|
Really enjoying this game and looking forward to the final version. I like Cove but the Siren boss is very easy. Everybody she mind controlled would blow their turn to self heal which is fine. I also heard she is surprisingly vulnerable to Bleed effects. I'm finding the addition of corpses tends to be more beneficial than challenging. Killing the front two rows means I can keep spamming Plague Grenade, Abyssal Artillery, etc. For team comps, I've been meaning to try Houndmaster, Bounty Hunter, Occultist, and Arbalest. All four can mark targets, though whistle and vulnerability hex have nice debuffs. Most also have nice synergy with marked targets and I figure I could unload some big crits vs HP sponges.
|
#
¿
Oct 19, 2015 18:27
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 13:55 |
|
|
Did they improve self buffs? I generally find many of them lacking compared to other abilities. Self heals pull you out of deaths door, some buff your whole party, but abilities like Take Aim don't seem worth it in lieu of simply attacking. Is the Man at Arms still hilariously overpowered? I beat Swine God simply by spamming Riposite. I got a lot of crits and just bashed that piggy to death.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2015 23:54
|
|
|
I'm bummed the final version doesn't come out till January, but on the other hand id rather play a polished game a few months from now than a buggy mess tomorrow . I have a few thoughts about the Ancestor- I think he's possessed, and still in the Estate. Much of the memoirs suggest a man that became increasingly corrupted. Everybody that helped him he betrayed or eventually cast out. When the villagers got wise to him he hired Ye Olde Blackwater mercenaries to suppress demonstrations. The intro makes it sound like he's just this bored rich guy that got way over his head, but I'm sure there's more to it. What does developing poisons, resurrecting the dead, and mutating pigs have to do with finding the portal? He implies he learned this through 'research' but it sounds more like something from the other side was guiding him. In the intro its not explicitly stated whether the portal was opened, just that stuff got crazy and he was the only one to escape. I find this awfully convenient; I think what really happened is that XYZ still needed to happen for the portal to completely open, so the creatures compelled him to send for help. I don't think he's really dead either, maybe he got completely possessed, maybe he's living in some Kafkaesque existence, something. I'm betting in the final dungeon you encounter him and it turns out the adventurers were somehow instrumental in serving as the last step to opening the portal.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2015 17:17
|
|
|
Toplowtech posted:The final boss will probably enter this reality through the bullet hole in his head. 
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2015 18:57
|
|
|
Still some questions: -What did he hope to find in the portal? -It's too coincidental that he was the only one to see what got revealed and survive long enough to write the letter. -Nobody knows how much time had passed since the letter was written.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2015 19:07
|
|
|
I'm imagining the Caretaker introducing the Estate to all the "That there up yondah is the old Estate. Them Micmacs used to live round those parts, till the ground went sour and they cleared out. They say an old rich man holed up in that mansion for some time, till he got a diggin' for something terrible. I heah he went so mad he took a flintlock to the noggin. Sometimes dead is better."
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2015 19:16
|
|
|
That was my thought too.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2015 20:51
|
|
|
A big debate about the metagame seems to be the issue of time. The prevailing strategy is to burn down the enemy as quickly as possible. This has a few very obvious benefits- it minimizes damage you receive, as well as stress prevention. My problem with it is that it greatly diminishes the value of heals, buffs, and DoTs. If you minmax your group, youre probably focusing on damage and crit. While nobody is forced to play this way, the nature of stress and randomness seem to favor it as the most reliable strategy. I think cove encounters are a small step in the right direction- enemies brimming with PROT can't easily be taken out fast so heals and DoTs become more valuable. Yes, I know self buffs heals and DoTs are excellent in boss battles, I just wish they had a bit more consistency.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 28, 2015 17:04
|
|
|
Many camping skills are neat, but I wish they were a little more unique. Half are generic (heal, stress heal, stress resist) and the other half get duplicates across classes: Abandon hope/Curse the Gods, Gallows Humor/Mockery, Turn Back Time/Man's Best Friend, Planned Takedown/hellions equivalent, etc. It would have been more fun if they were a bit more unique. Some classes are good with this- Leper can trade stress for HP and vice versa which is very versatile. Occultist has some very powerful buffs, Plague Doctor has more reliable disease removal now. However Hellion, Bounty Hunter and, Grave Robber don't feel very unique. Maybe camping skills like this: Hellion: Large buff if She's at deaths door , all party crits do +1 damage, and bonus damage vs beasts Bounty Hunter: Enemies have slightly decreased move and stun resist, Random chance for an enemy in encounters to be marked at the beginning of the battle, increased chance to scout but also increased chance to get ambushed. Grave Robber: Stat boost vs encounters that have a curio/chest in the room, next curio will have a 100% positive result, increased chances to successfully retreat.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 28, 2015 17:38
