The Defect

[Andyman119]

So I've been playing a bit of the defect, unlocked all his cards, and from what I'm seeing his main issue is that he has no highly explosive options apart from barrage, which is only as powerful as the number of capacitors you've stacked up. How are people dealing with enemies that need a bit more of that explosiveness (I'm thinking the dazing elite encounters in act 1 specifically, as he can't keep up with large quanitities of status cards clogging his hand, unlike the ironclad, who can exhaust them and the silent who can use them to pay discard based costs)

[TehKunai]

Having just picked the character up, I can't recall the card off of the top of my head, but he does posses a 2 cost 15 damage card which redues it's cost for each play. I used that in a 14 card deck to clear the first Act.

Near as I can tell Defect doesn't need relics, less so than Ironclad. If anything they need to increase some card costs, and combine some effects. Also decide very early whether you want to defend or attack with the orbs, and then use your physical skills to cover the opposite. The wall you can run into very quickly is trying to do both; in a prolonged fight you're eventually going to run out of health if the Orbs are pumping out offense/defense.

If you get Fission on the first floor, and you've focused all your picks on one element, you've won. Kind of like getting Demon Form for the Ironclad or Footwork for the Silent.

[Sumōkīchēn]

Ive found the character to best be used as a glass cannon. I've actually beaten the awakened with this character on a no block build using ball lightning, zap, and thunderstorm to finish him off. If you focus on just using one orb type as opposed to multiple, i think the efficiency of this character sky rockets. Granted, that same run had shuriken and orachalum, so that helped quite a bit, but building this character and playing him much, much more aggressive than ironclad or the silent has given me the most success. Blizzard builds with him work to certain degrees as well

[Sinsling]

Originally posted by runfast7:

Ive found the character to best be used as a glass cannon. I've actually beaten the awakened with this character on a no block build using ball lightning, zap, and thunderstorm to finish him off. If you focus on just using one orb type as opposed to multiple, i think the efficiency of this character sky rockets. Granted, that same run had shuriken and orachalum, so that helped quite a bit, but building this character and playing him much, much more aggressive than ironclad or the silent has given me the most success. Blizzard builds with him work to certain degrees as well

Is it necessary to copy-paste in multiple discussions?

[ZappyDoggo]

Originally posted by TehKunai:

Having just picked the character up, I can't recall the card off of the top of my head, but he does posses a 2 cost 15 damage card which redues it's cost for each play. I used that in a 14 card deck to clear the first Act.

Near as I can tell Defect doesn't need relics, less so than Ironclad. If anything they need to increase some card costs, and combine some effects. Also decide very early whether you want to defend or attack with the orbs, and then use your physical skills to cover the opposite. The wall you can run into very quickly is trying to do both; in a prolonged fight you're eventually going to run out of health if the Orbs are pumping out offense/defense.

If you get Fission on the first floor, and you've focused all your picks on one element, you've won. Kind of like getting Demon Form for the Ironclad or Footwork for the Silent.

I don't think card costs need to be increased. The Defect struggles in Act one depending how the start goes, and can often fall in Act 2.

There was another discussion, and Darkentei (sorry if I spelled the name wrong) Suggested that a few cards have a change in costs and in upgrades, Like making lightning a 0 cost card, and reducing Dualcast's cost to 1. Mostly because Orbs are 'weak' unless provoked more easily. You'd need a ton of Focus to make an orb deal decent amounts.

Seriously, you'd need a decent amount of Focus based cards to make the orbs work, otherwise '3 damage' per lightning orb, and 2 defense per frost orb doesn't really help, especially since orb slots cap out at 10. (And Defragment isn't an easy-to-find card.)

[SkipDash]

After playing around with him for a few hours here are my thoughts.

There aren't enough cards that give focus, so frost especially is basically useless. There are also bugs on orbs not getting focus if you create the orb from an effect the same turn you play the focus card.

Lighting builds are the most "OP" if you would even call it that, but you sacrifice having defense and it takes multiple turns to set up. Power builds are very strong if you get the relic that heals you and a lot of energy production, which is surprisingly easy with this class.

Dark orbs can do a lot of damage, but you have to sit on them for a long time and there is no easy way to proc them.

Most of his cards don't do much immediately. Half the time in the first two acts, it makes more sense to play Strikes and Defends over other cards. Barage and Streamline are very decent cards, but having cards that say "give 4 block for every orb you have" or similar things would be very nice.

Because the lighting orbs target randomly and the Dark orbs target only the weakest enemy, you 'lose' a lot of the damage you would normally get from targeted card effects. If it was the opposite, he would deal more relevent damage.

Frost is ass. It really needs to give 1-2 more block to even be playable because of how few and how slow the focus cards are.

