Pressure Points

[Thasika]

How, does everyone feel about this card? Personally I really like it, and think it is an awesome payoff card if you can get enough of them in one deck. It does feel a little out of place though since it's the only card that makes "mark".

[Sigma]

As a card itself, one of the worst cards to see as a reward.
As a build, it's probably worse and extremely boring to play with. I get that it can do a lot of "damage" but the whole build is just removing all your attacks (hopefully) then block and draw until you get more pressure points. There are no other cards in the game that can interact with it... unless you count omniscience but that will get rid of your PP for the fight and you probably end up doing less damage per turn.

I get that it is a build and it is entirely different than the usual attack and block. You can play whatever you want, I am not a fan of this card.

[1.2M | Missingno.]

Here is a list of Watcher cards that synergize with Pressure Points:

[Thasika]

Originally posted by Sigma:

As a card itself, one of the worst cards to see as a reward.
As a build, it's probably worse and extremely boring to play with. I get that it can do a lot of "damage" but the whole build is just removing all your attacks (hopefully) then block and draw until you get more pressure points. There are no other cards in the game that can interact with it... unless you count omniscience but that will get rid of your PP for the fight and you probably end up doing less damage per turn.

I get that it is a build and it is entirely different than the usual attack and block. You can play whatever you want, I am not a fan of this card.

I beat the heart with it, and it felt crazy strong, it also felt super boring. The fact that NOTHING in the game synergizes or interacts with it feels so weird. I both really like it and feel it's out of place.

[rose.mark]

I like the idea of the card, but in practice it's rather underwhelming. If there were more cards (or possibly relics) that inflict or trigger mark it could be good. Feels like wasted potential.

[Nightmyre]

There's a thread on the other page about this discussing the exact topic - https://steamcommunity.com/app/646570/discussions/0/1744517529983531557/

You guys are all really selling the card short. I honestly find that 90% of my runs involve either Pressure Point or Rushdown - and this is up to currently A17.

The huge thing that Pressure Point has going for it, is that the damage builds up exponentially. You can run a purely defensive deck, with only pressure point as your damage, and do just fine.

Most of my pressure point runs involve a large amount of free defence coming from the card that gives you defence when you're Calm. Since I don't use any damage from any other cards, I'm always in Calm.

[Prometheus]

Jorbs' commentary on it I think was spot on. Its a great scaling single target damage and picking one up will often work out well for you. However chasing it as a spec is liable to get you killed by pack fights. I personally find I pick one up for most decks but only one.

[DJDiceZ]

Originally posted by Promethian:

Jorbs' commentary on it I think was spot on. Its a great scaling single target damage and picking one up will often work out well for you. However chasing it as a spec is liable to get you killed by pack fights. I personally find I pick one up for most decks but only one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GL50Ok5uFY

Originally posted by Nightmyre:

There's a thread on the other page about this discussing the exact topic - https://steamcommunity.com/app/646570/discussions/0/1744517529983531557/

You guys are all really selling the card short. I honestly find that 90% of my runs involve either Pressure Point or Rushdown - and this is up to currently A17.

The huge thing that Pressure Point has going for it, is that the damage builds up exponentially. You can run a purely defensive deck, with only pressure point as your damage, and do just fine.

Most of my pressure point runs involve a large amount of free defence coming from the card that gives you defence when you're Calm. Since I don't use any damage from any other cards, I'm always in Calm.

Nah, people are overrating it. Perhaps some undersell it a bit, but many more just outright overrate it like crazy. I mean yeah, you could end up dealing 1000+ damage with it. But do you NEED 1000 damage? How fast do you get there? What about artifact? What about Nob? Many more reasons.

[Dusk_Army]

I got a daily where I got to use a deck with several copies of Pressure Points (4+) and a lot of scrying. It was definitely fun, and yes, it worked at the daily's A0 difficulty, but I was only able to make it because it involved either Draft or Sealed Deck. It's a card with entertainment value, but it flat out does not synergize with anything else in the Watcher's arsenal; it doesn't antiysnergize with anything, either, but that's not good in and of itself. Basically, it's fun but not "good".

[sandman25dcsss]

I remember a game where joinrbs didn't have a way to kill the heart and he took a single PP in act 3 explaining that it is his plan for the heart. It worked indeed so the card is ok on A20 too.

[Nightmyre]

Originally posted by DJDiceZ:

Nah, people are overrating it. Perhaps some undersell it a bit, but many more just outright overrate it like crazy. I mean yeah, you could end up dealing 1000+ damage with it. But do you NEED 1000 damage? How fast do you get there? What about artifact? What about Nob? Many more reasons.

Sure. My Pressure Points decks often run 2-3 copies, and then every other card is pure defence. I'm not getting 1000 damage, but I am often taking out bosses in 2-3 turns by just stacking 2-3 pressure points every round against them.

[roach]

It does kinda synergize with judgement I guess.

[Nightmyre]

Originally posted by roach:

It does kinda synergize with judgement I guess.

That's the thing about Pressure Point - it doesn't need to synergize with anything.

Synergistic cards are nice in that the sum is greater than the individual power would indicate - but it comes at the cost of the cards generally not being that great on their own.

The beauty of Pressure Point is that you don't need any other synergistic cards to make it work - so you can focus your synergy efforts on your defensive cards. So, for example, stack up those cards that give you free defence when you scry, and get scry-defence cards. Or get the ones where you get free defence for being in Calm. Or whatever else your cards provide you.

But unlike most other builds, you don't have to ALSO make sure your offensive cards are properly synced.

[DJDiceZ]

Originally posted by Nightmyre:

Originally posted by roach:

It does kinda synergize with judgement I guess.

That's the thing about Pressure Point - it doesn't need to synergize with anything.

Synergistic cards are nice in that the sum is greater than the individual power would indicate - but it comes at the cost of the cards generally not being that great on their own.

The beauty of Pressure Point is that you don't need any other synergistic cards to make it work - so you can focus your synergy efforts on your defensive cards. So, for example, stack up those cards that give you free defence when you scry, and get scry-defence cards. Or get the ones where you get free defence for being in Calm. Or whatever else your cards provide you.

But unlike most other builds, you don't have to ALSO make sure your offensive cards are properly synced.

Well, doesn't synergizes with per se, but pairs well with. Just like how it pairs well with Like Water. Judgement and Signature Move are also good cards to pair it with.

[SundownKid]

Pressure Points feels out of place, since it doesn't synergize with the stances of the Watcher at all. When you do make a Pressure Points deck it's like a poor man's Poison deck. I wouldn't mind if it was changed entirely. Perhaps it could duplicate the damage to one enemy and do it to another enemy tagged by it?

[DJDiceZ]

Originally posted by SundownKid:

Pressure Points feels out of place, since it doesn't synergize with the stances of the Watcher at all. When you do make a Pressure Points deck it's like a poor man's Poison deck. I wouldn't mind if it was changed entirely. Perhaps it could duplicate the damage to one enemy and do it to another enemy tagged by it?

I'm fine with it. It's a one card build that can work and gives some variety/different playstyle to Watcher. It's not like it's the most optimal strategy either. And fitting or not, it still has enough utilities that it could be picked up in non-PP decks.