Overview
Call me the Lorax, fam, ‘cuz I’m about to speak for the trees! New champion babeee! Bow down to Durthax, Branchlord of the Weald!
Durthax is game-breaking in a good way. I don’t mean that they break the game in the sense that they ruin it. I mean that they break the game in the sense that they stretch out the range of numerical values that we normally see for champions’ stats. No champion has worse defensive stats (2/1) but no champion is even comparable in terms of their health pool. Durthax has twice as much health as Halftusk. We’re dealing with a champion who very much lies outside the numbers that we’re used to thinking about and, in so doing, shakes the game up in a delightful way. This comes not a moment too soon, in my opinion.
One of the things that has sustained my interest in Godtear since its release is the development team’s ability to issue releases which both feel fresh and fit in at the same time. Durthax does this, but they also represent a thrilling departure from a pattern we all thought we could predict. This guardian was surely going to be an Orc, right? That’s the vacancy in the one of each class for each origin pattern, after all. Nope. It turns out that Godtear isn’t just an outline waiting to be filled in. Durthax implies a future for the game as limitless as its design space. Maybe the pace at which we’re exploring that space is slower than we would prefer, but if the design continues to be this good, then I’m willing to summon some patience.
Have a look at SFG’s ultimate guide. It’s an excellent overview written by the head developer for the game, Steve Margetson. In addition to absorbing the sound observations in this guide, please also don’t fail to notice the clear and intentional decision to use they/them pronouns in describing this champion. The cards themselves also use gender-neutral pronouns to refer to Durthax. Whatever you may think of that, the creators’ intent is clear. Personally, I think it’s great. Let’s not assign a binary gender identity to a tree.
Let’s talk about these cards, shall we?
Trait/Ultimate
Twisting Grove is immediately one of the best traits in Godtear. It can affect friendly banners or enemy banners, and it happens for free at any point in Durthax’s activation in both phases. I admit that we’ll need some table time to assess just how good this is, but it seems highly impactful at first glance. This trait can move any banner up to 4 hexes, twice per turn, for free. No dice are involved. It’s a milder version of Finvarr’s ultimate except more versatile and more frequent. The ability to reposition enemy banners within an aura is totally unprecedented. As we'll see, this trait combines with other text on Durthax's card to create formidable banner protection and banner crushing options for this crew. Twisting Grove strikes me as a high skill-ceiling kind of tool which will really reward extended table time. In the hands of a capable player, Twisting Grove will be the difference between a safe banner and a crushable banner (for someone) on most turns. It’s huge. I predict that making good use of this trait will define the difference between good Durthax play and mediocre Durthax play. If you’re chasing Godtear greatness, start playing around with Twisting Grove.
Wellspring is a situationally strong ultimate. While it does impose some restrictions on plot activation order, it effectively grants all of your nearby champions an extra plot phase action (except Helena). Sure, you won’t always be able to claim, but it’s far easier to do so on a Wellspring turn. For example, a knocked out champion can rally, move adjacent to a hex, and then claim when Wellspring pops. This is likely better if you’re going first because you’ll be able to find more open hexes. This will also be better on more clustered scenarios because friendly champions will be more likely to be within range. Range 3 is generally good, but it won’t always reach across lanes.
Plot phase
Let’s talk about this 14 health situation. It’s massive. Setting aside all the healing (we’ll get to that), let’s try to get our arms around what this health pool means on the board.
Imagine our guy Rangosh, one of the nastiest heavy hitters in Godtear. The Gosh is, by anyone’s standard, a damage output monster. Now imagine that Rangosh uncorks his scariest attack, Jawbreaker, on Durthax with an accuracy boon AND a damage boon. Moreover, Imagine that Rangosh uses Brutal Master twice to really turn the damage dial all the way up. Rangosh’s 5/9 attack will inflict 6.27 wounds on average. Thats less than half of Durthax’s health. How about Skullbreaker’s ultimate with both offensive boons? At 10/10 with an auto-wound, this is the deadliest attack there is. Average wounds for the booned-up Finisher: 8.33. What about the low end? Well, a standard 5/5 attack averages 3.06 wounds against Durthax, so attack them five times and they should be KO’d. The game may very well be over by then, though.
So that 14 health is very good, but what about Snowball’s chance? Godtear’s developers have stated that Durthax was designed to be a Morrigan victim, so just how likely is Snowball’s chance to take out the big tree? With no boons or blights, Snowball’s Chance KOs Durthax only 9.3% of the time. Yuck. With the accuracy boon that Morrigan easily gets from her followers, this improves dramatically to 44.2%, but that’s still pretty unimpressive. Let’s say Morrigan also dishes out one of her abundant dodge blights. Now we’re on 53.1% odds. Still not reliable, but definitely better. What if Durthax also has a protection blight from Morrigan’s Frosty Glance? Now we’re up to at 85.6%. That’s good. Morrigan can get there all on her own, but the key is Frosty Glance. That’s tough because Frosty Glance may come at the expense of a claim action. Still, Morrigan can credibly threaten Durthax. It takes three status effects, but it’s doable. Durthax is so darn good that it might just be worth playing Morrigan in the future, depending on how this shakes out. If someone can help out our icy dead lady by adding a damage boon to the recipe above, the KO odds improve to 95.1%, so maybe this release helps Lorsann, Lilly, and Rattlebone too?
Moving on.
So, speed zero? It’s fine because of Uproot. This actually makes Durthax more mobile than a champion with a standard speed of 2 because Uproot is a placement effect, allowing Durthy to bypass other models. Cool. I guess this means that Durthax has one less plot phase skill, but on a Guardian, who cares? You want to use one of your actions to claim anyway.
