July 22, 2021  July 23, 2021

The Beginning of 5th Age PvP

The past year has been a time of adjustment and change for the PvP community. From the introduction of Turn-based to the most recent spell and treasure card audit, it has become clear what the developers want in the beginning of 5th Age PvP gameplay experience: A fair and balanced gameplay experience that involves strategy and not just RNG as we’ve seen in the past. The start of a new era is upon us, and I for one, am looking forward to it.

5th Age PvP is looking to become balanced for the first time in a decade. Losing to a “maycast” or a black mantle should not occur nearly as much as it used to. When you lose to an aura cast off a pet or a weapon cast that steals your pips, the game isn’t very enjoyable. Now that the impact of RNG is lower, strategy becomes much more important. The games in this new meta show an increase in games won by skill and better deck cycling. PvP is headed in the right direction.

Spell and Treasure Card Audit

The continuation of Spell Audits in the game has had a vast impact on the game both in PvP and in PvE. Spells being nerfed or buffed as a result of these audits have already helped rebalance the meta. The Spring Update changed many spells and added new ones in an effort to rebalance the game. The standardization of blades and global spells have both created a meta in which every school’s damage is more in line with their class identity. For example, ice can no longer deal more damage with an Abominable Weaver than a Rusalka with just a single blade or global damage buff.

The Shift in the Bubble War

The Global spell additions of Circle of Thorns and Deadzone now allow for Death and Life to fight for “Bubble control”. They also allow these schools to gain a buff previously unavailable to them. Speaking of Global spell changes, the other change was likely intended as a “nerf” was the change to Sanctuary. The spell went from being a 3 pip global spell that boosted outgoing healing by 60% to a 2 pip 35% boost instead. Life is now the only school with two different spells at 2 pips to maintain bubble control. This along with the introduction of the spell Infestation, a 4 pip hit and bubble, makes life a very difficult school to combat for control of the global buff.

       

One of the other major differences is the banning of treasure card global spells. Any treasure card that changed the bubble or hit and then changed the bubble, such as Brown Spider or Red Ghost has been made no PvP. The only exceptions are Power Play and Hephaestus. I would say Balance is buffed because of this but.. well… Power Play is definitely the worst bubble in the game, and Fire’s Hephaestus is 5 pips. Regardless, this keeps the bubble war more strategic for the most part. Players have to know when they can afford to fight bubble and whether they can safely discard them. The game isn’t decided by whoever packed more bubbles in their sidedeck anymore.

The Blade Nerf

The change in blades is a very different story from the change in global spells. Blades being standardized to 35% is a step towards fixing the damage for each school. Ice having weaker hits but dealing more damage than fire or storm made no sense. We all know the PvE community may be a bit upset over this change, but it is for the best. To the Ice wizards who are questing on their own, it’s only one more blade than before. You will be fine!

Along with the blade nerfs, there was one that did get buffed up from before. Storm’s blade being buffed to 35% is huge! The extra 5% is damage, and damage means everything for storm. This will bring you one step closer to defeating your opponent a round sooner.

The Side Deck Philosophy

Along the lines of this audit, we also have the Treasure Card changes. Since many Treasure Cards were banned or nerfed beyond usability, players are scrambling to figure out what to put in their side deck. Spells like Cold Iron and Chimenea no longer being legal confused many players, including myself, at first. However, I now understand the reasoning behind this. These treasure cards, commonly referred to as “Potboiler” spells have been reworked as craftable beastmoon recipes. The side deck is becoming exactly what it’s name entails. Expect more spells intended for a specific matchup in the side deck as opposed to these undercosted, overly efficient, shield breakers.

       

For example, Myth can no longer spam Rat Illusionist or Yellow Troll to break shields and gives themselves additional buffs. Ice wizards have lost many Treasure cards from earlier updates such as Icebird and Polar Swarm. Their deck builds have changed significantly with each update. The reliance on putting up two blades and a Global buff into an overtime for an open hit now requires more pips. With Polar Swarm and Ice Elf no longer legal, they are forced to use Frostbite.

   

Players already started packing more shields and blades in the side deck as well as spells for more specific situations. Spells like Earthquake for blade stack, Triage for heavy damage overtimes, and Empower for weaknesses are situational spells that have been seeing more play. Thus, games become more about counterplay and strategy. The better deck builder and deck cycler should have the upper hand. While deck fails will still happen from time to time, this will likely be the only form of RNG that could cost you the match.

The New Best Pets

Meta Pets

What players defined as the “Meta Pet” for each school has drastically changed with the Spring Update. Many desirable pets will now sit in their owners bank waiting for their time to shine another day.

Here is an example of one of the more popular fire pets for max level at the moment. “Using Fire-Sniper on a pet? You must be crazy!” But alas, I am not. Fire used to rely on using gear sets with ridiculously high amounts of damage to just kill their opponent as quickly as possible. Due to the stat change, they can’t do this reliably anymore and now have to use different gear to get higher resist. Because of this, they start to lack in other needed stats, such as accuracy. A couple years ago, this pet may have been laughable and probably just a ‘failed pet’ that otherwise might’ve ended up being trashed.

