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    Home Unlabelled Clash Royale [Loooong post, with summaries] Fall Balance Wishlist — Analyzing the strong and the weak

    Clash Royale [Loooong post, with summaries] Fall Balance Wishlist — Analyzing the strong and the weak

    July 15, 2021

    Clash Royale [Loooong post, with summaries] Fall Balance Wishlist — Analyzing the strong and the weak

    [Loooong post, with summaries] Fall Balance Wishlist — Analyzing the strong and the weak

    Posted: 13 Jul 2021 08:41 AM PDT

    The current meta REALLY shows the true strength of a lot of different cards that we never thought would have dominated the meta, let alone been added to the game in the first place. It also shows just how crippling the current meta is to certain cards and how certain cards that SHOULD be meta right now just… aren't.

    I have a lot of changes that I personally want to see added to the game, but for the sake of keeping balance changes sizable, I've cut it down to a select few, based on what would be the most impactful in a good way. Let's get the list started, shall we?

    Must-Address Cards

    These cards are self-explanatory. They dominate the meta hard, with use rates that they shouldn't really have. Yes, some cards feel great having high use rates, especially Mother Witch, but everyone can come to terms with at least a small power trim to some of them.

    There will be a summary for each card if you're lazy/don't have time to read.

    • Electro Giant

    All of you have an issue with this card, so it would be a sin to not address this first.

    Plain and simple problem: Matchup RNG.

    Electro Giant is a push-destroying, defense-melting, tower-perma-stunning monster that gets pegged down by a fuckin' Tombstone. The catch? Electro Giant can be supported. The counter-catch? The support can be countered. Usually.

    Against decks without a building (or a PEKKA), there's no contest if the Electro Giant player has Tornado. Electro Giant player wins. He's that dastardly strong.

    Against decks WITH buildings, well, that is another story.

    Most, if not all Electro Giant decks carry a Lightning Spell, which is able to wipe out any building (with a bit of support against specific ones), eliminating the problem.

    The problem with EGiant's consistency arises when the opponent can get two buildings down (or one building + PEKKA).

    If the opponent can replace their building with another building and properly defend it (or place down a PEKKA alongside it), the Electro Giant player literally can't do a thing about it. All he can do is pray for the opponent to misplay and let an Electro Giant sneak through. Otherwise it's an instant L.

    The only option for the Electro Giant player is to put a secondary win condition into his deck, a win condition unaffected by or able to bypass optimally-played defensive buildings. In the current meta, that secondary win condition is Goblin Drill.

    But secondary win conditions carry their own set of counters that can still make things hard for the EGiant player.

    Synopsis: Electro Giant wins versus decks without buildings or PEKKA, has a fair chance against one building, loses against two buildings or one building + PEKKA. Needs a secondary win condition to have consistent success.

    Suggestion: Chop down his raw power, but allow for secondary win conditions to support him better. An example would be to cut his Elixir Cost to 7 elixir or even 6 elixir, paired with an HP nerf and giving his Zap Pack a Crown Tower Damage Reduction.

    The goal is to make him MUCH less of a threat on his own, but also allow for secondary threats such as Balloon and Hog Rider to be paired with him MUCH better. Being 8 elixir limits his card combinations very harshly and I HEAVILY suggest reducing it in order to reduce RNG matchups.

    • Furnace

    Good god, is this card an underrated monstrosity or what?

    Furnace used to be a win condition supporter, but now it's just raw tower chip that NEEDS to be destroyed with a spell. It IS the win condition now. Secondary win condition.

    I don't need to explain much about this card. Most cards that were able to deal with the Fire Spirits cannot deal with the Fire Spirits anymore. Fire Spirits are too quick and tanky to be shut down by a Musketeer or a Bowler or Skeletons, and the increased frequency and number of waves make cheap alternatives like soaking a wave with skeletons or another spirit far less effective and meaningless.

