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AGL Season 4 - First Review

Discussion in 'AGL' started by Croepoek, Oct 28, 2020.

  1. Croepoek

    Croepoek Well-Known Member

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    Hi guys,



    AGL 4 is freshly out, so let us take a quick look and discuss the changes. I made a short write-up which uses the same structure as the AGL document plus a "General thoughts" category.



    GENERAL THOUGHTS
    • All changes are highlighted, which is a fantastic idea. Thumps up to the Aristeia team to do this!!!
    • I personally love the colour design of the document and would congratulate the person who picked the colours for the new Parvati Skin. So great, will try to paint mine using those colours. Have to win a tournament first, but that's another problem ;)


    BASIC RULES
    • The critical success form Season 3 is gone, now only the regular one form the core rules applies (so critical success only gives one damage and can be used for two success only for switches)
    • Only minor clarifications here. Most of them seem common sense (please, who would show up with a card signed on the back, but no opaque sleeves??? Why would I even bother play with such people? :see_no_evil:)
    • Seems a few cheaters were caught, so now you are finally forbidden to alter the colours of the dice on attacks or the cards themselves :D
    • Some clarification on what a Roster is for a tournament, which should help new players to quickly understand what is going on, good change I think
    • In the section about "Rankings" there are K Factors explained (the table on page 6) but no clarification what a "Regional" and what a "Standard" event are. Would be great to know the difference :) @-V- Can you help here (also on the Hidden change / unclarity mentioned below)?


    SEASON RULES

    Okay, here are some big changes!
    • Contender: Now only range 1-6, which is still good as a last resort, but now prevents some long distance shoots boosted by Tactics to clear a zone or similar events. Fine for me and should not have a great effect on picks or tournament outcomes.
    • Tactics and Frags: You only get one (!) tactic for all frags of the round and that card is drawn at the end of the round. This is a major change, which I think will have quite an effect in the meta and hopefully reduce the skew towards killing. This should stop some killing sprees (looking at you MM, WB and Moonchild!) or make them less effective as they are not fuelled with every frag. I would also consider TComm becoming better, as it allows to cycle cards faster. Some Aristos that allow you to draw tactics will also get a boost from this (Oberon, WB) - Especially Oberon, but let's talk about him when discussing the Silence State ;)
    • Dice and Re-Rolls: Much needed clarification on how many times a die can be re-rolled and the answer is: only one time. Should not really change the game, like it.
    • Stunned: Now cancels one symbol chosen by the person inflicting the state, after critical block but before the switches step. Makes the state stronger and allows some cool shenanigans to prevent switches. Like it very much. Should boost Laxmee a bit more (she did not really need it), Axl is quite nuts with it and maybe Final Boss profits from this :)
    • Dazzled: Not sure, but comparing the reference book and this new description for the state it seems you now can inflict damage when being dazzled. I like it, as it takes a bit out of the bite of having your ranged damage dealer being dazzled by Gata and then getting shot up by someone else without any chance of inflicting damage. Should also help WBs "Gunslinger" ability to make him more dangerous in defence (not that he needed a boost…)
      EDIT: Checking this I found the relevant part in the "Attacks" section of the reference guide. Before the sentence: "The Defender cannot use their :2: to cause :4: in a Combat Roll if there’s no Line of Sight to the Attacker during the declaration of the Attack." was additionally also in the Dazzled entry. Now it is not anymore. Strangely it is also not under the "Defence" or "Line of Sight" entry. Maybe a cross-reference would be helpful?!
    • Marked: You now get a free-reroll (remember: only one reroll per dice now) against marked targets if you are not in b2b and you need to have inflicted the state yourself (which otherwise would have been bad news for Prysm). Also boosts the state and maybe Bixie a bit (she needs it). Also Eclypse with her tactic inflicting Marked and her ability to flip states back could get a bit out of this increasing damage focus on an opposing Aristo.
    • Hidden: Re-roll for one die for damage and action rolls if you are hidden and target opposing Aristos (important!). This boosts Dart and Koorie Queen (re-roll on Boomerang, switch for hidden and then boost on Bounce sounds nice) a bit, but I think not over the top. More interesting I think is Eclypse with her ability to put any Aristo in your team in hidden state by being adjacent at the end of her activation and her tactic to put hidden on someone also gets better (basically a re-roll boost now).
    • Silence: The state now allows you to silence attacks which does not prevent the attack but prevents the usage of effects (green arrows of both kind) and Switches of the attack. Not triggering of additional attacks via switches or other cool effects is huge. This change seems quite crazy good and I catapults Oberon into the Top Tier of Aristos (Tactics are harder to get - he can help with that; Musashi is slaughtering your team with repetitive Ken-No-Zens? - he can help with that; running around with move 5 and score zones?- he got you covered; getting a yellow dice boost on simple rolls? - no problem for our man if you have a spare tactic). A lot of cool things can be prevented (e.g. Valkyrie with a silenced "Charge of the Valkyrie" is only dealing a red die of damage, does not nullify a shield and does not displace). As I have the model painted, he will now definitely be in my starting 8 (before only 80% of the time ;) )


