Hephaestus

[WinterBurn]

Out of all of the gods Hephaestus is by far the most underwhelming, especially in his main kit.

His attacks and flourish take way to long to recharge, they also don’t scale like other boons, the cooldown reduction for each level is minuscule, a heroic flourish with one pom put into has a cooldown of 12 seconds, which for this game is ages, at level 5 this still took 9 seconds to recharge. level 5 and heroic, still only 9 seconds, it’s not satisfying at all. The only time I got a god heph attack was because of some family trade shenanigans and the cooldown was 2 seconds, I don’t think I’d be able to get that sort of power in a normal run since this was a heroic attack at level 10. At later stages of the game, the average heph attack or special is completely overshadowed by the dps of the other gods, it only ever works as a support, you try to build a run around these boons, nine times out of ten it’s not gonna be very fun cuz the damage is gunna suck.

His cast boon is TERRIBLE, it removes one of the primary purpose of the cast, which is to give you breathing room with the multiple enemies that just charge you, it makes the cast size so small that it’s almost completely useless and the damage is pathetic. If you’re using the furries you can basically kiss that damage bonus goodby. Genuinely the worst cast boon in the game.

His sprint is okay. The damage is good but it is by far the most difficult to use effectively, it encourages some reckless playing.

His mana regen is okay at lower fear levels, terrible at higher fear, the damage reduction is only 10% and that doesn’t help much when everything hits like a truck. And since you need to get hit to get that mana, it’s actually a terrible choice for any run that is even thinking of using omega moves at higher fear.

His support boons are all fine no complaint there

His legendary is underwhelming, especially when it will only give an extra 5% or 10% increase to whatever bonus the weapon is giving, also only works if you’ve invested 6 nightmares into the aspect you’re currently using, which isn’t easy, nearly useless early game. It’s not the worst, but it’s an afterthought, not something you aim for.

His duos are underwhelming or just bad, some are good:
-Hestia: good but saddled with the high cooldowns and the second blast takes ages to hit
-Apollo: good, inoffensive. Similar problems to Hestia
-Zeus: really good, static shock is a great boon and the damage bonus it’s gives is a solid addition to almost any run
-Hera: bad, just bad. Half the time it’s useless, especially considering the game really prioritises you filling those attack and special slots
-Poseidon: has a similar problem to hephs other blast boons, doesn’t help that it interacts with Poseidon’s cast, arguable the second worst cast boon in the game
-Demeter: good for reapplication of freeze, same problem as Hestia and Apollo, hampered by the high cooldowns
-Aphrodite: not bad, seems weird, got hit by Cerberus wave attack, took 60 damage but only got a 15 healing, could be cause of the high fear, still disappointing

Suggestions: lower the blast cooldowns, make the attack and special scale the same way the sprint does with a set cooldown affected by the rarity: attack 6/5/4/3, special 8/7/6/5 common/rare/epic/heroic. Rework the cast or at the very least remove the area reduction. Half of the duos can be fixed with the cooldowns, legendary needs a buff. Mana regens and sprint are both fine as they are, neither are the worst and are certainly usable.

[MrYdeas]

yes me too

[Neo NiGHTS ®]

I think the bases for Hephaestus are good, but I agree that a lot need fine tuning.

His attacks and specials could indeed have a shorter cooldown and increase damage.

His cast could (and should) indeed be a bit bigger. Especially because the game has issues with hitboxes, so more often than not it's not clear whether the enemy is inside the circle or not.
(also I don't think the three hits are that worth either. I have the impression that Apollo, Zeus and Hestia do more damage)

His sprint is good, but it need an outlining or something that shows you clearly the AoE.

[Pictogeist]

I'm still not very far along in the game, but I've learned that his boons are basically a necessity for high damage. Turning an unpowered ranged attack into a 400dmg aoe hit is build defining. Every other god feels lackluster comparatively and I'd skip any of them for a Hephaestus boon. That being said, that much easy power feels right being locked behind a long cool down. If I could just hit the ranged delete key every 5 seconds the game looses all it's challenge.
This isn't to say that his boons need reigned in, but that other gods should raise to his level of power and utility.

[WinterBurn]

Pictogeist の投稿を引用：

I'm still not very far along in the game, but I've learned that his boons are basically a necessity for high damage.

I’m going to be completely honest, I could not disagree more, I’ve had much higher damage in builds that exclude Hephaestus compared to the ones that include him. His primary problem is that although he does have high damage, it isn’t consistent especially compared to Zeus, Poseidon or Aphrodite who can unleash bonkers damage and theirs is extremely consistent. They may deal less damage in tiny bursts compared to Hephaestus, but that isn’t what’s good in this game, consistent damage is what works.

[Sintonir]

Heph Strike and Flourish are good when you need to evade a lot and can only reliably land a hit without taking damage once in a while. Especially against Eris, but also against the cyclops if you have a melee weapon, less so against Scylla, Chronos and generally swarms of armored enemies.

[WhaleMage]

ralph.ritchie の投稿を引用：

Pictogeist の投稿を引用：

I'm still not very far along in the game, but I've learned that his boons are basically a necessity for high damage.

