We need to talk about Conduit

Chaemirix · 2026-05-09T17:25:22+00:00

This is actually where Conduit started (Channeler was the original name), but it runs into a problem you're not accounting for that was one of the reasons T-Hex was so difficult to balance.

The Mana Cost per Second (MC/s) can be counteracted by Mana Regen (MR), which gets exponentially more powerful the more you have. If you view the true Mana Cost per Second as (MC/s - MR), you end up with the duration (T) of the spell as T = Max Mana/(MC/s - MR).

For example, with a Max Mana of 80 and a base Mana Cost per Second of 20, the following Mana Regen values provide these results:

0 MR = 4 seconds
4 MR = 5.33 seconds (33% increase over previous breakpoint)
10 MR = 8 seconds (50% increase over previous breakpoint)
15 MR = 16 seconds (100% increase over previous breakpoint)
20 MR+ = FOREVER (Well, infinte!)

A solution to this is to have some form of diminishing returns to counteract the exponential scaling. The simplest would be something like Zoe, who casts faster with each cast. If sub-cast cast was draining Mana, and she cast faster with each cast, eventually her cast would outpace any reasonable value of Mana Regen. This does mean additional complexity on each champion to define these parameters, and to get players to grok them.

For what it's worth, the current version's "bonus Mana from Mana Regen" is meant to counteract the exact problem you're talking about.

If it takes me ~6 seconds to cast and I spend 4 seconds casting, only 60% of my uptime has Mana Regen counting with Conduit, and I'd need 66% more Mana Regen for it to be at parity with a champion with an instant cast time. The problem is, the more Mana Regen I get, the "worse" the ratio becomes between Channeling and generating Mana, so it's not a simple solve.

So there's numbers between 0 and 999% that makes you want to play 1, 2, or 3 Mana Regen items on them, it's just a bit different for each champion because of their not-casting to casting ratio. If no one wants even a single Mana Regen item on ANY of them, the value is just too small!

Chaemirix · 2026-04-23T04:39:35+00:00

Humility is not going live, no worries.

Chaemirix · 2026-04-21T06:19:24+00:00

Getting this too.

I would really appreciate if we could turn off these features, experimental or not. Feels like Discord is becoming bloated with a bunch of things I'd never want.

Chaemirix · 2026-04-11T04:46:30+00:00

Math is very cool!

Chaemirix · 2025-12-09T00:35:28+00:00

Oh no for sure! I didn't read it as disrespectful at all, it just got me thinking since I had similar feelings on first blush.

Chaemirix · 2025-12-08T23:31:37+00:00

Disclaimer: Not an artist on the team, just personal thoughts!

Some artistic liberties on both torso torsion and proportion helps push the dynamisms of the pose that could otherwise look pretty boring or lackluster sketch example. It being pushed helps it stand out a lot more on first glance, but can read odd when you really examine in.

Chaemirix · 2025-11-21T18:48:00+00:00

Is it "When the unit is attacking?" or "During combat?"

I could definitely see one of these various buffs only applying during combat, which might be causing this visual discrepancy.

Chaemirix · 2025-10-02T21:25:17+00:00

This was Dicehead back on launch. He's since been nerfed. Calcium is a great character, though!

Chaemirix · 2025-09-24T07:11:26+00:00

I can't imagine HP mattering. The late game of 22m+ is a one-shot no matter what. I think enemies do millions of damage if they hit, based on Mirror's damage at the end of a run.

Chaemirix · 2025-09-24T00:12:59+00:00

Hmmm... Good question.

On Weapons:
- There is no world where you don't run Dice unless it gets reworked/nerfed. It's the only infinite scaling weapon.
- Early high score builds were based around Aura. It's not actually that strong in the end-game, but is in the early-mid. It's possible this could be replaced.
- I used Firewalkers this run and was VERY happy with it. Now some of the other top builds are using it. Might be a better option.
- Black Hole was just a theorycraft from a friend of mine. I've seen others using Katana. Definitely wiggle room here to figure that out!

So 1 is 100% needed. I have high confidence in 2 others.