Canopy is good! All friendly small followers within 2 get a protection boon? Sweet. Maybe keep a stray follower from a teammate’s unit near the big tree. It’s just good. The Treekin are protection 1, and the difference between protection 1 and protection 2 is huge, especially when facing Luella.
Let’s talk about the Treekin. There’s four of them with a base defense of 4/1 and a speed of 2 in this phase. Standard stuff. The real action here is their passive trait, Branch Ward. No enemy placement (including recruiting) adjacent to Treekin. This is bad for all followers who may want to recruit, but it’s especially bad for any model who relies on placement. While this is unfortunate for Mourneblade’s ultimate, Grimgut’s spewage, migrating robot birds, wildly growing thornlings, and others, Branch Ward seems like it’s meant to be anti-Raith tech. Raith has been very hard to handle since beta testing. If you can believe it, Kersplash (called kersploosh in those days) used to be range 4. Raith has been a menace for longer than the novel coronavirus has. Finally, finally, we may have a vaccine for Raith’Marid. I love this because it will allow me to enjoy Raith guilt-free. Can’t stop won’t stop #soggylizard
Photosynthesis is sweet. This pushes the Treekin to dodge 5, which is elite. Combined with Canopy, you can make these shrubbies 5/2. That’s good because it’s hard for both Luella and Kailinn who represent the accuracy/damage extremes of the Maelstrom scale.
Splinter Group is quite useful. Guardians love pushes because they make banners safer. In combination with Twisting Grove, the trees can put an extra two hexes between an enemy champion and a banner after the banner is placed. The follow-up movement further gives you the option to seal off an area. Notice that this skill is fairly accurate even when the Treekin have less than three models in the hex. This lets you cover a broad area with Branch Ward while still threatening to push a champion away from where it wants to be.
Clash Phase
Durthax appears to slow down in this phase, but not really. No more placement effects in Durthax's activation, and our Royal Tannenbaum can only advance one hex. It’s like being a backwards dwarf. However, both attack actions are Range 2, so the threat range isn’t terrible. As we’ll soon discuss, Durthax’s followers also help a lot in this department. For now, just keep in mind that Durthax is still actually quite mobile.
Durthax has a nice “toolbox” set of attacks in the sense that they can deal with both high dodge or high armor.
Bough Strike offers a new mechanic which allows Durthax to roll extra damage dice equal to excess hit roll successes. I love this. How many times have you hit a sweet dice spike on a hit roll and wished that result came on a damage roll? Often, I imagine. Well, now those spikes are not wasted. With accuracy 7, you’ll average 5.83 successes (call it 6). If you were to get a 6 on the hit roll, you'd have an 80% to KO a 4/1 small follower, but only a 45% chance to kill a 3/3 small follower. So, despite the cool spiky upside of this novel mechanic, you should probably think of Bough Strike as your answer to high dodge/low armor in most situations.
For low-dodge,/high armor targets, we have Growth spurt. At 4/6, this attack will take out that 3/3 follower 58% of the time. Perhaps more importantly, this attack provides potentially banner-saving control in the form of its push effects and a nice bit of self-healing for Durthax. That extra wound could very well be the difference between surviving a Slayer activation or not. I really like Growth Spurt because you can combine it with Twisting Grove to create separation between your banners and enemy champions.
On to the followers in this phase.
Still speed 2. Fine.
Fertilizer is a solid, accurate attack which also heals Durthax if it hits. Combined with Growth Spurt, this crew has the ability to heal its champion up to two wounds per clash phase. This is really strong when combined with Durthax’s enormous health pool. Snowballs aside, it will be really hard to take Durthax down quickly, so these heals should usually have an opportunity to happen. It gets even better when you consider that the heals come very efficiently; they’re just added bonuses for doing something you would want to do anyway. Over the course of three turns, Durthax’s crew simply hitting their attack rolls would essentially erase the average results of two 5/5 attacks against Durthax. Let's face it, the Quartzlings are never getting this KO without help.
The Treekin are interesting in the Clash Phase. Taking Root is fun. This is sort of the opposite of Forward Minions! Because instead of the champion moving the followers in the plot phase, the followers place the champion in the clash phase. Fun! There is an activation order complication here, but this skill addresses Durthax’s low clash phase speed. Taking Root can place Durthax up to three hexes away from their starting location, which is extraordinary. A three hex place combined with a one hexe advance actually makes this lumbering guardian a capable banner-crusher. Maybe more than capable, when you take Twisting Grove into account. Table time will tell. In the clash phase, this dynamic of teleporting to the followers gives me Raith vibes. What a thrill.
This is worth seeing on the table. Let's say it's the Treekin's activation, and the enemy green guys have activated already:
As you can see, Durthax is five hexes away from Raith's banner with no path to advance onto the objective hexes. This is actually no problem for the treefolk. First, the Treekin use Taking root to move 'Thax onto the objective hex adjacent to the central Treekin. Next, Durthax activates, uses Twisting Grove to move the banner closer, and then advances onto it.
Final Thoughts
All hail our new woody pal. Durthax brings tremendous survivability, control, and mobility to the party. This champion is both interesting and powerful. Are they broken? It's possible, but I 've learned to trust the dev team. It's very exciting to see a champion expressly designed to alter the meta by being strong against a top tier champion (Raith) and weak against a bottom-tier champion (Morrigan). About the Morrigan angle... I need to see more. It may just be possible for a good Durthax player to manage the Snowball's Chance threat. I can't wait to play around and figure it out.
Durthax is obviously very powerful and will no doubt shake the game up. Good! Godtear needs it. I really hope that this bold new direction for the game continues. It’s just so refreshing too see not only a new champion, but a new champion which opens up wider possibilities for games today and for releases in the future.
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