I lived the dream last night as Ironclad, Corruption+Dark Embrace is just silly. It was a bit touch and go there for awhile since my damage was built around getting crazy amounts of armor and then shieldbashing twice. So, encounters with lots of mobs or the first boss I almost ran out of cards. (I think I had 4 left in my deck, shield bash, bash, pommel strike, and a normal strike). I also fiend fired somewhere in there too.
Luckily, I ended up with finding a barricade, and two entrenches later on, which greatly helped with stacking on the shield for the shield bashing. Didn't go for the heart and to be honest, I'm not sure how it would've worked out since it was a very one trick pony. Ironclad is still my lowest ascension at 8, silent at 14, and defect at 18.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Huh ... It just dawned on me that I cleared my A14 Defect run with only a single power in the deck ... A Static Discharge+. Somehow I navigated the fucking Time Eater with AFO and Claws being my main sources of damage.
Ironclad is just too damn luck dependent for my tastes. I can consistently get to at least the third stage boss with the other two classes. I have to get lucky with RNGeesus to get to the stage two boss with Ironclad.
Ironclad is just too damn luck dependent for my tastes. I can consistently get to at least the third stage boss with the other two classes. I have to get lucky with RNGeesus to get to the stage two boss with Ironclad.
That's how I was feeling a while back, but it's not necessarily the case--i find it's about trying more varied strategies with him based on what you do get, and remembering that fights are a resource because they heal you
A lot of people underestimate and are nervous about exhaust cards, for example
No, I’ve tried going full exhaust too, but it just refuses to give me the combinations of cards that carry me through.
I don’t avoid fights (although I do seek events voraciously), but if I don’t get Reaper, Barricade, Corruption, etc. the decks just don’t work. He’s very dependent on rare/uncommon cards.
I spent a long time in a few fights last night trying to pull a reaper out of corruption + dead branch so I could heal up. Then today I see the tooltip: "Effects that generate random cards will never generate a card that heals you."
It definitely was the strongest choice when i took it - I think i should have just skipped Dead Branch instead, and i would have been okay? Hard to say, the deck was in an odd place.
It definitely was the strongest choice when i took it - I think i should have just skipped Dead Branch instead, and i would have been okay? Hard to say, the deck was in an odd place.
Skipping Dead Branch is a path for cowards only!
My run was doomed basically from the Floor 1 Jaw Worm. Then I got excited to get a Specimen later, and only fought single enemies. It was just a sad run
Edit: And my next run starts with a Jaw Worm. Ugh, he's on such a different level for the first floor! 40 damage on Floor 1...
mysticjuicer[he/him] I'm a muscle wizardand I cast P U N C HRegistered Userregular
Had a bad day and wanted to do some relaxing, so I set up an Endless run.
1. Echo Form + Intangible = broken.
2. Bottled Heatsinks+ and Bottled Seek+ meant that I always had Well-Laid Plans and an Apparition on turn 1.
3. Ice-Cream and Double Energy+ makes Whirlwind+/Multi-Cast+ very good.
3b. Especially when your starting orbs every fight are (1) dark orb in first position, and (2) plasma in second position.
I quit after the 5th run, since the penalties the spire was giving me were meaningless. No matter how hard the enemies hit, they only ever really hit for 1 damage. No matter how fast the enemies health scaled, 8+ energy with Ice-cream/Double-Energy scales faster. Can't play more than 15 cards per turn? I raise you Velvet Choker. Start each fight with 3 curses in your opening hand? My bottled Heatsinks/Seek are the only two cards I need to start with, and as soon as I hit a shop or camp fire, I can remove those from my deck.
Here's my stream of two A11 runs with The Defect. First one had a lot of potential and the second one fell flat from the get go. Probably a lot of bad decisions in both runs, but each somewhat entertaining in their own ways.
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I'd have started with a common relic, as there was no garunteed shop early. You took the route i would have though!
Defrag is definitely tempting, i think that or sweeping beam would have been fine.