|
|
|
Bogart posted:I might say his attacks are good and cheap, but they have a flat chance to cause stress because WHOS THE REAL ENEMY Honestly I liked the idea of having a character with abilities that benefitted from stress, so deliberately stressing him out would make him more powerful. I'm pretty sure there's trinkets that actually lower stress resist as a 'downside' but if your abilities scaled with stress level they would become very powerful. The flip side of this is such a character would likely need very low native virtue chance and thus be tricky to directly control, but it would be mighty clutch in desperate situations.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2015 17:36
|
|
|
I agree. While corpses make abilities like Blindfire worse, they made abilities like Plague grenade and abyssal artillery better.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2015 15:17
|
|
|
paranoid randroid posted:ive played like 15 hrs since the heart attack mechanic was implemented and i havent lost a single guy to it. i dont know if this means im good at stress management or just really lucky. If you have good crit, stress reducing skills, and encounter a few stress relieving curios it is unlikely to be a problem. In fact, with the way they scaled higher level dungeons heroes are more likely to just die in combat than in stress. I'm also pretty sure higher levels give you natural stress resistance. And building virtue chance can help have some great comebacks in very crucial times.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2015 18:03
|
|
|
I love that they added crit heals some time ago. Vestal and Occultist can bust out some really burst heals. I keep hearing people that poo poo utility effects; they say heals are no replacement for just more damage. But the Vestal is obviously built to be a healer, and Arbalest's combat heal is obviously meant to be spammed.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2015 18:07
|
|
|
aas Bandit posted:I got tired of trying to remember specific curio combos ("Wait, did I need the antivenom for the tree, or the holy water...?"), and wasn't really enjoying that aspect of the game, so made myself a quick cheat sheet based on wiki info. Leper x2 and Plague Doctor x2 is called "The Black Plague" or something similar, and is a fun combo- Both Lepers can get a ton of move resist, keeping the Plague Docs safe in the back. You can be straightforward and go Hew x2 and Plague Grenade x2, or get fancy and use stuns and Revenge to womp on enemies. Lepers can also get Purge which has the advantage of clearing corpses.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 1, 2015 07:19
|
|
|
As for Occultist vs Arbalest/Vestal, Honestly Occultist has great synergy with a lot of other abilities and classes, and its not really an either/or thing. Both have camping skills that boost speed. A great application of this is to boost the Occultist speed so he almost always goes first. Vs tough enemies and bosses, you can mark them then use Arbalest's Sniper shot to try to get a big crit before they can respond. Houndmaster and Bounty Hunter round out this combo well; The Occultist marks, and the other 3 get boosted damage on the marked target. Vestals heal is a lot more reliable, and she gets the only AoE heal in the game. It's a lifesaver if you have multiple heroes on deaths door. Arbalest's heal makes any other heal that much better. I find it helpful in conjunction with a HP tanked Leper using his self heal on top of it.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 1, 2015 07:35
|
|
|
Hellion has been heavily nerfed over the Beta and I find her current version unsatisfactory. What Red Hook really needs to do is give her a simple Rage mechanic- At the start of the battle she starts with a stack of rage, and can store a max of 3 stacks. Breakthrough, Barbaric YAWP, and If it Bleeds consume a rage point. Adrenaline Rush, dealing or receiving crits add a rage point. Change Battle Trance, get rid of its existing buffs and have it cost 4 respite to have 2 rage at the beginning of each battle. Receiving a stun removes all rage stacks.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 1, 2015 07:46
|
|
|
Greatbacon posted:Man, I have mixed feelings about the cove. I love the soundtrack to it, but I've lost more people in the cove than the other three dungeons combined. I feel like it hurts the utility of push/pull/shuffle abilities when many monsters are equally effective in any location, and only some have diminished effectiveness when in the 'suboptimal' position. So far only skeletal soldiers are forced to pass if they're stuck in the back.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 2, 2015 21:37
|
|
|
A party of Jesters and Grave Robbers would be interesting since all of them could jump around to different positions, and you could kit them all out so they can always do something in each position. Getting pushed/pulled wouldn't matter with that type of party, so you could focus on speed and trinkets that come at the expense of move resist.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 4, 2015 14:43
