Town Hall 18 Meta
Back in May, we mentioned that we'd be keeping an eye on the Dragon Duke and the air troop meta, and now we're ready to give you an update on that. We won't be talking about big new features, but rather taking a focused look at the Town Hall 18 meta, the changes coming in July, and the reasons behind them. Right now, Dragon-based armies are appearing in Town Hall 18 more often than we'd like, usually led by the Dragon Duke and Dragon Riders. Looking at the data, we've seen that these formations are the most used in Town Hall 18 wars and appear in about 20% of attacks. Part of the problem is that the war meta in general isn't as diversified as we'd like it to be. In fact, even the second most popular army, the one with Cannons supported by Healers, appears in about 20% of cases, meaning these two compositions make up 40% of Town Hall 18 attacks. We're happy to see a ground army among the favorites, but when such a large part of the meta revolves around just a couple of options, both attacks and base building risk becoming less varied than we'd like. At the same time, the meta hasn't evolved uniformly across all strategies. Electric Dragons are struggling to find a place among the most popular armies, while the Meteor Golem has dropped well below its intended level after the nerfs. So with this change, we're aiming to reduce the most obvious excesses, bring some underused options back into play, and avoid making attacks overall stronger. We're moving carefully here, especially since a new customization phase will be starting soon, which will affect base building, army selection, and how you approach attacks. We'd prefer to avoid too many changes right before the meta evolves again. With this update, we're aiming to tackle the most obvious problems right away and then continue observing how the meta settles as the new season begins.
The Changes
Dragon Duke
Dragon Riders
Crusher
Electric Dragon
Meteor Golem
Druid
Dragon Duke
Further decrease to trap damage reduction. Its rage remains unchanged: we like seeing players use their skills to isolate it and unleash its full power, but traps need to have a more important role in keeping this solo flying hero in check.
Dragon Riders
Small reduction in HP and damage at max level. Since we're nerfing Dragon-based armies on multiple fronts, we prefer to proceed carefully rather than overdo the corrections.
Crusher (Town Hall Guardian)
Rolling range reduced by two tiles and short-range push increased. The Crusher should be a threat to ground attacks, but so far it's been controlling too much space from too great a distance.
Electric Dragon
Small increase in HP and damage at the last two levels. Again, we're proceeding carefully here, given that Electric Dragons are already popular and well-known, but at the moment they're underperforming where we'd like them to be.
Meteor Golem and Meteormites
Receive the biggest buff of this update. After Town Hall 18 launched, we had to quickly nerf the Meteor Golem, but we went too far: this change should make its split-and-merge gameplay style interesting again, without bringing it back to launch version.
Druid
Modest increase to heals at the last levels; a small push for a troop that can be very effective but is rarely chosen.
The Flamethrower and the Rocket Backpack
The previous change to how the Flamethrower pushes the Dragon Duke introduced a bug that sometimes prevents the Rocket Backpack from activating. To fully fix the error, an update is needed, so for now we'll be temporarily reverting to the previous behavior: the Flamethrower will push in the direction of the Rocket Backpack. This isn't the final behavior we want to maintain, but a predictable interaction is better than one that doesn't work. The complete fix, along with the removal of related competitive restrictions, is planned for the next update.
What We'll Be Watching
There are some elements we're considering changes for, but will remain unchanged for now. The Totem Spell remains at the top of the list of elements under observation. We also considered changes for Star Warrior, but given the nerfs to Dragon formations and the approaching new customization phase, we decided to wait. The Rubble Witch and Rage Spell are still very new, so we want to give players more time to experiment with them before making changes. The Flying Raider also remains under observation after recent changes. We want to clarify that just because something doesn't change doesn't mean we missed it. Sometimes we prefer to see how the rest of the update and the next season affect the meta before making changes again.
• Totem Spell
• Rubble Witch and Rage Spell behavior
• Flying Raider and other recent troops
Plans for the Future
These are all the updates coming with this patch, since this is just a balance update designed to make the Town Hall 18 meta healthier, create more room for underused options, and provide better tactics for base builders. In the meantime, we ask you to keep sending us feedback, replays, war results, and honest opinions, because they're crucial in shaping our approach to these updates.
Keep on clashing!