    Yet Furnace is so underused because it's still so awkward (and has a leveling problem: if it's not maxed, it's literally useless). It's a shitty building to kite things with since you'll be wanting to preserve that Furnace, and it is best used behind your Princess Tower. It doesn't support your pushes well at all unless you use Goblin Drill to get the spirits to the tower, and it only serves to soften counterpushes and/or get free chip.

    Synopsis: Only serves as an awkward secondary win condition and counterpush softener that's infuriatingly effective. Cannot use the Furnace to kite things due to heavily wasted potential that only shoots yourself in the foot.

    Suggestion: Make it more easily counterable, but give it redeeming qualities. An example would be to make it 3 elixir (redeeming quality) + die to Fireball (and crippled by Arrows) + shorter lifetime (since stacking 3 elixir Furnaces would be insanely easy and oppressive).

    The goal is to simply make it less of a nuisance while still offering respectable enough value to be worth putting in a deck.

    • Goblin Drill

    I'm gonna be honest: I like it the way it is now, even though it's insanely meta-shifting. But it could use a power-trim.

    Goblin Drill is the first-ever building that can be placed next to the opponent's King Tower. Offering absurd tankage for the Goblins it spawns out, this thing just chews through towers and has a questionably limited amount of counters due to how the Goblins can protect the drill (and themselves).

    Defensively, it is a powerhouse capable of absorbing tons of damage before popping and spawning a swarm of Goblins on everything, making it very clutch in tandem with its knockback ability and it's massive resistance to heavy spells.

    The only limiting factor with the potential of the building is its ridiculously short lifetime of 9 seconds and the ridiculously slow travel time it has getting to the tower, making it very easy to react to and even harder to construct a push with.

    The big question about the Goblin Drill is: is this even bad for the game?

    Yes, it's strong, but at the same time its such a fun card to play with AND against (arguably). The severity of how much this card has thrown off the meta in favor of cards like Dark Prince, Valkyrie, Bomber, Bowler, heck, even Mirror — cards we have almost never seen before — has made the meta really interesting and new, bringing most of us back to the good-ol' days where we were just learning how to play the game. It's insanely refreshing.

    Now… early biases aside, there's a certain inevitability that everyone is eventually going to get sick of Goblin Drill and the meta. This is unavoidable. So we have to address Goblin Drill at some point. It will remain strong without a tweak and eventually be a problem.

    But what do you do to nerf it properly without killing it? As it stands now, any tweak could plummet the use rate of this card drastically or not do anything. One less goblin is a massive nerf, less HP doesn't really do anything asides from giving the opponent less time to react to the death Goblins, removing spawn damage doesn't really do anything asides from making Skeleton Army a brain-dead response to it, removing knockback doesn't change the fact that it has a ton of HP and has a delayed first spawn that removes any need to predict the Goblin Drill, etc.

    Functionally in the arena, it won't budge regardless of what change you make unless you kill it.

    Synopsis: Undoubtedly strong for what it offers, but difficult to nerf properly. An improper nerf will upset the playerbase to a degree never seen before.

    Suggestion: Possibly wait another 3 months before trying something. Otherwise, try balancing the Goblin Drill around a 5 elixir cost instead. Give it an extra goblin, or more spawn damage, or whatever.

    5 elixir wouldn't functionally limit the Goblin Drill, but it would make it more of a risky investment and indirectly make countering it without optimal counters a bit easier. The plus side of a change like this is that you can always BUFF it to viability.

    • Mother Witch

    Ah yes, another hot topic. "Why wasn't she nerfed in the last balance changes?!?!?"

    Because, like Goblin Drill, she rocked the meta so hard that the game felt new again. No one wants to see a dead Mother Witch. She shifted the meta too hard to deserve to be dead again.

    Her function is simple: Any unit she attacks turns into a pig on death. One pig can provide remarkable tankage, but 5 pigs can turn her into a win condition.

    This can obviously create some very questionable matchups, specifically against Miner decks and cycle decks since they usually provide the Mother Witch with a massive army of pigs for cheap via Bats, Skeletons, Spear Goblins, etc.

