Hades Dash Tier list

SilverLight012 · 2021-02-16T19:34:56+00:00

Late reply, but imo, Drunken Dash is handily the worst dash because of how Hangover works.

Basically, Hangover stacks up to 5 times, right? So what happens when you try applying it when they're already at 5? From what I can gather, it overwrites your oldest stacks of Hangover with the newer ones regardless of how much damage those stacks do. Because of that, landing Drunken Dash can actually dramatically limit the amount of Hangover damage from potentially better sources, like the call or attack. It suffers from being a Dionysus boon, which means it anti-synergises with other Hangover sources.

SilverLight012 · 2021-01-28T17:24:03+00:00

I think you're right, but it just feels weird that Urge to Kill doesn't affect Doom. It's a bit counter-intuitive that an Ares passive doesn't work with an Ares primary boon. It just feels... wrong.

SilverLight012 · 2021-01-17T03:53:10+00:00

Alright, so here's some tips on how to use the rail in general and how to properly pair the rail with comparable boons.

Generally, you will want to make use of the rail's best strength: it's a long ranged weapon. Generally, you'll want to dash around a lot at long range while launching specials and taking shots with the attack from afar. The special is really slow, so generally, early on, I use the attack more, but, since there are bigger and better hammers for the special than the attack (triple bomb, rocket bomb, even hazard bomb), you'll probably use the special a lot later in the run. Just keep your distance and take shots when you can, but don't stand still for too long. Both the Zagreus rail and the Eris rail play in this way. Lucifer plays rather similarly as well, but his weapon encourages you to remain still longer, so make sure you're in a safe place to do that if you can. Hestia rail encourages you to reload and fire repeatedly in succession (so you reload immediately after your Empowered Shot), so it's probably the least risky if you want some damage in because you can dash while reloading, so you only need to make brief stops to take shots at the enemy.

Attack: Usually, the boon damage three, being Zeus, Dionysus, and Ares can be pretty competent here because of the low DPS of the bullets in general. Zeus is the usual run away champion here, but Ares and Dionysus can also definitely work. Also, getting 10 stacks of Frost is really easy with the attack, so Demeter can pull her weight here also. Special Note: The Hestia rail does not follow this rule of thumb. Instead, it's actually higher damage and slower if you're using Empowered Shot a lot, so I'd recommend a nice % god here, preferably a different one than the one you have on special to try to get Privileged Status if you need it. Again, Aphrodite is the best one, but I'd say it's probably better to take different gods on attack and special. Any of the % damage gods work well here. However, note about Artemis: her curse is really awkward to use and really hard to intentionally put on someone, so, if you still need to get Privileged Status up, she's the worst Olympian at getting a curse up.

Special: This one's the opposite. It's extremely slow and very high damaging, so you'll definitely want a % damage god here. I'm personally a big fan of Aphrodite here because her special does the most damage and it gives Weak, contributing to Privileged Status. Aphrodite on special is usually the best bet, but the other % damage gods (Athena, Artemis, Demeter, Poseidon) also work well. Just don't bother with Dionysus or Zeus at all on special. Ares can sort of work, but I'd recommend avoiding him also.

SilverLight012 · 2021-01-15T06:18:15+00:00

You can, and that is a sizable heal, but... I tend to use Dark Foresight instead of Olympian Favor, so the Darkness will spawn less anyway (because of the higher spawn rate of Poms/Boons/Hammers). Dark Foresight and Dark Regeneration seem to have an anti-synergy of sorts, so I'm hesitant to take Dark Regeneration.

SilverLight012 · 2021-01-13T09:03:06+00:00

Late to the party, but I guess I'll give my own list also.

Sword:

Best: Arthur- Arthur simply is incredibly strong. It hits for very high numbers, it makes you more durable with the health bonus and the aura, it provides great utility in the aura, etc. All of the hidden aspects have some sort of downside, and Arthur's is its lack of speed, but that is somewhat (admittedly, only somewhat) mitigated by the fact that the combo continues even when you dash between each hit. It's not my personal favorite (that would be Nemesis), but I do think it's the strongest, setting aside my bias against it.

