h2-builds-and-combat

[bleak night]

can't tell lol

[willow phoenix]

From the damage ticks it seems to show 600 damage two times, adding to 1200. But I'm not sure if the 600 is a single o attack or double. So I'm leaning on 4 I guess for now unless it's bugged lol

[bleak night]

it should work like Giga Cleaver and Exceptional at least,

that one sent out 4 waves

[willow phoenix]

Ah that makes sense ok, should be the same

[spare kite]

Can you detonate 3-4 times per special with that

Or is it too fast for that

[bleak night]

try base Giga Cleaver with no Exceptional, they made the timing to get the second cast detonation a lot harder to nail for some reason

you can spam the cast button and it's still somehow a coinflip on if the second wave blows it up or not

[rocky saffron]

build ideas?

[quick crescent]

not really for any weapon, just needs one with a good attack speed- burning desire with a quick weapon's hestia attack and glamour gain/rapture ring is fun

[willow phoenix]

Hmm is the numbers for Heph Apollo duo correct? It straight doubles the blast damage for me. I was dealing 500 ish damage without it and now it reaches 1.2k damage. That doesn't seem like a +220 damage to a 400 damage blast

[bleak night]

for... ?

[spare kite]

What global buffs you had?

[quick crescent]

any infusions, duos or supplementary boons beefing it up?

[willow phoenix]

I tried doing it now and it still doubles so any global buff should apply to both

I checked and it should be just strength

[quick crescent]

no grand caldera or anything?

[spare kite]

No furies?

[quick crescent]

in any event don't look a gift blast buff in the mouth ig lol

[willow phoenix]

I tried both without furies and no grand caldera

wait I got a clip

Oh wait

it can backstab sometimes what, that's new

So that's the source

[quick crescent]

oh sweet

[willow phoenix]

It doesn't need to be in front of the enemies since the blast can appear behind them

So that's something

[mint kiln]

Is there a build against Typhon for the staff of 16 skulls?

[quick crescent]

i haven't tried that armor build i was discussing above but it just occurred to me that taking white antler behind trusty shield + arachne dress + heavy metal + dodge chance (maybe daze) might be kinda crazy

hate being a college student don't they know that i belong to hades

[mint kiln]

that would give me advice on a staff, what 16 skulls on Typhon to go through)

[willow phoenix]

O yeah 1.5k blast damage is good, if only I got more poms with this

[bleak night]

pro tip for trying to beat surface

do not turn on the gold costs, even at 32. You can overload on boons and HP by spamming Hermes shrines and just wash the run

they're a good kind of broken

tf did I do

[tall notch]

Do charon wells still have healing that bypasses scars?

Or was that fixed

[uneven palm]

Yeah, they still work

Renamed to “Charity Bottle” this patch

It’s just a feature at this point lol

[quick crescent]

hey real quick- the hades boon Last Gasp gives you 10% for each death defiance used that night. the wiki says the Engraved Pin counts as a death defiance. do you think you could hypothetically cheese crazy amounts of damage out of that effect?

[uneven palm]

Possibly? Folks have done that with the Athena boon that gives you a defiance each location

Try it for science

[quick crescent]

i shall venture forth bravely

the funny thing about hades ii is that i played the first game for nearly 200 hours and im playing on my friends steam profile, i've only got like 30 runs so just on account of time my keepsakes and incantations are kinda underleveled

gonna have to take some dookie runs on the antler and pin before i get something going with either of those builds

if pin and stalwart stand can be used alongside one another it might make last gasp crazy

the only thing is you'd have to take the pin off for the amulet at some point for stalwart stand, there's no good way to get one early

or maybe there is- i'll try losing all my death defiances in erebus with gorgon amulet equipped and then pin from there

[bleak night]

are you trying to last gasp spam

[quick crescent]

i'm certifiably considering it

[nova pivot]

hey y'all I'm trying to figure out the best way to build torches and I have not been having much success at all, any recs?

[bleak night]

what aspect are you using

[nova pivot]

I've been using aspect of moros and putting hestia on attack

[quick crescent]

away from my system for a bit so i'm just wikibuilding

[quick crescent]

i have no idea what the meta is for torches but i personally love putting heph on attack, zeus on special, aphrodite on gain and going for romantic spark

blitz and blast have insane burst damage potential alongside one another

torches in general are great for romantic spark but the extra blasts from moros strikes hitting special goes crazy

[nova pivot]

zeus on special sounds solid

[quick crescent]

especially if you can build for hearthrobs alongside it

[nova pivot]

I think I don't have good heuristics for what situations make heph blasts good

[quick crescent]

romantic spark is like if merciful end was worse

[nova pivot]

like in my mind I want to be putting it on an ability that I'm not using terribly frequently

[quick crescent]

and by worse i mean worse for everyone except for me

[quick crescent]

every situation where you can pom the hell out of it makes it good

[bleak night]

ngl idk, I haven't gotten Last Gasp in a long time because I run Strength in the UW. I don't qualify for it

[nova pivot]

like I had a lot of success with a blades of pan build with heph on attack and hestia gain cause I would spam cast + special then refuel by attacking and it always charged back up in the meantime

[quick crescent]

i have more than once gotten heph on attack and special, pommed one of them down to 2 secs and be dealing 200 - 600 damage unmodified every 6 seconds

[nova pivot]

damn that's mega uber sexy

[quick crescent]

heph, on every level including physical, is uber sexy

[bleak night]

do Zeus Special and Ares/Hera on Attack for the most part

[nova pivot]

ooh hera on attack sounds solid

yes it's all coming together

[bleak night]

it's the standard, yeah. Hera being in the pool is great for Born Gain as well

[quick crescent]

great utility boons, you gotta work like hell to get the damage up but frequent blasts + vent add up so well

[quick crescent]

plus they made bridal glow usable ; u ; it's so beautiful

[quick crescent]

especially because moros torch attacks linger, longer window to get hitch

although i'd personally take ares on attack and save hera for engagement ring

cast is best for applying hitch imo

[nova pivot]

just looking through the duos and I love that the zeus/hera boon is NOT a duo boon lmao

[bleak night]

imo best Cast for Moros is Demeter

[nova pivot]

they have an unhealthy marriage :D

[quick crescent]

if any weapon wants to apply hitch via attack it's torches though

[bleak night]

Axe no ?

