Minion Masters News

Thank you for your feedback and participation in the Wild Cards surveys we've conducted over the last few months. We believe, through your feedback, we've arrived at a final conclusion for Wild Cards.

It's clear to us that Wild Cards is a widely loved feature by the majority of our community and we are happy to announce the reintroduction of Wild Cards with Update 1.28.

There are, however, a few caveats.

[h2]Wild Card / No-Wild Card rule[/h2]

First of all, we will only reactivate Wild Cards in the two Team Battle modes (2v2 Randoms and 2v2 Premades), retaining the No-Wild Cards rule in Battle Mode (1v1)

We're doing this because; while we're seeing overwhelming support for wildcards, there is also a large group that does not appreciate the feature. The majority of complaints regarding Wild Cards seem to be coming from the 1v1 segment and conversely, we're also seeing the majority of Wild Cards support coming from the 2v2 segment.

We, therefore, feel like this could be a "happy medium", in which all players might find a game mode/style that suits their liking.

[h2]Copies Allowed[/h2]

Second, we're introducing a Wild Card stat, or "Copies Allowed" as it'll be known in the game.

This is being added to help us mitigate the "negative" side of Wild Cards allowing us to limit the worst and most frustrating combos. We understand that part of the fun with Wild Cards is to create explosive and exciting strategies and we're therefore not seeking to shut down any viable Wild Card strategy. We do, however, have a few combos and strategies that we wish to limit.

This stat also adds a design space that we haven't really had before as we can make certain cards without having to worry that they'd be exploitable via Wild Cards.

So we hope this stat can help us make Wild Cards a better experience for all, allowing the fun strategies while mitigating the "cheese" factor.

We are excited about the future and believe we've found the right solution going forward. However, we are also aware that all the recent changes we've been doing have been disruptive to the play experience and we want to thank you all for your patience with us, and for all your help. With this in mind, we plan to let this setup remain for a while. Naturally, we are still interested in, and appreciative of, all of your feedback. We will be monitoring the general community response to this new setup and we'll also do another survey round at some point when you've all had a chance to try it out, but we are not currently planning any changes for the near future.

Hello Masters,

With the Wild Cards decision still hanging in the unknown, we thought it was time to bring you an update. We've been analyzing the data from the last survey and have a few conclusions.

You can read more about those below here, but if you do not have time to read all of that we would like to ask you to please partake in this next Survey as well.

In this, we propose a few different ways to bring Wild Cards back that we hope can allow more players to have fun with the game, and we'd like your take on it.

👀 https://bit.ly/WCSURVEY3 👀

This survey will run for three days as well (until 1 PM GMT, Friday, Aug. 27th)

[h3]As for our findings from the last survey, read on:[/h3]

Keeping Wild Cards is the more popular choice



Wild Carding 2 different cards seem to be where it's at



2v2 Randoms is the preferred mode for Wild Cards



We generally see the support for Wild Cards fall with higher Ranks. Most clearly we see it in the 1v1 game mode.



[h3]Conclusion[/h3]

All of this leads us to believe that removing Wild Cards outright is not in the best interest of the game nor the majority of the players. However, we do believe that there's a big enough group that takes issue with the mechanic that it's still worth exploring some options. This is where the new survey comes into the picture.

Go to the survey to see our ideas, and while you are there; tell us what you think, why don't you? 😉

Hello Masters,

We've now all had the chance to try out Minion Masters as it would look without Wildcards for a while. We're very grateful for all the various feedback we've received from you all so far, but now it's time to get a more measured look at things. We would, therefore, like to do a survey to take the temperature and see what the sentiment is at this point in time. The survey will be open until Monday, Aug 23rd, at 1 PM GMT.

This is not the final chance for you to share your thoughts, but this survey will be a vital piece to help us reach a conclusion, so do make sure to take part.

We're working on some ideas we'd like to present to you all at a later date, but for now, we just want to know if people feel the game has become more or less enjoyable with the removal of wildcards.

https://bit.ly/WCSurvey2

The scrat infestation is about to reach the end of the line! Prepare yourselves for a “Wild” Patch 1.27 zooming into with tons of changes, new cards and much much more!

[h2]Best Plan, No Plan! - Season 3[/h2]

The final season of the Scrats has arrived!

With a ton of new changes, 2 new cards, let’s have a look at what’s in store this season for Minion Masters.

New cards added to the game.:



The Season Pass will end on September 8th.

[h3]Wildcards removal[/h3]

At the beginning of July we casted a survey asking your final opinion about Wild Cards! After many years of contemplating, having a lot of conversations and understanding what our players want we will be removing Wild Cards from patch 1.27. We will be monitoring player feedback and gamehealth like a hawk during this patch and let you know what our final decision will be moving forward in patch 1.28. For more information you can check out the Wild Cards blog post.


