Godtear Community Playtest Packet: Durthax, Helena, Halftusk v2, Jaak v2

Hello Champions!  As I’m sure you all know, the community is working on a balance pass for Godtear.  In these playtest packets, we’ll be presenting proposed changes for two champions.  One will get nerfs, one will get buffs.  In this packet, we’ll also be revisiting two champions we released previously.  First, we’ll give you the changes themselves.  Then we’ll explain why we chose these champions, how we have interpreted the community's perspective on their issues, and how we arrived at the change proposal.

Durthax Experimental Nerfs

• Twisting Grove: New wording “Once during Durthax’s activation, choose a friendly banner within 2 hexes of Durthax and place it on another empty objective hex within 2 of them.”

• Wellspring: New wording “Plot phase only.  Every Champion within Range may take a Claim action.”

Helena Experimental Buffs

• Call to Arms: Range: 2 → 3

• Banner Bearer: New wording “Helena cannot make claim actions.  If Helena is on an objective hex at the end of your plot phase, score one ladder step.  During the End Phase, if she is not knocked out, Helena counts as a banner for the purposes of gaining steps on the battle ladder.”

• Holy Light: Damage: 4 → 5

• Condemnation: Accuracy 3 → 0* new wording “This skill gets +1 [accuracy] for each Rallied Peasant within range of the target.  Hit effect: [accuracy blight].”

• Will of the People: Range 1 → 2 new wording “This skill gets +1 [accuracy] and +1 [damage] for each Rallied Peasant in range of the target.”

Halftusk v2 Experimental Buffs

• Fighting Fit: New text: “If Halftusk does not have any wounds, his skills have +1 [accuracy] and +1 [damage].”

• Feint: New text: “If Halftusk has removed a wound this phase, he may use this skill as a bonus action.”

• Tongue Lash: New wording “Hit Effect: Move target up to 1 hex toward Halftusk or this Froglodyte."

• Tongue Tow: Skill renamed to “Tongue Strike” and new wording "Target Halftusk or a Friendly banner. If the target is within range, move it up to one hex."

Jaak v2 Experimental Nerfs

• Battlefield Brew: New wording "If Jaak’s banner is on the battlefield, after he takes each action during his activation, you may remove a wound from another friendly model with two hexes of Jaak."

• Deploy Cauldron: Range 3 → 2

• HP: 7 → 6

• Eye of Newt: Range 2 → 1

• Aggressive Chant: New wording “Hit effect: [dodge blight]. If the target is adjacent to a Cauldron Crony, move the target up to one hex.“

Why these champions?  What were their issues?

Durthax has consistently been a top level crew since their release.  Their ability to move enemy banners is unprecedented, consistently uncounterable, and downright unfun.  With one of the highest win rates in the game, they’re a monster on Construction and Knowledge; with winrates well over 60% in over 3 dozen games across these two scenarios.  They’re due for a nerf.

Helena, on the other hand, has been consistently a bottom level crew since her release.  She struggles into shapers, has limited damage output, and is generally left alone while some maelstrom gobbles up her peasants for tasty ladder steps.  Her crew could use some help.

Our initial Halftusk changes led to some interesting discussions and feedback.  Some considered the new Tongue Lash a net nerf to his crew’s kit.  We also found that a Footworked Halftusk with a 7 accuracy Feint every turn was almost untouchable.  Finally, we hadn’t addressed any concerns with his damage output.  So we’re trying to course correct on all fronts here.

Finally, Jaak.  His nerfs were well received by the community; bringing down the range of Deploy Cauldron and his health by 1 each were good changes.  However, he’s still powerful enough to be the premier guardian in almost all cases.  We considered the Cauldron Cronies themselves and their powerful range 2 abilities, and tried to bring those back into line with other followers.

Why’d we make the changes we did?

Durthax is a simple set of changes.  Their ability to move enemy banners has been removed, so that they only get a miniature Finvarr ultimate every phase, rather than the ability to pretty much auto crush a banner going second in the plot, and move an enemy banner onto Cursed Ground from Rattlebone in the clash.  Wellspring is also no longer a bonus action.  If Durthax was adjacent to an objective hex and KO’d the previous phase, they were able to Rally, Uproot back to the same space they were on, then Wellspring.  This play loop was called out as problematically reducing the impact of grinding through the 14 health.  Given their limited selection of plot phase actions, this change should only prevent the play pattern expressed above, using both Uproot and Canopy in the same turn as Wellspring, and using Wellspring after planting and moving from somewhere else.

Helena’s changes are a bit more extensive.  Firstly, we expanded Call to Arms since it is the rarest ultimate ability in the game; hoping an additional hex of range will improve consistency.  Secondly, we gave her some plot phase battle ladder game.  She doesn’t always benefit from this, but her lack of claim limited her banner game to 5 points a turn, rather than the standard guardian 6.  Thirdly, we gave her Holy Light a damage to make it comparable to Mourneblade’s Soul Cleave.  Finally, the Rallied Peasants have learned how to jeer from a distance, and throw rocks.  These changes to the accuracy of Condemnation and Will of the People are meant to improve their utility while backstopping Helena.  We are excited to get feedback around whether these changes improve the anemic feeling her crew has on the table.

Halftusk was on the right path, but these v2 changes are designed to help him toward the middle even more.  We adjusted Fighting Fit to make his skills more balanced and impactful.  Feint has a different trigger to be a bonus action, and is slightly less accurate due to the Fighting Fit changes; this is to keep a Footworked Halftusk from being untouchable every turn.  We hybridized our changes to Tongue Lash with the original so that it’s more versatile, but not strictly better than the Splashling’s Tide skill, and we hope that this helps to enable the Froglodytes.  We liked our Tongue Strike changes, so kept them as is.

Finally, Jaak.  Feedback has been very positive that we were on the right path with Jaak, but many comments indicated that finding counter play was still problematically difficult.  We kept the changes to Deploy Cauldron and his health, but felt that the Cauldron Cronies were still outperforming most other followers.  By reducing their effective range, we hope to force more meaningful decisions around Crony positioning, mitigating the need to deal with all of their potential threats simultaneously without actually removing any of their utility.

How to playtest these changes?

If you want to playtest these changes, simply play a game with one or more of the champions being playtested. Make sure that your opponent agrees on which version (original or community balance pass) of the champions you are using. If you play on TTS, use the changed cards provided by MightyFinePants. The Godtear Community page will also have an online version of the cards that you can use as a reference or if you are playing a live game:

[Images of the cards in TTS and on Experimental]

How to contribute to the project?

To provide feedback, which is essential to the success of this project, you can submit THIS FORM (note, if you are new to playing online, you can learn more from this article).  

If you want to discuss these changes with the community at large, please post in the #playtest-feedback channel of the unofficial community discord server.

If you want to help brainstorm directions for balance changes, please post your ideas in the #homebrew channel of the unofficial community discord server.

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That’s it for this playtest packet.  Check out Objective Hex in two weeks when we discuss how we’re winding down the Community Balance Pass with your help in codifying champion changes!

Wooloolool,

The Council of Eldritch Judgement