KRALL KICK BUTT!

For some reason, I am unable to access the page. Firefox is showing an "Insecure Connection" error.

Is it possible you have Avast? This is the only solution I could find: https://support.mozilla.org/da/questions/1104863

I can't load the champions' page either :<

I'm unable to reproduce the bug but I would recommend the solution I linked above.

Got it working. Shame nobody picked a summon, I would have liked to see how they work out. Although there's always the potential for Zeraxies to have it.

That said, I'm curious about how the Boxing Ring affects a few of the abilities. In particular are Chomp, Enchant, and abilities that trigger or last for a certain number of acts.
- Chomp already counts as an attack, so does that mean you can use Chomp twice at the same time? Or is Chomp only an attack in terms of interacting with other abilities (such as Critical Hit or Poisoned Attack)?
- How does Enchant work in this situation? Does the attack or the ability come first? Or can the fighter choose? Same question goes for all abilities, as this could create strategic combat for Critical Hit users (particularly for Mor'rok, Radiatas, and Vulkin).
- For effects that trigger whenever a fighter acts (Spiked Earth and Dark Curse), if that fighter attacks and uses an ability at the same time, does the effect trigger once or twice?
- For effects that last a number of acts (Haste), would the duration tick down once or twice?

My assumptions for the above are that the attack and abilities would be considered the same act and that it must be a general attack, meaning no double-Chomps and it only causes on-act effects to trigger once and only ticks down act-dependent durations by once. I also assume that you choose whether the attack or ability comes first, so Chomp/Critical Hit users can choose to when to use Chomp and ensure it's their critical hit for that act.

Boxing Ring will let you Chomp and attack at the same time. Chomp only counts as an attack for synergic abilities, it has no reason to behave differently than other abilities in this regard.

You choose whether the champion attacks or uses an ability first. As in the previous tournament, the champion always acts in the most beneficial order. So if Chomping after the attack would enable it for Critical Strike, then that's how it will happen. Same goes for Enchant.

Dark Curse and Spiked Earth does indeed trigger twice in the Boxing Ring. Ouch! Haste however is an exception to this rule since there is no time in-between the acts, the charge isn't consumed (and henceforth the act cannot come any faster).

Wow. To be honest, Spiked Earth is already an INCREDIBLY powerful ability, so having it trigger twice per action in the Boxing Ring is just going to bring it way over the top. I'm seeing Adam and Krall being this tournament's Garuganta; Spiked Earth REALLY benefits slower characters. Same goes for Tazul to a lesser extent, but since he's built for speed, Dark Curse doesn't really benefit him as much, but it gives him a dual strategy depending on if he's facing Adam or Krall or if it's a different opponent. Perhaps if it did 1x damage instead, or maybe only if the foe deals direct damage to Spiked Earth's user (as opposed to every time they act)? That'd make him still highly effective against foes like Azar, but less so against enemies like Blade who could use indirect damage to get around it.

That raises another question. As worded, Block and mana Barrier would reduce damage from DoTs and other indirect sources as well as direct sources. Is that the intent? I may have already asked this before but if so I don't recall the response.

At the least, it seems the powerhouses do have answers against them, but I'm already seeing Adam having a pretty major advantage, especially in the Boxing Ring.

I like that you used "this tournament's Garuganta" as an expression, haha. Much like with the previous tournament, I don't think I can accurately predict who will be the overpowered one---and nerfing an ability after I've reached out to everyone for their choices would be really impractical and undesired. That was after all the purpose of posting the abilities beforehand for review; and the purpose of the arenas is to introduce that element of unpredictability to the point where it can wreck someone getting the wrong battleground.

Further thoughts on that; I think the problem with the previous event was that there weren't enough arena variance, which didn't inject that much needed random element. The Boxing Ring only has a 20% chance of appearing, and I hope that it won't be the only arena which turns a match-up "crazy." But at this point, it's too late for me to inject anymore changes and I'll have to take any and all feedback from this event into the next.

