Since the new card system is already introduced on Ktest, I have to say that I’m quite shocked that there is no real incentive for players to mix certain cards, simply because most cards still have a diminishing effect (especially those cards like Molich or Velorchard card) because they give fixed stats.
I don’t know if it’s implied that the card level cap will be increased one day to make them more useful, but with the current system,there is basically no benefit by mixing different cards, people will most likely end up with 3 times the same card.
So, here are some options how to boost the card variability a little:
- : Make singular cards recieve an effect boost.
When equipping only 1 card of a kind, you recieve twice the normal stats of the card.
This would entice players to stack different cards as having only one card of a kind would provide the stats of currently 2 cards, while having 3 same cards is still the most effective way if you’re after a certain status/effect.
E.g. having 1 Velorchard 10* card would provide 40 Evasion, 2 Velorchard 10* cards would provide the same 40 Evasion and 3 Velorchard 10* cards would provide 60 Evasion.
- : Make card sets for additional stat boosts.
This is by far the more complicated solution but it would bring a alot of variety and possibly even a better overall mixture as you could make some sets for the same color only while others could e.g. spread along 2 or more different colors.
Having those sets could either boost the individual boni of the cards (for example 50-100% more stats) or give unique stats, which would be harder to balance,though.
- : Give cards special effects that are non-stackable.
This could also be an interesting way to have players equip more different cards, if you gain some of the bosses abilities if you equip their cards additionally to the initial statboost, e.g. equipping a Velorchard provides a chance to petrify your enemies, Werewolf slows your enemies down,etc.
These abilities could be hidden to make experimenting with different cards more exciting.
- : Give different cards different skillboosts.
Similarly to monster gems, monster cards could also provide boosting effects for your skills. These could be anywhere from boosting a certain skills damage% to changing how a skill works till reducing the passive stats of the skills (e.g. casttime,SP costs or CD time). However, those abilities should only apply once per card, and different cards would yield different results per skill.
This would be by far the most complicated and possibly the most dangerous option concerning the current and future balancing of Classes, but it would allow people to boost their relatively weak/useless skills.
Of all the abovementioned options, I think that the first option (i.e. doubled stats for one of a kind cards) would still be the best solution to improve the overall variation in equipped cards while still being relatively harmless for the game,given the current values of the cards.
About the future golden cards:
I believe that what really is needed here are some options:
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cards that improve elemental damage (e.g. 10-20% more damage of a certain element or improving the damage of selected elemental skills [as the game certainly doesn’t need another Plague Doctor boost], e.g. the holy element card boosting Rune of Justice, Merkabah,Cure and Exorcise while ignoring Heal and Magnus Exorcismus);
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cards that improve the recieved Healing effect (e.g. of Heal,Mass Heal);
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cards that let you autocast certain skills when autoattacking (e.g. level 1 Fireball with a low chance [1-3%]);
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cards that allow you to change your element (this would be pretty interesting, especially in PVP as everyone could change towards a certain element to recieve less damage by another specific element)
It would be nice if those golden cards would be NPC cards that can be recieved by certain NPCs around the world rather than just another simple bossmonster card.
As the NPC artworks are already manyfold, it would be easy to put their artwork onto a card and fix a corresponding effect. Even some quality/ingame experience improvements via these cards would be nice (e.g. NPC shop discount, movement speed boost in towns, keeping your buffs active when changing the map,etc.).
Class Master cards e.g. could be a great improvement, providing some useful effects based on your chosen Class (e.g. different buffs based on the Circles you have of that Class) while also fixing your current Class at that Class (i.e. your Class Icon/character description will always feature the Class whose Class Master card you’ve got equipped currently).
This would be easy to do, give the players some happiness as they could proudly showcase their main and/or favorite Class in their builds and be a nice complimentation to the current monster-only card system.