Beta Update: an open letter to the Kingdom

[Buttons]

So the first time I tackled Stheno, I had no idea what her special schtick was so I had plenty of enemies left on the screen and lost horribly. Fair enough. The second time, I came prepared and beat her handily. While the victory animation was playing I clicked on what I figured was the exit and... inexplicably died?

Oh. I get it. *sigh*

[gjaustin]

[Buttons]

[Darvin]

Yeah, everyone is gunna lose the first time to Stheno, since leaving monsters alive for a mid-battle level-up is standard practice for experienced players.

For me it was even worse. I was playing a Burning Heart bloodmage and encountered Stheno early. Since there was nothing better to attack on screen, I decided to start building up some levels of burning on the boss... As much as it was obvious after that first run that paladin was the way to go, I was now determined to kill Stheno with a bloodmage.

[MuF]

You beat Naga city huh... and with a Thief of all classes?

Darvin is totally going to be the final boss of Desktop Dungeons.

Just after you beat Mechalord Gobb and his army of Mechagoblins and Golems in the Golem Factory dungeon, you discover that slimy goblin was building a massive golem to serve as a physical body for that nefariously ridiculous god Glitterfinger, which you proceed to battle in an epic multi stage combat. You finally manage to deal the final blow to the artificial nightmare machine and send back that annoying god to anonymity in the Pantheon.
And just when you're about to reap the spoils of your most incredible victory yet, this Darvin monster shows up with the most unprobable build and whups your ass.

But don't worry, Desktop Dungeon is a hard game. So dying is okay!

[Darvin]

[TigerKnee]

Yeah, the thief is definitely the strongest of the tier 1 classes. His abilities synergize pretty well together.

Now if anyone beats all the Vicious dungeons like Demonic Library with a fighter, he would be REALLY good (well, I suppose if super items like Orb of Zot are added in the Fighter could win just through sheer luck but right now...)

[Darvin]

The problem with Fighter is that his class features are largely worthless to a veteran player on a vicious dungeon. Extra XP from kills is by far his best class feature, but on the majority of the vicious dungeons hitting level 10 before the final boss fight is a forgone conclusion so the majority of that benefit is lost. The ability to see monster locations isn't a big deal, since you're usually seeking monsters one level higher than yourself, not those that are equal or lower. Single-use death protection can be obtained from a relatively cheap preparation, and won't count for very much in the long-run anyways. I'd actually go so far as to say fighter is the worst class in the game currently.

At the risk of inciting debate, I'm going to rank the classes into tiers based on general usefulness (not counting Transmuter, which will be getting another overhaul before long):

Top-Tier
Berserker, Rogue, Thief

High Tier
Warlord, Paladin, Bloodmage

Mid Tier
Assassin, Sorcerer, Priest

Low Tier
Wizard, Monk, Fighter


Monk and Fighter are the only classes I'd say that definitely need a buff right now. Wizard has been doing better since more spellcaster items got added, but probably still needs work. He's completely outclassed by the Bloodmage in the current build. With the right preparations and Dracul available for worship, a bloodmage is simply the best spellcaster class by a ridiculous margin. Something needs to be done about Dracul; any class with a reliable way to earn piety with that guy breaks him (looking at you guys, rogue and bloodmage)

[TigerKnee]

Wellllll... personally I would move Rogue/Thief down to High and Warlord up to Top.

Berserker is very hard to place but I definitely don't think he's Top except out of sheer concidence that there are so many mana burning and high powered magic attacks in Vicious dungeons. In a map with an actual decent spread of enemy types he would be far weaker but so far unlike Alpha, most maps tend to have a small predictable pool of enemy types, even if those enemies have a billion special abilities each.

It would be like in an alternate reality where all the Vicious dungeon bosses were undead or something and then we put Priest in high just because of that.

Other than that, I mostly agree with the list. I think it's been said a lot of times that Fighter is going to remain the same (which is sad), but for Monk I think we should combine the damage penalty/resistance into one ability (just like Spellslay for Berserker) and give it a new ability because he is not only weak now but also extremely boring to play.

[The Avatar]

Has anyone figured out the warmonger problem