patch. I agree it was powercrept/weak but I still liked the artistic freedom it gave and the ability to finely set up cards for bloodlust, deathblows or some other stuff like Arachas Venom, maybe even pop that one shield I need pinged. If Regis wasn't so expensive and powercrept the old Onslaught leader would have been the perfect one to play him with.

At least I could get creative with it and make unique decks, now it's just a Pirate leader tied to that one Pirate deck that we can make (and that's okay, as long as I am not mauled by it when playing other stuff xD).

 

[DRK3]

I really love pirates, its my favourite damage-based SK archetype.
i loved when Crach was added earlier this year, and i loved to see a leader being reworked to focus on pirates and ships... but not like this, not to the point its completely busted, rendering it "autopilot ez wins".
I havent tried it myself and been lucky to only face it once so far, but i think it will become more and more popular in the upcoming weeks.

I really hate that the devs dont have the foresight to adjust the provisions when they reworked a weak leader ability unto something so much stronger, to the point its obvious when you look at the other SK abilities (which are already really strong) that this new one will easily outvalue all of those, and still leave it with more provisions

Oh well, only saving grace is now maybe i can make a wacky pirate meme deck (none of that Warrior/pirate BS) and maybe still have great success, carried by the strength of the leader

 

[Iuliandrei]

I played a self wound deck against this and by the end my opponent had like 22 armor on his Terror of the seas, not to mention that all his units were practially immune to damage. One of my biggest issues with gwent is that the game is too rock-paper-scissors and this takes it to another level.

This also raises the discussion about how specialized leader abilities can be, i really dislike the Wild Hunt buff and it seems that moving forward takes us back to beta where each leader had its own archetype and unit power is balanced around said ability.

Also Radovid is terrible, it doesn't need a hotfix, it needs rework, it should be usable with all leader abilities.

 

[ReaperTek]

I played a self wound deck against this and by the end my opponent had like 22 armor on his Terror of the seas, not to mention that all his units were practially immune to damage. One of my biggest issues with gwent is that the game is too rock-paper-scissors and this takes it to another level.

This also raises the discussion about how specialized leader abilities can be, i really dislike the Wild Hunt buff and it seems that moving forward takes us back to beta where each leader had its own archetype and unit power is balanced around said ability.

Also Radovid is terrible, it doesn't need a hotfix, it needs rework, it should be usable with all leader abilities.

Yeah after trying Onslaught for a bit i realized that you even get Armour for the damage the Opponent does to his own Units during his turn.

So It's even more overtuned than i originally thought and additionally probably made Selfwound Decks almost unplayable.

 

[betraymechino]

Yeah after trying Onslaught for a bit i realized that you even get Armour for the damage the Opponent does to his own Units during his turn.

So It's even more overtuned than i originally thought and additionally probably made Selfwound Decks almost unplayable.

Well, it kinda works like hyperthin vs mill in NG - an archetype that gets hard countered by another archetype in the same faction. Feels bad, but there's no way around it, without removing one archetype completely.

 

[MVP_VP]

I just can't enjoy this game at this moment. With this Onslaught or Guerilla Tactics deck I find no pleasure in any of my cards just blowing up to insane ammounts of constant non-stop damage. Defenders are pointless and gets blownup. Round 3 Terror of the seas card comes out with 22 Armor and instantly blows up a 22 Melusine. This is not balanced. I will only play again after this game is fixed.

 

[yeahalright]

Haha, yes, new onslaught numbers are completely broken. Only no unit decks have a chance.

 

[saodhar]

Met new Onslaught in all its "glory" today. Ships with 12 Armor, dueling pirates with 15 Armor. So nice, so fun to play against. And Fucusya with Crach. Because why abuse dueling pirates for one round only?
Maybe old Onslaught was weak, but I liked this ability and its tactical use with Bloodthirst. With this new abomination I'd sooner die than play it.

 

[Sensimilius]

I just can't enjoy this game at this moment. With this Onslaught or Guerilla Tactics deck I find no pleasure in any of my cards just blowing up to insane ammounts of constant non-stop damage. Defenders are pointless and gets blownup. Round 3 Terror of the seas card comes out with 22 Armor and instantly blows up a 22 Melusine. This is not balanced. I will only play again after this game is fixed.

Yeah, I didn't mention it in the opening post but obviously seeing Terrors of the Sea coming down with 10+ armor to instantly delete any unit that by some miracle hasn't already been deleted is too much on top of already too much stuff (like units getting stronger while rotting in the graveyard). xd
I'm not playing until the next patch (at the minimum, and if the patch isn't satisfactory then I'll just skip the next season entirely), that's for sure.

 

[Gimme_a_break]

Typical CDPR. Releasing expansions and not taking into consideration the new Frankensteins they've just 'accidentally' created. Can't blame them for not foreseeing all the possible drawbacks, but if something is clearly overtuned and doesn't get nerfed in the subsequent patch, then it would have been better not to release it at all in the first place. And by past experiences, I would not hope for the Onslaught to be reworked to an acceptable degree in the nearest future.

 

[EduFerraz]

Typical CDPR. Releasing expansions and not taking into consideration the new Frankensteins they've just 'accidentally' created. Can't blame them for not foreseeing all the possible drawbacks, but if something is clearly overtuned and doesn't get nerfed in the subsequent patch, then it would have been better not to release it at all in the first place. And by past experiences, I would not hope for the Onslaught to be reworked to an acceptable degree in the nearest future.

i ve already said it in other topics and also in spyro's stream today.

My fear its devs are focus only to nerf renfri and stay onslaugh and all those SK broken cards in this way