Minion Masters News

Minion Masters!

• A new Season Pass has arrived to Minion Masters!
  
• Tons of new rewards, including 3 cards, a Legendary Skin, bonus cards, and more!
  
• Three new cards have been added to the game. They are as follows:
  
  
  
  
• Galaxy Apep has also been added to the game!
  
  
  
  
• The Season Pass will end on August 20th, bringing an end to the Charging Into Darkness expansion.
  

Haste

• Buff % 50 -> 33
  

Slow

• Debuff % 25 -> 20
  

Developer Comments
Refer to our Blog Post for our reasoning regarding the Haste change. Thanks to everyone for their great feedback, and we’ll continue to monitor this change going forward.

Armored Scrats

• Barrel Shield Health 60 -> 50
  
• Developer Comments
• Armored Scrats were a little too durable with their current HP values, making them quite annoying to pick off for many units. This new HP threshold also falls in with our rework to Combustion, listed further below.
  

Battle Shi-Hou

• Health 450 -> 420
  
• Special Note: In this patch, we’ve fixed Battle Shi-Hou’s description stating an incorrect value for its Bonus Attack Speed. The actual gameplay value for this has not been changed, as it is merely a description fix.
  

Jadespark Watchers

• Generic Shi-Hou Health 450 -> 420
  
• (Health change also affects Windwalker Shi-Hou)
  
• Mana Cost 10 -> 9
  

Developer Comments
We felt that Battle Shi-Hou was a little too strong, and Jadespark Watchers was underpowered since its nerfs during Saving Jadespark Jungle, so we wanted to take this opportunity to unify their health values with Tranquil Shi-Hou and Shen Stormstrike as it represented a good opportunity to hit all of these needs at once.


Black Hole

• Cast Delay 0.5 -> 0.2
  
• Duration 1.5 -> 1.8
  
• Developer Comments
• Black Hole has been difficult to utilize since the nerf, so we're aiming to make it easier to use on reaction against spells to better protect units with.
  

Blastmancer

• Soul Detonate damage 20 -> 25
  

Blood Imps

• Damage 15 -> 17
  

Combustion

• Reworked: Now deals 50 damage to the target and nearby enemy minions up to 5 times. (0.2 second delay between each explosion)
  
• Units under the Combustion debuff are no longer stunned
  
• Developer Comments
• Combustion was still proving to be a problematic card in terms of just how efficient it was combined with swarm at removing... Pretty much anything. This was especially the case with Armored Scrats who would either survive the explosion and thus remain as bodies on the field, or more significantly, be almost impossible to remove on reaction. This change means that swarm units will still be quite efficient when utilized with the card, but toned down to more reasonable levels. It also gave us an opportunity to increase the spell's effectiveness when utilized on larger minions such as Colossus or Living Statue.
  

Defenso Chopper

• Health 450 -> 500
  

Grasping Thorns

• Damage 170 -> 200
  

Haunting Hugger

• Progress 1 towards Accursed Ascension for each killed target
  
• Attack Cooldown 2 -> 2.5 sec
  
• Developer Comments
• We wanted to re-introduce the effect of using some Accursed cards to speed up Accursed Ascension, and Haunting Hugger seemed a natural fit for the task as it had lost some of its purpose since the re-work. We also opted to give it a rebalance in its attack cooldown as well to compensate for this buff, making it a bit easier to get rid of.
  

Jungle Jumble

• Mana Cost 7 -> 6
  

Milloween

• Arcane Golem has been rescaled:
  
• Mana Cost 3 -> 2
  
• Health 300 -> 250
  
• Damage 40 -> 30
  
• Health Gain per Level 40 -> 30
  
• Damage Gain per Level 6 -> 5
  
• Developer Comments
• As with Haste, refer to our Blog Post here.
  

Mythic

• Mythic Units affected by Destroy instead take 50% of their Maximum Health as damage, instead of 1000 damage.
  
• Developer Comments
• We wanted Destroy effects to still feel powerful on Mythic units, but allow us to open up some design space for minions to have Mythic but not colossal amounts of Health. Effectively, this does not change Destroy’s interaction against Nyrvir, while it does less damage to Jahun.
  