I’m going to be completely honest, I could not disagree more, I’ve had much higher damage in builds that exclude Hephaestus compared to the ones that include him. His primary problem is that although he does have high damage, it isn’t consistent especially compared to Zeus, Poseidon or Aphrodite who can unleash bonkers damage and theirs is extremely consistent. They may deal less damage in tiny bursts compared to Hephaestus, but that isn’t what’s good in this game, consistent damage is what works.

This comment pisses me off it has never occurred to bro that maybe he shouldn't put the Hephaestus boon on his main damage dealing. If spamming special on staff it is quite effective to have a high damage main attack every once in a while as is the case with some of the other weapons. That said his cast, sprint and mana gain all kind of suck.

[jimmyliou1990]

Though I find his cast still usable in some cases and I cannot learn how to effectively use his sprint at all to save myself, I completely agree with the rest of your opinions.

These blast damages don't scale, and more importantly no boon of his addresses the cool down IIRC. A high base damage doesn't really mean a lot if you can only do it every 10 sec; we call it DPS for a reason and Hephaestus is just losing to other gods in this department as the main damage output boons by a lot.

There should just be boons that address the long cool down, which can be done by simply shortening it or with instant recharge after certain conditions are met; practically pom and increasing rarity can help but it's not by a lot and it's not reliable. Dealing with cool down could potentially also help his curse boon's situation because not being able to apply Vent to other enemies just sucks.

For now his attach and flourish are only good for some high and free damage that isn't your main output, or if you are playing in an extremely safe and evasive style, and that's seemingly it! Sniping Chronos with a 400 burst damage sounds great but only doing gentle scratching for the next 10 sec feels BAD (it's even worse during normal encounters if you preemptively use your blast damage on a tiny enemy and is left with no other option but to run around and wait). I don't know if there is a currently available build that centers his blast damage while providing performance comparable to the other gods; if there is please share as I really am curious.

[bmfrosty]

I have to agree that I avoid his flourish, cast, and sprint. His attack can be ok. I'd really like to see a boon for him that adds to his damage. That as a likely outcome of getting one of those three would likely make those more worth getting. Maybe also make his cast normal size?

[WinterBurn]

WhaleMage の投稿を引用：

ralph.ritchie の投稿を引用：

I’m going to be completely honest, I could not disagree more, I’ve had much higher damage in builds that exclude Hephaestus compared to the ones that include him. His primary problem is that although he does have high damage, it isn’t consistent especially compared to Zeus, Poseidon or Aphrodite who can unleash bonkers damage and theirs is extremely consistent. They may deal less damage in tiny bursts compared to Hephaestus, but that isn’t what’s good in this game, consistent damage is what works.

This comment pisses me off it has never occurred to bro that maybe he shouldn't put the Hephaestus boon on his main damage dealing.

Politely, I’m being critical of Heph’s stuff because I don’t like the idea of a god being exclusively supportive, that wasn’t the case in the first game and I don’t think it should be the case in this one.

[Omicron-0B]

bmfrosty の投稿を引用：

I have to agree that I avoid his flourish, cast, and sprint. His attack can be ok. I'd really like to see a boon for him that adds to his damage. That as a likely outcome of getting one of those three would likely make those more worth getting. Maybe also make his cast normal size?

There's already a boon that increases Heph damage... sort of. The one that adds Vent whenever you land a Heph blast effect, which does a separate 400 damage blast when it expires. Should approximately double Heph damage unless you got a Heroic Strike right out the gate (since applying a new blast effect resets the Vent timer). There's also the Hestia/Hephaestus duo boon that applies blast effects twice if you time them perfectly.

Fundamentally though, "damage this often and no more" is a problematic design space, because there just isn't as much room for internal synergies when the whole point is that you can't speed up the boon effect by attacking more and your Curse is just "do a bit more damage after the time ticks" so you can't really have Natural Gas or Sweet Surrender or Dying Wish to back it up.

I've seen people swear by Hephaestus Sprint though. Means the attack buttons are optional. Can't say I'm one of them though.

[hilfazer]

The way Vent works makes boons that apply it work against each other. Smithy Sprint doesn't even need another Heph's boon, it can postpone Vent on its own. Moreover with enough rarity/level attack boon and even special can do that on their own as well.

It reminds me of Hangover from Hades 1 which i consider to be the worst design in the prequel.

I'd rather have Vent to additionally deal damage when it's reapplied and amount of that damage would scale with how much time has passed since application.

[Fire walk with me]

I was kind of into Heph at first, but now kind of avoid him like the plague after earning all duos once. The high dmg at first glance seems like a noob trap.

The dps on strike/flourish need a serious rework or adjustment of figures... or something. The damage just doesn't feel good for the cooldown and lack of effect. The sprint is kind if decent, but situational. Cerberus and Chronos are easiest to run micro circles behind for a few cheap doinks, but beyond that mostly gets used accidentally while dodging rather than purposefully.

The Apollo boon that makes casts larger actually really helps Heph, but I am not sure the dps is any better than say Zeus/Apollo/Hestia with their single boon.

Love his utility: regenerating armor and not affected by suction? Yes, please.

Since he is a blacksmith/creator of weapons and armor maybe his role should fall more in line with that. Finding defects/weak spots in weapons or armor that reduces enemy attack or defense by a % or flat amount might be more thematic.

So, yeah. Tossing my hat on the pile Heph needs some work.