|
|
|
I feel the Jester needs a rework. He's too reliant on long battles and unlike the Plague Doctor who is in a similar boat, he lacks the practical versatility to be effective. Plague doctor can heal, and Crusader can heal AND stress Heal. Here's how I'd rework him: Dance Positions: Gives a move resist buff to the party, and has a % chance to reset everybody's position to where they were at the start of the battle. . Front position only. Heckle: Marks Jester, giving him bonus dodge and making enemies attack him. If he dodges or resists an attack the party gets a stress heal. Inspiring Tune: Single target buff, gives initial stress heal. For the next 3 turns every time the buffer player receives a stress heal they also heal 1HP. Battle Ballad: Same as it is now but every time a buffed hero crits they get bonus stress heal. Slice Off: Damage + reduces enemy damage by a flat amount 1 turn. Harvest: Damage and bleed for the 2 middle enemy ranks and instantly clears corpses. Blood In Your Eye: Low damage, high crit chance. Applies whatever debuffs the Jester currently suffers onto the target. Misery Loves Company: Clears a debuff on a friendly target shared by the Jester and gives both a small stress heal. The Final Countdown: Front row only. Deals massive stress to your entire party to do heavy damage to all enemies.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 4, 2015 21:48
|
|
|
You know, this is the type of game that would also be a lot of fun on a mobile device like a tablet.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 5, 2015 18:49
|
|
|
Cream-of-Plenty posted:I wonder, would the Jester be more interesting (or better) if he had virtually no combat skills and his buffs/debuffs were better? Treat him like a pure support unit that rocks out on his lute and hurls insults at the enemy. An idea I had was to give the Jester's buffs a lot of secondary effects that could 'proc' on certain triggers. For example, if party members have the Battle Ballad buff active, they'd get +1 HP healed for each stress heal they receive. So the Jester could keep alternating Battle Ballad and Inspiring Tune to both reduce stress, buff everybody, and heal a little bit.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2015 17:42
|
|
|
TheRagamuffin posted:Messed around last night with low-level parties. Back-row Man-at-arms: Surprisingly good. Problem with back row Man at arms is he has only 3 abilities (out of 8) which can be used in that position. What's weird is he has a class specific trinket that requires him to be in that position for its bonuses (perhaps why you tried it). As a tanky support, though yeah he's great. Bolster, guard vulnerable allies, and get him hopped up on bonus HP/PROT and he's almost as durable as a Leper, but with more position flexibility.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 9, 2015 15:04
|
|
|
Greatbacon posted:So I ran a short apprentice dungeon the other day with 3 jesters and a vestal. It went... surprisingly well actually. The 3rd level of Hag has eaten more Level 6 Legendary heroes than I care to count. And I find the Hag annoying because people either have an incredibly easy or an incredibly hard time with her. If you have position-dependent heroes or lack DoTs and back row attacks, you can really get screwed even if your lineup looks good on paper.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 9, 2015 18:48
|
|
|
Iron Chitlin posted:The Hag is the one boss I fear more than any other, and a big part of that is the 100% success rate on "Into the Pot". Not only does it move remove a character from your lineup, but even knocking the pot over tends to screw up your positions more often than not. I feel like If they made "Into the Pot" a check against your move resist, in much same way that the Siren's charm is a Debuff resist check, it would end up being a lot more tolerable. Its not 100% success, but it nearly is. I think its closer to 80%, because every now and then you WILL resist it, and if you do it gives you an enormous advantage. Her pattern is: 1.) Into the Pot on a random hero. I believe at level 3 every time the Hag/hero takes a turn, the hero in the pot takes 5 damage which can really add up. 2.) Taste the Stew (stresses a hero and heals the Hag). Often people are too busy banging on the pot trying to free their buddy to outdamage her on this. 3.) Seasoning (debuffs, maybe a chance to blight, not really that bad) 4.) Meat Tenderizer (big damage to multiple targets Often you get nailed by a 1-2 punch. She puts a hero in the pot, you try to free them, she heals back any damage you dealt up to that point. Eventually the guy in the pot ends up on death's door, followed up by Meat Tenderizer which kills them. In addition to having a challenging time with the Hag, I'm also dealing with the 3rd level of the Formless Flesh. The FF is probably the hardest of the 'secondary' bosses, because its form is so random. The main pattern I find with it is: 1.) The ribs have the most protection, and can stun. Avoid wasting attacks on them if possible. 2.) The head can do a lot of damage/bleed and is the second toughest part. 3.) The butt can apply blight/diseases on heroes, and attack from any position. 4.) The 'heart' heals itself, but its the most vulnerable. Generally you want to hope to get lucky and get a lot of the more vulnerable parts present early on, so you can DoT it, particularly with bleeds. I find distributing DoTs works better than stacking them since it will 'tick' more frequently. Marking it will only mark that location, not the whole monster, so be careful because you could mark the 'heart' only to have it transform into a ribs section.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 9, 2015 19:39
