Will the newer planeswalker get balanced / changed?

nyaa

This is a bit of a silly question but just a thought before I consider my purchases. Will the newer planeswalkers (starting from Gideon v2 and Ob Nixilis) ever get changed? I ask this question for two reasons: -

1. The newer planeswalkers (most of them besides the ones from quick battle) were made purchasable when they were initially released. The cost varies but if I remember correctly, Kiora, in particular, costed about USD50 (Gideon and Ob Nixilis were cheaper but it was still about USD20). Given that D3 does not (so far) compensate (be it in in-game currency or actual refunds) if cards / planeswalker get changed, will they feel comfortable nerfing any of these planeswalkers without the original purchasers calling foul? If, say, Kiora / Ajani / Sarkhan proves to be over powered, can they justify nerfing their abilities without getting called out for it -- since the abilities were one of the factors that pushed people to make the purchase (or even those who bought it using crystals)?

2. Kiora, Ajani and Sarkhan, in particular, are relatively rare in quick battles. This happens for a few obvious reason but chief of which being the fact that they cost quite a pretty penny (USD40-50) or costs quite a bit of crystals (950 crystals* compared to 250 crystals). Given that D3 evaluates nerfs (at least the recent (and justified) Chandra nerf) on quick battle data, will they even have enough data to actively balance Kiora, Ajani and Sarkhan if necessary? To a lesser extent, this also applies to the other 250 crystals planeswalkers seeing that many players forgo the 250 crystal planeswalkers to save up to the 950 crystal ones.

*Presumed for Ajani and Sarkhan based on the pricing of Kiora.

buffbeardo

IMO, the devs will nerf any planeswalker they feel needs it at any time they feel it is necessary regardless of being called out.

Jazzpha

Based on my experience with Ajani and how the nerfs for PWs tend to happen (increasing loyalty costs seems to be the way to go), it's not going to make too much of an impact on how powerful he is even if he does get nerfed. His real consistent power comes from his ability to drop a ton of threats quickly and clear your board at the same time. If his disable gets bumped from 3 to 6, as an example, it should still be ready to go by the time you have a Swift Reckoning charged up and in hand. If Lightning Helix gets bumped from 9 to 12, Exquisite Firecraft does the same thing for one 3-match of white gems, sans life-gain. And his third ability, while awesome, is hardly necessary for him to dominate things.

So no, I'm not too concerned. Same goes for Sarkhan and Kiora, since their card quality should be able to carry them if their loyalty costs increase.

nyaa

Before I begin, I have to point out that my original post was wrong -- Ajani Vengeant turned out to be a more modest 550 crystals. To be fair, I based it on the latest precedent. Mea culpa regardless.

My actual concern is on a combination of the dual planeswalkers relatively powerful mana generation ability (especially Ajani), ability to use multiple colours without any real "setback" (compared to dedicated mono-coloured planeswalkers like Chandra, Koth and Gideon v1 and v2). I do think that they will eventually require balance of some form -- I am just curious how are they going to juggle between the game's balance and the risk of pissing of players who actually paid for those dual planeswalkers.

Yes, balance is a key consideration but it is worth mentioning that the players that bought into those package are some of those actually funding this game (monetarily, at least).

VladG0015

Well ... in this game EVERYTHING is subject to change.