Nice play on the Louse fight. But your pick here is slamming ball lighting. it is SO MUCH DAMAGE. SO SO MUCH DAMAGE. *Weeping penguin noises*
Compile Driver's only worth considering once you reliably have two different types of orbs. Glacier should have been your next pick, i feel. Esp if you had Ball Lighting - remember, evoked Lighting Orbs are worth 8 damage. Streamline is pretty inefficent, really. If you'd taken ball lighting yo uwould have been fine.Also you'd already taken COmpile Driver, so glaicer would have made your pick better
Would not have taken the Doubt, myself. Loosing max hp or the damage seems fine here.
Zap's a great choice of upgrade, You had no need for bullseye, really. Bullseye is mainly a card you take in a Darkness deck, i feel?
You also didn't need to Rest, but it's not a bad choice either. (What the hell at those chests. Those are amazing relics).
That was a fine amount of hp to loose at Nob though, you played it pretty well. The rewards are a skip, here. Storm's a card you take late as payoff to other things, usually Creative AI.
I really like buying all the relics here, good choice! as is Coolheaded. I think i would have bought AfO myself, or at least thought about it - You had violence for purchase too, and that setups some really nice shenanigans if you can even find one or two claws/0 cost attacks while pruning out your strikes. JUST THINK OF THE POTENTIAL. (Specifically you could Violence, play out claws/AfO, then Violence and play everything out again. The potential hear is huge).
Tri sentries, you played that exactly as i would have. Nice work. Question card is so exciting.
Boss fight looked like it went pretty well, though your deck was showing it's over crowded nature. Chaos is not a card that's doing much for you either - Chaos plus would have been worth it, i think?
Seek is your pick here - TS is exciting if you'd had Ball Lighting, but even then Seek is the goto pick here. Machine Learning does very little for you.
Relics... I think Black Star is fine, though i'm definitely feeling cynical with your card choices at how well you'd kill elites (If you had Glacier and Ball Lighting with Data disk and Mercury though, you'd be away to the races).
An early shop is def a priority in Act 2. Byrds is probably the worst fight for your deck, so dont feel bad on getting beaten up. Hologram+ seems pretty sweet, honestly. Less for streamline, thoguh that's an option, but for hitting all your other tastiest. Letter opener, strike remove, and static Discharge would have been good. Prismatic shard is a mistake... but it's fun. So you do you here (Main reason is that it just dilutes synergies too much)
and honestly, i'm going to stop here - prismatic shard makes it basically impossible to commentate on things, since you're waaaaay out in the wilds from what a normal run looks like.
So take away here: You overvalued card draw vs early damage, you undervalued how good Glacier was/how well it scales.
I'd just take Defragment first fight. Focus is too OP. Sweeping Beam isn't indefensible.
Ball Lightning over Compile 100%. Card draw is good, but it's only overwhelmingly good when you have energy to play the extra cards you are drawing or have zero cost cards that you can draw into and play. Also it gets a lot better when you have better cards in your deck that you can draw instead of plain strikes and defends.
Comparing Compile Driver straight up with Ball Lightning that early in the game, I'd look at it like this. Compile Driver is a strike that has a very small chance of improving your turn when you play it, by drawing a strike or defend that you can play, but only if it's a turn where you want to play one and didn't already have one in your hand. So in an ideal offensive situation Compile Driver is like playing two strikes for 2 energy. Ball Lightning's damage is absurd and even in the the worst case scenario it is basically doing two Strikes of damage with 1 energy. That value just skyrockets as you get more lightning damage over time and start to get lightning evokes.
Compile Driver starts as a Strike which will get gradually better throughout the entire game as you add better cards, relics, and more energy to your deck. Ball Lightning will straight up carry you through the first half of the game.
My personal rule is that primarily card draw cards (backflip, acrobatics, compile driver, channel 1 frost and draw, etc.) aren't highly sought after until some time in Act 2 or even Act 3. Good Cards that also happen to draw are different. I'll take a Shrug it Off as a good block that happens to draw as a bonus. I'll take an early Dagger Throw for its damage, while it happens to cycle a card as a bonus.
I'd take a Compile Driver maybe if it's competing against garbage. But Ball Lightning is close to auto-pick early Act 1.
Glacier is so insanely good that I would probably take it even though yes you are kind of lacking damage at this point. If you'd taken Defragment, Ball Lightning, Glacier up to now you would already be set up to finish Act 1 while taking almost no damage ever. And that core alone is pretty strong through Act 2 even.