|
|
|
Difficulty of bosses from easiest to hardest in my opinion: Siren- No hard hitting attacks, mind controlling a hero with self-heals/buffs will cause them to use them on themselves (My houndmaster got mind controlled and promptly crit healed himself) Brigand cannon- As long as you can focus on the Matchman each turn you can sandblast it down. Its really only a threat if it gets the shot off. Sunken Crew- Similar strategy to cannon, keep the critical element (anchor guy) out of commission, and the rest of the abilities are watered-down boss fare. Prophet- Falling rocks give you a 1 turn warning to rearrange your party/buff accordingly. Necromancer- Vulnerable to bleed, just kill the skeletons faster than he raises them. Formless flesh- Challenging because the forms are random and keep rearranging. Barely defeated the level 2 version (entire party on deaths door, bleeding AND blighted, then my Arbalest busts out this 42 damage crit for the clutch win) Hag/Swine king- Kind of a toss up between which is the hardest. Hag can be brutal if you don't have DoTs or effective back row damage. Swine king is a product of just pure brute force; tons of HP, deals enormous damage to everybody. Woe be to the man laid low by Wilbur's Squeal!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 10, 2015 05:37
|
|
|
Been talking to this guy who insists the best way to reliably win the game is to max out speed and scouting chance.Immediately after starting the dungeon, he camps, using both scouting abilities, and any damage buffs he has available in his party. He claims that with their speed they almost always go first, so he can bypass stress heals/heals by using curios, disarming traps, and bypassing unnecessary monster encounters. He claims that with this strategy he has successfully completed 97 out of 100 runs and hasn't lost a single guy. While it sounds great on paper, I dunno...I remember in earlier builds of this game people were swearing by speed and crit; crumping monsters before they could even do anything and just blitzing through dungeons. However, with heart attacks, nerfed AoE, and high PROT enemies I feel like you cannot always rely on dumping enemies. Also, since speed is actually SPD+D20 you can't always rely on going first, and putting all your eggs in the speed basket comes at the cost of other skills. Personally I like to save my camp for a bit later; late camps mean you can heal HP, stress, and Plague Doctor can cure heals. This guy acts like that 1 log and 8 food is a waste of 2 inventory slots and wants to get rid of it ASAP, but I'm wondering whats going to happen if he gets hit by multiple 'hunger' events with no food or other abilities to heal out of combat. At least if you saved camping for later you can vary the amount of food you use when you camp. If you have a lot of food by then, use more, if you used up a bunch, use less.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 10, 2015 06:06
|
|
|
Camping right away now is very risky. With the changes to Heart Attacks and Deaths Door having a hero hit 200 stress drops him into Deaths Door, and being in Deaths Door debuffs you for the rest of the dungeon. They've also started to add debuffs which last until camp, so if you've already camped you're stuck with it for the rest of the dungeon as well. It's still a viable choice, but it's a gamble.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 30, 2015 20:48
|
|
|
There are ways around the stall penalty; keep two monsters stunlocked with Plague Doctor or Hellion for example. The Madman is pretty squishy and you can stomp him quick before he dishes out too much stress damage. FYI, Abomination automatically transforms back to human at the end of a fight, healing him for a bit and giving a stress heal to the party (more of a 'refund' since going into Beast Mode stresses your party . Changes make the game more challenging but there are gameplay workarounds. But people that want to immediately camp then blitz through a dark run will probably not have an easy of a time anymore.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 30, 2015 21:50
|
|
|
I also did the gimmick build with the backrow Man at Arms and it is a blast. Combined with a heal-specced Vestal you can heal an insane amount of HP on the MaA. And with him guarding up to two heroes at a time he can actually tank very well. Another good advantage you can also plan for is that he will block against stress dealers as well. So giving him a stress resistance trinket doesn't hurt because you can literally have a party of everybody being at 0 stress and your MaA being at 70. In this party comp I took a Houndmaster and used Therapy Dog on the stressed out Man at Arms.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2015 18:07
|
|
|