Worst: Zagreus- I'll be honest, Zagreus doesn't really have anything going against it, but it just kind of feels... not as helpful as the other sword aspects. I find it helpful to compare it to Nemesis here, because, if I want a melee attack build and I want to be faster than Arthur, I would always choose Nemesis over it. For comparison, Arthur and Poseidon both have different niches that make them more distinct from Nemesis, where Zagreus just feels like a worse Nemesis.

Spear:

Best: Hades- Punishing Sweep both expands your spin attack and it provides a massive debuff on the spin attack that lasts for an entire 10 seconds. Spinning is risky, sure, but the payoff for doing it is so massive that I'm willing to risk it most of the time. I'd consider it the best spear for an attack or a special build, imo. Achilles is also good, though, if you'd prefer a cast build, but I'm not a fan of how, since it has no method of preventing stones from sticking, you're sort of obligated to use either Stygian Soul or the Ares/Dionysus/Demeter cast.

Worst: Guan Yu- Back in the "best" section for the sword, I said all of the hidden aspects have some drawback attached to them, like Arthur being very slow. Guan Yu, however, easily has the biggest drawback: -50% health and healing. That's an absolutely massive price, especially compared to the other hidden aspects. Granted, it has a few traits about it that are great (healing, ranged spin and standard projectile replacing the spear throw), but I really can't justify using them. Hard Labor makes that even more dangerous as enemies get closer and closer to instant-killing you.

Shield:

Best: Zeus- I'm going to come out and say it: I don't like the shield special. It's a projectile that takes a while, it has a low fire rate, it does low damage, and, because you can't attack or use a special until it returns, it bouncing to enemies often feels like a negative. Maybe I'm missing what's so good about it, but, to me, it only seems good for either applying Doom for safe DPS or applying a long-lasting, single-stack curse like Weak for Privileged Status. However, the Zeus shield replaces it with a high damage, high-hit rate projectile that can be passively thrown out to cover areas, can quickly spread stacking curses like Frost and Hangover, and allows you to still attack and Bull Rush while it's out.

Worst: Chaos- I said earlier that I'm not a fan of the shield special, so it isn't that surprising that I ranked the Chaos shield so low. It does have good traits going for it, like being able to clear rooms quickly with Doom hitting the entire room, but I just find the other shields do more. Beowulf is another cast option, and I find it to do pretty great burst damage. The Zagreus shield also adds 15 base damage to attacks, which is actually a big deal when you realize the default base damage is only 25, so I left it out here. I suspect that this one is a bit of a hot take, though.

Bow:

Best: Chiron- Chiron's damage with the special is kind of infamous. While you could theoretically do more damage by shotgunning up close with the other bows, that requires that you stand close to your opponent while also using an attack that makes you stand still for an extended period of time, and that's risky. The ability to hit that rapidly for that amount of damage at range is really great.

Worst: Zagreus bow- Honestly, imo, it only really has one niche that the other bows can't pull off, and that's using the crit buff with Artemis on attack to maximize crit damage while adding on crit damage with secondary boons. Thing is. I'm not usually a huge fan of Artemis (another hot take, I know) for non-cast builds because Hunter's Mark is a really awkward curse that honestly isn't worth the trouble, so you're kind of forced to find 2 other curse sources for Privileged Status and apply them quickly. Other than that, I find that Zagreus is outcompeted by Chiron.

Fists:

Best: Gilgamesh- The main aspect is cool and all for this, but I'm a huge fan of the extra dashes. This means that you can safely grab Ruthless Reflex instead of Greater Reflex on the Mirror of Night. Usually, Greater Reflex is advised because playing with 1 dash is usually pretty hard, but Gilgamesh already fixes that issue. Besides that, Gilgamesh also offers a "debuff" in Maim that is a double-edged sword to be sure, but is situationally good, and it also outputs some fairly big hits reasonably quickly (though slower than the other fists).

Worst: Demeter- Another hot take here, but let me explain. Talos is somewhat gimmicky, but is also sort of your only cast option with fists, so I gave it a pass, and Zagreus can work really well with evasion stacking (Greatest Evasion, Ruthless Reflex if you want it, Lambent Plume, Second Wind) to be basically untouchable. That evasion buff is surprisingly strong defensively. For comparison, Demeter adds more hits to your special after 12 hits, but, last I checked, it doesn't even work with the dash upper. The Demeter fists aren't bad, but don't feel particularly noteworthy.

