Tower Defense needs a rework

[crimson cradle]

Now before I get thelendor havers in here complaining, I just want to say, I think it's fine to have one champion that is above and beyond the best at a piece of content, and I'm glad thelendor is having his time to shine, but the underlying mechanics of tower defense mode need to be reworked, and here's why.

In a tower defense mode, typically you are rewarded for your strategic positioning, timing, use of abilities, and terrain. This tower mode is so basic that I wonder if the developers just phoned it in on this one. I was super excited to play tower defense within dragonheir. I looked forward to it all season 2, but as somebody who has also played Watcher of Realms, I have to say that I am really disappointed in the lack of development that went into this.

Here are some potential changes that could make tower defense more interesting and viable longterm.

1. The enemies need to be able to damage you. This creates a dynamic where you not only have to bring your best DPS characters, but you need to think about support units and healers as well.

2. Melee units should be placed on the ground, ranged units above. Melee units should act as blockers for up to 'x' numbers of running units, and they should take damage from the monsters that are blocking them.

3. Add a boss monster at the end of the final wave, one that does a ton of damage and has a ton of hitpoints. This is what will separate the highscores ranking. Who lets the least amount of monsters through and who does the most damage to the boss the fastest. The boss can change every week or whatever and have different elemental weaknesses or conditions that favour certain builds over others each week.

4. Blade colisseum was a resounding success. It's such a fun activity that gets a lot of players involved, and being mostly equalized and balanced means even low spenders can participate and do well. I'm not saying tower defense needs to be that, but I would love to see a pve game mode similar to colisseum where you draft teams / champions / gear and we do pve boss rush or horde invasion challenges, with a hiscores attached. This wouldn't be as strictly scheduled or timed as colisseum because it's a solo event.

Anyways, /endrant. I think there is a golden opportunity within dragonheir to make some truly magnificent content, and I hope the developers will read this suggestion. The way tower mode and Ancestral ruins are set up right now they become just boring time-sinks with some loot attached.

Also fix ancestral ruins please ❤️ If you need suggestions on how to do so, I'd be happy to offer them

By the way, I think Thelendor would still be the best champion in this new tower defense mode, but the more depth of strategy and positioning and timing that is added to the mode means that players with skill and knowledge and planning will at least have an edge and the mode will be a lot more enjoyable in general.

[fast river]

Great that you raise this issue. The tower defense is imbalanced and not particularly fun. Plenty of room for improvement

[slim pollen]

100% correct

[golden kestrel]

The mode that requires one specific exclusive character should not be a thing

[hollow raptor]

Thanks for writing this, completely agree with rework.

1 - 2. I guest that makes sense in a way that there is no reason to bring supports or tanks now. But also I would allow melee units to move around as not to be in such huge disadvantage for melee dmg dealers (similar how summon units run around). Here would be also opportunity for support and tanks based on the defensive buffs or control effects to limit number of monsters passing etc.

3. With addition to boss monster, I would maybe also suggest flying vs ground monsters, where only ranged would be able to to damage flying etc.

4. I think actually some addition of ancestral ruins buffs for clearing a stage would be great in tower defense. Because now it is just automatic clear. It would be good to get some coins to get buffs, upgrades or even buy more or revive heroes. I don't see a reason, why it needs to be limited to 5 heroes only in this mode.

5. I would also add elemental buffs/debuffs, so some type of monsters take less dmg from radiant element etc. Then with my suggestion in point 4, you could be running different elements or schools, so it's not as easy as just putting in one element and win based on gear/inspiration/exclusive hero.

6. It's completely fine to have one strong hero like thelendor, but it completely kills need for strategic gameplay. It might be even easier fix for now to just split rewards too different elements, where you can get rewards from your best performing element (similar to dungeon speedrunning), so there is actually a competition for people who don't have him.

[crimson cradle]

Good suggestions. My only take is that it appears the devs don't want to put a huge amount of effort into maintaining or balancing these game modes, so something simple is likely the best solution (if they decide to take any action at all that is), so I'd rather just see them fix it up a bit rather than have to create an entirely new complex system of buff structures that will become imbalanced later on.

I'd love to see them implement some of these suggestions, but realistically they may not even do this much, so the bare minimum I think is to change the spawn mechanic of the monsters so it isn't reliant on killing them instantly on spawn to gain the best score possible (thelendor spam casting).

I really do hope they take some of the feedback to mind and change the mode, because right now between tower defense and ancestral ruins, they have two very big opportunities to make something exciting and entertaining and FUN inside the game, but they are currently just click-chores that waste time and force us to do stuff because the rewards are too good to pass up.

[urban tendon]

Missed opportunity here with current tower being just goblins but different layout. Different enemies, bosses for waves with different mechanics can make this mode so much more fun!