Soul-Boards

Noteworthy Game Mechanic Stuff:

 - Swapping skills vs replacing skills

• This isn't really a new change, more of a clarification since instances of a true skill replace are rare. Each character has some number of skills, with 4 of them showing at a time.
  
• A skill swap means you swap the positions of 2 skills, usually to take one of the first 4 skills away in exchange for a skill that you weren't able to use (think grimmjow s1/s5. Grimmjow had his s5 already, but it wasn't one of his first 4 skills, so he couldn't use it)
  
• Replacing a skill means to make a copy of a skill, and replace another skill with it. Some examples of this in game are Aislinger's boulder destruction, Charlotte's Rosa Blanca, Muramasa's skill copying, and the entirety of Arturo's kit
  
• This difference matters for some niche reasons. For those of you who have used muramasa, pretend you've copied 2 (or more) of the same skills. They are logically 2 different skills, that do the same thing. Increasing the cost of non strategic skills would increase the cost of both of the skills, but imagine you're affected by Hiyori's "Serpent Strike." If you use one of the skills, that skill will have its cooldown increased by 2 turns. However, the second copy of the skill would not have its cooldown increased, as it's a different skill
  
• I'm pointing this out to save me some potential headaches with bug reports. I think I have the text correct on everyone at this point, though I'm sure one of you lovely people will find one I missed and politely inform me
  

 - Energy System

• As I mentioned last patch, I said I would take a look at the energy system as a whole to make sure it was doing what it needs to do. Below are a couple of pictures of my findings at 100,000 energy
  
• Overall, the eventual spread of energy is uniform, which is slightly concerning. Think of a deck of cards, as it is uniformly distributed. As you draw cards, if you keep track of what you've drawn, you then also know that the likelihood of certain cards being drawn becomes more and more certain. The goal of SA's energy system is to be truly random, and that means I don't want the distribution of energy to be perfectly uniform
  
• However, I do understand that it can be pretty infuriating to have games where you get 6-0-0-0. As a result, I have slightly tweaked the energy system. I'm not going to dive into the details on this change, but there is a slightly higher chance the energy you get will be more uniformly distributed. That said, you can (and still will) have instances where you get 3 of a kind. Random is random after all
  
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Buffs

 - Kurosaki Karin

• "Take Aim" now targets herself. Each time she uses this skill, "GOAL" will deal 15 more damage and stun for 1 extra turn (using "GOAL" consumes these stacks). Cooldown reduced to 0
  
• Previously, take aim told your opponent who you wanted to kick, which balance wise, makes sense in some scenarios, just not for Karin
  

- Kyoko Haida

• "Cursed Aura" will in addition to its previous effects, make "Slay" ignore invulnerability the following turn, and "Slay" will permanently deal 5 additional damage
  
• Her gift/slay juggling is kind of neat, and deals solid damage. However, "Cursed Aura" was just a discount invulnerability before, which can be situationally nice, needs a little more to it to make it worth using
  

 - Narunosuke

• "Meditation" now heals 10 health for every 20 missing when the skill is cast. The following turn, "Heavy Assault" will pierce and ignore invulnerability.
  
• "Heavy Assault" base damage increased to 25
  

 - Ruri Iro Kujaku

• "Split and Deviate" now ignores invulnerability. It permanently swaps to "Harvest," and each turn, the bulbs on each enemy will change to a random color. All bulbs are removed when Ruri dies
  
• "Harvest's" effects for the difference colored bulbs have been updated
  
• White bulbs make the victim invulnerable to friendly skills for 1 turn, and Ruri Iro Kujaku will become invulnerable for 1 turn.
  
