Could not agree more with the sentiment of spread the buff to what needs love over nerfing what's good. Although I think it's harder to balance by buffing things I think it is the best way to go. Nerfing popular options again and again feels unfun, homogenised the game and makes everything more samey or bland (generally speaking). I like to look at dota as a good way to. Every hero feels OP because every hero in a way is...generally heroes keep getting buffed to work out solutions to the overplayed stuff. Now imba stuff NEEDS to be nerfed and this can also cause power creep so it isn't black and white. Good point well made in the video drn ❤
Me and a friend played with the Tarantula and tested it out a little. It feels REALLY good already, though the mines are bad with a capital B A D! Changes I'd like to see to it: - reduce their durability slightly. They feel like snipers don't actually counter them currently (they do, but it doesn't feel like it). Not much, but it takes 7-8 shots, usually 6 including the other stuff slapping it. Maybe balance it to be 5 shots from a sniper (upgrades nonwithstanding) would make it feel better. - no more friendly fire on the mines - larger radius on the AOE, currently their chaff clear is worse than arclights -75 is an awkward range. Either more or less.
Yeah, agree with all your points here though I'd say I've found the Tarantulas to be fairly 'mid'. Spidermines are very feast or famine depending on if your opponents chaff clear is stuck shooting something, and how far away the Tarantula is when it launches them. Have you run Tarantulas into Firebadgers and Wraiths much? Find they feel almost half way between an Arclight and either of those two in terms of where I'd ideally place them on the board and what I'd expect them to clear.
@@Drone_101 I've had them up against badgers once. They're nice tanks but they don't even tickle the things. There are two directions I'd like them to take the unit: hella tanky, or good chaff clear. I don't think it should gain in both, but IMO they should either make it even more of a chonker, that heavy duty unit that really pushes you towards steel balls, or they should scale back the durability and increase the AOE/damage. I do like that it can kinda hold it's own against tanks tho. Gives it an interesting niche role where it's chaff clear that can actually kill things. Generalists just aren't really what you want tho. I also don't know what they did, I don't recall any of the vulcan changes looking all that impactful, but vulcans suddenly feel *really* good.
"drn", sorry if my English is bad, I am from the Yulatulafula tribe in the deep jungles of Ethiopia, everyday our tribe gathers around a fire and we play your Videos. Thanks to you we have all been so happy, we play them during our prayers and it starts raining. Our tribe is eternally grateful for your amazing talent, thank you "drn". -Yulatulafula tribe of Ethiopia
To be honest, I'd rather watch another match than an entire video on patch notes. But that's just me. And in the end I'd probably watch whatever you upload anyways.
Thanks, yeah - that was my feeling too. Part of why I've not made any guides and avoided scripted content. I can talk about the game a ton while playing the game and at least there's something happening at the same time and cool stuff to see if I ramble too much :D
Very real and level approach to the patch notes. It feels like a mix of rising the floor and lowering ceiling, more chaff clear and splash up across the board is interesting, but like you said, if your overloads are there to clear chaff, you have a different problem Edits on point, and very insightful. Thank you for making a video on this! Wishing you the best of luck, and all the Sledgehammers!
Thanks dude. Think the replay system alone will raise the skill ceiling massively! It does get a little annoying when the best-for-their-role techs on units keep getting nerfed because we're playing the units efficiently, would much rather see buffs than just endless nerfs - but I know nerfs in general are 'safer' from a balance perspective. Just feels a bit rough sometimes!
Kinda excited for these item changes. A lot of items felt like they only really worked on one unit. Cheaper items with lower effect actually lets them have more flexibility. So they can go on more than just mustangs. That said, with AP sledges and charge shot arclights slowing attack speed, items work even less well with them. Maybe we can get a Launcher Overload item some day.
Suspect a Launcher Overload item would again be broken on Mustangs :D the issue there is they don't waste damage overkilling things and can spread their dps around very efficiently even if on paper they're not the strongest. Don't get me wrong though, I think items are a fun part of the game and knowing how strong any given item is and when to prioritise picking it up definitely adds depth to the game.
I understand the philosophy of introducing new units in a slightly under tuned state. That makes perfect sense. However, the nerfs to buffs ratio here is pretty staggering by the time you get to the end of the list. Like you've said, it just feels like everything thet people enjoy using is getting nerfed. If you take something away in balance, then ideally you want to give something new to try in its place. It doesn't feel like thats been done here though. R.I.P. Extended Range Sleggies
Would love to see a few more buffs in the patch notes rather than the endless list of nerfs for sure. Don't think Carry Sledges are dead tbh, the improved AP Shot tech is very solid but you now need to be ready to vary up the chaff clear rather than going 100% tanks. Hopefully anyway! :D
@@Hel1mutt Yeah, I saw ^AGGRO^ testing HE ammo on Wraiths and the biggest difference was it's impact on the kill time vs Medium units like Tanks and Steelballs. But the Wraith already has a base splash of 8m while the Tarantula's is surprisingly small at 5.