[h3]Mana generation changes[/h3]

We have been gathering feedback to reflect on the mana changes we made in 1.26, and combined with our own experience on the difference between 1.25 and 1.26 we feel that we're happy with how 1v1 mana is, but we want a slightly bigger curve over the match, and give players a bit more time to get into the game. While in 2v2 we feel we went a bit too far, especially in the late game, so we are removing the increase in max mana speed, and reduced the starting mana generation a bit.

This will mean that the main change compared to 1.25 is the faster ramping up towards Maximum mana generation, with a slight increase in starting mana generation in both 1v1 and 2v2.

1 v 1 Changes compared to 1.25

• Starting mana generation increased; ~+10% > 5%
  

2 v 2 Changes compared to 1.25

• Starting mana generation increased; ~+15% > 10%
  
• Maximum mana generation increased; ~+10% > 0%
  

[h2]Master Changes:[/h2]

Mordar Dev notes: Mordar has been getting resses from minions with almost certain value such as walking blind date, wizard puff and snipers too easily.By changing the threshold we hope to reduce the strength of this, while still preventing the heavy coin flippy value of the resses.

• Tombstone minimum charge for resurrection 25->50% (so from 5 to 10 seconds)
  

Valorian Dev notes: Valorian has been the best master for a while now, and a big part of that has been getting consistent small values throughout the match by winning trades with the small heals. By reducing the amount of healing this value should be more in line with perks from other masters.

• First perk Heal 18->13
  

Morellia Dev notes: Morellia has performed really well after the spell nerf, and despite the breath nerf and wildcard nerf we do think we want to reduce the amount of support Queen’s dragon can get a bit to make it a bit easier to deal with, especially in lower ranks.

• Queen’s dragon (3rd perk): cost 8->9
  
• Card Changes
  

Dragon Whelps Dev notes: Flightless has been a card in the top 5 best performing cards almost as long as the card has existed, by decreasing the attack cooldown to 1 second but increasing their mana cost by 1, we hope to get a more balanced version of this card, and all other dragons

• Attack cooldown 1.2 -> 1s
  

Flightless Dragon Whelps

• Mana cost 4->5
  
• Affected the by the attack cooldown change
  

Sniper Scrat/ Bounty Sniper/ Sniper Squad Dev notes: With the spell nerf the snipers have gotten a lot more value making previous buffs superfluous.

• Attack cooldown 3.5->4.0s
  

Warrior/Divine Warrior/ Zealots/ Avea Dev notes: Warrior is one of the best performing cards in a long time, while we do like warrior being a staple card that fits in most decks, there should be a bit more room for other cards in the same role.

Zealots has been a very strong meta card for a while as well and can use this nerf as well.

Divine warrior can perform her main duty as the divine wall a lot better now with the taunt, and should not feel this nerf too much.

Avea is a card we will keep our eyes on to see how she performs after this, to see if, and how much she needs a buff.

• Health 400 -> 350
  

Lost legionnaires Dev notes: Lost legionnaires are giving a bit too much value with the Empyrean army, by giving shields they are a bit better at tanking hard hitting units, but destroy mid ranged units easier

• Empyrean army: gain shield instead of rage
  

Stormy Dev notes: Stormy has been a troublesome card for a long time, especially in lower ranks, and when combined with spirits, shrooms and healing. By limiting the amount of extra health Stormy can get we hope to make her easier to handle. Giving her a spawn stun in exchange should keep the balance somewhat equal in the less extreme abusive situation.

• ZenChi Flow changed to: Stun enemies in range area for 3 seconds
  

Werewolf

• No longer transfer buffs when transforming
  
• Attack cooldown 1.1-> 0.9 s
  

Howling Moon Dev notes: Howling moon has been pretty good at dealing with the really big units, and with the attack speed buff the wolves get we think the cost should go up one mana.

• Cast 7->8
  

Lone wolf Dev notes: Lone wolf has been a bad card for a long time, by allowing her to keep her rage on transform, and combining that with the general werewolf attack speed buff she should become a bit stronger.

• Cost 5 -> 4
  
• Rework: Summons a warrior with Rage, if lone, summon a Werewolf with Rage.
  

Wall Dev notes: Wall is one of the reasons for the mana frenzy game we have been seeing for a long time.
Having a 2 mana shut down a big push for a reasonably long time, in range of the masters is too much value, especially in 2v2. By making the wall less tanky, but more of a fighting building we hope to get it in a more healthy spot in the meta.

