Tempest early impressions

[DrEmile]

Hi, first off, this is a really nice game overall, so keep up the good work. I'm generally liking the tempest, but I have to disagree with your mission statement that it is less complex than the monk. I feel like it's probably the most complex of the classes in the game. There are several interesting class specific mechanics that interact together to make it difficult to calculate damage in a turn. For example, I may have 50% rage and am going to attack someone with 1 shock twice with attacks that will inflict shock dependent on my current energy rating, which is going to be affected by my fervour ability once I click the second card...figuring out the optimal order seems very difficult here.

It also has some very complex choices to make with the fervour tree, and these are randomized each playthrough, which means the optimal build may be different and may depend on the specific cards in a deck and may be tweaked between fights as needed.

Bottom line is there are loads of complex strategic choices to be made at the macro and micro level. Now it is easy to play because it's a bit OP at the lower difficulty levels, but if you crank the difficulty level way up, then optimal play becomes important and all of a sudden this complexity becomes important to understand. So yeah not agreeing that it's the 2nd easiest class at all...but it's fun so far.

[Josh Bruce]

Hey there! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave such good feedback! I think you’ve summed it up pretty well, and I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. I actually think this fits pretty well with an ideal case, i’ll explain a bit more below.

So I think maybe the term “complexity” I may have used wrong. It may have been better to phrase it more along the lines of upfront information. The Enlightened, having multiple different damage types, damage that triggers on even turns, follow-up, Zen, Chain etc - there is a lot of upfront information to digest (KEYWORDS OMG). The goal with the Tempest was to create something simpler in terms of keyword overload. She uses Rage and Overcharge (both which the player should be familiar with from Hidden runs) and then just sprinkles in Discharge, Zeal and Shock.

So in terms of that upfront complexity, I think she is much easier to digest as a second character. But, doing that you run the risk of making the class feel boring, and “drag cards, win fights”. The fact there are things to think about, when to Discharge, when to use Shock, which Zeal nodes to take, should you swap Zeal for this fight etc - is what gives the class longevity and strength for veteran players, and makes her interesting to play.

One of the keys to this is the damage preview that shows up when you drag a card. I’ve been pretty vigilant at making sure that those numbers are true, and, thankfully, people have been reporting when these are off. It does account for Shock, on multi-triggers, and on cards that add shock mid trigger etc. So essentially, newer players can just stride in and hold the card up to the enemy and see exactly what damage is going to be done, without having to worry about the math behind it. Then the Verterans are still able to min/max their decks the way they like.

The class definitely has depth, I agree with what you’re saying re: lots to take in. That is also why I like Zeal, because for those who just want to rock through a run, you can totally set and forget. The things just trigger on their own, you don’t need to think about it. But if you want to try and take the most optimal Zeal build for your current deck, the space is there to allow for it.

And then at the end of the day, she sometimes just rolls in with high Rage and drops big numbers on hard hitting cards. It’s always great to see a big 500+ damage preview show up with playing her. Sometimes it might be hard to understand how you go there, but you appreciate it nonetheless. One issue there could be me just not telegraphing to the player well enough certain things, which I”m happy to try and expand on where possible.

But in saying all this, I’m very glad you’re having fun with her! The risk was making a class whose simplicity came at the cost of depth, and from what I’m hearing I think most of that may be avoided!

Although - she is still super strong, I’ve been pushing little hotfixes everyday whilst consulting the number to try and bring her more in line. :D

Thanks again for taking the time!! Hopefully this helps clear things up a bit ? Basically, I'm hoping her upfront load is much less, but not at the cost of depth.

But at the end of the day, it still is VotV, so there still is always going to be the "multiple-things-to-watch-which-interact-with-several-other-things-whilst-making-decisions-about-what-to-play-and-purge-and-OMG-I-need-a-nap”

[Jellybane]

I'd just like to say I really appreciate this level of answer from the dev! + the fact you switched my first run of tempest onto "do good and win" mode so I had extra fun.

[BEANS BEANS BEANS BEANS BEANS]

As someone who's pretty much only played the hidden (for 80h or so, mostly bleed), and has never 'got' the monk and the daughter, I find the tempest quite fun. I'd say she is more complex than the hidden, but also stronger (building an overcharge deck with the buff that turns your overcharge into shock is nutty). It's a nice new entry to the roster. It is a bit tough to gauge exactly how much damage you are/will do compared to other characters, but to be honest, it has only bitten me once. Instability 50 took maybe 3 tries (I think I've done ~8 runs total with the tempest, most of them in beta), compared to probably 5-10 with the silent. So perhaps a tad strong?

The 'shock then pop' build-up is highly satisfying, as is the zeal mechanic, so nice stuff there.