Any point in fighting elites?

[funkmonster7]

Whenever I fight elites, I end up losing so much health that the reward is not even worth the hassle. I always pick routes that avoid as many elites as possible, get treasure chests and camp sites. It feels kinda... lackluster.

[Songbird]

Something people haven't mentioned is that elites greatly increase the chance for a rare card to appear in the fight rewards, so they give you higher-quality cards, not just relics. They also have a potion drop chance and drop gold, so they're better than just digging at a campfire in several ways if you can handle them.

Also, skipping elites often means more hallway fights, and later hallway fights in a given act often have the potential to do just as much or more damage than the elites will.

[David.Dragonheart]

Its not meant to be 100% the best thing to do, taking elite battles. But its a risk-reward fight. Tackle a tough battle for a relic that can REALLY make your deck POP in boss fights.

[DuckSonata]

Originally posted by VisionOfFire:

Let me know if and when you decide to delete or edit your posts further. I'll be keeping the quotes here for posterity, as well as your uploaded image :)

My rule is "if you choose to engage, always quote his posts in their entirety, as they are subject to poofing." I wonder what this means, that he's actually leaving some posts up. Did one of us strike enough of a nerve that he's dropping troll mode to actually argue? Or is he just varying things up in response to me broadcasting his MO?

Originally posted by carvin:

i shared my opinion, and you shared yours. i win higher win rate, i save potions for the boss, i use strategy to assess if fighting elite is smart or not instead of fighting them every time. i don't end up dieing to them on my way to the boss and i don't blow my good potions on them either.

some runs you are doing well enough to fight them all, that's not every run. you will lose those runs, where as i will win higher percentage of runs where i am not getting as lucky of a start. i might win barely, but i still win, where as you'd lose those runs,


you,(start off not doing well), then you reset run or die, etc, until you get a good start(then you proceed fight every elite)(you end up with a low win rate). me(start off not doing well), still find ways to win those runs(such skips elites that may kill me or exhaust my resources such as potions and hp)(ends up achieving a higher win rate). at end of day you can play how you want, i enjoy how i play, nothing you said changed my mind.

i do want more feedback. maybe you lack communication skills and can't quite articulate what you mean. are you saying that higher ascensions REQUIRE a good lucky start of getting all the best cards and relics, and there is no winning with bad starts on higher ascension. IF SO, then you make a good argument. it makes sense that higher ascensions require best cards and relics, etc. if a bad start to reset your run(achieving lower win rate).

i was just telling what I DO, that helps me win HIGHER WIN RATE. this can be true even on higher ascensions, though, WHAT YOU SAID can be true, about you requiring a good start. ALTHOUGH, even THEN, there maybe ATLEAST ONE situation where, you know what? we got 1 elite until the final boss, i got 2 power potions(very good potions), i don't want to blow them on an elite, or blow my hp, my deck is mediocre. HOW ABOUT WE JUST SECURE THE WIN? instead of go for 1 more relic that might end up being a relic that doesn't help us much at all? we might win the elite battle but blew our potions and lost enough hp where we will lose to the final boss.

[funkmonster7]

Thanks. Admittedly I haven't played this game for a long time, it's just that I remember reading a guide that long ago telling me to avoid all elites whenever possible. But as I rose up the ascension ladder, I noticed there were more and more elites, and at some point I simply gave up.

My favourite setting at the time was the "getting relics instead of cards for battle reward", because it was cheating (lol). That's why I opened this thread because I want to know how to play this game properly.

I mean, why would the devs make more elites if we're supposed to avoid them if possible? It just didn't make sense.

[Blood Flowers]

Originally posted by funkmonster7:

Thanks. Admittedly I haven't played this game for a long time, it's just that I remember reading a guide that long ago telling me to avoid all elites whenever possible. But as I rose up the ascension ladder, I noticed there were more and more elites, and at some point I simply gave up.

My favourite setting at the time was the "getting relics instead of cards for battle reward", because it was cheating (lol). That's why I opened this thread because I want to know how to play this game properly.

I mean, why would the devs make more elites if we're supposed to avoid them if possible? It just didn't make sense.

Unfortunately, guides can be made by literally anyone, regardless of whether or not what they are telling you is any good. The same goes for advice given on the discussion boards. Make sure you verify that the person is credible (so, for instance, someone who keeps deleting their posts might not fall under that category) before even considering their advice. Khor, faceplant712, Lupus Albus, Zu, and some others tend to be very reliable when it comes to their game knowledge so I'd recommend reading their responses to questions. Some of the other stuff that they say though...

[Drecon]

Honestly, this is a game where you just learn things, slowly, by playing a lot. I've been through a phase where I avoided act 3 elites at all costs because I could never beat Giant Head. In the end I figured out how to change my strategy to actually beat the head.

Eventually you learn when you can safely fight an Elite, when you can't justify fighting an Elite and when you probably can't beat the Elite, but you really need a relic to make your deck gets good enough to hopefully beat the run eventually.

Point is: it's not an exact science and it depends completely on how well your deck is doing right now (including HP, potions and relics in this case).

[K E N N I]

In case OP is still reading this thread, I will give my answer without arguing with anyone. Yes, there are good reasons to fight elites: relics, gold and rare cards. Of course the challenging part is to not die while doing this. I carefully choose my path at the beginning of each act in order to fight as many elites as I can while being relatively safe. That means visiting enough bonfires to heal if needed and avoiding normal enemies if possible. It is important to get a feeling of how much HP an elite or boss fight will cost you and plan accordingly. Remember that you only need to have 1 HP after the boss fight to win. Recently I've been doing some daring things like taking 4 elites in act 1 then fighting Hexaghost with 10 HP and it really pays off.