3 Cakewalks, 1 More Pain - Thoughts

[Despiser]

I just finished a weekend of binging on this game. It was much better than expected. I was very hesitant at first, because of all the DD comparisons, and I disliked DD; it was too grindy for me. This game avoided that entirely. Also, more of the mechanisms in Iratus are pure FUN, whereas managing stress and negative perks became a chore for me in DD. However, it also felt quite easy, which was a surprise (that being said, I haven't played the 'Good Guys Win' mode yet).

Note - these experiences were all with the latest beta patch.

Cakewalk 1:

Completed it first try, only one party wipe (at the first boss). I actually threw up my hands and quit the game for several hours out of frustration because I had the bastard at TEN hp! Threw on my B-team when I came back, with no expectations of winning... then I beat it without losing a minion. Knowledge of boss skills helps immensely. Started off with Bride in the back row, quickly swapped that out for Mummy when I got it. Used a combination of Lich/Mummy/Zombie/Skeleton/Dark Knight for the majority of the first two maps, with the odd Banshee (-6 attack crescendo is incredible early in cakewalk) and Wraith thrown in. By third map I had settled into using Lich/Mummy/Vampire/Zombie, after I learned how to get vampires. Head Hunter insta-kill was also fun, but not reliable enough (and he died too fast). Beat the final boss with a triple-stacked super-charged kaboom from the Zombie. Close fight.

Most of my unit losses here were from major one-hit mobs like Berserkers. I quickly learned how to change up strategies and counter things (for example, Shade is a 'hard counter' to Berserkers because they deal damage based on lost sanity).

Cakewalk 2:

Completed first try, no wipes. Started with my trusty Lich/Mummy/Vampire combination. Blood Phantasm was unlocked early in this run, played around with it for a bit, but it just felt too frail; like it was meant to be a glass cannon, but didn't quite have the DPS. Also, Blood Phantasm/Vampire had positioning problems for me. But then, I discovered the OP-ness of Shade and the 40% hp drain of 'Hungry Shadows'; mixed with the trinket that gives all enemy units -1 Ward and a unit that allows you to move them around; Mummy was especially deadly here. If you put 'Hungry Shadows' on second enemy slot and then use a Mummy 'pull', it can potentially hit three units in a single round with that combo alone for 40%! Throw in the Vampire's Berserk and GG. Finished with a combination of Shade/Mummy/Vampire/Blood Phantasm.

Cakewalk 3:

No units lost! By this time I had unlocked everything save Ghoul and Bone Golem. I unlocked those early in the first map and... gg. Bone Golem is imba, definitely needs tweaking, and Ghoul is a damage machine. My Lost Soul/Shade/Ghoul/Bone Golem team took me from the first map through the boss, with Mummy pinch-hitting when Lost Soul was healing. No units lost. This team was completely imba;

More Pain 1:

By this time, now that I had everything unlocked, I decided to try out More Pain using my Cakewalk 3 team: Lost Soul/Shade/Ghoul/Bone Golem. Didn't lose a single unit from start to finish. It was harder, but this team stomped the ♥♥♥♥ out of everything. The higher HP's were countered by the fact of 'Hungry Shadows' doing percentile damage, and Bone Golem/Ghoul was enough to wipe out the remaining damage with ease. Once again, Mummy pinch-hit when Lost Soul was on CD. Lost Soul/Shade dodged or blocked everything, while Bone Golem/Ghoul tanked and spanked at the same time, one through HP, one through evasion.

PROBLEMS:

Documentation/Tooltips: Overall, there needs to be a lot more explanation of the various systems. Since this is early access, not an issue, but needs to be addressed. Example - I didn't realize there was a 'transmutation' and 'extraction' functionality in alchemy until my third playthrough!

Spellbook: Through four playthroughs, I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to get more spells into my spellbook. There are only two pages available, and by the time I got the higher spells they simply didn't appear in my spellbook in combat because those two were already maxed out. If there's a way to 'edit' your spellbook, let me know, but if so it still needs to be MUCH more visible!

