Druid King is here - thoughts?

rbfrgsp · November 2022

The dlc has given us a new deck and patron. You can grind the fragments in an afternoon, so expect to see this in PvP matches from now on.

What are your thoughts on this new deck? It's theme is: 'While in Play'. That is: combo effects appear only once the card has been activated or used, so the order in which you play your cards becomes more significant.

My first thoughts are that this has decent gold generation potential, and synergies very very well with Psijic deck because there are agent cards that generate one gold for every other card moved to your cool down pile. So you can now sift your draw deck AND generate gold by doing so.

Power / Prestige generation seems a bit low, but I don't think this is intended as a support deck despite this. Although I've only had three matches so far, so it may be that I've just not seen all of the cards in game yet.

SeaGtGruff · November 2022

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what "while in play" means. Is it while the card is in my "played cards" pile, spanning from when I play the card until I end my turn?

PinkApple · November 2022

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what "while in play" means. Is it while the card is in my "played cards" pile, spanning from when I play the card until I end my turn?

Yes, but it also counts any agents you have out. (And the agents can actually trigger during your opponent's turn too!)

rbfrgsp · November 2022

Yep, the While In Play status triggers only once the drawn card has left your hand. It does say that in the popup tutorial you get when you first encounter the Druid cards (and specifies that you now must choose the order you play cards carefully to get the full benefit). But, as with most ESO tutorials, it's a blink-and-you-miss-it situation and is not clarified on the cards.

SeaGtGruff · November 2022

PinkApple wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what "while in play" means. Is it while the card is in my "played cards" pile, spanning from when I play the card until I end my turn?

Yes, but it also counts any agents you have out. (And the agents can actually trigger during your opponent's turn too!)

Thank you. I knew about but forgot to mention the agents, although I didn't realuze that some of them can even trigger during your opponent's turn. Interestinf!

rbfrgsp wrote: »

Yep, the While In Play status triggers only once the drawn card has left your hand. It does say that in the popup tutorial you get when you first encounter the Druid cards (and specifies that you now must choose the order you play cards carefully to get the full benefit). But, as with most ESO tutorials, it's a blink-and-you-miss-it situation and is not clarified on the cards.

As soon as that popped up, I clicked on it to close it without actually reading it.

rbfrgsp · November 2022

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

As soon as that popped up, I clicked on it to close it without actually reading it.

...which is an entirely expected reaction when the message pops up in-game and, potentially, within your own turn in a competitive match.

I'm finding the druid a really huge dynamic shift. It's really slowing down some matches (no bad thing as far as I am concerned), and can be brutal to compete with if you have three or four agents out at once.

kirgeo · November 2022

where is the grand master we have to defeat Braigh? Couldn't find anything online about his location.

tsaescishoeshiner · November 2022

kirgeo wrote: »

where is the grand master we have to defeat Braigh? Couldn't find anything online about his location.

He's coolin in Glimmertarn.

sekou_trayvond · November 2022

It is a very interesting deck. Not enough to maybe get me to dump my current preferred play style. It does play out a bit like crows imo- the game becomes about getting all the crow/druid cards u can or deny every crow/druid card u can.

Personofsecrets · November 2022

I do like the idea of play order mattering more, but several of the cards are clearly so powerful that the Druid King overall design leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

I've watched a number of digital card games come and go. They always seem to go in the same direction and, unfortunately, TOT seems to be guided by some of these same game play principles that make other games less fun.

In particular, I'm talking about how Druid King can can go from 0 to 100 and by just lining up a couple of cards. I had a game that I was clearly losing yesterday with my opponent's 30 prestige to my 10. I knew that they had a grip of power generating Ansei cards because I peeked at their deck comp after their previous turn had been a dud of all treasury cards. So with this knowledge and having planned for the moment, I was able to boost up to over 60 prestige that same turn. And remember, this isn't like playing a Duke combo deck where many of the cards are drawing another card. We are talking about Time Mastery uses generating 8 power under conditions that aren't that difficult to construct.

I can see how some people may like this type of comboistic play, but it undermines the previous strategic ways of playing TOT. With my experience in games, I don't really expect games to stay the same over time, but I'm down right tired of new design being a far and away departure from old design. Stop roping me in and then changing so much. It's a bait and switch. And please make an actual significant change to Pounce & Pofit/Grand Larceny. Please, for all of our sake.

Druid King combos and failure to balance certain cards for this patch are honestly the first time that I've crossed the threshold to being disappointed with the TOT team. Really don't enjoy saying so.

SilverBride · November 2022

Personofsecrets wrote: »

In particular, I'm talking about how Druid King can can go from 0 to 100 and by just lining up a couple of cards. I had a game that I was clearly losing yesterday with my opponent's 30 prestige to my 10. I knew that they had a grip of power generating Ansei cards because I peeked at their deck comp after their previous turn had been a dud of all treasury cards. So with this knowledge and having planned for the moment, I was able to boost up to over 60 prestige that same turn.

This is one of the things that is driving me away from competitive play. When we can build a decent deck and play our cards well each hand and steadily build our lead just to have it completely wiped out by our opponent generating 60 prestige in one hand because of overly powerful decks and cards... well that just sucks the fun right out of it.

The most enjoyable games I've ever played were the close ones where someone reached 40 then the other caught up and it went back and forth like that until someone reached 80. Those games are the ones that use skill and strategy and they are exciting and fun. Win or lose I still appreciated how well we both played. This is what the game should be in my opinion.

WitchyKiki · November 2022

PinkApple wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what "while in play" means. Is it while the card is in my "played cards" pile, spanning from when I play the card until I end my turn?

Yes, but it also counts any agents you have out. (And the agents can actually trigger during your opponent's turn too!)

Evil.

SilverBride · November 2022

I just played another game with the Druid King and it was so boring and tedious and slow moving that I just bailed. I may never get the Voidsteel trophy that I need to complete my set so I can then stop playing competitive matches because I can't keep playing games like this.

Snamyap · November 2022

kirgeo wrote: »

where is the grand master we have to defeat Braigh? Couldn't find anything online about his location.

There is a note on a table in the inn in Vastyr.

rbfrgsp · November 2022

I've seen a big dropoff in druid king in PvP the last few days - perhaps it's settled down again now that the novelty has passed. I genuinely think the idea it's an OP deck will turn out to be just the learning curve and understanding risk mitigation when druid is paired against / with each of the other decks. The synergy with Psijic deck is a bit disgusting but as long as both players are aware of that and both buy up the druid agents (rather than letting one player scoop the lot of them), then there is potential for a competitive game.

Necrotech_Master · November 2022

from what ive played of the druid king deck, it seems interesting

some of the druid agents are very powerful such as the forest wraith

i did notice that the patron ability passive to get the chimera seems to be semi useless, majority of the time im even able to get a chimera in my cooldown the game is almost over anyway and i rarely have time to even play it unless i can use pelin to force it from cooldown to the top of my draw

AnduinTryggva · November 2022

It is definitely an interesting idea but is also one that is further pushing the balance towards the player drawing 2 or 3 good cards in the initial phase of the match. So not at all being a remedy to the basic mechanic flaw of making a late game any interesting.