Guessing you meant the Mass Produced Scorps? Think they'd be viable if the range loss was only -5m but at -10m they get out ranged by Tanks and Mustangs so are at risk of being EMPed quite easily and are very slow so closing the gap to get some shots off themselves can be painful even with their normally vast HP pool. Base Scorpions are very strong as long as you're running decent chaff clear that can keep Crawlers off their toes. Try Acid + Double shot vs any ground giants without enough screening chaff and it's brutal!
The Tarantula certainly looks cool, not sure how good it is yet. Part of me wants to go full walker loadout with tarantula, scorpion, and crawler I won't lie, but overall I agree with them feeling a bit weak with the current meta.
Yeah, feels a bit like kitting out your army with a variety of Dreadnaughts in 40k - a classic Castraferrum, an Ironclad, a Contemptor and a Brutalis all fighting side by side makes for a fun and potent mix! Or maybe I just like big boxy mechs! :D The Tarantula is slowly growing on me but it's defo got it's down sides and tbh I was very underwhelmed with Spidermines. Friendly fire from them is really annoying.
Think the Arclight will end up being a mid range chaff clear option while the Tarantula want to get very close and personal to the front line. Generally higher HP units scale exceptionally well with levels, especially if some of their techs have level scaling too - which the Tarantula Spidermines do have too. Giving them a good try out this week and trying to get a feel for their place in a solid boardstate.
Tarantulas are a 200 cost heavy 3x3 unit in the starting cards ... wow. That's a lot of hitpoints to have to chew through round 1. Somehow I think we've traded round 1 phoenix for a different yet similar problem. Just as marksman or mustang start could counter the phoenix, steel ball start can counter the tarantulas. But Bearlike help you if you start something like marksman & mustangs into the tarantula ...
Marksmen seem to have little difficulty in dispatching Tarantulas from what I've seen so far, since the Tarantulas have to walk pretty far forward to engage the chaff, leaving themselves fairly exposed at times. Steelballs just melt them!
Hey Craiggles! Ooh I dunno, have always been mostly a paper player and my nearby LGSs all closed down during covid so I've not played much lately, would defo have to brush up! Did give Arena a whirl a while back but found it quite slow paced compared to how I'd normally play and chat at the same time; have enjoyed watching Day9 blast out random decks every now and then tho! Think Magic has a great mix of social and competitive sides with a wonderful variety of playstyles and player types really well catered too. Will admit I found the hyper monetisation a little obnoxious, like why they don't give Arena codes for physical cards I can't understand, Pokemon's been doing that for years. Love Magic's Art though, have a series of prints of basic lands by John Avon hanging on my wall - keep telling myself I need to get a few more prints to pop around the house and I keep telling myself I'll build that Angels Tribal Commander deck one day :D
@@Drone_101 Shame to hear the lgs's in your area didn't survive. Mine here are thriving! Arena definitly doesn't compare to playing in person, I can agree there! Arena is free if you are good enough at drafting though. Haha! Anyway, still loving your videos man. Keep up the awesome work, and hopefully we will meet in a tournament match again soon!
Tarantulas seem to find their footing in FFA. Though a bit of a slow starter, and definitely weak to sniper units, i just nearly won a match with just Fangs, Wasps, and Tarantulas (the Jungle Gambit). After using them for a few hours almost exclusively, and in ranked games, i find that their shortcomings are: Range, even with the tech and tax they struggle to deal with a similarly leveled sniper. Health, they're shockingly squishy to Marksman and Phoenixes Movement Speed, they're slow and that's easily abused. AA tech seems similar to something you would use when using Arclight Carry, though it feels like they shred Overlords faster. Spider Mines feels good. Though they do explode one another and your own units, if you're out of chaffe and you have this tech then you're not out of chaffe. The fact that they level with the Tarantulas is nice, too. Means they can close more reliably on certain units (Fangs, Marksman, Arclights, etc) with just a single level. It doesn't feel like their health pool is high enough to benefit much from field maintenance, and for what they're going against I'm not sure if they'll ever need armor. They're tanky enough to handle Fangs and Mustangs, and nimble enough to clear Crawlers before they connect. The fact that a level 1 Tarantula can't one-shot a level 2 Crawler is frustrating, and I would trade some rate of fire for an increase in damage to mitigate that. Keep the DPS the same, but get rid of that oversight. Overall, they're meh. A muted replacement to Phoenixes, but that's probably for the best. I enjoy them, but i enjoy off-meta things and there's no way they're anywhere near the meta right now.
