User blog:Positive Elixir Trade/My Thoughts About the 10/9/17 Balance Update

Here, I'm going to tell you about my thoughts on the new balance update.

All values are based on tournament levels.

Lightning

Damage -3% / It's damage will go down from 864 to 837 and it's Crown Tower damage from 346 to 334. It's not going to affect too much. Night Witch and Bandit will still die to Lightning. But, in terms of absolute damage, it can't kill Golemites anymore.

Radius -0.5 tiles / With it's new 3 tile radius, it now shares the same radius as a Freeze spell. It's circle is a lot smaller, and leaves players a lot more room to place buildings so both the building and the Princess Tower can't get clipped by Lightning. The smaller radius will call for some more skilled plays. As long as you like to use Lightning to get value on two mid-tier troops and the Princess Tower, not a lot will change.

Graveyard

Radius -1.0 tiles / Now, instead of 5 tiles, the Graveyard is now 4 tiles wide, sharing the same radius as Arrows. The Skeletons will spawn more concentrated.

Spawn RNG is more specific / The Skeletons are going to spawn more on the edge and less randomly. Before, it would've been by luck and it's usually that one Skeleton that wrecks your Princess Tower. It would cost games and is so frustrating to play against. Luck should not be a determining factor of a game, whether friendly or in a Global Championship. With the spawn RNG more concentrated, the damage on a Princess Tower will be much more consistent.

Initial Skeleton spawns 0.5 seconds slower / This gives more time for the opposing player to react to Graveyard with their soft-counter troops.

Duration +1.0 seconds / The duration is increasing from 9.0 seconds to 10 seconds. This with the initial Skeleton spawning 0.5 seconds slower will allow just one more Skeleton to spawn.

Sparky

Hitspeed -1.0 seconds / Sparky's new 4.0 second hitspeed is going to make Zap a less viable alternative in defending against her. She doesn't need a whole 5 seconds to charge up anymore.

Damage -15% / Although Sparky is getting a rework, this is not a gamebreaking buff. Her faster hitspeed along with her new 1100 damage will make her DPS only 5.6% higher. It's still a buf because she doesn't need to charge up for as long to release almost as much wide load as she did before. In terms of absolute damage, she can't one-shot herself anymore. She can't counter herself as hard.

Spear Goblins

Hitspeed -0.2 seconds / 0.2 seconds may not sound like much, but if you look at me, it's a big deal. Chip damage on the Princess Tower will leave the tower with 200 less health. It's not safe to leave them ignored anymore.

Whoops, gotta go to a tutor. Be back in two hours.