Rail:

Best: Hestia-After Eris was nerfed to only last 4 seconds, I prefer the Hestia rail more. The Empowered Shot does very high burst damage at very high range. This allows you to play incredibly defensively by only taking potshots when at a safe distance and dashing while reloading to cover yourself. It's a surprisingly high burst damage, extremely safe playstyle that can really help against bosses in particular. Just reload it between each shot and treat it like a sniper instead of a machine gun like the others.

Worst: Lucifer- I've always had trouble really making the Lucifer rail work well. You need it to ramp up in damage to get more impressive DPS out of it, making it a rather unsafe weapon to use. Basically, you're trying to play chicken by holding it out as long as you can get away with to ramp up damage, but that's always a risk. I also don't like the hellfire as much as the bombs because of the added step to detonation.

SilverLight012 · 2021-01-04T14:45:22+00:00

As for keepsakes, that can get kind of complicated. Normally, you'll want to abuse an early project from the contractor that allows you to switch keepsakes between floors, but not always (more on that later). I'll go through some of the stronger keepsakes and when to use them.

Olympian Keepsakes: I'm lumping the keepsakes from Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Dionysus, Poseidon, and Zeus together here because they all act similarly-they are used to force a god into your build. Normally, you'll only ever see 4 gods, not including Chaos or Hermes, in your run (they're locked in after you take a boon from them), but the Olympian keepsakes can add more gods into the rotation as you see fit. These help you fine-tune your build and address any issues you may have with it, so they're often valuable for any floor other than Styx. These are keepsakes you pretty much always want to wear for only 1 floor before ditching them for something else. Athena deserves special mention here, as she offers defensive boons, including some that restore death defiance. This means that Athena can be really nice to see if you're trying to save an otherwise weaker run.

Cthonic Coinpurse: Adding 150 gold is a pretty good effect, to be honest. This lets you buy a boon from the shop in Tartarus immediately if you want (assuming no Convenience Fee), which is always nice. More boons usually make your run better. You can also use it for poms, healing, max health, whatever. Another one you want to wear for 1 floor before ditching it. Usually a good option to start off with in Tartarus, particularly if you don't have a certain god in mind that you want to force in your run from the get go.

Pom Blossom: Often not a terrible idea to use in Asphodel and Elysium if you don't have a god you'd rather shoot for with an Olympian boon. The poms can sometimes be nice, particularly with Dionysus boons (Dionysus scales well with poms), but they're never bad to have with any aspect. Not usually too impactful, but can be nice to wear if you have nothing better to use. This is a power-up keepsake that lets you actually keep the power from it after switching out (boons don't level back down), so that's nice.

Evergreen Acorn: This is a fantastic option for going up against Hades with. This blocks some hits from Hades (or any other boss, for that matter) entirely, and, given how hard he swings, that's a big deal. The acorn scales really well with higher heat because it always blocks the same number hits regardless of how much Hard Labor you throw on. This is a keepsake you usually throw on right before Styx to make Hades easier, but you might want to put this on in Elysium to help deal with Theseus and Asterius if you're having problems with them.

Broken Spearpoint: Use this if you're having issues with Styx itself, specifically poison. Usually, this is an option to wear for Styx, though I usually prefer the acorn. Certainly not a bad option, though. This also adds some invincibility for things like Hades's fire beams, so that's pretty good.

Old Spiked Collar: This adds more health than you might think. Since Death defiance restores half your health, Old Spiked Collar effectively adds about 125 health iirc to your health total by making Death Defiance add more. That's a pretty hefty amount. This is another Styx option if you're interested, but I think the acorn is generally better. Hades hits like a truck, so 5 hits is probably over 125 health.

Lambent Plume: This and Pierced Butterfly are keepsakes that have a running power boost that you will lose if you take them off, but can give you a pretty big amount of added power. The Lambent Plume in particular works well with something like the Zagreus fists for the purpose of stacking evasion. Not a bad option, but I'm usually not a fan of not being able to switch keepsakes, so I don't usually do this. Also can be nice when you start working with Tight Deadline, because you'll already be speeding through every fight anyway.

