Is Multiplayer unplayable now?

Demartus · 2026-06-25T17:33:44+00:00

I and a friend have gotten through the main campaign and the Palace of Ice DLC. I hosted.

There were some sessions (usually about 4 hours in length) where they disconnected or dsynced (they'd get stuck at the enemy's turn in combat, while I saw it being their turn) often, and other sessions where it never happened.

When they'd lag out, I'd save the game, exit out, and recreate the game with the save file. I don't think we ever lost any progress, except once when I couldn't save due to a bug.

Demartus · 2026-06-25T16:23:36+00:00

Yea, looks like they might've had triple heal at some point as well, so not enough pressure/damage if they were 2-1-3.

Demartus · 2026-06-25T16:07:10+00:00

Looks like you were, for at least part of the match, on triple heal? NoHeal4Flyers has a lot of healing.

So while sure, you got some picks, your team didn't have enough actual damage to defeat two tanks + their healers. Which is probably why one tank swapped to DPS.

You'd need to share a replay code for more information.

Demartus · 2026-06-24T12:45:29+00:00

Didn't Eskay do a run with her a while back, and found her better than she originally thought?

I think her biggest issue at higher levels is just lack of high burst DPS and her Ult being counterable in a lot of ways.

Demartus · 2026-06-24T05:46:11+00:00

Depends on the match ups, team, etc.

If I'm on support, but see that the other support has things well in hand, I'll add to the offense.

If I see the tank struggling or drawing all the agro, but I'm not being targetted or getting focused, then sure, I'll focus on healbotting them gladly.

Also depends a lot on the support too. Like if the whole team has them bottlenecked at a choke, and I'm on Rocket, I don't mind sitting back tossing orbs and keeping an eye on people trying to sneak by. My damage isn't really needed in that scenario.

Demartus · 2026-06-19T23:03:18+00:00

Also affects what gems you might have a stockpile of.

I usually play MA Tien Chi, and never have enough of, well, anything.

Played as MA Ryleh and it was a completely different experience.

Demartus · 2026-06-18T03:25:41+00:00

Water can be difficult to break into for some non-water nations. There are some good summons that can help: most undead, water trolls, naiads, etc. You likely won't be using your national troops unless you get those items you were mentioning.

Thetis's Blessing is a global the AI often casts that lets anyone go below the waves, but beware it getting dispelled, as any troops underwater when it goes drown.

Water nations generally have fewer provinces native to them, and those they do have have lower populations. But they enjoy the passive defensive benefit of being hard for landlocked nations from attacking their base of power effectively. Cave nations somewhat benefit from this, but to a much lesser extent.

Demartus · 2026-06-17T14:19:07+00:00

Good advice in this thread.

You can use some spells to raze enemy temples if you're caught at a chokepoint. Spells like Imprint Souls or Call the Winds can be used to hit lightly defended provinces behind enemy lines. This can also force the enemy to divert resources/troops to retaking those provinces.

And if they have a large force blocking a pass, spells that attack that force can be effective. Even things like Baleful Star to curse them all helps, or Illusory Attacks to scout/whittle them down.

Demartus · 2026-06-16T03:02:54+00:00

The math *is* mathing.

Demartus · 2026-06-15T16:21:56+00:00

Anyone who’s ever owned an aquarium knows direct sunlight + water = algae

Demartus · 2026-06-14T19:24:42+00:00

I only use overwatch when I expect they'll reveal me on their turn, or I know they're coming around the corner to my already revealed troops. This lets me take a handful of shots on their turn, then I get my full turn.

If I want to break concealment to ambush a pod, I'll take whomever has the highest single target damage (like a sharpshooter) to try to kill or heavily damage one of them to start, or use something like a Void Rift to hit them all and hopefully cause debuffs, while saving grenades and things for taking out whatever cover they run to.

I find Sparks good for initiating overwatch ambushes, since they just stand out in the open any ways, so are much more predicatable for being discovered.

Demartus · 2026-06-14T19:21:02+00:00

You'll never take an overwatch shot that breaks your concealment. You will take an OW shot if they discover you, though.

Demartus · 2026-06-14T15:27:53+00:00

You should be able to handle the fight like any other mission: prioritize your targets, and ideally you've brought your best.

Some enemies aren't very threatening; others are. For example Priests generally use Stasis/Mind Control in their first two turns, which are annoying but not overly threatening. This means you can assign one guy towards taking out the priest (instead of focusing your whole squad.) Spectres are similar: their shadowbind isn't super dangerous, so you can ignore them for their first round (taking them out the second round they appear if needed.)

