{"id":7446,"date":"2017-03-22T16:43:51","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T16:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/67272bb316.nxcli.io\/heroclix\/?p=7446"},"modified":"2017-03-22T17:51:39","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T17:51:39","slug":"heroclix-2017-rules-10-invincible-precision-strike-and-energy-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wizkids.com\/heroclix\/2017\/03\/22\/heroclix-2017-rules-10-invincible-precision-strike-and-energy-explosion\/","title":{"rendered":"HeroClix 2017 Rules 10: Invincible, Precision Strike, and Energy Explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"

For earlier articles in this series please\u00a0click here.<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Reminder:<\/strong>\u00a0These rules are not finalized yet and will not replace the current rules until sometime after the \u00a02017 HeroClix World Championship at Origins Game Fair. Email\u00a0<\/em>gamefeedback@wizkids.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0with feedback on this topic. We will try and read everything on topic but can only respond via articles we write addressing shared concerns.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hey HeroClix fans,<\/p>\n

We are nearing the end of the major changes for 2017 HeroClix Rules! We did a complete overhaul and cleaned up lots of other dark corners, but only this article and the next one (#11) contain changes that playtesters rated as \u201csweeping\u201d. We have been actively reading your thoughtful and considerate feedback and will have an article responding to it soon. We\u2019ve talked to retailers and judges at the GAMA tradeshow and we are very excited with the support and enthusiasm these articles have received. Thank you!<\/p>\n

Today we\u2019re going to talk about what we call the \u201c2013\u201d powers. That year was the last time we did a major revision of the rulebook, and we added pink powers to the game which have generally been well received. Most powers in the game needed tweaking after their introduction and pink powers are no different. Their power levels are now much better understood after 3+ years of play, and now is finally the time to do the \u201cfirst tweaking\u201d for them. Additionally, Energy Explosion got a huge revision in 2013 and we needed to re-examine some specifics of that.<\/p>\n

To begin with, two of the pink powers landed exactly where we wanted.<\/p>\n

Sidestep<\/span>
\n FREE: Move up to 2 squares.<\/span><\/p>\n

Empower<\/span>
\n Adjacent friendly characters modify damage +1 while making a close attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sidestep ranks pretty highly when we ask players about their favorite powers to use. It adds a lot of strategic depth to the game without adding rules complication. We tweaked the wording to not use \u201clocked\u201d, a term that isn\u2019t being used anymore. If we want you to move 2 squares, we\u2019ll say that. It doesn\u2019t need to use your speed value at all, just tell you how far to move as a number.<\/p>\n

Empower works exactly as intended and just needs a bit of new language and templating.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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It probably won\u2019t shock you to learn that Precision Strike ended up a bit too powerful. By completely shutting down Super Senses, it could potentially negate a large swath of an opponent\u2019s defenses all by itself. It was one of those powers that players said felt particularly unfun to play against, because you couldn\u2019t roll your way out of it. Everybody wanted a standard power that could get around Super Senses, but it did its job just a little too well and players agreed that it needed some scaling back.<\/p>\n

Precision Strike<\/span>
\n When this character attacks a single target, rolls to Evade are decreased by 1 and damage taken can’t be reduced below 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

The core of it is there, but the penalty to Evade is now -1 instead of \u201cyou don\u2019t get to roll at all\u201d. So now your opponent can use Super Senses, but still has a chance (50% of the normal chance, 17% chance overall) to roll a 6 and still succeed.<\/p>\n

The ability to break through defense powers and \u201cping\u201d high defense guys has proven to be very valuable in the metagame, and players thought it was core to what Precision Strike did and didn\u2019t want that touched. It\u2019s powerful, but generally fair, and it\u2019s unchanged.<\/p>\n

As other ways were added to get through Mastermind (attacking and hitting the Masterminder and minions in same attack, using Poison or other non-attack damage), it didn\u2019t need a specific answer anymore. Precision Strike wanted to focus a bit more.<\/p>\n