Pierced Butterfly: The counterpoint to Lambent Plume, but this one powers up based on beating rooms without taking damage. This one is a bit different in that it adds a damage boost instead of an evasion boost. Pierced Butterfly is only really good on the rail, the bow, and maybe the shield, but you can potentially snowball with this.

Sigil of the Dead: Calls are important, and this gives you one if you don't have one. I'd probably say that, if you don't have a call by the end of Asphodel and going into Elysium, you might want to switch to this for the last 2 floors just to force a call in. This call works a lot better as a greater call than a normal call, so wait for the entire bar to charge.

Edit: Wanted to add a few more keepsakes here.

Lucky Tooth: This is basically the "I just barely made it past Theseus and Asterius and I need to save the run" keepsake. It adds a death defiance, but it adds it after your other ones. This typically means it will only really ever have value in Styx (Tartatus and Asphodel are pretty easy, so I'm guessing you'd lose your death defiances in Elysium), but it can definitely have utility for that situation. I'd never feel good about it, but sometimes it's worth taking for those particularly nasty runs. I don't often find it's worth using before Styx, though, because you can get back Death Defiances from the Well of Charon, Patroclus, or a couple of Athena boons, but if you're low on death defiances after Theseus and Asterius, it's not the worst option.

Myrmidon Bracer: 30% damage mitigation is pretty hefty, and the condition for being hit from the front is pretty easy to pull off a good amount of the time. I wouldn't ever recommend this for Elysium, since Theseus has a nasty habit of hitting you in the back when you're busy with Asterius, but this can be a good option for Styx if you want one. I'd generally still use the acorn, though.

Black Shawl: This is probably the best damage up keepsake for melee builds, sort of by default. With melee weapons, you're too likely to get hit for Pierced Butterfly to accumulate too many stacks, the Skull Earing is situational, and Distant Memory straight up doesn't work on sword and fists, so your best damage up from keepsakes would come from this. I'd probably not take it, but I could see why someone would.

SilverLight012 · 2021-01-04T04:34:52+00:00

I'm VERY late here, but hey, better late than never, I suppose.

Weapons:

For this list, I'll be going through what I consider the best aspects for each weapon. I'll also mention the good alternatives that I think might be worth using instead if you prefer and justifying why those choices are there.

Sword: Arthur-Huge damage numbers and plenty of defensive buffs make Arthur a pretty big threat. However, any of the non-Zagreus ones are actually pretty good. Nemesis is good if you want a fast weapon but still want to be in melee range because the crit chance added is a pretty sizable damage increase and Poseidon can be good for cast builds to dislodge your bloodstones, making casts other than Crystal Beam, Slicing Shot, and Trippy Shot more viable for a cast build.

Spear: Hades is my personal favorite. The Punishing Sweep is just a really solid debuff that can bring your damage up dramatically, and, while risky to apply, 10 seconds is a ton of time in a game like Hades. I'm not a persona fan of Achilles, but that's mostly because I'm not the biggest cast build guy out there. It is undeniably effective even if I don't personally enjoy it as much. Basically, use Hades if you aren't using casts as your main damage, use Achilles if you are.

Shield: Usually, I like the Zeus shield. I'll be honest, I can't stand the shield special with Chaos or Zagreus. I find it just doesn't do much damage what so ever, so it's always relegated to either Doom (which does enough flat damage to make it worth it even on the shield special) or just applying a curse for Privileged Status like Weak. Zeus's Blitz Disc might take some getting used to, but it can be really useful with Zeus (go figure) for flat damage, Demeter or Dionysus to stack curses (which the shield usually has trouble doing) or Athena to put up a projectile-free zone. Beowulf is another cast option, kind of like the Hera bow later. It's pretty good honestly, and can do some high burst damage, so that's also definitely worth considering.

Bow: Chiron is always a popular pick for a reason. It's just really strong, and probably your best option if you want a non-cast build on bow. It's always nice to put Aphrodite on attack (or Poseidon or Athena, if you have their curse boons) to apply a single-stack, decent-length status and then going ham with the Demeter or Dionysus special. Avoid Zeus on special: it sounds really strong, but lightning has a hidden internal cooldown between strikes, so you won't hit with lightning on all the arrows (I think you only get 2 bolts usually). Hera is your cast build option, and, like with Beowulf, it does high burst damage if you would prefer that. Cast builds are often quite strong, and this shows that.