Personally when I take a big damage card like Streamline early on I prioritize that as a first upgrade. Especially with something like Streamline where you absolutely want to play it the first time it enters your hand and the upgrade can make for much better Streamline turns on common enemies (Streamline+Strike to kill one of the Vuln Mushrooms, Streamline alone to kill certain goblins or mini slimes and roly polies).
I kind of hate Bullseye. Bad against multi-target fights. Bad against artifact. Not actually all that much extra damage unless you are evoking dark orbs or a whole lot of lightning orbs. Right here I would probably double check the map and who the Act 1 boss is. If it's Hexaghost or Slime maaaaybe I take Bullseye if I'll be able to upgrade it because the deck kind of sucks at the moment and I could see it being meaningfully helpful against them. Even then I think I prefer just going heavy on Streamline instead.
39 HP is plenty and I'd upgrade at the fire. That is just so much HP. You can basically go toe to toe with Nob without blocking anything. You can almost take a full Legovulbasaur rotation without blocking. Upgrade your cards to save your HPs while making yourself stronger instead of just getting more HPs that you will spend because you are weaker.
I will not comment on what I saw in the Nob fight. I would have used vuln turn 1 though.
Big NAH on the Storm. Even when it's good I never feel like it's all that great. It's situational to even get it started and then it runs out of gas. 1 Turbo can fit into a lot of decks and it actually helps you out quite a bit to play out your hands when you are drawing cards and to get Streamline started.
At the shop I'd skip Coolheaded. Get Hologram. Hologram+Zap. Hologram+Streamline. Hologram+lock on even, to combo with Dualcast. Get that power potion for 24 gold. It's a power potion for 24 gold.
You should 100% be fighting the next elite regardless of the heal and regardless of the preserved insect. 50HP stocked for an Act 1 elite right before the boss is free money. Chaos is pretty unexciting, and it's awful unupgraded. 1 energy Chaos compared to 0 energy zap. 1 Frost orb Chaos compared to 1 Frost orb and draw Coolheaded. 1 energy dark orb. Noooo
Your boss cards are garbo. Machine Learning and Seek are the only real choices. Feel like you have enough/too much draw already, so I'd take Seek.
Black star is fine.
Hologram vs. Steam Barrier is pretty close maybe. I'd probably go Steam Barrier on 3 energy and with your amount of draw and the fact that you are relying almost entirely on plain defends at the moment, with just a tiny amount of weak frost orbs to supplement.
The shop is horrendous. I'd check map and see if there's another one that makes sense to route towards. Remove and Letter Opener for sure. Maybe Flash of Steel and Thinking Ahead. Buy Dex pot. Prismatic thing is 100% not a good purchase but listen, I would have bought it too.
No way never pop that thorn potion against overpowered plant. You're hunting elites and it's OP OP against Book of Stabbing and even Goblin Leader.
You've got nothing good to Burst. Clothesline feels bad but it's upgraded and you desperately need damage mitigation. Not entirely sure it's pickable, but probably.
I'd most likely end up going with Blur+ to try to cobble together sufficient defenses. Sucker Punch+Bottled Flame is a real consideration.
I'd just take the campfire into elite fight at the end here. You're going to take a beating in either of the elite fights but you get to heal first. Rest+elite gives you better odds of survival than no rest+two hallway fights, plus the black star on top. I don't know how you survive any Act 2 boss anyway unless you roll some OP rewards (right now you've got a bunch of do-nothing cards, a Streamline, a Hologram and a dream) so that's one more point on gambling for some relics.
Theres nothing like having a deck that feels like a sure thing (literally had not taken damage since act 2) and then having the worlds worst string of card draws and losing on the boss
That was a lot of good feedback, thanks! I’m clearly valuing a lot of cards incorrectly. I remember a streamer video posted here where he rated Compile Driver quite highly. Of course that was on the tl;dr section, so he might have stated it was S+ later in the run. I’ll look to prioritize Ball Lightnings and Glacier cards in the future.
These streams certainly make getting feedback much easier. I’ll continue to do them when I find the time.
