Why The Log is so Good in Clash Royale

what is the most popular card in Clash Royale the Mega Knight one of the Champions perhaps it's everyone's favorite evolved Royal giant although all of these are popular none of them have even come close to maintaining the consistent popularity held by the log Amir two Elixir card whose sole function is to roll across the ground killing or knocking back any ground Troop that lies within its path from an outsider perspective the log at first glance may not seem like a very interesting or particularly amazing card but this card has been a staple in The Clash Royale meta for several years and continues to be by far the most popular card in latter and Grand challenges by over double digits no card even comes close to the popularity of the log despite multiple Nerfs and similar cards being added over the years in an attempt to provide more competition for many cards rates like this would typically result in an emergency nerve but the log has held raids similar to this for years hardly ever getting attention and it doesn't seem like it'll be going anywhere anytime soon so I want to dive deep into the logs history today talk about what the purpose of this card was its influence on the game over the years its ups and downs and why supercell is hesitant to give the card a proper Nerf the log was one of the four new cards added in the July 2016 update it was a pretty big deal because the card was too Elixir and a spell which meant that it was clearly meant to compete with the zap spell the zap spell was easily one of the most dominant and versatile Spells at the time of the logs release many believed that the zap spell wasn't overpowered though instead rather just lacking proper competition poison and Fireball competed with each other as four Elixir spells and lightning and Rocket competed as well but up to this point zap just really didn't have a competitor the advantage of using the log was that it knocked back troops instead of stunning them and doubt more damage meaning it could completely kill the princess for a positive Elixir trade this was huge because the princess was an absurdly overpowered card throughout 2016 and its previous main counter was arrows but that wasn't a positive Elixir trade here's what the problem was though the interaction against the princess specifically was the only real reason you would ever consider using a log instead of a Zab the zap could completely reset Inferno towers and sparkies as well as being placed anywhere in the arena the log was very unique in this aspect as it was the only spelling Clash Royale that could not be placed anywhere in the arena this meant if the opponent just tucked a princess in the back of the Arena a log wasn't going to do any good until that princess walked in front of the princess Tower the law could be cycled onto the tower for some chip damage but you had to place the log at the furthest tile up that you could in order to do so you may be thinking the log is a legendary card meaning there must be something special about it unlike the zat which was a mere common but there really was nothing too special about the log it's not like knocking back troops was a special legendary ability so how did the log perform upon release you may Wonder Grand challenges didn't exist yet so looking at top ladder statistics from July 2016 the log was in zero percent of top ladder decks now granted legendaries were extremely difficult to level up at the time you would need thousands of dollars to max out a legendary within a few weeks but but I still think this statistic is an accurate reflection of the card's power at the time it was considered to be a really weak card there were several reasons why the log was underperforming it just had no purpose it's pretty clear this card was intended to be an alternative choice to Zab for context zap in 2016 was Far stronger than the zap we have today being able to kill goblins at equal level and stunning troops for a full second rather than half a second like today so even though the goblin Barrel did exist in 2016 log didn't have the advantage of being the only spell to fully counter it for a positive Elixir trade the log was just completely outclassed by the zap in almost every way and the biggest Advantage the zap had over the log was speed a lot of zap's power was the fact that it would very quickly do its job after placing it it didn't need time to fly like the other spells and the log was extremely slow moving at a speed of only 140 tiles per minute for frame of reference a hog rider runs at 120 tiles per minute which may sound fast since the hog rider does travel at the maximum speed a troop can go but for spells 140 tiles per minute is incredibly slow just as an example the modern day arrows travel at 1100 tiles per minute and even the second slowest projectile spell the rocket traveled at a speed of 350 tiles per minute imagine your opponent uses a skeleton army to counter your Hog Rider and you have a log unless you pre-placed your log that skeleton army was going to wipe out your hug before the log collided with them this is why this app being instant was so advantageous why pick a spell that basically does the exact same thing as that but can't it air and basically only kills the same cards as zap zap was completely dominating the game and log was certainly no competitor to this card in fact in August 2016 the zap had its strongest season yet appearing in a whopping 98 of the top 100 ladder decks with the logs still not making a single appearance zap was a necessity to have in every deck and it's not even like the princess was out of the meta either as I said log killing princess was basically the one advantage it had but even with the princess at a 50 use rate in top ladder law garnered absolutely no interest to try to counter this it was obvious that zap either needed a big Nerf or log needed a big buff so when the balance changes came later in August supercell would actually do both in hopes to persuade some people to switch their Zap for a log the zap stun time would be reduced from one second to half a second and the log's casting speed would be increased from 180 tiles per minute to 300 along with its movement