Hunting Blades duo boon is to powerful?

[Goragrath]

Last 2 days I have found that going Ares/Artemis combo is crazy good, insane damage (melts anything) and very low risk. You can also run this build with any weapon as it is Cast based.

You start with Ares and get Slicing Shot. Then get one of these - Deadly Strike, Deadly Flourish, Hunter Dash or Artemis' Aid from Artemis. After that you can get Hunting Blades. This is when the build takes shape and makes your run a lot easier.
After that these other boons just make it crazy good.

Ares -
Urge to Kill - More cast damage
Black Metal - Bigger blade area
Engulfing Vortex - blades last longer and pull enemy's in (imo needed)
Ares' Aid - Deals damage and makes you invulnerable (not required but nice to have)

Artemis -
Clean Kill - more crit damage
Pressure Points - allows crit damage on you blade casts
Dual Shot - more dps
Hide Breaker - more dps to armor
Hunter Instinct - why not, more god gauge
Hunter's Mark - if you get it, more dps for multiple enemy's
Fully Loaded - This is great and doubles your dps

Hermes -
Rapid Cast - Makes it quicker to shot off all your casts and lessens time spent standing still
Drift Dash - easier to pick up your casts
Greater Haste - easier to pick up your casts
Greatest Reflex - easier to pick up your casts (also feel this is kinda needed for the last boss)
Greater Recall - This is the cherry on top of this build. No more dashing over fire or across the
area to pick up your casts

Chaos -
Shot - Your casts do more % damage (One run I had 3 of these)
Grasp - You have more Casts so more dps

So far I have completed heat level 5 and will be interesting to see how this build goes at higher heat.

Anyone else tried this build out and have any feedback or ideas if it can be improved?

[abarax]

Ares legendary: Vicious Cycle - Blade Rifts deal more damage for each consecutive hit. Being a legendary it has a few prereqs before it will show up, Black Metal or Engulfing Vortex according to wiki, which have their own prereqs too...

I've played this build before but never been able to get every single boon I wanted before endgame. For a suggestion maybe use Poseidon aspect sword for +50% cast damage.

[Goragrath]

I forgot to add in the legendary and I unlocked and started running with the Poseidon sword for the extra damage after I made the last post. The duo doesn't show up each run which makes it a lot harder.

[The Comedian]

I don't think it's too powerful, because without it, the Ares cast is kinda trash.

[itssirtou]

I had a run with these two that was going horribly. I was on my last DD going INTO styx. I buy an Ares boon from the shop, it has Hunting Blades. I roll over Styx and Hades without a scratch.

[nash]

hunting blades too good? maybe, but the same is true for most duo boons. Some examples?

Poseidon + Zeus/Demeter
Dionysus + Zeus/demeter or just legendary dionysus
Demeter cast + artemis
Artemis + aphrodite for crazy crits
Dionysus + aphrodite + chaos shield/charons bow

the game features quite a lot of combinations which lets you steam roll it. Even just zeus with his legendary will carry you through pretty much everything.

I don't think this is a problem, as the hunt for a perfect run is what offers quite a lot of long term motivation in a roguelite. A lot of people in binding of isaac achieved dozens and even hundreds of victories in a row and still enjoy their time doing it.

[letran.thai]

With Demeter released, having Ravenous Will on a Hunting Blades build makes it even stronger. As long as you have all your bloodstones cast away, your active Slicing Shots also benefit from the damage buff - and that's an impressive 30% on Epic rarity. The -10% damage reduction is a nice touch, but with a caster build, you should be busy staying out of harms way anyway. The same is true for Crystal Clarity builds.

On the flipside, it doesn't mesh well with Greater Recall, because the automatic return will shorten the time Ravenous Will is active. On a Hera Bow build that is less of an issue, because you can cast all bloodstones at the same time, meaning they will also return simultaneously.