Revaal Needs a Revaamp

[sporkife01]

Maybe it's me... maybe I just don't grok the way the weapon is supposed to work, but I find Revaal, in all its aspects - though the Aspect of Medea is absolutely the worst of the bunch - just... bad. It's like they took the casting mechanic from Hades I and made it a weapon. I hate the limited ammo pool, the unpredictable bounce trajectories of the skulls, and lackluster range. Mostly, though, it seems the only weapon where the Deadalus Hammer upgrades actualy make it worse. I've yet to find a build that works with any aspect of the weapon, and the fact that it's holding up on me clearing the last Pitch-Black Stone trial is frustrating.

Suggestions:
- Straighter trajectories on the projectiles
- More ammo; or at the very least reduce the amount of time it takes for projectiles to automatically return to you.
- Longer-ranged projectiles.
- Aspect of Medea needs to be rethought from the ground up. It sucks and I hate it. It effectively turns a crappy ranged weapon into an abysmal melee weapon, with a host of weird setup restrictions or timing problems to even get the thing kinda working.

[Biscuits! Werewolves!]

So goes Hades mechanics, it seems - meaning YMMV. I took to the skulls pretty quickly, at least for Mel's aspect. I do agree that bounce mechanics could use some adjustment but overall I think the fighting style is sound (again, for Mel's).

Medea's is much like Beowulf shield from Hades 1, which I never really like nor do I particularly enjoy Medea's aspect but...it serves well enough. I would be open to some tweaking of that one. But there's something there.

Persephone...I don't know yet. I haven't yet thought of a basic strategy I'd like to try with it.

But yeah I like Revaal, at least the basic version. It makes good/fun explosions that I find pleasing.

[Neo NiGHTS ®]

Revaal is fine. It just has a bigger learning curve. Check this topic, maybe it'll help you change your mind 😉

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1145350/discussions/0/4353373240377965424/?tscn=1719678607

[AquariaMoon]

I LOVE Revaal, especially on the Persephone aspect. I just use the attack as a very close-up move, which means that I pick up the bouncing back shells immediately.
I Combined that once with a Daedalus hammer that applied the omega attack effect + buff (which I have to admit I never use the omega attack on Revaal) to picking up shells and I was tearing through everything quicker than I had with any other weapon, since I usually stand right next to enemies when picking up shells.
Haven't figured out Medea's aspect yet though.

[sporkife01]

Originally posted by Neo NiGHTS ®:

Revaal is fine. It just has a bigger learning curve. Check this topic, maybe it'll help you change your mind 😉

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1145350/discussions/0/4353373240377965424/?tscn=1719678607

I actually had a lot of these ideas, and experimented with basically using Revaal as a melee weapon, which just led me to the notion, "why don't I just use a regular melee weapon?"

I've been trying to like it since day one, and if y'all do, fine, I just find it frustrating, cludgey, and counterintuitive to use in just about every way possible. I've tried it as a melee weapon, ranged weapon, tried it with cast builds and tried relying on the specials, and I eat it on 0 fear runs; I can't be the only person who just...hates this weapon.

[sporkife01]

Originally posted by AquariaMoon:

I LOVE Revaal, especially on the Persephone aspect. I just use the attack as a very close-up move, which means that I pick up the bouncing back shells immediately.
I Combined that once with a Daedalus hammer that applied the omega attack effect + buff (which I have to admit I never use the omega attack on Revaal) to picking up shells and I was tearing through everything quicker than I had with any other weapon, since I usually stand right next to enemies when picking up shells.
Haven't figured out Medea's aspect yet though.

Persephone's aspect is probably the least bad of the three. Medea's is utterly useless and frustrating, and I hate that it's THAT what's keeping me from clearing the Black Stone Trials.

[sporkife01]

Originally posted by Biscuits! Werewolves!:

So goes Hades mechanics, it seems - meaning YMMV. I took to the skulls pretty quickly, at least for Mel's aspect. I do agree that bounce mechanics could use some adjustment but overall I think the fighting style is sound (again, for Mel's).

Medea's is much like Beowulf shield from Hades 1, which I never really like nor do I particularly enjoy Medea's aspect but...it serves well enough. I would be open to some tweaking of that one. But there's something there.

Persephone...I don't know yet. I haven't yet thought of a basic strategy I'd like to try with it.

But yeah I like Revaal, at least the basic version. It makes good/fun explosions that I find pleasing.

See, for esplosion-y fun I like Axe, aspect of Charon, and build into Apollo/Hephaestus "You're in my cast, have damage" fun times.

[sporkife01]

So, to add some specifics, since I don't it to just seem like I'm grousing. Specific Pain points include:

- extremely limited number of shells (3 is far too few)
- With regards to the aforementioned "shell bounce" - my specific gripe is that shells will often hit, then go through enemies, and rebound in odd ways, which means I often have to run across the room to get them back (this has cost me runs in the Mourning Fields and Tartarus) often resulting in situations where a shell will bounce to the edge of a new mob and, by grabbing it, you pull that mob.
- The charge-up time for the Omega attack and Omega Special are so long as to make them functionally useless without boon support. The fact that the Omega special charge-ups will cancel out if you get hit is intensely frustrating.
- The time it takes for the shells to auto-return is interminable, especially if they've bounced halfway across the room (see above)
- Shell visibilty in certain environments is very poor.
- Even using Revaal as a melee weapon, the shells will bounce far away, meaning I have to disengage and retrieve.
- Often the shells will bounce to a section of the room where you can't go (water, pits, obstructions - happens a lot in Oceanus and Erebus), meaning you're effectively down one shell for the however long until it decides to (slowly) wander back over to you.
- It seems like the shells have a knockback effect on the player, since I'm often forced out of engagement with enemies that don't usually have a knockback effect.
- The chargeup time for the aspect of Persephone's special ability is interminable.

I get some of this might be a skill issue, but how unfun the weapon is makes me not want to use it.