I am writing this post from the perspective of a swashbuckler who loves his Fog power and believes that only one or 2 slight tweaks will balance it. I just came back to the meta after a long hiatus in Wizard 101. Needless to say I have lost quite a few and won quite a few with Fog. As I get more comfortable with the meta it is becoming increasingly easy to win with Fog. The problem is there are very few counter strategies available. The only one I have seen that was successful on its own(not due to my own errors) is a summon strategy based off of moo's robe and scorpions. This strategy is not viable for most classes and without heavy farming. Here are some solutions that can function without heavy nerfing of Fog.

1)Allow repel boarders 3 and overwatch 3 to see hidden units. By doing this one can force an inattentive swash out of hide with repel boarders 3 and the accuracy debuff from overwatch 3 will serve to prevent hidden enhanced insta-kill chains

2)Allow Ratbeard's Clear the Decks(and similar powers) to activate epics- In this way a Ratbeard can force a swash or companion out of hidden via triggering first strike vengeance strike.

These 2 changes alone I feel will allow Fog to remain an essential class tool without nerfs while allowing counterplay options.

Ratbeard on Jul 20, 2015 wrote:

1) It would be a lot more useful if you would spend a couple of days becoming more comfortable facing Black Fog instead of proving a known quantity. I know that Black Fog is great. It's great for a reason.

2) Repel Boarders 3 and Overwatch 3 are working as intended. Now, Repel Boarders 4? Overwatch 4? Hold the Line 4? First Strike 4? That's another story.

3) You should expect counter strategies, not counter cards.

I don't know exactly how long Test Realm will last, but suffice to say there's some runway ahead of us yet.

I am sorry Ratbeard, but this is excuse needs to stop. Black Fog, the way it currently works, has been in the game for 10 months now. We have been facing Black Fog for months before this test realm update, we have been saying the same thing for months on end. Yes, it has only been a few days since test went alive, but some of us have already done 50+ duels in that time using Non-Swashbuckler classes, plus the countless we have done over the past 10 months.

It is no longer about us not adapting to the meta or "becoming more comfortable" facing Black Fog. I think it has been a pretty long time of us doing just that and things still not working out. The problem was made even worse by the smaller battle board, the removal of buff stacking and the removal of frozen tide from PvP.

When these supposed counter strategies are not working, something else needs to be changed. Whether be it nerfing Black Fog directly, or introducing other counter measures (Fin's Goggles Scent Gear, Eric's idea of some epics, etc). Definitely don't completely kill the power, I don't agree with that. It is an essential tool for Swashbucklers, it is just a tad too strong at the moment and needs some toning down.

I understand that there will always be one class on top of the food chain and there is nothing wrong with that, but when it is as dominant as Swashbucklers currently are, it is a bit of a problem. It will be a shame if the first ranked PvP age will just be full of Swashbucklers and fog until KI decides to change things.