The last tweak is that it became single target only. When we asked, players agreed it was odd that you could target 3 characters at once \u201cprecisely\u201d, and it was a key reason that Precision Strike felt overpowered. In general, we\u2019ve been cautious with giving Precision Strike to characters with 3 bolts (though probably less cautious than ideal with 2 bolt characters), and making single target the default will allow us to give Precision Strike to a wider range of appropriate characters. When there\u2019s actually a character who\u2019s so good at targeting (and each comic universe has a few) that he or she can precisely shoot three opponents simultaneously, we can add it back in as a special power tweak.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Invincible, power-wise, landed more or less right where it was intended. Its problem is that it\u2019s one of those powers written simply, but tricky to actually calculate. We asked for a calculation in Invincible unlike any other in HeroClix (Halve damage, round up, then subtract it from itself). It also used \u201cignore\u201d, one of the words we\u2019re trying to move away from in HeroClix that is often unclear and that the game no longer needs.<\/p>\n

Players liked it, but were for finding a better way to express the intent of Invincible, which was \u201ca defense power good against penetrating damage\u201d. Note how its current wording does not mention penetrating damage, and you have to be pretty deep into the rules to realize that penetrating damage is \u201cthe reason why\u201d it\u2019s written the way it is. We also really wanted it to use \u201creduce\u201d so we could write a clean rule of \u201cyou can only apply one reducer each time you take damage\u201d.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where it ended up after playtesting.<\/p>\n

Reduce damage taken by 2. Can reduce penetrating damage. Takes a maximum of 3 damage (at once).<\/span><\/p>\n

Compare this new version to the current wording in terms of preventing damage (penetrating or normal).<\/p>\n

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So it’s better against 2 damage dealt, but worse against 5 damage dealt, but equal or better above that. It\u2019s very close in power level to where it was before. It depends on your local metagame being filled with 2 damage guys or 5 damage guys, but overall players probably have more 2 damage guys, so it\u2019s a slight upgrade. It\u2019s also a lot easier to figure out in the midst of a heated game, and should save some time and mental energy here and there.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Ah, Energy Explosion. In 2013, everyone knew how weak it was. Really, really weak. Mocked and rarely used. Back then we wanted a big push to get players to at least consider it. We didn\u2019t put it on dials just for the pretty color, we wanted it to be used for its intended purpose, which was to put tightly grouped teams at risk and make opponents reconsider their formation.<\/p>\n

Two decisions on Energy Explosion were made in 2013 with the intention of making it more balanced with the rest of the powers, and they at least partially succeeded. But with hindsight and feedback from players, those decisions are a bit arbitrary and conflict with the goals of making the rules and interactions easier and simpler which we\u2019re striving for in this iteration.<\/p>\n

The first decision made in 2013 was to make it a \u201crider\u201d on RANGE actions, sort of like Blades\/Claws\/Fangs is for CLOSE actions. The intent was that it could then \u201ccombo\u201d with Penetrating\/Psychic Blast to become penetrating. We knew its combo with Pulse Wave would be messy, and it is. We didn\u2019t properly weigh or playtest (and certainly should have) its comboing with other kinds of RANGE actions. Since 2013, there have definitely been a lot more special powers that use RANGE actions, and the questions and interactions have grown immensely.<\/p>\n

Energy Explosion was its own RANGE action for more than 10 years, up until 2013, and now it\u2019s becoming its own RANGE action again. It\u2019s no longer able to ride along with other RANGE actions.<\/p>\n

Secondly, a decision in 2013 was made to tie the damage dealt by Energy Explosion to bolts (the number of characters you can target with a single range attack). It made some sense \u2013 characters with Energy Explosion often had multiple bolts, and we were looking for ways to make Energy Explosion deal more damage.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t work out as well as we hoped. Giving a character 3 bolts and Energy Explosion ended up so powerful that we couldn\u2019t really give that to a low-point character, and on a high-point character, while useful, it often was a bit redundant with their other powerful effects.<\/p>\n

The flavor behind using bolts was pretty much the opposite of what players expected as well, and that gave it less resonance in the game. If a character has \u201c100%\u201d power to shoot at 3 targets at the same time, players expected each target to get hit with 33%. If shot at 2 targets, players expected each target would get 50% of the full attack. But Energy Explosion in 2013 went in the opposite direction. The more thinly you divided out a character\u2019s power, the more damage it dealt. Bolts in this instance became just a random number to tie to damage, and actually subtracted from the flavor of what was going on.<\/p>\n

