Be ready, Heroes - another Tower of Ascension Season has started!
Beginning with this Season, we will roll out the first of our new Seasonal Balance Patches. We plan to continue carefully monitoring performances of Minions, Heroes and Spells (Minion Ascensions included), and bring more competitiveness and destruction to the Arena through seasonal re-balancing. These will likely not be as large in volume as some of our balance changes of the past - but combined with more dynamic Ascension Trees - we expect the meta to shake up a bit more often from season to season compared to before.
Primal Spirit:
- Base Health: 1005 → 1055
- Base Damage: 400 → 405
Archers
- Base Damage: 75 → 85
Archers were struggling in terms of win rate, and also felt bad to be more tanky than damage dealers, as it is not the intended fantasy for this Minion. A damage boost was in order.
Undead Horde
- Base Health: 150 → 145
- Base Damage: 55 → 50
This will affect all Skeleton based spells such as Undead Horde, Undead Army, Undead Raid, and Undead Warlord. Swarm based strategies are a tad too strong for a while now. We want to keep this viable, but at the same time make it slightly easier to fight against.
Stone Elemental
- Base Health: 3095 → 3280
- Base Damage: 440 → 545
Stone Elemental is our weakest Epic in terms of Win Rate for a while. Together with its new Ascension, we want to make the upfront body stronger, so that it is more than just an annoyance on the field.
Shield Bearer
- Base Health: 1255 → 1305
- Base Damage: 180 → 200
Speaking of Minions that have been underused for a while, Shield Bearer was never a favorite on the battlefield. We hope that some Heroes can find room for this affordable Minion in their decks after we gave him a pat on the back.
Undead Warlord
- Mana Cost: 8 → 9
- Base Health: 3260 → 3195
Undead Warlord is quite unique in that he is simply very difficult to remove - considering that you have a free Undead Horde on his back-end (or if you have the new Ascension, almost an Undead Army!). We felt that this was very unique in how much pressure it applies to the battlefield and that no other 8 mana units can match it. We are quite sure that Undead Warlord will still be a force to be reckoned with even at the higher Mana Point.
Bloodstalker
- Bonus Health per Unit: 125 → 100
- Bonus Damage per Unit: 115 → 120
With a proper swarm strategy and setup, Bloodstalker could reach vast hp totals, requiring a Viper response even more urgently than an Abomination. While we do want for a well set up Bloodstalker to be awesome - the fantasy and role of this unit was more to be threatening than tanky. We toned down its body in favor of giving it slightly more damage.
Abomination
- Base Health: 10145 → 9405
- Base Damage: 1535 → 1405
Going on the back of our past Balance Patch comment - we want the Abomination to be THE late game unit, but still, slightly less punishing if not immediately solved. We didn’t nerf him enough. We feel this will put it in a good place.
Blade Dancer
- Base Health: 640 → 510
- Base Damage: 160 → 150
Blade Dancer’s design was always problematic in that it is a bit too versatile. It does so much for 3 mana, for very little effort - and is really not as easily countered. Considering its awesome new Ascension, we feel we could tone down on the awesomeness a tad, and leave some room for other Minions in this slot.
Good luck ascending in this Season, Heroes!