speed being increased from 140 tiles per minute to 170. its slow speed was probably its least appealing feature so buffing that was a good place to start with the zap significantly weaker than before it made a bit more room for the log to wiggle into the meta although the zaps use rate fell significantly in top ladder after this nerve the logs use rate barely increase at all that was still by far the best spell and it's understandable why but wait a minute why didn't the log of any sort of special ability like princess or Ice Wizard it knocked things back sure but Fireball and Rocket could knock things back too and those cards were only rare Rarity the month after this first buff Superstar would give the log another buff this time giving it a very unique ability which would make it deserving of its legendary status on September 19 2016 the log was given the ability to knock back any grounds troop this meant to get knocked back the heaviest troops like Pekka and Golem previously troops that were impossible to knock back it could even push back the minor while he was still underground this unique ability really helped match the incredibly versatile stun ability by the end of September log amassed to a four percent use rate still 61 behind its blue foe they're clearly still needed to be some more work done to find the perfect balance right now though log was a very Niche card it was a solid card by itself but locking Golems was just a very rare situation throughout October the logs use rate continued to climb now at eight percent but still pretty low compared to the zap 66 percent log didn't really have any specific Niche decks where it explicitly worked better than Zab it was mainly just occasionally replacing zap in already popular zap decks eight percent usage is actually all right for most cards but supercell historically likes to keep spells especially less annoying Spells at a significantly higher use rate than most cards it's less about what's statistically overpowered and what the community perceives to be overpowered even though the zap had close to a 70 usage rate in top ladder people weren't having less fun or calling for Nerfs to this app because it was everywhere it fell fine the competition was just lacking zap was an important tool that was necessary for most players to have to keep potentially overpowered cards in check therefore for the third month in a row log would be buffed this time supercell was giving the log four distinct stat Buffs on October 20th 2016 nosap Nerf would come but a massive log buff was here its casting speed was increased by an additional 60 tiles per minute or one per second and its projectile speed was also increased by 30 tiles per minute thirdly its damage would be increased by 8.5 percent which didn't have any major interaction changes and lastly perhaps the biggest buff of all its range would be increased from 9.6 tiles to 11 0.6 tiles before this change you had to play your lock right at the bridge in order for it to touch the tower but now you could play it a full two tiles away from the bridge and still have it ship the princess Tower which added some nice extra versatility you could also Now counter a goblin barrel with the log and it would roll far enough to kill a princess at the bridge supercell clearly wanted the log to be good this is an enormous buff in the following days of this buff log would rise from an 8 use rate to a 68 use rate shattering the zap's place and becoming the most popular card in competitive play the top four most popular decks of the time were all running log now giant bowler was the most popular deck at the time where lots of people were playing it with zap but a significant number of people were subbing the zap with the log now Expo was the second most popular deck which succeeded with the newly buffed log and you wouldn't see zap with Expo anymore log had fully replaced it in this archetype log was certainly at a peak but zap wasn't going down without a fight after a hard drop the zap's use rate was actually steadily Rising back up by November it was back up to a 57 user right becoming the third most popular card in top ladder right under the log which was the second most used card in the game at the time which had risen to an astonishing 79 use rate zapalog were not really competing with each other anymore both cards were so powerful and served to their purposes so well that a lot of people simply started using them together the most popular deck in the game was a Golem deck that contained both zap and the log and multiple other decks on the top deck list were running both two Elixir spells as well the zap's main role was still taking out swarms mainly goblins and skeletons and lock was primarily used for its insane knockback and cycling damage on the King's Tower with just the added bonus of taking out swarms if zap wasn't available even a level 1 log would deal 104 damage to the princess Tower and it being too Elixir made it really easy to cycle even when there weren't many troops down the knockback was insane knocking back any card it hit a full 1.5 tiles back if placed right could even be used against the miner to activate your king Tower this version of the log not only did more than double the knockback compared to today's law Vlog but also dealt more than double the damage to King towers and had more range yet despite all of this despite thriving in its own right and having amazing stats for a two Elixir spell the zap still fulfilled its niche of taking care of swarms much better so the zap would make a huge comeback in December overtaking the log in usage becoming the number one card in the game again one major factor in this massive Sudden Change was due to the rise of elite barbarians which had gotten a massive buff in December Elite barbarians were fast and that was a much better car to accompany the tempo of this Troublesome Duo because of its instantaneous nature princess was also much less popular than it used to be meaning log didn't really have anything in the arena that it could counter better than Zab however towards the end of the year YouTuber malt would popularize a spell bait deck that would contain the log as its main small spell and log