    Against minitank-heavy decks, she can still pull her own weight in the fight with ranged DPS and occasional pig tankage that gets players a lot of surprising value.

    Where she falls short is her general lack of DPS on top of being a fragile unit that dies to Fireball. Very, very poor against tanks and hard to put in a useful position against Beatdown decks without her dying. This fragility is the main reason that Fireball is in almost every deck at the moment.

    If you've ever had to ferociously attempt to counter a Mother Witch without Fireball, the obvious problem you'll find is that countering her without a big spell is surprisingly difficult, even while at or on the bridge. Why is that? The pigs.

    The pigs she spawns will be directly in the way of whatever unit is trying to assassinate her, stalling for the Mother Witch a whole lot longer than expected. This is why she manages to effortlessly counter E-Barbs with the assistance of literally anything, and why she's still left standing after a Battle Ram + Bandit were constantly 2 inches from the Mother Witch: she keeps spawning hefty meat shields in front of her.

    Synopsis: Can always provide value, except against big tanks. Value skyrockets against cheap units. Difficult to kill without Fireball due to the pigs acting as constant meat shields for her.

    Suggestion: Open her up to more counters without directly nerfing her ability to spawn things. An example would be to nerf Pig HP down from 520 to 440 or 325, and possibly reduce her attack range, and possibly nerf her own HP to 440 or so. If nerfing pigs also reduces her raw power, then that works too.

    The goal is not to kill her from the meta or make her feel clunky or dysfunctional. That would upset the playerbase. Reducing things such as Pig HP, Pig Damage, Mother Witch HP, Mother Witch range, etc. would accomplish not making her clunky yet also nerfing her raw power/ability to survive.

    Notable Cards

    These cards are ones that have a particularly concerning position in the game and/or potentially a bad history of being annoying and/or infuriating to deal with.

    For the sake of the meta and to not beat a dead horse on stupid, brain-dead midladder cards like Wizard, Mega Knight, Witch, etc., I will focus more on the ones that have risen more recently.

    • Tesla

    Tesla is powerful on top of being annoying. The ability to not only hide underground to avoid any and all damage (asides from Earthquake) but to also linger on the field for 6 millennia creates a really bad Tesla stacking problem.

    You can either stack more than one Tesla or you can easily replace your previous Tesla whenever you want, essentially allowing you to have a Tesla up for the whole game. Or two. Or three.

    So it's basically a third/fourth/fifth, more powerful, disposable, protectable, spell-resistant Princess Tower.

    If you're an avid King Tower activator, you'll understand just how powerful having a third tower is for the whole game (a weaker tower, at that).

    Now imagine having a 4th, more powerful tower on top of that weaker third Tower. Or a fifth. Or a sixth.

    Yeah, that… that basically counters everything.

    Compare this to Cannon: Cannon doesn't hit air, Cannon can get outranged by a fair amount of units, Cannon has low HP and can't avoid a Spell, Cannon expires quickly on top of being vulnerable to spells, and Cannon is 3x3. Not hard to see why Tesla outshines Cannon.

    Compare this to Bomb Tower: Bomb Tower can't hit air and has far less DPS (though it can splash), Bomb Tower can also get outranged but by less things than Cannon, Bomb Tower has a bit more HP but can't avoid a spell, Bomb Tower expires quickly on top of being vulnerable to spells, and Bomb Tower is 3x3. You can easily protect your Tesla from swarms due to its cheap cost and its own ability to clear out small swarms, so, really, you're not gonna ever want to use Bomb Tower over Tesla, even if Bomb Tower were to get buffed.

    Compare this to Inferno Tower: Tesla costs one less elixir, Inferno Tower has far less DPS on crowds, Inferno Tower has a lot more HP but can be completely reset and cannot avoid spells, and is 3x3. Tesla and Tesla stacking can provide you with way more than enough DPS combined with your towers to kill a Golem, one of the tankiest units in the game, so you don't need to cripple yourself against lighter spam and cycle decks by using Inferno Tower. Just use Tesla.

