About Ripperdactyl and the nerfed Ancient Sally...

Nielspeterdejong

They both have in common that they have amazing models, but also under-perform for their cost.

The Ancient sally is focused down far too early before she can make any impact. And the Ripperdactyl just melt against any counter charge before they can make any impact (even if you position them well).

I would love to see these units being used more in competitive play, but after the nerfs nobody uses them if the enemy army isn't trolling. Same with the Dread Saurian, they do not pay for themselves sadly.

How would you guys fix this? Maybe give A. Sally her old range back? And give the RIppers more mass and contact damage? (like the mammoth has). And perhaps give all Dread Saurians 25% missile resist and the standard and ROR a point cost reduction? (3200 -> 3000, and 4000 -> 3600 ?)

Pokemonsdude#7979

Could you stop with all the suggestion about buffing lizardmen and actually play the game? They're already top tier and now they're gonna get even more stuff they don't need any buffs at all, and especially not for the ancient sally

Valkaar#2507

The ONE thing I can agree with here is reverting some of the Ancient Sally nerfs.

The unit was previously OP, with its explosion damage being able to pay for itself in two volleys against an elite infantry unit, while having the range the out-skirmish all but the longest range archer units....it basically could pay for itself with little to no counter-play.

So I agree! that Sally needed nerfs. But they nerfed explosion damage (so Sally needed more shots to pay for herself), range (so Sally could be counter-skirmished by more units), AND 1/3!!! of Sally's HP...(so Sally gets wiped out by a stiff breeze ) ..... I've never seen a unit lose 1/3 of its HP in a single stroke like that. It was insane. Usually it's 5% or 10% or something like that.

In any case.... in a vaccuum, any of those individual nerfs are fine....except for maybe the degree of that HP nerf cuz holy damn....but combo'd all together, and they've essentially completely eliminated the Ancient Salamander from competitive play against Ranged factions.

I'm not saying Sally needs to get ALL of those things back Just one at least. But Sally really does need to be able to do damage more quickly...or survive longer while under fire...or be able to kite a wider degree of archer units if anyone is going to risk spending the gold to bring her against missile heavy factions.

But Sally aside...The Ripperdactyls are fine. They're actually really good. They can 1 vs 1 multiple types of air units and in a flock can beat ANY air unit your opponent brings. That's value by itself. They are little expensive to use for backline harassment exclusively. They usually need to wipe two missile units a piece in order to pay for themselves....which if your opponent is careful, rarely happens. But being able to disrupt the backline from the skies at all is a nice boon the Lizardmen didn't previously have.

I personally think Rippers are worth it for air superiority alone....making the enemy either stay on the ground or bring more air units that they originally wanted to. People can't just carelessly bring a solo flying lord vs the Lizardmen anymore that's significant. While it would be NICE if Rippers could more cost effectively disrupt backline ground units....A: the Lizardmen have lots of other tools for that job....and B: that's a cost issue with Rippers. Not a stat issue. And not a cost issue that can be fixed 50 or 100 gold either. In order to fix that, they'd need to cut their cost like in half....which would then come with significant stat nerfs....essentially turning Rippers into Harpies/Carrion. Which would fundamentally change how Rippers work and would eliminate their air-superiority role....which is my favorite thing about them.

Basically...I think your issue with Rippers is not that they're bad. They're just not the style/flavor of air unit that you want.

As to the Dread Saurian....yeah...it looks like it's going to be too expensive to justify bringing/it's going to be a campaign only unit....and that's FINE! It really is. Nobody currently brings that RoR Ancient Stegadon in quick battles because it's too expensive and its abilities are too gimmicky. Engine of the Gods is a niche pick too it seems by itself if it's not attached to Tehenhauin. Not EVERY unit is going to see regular consistent multiplayer use. And trying to make certain units multiplayer viable (imo) ruins their 'over the top fun factor' in campaign.

Basically, just let the Dread Saurian be a silly campaign rolf stomp unit. Any attempts to 'balance' it, are just going to make it lukewarm in campaign/play basically like an Ancient Stegadon....which would be a shame.