Warrior – Tier Two Reveal

Welcome back, everyone! Phil Cape here, checking in to discuss the upcoming Chapter II release. The Alachian Sea update unlocks an entire new zone, complete with quests, new cities, a handful of dungeons… oh, and the level cap moves up from nine to fifteen, unlocking the second tier of talents for existing classes. Today, I’m going to cover warriors and all of the wonderful new weapons they have at their disposal.

Of the original three classes, warriors have the some of the strongest early level characters due to their impactful charge power that is both flexible and upgradeable. They also feature several free talents that allow you to customize your warrior experience from the very outset. The obvious drawback to the class is the six card starting hand, but astute warrior players have probably already realized that the Reinforcements talent allows warriors to artificially create a seventh starting card and circumvent their one disadvantage.

A “Card” in the Hand

If you’re looking for more options to offset a smaller starting hand, tier two’s got you covered. War Preparations offers a straightforward +1 card, even if it does come with a nominal health cost. Commander, at the center of the talent tree, offers another card. It may always be a shardless Survival of the Fittest, but this very consistency is one of the warrior’s greatest strengths. Between Commander and Reinforcements, a warrior is always armed with both troop and removal when they stride into battle, no matter what Kismet might say. Commander plays especially well with the warrior training talents as well, since you’re more likely to have a troop that’s just a smidge better than the opponent’s. Between this talent and their charge power, warriors should continue their reign as the undisputed kings of board control.

Fortifications provides an extra card in the form of Castle Walls, and even has the courtesy to begin in play. A big ol’ wall can be quite handy for blunting the assault of enemies with threatening troops, especially when that wall comes pre-built. It even lessens the collateral damage to your hero from Berserking – if their troops never make it to you, the Berserking bonus becomes quite one sided.

Never Surrender offers an interesting option for the warrior who lives on the edge. While this constant won’t make an appearance every game, it has the capacity to provide the player who needs it most with a multitude of cards. One thing it certainly does is live up to its name. I assure you I will never surrender while it is in play and I have at least one defender remaining – there’s always a glimmer of hope.

Blacksmithing is the final talent in this vein, and it is rivaled only by the affinity talents in terms of how it affects your deckbuilding. Part of why I find this talent so interesting is because it forces to me look at a cross section of cards that I normally do not group together – namely, cards equipped either by gloves, trinkets or weapons. If you have the full set of 4 of each, that’s 12 cards (fully 20% of your 60 card deck) that can be played off the top of the deck. If you decide to go all out and include 100 cards in your deck, you get to apply the bonus to all of your equipped cards, bumping the proportions up to 24% of your deck that’s doing an impression of Brown Fox Scout. I expect this talent to be quite popular among those warriors who’ve stockpiled gear.

Fighting Free

As I mentioned above, the free talents Fury and Weight defined a lot of the early experiences playing warrior. As free talents, their costs transcend mere talent points. On tier one, the free talents are immediately available, which makes the cost straightforward – exactly as printed on the talent’s text with no leveling required. Tier two’s free talents add an additional wrinkle, tacking “navigate to an adjacent talent” onto the list of costs while also adding the hidden benefit of being able to readily access the powerful talents that sit between them on the talent tree. These free talents do a lot to define the warrior’s second tier since they occupy four of the fourteen new squares.

The Conditioning talents in the upper corners offer the straightforward benefit of 3 health each at the cost of increasing your maximum deck size by ten cards each. Additional health is always welcome, whether you’re using it to offset health reducing talents like Fury or War Preparations, using Blood cards like Pact of Pain that leverage health for in-game effects, or simply trying to survive a particularly difficult dungeon (I’m looking at you, Devonshire Keep). If you do opt in to these talents, please remember to increase your resources proportionally; I suggest four resources and six non-resources per Conditioning talent. If you just put more sweet troops and actions in without adding resources, you’re going to have a bad time. Of course, there’s always a sneaky way to circumvent this drawback: play a 100 card deck to take advantage of the bonuses offered by Blacksmithing, War Machine, and the like. In “100 card deck”-land, these talents are quite literally all upside. Plus, they give you an excuse to play with even more awesome HEX cards, and we both know you want to do that anyway.

The other pair are not only free, but they actually pay you in talent points (the most universal currency of all). Rather than offering a fixed benefit, they offer you any other warrior talent your heart desires. In exchange, you have to take on a single dead card – either an Old War Wound or A Warrior’s Guilt. Not only are each of these cards dead draws, but they have negative effects beyond that as well.

Warrior’s Guilt will leave you dazed for 5 turns as your character ponders the moral implications of war. Old War Wound will cost you half your health, rounded down, when it re-opens. Warriors who grab both of these “free” talent points will likely want to end games quickly to avoid these negative effects. At the very least, they won’t be looking to draw really deep into their decks on their path to victory. The most creative among you will be looking for ways to put these cards into opposing decks – an opponent drawing your Old War Wound seems like a satisfying thing to do, even if it’s almost assuredly more trouble than its worth.

Class Gems

One last thing – each class is getting its own set of socketable gems, purchasable for the low, low price of one talent point. These gems abide by the same rules as other socketed gems in that you can only include four of the same name in a deck, but class gems can be quite a bit more powerful than what you’re used to. For example, compare the Warrior’s Major Orb of Berserking to the Major Ruby of Twinstrike. After just one attack, the warrior’s gem proves a much better deal. Minor/Major double socketed troops will especially love the Orb of Berserking since evasion powers like the Minor Diamond of Wind or the Minor Blood Orb of Intimidation make deadly pairings with even the smallest troops. The Minor Blood Orb of Frenzy lets you start using that troop’s rage right away, while the Minor Wild Orb of Brawn both compounds the effect and offers a pseudo-evasion that is sure to result in a dead opponent.

Meanwhile, the Warrior’s Minor Orb of Training can fairly easily grant +1/+1, Speed, Steadfast and Swiftstrike with just a single socket! The Minor Blood Orb of Frenzy and the Minor Ruby of Zeal, both of which see plenty of use, offer only a fraction of that value. If you’re willing to commit to playing sufficient socketing troops in your deck, this power will be worth more than the mere one talent point it asks of you.

Warrior’s Got Talent

I’m sure there are more noteworthy portions of the talent tree you see here that you all can discuss in the forums. The Alachian Sea launches very soon, and with these new talents warriors are well equipped to overcome its obstacles and slay its monsters. We’ll see you tomorrow with more previews – it’s time to get hyped for campaign!

Talent Cards

Phil Cape-

That’s all for now! Don’t forget to Follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, and Follow us on Twitch.

Discuss this article in our forums!