The Last Spell - city defense tactical RPG with roguelite mechanics - now with Dwarves of Runenberg DLC

[Cyberarmy]

Been playing around with Vampiric and Spiky melee builds, and they are pretty powerful and not least fun. In particular I've been a fan of axes with Vampiric builds. The main reason ranged always ends up overtaking them is less because of raw power (actually fleshed out melee builds often overtake ranged builds there) but lack of flexibility. I feel like a few more movement options would go along way to bring melee builds up to snuff. When shit really goes down and you need to be in a certain spot, melees are often SOL without a teleporter.

That's why I mostly pair other melees with power staff or sledge hammer, the great mobility weapons. Great axes jump is only good for getting in combat. Scepters and wands have nice buffs and that sprint skill really come in handy in difficult times.
My melees nearly almost become boss killers in later nights. Scepters and swords really shine with momentum and isolation.

Edit: Also daggers are good too, especially with heroes that have high action points. Bonus points if they have isolation and poison skill lines.

 

[Kaivokz]

I feel like a few more movement options would go along way to bring melee builds up to snuff. When shit really goes down and you need to be in a certain spot, melees are often SOL without a teleporter.

Blink trait or teleport scroll help a lot, especially if you have blood magic.

Skill range is also very good despite not affecting many physical abilities (except hammer). 1h sword’s 2nd attack is affected by skill range and you can use it 4 times a round to move. 2h axe leap, 2h hammer follow up, 2h sword charge are also affected by skill range.

All three of my melee were super mobile in the last round I played:
1h sword / 2h axe with 14 move points, could leap and charge across the whole map
2h sword (weapon focus so +1 ability uses) with 15 move points, blink and a charge scroll (so she could charge 4 times a round and blink twice a round)
2h hammer / power staff hybrid with 10 move points, hammer for damage, staff for mobility—even with only +2 skill range, two stunning entrances can move you from one side of the map to the other, and the follow up ability on hammer is also excellent mobility

I also found wands to be helpful if you’re focusing on melee; I think the move granted scales with wand quality (or level? not sure), but eventually they give 4 move and 1 ap per use.

 

[Grunker]

Sledgehammers are awesome once you get used to them, yeah.

 

[Kaivokz]

Sledgehammers are awesome once you get used to them, yeah.

And if you go propagation damage / bounce (especially if you can get diagonal bounces) they’re very good at crowd clear as well.

 

[Grunker]

Sledgehammers are awesome once you get used to them, yeah.

And if you go propagation damage / bounce (especially if you can get diagonal bounces) they’re very good at crowd clear as well.

That skill is their main attraction IMO.

Playing apocalypse, this game just keeps growing on me. I constantly discover new combos and builds. My current favourite build is the block-tank poison-stun Contagion propagator. That shit is hilarious. Run into a bunch of mobs, start the chain and watch everything get stunned and poisoned in exponential chains every turn :D

Kind of gimmicky though, since you gotta work reeeeaaal hard to make that poison bite.

 

[Cyberarmy]

The thing with stun contagion is I think it don't count stun resist properly. Even most hardass monsters that you have %10 chance to stun can be easly stunned via contagion.

Edit: 20.03.2024
They fixed stun spreading via contagion, now game checks for resistances when any debuff is spread.

 

[Serious_Business]

This game is pretty fucking sweet, high recommend from me. I enjoy the gameplay loop, it feels very engaging ; in a way it's a very efficient and modern take on the X-Com formula, in so far as we define it as an interaction between management and tactical gameplay. Everything you do in one part of the game affects the other part in meaningful and direct ways, it's very dynamic. I'm not sure how balanced the systems are, but it feels like there is no one right choice, so there's space for player experimentation (although the game is too difficult to be fucking around and doing bad choices). Also that OST hits hard, as the kids say. Can't remember a game that went that much metal on its soundtrack, it's pretty great.

 

[Grunker]

I'm not sure how balanced the systems are

I thought at the start that they were very unbalanced and skewed towards ranged combat as you can read from my posts here, but the truth is I'm becoming more and more prone to retract that statement. The later and more ridicoulous the scenarios become, the more you often need those immortal melee dudes. Lakeburg on Apocalypse seems especially melee-favored.

