Godtear Community Playtest Packet: Grimgut v2 and Kailinn v2

Hello Champions!  As I’m sure you all know, the community is working on a balance pass for Godtear.  In this playtest packet, we’ll be presenting a second round of proposed changes for Grimgut and Kailinn based on the feedback and playtest experiences. For the two new champions in the balance pass, one will get nerfs, one will get buffs. First, we’ll give you the changes themselves.  Then we’ll explain how we have interpreted the community's perspective on their issues, and how we arrived at the change proposal.

Grimgut Experimental Changes

Here are the proposed changes for Grimgut:

• (NEW) Nom Nom Nom adds “If Nom Nom Nom knocks out a follower, Grimgut may use this skill again as a bonus action.”

• New Spew can be used as a bonus action if Grimgut has knocked out a follower during his activation.

• Flu Spew and Goo Spew are both bonus actions.

• NOTE: As a reminder, as per the rules on p18 of the rulebook, “A model may only ever gain one bonus action per activation.”.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Kailinn Experimental Changes

Here are the proposed changes for Kailinn

• (NEW) Brutal Charge changes “If Kailinn made an advance action this activation, Brutal Charge is a bonus action.” with “If Kailinn knocked out a follower this activation, Brutal Charge is a bonus action.”

• (CHANGED) Impaling Horn replaced with Shredding Horn: “Move Kailinn up to 1 hex.  Then Remove an enemy banner that is within range (1).”

• Flashing Blade changes “may target up to two followers“ to “must target up to two followers“, preventing the skill from being used on a champion.

• Justice adds “against followers“ to the damage dice increase.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Why these champions? What were their issues? Why are we proposing these changes?

Grimgut

Grimgut has had generally positive feedback from those playing both with and against him, with many calling out how “fun” he was to play.  However, there was a very consistent opinion that, while he was fun and improved, he still needed a bit more of a boost to be closer to in-line with other champions.  Grimgut is balanced around the fact that his followers have the best multi-attack in the game, and significantly reduced battle ladder impact from being KOed.  However, a common survey comment was that it was a bit too easy for opponents to simply outscore Grimgut, even from disadvantaged positions.  It is our hope that providing a semi-limited additional option to Nom Nom Nom a second follower helps to make Grimgut a bit more of a threat in proactively scoring without deviating from his core balancing.

Kailinn

Kailinn had some of the most polarizing feedback of the entire balancing effort, and definitely continues to be a challenge in determining how to approach the champion.  There were a number of comments around how the ultimate made Kailinn more fun to play in a broader number of scenarios (which was our ultimate goal), but there were also quite a few comments around how the ultimate was problematic and inherently the wrong direction.  After some additional teasing out of information (Thanks to everyone in the community that contributed to discussion, and helped answer clarifying questions!), it seemed like there was one particularly problematic play line: Kailinn racing in, crushing a banner (which was up to 7 hexes away), and still getting another 2-4 points from a bonus action Brutal Charge.

The change to Brutal Charge serves two purposes.  First, it prevents the problematic line described above, forcing Kailinn to decide between attacking and crushing after a move.  Second, it eliminates Kailinn’s ability to Rally, Advance, and then Brutal Charge.  We would like to explore how this affects Kailinn’s overall power level, and whether it is an effective offset for maintaining the ability to crush a banner with her ult (and be played on more scenarios).

The change to remove “Move Kailinn up to 1 hex.” from Shredding Horn is intended to further blunt the flexibility of her already powerful new ultimate.  The ability to move and crush using a single action in the plot seemed to be perceived as excessive; both from the range extension, and the potential to double trigger the displacement effect of Kailinn’s Centaur trait.

It is important to acknowledge that Kailinn is still capable of some very powerful plays.  The ability to move out of threat range and plant an un-crushable banner, only to return to the fray in the Clash has always been a challenge, and the introduction of Shredding Horn only expands potential.  That being said, we feel there has been enough support for broadening Kailinn’s playability that it is important to continue to adjust and explore the high level direction.  The ability to move 4 (5 with a move boon) through small followers to crush a banner is a new challenge, and is something we will be looking very closely at in the feedback.  However, it is our hope that when combined with the other balance changes, the ultimate feels strong (as ultimates should) without being problematically over-powered or unfun to play against.

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:

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.

—

That’s it for this playtest packet.  Check out Objective Hex in a week when we publish the playtest packet with (hopefully final) adjustments to : Lorsann, Maxen, Rangosh, and Skullbreaker!

Wooloolool,

The Council of Eldritch Judgement