Ring of the Snake is a terrible Starting Relic and should be re-worked or changed!

[Poka Dott]

Ring of the snake is just terrible starting relic. It doesn't offer anything good really other then MAYBE letting you get to your setup sooner with 2 extra card draw but as a starting relic, it is just trash. The Ironclad's starting relic is wonderful, it gives him healing and a unique mechanic to his runs. Ring of the snake is NOT unique at all, it is the exact same thing as Bag of preparation. How can it be called "unique" if there is another relic that does the Same thing that ANY character can get?

If they want the Silent to have extra card draw as his "unique" Feature of the game then they should re-work the relic to be maybe one extra draw at the start of every turn instead of two at the start of combat.

I don't know, i am not a game designer so i don't know if that would be "Balanced" but as it is now its just so terrible that most of my silent wins comes from hitting the play button and chosing "Lose starting relic. Get random boss relic" and trying to forge my deck around what random boss relic i do get. There is no "Risk... Reward..." to Chosing to lose your Starting relic as the Silent because so many boss relics are just so much better.

[HoHoHO]

ring of the snake is great. It makes certain builds viable and you need it for The Silent since they have so many innate skills

[Google‡¤‡]

I feel like Silent is a loser. When i played with Ironclad i bit 9/10 games from the start. And with silent i've lost 5 times in a row...

[Unspecified]

The Silent's relic is very useful if you actually use it. If you're going tanky poison it's kind of meh. However I just got my 1 turn boss kill achievement and that "terrible starting relic" was necessary. 15 card deck, 2 Calculated Gamble, 1 Neutralize, 2 Heel Hook, 2 Concentrate, 1 Acrobatics, 1 Backflip, 1 Reflex, and 1 Survivor (rarely used). The other cards didn't matter. That "terrible starting relic" gave me the larger opening hand necessary to kick off the combo (neutralize then cycle cards and heel hook).

Having a 7 card opening hand meant I got enough of the cards I needed every fight. A 5 card opening hand would have been too inconsistent since I needed to be able burn a few cards early and then bloat my hand back up. Some fights I had to Neutralize then Calculated Gamble immediately so I was down to 5 cards already but that was fine. Drawing 3 cards would have been really likely to screw me.

There's other decks you can build with Silent that rely heavily on that 7 card opening hand and just because the Bag of Preparation exists doesn't mean you're going to get it. Without it a significant number of combo decks are near impossible with Silent.

[moleo]

引用自 FableBlaze：

Imo the silent has a better starting deck because of Neutralize, so it balances out

Agreed.

The Silent's starting deck is stronger (*much* stronger in my opinion), and the Ironclad's Starting Relic is stronger.

I think the Silent is stronger overall, at least for how I play, since I have about 64% winrate with the Silent and only a 41% winrate with the Ironclad.

[Flavorable]

引用自 Google‡¤‡：

I feel like Silent is a loser. When i played with Ironclad i bit 9/10 games from the start. And with silent i've lost 5 times in a row...

I'm thinking that has little to do with the Silent, since I just had a 7-win streak with the Silent, but can't for the life of me get past a 3-win streak with Ironclad.

It's all in the decks.

[Krampus]

引用自 Google‡¤‡：

I feel like Silent is a loser. When i played with Ironclad i bit 9/10 games from the start. And with silent i've lost 5 times in a row...

The silent may not be stronger in killing power but she's far more versatile in deck building.
Ironclad deck builds are generally more foreward, silent requires thought. Aka she's harder to play. Maybe it's your brain limiting you, not the game?

[Poka Dott]

The ring does get better later on in game which helps once you start getting bigger decks so if she is fine then maybe bag of preparation needs to be re-worked then?

Maybe since it is a bag of "peparation" maybe make it so two cards (either by choice or random) become inate?

[NixBoxDone]

The problem is that the other relic also isn't that fantastic during battle. We're talking about a mostly passive relic that serves to top up your health (very useful, but not during any one particular combat and actually very bad for some vets who solve almost every battle without losing significant HP) vs. a relic that gives you a tangible advantage for each battle.

Sure, 2 extra cards doesn't seem like a lot, but if you keep in mind that other relics can give you extra AP at battle start or every turn (as can some cards) and the massive power of some, well, powers, it can snowball into making you very dangerous if you build around it.

I regularly put out 30 to 50 damage in the first turn if I get the right relics with it, for example, which can change the entire dynamic of almost any battle that isn't a boss battle. That's as absolute noob. I bet veterans can use it to absolutely demolish the content if they get the right conditions. All Ironclads relic does is make sure you start the battle on high HP if you don't derp up, but many things can do that.

I can also almost immediately setup to gain regular damage (power for 2 damage to all enemies per card played) and defense (1 block per card played) which together with shivs and such things as dropkicks add up to one or more extra card effects each turn from beginning to end of battle.

[King Joshington]

引用自 Promethian：

You have the same opinion of the majority of newbies. Experienced players disagree with you but generally don't care enough about the latest dunning-kreuger to put much effort into correcting them. You'll correct yourself when you've played enough.

Normally, I would say, "What a flippant response!"
But now I actually just agree.
I really enjoy this relic -- with a small deck you can get through faster.
They'll learn!

[kebabsoup]

On a side note, the Ironclad relic has a chance to receive an upgrade (albeit the upgrade is not THAT great...) Maybe the ring of snakes could also get a second tier? Just for the sake of consistency?

[Krampus]

10 hp heal per combat not that great?
What?

[kebabsoup]

引用自 Krampus：

10 hp heal per combat not that great?
What?

Well it replaces burning blood, so really it's 4hp per combat. I'm not saying it's bad, there are just often better choices, like an energy relic.

[Krampus]

引用自 kebabsoup：

引用自 Krampus：

10 hp heal per combat not that great?
What?

Well it replaces burning blood, so really it's 4hp per combat. I'm not saying it's bad, there are just often better choices.

It doesn't "replace" burning blood it adds value.
So really it's 10 instead of 6.
It's one of the best relics in the game, generally speaking.
Sure there are much better relics but most of them are situational.
Black Blood is universally applicable and pretty much a 100% net positive.

[robofish126]

Ironclad effectively gets three slightly weaker Blood Vials (common) and a Pear (uncommon) to the Silent's single Bag of Preparation (common). To be fair the Silent is well situated to make great use of it. She has more 0 cost cards and more draw/discard effects, meaning that it not only allows her to have a more reliable T1, but to prepare for later turns as well.

That said part of me feels like it should be upgraded to be "+2 Cards and +1 Energy on first turn", in effect making it a hybrid of Bag of Preparation and Lantern, thus making it more in line with Ironclad's relic. It would fit well with her role as the "Rogue" class giving her an unusually powerful first turn, vs the "Fighter" class getting extra HP and HP regen at end of combat.

[kebabsoup]

引用自 Krampus：

It doesn't "replace" burning blood it adds value.
So really it's 10 instead of 6.

Haha! yeah, I guess it's the story of the glass that is half empty or half full.