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That was a lot of good feedback, thanks! I’m clearly valuing a lot of cards incorrectly. I remember a streamer video posted here where he rated Compile Driver quite highly. Of course that was on the tl;dr section, so he might have stated it was S+ later in the run. I’ll look to prioritise Ball Lightnings and Glacier cards in the future.
These streams certainly make getting feedback much easier. I’ll continue to do them when I find the time.
That was Joinrbs - he seems to have shifted his opinion on it since. I still see him take it, but it's usually when he's looking for card draw/already has multiple types of orbs. Suggest taking a look at his videos, especially this one for defect: https://youtu.be/mWe57keEgQs (Dark orbs can be crazy!)
That was a lot of good feedback, thanks! I’m clearly valuing a lot of cards incorrectly. I remember a streamer video posted here where he rated Compile Driver quite highly. Of course that was on the tl;dr section, so he might have stated it was S+ later in the run. I’ll look to prioritise Ball Lightnings and Glacier cards in the future.
These streams certainly make getting feedback much easier. I’ll continue to do them when I find the time.
That was Joinrbs - he seems to have shifted his opinion on it since. I still see him take it, but it's usually when he's looking for card draw/already has multiple types of orbs. Suggest taking a look at his videos, especially this one for defect: https://youtu.be/mWe57keEgQs (Dark orbs can be crazy!)
Cool, I’ll give that a watch after I drop off the daughter at school.
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
edited February 2019
Alright, this was an interesting roll ...
There's been some good discussion about starting bonuses recently, and I'm curious what would people pick here? A15, if that really matters to you.
And just in case you need this info, first half of the map:
Alright, this was an interesting roll ...
There's been some good discussion about starting bonuses recently, and I'm curious what would people pick here? A15, if that really matters to you.
Woosh. Those are all generally options I'd pass up. Probably potions? Maybe remove a Strike and Defend to help your deck get more consistent quicker?
Any point on getting the keys when I'm on Ascension level 4?
One of my first treasure rooms always seems to be one, then I get take one at a rest site and then a boss gives one. If I skip these and go with relics does the key ever come up later in a run?
Because if you're going to attempt to squeeze that big black monster into your slot you will need to be able to take at least 12 inches or else you're going to have a bad time...
Any point on getting the keys when I'm on Ascension level 4?
One of my first treasure rooms always seems to be one, then I get take one at a rest site and then a boss gives one. If I skip these and go with relics does the key ever come up later in a run?
The chest key will show up in every chest until you choose it. Similar with the campfire key. There will be one Super Elite in each Act.
You actually don't need to get those, either. Act 4 (the Heart) is essentially optional challenge content, you can rise up Ascensions or play runs without that just fine.
Because if you're going to attempt to squeeze that big black monster into your slot you will need to be able to take at least 12 inches or else you're going to have a bad time...
mysticjuicer[he/him] I'm a muscle wizardand I cast P U N C HRegistered Userregular
edited February 2019
@ArcticLancer I'd probably take the potions. A random colorless card seems too likely to be a dud, I'm not a fan of deck thinning before having added anything of value to my deck in the first place, and the defect starting relic is way too useful for early floor burst to trade it in. Potions aren't super sexy, but if you get a Flame pot, a Ghost pot, or a Steroid pot, those can really help with elite hunting.
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
I wound up removing 2 cards, though was quite tempted to trade in the boss relic just to see what I'd get. Pulled out two strikes, and have been running a really weird, thin deck focusing on blocking and taking minimal damage while letting Gathering Storm do most of the damage. I happened to get lucky in that a Toxic Egg was my 3rd relic, and I got the Apparition event towards the end of Act 2. I had to put the run on hold after clearing The Collector, but Act 3 is already better than I think the deck should be doing. :P
Yeah I'd either remove the two cards or take the uncommon.
Early deck trimming improves the output of every good card you pick up (and your inevitable Zap+, which is wonderful), and a good uncommon can define part or all of your run. If you get Trip or Blind early and upgrade it, you can sweep a lot of fights.
I'd prune a strike and defend, or just take the pots. Without being able to see the rest of the map it's harder to judge how necessary the thinning is, so I'd probably take the pots.
I'd be worried about scaling tbh. I bet you can wreck a lot of hallway fights with the Apparitions and a bunch of lightning in their face, but once that runs out you are still just doing the same amount of damage roughly?