Ratbo

• More Dakka! Mana Cost 0 -> 1
  
• Developer Comments
• Ratbo has been exceptionally powerful since the rebalances to 1 drops, so we feel he needed a change on top of the adjustment to Armored Scrats for him to fall more in line with the other Masters in terms of power level.
  

Ravager

• Feeding Frenzy Threshhold 50% -> 66%
  
• Brutus and TERROR BRUTUS now have Mythic
• Developer Comments
• Ravager is the Master hit hardest by the change to Haste, so we wanted to increase his perk 2’s threshold to retain its usefulness, while also giving his special summons resilience to Destroy effects and being pushed around by other minions.
  

Red Golem

• Damage 300 -> 350
  
• Health 1200 -> 1400
  

Shen Stormstrike

• Damage 200 -> 175
  

Slitherbound Lancer

• Attack Delay 1.0 -> 0.5 seconds
  
• Developer Comments
• Slitherbound Lancer was the clear worse result of the two Slitherbound units due to how long its attack would take to go off despite being in melee range, meaning it often just got picked off before it could apply any poision. By shifting his Attack Delay, his attacks will come out much faster without increasing his overall Attack Speed.
  

Spirit Infusion

• Time per Spirit 3 -> 2
  
• Developer Comments
• This also affects Morellia’s perk 1 and 2 as they function similarly, but the impact of this buff should be significantly lesser for her due to the lower number of spirits.
  

Stormy

• Zen-Chi Flow Health Increase changed from Doubling Stormy’s health -> +100 Health
  
• Developer Comments
• The goal with this change is to make Stormy easier to whittle down with chip damage by narrowing the threshholds required to make him "lose" an attack, as well as less durable in general when combined with effects such as healing by making him easier to burst down. Notably, it's now much easier to time a Fireball to kill Stormy while he's being healed, and a non-healed Stormy can be killed by a 130 damage spell after his first attack.
  

• Magma Cannon has received a visual update, and its faction has been changed to Voidborne.
  
• Swarmers, Elite Swarmers, Morgrul’s Ragers and Morgrul the Swarmer King have all received a visual update.
  
• Dragon Whelp and Rammer have received updated Card Art.
  

• Fixed Mordar’s Tombstone description not noting that it can summon allied Mordar units. It implied only your Minions could be resurrected, when in actuality another Mordar’s summons counted too. We apologize for this error.
  
• Fixed Nyrvir Slumbers not stating that units killed by it would grant 1 progress towards Accursed Ascension.
  
• Fixed Jungle Jumble’s tooltip still stating that it grants Mana Reduction.
  
• Fixed the Campfire text in Adventures being too small.
  
• Fixed Battle Shi-Hou’s description using the incorrect number for its bonus attack speed.
  
• Fixed Tombstone not working in Adventures.
  
• Fixed the Undying Skeleton boss in the Charging Into Darkness adventure spawning his Undying Skeletons off the map.
  
• Fixed the Haunting Hugger boss in Adventures producing a massive amount of smoke when first attacked.
  
• Fixed Emerald and Crystal Stormbringer’s eyes popping out of his skull.
  
• Fixed Skeleton Horde’s placement being too close together - Thanks Steven!
  
• Fixed free Accursed cards from Apep’s perks counting towards Accursed Ascension as if they cost the full amount - Thanks Steven!
  
• Fixed Ardent Aegis units being resurrected by Mordar when he wasn’t the one that cast the spell - Thanks LeilaFox!
  
• Fixed a rare occurrence where Dormant Defenders would never wake up - Thanks Jimi D Night!
  
• Fixed an occurrence where Harbinger retargeted off of the Master Tower despite not being stunned - Thanks Cole420!
  

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters!

[h2]Balance Changes for Version 1.15[/h2]
We've got another set of balance changes coming up in the next update, and we have a couple we'd like to share with you today. But first, we have some followup news regarding the public Poll of Arcane Golem and Haste's changes.