• Health 700 > 400
  
• Melee attackers take 50% damage in return
  

Stun Lancers Dev notes: Stun lancers have been really good at shutting down any push with 1 or 2 big units. By limiting their stun duration we hope the defence will be at least more interactive, if not plain harder.

• No longer stuns on every attack
  
• Stunning Strike: first attack to a minion stuns for 5 seconds
  

Propeller Scrats/Horde Dev notes: The propellers were hit pretty hard by the removal of bridge grab and can use some more firepower. Now that King puff is gone we can allow a bit more flying units in a single pack as well, allowing the horde to shine a bit more hopefully.

• Attack cooldown 1 -> 0.9
  
• (Horde only) if rage, summon 2 -> 4 more
  

Leiliel's Vortex Dev notes: Other spells have been outshining Vortex for a bit now, and although we like that its no longer an auto-include card, we do think it can use a little bit extra power.

• Damage 50->65
  

Zeppelin Bomber Dev notes: Zeppelin Bomber has been invisible for a long time now, so lets up the power a bit to give it some gameplay.

• Attack cooldown 1.6->1.4s
  

Troubadour Dev notes: There has been a cheesy tactic of getting a Troubadour to face and black holing it to get almost entire uncontested hits on face. By reducing the damage but increasing the attack speed we remove that tactic while also improving how the Troubadour attacking a building looks.

• Attack cooldown 4.5->1.5
  
• damage 300 ->100
  

Frostfeather Flyby Dev notes: Frostfeather Flyby is one of the best spells in the game right now. We want to lean deeper into the idea of this being a spell using minions by making them move slower and have them get closer to their target. this way ranged units, especially aoe ranged units, and significantly reduce the damage if not stop it entirely.

• Frosfeathers speed bonus 10 -> 7
  
• Range 4 -> 2 (only for this spell, regular Frostfeathers are unaffected)
  

Sun Burn Dev notes: Sun burn is also one of the best performing spells, and needs a bit of a damage nerf to allow more units to survive it, while still keeping it as a great swarm counter/rage source.

• Damage 100->80
  

Wolf Among Sheep Dev notes: Wolf Among Sheep is over performing and completely outshining legionnaires. By decreasing the wolf's power, we hope to differentiate the 2 cards more, and give both of them a spot to be played.

• Legionnaires summoned 4 -> 3
  

Nyrvir Breath Dev notes: Being able to give bridge control, and countering entire pushes WHILE building up ascension was too much power. Giving that power after ascension, but delaying the perks of the masters in exchange should put Nyrvir’s breath more in line with other cards.

• No longer spawns skeletons before accursed ascension, the after ascension Nyrvir’s Breath still
• spawns 8 skeletons
  
• Damage before ascension: 180-> 130
  
• Damage after ascension: 300 -> 260
  

R4:Z0R Squadron

• Tax per tick 4 -> 5
  

Atg

• Health 250->225
  

Harbinger

• Health 270 ->250
  

Herald

• Health 270 ->250
  

[h3]Mechanic Changes[/h3]

Spirits Dev notes: Spirits are too good on swarm and glass cannons, and too weak on bigger units.
by limiting the amount of extra health a unit can get compared to their max health, but increasing the potential on bigger units we hope to make spirits a bit healthier, and less abusable.

• Health Boost 200 > 50% of max health (Max 300) (remove flying variance)
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue with Sugilite Shield not blocking Settsu in field attacks - Thanks N!kola
  
• Fixed an issue with Ghosts stealing units affected by Sugilite Shield - Thanks apexdreambreaker
  
• Fixed an issue with the Fire Imp side of Void Brothers not showing range radius in the preview before placing - Thanks Last_elf
  
• Fixed an issue with Netherstep turning Succubus grey - Thanks to Chimaerok
  
• Fixed an issue where if you have Book open as Akinlep dies, you don’t lose Gong
  
• Fixed an issue where you could see Valorian’s heal on stealthed units
  
• Fixed Tantrum Throwers’ description
  
• Fixed an issue with Stormy not being able to kill Jolo but chain lightning could
  
• Fixed an issue where reporting a leaving teammate did not work
  
• Fixed an issue with Marked only increasing damage on ranged units - Thanks DeathShoottOneyOoney
  
• Increased the Battle Pass xp for each tier
  
• Fixed an issue with Tech counter stuck at 100 in 2v2
  
• Updated Morellia’s life steal description to show correct one - Thanks Credmo
  
• Fixed an issue with Veilstalker and Netherstep being able to jump inside the Master tower
  
