Last 2 dark spells, alternatives to Heal and Freeze!
After taking a moment to look at the dark spells more closely, I realized that each of them is simply and alternative to an already existing elixir spell. The earthquake is simply an alternative to jump, the haste is simply an alternative to rage (in terms of air attacks) and the poison outright replaces lightning in terms of killing clan troops. Supercell obviously made these alternatives on purpose in order to reduce our overall brew times. Take haste instead of rage or EQ instead of jump and your brew times will be reduced. Not only that, but clearly they balanced these spells to be more or less effective than their counterpart depending on the specific situation.
With this in mind, I am wiling to assume that the last 2 dark spells will be an alternative to heal and freeze respectively. Both of them simply buy your troops more time, so both of the alternatives will do the same thing. These spells may seem redundant, but again, they are meant to bring diversity to the table, allowing your overall brew time to be reduced by utilizing both spell factories at once.
Dark spell 4 idea, damage reduction spell (alternative to heal):
- All allied units within the radius of the spell will take reduced damage from all defending buildings or units for a period of time. Like rage and haste, a unit will benefit from the spell for a few seconds after leaving its radius. The radius of the spell, its duration, its % damage reduction and the benefits of upgrading would be left to supercell's balancing. Its ultimate goal is the same as the heal spell, to buy your units more time.
Obviously the exact set of defenses you are facing might call for one over the other, but the main difference between this spell and the heal spell would be the time of deployment. Obviously you use heal when the units are lower on HP and they'll heal back up and benefit fully from the spell. The damage reduction spell, on the other hand, should be deployed soon after a group of units takes damage or just before they start taking damage. In addition, it would be unwise to use a queen's cloak while standing in its radius. Rather, if used over the queen, it should be used the instant she's about to take damage and save her ability for when the reduction spell is about to fade.
Dark spell 5 idea, slow spell (alternative to freeze):
- Like the freeze spell, this spell would be used on buildings and will literally reduce their rate of fire by a certain percentage. The slow spell would work on all defensive buildings, heroes and CC troops. This would obviously be best used on a small group of defenses that pose an immediate threat to your attack. Its radius, duration, % attack speed lost and upgrading benefits would be left to supercell's balancing.
Obviously it would be similar enough to freeze to where people would assume one is always better than the other, but if the radius was to be made drastically larger or the duration much longer while keeping the benefit low, it would cause many to make a priority of testing and balancing the benefits depending on the base structure. It should be noted that one could also combine spells like damage reduction and slow, or spells like heal and slow to make for an even more impervious army.
Now I would prefer to see these spells as early as TH8, but since haste require TH9, these will certainly require TH9 at a minimum. Requiring a lower TH level would certainly increase opportunities to test the new spells and create opportunities to identify their strengths. Now I don't actually expect these spells to be made, but I think I at least proved my point about dark spells simply being alternatives to elixir spells. Thank you for reading.