Power of darkness is OP

The only slight problem I have with this is that it seems that we are getting to the point where every powerful attack should be nerf-ed. I just don't want a game where I don't have something to look forward to - to get me motivated.

What can Power Of Darkness be changed to, though?
Every update will be met with overpowered moves. I think it's finding a counter for those that will be good. Otherwise, it will literally just be so neutral that only the line up of your team will determine whether you win or not.
- just my opinion. Also, this is not because I have it. It's just that I felt the same way with Adaptability (although that was in another league).

Lexoph, I get where you are coming from. Every game will have its own imba elements/monsters/spells. But I feel that POD and adaptability are game breaking spells that are needed to be nerfed. Cunning is probably OP, but I don't see a need to nerf it.

How can one single spell allow a monster to take out 2-4 other monsters of the same grade/level with no elemental advantage? The other counters I can think of are the talents that prevent buffs like invalidate. But this is like the adaptability argument all over again. Behemoth/mantis can beat neon/draco with adapt yes, but how can 1 talent/spell be so imba that it beats anything else in the game but only 1 other talent/spell beats it? People say ladder is like a rock-paper-scissors game. This game has 9 elements. I don't see how in this rock-paper-scissors game of 9 elements, a "rock" can beat all other 7 elements but only 1 "paper" can beat it. But in this case, invalidate doesn't even counter POD. It only negates it such that everything is back to square one. There is no guarantee that your monster with invalidate gets to beat the opponent's monster without the POD buff. So it isn't even a proper counter. Then what if his 3 other monsters have POD as well? Are you going to get 4 monsters with invalidate?

And you mentioned that it'll be neutral if ladder is just dependent on your line-up? But right now it feels like whoever has POD gets have a shot at the ladder champion. Isn't that worse?

And POD doesn't need to change. The stats increase just need to be lowered. From what I see now, it is at least an increase of 20 stats. That's equivalent to giving your monster a free 8-10 levels up. IMO the stats increase should at least be halfed to 10.

I think with Adaptability the only real clear counter is Behemoth or so.
With this, you can also Burn and Paralyze and those moves are easier to get than an S Behemoth.

I think your suggestion is a VERY, VERY good one. The stats increase should just be lowered. ^^

Having said that, though. Just having Power of Darkness does not guarantee you'll take out 2-4 monsters. You need to get good advanced skill on your monster as well.

This is why the stats increase should be the one that should be nerf-ed.

The only slight problem I have with this is that it seems that we are getting to the point where every powerful attack should be nerf-ed. I just don't want a game where I don't have something to look forward to - to get me motivated.

What can Power Of Darkness be changed to, though?
Every update will be met with overpowered moves. I think it's finding a counter for those that will be good. Otherwise, it will literally just be so neutral that only the line up of your team will determine whether you win or not.
- just my opinion. Also, this is not because I have it. It's just that I felt the same way with Adaptability (although that was in another league).

What I'm thinking for a possible solution is not simply nerfing POD but actually buffing the Other Stat Increasing Moves , yes , I'm so not into Nerfing POD...

Buffing Other Stat Increasing skills(Possibly some other supplementary skills also , because it is too redundant...

Examples:

Supplementary Skills (Sword Dance Variants) - Increases ATK.
Sword Dance(Physical)
Anger(Fire)

Sword Dance = From Increasing ATK by 1 Stage(50%) to Increasing AKT by 1 Stage(50%) and also Increasing the user's Critical Hit-Ratio by 1 Stage(Don't Know How Critical chances works ATM).

Anger = From Increasing ATK by 1 Stage(50%) to Increasing ATK by 2 Stages(100%).

Supplementary Skills (Full Stomach Variants) - Increases DEF.
Full Stomach(Physical)
Crystallize(Water)
Leaf Shield(Plant)
Rock Armor(Earth)
Static Armor(Electric)
Ice Armor(Ice)

Full Stomach = From Increasing DEF by 1 Stage(50%) to Increasing DEF by 1 Stage(50%) and Heals(Must be Lower than Absorption) user.

Crystallize = From Increasing DEF by 1 Stage(50%) to Increasing DEF by 1 Stage(50%) and Increasing ATK by 1 Stage(50%).

Leaf Shield = From Increasing DEF by 1 Stage(50%) to Increasing DEF by 1 Stage(50%) and Protects the User from Debuffs(Poison,Burn,Paralyze,ETC. Does not Remove Debuffs it Already Has.) for 5 Turns.

Rock Armor = From Increasing DEF by 1 Stage(50%) to Increasing DEF by 3 Stages(150%) and Decreasing SPEED by 1 Stage(-50%).

Static Armor = From Increasing DEF by 1 Stage(50%) to Increasing DEF by 1 Stage(50%) and gives chance to Paralyze(Infinite) Attackers for 5 turns.

Ice Armor = From Increasing DEF by 1 Stage(50%) to Increasing DEF by 2 Stages(100%).

Game Balancing is a really tricky issue.

But I'm most afraid of this complain-nerf trend. It can potentially ruin strategic play in this game.

#1: A monster can wipe out a team on its own with its talent. Now, this has to be evaluated against all other combination of monsters before we can arrive at this conclusion. Does it wipe out MOST of the possible teams out there (given that these teams are so varied and what?) If it does, then definitely it needs to be evaluated.

However, one should note, unlike Adaptability where only 2 monsters can learn it, POD is a ghost skill that can be learned by ALL monsters except psychic types. So, you can pretty much have it on your monster if you want. The odds are same as getting Adapatability but AT LEAST, it can be learned by virtually the rest of the monsters.

