Legends:Patch/2.11

Released June 27, 2019

The latest version of The Elder Scrolls: Legends is live! This release brings Dragons, Khajiit, Necromancy and over 75 news cards for our Moons of Elsweyr expansion!

Moons of Elsweyr has arrived!

The Khajiit homeland, Elsweyr, is being ravaged: necromancers have arisen, dragons have been unsealed, and Euraxia Tharn holds Rimmen and calls herself Queen. Do what you must to survive in our latest card pack expansion featuring:

• 77 new collectible cards.
• Two new gameplay mechanics.
• A brand new playmat.
• Four new musical tracks written specifically for The Elder Scrolls: Legends.
• A new Main Menu background featuring the Moon Gate.
• 15 new titles.
• 12 new daily quests with a special introductory questline featuring Razum-Dar.
• Three new card backs.

New Mechanics

• Consume: Harness the power of necromancy and Consume the corpses of your creatures for personal gain. Consume allows you to remove a card in your discard pile to get a bonus effect.
• Wax and Wane: Khajiit are heavily influenced by the moon-phases of Jone and Jode, and some Khajiit exhibit different abilities as the moons wax and wane. The effect you get from Wax/Wane cards alternates each turn: Wax on odd turns, Wane on even turns.

Balance Changes

The following cards have received balance changes: Transitus Shrine, Disciple of Namira, Lillandril Hexmage, Cast Into Time, Hlaalu Oathman, Falkreath Defiler, Archer's Gambit, Namira's Shrine, and Dawnbreaker. The next time you log in to Legends (within the next three weeks), we will credit your account with Soul Gems for each copy of a changed card you own (up to three). Details on the changes and explanations behind them are available here.

Animation, Visual and Audio Effects

• Speed and timing tweaks have been made to the following animations: Card attack, drawing a Double card, cards drawn from Salvage, summoning a Legendary card, Last Gasp's VFX, Sword of the Inferno, Icy Shambles, Crushing Blow's VFX, Fireball, Pilfer, gaining a Keyword's VFX, and Drain's VFX.
• Fixed an issue where a faint outline of a card's Guard mesh would render before the Guard card flipped over to the playmat.
• Dark Anchor has been given a new Summon VFX.
• Items equipped by the Plunder lane are now properly displayed to the player before they become equipped to the creature.
• Cards in hand no longer display hinting blue glow during the opponent's turn.
• The health gain VFX for Necromancer's Amulet and Bruma Profiteer now show the total health gained instead of separate +1 health gains.
• Creatures triggered by Prophecy now properly display the +1/+1 buff from Gates of Madness.
• Encumbered Explorer's chain VFX now properly animates from the location of the card.
• Legendary Packs now have their own unique VFX when lifting them off the scroll during pack opening.
• Dawnfang's VFX now appears at the center of the playmat when the opponent slays with it, instead of incorrectly offscreen.
• When a player attempts to heal while their opponent has False Incarnate in play, the False Incarnate card now flashes red and a red "X" appears over the player's avatar.
• Camoran Scout Leader now strong hints in the players hand when there is a wounded enemy creature in each lane.
• Fixed an issue that caused square-shaped compression artifacts on some Premium card FX.
• Packs now have SFX for when they animate to the desk in the pack opening screen.
• There is a new SFX when Guard is triggered on a card.
• The missing card flipping SFX has been fixed.

Gameplay

• Solo and Versus Arena have been updated to include Moons of Elsweyr, with cards from the most recent two expansions appearing at increased rates (4x for Moons of Elsweyr, and 3x for Alliance War).
• Ice Storm, Fire Storm, Burn and Pillage, Flame Blast, Traitor's Flame, and The Red Year can no longer be played to the board if Mage Slayer is the only creature in play.
• High King Emeric's summon ability damage now properly updates during the player's turn if the number of friendly Wards is lowered before his summon is triggered again.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Abnur Tharn from copying the Summon ability of Archcanon Saryoni.
• Spear of Embers and Mobilize items with Prophecy will now correctly receive a keyword when played from a Prophecy rune break while Arcane Enchanter is in play.
• A Guildsworn Honeytongue using its effect to move itself into the Shadow Lane at the end of the player's turn will now properly gain Cover. It will then immediately lose that Cover because it becomes the Opponent's turn, who now controls the Guildsworn Honeytongue.
• A Dwarven Colossus copied by Wispmother no longer displays as being linked to additional power spheres.

