Favour Items And Balance

from Demigod Forums

Just thought I would share my experience with you guys as you may find it interesting or helpful.

A while ago I made a thread talking about what I thought were the biggest Imba's. Rooks Towers were on the top of the list, and there was much debate in favour that it was no where near imba and the Rook needed 90 seconds by itself for it to be effective. Anyway, ive noticed that the only time ive felt Rooks Towers were ridiciously OP are when the enemy takes Wings. This is because I can wear the Rook down and force him out, but as soon as he goes behind his few towers it becomes too dangerous to attack him, and so I have to wait for my next oppurtunity. However, inbetween this wait the enemy Rook would just reheal all his hp again - making it very, very hard to take him down and stop him pushing with towers.

Ive noticed this is true too - the only time I say to myself, "hmm this feels kinda Imba" is when favour items are on. Favour items are good fun and can really add variety, depth and a new dimension to the games. However, it is clear some favour items when used with certain builds and Demigods can get a bit out of hand at times.

My conclusion is as follows:
The game is very balanced with favour items turned off.

The game with favour items turned on is balanced - but at times they can cause some builds and combos to go a bit over the top.

Im happy with this though. All competitive games have favour items turned off (all the tournaments etc.) which is where balance really counts. Since they can provide an advantage to people simply because they have played for longer or farmed longer, not because they are actually better, I think its fair that favour items are off in competitive games and the games balance is definately the best I have seen for a game on release.

On a side note, its fair to say that some items are slightly underpowered or just clearly not as useful as others which may take some time to balance more. It doesnt however break games balance at all which is nice - it just simply means people have less viable options when it comes to items.

demigod
4,245 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

JAll competitive games have favour items turned off (all the tournaments etc.) which is where balance really counts.
End of quote

I think a better solution would be to make all favour items available to everyone, regardless of their favour points, in 'competitive' matches as this opens up more viable gameplay strategies as opposed to shutting them out completely. If we're going to try to balance things out for competitive games in this manner, let's remove all items so that the victor is merely the player better at playing their Demigod, not the player with the better gear.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

I disagree with you, ZehDon. The favor points add an incentive to play the game similar to that found in CoD4. You have to play more and play better to get that favor item you want, and it really adds to the satisfaction of achieving it.

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top

Wait. Pantheon games disable favor items?

That makes training with them in custom games pointless.

Quoting ZehDon, reply 1
If we're going to try to balance things out for competitive games in this manner, let's remove all items so that the victor is merely the player better at playing their Demigod, not the player with the better gear.
End of ZehDon's quote

While I see your point, I have to contend that the items you can or can not afford are a measure of how good a player you are.

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

Sorry, I didn't mean that as something that should be done. I think the idea of removing Favour items is terrible, and if your going to remove favour items to attempt to achieve more balance why not remove all the items while your at it, as it makes just as much sense - which isn't much.

I agree with you completely - I like Favour items and I'd like to see them stay. Even in competitive matches.

Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top

Wait. Pantheon games disable favor items?

That makes training with them in custom games pointless.
End of quote

Pantheon games do not disable favor.  Tournament game rules for leagues like ESL disallow favor.  Dalzk is talking about competitive house rules, not ingame settings.

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

Pantheon games disable favor items?
End of quote
Nope. The outside tournaments like those hosted by the ESL do.

 

:fox:

Reply #7 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting ZehDon, reply 4
Sorry, I didn't mean that as something that should be done. I think the idea of removing Favour items is terrible, and if your going to remove favour items to attempt to achieve more balance why not remove all the items while your at it, as it makes just as much sense - which isn't much.

I agree with you completely - I like Favour items and I'd like to see them stay. Even in competitive matches.
End of ZehDon's quote

Roger!

Reply #8 from Demigod Forums Top

favor off is the best balance but everyone seems to like it...

Reply #9 from Demigod Forums Top

if u play a 1vs1 against the rook maybe then it will be a problem to fight him.

but on a 2vs2 or 3vs3 his towers aren´t realy strong. if u attack him with your m8 he got no chance and the biggest weakness of him is his movement and attack speed.

so i think he isn´t realy overpowered.

for an example without the favor items u can´t fight with tb against an ub. but with the favor items it´s get a bit easier to fight him.

so the favor items doesn´t need to be changed

Reply #10 from Demigod Forums Top

so...which favor items are problematic with which Demigods?

 

details would be appreciated.

 

DalzK mentioned Wings of the Seraphim and Tower Rook.

 

thats subject to debate of course. you can get a similar effect (stronger actually) even with Favor disabled with good ole' Heart of Life.  but yeah, its clearly a powerful strategy. not sure how imbalanced it is. can interrupt with any damage at all. every DG has a way of doing this from sending in minions to using some kind of ranged attack or harassing ability. 

 

i can think of a couple of other really strong Favor items that are frequently used to give the DG a power thats well beyond the capabilities they would ever expect to have in a favor disabled game.

 

Blade of the Serpent is a pretty conspicuous offender. It grants enormous quantities of mana to Torchbearer and Regulus (with Angelic Fury) and sort of replaces the need for mana regen items for most of the game. How do y'all feel about that?

 

any other combos people think are particularly strong bordering on abusive? 

 

 

Reply #11 from Demigod Forums Top

Blade of Serpent can be quite abusable too as can heavens wrath with Regulus. The thing about heavens wrath is that you can really outlevel everyone on the field with it and also do that extra damage with snipe.