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
edited February 2019
I was very much hoping for an Echo Form from the boss fight. _No luck._ But yeah, if I run into Giant Head I'm likely just fucked unless something magical pops up.
Recycle+ made a lot more sense when I still had other cards I wanted gone. Between some lucky events, the starting choice, and birdcage, Recycle itself might be the card that goes next.
GoodKingJayIIIThey wanna get mygold on the ceilingRegistered Userregular
What is the name of the relic that gives you 2 str per turn and your enemies 1 str per turn?
That thing is easily my favorite relic in the game because you scale so hilariously. Unless you have a completely busted deck it straight loses to a lot of bosses but boy do I love it anyway.
What is the name of the relic that gives you 2 str per turn and your enemies 1 str per turn?
That thing is easily my favorite relic in the game because you scale so hilariously. Unless you have a completely busted deck it straight loses to a lot of bosses but boy do I love it anyway.
Brimstone
I quite like it if you have either a fast, high damage output deck or a strong block deck, since you can erase enemies before they can use the strength buff more than once or twice, and it's hardly relevant for bosses that don't have big multi attacks (do NOT take this for a Heart run)
Edit: it is also extremely bad for book of stabbing and birds
Basically, be really careful in act 2 if you take it
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
So I totally found the giant head, and I had been holding a smoke bomb for a while basically because of this. Too bad because any other Act 3 elite I probably could have bagged pretty good and reaped some sweet rewards. Then again, of all things I was really close to being done in by the 3x Jaw Worm hallway fight. Bad draws and they all pumped right away, making it feel really damn tight.
Run was likely saved by a merchant being the last thing before the final campfire, and my finding Courier in a treasure chest. First thing I bought from the merchant was a membership card, and then I picked up a dexterity potion, a power potion, an on-sale static discharge (gotta roll with what I've got at this point ...), and the two cheap-but-maybe-useful relics of Strawberry and Boot. I am heartbroken when I am 4g short of being able to buy the Data Disk that refreshes after the boot. OH WELL, ONWARD WE GO.
Turned out the power pot was rough, giving me Gathering Storm (hard pass), Heatsinks (come on ...) or ... whatever the one where you draw an extra card is called. So the one I took because it wasn't completely useless. Strawberry was the MVP, because I finished the fight at 6 life.
I'm pretty sure having been able to get away with shit like this on my ascension climb is going to have taught me some real bad lessons for actually clearing the last few when things get real. >_>
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First Ironclad win? Congrats! I find Ironclad to be the most difficult personally
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Luckily, I ended up with finding a barricade, and two entrenches later on, which greatly helped with stacking on the shield for the shield bashing. Didn't go for the heart and to be honest, I'm not sure how it would've worked out since it was a very one trick pony. Ironclad is still my lowest ascension at 8, silent at 14, and defect at 18.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
If you do get a good juicy Searing Blow, you want Headbutt(s) and card draw and a thin deck, to optimize how often you can play it.
You want all that and armaments to keep juicing it up when you need to block.
but they're listening to every word I say
That's how I was feeling a while back, but it's not necessarily the case--i find it's about trying more varied strategies with him based on what you do get, and remembering that fights are a resource because they heal you
A lot of people underestimate and are nervous about exhaust cards, for example
I don’t avoid fights (although I do seek events voraciously), but if I don’t get Reaper, Barricade, Corruption, etc. the decks just don’t work. He’s very dependent on rare/uncommon cards.
Poo.
Then get dead branch. Maybe i should have skipped? Dead to awoken one with a hand crammed full of useless powers ;.;
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I just lost a run too because of taking Runic Pyramid. I didn't really have an excuse, just didn't really like the other options...
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Skipping Dead Branch is a path for cowards only!
My run was doomed basically from the Floor 1 Jaw Worm. Then I got excited to get a Specimen later, and only fought single enemies. It was just a sad run
Edit: And my next run starts with a Jaw Worm. Ugh, he's on such a different level for the first floor! 40 damage on Floor 1...
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1. Echo Form + Intangible = broken.