Also that OST hits hard

The only reason I play these games is to watch a show or YouTube or whatever on another monitor. 80 hours into this thing and I still haven't done that, because the music simply slaps (how do you do, fellow kids) too hard for me to turn it off

I do have some criticism of the game, however. I feel like some of the scenarios can be too long, which make them more annoying to fail. Some of them you could cut in half length and not lose very much. Just up the difficulty of individual waves instead.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Just up the difficulty of individual waves instead.

They kinda did this in the latest update, shorten some nights(especially boss nights) while making them more crowded (especially the nights before bosses)

 

[Grunker]

Just up the difficulty of individual waves instead.

They kinda did this in the latest update, shorten some nights(especially boss nights) while making them more crowded (especially the nights before bosses)

Yeah they shortened the nights but not the number of waves, right? I always felt the latter was more of an issue than the former.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Some nights now have lesser number of waves with more undead in them but some of them have more waves with less undead so it kinda evens out. But still, nights felts shorter on some maps I repeated yesterday.

 

[Grunker]

Some nights now have lesser number of waves with more undead in them but some of them have more waves with less undead so it kinda evens out. But still, nights felts shorter on some maps I repeated yesterday.

I misspoke, I meant the actual number of nights

 

[Skorpion]

Picked this up as I wanted a break in my current WotR run and looking at the games last update the steam comments had me laughing so hard.
People are really filtered by this game it seems and I consider that a good thing!
Anywho did my first run, got to night 5 (or was it 6) in the first town Gildenburg. Had no idea what I was doing but had a lot of fun figuring what little I could out.
This is definitely a one more turn/night kind of game and the hours slipped by easily. So thanks thread bros, this has been a very worthy purchase so far and a game I wouldn't have known about if not for the Codex

Now, whats the best weapon in your opinion to get unlocks/ugprades for ya think? No wrong answers, just curious what people think.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Now, whats the best weapon in your opinion to get unlocks/ugprades for ya think? No wrong answers, just curious what people think.

First, always use 2 sets of weapons.
Even after countless nerfs, hand crossbows still rule. Can be paired with daggers for poison and multi hit or long bow, rifle for sniping.
Book is really good for a starter weapon, a bit mana hungry maybe.
Druid staff is mass murderer with contagion. Can be paired with or for more power and poison or any other debuffing weapons. You can halt entire waves with 2 casts.
Hammers make good frontliners.

 

[whocares]

I will not eat the bugs. I will not live in a pod. I will not use 2FA.

 

[Skorpion]

Cleared the first town and am on night 6 of the 2nd town. Had to make myself turn the game off or I would end up pulling an all nighter!
I have found handcrossbows to be very nifty, the perk that lets you shoot 4 times as long as that character hasnt killed anyone that turn allowed me to just merc the Harpies on my first attempt woo
Will keep any eye out for Spears, havent seen them yet. I did find swords to be rather useless but thats the only weapon Ive run into that seems to really suck, perhaps Im not using it right.
Hammer seems good but axe seems more versatile, maybe Im missing something on that one too.
Alright thanks for the advice, will be back at this again tomorrow after work. Talk about addicting gameplay!

 

[Grunker]

Remember you have to unlock many of the weapons in the orichalcum (eg spears)!

Spears are amazing, easily my favorite melee weapon

 

[whocares]

I will not eat the bugs. I will not live in a pod. I will not use 2FA.

 

[Grunker]

I like one-handed axe + pistol builds

 

[whocares]

I will not eat the bugs. I will not live in a pod. I will not use 2FA.

 

[Grunker]

I like one-handed axe + pistol builds

Really don't see the point of the axe tbh. You have the line attack that's too small to be a real aoe and usually ends up hitting your own barricades, defenses, allies. A debuff that does no damage. And the boomerang that's straight garbage due to its schizophrenic pattern.

While all of this is true, it's also the point. The axe has the most free and excessive AoE, so with the right build they can carve through just tons and tons and tons of mobs on their own

 

[Cyberarmy]

Axe is best for the oppurtunist builds, add some crit and crit power and you'll be deleting elites and bosses in one turn, especially if paired with rifle or long bow.

 

[Grunker]

You'll also never have to hit your own stuff - that's what weapon swaps are for.

 

[whocares]

I will not eat the bugs. I will not live in a pod. I will not use 2FA.

 

[Grunker]

Isolation is just weird IMO. Maybe on a run where you have huge problems with a particular boss, but I always felt that making it through waves intact was more of an issue than dealing with the boss if I actually was intact.

The mechanic itself runs kind of counter to the game's core design.

Opportunism however I've found quite nice. It's so easy to mass debuff in the game.