Warlock with reduction to mana cost per ability use is god mode.
Heck, you can do that with Assassin with just the shard and codex, since it is already hidden.
Upgraded Veil is really nice for giving the immunity for various things that hit all or hit adjacent or hit random.
No doubt. So many ways to break things, lol
Really enjoying this but it’s definitely tuned a bit easier than the obvious comps like Slay the Spire. I’d mark this easier so far (just smooshed Corruption I think 5 last night) even than Monster Train as well.
Wild Mage post-nerf is still strong enough to be a magic carry who can absolutely off-tank with a couple pieces of gear. And Bard is really powerful, idk what anyone who thinks otherwise is on about.
Ronin power is super bonkers if you can get it to aggressively trigger! Really satisfying.
I think this game has to be easier than Slay the Spire or Monster Train because there isn’t as much you can do to handle enemies that hard counter your build. In Slay the Spire, if your deck is heavy on powers and you’re fighting the wolf boss, you can just play your minimum viable set of powers for the first half of the fight. In Astronarch, if you’ve focused a ton on heal and a dude steals all your healing, you’ve lost before the fight begins. This game can’t be quite as aggressive as a deck-builder since you have way less control per battle.
I’m loving it though, thanks so much for posting about it @kerzain! I love multiplayer auto-battlers but don’t have the time nowadays to play them enough to keep up on the meta. This is the perfect amount of depth and complexity in single player to get a pretty similar feeling without nearly the time investment. There’s so many fun ways to break the game!
Wild mage change seems like a buff to me. What are you done with the bard?
And this isn’t a deckbuilder. I think the challenge level is pretty good. I’ve lost plenty of runs where I was trying to get creative with combos or didn’t get the gear I needed.
It starts to get interesting post corruption 10. I’m at 15 now, and it’s no cake walk.
Sweet, I look forward to the higher corruptions. And I am in no way opposed to it being relatively easy until then, I was moreso just surprised that I’ve lost all of I think two runs since my first “wtf is this game?” foray.
Bard I like to give +starting mana to, and just whatever lets him spam heals. He also makes an excellent pack mule for utility items like the frost things, heh. But really, the heals are so strong you don’t really need anything else. The flexibility to throw him in the front when I need to go balls-out in certain comps has been useful, or if heals are somehow nerfed in a fight (stupid totems). The fact that he heals everyone and doesn’t care about adjacency is key.
Let’s talk items!
What items do you never take? What items do you always take? Sometimes?
I never take the Spiked Club, I think is the name. The -20% speed always seems like it’s too much of a penalty despite the Stun modifier.
I always take the axe that gives speed boosts after attack and the eye that reduces mana cost after active action. Just so strong, and there’s always a character who wants to attack or cast faster.
I sometimes/usually take full plate armor or enchanted mail. No better defensive items in the game, IMO.
Re: Royal Morning Star
I’ll typically put this on a no-DPS character. And if I have the Reverie Totem it drops everybody but one guy down to their slowest attack speed anyway.
Completely useless in most elite & boss fights though because of their immunities.
I just love this thing. I love seeing the tan colored attack bar shrink after every swing.
My Brawler loves this. Since his Active attack is so cheap to begin with he can hit maximum Active-spamming speed pretty quickly.
I fail here. I never properly build up armor/defense. I like the shields with the high Frail Armor bonuses, and I like the Druid for its Passive, but I never seem ready to drop one of these breastplates on anybody unless I find the items pre-upgraded.
As for my favorite items:
I have a hard time liking a lot of Ancient items because they don’t have stats, and usually by the time I’m getting them I have my slots full of other stuff with stats. And unless I have just the perfect party/character composition that will exploit the power of the ancient item, I typically just keep them in my pack, if I select them at all. I mean, sure, they can make or break a party, but typically they have to really synergize with what I’ve got for me to use them.
I like the Hag’s Hex Bag quite a bit because it slows down attacks early on while I wait for Frost or Reverie Totem effects to get applied.
I like Enchanter’s Tome for immunity to silence. I put it on DPS-carry spell casters specifically, like the Pyromancer. Delaying his casts at all will typically cost me the game.
I also love Book of the First, because it will give me Negates, and if I can upgrade 1 or 2 and put them on specific types of front-line melee DPS characters it will help keep them pumping out damage without slows or DOTs in certain encounters. These are best used in conjunction with Druid or Cleric, who also negate their targets.
Played a couple games of this, enjoying it! Is there some kind of tooltip that tells me what the damage meter’s various colors mean?
If there is I haven’t seen it.
Off the top of my head:
Orange = Burning/Fire
Red = Bleeding
Purple = Poison
Blue = Magic & Active Ability
Yellow = Pierce/Reflect/Damage Shield
White = Base attack damage
Lover’s Vow (I think?) ring is a favorite of mine. The one that gives shields per second to 1 or 2 heroes.
I also like the one that increases max health every second
Hands down one of my favorite items
Really good, but the amulet can be even better, depending on circumstances
This is a pretty stock setup, especially for my Warlock and Paladin, and Assassin. The Warlock with that setup, gets to fastest possible casting really quickly, and pretty much makes the party immortal unless he gets chain stunned or dies early before he can get rolling.
Just got to corruption 17 with this basic setup. Lately I’ve been subbing in the cleric in place of the frost mage. The assassin does such ridiculous damage, all I really need is for the party to stay alive long enough. That main variable on this setup, is putting the slow every turn legendary on my assassin. If I get that it’s pretty much game over.
But you can’t count on finding those. Didn’t see a single symbiote my entire last game. The game would be way too easy if you could always get what you needed, though.
Only need to beat a corruption level once. After level 11 or so, the entire game is fishing for the right items, it’s not like you can do much else.
Don’t know if you saw this, but there’s a thread over on the steam forums where Dale is talking about adding in an unlock system based on Hero level. He’s taking suggestions for items and such.
If you aren’t regularly checking Steam for updates notes, you might be out of the loop for some recent noteworthy balance changes to certain classes and abilities. The latest update from a couple days ago does some cool stuff:
Buffs:
- Bosses and elites can now be affected by Disarm/Silence/Stun. The time of the effects are reduced by half. After spending 4 seconds total of being under one of these effects, they become immune to all three effects. Having multiple of the effects at the same time does not make the boss become immune quicker.
Bosses and Elites used to be “Immune”, now they’re just “Resistant.” I always hated swapping gear back and forth just for these particular encounters, because half the time I’d forget to switch back.
- Cleric passive ability - The damage from healing now always hits your current target.
- Cleric passive ability - Now also grants Shield equal to 30%/60%/90% of your healing received.
Nerf:
- Bloodmage passive ability - The damage dealt to your target is no longer piercing.
There’s also a bunch of item adjustments, mostly buffs.
It’s funny as I was playing this yesterday I was thinking the Blood Mage was really good and then I looked at some of the back patch notes and exclaimed to myself “The Blood Mage damage used to be PIERCING?!?!?” Seems like a warranted nerf but I’d have enjoyed playing him in OP mode.
As an aside, I just finished Corruption 15 and I’ve won the great majority of my runs. My go-to has been Warlock/Blood Mage/Paladin + Assassin + Fiend and this seems like an extremely powerful synergy. I’m actually thinking Alchemist might be better than Assassin though in my latest runs. The jury is still out. The Fiend is just such an obvious 5th pick and especially a gimme with Warlock.
I do find the game kind of difficult to play without a Warlock though. I need to start learning some other strategies.