Wednesday 17 January 2024 is the date for the start of Season 7 after close to 2 months of off-season. After the S7 Pre-Season Cup, it is evident that Bubble is too strong and it is the only thing that is getting changed before the start of S7. Yes, the other OP things like Feather Descend, Sandal, Anemone etc. all are untouched.
Season 7 will be interesting as most players are likely to stick with one or a few teams to grind up AXP. Vertical progression will change the mindset of many players as there is a constant progression, not just about SLP and moonshards. As high level Axies will be sought after by players, scholarship programs will make a comeback in the form getting paid to gring for AXP.
I should also mention that Collectable Axies have a small base HP increase, but it is not going to be significant compared to AXP Level and Parts Evolution.
In this post, I will highlight some notable balance changes at the start of Season 7. See this post for majority of the changes for the off-season patch. Also see the official patch notes for any final changes.
tldr:
Bubble Bombs nerfed but still going to be strong
Shady Exchange nerfed but ramp is still very good
Many existing archetypes untouched - expect similar meta as last season (+ Bubble Bombs)
Bubble Bombs
• Bubble Bomb adjusted: ◦ DMG per Bubble Bomb reduced to 30 (was 32)
• Heart of the Ocean adjusted: ◦ Bonus DMG reduced to 1.5% of target's Max HP (was 2%)
The only final change announced is the small nerf to Bubble Bombs and Heart of the Ocean. The mechanics is still the same, just slightly lower damage. It is still as non-interactive with little counter play until the inevitable happens. It seems like a lot of top players have placed their bets on Bubbles and it would be a difficult decision to nerf it too much. I wish there is a cap to the number of Bubble Bomb stacked, which makes it feel more interactive as the damage can be shielded or healed rather than being OTKed. In a way, Perch is similar but takes longer to pull off, so maybe another way is to have it more difficult to stack Bubble Bombs.
In any case, I think Bubble Bombs is still going to be very strong but with the slight nerf, at least other OP teams will stand more of a chance in racing with Bubble Bombs.
Shady Exchange and Ramp
• Shady Exchange adjusted:
{Solo}. Until <Round> 2, when your turn ends, lose 2 <Fragment>s. After that, when your turn starts, gain 3 <Fragment>s. Whenever you gain a <Fragment>, heal allies for 4 HP and deal 3 DMG to all enemies.â—¦ HP healed reduced to 4 (was 5)
â—¦ DMG dealt reduced to 3 (was 5)
Shady Exchange actually received a nerf a few days ago as the previous change was too strong. After the change, I believe the damage from Shady Exchange is more managable but Ramp is still going to be very strong with Energy Shard and all the Nimo ears and tails. Many strong archetypes such as Bubble Bombs, Sandal, and Anemone will continue to abuse Ramp to get to early Energy Burst.
Summons
Summons was buffed for Season 7 but it was not as good as I thought it is, mainly because I misunderstood what the added stats do. The additional stats on the Summon Cards do not actually do attack or heal, only affect the effects of the summons. I think Summons can do good for Rare Era but it will be difficult to compete with all the more OP Runes and Charms in Epic and Mystic Eras. Perhaps Healing Pulse with Summons + Cucumber Slice may be somewhat competitive, but it will be difficult unless the meta is full of Single attacks strategies like Sandals.
Potential new archetypes
I do not think any of the following "new" archetypes will be competitive enough at the very top, but it can be fun to try out new things in the new season if you are a casual player. Having said that, the challenge with new archetype is the Axie pool is small because breeders are not going to breed for them unless they are competitive enough to sell for a profit.
Steal and Cunning could be a new synergy that is worth trying out with the new mechanics. There are a number of Cards and Runes with Steal, notably Bloodlust and Moonlight Thief, but the Alert mechanics makes it difficult to stack up Cunning quickly.
Fear is redesigned with 3 Damage Cards synergising with Fear. The main problems are i) lack of ways to apply Fear on opponents, ii) not a lot of cards synergies with Fear, and iii) the 3 Cards synergising with Fear are now "Target random enemy", making it very inconsistent compared to other strategies. It is probably fun to try but do not expect to much results from playing with Fear synergies.
Goo got another rework and this time it may be better than previous seasons. Having said that, I think it is still not going to be very competitive. Again, fun to play, but do not expect much.
Bulwark can be quite fun for Sustain players as well as Sturdy Fighter players. I can see Sustain still being around, so Bulwark is a new fun toy to deal more damage for Sustain teams.
Notable existing archetypes
Many existing OP archetypes have not been touched, and some of them are going to be stronger from Parts Evolution. For this reason, I would not expect any big changes with the meta at the top of the leaderboard other than the inclusion of Bubble Bombs.
Sandal is definitely going to be around. Even with the nerf of Bloodpact from 3 to 4 PP, it is still going to be a very strong choice for aggro teams, especially Sandal which relies on Debuff. Expect to see evolved Sandal around.
Anemone is also going to continue to be strong with Parts Evolution allowing Anemone to deal even more damage.
Feather Descend is untouched, which means we can expect to see quite a bit of Feather Descend around in the Mystic Era. The same can be said for Last Stand even though it is nerfed to only +20%, the effect of buying an extra turn is just too good.
Rage has always been strong though not very popular at the high level. With the introduction of some new Charms, particularly Discount Coupon in Mystic, it could be fun to get into Fury and deal massive damage very quickly. Perch may also benefit from this but Last Stand is still a problem for Perch teams.
Poison, while never really the most competitive, is always there and playable in all 3 eras. Evolved Poison parts can be quite good, which makes it a good choice for casual players to use the same team for all era and across seasons, grinding up AXP to evolve their Axies.
Conclusion
The meta for Season 7 will likely to look similar to that of Season 6 with the exception of Bubble Bombs getting into the mix. The biggest change of course is Parts Evolution, which give players another incentive to play. I personally will enjoy getting my Tri Spikes and Leafy evolved and seeing my Axies deal massive damage from the evolved parts.
Good luck and have fun with the start of Season 7! Let's hope we will have a fun and diverse meta across the eras!
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