On mastery points

[No One]

The first region is the hardest since you don't have mastery points, you don't have any trinkets yet, and your combat items are random at best. There are other factors, but none of them are relevant against the mastery point variable, let alone the trinkets.

Hence, in general, you get 2 mastery points. Apart from these two skills, all skills should be evaluated at their unmastered state, because during the hardest part of your run, they won't be mastered.

Since some skills get +50, +65, +100% power on mastery, you will pick two of those. I staunchly recommend upgrading the heal and stress heal, because they're +50% minimum and not situational. They are useful if you are taking damage.

Result: any non-heal skill that gets +50% or more from mastery is a useless skill. It can't possibly be balanced against its unmastered state, so it isn't balanced. At best it's boss-only, as there's also a difficulty spike at the final confession boss.



If you can get by without mastered healing, then mastery points are [win-more] anyway.

[Gal Kraft]

Intuitively [without math] I typically go for heal/stress first as well. Live to fight another turn. Another turn = +100% damage, loosely speaking. There's my math.

That said, there are a few other skills that may wind up in my 2-point roster. Toe 2 Toe, Smokescreen, or Meditation, for example, are significant improvements not related to dealing damage. A damage skill would be if I intend to fight a lair boss in region 1, where the damage bonus gains an unusual advantage, such as Poison Darts against Librarian with little R4 damage on the team.

What do I never upgrade on region 1? Plague Grenade. Chop. Encore. Take Aim.

[RopeDrink]

Since the dawn of EA, my first mastery almost always goes go into a stress-heal (eg. Sanctuary, Bolster, Inspire, etc). Then, I either pick (#1) a bread-and-butter button - typically projection - that I know I'll be spamming from start to finish, (eg. Blight Dart, Artillery, Plague Grenade, or whatever). Alternatively, if I'm already comfortable with baseline damage and projection, then (#2) a button like Comfort, IndieScience, or some form of sustain.

Despite lacking temporary power and mastery points, the first zone is rarely a problem (unless I get a Lair-Boss as the very first node of the very first region, which - depending on the team + boss - may require digging up from high stress or low-health for a while).

Either way, I typically focus on keeping heroes tense (instead of roiling) to farm relationships, as getting those cemented early can alleviate the high chance of not getting the trinkets or power you desire before the next region.

So long as the team are relatively healthy and sane at the end of every fight, I don't care how long said fights take, as stalling primarily affects the torch, which is often replenishable at an ungodly amount of nodes.

[Raki]

I usually try to play the first region without upgraded stress heal. Sometimes I regret it, but it usually works out.

The point usually goes into an offensive skill with good turn 1 potential. E.g. "Bleed Out" (strong on Carcass!), Point-blank-shot, Fleche, Lunge, etc.

The increased crit can even somewhat make up for the reduced stress heal. Problem is that you cannot control it, so sometimes things do go wrong.

Overall, I feel the first region goes very smoothly like that. I haven't really played Bastards Beacon much yet, though. Might be that it doesn't work there.


I also tried without upgrading heal, but I don't like it too much. One point in offense, one point in defense is usually my setup, unless the team composition has some very special requirements.

[Gentlest Giant]

In the fights that matter the most, you don't have time to play stress/body healing skills very much at all and the healing you do at maximum efficiency is overshadowed by the damage output of the enemy. As such, they are mostly used to keep people at above 1 health or remove DoTs. Meltdowns will happen and it's best to accept that.

In region 1 the most important consideration is to reduce the amount of turns spent in boss fights.

[No One]

I suppose I temporarily overlooked PD heals, which don't get +50%. Science is fine baseline, while meds are for dots and aside from that it's still weak even mastered. Not to mention you can double down in science with a surgeon.

Of course the PD attacks get +50% or +40%, as opposed to the standard 33%. E.g. noxious+ should be 4-5 damage and a 5 blight, as that would be exactly 33% stronger.

As for other heals...you'll find you have more time if you're not missing your effective +50% heal trinket. Bolster, of course, is +100%, though that's because it's basically useless unmastered... Unmastered non-science heals are a waste of a bar slot except for edge cases like death's door or [fight is already over].

Reminder: take aim is basically a stress management skill. T.aim+ gives you both damage and soothing. Sorta crazy bonkers.

[Gal Kraft]

Originally posted by No One:

Reminder: take aim is basically a stress management skill. T.aim+ gives you both damage and soothing. Sorta crazy bonkers.

you use a turn to guarantee 2 crits (assuming no GSB) over the course of 3 turns. Crits offer the chance of stress heal, not free. Upgrading 1 crit token to 2 crit tokens is not as good as upgrading 1 stress heal too 2 stress heal on MAA, it 2 to 3 for jester, or 0 to 2 for vestal, is almost always superior in my region 1 runs.

Indiscriminate Science+ is a very good upgrade for negative token stripping, especially on death's door, for big heals. But if I have someone with guard then I could see myself picking another mastery early on.

EDIT: all in all, utility masteries > damage masteries. Shortening a round on a region 1 lair fight does not save you from the Collector waiting for you.

[Potato Demon]

If I'm running PD and I'm going into the Foeter for Region One I usually upgrade Battlefield Medicine. The Milk Ladies have killed me multiple times with their blight and I will never again underestimate the power of wiping DOT from two different people at once.

[Loyal Cygnaran]

Wholeheartedly disagree. Mastery is so abundant right now skills should be primarily balanced around their mastered versions. Of course both need balance but saying focus on unmastered is how we get useless mastery upgrades. Id much rather have skills that "feel bad" before mastery than that

[OpalGotMyHeart]

generally in my experience if you can find 2 landaundums in the first shop youre good without a stress heal upgrade in my eperience, as far as healing upgrades that depends on the first region, with some requiring it more than others. In my opinion fotor and city areas are fine for skimping out on those so long as you have 2 healing skills across your team or a means of dot healing in your inventory. If i go to the shroud though i always pack a healing upgrade, that area is always dangerous no matter what and the fog effects ake it innately necessary to pack extra healing power. Otherwise i usually aim for upgrading my most potent offensive skill for both the front 2 and back 2 so i can cover my bases offensively.