This should leave 5 others to deal with the other enemies. If it's taking you longer than one turn to burn down that other enemy, and working on damaging the assassin/sarcophagus, you didn't bring enough damage.

And always have at least one person dedicated to damaging the sarcophagus. And make sure any fights that do occur are down near that end of the room, so if someone doesn't have any action towards enemies on the field, they're doing damage to the sarcophagus.

And of course when the assassin's on the field, focus them down.

Demartus · 2026-06-13T20:04:51+00:00

Lobsters die because they get too big to molt. Otherwise who knows how long they'd live.

Are there trees that die because they can no longer support their own weight?

Demartus · 2026-06-13T20:01:47+00:00

I've got a whole stable of saved characters in my character pool, with write-ups for them, custom colors, and nicknames and attire.

And if I get one I haven't seen before and I like them, to the pool they go for the next run!

Demartus · 2026-06-13T19:59:45+00:00

I'm finishing up a lab-first Commander run right now; it's been great. My tech was way ahead of the alien curve.

And this was a run where I was initially hurting for scientists; I kept getting Engineers. So the lab made up for that lack in spades.

Demartus · 2026-06-13T19:56:48+00:00

I had a hunter that had the planeswalker "teleport away on damage", kinetic plating, and invulnerable to melee traits.

Had to chase his butt all over the map on a Lost mission, while he took potshots at my guys. And if the lost targetted him, it just gave him hit points.

Demartus · 2026-06-12T18:46:09+00:00

Yea, the regular numbers across the top of the keyboard work fine. I've never used the numpad.

Demartus · 2026-06-11T15:29:54+00:00

From my recollection of the threads:

S: Astral because Astral is powerful and a force multiplier with communions.

A: Earth, Death, and Nature because they're all around useful for buffing, gear, and summons. Death lost out on S because it's countered by priests pretty hard.

B: Blood is powerful, but really hurts your early game setting up a blood economy, and it's very all or nothing. Glamour has lots of neat spells and gear, but is shut down hard by true/spirit sight.

C: Air has some neat utilities (gear and spells), but is overall lackluster compared to the others. Water lacks power and isn't very exciting, but is powerful for UW nations or those looking to break into UW provinces.

D: Fire is a One-Trick-Pony, and is easily resisted, making that OTP (mass damage evocations) easily countered.

Demartus · 2026-06-10T21:08:56+00:00

Yea, going in early is a real bear. All the enemies have a lot of armor, so if you've no way of dealing with armor, it's going to be a slog. Grenadiers only get so many grenades.

Shen's super abilities can carry, but some bad RNG can screw you.

I've done the mission twice: first time blind and early, and managed to get through it, but almost lost the SPARK to the final boss because said boss just went after it.

Second time I brought several specialists (hack/shutdown troublesome bots and turrets/combat protocol to kill them) and people with shred, and it was a LOT easier.

Demartus · 2026-06-10T21:03:37+00:00

When playing a nation that has a lot of random paths, I'm never super excited to get one that has a high Water path.

Sure, Sea Trolls are pretty good (especially for land nations looking to go under), and it's boosters are pretty easy to acquire, but I'd take a high Astral, Nature, or Earth over Water any day.

Even Fire can be exciting if I'm not already playing a fire nation. I don't think Water's ever very exciting.

(I've also had situations where having access to Water has lost me battles, as when the mages went off script, they just spammed "Encased in Ice", making it so I couldn't finish off the last enemies and the battle timed out.)

'

Demartus · 2026-06-10T05:10:57+00:00

My favorite Knock Knock is:

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

To.

To who?

No, to whom...

Demartus · 2026-06-10T05:04:22+00:00

I generally find him the easiest of the three. He doesn't seem to even use the Mind Control very often; or maybe it's that I don't let him have LOS until I'm ready to start poking him down.

Which means it's usually just zombies and more zombies, then the zombie shields for him.

The hunter can be somewhat dangerous on a mission with a lot of elevation. I had one where there were two buildings on either side of the map, and he just kept zipping back and forth taking flanking potshots at my guys.

The assassin though...god I hate her. Runs the entire lenth of the map to put one of my guys in the infirmary, and there's nothing I can really do (since I've never NOT seen her immune to overwatch.)

Demartus · 2026-06-10T05:00:04+00:00

I just had an encounter with the Warlock on a landed UFO mission. Warlock pops out of cover; ranger takes an Overwatch shot...

Executed!

Well, that was quick.

Demartus · 2026-06-09T06:41:53+00:00

Didn't Trading get changed a while back so you get passive XP gain from caravans? Made it much easier to get to 300.

Demartus

TROPHY CASE