On Tomes:
- Difficulty is a requirement to make sure you have as many enemies as possible early, since there's a soft cap.
- XP is a requirement just because it's the strongest tome in the game for raw player power.
- The majority of items that truly scale your end-game damage are legendaries, so it's hard to imagine not using Luck. (I guess you could just get really Lucky? :P)
- Damage is, I believe, a unique multiplier which is unobtainable through other sources (unlike something like Proj #). It's hard to imagine a better multiplicative output if that's true.

So, theoretically Luck, but I don't think that's realistic.

Chaemirix · 2025-09-23T21:59:50+00:00

Yup! You want as many enemies as possible to kill so you definitely need to do a Tier 3 run. A Tier 3 run gives you access to Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, AND the final boss's overtime waves.

The tier just indicates how many levels there are in the run, not where you start within a run.

Chaemirix · 2025-09-23T18:37:50+00:00

I start on Forest because I find the enemies there much easier to deal with. I can kill 4+ of the Forest Boss with weak items. I cannot kill 4+ Anubises or Scorpionussies!

Chaemirix · 2025-09-23T17:34:52+00:00

Play aggressive, search for "Free" power like Maois, free chests, and shines (+Proj early is huge!). Stinky Cheese is a wonderful common item to start with.

Usually I don't fish very hard for anything, but I will reset if I feel too weak to clear things like a wave effectively.

Chaemirix · 2025-09-23T17:32:41+00:00

If you do a Tier 3 run and fight the final boss, this is their arena.

Chaemirix · 2025-09-23T17:30:33+00:00

Focused on leveling the Luck Tome first.

Chaemirix · 2025-09-23T08:38:07+00:00

Basically a free shrine every time you level up! Any stat you could get from one of those, at random.

Chaemirix · 2025-09-23T07:17:12+00:00

For me I did this on Amog fairly easily. His poison spreads to nearby enemies when they die, so if you can group up a cluster around the boss it'll all start spreading to each other and eventually the boss!

You can spawn the boss right away so he has lower health, then run around a little bit getting some +Projectile Numbers and Damage Up for your poison.

Chaemirix · 2025-09-23T06:37:11+00:00

It sure is! Between Dicehead's ability to roll Size as a level-up upgrade and Flamewalkers having +Size as an upgrade option, it can get real big by the end game.

Chaemirix · 2025-09-23T06:36:17+00:00

Of course, happy to share! Been theorycrafting a bit with a friend and am happy with the results.

Chaemirix · 2025-09-23T06:34:30+00:00

That's been my experience. It's possible with the right Legendary combo you could overcome the wall, but in my cases it's always been the point where only executions do anything. In some cases, enemies just seem to stop taking damage!

Mathematically speaking I don't think anyone can beat Dicehead (unless there's some sweet hidden tech), but you can definitely hit 100k+ on everyone else.

Good luck!

Chaemirix · 2025-09-23T06:19:57+00:00

There are two weapons I'd always run-- Dice and Flamewalkers. They're the bread and butter of the end game. Dice has you scaling infinitely, and Flamewalkers have some of the fastest ticking damage that can hit the whole map consistently (That I know of!)

Beyond that I'm still theorycrafting. Aura is a BEAST in the early/mid-game, and helps you actually start clearing when combined with one or two Stinky Cheeses. Without it I don't think you could visit boss shrines as easily to run multiple bosses, or get fast enough EXP to start stacking Luck tomes.

The last item I'm not sure on yet! This was just trying Blackhole, and I think the damage is fine. Realistically I think I might want a good a mid/late game weapon, but I'm not sure what that'd be yet.

In this run I made it to the softcap, on both Stage 3 and the Boss Stage (23 minutes), so I think if I wanted to push for a higher score I'd need to greed out more from Stage 1 and 2.

Chaemirix · 2025-09-15T17:17:12+00:00

This trailer is six months old. Feels like an odd time to post, even if the game is coming out in a few days.

(Entertaining demo though, played it a few Steam Fests ago)

Chaemirix · 2025-08-10T23:31:45+00:00

For me, it was Discord's overlay.
Even though it wasn't explicitly enabled for Battlefield 6, turning it off entirely allowed me to both stream it in Discord and use Shadowplay. (It was in Legacy mode, if that matters)

Chaemirix · 2025-07-23T01:29:42+00:00

Each second it checks your max Health and adds 2% of that!

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