• Blue bulbs deal 20 affliction damage to the victim, and permanently lower their non-affliction damage by 5. Ruri's non-affliction damage is permanently increased by 5
  
• Yellow bulbs will remove one random energy from the victim, and Ruri will gain one random energy
  
• Red bulbs let ruri steal 20 health from the victim
  
• Text describing these effects has been moved to the bulbs, rather than "Harvest's" description
  
• Needing to use "Split and Deviate" over and over again made the previous attempt to make Ruri useable moot. With the change to it, as well as strengthening the effects from "Harvest," hopefully he'll be better
  

 - Yukio Vorarlberna

• "Invaders Must Die" cost reduced to free
  
• "Practice mode" gives everybody 3 hearts for 3 turns. If an enemy loses all 3 hearts, they take 30 affliction damage. At the end of the time, each ally will heal 10 health for each heart they have remaining. Cost changed to 2 randoms
  
• "Monster Summon" now applies an effect to the enemy for 2 turns, making them take 5 physical damage and grant Yukio 5 permanent destructible defense every time they are targeted by a harmful skill
  
• "Is this enough?" Who knows. Because of how versatile his "Save State Load" is, it's hard to pin point how strong he will be. I'm also concerned it's still a little buggy, but hey that's showbiz. All of the major issues with it have been fixed as far as I'm aware, so any new fixes should be interaction based rather than the entire skill itself
  

Nerfs

 - Bankai Komamura

• "Heavenly Devestation" base damage lowered to 25
  
• Apparently, there was a bug where having "Heavenly Punishment" active would let you deal the 5 bonus damage to everyone, and not just the target of "Heavenly Punishment." This has also been fixed. Throwing that here because I know y'all don't read my bug fixes
  

 - Ise Nanao

• "Destructive Spell #31: Red Fire Cannon" base damage lowered to 15
  
• "Tactical Observation" only removes destructible defense on the initial cast
  
• Not much to say here. Less damage, less defense removing, should be easier to face
  

 - Segunda Ulquiorra

• "Lanza Throw" main target damage lowered to 40. Can now be countered/reflected
  
• "Cero Sneak" is now Energy, Control
  
• The change to "Lanza Throw" might be overkill, but for 2 cost, and it still dealing potentially 90 damage, it remains very strong. Counter play now exists. If I hear more whining about the 5 damage from full drive, I will buff it to 6. That effect is staying
  

Tweaks:

 - Inner Ichigo

• "Physical Breakdown" now ends all active effects the target has cast
  
• "Ally Takeover" cooldown raised to 5 (to match "Enemy Takeover")
  
• "Bankai - Tensa Zangetsu" now increases "White Getsuga Tenshou's damage by 25
  
• Nerf to the most powerful form, buff to the second weakest form. Enemy takeover is on my radar, but I'll admit I was exhausted at the point that I got to this character and didn't have good ideas
  

Reworks:

 - Broly

• "Eraser Cannon" now deals 10 piercing damage to all enemies. If it successfully hits all enemies, Broly will gain a yellow energy. The following turn, "Eraser Cannon" will be unable to be countered/reflected. Cost lowered to 1 yellow, cooldown lowered to 0
  
• "Grab" damage lowered to 10. In addition to the non-strategic stun, if the victim is targeted by an additional harmful skill in the same turn, the victim will not gain energy on their next turn. "Grab" swaps to "Saiyan Lariat" for one turn
  
• "Powered Shell" grants 30 permanent destructible defense. Permanently, whenever Broly has destructible defense (from any source), he will gain an extra energy at the end of his turn. This skill is permanently swapped to "The Legendary Super Saiyan." Cost lowered to 2 random energy
  
• "Gigantic Meteor" damage lowered to 50. Cost changed to 1 white, 2 yellow. The enemies who weren't targeted will take 10 piercing energy damage the next time they use a new harmful skill (this can stack). Cooldown lowered to 1
  
• "Gigantic Hammer" cooldown lowered to 1 with different effects: Target enemy will ignore all helpful effects for 1 turn. During this time, if they use a new skill, Broly will gain one white energy or one yellow energy. This skill now ignores invulnerability
  
• "Super Saiyan" passive no longer transforms Broly after 9 stacks
  
• "The Legendary Super Saiyan" removes "Super Saiyan" effects from Broly, and gains 10 points of permanent damage reduction. "Eraser Cannon" swaps to "Gigantic Meteor" and this skill swaps to "Gigantic Hammer." Whenever Broly uses a harmful skill, he will ignore all harmful effects except damage and energy cost changes. Cost changed to 1, and is no longer passive.
  
