This is generally a bad plan. Keys mean giving up power (except from the green key, which just costs you hp).
Generally I don't finish getting my keys till late act 3. If I'm offered something like bottled flame or smiling mask, then I'll grab the blue key early. I almost never get the red key before act 3 - I have to have nothing to upgrade and be at full health for me to take it earlier than the last two campfires in act 3. The super elite I'll take in act one if my deck is banging, same in act 2, but it's generally an act 3 thing - the scariest super elite in act 3 is what, regenerating or Max hp reptomancer? Max hp Giant head can be a jerk, but really, none of the act 3 elites are that scary.
Really though, there's just not much reason to grab stuff early when it means giving up making yourself stronger
Finally started playing this again, the Switch port post patch is really buggy and laggy now. If you disable screen shake that helps a little with the freezing.
Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
Got my first heart victory last night. Intangible is really quite good, especially with the relic that gives you a 50% chance of keeping exhausted cards.
The bloody one damage per card played still made it a close thing though. Luckily I also had the power that channeled two lightning orbs per unblocked damage.
Definitely more luck than skill though
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Hmmm yes I am becoming frustrated with how often the game just doesn't give you a chance to win through offering non-synergistic cards. Three times yesterday I had an Ironclad deck going only to never find the one or two cards that would have made the others more than moderately useful. When I had a body slam and an entrench and/or an impervious I never found a barricade, and when I found barricade I couldn't buy a body slam for all the tea in wherever they make tea these days.
Sure, I could be trying another build at the same time, and I picked up some strength increase or enemy weakness cards while I was looking, but when you get a body slam and a lucky impervious early on you'll almost certainly head down that high block route.
Hmmm yes I am becoming frustrated with how often the game just doesn't give you a chance to win through offering non-synergistic cards. Three times yesterday I had an Ironclad deck going only to never find the one or two cards that would have made the others more than moderately useful. When I had a body slam and an entrench and/or an impervious I never found a barricade, and when I found barricade I couldn't buy a body slam for all the tea in wherever they make tea these days.
Sure, I could be trying another build at the same time, and I picked up some strength increase or enemy weakness cards while I was looking, but when you get a body slam and a lucky impervious early on you'll almost certainly head down that high block route.
This frankly sounds like you're leaning misevulating cards badly, and leaning into stuff way too hard. I think you're also overating syngeries there - snygeries are nice, but you really should just be caring about picking good cards.
Which is terribly vauge, but what a good card is changes dramatically on where you are in the game and what your current needs are.
Like let's talk about Body Slam and Impervious.
Impervious is just a great all around card: it does something (Make you very hard to kill for a turn), and does it very well. You can generally take Impervious at any point and be happy with it, outside of some very, very werid cases involving self harm builds. It gets better with Headbutt and especially runic pyramid, as both give you control over when you play it, letting you save it for the big turns you need. It's pretty good with corruption, it's pretty good with barricade or a callipers.
Body Slam is a card you should almost never be taking. Why? Body Slam is what i'd term a pay-off card. Most of the time it's going to be a worse or even strike. You do not want to be putting strikes in your deck. And if you want a free attack, anger does the job better without needing to be upgraded. BUT... when you have stuff like Runic Pyramid + Impervious, or Barricade + Entrench + Headbutt (to loop the entrench back), suddenly Body Slam is a much more attractive card - you have the meat worth using it as special sauce on. Kinda crappy without the meat, though!
Or, to point at a couple of other pay off cards for clad: Sword Boomerang and Heavy Blade. Sword boomerang you sometimes take early in act 1. Why? It's almost never a bad strike. Also, it + a steroid pot or a strength pot is usually enough to win you an elite fight. Finally, strength is way easier to get in ways that make Boomerang good than block is. But it's still a payoff card. It's why it's at common, same as Body Slam
Compare say, Immolate. Immolate is just a good card. Need damage? Immolate. Need AoE? IMmolate. Need everything save act 3 bosses and act 4 dead? Immolate. It's basically always a really good card - but it's never going to do dramatic things in the way Boomerang or Body Slam can when everything lines up. Hence why it's at Rare and they're at common.
(Also, i seriously hope i'm not coming off as a goose here! Please let mek now - the goal is education not crushing souls! I'm not paid enouhg to crush souls)
Edit: Yeah, fasting B is a real good card if you can break it. Probably needs to be rare, it is just SO STRONG. Like i spent all of my gold just to get orange pellets on floor 5 strong. (Though to be fair, with sacred bark as my starting relic, no way i was letting orange pellets pass).
