Debuff stacks are too strong

[Warnoise]

Seeing how easy it is to stack 6+ debuffs on the whole team, there is no real counterplay for it. All competitive teams revolve around mass debuff stacks because that's the only thing does damage while being safe.

There should be a buff/skill/resistance that completely nullifies all debuff damages or at least make them useless. This way at least there will be direct counters to the usual teams we see in every PvP match.

[View The Phenom]

Aren't there numerous, team wide heals that eliminate multiple debuff stacks? Having one monster with the ability to remove multiple debuffs while the others just deal direct damage isn't a meaningful counter?

[Lasagna]

I get what OP is saying, it really does feel like just stacking burn/poison/congeal-chill does more damage than attacking directly in most teams, that doesn't mean there are no good direct damage teams Spectre, Tengu, Blade Widow and others are powerful in the early-mid game but fall off pretty hard, Brutus and Asura comps seem to fair better late game.

But it is MUCH easier to build an effective debuff team, where as direct damage teams are much more limited in mons.

[Fossil]

It sounds like the OP is mostly concerned about debuffs in PvP. In that case there are a number of ways to deal with heavy debuff teams.

There is not one grand skill or ability that will negate all debuff damage. That would make PvP very boring.

Debuffs that deal damage are considered elemental effects, so the resistances of your monsters can be important. Burn = fire, poison = earth, etc. If for example you have a strong attacker with 700 physical or magical attack, and that monster is also weak against fire, then that monster will suffer a lot of damage from multiple burn stacks.

Here are a few good ways to deal with debuffs. There are several more good options, you just have to go looking for them:
https://monster-sanctuary.fandom.com/wiki/Anti_Curse_(Passive)
https://monster-sanctuary.fandom.com/wiki/Mega_Restore_(Ultimate)
https://monster-sanctuary.fandom.com/wiki/Restoration_(Passive)
https://monster-sanctuary.fandom.com/wiki/Restoring_Wand

[Bard]

Honestly, debuff stacking is probably too strong. The most reliably potent teams I've played through the game have been some kind of debuff stackers.

The main catch, I think, is that debuffs are based on the enemies. So you can stack defense on your team, bury enemies in debuffs, then just wait for them to die. Bonus points if those debuffs also make enemies do less damage.

I've not gotten nearly as much mileage out of other strategies, aside from the highly niche things like shield turtles.

[Zelakon]

This really disappointed me about the game.

Coming up against late-game keeper battles, my standard tank/support/dps was starting to fail, as raw damage seems to just drop off compared to debuffs that do DoT (despite how many buffs you stack). Then I switched to the classic fungi/fungi/troll build and it just melted everything like butter.

For a game that boasts so many playable monsters all on equal footing to prepare for a 'variety of strategies', and the challenges that experimenting with new teams can afford, it sure does leave the cheese of debuff stacking relatively untouched.

[strata_ranger]

I've had a day or two ruined by debuff-heavy battles for sure, but I'm starting to think the criticism here is about them being intrinsic to this game's combat design.

In most RPGs, debuffs tend to be situational at best because your party's main DPS can end the average battle quickly enough that spending turns investing in buffs just doesn't pay dividends. Here, the strategy is inverted since, even with a large level discrepancy it's not common to one-shot a given opponent. (heck, in my playthrough, I've literally not won a single NPC keeper duel before at least Lv.2 Infinity stacks).

And there is a fundamental problem/difficulty trying to balance the buff/debuff strategy against the DPS strategy, because by definition a buff's effect occurs independent of (thus in addition to) future actions. Literally every DPS strategy can be buffed or debuffed (pun fully intended / not sorry)....

[Lady McZee]

If anything, I think there should be MORE debuffs!

Signed, a retired Warlock main in WoW.

[AH-1 Cobra]

They gutted buffs + high damage attackers, to where you can't really wipe a screen anymore with a single AOE attack, so if they want to drag fights out to 3+ turns, then debuff stacking ends up winning over most other strategies.

It's not that debuff stacking is necessarily OP, it's that other stuff used to be even more OP and they nerfed it, so debuff stacking became the new meta.

Something has to be good, and effective, or nobody is gonna play the game.

[Skrubknight]

I feel like you haven't been in PvP much, because none of the major meta teams rely strictly on debuffs for damage, and only a small handful i've seen have been trying to do debuff damage. There are numerous ways to remove debuffs actively and passively, with a healer who has Mass Restore(there are a lot of them) making a debuff damage team incredibly hard to pull off. And if you're just turtling while waiting for the debuffs to try and kill, you're likely gonna get ripped apart by any team that can push the offense.

Of the current general meta strategies, only one involves debuffs but not to damage. Shieldburst playstyles ignore debuffs entirely, and most others generally focus on building offensive buffs and Charge stacks to do high damage. The one that does is a Death Blow team, where Troll or a similar monster with the same passive does 5% more damage to the target for every debuff stack. They don't actually care much about the damage from the poison, their goal is to obliterate the opponent with direct damage before it can be cured. Even then mass restore is massive pain in the butt for Death Blow teams.