Maycast Talents

One thing you may also notice on the above pet is the lack of any maycast talent, specifically, the school aura maycasts (Reliquary, Furnace etc.) These auras were often game breaking and the deciding factor in who won any given match. These auras are still used from time to time, so don’t dismiss them quite yet. However, they are not optimal pets anymore. Many players have been trading it off for either a different maycast, Armor Breaker or even Mighty to boost the other talents on their pet.

A lot of players use maycast Balanceblade, as this seems to still cast consistently throughout a match. The same thing goes for other school blade casts (Fireblade, mythblade etc.) Other maycast talents some players still use include Pierce, Steal Ward, and even Shatter. Even though those pet talents still don’t cast that much, the are powerful effects that happen often enough to be viable. It is up to you if you want to give up some stats on your pet for one of these casts. For me personally, I’m not a fan of RNG on your pet in PvP, but I can understand the appeal.

These maycast talents are also a risk at the moment since they could be nerfed (reduced in cast rate) at any time by the devs. For example, maycast Balanceblade as well as Dragonlance were reduced in a recent smaller update.

Kroger Jewels

Continuing on the topic of maycasts, we also have The Kroger Jewels. What is a Kroger Jewel? These jewels come from the $20 gift cards found at your local Safeway and Fred Meyers. Specifically the jewels for the month of June and July being the Chi Focus Jewel and the Undauntable Jewel. These jewels, while not necessary, have become a huge part of the PvP. Going into 5th Age PvP, many players need this jewel in order to compete. These dual talent pet jewels have a huge impact on matches due to each of them having their own unique, and often powerful maycast attached to them. While the maycast alone is not the reason to use the jewel, it very much makes them more desirable.

The Chi Focus Jewel is used to complete many setups where their pip chance is lacking behind, but the maycast talent is just gravy on top. The cast on the jewel is maycast “Dragonlance,” a powerful damage and pierce blade combo. It casts often enough to decide matches on its own. The same thing goes for the Undauntable Jewel. Spell Defy is one talent most players desire on their PvP pets, so the maycast Brace talent is free and just an added bonus.

Is 5th Age PvP ready?

5th Age PvP is right around the corner, but there is still much work to be done. More spell audits are ahead of us and many more factors of the game need to be rebalanced. An upcoming gear audit this summer is something to look forward to as certain stats start to change. Wands with some horrendous maycasts (looking at you, Outlaw’s Courtesy) will either be made “No PvP” in the same way as the Sinbad wandss maycast, or greatly reduced in its cast rate. All we need is for more players to see the effort they’re putting into PvP and give it a try. More players in the queue equals much shorter wait times and a healthier meta.

What are your thoughts? Is the meta headed in the right direction? Do you agree with the treasure card bans? Feel free to comment below. I would love to hear other opinions on what 5th Age PvP is looking to become or what they would do differently if they were in Kingsisle’s shoes. Until next time, happy peeving!

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I3and1t

Having played the game back in 2009 as a child, Bandit returned in the summer of 2020. A true enthusiast of the game, Bandit has been a fan of the PvP meta development and enjoys analyzing the meta . If he's not in the arena, spectating or competing in a match himself, then he's likely grinding for gear or spells. While no expert at PvP, he's always on top of what the best gear setups and strategies are at any given time.

5 COMMENTS

  • Raccoon Reply

    All this turtling or stalling other players needs to stop!
    they are making it harder for other players to kill or defeat them.
    most players have been acting very selfish to others for no apparent reason at all!

