Thought experiment: what if PISORF would...

[Tinker]

[Lujo]

Yes, yes, it's all about how knockback works, but melee knockback has a different price you pay for hits, different way how you play in order to apply it etc. I think this whole mess started with the devs trying to make an elegant solution to a fringe half-dragon issue (possibly magma mines) with HUGE concequences which weren't spotted in time because noone could get through the Pissorf tooltip well enough to make the right conclusions. Wouldn't be surprised if it was exactly that, because people were doing stuff with Orc Wizards but noone really thought it did anything if you weren't one and most people thought it was just an Orc Wizard thing (and were even doing it wrong).

And I've meant to reply to your fighter analysis, I liked it, and have you tried Warrior Pact on those Halfling Fighters? Looks like something to tack onto him just because he'd be munching popcorn (and spellcasting something down with a fighter is not an "any character" thing, fighters are kick ass spellcasters, this one is just more hybridy and takes less development for his physical side). Also do try a full Drac dwarf fighter, that's a scary thing (lifesteal gives double values against lower level monsters, and a dwarf becomes a monster with levels, making tha drac dwarf fighter scary s**t).

What I meant by reliable alternative to fireball is that it's reliable as a glyph to use when something is meant to deter firebal use (resistances, retaliation, blinking), while also being a reliable glyph to use when something is meant to deter physical attack use. So it's something you use when physical attacks fail you, when magical attacks fail you - and it even works against stuff that's supposed to be resistant to both. That makes it the default way of dealing with ANYTHING, and it's not priced or powered like it was supposed to be that, at any rate. Because IT would then be the 6 mana costing universal glyph and fireball would be an agresively costed "extra moving parts" specialist glyph with narrower application and skill requirements to incentive it's use over the more generally aplicable Pissorf (which also doubles as an exploration tool, making it even more handy). Or something, but that's just a thought because I've had little problems using Pissorf at 5 mana. There's plenty of other conclusions to be drawn from that, too. Nothing in this game is a counter to it's own counters, it'd be difficult to praise it for it's balance if anything was, and a lot of the learning/difficulty curve wouldn't really work if you didn't have to mix it up occasionally. And this thing is, currently, a counter to it's own counters.

[MTaur]

I think one reason why I suck at PISORF is that I regen fight a lot, and PISORF 2-for-1 damage also causes 2-for-1 regen on the enemy side. It's a bad deal when you pick the wrong fight that way, but it could work out with mana spikes (and I don't like gnome/halfling...). Mostly it's just an experience thing. I used to hardly use the glyph at all except to farm piety and uncover subdungeons, and that's not the case anymore.

[Astral]

For regenfighting purposes you have to use wall hits, and while you're there Rock Heart is a great item to combine it with.

[Tinker]

Fireball lends itself more naturally to regen-fighting, because burn stacks reduce monster regeneration, and increase subsequent fireball damage at the same time.

What you can do is - as Lujo explained on many occasions in remarkably great detail - place monsters next to eachother and keep hitting them into one another without regenerating through exploration. You can still regenerate through level-ups, potions, items, B2P, etc. For example, I often play Cursed Oasis in a way that I place 6-8 monster next to the Cursed Dragon (should be 1-2 low-mid level, 2-3 mid-level and the all the highest level monsers), and then just spamming PISORF. If you have excess castings before level-up, start the next monster; if you would fall short, use consumables. Interesting to see how it works, though you need to have a disposition towards doing this more than every once in a while, as the setup part can feel a bit like a chore.

[Lujo]

What tinker said about it - exploration is the only kind of refill that you don't include (much, and necessarily) and Fireballs are the regen fighting tool. it's a "whoops, I revealed the whole map, what now" proof thing, pretty much.

And you don't need 6-8 monsters ussualy, I use 2-4. When Scatcher first came up with this, years ago, it looked like a chore to me because he'd kinda overdo on the setup, both in terms of preps and in terms of moving too many things pedantically. Ussually the boss or bosses spawn with stuff next to them, so I rarely even move more than 1-3 things, if anything. Bossess mostly included in those things.

[MTaur]

[Lujo]

Yeah, the finesse part is sorta about how you gotta just let it rip and swig whatever gets you the refill, in a manner not unlike that of a full idiot. Something will eventually drop and ding you and then you can munch on more stuff. Heck, swill health potions to munch on stuff, it's not like you gonna need them if the bossess are dead (halfling spellcaster style).

Have you ever overexplored like a fool on accident and then just looked at the board just grabbing for whatever will refill you or ding you just for one more hit to see if you can somehow win despite messing up? It's kinda like that except you do it on purpose, and it ends up working due to silly built-in efficiency. I'm not one to advocate use of intoxicants, but getting drunk might help get in the right mindset or something.

There's also things that make it work better and stuff, that comes with practice.