Hello together,
another statement I'd like to make in regard of balance.
This time it is about Lorien. Lots of changes between 4.4.1 and 4.5 make for a way more interesting (and very nicely designed) Lorien.
However after playing with and also against them a few times I discovered some issues that might have to be adressed in order to restore a general balance.
There are some feature which make Lorien way stronger as a faction as in 4.4.1, but there are also a few things I'd like to adress which make for a negativ or even frustrating gameplay as Lorien.
1. Refuge in the woods.
I really like this one. A tree being summoned a spell upon to bring benefit for own units. BUT the big downside is that it heals units while it's indestructible (if not by the hard counter for it: workers and/or units which trample trees).
Now by the experience I made as of now, this spell is often used very agressively to secure critical parts of the map, or is even summoned right infront of the opponent's base. But fighting against Lorien next to that tree is basically suicide due to the high healing and restoration rate.
This makes this tier 2 spell with two needed spellpoints more important than the central spell, which is pretty much rendered useless and often unused due to refuge in the woods.
-> As for a possible solution I'd like to suggest a simple buff for armor (since Lorien lacks armor mostly) while fighting in the refuge of the woods. This would also suite the Lore, since Elfs are fighting on known territory, knowing the advantages which gives them a buff of perhaps 20% armor. A permanently summoned armor buff makes for a great experience since the goal for the Lorien-Player is to steer fights into the direction of those trees. Through the long debounce time it's also not possible for it to be summoned everywhere all the time.
The central spell could be extended by the healing ability once the hearttree reachs it's highest level. The perks to that: It can also be destroyed and it gets even more important to take care of the tree. In order for that change the necessary spellpoints might be raised from 3 to 5.
2. The arrowvolley:
Perhaps I am mistaken, but seemingly this ability ignores heavy armor. It shouldn't do that imo. On top of that the ability needs a slightly longer notice since off host players can't dodge the spell when playing vs a host player.
3. As much as I like the longer recruitement time of heroes which high CP, as Lorien this is a double edged sword. For example if Celeborn dies and you recruit him again, he takes a very long time to arrive. During this time the citadel can't produce any units. Since PVP's all about spending your money continiously this pretty much breaks the game since you can't afford to lose units during the recruitment time of whichever hero is being produced.
-> In this case I would propose to have heroes produced in the sanctuary. First of all that building is hardly used, but now necessary due to the CP Upgrade, and second to that the Hero-Recruitment could be dragged into that building for the exact same reason as the CP-Upgrade was put into the sanctuary.
4. I also dislike the instant defeat when the Lorien Citadel falls. Baserush and a simple push for one building is becoming a strategy vs Lorien which is rather stupid, especially in a game where units clumped around buildings are very hard to counter, even with a bigger force.