It's another challenge from The People's Guild and the themes get more and more exciting. This time, it's about Dominion and abilities that affect multiple units.
Before I start with my ideas for the new abilities, I'd like to first introduce an additional "state" in the battle system. This would be the Night and Day Cycle.
How would the Night and Day Cycle work? Whenever a player selects a domineer card in the lineup, the Night and Day Cycle would automatically activate. Each round, the cycle would alternately change from night to day. The purpose of this mechanic is that the new abilities that I would introduce activate on certain active time periods. I group them into two.
Day Cycle:
Life - Water - Earth
Night Cycle
Fire - Death - Dragon
My inspiration for this idea comes mainly from Warcraft 3 where stats and effectiveness of some abilities shift depending on the time of the day. There's also the night stalker, Balanar, from DOTA who unlocks his full potential during the night.
Finally, the character from the Seven Deadly Sins anime, Escanor, gains progressively stronger powers the closer it gets to noon. This is probably one of the coolest ability mechanic of an anime character that I've ever seen and it would be awesome if something like this finds its way to Splinterlands.
Anyway, here are the seven next abilities for each splinter:
Repentance - Life
Remove all negative effects from all life units. This ability activates only during daytime.
- During the holiest of days, the devoted are pardoned of sins and earthly burdens.
Wizardry - Water
As long as it is daytime, all allied water units gain +2 magic damage.
- The old scholars and magicians gain complete focus under the luminance of the brilliant sun.
Derangement - Earth
As long as it is daytime, all allied earth units gain +2 melee and enrage.
- In the heat of a skirmish, the children of the earth drop all tactics and let their feral nature take control.
Hysteria - Fire
As long as it is nighttime, all allied fire units gain +3 ranged damage.
- Bandits and raiders are accustomed to ambushing their preys under the moon's watchful gaze. Their arrows are both accurate and devastating.
Corruption - Death
As long as it is nighttime, all allied death units gain +1 speed and poison.
- The darkness brings out the worst among all night creatures. Their corruption oozes out and affects even their enemies.
Extinction - Dragon
Deal 2 damage to all non-dragon enemy units. Activate this ability only during nighttime.
- Dragons are known to be proud of their own race and discriminate against all others.
Ascendancy - Neutral
This unit gains +1 to all stats. Activate this ability only after a complete day and night cycle.
- This is my version of Escanor's ability that I've mentioned above. Unlike the other six, Ascendancy only affects one unit. For surviving both day and night cycles, the unit is rewarded with battle experience, thus the +1 buff to all stats. I would also put a last stand ability on this neutral unit.
There you have it, my ideas for the new domineer abilities. I know some may be way overpowered compared to others but I feel like they're on theme with the distinct characteristics of each splinter. I hope you guys like it.
If you haven't yet, I highly encourage you to also submit your own entry to The People's Guild challenge. You can check it out here.
