Lets talk about Dr. Fetus

[Enfo]

What do you personally think about this item?

I'd say this thing definitely needs a buff. As it stands right now it is in no way more desirable then regular tears. The only benefits it grants you is free bombs for debris and secret rooms.
Unless you get an Epicac and/or Pyromaniac this thing will forever do underwhelming damage and make the game a lot harder than it would be by using regular tears.
It states that it gets bonuses from Tear Effects, but as far as i see it, even on Judas this item scales badly with tear boosts.

What is everyones view on this thing. Buff? Nerf? Balanced?

[Misery]

I like it still. It's underwhelming compared to the original, but with all the new consumables you can get from rocks, I'd say it's balanced. It's loads better than normal tears in my opinion.

[Marginally Elated Icicle]

I think, the bomb damage without any bomb modifers is probably a bug...
Once you get any modifer, the damage zips back to normal.
Oh, and watch out if you get Libra on the same run, resets firerate back to normal.

[GDMFSOB81]

Originally posted by Otterpoppins:

but with all the new consumables you can get from rocks, I'd say it's balanced.

I'm not sure how you figure that. A few extra coins balances out the fact that you need to use 2 bombs to kill even the smallest of enemies...how?

Originally posted by ๖ۣۜScraphead Isaac:

I think, the bomb damage without any bomb modifers is probably a bug...
Once you get any modifer, the damage zips back to normal.

I've noticed this as well, the few times I've found Dr Fetus. There's a significant damage boost as soon as you find any other bomb-related item. (It was poison bombs for me, IIRC.)

[Яedly Яed.暗赤色@Tsundere-Tiddy]

Why would you want it to be unbalanced like in the original?

[Daemonologist]

It doesn't even work with some of the bomb modifiers like hot bombs (spawns a fire when they detonate), so there's definitely some bugs with it. The bomb modifiers in the original game are rarer in rebirth too (fetus used to make it very likely to get mr mega and bobby bombs shortly afterwards because it added multiple instances of both into the item pool. Mr Mega used to do a significant damage boost to the already fairly high dr fetus damage too.

Whether it's a bug or a nerf, it needs changing - with just dr fetus+normal dmg up items each bomb does about the same damage as a single normal tear, which is ridiculous. An item shouldn't be 100% dependent on finding another item just to be remotely viable.

[GDMFSOB81]

Originally posted by Redly Red.2014:

Why would you want it to be unbalanced like in the original?

Because this is a singleplayer game so who gives a ♥♥♥♥ if it's balanced? It's much more important that it's fun.

[Яedly Яed.暗赤色@Tsundere-Tiddy]

Originally posted by GDMFSOB81:

Originally posted by Redly Red.2014:

Why would you want it to be unbalanced like in the original?

Because this is a singleplayer game so who gives a ♥♥♥♥ if it's balanced? It's much more important that it's fun.

Lol at that "it's sp so who cares" argument, let's add regen-health while we are at it, challenging games can't be fun right? Don't be such a casual, you can still increase it's dmg with other items.

[Enfo]

Originally posted by Redly Red.2014:

Originally posted by GDMFSOB81:

Because this is a singleplayer game so who gives a ♥♥♥♥ if it's balanced? It's much more important that it's fun.

Lol at that "it's sp so who cares" argument, let's add regen-health while we are at it, challenging games can't be fun right? Don't be such a casual, you can still increase it's dmg with other items.

I partially agree with the guy. While it shouldn't be made super imbalanced, the presumable bugs should be fixed and make the item actually worth choosing over regular tears. The thing basically changes your entire character setup so it would make no sense if it was for the worse.

[Enfo]

And as far as i know, Epic Fetus scales with tear damage ups as well, but actually keeps the upgrades. It's very noticable on that one.

[FrozenStar]

Comparing to the previous game, they nerfed the Fetus for a reason.
Epic Fetus is still win though. Esp combined with items like triple shot. MASS BOMBARDMENT FTW.

[-ERROR]

Originally posted by Redly Red.2014:

Why would you want it to be unbalanced like in the original?

Because it's quite a rare item, and it's dangerous for the user?

Also, what do you mean by "unbalanced"? Compared to what? Brimstone? Bob's Brain? IPECAC? Poop?

[Яedly Яed.暗赤色@Tsundere-Tiddy]

Originally posted by Kuu Lightwing:

Originally posted by Redly Red.2014:

Why would you want it to be unbalanced like in the original?

Because it's quite a rare item, and it's dangerous for the user?

Also, what do you mean by "unbalanced"? Compared to what? Brimstone? Bob's Brain? IPECAC? Poop?

If you pick it up, you don't need anything else, it's that powerful, pretty much a win just like Epic Fetus. Having it at medium dmg and using it mostly for secrets and items blocked by rocks is the better decision.

[Enfo]

Originally posted by Redly Red.2014:

Originally posted by Kuu Lightwing:

Because it's quite a rare item, and it's dangerous for the user?

Also, what do you mean by "unbalanced"? Compared to what? Brimstone? Bob's Brain? IPECAC? Poop?

If you pick it up, you don't need anything else, it's that powerful, pretty much a win just like Epic Fetus. Having it at medium dmg and using it mostly for secrets and items blocked by rocks is the better decision.

It's not really that powerful anymore. Especially once you get past Mom's Heart, if you make it that far. I've had it plenty of times by now and can easily say that i struggle a lot if i don't find one of the tree viable items to combo with it for some actual usefulness compared to other stuff.

[Misery]

Originally posted by GDMFSOB81:

Originally posted by Otterpoppins:

but with all the new consumables you can get from rocks, I'd say it's balanced.

I'm not sure how you figure that. A few extra coins balances out the fact that you need to use 2 bombs to kill even the smallest of enemies...how?

Sure, let's ignore all the black hearts, soul hearts, quarters, mushrooms, pills, tarot cards, runes, and keys while we're at it.

I'm not saying that it's as desirable as it was in the original, but having unlimited bombs is a huge deal—even more so than the original. With the right upgrades it's just as deadly.

[-ERROR]

Originally posted by Redly Red.2014:

If you pick it up, you don't need anything else, it's that powerful, pretty much a win just like Epic Fetus. Having it at medium dmg and using it mostly for secrets and items blocked by rocks is the better decision.

Same can be said for Brimstone or Guppy (which is not an item, but still.)
Those also don't suck in killing spiders, flies and masks unlike Fetus.