worked well in this deck because the way you would play this deck is basically chipping away at your opponent's Tower throughout the game of which log was much better at than the zap on top of that you didn't really need to be prepared for Inferno Tower or Inferno Dragon since the deck was come comprised of mostly swarms with so much log and zap going around spellbait was starting to become pretty popular as counter play to this the benefits of Zap didn't really matter in this archetype so you would exclusively see log instead of Zap in spellbait the rates stayed about the same going into January and competitively you would continue to see log almost exclusively in Expo and spellbait log's primary use wasn't eliminating swarms it was mainly just a cheap way to chip the Tower or keep things away from your Expo which isn't necessarily a bad thing but because of this it just meant that was in the exact position it was in before log received any Buffs which defeated almost the entire purpose of adding the log in the first place One Way supercell tried to give the log purpose was by adding another card that law could kill for a positive Elixir trade but not the zap this was the dark Goblin added on January 13 2017 but adding a new card to give the log a little more purpose wasn't going to diminish the zap's purpose the dark Goblin wasn't even good when it was first released anyway buffing the log at this point seemed like a bad idea though it may have had way less usage than that but 31 percent was still pretty high towards the end of January we would get some very important balance changes that would change the direction of Zap and log Forever both zap and the log would appear in the balance changes in January 2017. since even when the log was really strong the zap still thrived it made sense to just bite the bullet and Nerf the zap again so that's what they would do but the log wouldn't get away scot-free as in the same balance change its pushback range would be reduced from 1.5 tiles to one tile as well as a damaged nerve of four percent the zap would get a damaged Nerf of 6 percent although it appears long got the harsher Nerf here it would be the exact opposite a damage Nerf of four percent to the log didn't change any interactions but a damage Nerf of 6 percent was devastating for the zap the biggest interaction changed was that it couldn't kill goblins anymore now the log had the advantage of being the only two Elixir spell to completely counter Goblin barrels so despite the logs Nerf it exploded to being the number one most used card in the game once again after the zap's Nerf Goblin Barrel was on the rise so people needed the log now zap certainly wasn't dead though as it was still being used in nearly half of all top ladder decks and in the beginning of February zap and log were actually still the two most used cards in the game spellbait and Expo were still both very popular with the log and the now iconic hog rider deck that had been around for several months at this point had replaced the Zab with the log and is still one of the most popular decks in the game to this very day being able to wipe out the goblin troupe was very important and zap just couldn't handle it anymore and the log's purpose would only become greater as time went on on February 24 2017 another new card would come out which would have a massive impact on the log and zaps plays in The Meta this was the goblin gang the zap could still take out the spear goblins but not the regular goblins so for example if they used a goblin gang to county or hog rider the zap wasn't going to help you as much against it therefore even more demand for log was created soon after the goblin gang came out another iconic deck would be created involving the log this wasn't spellbait this was log bait previous forms of spellbait Were Meant to bait not just the log but zap in arrows too but this form of spellbait was specifically tailored to beating log users it included Goblin gang Goblin Barrel Princess and Ice Spirit all cards that would not die to zap logbei quickly grew in popularity and became massively more mainstream meta than any previous spellbait deck ever was and the reason this archetype was able to thrive so much is because log was everywhere you saw log in Golem hog rider giant Three Musketeers Expo log bait Royal Giant and Miner it was probably the most versatile spell in Clash Royale history besides the zap a year earlier it was clear that the zap Nerf gave the log too much of an advantage so on March 13 2017 supercell would Nerf the log again they would Nerf the damage by another four percent meaning it now did the same damage as it did upon release they also reduced to the range from 11.6 tiles to 11.1 tiles meaning you couldn't play the log 2 tiles away from the bridge and still have it reach the princess Tower in anymore however there would be a third secret Nerf that was completely accidental that would also come with these other two changes this was that the law could no longer be played on top of buildings this may sound inconsequential but this really hurt the log in two major situations for one it made it much worse in Siege decks since you're typically using your log to protect your siege building it was common to play your log right on top of it so not being able to do that anymore was really frustrating it was also bad if you were trying to protect your Elixir pump from a goblin Barrel as I said this was unintended so on the same day as these Nerfs went live superzo had an emergency maintenance break buffing the logs range back to 11.6 tiles this is the shortest time in Clash Royale history a card has gone without being changed it was only about eight hours from the time of the changes going live to the emergency maintenance break so it's impossible to even tell how the log was performing for that short period of time but it now meant the log could reach the princess Tower even when played two tiles from the bridge once again and the reason they re-increased the range instead of just fixing the building glitch is because it was actually part of a client update that couldn't be fixed with just a maintenance break supercell said they were going to be holding off the