    STANDARD TOURNAMENT RULES
    • Changes to Victory Points: Quite a big change here were you definitely get rewarded for playing good and making it a close game. You can get up to two victory points even if you lose the match, before you only got "0" for a defeat. Really like the change as it better reflects the result on the board and can show if someone got steamrolled or if it was a close match.
    • Changes / new stadions:
      • Riverside Stadium: Two black dice for cover definitely moves the game towards melee Aristos, but I would say not in a major way.
      • Shaoshang-T: Underdog getting a better view on the running order by flipping one card seems like a cool effect. I think this does not have a massive effect but can be quite helpful sometimes. I can really see that this gets used at tournaments. Some of the other stadiums (like Novvy Bangkok or Tunguska) can be way more game changing
      • Arkhangel City Hexadome: Minus 2 movement state for not moving seems harsh for shooters, especially if you want to shoot twice sometimes (like Eclypse or Parvati). Fiddler loves this stadium with her free movement point ;)
    • Scenarios:
      • KotH and Carnage are gone, which I think is fine. Both were a bit of a one sided scenario anyway. You won the alpha strike, you had a 95% chance of winning the game
      • Change to Conquest is great, simple fix, very elegant.
      • Broken Land and Frenzied Dance on the other hand were quite cool. Not sure why they had to go?


    STANDARD LEAGUE RULES
    • Will not go into a lot of detail here, but uses the same VP table as normal games. Good change. And also the point costs for Moonchild and Lei Gong were changed to 16 to better reflect the pick rates. Absolutely understandably and also necessary. I am btw still convinced that "Team Mascot" and "Infirmary assistant" (both are underpriced for what they do in terms of game balance) plus a 4 Aristo team are the way to go and I don't see any changes to this tactic.

    OPEN EVENT RULES
    • Only a few things to mention here. In general great to have some fun, trying mods and stuff.
    • One new mod: Indatawa (you chose your opponent's initiative card order) sound like a lot of fun - even though it skews heavily into all-comer Aristo team compositions. Some more tricky builds need specific activations to work really well, which will be hard using the mod.
    • One new mod I recommend to everyone (I don't know why, it is just so good): Croepoek Mod :D

    WINNERS AND LOOSERS
    • WINNERS:
      • Definitely all Aristeia players! Thanks to the Aristeia team at CB to make this such a cool game and providing updates that are thought out and keep the game fresh
      • Oberon: Main winner of the state changes for Silence and Stunned plus his ability to cycle cards (only other Aristo to help here is WB) when this great resource got further limited by the changes in card draw for frags. He is top tier now, which is also quite cool as you have to put more thought into the decision which Aristo to ban
      • Axl: Hands out Stun like candy at Halloween and is super mobile anyhow
      • Eclypse: Hidden and Marked are better, and she hands out those states
      • Final Boss: Stun boost is great for him, now more deadly
      • State removers in general will be picked more I guess, as states became more crippling and you have less tactics to boost rolls to mitigate or remove them
      • Team compositions that focus on movement, states or other things besides killing can be a way more viable option now. Not sure how much the combination of less tactics and better state effects will shift the meta in the end, but my hopes are up :)
    • LOOSERS
      • Not made up my mind yet :D

    Which Aristos do you think profit most from the changes, which ones got the short end of the stick? What cool things have I missed?
     
    #1 Croepoek, Oct 28, 2020
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2020
  2. Neengash

    Neengash VaudeVille Soul
    Aristeia! Warcor

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    Wow! Really good job there, summaryring all those changes.

    100% agree with the first point, made it super easy to track changes :D
    I like the fact that the colous were chosen to match the Parvati Skin colous, buuuut, i feel the document is harder to read due to the lack of contrast with the "purple over white" :S

    If i haven't missread anything the fact of not getting damaged from objectives who cannot see you was not part of the states rules, but a general Attack rule in Aristeia!

    I 100% Agree with this, players are the main winners of the continuous updates of the game, making it feel fresh and alive

    Top changes imo go to Oberon and Koorie since they are affected by 2 of the major buffs to the states, other aristos that get quite strong: Eclypse, Dart, laxmee, Final boss (if i'm not missing any one).

    Again, awesome job with the summary !! :D
     
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  3. Kelthret

    Kelthret Usuario

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    Suprising not to finde Laxmee in the Winners part. She's absolutely nuts with the new Stunned. Try stunning someone and then Attacking them with Wild Bill. What's that Axel, you wanna use that free :3:to move? Not on Laxmee's watch.
     
