(My understanding of) the game's meta and balancing issues

[Rystiya]

I'm not a very hard core player, so I'm not absolutely sure, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

1): General meta:
It feels like enemies in this game rely more on weird tricks (like the ability to fly, bypassing your troops one way or another, etc) than sheer bulk and numbers. As a result, the traditional barracks + artillery combo really struggle, as it's very susceptible to these tricks. Artillery suffer more because at least barracks can block fast units and force enemies with nasty abilities to fight in melee. Meanwhile, you almost have to build archers because there's so many fast or flying enemies and you have so little gold to work with.

2): The tri cannon (tower):
When I used the tri cannon, I primarily used its second ability, because I assumed its first ability is only useful when surrounded by many enemies. It turns out this tower's base attack and second ability is pretty underwhelming, and cannot justify its high cost at all. However, other people find out that its first ability is very overpowered, due to having high damage and low cool down.

3): The brew master (tower):
I don't know why the tough-looking guy spawned by its first ability only have 140 hp when fully leveled up. Perhaps it's supposed to combo with the tower's ability to lower enemy attack damage? If so, then maybe giving this unit passive heal in combat will make such combo more effective? Also, why the poison damage from its second ability so low? Also, it might be a good idea to significantly increase the splash radius and range of their base attack, so that their debuff can apply to more enemies, and thus become more useful.

4): The star gazer (tower):
It's not necessary a bad tower, but it's expensive and I don't know what it's supposed to achieve. I'll pick channeler or arcane wizard if I need lots of damage, or necromancer when I need versatility.

5): The grim wraiths (tower):
This tower's ability to switch position is super useful. However I don't like how easily its troops die. After all, it's an expensive barracks with 2 units, and other barracks troops don't have much durability either. Maybe increasing the cost of this tower and the armor of its troops would be a good idea. Please also make these troops immune to poison.

6): The flame spitter (tower):
Its abilities doesn't look weak. However, its base attack aren't very strong for its cost. I tried placing it next to my barracks, and I think I would be better off if I just build royal archers instead. Maybe it's only useful in a few specific spots in certain levels?

7): The rocket gunner (tower):
I think their missiles should do some damage to enemies cannot be instant killed. Maybe their rally point range should also be instead, because they are supposed to be highly mobile.

8): The necromancer (tower):
Their second ability (death rider) feels super powerful. I'm not sure about its first ability, it doesn't look very useful but maybe someone can make them work.

9): The paladin covenant (tower):
They are supposed to be tanky, but they aren't. I will like them better if a): the guard give them damage resistance (calculated separately from the effect of armor) instead of the damage buff, or b): if their guard reduce ability cool down time on all nearby units and heroes in addition to the damage buff, or c): this ability can be upgraded multiple times, each level gives the guard even more hp, armor, and damage.

10): The emissary (tower):
The damage buff of this tower is nice, but it feels like it's just better to build a damage dealing tower instead. Perhaps increasing its range and the duration of its debuff will make it an attractive idea to build an emissary on a bad tower slot? A price reduction might also be nice.

11): The favorite customer (tech):
This tech reduce tower upgrade price by chance. I think this adds too much randomness to the game. A flat price reduction might be better.

12): The lone wolf (tech):
This tech become useless once your heroes are lv 10. Maybe a damage increase would be more helpful, so there's still a trade off between placing your heroes together VS placing them separately when even they are lv 10.

13): Grimson and Torres (heroes):
Maybe people says they are two of the worst heroes. Maybe Grimson is supposed to be a melee glass cannon, but don't really have good damage? While Torres is supposed to have a lot of durability and stalling power to compensate for his low damage and speed, which he doesn't really have?

[Pielord]

1) The tricannon is made for discretional damage mainly. It excels at dealing with masses of low HP enemies or concentrated masses of enemies. And bombardment is the best ability the tower has because it deals a lot of damage over a large area. And even if all enemies are dead, it will keep shooting bombs, thus being capable of hitting fying enemies while the ability lasts.

2) The barbarian the Brewmasters spawn is made to deal a lot of damage. Fully upgraded he deals a max of 70 damage per punch. With the arcane mage damage increase it can get to 100 damage. He's made to pick off enemies or back your infantry with a heavy hitter. And if you want him to figh alone, just get a hero that gives him a shield. And while the poison deals low damage, it slows enemies and the main damage of the skill is the explosion when the barrel explodes at the end.

3) The stargazer is also meant to deal with large amounts of low HP enemies or when you have a crossroads, attacking multiple enemies or bursting down lone beefy enemies. And the Rising Star skill can potentially cascade out of control as enemies die by tower shots. And also Event Horizon that sends enemies back. It's expensive, yes... But for me it's worth the price.

4) You should treat the wraiths as reinforcements to cover places that need covering. Like dealing with Nightmares, glarebroods or glarelings that might slip past your towers.

5) The flamethrower is tricky because of its short range and that that fast enemies can slip past the AOE since the tower deals damage in a quick 3 burst attack and then sets them on fire for 5 seconds. It's best put in places where it doesn't have to turn much, there is a long straight line and enemies bunch up, like at the end of curves.

