Chaos magic too powerful?

[CtenosaurOaxacana]

I am enjoying rushing for the first skill point in a level and immediately going with one of the two basic chaos spells, then following it up with the other, then just upgrading both for awhile. I consistently breeze through the first 6 or so levels this way.

Part of what makes the chaos spells so powerful is because they strike with potentially three types of magic every time: physical, fire, and lightning, all as heavy ranged damage. In comparison it seems like most of the 1 sp 'starter' spells have at least one 'catch' that makes them riskier, like death bolt with few 'living' units around, fireball in cramped hallways, magic missle when surrounded, etc.

So I do love chaos starter set, and the imp swarms and chimera later, but I wonder if anyone else finds this magic type a bit too strong at the start too?

[Sir Slush]

Hehehehe. Just try using upgraded Death Cleave and Mega Annihilate. That one's fun.

There are lots of overpowered combos in the game. The 1 SP spells combo really nicely with the Cantrip Cascade for instance, especially if you use the range-enhancing spell or shrine with it.

But, everything has a counter, sometimes more than one counter. Even the Death Cleave+Mega Annihilate stops working against certain enemies, even with the extra damage instances from upgrading Mega Annihilate. There's some spells that are definitely stronger than others, but I think the dev's intent was that the game and certain build combinations be fun to explore, rather than balanced against one another.

For example. Chaos magic can be useful, but myself, I rarely use it except for Mega Annihilate, which I only get by realm 8-12. Some enemies are immune to all three of those elements. Depending on what shrines I get, I actually prefer to use Chain Lightning or Death Bolt for most of the early levels, and Melt and Icicle for extra-heavy damage. Also, try the Living Dead (or whichever spell causes living enemies to rise as skeletons). That one's pretty insane.

The part of the game that will make the most difference is learning what enemies are difficult for your toolset to overcome, and then either finding ways to counter them or (more often) choosing portals with enemies that are easier to deal with.

[CtenosaurOaxacana]

You make some good points about spell builds. I think for me it might be the Prince of Ruin passive skill that makes the other chaos spells 'too' powerful, because depending on enemy positions it can wipe out a lot of them at once. It does get tougher towards the final levels though, and admittedly I haven't beaten game yet either.

Another fun combo to explore are trying the different sets of dragon summons with 'dragon mage' upgrade. For example the red dragons will copy your fireball spell and all its upgrades, or the arcane dragons with magic missile, etc.

[Stormlock]

Yeah plenty of crazy powerful builds to be had. Dominate is another candidate, and if you can get a shrine to buff their damage, the angel choir summons can steamroll a lot of maps (combine with hollow flesh for live enemies.)

It's generally the lategame where your build really gets put to the test, since enemies start having shields and many resistances, along with bosses with spells of their own that can get out of hand.