The Three Flying Birds

[sjdswanlund]

I wanted others' thoughts on the three flying birds at the beginning of Act 2. I hate going through all of Act 1, just to get my health demolished in one or two turns at the start of the next act. What makes it worse, depending on the hand you are dealt there is nothing you can do to avoid the damage.

Would you like to see their encounter changed in any way? Their damage output altered, the number of birds attacking at once, or how they take less damage than you deal? Would you prefer they don't exist at all in their current form? Is there anything else not mentioned you would change? Or do you enjoy the way the encounter is in its current state?

[Zu]

's fine. Sucks that it's another reason not to pick philo stone, but whatever. Gets rekt by disarm, weak, thorns, non-attack damage, multi-hit attacks. That's a lotta things to look out for while double thieves are just like "Produce big numbers lol."

[Loomi]

I think it's a pretty fair encounter. It is, like most fights in sts, designed to reward certain tactics while pooping on some others. Whirlwind, daggerspray, caltrops, sword boomerang, pummel.. next time you see these cards coming up: think about the birds.

PS. Ow.. forgot about flame barrier, that card is pretty much designed to kill those birds.

[Gankatron]

It can be frustrating if your deck isn't suited for that encounter, but if it is, that fight is one of the easiest in the game.

All you need is some form of damage on defense mechanic so they kill themselves or 3 AoE attacks to knock them all out of the air.

Also using a weakness and/or damage reduction card makes the encounter an easy win combined with the other mechanics, especially if it is also an AoE effect affecting all 3.

In short, your deck design is the problem, not the encounter, but of course that is able to be remedied.

[♥♥♥♥ Goblin]

The chance of a bird fight in act2 makes philosophers stone a horrible boss relic choice 9 out of 10 times unless your deck has ways to deal with the increasing damage (ie. block) or some form of multiattack. Saving a thorns potion helps too. Otherwise it is pretty easy to win.

IMO, the shelled parasite is worse because it heals off its attacks and if you don't have a deck built to do enough damage to reduce the armour, then you exit that fight with much less hp.

[Vixey]

If you want the fear of Jesus instilled into your mind, try facing those 3 birds after a few times through Endless. 5x6 dmg from each one. It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nightmare without some source of intangibility.

[Gankatron]

Having recurring avian-related nightmares? Take new Whirlwind and watch all your cares get blown away.

[doomsday_1986]

Challange with 3x 4x5attacks....... i could get one down and took 40 dmg 12 Blocked so clean 28 dmg, next round bad draw got 17 block by incoming 46dmg........got 55life total.............

[Ackranome]

Thorn Potion = instant death for the birbs.

[THANKS OBAMA]

Originally posted by Gankatron:

Having recurring avian-related nightmares? Take new Whirlwind and watch all your cares get blown away.

One card and the whole encounter is just over, baha.

[Rodin]

One thing I've found with the birds is that attacking the ones about to power up can really help. It can be tempting to knock down a bird doing a 1x6 attack if the others aren't attacking, but the danger comes from the followup 2x6 attack. I changed my tactic in that fight to only knock down buffing birds and those doing a single big hit, and it made the fight a lot easier.

Of course, sometimes your deck just isn't suited and draws bad and you're sad, but that's a roguelike for ya.

[van the man]

Originally posted by sjdswanlund:

What makes it worse, depending on the hand you are dealt there is nothing you can do to avoid the damage.

What hand is that? If you have no attacks, then you have blocks. If you have no blocks, then you have attacks, and you can knock down at least one of them. If you're getting a hand full of powers and curses on a turn 1, rethink your strategy.

[corbet]

they are easy to face. they are one of the reason's if you are playing ironclad that wildfire is a must get card in most runs. you hit them all 3 or more times in one turn they get knocked out and their defenses and offenses rendered removed.

[Bugbear]

I found my win rate started shooting waaaay up when I started asking myself every once in a while, "Can I beat ____ with the cards I have so far?" Gremlin Nob gave me less trouble, same with Lagavulin, the three birds, etc.

Try to keep asking that every other card reward, and pick things to fill that role when you can. Look at your deck less like an archetype and more like putty for a leaky dam, lol. It works.

[Rodin]

Originally posted by van the man:

Originally posted by sjdswanlund:

What makes it worse, depending on the hand you are dealt there is nothing you can do to avoid the damage.

What hand is that? If you have no attacks, then you have blocks. If you have no blocks, then you have attacks, and you can knock down at least one of them. If you're getting a hand full of powers and curses on a turn 1, rethink your strategy.

Depends on your build. A Poison deck, for example, may draw Bouncing Flask/Deadly Poison/Noxious Fumes/etc. An orb focused build may be drawing Tempest/Defragment/Darkness/Rainbow/etc. If you aren't focused on attacking, you may not have the DPS to kill the birds in a single turn while also not having the ability to stun them. And while you may be able to block some of the damage, it's not uncommon to get hit for 30+ damage on turn 2.

The encounter is still fine, mind you. It's designed to counter non-attacking strategies, and those strategies do better elsewhere in the game. The tradeoff for a Poison deck struggling through the birbs is that it gets to Corpse Explosion -> Catalyst -> Catalyst and kill Donu/Decu with 500 damage of burst.

[teekay15]

Originally posted by Rodin:

Originally posted by van the man:

What hand is that? If you have no attacks, then you have blocks. If you have no blocks, then you have attacks, and you can knock down at least one of them. If you're getting a hand full of powers and curses on a turn 1, rethink your strategy.

, it's not uncommon to get hit for 30+ damage on turn 2.

What? If each bird spent round 1 powering up and THEN all 3 attacked on turn 2 of their 2 different attacks it would either be 2x6=12 or 1x15 so thats a maximum of 45 damage...IF you hit none of them 4 times on either turn 1 or 2, IF you block nothing, IF they arent weak/disarmed/etc, IF across 2 turns even if you couldnt knock one out of the sky you couldnt deal 52 damage either...so a deck which has no multihit attacks or cant reach them in the first 10 cards, has poor block, has no way of inflicting 'weak', and doesnt inflict much damage (even if all you had were basic strikes for 2 turns thats 36 damage, 16 damage on that across TWO WHOLE TURNS after all of act 1 to build is not asking much).