2. Bottled Heatsinks+ and Bottled Seek+ meant that I always had Well-Laid Plans and an Apparition on turn 1.
3. Ice-Cream and Double Energy+ makes Whirlwind+/Multi-Cast+ very good.
3b. Especially when your starting orbs every fight are (1) dark orb in first position, and (2) plasma in second position.
I quit after the 5th run, since the penalties the spire was giving me were meaningless. No matter how hard the enemies hit, they only ever really hit for 1 damage. No matter how fast the enemies health scaled, 8+ energy with Ice-cream/Double-Energy scales faster. Can't play more than 15 cards per turn? I raise you Velvet Choker. Start each fight with 3 curses in your opening hand? My bottled Heatsinks/Seek are the only two cards I need to start with, and as soon as I hit a shop or camp fire, I can remove those from my deck.
Very therapeutic!
Here's my stream of two A11 runs with The Defect. First one had a lot of potential and the second one fell flat from the get go. Probably a lot of bad decisions in both runs, but each somewhat entertaining in their own ways.
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Your first run:
I'd have started with a common relic, as there was no garunteed shop early. You took the route i would have though!
Defrag is definitely tempting, i think that or sweeping beam would have been fine.
Nice play on the Louse fight. But your pick here is slamming ball lighting. it is SO MUCH DAMAGE. SO SO MUCH DAMAGE. *Weeping penguin noises*
Compile Driver's only worth considering once you reliably have two different types of orbs. Glacier should have been your next pick, i feel. Esp if you had Ball Lighting - remember, evoked Lighting Orbs are worth 8 damage. Streamline is pretty inefficent, really. If you'd taken ball lighting yo uwould have been fine.Also you'd already taken COmpile Driver, so glaicer would have made your pick better
Would not have taken the Doubt, myself. Loosing max hp or the damage seems fine here.
Zap's a great choice of upgrade, You had no need for bullseye, really. Bullseye is mainly a card you take in a Darkness deck, i feel?
You also didn't need to Rest, but it's not a bad choice either. (What the hell at those chests. Those are amazing relics).
That was a fine amount of hp to loose at Nob though, you played it pretty well. The rewards are a skip, here. Storm's a card you take late as payoff to other things, usually Creative AI.
I really like buying all the relics here, good choice! as is Coolheaded. I think i would have bought AfO myself, or at least thought about it - You had violence for purchase too, and that setups some really nice shenanigans if you can even find one or two claws/0 cost attacks while pruning out your strikes. JUST THINK OF THE POTENTIAL. (Specifically you could Violence, play out claws/AfO, then Violence and play everything out again. The potential hear is huge).
Tri sentries, you played that exactly as i would have. Nice work. Question card is so exciting.
Boss fight looked like it went pretty well, though your deck was showing it's over crowded nature. Chaos is not a card that's doing much for you either - Chaos plus would have been worth it, i think?
Seek is your pick here - TS is exciting if you'd had Ball Lighting, but even then Seek is the goto pick here. Machine Learning does very little for you.
Relics... I think Black Star is fine, though i'm definitely feeling cynical with your card choices at how well you'd kill elites (If you had Glacier and Ball Lighting with Data disk and Mercury though, you'd be away to the races).
An early shop is def a priority in Act 2. Byrds is probably the worst fight for your deck, so dont feel bad on getting beaten up. Hologram+ seems pretty sweet, honestly. Less for streamline, thoguh that's an option, but for hitting all your other tastiest. Letter opener, strike remove, and static Discharge would have been good. Prismatic shard is a mistake... but it's fun. So you do you here
and honestly, i'm going to stop here - prismatic shard makes it basically impossible to commentate on things, since you're waaaaay out in the wilds from what a normal run looks like.
So take away here: You overvalued card draw vs early damage, you undervalued how good Glacier was/how well it scales.
Hope that's all useful.
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Run 1
Ball Lightning over Compile 100%. Card draw is good, but it's only overwhelmingly good when you have energy to play the extra cards you are drawing or have zero cost cards that you can draw into and play. Also it gets a lot better when you have better cards in your deck that you can draw instead of plain strikes and defends.