Also doing the heart fight with perma 14 dex, 14 strength is real nice. Bottled Fasting, pop a Flex pot and a speed pot, and hit whatever else i needed to knock off my debuffs and oh look, i'm invincible.
One lesson i learned though: Tantrum is a great card. Tantrum sucks when you have deva form. Well, kinda sucks. (it's still probably the single best wrath card in the game). Also it gets really funny when you have double deva form, a bunch of insights, and can just go tantrum, tantrum, insight, tantrum... Poor Deca. Just awkard to punch something for a bunch of damage and then loose 1/3rd of your damage. Oh well, the energy gain off Divinity was worth it.
This is now twice i've gone 2-0 on watcher. Literally my last 5 runs have all been watcher and have been Win, Win, loss, Win, Win. All a20 heart kills to boot. Fasting has been a common theme.
They swapped Weave and Furry of Blows rarity. Now I can't abuse Weave for all my wins as easily.
I had a deck last night with both those cards and lots of Scry/Stance change cards that combined with Hands Form (can’t remember what it’s called) and Fasting was just so silly
Got my first heart kill with Watcher, only A1 but it was the second time I ever played her, so
They swapped Weave and Furry of Blows rarity. Now I can't abuse Weave for all my wins as easily.
Like, I'm not saying weave was stupid and broken, but... (3 weaves and 4 just lucky, 4 weaves and 4 just lucky, 4 weaves and 3 just lucky, and 4 weaves and 1 just lucky)
StS is significantly less random than it seems (offer invalid on higher Ascensions). It's easy to get win streaks for really good players at A0 or A1.
Eh. Maybe bad wording on my part, sorry, but I'm not talking about top streamers or whatnot. I can pretty consistently get winstreaks on A1, and I have only beat the Heart on A20 like once or twice :P. I am not in the top percentile of players or whatever.
But mostly I'm just pushing back on "how often the game just doesn't give you a chance to win through offering non-synergistic cards." I don't really think that's accurate at all, that's all
Hmmm yes I am becoming frustrated with how often the game just doesn't give you a chance to win through offering non-synergistic cards. Three times yesterday I had an Ironclad deck going only to never find the one or two cards that would have made the others more than moderately useful. When I had a body slam and an entrench and/or an impervious I never found a barricade, and when I found barricade I couldn't buy a body slam for all the tea in wherever they make tea these days.
Sure, I could be trying another build at the same time, and I picked up some strength increase or enemy weakness cards while I was looking, but when you get a body slam and a lucky impervious early on you'll almost certainly head down that high block route.
Body Slam is a card you should almost never be taking. Why? Body Slam is what i'd term a pay-off card. Most of the time it's going to be a worse or even strike. You do not want to be putting strikes in your deck. And if you want a free attack, anger does the job better without needing to be upgraded. BUT... when you have stuff like Runic Pyramid + Impervious, or Barricade + Entrench + Headbutt (to loop the entrench back), suddenly Body Slam is a much more attractive card - you have the meat worth using it as special sauce on. Kinda crappy without the meat, though!
...Really? Almost never? I feel like "generate a bunch of block" is a thing you do kind of a lot in this game, and converting that into a pile of damage for 0 has always felt strong to me. Even on turns where I don't need block I might still cast Shrug It Off for the draw or float energy with only blocks left in hand or whatever, so even if it fluctuates in value it's rarely an outright dead draw (at least no more than any attack or block can be a dead draw when enemy intents don't line up with your hand).
StS is significantly less random than it seems (offer invalid on higher Ascensions). It's easy to get win streaks for really good players at A0 or A1.
Eh. Maybe bad wording on my part, sorry, but I'm not talking about top streamers or whatnot. I can pretty consistently get winstreaks on A1, and I have only beat the Heart on A20 like once or twice :P. I am not in the top percentile of players or whatever.
But mostly I'm just pushing back on "how often the game just doesn't give you a chance to win through offering non-synergistic cards." I don't really think that's accurate at all, that's all
I’ve only been playing for thirty hours or so across all three characters, so it’s entirely possible my perception is skewed. But right now, that’s what it is. That might change if I play more.