General

• The loading screen now properly waits until all assets on the playmat are loaded.
• Cards that are queued up to be played from the player's hand but have not yet hit the playmat before the turn timer ends, will now re-enter the player's hand instead of becoming stuck on screen/unplayable.
• Certain low spec mobile devices will no longer crash when quickly scrolling through the cards in the Collections menu or quickly drafting cards in the Arena.
• Fixed an issue on low end mobile devices that caused multiple elements to look blurry and low-res.

UI

• Hovering over or tap-holding your Magicka counter now displays your Turn Counter, which is used to determine your Wax or Wane.
• Fixed an issue related to the Main Menu partially rendering on some mobile devices.
• Channeled Storm now properly displays the correct empowered value when selected.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the chat keyboard to appear on mobile whenever the player tapped on a friend in their friend's list.
• Hovering over each player's deck now displays the deck/hand count tool tip.
• Item hangers now display the attribute icon of the item equipped, making it easier to determine which attributes are in play.
• The Steam icon for The Elder Scrolls: Legends is now the proper resolution.
• Fixed an issue that was displaying incorrect Collection stat percentages when looking at a friend's profile.
• Multiple UI elements are no longer obscured by the iPhone X's notch.
• Banished cards now have their own icon in the Play History.
• The Play History now properly shows Hit and Run as the root card for all cards discarded from hand.
• Squish the Wimpy now has a consistent Play History entry which shows the creatures that fought or died within the Squish the Wimpy entry itself, instead of separately.
• The Play History for A Night to Remember no longer displays the creature taking damage, and only displays the Shackle overlay.
• When an equipped creature is transformed, the item they were equipped with no longer appears in the Play History.
• The Play History entry for the Fork of Horripilation, Dawnfang, Daedric Crescent, and Naryu Virian are now all separate entries and are not combined into any single History entry when Slaying a creature when combined with other effects.
• The summon ability of Bringer of Nightmares no longer shows the targeted creature as dying in the Play History.
• Cards destroyed by Malefic Wreath and Allena Benoch now properly display a skull in the Play History.
• Cards revealed or discarded in play by Merchant's Camel no longer have overlapping text and descriptor boxes.
• Triple digit values now properly display on one line in the Play History.
• The dynamic buffs for Stealer of Secrets and Flesh Atronach now display correctly when copied/transformed into, or viewed in the discard/deck pile.
• For iOS devices, the Elder Scrolls: Legends logo that displays before the loading screen is now better formatted to fit the screen.
• Players are now able to type in the amount of packs they wish to purchase in the Store, limited to the amount of Gold they currently have.

Rewards

• Arena will now award Moons of Elsweyr packs as a base reward. Additional packs earned no longer have a chance to be Morrowind packs.
• Three-win victory rewards updated to grant cards from Moons of Elsweyr instead of Alliance War.

Upcoming Balance Changes with Patch 2.11

Released June 21, 2019

In our continued efforts to make playing The Elder Scrolls: Legends as fun as possible, we are making balance changes to several cards in Patch 2.11, which is also bringing our next expansion, Moons of Elsweyr.

The next time you log in to Legends after the release of Moons of Elsweyr, we will credit your account with Soul Gems for each copy of an affected card you own (up to three). The Soul Gems awarded are equal to the difference between the Soul Summon cost and Soul Trap value of the card. In other words: if you choose to Soul Trap the card, you will end up with enough Soul Gems to create any card of the same rarity.

Transitus Shrine

• Text now reads, "While you have a creature in each lane, your creatures and actions cost 1 less."

Disciple of Namira

• Text now reads, "At the end of each turn, draw a card for each friendly creature that died in Disciple of Namira's lane."

One of our goals is to create a wide variety of gameplay experiences, and decks using combinations of cards to do powerful things is very much a part of that. However, the combo decks built around using Disciple of Namira and cost reducers to cycle through their deck full of cheap creatures break a few rules.

First, they are a bit too fast right now - combo decks should require some time to set up. Second, they're very frustrating to play against and to spectate. Third, they are APM-heavy combo decks that rely on clicking a through different things before the turn timer goes off, which makes them less viable for players on a phone or for some reason or another cannot click at the same speed. We don't want that to be a deciding factor in Legends, so we're changing two pieces of the combo (since both the Empire and the Scout versions suffer from similar issues).