Artifacts: There needs to be a way to get rid of, sort, or trade them, combine them, or something.

Brains: Lower level brains quickly become useless. Suggest a way to combine brains to create higher-level ones.

Humonarium: We need info on skills in the humonarium, not just flavor text! You could even make it so that we have to drop multiple humonarium tokens to get the full info.

Calcination: The amount of mana provided just isn't worthwhile, esp. when we have spammable skills that allow us to gain 12/15/20 mana each turn. It's just much better to stall and 'farm' mana than to waste precious body parts. Needs reconsideration.

Sanity: Needs tweaking; heart attack should probably be dependent on how much damage is done at once to sanity. Also, in four playthroughs, I saw Inspiration proc ONCE. Didn't even realize there was such a thing for many hours. There's one particular 'insane' debuff that gives enemies double actions for -20% vigor per turn; this was murderous and almost turned me off using sanity entirely.

BALANCE:

Overpowered:

Bone Golem: This thing is overpowered and nigh-unkillable. It has massive HP, high damage, and self-heals; it's a tank AND a dps and renders many other units (like vampire) almost completely meaningless. Add in the fact that it has a FIFTY percent chance to stun everything, and it's just too much. This thing just does everything and sacrifices nothing; the low accuracy and initiative aren't enough to balance it out.

Shade: Hungry Shadows is completely overpowered. Should probably be nerfed down to 1 round from 2. A flat 40% hp removal that can proc multiple times as you move people in and out using your other heroes is insane, esp. for only 35 wrath. I regularly had two of them down on the field at all times, cutting people to ribbons. It spits on Vampire's Berserk.

Standard of Darkness artifact: This 15% heal after battle rendered HP management meaningless; this item should probably be removed entirely. Not only did it seem to heal more than 15% (felt like 20%+), it made it so that I was able to keep my A-team from the first map to the last without any need of swapping or even healing. I didn't upgrade the Mortuary at all in More Pain.

Underpowered:

Lich: This actually isn't too underpowered, but it needs tweaking; for the summon skeleton meat shield to be BEHIND the Lich instead of in front is particularly unconscionable.

Magic: Save for the ultimate spells, magic felt a BIT underpowered; towards the end, I was using it mostly to just remove shields so my unit spells (especially Hungry Shadows) could deal the real damage. The early spells are useful, and the late game spells can also be useful (albeit essentially single-cast), but they overall are outclassed. I think the mid-range spells can be dropped in cost a bit to help address this.

Early Game Units: The starting units (skele, bride, etc.) quickly get outclassed by the later ones. Perhaps we can think of ways to make them more useful later on.

Dhampir: I feel mixed. This is a fun unit, but the lack of mobility makes it hard for it to really apply its DPS, esp. when it's ultimate takes it 2 steps back. In the end, it just had no real value and might need some rethinking.

Banshee: This unit has good abilities, but they don't synergize well; her ultimate is great, but requires her to be in the front rows, and she moves forward VERY slowly while one of her attacks actually pushes her 3 rows backwards. Great unit in theory, but bad unit placement design.

OVERALL, this is looking like a great game. Hope this review/feedback is helpful for new players as well as devs. Cheers!

[glenn3e]

Wait, there's a transmutation and extraction feature in Alchemy?

[Despiser]

See what I mean about needing better tooltips? Yes, if you go in Alchemy and hover your mouse over the beakers and stuff, you'll see that there are three (four if you have parts to mana talent) options: Upgrade parts (which is the default), convert parts, and create items.

[Bearus]

I am pretty sure the tutorial mentions the different options of alchemy. The alchemy window could have tabs for the different options.

Also you can modify the speel book during a battle by right clicking a slot.