6) Kinda agree on the missiles. After all, disintegrate deals damage to bosses and minibosses.

7) Bone totem is useless aside from buffing your skeletons. It does nothing aside from that and the tower drops it on enemies, which means it will usually be useless.

8) This is a personal thing, but after a certain point in the game i just don't use barracks at all. I know reinforcements and heroes will solve any problem on that front, so i don't know why people are so tilted about basic infantry being weak by the end of the game. I get it, they are useless so "why should they be so horribly weak?", but that's just more encouragement for me to not use them.

9) The emissary is already pretty good. Boosts damage taken by enemies by 20%, has a huge attack range, can heal units and stop enemies for a while. And to top it off, it's the cheapest mage tower. It's obviously a utility tower to support others. Plus, i stopped using it and went for Stargazers.

10) I agree. Favourite Customer is a bunch of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that makes you rely on luck in order to not spend as much gold as you expect.

[valium]

The artillery towers kind of suck in this game, and become utterly useless once you get Dune Sentinels, which do the same job, but so much better, and get you extra gold.

The track fodder soldier towers are great early game, but are a waste of money and space the further you go. They are eventually entirely replaced by your reinforcement ability, and just using towers that can actually kill efficiently. In previous KR games, you replace the soldier towers with damage towers that spawn beefier and stronger lane cloggers, but that seems missing in this game.

[Pielord]

Originally posted by valium:

The artillery towers kind of suck in this game, and become utterly useless once you get Dune Sentinels, which do the same job, but so much better, and get you extra gold.

The track fodder soldier towers are great early game, but are a waste of money and space the further you go. They are eventually entirely replaced by your reinforcement ability, and just using towers that can actually kill efficiently. In previous KR games, you replace the soldier towers with damage towers that spawn beefier and stronger lane cloggers, but that seems missing in this game.

Yeah, i remember using Deep Devil Reef or the Mausoleum in vengance if i needed something to cover a lane. But here you don't have anything decent to stop enemies for a time. paladins will get shredded by lategame enemies and even fully upgraded, Bladeclaw Horrors will tear through them with a couple of attacks, Flesh Leviathans will anhialate them with their AOE attacks and Abominations will just straight up instakill them when they get to low health. And barely anything helps. You're much better just using your heroes as lane cloggers than building barracks and the only one worth a damn is the Demon Pit because the imps deal a lot of damage and stun enemies on explosion

[valium]

That is why I really like Nryu, he is suprisingly tough, and that wind barrier thing he has going tears apart anything in melee range. Honestly, the best hero in my book.

[Rystiya]

Originally posted by Pielord:

1) The tricannon is made for discretional damage mainly. It excels at dealing with masses of low HP enemies or concentrated masses of enemies. And bombardment is the best ability the tower has because it deals a lot of damage over a large area. And even if all enemies are dead, it will keep shooting bombs, thus being capable of hitting fying enemies while the ability lasts.

2) The barbarian the Brewmasters spawn is made to deal a lot of damage. Fully upgraded he deals a max of 70 damage per punch. With the arcane mage damage increase it can get to 100 damage. He's made to pick off enemies or back your infantry with a heavy hitter. And if you want him to figh alone, just get a hero that gives him a shield. And while the poison deals low damage, it slows enemies and the main damage of the skill is the explosion when the barrel explodes at the end.

3) The stargazer is also meant to deal with large amounts of low HP enemies or when you have a crossroads, attacking multiple enemies or bursting down lone beefy enemies. And the Rising Star skill can potentially cascade out of control as enemies die by tower shots. And also Event Horizon that sends enemies back. It's expensive, yes... But for me it's worth the price.

4) You should treat the wraiths as reinforcements to cover places that need covering. Like dealing with Nightmares, glarebroods or glarelings that might slip past your towers.

5) The flamethrower is tricky because of its short range and that that fast enemies can slip past the AOE since the tower deals damage in a quick 3 burst attack and then sets them on fire for 5 seconds. It's best put in places where it doesn't have to turn much, there is a long straight line and enemies bunch up, like at the end of curves.

6) Kinda agree on the missiles. After all, disintegrate deals damage to bosses and minibosses.

7) Bone totem is useless aside from buffing your skeletons. It does nothing aside from that and the tower drops it on enemies, which means it will usually be useless.

8) This is a personal thing, but after a certain point in the game i just don't use barracks at all. I know reinforcements and heroes will solve any problem on that front, so i don't know why people are so tilted about basic infantry being weak by the end of the game. I get it, they are useless so "why should they be so horribly weak?", but that's just more encouragement for me to not use them.

9) The emissary is already pretty good. Boosts damage taken by enemies by 20%, has a huge attack range, can heal units and stop enemies for a while. And to top it off, it's the cheapest mage tower. It's obviously a utility tower to support others. Plus, i stopped using it and went for Stargazers.

10) I agree. Favourite Customer is a bunch of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that makes you rely on luck in order to not spend as much gold as you expect.

In terms of (2)... Can the barbarian really survive long enough to do meaningful amount of damage? If not, then let them regenerate hp in combat is probably a good idea. It will combo pretty well with brew master's damage debuff.