    Tesla simply offers too much raw damage for so cheap. But you can't just nerf it either. Nerfing it directly would only make it a mediocre combination of all the other buildings, and in a game where decks allow for card teamwork to make up for their own weaknesses, no one would go for the mediocre card. They would go for the card that offers the most against their decks's greatest weakness and the card that won't get screwed over by the weaknesses of the whole deck.

    Synopsis: Heavily outshines all the other buildings to an extent where buffing the other buildings wouldn't matter. Does everything, lingers in the arena forever acting as a permanent, replenishable Crown Tower. Simple nerfs will only serve to make Tesla mediocre and repulsive compared to the other buildings.

    Suggestion: Rework it completely to serve a specific role and fall short in other aspects. A great example would be to give it a chain attack without stun, and reduce DPS greatly. This would give it the role of being a counter to small groups of support units *behind a tank (especially against air units, basically being powerful anti-air) without stepping too far into Bomb Tower's territory by being more limited in damage potential.*

    Self-explanatory. The goal is to allow other buildings to have a chance in the spotlight without killing off Tesla.

    • Flying Machine

    Damn, is this card annoying. If someone aggressively plays this behind a small push, it just gets so much value. Most of the time you're forced to Fireball it if you want to NOT lose a tower or NOT lose all your counterpush, because it's just so hard to send this thing crashing to the ground.

    People can put Zappies at the bridge with Flying Machine behind it and it will be the most absolutely annoying push you will be forced to stop without a Fireball.

    And don't even get me started on Flying Machines that hover 0.01 tiles outside the radius of the crown tower or Flying Machines that decide to lock on to your tower for 5 years.

    This thing was made for the sole purpose of being annoying, and of course I'm going to have a problem with that. Any card whose purpose is to annoy your opponent to the point where they carry a Fireball in every deck just to get rid of it is a poorly balanced card. Just look at Mother Witch. (Still love her, she was just annoying in a good way. Flying Machine on the other hand…)

    And there's no other reason to put it in your deck. This thing has lower DPS than Skeleton Dragons while Skeleton Dragons have twice the total HP, splash damage, and rapid combined attack speed to boot. Flying Machine is a direct downgrade to Skeleton Dragons in effectiveness, and a direct upgrade to Skeleton Dragons in annoyance.

    The most big-brain, unique thing you can do with this card is counter a center-planted building with it, but again, just use Skeleton Dragons. Distracts for longer at the very least, gets the same job done at most, if not more successfully.

    Synopsis: Only useful if your objective is to be an infuriating prick and get lucky connections to the tower. Outshined otherwise by Skeleton Dragons.

    Suggestion: Make it much simpler to counter and much less annoying, but give it a redeeming quality. A decent example would be to make it 3 elixir (redeeming quality), make it die to either Royal Delivery or Arrows (simpler to counter), and reduce range (less annoying).

    • Bowler

    Bowler hard-counters this Goblin Drill meta and is a nuisance to support units, offering loads of value against big pushes.

    …But no one is using him.

    That's concerning.

    This might be due to just how much you have to force troops to be grouped together in order to hit them all (Tornado). The weird pathing of building-targeting units just will not let you aim a bowling ball correctly.

    Same can be said about Executioner. Hog Rider/Golem/etc. pathing just screws up his ability so hard.

    Otherwise I can't really explain why Bowler isn't being used.

    Synopsis: Unsure. Potentially bad due to Bowler aim being skewed by building-targeting units.

    Suggestion: Provide me with a better solution. As of now my only suggestion would be to fix his aim. For example, give him new targeting: Counterattack Ground. He will only walk around being a tank, doing nothing until something attacks him, in which case he will target the first thing that hit him within his range and immediately strike. 2.5 second cooldown on counterattack ability. Increase normal attacking range from 4.5 tiles to 5.5 tiles to compensate. This would mean that most of his shots would go to the ranged unit or at the very least a melee unit in somewhat of a proper alignment with the ranged units.

