Anyone think the Hunter Killer is Way too Powerful

[RiptheBlood]

I have beaten the Spire 3 times and am no means an expert, but at least am getting the flow of this game. I am having a TON of fun with the 2 new characters, albeit the rusty spot this game is currently in.

This enemy's ability is ridiculous. Losing a strength AND dexterity for every card played makes this enemy a run ender. Even with high block cards, you have to decide to block early and make lots of attack cards useless, or choose to attack early and make all your block cards useless. Getting hit with 20-30 damage a turn is INSANE and forces players to spam weaken cards as your block cards become useless, and blocking too much draws the fight out as your strength plummets against an enemy with 180 health.

This is very similar to an elite in Act 1 which does the same effect, but once every 3 or 4 turns, So at least it is possible to beat while punishing greedy players with poorly made decks.

However, considering this is mid Act 2, you are still using basic block cards as at most you have encountered 4 shops with maybe a couple card remove events. So regardless how you build a deck a turn or two will still rely on starter cards.

Not to mention this is a NORMAL encounter, not an Elite.

A mechanic this punishing should not exist, especially for normal enemies. It makes half your playstyles and lots of Silent/Necromancer/Defect decks unwinnable and insta losses. Didn't play a poison or Soul focused deck? Guess you lose with these characters. Even Ironclad can suffer with some of his playstyles, while Divine gets punished with some of his combos. Every character has to ruin their deck for one specific enemy. This min max playstyle is meant for higher ascensions, not base difficulty. My 3 wins were either getting lucky and avoiding this fight, or as Ironclad absolutely nuking it before I died.

This enemy needs to be moved to an elite encounter, or at the very least cut its massive health pool to compensate for losing so much of your stats. This enemy hits far too powerful and is way too tanky for you to be punishesd so brutally in a NORMAL enemy encounter. Making half of the playstyles of this game as a guaranteed Game Over is very sour, which destroys the freedom of a deckbuilder which made the first game so spectacular.

[big knee]

i think it would make more sense for it to be a tiny bit stronger and made into an elite, it is pretty damn tough. the best strategy to kill it (which i imagine you would have figured out by now) is to prioritize using high damage/block cards before smaller ones, at the end of the day losing a bit of health (usually) isn't going to be the make or break for your run, sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and take a bit of damage

[JordanC]

There have definitely been a few regular encounters that made me infrequently think "this ISN'T an elite?".

I agree that this encounter feels like a "False Elite", 100%. The ability itself can be extremely punishing with the wrong build while also not giving you a lot of time to set yourself up to compensate it. Lagavulin gave you a few turns (AFTER waking up) before it started draining your stats. I think if they wanted to keep it a regular encounter they should reduce it's HP like you suggested, and make the ability only last for a turn or two. The latter would add a cycle to their attack pattern where they have to reapply the debuff, and give the player a rhythm to work with outside of "Does My Damage Number Subtracted By The Number Of Cards I Have To Play To Block Do Enough?" every. turn.

Now, alternatively they could (or also could) move Hunter Killer to an elite. Then it's currently HP and damage would be alright. I think the more egregious part is the ability never running out, and the encounter being pretty relentless.

There is SOME valid strategic value this creature adds though. From what I can glean, the goal is (currently) to have some form of large singular attack to cleave it down OR not rely solely on Strength and Defense. There is also the lesson of checking your priorities when dealing with the ability. Fun fact: Osty's attacks don't get affected by the ability, as Osty has it's own strength value separate from the Necrobinder. I agree that those alternate forms of damage are not always something you can get to splash effectively into a build though.

[ZapDoggo]

Originally posted by JordanC:

I agree that those alternate forms of damage are not always something you can get to splash effectively into a build though.

Regent and Ironclad suffer the worst against the Hunter Killer, I think. No alternative forms of damage, (like a separate value, orbs, or poison.) Just have to hope you can scale fast enough to get rid of it.
Able to get past this enemy real easily with Defect, though. Orb spam builds are just way too powerful...

[Postman Pat]

There are a couple of these 'normal' enemy encounters that seem really overtuned. HK is definitely one of them. The bomb guy is also a little disgusting, doing a similar thing limiting you to one skill per turn. You might be able to kill these guys, but they're absolutely going to shred your health pool. They should give bonus rewards or have their damage output lowered.

[JordanC]

Originally posted by ZapDoggo:

Regent and Ironclad suffer the worst against the Hunter Killer, I think. No alternative forms of damage, (like a separate value, orbs, or poison.)

Ironclad (technically) has Juggernaut and Barricade Block-stacking, but yes if you're not already building that (and lucky enough to get...3? 4? separate rare cards) then it definitely feels like the encounter hurts way more than it should. I genuinely don't remember there being any Elite encounters that polarized "does this character beat it" in the first game—mostly act 3 bosses. Time Eater punished Silent the worst, Awakened One punished Defect the worst, etc.

[asdf]

It's definitely out of line with the enemies around it, that's for sure. It's not quite as strong as an elite still, but it's definitely the normal enemy that I dread fighting the most pretty much regardless of what deck I'm playing, only slightly weaker than the elites.

[monkeyd.luffy9786]

Nah, you are right. The hunter killer is imbalanced and I am not sure what people are saying he isn't as strong as an elite for since he is the single strongest not Boss enemy in the game in all 3 acts. Sure their are methods to take him down, but you gotta have the deck for it by before halfway through act 2 at that. Honestly I am gonna take a break from STS2 until they nerf that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ into oblivion I am tired of losing ascention 10 runs cuz of pure RNG of running into him and not being offered a single way of dealing with him and the following enemy.

[Jonah Falcon]

It depends on how you build your deck. I got wrecked by normal enemies on Act 1 simply because I didn't get good card draws.

[Steinar]

I actually haven't had any trouble with Hunter Killer.

He doesn't gain any Strength over time, so it's just a matter of playing a few key cards to Block the incoming damage, then whittle him down over time.

[Kaine HBG-Hands]

My luck with him is: Getting him as soon as the Easy encounter pool is exhausted and getting him after I've killed my last Elite and am one node away from a fire. I think if not an elite, he should be rewarding to fight for some other reason like for example giving a second card reward pack or something. New players would fall into the trap of taking both packs without a thought and l33t tourney winstreak infinite spammers would refuse both packs, so its a skill-based suggestion.

[Missingno. #BuffDoormakerAgain]

He's tough, but in a good way. You have control over the gimmick, which means you have to play a lot more carefully as you consider your card order. I like fights that ask me to play around unique rules like this.

It's fine to have a few hallways that are a little more threatening than average. That was the case in StS1 as well, and I'd rather fight this guy than Avocado Rat any day.

[Blaizeus]

I think i said this exact thing in another thread, but it speaks to its difficulty that sometimes i think id prefer one of the Act 2 elites over hunter killer when given a choice between a normal or elite