range Nerf until they could fix the building issue and the changes would be implemented in the next update after all these changes it hardly made a dent in the logs performance it was still appearing in over half of the top ladder decks the building glitch with log did cause Expo to have a hard drop though log mates seem to only be getting stronger and you still found the log being played in a multitude of archetypes Logan's out were actually both pretty even in terms of usage finally in the June 2017 update supercell would fix the log so now it could be played on buildings again and the range reduction would finally come into play there was actually also supposed to be a change where when the log killed the battle Ram it would no longer Hit The Barbarians that spawned from it but this was removed at the last second and to this day you can still double dip on the logs damage if you use it to knock out a battle Ram regardless the range Nerf practically made no difference as by July log was still the number one card in top ladder this would change in August though because the bats would be buffed to have a five count instead of four bats were unique in this situation because they were the only Troop that died to the zap but not the log at equal level and thus sap quickly proclaimed its spot as the number one spell during this bat-filled meta log wouldn't become the number one spell on top ladder until November again as the goblin gang took over the bats in terms of popularity both spells were still doing incredibly well but the log was still easily considered to be the best card in the game despite its consistent popularity supercell wasn't nerfing it anymore it didn't seem like it would make the game healthier to Nerf the log as I said earlier spells just tend to have higher use rates because it wasn't so much that they were overpowered but there were less of them and they were just necessary tools to deal with a variety of troops in The Meta as we've seen they did commonly fluctuate depending on what troops were thriving the most however the log would receive one more balance change before the year was over but this was a change that was applied to all direct damage spells this was likely mostly due to the rocket which had a surging prominence towards the end of 2017 but even disregarding that so many popular Decks at this point just relied on cycling spells on the princess Tower it was was a really overpowered strategy and it was a boring way to play because there wasn't any way to kill spells all spells did 40 of their original damage to Crown Towers but in December would be reduced to 35 percent this was a good change because it didn't affect any interactions against troops but made spell cycling less effective rocket cycling was simply too strong and the other spells were powerful enough without the added ability to whittle down Crown Towers so fast it was certainly one of the things log was used for especially in the more popular log decks such as Expo log bait and hog 2.6 it was a fairly minor Nerf though so log continued to do fine after this change although in December Inferno Dragon Inferno Tower and bats were all really popular so zap took the throne for this season this back and forth would continue in the coming months one thing was explicitly clear though zap and log were both overused the Nerfs weren't going to fix the main issue here though they needed more competition in April 2018 supercell would add a new card that would give the log specifically some much needed competition this card was Barbarian bear 0 this card acted very similarly to the log rolling on the ground dealing the same damage as log to anything in its path it could also knock some troops back but didn't have the special ability to knock back any card like the log did the main appeal of the Barbarian Barrel was the fact that a barbarian would spawn from it however there were some pretty major drawbacks the biggest one being that the Barbarian Barrel was three Elixir being one more Elixir than the log made it incredibly less versatile by comparison and the Barbarian did not make up for that extra cost secondly its range was much shorter meaning it could knock a guaranteed chip damage if ignored the barbarian from the barrel would get three hits on the tower so it may just seem like a risk reward situation where the damage isn't guaranteed but if you do get the connection it's much more but countering a single Barbarian for three Elixir was incredibly easy the last major drawback was like the log upon its release incredibly slow the Barbarian Barrel historically is probably the worst a card has ever been upon release having both the lowest used and win rate in the game and that was saying something considering the heal spell existed obviously though supercell is going to buff a newly added underpowered card and with its role being so similar to the log wasn't going to seem like a joke forever and a few months later supercell added another to Elixir spell the giant snowball which seems like a direct competitor more so to the zap than the log but nevertheless would eventually add some proper competition to the log and the zap's Reign however like the Barbarian Barrel the giant snowball upon release was an awful card it seemed like a ritual at this point all four of these cards were abysmally bad upon their releases the Barbarian Barrel was given numerous Buffs for the preceding Muzz after its release but it seems like no matter what they did it just wasn't finding a proper place supercell eventually realized that no matter how good they made the card it just wasn't going to be able to compete with the log in a healthy meaningful way at three Elixir log was way better at getting positive Elixir trades against many of the cards found in log bait a single Barbarian that hardly ever got value was not better than saving one whole Elixir so in September 2018 supercell would reduce the Barbarian barrels Elixir Costa 2 now matching the log although the knockback was removed as a result of this it had gotten numerous previous Buffs that gave the barrel numerous advantages over the log not only could you get a positive Elixir trade on the goblin Barrel now and get a bonus