What’s up! It’s yo boy, Nitrome95 here bringing you with the most up to date Clash Royale news! Today, we will be discussing the May 4th Balance Updates and what it could mean for the change in meta! Without further ado, let’s get straight to it!
While this won’t have the same thoroughness of an OJ video with all the interactions, I intend for this to have more of an overall look at how the balance changes will shake up the meta.
Healer
Reduced hp by 10%
This lass has been dominating the meta in big beatdown decks where the healer’s splash could heal tons of troops while also maintaining its own health. If left unchecked, a single Healer can get so much value to snowball a push into a 3 crown!
While the Healer still cannot be one-shot by any spells, a large reduction in hp will make her more manageable while you are defending against her.
If you are defending with a Healer, you will need to spend more elixir to prevent her from dying so that she can counterpush.
If you are attacking with a Healer, she will be weaker towards mid dps troops (Musketeer, Valk, Knight, etc.) This will nerf big beatdown pushes as a whole.
Royal Delivery
Increased damage by 27%
Before you think this is an op buff, realize that spells usually have more drastic buffs and nerfs because they deal much less damage than traditional troops.
In my opinion, this card will still be super niche. It will likely kill a bunch of low/mid hp troops (Wizard, Musketeer, Knight), one shot faster, but there’s no reason why you can’t just use valkyrie. It has much better splash, damage, and hp for counterattacking, so you get a lot more value from one more elixir.
I guess it can be useful in a few scenarios though. Compared to Valkyrie, it is more effective in dealing with Goblin Barrel. Also, the push back in some scenarios can be helpful on defense. Still very trash on offense though. The benefit that also might help is that the Royal Guard takes no damage before it’s “first swing” (the drop damage), while the Valkyrie does.
Like I said, still niche.
Baby Dragon
Decreased health by 8%
Very similar to Healer, this card was just SO HARD to deal with on defense if you didn’t have a super strong air counter. This will make it easier to defend against and once again nerf big beatdown decks.
Magic Archer
Range increased by 1 tile (6>7), Health decreased by 10%
I REALLY like this change. Now, Magic Archer will have more range than Dart Goblin while decreasing its health to account for the fact that it’s harder to hit.
This lines up more with the philosophy that it’s a support card like Princess instead of a regular range card like a Musketeer or Wizard. I never thought this card was too good or too bad but I really appreciate the design change.
MIni Pekka
Melee Range reduced from Medium to Short
This is a really big deal. While Mini Pekka will still be great value on defense, it is heavily nerfed on offense. Because it’s range is decreased, you should be able to wedge certain cards between your tower and the Mini Pekka to prevent damage after it locks on to your tower.
In general, it also gives your troops about one more hit on the Mini Pekka before it locks on your tower: the difference between no damage and a truckload of damage.
Goblin Cage
Goblin Brawler damage increased by 6%
Not much to say here. This card sucks, hopefully it’ll be more threatening.
Huts/Spawners
Health Nerfs: Furnace 16% Barbarian Hut 20%, Goblin Hut 35%
These nerfs will allow you to play a lot more offensively against spawners for 2 reasons
- You can penetrate their defenses sooner to get some nice shots on the tower.
- Attacking a building will deny more hordes, giving more elixir value to your defense.
Goblin Hut was the strongest of the three, hence the biggest nerfs.
Earthquake
Damage Increased by 11%, Building Damage Decreased by 25%
Not sure how I feel about this buff. On one hand, I think it’s great for the utility of the card. It was very niche because for 3 Elixir it could counter lots of buildings while not being too useful outside of it.
On the other hand, I think it’s too much. Now, Earthquake can slow troops, do good building damage, and now can do considerable damage to troops! I feel this is the same problem as tornado and that this change will make Earthquake OP.
Tornado
Duration Decreased from 2 to 1 second, Pull Strength Doubled, Damage Per Second Doubled. Now does tower damage.
We’re saving the best for last! For the past year, Tornado has been a staple in so many decks – it does everything it needs to. Attack? Just pull the defending troops to the tower and you’ll obliterate them. Defend against a beatdown push? Pull the troops together and splash them for max damage! Any squishy troops? Too bad! A Hog push? Just pull it to the king tower.
Basically, this card does everything. By decreasing the duration by 1 second, but increasing the pull strength and damage, they are keeping the pulling and damage constant, just nerfing the splash nado combo.
Now, Tornado will serve ONLY to bring the troops together and won’t keep them there in a ball of death.
A nice added bonus was to give it tower damage to prevent the card becoming too niche.
Conclusion
Who lost the most from these nerfs? The biggest nerf was to Golem. The Tornado, Baby Dragon, and Healer nerfs were all big hits at Golem and big beatdown. The huts will also nerf certain beatdown decks by weakening their defense. Also, the nerfs will affect lots of splash nado Graveyard decks. I still think these decks will be threats in the meta.
In turn, everything else gets a nice small buff in relation to these decks. Lots of cycle decks struggle with Graveyard so these buffs could help.
Anyways, this is just my opinion. Comment below if you agree or disagree and I’ll see you next time!
