Is Act 2 Too Hard?

[Viv91]

I don't often wander into this neck of the woods. However, playing through the game with the Defect and some playthroughs with the other characters have begun to raise some questions in my mind. Namely, is Act 2 too hard?

Now, I'm not saying The Chosen is too hard, but I feel that there is a significant increase in challenge when compared to the other acts. The Snake Plant's damage comes to mind, but also the Champion. Before I go hollering for change, I'd be curious to know what the community thinks.

[Migster]

yes and no imo. The normal room fights are only slightly easier than elites but you don't get a jazzy new relic and yes they are hard. However Act 2 does have some pretty amazing events (game winning events) so when I typically walk into Act 2 I try to get a lot more ? rooms over room fights.

For the Chosen fight, if you have an artifact potion handy, it makes that fight much easier. Also Ironclads Feel no Pain card makes the fight much easier too. Feel no Pain is good all game also so it's worth picking one up in Act one if you get the chance.

Snake Plant can be countered pretty well with Malaise/Disarm, I do struggle on Defect though.

For the Champ, you need a good source of scaling (or just a general overpowered deck) to take into the second phase of the fight so you can take him out fast. He is the hardest out of the 3 Act Two bosses for sure though.

[Drecon]

My only real gripe with the Act 2 difficulty is that it's a big jump from Act 1. It'd feel a lot less punishing if the difficulty started a little bit lower and ramped up during the Act.
It does fit with the overall picture though. I mean, Jaw Wurm is already a very relevant encounter on floor 1. You won't lose, but it's easy to lose a bunch of HP if you're not careful. Same with the Cultist.
I don't think it's a problem, but I do think it can feel unfair at times, especially to newer players.

[Fuzzy.Bunny]

Originally posted by The.Mad.Academic:

I don't often wander into this neck of the woods. However, playing through the game with the Defect and some playthroughs with the other characters have begun to raise some questions in my mind. Namely, is Act 2 too hard?

I built a purposefully stupid 'no block' deck with the Ironclad, just to see how far I could get and managed to get over half-way through Act II. Other than that, as the Ironclad, I've only ever been stopped by The Champ (Act II) and Act III bosses.* It seems to me that a number of the Act III bosses just don't want to be beaten, whereas Act II is more a check on a solid deck and some favourable relic synergy.

The acts themselves do not seem to me to need any sort of balance pass, only the Act III bosses too often acting like a cross between being land-/spell-locked in M:tG and Blizzard's lack of attention to power creep in Hearthstone expansions. Act III bosses need tuning, but so far I am quite pleased to have found a video game worth every penny if not more.


_____
*This is barring some dreadful luck I had one time in Act I that, really, seems to me to be an outlier.

[burningmime]

It'sd more that the Act 1 boss is so easy. Every hallway fight in Act 2 is much harder than any Act 1 boss. Are you significantly stronger at the beginning of Act 2 than end of Act 1? Typically, only if you get an energy relic and have a deck to take advantage of it. So the beginning of Act 2 is a slap in the face. Sprcial shoutout to the Snake Plant doing 21 damage a turn while also being able to give you Weak. This is so much stronger than anything Hexaghost or Slime Boss can do.

[Zazz]

Nothing as welcoming as the 2 bulglars in the first room.

[propagule mogadishu]

In act 2 you pretty much have to consistently block 20 while dealing some damage. Its hard to that point so quickly though.

[Error404]

Originally posted by C•Doggo:

In act 2 you pretty much have to consistently block 20 while dealing some damage. Its hard to that point so quickly though.

Still, I think Act 2 Elites and normal monsters are too OP and could give up some of that power to the Act 3 monsters and elites(especially if you aren't playing in Beta).

[Velrun]

Originally posted by Migster:

yes and no imo. The normal room fights are only slightly easier than elites but you don't get a jazzy new relic and yes they are hard. However Act 2 does have some pretty amazing events (game winning events) so when I typically walk into Act 2 I try to get a lot more ? rooms over room fights.

That is a really good advice. Thanks man!

[Lors]

I wouldn't say that it's too hard but it's almost too punishing and rng based, a lot of mobs will decide to hit on turn one for like 20 damage or even on round 2 they start buffing themselves up to annoying amounts , it often feels like if I don't get a few blocks in my starting hand then it's either just over or I take a too punishing amount of damage, for act 2 I generally try to weasel my way through the "?" areas just because it seems like too many of the mobs punish you for not drawing your aoe right away or tons of blocks/armor skills right away, it almost feels like the dev knows this as well with the Defect's innate 10 armor skill (only down 2-3 run throughs with the defect so I don't remember the card name yet)

[Error404]

Boot Sequence.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Originally posted by Migster:

For the Chosen fight, if you have an artifact potion handy, it makes that fight much easier. Also Ironclads Feel no Pain card makes the fight much easier too. Feel no Pain is good all game also so it's worth picking one up in Act one if you get the chance.

Oh, that reminds me... I took a break from the game while off playing Battletech and what-not waiting for the Defect to hit beta, but one of my last Ironclad runs (first win at Asc 10 for me) managed to have Dead Branch, Corruption, and two Feel No Pains, one of which was upgraded -- pre-FNP-nerf.

Once that got rolling, every single skill card cost 0 energy, gave something like +10 block in addition to whatever it was supposed to do, and replaced itself automatically with a new randomly generated card. It was completely broken. :D

Originally posted by Migster:

For the Champ, you need a good source of scaling (or just a general overpowered deck) to take into the second phase of the fight so you can take him out fast. He is the hardest out of the 3 Act Two bosses for sure though.

Both Execute and Hyper-Beam basically need some plain for survival, whether it's being able to stack lots of block, or having lots of scaling damage, or a way to have an Intangible or Buffer or a ton of energy and Malaise (less useful vs. Hyper-Beam because it's a single hit) ready, that sort of of thing.

[Arti_Sel]

Act 2 is fine imo... No need to spend time fixing wat ain't broken.. Just make act 4 please

[Error404]

Originally posted by The.Mad.Academic:

I don't often wander into this neck of the woods. However, playing through the game with the Defect and some playthroughs with the other characters have begun to raise some questions in my mind. Namely, is Act 2 too hard?

Now, I'm not saying The Chosen is too hard, but I feel that there is a significant increase in challenge when compared to the other acts. The Snake Plant's damage comes to mind, but also the Champion. Before I go hollering for change, I'd be curious to know what the community thinks.

Look, considering the games most popular on Twitch.....people don't even CARE about good game design and why should they?

Also, you aren't in the right place to request changes LUL, the devs don't ever look here. Forums are also....kinda inactive now for whatever reason, it's too easy to keep up.