    • Poison

    "Look at how they've massacred my boy…"

    Honestly, even before it fell out of meta, I hardly used this thing over Fireball. It's just so slow… All that for 28 more damage, useless Skeleton Army nullification that was only ever useful against Graveyard and Night Witch, a tiny bit larger radius, and the potential to miss some damage. You don't even get knockback! What kind of redeeming quality could it possibly have over Fireball other than aesthetic dominance?

    It needs a functional redeeming quality if it's ever going to get some love again. Something special over Fireball.

    Synopsis: Only thing it really offers is Graveyard and Night Witch protection, both of which now suffer from Mother Witch being the superior answer to them, at noticeable costs compared to Fireball.

    Suggestion: Obviously give it a redeeming factor over Fireball. For example, give it the ability to slow just the attack speed of units by 20%. This would bring the crown tower's attack speed from 0.8 sec to 1.0sec, Mother Witch's attack speed from 1.1sec to 1.375sec, Lumberjack's attack speed from 0.7sec to 0.875sec, etc. Something subtle.

    And yes, I am aware of the old Goison meta. However that was 5 years ago and back when Elixir Collector was 5 elixir, and things have changed drastically since then. Giving Poison even just half its old ability back wouldn't be a bad idea.

    Extra Cards - Lightning Round

    These are just random additional changes designed to help out or address certain cards that are having a hard time getting some proper sunshine and shade in the game.

    I'll just fire off my suggestions briefly.

    • Tombstone

    Suggestion: Cut elixir cost to 2 elixir (redeeming quality), make a bit more fragile, increase skeleton spawn rate but decrease lifetime.

    Dead card for years. Being the first two elixir building could be huge, and it's the perfect candidate for the test.

    • Guards

    Suggestion: Elixir cost to 2, reduce damage to Skeleton damage.

    Also dead for years. Dying to Arrows makes this card really unappealing. Being 2 elixir could make this card great again, serving as the Bomber of distractions.

    • Bomb Tower

    Suggestion: Remove death bomb and replace it with a death Bomber and maybe immediate death damage that only does Skeleton damage. Potentially bring it back up to 5 elixir or nerf HP severely.

    Death Bomb on a defensive building has always been weird. Making it spawn a Bomber on death (aka having the Bomber in the Bomb Tower fall to the ground) allows it to continue chipping units after death, making it great against any win condition spam, especially Royal Hogs.

    • Inferno Tower

    Suggestion: Reduce cost to 4 elixir, possibly reduce damage down to Inferno Dragon damage or somewhere between, possibly trim HP just a tiny bit.

    It's literally only meant for tanks and maybe Hog Riders and Balloons for a negative trade, and never for the support behind it. Otherwise it's so utterly useless that you may as well just use Inferno Dragon instead. Cost decrease would make it fit in more decks, and subtle nerfs will keep its raw power in check.

    • Hunter

    Suggestion: First hit 0.2sec faster (1.1sec -> 0.9sec).

    1.1sec first hit was way too harsh a nerf from the previous 0.7sec. A half-reversal of the Hunter nerf.

    • Ice Wizard

    Suggestion: Buff attack speed, make his HP match Mother Witch.

    Ice Wizard, as annoying as he was, was done dirty. No compensation whatsoever for his lost value. A DPS increase should make him a bit better as a solo card.

    • Rage Spell

    DEMAND: Rage Spirit

    Dew it

    It's been almost a year now

    Just dew it

    • Freeze Spell

    Suggestion: Reduce cost to 3, reduce duration to 2.5sec, increase damage to 159.

    4 seconds of cheats that can be placed anywhere instantly is infuriating. Making it cheaper but shorter makes it much less infuriating and impactful but still useful.

    • Skeleton Army

    Suggestion: Make 2 elixir, less skeletons.

    Definition of Rock-Paper-Scissors. This would make it fairer, being an even trade against small spells but sometimes able to be dealt with without a small spell.