[reginald.allouchery]

I do hate how modern games don't have manuals and how you often have to figure most things by yourself or through the internet. That said, it didn't take me long to figure out how this game works. They just need to include a better tutorial or manual. Thanks for the thoughts on the game's systems. They were helpful. There has to be a way also to make new powerful minions once you get to the current last boss (fire mage) if you run out of high level minions for whatever reason. It feels then that you are just throwing canon fodder in the boss battle and there is no way to go back to another dungeon to level up or farm. Which means that you may get stuck and have to start from scratch.

[RIC FLAIR WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO]

I disagree strongly with lich and damp being bad. Lich and damp were my two huge stress dps on Good Always Wins

[XxGOTHxX]

Originally posted by Despiser:

Shade: Hungry Shadows is completely overpowered. Should probably be nerfed down to 1 round from 2. A flat 40% hp removal that can proc multiple times as you move people in and out using your other heroes is insane, esp. for only 35 wrath. I regularly had two of them down on the field at all times, cutting people to ribbons. It spits on Vampire's Berserk.
steps back. In the end, it just had no real value and might need some rethinking.

It Is based on current max vigor, so you get dimishing returns for every proc on the same enemy. Early on it's considered to other attacks fairly hard hitting, but other units can manage to crit for more than the 40% HP of an enemy with the right parts and build.
What makes it so strong is the relatively cheap cost and the option to place 2 and combine it with a movement skill.

But nonetheless a great thought out post that was fun to read. Have to agree with most of what you have said, but you should give the Bride, Skele, Banshee a couple more tries. Those units are still overwhelmingly good in the right teams. Well Skele needs a fix before you can play it again. Last patch broke it a bit :/

[XxGOTHxX]

Originally posted by RIC FLAIR WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO:

I disagree strongly with lich and damp being bad. Lich and damp were my two huge stress dps on Good Always Wins

That statement is mainly based on the skele summoning position of the Lich. Doesnt make sense to spawn it behind as he wrote and have to strongly agree on that. Who needs a backline tank XD

[Despiser]

Originally posted by XxGOTHxX:

Originally posted by Despiser:

Shade: Hungry Shadows is completely overpowered. Should probably be nerfed down to 1 round from 2. A flat 40% hp removal that can proc multiple times as you move people in and out using your other heroes is insane, esp. for only 35 wrath. I regularly had two of them down on the field at all times, cutting people to ribbons. It spits on Vampire's Berserk.
steps back. In the end, it just had no real value and might need some rethinking.

It Is based on current max vigor, so you get dimishing returns for every proc on the same enemy. Early on it's considered to other attacks fairly hard hitting, but other units can manage to crit for more than the 40% HP of an enemy with the right parts and build.
What makes it so strong is the relatively cheap cost and the option to place 2 and combine it with a movement skill.

But nonetheless a great thought out post that was fun to read. Have to agree with most of what you have said, but you should give the Bride, Skele, Banshee a couple more tries. Those units are still overwhelmingly good in the right teams. Well Skele needs a fix before you can play it again. Last patch broke it a bit :/

Yes, other units can definitely crit for more than 40%, but the keep word is 'can'; crits are not guaranteed, whereas from the very first round using Hungry Shadows I can guarantee a 40% on one unit, and (depending on other factors) usually end the first round with two units at 60% and a third at 36%... and THEN my other units mop up with the regular hits or crits. That's just crazy.

Originally posted by RIC FLAIR WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO:

I disagree strongly with lich and damp being bad. Lich and damp were my two huge stress dps on Good Always Wins

I used Lich quite a bit in my first two playthroughs, so as I said it isn't really 'underpowered', it just feels poorly designed, with the skeleton summoning being the most egregious. It has two 'ultimates', one of which is situational (you have to have a dead unit, which means you already screwed up) and the other of which tends to hurt my own side just as much as the other side. The 'sacrifice' ability is also not very useful (again, you probably screwed up if you use it), leaving just three abilities, with only two being super useful - I pretty much only used Corrosive Cloud and Shard Swarm.

How did you use Dhampir to do stress dps though? Overall, I wasn't a big fan of stress/insanity because of how RNG it was, but Dhampir in particular only has one stress skill, or were you revolving around crits and Infuriating Taunt?