monkey King / imprison / and trap dynamics

[-bookie-]

There seems to be an imbalance in the dynamics of these three cards and card types that I think has hurt the game bc nkw almost no one can play traps anymore and this has put everyone "in a box". This means we are restricted as to how we can play. There are some creative ways around monkey King and with some high cd units the trap will potentially switch off monkey and on to that other unit. I have thought about this a bit and I have a suggestion that I actually believe some would support even those like me with high level monkey King. I believe something must be done to make traps more playable again. Below are various suggestions and different ideas.

One suggestion is to make monkey King cd "increase" by 1 each time a trap targets it instead of "decrease" by 1. The reason being is that monkey kng tends to eat the same trap all five times or maybe only four. I believe this is out of balance and that it should at least be analyzed. It is very easy to hide 8cd units behind it in core trust me I use this trick all the time with great success but likely great frustration to even a talented free player. Of course there could be some trade off to where monkey gets stronger when he gets slower or something like that. There is also another idea that is also different and that is to make monkey King cd at 9. Thus making it harder to use this card to eat traps. Such a change could maybe cause it's cd to "decrease" by 2 instead of by 1 each time it eats a trap instead. Although many players with epic would not be happy with this move I think as monkey is used to protect epics from imprison. I don't think many people with impruson get to play it anymore anyways though perhaps bc those with epics fear it so much that they will protect against it this making the card less useful.

One could simply take a hard look at impruson and make a change between the dynamics of impruson, monkey King, and traps in general. For example you could restore the strength of imprison back up to 400 hp per epic at level 1 to make it stronger but make it so that it doesn't actually trap the epic but just reduces the epics hp. This would embolden pay players to play different epics in different orders if the effects of imprison were still strong but somewhat more manageable. The idea that they can still throw there favorite epic out there first becomes a playable strategy again. And those that want to throw three epics risk getting hit for 1200 damage. Now everyone just starts monkey King. Or few play a 9cd early but immediately play monkey in middle or final round. Another idea would be along the lines of making imprison play more like gathering storm. It could be a trap that traps all units but does increasingly more damage based on stars. This of course would make this trap highly desirable as it traps a wider range and defends well vs epics. Whereas those with epics can protect them with lower star cards in front early in the match. This leaves the opposing player with the strategy of how to maneuver the trap with his other cards so that the trap can get to the epics as soon as possible. Now a layer of strategy has been injected into the equation.

Well these are just a few ideas and I know I am never popular when I suggest changes to premium cards but I feel it's important to take a look at this bc it will benefit the free player much but also increase the strategic range of the pay player as well.

There can also be some new ingenious card that ecb can come up with where many of these imbalances are sorted out. Sometimes that can be the best solution.

[lhs1978]

Dear Admin/players:

I think Monkey King really need to nerf as this basically restrict free player chance(or in much worse case, paid player got a free win) of winning. Here is what i would play monkey king, hide some big heavy hitter after monkey king. In that way i dont think any free player can play trap, and down to choice A) more units choice B) put magic. We need to reconsider the ability of monkey king in my opinion to balance paid player and free player or i afraid free player will "Rage Quit".

[-bookie-]

Bump. This post seems more relevant today than when I originally wrote it.

Here's my take. Impruson card was released as a solution to help weaker players deal with epics. The question though I have is this. Was this cards intended use to help the player deal with epics or not have to play epics? I guess I'm drawing a distinction between these two points. Such a said trap is needed that can deal with epics and even be very strong when multiple epics are played. The concept is on par. This card had now been changed twice since its inception. I don't feel like any of the versions are having the correct impact. The current version is very u friendly to epics In pro mode. Because of the zero cool down even trap detect cannot stop it if it fails it's first attempt.

the problem is that the pro mode becomes very boring where monkey King is the epic of choice in battle upon battle it is most often over played and all other epics are under played if even played at all.

Now this also brings back the diacussionnog of monkey. This card is OP as well. It restricts variety by making it near impossible to play many traps in battle. Now I know that is just a few cards. But playing traps has always been "more than cards." It had been a concept of playing. Should you take an agressive spell approach or passive trap approach? Well that depends on the battle. It is harder to play defense now with traps and one must gear their mind to be offense offense offense to win. This is the ripple effect of such card and how it effects dynamics in pro. Some new cards like stone have introduced new ways of playing defense with triggers because of this and so this is good but for a free player they don't have many options like this. They can't match offense with a top player and they can't play defense with traps against one with monkey. And given the imprison card monkey has been the top epic of choice for somewhat three or four months now since its release.

These Dynamics have always been off in my opinion as a pro player. I guess is not as big a deal in core with so many decks u can play. But In pro everything is telegraphed. You're not going to "sneak in" an epic other than monkey without an imprison with zero cd hitting it. That's impossibke and even trap detect can't stop 0 cd without high rate of luck.

I know for a fact that free players can win vs epics when cards like pit trap can be utilized effectively. If you figure out how a free player can still use this card vs a monkey deck as well as balance out imprison as well weaker players could play defense better overall vs top players in general. Lastly at 0cd im no sure how having imprison work as damage reduction where it can one shot a creator is even logical. Since it can trap three epics in a row it can always trap a creator 100% of the time?.?.?

[justabum]

Imprison as a 0 cd is crazy. There has to be a better solution to this card. Epic cards are no longer playable. Imprison will stop first 5 epic attacks no matter what. When imprison was first released (before monkey) a lot of top players reset epics and leveled all their legends. This will happen again. With epics not playable I don't see players buying more of them. If this stays the way it is the game should be called Legendary Cards Battle.

[justabum]

And I should add. I'm all for cards/ways to counter and deal with epic cards. The 0 Cd on imprison is just over the top.

[Lord Folken]

I have to agree. Both Monkey King and Imprison are overpowered at the moment. Since many players use them now, there is a strong restriction which cards and strategies still make sense. In my opinion one of the good things of ECB is that there are far more than 100 cards and lots of strategies to try with them. If a handful of often used cards makes a lot of them nearly unusable, this is against the spirit of this game. Please look after these cards and try to find a better balance. Thank you!

LF

[lhs1978]

I agree to what bum said and becos imprison changed to 0 CD i couldnt use two epics now. Maybe it is used to balance the very strong player and strong player, but that definitely affect how we play.

[ecb_admin]

Thank you for your feedback and discussion. We will look into it.