Elemancer v6.1
Time for more updates! This time around we have another map update, alongside more readily available Gems. The Tier 1 (starter) zone has been slightly rearranged to conform with the new type chart from v6. I’ve rearranged which Tier 1 zones have three available Gems and added a third available Gem to each Tier 2 zone.
A look at the more colorful starting zone. As a side note I like the look of the outline Gems compared to the filled-in Gems on the Tier 2 zone as seen in the upper left.
In terms of balance I’ve made small changes to Geomancy, Pyromancy, Electromancy, and Cryomancy:
Geomancy still has an identity crisis, though the results have been within reasonable range. I’ve added extra Gems to some Tier 3 Earth cards and shifted more slots to care about the number of different Gems you’ve played.
For Pyromancy I’ve shifted the ability that plays from the top of your deck solely to Tier 3 Temples. One anomaly in my analysis is that despite having the lowest average max damage on Tier 2 and 3 cards, Fire builds perform quite well. As such I don’t want to mess with it too much if it’s working.
Electromancy warranted a bit of a buff now that so many multiplier effects have been cut. I’ve added extra Chain and buffed base damage on a couple cards.
Cryomancy has adopted a bit of a new identity, which stemmed from the crossover synergy cards with Aeromancy in their shared Tier 3 zone. Now there are Ice abilities that play extra cards directly into combat as if they were abilities of particular Elements with a set base damage (“vanilla” abilities). In Tier 3 Temples, these are abilities of the shared Element (so Air or Water), and in Tier 3 Shrines they are played as Ice abilities. This is a strongly synergistic ability with Air’s strategy, but Ice needed more mechanical design space. I could also see such an ability fitting with Hydromancy, but Water already has type-changing effects.
The game, as I’ve mentioned in the past few updates, feels like it is much more balanced now. Despite this I still want to make balance changes to Elements in order to smooth gameplay or to solidify each Element’s identity. There is some design space I’d like to explore, namely cards that add extra generic cards to your deck, but I may have to save that for an expansion.