Hmmm yes I am becoming frustrated with how often the game just doesn't give you a chance to win through offering non-synergistic cards. Three times yesterday I had an Ironclad deck going only to never find the one or two cards that would have made the others more than moderately useful. When I had a body slam and an entrench and/or an impervious I never found a barricade, and when I found barricade I couldn't buy a body slam for all the tea in wherever they make tea these days.
Sure, I could be trying another build at the same time, and I picked up some strength increase or enemy weakness cards while I was looking, but when you get a body slam and a lucky impervious early on you'll almost certainly head down that high block route.
Body Slam is a card you should almost never be taking. Why? Body Slam is what i'd term a pay-off card. Most of the time it's going to be a worse or even strike. You do not want to be putting strikes in your deck. And if you want a free attack, anger does the job better without needing to be upgraded. BUT... when you have stuff like Runic Pyramid + Impervious, or Barricade + Entrench + Headbutt (to loop the entrench back), suddenly Body Slam is a much more attractive card - you have the meat worth using it as special sauce on. Kinda crappy without the meat, though!
...Really? Almost never? I feel like "generate a bunch of block" is a thing you do kind of a lot in this game, and converting that into a pile of damage for 0 has always felt strong to me. Even on turns where I don't need block I might still cast Shrug It Off for the draw or float energy with only blocks left in hand or whatever, so even if it fluctuates in value it's rarely an outright dead draw (at least no more than any attack or block can be a dead draw when enemy intents don't line up with your hand).
Body Slam + is 0-cost, and an okay card, even though it's one less card that does something by itself in any hand you draw it in.
Body Slam (no +) costs 1 and is a bad deal in most circumstances. Don't take the non-upgraded version unless you have some incredibly strong tells for it.
Just generally, on the subject of synergy, if you're coming to Slay the Spire from most tabletop deck-builders there is probably a set of built-in expectations about the value of thinning and the likelihood of your being able to specialize your deck that isn't likely to be met in practice. Overcoming that is part of playing this better, if so.
StS is significantly less random than it seems (offer invalid on higher Ascensions). It's easy to get win streaks for really good players at A0 or A1.
Eh. Maybe bad wording on my part, sorry, but I'm not talking about top streamers or whatnot. I can pretty consistently get winstreaks on A1, and I have only beat the Heart on A20 like once or twice :P. I am not in the top percentile of players or whatever.
But mostly I'm just pushing back on "how often the game just doesn't give you a chance to win through offering non-synergistic cards." I don't really think that's accurate at all, that's all
I’ve only been playing for thirty hours or so across all three characters, so it’s entirely possible my perception is skewed. But right now, that’s what it is. That might change if I play more.
Yeah, I agree it feels that way. Heck it feels like that to me sometimes too :P, but I don't think it actually is. There will always be some randomness (it's a card game and a roguelike), but it very rarely ever gives you something that you can't work with and win with.
Path to Victory is a 1 cost common skill that says "Whenever you play Path to Victory, this enemy loses 5 (7) HP."
Flick is a 1 (0) cost common attack that says "Deal 1 damage. If an enemy has been flicked 3 times, they take 40 damage."
The enemy is purged of Flick debuff when they take 40 damage.
Flick seems like junk to me. Path to Victory I'm not sure of, it's a bit like Claw but since it's a skill that does life loss it's not affected by any of the usual scaling ways (strength, stances, vulnerable, weakness).
Hmmm yes I am becoming frustrated with how often the game just doesn't give you a chance to win through offering non-synergistic cards. Three times yesterday I had an Ironclad deck going only to never find the one or two cards that would have made the others more than moderately useful. When I had a body slam and an entrench and/or an impervious I never found a barricade, and when I found barricade I couldn't buy a body slam for all the tea in wherever they make tea these days.
Sure, I could be trying another build at the same time, and I picked up some strength increase or enemy weakness cards while I was looking, but when you get a body slam and a lucky impervious early on you'll almost certainly head down that high block route.
Body Slam is a card you should almost never be taking. Why? Body Slam is what i'd term a pay-off card. Most of the time it's going to be a worse or even strike. You do not want to be putting strikes in your deck. And if you want a free attack, anger does the job better without needing to be upgraded. BUT... when you have stuff like Runic Pyramid + Impervious, or Barricade + Entrench + Headbutt (to loop the entrench back), suddenly Body Slam is a much more attractive card - you have the meat worth using it as special sauce on. Kinda crappy without the meat, though!
