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Final Balance Changes for August 2022 (Season 38)
Major Elixir Golem rework, Mega Knight Buff, Fireball nerf and more.
Supercell has finalized the balance changes for August. Everything remains the same as the WIP version, except that Ram Rider will be getting a buff in the same way that Prince does — she will charge faster.
Overall, the balance direction that the balance team tries to keep is to encourage offensive gameplay and allow defensive cards to be a bit on the weak side.
Some of the problematic cards — namely Mirror — are not touched in this balance, and we will give you the official reasons for not touching them in the Other Cards section.
Table of Contents
- Elixir Golem (Rework)
- Prince (Buff)
- Ram Rider (Buff)
- Mega Knight (Buff)
- Executioner (Buff)
- Ice Golem (Buff)
- Golden Knight (Nerf)
- Skeleton King (Nerf)
- Electro Giant (Nerf)
- Fireball (Nerf)
- Fireball Interaction vs Balloon
- Fire Spirit (Nerf)
- Other Cards
- Mirror
- Mortar
- Champions
- Goblin Drill
Elixir Golem (Rework)
0-0-4 to 1-1-2
The core challenge with balancing Elixir Golem is that the troop deals too much damage before the opponent can regain the Elixir needed to defend their towers — and when the total elixir is finally given, it’s already too late and the towers are usually taken. With this new balance, the timing when the opponent will gain that 4 elixir will be more evenly distributed. They will gain their first elixir sooner to allow more opportunities to defend the attack, while keeping core mechanic of the card intact (defeating blobs will grant elixir).
Before the balance, when you’re defending an Elixir Golem, you’ll only get the 4 elixir at the last phase. After the balance, you’ll start gaining elixir after you have defeated the blob from the first stage. Then you’ll get another elixir from the second stage, with the last stage giving 2 elixir.
The total elixir gained from all stages will still be 4, but the time when you’ll receive them will be earlier than right now.
In other words, the elixir release will be going from 0-0-4 to 1-1-2. By itself, this elixir redistribution is a nerf, so the team has decided to buff the hitpoints of the first two stages of the blobs. The Big Blob in Stage 1 will gain 9% HP. The Medium Blobs in Stage 2 will gain 6% HP.
Upon release, Supercell will closely monitor these stats to see if this makes the troop overly weak / strong and see if additional balances are needed.
Did you know? This was my rework idea! I have suggested this specific rework to Supercell as early as December 2019 and I’m really thrilled to see that they have finally decided to try it! 😱 Of course, I have no idea if this will work, though I believe that this should adequately address the core problems when defending against Elixir Golem, which is best described as “too little too late”!
|
Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Elixir Release | 0-0-4 | 1-1-2 |
| Blob 1 Elixir Release | 0 each | 1 each |
| x1 | 0 total | 1 total |
| Blob 2 Elixir Release | 0 each | 0.5 each |
| x2 | 0 total | 1 total |
| Blob 3 Elixir Release | 1 each | 0.5 each |
| x4 | 4 total | 2 total |
| Blob 1 HP +8.8% | 680 | 740 |
| Blob 1 HP Level 11 | 1441 | 1568 |
| Blob 1 HP Level 14 | 1910 | 2079 |
| Blob 2 HP +5.9% | 340 | 360 |
| Blob 2 HP Level 11 | 720 | 763 |
| Blob 2 HP Level 14 | 955 | 1011 |
| Blob 3 HP 0.0% | 170 | 170 |
| Blob 3 HP Level 11 | 360 | 360 |
| Blob 3 HP Level 14 | 477 | 477 |
Prince (Buff)
With so many bait cards in the meta right now, usage of Prince has plummeted. Supercell hopes that a faster charge will help with his usage.
My take: personally, I find Prince to be very matchup-specific. He’s not that weak of a card, and if players are not picking him because the swarmy meta, then increasing his stats will not necessarily help with his usage.
|
Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Charge | 3.5 tiles | 3 tiles |
Ram Rider (Buff)
Ram Rider’s usage has gone down significantly after the most recent nerf. She’ll get a minor in charge speed just like the Prince — from 3.5 tiles to 3 tiles.
|
Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Charge | 3.5 tiles | 3 tiles |
Mega Knight (Buff)
Ever since Mega Knight’s last nerf, his overall performance has dropped a bit. Supercell feels that nerfing the initial spawn damage is the right direction, so that aspect is here to stay. After the balances, Mega Knight will jump faster than before, thus making it more difficult to kite him with cheap troops.
|
Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Jump Delay (0.2 sec faster) | 1.1 sec | 0.9 sec |
Executioner (Buff)
Executioner has had one of the worst win rates in the game, so he’ll be getting a range buff in this balance. Increasing his axe range to 7.5 tiles will give him the same projectile range as Bowler, while the duration of the axe in the air will stay the same as it is right now.