Barbarian but the damage had been increased so much that it could kill archers for a positive Elixir trade something even though log was unable to do yet even despite all the advantages it seemed like the Barbarian Barrel had it was still completely overshadowed by the log the biggest issue was just the speed of it it was really slow so in October supercell would give the Barbarian Barrel yet another buff this was the fifth buff it had received in six months its casting and projectile speed would both be increased by 50 tiles per minute which meant the card now had the same casting speed and projectile speed as the log on top of that the barbarian's load in time would go from half a second to 0.2 seconds the card could now keep up with the fast tempo of clash Royale matches which really helped it out a lot and I mean it really helped the log was still popular after the buff but the Barbarian Barrel finally started providing serious competition to the log's throne the main reason log was still getting a lot of play was mainly due to its ability to chip the princess Towers which was very important but the number of other advantages Barbarian Barrel provided at this point could not be ignored and thus the logs use rate did begin to trickle down Barbarian Barrel seemed to be doing its job well now providing another small Spell option without making the already existing ones irrelevant it had been the norm for years at this point that every meta deck had either a zap or a log but with Barbarian Barrel being meta this was no longer the case although log was still doing all right Barbarian Barrel's use rate was climbing quickly its use rate eventually surpassed the logs and by November had a 47 use right with a 65 win rate this caused the logs use rate to fall substantially leaving it at a 17 use rate with a 51 win rate the barrel was boxing out the logs so much and now had more usage than zap and log combined log was still the primary choice for a small spell in log bait and Expo but almost every other archetype such as minor graveyard and Royal Giants were all starting to sub out their log for the Barbarian Barrel this was easily the worst position long has been in for years which is saying something because a 17 use rate is still above average in December Barbarian Barrel would get a damaged Nerf of four percent which meant it could no longer kill archers and the Barbarian would start moving 1 20th of a second later now but regardless the card was still very powerful and this Nerf actually did very little to fix the balance by the start of January Barbarian Barrel's use rate was even higher than before now at 55 percent it would get another Nerf in January 2019 as a result but it made virtually zero difference as the use and win rates were literally exactly the same meanwhile log was hovering around a 20 use rate much lower than its typical rate before the Barbarian Barrel was Meta Even with further nerves bar Barrel wasn't budging from its number one spot and lock was suffering as a consequence in the meantime supercell was having a lot of trouble balancing the Barbarian Barrel by July although the log kept its moderately High use rate its win rate had fallen to a mere 41 percent which is a below average win rate usually if a popular card's win rate becomes this low it doesn't remain popular but the log was a card a lot of players would not let go of which is why I think the use rate is not the best metric of strength in situations like this this slight drop in use and win rate can be at least partly attributed to the giant snowball which had been steadily rising in popularity and was by now the dominant two Elixir spell despite a Nerf in July it wouldn't be until August 2019 until the bar Barrel got a proper Nerf that would finally make some more room for the log to thrive once again it was the sixth Nerf the card had received in a nine month period and it was detrimental to the card nerving its damage so much that it no longer killed princesses dark goblins or Rascal girls it couldn't even take out an Ice Spirit the log was now the only two Elixir spell that could do enough damage to kill these cards again giving it an important Advantage it could still kill goblins though meaning it was in a solid Middle Ground area between zap and log logs use Raid swiftly Rose to 30 percent while the Barbarian Barrel had a drastic fall however the giant snowball was still very popular around this time and thus actually had the log beat in terms of usage by September things even in doubt as zap log and snowball all had identical raids in the following month the giant snowball would receive a nerve and this resulted in a correlative rise in usage for the log log was now in nearly 40 percent of Grand Challenge decks proving to be just as powerful as it once was with the Barbarian Barrel also seeing a small rise in popularity likely due to the crazy witch meta that Rose about the same month despite the rise the barrel would get above The Following season and although the use rate Rose because of it log was still peaking at 40 percent it was pretty crazy how bad supercell was at finding the perfect balance between the log and Barb Barrel in a span of just 19 months it got 12 ballast changes and in that same time frame the log got zero balance changes but after so much tweaking and reworking and buffing and nerfing the balance was the best it's ever been by January 2020 the two cards had the exact same usage supercell had finally done it obviously it didn't remain exactly the same forever there would be fluctuations throughout 2020 between the two cards depending on the meta but by the summer time the log was keeping its number one spot in the game pretty consistently where the userite was peaking as high as 30 percent so finally in August the log would get some nerves to tone it down a bit at this point it had been over two years since its last change of which was the crown Tower reduction Nerf back in December 2017. now with the Barbarian Barrel not distracting the balancing team super so decided the log was still too powerful so it would get its Crown Tower damage reduced from 35 percent of its total damage to 30 percent this was applied to all direct damage