...Really? Almost never? I feel like "generate a bunch of block" is a thing you do kind of a lot in this game, and converting that into a pile of damage for 0 has always felt strong to me. Even on turns where I don't need block I might still cast Shrug It Off for the draw or float energy with only blocks left in hand or whatever, so even if it fluctuates in value it's rarely an outright dead draw (at least no more than any attack or block can be a dead draw when enemy intents don't line up with your hand).
It's possible my play style undervalues body slam, but in general body slam is just going to be a strike, strike+. Body slam+ is more powerful, but converting my block into damage is just not a priority for me. There's a real limit to how much damage you need in a deck, and I've usually got better/more efficient sources than body slam. Adding another way to do damage just dilutes my draws, which is a thing I care about when I'm piloting a 40 card monster.
StS is significantly less random than it seems (offer invalid on higher Ascensions). It's easy to get win streaks for really good players at A0 or A1.
Eh. Maybe bad wording on my part, sorry, but I'm not talking about top streamers or whatnot. I can pretty consistently get winstreaks on A1, and I have only beat the Heart on A20 like once or twice :P. I am not in the top percentile of players or whatever.
But mostly I'm just pushing back on "how often the game just doesn't give you a chance to win through offering non-synergistic cards." I don't really think that's accurate at all, that's all
I’ve only been playing for thirty hours or so across all three characters, so it’s entirely possible my perception is skewed. But right now, that’s what it is. That might change if I play more.
Yeah, I agree it feels that way. Heck it feels like that to me sometimes too :P, but I don't think it actually is. There will always be some randomness (it's a card game and a roguelike), but it very rarely ever gives you something that you can't work with and win with.
Seconded! Honestly my gut instinct is that every a20 seed is winnable. For a computer. But even then a 40% win rate is human achievable, and the game is balanced around a10... So 40% when the game is actively unbalanced again you is pretty good!
@Bogart keep trying! We'll educate you into a mean spire Slaying machine yet
Just checking, that means Path to Victory applies a stacking debuff that does the damage when the card is played?
Yes. Same with Flick, so Flick's main damage can't be increased with stances etc either. I haven't tested it myself but I assume from the wording that PtV goes through block while Flick doesn't.
I feel like if you knew what all the future outcomes would be, you could probably win every A20, yeah. So it's not unwinnable in that sense. It is, though, so punishing for normal runs where you have to make educated guesses that it's not super fair, no :P
I feel like if you knew what all the future outcomes would be, you could probably win every A20, yeah. So it's not unwinnable in that sense. It is, though, so punishing for normal runs where you have to make educated guesses that it's not super fair, no :P
Exactly. But that's what makes it fun for me, there's always more for me to learn in this game... And I've logged over 2k hours in it
Just checking, that means Path to Victory applies a stacking debuff that does the damage when the card is played?
Yes. Same with Flick, so Flick's main damage can't be increased with stances etc either. I haven't tested it myself but I assume from the wording that PtV goes through block while Flick doesn't.
Flick doesn't say lose life, it says 40 damage. It is an attack card, and it should change with stances/strength, but I might be wrong.
Flick does not increase the numbers with stance changes.
That seems wrong, to me.
The final damage is a debuff, not an attack. Also I realized at work what Path to Victory can be compared to - Deadly Venom. Which also makes it clear how bad it is.
Flick does not increase the numbers with stance changes.
That seems wrong, to me.
The final damage is a debuff, not an attack. Also I realized at work what Path to Victory can be compared to - Deadly Venom. Which also makes it clear how bad it is.
Flick does not increase the numbers with stance changes.
That seems wrong, to me.
The final damage is a debuff, not an attack. Also I realized at work what Path to Victory can be compared to - Deadly Venom. Which also makes it clear how bad it is.
40 damage removable by artifact is...rough.
Haven't tested it but I think it works like this - Flick 1 removes 1 Artifact, then Flick 2 removes second artifact or starts a Flick stack etc. and once you have three Flicks it blows up. So even if I think the card is absolute junk, at least it should remove 1 artifact per attack. Same deal for Path to Victory - I'm curious if it deals its damage on the first application already (which would make it fairly bad) or if it starts from 0 damage (which would make it complete junk).
