IceTyp
commented
1 year ago I like the concept of Maze pretty much. However, I agree that it is far too powerful right now.
Another way to nerf it would be to decrease its damage by 1 or 2. It would take the same amount of time to beat it, but the player wont receive as much damage over the course of the match.
Or make playing control cards even more punishing but decrease the damage of Maze even more so that careless players are still overwhelmed by it.
~~I'm also in favor of moving it to a later act. As it is right now, the player uses mostly starting cards against it. Since many of those cards are control, it is very difficult to not gain lots of damage in return. If the Maze appears later, the player has already developed a more specialized deck. This punishes decks focused on control cards but other decks are not as threatened. I think this would make this encounter much more interesting since it depends more on your drafted cards whether choosing to fight the Maze is a good idea.~~
Edit: After playing several more games, I no longer think that Maze is too strong. In fact, I usually always choose this encounter because it offers a challenge. Beating it feels very rewarding even if I take a significant amount of anxiety in return. It is definitely interesting that some encounters are more difficult to deal with. Otherwise, the game would feels pretty monotonous and boring before Narcissus shows up.
Act 1's balancing is very strange and unpredictable, as well as somewhat unfair, so I have some rudimentary suggestions on some of the things I have noticed, after playing other games like Slay The Spire now.
Gaslighter: It's comprehension is too low, my suggestion would to make it 1.5x or 2x more, as well as giving it courage and higher stress intents. Otherwise I can usually get an overcome on turns 2 to 3. (Free cards essentially) i'd also like to mention that the gasligher understanding is WAY too good. As taking it on Act I is a good counter for Narcisuss. My suggestion is to make it remove 5-10 doubt, instead of ALL doubt.
Butterfly: The butterfly also suffers from a low comprehension pool, not to mention the card reward is very good compared to the actual torment. Butterfly should scale 1 focus every turn, since it barely does any damage, and it's contentment is too manageable.
Murmurs: You know how StS has "The Guardian", well essentially Murmurs is like its defensive form. With a higher health pool of around 40 and it applies confusion and can scale grudge, Murmurs should be an elite at least. (But I'm almost kidding), Murmurs probably just needs less comprehension, Maybe switch murmurs and gaslighter's comprehension pools.
Maze: I HATE MAZE. THERE IS LITERLALLY NO ESCAPE FROM TAKING ANXIETY FROM IT. It is literally causing me real life anxiety. I know you were trying to replicate Nob, but Maze i way too OVERPOWERED. My suggestion is to make it so that every time you play and action on it you relax for like 1-2, or make maze and act II elite, as well as not make it buff itself with clarity. Because OMG I almost always either die to maze or reach 50-70% of my max anxiety on 0 anxiety. Another solution would be to make the maze always appear as an option instead of being trapped to overcome it, since it's basically an instant death button.
TLDR: Gaslighter needs more health +buffs Butterfly needs more health+buffs Mumurs needs less health Maze needs to be deleted from the game (Needs major nerfs)
Recurrrence needs buffs (90 stress per turn is not acceptable)
Every rest of the torments I can agree are balanced.