strength stacking

[Aliya_Kamishirasawa]

i kinda feel like strength stacking is a little too effective in a game with this much rng, there really isnt a lasting method of stopping it, and the enemies that do use it have a really fast buildup of it. as far as i can see the only debuff you get for it is a one time use -2, which isnt all that powerful when the average enemy gets buildup of 3 or more (cultist, collector, champion for a few examples off the top of my head).

[Pixel Peeper]

Strength gains are essentially slow-building, progressive "soft enrage" timers.

Decks with high attack power will kill the enemy before its attacks become unmanageable. Decks with high Block will be able to prevent the damage for a long time, hopefully long enough to kill it. Decks with a decent mix of those will also work. As long as you're doing something right, it doesn't matter where you are on the spectrum, you should be able to win.

If your deck neither deals nor prevents much damage, then... you should lose, it's only natural.

[Aliya_Kamishirasawa]

Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:

If your deck neither deals nor prevents much damage, then... you should lose, it's only natural.

thing is, the methods of preventing damage are either temporary or 1 time use, and the enemies that are more of an issue are bosses that you have no chance of killing before than can at least start to ramp up, which they already do massive damage so it creates a cycle of block and chip where you slowly lose the option of defense (champion getting a move that does 25 dmg 3 times comes to mind as being a bit much). the issue im pointing out is more that there isnt really enough options for adressing the enemies ability to buff themselves for any lasting period of time.

[drew.benton]

I've not found this to be an issue personally.

Since the AI is pretty basic and predictable, once you know which mob groups you're fighting, it's a matter of if your run is good enough to where you can kill them fast enough before dying (assuming you understand the game mechanics).

The more you play, the more you have to choose cards/potions/relics knowing what you will most likely be running up against, and know when to attack, and when to block. For str stacking encounters, you have to take the early damage so it doesn't spiral (hehe) out of control. Also what comes into play is when to rest to keep full hp and when to upgrade cards.

All runs should not be successful though, and given the RNG in this type of game, I think the current setup is alright in that I've not really felt I lost a good run because I had an amazing deck/relics/potions and just didn't draw the cards I needed fast enough. Sure, I've gotten killed early on because I had a weak run, but that's part of the challenge.

It's always been more the issue of not having the cards/relics/potions in the first place, but that's to be expected. To really plow through things you do need some luck, but I don't feel like it's so random as to your strategy or play style doesnt have a meaningful impact.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by akkeiton:

there isnt really enough options for adressing the enemies ability to buff themselves for any lasting period of time.

I think that's by design.

The point of enemies building up Strength is that you're not supposed to let the fight drag on for an absurd number of turns. The Champ should never, ever be able to get to a point where he can deal 75 damage in a single turn.

These fights are there to test your ability to deal a reasonable amount of damage in a reasonable amount of turns. If you could debuff enemy Strength permanently and, if you want to counter Strength buildups, do it repeatedly... then all the enemies that can't buff their own Strength would become free kills after a few turns (they'd always deal 0 damage). And if you could counter enemy Strength gains, you could just go full Block all the time to become practically invincible, deal a bit of damage once in a while and eventually win any fight.

You're not wrong about Strength stacking being good... but you're implying that that's a bad thing. It's not. We want enemies to be able to do it.

[Aliya_Kamishirasawa]

im not really sure how not to sound whiny about it, but stength stacking is only really an issue (to me) because you dont really have means to adress it, weaken is only a temporary measure and most of the cards that inflict it take at least 2 energy, which is more than half a turn usually by itself. i just think there should be more cards to drop strength than just disarm (i dont know if the shadow has any on there end that are permanant).

[Pixel Peeper]

The Silent has a card called Malaise that has a casting cost of X and reduces Strength by X and applies X turns of Weak on the target.

It exhausts after casting, of course. Like I said, there aren't any reliable means to counter an enemy's Strength buildup because that's not something that we want. We want enemies to be able to build up Strength forever and we don't want a way to permanently cripple enemies that can't buff their Strength.

[Zero]

Strength stacking is only an issue...............................................when you have 2 Limit Breaks Upgraded and can top deck the discard pile to get em back fast.