Presumably the goal is to explore some non-stance based scaling damage options for Watcher. Which is fine - they're super iterative with these things. If it doesnt work, it'll change! and if you're super bothered - seriously, post on the discord. they do listen to feedback. heck, i've been able to talk to the devs directly about stuff, which is AWESOME
It does not do damage on the first use for Path to Victory
Alright, that's just sad then. Not really sure what Megacrit guys are thinking with these two cards at all.
They are really good at having s final balanced game. The pre release versions are often far from that lol
Honestly i like their approach to balance - They're making great use of the digital nature of things. Apparently Conjure Blade was designed as a Defect card orignally, it just didnt fit with him. So i'm pretty faithful that they'll test these ideas out, scrap em if needed, and bring in new stuff.
The new cards by the way are (Quoting reddit here)
Study is a 2 (1) cost uncommon power that says "At the end of your turn, shuffle an Insight into your draw pile."
Like Water is a 1 cost uncommon power that says "When you end your turn in Calm, gain 7 (9) block."
Study seems pretty weak, but eminently buffable. Like water is good, reasons to actually stay in calm are a good thing for the class i think
Is it just me or does the Defect rely more on card synergies than the other two characters?
You're right, but it's because of the orb mechanic that it's as visible as it is.
Poison Silent still wants a variety of poison so it stacks fast, Strength Ironclad wants multi-attack cards or multi-target ones, but that feels less like synergy since it's killing monsters for you.
Is it just me or does the Defect rely more on card synergies than the other two characters?
Just you?
I mean, defect's main thing is that focus is some broken, broken shit. Like if i had a time machine, i would bust into the dev's offices and yell STOP EVERYTHING - YOU NEED TO MAKE FOCUS ONLY GO OFF WHEN IT EVOKES.
I think if i vanished right after, it'd be signfianctly dramatic enough to make an impression, right?
But focus is pretty nutty. So most defect decks are going to do something with Focus, because defect has very few other good ways to get block or survive. Beyond that, Defect decks tend to involve either: Frost orbs, thorns, and blizzard (You need something more than just blizzard, or you dont have enough damage against the heart). Echo form + Whatever the fuck, because Echo Form is stupid strong. Creative AI + Mummified Hand abuse (Spice with Heatsinks for happyfun times), Something Something DARKNESSSSSS or finally Biased Cog abuse. Sometimes you figure out a way to do All For One Shennagins (Either with stuff like Claw/Hologram, or via abusing Af0 + Snecko).
Then you usually grab a bunch of this, and shove it in a blender. It's fair to say that Defects scaling relies on syngery, but that's true of every class. In defect's case, defect tends to scale the hardest, but be the slowest to set up. Which can get you killed of you've got a poor mix of cards for what you're trying to do
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This is generally a bad plan. Keys mean giving up power (except from the green key, which just costs you hp).
Generally I don't finish getting my keys till late act 3. If I'm offered something like bottled flame or smiling mask, then I'll grab the blue key early. I almost never get the red key before act 3 - I have to have nothing to upgrade and be at full health for me to take it earlier than the last two campfires in act 3. The super elite I'll take in act one if my deck is banging, same in act 2, but it's generally an act 3 thing - the scariest super elite in act 3 is what, regenerating or Max hp reptomancer? Max hp Giant head can be a jerk, but really, none of the act 3 elites are that scary.
Really though, there's just not much reason to grab stuff early when it means giving up making yourself stronger
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Got good robot boy up to A13 though.
The bloody one damage per card played still made it a close thing though. Luckily I also had the power that channeled two lightning orbs per unblocked damage.
Definitely more luck than skill though
Sure, I could be trying another build at the same time, and I picked up some strength increase or enemy weakness cards while I was looking, but when you get a body slam and a lucky impervious early on you'll almost certainly head down that high block route.
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This frankly sounds like you're leaning misevulating cards badly, and leaning into stuff way too hard. I think you're also overating syngeries there - snygeries are nice, but you really should just be caring about picking good cards.
Which is terribly vauge, but what a good card is changes dramatically on where you are in the game and what your current needs are.
Like let's talk about Body Slam and Impervious.
Impervious is just a great all around card: it does something (Make you very hard to kill for a turn), and does it very well. You can generally take Impervious at any point and be happy with it, outside of some very, very werid cases involving self harm builds. It gets better with Headbutt and especially runic pyramid, as both give you control over when you play it, letting you save it for the big turns you need. It's pretty good with corruption, it's pretty good with barricade or a callipers.