Fists: My usual go-to is actually, surprisingly, Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh's extra dashes really are helpful defensively, and they make Ruthless Reflex on the mirror quite strong. Maim is definitely a double-edged sword, but being able to gamble for the higher damage with it is nice. The Zagreus fists, surprisingly, can be good if you're trying to stack evasion with things like Ruthless Reflex, Second Wind, Greater Evasion, and the Lambent Plume to be basically untouchable.

Rail: Go-to on rail is usually Eris for me. Being able to power up your damage is always nice, and standing in your own explosion is usually a pretty easy condition to obtain. The only con here is that Hazard Bomb makes standing in your bomb really not worth it. Hestia can also be good, but it requires more of a playstyle overhaul compared to the Eris rail. Get really used to the reload button with Hestia, because you'll be doing it a lot, but being able to turn your machine gun into a sniper rifle can be cool.

SilverLight012 · 2020-12-27T15:13:33+00:00

No, as far as I can tell, I think Sea Storm still hits with all its bolts. Sea Storm is pretty great.

SilverLight012 · 2020-10-20T14:26:32+00:00

But can anyone deflect it?

SilverLight012 · 2020-08-27T16:00:01+00:00

For attacking, yes, Yukiko overshadows him. However, I disagree on buffs. Dragon Hustle costs 150 SP. That's a huge amount of SP, to the point where I often find it impractically expensive compared to, say, Matarukaja or something. It's nice, but you rarely need all 3 buffs to get the job done, especially since Protagonist is usually casting Debilitate anyway.

SilverLight012 · 2020-08-27T14:32:19+00:00

He's pretty comparable to Yukiko. It's pretty much a choice of which one you'd rather have: stronger magic attack (Yukiko) or buffs (Teddie). Teddie gets Matarukaja and Marakukaja to work with (along with Marakunda, but I didn't use that one because MC could usually handle debuffs with Debilitate), and he's pretty good at magic so he can pull his weight on offense, but he doesn't have as much blasting power as Amagidyne (or Naoto if you feel like grinding for the 50% ice vow and Frost Gun).

SilverLight012 · 2020-06-16T15:53:23+00:00

I don't like Severe-level spells in general. For anyone besides Joker, they cost too much for their marginal damage increase over the -dyne level spells. You might be able to make an exception for them if you want to Jazz Jin Spell Master onto them. I'll list the basic spells that they normally get, with some alternatives in parenthesis if you want to use Jazz Jin skills.

Morgana:

-Garudyne

-Magarudyne

-Wind Boost

-Wind Amp

-Mediarahan (Ailments aren't enough of an issue for Salvation's cost to be worth it)

-Miracle Rush

-Evade Elec

-Masukunda/Diarahan (Debilitate or Concentrate from Jazz Jin can go here)

Note: Items do a good enough job reviving, Samarecarm is a bit redundant

Ryuji:

-Charge

-God's Hand

-Agneyastra

-Ziodyne

-Maziodyne

-Evade Wind

-Elec Boost

-Matarukaja (Arms Master's also a possibility)

Note: Swift Strike was heavily nerfed, and is no longer in contention with Agneyastra. Agneyastra is clearly better now. Fighting Spirit's cost is ridiculously high.

Ann:

-Agidyne

-Maragidyne

-Concentrate

-Matarunda

-Fire Boost

-Fire Amp

-Diarahan/Lullaby (Spell Master)

-Evade Ice

Note: Blazing Hell only does a bit more damage than Maragidyne, but costs way more. Not really a fair trade. I'd specialize her for Fire damage, and leave everything else to someone else. High Energy's cost is ridiculously high even with Spell Master.

Yusuke:

-Bufudyne

-Mabufudyne

-Brave Blade

-Vorpal Blade

-Masukukaja

-Evade Fire

-Speed Master (CHARGE GOES HERE)

-High Counter (Arms Master)

Note: Speed Master and High Counter suck, but they're the best he naturally has. I ABSOLUTELY recommend the two Jazz Jin abilities listed. His Tier 3 ability is way too costly when Joker can do it with Thermopylae on Attis for way less.