Comparing Compile Driver straight up with Ball Lightning that early in the game, I'd look at it like this. Compile Driver is a strike that has a very small chance of improving your turn when you play it, by drawing a strike or defend that you can play, but only if it's a turn where you want to play one and didn't already have one in your hand. So in an ideal offensive situation Compile Driver is like playing two strikes for 2 energy. Ball Lightning's damage is absurd and even in the the worst case scenario it is basically doing two Strikes of damage with 1 energy. That value just skyrockets as you get more lightning damage over time and start to get lightning evokes.
Compile Driver starts as a Strike which will get gradually better throughout the entire game as you add better cards, relics, and more energy to your deck. Ball Lightning will straight up carry you through the first half of the game.
My personal rule is that primarily card draw cards (backflip, acrobatics, compile driver, channel 1 frost and draw, etc.) aren't highly sought after until some time in Act 2 or even Act 3. Good Cards that also happen to draw are different. I'll take a Shrug it Off as a good block that happens to draw as a bonus. I'll take an early Dagger Throw for its damage, while it happens to cycle a card as a bonus.
I'd take a Compile Driver maybe if it's competing against garbage. But Ball Lightning is close to auto-pick early Act 1.
Glacier is so insanely good that I would probably take it even though yes you are kind of lacking damage at this point. If you'd taken Defragment, Ball Lightning, Glacier up to now you would already be set up to finish Act 1 while taking almost no damage ever. And that core alone is pretty strong through Act 2 even.
Personally when I take a big damage card like Streamline early on I prioritize that as a first upgrade. Especially with something like Streamline where you absolutely want to play it the first time it enters your hand and the upgrade can make for much better Streamline turns on common enemies (Streamline+Strike to kill one of the Vuln Mushrooms, Streamline alone to kill certain goblins or mini slimes and roly polies).
I kind of hate Bullseye. Bad against multi-target fights. Bad against artifact. Not actually all that much extra damage unless you are evoking dark orbs or a whole lot of lightning orbs. Right here I would probably double check the map and who the Act 1 boss is. If it's Hexaghost or Slime maaaaybe I take Bullseye if I'll be able to upgrade it because the deck kind of sucks at the moment and I could see it being meaningfully helpful against them. Even then I think I prefer just going heavy on Streamline instead.
39 HP is plenty and I'd upgrade at the fire. That is just so much HP. You can basically go toe to toe with Nob without blocking anything. You can almost take a full Legovulbasaur rotation without blocking. Upgrade your cards to save your HPs while making yourself stronger instead of just getting more HPs that you will spend because you are weaker.
I will not comment on what I saw in the Nob fight. I would have used vuln turn 1 though.
Big NAH on the Storm. Even when it's good I never feel like it's all that great. It's situational to even get it started and then it runs out of gas. 1 Turbo can fit into a lot of decks and it actually helps you out quite a bit to play out your hands when you are drawing cards and to get Streamline started.
At the shop I'd skip Coolheaded. Get Hologram. Hologram+Zap. Hologram+Streamline. Hologram+lock on even, to combo with Dualcast. Get that power potion for 24 gold. It's a power potion for 24 gold.
You should 100% be fighting the next elite regardless of the heal and regardless of the preserved insect. 50HP stocked for an Act 1 elite right before the boss is free money. Chaos is pretty unexciting, and it's awful unupgraded. 1 energy Chaos compared to 0 energy zap. 1 Frost orb Chaos compared to 1 Frost orb and draw Coolheaded. 1 energy dark orb. Noooo
Your boss cards are garbo. Machine Learning and Seek are the only real choices. Feel like you have enough/too much draw already, so I'd take Seek.
Black star is fine.
Hologram vs. Steam Barrier is pretty close maybe. I'd probably go Steam Barrier on 3 energy and with your amount of draw and the fact that you are relying almost entirely on plain defends at the moment, with just a tiny amount of weak frost orbs to supplement.
The shop is horrendous. I'd check map and see if there's another one that makes sense to route towards. Remove and Letter Opener for sure. Maybe Flash of Steel and Thinking Ahead. Buy Dex pot. Prismatic thing is 100% not a good purchase but listen, I would have bought it too.
No way never pop that thorn potion against overpowered plant. You're hunting elites and it's OP OP against Book of Stabbing and even Goblin Leader.