Body Slam is a card you should almost never be taking. Why? Body Slam is what i'd term a pay-off card. Most of the time it's going to be a worse or even strike. You do not want to be putting strikes in your deck. And if you want a free attack, anger does the job better without needing to be upgraded. BUT... when you have stuff like Runic Pyramid + Impervious, or Barricade + Entrench + Headbutt (to loop the entrench back), suddenly Body Slam is a much more attractive card - you have the meat worth using it as special sauce on. Kinda crappy without the meat, though!
Or, to point at a couple of other pay off cards for clad: Sword Boomerang and Heavy Blade. Sword boomerang you sometimes take early in act 1. Why? It's almost never a bad strike. Also, it + a steroid pot or a strength pot is usually enough to win you an elite fight. Finally, strength is way easier to get in ways that make Boomerang good than block is. But it's still a payoff card. It's why it's at common, same as Body Slam
Compare say, Immolate. Immolate is just a good card. Need damage? Immolate. Need AoE? IMmolate. Need everything save act 3 bosses and act 4 dead? Immolate. It's basically always a really good card - but it's never going to do dramatic things in the way Boomerang or Body Slam can when everything lines up. Hence why it's at Rare and they're at common.
(Also, i seriously hope i'm not coming off as a goose here! Please let mek now - the goal is education not crushing souls! I'm not paid enouhg to crush souls)
Edit: Yeah, fasting B is a real good card if you can break it. Probably needs to be rare, it is just SO STRONG. Like i spent all of my gold just to get orange pellets on floor 5 strong. (Though to be fair, with sacred bark as my starting relic, no way i was letting orange pellets pass).
Also doing the heart fight with perma 14 dex, 14 strength is real nice. Bottled Fasting, pop a Flex pot and a speed pot, and hit whatever else i needed to knock off my debuffs and oh look, i'm invincible.
One lesson i learned though: Tantrum is a great card. Tantrum sucks when you have deva form. Well, kinda sucks. (it's still probably the single best wrath card in the game). Also it gets really funny when you have double deva form, a bunch of insights, and can just go tantrum, tantrum, insight, tantrum... Poor Deca. Just awkard to punch something for a bunch of damage and then loose 1/3rd of your damage. Oh well, the energy gain off Divinity was worth it.
This is now twice i've gone 2-0 on watcher. Literally my last 5 runs have all been watcher and have been Win, Win, loss, Win, Win. All a20 heart kills to boot. Fasting has been a common theme.
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They swapped Weave and Furry of Blows rarity. Now I can't abuse Weave for all my wins as easily.
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I had a deck last night with both those cards and lots of Scry/Stance change cards that combined with Hands Form (can’t remember what it’s called) and Fasting was just so silly
Got my first heart kill with Watcher, only A1 but it was the second time I ever played her, so
Like, I'm not saying weave was stupid and broken, but... (3 weaves and 4 just lucky, 4 weaves and 4 just lucky, 4 weaves and 3 just lucky, and 4 weaves and 1 just lucky)
Guess we're doing a defense build!
Eh. Maybe bad wording on my part, sorry, but I'm not talking about top streamers or whatnot. I can pretty consistently get winstreaks on A1, and I have only beat the Heart on A20 like once or twice :P. I am not in the top percentile of players or whatever.
But mostly I'm just pushing back on "how often the game just doesn't give you a chance to win through offering non-synergistic cards." I don't really think that's accurate at all, that's all
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I’ve only been playing for thirty hours or so across all three characters, so it’s entirely possible my perception is skewed. But right now, that’s what it is. That might change if I play more.
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Body Slam + is 0-cost, and an okay card, even though it's one less card that does something by itself in any hand you draw it in.
Body Slam (no +) costs 1 and is a bad deal in most circumstances. Don't take the non-upgraded version unless you have some incredibly strong tells for it.
Just generally, on the subject of synergy, if you're coming to Slay the Spire from most tabletop deck-builders there is probably a set of built-in expectations about the value of thinning and the likelihood of your being able to specialize your deck that isn't likely to be met in practice. Overcoming that is part of playing this better, if so.
Yeah, I agree it feels that way. Heck it feels like that to me sometimes too :P, but I don't think it actually is. There will always be some randomness (it's a card game and a roguelike), but it very rarely ever gives you something that you can't work with and win with.
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Flick seems like junk to me. Path to Victory I'm not sure of, it's a bit like Claw but since it's a skill that does life loss it's not affected by any of the usual scaling ways (strength, stances, vulnerable, weakness).
