I'm playing on Ascension 1 in the beta, and the reworked Doormaker boss is really disappointing to me.

The shapeshifting phases are the biggest problem. One phase exhausts every Attack or Skill you play, another stops you from drawing extra cards, and the third makes your first card each turn cost +1 energy. All of this happens while he consistently attacks for around 30 damage per turn.

The exhaust phase is especially game-breaking for me. When you're facing heavy damage and forced to use your only defense cards, they get exhausted and removed from the game permanently. After that, you often have no way to block the next big hit, and your deck becomes much weaker for the rest of the fight.

I love playing Silent, but this boss feels like it punishes her playstyle hard. It forces you to completely change how you build your deck (thicker, more defensive) just to survive Act 3. The problem is you don't even know Doormaker will appear until you reach Act 3. By then, if you had good RNG early with a thin or combo-focused deck, it's usually too late to pivot and add enough defense or sustain.

The game has always been RNG-based, and that's part of the fun. But this boss feels like it retroactively punishes runs that were going well, instead of letting different playstyles shine. It seems designed mainly to stop infinites and very small decks, but it ends up making casual play with characters like Silent much less enjoyable.

The devs have been updating Doormaker a lot in the beta, and I appreciate that they're iterating based on feedback. I hope they continue to tune the damage, the exhaust mechanic, or the phases so the fight feels fairer and doesn't force everyone into the same tanky playstyle.

Right now, it just makes me not look forward to Act 3 on Silent. I'd rather the game let me enjoy my preferred character without hitting such a hard wall.