If Physical and Magic tag are present on an attack, the lower Protection should be targeted.

[trim gull]

Right now, if an attack has both a Physical tag (Melee/Physically Ranged) and a Magic tag, the higher Protection of the target is... targeted, as in, vs its Defense and Resistance, whichever is higher will count as the reduction for that attack.

This is currently, as far as I am aware, only a thing over on the Peacebringer on their Arrow of Harmony. This really makes this unit, which is already struggling, struggle yet even more.

In my opinion, the lower Protection should be targeted. This will help out the Peacebringer, but also allow to play with these tags to give certain units a unique application for their role in combat, making them far more flexible!

Prime targets are the Dragons. During the Beta, they temporarily had Magic Strikes, meaning they targeted Resistance (with damage being reduced to 28). That helped their issue of not really being able to deal much damage against other high Tier units, despite their fat stats. Well, this got reversed due to Dragon Lords not dealing Magic Strikes, and giving them that also just not working with their skills, etc., so that change was reversed.

So why not just make Dragon's (the units, not the Hero) main attack Melee/Magic? Would fit half towards the Dragon Lords attack type! If such tagging targets the lower Protection, this will make them at last truly good units amongst the T5 roster, and help them stand out more, too! Would need to adjust (lower) their damage a bit, of course. Could stay as a Physical/Elemental split, too!

Another prime target is the Transmuter. They are currently in a Tome that adds a lot of -Def, and they themselves apply -Def, but they cannot benefit from -Def anymore with the Scorpion Patch, which is really awkward. So Physically Ranged/Magic tag their main attack! Would not apply any unwanted enchantments, anyways, because they don't get those applied to their class in the first place, and it would make them stand out as a unique Battle Mage, at long last!

[slow agate]

M8, each time I read your balance suggestion it's well thought and very inspiring❤️

This one is no exception

[serene ferry]

Good idea. I'm all behind it.

[cosmic leaf]

yes please

[brisk wing]

Full support on this

[stoic turtle]

Incredibly well though out and I agree full heartedly

[frozen geyser]

Very nice idea !

[hard osprey]

Honestly this feels more like a bug/oversight than a intended mechanic.
I had no idea there were atacks with Phys/Magic tags at the same time. There definetly shouldnt be under the new system...

[trim gull]

Can confirm this is neither a bug or oversight. Was mentioned in the Scorpion patch notes.

[cosmic leaf]

I mean having some uniqueness with an attack that can do both is pretty cool, I don't think it should be removed

[hard osprey]

Thats why we have atacks that do phys+elememtal DMG chanels. Physical/Def and Magic/Res are meant to be abstractions for class balancing

There is zero reason the hybrid should exist under the new system, it completely defeats the purpouse of the rework.

[cosmic leaf]

it would defeat the purpose if everyone had it, not if just one class or a few units do

[cosmic leaf]

that isn't really equivalent after the rework to what i'm saying lol

[brisk wing]

Damage channels no longer have anything to do with whether the damage hits defense or resistance, it's entirely based on whether the attack has the Magic tag or not

I do think now that "Physical Ranged" has been renamed "Missile", it might be appropriate to apply it to all projectile attacks that currently have only the "Magic" tag

So we'd have the tag combinations of:

• Melee (hits Defense)
• Missile (hits Defense)
• Melee Magic (hits Resistance)
• Missile Magic (hits Resistance)

This would however remove this behavior of one attack potentially hitting either defense or resistance

"Projectiles" enchantments would target all attacks with "Missile" tag, "Arrows" enchantments would target attacks with only "Missile", and "Focus" enchantments would target attacks with both "Missile" and "Magic"

[hard osprey]

I know that. I was answering to the previous guy who said that "uniqueness" was achieved through boolean tags in tiny letters below the ability.
Attack is "magical" in nature/concept/feel through addition of elemental dmg.
The tags are internal programmer bull*t that we, as players, should interact the least possible with.

Under the previous system we didn't have to look at them AT ALL.
Now you look at it once to check if its "Missile" or "Magic", and forget about it.
Having both is like creating 2 locks with 2 keys and then trying to stick 2 keys into the same keyhole. Its absurd.

[slow agate]

Well, it's totally OK for some Mythics (like Dragons) to ignore this rule, cause Mythics are supposed to be "special".

We currently have a T4 racial mythic who is simultaneously a charge unit, a shield unit and a support. We even have a T3 charge unit who is also a fighter!

Some class blending is OK in some rare special cases, especially for Mythic units.

[south pine]

I mean the point here is that something that is both physical and magic is a bit odd with the defence and resistance changes but it was also odd before that tbh, as it had a very minor effect on abilities until vampires (as units basically just got to use strong and arcane focus on the same attack and nothing else really.)

[hard osprey]

You are talking about a UNIT, tags are property of specific ABILITY of that UNIT. If one ability has Magic and other Missile thats completely fine by me. Hell, you can have one of each for all I care, but they shouldn't be on the same ability.

[trim gull]

Well, I disagree if it is on very specific units, less than a handful. For now, I would only go for the two that I suggested for unique balance to make those units the 'flexible' ones.

Should be extremely rare, but I am not against multi-tagging abilities.

[cosmic leaf]

well, very rude way to take what I said, and unnecessary to boot as I certainly didn't match that
but like if your problem is with having to read a tag I don't even know what to say, extremely weird gripe to have in a strategy game, especially considering how often having a tag (like base for example) completely changes a unit use-case or interaction with enchantments and buffs

far from 'internal programmer bs' considering how much synergy one tag or another can add into a Unit

[slow agate]

To be fair, I myself learnt that Peacebringer's special arrow has both magic and physical ranged tags from Discord The same goes for Warlock's curse being single shot unlike, say, Evoker's lightning.

I'm not always reading tags, sometimes I do, sometimes I just assume I get the general idea of how they are assigned and moving forward using my assumptions.

That's being a programmer myself, I just hate to RTFM

[eager lichen]

Might be easier to make all effects only target defense or resistance not both