You've got nothing good to Burst. Clothesline feels bad but it's upgraded and you desperately need damage mitigation. Not entirely sure it's pickable, but probably.
I'd most likely end up going with Blur+ to try to cobble together sufficient defenses. Sucker Punch+Bottled Flame is a real consideration.
I'd just take the campfire into elite fight at the end here. You're going to take a beating in either of the elite fights but you get to heal first. Rest+elite gives you better odds of survival than no rest+two hallway fights, plus the black star on top. I don't know how you survive any Act 2 boss anyway unless you roll some OP rewards (right now you've got a bunch of do-nothing cards, a Streamline, a Hologram and a dream) so that's one more point on gambling for some relics.
Theres nothing like having a deck that feels like a sure thing (literally had not taken damage since act 2) and then having the worlds worst string of card draws and losing on the boss
These streams certainly make getting feedback much easier. I’ll continue to do them when I find the time.
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That was Joinrbs - he seems to have shifted his opinion on it since. I still see him take it, but it's usually when he's looking for card draw/already has multiple types of orbs. Suggest taking a look at his videos, especially this one for defect:
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Cool, I’ll give that a watch after I drop off the daughter at school.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
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There's been some good discussion about starting bonuses recently, and I'm curious what would people pick here? A15, if that really matters to you.
And just in case you need this info, first half of the map:
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Woosh. Those are all generally options I'd pass up. Probably potions? Maybe remove a Strike and Defend to help your deck get more consistent quicker?
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One of my first treasure rooms always seems to be one, then I get take one at a rest site and then a boss gives one. If I skip these and go with relics does the key ever come up later in a run?
The chest key will show up in every chest until you choose it. Similar with the campfire key. There will be one Super Elite in each Act.
You actually don't need to get those, either. Act 4 (the Heart) is essentially optional challenge content, you can rise up Ascensions or play runs without that just fine.
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Early deck trimming improves the output of every good card you pick up (and your inevitable Zap+, which is wonderful), and a good uncommon can define part or all of your run. If you get Trip or Blind early and upgrade it, you can sweep a lot of fights.
Sounds like you've got a sweet deck going though!
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I'll definitely let you know how it ends though. Time Eater is my act 3 boss and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Good luck, let us know how it goes!
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edit: probably the 3-energy rare attack that scales based on the amount of lightning channeled, I would say.
Recycle+ made a lot more sense when I still had other cards I wanted gone. Between some lucky events, the starting choice, and birdcage, Recycle itself might be the card that goes next.
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That thing is easily my favorite relic in the game because you scale so hilariously. Unless you have a completely busted deck it straight loses to a lot of bosses but boy do I love it anyway.
Brimstone
I quite like it if you have either a fast, high damage output deck or a strong block deck, since you can erase enemies before they can use the strength buff more than once or twice, and it's hardly relevant for bosses that don't have big multi attacks (do NOT take this for a Heart run)
Edit: it is also extremely bad for book of stabbing and birds
Basically, be really careful in act 2 if you take it
So I totally found the giant head, and I had been holding a smoke bomb for a while basically because of this. Too bad because any other Act 3 elite I probably could have bagged pretty good and reaped some sweet rewards. Then again, of all things I was really close to being done in by the 3x Jaw Worm hallway fight. Bad draws and they all pumped right away, making it feel really damn tight.
Run was likely saved by a merchant being the last thing before the final campfire, and my finding Courier in a treasure chest. First thing I bought from the merchant was a membership card, and then I picked up a dexterity potion, a power potion, an on-sale static discharge (gotta roll with what I've got at this point ...), and the two cheap-but-maybe-useful relics of Strawberry and Boot. I am heartbroken when I am 4g short of being able to buy the Data Disk that refreshes after the boot. OH WELL, ONWARD WE GO.
Turned out the power pot was rough, giving me Gathering Storm (hard pass), Heatsinks (come on ...) or ... whatever the one where you draw an extra card is called. So the one I took because it wasn't completely useless. Strawberry was the MVP, because I finished the fight at 6 life.
I'm pretty sure having been able to get away with shit like this on my ascension climb is going to have taught me some real bad lessons for actually clearing the last few when things get real. >_>
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(Good job!)
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Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?