I don't get the Watcher

[Rayder]

I have played about 10 runs so far and only won one after cheesing with Snecko Eye. What am I supposed to do to win? So many of the cards seem to be traps and I've come to the realization that only about 1 in 3 encounters give you actually good card rewards.

I understand I need to git gud and it couldn't possibly be any problems with the Watcher itself, but I am really failing to see how she's supposed to be built. It seems to getting rid of Strikes is not as good as on other characters, and that going for a defensive style is an exercise in futility since her defensive power is so inefficient compared to others, but going all out offense just results in you randomly dying when you get a bad draw.

What are some of your top tips for playing her?

[Paranoia]

Watcher excels in turns of burst damage. There is no need to defend if the enemy is too dead to do anything.
So one sets up beforehand turns of absurd amounts of Mana, and then goes into Wrath and kills everything dead.

The Heart seems to counter her a bit, but she has decent Armour-generating Attack Cards to keep the offense up.

Here is an example turn of Watcher, assuming one is in Calm and has 4 Mana baseline.

1:Eruption(upgraded), 5 mana
2: starting Miracle, 6 Mana
3: Double Wallop for 50ish Armour and damage, 2 mana
4: If anything lives after attacks and would hit back enough to get through 50 Armour, Vigilance for Calm again. 0 Mana.
So you did a decent burst of damage in the early game.
Mantra helps in generating these kinds of rounds frequently in long combats.

Or one can go with Scrying, since scrying helps with both Armour (through Nirvana), and making sure no turn ever stalls. Just Lucky saves lives, and Weave is very nice.

Or one can do a Stance-swap burst deck with Empty Fists, Talk to the Hands, Flurry of Blows and all the Stance-swaps one can get.

Smite Decks exist, but I am yet to generate a reliable one that would not be easier without Smites.


Tldr: Hit&Run and Burst.

[shiu]

For me, yes, she has potential with aggressive play because of wrath form, much like ironclad style, even more aggressive. Imo, unlike the defect or the silent, with her wrath focus style, her most stable and reliable style, you should keep your deck size small, around 25 or more in the end, don't take too many various type of card (even it gives you better than ones you have) to make your deck solid. This means before act 1 boss, you only need to add a few cards and have no problem even with 20hp. Most of the time once I enter wrath I would clear everything in the 2nd turn or 3rd turn, or else I don't enter wrath. Every point of upgraded attack is good due to wrath. In early game, most relic does nearly no impact on your fight unless it gives you survival ability, though relics that give you energy are best still. I would never remove strike, ever with watcher, for current patch. Most of her rare power card are pretty ♥♥♥♥ unless you want some wild game with wombo combo. Some other style I've tried like draw crazily then play Unraveling or building up energy but they are inconsistent.
Im at AC9 with her atm. Since I cleared AC20 with other chars and have aggressive style as my favorite, Im having a flow with her.
p/s: wrath + conclude is bae.

[Paranoia]

Oh, yes, Watcher is the only Character I can cocnsistently get to kill King Slime before it divides. Very aggressive indeed.

Though I am not yet all that high on the Ascension, though I did start her late.

[CisHetKayFaber]

Other characters follow a more linear progression over a battle in terms of stacking up power to eventually be able to kill the enemy. With the Ironclad that's typically strength, with Silent that's typically poison, and with Defect that's typically orbs or claws or powers.

Watcher is structured completely differently. Instead of becoming stronger with every turn you instead can get the opportunity to deal double or triple damage on some turns. This makes the character really dependent on draw on very specific turns. This is why the Retain and Scry keywords were introduced with this character. If you try to play Watcher like the other 3 characters you will most often end up dead to a boss or elite on the second floor.

When building decks for the Watcher you should be thinking about "Does this help me get into double/triple damage state? Does this help me avoid taking double damage? Does this make my double/triple damage turns better in some way?" The idea is that you prepare in advance for your big turn, take your big turn, and then get back to calm state as fast as possible.

You also should have some kind of stable strategy for being able to repeat this cycle over longer fights. Crescendo (retain, enter wrath) is incredibly good for bursting to clear hallway fights really easily, but it exhausts so if you don't have any other good ways to get into wrath stance you can end up dying to an elite or a boss very easily.