Firstly, we want to give a huge thanks to the fantastic amount of participation from you all, Masters! We got a ton of useful data and feedback from your submissions, and we're definitely open to doing that sort of thing again in the future as a result.

Secondly, we've opted as a result of the poll to go ahead with the planned changes to Arcane Golem and Haste as most of the responses supported the idea. Some were worried that they would be too weak following the changes, so we're planning to keep a close eye on them - Make sure to let us know how you feel about them once the changes hit the live servers in Version 1.15!

Black Hole

• Cast Delay 0.5 -> 0.2
  
• Duration 1.5 -> 1.8
  
• Developer Comments
• Black Hole has been difficult to utilize since the nerf, so we're aiming to make it easier to use on reaction against spells to better protect units with.
  

Stormy

• Zen-Chi Flow changed: Now grants +100 Health instead of doubling health
  
• Effectively, this means an activated Stormy has 225 health now, instead of 250
  
• Developer Comments
• The goal with this change is to make Stormy easier to whittle down with chip damage by narrowing the threshholds required to make him "lose" an attack, as well as less durable in general when combined with effects such as healing by making him easier to burst down. Notably, it's now much easier to time a Fireball to kill Stormy while he's being healed, and a non-healed Stormy can be killed by a 130 damage spell after his first attack.
  

Combustion

• Reworked: Now deals 50 damage to the target and nearby enemy minions up to 5 times. (0.2 second delay between each explosion)
  
• No longer stuns units with the Combustion debuff
  

Armored Scrats

• Barrel Shield Health 60 -> 50
  

• Developer Comments
• Combustion was still proving to be a problematic card in terms of just how efficient it was combined with swarm at removing... Pretty much anything. This was especially the case with Armored Scrats who would either survive the explosion and thus remain as bodies on the field, or more significantly, be almost impossible to remove on reaction. This change means that swarm units will still be quite efficient when utilized with the card, but toned down to more reasonable levels. It also gave us an opportunity to increase the spell's effectiveness when utilized on larger minions such as Colossus or Living Statue.
  

There's plenty more changes on the way, naturally, so stay tuned for the patch next week!

[h2]Magma Cannon Visual Update[/h2]
(We had an exclusive reveal for a visual update for Laser Turret on our social media earlier this week, did you check it out yet?)

We've got news of another update coming to one of our older cards coming in Version 1.15, and that's Magma Cannon! We felt that the card lacked a proper visual identity, and didn't really fit in with any of the existing factions as well as needing a model update for a while, so we've given it this fearsome new look, as well as a Faction Change to Voidborne:



As always, let us know what you think!

[h2]Sinobii's Tournaments want YOUR help![/h2]
Are you looking to get more involved with competitive Minion Masters? Sinobii from Team Mana Frenzy is looking for volunteers to help with his future tournaments! Currently, they're looking for;

2-3 Shoutcasters (Commentators)
1-2 Tournament Administrators ("To work with players via discord in resolving any issues during the event, most particularly helping/making sure everyone gets into lobbies with their paired opponent and start their matches timely, and by extension identifying any tardy or absent players to adjudicate game/match losses, and otherwise minimize any tournament delays.")

Currently tournaments are scheduled to have 1 Xbox tournament per month, and 1-3 PC events. Contact Sinobii_twitch.tv#0976 on Discord if you're interested!

[h2]BadAsAFish80's 2v2 Tournament #8[/h2]



Got some time on your hands and a reliable friend? Want to get a chance at winning some money by playing 2v2 matches? Then BadAsAFish's next tournament is the place to be - A $100 prize pool multi-day tournament! Check it out here and sign up with your partner:

https://www.toornament.com/en_GB/tournaments/3556412245006991360/information

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters!

[h2]New Swarmer Models[/h2]
Our artists have been hard at work again, creating new, even more vicious looking models for some of Minion Masters' oldest units - The Swarmers! Our primary reason for updating the units is due to the age of them - The models date back to the early days of Forced, making them over 7 years old now.

We're looking to update quite a few models back from those days as a result to ensure they fulfill our new quality levels that we wish to maintain going forwards with our art assets, as well as help define them better within the universe we're working to establish. You've already seen quite a few of them already, and the Swarmer units were next in line to get a touch up - Check them out below!



