Every Dungeon Vanquished: Review Time

[bla0815]

Aaaand done! The Avatar has fallen. His puny world destroying efforts were no match for the mighty power of a mana leaking gnomish paladin. On this stage it is more about the damage scaling on all bosses instead of the experience gain, though. I really don't think there is a way to win the library without that mass manaleak. I'd be really interested in other solution if someone found them.

To quote a certain message i saw more often than intended: "It's a hard game". I'm not sure yet when i'm going to use the trophies the last two bosses dropped. But different to other games with RPG elements in this game the satisfaction stems from the actual act of defeating the boss and not the gosu loot he droppped This is due to the difficulty in large parts. Another part is the quantifiable feedback of "how much right" you got your strategy this time (per HP left on boss). This gives the feeling of getting a little bit better every time and motivates to play on and on, because you need just one more potion left this time...

Given that i can see why the indomitable is so frustrating to some. If you don't have the right idea (there are several character choices, but not too many) you won't even get close to getting him down. If you have the right idea you just need some tries and you will get a run, where you don't even have to be too carefull to avoid mistakes. He/she is quite either/or boss giving you little feeling of progress until you actually kill him.
I agree with everyone (or most) that there certainly is a need for more easy/medium content, but that's obviously a matter of time and not because the developers want us to suffer. Just as the need for more difficult content and powerfull items to bring the other gods to Taurog's and Mystera's level of power.

Currently i also missed the number of challenges the freeware had, where you had to beat dungeons with classes you didn't like. But again this is probably a matter of not being implemented yet.

Great game so far. Given the Beta Status i have encountered very little bugs and i'm very excited for those slow content developing weeks

Regards,
Julian

[Nandrew]

I find it really awesome when people pick less hyped class/race combos and do something amazing with them. I hope that was a really satisfying victory.

There will be more challenges for high-end players in the coming weeks, and we hope that you'll be coming back for more, but I'm sure you'll understand that we're focusing rather heavily on easier/moderate content for the time being. That, and balance tweaks.

[Galefury]

Holy shit. That boss looks disgustingly powerful. Congrats on beating that level. I'm drawing a blank for strategies, maybe a human monk with a really big sword could take it down with GG or Taurog. But getting to the boss with such a character (with enough potions and unexplored space left) would be a different matter.

[bla0815]

I find it really awesome when people pick less hyped class/race combos and do something amazing with them. I hope that was a really satisfying victory.

You bet it was! Actually i still feel so immersed that i have the urge to write a how to just to talk about it.

There will be more challenges for high-end players in the coming weeks, and we hope that you'll be coming back for more, but I'm sure you'll understand that we're focusing rather heavily on easier/moderate content for the time being. That, and balance tweaks.

The one thing i enjoy more than a satisfying win is a game with balanced and polished mechanics

[SPOILER]
I used a human taurog monk (with convesion orb from the locker and damage boosters from the mage guild for over 100 damage per hit) against Namtar and really abused the regen advantage there, but i just had my troubles witht the Demonic Library. The problem wasn't so much the Avatar himself (where human monk should be very powerfull) but the 5 bosses before him, with crippling/lower resist etc.

The way i dealt with those bosses were to get Mystera very fast and reveal the entire map spamming lowcost spells (healing is perfect for that as you can cast it having full health - contrary to damage boost and first strike). The idea was to get ~350 piety used to gain mana/lower resistence and a final 100 hp mana leak. Then level up not too fast to get lots of mana for new piety without revealing new tiles for another 100 hp mana leak, which enables you to kill most bosses with little effort (one fireball).
Against the last boss (with 440 hp and counter fireball) i could put healing to good use. Then i restocked on piety with the new level, got flames and converted to Glowing Guardian after my potions were used up. This allowed me to convert the remaining glyphs for more potions and i desecrated Taurog's shrine in order to be able to use the potions without having my inventory emptied. I actually tried to sanctify a 1hp monster, but it turns out there is no minimum damage (or at least not in the combat prediction).

This all would also be equally possible with a human monk, too. But instead of just finding Mystera's shrine very quickly you would also have to find a cheap glyph and - in the case of the combat glyphs - also an appropiate enemy who doesn't do lower resistances or burn in order to recast the spell. This will take a lot of tries with expensive preparations and after getting an very early shrine i actually succeeded with one try.
After the five first bosses finished a human monk would probably have an easier time than a gnomish paladin, unless you get very unlucky with the plants, which spawn on melee hits and might prevent you from getting to unexplored terrain.

Really big sword is a huge boon, but requires some luck with the leveling up steps/monster spawns, since there are lower resistance and poison/burn monsters. I used the bear mace to carve out the edges of the map for more regeneration/piety, but the sword is probably still worth having the resistances lowered a few points.


TL;DR: I found the gnomish paladin surprisingly fitting and a good compromise between having a fail start and pulling through to the end. The hyped combos like human monk work probably as well, but for me the important part was the double use of manaleak in order to get the five bosses without expending too many ressources.[/SPOILER]

[Esoteric]

Took the library down with a human berserker with extra health powerups, bringing in a badge of honour, scouting bosses, and worshipping the GG. Was able to take out some djinns and imps two levels up, starting at level 3. Humility down, do it some more. After that, everything was a piety game until I started on the first of the bosses at level 6, with a midfight level. 2 of the bosses are easy to take down due to their magic attacks, which along with the djinns and imps will helped slingshot up to level 8 for the last 3 of them.

Then killed everything for piety, while fighting the avatar. Didn't waste piety on cleansing or absolution, better to just get more heals. You can sneak in a few health potions if you're careful about when you're at 0 piety with indulgence from smashing mysteria or tikki or if it's your last hit.

Gogo beserker!



Also, desktop dungeons continues to be great, can't wait for new challenges.

[bla0815]

Hey that's great to hear! I tried twice and had a pretty rough time with human berserker, but maybe i just got too focussed on getting the mass manaleak early on :/

I think it's really really cool that there are several solutions to such a puzzle each utilising very different game mechanics. There is some balance very well done at the core, but this would be futile without proper level design. I'm excited to hear of more paths to victory, i didn't even think of.

You can sneak in a few health potions if you're careful about when you're at 0 piety with indulgence from smashing mysteria or tikki or if it's your last hit.

I really liked how desecrating can become a pretty huge deal. Angering the other gods adds up to a "against all odds" feeling. Sure - you do it at a time, when the debuff isn't too harmfull anyway, but stil...

Gogo beserker!

Lol! Sorcerer ar teh best!