Can someone explain the pip cost for this spell. By the typical math, it is a 9.6 pip spell. The minion is a rank 5 minion which is considered 5 pips. It acts like a better version of the sprite minion since it constantly heals and blades (compared to the life on which passes 60% of the time) so it makes sense why its a rank 5. However, that only leaves 4.6 pips for the damage, which shouldn't be 1175 damage. In fact, I don't understand how a 9.6 myth damage spell does more than a leviathan damage wise by 200 damage + having a special effect that is 2 pips more than it. The spell should be adjusted down damage wise to properly depict its pip cost.
Re: Witch's House Call pip cost doesn't make sense
My best guess is that minions must be valued differently as an after effect compared to other utility. There aren't a whole lot of spells that have summoning a minion as an after affect, but what few exist don't seem to give a particularly high utility cost to a summoned minion. Minions are still pretty unpredictable when it comes to their behavior, and in the case of Witch's House Call or Van Der Borst which specific minion you get is random as well. A summon minion after affect also won't do anything in a battle ring that is already full.
Re: Witch's House Call pip cost doesn't make sense
According to one of the Devs on twitter- the minion was factored in as a 0 cost spell just like hungry caterpillar's absorb was also factored in as a 0 cost spell(even though comparing it to traditional absorbs it would cost at least 5-6 pips)
Re: Witch's House Call pip cost doesn't make sense
Eric Stormbringer on Feb 23, 2021 wrote:
According to one of the Devs on twitter- the minion was factored in as a 0 cost spell just like hungry caterpillar's absorb was also factored in as a 0 cost spell(even though comparing it to traditional absorbs it would cost at least 5-6 pips)
I don't think that a minion is worth zero pips necessarily. Steal Ward is supposedly worth 2 pips but is so niche. Is Weaver's Shield calculated at Zero pips?
Re: Witch's House Call pip cost doesn't make sense
exp613 on Feb 24, 2021 wrote:
I don't think that a minion is worth zero pips necessarily. Steal Ward is supposedly worth 2 pips but is so niche. Is Weaver's Shield calculated at Zero pips?
Yes, Weaver's shield was also factored in as 0 pips.
Re: Witch's House Call pip cost doesn't make sense
Eric Stormbringer on Feb 23, 2021 wrote:
According to one of the Devs on twitter- the minion was factored in as a 0 cost spell just like hungry caterpillar's absorb was also factored in as a 0 cost spell(even though comparing it to traditional absorbs it would cost at least 5-6 pips)
Ok that sort of makes sense but I still do question the damage (and I don't see why a minion that is better than the 4 pip life minion is valued at 0 pips). Celestial Calender for example does 930-990 damage + steal pip. A steal pip spellement is 0 pips but the value when added I think is fair to say 1. That means Celestial Calendar's damage is really just 930-990 damage as a 9 pip spell. Witch House Call is 9.6 pips but its 1035-1175. Using Celestial Calenders 9 pip curve, that means the average hit is 106 damage (roughly) per pip.
At 9.6 pips * 106 damage, the max average damage a spell should have at this cost is 1017. This is pretending the minion is 0 pips even though it really should be seen as 3-4 pips. The spell still doesn't fall within the curve. I understand sort of why an absorb are valued differently as when you get to higher levels, as a 400 absorb/800 absorb is literally worthless when everything hits 800 - 1000 damage wands, especially when a 0 pip tower shield is more effective with almost every pip spell. The minion however doesn't fit this as although minion health makes them easy to kill, you have to go out of your way to do it more so than an absorb since an absorb acts as a weaker tower shield when everyone hits 2-3k every hit without shield (fire, myth, and storm even more so). If you don't kill the minion in pvp for example, it will endlessly heal once you hit the player and with its constant blade spam, it will heal 600 every 2 rounds. If you dont have a shadow wand or your shadow wand decides to use its 30% crit fail, you can't kill the minion even though you have too in order to win as blade stacking against a myth isn't really possible.