• New skill "Saiyan Lariat": Costs 2 random, 0 cooldown, Physical/Instant. Target takes 30 physical damage, and permanently recieves 5 additional damage from Broly's skills
  
• There's a lot to take in here. Basically, the transformed form of Broly is worth using now and you can control when you transform. Going to keep an eye on this guy, because this was a lot of changes. If he performs too well, expect to see him on the nerf list next patch
  

 - Kurosaki Isshin

• "Agitowari" deals 15 physical damage to all enemies. For 2 turns, each harmful skill marked enemies use will increase the damage of "Getsuga Tenshou - Isshin" by 5 damage permanently. For 2 turns, this skill will be replaced with "Getsuga Tenshou - Isshin," and then replaced with "Agitowari"
  
• "Burn, Engetsu" in addition to its other effects, will now make isshin invulnerable to the primary class of a skill after the skill is applied to him for 1 turn. For 2 turns, this skill is replaced with "Getsuga Tenshou - Isshin," afterwards being replaced by this skill
  
• "Realm Fixation" now targets himself or one ally. For 2 turns, this skill will be replaced by "Getsuga Tenshou - Isshin," afterwards being replaced by this skill
  
• Here's the reason why I made the callout to skill replaces. Things we learned from the first try: "Agitowari" needs to swap to swap to "Getsuga Tenshou - Isshin." "Burn, Engetsu" needs to do something. Actually that's a pretty short list. Here's to hoping this fixes him
  

Random Tip:
Struggling against a certain team? Analyze the team to see what makes it strong, and create a team to counter it. Orihime and Nemu are great against affliction teams; healing is not very good against spike teams while destructible defense/damage reduction is. Reducing enemy damage is good against full aoe teams

Noteworthy Bugfixes:

• Resurrection Yammy Now transforms immediately upon gaining 10 stacks instead of at the end of the turn
  
• Senbonzakura's "Slaughterscape" now correctly calculates intial damage vs damage over time
  
• Kyokotsu now checks if she's ignoring helpful effects before using "knockout"
  
• Hebi no longer stays permanently stunned if an ally Saru dies
  
• Adult Nel's "Lanzador Verde" cost stays 2 random with multiple "Declare, Gamuza's"
  
• Hyorinmaru and Saru both transform correctly on turn 1 when paired with Hitsugaya and Hebi respectively
  
• Fixed several issues with gaining the wrong amount of energy on a new turn
  
• Unohana's "Binding Spell #63: Locking Bondage Stripes" now costs 1 blue, as advertised
  
• Hueco Mundo Byakuya's funkiness with "Pivotal Scene" and "Execution" being disabled at seemingly random times has been fixed
  
• Ascended Aizen's "Awakened Hogyoku" should no longer disappear when the lowest health ally dies
  
• Kurostichi Maryui's "Ally bomb" now uses itself correctly when stacked
  
• Wabisuke no longer puts all enemy skills on a 1 turn cooldown
  
• Shrieker and Bankai Byakuya no longer crash the server when increasing cooldowns
  
• Koutotsu's "Time-Space Barrier's" ignore harmful effect is removed when destructible defense is destroyed
  
• Bankai Gin's "Distance Fighting" can no longer be countered/reflected
  
• Yasutora Sado's "Draw" stacks are now consumed properly
  
• Ryujin Jakka's "Phoenix Fire" now correctly applies to a new enemy when the target dies
  
• Dodnochakka's "Summon Bawabawa" no longer heals dead allies