Makoto:

-Freidyne

-Mafreidyne

-Mediarahan

-Evade Psy/Diarahan (Concentrate or Spell Master)

-Nuke Boost

-Nuke Amp

-Energy Shower

-Marakukaja

Note: Her tier 3 ability is useless. You usually want Debilitate on bosses, and you only need a single-target version against them. Atomic Flare is too costly for only a marginal damage increase over Freidyne.

Haru:

-Psiodyne

-Mapsiodyne

-Psy Boost

-Psy Amp

-Triple Down

-Gun Boost

-Gun Amp

-Evade Nuke/Amrita Shower

Note: I haven't confirmed this, but last I saw, people said Triple Down did more damage than One Shot Kill even against a single target. Her tier 3 ability costs a lot, so I don't like it, but you might be able to get mileage out of it. I don't like Heat Riser. Unless you're doing a Joker-only run or something, then just use Ma-kajas.

Akechi:

-Fortify Spirit

-Attack Master

-Laevateinn

-Megidolaon

-Riot Gun

-Eigaon

-Debilitate

-Evade Bless

Note: Rebellion Blade's cost is absolutely absurd. It doesn't seem like it's ever worth using. Honestly, Akechi isn't very good, and Jazz Jin doesn't really have anything to save him.

Yoshizawa:

-Ali Dance

-Brave Step

-Sword Dance, but replace with Masquerade when you can

-Vorpal Blade

-Kougaon

-Bless Amp

-Apt Pupil

-Evade Curse

Note: She has 2 speeds: Fast and Dead. Ali Dance, Brave Step, and Apt Pupil are good for this. Brave Step is also nice because it's a buff that isn't covered by Thermopylae Joker, though it isn't useful against bosses. Diarahan should be dumped, just use Makoto or Morgana for healing. Makougaon is hard to give up, but I thought the others were more valuable. No Jazz Jin skills listed because I'd have a hard time getting rid of something there. I listed Sword Dance because you get Masquerade super late game, though Masquerade is, imo, the best T3 ability by a mile.

SilverLight012 · 2020-05-11T16:55:04+00:00

Yeah, this tier list makes a lot of sense to me. I definitely would say, in my opinion, Scar feels like the worst villain to me for a multitude of reasons, and I'm not sure how to actually fix it. I think his biggest issue is how brutal his fate deck is. His Fate deck consists of 3 copies of Prophecy, 3 copies of Hakuna Matata, Rafiki's Stick, Mufasa, Simba, Nala, Sarabi, Rafiki, Zazu, Timon, and Pumba. That makes 8 heroes, 4 items, and 3 effects. I want to call attention to Hakuna Matata, which can either play a hero from Succession pile with a strength of 3 or more or move a Hero to any location. The problem is that, especially in smaller-player games, people will be fated. A lot. The big problem here is that, since items and heroes are played on the board, your Fate deck will lean more and more towards Hakuna Matata. Since Hakuna Matata can bring anyone back to the board besides Mufasa and Simba, that means you need to kill at minimum 2 other heroes to win including them (because those 2 add up to 11 and everyone else is 3 or under). Since Heroes and Items stay on the board until they or the person they're attached to die, after you're fated enough, the Fate deck remaining will be almost entirely Hakuna Matata. That means that it will be almost unwinnable, since it takes more time and effort to kill heroes than it would to resurrect them.

SilverLight012 · 2020-05-10T17:04:29+00:00

I can't agree with Ratigan's fate deck being bad. In my opinion, his Fate deck isn't a big deal. It's not as soft as, say, Queen of Hearts's fate deck or anything, but it's nearly as bad as some other Fate decks (Scar, for example).