[Sinsling]

@fleetskip I have to disagree. Rapid frost stacking even without focus can be very powerful. Glacier for example on a 3 orb limit can push out 23 defense on a high turn. That is basically a carry turn for any act 1 fight where you aren't trying to deal damage. Focus is a deal sweetener that they had to nerf by removing one of the providing cards so you couldn't bet on rolling it ever run.

[Ulion]

I just can not find a good balance with the defect. Their are to many extremes every turn. To much energy, to much blocking, not enough draw and overall its damage is very low. Some of the defect powers are great for setting stuff up but they have no immendiat impact. Like the powers that using a power/orb and draw a card. I am having issues making it pass the 2nd boss most of the time because of the amount of damage I take during prolonged fights.

[Sinsling]

Originally posted by Ulion:

I just can not find a good balance with the defect. Their are to many extremes every turn. To much energy, to much blocking, not enough draw and overall its damage is very low. Some of the defect powers are great for setting stuff up but they have no immendiat impact. Like the powers that using a power/orb and draw a card. I am having issues making it pass the 2nd boss most of the time because of the amount of damage I take during prolonged fights.

There are some locked cards that really help. Seek, skim, leap, and cool-headed shouldn't be under-estimated.

[Hollowbox]

all i can really say is....Echo form just makes everything so good, especially since you can stack them...nothing like playing white noise+ 3-4 times in a turn gaining 3-4 free powers to use if you want, and it just rolls on from there mmmm

[Stock Photo Man]

Originally posted by TehKunai:

Having just picked the character up, I can't recall the card off of the top of my head, but he does posses a 2 cost 15 damage card which redues it's cost for each play. I used that in a 14 card deck to clear the first Act.

Near as I can tell Defect doesn't need relics, less so than Ironclad. If anything they need to increase some card costs, and combine some effects. Also decide very early whether you want to defend or attack with the orbs, and then use your physical skills to cover the opposite. The wall you can run into very quickly is trying to do both; in a prolonged fight you're eventually going to run out of health if the Orbs are pumping out offense/defense.

If you get Fission on the first floor, and you've focused all your picks on one element, you've won. Kind of like getting Demon Form for the Ironclad or Footwork for the Silent.

You're thinking streamline

[Aurora <3]

I've just won a round with The Defect and what I did is Orb Pushing, especially Lightning Pushing.

In order to achieve that, we need ONLY 3 orb slots. ONLY 3. Three orb slots allows you to evoke orbs more frequently. For card collection, we need more DEFENSIVE and LIGHTNING CHANNELING cards. STATIC DISCHARGE is one of the most important cards for lightning orb-pushing. Once you got the card, upgrade it immediately for 2 lightning orbs channeled instead of 1.

[Error404]

Originally posted by ThunderLord_X:

I've just won a round with The Defect and what I did is Orb Pushing, especially Lightning Pushing.

In order to achieve that, we need ONLY 3 orb slots. ONLY 3. Three orb slots allows you to evoke orbs more frequently. For card collection, we need more DEFENSIVE and LIGHTNING CHANNELING cards. STATIC DISCHARGE is one of the most important cards for lightning orb-pushing. Once you got the card, upgrade it immediately for 2 lightning orbs channeled instead of 1.

If you are spamming evoke, you could consume once or twice and make it even easier to spam evokes.

Originally posted by FleetSkip:

After playing around with him for a few hours here are my thoughts.

There aren't enough cards that give focus, so frost especially is basically useless. There are also bugs on orbs not getting focus if you create the orb from an effect the same turn you play the focus card.

Lighting builds are the most "OP" if you would even call it that, but you sacrifice having defense and it takes multiple turns to set up. Power builds are very strong if you get the relic that heals you and a lot of energy production, which is surprisingly easy with this class.

Dark orbs can do a lot of damage, but you have to sit on them for a long time and there is no easy way to proc them.

Most of his cards don't do much immediately. Half the time in the first two acts, it makes more sense to play Strikes and Defends over other cards. Barage and Streamline are very decent cards, but having cards that say "give 4 block for every orb you have" or similar things would be very nice.

Because the lighting orbs target randomly and the Dark orbs target only the weakest enemy, you 'lose' a lot of the damage you would normally get from targeted card effects. If it was the opposite, he would deal more relevent damage.

Frost is ass. It really needs to give 1-2 more block to even be playable because of how few and how slow the focus cards are.

Yes, there only 3 cards that give focus and as uncommons, you might only run into a single copy the whole run. Frost + Focus is quite strong though, however.

Yes, Defect usually has trouble defending. And if he doesn't, he needs setup which several enemies in the game will smash you into the floor for.

I agree, but Lock-On exists, so there is some help for you. Upgraded Dualcast and Dark Orb is great, if you managed to actually LIVE long enough to pull it off.

Defect needs setup for many builds, in a game that raises the middle finger to that idea.

Best part is that MOAR Orb slots makes it harder to evoke when you want to.