GUO and KoS balance.

Spellbound1875#4610

So since GUO underperforming was specifically added to the list of known issues this seems like a solid time to examine SEMs. Why did I decide to toss the KoS in here? Well because out of the game 3 SEM's only the GUO and the KoS are completely unplayed.

Bloodthirsters and LoC see occasional use and function well enough in their role, players just gravitate to the lord option for efficiency if those traits are desirable in a match up. Terracotta sentinels, Elemental bears, and Stonehorns are generally just solid units in certain builds. When they're passed over it's more often related to the game mode than the units themselves. GUO and KoS are the only SEMs that basically have never even seen experimental usage in the meta, something the recent RoR release has made very apparent. This isn't to say these other SEMs may not need some additional changes, just that they aren't in quite as dire of straits.

Starting with the GUO (EGUO seem fine with the mortis engine), it appears that this is meant to be an anti-infantry tool rather than a duelist. The relatively low MA, low CB, and movement speed suggest the unit would perform best by chasing down and smashing infantry units ups. It's statline is closer to a Jabber than a Ghorgon to compare it to an anti-infantry and an anti-monster on a single roster.

However one of the major elements the GUO is missing for this role is an anti-infantry bonus. The large splash radius and high number of splash targets the unit has allows for peasants, goblins, and gnoblars to survive a hit from the GUO fairly regularly. This in turn means taking substantially more hits from weak infantry which overall weakens the units performance. +25 anti-infantry would help the GUO crunch through small more consistently without relying on effects like a mortis engine and without impacting the units dueling ability against other monsters which is fairly solid currently (though the unit sometimes gets stagger locked).

For KoS (and EKoS) the main issue is mass. At 3500 and 4000 these guys have about half the mass of SEM's from game 1 and 2. Giants are at 6500 and the Ghorgon is at 7000. Keepers just get stuck on everything which for such a fragile unit can be a death sentence. For flying monsters the low mass is an element of counterplay but for a grounded monster it's just unviable to be this easy to lock down. Adding 3000 mass to both versions would go a long way to increasing the units performance.

The normal KoS still faces a lot of internal competition within the roster. Given their low health pool and lack of armor the KoS should probably be a bit cheaper, closer to the LoC at 1500. Devastating Flanker just isn't a very useful ability for units with only a single entity making attacks and the KoS itself has relatively low WS for it's cost without an additional source of damage such as AL or AI. Cutting 150-200 gold off the price would make the choice between the KoS and the Soul Grinder less of a non-decision without making KoS absurdly cheap.

songoffire#8157

Overall, good suggestions. I would even go a bit further with KoS (and EKoS) :

• -150 gold
  
• +3000 mass
  
• +10 speed