spells so this in itself could not have indicated that supercell was giving direct attention to the log but keep in mind that the Barbarian Barrel is not a direct damage spell so it was unaffected by this change however the log would also get a range reduction from 11.1 tiles to 10.1 tiles meaning you now had to play the log right at the bridge in order for it to reach the princess Tower this also meant it could no longer kill the troops standing right in front of a princess Tower from the bridge nor could it kill a center-place goblin barrel and a princess standing at the Bridge well technically you still could but you had to have perfect timing and placement now the log was hit hard in this balance change it may have seemed well deserved since it was the best card in the game stat wise but players were furious at this change people were saying supercell was ruining the game because of it or that the log should have been an epic now this change was so memed on and hated I was honestly surprised but the log is one of the least hated cards in the game so people typically didn't call for Nerfs despite its popularity August 2020 was probably one of the most controversial set of balance changes in the game's history in big part thanks to the log nerve drew the community manager even acknowledged how hated and controversial these balance changes were but do keep in mind the community was already in a pretty negative mood for the entirety of 2020 due to the lack of updates Drew came out and gave his explanation to the log nerve explaining that the point of the range Nerf was to increase the skill cap now I know it's easy to look back retrospectively and think how crazy people were for overreacting to this but even at the time I don't think this Nerf was as bad as people were making it out to to be although it did have an initial fall the card was right back up to a 33 use rate in a few weeks practically identical if not higher than it was before log was still the third most popular card in the game and this Nerf was obviously not the killer many players expected it to be at the time it was just going to be a matter of what troops were thriving in The Meta to determine these spells places in the game for the future by February 2021 log was back to being the number one most popular card in the game with a use rate of 35 percent and even though it didn't hold this spot long it was a testament to show that this was still an incredibly powerful card however throughout the entirety of 2021 both log and Barbarian Barrel would not receive any changes and their place in The Meta would not change much obviously the top meta decks are changing every few months but because the log was so popular I don't feel the need to go over every single meta deck that contains the log I've already gone over the main archetypes it was viable in and its purpose was pretty clear and cut no matter which deck it was in even though Expo was a dying archetype by this point and log bait was not a competitively viable deck in summer 2021 log was easily able to adapt and still appeared in more than a quarter of all decks by the end of the year that number had risen to being in nearly 40 percent of Grand Challenge decks once again although for most of the year the Barbarian barrels and logs you spray were practically neck and neck by the end of the year the log had pulled ahead once again by a double-digit lead as The Meta was evolving into 2022 the long and bar barrels use rate was only drifting further apart by June the log peaked at a 46 use rate with the barbells down to just 18 percent now this was actually mainly due to the skeleton king and the deck surrounding him becoming so popular the log worked much better against these decks than the other small spells people began to take notice of how absurd the logs raids actually were and a lot of discussion around it began to brew the log had nearly doubled the usage rate of the second most popular card in the game and this cop players talking about whether or not the log needed a nerve yet it seemed like supercell had already decided on nerfing the log because on May 21st 2022 they would announce that log would be getting a Nerf in June the plan was to reduce its knockback from 1 tile to half a tile here's a side-by-side comparison it was a massive change and as history shows us players did not like their precious wood being touched multiple posts were going viral in the community disapproving of the log nerve Pro players were also denouncing this change polls were done overwhelmingly displaying the player base's disapproval and overall supercell was getting a lot of flack for this one change I personally strongly agreed with the Nerf at the time and many other players seemed to feel the same way although being in the minority opinion for sure this one comment I found wrapped up my thoughts pretty well last time they nerfed log people were crying saying log would become useless and here we are back at square one with log being used in half of all decks and players crying once again when their card is about to get nerfed I know it may seem crazy in the first place to some people who aren't as familiar with the Clash Royale landscape that players could say a card despite having by a landslide the highest usage rate in the game while already having substantially good competition didn't need a nerve but plenty of people defended the notion that log did not need a nerve for several reasons one common reason was that that if the log didn't keep decks like Skeleton King swarm and Goblin Barrel in check those decks would become way too strong and that meta would be a much less fun meta to play in so if you just nerfed those decks the log wouldn't be as popular because the log's popularity was a reaction to the popularity of other decks but I have to partly disagree with this there are plenty of ways supercell could Nerf the log while keeping its Effectiveness against those decks the same and it's not like the logs rates were only like this for a month or two as a reaction to a surging new meta deck the use rates had been well over 30 percent if not 40 for 8 months by this point a typical healthy average card at the time should have had a six