Work-in-progress Balance Changes for August 2022 (Season 38)

Similar to the previous balance changes, we’ll be having work-in-progress balance changes before they get finalized. From now until Tuesday July 26th, you are encouraged to leave your feedback in the Comment section below.

We will read all of your comments on our blog post and on social media to see if there is a strong consensus among players — and will send your feedback to the balance team. Supercell will then make their final adjustments before locking them for August.

Here are all of the balances, together with the reasoning behind them. Make sure to leave a comment — because your opinions will count!

Seasonal content will be released next week.

Table of Contents

• Elixir Golem (Rework)
• Prince (Buff)
• Mega Knight (Buff)
• Executioner (Buff)
• Ice Golem (Buff)
• Golden Knight (Nerf)
• Skeleton King (Nerf)
• Electro Giant (Nerf)
• Fireball (Nerf)
• Fireball Interaction vs Balloon
• Fire Spirit (Nerf)
• Feedback

Elixir Golem (Rework)

0-0-4 to 1-1-2

The core challenge with balancing Elixir Golem is that the troop deals too much damage before the opponent can regain the Elixir needed to defend their towers — and when the total elixir is finally given, it’s already too late and the towers are usually taken. With this new balance, the timing when the opponent will gain that 4 elixir will be more evenly distributed. They will gain their first elixir sooner to allow more opportunities to defend the attack, while keeping core mechanic of the card intact (defeating blobs will grant elixir).

Before the balance, when you’re defending an Elixir Golem, you’ll only get the 4 elixir at the last phase. After the balance, you’ll start gaining elixir after you have defeated the blob from the first stage. Then you’ll get another elixir from the second stage, with the last stage giving 2 elixir.

The total elixir gained from all stages will still be 4, but the time when you’ll receive them will be earlier than right now.

In other words, the elixir release will be going from 0-0-4 to 1-1-2. By itself, this elixir redistribution is a nerf, so the team has decided to buff the hitpoints of the first two stages of the blobs. The Big Blob in Stage 1 will gain 9% HP. The Medium Blobs in Stage 2 will gain 6% HP.

Upon release, Supercell will closely monitor these stats to see if this makes the troop overly weak / strong and see if additional balances are needed.

Did you know? This was my rework idea! I have suggested this specific rework to Supercell as early as December 2019 and I’m really thrilled to see that they have finally decided to try it! 😱 Of course, I have no idea if this will work, though I believe that this should adequately address the core problems when defending against Elixir Golem, which is best described as “too little too late”!

	Before	After
Elixir Release	0-0-4	1-1-2
Blob 1 Elixir Release	0 each	1 each
x1	0 total	1 total
Blob 2 Elixir Release	0 each	0.5 each
x2	0 total	1 total
Blob 3 Elixir Release	1 each	0.5 each
x4	4 total	2 total
Blob 1 HP +8.8%	680	740
Blob 1 HP Level 11	1441	1568
Blob 1 HP Level 14	1910	2079
Blob 2 HP +5.9%	340	360
Blob 2 HP Level 11	720	763
Blob 2 HP Level 14	955	1011
Blob 3 HP 0.0%	170	170
Blob 3 HP Level 11	360	360
Blob 3 HP Level 14	477	477

Prince (Buff)

With so many bait cards in the meta right now, usage of Prince has plummeted. Supercell hopes that a faster charge will help with his usage.

My take: personally, I find Prince to be very matchup-specific. He’s not that weak of a card, and if players are not picking him because the swarmy meta, then increasing his stats will not necessarily help with his usage.

	Before	After
Charge	3.5 tiles	3 tiles

Mega Knight (Buff)

Ever since Mega Knight’s last nerf, his overall performance has dropped a bit. Supercell feels that nerfing the initial spawn damage is the right direction, so that aspect is here to stay. After the balances, Mega Knight will jump faster than before, thus making it more difficult to kite him with cheap troops.

	Before	After
Jump Cooldown (0.2 sec faster)	1.1 sec	0.9 sec

Executioner (Buff)

Executioner has had one of the worst win rates in the game, so he’ll be getting a range buff in this balance. Increasing his axe range to 7.5 tiles will give him the same projectile range as Bowler, while the duration of the axe in the air will stay the same as it is right now.

	Before	After
Max Range +1 tile	6.5 tiles	7.5 tiles

Ice Golem (Buff)

Right now, Ice Golem is barely used anywhere except in Hog 2.6. Supercell wanted players to be more creative with deck building, and hopes that by increasing the Death Slow Effect will see him being used in more decks. Adding 0.5 seconds is significant — that’s a solid +50% increase!

	Before	After
Death Slow Effect +0.5 sec +50%	1 sec	1.5 sec

Golden Knight (Nerf)

Golden Knight has been really strong in the meta for the past few seasons. Players have used him for tanking, dashing, dealing damage, charging… It’s like a must-have for any deck! He’ll get a -10% health reduction so that he can be eliminated more easily.

	Before	After
HP -10.0%	2000	1800
HP Level 11	2000	1800
HP Level 14	2660	2394

Skeleton King (Nerf)

Skeleton King remains strong in the meta, so his maximum skeleton count will be reduced by 2 again. After balances, he’ll spawn a maximum of 16 skeletons. It will be almost the same as Skeleton Army, which currently has 15 units.

My take: nerfing the maximum skeleton count in SK’s ability might not really help with his effectiveness. Instead, I think that removing his minimum ability skeleton count would be a more meaningful nerf. Let’s see if Supercell agrees.

	Before	After
Maximum Resurrected Skeletons -2	18	16

Electro Giant (Nerf)

Mirror + Electro Giant had been dominating in the current meta — so much so that it had propelled Electro Giant to become the most popular win condition on Top Ladder for the June season.

Despite Mirror’s dominance in the meta, Supercell feels happy about Mirror having finally found its spot to allow interesting gameplay opportunities, and is reluctant to modify Mirror again.

For now, the team has decided to nerf EGiant instead. After balance, the damage that is reflected towards enemy towers will decrease by 33%. Everything else will remain the same.

	Before	After
Reflection Tower Damage -33%	120	80
Reflection Tower Damage Level 11	192	128
Reflection Tower Damage Level 14	254	169

Fireball (Nerf)

Fireball is one of the most popular spells that has been a dominant force in the meta. In contrast to Poison, which deals damage over time but inflicts a larger amount overall, Fireball kills its target immediately and has a very strong pushback.

So that players will consider other spells specifically for this purpose — e.g. Snowball or tornado — Fireball will be getting a pushback nerf from 1.8 tiles to 1 tile. That’s a -44% nerf!

	Before	After
Pushback -44%	1.8 tiles	1 tile

Fireball Interaction vs Balloon

After balance, it’s still possible to push back Balloon and eliminate the hit — you have exactly 0.2 seconds to do so.

Fire Spirit (Nerf)

Players who play in competitive have long complained about the amount of damage Fire Spirit deals — so it will receive a -9% damage reduction after balances. It will still kill Goblins after the nerf, and will not have other major interaction changes, but will deal a lot less damage to your towers, and thus also toning down Furnace quite a bit.

	Before	After
Damage -9.0%	89	81
Damage Level 11	227	207
Damage Level 14	301	274

Feedback

What do you think about these balances?

Be sure to let us know in the comment section if you like / dislike the changes. We will summarize all of your comments as an executive summary to Supercell — especially if there are strong and collective consensus among players. Make sure to write your opinions before Tuesday July 26 — which is the deadline for feedback considerations.

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