They also come with brand new, updated Card Art:



Swarmers might be blind, but they'll always smell your fear.

The new Swarmer models will be making their way to the arenas in Version 1.15. We've also got an updated model for Laser Turret in the works - Tune in to our Social Media next Monday for an exclusive reveal!

[h2]What's up at the BetaDwarf Office?[/h2]

Just a couple of weeks ago, we've finally got back to the offices following the extended quarantine, and we're still working on our exciting future projects all the same. We're still taking serious precautions, though - You can't walk five feet without finding disinfectant bottles!

All in all though, despite out rock solid remote working solutions, we're happy to be back at the office with the rest of the BetaDwarf family. Personally speaking, I'm glad we can start doing our monthly Tabletop RPG sessions again after an unfortunately long hiatus. We hope you've all been managing well during this time, too - If you got up to anything interesting while you were stuck at home, get in touch with us at [email protected] - We'd love to hear about it!


[h2]BadAsAFish80's 1v1 Tournament #13[/h2]


BadAsAFish is back with his excellent Minion Masters competitive tournaments! Making a comeback with a $100 prize pool and tons of in-game rewards, the tournament also functions as a qualifier for the prestigious Sinobii's Battleground Invitational run by TEAM MANA FRENZY!

Check out their Toornament page here and sign up today! https://www.toornament.com/en_GB/tournaments/3556399228476727296/information

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters!

We've got quite a lot to talk about this week - We need your input regarding some upcoming Balance Changes, and we're opening up PTR Signups again. Let's not waste any time and get into it:

[h2]Arcane Golem & Haste/Slow Public Poll[/h2]


With the upcoming Balance Changes coming in Version 1.15, we've been giving heavy consideration towards changes to Milloween's Arcane Golem and the Haste mechanic in particular. While we're decently confident in our changes, we wanted to give the opportunity to get more input from you all about them which we can take into account, as they are likely to significantly affect the metagame. Here are the changes we're currently thinking of:

Arcane Golem

• Mana Cost 3 -> 2
  
• Health 300 -> 250
  
• Damage 40 -> 30
  
• Health Gain Per Level 40 -> 30
  
• Damage Gain Per Level 6 -> 5
  

The main reason we're seeking to alter Arcane Golem is to rebalance Milloween's general gameplay. Currently Milloween is very frustrating to play against at Perk 3 due to how high its stats end up at from the Level 5 Boost. We're hoping with this change that the Arcane Golem, while still strong and forming the core of Milloween's kit, feels much less oppressive to fight against in the lategame and overall smoothes out her power curve.

Haste

• Bonus 50% -> 33%
  
• (Slow will also have its debuff changed from 25% -> 20% to match this)
  

Haste has been a fairly problematic buff for quite a while, as some of our veteran players can no doubt testify to. We've traditionally had to hide the explosive potential of the effect behind specific conditions, or remove them from cards that proved far too powerful with it - Examples of this would be Rabid Prowler and Woodsman. By reigning in the power of Haste we want to make it a more fair mechanic to play against, and open up more design space for us to utilise it when designing new cards.

This Haste change will also come with a buff to Ravager's perk 2 as he would be significantly impacted. This change will likely come in form of altering the threshhold required for his units to gain Haste in proportion to the change. Changes to other cards affected are also likely to be considered.

We've prepared a short survey that we would like you to answer so you can give us your feedback on this adjustments: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsX1IRLy-TNoWBHZCq9wKsJWBkx2OVIdWlQkh9nDTzSTatyg/viewform?usp=pp_url

Thanks a ton in advance for your time, Masters!

[h2]New Reveals Coming Soon![/h2]


We're swiftly approaching that time again, Masters - The Season Pass #3 reveals are due to start this Friday! Join us for another round of exciting card reveals that will expand upon your Accursed collection as Mordar makes his counteroffensive, on our Update Site!