to nine percent use rate the other excuse that was much more common was that the other small spells didn't provide proper competition to the log so buffing these spells would be a better route to go because more people would use them naturally causing the logs use Raid to fall but I just think this is a really weak argument considering the stats of the other small spells let's check the stats of all four small spells just two days before this Nerf was supposed to go live log had a 46 use rate Barbarian barrels was 18 zaps was 14 and snowballs was five percent keep in mind the log had the lowest win rate of the four as well Barbarian barrel and zap had above average use rates despite the log's popularity why would cards with above average and healthy rates need above the point of buffing a card is because it was being underused and that was objectively not true with these spells and yes while the snowball was a little low five percent is still not that bad people argued small spells needed a buff to knock the log from its throne but why not just Nerf the other spells to allow snowball's use rate to naturally rise it can work both ways and considering the raids were already on the higher end for the other three small spells nerfing the log seems like the most reasonable thing to do when trying to balance out the stats the log Defenders were very passionate and it was annoying some players to the point where mock posts were made to laugh at them but with so much backlash supercell actually caved and canceled the nerve the community's influence changed the history of the log forever however it wouldn't be getting away scot-free here it would get a different Nerf instead the crown Tower damage would go from 30 of its total damage to 20 percent this meant it practically did the same damage to Crown towers as the zap and the snowball drastically hindering the effectiveness of cycling it for chip damage although I was fine with the knockback reduction change I really do like this Nerf as well because I think spell cycling is the least fun strategy in the entire game to play against because there's nothing you can do about it this was very interesting at the same time though because before this Nerf the percentage of damage dealt to Crown Towers was kept consistent among all spells even when those spells really didn't deserve the nerve so I'm curious as to why they decided to break the consistency now and not in the past overall though I think it's okay to break consistency patterns for the sake of creating a more balanced meta this Nerf practically had no effect on the logs usage rate though a few months after the nerve the card was still thriving with a use rate of over 40 percent easily towering over the second most popular card by over double digits in the grand scheme of the logs power the chip damage was not what made it super strong so this this made sense a big reason was also due to the massive rise in log base since the goblin gang would receive a third spear Goblin and become very strong again in October 2022 but little did the community know that this was going to be changing very quickly very soon although in October the logs use rate was still at an astonishing 46 percent only days after the statistic was taken would log have the worst fall it's had since the Barbarian Barrel's Peak but this wasn't because of Any balance changes this was due to two new cars that would be added in the new update the Monk and the Phoenix the Phoenix is considered to be the most overpowered card in Clash Royale history to many players and I don't think that's an exaggeration this card was absolutely broken upon its release and in only a couple days Rose to having an 81 use rate in Grand challenges as a result The Meta was completely warped overnight and unlike every preceding meta the log was not able to adapt well to the environment which was very strange considering how well the logs seemed to adapt in any environment previously but it does make sense why would you need a ground spell in a flying Phoenix mirror rage spam meta not to even mention the monk which was also very strong could reflect spells with its special ability as a result of the logs use rate fell by nearly 30 percent in a couple of days now sitting at a 17 use rate with a terrible win rate even the Barbarian Barrel was doing better now for the first time since 2016 log was actually a weak card this was only because of the very unique environments that required players to be prepared to deal with phoenixes specifically and log was not ready for that obviously when a card is this good it's going to get nerfed very quick so this dip was very short although the Phoenix and monk did get emergency nerfed on November 2nd a Nerf that would indirectly buff the log would come on November 21st where the Phoenix's egg would lose 34 percent of its hit points now allowing a log to fully take it out preventing the second Phoenix from spawning in this was a huge interaction change that definitely made the log worth playing in this phoenix-filled environment the Barbarian Barrel could also fully take it out now so this wasn't just an extra advantage that was exclusive to law but the Phoenix is a card historically that has always been meta since it's been released even to this very day so having one of these two cards became even more important back in no time the logs use rate was back up to 47 but it wasn't the number one card as the Phoenix was now ahead of it by far goblins and Goblin gang were way more popular thanks to the Buffs only making the demand for log higher after further Phoenix and monk Nerf's log did reclaim its number one spot and was Again by far the most popular card in the game it's clear supercell wasn't harsh enough with the crown Tower production Nerf back in June so in February 2023 supercell would Nerf the log one more time it seems like they really wanted to avoid Community backlash because they went about this in a much more interesting way in some of the more recent balance changes supercell has been doing work in progress balance changes where they put out proposed balance changes and tweaked them based on community feedback in the work in progress balance changes for February