And yes, Block and Mana Barrier reduces the damage from all sources while they're active. When they expire, the damage over time effect will go right back to its original damage. On further thought, I also think Block is going to be a key ability in negating abilities like Spiked Earth since it's so expensive and a lot of fighters have also picked Block.

Yeah, I think it's just a bit hard to balance something like this unless you go through every possible way to break it. There really was no way to know Spiked Earth would be so bloody nasty until we knew Boxing Ring would beef it up even further, forcing players to skip their bonus attacks until he's out of mana and can no longer refresh it, and that's assuming they survive through the whole assault. Essentially, I'm seeing Block as essential for making it through, as Mana Barrier doesn't kick in until you're already low on health anyway. I'd think Block/Mind Freeze/Frostbolt + Regenerate + Mana Barrier would be the best combo to handle him, but of course nobody has that particular combination of effects, so it's kind of moot.

Speaking of other moot points, I actually have a few questions for situations that won't ever come up since they're related to abilities nobody picked, but I'm just curious how it'd work anyway:

If you have Spiked Earth up on your opponent then Mind Freeze them, that causes their next act to fail, but would they still take Spiked Earth damage from the failed action?
If you Mind Freeze someone in the Boxing Ring, can they still perform a single action since they also get that additional attack?
How do minions interact with Spiked Earth? Do they receive the damage from it as well?

Spiked Earth wouldn't trigger with Mind Freeze since they fail to act.

Mind Freeze is probably the most problematic ability in the set. Since characters always act according to what's most beneficial, it would be best not to use an ability when Mind Frozen. But that would also imply the caster would never cast Mind Freeze to begin with until they have no other choice but to use the ability, forcing them into a deadlock.

Henceforth the ruling regarding Mind Freeze is that the character won't be aware of it, just as a character can't choose not to act against Spiked Earth. So in the Boxing Ring, Mind Freeze would always counter the first act, and then not interrupt the second act.

Spiked Earth was also originally phrased "enemy" instead of "opponent" to help imply it also affected minions; but since nobody picked the ability, I changed the phrasing.

Also, while it's not that difficult to figure it out, I think it'd be beneficial to list the fighters' class choices those who aren't sure. I do have to say I'm disappointed not to see any spellcasters, and to see that several fighters ended up using the same combinations, though there is a good bit of variety. I'd personally have loved to see a Spellcaster/Ranger or Berserker/Spellcaster with Summon Minion, Mana Barrier, and Focus/Regenerate.

I feel that due to the previous tournament, Speed was widely popular. Likewise, there's a strong number of anti-speed picks this time. I think my biggest regret in designing these abilities however is only making two options for mana regeneration, as it has made most builds fall back on Focus/Mana Barrier. But the abilities are certainly more interesting than the last tournament, and I'm sure they'll continue to get more interesting/diverse in the (far distant) future. ;P

I could have seen an ability that regenerates mana whenever the character takes damage within a particular threshold (like they gain 2 mana when they hit 20/40/60/80% health), so it'd be a stronger Mana Barrier but without the damage reduction. Or possibly something that regenerates mana whenever the foe uses an ability that consumes mana (probably 1 if the ability costs 3 or less, 2 if the ability costs 4 or more). Obviously a bit late to add such abilities and they'd need to be balanced out, but yeah.

Back in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 there was this talent called "Intelligence" which increased your amount of maximum mana by a percentage; I also like the idea of a talent that just rewards you for picking stats in a certain way, and having things that scale off your maximum mana by just having an enormous pool and being able to cast a ton of spells would seem fun. Of course, the challenge is also making such a system without making it too overcomplicated.

Since we're getting chatty about this I have to admit I would really like my next take on a tournament to be a game rather than an image-based event where you play as a protagonist, pick abilities and try to advance through all the fighters in the tournament to reach the "boss" at the end. I'm getting really proficient with Tyranobuilder so it might even be a possibility for my code-inexperienced self. :P

That actually would be very awesome! That'd also allow for ability and stat advancement, so the further into the tournament you get, the more abilities you can pick... but of course the same applies to your foes!