Meta Report 10.22.24

Frens, Family, Guild Members. I'm excited to launch a series of meta reports analyzing our now-fully-functional turn-based RPG. While the game has been incredibly enjoyable, there are some balance issues worth discussing. All feedback below comes from a place of enthusiasm for the game's continued improvement. Without further ado, here is my first meta report, many of these items were discussed in the pod this week: Building Hero Monsters

Aggro meta is in, stall meta is out!

In an effort to beat the pesky efficient priest bubbles and heals the community's top players have started having success with aggro archer builds.

• Current State: Aggro archer builds are dominating the meta, countering previous stall strategies
• Key Issue: Turn 1 victories are creating negative player experiences
• Proposed Solutions: Mix of immediate balance changes, mechanical adjustments, and new item introductions

Commentary and the state of the feels.

Let's watch a couple matches.

Franz vs. ilba

Eric vs. ilba

Raph vs. Tad

Now I’m not sure how you felt, but this was tough to watch. Led by piercing shot or sharpshooter, archers can blitz their opponents to remove a hero from the state of play as quickly as turn 1. It's causing some fierce table flipping from those involved. What's worse than being ground to death by the inevitability of an efficient stall team? …It's losing the game before getting a turn. I’m certainly not trying to call Ilba out either. He found a way to maximize the utility of heroes, good for him. Gamers are going to game, and devs are going to balance. Last thing I want is for his heroes to feel useless.

This situation presents a complex balance challenge, as articulated by ADFK's finest, Juss:

JussCrypto | Boc Killing GCR — 10/20/2024 4:41 PM
Yeah this is gonna be a problem
If Ibla’s team is the apex predator and they nerf aggro to the point where he can’t decide the game on turn 1 or 2 every time.. then the good-but-not-Ibla tier aggro players don’t have the tools to compete against stall and we’re stuck trying to out-stall each other in unwatchable games

Juss is spot on. We can't just tune down archers overall… this would neuter the ability of any aggo heroes, not just S tier aggro heroes, from countering the vicious stall meta.

Can we counter it and Raph's musings

So far stacking health and going triple warrior repeating shot, seems to have the best chance. This worked one time when Tad and I had a scripted match: Tad vs. Raph

It required the removal of cleave so I could clear the front line. However, walking into an unplanned match with three warriors feels inherently worse than walking an unplanned match with three archers. As the three warriors will not be effective at fighting other team compositions compared to walking in with three fast/strong archers that can beat almost every team composition. This leads me to the conclusion that some changes need to be made to improve balance to stop S tier archer agro from world domination.

One other meta shift idea is fighting speed with speed is an option with disruption abilities, but stun and exhaust can be inconsistent and don't provide enough consistency. I had some limited success in testing. Due to the inconsistent nature I dare to call this a counter and more of a potential mitigator.

Immediate balance change ideas

1. Piercing shot - I'm reluctant to say we have to nerf the damage here. Maybe switching to a stats.s formula for damage will let us tune the top end without neutering it completely.
2. Giant Slayer and double giant slayer - It’s with a heavy heart that I must request damage tuning here… at least you won’t call me a hypocrite, but even the Raph’s stable of heroes feels like this would be a good move. A slight reduction in 5% damage per giant slayer is likely a fair adjustment.
3. Sharp shooter - Sharp shoots basic attack damage is devastating IF you manage to survive the opening barrage. This needs to get tuned down 20-25%.

Mechanical Adjustment ideas

4. Bow speed - two handed weapons going fast and strong does feel a little busted overall. I love the way the team approached phasing out the old bow without changing the NFT assets held by other players. Unfortunately, it's unlikely for top level play to see the actual intended weapon changes any time soon without durability. No real ideas here.
5. First turn mechanics - it has been discussed and suggested by 9dorf and some in the ADFK discord chat that we could change the way hero initiation works by only letting 2 heroes at most go before a member of the other team. I feel like this is an easy way to adjust to the overtuned archers, but I personally don’t love this idea from a thematic standpoint.

Long-term solutions (new items)

1. Focus band from pokemon - The first time you would go to zero health, you instead go to 1 hp. This item only works one time. This could be clever way to solve the burst damage problem.
2. Starting the game with a ward - this is using a mechanic that's already in place with resurrection, except you could start the game with a 0pt ward that negates the first damaging move. Just like resurrection, this ward could last a maximum of two turns before it goes away automatically. You could place this on your squishy hero to protect from being bursted down.
3. Quick claw style item - Create an item adds initiative to your hero, boosting your start position but leaving your overall speed affected. This gives a team a fighting chance and allows them to set up some defensive mechanisms.

Conclusion

Despite these balance challenges, it's exciting to see DeFi Kingdoms evolving into a sophisticated competitive environment. The current meta issues demonstrate both the game's depth and the community's ability to optimize gameplay strategies. Thank you to the development team and community for making this possible. I look forward to your feedback on these observations and suggestions.

[Oct. 23, 2024]