there was no log listed anywhere on the list but when they released the final list the law gets snuck on there at the last second this is something they hadn't done up to this point and I gotta say I personally found it pretty funny because it was just so random and unexpected and it was pretty obvious they were scared of backlash supercell was going to do what they tried to do eight months prior nerfing the knockback range of the log this Nerf would reduce the logs pushback range from one tile to 0.7 tiles it seems they didn't want to commit to making it half a tile like the original plan was but at least this was something this balance change got nowhere near the amount of backlash as the one in June 2022 or August 2020. surprisingly a good chunk of players seemed generally okay with it the player base had gone through the cycle of overreacting to small nerves to this card so many times that it was pretty obvious that the card was going to be fine after this nerve and it was weeks after this Nerf the card was still number one in the game and that Nerf was the last Nerf the log would ever receive up to the modern day of clash Royale and even today Still Remains as the most popular card in the game by double digits the log can truly never die so what is the future for log there's so many pass possibilities and I want to discuss a few potential ideas I don't think the log should be left alone because it's clearly still very strong statistically and I want to clear up a potential misconception I don't hate the log and I do want it to be viable I just sound negative talking about it because I just don't think any card should have the rates the log has for this long and I wish supercell would stop being so afraid to give it a proper Nerf I'm not even expecting the log to have an average six to ten percent use rate like a standard troop I would be okay with the logs used to trade being around 20 percent nearly half of what it is now and this would match the Barbarian Barrel's current use rate so I would continue to do what superzoll has been doing and give the logs small nerves there's a few potential ideas I would like to see one is nerfing the knockback to half a tile like they planed back in 2022 they could possibly even give it an interesting rework where the knockback it deals would be proportional to a card's Mass so for example it may knock back a Golem 0.3 tile since it's the heaviest droop in the game but knock back a musketeer 0.8 tiles the second is nerfing its Crown Tower damage to 10 of its original damage making it less effective at spell cycling than zap and snowball giving those spells a slight indirect buff the most radical idea I think I have for this card is nerfing the range to 9.5 tiles meaning it could no longer reach the princess Tower from the bridge at all this would change its function a bit by making it more of a defensive spell making it more similar to the Barbarian Barrel it would still be able to reach the king Tower when placed in the pocket though I know this last idea would be a bit more devastating but I think it may be what the card needs to put it in check if it killed the card I would buff it by giving it some of its knockback back or buffing its damage a little bit to allow it to One-Shot firecracker but I have one more idea to change the law that would Nerf the log in a very unique way without nerfing any of its stats I want to see this change implemented more than any change I've ever advocated for any card ever I have been a pretty avid Lumberjack player throughout my Clash Royale journey I unlocked him back in 2016 and have been playing him ever since he's easily my favorite card but over the years with so many new non-legendary cards given such interesting mechanics to me it's felt like lumberjack has been losing his legendary status I think you know where I'm going with this to Nerf the log and make the Lumberjack feel legendary again I propose a change that would only affect the interaction between these two cards if ever come face to face the Lumberjack will chop through the log stopping it in its tracks it just makes so much sense what does a lumberjack do chop wood he is a legendary too so why couldn't he be given this incredible unique ability also we would have counter play to a spell which is something that isn't possible and I think it's a big problem that needs to be addressed with the exception obviously being the monk but I still think it can do some more in the Lumberjacks description it literally says he chops trees by day and hunts the log By Night The Lumberjack is the log's enemy and vice versa he clearly has a rivalry against it according to the lore The Lumberjack actually created the log by spilling a rage spell on a piece of wood accidentally there's even an emote where the Lumberjack is cowering in fear of the log these two clearly have a very special relationship that I think needs to be fleshed out in the core for gameplay I have been wanting to see my Lumberjack chop through a log for seven years now and I don't even think it would be overpowered it's still four for two and The Lumberjack wouldn't even be immune to logs if the Lumberjack was still deploying Frozen or attacking another troop the log would still hit him they could even give the log a special attribute where it would deal double the damage to Lumberjacks as a bonus since it would be harder to hit him with it maybe The Lumberjack would even chase the log so you could actually pull the Lumberjack with it and just to be clear this would not allow Lumberjack to chop through the Barbarian Barrel this is only for the log given their unique relationship if there's one change I could ever make to clash Royale this would be it but anyway let me know what you think about my ideas and what cards history you want me to cover next thank you all for watching and have a good one foreign [Music]

Channel: Gratz

Views: 1,159,648

Keywords: Clash, Royale, Clash Royale, The Log, Log, Log Clash Royale, Log History, Clash Royale History, History of The Log, History of Log, Clash Royale Log History, The Log History, Why is Log So Good

Id: wuuayCSOkT8

Length: 41min 52sec (2512 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2023