Those were the two issues that needed fixing. Let\u2019s show Energy Explosion to you, and we can talk about what it does and some of the nuances.<\/p>\n

Energy Explosion<\/span>
\n RANGE: Make a range attack (targeting normally), and all other characters adjacent to an original target also become targets of the attack. Hit characters are dealt 2 damage instead of normal damage.<\/span><\/p>\n

The whole \u201cdividing of the damage and then only dealing splash damage to those adjacent to a target assigned at least 1 damage, etc.\u201d is a complication this power just doesn\u2019t need. Now it just deals 2 damage to everyone, no dividing necessary. This is not only much simpler, but also more flavorful. Dealing only 1 damage to the guy in the center of an explosion but dealing 3 damage to those around him was pretty odd and unintuitive.<\/p>\n

Compared to the original Energy Explosion (before 2013), it\u2019s better in the vast majority of circumstances. That version dealt 1 splash damage, and this deals 2. Compared to the 2013 version, it\u2019s lost its combo with Penetrating\/Psychic Blast (the intended one) and a bunch of other stuff (unintended).<\/p>\n

Characters with 3 bolts will now deal less splash damage compared to the 2013 version. The rough breakdown in current Modern Age is that 30% have Energy Explosion with 1 bolt, 60% have it with 2 bolts, and less than 10% have it with 3 bolts. So less than 10% will deal less splash damage. For 2 bolt guys, it stays the same, and for 1 bolt guys, it\u2019s doubling their current splash damage. So for more than 90% of Energy Explosion characters it\u2019s either the same or a huge improvement in splash damage.<\/p>\n

Also, it\u2019s a bit subtle and will be more fully explained in the final rulebook, but the characters here \u201cbecome targets\u201d, similar to how Mastermind has a character \u201cbecome a hit target\u201d. In both cases, you don\u2019t need to draw lines of fire to each individual character, the effect simply tells you which characters qualify and it uses the word \u201cbecomes\u201d. For Mastermind, neither Shape Change or Super Senses will work on the minion, because he \u201cbecomes the hit target\u201d. Here, the adjacent characters \u201cbecome targets\u201d (not hit ones) in a similar way and Shape Change will not trigger for them. They already are a target, it\u2019s too late. They can still use Super Senses, and the original targets (that had lines of fire drawn to them) can use both Shape Change and Super Senses if they have it.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s a notable upgrade here as well. Because you no longer have to divide the damage, you now can deal 4 damage total to 2 targets, or 6 damage total to 3 targets. Very few Energy Explosion characters with two bolts have 4 printed damage, and almost none with 3 bolts have 6 printed damage. So you\u2019ll be dealing a lot more damage to the original targets in almost all cases.<\/p>\n

Additionally, there\u2019s another subtle upgrade that players have long wanted for this power \u2013 the ability to do something if your opponent isn\u2019t clumped together. Apart from Telekinesis and a few other ways to force opposing characters together, with all previous versions of Energy Explosion, your opponent largely has the choice about whether any \u201cadjacent friendly\u201d effects (like carrying or Enhancement) are worth the risk of being hit by Energy Explosion or not. He or she can easily \u201cblank\u201d the power by just not clumping his or her characters up. Now, no matter what your printed damage, or even if your opponent has Perplexed your damage value down, you can still deal 2 damage to every hit target, even if they are standing by themselves and there\u2019s no one to catch the splash damage. This is a notable bump for Energy Explosion characters that deal 1 or 2 damage, and those with 3 damage and 2 bolts, and most characters with 3 bolts that aren\u2019t tentpoles naturally dealing 5 or 6 damage.<\/p>\n

We hope you agree that this \u201cbrings Energy Explosion back\u201d to the style of power it had been for the first 10 years of HeroClix, with a substantial upgrade in power-level compared to what it was then. Compared to the 2013 version, it got an upgrade in rules to clean up interactions and it got power-level upgrades in some circumstances and downgrades in some others, but overall players generally felt it was a bit ahead.<\/p>\n

Until next time, keep on Clixin\u2019!<\/p>\n<\/div>

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