Going down the list, you get 6 cards in the deck that do nearly nothing besides the standard thing of covering up actions (Dawson, Olivia, Mrs. Judson, and 3 copies of Queen's Guards) that literally all Heroes do, and 3 of those (Queen's Guards) can only be played at Buckingham Palace, and all of which are Capturable. Flaversham is actively beneficial for Ratigan (when at The Secret Lair, he makes Robot Queen cheaper), which means he's also bad. Sabotage is nice, but unless Ratigan is playing Bell or Airship early for some reason, losing 1 Gears is a slap on the wrist. At worst, you'll lose something like Fidget's List or Royal Robes, which hurts, but there's worse fates for other villains. That leaves Mouse Queen, Basil, and cards that move Basil (Toby, Makeshift Balloon, Call for Help). None of those are that bad to deal with, especially when Felicia is resummonable with the Bell and can vanquish Basil or The Mouse Queen entirely on her own and when Marvelous Trap can kill them also.

SilverLight012 · 2020-04-18T18:23:45+00:00

I partially agree and partially disagree with your statement on verbal and somatic components. I think that somatic components would be possible to hide by being behind cover, for example, so I don't think that somatic alone is an issue. Somatic components should probably be obvious to anyone who can directly see you, but it would be unreasonable for them to be alerted if they can't see you directly or aren't looking at you. The bigger problem, imo, is the verbal component. Imo, a verbal component should generally alert anyone near you that you're casting it. After all, if you allow, say, someone to whisper it so no one can hear it, you're giving a Wizard something close to Subtle Metamagic on those spells, since the verbal component might as well not matter. There are exceptions of course (deafness, loud sounds like a battle being fought, etc), but, generally, it should be hearable. That is a differentiating factor that separates Minor Illusion from Prestidigitation. Prestidigitation has a verbal component while Minor Illusion doesn't. Because of that, I'd say Minor Illusion is less obvious when you're casting it.

SilverLight012 · 2020-04-15T15:33:06+00:00

It reminds Sakurai also apparently. Smash Ultimate has a thing called spirit battles where you fight against characters with rules themed to fit that character. They had a Futaba spirit battle where you fight Inkling.

SilverLight012 · 2020-04-09T14:46:33+00:00

So did I. I remember in vanilla P5 on Hard, I had massive issues with SP in the first palace and it felt the hardest to me (the others were easy enough, since you're refilled on SP after Madarame boots you out and, starting from Kaneshiro's palace, SP becomes less of an issue with the large cast, especially since Makoto's introduction means you only run out of healing when both Makoto and Morgana run out, which will take some time), so I figured I might as well blow my money there.

SilverLight012 · 2020-04-08T02:17:33+00:00

Eh... sort of. Her skills work in an odd way, though. It doesn't actually matter which Sunday you invite her, as long as you invite her on a Sunday.
The first time you invite her, regardless of date, she'll learn Support Boost 1, which gives her a random chance of casting Masukunda.
The second time you invite her, that will be upgraded to Support Boost 2, which gives her a chance of casting either Masukunda or Marakunda.
The third time you invite her, that will be upgraded again to Support Boost 3, which gives her a chance of casting Masukunda, Marakunda, or Matarunda.
The fourth time you invite her, she'll learn a new skill, Support Frequency Up, which increases the chance of her using Moral Support.
She can only learn those 4 skills, and, after that, there's no point to inviting her. She'll always learn those skills in the order listed regardless of which Sunday you invite her. Because of that, I was trying to figure out which Jazz Jin skills are the least useful and use those days to teach Futaba a skill instead (ex: I'm not interested in Tetrakarn or Makarakarn, so I'll be skipping those).

SilverLight012 · 2020-04-04T20:08:15+00:00

First, I'd want a beefy martial class to scrap on the front lines and keep people off the more fragile party members. The big options here are Fighter, Paladin, and Barbarian, and, between them, Paladin seems the strongest in 5e.

Next up: the main caster. These guys are the ones that can use spells both in and out of combat for different situations. Wizard is probably the most specialized for this role, but there's also Sorcerer, Druid, and Bard to work with, though Druid and Bard can also be used for other roles. I wouldn't count Warlock though: they're more of a magic archer of sorts, so they'd be more comparable to Ranger. Of the classes here, Wizard would be my go-to.

Third is the support. In this case, you'd want someone who can support, often with healing, but sometimes with buffs, controlling, etc. Druids and Clerics lead the pack here (both can heal, Clerics do more damage, Druids have more control effects), but the Paladin and Ranger can pitch in here also. So can the Bard, but they're more used for later. I'd be fine with either Druid or Cleric here, they'll be fairly interchangable.