I agree the Jester needs a lot of work. The problem with him is that anything he can do, other heroes can do better. Group buffs? The MaA has two and he's resilient enough to justify wasting a turn to cast them. Bleed skills? Hellion and Houndmaster have better versions. Crit and move skills? Grave Robber has that covered. I mean I like the idea of using him as a 'Bard', just putting him in the back and plinking on tunes. But I wish you could really dedicate him to that task. Take the Vestal, for example, she's a Dedicated Healer. You can put her in the fourth row and you have 2 skills that heal other party members and a third that does a lifesteal. It seemed like they were going to make the Jester similarly dedicated as a buffer/debuffer but he's not nearly effective at it. His trinkets aren't bad, but they don't really boost his skills.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2016 05:10
|
|
|
I wish I remembered to take a screenshot, but I have a Vestal that has so much +healing stacked up combined with the Man At Arms shield that gives him +50% heals received that her AoE heals everybody for 5 (MaA for 7) and her single target heal was healing him for 18hp without crits. Also that run the MaA absorbed about a bajillion damage and the only problem I had was that he was inadvertently stress-tanking so he ended up getting afflicted at the end of the run. Still not bad.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2016 23:15
|
|
|
I really like the Arbalest, and I have one kitted out very well (damage/accuracy/crit trinkets, ranged damage, ranged crit, ranged accuracy locked, plus she also has +1% crit, and +10% damage  )I put her on a marking team, Restring Crossbow, set up her shots with target whistle, and see her Sniper Shot consistently do... 9 damage 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 7, 2016 05:01
|
|
|
Meanwhile my Plague Doctor with an anemic 3.5% crit chance is chain critting Plague grenades for a whopping 1 damage to each target... Really nailing it with those poison hackeysacks lol. Also, I've discovered that if you use an AoE ability on a group of enemies and corpses, even if you only crit vs the corpses you still get the stress heal just the same. My Man At Arms' hobbies include Pilates, bird watching, and screaming at mutilated pig remains.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 7, 2016 05:41
|
|
|
Olive Branch posted:Some people would say "exploit the system" but I personally won't. If you need money run short dungeons. This doesn't work well under the current game's mechanics; first you never want to rely on being on Death's Door because one wrong move and the hero is permadead. Simply being on Death's Door also gives you huge debuffs; I noticed early on when they added the new Death's Door Debuffs and pointed out to the devs that Martyr's Seal is effectively useless because any benefits get grossly wrecked by the downsides. Quirks I lock in (your results may vary) depending on class: Bonus Speed 1st turn: Only getting it for 1 turn isn't a problem; this is great for classes like Plague Doctor where you want to reliably go first and stun 2 guys. 3% melee/ranged crit: While for some classes this might be a tough choice, for many they are sticking to one type more or less. Ranged, in the case of Arbalest, Melee in the case of Hellion. +10% PROT I find useful on Man at Arms since he can guard others, and it frees up space you might have used a trinket for. +10% HP Similarly useful. Fated: Great on Leper or any other class where hitting is a make-or-break situation +10% stress heals received: I lock it and have it stack with bright tambourine so my Jester's crits return a lot of stress healing, and he can Inspiring Tune himself happy again.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2016 23:02
|
|
|
Leper backstory All hail King Baldwin!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 11, 2016 20:06
|
|
|
Obviously he worked his way up to be King by winning epic sixteenth century rap battles. "Petals in the Wind...bitch!" *chops podium in half with giant sword*
|
|
#
¿
Jan 11, 2016 20:45
|
|
|
I'd really like to think the Abomination is the experiments the Ancestor did with pigs taken to its logical conclusion. Also my guess is that the Ancestor lured you to the hamlet to carry out whatever part of the process needs to be done to open the portal. Things didn't work out for any of his friends or colleagues, I don't think he would be any different for families.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2016 14:16
|
|
|
ZeusJupitar posted:He admits at one point that he killed himself to avoid being lynched by the villagers, not out of guilt. He's definitely up to no good. Maybe there'll be a twilight zone twist at the end where it turns out everything you did up to this point was on purpose and the armies of swine fishmen and skeletons were actually meant to hold off the inevitable Eldrich onslaught; he gets possessed and the evil makes him write the letter and kill himself?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2016 16:52
|
|
|
Oh god, the mark teams I'm gonna make... Though my only complaint is that I hoped Arbalest and Bounty Hunter got more unique debuffs on their marks. Though it's probably a stopgap since they don't have to worry about balance in the short term. Dat Darkest Dungeon... 
Panfilo fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Jan 19, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2016 19:47
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 13:55 |
|
|
I had to retreat from the third quest. It's pretty hard. Doable, but very hard. Be sure to equip those torch trinkets. You occupy a trinket slot but it saves you from a ton of stress. Try to have Houndmaster or MaA with one and use guard to protect the hero that didn't get one (you only get 3)
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2016 22:07
|
|