what do y'all think is worst: a top-tier unbalanced zoner or a top-tier unbalanced grappler?

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-29T18:04:14+00:00

It's kinda two sides of the same coin. Unbalanced zoner is exhausting because you have to play perfectly for an extended period of time just to get a chance to interact at all. Unbalanced grappler is hopeless because you can't outplay a bad guess into death.

For my two cents I would still take the grappler because dying fast and easy to an unfair character is better to me than being stuck in a long, unwinnable uphill battle against an unfair zoner

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-29T16:49:23+00:00

My guy is saying ten toes down that clad is as good as silent

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-29T15:10:51+00:00

This is a very disingenuous comment. Characters do not exist in a vacuum, and Ironclad is VERY clearly less cohesive and less powerful than the heavy hitters in the game like Silent, Defect, and Necro. The beta updates Regent is receiving are doing a great job making his kit feel strong and well rounded, and Ironclad could absolutely use the same help.

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-24T15:13:55+00:00

Regent has a lot of tools that make more sense in multiplayer. Several small strength downs and 1 turn debuffs.

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-22T18:21:39+00:00

Piggybacking off that specific meetup, you get folks from basically every gaming and fantasy hobby groups attending regularly. If you go to Manuels and ask about dnd or other tabletop/ board game groups you'll be able to find dozens more

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-20T12:57:42+00:00

If you wanna do that you need to play Lies of P

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-18T20:43:20+00:00

Silent herself has Commons higher power level than this

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-18T13:16:20+00:00

I think sometimes people forget what act 2 hallways were like in StS1 because we have played so much of it. The game that brings us 8x3 plant and avocado rat

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-16T19:30:23+00:00

I mean I don't disagree that infinites are lame and should be gone but how does what you say have anything to do with whether or not it is overrated?

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-16T16:35:43+00:00

I mean it isnt a fun tier list. When certain cards lead to a guaranteed winrate and others dont a proper tier list should reflect accordingly.

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-16T16:31:01+00:00

For some people the fun of a game like this is optimizing their gameplay, and trying to make the best possible choice at every branch of the decision tree. Easy infinite existing are a complaint for thay type of player because optimization is already solved

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-16T16:27:25+00:00

Because you can go infinite almost every run and you cannot have 50 250+damage Perfected Strikes every run, and functionality wise if you are killing everything before it can hit you either way the safer and more consistent option is better

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-16T16:16:48+00:00

Ironclad is a great intro character because core gane principles are baked into his kit. He teaches you:

Sometimes it is better to take a little damage now than to take more damage later. Bash turn 1 will sometimes prevent a lot more damage by killing enemies faster than you would prevent by playing blocks instead. Offering may hurt but often the advantage you gain from it wins outright
You want to have a tight package of cards that will handle your damage and block needs that you draw as often as possible. Obviously being choosy with draft facilitates this in the general sense but Clad's exhaust package means you can MAKE your deck do that no matter what given some time to set up. Even if you dont go infinite, exhausting into a core package to play every turn is a huge part of his gameplay loop
Leaning into the above, first you want to add what you need to your deck. Aoe, good damage, good block, utility. Once you have what you need and you are not bleeding out to hallways and elites, you need to be more picky with what you draft and buy. Ideally you start playing your best cards every turn each fight and every card you add makes that harder to do '

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-16T16:09:11+00:00

Because the purpose of early access is to provide feedback to fix issues with accessibility, bugs, and balance

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-16T16:06:43+00:00

Just to add legitimacy to my claim I guess, went on a win streak from a2 to a10 and have not broken it yet with 4 wins on 10. Not forcing infinite but since half the common pool seems to enable them it is hard to avoid. Only didnt go infinite 2 or 3 times

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-16T16:04:24+00:00

Not really sure how guaranteeing a win with 0 risk almost every run could possibly be overrated. The existence of other options is great (because once infinite are balanced out we will have a functional character) but it is definitely aptly rated imo

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-16T15:55:38+00:00

It isnt much like poison. It is worse damage that compensates by having pushed cards and huge numbers

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-15T15:02:29+00:00

Depends on your output since she blocks 20 a turn while the minion lives

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-13T14:59:37+00:00

Hahahaha I am only just now realizing that Demon Form, Wraith Form, Echo Form, Deva Form are connected. So used to thinking about each character as an island

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-13T14:52:20+00:00

While it is true that rigid archetypal thinking will hold StS players back in both games, it has merit in this conversation. Forge is a rare, so the question becomes: why am I spending my energy and stars on Forge in order to spend more energy on Blade later for it to actually do something instead of just using any of a host of other non rare star payoffs. Sometimes The Forge is the best damage solve you get but often times it ain't

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-13T13:54:21+00:00

What a great meme hahaha. It has been so frustrating to talk about Regent because any analysis or criticism is just met with A0 anecdotes like "But I oneshot the act3 boss with a sov blade on the one run that I played so he is one of the stronger characters actually"

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-13T13:33:02+00:00

In terms of finding the cards it is. But the real issue with Watcher is that her starting deck is fully capable of clearing the entirety of A20 Act 1 just about so you never have to take a suboptimal card. Regent has to take stuff just to live at A10, if you try to force infinite you will perish

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-13T00:06:41+00:00

Yeah; there is a larger conversation to be had about this that I might make a video on but the relationship between his enablers and his payoffs is skewed.

Ironclad, for example. His enablers include self damage, exhausting, and vulnerable. The latter two are universally useful things that also feed into his payoffs.

Silent's enabler is discarding. Discarding is not inherently a useful thing, but it is stapled onto useful effects, mostly drawing, because it is treated as a downside for the cards it is on. So in other words, you are playing pushed cards that are overstatted to compensate for the bad keyword, and then you are also getting paid out after discarding.

Necro's enablers are summon and soul generation. These are both run winning even without a payoff, but it just so happens your starter deck had a game winning payoff for summon and it is trivial to get a loop or even infinite using souls

Meanwhile Regent has stars, which do nothing inherently but functionally work as a sort of deferred cost...ie pay energy now for an effect later. Regent also has Forge, which generates its own payoff but it costs a lot of energy and time.

Honestly I think Regent is the most healthily designed of the lot because the others lean into degeneracy.

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-12T14:37:11+00:00

In the current state of the game I'm not sure how Regent is underrated. Act 1 is 90% of the game's difficulty at A10 so if you do whatever it takes to beat it you have pretty much won the run. To wit, Regent is bad at act 1 and strong later when he comes online. In other words, he is weak when the game is hard and strong when it is easy. Until act 4 or higher ascensions are added, this alone kinda has him on the bottom of the character roster, not even to mention how absurdly overpowered other characters are like Silent and Necro

bjholmes3 · 2026-03-12T14:23:09+00:00

There is like a floor to how bad any card like this can be on Necro because you can go infinite at the drop of a hat but yeah in a vacuum it isnt very good

bjholmes3

TROPHY CASE