• Fixed an issue with Shen’s shock stick’s description showing 40 damage
  
• Updated Pincer of Dread’s description
  
• Fixed an issue with Priestess being able to attack if hypnotized
  
• Updated Priestess’s description - Thanks Steven
  
• Updated Divine shield’s description - Thanks Lazur
  
• Fixed a bug with Incubus being randomly feared - Thanks Me
  
• Fixed spacing issues in text with Dragon Valorian Skin
  
• Fixed Blast/Spirit Mancers not working if there is another Blast/Spirit Mancer located on the field
  
• Fixed an issue with Veilstalker getting stuck - Thanks miguel14yt
  
• Fixed an issue with Succubus becoming permanently stealthed - Thanks me
  
• Fixed an issue with Nyrvir getting stuck - Thanks me
  
• Fixed an issue with Blastmancer and Spiritmancer interfering with each other in unintended ways - Thanks MasterTommy96, Nightfall and Cosmic Vortex42
  
• Increased maximum permitted load time in an attempt to reduce the number of timeout disconnects on xbox.
  

From everyone at BetaDwarf, we thank you for being such a passionate and amazing community. Without you, all this could never have been a reality and for this, we are eternally humbled!

Wild Cards have been one of the most widely criticized features within Minion Masters over the years. With 2.0 coming we've decided it's time to take a good hard look at the feature and try to discern what the issues with it are but also what it contributes.

We want our players to continuously have fun and challenge themselves for years to come. For a long time, we've felt that Wild Cards added to that main goal, at least for most players.

We've heard the argument that it disturbs the overall balance of the game and we agree. It is undeniably harder to find and maintain a great game balance with Wild Cards making decks more unpredictable and extreme, adding to a more rock-paper-scissors experience.

So far we have maintained that the feature also allowed for more creativity in deck building and in most cases for more fun. It's no secret that Wild Cards somewhat limits design space when it comes to the more unique and bombastic designs. We've seen several of these cards become problematic over the years when wildcarded (I.e. Thelec, Wolf Among Sheep, Black Hole, Brutish Betrayer, Guardian, to name a few).

Earlier this week we ran a survey asking you all, what you think of the current state of Wild Cards. Through this survey we found that:

~60% of players like Wild Cards
~36% of players vote to keep Wild Cards as they are; ~31% ask for a change; while ~32% want them flat out removed.
Generally, we see the call for removal mostly with high-rank players as around ~70% of the Remove votes came from players in Master rank or above.
We also see that while the positive impact of Wild Cards is more widely spread than the negative, it does seem to be less intense.
You can see the results of the survey here



[h3]What happens now?[/h3]

Despite the majority of players telling us that Wild Cards are good for the game, we're going to go out on a limb. We believe that the time is right to try something else.

We wish to do a test in which we will remove Wild Cards from the game for a full season. That will be this upcoming season starting with Patch 1.27.

After that season ends we will be asking everyone again to see what your feelings are after having tried the game without Wild Cards for a bit. We'll naturally also be following your feedback on Discord, Reddit, and the Steam forum so do share your opinions as we go along.

[h3]Why Now?[/h3]

When Wild Cards were added to the game, there were a total of 77 cards and deck choices were far more limited. Today is a vastly different scenario with more than 220 cards and several new mechanics. This also means that many cards have alternatives that perform similar duties in slightly different ways. For instance, instead of playing with a Cleaver, you could play with a Brother of the Burning Fist. Instead of Whirly, you could play with Fergus, Plasma Marines → Crystal Archers, Scrat Horde → Skeleton Horde, etc.

Therefore, we believe that the time is right to try and reevaluate this fundamental feature of the game. We believe that we have a broad enough variety of cards as well as several options for most functions that Wild Cards are no longer needed in order to create fun, interesting decks. At the same time, the incredible amount of combination possibilities is also making it substantially harder to fully consider Wild Cards with every balance patch. We now believe that the negatives outweigh the positives.

[h3]What happens in the long term?[/h3[

What happens to Wild Cards after the test, we cannot say yet. We will have to see how the test goes and look at the community response as a whole before we make any long-term decisions.

IF we decide to remove Wild Cards permanently, we do have plans to look into the design space that is created in their absence. There are several ways we can make cards that emulate the Wild Card mechanic and we hope to use this to reintroduce the good parts of it in a more controlled manner.

[h3]In Conclusion[/h3[

We'll be removing Wild Cards in Patch 1.27 and most likely remain removed in 1.28 as we go over all the results.

We hope you're all ready and willing to give this a go and that you will share your thoughts with us so that we can make the most well-informed decision when the test is finished.

From everyone at BetaDwarf, we thank you for being such a passionate and amazing community. Without you, all this could never have been a reality and for this, we are eternally humbled!