Enemy Basic Attacks

[Done25]

Is there a reason why they do massively increased damage in comparison to what the same monster would do on our side? Especially since enemies already get to cast abilities for free with their refresh mechanic?

Trying to do a purge team and...it really feels like the loss of aether means nothing to the enemy.

Edit: I now realize that enemy monsters get massive flat damage bonuses. The Star boss in particular gets +5 damage as it's 4th perk. Which, combined with its 5x3 Icy Assault, gives it 5x8 damage. The damage literally more than doubles because of this.

[Conan The Librarian]

Hey Done25,

There can be a few reasons why you see higher damage:

1. Increased Damage on Heroic difficulty.

2. Monster perks can increase damage done (especially in Forbidden Fortress).

3. If the enemy has power buffs, that will increase it.

4. Enemy crits can occur.

Of course, if you see things that “seem amiss”, we always encourage our players to use the F9 in-game reporting feature, which sends all the relevant data directly to our studio.

[Done25]

As I play more, I notice that enemy monsters simply do more damage in general. To account for the lack of "break" mechanic on the player party, I assume. Healing also feels significantly enemy sided by virtue of them not having to worry about the corruption mechanic, and because your own monsters heal to full after battle anyways. (Minus corruption, ofc.)

It genuinely feels like my team and the enemy team are playing by separate rule sets from two different games.

[Done25]

Well, Star Spawn just two shot my DPS monster for its max HP on the first round, and then proceeded to basically do the same to my other two monsters on each following round. I think I'm done with this game. No idea how other people are seeming to find it so easy.

[Setsuna.F.Seiei]

I can beat the Star Spawn on every run at Heroic difficulty with a team as: Johun, Ooz and Wyrm. Just have enough tank for Ooz as long as possible and you win.
It is called the "Poisonous strategy".
But you must build an effective skill set for each monster.
Johun and Ooz must-have skill that can clear the corruption.
Wyrm with heal and generate the orbs.

[Fendelphi]

Purge builds have great synergy with Burn builds, as Burns trigger on actions that use Aether and on interruptions(which includes losing the original attack and forced to do a basic attack due to purge).
But purge builds are tricky, since if an enemy is forced to make a regular attack, they will generate more aether to use next turn. So you typically want several ways to purge the enemy, to constantly drain them.

If you have Terror stacks on you, enemies will deal a lot of damage. Even more so, if the enemy is Mephisto(the devil dog thing), as it becomes stronger the more debuffs there are on the battlefield(including Terror).
If you have taken the Aether Feind trait, you take more damage from all attacks as well.

[Songbird]

Is that actually a synergy with burn, though? As far as I can tell, burn triggers once per turn no matter what, unless the enemy planned to basic attack from the beginning, in which case you can't trigger it except by breaking or killing them. The only difference is the timing being when you remove their aether vs when they attack.

[Fendelphi]

Originally posted by Songbird:

Is that actually a synergy with burn, though? As far as I can tell, burn triggers once per turn no matter what, unless the enemy planned to basic attack from the beginning, in which case you can't trigger it except by breaking or killing them. The only difference is the timing being when you remove their aether vs when they attack.

Burn can trigger multiple times, depending on how you set it up. It is triggered when spending an action that cost Aether, or when interrupted.
Interrupted can happen in 3 ways:
- Purge/steal resulted in not enough Aether to make the planned attack, so they now make a basic attack instead. This is technically "neutral" in terms of triggering Burn, because it would have triggered if they had used their intended attack as well.
- Getting Staggered triggers Burn. Of course, if you stagger them before they lose the aether, you dont get the interruption mentioned above.
- A Kill triggers interruption as well. Of course, the target is already dead, but some traits and actions trigger additional effects on interruptions, like Aether generation or AoE damage.


If you purge an enemy so they are forced to make an auto-attack, they trigger the burn.
If you then also Stagger them in the same turn(not necessarily the same attack), they burn again.
Then there is the trait "Rapid Fire", which triggers burn, if an enemy monster is attacked twice in the same turn.
So you might be able to trigger burn 3-4 times(if the monster has 2 attacks) in a single turn, depending on how you set it up.

Just be careful when dealing with monsters that retaliate. They trigger retaliation every time they take damage. The Shambler can be particularly nasty, as they can potentially have 2 stacks of retaliation going(so they make 2 retaliation attacks, each time they take damage).

[Songbird]

I understand that. I'm just confused how purging an enemy is meant to improve burn, because it just trades one burn proc you were already getting for another.

[Fendelphi]

Originally posted by Songbird:

I understand that. I'm just confused how purging an enemy is meant to improve burn, because it just trades one burn proc you were already getting for another.

It helps, because the Burn is triggered in your turn, rather than your opponent's. That means that things like Regeneration or Shields that activate before they make actions cant mitigate the damage. If a monster heals another monster with Burn, it might survive.
And if the opponent cant be staggered(was Staggered previous turn, or does not have an elemental disadvantage) or is a boss(can never be fully Staggered), you have options to increase the amount of burning you do to them.


Example with a non-purge build:
1) You apply burn to the target. You stagger the enemy, as you have an elemental advantage. This triggers Burn.
2) You attack the target a second time and you have the Rapid Fire trait, triggering another Burn.
3) It is now the enemy's turn. Regeneration kicks in. Passive Shields kicks in. If they are Staggered, they are not going to attack, so Burn is not further triggered. If they are not staggered, and have Aether for a special attack, they take burn damage once more.

So you will only burn the target twice in your own turn, and maybe a third in their turn, if it is a boss.

Example with a Purge build:
1) You apply Burn to the target. The ability also purges some Aether. Elemental advantage is not needed and can still cause an Interruption.
2) You also Stagger the target. Burn is triggered again.
3) You attack the target a second time and you have the Rapid Fire trait, triggering another Burn.

This means, in your turn, you have already triggered Burn 3 times. Maybe 4, if you can Purge enough against a boss.

This means, you can often kill or Stagger(in case of Cherufe, as it destroys Poise when it applies burn) enemies, while at the same time purging Aether, diminishing the capabilties of the remaining monsters.

Then we have the Aura Controlled Burn trait, which applies a burn whenever Aether is purged or stolen, which is a really quick way to apply additional burn.
And a bunch of other traits and actions, which can further Steal or Purge, each one applying additional Burns due to the Controlled Burn trait.
There are also Artifacts with the ability to Purge.

Getting 30+ Burn stacks against the Star Spawn is very easy to do with a Burn+Purge setup, and you can then trigger it 3-4 times per turn, in your turn.