|
Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Max Range +1 tile | 6.5 tiles | 7.5 tiles |
Ice Golem (Buff)
Right now, Ice Golem is barely used anywhere except in Hog 2.6. Supercell wanted players to be more creative with deck building, and hopes that by increasing the Death Slow Effect will see him being used in more decks. Adding 0.5 seconds is significant — that’s a solid +50% increase!
|
Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Death Slow Effect +0.5 sec +50% | 1 sec | 1.5 sec |
Golden Knight (Nerf)
Golden Knight has been really strong in the meta for the past few seasons. Players have used him for tanking, dashing, dealing damage, charging… It’s like a must-have for any deck! He’ll get a -10% health reduction so that he can be eliminated more easily.
|
Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| HP -10.0% | 2000 | 1800 |
| HP Level 11 | 2000 | 1800 |
| HP Level 14 | 2660 | 2394 |
Skeleton King (Nerf)
Skeleton King remains strong in the meta, so his maximum skeleton count will be reduced by 2 again. After balances, he’ll spawn a maximum of 16 skeletons. It will be almost the same as Skeleton Army, which currently has 15 units.
My take: nerfing the maximum skeleton count in SK’s ability might not really help with his effectiveness. Instead, I think that removing his minimum ability skeleton count would be a more meaningful nerf. Let’s see if Supercell agrees.
|
Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum Resurrected Skeletons -2 | 18 | 16 |
Electro Giant (Nerf)
Mirror + Electro Giant had been dominating in the current meta — so much so that it had propelled Electro Giant to become the most popular win condition on Top Ladder for the June season.
Despite Mirror’s dominance in the meta, Supercell feels happy about Mirror having finally found its spot to allow interesting gameplay opportunities, and is reluctant to modify Mirror again.
For now, the team has decided to nerf EGiant instead. After balance, the damage that is reflected towards enemy towers will decrease by 33%. Everything else will remain the same.
|
Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Reflection Tower Damage -33% | 120 | 80 |
| Reflection Tower Damage Level 11 | 192 | 128 |
| Reflection Tower Damage Level 14 | 254 | 169 |
Fireball (Nerf)
Fireball is one of the most popular spells that has been a dominant force in the meta. In contrast to Poison, which deals damage over time but inflicts a larger amount overall, Fireball kills its target immediately and has a very strong pushback.
So that players will consider other spells specifically for this purpose — e.g. Snowball or tornado — Fireball will be getting a pushback nerf from 1.8 tiles to 1 tile. That’s a -44% nerf!
|
Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Pushback -44% | 1.8 tiles | 1 tile |
Fireball Interaction vs Balloon
After balance, it’s still possible to push back Balloon and eliminate the hit — you have exactly 0.2 seconds to do so.
Fire Spirit (Nerf)
Players who play in competitive have long complained about the amount of damage Fire Spirit deals — so it will receive a -9% damage reduction after balances. It will still kill Goblins after the nerf, and will not have other major interaction changes, but will deal a lot less damage to your towers, and thus also toning down Furnace quite a bit.
|
Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Damage -9.0% | 89 | 81 |
| Damage Level 11 | 227 | 207 |
| Damage Level 14 | 301 | 274 |
Other Cards
Here we give some backgrounds regarding why some cards are not touched, even though there are strong voices from the community who wanted them. The core reasons were given by Pavel, who is in charge of balances in the Clash Royale team.
Mirror
Mirror is kept as is (+1 Elixir with +2 Levels) because it has finally become a viable option in a deck and somewhat function as a win condition. It is a unique card that adds fun gameplay variety.
Some alternatives e.g. +0 Elixir with +0 Level has previously been tested, but it has eliminated the high-risk high-reward factor of the card — if it doesn’t cost anything to play the same card again, then playing the card comes with no risks at all. Additionally, it makes cycle decks even more powerful than they are since players would be able to utilize the +0/+0 Mirror to play even more 1-elixir cards.
Mirror’s 3-card cycle issues cannot be addressed at the moment as it would require a client update in order to test / address.
Mortar
Mortar is a super niche card that’s mostly only played in Top Ladder. Nerfing the card will make it much harder to play for casual players. In Grand and Classic Challenges, it has 4% use rate and 52% win rate, so it doesn’t look problematic. In 7000+ Ladder, Mortar’s use rate is 7% and is well within the acceptable range.
In card usage stats,
baseline
= number of cards in a deck / number of cards overall
= 8 / 107
= 7.5%
In other words, usage above 7.5% is high, and usage below 7.5% is low. This further gives better perspective of how prevalent The Log is — it’s 40/7.5 = more than 5 times higher than baseline — which is to say that it is significantly overused.
Champions
Supercell doesn’t intend to make Champions overpowered, but they will likely stay very strong regardless of the changes, since they give a unique opportunity to affect gameplay after they’ve been deployed.
Goblin Drill
Goblin Drill is purely played at the very top of Ladder. Its use rate is 8% in 6500-7000 trophy range (#39 overall), and it drops to 4% at 6000-6500 (#73 overall). Supercell doesn’t want to nerf the card because it will make it even less accessible to the majority of players.
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