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  4. Croepoek

    Croepoek Well-Known Member

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    I can not give everything away right from the start, otherwise there would be no discussion here :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Seriously: I just forgot about her and you are right. She is indeed really getting a boost! :8:
     
  5. AdmiralJCJF

    AdmiralJCJF Heart of the Hyperpower

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    Great summary mate.

    It'll be interesting to see what these changes do to pick rates. My initial feeling is that there won't be a lot of movement, as the buffs are generally quite minor and some of the Aristos affected are a way behind.

    There really are some clear winners 'though, and Oberon is undoubtedly one of those. Funnily enough I think that his pick rate was on the way up anyway thanks to Lei Gong! Aristos with a "double hit" from changes, like Eclypse and Koorie Queen, might also see a substantial boost.

    One thing I'll be keeping an eye on is the balance between damage dealers and "soft control" options. Koorie Queen is a good example here, because as a pure ranged striker she's miles behind Lei Gong, Wild Bill or even Major Lunah. But with the restriction on Tactics draw from Frags I wonder if the softer benefits of Koorie Queen will start to be appreciated more. It'll be interesting to see how much of a shift we see away from raw damage and towards more balanced approaches to play.

    While Gates of Fire still offers basically all the gameplay Broken Land did, I will certainly miss Frenzied Dance. I suspect it was simply languishing down the bottom of the pick rates for events, but it's a pity to see it go as it was always an interesting scenario.
     
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  6. Croepoek

    Croepoek Well-Known Member

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    Major edit for the proclaimed Dazzled change I found. It turns out: Not a change at all :slightly_frowning_face: Some helpful people from the wonderful Aristeia community on Discord pointed it out, thanks guys! :8:
     
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  7. Isidore

    Isidore New Member

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    But...
    What about Taowu, and his "Phantasmagorical Aura" ?
    This ability was written for the former rule, with Tactics be drawing when a character go to Infirmary.
     
  8. HarlequinOfDeath

    HarlequinOfDeath Tha Taskmastaaa
    Warcor

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    I think you don't get a card if it was your only frag? @-V- And these are just AGL, not regular rules. Though many play with AGL rules...
     
  9. Ealthril

    Ealthril Well-Known Member
    Warcor

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    His ability stay unchanged. So your opponent will draw a tactic for having fragged only if he killed Taowy and another Aristo. If it's just Taowu in the infirmary, no Tactic to be drawn.
     
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  10. -V-

    -V- A! Team member
    CB Staff

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    Exactly. You only draw a Tactic at the end of the Round if you sent to the Infirmary to any Aristo except Táowù. In other words, Táowù does not count for gaining any Tactic.
     
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  11. Hecaton

    Hecaton EI Anger Translator

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    @Croepoek The rules *do not* say that you get a free re-roll against a Marked target, at least not in English.
     
  12. Croepoek

    Croepoek Well-Known Member

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    just checked and you are absolutely right. Was that errated? I had in the back of my mind that it now granted a free re-roll?! 8C0BB629-2417-4F53-9DF7-692BD1F1322B.jpeg
     
  13. Hecaton

    Hecaton EI Anger Translator

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    CB needs a better English language editor, basically.
     
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  14. AdmiralJCJF

    AdmiralJCJF Heart of the Hyperpower

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    Yeah, maybe @-V- can clear it up for us.

    Are you supposed to get a re-roll when an Aristo attacks or uses an Action to target an opponent who is Marked by a member of your Team?
     
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  15. Ealthril

    Ealthril Well-Known Member
    Warcor

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    I read "Characters that perform an action against a Target affected by this state may only reroll a die from their roll if..."

    So I understand you get a reroll in the case you're compliant with the requirements below :
    - not being in contact with the target
    - having imposed the state to the target by one member of your team

    Maybe my English is not that good, but it's what I understand.
     
  16. Hecaton

    Hecaton EI Anger Translator

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    In English, this statement simply provides additional restrictions on when re-rolls can be made, it does not provide the re-roll in and of itself.
     
  17. AdmiralJCJF

    AdmiralJCJF Heart of the Hyperpower

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    I think that's the intent.

    But that is 100% not correct based on the actual English statement in the AGL rules.
     
  18. -V-

    -V- A! Team member
    CB Staff

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    Well, here I'm back again! I'm sorry about the delayed answer, but I've been on holiday.

    should read:

    In Spanish a "once" was added to harp on the rule about re-rolls (you only can re-roll the same die once).

    The main idea is that you may re-roll if you're not Adjacent to the :J:Marked Target and if the :J:Marked State was imposed by you (so you can use this State over your Allies and not put them in danger).

    Wording suggestions are welcome.

    :wink:
     
  19. AdmiralJCJF

    AdmiralJCJF Heart of the Hyperpower

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    That new wording seems fine.

    And does, indeed, buff the Marked imposing Aristos (so Eclypse and Bixie) which is good to see.
     
  20. Hecaton

    Hecaton EI Anger Translator

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    If you want someone to take a pass on the AGL and ITS documents for this sort of thing, let me know.
     
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