    Fin

    There are definitely more cards that could use changes, but again, for the sake of keeping balance changes a respectable size and to not negatively effect the meta, I've shortened my wishlist down to these select ones.

    You've made it to the end. You're a chad for sitting through this dumb crap. Have a cookie 🍪

    submitted by /u/yojojo3000
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    the sexiest prediction i’ve made in clash

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 10:47 AM PDT

    Can’t believe it’s been 5 years, it felt like just yesterday I started…

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 09:19 AM PDT

    my nephew's birthday party.

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 02:31 PM PDT

    Haven't played the game in a while picked up this deck which seems to be easy to use I have a book of books on who should I use it?

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 10:14 AM PDT

    Not Able to Claim Free Gems With a Negative Balance (read comment)

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 02:07 AM PDT

    I didn't know that lightning can "wait" for a troop to spawn

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 01:09 PM PDT

    Mirror Challenge

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 10:07 AM PDT

    IMO, this is the most skillful and skill based challenge in the game. There is 0 RNG at all. This makes the entire game focused on who plays better, no matchups, no luck, no starting hand or anything. Plus there were some nice rewards too. (sorry for the text block)

    also leave ur results in the comments if u want

    submitted by /u/revolites
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    p o s i t i v e e l i x i r t r a d e

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 09:08 AM PDT

    How to survive Mega Knight push with cheap cards

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 01:48 AM PDT

    I finished the challenge but what? 6 days for another challenge.. but why ?

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 03:52 AM PDT

    I Pulled PEKKA by using Goblin Drill so I could pocket Egiant And Lightning ⚡ to Win . Could not have done it without Versatility of Goblin Drill .

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 10:39 AM PDT

    I wasn’t doing too well until the end of the game. I pulled this move out as a last resort but didn’t expect to win XD

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 02:09 PM PDT

    5 years of F2P with 3 max out decks (kind of). Im building another deck. See you all in 2 years.

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 06:54 PM PDT

    After they’re both level 12, which should I use my magic book on, cage or valk?

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 12:11 PM PDT

    CLOSEST GAME OF MY LIFE (he probably broke his phone afterwards)

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 03:04 AM PDT

    Tier list, presented in earnest

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 01:13 PM PDT

    I lost connection and came back to this

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 07:59 PM PDT

    My opinion about current meta

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 06:52 AM PDT

    Is there a sub group for higher ladder players? All I see these days are deck advice posts and clips of really normal game clips. Harsh, maybe, but I bet quite a few would support this.

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 12:07 PM PDT

    If there is another group, please message me with the link, cheers.

    submitted by /u/Simmo2242
    [link] [comments]

    Is there anything I should change? (I want to keep GS and MP)

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 08:25 PM PDT

    To the CR Dev team, PLEASE revert back to monthly balance changes

    Posted: 14 Jul 2021 10:28 PM PDT

    For a F2P Classic LogBait player like me, the game has been complete hell with the reworked 1-elixir Fire Spirit completely countering a GobBarrel placed anywhere. The Goblin Drill is broken strong too and has almost no counters.

    The 3-month balance change system is making the game extremely stale and unfun to play, especially for people whose main deck gets hard-countered by an OP card left unchecked. This is worse for F2Ps because they can't afford to switch their maxed deck for one at level 11.

    Personally, I would like to see a splash radius nerf to the Fire Spirit, at least so that it doesn't completely counter a GobBarrel.

    submitted by /u/notInfi
    [link] [comments]

    Wait a minute..what..? I have no Idea how this happened

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 02:46 AM PDT

    Why shouldn't I be able to re-enter a challenge after completion?

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 02:06 PM PDT

    I've been a good boy and paid my $6 bucks for the Pass Royale. I find playing the normal mode pretty boring after 3-4 years of playing CR. So I prefer other modes, such as the mirror mode challenge which is currently running. But after 9 victories, the fun's over. What's the reason for this? Why shouldn't I be able to re-enter? Why can't that be one of the Pass Royale benefits?

    submitted by /u/Level_Abrocoma8925
    [link] [comments]
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