The Bureau of Balance (collating and testing fan-made changes)

Lum

Brief Discussion

Lum is actually considered a pretty decent character, but he suffers from horrible match-ups vs :argagarg::degrey: so doesn’t tend to see a lot of play at present. His changes are focussed on improving those match-ups.

This may also be a consequence of his kit being amongst the most complicated and also leaning on a lot of random chance elements.


Changes Under Consideration

Lum’s throws are designed to be purposefully inefficient, but he still struggles to kill :argagarg::degrey: where he has to rely primarily on throw damage to kill. Giving him +1 pump on his throws should help that.

There is a concern that this might make his late game burst damage too strong so until testing can prove otherwise, this change remains under consideration.

Normal Throw Damage
X+3 (+3 Any) —> X+3 (+4 Any)

10-throw Extra Juice
10+4 damage (+3 Any) —> 10+4 damage (+4 Any)

Additionally, because both of Lum’s most disadvantaged matchups are against characters who rely on recurring Aces, changing Jackpot to be more likely to find those Aces threatens them more than other characters. In exchange for a higher chance of success and a slightly higher maximum damage, it loses the guaranteed draw. This means he needs to wait until he’s confident that he’ll (ahem) hit the jackpot to use it. It is also more likely to deal more damage to Lum than the original Jackpot, which further increases the incentive to wait until the opponent has multiple known Aces and has played at least one Joker. Overall these changes seem quite balanced and flavorful (note he gets most payoff for finding “pocket” aces).

Importantly it also means :argagarg: has more of a decision to make when deciding which ability to counter.

7* Jackpot [Draw Phase]
Draw a card then The opponent reveals two cards from their hand at random. For each Ace, they take 5 damage and you draw a card. For each Joker, you take 2 damage.

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