Both changes are aimed at hitting the combo decks while maintaining close to the card's original intended functionality. For Transitus Shrine, it works the same way except it doesn't reduce the cost of supports and items. This might seem small, since most of the deck is creatures, but having to pay full cost for your future Shrines and Swindler's Markets as well as the items that draw cards mean the deck requires more setup rather than just playing everything from an empty board.

The Disciple change should have little impact on non-combo decks using the card (like Doomcrag Warrior) while greatly limiting its use as a self-fueling combo machine. There will be a counter on the Disciple to indicate how many cards you're going to draw at the end of the turn, so you don't accidentally overdraw.

Lillandril Hexmage

• Text now reads, "After you play an action, deal 1 damage to your opponent."
• Stats changed to 5/4.

The Market Assassin deck that gained popularity after the Alliance War expansion represented a relatively brand-new strategy for TESL. While we're generally in favor of introducing new strategies, the speed and consistency with which the deck was able to win without much in the way of board presence (and from high life totals) was a concern.

We believe that the deck is enjoyable to play against when it wins is via chip damage and controlling the board. However, games where Lillandril Hexmage deals over 20 damage all at once are more uninteractive than we believe to be healthy. We've changed the Hexmage to deal 1 damage per action while increasing its stats to 5/4, which we believe will push the Market Assassin deck towards a healthier style of play involving more board presence.

Cast Into Time

• Text now reads, "Banish a creature."

Cast Into Time was created at a time when discard pile loops - either Paarthunax looping with Soul Tear or Galyn the Shelterer looping with Ordiniran Necromancer – were more prevalent. With the advent of other late-game options, these loops aren't as common as they once were and Cast into Time's effect became more of an annoyance than anything else, as players felt like they were being punished simply for playing their cards.

To remedy this, we're removing the "-and all creatures from your opponent's deck with the same name" clause from the card. Cast Into Time simply banishes a creature and leaves all the other copies alone. If you're worried about recursion (or Consuming!) then it's still a Piercing Javelin alternative that removes the creature from the discard pile, but it should no longer be as frustrating to play against.

Hlaalu Oathman

• Stats changed to 1/1.

Hlaalu has emerged as the premier aggro deck in both ladder and tournament play, so we're making one of the Hlaalu-exclusive cards a little weaker to give other aggressive options a better fighting chance.

Falkreath Defiler

• Text now reads, "Slay: Draw a creature from your discard pile."

If you're just trying to attack with it, then we think Falkreath Defiler is in a good spot - it's a vulnerable creature with a big payoff when you manage to pull it off. However, as we have made more cards that enable Slay synergies without endangering the creature itself, it has become too easy to bypass Defiler's vulnerability and having it kill a creature in the same turn.

Without this vulnerability, we believe that Defiler's Slay payoff is too big. By changing it to "Draw a creature from your discard pile", it remains a valuable card but no longer just ends the game in combination with Unstoppable Rage or cheats a 12-drop into play on turn six with Squish the Wimpy.

Archer's Gambit

• Magicka cost changed to 3

Archer's Gambit was originally intentionally undercosted to push building around Lethal creatures. Such strategies have proven to no longer need the help, so we're bringing Gambit to a more appropriate cost for its effect.

Namira's Shrine

• Text now reads, "Ongoing: At the end of your turn, if you played four cards this turn, draw a card."

Namira's Shrine is the main card advantage engine of several different decks, and right now we think it's a little too easy to trigger it every turn by just playing the game, especially since it keeps fueling itself. By moving the effect trigger from three cards to four cards, we're hoping to make it so that you actually have to make sacrifices in deckbuilding in order to constantly get a card out of it.

Dawnbreaker

• Text now reads, "+4/+4, Slay: Banish the slain creature if it's Undead."

Most players use Dawnbreaker strictly for the +4/+4 it grants to a creature, but what makes the card extra devastating is if the opponent just happens to have an Undead creature in play.

By turning the "destroy an enemy Undead" clause into "Slay: Banish the slain creature if it's Undead", we're hoping to preserve the Undead-hating flavor of the item while making sure fewer games are decided on the spot by its Summon ability and preserving its primary appeal: the +4/+4 buff.