In terms of (3)... yeh the stargazers isn't that terrible... But again, if there are multiple low hp enemies that the Rising Star skill can cascade, then why don't I just use archer towers, which are much cheaper? I still can't find a niche or role for this tower.

In terms of (5)... I see. Looks like I shouldn't have used flame spitter as the go-to choice for crowd control.

(6)(7) I see. Maybe Bone totem need a buff and death rider need a nerf?

(8) Some people did some testing, and it turns out barracks aren't that weak when fully upgraded (given infinite time in an isolated environment, they can kill multiple powerful monsters before they walk away by keep replacing lost troops). I think the problem is 1): They still have poor damage and unable hit air, even after that many investments. 2): In actual game play, you don't have infinite time to deal with enemies, as new enemies will keep coming. 3): In actual game play, troops would be pretty vulnerable to enemy ranged attacks. Perhaps increasing hp buff provided by war rations tech from 10% to 25% will be very helpful.

(9) Really? When I played a challenge level that force me to use emissaries, I just didn't find their debuff having any meaningful impact, and I really hoped I had a different magic tower available. Maybe they will turn out to be pretty good on higher difficulties. If not, then I'll recommend increasing their range and debuff duration.

[Tricking Trapster]

Doesn't bone totem also silence enemies and prevent abilities (such as summoning nightmares) which is why they drop it on enemies? At least that's how I think it happens considering the necromancer shouting SILENCE when you upgrade it. Or at the very least it puts some sort of debuff on the enemies.

I still like using barracks even in lategame, but it really depends on what units you're facing on how important their upgrades are. Combine it with the demon pit to put a few extra bodies in to give your towers just that much extra time to kill. And if they keep getting shot by enemy ranged troops and it's such a huge bother for you, invest in the linirean reinforcements and drop them on the enemy ranged to stop them from shooting. Or send a hero or something.

[Pielord]

Originally posted by Tricking Trapster:

Doesn't bone totem also silence enemies and prevent abilities (such as summoning nightmares) which is why they drop it on enemies?

No. I tested it on different stages with enemies with abilities like Wicked Sisters, Cult priests, Spawners... Doesn't prevent them from creating nightmares, transforming or spawning fliers. The only thing it does is buff skeleton damage

[Architect Ironturtle]

Noticed something about the Grim Wraith that makes them notably better than they first appear. Their attacks seem to deal True Damage, even from level 1. When fighting both Turtle Mages (High Magical Armor) and Bear Vanguards (High Physical Armor) their attacks consistently hit for full damage. That means they shred enemies on a scale far outside of what you'd expect and are effective against basically everything.

When combined with their on death ability and short respawn timer, they seem to be designed as a glass cannon barracks, which combines with their high mobility to make them specialists in catching stragglers.

[Rystiya]

Originally posted by Architect Ironturtle:

Noticed something about the Grim Wraith that makes them notably better than they first appear. Their attacks seem to deal True Damage, even from level 1. When fighting both Turtle Mages (High Magical Armor) and Bear Vanguards (High Physical Armor) their attacks consistently hit for full damage. That means they shred enemies on a scale far outside of what you'd expect and are effective against basically everything.

When combined with their on death ability and short respawn timer, they seem to be designed as a glass cannon barracks, which combines with their high mobility to make them specialists in catching stragglers.

That's interesting. I would still hope they will get a price and armor increase, because I would love to have some high quality troops on my side.

[Tricking Trapster]

I did find out what the necromancer totem is for. It basically AoE afflicts enemies with what they normally do with their basic attack, so any enemy dying under the totem becomes a skeleton even if the necromancer didn't attack it.

[Rystiya]

Originally posted by Tricking Trapster:

I did find out what the necromancer totem is for. It basically AoE afflicts enemies with what they normally do with their basic attack, so any enemy dying under the totem becomes a skeleton even if the necromancer didn't attack it.

Oh that makes sense, although I doubt it's worth upgrading.

[Tricking Trapster]

Maybe not to maximum but putting a single point in it can get you the skeletons you need more reliably.

[Nodever2]

For your first point, other games like Origins especially felt WAY worse to me about having a ton of gimmicky enemies that force specific strats than this game. But yes this game loves to spam fast air units which does force you to change your strategy in annoying ways.

[Conga Lyne]

Towers which can't hit air feel pretty useless outside of the beast stages of the game with how many strong flyer waves there are

I like enemies with gimmicks to them I need to work around, but I wish they lessened the air waves so ground-only towers didn't feel like a waste of an investment when a wave comes around with multiple air minibosses and a horde of flyers

[Tricking Trapster]

I genuinely don't get what people are on about with the 'oppressive' air waves. There's like, what. One flyer in the beast area, two in the cult, three in the void if you include the evolved scourge? If you block the vile spawners the air stops being oppressive altogether from my experience. Doing so is a puzzle sometimes but all air has a somewhat easy answer as long as you're willing to work it into your strategy. If you're trying to bruteforce your way through a stage with just one rigid strategy, then yes, it may feel oppressive, but every single enemy in the game has an answer.