#2: It only negates it such that everything is back to square one. There is no guarantee that your monster with invalidate gets to beat the opponent's monster without the POD buff.
But that's beside the issue now. Whether or not your monster can beat the opponent's monster without POD is not a reason to NERF POD. I don't get this point.

So it isn't even a proper counter. Then what if his 3 other monsters have POD as well? Are you going to get 4 monsters with invalidate?
I don't see why not. Get a monster with an inverse talent as well while you're at it. Or get a monster that will benefit from POD and build a POD team just like your opponent. It's a proper counter measure in my opinion. If that person worked on getting POD for every monster that he has, why not? Also remember, you have weather effects that can boost skills. You can also use that perhaps. POD only increases stats, but if weather would for example reduce the skills that can kill your monster, then you'll have a chance surviving it.

At this point, all of this counters are speculation but please, let's exhaust these counter measures before complaining a skill is OP. There ought to be some hierarchy in skills, in terms of usefulness, effectiveness, and power.

They do listen to our complaints so we have to be really careful but you know, if everything gets nerfed, let's just remove all these talents and special skills and have a regular rock paper scissor type of gameplay.

To sum it all up, I believe we need to look more closely into the possible counter measures for POD before we cry out for a nerf.

Having said that, though. Just having Power of Darkness does not guarantee you'll take out 2-4 monsters. You need to get good advanced skill on your monster as well.

This is why the stats increase should be the one that should be nerf-ed.

Just for the record, my line-up in ladder is flight,flight, meniss and neon. All pure grade S monsters.

1) Flight has : Frenzied, Iaijutsu, soak and water bomb
2) Flight has : Kamikaze, poison leaves, fire blast and boulder
3) Meniss has : Cunning, dream thief, shadow swipe and sneak attack
4) Neon has : Thunderstorm, slash, electrified teeth and lightning strike

As you can see I have at least 2 advanced moves on each monsters. Yet my opponent's neon/flight using POD can kill at least 2 of mine

#2: It only negates it such that everything is back to square one. There is no guarantee that your monster with invalidate gets to beat the opponent's monster without the POD buff.
But that's beside the issue now. Whether or not your monster can beat the opponent's monster without POD is not a reason to NERF POD. I don't get this point.

Because it was mentioned that invalidate is a counter. But it isn't, it doesn't beat a monster with POD, it only negates it. Therefore invalidate isn't even a proper counter.

So it isn't even a proper counter. Then what if his 3 other monsters have POD as well? Are you going to get 4 monsters with invalidate?
I don't see why not. Get a monster with an inverse talent as well while you're at it. Or get a monster that will benefit from POD and build a POD team just like your opponent. It's a proper counter measure in my opinion. If that person worked on getting POD for every monster that he has, why not? Also remember, you have weather effects that can boost skills. You can also use that perhaps. POD only increases stats, but if weather would for example reduce the skills that can kill your monster, then you'll have a chance surviving it.

Also, as I mentioned before in this thread, it is so much harder to get POD post-patch due to the difficulty of expert-SS maps as well as the implementation of advanced book chests instead of being able to get the spell we want. So if someone already farmed 4 POD books pre-patch, the argument that "you can get it too" doesn't work because it is 10 times harder to get it now.

I understand that there is a need to look at counters before nerfing it. But from what I see till now, there is no counter to it at all. The only probable counter is an inverse talent, but correct me if I'm wrong, no epic monster has that talent? Of course if anyone else has an answer for the counter to POD, I'll really be happy to hear it.

I understand your point that nerfing spells may ruin strategic gameplay. But from this thread you should be able to see (at least from my point of view) how OP POD is. I feel that POD IS actually ruining strategic gameplay now because how can it be strategic if only POD strat works?

Eventually, no matter how I think about it, increasing >20 stats shouldn't be acceptable. As I mentioned before, that's an instant 8 levels up for your monster. If you're both level 50, the opponent using POD suddenly became level 58. How can that be not gamebreaking? So I still stand my ground in saying POD stats increase should be decreased by at least half.

Firstly, Invalidate IS a counter to the Power of Darkness skill. Obviously not to the monster since almost everyone monster, bar Psychic monsters, as Chezzire mentioned, can learn it.

It isn't 10 times harder to get the skill you want. Before the patch, you can just see what the skill is in wheel. Now, you don't, you only see the chest. The thing about that is with the new system, you get a chest which will ALWAYS have a possibility for you to get the move you desire. Before, it may be a long time to even have the chance to respin it.
I personally think it is also better the other way, before the patch, but this is making us not respin so that's good! I've lost way too many coins in respins!

I am sure that there will be more counters for it. The update is still new so it might still be too early to change anything.

With regards to having 4 Invalidate skills to counter 4 PODs, I think it even things out. Imagine having an Invalidate against a POD user, since they don't really know if you have Invalidate or not, they will use POD, which will basically give you a turn advantage. If someone is willing to build a POD team, then, I don't think it's that big of a difference with using an Invalidate team to counter it.

Chezzire's post is very informative and should be noted.

Not gamebreaking.. unbending and invalidate, available in commonly used epics (neon & flight) .. idk if Pure would work as well but I am doing fine against power of darkness without using it. Flight with POD ? Scythe with martyrdom will hit first and take out enough dmg for an easy kill. Meniss with POD? S dragon will hit first and take out ~80%HP (with fire blast).

Not gamebreaking.. unbending and invalidate, available in commonly used epics (neon & flight) .. idk if Pure would work as well but I am doing fine against power of darkness without using it. Flight with POD ? Scythe with martyrdom will hit first and take out enough dmg for an easy kill. Meniss with POD? S dragon will hit first and take out ~80%HP (with fire blast).

unbending doesn't work against POD. it only works when debuffs are used on you. i just tried it myself.