  • Chris Frost Reply

    All of these updates are far too late. It’s disappointing how basic PvP changes most players had wanted took nearly 10 years to add (such as turn-based for ranked PvP). Where are those players now? Most likely gone. I’m glad they’re putting in some effort to balance PvP now (astonishing how this took 11 years), but I do dislike some of the changes. I’ll share my opinion on everything mentioned:
    Spell and Treasure Card Audit:
    Most of the audits I’ve been in favor of, with few exceptions. One would be Rusulka’s Wrath. The negative charm being removed was great, players like myself I believe had been asking for it’s removal because it made the powerful shadow spell too luck-reliant (RNG being a major problem in PvP) but keeping the positive charm aspect of the spell as a “may-or-may-not” happen part of the spell disappointed me. I don’t understand why the developers are so insistent on keeping luck as a strong aspect of PvP. All it does is make players rage more and blame the game’s luck component instead of thinking about improving skill or strategy.
    The Shift in the Bubble War:
    Great changes here, giving the schools who didn’t have a shot at bubble control the proper spells to utilize. A note though: I don’t think the game was ever decided on “whoever packed more bubbles in their sidedeck”, but it’s as important to pack bubbles heavily now, if not more important than before. Bubble control hasn’t changed, the only difference is more schools have access to bubbles now. We’re still in a “spam bubble” meta where players are opting for the Darkmoor deck over others to pack maximum bubbles.
    The Blade Nerf:
    Good changes for PvP, but this goes with removing each school’s identity to some extent. Also, the PvE community has every right to be very upset over this, I believe this should’ve been a PvP-only change. No reason why this should’ve been changed in PvE.
    The Side Deck Philosophy:
    Agree with most of what’s said here, until the last sentence. “While deck fails will still happen from time to time, this will likely be the only form of RNG that could cost you the match.” There will still be numerous other RNG forms that will cost you the match, as always.
    The New Best Pets:
    Meta pets are still a thing. A small group of talents are still far superior compared to the rest of talents available. Damage changes reducing the effectiveness of the damage stat? Everyone moves to a pierce talent instead of a 6% damage one. May casts rates nerfed? Bring back spell defy or mighty into the meta pet’s pool.
    -Maycast Talents:
    Glad we can agree that RNG on pets in PvP is not something to be a fan of. Reducing the rates of these maycasts is only a minor step, they should not activate in PvP at all in honor of fairness in the arena.
    -Kroger Jewels:
    Agree that players need this jewel in order to compete. This game is strongly pay to win, no surprise here.
    Is 5th Age PvP ready?
    Yes, much more work is needed, but myself along with a few other players think it’s ridiculous how it’s taking this long. Another thing I’d like to comment on is who exactly is doing the balancing, spell audits, and controlling whether or not RNG is a heavy factor in PvP. To my understanding it’s Ratbeard, who I’ve heard has not made it to Warlord rank on a single character yet. I think someone with so little experience in PvP won’t understand what the veteran PvP players want, giving someone who has not made it past warlord the final decision choice on so many PvP updates is unhealthy for the game. Though it might attract some new players, the veterans will begin to leave when their voices go unheard for so long.
    I also noticed another comment regarding “players with pvp gear making others look bad” and I agree completely. Gatekeeping in PvP gets us nowhere at all. Specifically, RANK EXCLUSIVE items are a major problem. A level 50 without warlord gear stands NO CHANCE against a level 50 with the warlord gear, which could’ve been bought in a previous age with their previous rank anyways (undeserved?) (promotes boosting?) there are major issues with this. Ratbeard’s take on rank-exclusive items is unbelievable. When asked about Solar Surge, why this EXTREMELY IMPORTANT PvP spell in almost EVERY active PvP player’s deck, he ignorantly replied “Just go rank up and get it” and that players should “stop whining about it”. This was a disgusting response, rank-exclusive items and spells that are ESSENTIAL in PvP setups DETER new players from ever trying PvP, because from the start, they’ll be at a disadvantage against others in the arena & there’s nothing they can do about it besides maybe boost.

    • Polymorph Bandit Reply

      First off, I apologize for the late response. A lot has changed in a month. I’ll try and respond to most of what you’ve said here.

      First off, Rushulka needed to feel different than just a simple shadow hit that does damage. If it was just a flat 1350, it wouldn’t be any different than any other storm spell.

      With the bubble war, I probably should have worded it better. I didn’t mean that they didn’t matter as much. It is true most games end up decided by whoever won control of the bubble war, but timing was much more important than before. If you start it, then your opponent may assume you have multiple in hand and won’t fight it for a few more turns to clog your hand as well as eventually force you to discard them.

      OKAY. BLades. I get it that many PvE players were upset about this change. If you are soloing on life or ice, it definitely got a little harder. However to touch on your specific point of “school identity” I would argue that standardizing blades puts the schools MORE in line with that. Ice for example could actually do more damage than storm because they had a bigger blade. 10% may not seem like much, but in reality if you stack up multiple blades for a ice with maximum damage, they could actually hit for more than a storm or a fire without factoring in critical.
      They only have to blade one more time than before to make up for that damage nerf to their blade. Same thing goes for life.

      While I do still believe that RNG isn’t great for the game, the reasoning given for still having some amount of RNG makes a lot of sense. It has been stated that without it, games become very regular and very predictable. PvP will eventually become stale and boring if every game is the same. Having a maycast happen here or there isn’t going to completely wreck the meta.

      Thankfully the kroger jewels aren’t as needed as they were during the month of July. The Dragonlance and Brace jewel were both nerfed in their cast rates. While they are still good to have, they are no longer 100% necessary to compete.

      I do agree, all of these changes were long overdue. While Ratbeard may not be a PvP expert, he is doing his best as are the rest of the devs. Him and Eric Stormbringer are both working on the game for balancing purposes. Just look at storm now. It went from being one of the worst schools to being very good. Thunderman was a huge boost to the school.

      Solar Surge is something I didn’t touch on. my honest opinion is that the spell should not be locked behind a ranking. However, if the shadow spell change that many players are talking about does happen (shadow enhanced spells may become unenchantable), surge won’t be as needed as before, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

  • Dragon Reply

    there are players abusing the pvp system and they’re using it to bully and intimidate other players.
    they’re using the pvp gear to make the less fortunate or losing players look bad.
    in other words using them to mock players that are on a losing streak! Something needs to change.

    • Polymorph Bandit Reply

      I agree. That kind of attitude towards other players is very disappointing to see. Everyone always talks about in game plays being toxic such as using 90% resist or spamming shields or heals. But the true toxic part of the game comes from those that find it fun to attack others for playing the game differently than they do.

      Its one thing to explain to them why one piece of gear is better than another. It’s much worst when they straight up tell them that they are bad for it.

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