Oooh, nice thanks for the detailed report on their strengths and weaknesses. Doing some experiments at the moment myself, hopefully will report back tomorrow!
If it means anything, one of my most memorable games so far with the unit was an 11 round 1v1 where I ended up with a mixture of 15 Sabertooth's and Tarantula's. Just maybe Sabertooth's can finally find a nice sturdy niche via Tarantula support xD
Cool - have just played a handful of games with them, was a bit underwhelmed with Spidermines most of the time but occasionally they do hilarious things :D
I would presume that it turns it from projectiles similar to the fortress to projectiles similar to the scorpion - which is to say, great at killing multiple medium sized units (steel balls, sledgehammers (and might be able to catch two bigger units which stand besides each other (the rare unit which is good at aa, I can't believe I forgot it's name right now...)
Thanks dude, don't particularly like being critical of other people's hard work so this was quite a tough video to make and maybe I'm just tired and in a negative head space for other reasons outside of the game! ;D
A request, if possible: when rhe dev talked, is it possible to have subtitles there? I don't wish to bash him because thats would be really rude and i don't want to be rude to someone who made a cool game, but as someone who in general struggles understanding voices, it's especially hard there. If it's not too much trouble of course, wouldn't want to make the video worse!
Sure, I'll transcribe it here myself - sorry I didn't even think of it, didn't have any issue understanding it myself but I am a native speaker and take some things for granted, sorry. >Players always have more imagination than us, we can only make the tools but how you use the tools that's something we can't predict. >That's why we generally make the new units a little weaker because even if it's a little weaker then we can always buff it, but if it's OP and very strong then it's a very big problem for us. >If it's weak then players can just stop using it, but if it's very strong then it becomes a big problem. -Bearlike, on stream last month.
@@Drone_101Thank you very much sir! English is my third language and while I can understand it (relatively) well, I've always struggled with listening as opposed to reading, and this helps a lot. Have a nice day! Ps: I think it's possible to add this to RU-vid subtitles
Ayyyy first comment and first like! I'll have to see if we get a game today but even if not, I'm sure your analysis of the buffs and nerfs will be fun either way. Can't say no to that voice
Big fan of your content and commentary style. Thanks for the effort. I’ve looked around and don’t see (lots of content here) any strategic overview of core concepts or similar game mechanics. I’ve learned a lot from your individual game vids. Would you consider making a couple unifying compilation vids that cover a 101, 201, 301 of key game mechanics and strategy? Thanks again!
Thanks! Yeah, it's something I've put a lot of thought into. Haven't really made many scripted videos, more just experiential ones where I bring folks along for the ride in a series of tournament games. I'm going to test out something new today with a patch notes run down video, talking through my thoughts and opinions on everything. Part of my problem is I know there are far better players than myself and I'm well aware of my weaknesses, so it feels a bit disingenuous to pretend I'm some all knowing fount of knowledge when I can't remember my plans from 30 seconds before after getting distracted by "Ooooooh shiny!" :D
@@Drone_101so maybe just 101 and 201 then? Just watched the patch rundown. Helpful and level headed insight as usual. Appreciate the effort either way. Cheers!
Me watching a DRN video: "Ah yes of course, how foolish of your opponent to neglect putting missiles in the corners to prevent your obvious wasp play after the wasp card was shown. And I cannot believe you'd forget to sell your level 3 rhino after all this time, feeding your opponent's fortress free levels! Such clear misplays!" Me actually playing the game: "So what if I simply put *another* two sets of tanks down. No I don't have anti-air. No my tanks have no techs. Yes my opponent has scorpions. I can't believe I keep losing!"
A true connoisseur of high level gameplay has no need of actually playing there themselves, even just spotting and appreciating my mistakes is a very good sign! And as long as you're having fun, who's to say it's wrong playing techless tanks into Scorpions? If two aren't working, try four! If four aren't enough, you clearly need more!
By the grace of the Overlord captains above, Sakura never upgraded the fortress holding the damage item eating the rhino. It could have been at least level 3 by the last round to erase Mr. Rhino and stall the entire strong side, but 'twas not to be!
Yeah, think we dodged a bullet there! Maybe he assumed I'd be selling the Rhino so any extra damage from the Fort would be wasted shooting chaff. Dunno!
What do you think about the new Tarantula? I watched Rat's video on them, and I'm not sure how I feel. Edit: oops, should've waited until the end of the video 😅
All good man. I'm looking forward to it, new toys are always cool. They've got a tendancy to release units a little undertuned in the past and I normally spend the first week of their release hard forcing them every game I can and my MMR suffers but it's fun :D We'll see, hoping to do a patch notes video once things are out as fast as I can!
