Duelyst Forums

The past of Duelyst appreciation thread (not whine thread)

#1

(I’m not intending to make a whine/mourn thread of “Duelyst was better in the past”. I’m just digging up old card designs and mechanics of Duelyst just to appreciate them.)

Once upon a time, Lyonar had a “retribution” mechanic:

Retribution bonus effect towards an enemy that has attacked this game.

Sounds pretty strong. There were also these cards which had retribution:

Lightchaser 2 mana 3/1 Retribution: Deal +3 Damage.
Beam shock 2 mana "Stun an enemy minion. Retribution: Destroy it instead."
Circle of Life 6 mana "Deal 6 damage to a minion. Retribution: Also restore 6 Health to your General."
True Strike 1 mana “Deal 2 damage to a minion or General. Retribution: Deal 4 damage instead.”

This mechanic was removed because strikeback/counterattack wasn’t universal back in the day. Yes, counterattack (official terminology was “strikeback”) used to be a mechanic only available to some minions. Imagine how snowball-ish the game was.

I never knew that the game was so different in alpha days. I’ll dig up more old stuff and post it here.

I’m no expert in this area. I only joined during beta, and I didn’t play much until BBS arrived. I only dug up those while browsing the wiki. Any old players here could share some stories of Duelyst’s past?

Also, in case anyone is interested, you can look up the past patch notes here: https://www.reddit.com/r/duelyst/wiki/patchnotesarchive

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#2

So different? besides lightchaser, the other 3 are more or less the same still.

It’d be nice to add comment about past duelyst but i wasn’t really around for it. My first “prior” will have to come whenever the next expansion or patches comes around. :slight_smile:

#3

I remember @RyanH had a thread showcasing cards in Duelyst beta. I can’t find it tho.

Also I’ll just toss in some links here, cuz I’m too lazy to write up and I have to finish my assignments.
Enjoy!

#4

the biggest change i saw since i started playing was the shadow creep rework.

before cassyva and shimzar, shadow creep used to be “deal 1 damage for every friendly shadow creep tile” instead of the “deal 1 damage” we know today. it was also much harder to generate, but that was for the best.

shadow nova used to be a game ending 7 mana spell that did 4+ damage in a 2x2 area
abyssal crawler was a dying wish: spawn a shadow creep tile
and abyssal juggernaut used to be a 4/5 “when this minion destroys a minion, spawn a shadow creep tile”

shadow nova was on the same level as makantor warbeast and holy immolation in terms of aoe damage, but could be played ANYWHERE. and if you manage to get a second one off thats 8+ damage right on the general potentially leaving them nowhere to run from the damage.

#5

Oh I remember that one.
I used to run a budget Cassy deck with 0 legendaries, and still did well because creeps were too strong in the late game. Shadow Nova was a cheaper Obliterate and it doesn’t destroy shadow creeps.
I didn’t like the Shadow Creep rework at first. It invalidated my old deck, and the new creep deck is too expensive. In hindsight, the change is necessary, because Shadowcreep indeed was too strong.

#6

@oranos how long have you been in Duelyst? I remember you (and @raqyee, RIP) since the first day I joined this forum.

#7

ive been at it for about a year. caught the tail end of 2 card draw before getting sucked in. still remember the old forums before everything moved here.

1 Like
#8

Pretty sure @thefirstgokun was on the old forums I believe. I’m sure he made my current avatar. I remember back in the day, emil had his picture as his avatar, but idk how long ago that changed…

#9

I can’t help but think of that South Park bit with the Member-berries when I read this thread. It just makes me “member” the ol’ days.

“Member Celerity Fox?”
“Member Kineticats?”
“Member old Shadow Nova?”
“I looooove old Shadow Nova!”
“Member when Vetruvian had unconditional dispel?”
“Ohhh I member!”

2 Likes
#10

Oh the Kinetic Kat Kansir, not again.
And Siphon Energy… we need a FeelsVetMan emote in this forum.

I heard that a lot of old forum users left after the forum merge/move thingy. Not sure tho

Aaalso Mr. Flaming Stampede isn’t dead yet. His “last checked” time was 3 hours ago. FeelsGoodMan

1 Like
#11

I pride myself in remembering a bunch of Duelyst’s big changes, even if I’m not an OG from the Kickstarter days.

Vindicator used to give Rush to the first friendly minion summoned nearby each turn. Reworked with the introduction of Sister Tagyetti Never forgetti

Also Second Wish used to be Divine Spark for 1 less mana. Reworked a little bit after the 1 draw change because efficient card draw was suddenly relevant.

ALSO Time Maelstrom used to be the coolest 9 mana spell, but before that it was the coolest 7 mana spell iirc. Same for Plasma Storm, used to be 4 mana.

ALSO Mana Burn used to be a thing. Twice.

ALSO 2/2 Jaxi & Dreamgazer & Ephemeral Shroud.

And Third Wish… hoo boy. That’s a goddamn saga.

2 Likes
#12

Third Wish FeelsVetMan, getting nerfed over and over again

#13

Kron used to be in every deck as a 4/6. If it wasn’t Spellhai (with old Mana Vortex btw), it was Kronhai.

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#14

What I remember was: Kron was in everyone’s deck except songhais’, because Songhai was too combo intensive that he didn’t have spare slots for kron.

#15

I guess I phrased that wrong. What you said is what I meant. Songhai was the only faction that didn’t use it, mainly because Songhai didn’t usually use board presence to win.

#16

Oh, Dark Seed used to be “Change a minion to a 10/1” in the alpha days.

CPG patched the game very frequently in the early days. Wish they did the same thing now.

Also, who remembers the old puzzles? The Abyssian one at ch.7 took me like weeks until I gave up and looked up the solution online. The puzzle was what drew me into the game. I think those puzzles are completely changed (and watered down) now because so many cards were changed from beta to now.

1 Like
#17

please elaborate man, don’t just say “hoo boy i remember that”

i’m a fairly new player i want to know what is this hoo boy thing

coolest 9 mana? what did it do? why are you teasing like this?

#18

Maelstrom used to give you an extra turn.

#19

3rd wish used to be +3/+3 and blast. Then they made it only applicable to dervishes, then they must have changed it again at some point.

#20

LOL +3/+3 Blast, sounds too good, i wish i had seen it in action.

@bublublub how does that work?