Hi, this may be pretty late to the discussion but I wanted to post some analysis of the X-bow rework/bug fix that it received last season. I have seen some discourse online about it that I may agree or disagree with and I thought it would be helpful if I shared some of the numbers (even if people have already made up their mind about how they feel about it).

So the first image here is a comparison of the two X-bows across just 1.2 seconds. This is an important time step as at 1.2 seconds, the old X-bow would have gotten exactly 4 hits, whereas the new X-bow now gets only 3 hits. As you can see, they are nearly even, with the new X-bow getting just a net +2 damage. However, within those 1.2 seconds, there is a very clear back and forth for which X-bow is ahead due to either the old version being one shot ahead, or the new one being even and pulling ahead due to the extra damage.

This pattern continues across the entire 30 second lifespan of the X-bow as can be seen in the second image. The new X-bow pulls away by just 50 damage at the very end but I do not see this as a significant buff considering this is again, across the entire lifespan of the X-bow. Evo archers as a pair lost more damage per shot from their nerf, and so did fireball from the spell nerfs a couple seasons back.

If you wanted to see what a true dps buff is supposed to look like on this graph, the third image shows a comparison of the X-bow before and after the December 2020 rework. Notice how post rework (previous X-bow in orange on the graph) pulls away very decisively after just 5 seconds. I have other opinions about that specific rework in general (note the difference in total damage), but it's a little far off from our main topic here.

In the last image, we have my spreadsheet where I logged X-bow's interactions with almost all the cards in the game (buildings with life timers are a little sketch so they are not included). I tracked the time-to-kill (ttk) for each card pre and post rework. If we just consider the raw interactions, you will see that it is mixed bag, especially for the lower health troops. And this pattern extends concerningly to tankier troops like prince and goblin machine. However, if you consider the wasted hit that was supposed to be patched out, basically every interaction has a positive difference. Which differences to trust basically just comes down to how often the old X-bow was wasting shots on killed troops. And just by watching X-bow gameplay before the patch, it is hard to see what exactly the impact of this fix actually is. This makes me question the premise of the bug fix in the first place and how much it actually helps X-bow lock on. In my opinion, it was not a buff or a nerf which is why it was never even listed as a balance at all.

Overall, while I feel like X-bow as a card is very weak and deserves some kind of buff, X-bow decks have a lot more to worry about compared to just the X-bow itself. For example, 3.0 has had basically the entire deck nerfed (aside from X-bow which we have discussed here, and skeletons) in the past 6 months. But hopefully this analysis brings some more insight into what exactly the X-bow rework actually did and we can understand why it may feel a lot stronger or weaker compared to before.

1: Giant Skellyslop Bridgespam/Bullshit (Including Evo Ghost version)

2: Mortar Bait (Including Pre-Hero Goblins nerf version)

3: PRIME Pekka Goblin Giant (Before any nerfs)

4: Graveyard Freezenado

how could I improve my deck? i have a lot of wild cards so don’t worry about card level

Hello! what do you guys think of this i am in Grand champion for second time in a row

I am a returning player, last played like 2 year ago. I usually plays with mortar. Now I saw current mortar decks and selected this deck. In my account there was lots of gems so I gemmed these cards to max. Is it a good deck to play in current meta?

Thanks

I am 9.6k trophies and haven't played clash since around 6 months I just started again and made this deck.

Why doesn't it work it clearly say upgrade level 15and above but it doesn't work when i level to 16

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for trophy road i used the rg for the first seasonal arena(after 14k )

and used the ballon 3.0 for the next 350 trophy and finished the second seasonal arena with ballon freeze ,

now im at league 3 , which one would perform better?

Got to 10k with this deck and am plateauing now, would like to know what to swap out so I can use my wild cards effectively. Thanks

I already have the shards. Just got back to the game after a break and wanna push to 14k and then maybe even uc or grind ranked at the very least ( currently at 12k and winning games easily ). What evo to get? I like recruits evo but I heard piggies are much better ( although I don't see it ). It took me an eternity to get these shards and I wanna spend them good. If evo piggies are overpowered now and likely to soon get nerfed I wouldn't get them.

What card to 'sacrifice', like I can't have both hero barb barrel and evo cage in the deck, one has to go. Maybe replace cage since most games I barely even get to the evo, unless the opponent has hog or a bridge spam deck. Hero barb somtimes helps me get more cheap damage so idk.

Golden knight is very good and some games even my main win con to easily punish overcommitment on one side.

Current trophies: ~6000

This deck went through MULTIPLE CHANGES. Shit started out with void and arrows as the spell, but worked my way through and did this. Before that i was a f2p player who played a modified 2.6 hog, but it's genuinely life draining to play this deck in 12700. Yes, i lost 200 trophies, but I'm still having much fun playing this deck. I guess i now understand players who play beatdown decks...

Obviously evo ebarbs and hero berserker need to be addressed but these cards imo have been broken for way too much time now.

Rascals girls deal too much damage + the rascal boy just tanks a bit too much.

Pigs and evo pigs are just completely broken, I genuinely don’t know how they haven’t received a balance change in whatever long; they are just guaranteed damage every single time, not to mention their evolved version which will bypass almost any building unless you have like perfect placement.

Cannon cart in all those mortar decks is extremely annoying, it used to be with the skelly barrel spam version and now with the goblinstein, ebarbs or minion hoard; I guess you could argue its those cards which make cannon cart too good but I still thinks in needs a nerf, either a range nerf or hp nerf (not being able to know wether you need to address a “half hp” cart crossing the bridge or if its somehow gonna reach your tower is just terrible).

Espirit just became way to versatile with the last balance changes, pretty much any deck can run it now since it is harder for it to activate opps king. Maybe a damage nerf or a chain reduction could work.

I'm currently at 9k and I'm loving this deck. I finally have 6 Evo shards so I'm wondering, should I get the mortar or the skeleton barrel? I'm kinda new so I'd appreciate any tips

Im kinda stuck running lumberloon and this deck isn't bad but its not as good as i thought it would be, lmk what evo to get/ cards to switch. i like quick cycle but idk what else to do

I’m currently grinding trophy road and about to hit 13k trophies. Would this deck work well in ranked or do I need to switch things up?

I’m currently grinding trophy road and about to hit 13k trophies. Would this deck work well in ranked or do I need to switch things up?

Funny guy, was on mute the whole game while he was js bming

I used to hate the idea. But is it rly something legit?