Those days where the “Free Units” were actually all free was just awful. Super cool to see you’re still playing mechabellum. Those pointers you gave me about the general way to play this game really have helped culminate into me putting nearly 400 hours into the game and reaching an all time high mmr of barely over 1500.
Hey nice one dude, we've probably crossed paths along the way then sometime, or will do in the future then! I flucuate between 1600 and 1900 on good days and bad days. Have struggled a little since the Fort nerfs because they are my favourite unit!
@@Drone_101 That 1600 point is quite the roadblock for me. You 1600+ guys are some tough nuts. Honestly it really feels like quite a tangible "rung" in the ladder.... and I can't grasp it xD
I've been enjoying Phoenix and Mustangs in FFA. I've been practicing building armies that have complimentary speed values, birds and buggies are fast and ok vs both chaff and high hp, just make sure to grab phoenix range to get them behind ur stangs.
It's funny, since the Forts and Crawlers lost a lot of HP suddenly the average board health pool went down so generalist reliable 'backline' dps units all got a noticable boost. Mustangs were already doing quite well before, now even though their classic bodyguard frontline Forts are weaker, they themselves feel stronger.
Thanks dude. I'll be honest when they came out I forced them almost every game to get a good feel for them and think they're a bit too niche for most of my games. I think of them as a bigger, riskier Rhino with a higher payoff if you can get them level 2+ with Absorption Module, Heavy Armor or Regen but otherwise they just die too quickly to units I often face like Scorpions, Phoenixes and Melting Points. I do use them in 2v2 and player Brawl quite a lot because there are bigger game deciding mobile beacon plays you can make with the larger maps. Maybe my opinion will change with time but I've been burned by underpowered new units quite a few times so don't tend to play them in tourney games in their first few weeks of existence.
Rhino was handing out those bonks like a champ, even giving them out when he was getting bonked himself. Why would I have to limit myself to such a small portion my vocabulary when I can accentuate and express my mental prowess by using the the extraordinary and limitless potential of a wide and knowledgeable vocabulary. On the topic of the game, countered at every corner, even in the close matches you still developed a new threat on the board. That was smart with the replicating Cralwers paired with the warp in Wasps. I would not have thought of that. Would have tried to them on the right side Stormcallers. Edits on point as always, commentary is beautiful, really loving the mix of it and the gameplay making these wonderful videos. Wishing you the best of luck and all the Sledgehammers!
Hahaha, thanks dude! Sometimes fewer words is better though, there's definitely an art to eloquence and sometimes I throw myself into the deeper end of the obscure word pool unnecessarily. Blame reading Tolkien as a child, Pratchett as a teenager and GRRM as a young adult. I do love when I know the exact word for any give situation or moment though. Causing a kerfuffle with the combined flank approach was a lot of fun and think we Bamboozled his defence!
Hi drn, love your vids, congrats on the tourney. can you give a short run down of how the xp works. My understanding is that lvl 1 = 1x cost xp, lvl2 3x cost xp, lvl3 = 5x cost xp? is this correct? And the other side of this, what determines the amount of xp required for a unit to level up? Thanks
Spot on, that's almost exactly how the exp is earned, but it's 2xCost then multiplied by (2xLevel)-1. My understanding is half the exp goes to the unit that gets the killing blow, the other half is spread out evenly with all currently living units you have on the board - including the unit that got the coup de grace. So at the end of the round your last unit always gets 100% of the earnable EXP. EXP required to level depends on the unit and is individually tuned, I'm afraid to see all the values you'll have to check the Testing Grounds, a few I remember off the top of my head are Forts need 1600 exp to go from 1 to 2 and Vulcans need 2200 I think. It's a strange system and one I'd love to have a tinker with sometime with better info from player metrics at a variety of MMR snapshots but that's just a pipe dream for me :D
When I wake up in the early hours of a summer morning, the soft wind outside whispers, echoing across the sky: "Double the stats.... half the price...."
Cheers dude appreciate the sentiment! Numbers are meaningless though, I'm not looking for fame or riches, just enjoying the game and having fun making videos along the way :D
Funny that you complain about not selling the rhino because it's feeding xp while I'm complaining about the opponent not leveling up the fortress because it's wasting all the xp from the level 3 rhino it kills every round.
I think it is the first time i ever heard the word "succinct" and it sounded not as i imagined (learned English by reading books). It turned out in my head it is written "succunt" probably it is distinctive enough to never bother reading it to the end... yeah...
Don't worry I'm sure there's loads of ways of saying words. And there's words I've only ever read myself so just have to take a wild stab at pronouncing them. If someone ever corrects your spoken English just say you were taught by a Yorkshire man one year, an Irishman the next and a Welshman after, all whilst staying in Scotland and living with a Geordie and not a single one of them ever agreed how to pronounce anything!