[h2]PTR Signups[/h2]

We're looking for willing PTR Testers and are opening signups once again, to help us test upcoming content for Minion Masters! Things are a little different, this time - We're offering you the option to reference another user when signing up to the PTR that you'd like to partner with that is also filling in the application for membership. If the two of you are selected, we'll ensure you're in the same group, meaning there'll always be someone you're familiar with to play against, or with for 2v2 testing. Signing up with another player is not a requirement to be accepted for the PTR.

As a PTR tester, you will test new content on the PTR and provide feedback for the Minion Masters design team through questionnaires and discuss feedback with the team directly in the Discord channel. Responses from the PTR testing group is an extremely important part of creating new content for the game.

To join, you must be able to write in English, be open-minded, and have time to test and discuss new cards, masters and other content with us. It is a requirement that you are open to testing new cards/masters through rigorous playtesting. You must also have a Steam account and be able to play the game on PC (you will have the full collection of cards at your disposal).

There is a minimum expectation of activity while you are a member of the PTR. If you do not participate in several PTRs in a row without contacting a developer as to why, you will be removed from the group.

To sign up, answer this questionnaire here and we'll contact you via your Discord account if you're accepted: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd2q6WF0xfushgM8ZYI-xYEeTQgBijulnA1tsINAvjpPoIuZg/viewform?usp=pp_url

[h2]Sinobii's Battleground Invitational #9[/h2]


The ninth SBI is happening this weekend! Like previous SBIs, the tournament competition consists of active players that have performed exceptionally well in previous Team Mana Frenzy tournaments or are ranked at the very top of the Minion Masters Leaderboards - Meaning you can be certain there'll be some excellent quality gameplay on display! It's your traditional no-holds-barred double elimination tournament and will be livestreamed on Sinobii's Twitch channel.

If you want to find out more about the competition, check out their Toornament page here, and drop by their Discord!

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters!

[h2]100 in 10 Challenge[/h2]



It's time to put your Draft skills to the test, Masters - Today we're announcing the start of the 100 in 10 Draft Challenge! Inspired by community contests in other events, the challenge is to Stream yourself getting 100 wins over the course of 10 Draft runs - If you win and have your results verified by BetaDwarf, you'll receive the Cosmic Cleaver avatar! Here's a graphic with the full rules below:



You can find the logo mentioned in the rules at the top of this section.

All submissions must include working links to the Livestreams in which the challenge was done. All conditions described must be met in order to be eligible for the prize. Runs will be reviewed manually, so please be patient in waiting for a response and receiving your Avatar. There is currently no formal end date for this Challenge. If you have any further questions, email [email protected].


Good luck, Masters!

[h2]Interview with Last_Elf[/h2]



This week, we have a special interview with Youtube Content Creator Last_Elf!

Can you give us a brief introduction of what you do? I am doing fun Minion Masters gameplay videos. I try to come up with new ideas and strategies, something you are not facing on the ladder and mostly just crazy decks. Not tier 1, but definitely fun. I publish 3 new videos every week with more than 300 videos already on my channel.

How long have you been playing Minion Masters for?
I've been playing for 2,5 years now and creating YouTube videos for 1,5 years.

What made you get into creating Minion Masters content? This might sound greedy, but I wanted to earn money. When my son was born, I've realized, that if I want to have time on games, I need to make it a living. After 2 years, I am nowhere near my goal and it's still not worth the time, I put into it. But I really enjoy it, I love the game and the community around the game.

What do you think is the best video you've made so far? My personal favourite is for sure Solo Priestesses. I managed to have 7 Priestesses on board and watching how desperately your opponent tries to kill them is just hilarious. We've recreated it on premade with 11 Priestesses on board in the video called Holy Army and in a friendly coordinated battle called Healing Hell. I think this title doesn't need an explanation :D

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Where can people follow you? I have my own Discord server, Facebook page and Twitter.
For my most loyal fans I even have a Patreon page, where they can support me.
You can visit my website www.lastelf.net, where you can find all the links ;)

You can find Last_Elf's Youtube channel right here - He makes tons of entertaining gameplay videos featuring all kinds of oddball strategies, so he's definitely worth checking out!

Cheers from BetaDwarf!