philosopher's stone should change its description

[HydrogenSeele]

Gain energy at the start of each turn. ALL enemies start with 2 Strength, and will encounter 3 byrd at your next monster encounter

[Rett]

The more I take Philosophers Stone, the more I think i'm better off just having 3 Energy in Act 2. I never had a good enough deck to mitigate how much more damage enemies deal by Act 2. By Act 3, sure, but in early Act 2, if i'm forced to spend an extra energy on an un-upgraded block, or even worse, fail to draw enough blocks to absorb all the damage, did I really gain anything?


But in case you were being serious and not just ranting, it's still a 20% chance to run into 3 Byrds as your first encounter. There's only 5 encounters you can run into in your first few Act 2 rooms, and the first room is the only one guarenteed to be a fight. It's not that unlikely to run into them.

[Zu]

This gave me a good laugh because it's so true <3

But hey, since velvet choker is trash in shiv decks, it's only fair that it hard-counters byrbs.

[Error404]

Yeah, the thing about Act 2 is that it's not just Byrds too, many enemies have multi-hit attacks too(Along with 2 of the 3 Elites as well).

Why do I think the Philosopher's stone needs a buff, so that you could take it in Act 2 if you wanted to?

[Ghostlight]

Originally posted by Rett:

The more I take Philosophers Stone, the more I think i'm better off just having 3 Energy in Act 2. I never had a good enough deck to mitigate how much more damage enemies deal by Act 2.

Silent's "mega-block" deck can usually handle that Relic quite easily there, but yeah, I'd avoid it outside of that situation.

[Rett]

Originally posted by Ghostlight:

Originally posted by Rett:

The more I take Philosophers Stone, the more I think i'm better off just having 3 Energy in Act 2. I never had a good enough deck to mitigate how much more damage enemies deal by Act 2.

Silent's "mega-block" deck can usually handle that Relic quite easily there, but yeah, I'd avoid it outside of that situation.

I never build mega block in Act 1. That sounds like a great way to lose to the Chosen at the start of Act 2, or hell any damage race enemy, boss or elite in general. I always get my damage engine going in Act 1, and fix up my defense in Act 2. I won't pass extremely good defense stuff in Act 1 unless it significantly hampers my damage doing so though.

Maybe it's not the best way to do things, but it's how I like to roll.

[Khor]

The only enemy that scales out of whack is the Byrd.
Worst case scenario, you spend the extra mana for an extra block...
all the other times, it`s a net gain.

Energy relicts aren`t exactly scot free

[Rett]

Originally posted by Khor:

The only enemy that scales out of whack is the Byrd.
Worst case scenario, you spend the extra mana for an extra block...
all the other times, it`s a net gain.

Energy relicts aren`t exactly scot free :conwayshrug:

Worst case? No, that's not the worst case. The worst case is not having enough block in hand to block all that damage. Requiring your deck to draw 3 blocks a turn on average is completely different to requiring 2 on average.

Philosophers Stone is fine if your deck can comfortably block all the extra damage. If you can't, it will hurt you a lot.

[sycoman2]

I was just thinking that Ectoplasm should say.
"All remaining gold will be stolen by theives in the next fight while you draw nothing but blocks"

[Error404]

Originally posted by Khor:

The only enemy that scales out of whack is the Byrd.
Worst case scenario, you spend the extra mana for an extra block...
all the other times, it`s a net gain.

Energy relicts aren`t exactly scot free :conwayshrug:

Book of Stabbing and Snake Plant say hello. I could also say the 1st round of the Slavers fight as well.

I'd say Gremlin Leader, but he already hurts like hell the few turns he attacks you himself and buffs himself anyways.

[Khor]

Crap hands do happen.. and yes, in that case, you`re gonna eat 2/4/6/36 extra damage.

On average, you`re playing 3 cards and drawing 5(+ eventual draws). One of those extra cards should have a good possibility of being an extra block.
Also, you don`t get attacked x3 each and every round, and often that extra energy can be enough to kill an enemy and avoid his damage outright (say, the Slavers).

I`m saying, as long as you have a decent deck, you should be better off taking "Philosopher Stone" instead of "Eternal Feather" or "Tiny house".
If you got screwed by rng and are scraping by, then absolutely, the stone is a terrible relict.

Personally, i`m finding act 1 Ectoplasm much worse...

[Veritas]

champ execute is so much fun with this relic and his vulnerable debuff lol

[TheUnderDog135]

Originally posted by Darktenki:

Yeah, the thing about Act 2 is that it's not just Byrds too, many enemies have multi-hit attacks too(Along with 2 of the 3 Elites as well).

Why do I think the Philosopher's stone needs a buff, so that you could take it in Act 2 if you wanted to?

i have had ideas for buffing this card before, make it also affect you, so gain energy at the start of your turn, you and all enemies start combat with 2 strength (read phili stones description, it makes sense)

[Duckie]

One of the main things I think about when taking Philosopher's Stone in act 1 is whether I have a way of dealing with Byrds. If I have Caltrops or Whirlwind in my deck for e.g. then I don't feel bad about taking it. Sometimes I will just accept that I'm gonna have to take some damage if I get the Byrds, if the Stone is much better than whatever else is there. Depends how much my deck needs the energy.