I made a Poll regarding the Mirror of Night choices

[eepy]

Here it is: https://forms.gle/yMfSLK9NzXjXeNEm7

Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/HadesTheGame/comments/hgqzae/which_mirror_of_night_talents_do_you_choose_poll/

[squat_instructor]

As mentioned in the thread some are really weapon/build/heat dependent so choosing one or the other in a vacuum makes very little sense.

[Wintermute]

Honestly, most green options are bad. Not situational - just plain bad on their own, or blatantly worse than purple alternative. Like, regen cast is convenient, but even then - kinda rubbish. God's legacy for story purposes. maybe high confidence specifically for chinese spear? That's it.

[squat_instructor]

If you use your cast just for Boiling Blood effect you dont want to run around picking it up, it's p handy. Sure, some have very limited use, hard to deny that, but there's plenty of meaningful choices that depend on the context.

[Wintermute]

Double curse is always superior, because green takes 5 different gods to even reach the same effect.

Second dash isn't even worth discussing.

Gold variant heavily depends on not buying anything up until top floor. Maybe if you're shopping for blood and diamonds up there?

Backstab will always grant you more damage than alternative as long as you hit it 2 times.

Darkness regeneration is virtually useless unless you're on repeat run getting the darkness from bosses. Even then - questionable usefulness against purple regen.

Green death defiance is a literal downgrade both in health and boss usability. If one dies that much to need it, he'll get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by Hades with only 1 revive.

Abyssal blood - maybe? But boiling blood is really hard to discard.

Green health upgrade may be useful if you have some really mad dodge skills. Otherwise - hard pass.

Last 3 may vary I guess. Fated authority isn't that useful to begin with, but with other 2 you're trading literal damage increases from purple for what? Hammers that are guaranteed to happen? Poms that have extreme diminishing returns? Legendary or duo boons are good for story/prophesies, but otherwise - just less reliable version of purple alternative.

[squat_instructor]

Family Favourite is good on high heat runs where your options are very limited, especially if you run Artemis that does not have status effect so you are not likely to get easily applicable status twice.

Stubborn Defiance carried me through all 32 heat runs, you can abuse it like crazy because it's basically free healing that ignores 100% Lasting Consequence debuff.

Once I switched to darkness heal I never went back, 3hp per room does not compare to how many ways there are to obtain darkness during the run, you can even boost it with Chaos boon to get a ton of free healing.

Fated Persuation, while having less rolls, is way more practical and efficient in shaping up the build you want, use it 100% of the time.

Fiery Presence is mad good for clearing rooms with burst builds like Hestia, Beowulf or Poseidon sword.

Again, regenerating cast is handy for when you use it for Boiling Blood only.

Others are kind of subpar, sure, but there are good uses for the rest.

[Wintermute]

Well, that's an interesting perspective. Maybe I should give some of those another try.

[squat_instructor]

For sure, I was initially skeptical myself but it turns out most are not so bad given the right context.

[NVDragon]

I've never used Fiery Presence or High Confidence with any success, but pretty much every other selection is green for me unless I'm doing a burst build or going for something weird.

Dark Regen is strictly better in 99% of cases, especially once you get the renovation that increases max health when you collect darkness.

I like Stubborn Defiance too sometimes, but mostly because dying twice before Elysium feels reeeeally bad and I hate just having to pray I run into Patroclus. Even then, Patroclus' Stubborn Defiance item frequently seems to last to Hades if you go straight to him.

Ruthless Reflex is just better and I rarely need extra dashes unless I'm running out into Asphodel magma, and that is the edge case of edge cases because I usually go Stygian Soul too.

Stygian Soul is just better unless you're doing a burst build, you rarely want more than 1 cast in an enemy at a given time.

Golden Touch is strictly better especially if you manage to take down Charon in Tartarus.

Privileged Status vs Family Favorite is the only one I'm really iffy about, but I tend to go Family Favorite because 1) I'm not forced to get at least 2 status effects and 2) I'm not constantly worrying about keeping the status effects active in case I need to go in for a quick hit. I pretty reliably have 6 boons by the end, which is 30% bonus at all times, and I'd prefer that over 40% if I keep the status effects active.

I prefer Dark Foresight + God's Legacy because it makes it easy to go wide and get lots of Duo Boons, even though the individual boons tend to be a bit weaker; that said, I find Euridyce, the one Demeter boon, and the Dio/Poseidon boon (everything is epic or higher) tend to show up often enough to make it a straight upgrade.

And I would prefer Fated Authority (reroll room) if it actually had a chance of giving a more rare option, just so I could have a chance at a boon/pom/heart instead of (say) gemstones. But rerolling gemstones invariably gives you either a key or darkness, and if you roll past all those it just gives you nectar. So... yeah, Persuasion it is. Especially if (again) you're going Family Favorite/Dark Foresight/God's Legacy.

[Anderson]

Some balancing is definitely in order, because my mirror is almost entirely Red.

Shadow Presence utterly destroys Fiery Presence. Fiery Presence should be +20% per rank, so that it reaches +100% damage against undamaged enemies.

Chthonic Vitality crushes Dark Regeneration. Especially in Styx, where you go through several rooms very quickly, and no Darkness can be obtained. Only on repeat runs do you collect any significant amount of darkness, but in that case, those should be easy runs where it does not matter.

Stubborn Defiance is so bad, it might as well not exist. Coming back with 30% of your life sucks really hard. In my experience, I rarely die anyways, and when I do I tend to die to a particularly hard encounter where I might die more than once. Should just bring you back to 50%, just like Death Defiance, and even then, I'm not sure I would even consider it.

Extra Dash from Greater Reflex is a given. Ruthless Reflex is actually interesting, in that it invites a higher risk/higher reward playstyle, but I don't think it can measure up.

Abyssal Blood is actually a viable choice. Being able to debuff bosses and minibosses has a real purpose. While Boiling Blood is probably better, some builds, like the Hera Bow, could actually consider AB, since the damage from your attack and special are much less relevant, and your cast does not benefit anyways.

Deep Pockets is what you use on new Heat runs, while Golden Touch is useful when you are doing a farming run, trying to buy a diamond or Titan Blood in Styx.

Stygian Soul is interesting, but taking it means you cannot benefit from either Boiling Blood or Abyssal Blood. If Casting is an important component of your build, you would much rather take Infernal Soul and burst enemies down, since then you can pick the ammo back up.

Think Skin is always good, but at least High Confidence is an interesting idea. The threshold HP should be lower though - maybe 70% or above.

Family Favorite is actually competitive with Privileged Status, since its 25% all the time, instead of 40% with specific setup. I think PS could actually be buffed a bit, since getting two status effects on an enemy takes some work, while FF works all the time. But at least both options are good.

Olympian Favor decisively wins against Legacy, since Legendary Boons are hard to find. LB has use for fullfilling prophecies, but that's about it.

God's Pride wins over God's Chosen, mainly because 10% is a little low on Chosen. Also, those rewards have diminishing returns. You would rather have fewer, but more powerful boons, than more crappy ones.

Fated Authority and Persuasion should just be combined into one ability, that can reroll EVERYTHING, and also not ever give you anything you have already seen, unless you have rolled through all the choices. Deadalus Hammers should be able to be rerolled too, no idea why you can't, especially since there are now so many more upgrades, and a lot of them suck.