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It's possible my play style undervalues body slam, but in general body slam is just going to be a strike, strike+. Body slam+ is more powerful, but converting my block into damage is just not a priority for me. There's a real limit to how much damage you need in a deck, and I've usually got better/more efficient sources than body slam. Adding another way to do damage just dilutes my draws, which is a thing I care about when I'm piloting a 40 card monster.
Seconded! Honestly my gut instinct is that every a20 seed is winnable. For a computer. But even then a 40% win rate is human achievable, and the game is balanced around a10... So 40% when the game is actively unbalanced again you is pretty good!
@Bogart keep trying! We'll educate you into a mean spire Slaying machine yet
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Yes. Same with Flick, so Flick's main damage can't be increased with stances etc either. I haven't tested it myself but I assume from the wording that PtV goes through block while Flick doesn't.
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Exactly. But that's what makes it fun for me, there's always more for me to learn in this game... And I've logged over 2k hours in it
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Flick doesn't say lose life, it says 40 damage. It is an attack card, and it should change with stances/strength, but I might be wrong.
That seems wrong, to me.
The final damage is a debuff, not an attack. Also I realized at work what Path to Victory can be compared to - Deadly Venom. Which also makes it clear how bad it is.
40 damage removable by artifact is...rough.
I got greedy and went for the second Colosseum fight. That was NOT the build to take into a fight with a big slaver and a gremlin nob.
Haven't tested it but I think it works like this - Flick 1 removes 1 Artifact, then Flick 2 removes second artifact or starts a Flick stack etc. and once you have three Flicks it blows up. So even if I think the card is absolute junk, at least it should remove 1 artifact per attack. Same deal for Path to Victory - I'm curious if it deals its damage on the first application already (which would make it fairly bad) or if it starts from 0 damage (which would make it complete junk).
Alright, that's just sad then. Not really sure what Megacrit guys are thinking with these two cards at all.
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It's not launched on PC yet, so not for a while.
Flick is buffed 1->4 damage and Path to Victory from 5->7 (7->10) and now does mark and damage after applying the mark
And Flow State has been removed
I guess the 2 new cards don't show up in the card library yet
They are really good at having s final balanced game. The pre release versions are often far from that lol
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Honestly i like their approach to balance - They're making great use of the digital nature of things. Apparently Conjure Blade was designed as a Defect card orignally, it just didnt fit with him. So i'm pretty faithful that they'll test these ideas out, scrap em if needed, and bring in new stuff.
The new cards by the way are (Quoting reddit here)
Study is a 2 (1) cost uncommon power that says "At the end of your turn, shuffle an Insight into your draw pile."
Like Water is a 1 cost uncommon power that says "When you end your turn in Calm, gain 7 (9) block."
Study seems pretty weak, but eminently buffable. Like water is good, reasons to actually stay in calm are a good thing for the class i think
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You're right, but it's because of the orb mechanic that it's as visible as it is.
Poison Silent still wants a variety of poison so it stacks fast, Strength Ironclad wants multi-attack cards or multi-target ones, but that feels less like synergy since it's killing monsters for you.
Just you?
I mean, defect's main thing is that focus is some broken, broken shit. Like if i had a time machine, i would bust into the dev's offices and yell STOP EVERYTHING - YOU NEED TO MAKE FOCUS ONLY GO OFF WHEN IT EVOKES.
I think if i vanished right after, it'd be signfianctly dramatic enough to make an impression, right?
But focus is pretty nutty. So most defect decks are going to do something with Focus, because defect has very few other good ways to get block or survive. Beyond that, Defect decks tend to involve either: Frost orbs, thorns, and blizzard (You need something more than just blizzard, or you dont have enough damage against the heart). Echo form + Whatever the fuck, because Echo Form is stupid strong. Creative AI + Mummified Hand abuse (Spice with Heatsinks for happyfun times), Something Something DARKNESSSSSS or finally Biased Cog abuse. Sometimes you figure out a way to do All For One Shennagins (Either with stuff like Claw/Hologram, or via abusing Af0 + Snecko).
Then you usually grab a bunch of this, and shove it in a blender. It's fair to say that Defects scaling relies on syngery, but that's true of every class. In defect's case, defect tends to scale the hardest, but be the slowest to set up. Which can get you killed of you've got a poor mix of cards for what you're trying to do
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