Castle of Clans
Welcome to the new Clash of Clans Balancing Blog! Going forward, each update will now be accompanied by an in-depth explanation of the gameplay changes we are making. We’re planning to be a lot more active in terms of balancing troops, defenses and gameplay in 2016. Rather than only waiting for major updates, we'll be regularly addressing offense/defense balance, troop viability and more, with the goal of keeping attacks interesting, exciting and rewarding of player skill. We especially look forward to improving the dev team's communication to players with this effort!
Here are some of the upcoming changes in more detail:
TOWN HALL 11
• Grand Warden Life Aura and Eternal Tome range reduced slightly
The Grand Warden's massive ability range and unique AI have made him a unit where placement doesn't matter as much as it should. A slight reduction in his range should help make Clash’s newest Hero a bit more challenging to place and play effectively.
TOWN HALL 10+
• Inferno Tower Multi-mode acquires new targets faster
The Inferno Tower Multi-mode re-targeting delay was initially added a long time ago due to overwhelming effectiveness against Witches. With the latest Witch level in armies and donations, however, a speed increase is needed to help bring the defense back in-balance with even larger hordes of Skeletons.
• Town Hall 10 and 11 players are less likely to find each other in Multiplayer
Now that more players have progressed to Town Hall 11, we can make adjustments to matchmaking that will result in less TH11/10 matchups. Note that players in Champion league and above will not be affected.
TOWN HALL 9+
• All Skeleton hitpoints reduced
Skeletons should be a fragile unit that overcome their inability to survive damage by sheer numbers. However their hitpoints were just a sliver too high, preventing Archer Towers from destroying them with a single arrow in some cases. The hitpoint decrease will make sure that Archer Towers stay effective against Skeleton hordes.
• Skeletons spawned from Witches no longer trigger traps
One of the Clash of Clans development values is Depth. This means that it should take well-thought armies, strategic deployment and mastery of troop behavior to achieve the best results. If we find a single troop, single spell army with a single deployment strategy (Earthquake and mass-Witch) semi-reliably 3-starring maxed out defenses, something is out of balance. Sometimes simple HP and DPS tweaks can solve the issue, but sometimes something more is needed to bring units into balance in the right way, without making them obsolete.
This was the example with the Hog Rider before we introduced the 1.5x damage from Giant Bombs. Rather than simply making the unit too weak to be useful at all, this extra gameplay twist required Hog Rider enthusiasts to play with more skill to avoid traps and pull off a sweet 3-star Hog Rush. In a similar way, making Skeletons not trigger traps will leave mass-Witch armies vulnerable to an abrupt end via traps, unless the attacker carefully charts out potential hazards or uses a more diverse army to clear the way ahead.
• Goblin level 6 has been moved to Town Hall 9 (was TH10)
We've been a bit stingy with the Goblin levels. Goblin-lovers represent!
• X-Bow levels 2-4 damage increased
Once upon a time, the X-Bow was the most menacing defense in Clash. Now, with ultra-tanky Giants, Golems and Lava Hounds, X-Bows could use a bit of a boost to help stay relevant at later levels, especially as TH9 defense balance hinges upon them. The X-Bow previously rode just under Archer Tower DPS per TH level, but these changes put it slightly over.
TOWN HALL 8+
• Valkyrie damage increased, hitpoints decreased
We're trying to win a place in people's armies with one of Clash of Clans' least used troops. A general DPS increase sweetens the prospect, but the big difference is below, and is balanced by the hitpoints decrease.
• Valkyrie starts attacking much faster after reaching her target - give her a try!
Valkyrie is a unit that runs in deep and hits hard, positing herself dangerously, often recklessly, to maximize her spin-attack damage. However, her wind-up speed has been so long that often groups of Valkyries spend more time waiting to attack (and dying) than actually dealing damage. With this change, the Valkyrie will launch into her spin much faster once she reaches that prime position, making her a much snappier, more reactive and nimble troop.
