Katar & Malee Buhrum Interaction

Malee's power "Stain" removes Katar's power. Katar's power increases his base HP stat by 4 for each offspring. However if Katar has at least 12 damage counters on him and Stain removes his power his base HP stat becomes 12 again instead of the larger number. And because his damage counters now equal or exceed his base HP he dies.

How much damage had Katar taken up to that point?

It is correct behaviour for Katar to lose most of his HP when Malee is standing beside him, up to and including him dying from it. This is because damage is persistent independent of his max HP. Put another way, damage is additive rather than subtractive. This is something that is fairly intuitive in the board game but less clear online.

Taking damage results in putting damage counters on a Krosmaster, while healing results in taking them away. This is relevant for a character such as Katar because the amount of damage counters he has is consistent whether he has no spawn or all 8 of them. As a result, when he loses Katarsik Link due to Malee's stain power, he immediately loses his bonus HP without his damage counters being effected. If he's taken at least 12 damage when this happens, it can even kill him.

Incidentally, this is also why no one complains about Katar being too powerful. It's easy to shut him down if you're diligent about killing his spawn and Malee hard counters him.

It's ridiculous for Malee to be such a powerful counter to a specific Krosmaster.
I don't accept it and never will.

Same goes for Phaeris.
Not only he does block you of dealing any damage to Krosmaster in a round, but he also completely destroys any healer or any character that can utilize dashes that target ground (not even a Krosmaster). Dumb, dumb, so so dumb. -.-

Malee is a powerful character, but she has her counter play. In the case of Katar specifically, you need to be a lot more careful about managing your damage than normal. Trying to hurt her before she reaches you can also help although with Malee in particular It's pretty hard to stop her from advancing entirely.

However, here's the thing: There is no real difference between how a good Katar should play and how a Katar needs to play against Malee. Whether or not it's more important against Malee, a Katar player who wants to success should carefully manage their HP and their spawn regardless. Any good player period should be careful of positioning, and that's the number one thing that will decide whether or not Malee kills you.

As for Phaeris, he's also pretty powerful, but not as dangerous as you make him out to be. For one thing, he tends to have trouble actually getting close enough to use his power. For another, it is usually both easier and more effective for him to check a key offensive piece.

That said, if you are really worried about Phaeris in particular, you can shut him down with any decent movement piece. His power doesn't active until the start of the effected Krosmaster's turn. Any figure who is faster can move either Phaeris or Phaeris's target before said target has their turn in order to bypass the effect.

There's even Kriss Krass that deprive Krosmasters of their powers, for the whole turn.

Vragar|2016-03-19 17:45:06

There's even Kriss Krass that deprive Krosmasters of their powers, for the whole turn.

This is true! I don't think anyone is going to Argue that Kriss is overpowered, either.