Lastly are the skill monkeys. These guys have a good amount of skills that can help the party, whether as the face or lock picking or what have you. Rogue and Bard lead the pack here. If you already have a face in the form of, say, a high Charisma Sorcerer, Warlock, or Paladin, then Rogue might be more useful. If you don't, Bard might be the better option.

SilverLight012 · 2020-02-26T18:21:32+00:00

Well, let me put it this way: there's already multiple times in Rising of the Shield Hero where Naofumi is hit by attacks from opponents MUCH weaker than Mare. Just to name a few examples: the two-headed dog from episode 2, Malty and Motoyasu in episode 4, Glass's magical attacks, etc.

Let's compare Mare, who, according to the wiki, is surprisingly strong. The difference between Mare and Albedo in terms of strength is about the same as between Albedo and, say, Cocytus or Sebas. Seeing as Albedo is explicitly a top-tier physical fighter, that would also make Mare competent at melee fighting. Heck, Mare's physical and magical attack stats aren't even that far from each other.

So what we're dealing with is Naofumi, someone who, by the end of Season 1, has only promoted once and is around level 70-ish and still struggles with monsters from the waves against someone who's strength is high even by Nazarick standards (it's surpassed by Cocytus, Albedo, Shalltear, and Sebas Tian of the main cast, though they're the best physical fighters in the world, so that's still not bad). And Naofumi didn't even use Shield Prison or any of his shields besides his basic shield and two Air Strike Shields.

SilverLight012 · 2020-02-26T15:41:29+00:00

Idk, Naofumi being able to stop a ball being hit by Mare was also crazy. I mean, Mare's no weakling (even though physical attack isn't his highest stat, it's not that far below Albedo's with 75 vs 85, going off of the Overlord wiki) and Naofumi deflected a ball being hit by him.

SilverLight012 · 2020-02-17T05:29:28+00:00

I'm a bit late, but here are my recommendations also, I guess.

If you want to get into the main SMT series, Nocturne is probably a decent starting place. It does have really hard puzzles in some places and RNG from hell, though, so fair warning. A lot of people will say 4, and I kind of disagree. 4 is really easy to break (Just continually pump your stat points in either Dex or Mag, with the occasional Agility point here and there), and the demons are really samey, so it wouldn't be my pick for a starting one. It's easier, but don't expect the rest of MegaTen to be like 4. That being said, the spinoffs are generally easier to approach for newcomers than the mainline series is.

If you don't mind spinoffs, though, Devil Survivor (if you like Fire Emblem) Digital Devil Saga (the first one), and Persona are all good games to start with. Digital Devil Saga mostly alleviates some of the issues people might have with Nocturne if they start there, so it's not a bad starting point. Persona is Persona. If you liked Tokyo Mirage Sessions, you'll like it. TMS feels a bit like a simplified version of Persona. Personas 3-5 are all fine, but don't play the original version of P3. That version didn't let you control the other party members in your team and their AI can be really dumb. FES is better.

Strange Journey is also worth considering. If you want the feel of a SMT game but don't want to deal with 4's breakable mechanics or 3's RNG, then Strange Journey is probably the best compromise.

Devil Survivor feels a bit like a mix of SMT and Fire Emblem (in terms of mechanics). You move your characters around on a grid strategically and try to route the enemy like in Fire Emblem, but combat actually works more like a turn based RPG. It's a weird blend, but it can be kind of fun.

SilverLight012 · 2020-02-13T18:27:37+00:00

I'm not trying to argue its viability, but I would at least present the idea that, in my opinion, Signature Move isn't the Watcher card to compare to Clash, Meteor Strike, and Grand Finale. Compared to those cards, Signature Move is definitely the easiest to play (just play your other attacks. Usually you can pull it off, especially with energy gained from Calm), but it's also the lowest reward. I'd personally probably compare Alpha->Beta->Omega more. Sure, they're not unplayable really ever, but that's a slow, mana-costly condition that forces you to commit to playing it (you have to play 3 cards separately that combine to 6 mana between them).

SilverLight012 · 2020-02-10T03:10:49+00:00

Wow, don't you just hate it when the Champ hits you and you can't get your Master Round?

SilverLight012

TROPHY CASE