[quick crescent]

or axe hypothetically

[quick crescent]

stop takin the woids out of me mouth lol

[bleak night]

Axe gaming

[pseudo pond]

what does aspect of nyx do exactly? it says extra damage after alpha dash, but I don't see any damage increase

[uneven palm]

It’s more attacks and specials

The extras do reduced damage

[pseudo pond]

bruh......

and they didn't buff it this patch.....don't under stand why

[spare kite]

The split missiles also don't inflict any curse iirc

[pseudo pond]

really need some buff or rework as a whole

barely touched hestia, any interesting hestia build atm?

already tried the latter

was decent, will try the demeter combo

any weapon you would recommend?

pan?

I see

pan should also work with the new zeus boon right?

I tried it with moros, pretty powerful

ah, I see, so, ICD

shame

for sure

any interesting ares combo? wanna try that casting build, but haven't really found a good weapon for that

feels like hades 2 lacks any dedicated casting weapon

really miss aspect of beowulf and hera atm

the blood thingie?

oh, the chance to get 200% damage one?

will try it out

I see, so artemis dagger, ares passive crit boon

what god is good with this build besides ares?

so, no particular duo or combo required

[spare kite]

Is wounds actually affected by R.cry/extended family?

[willow phoenix]

You can try some cast coal build with hestia ares, the fireball duo is pretty insane. Get winner's circle to spam it a lot. You can also add ares cast build into it with ares duo with apollo/heph. Alternatively, Hera cast is also pretty good for a stand alone spam cast build

Ares omega cast is also great for spamming so more points to ares. Poseidon is not bad too

Coat O attack size with Apollo is so stupid huge lol, it can cover the whole room for some of the smaller rooms

[spare kite]

It doesn't

Medea + rare ares attack deals 198, 20% family doesn't change it (no strength/furies/origination)

Support goat

Offensive support goat

[clever trail]

Hello, about viceral impact, the blood drop augment mouvement speed and strick speed. What strick speed is about ? Attack and tech ? Only attack ? attack tech and glyphe ?

[spare kite]

Attacks + specials so omega channeling too

[clever trail]

thx

[indigo terrace]

Damn, that sounds kinda funny. Definitely gonna try that at some point

[willow phoenix]

Apollo leg with selene is fun, but I don't know if the o special actually works with it though lol

looks the same to me

[rich belfry]

oh damn i was thinking what should i use with the black coat

[willow phoenix]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1297509307901808664/1343616653379895296/image.png?ex=67bdec05&is=67bc9a85&hm=6170150258bc2409d1d825da8169a1388ddfb06a4d643e9c2073a7a70d7f2cf1&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=550&height=308

Chronos for scale

[rich belfry]

holyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

ima try it right noooowwwwwwwww

[bleak night]

@willow phoenix I have theorycrafted a masterpiece I think

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1241589849912246382/1343617275126747228/romansparkblitzmelaxe.mp4?ex=67bdec99&is=67bc9b19&hm=a339ab28dc8c1c8fc9761b415ac0ab9d0c7ed8ebc2846805b6d1ea9d3bf9db66&

[willow phoenix]

Romantic spark dash attack spam what, that deals so much damage lol

oh wait master conductor too?

[bleak night]

yep

[willow phoenix]

damn when you only need one move to win

[halcyon oyster]

guys, what's the current meta build (weapon + main boon) for clearing the upper part?

[glad nova]

Can you rarify epic boons? I couldnt find the prompt to do so in the boon screen

[runic crescent]

You can sometimes yea

[spare kite]

You need the keepsake at lvl 3 for your god keepsakes, otherwise stuff like the dem rarify thing also works

[runic crescent]

Theres one hera boon that lets you get another boon to heroic im pretty sure too

[spare kite]

Yup, just didn't mention it as it works regardless of rarity to heroic

[runic crescent]

Do yall have any good hera boon combinations?

[novel sage]

Think the answer is no, but: do % buffs to attack/special affect effects inflicted by attack/special?

[spare kite]

No

[spare kite]

I wouldn't say she has amazing combination as much as hitch is just really good lol

Torches + fine line is really fun tho assuming you have the mana to burn, allows you to use the new athena boon too

[loud moat]

So with attack/specials which add another effect (Zeus, Hestia, Poseidon, Heph), the percent increases will only effect the base damae of those attacks, not the damage/effects from the boons add on. Percent increases are best on other Gods which increase the base percent also (Hera, Aphro, Apollo, Ares etc. . .) although someone more knowledgable than me can tell you how multiple percentages stack (additive or multiplicative?)

[spare kite]

Additive

Crits are multi, dunno how the ares "TotallyNotACrit" interacts with either of these

[loud moat]

Is this the boon that does the "percent chance when hitting a foe with wounds to do 200% damage?"

[novel sage]

Yeah, the circumstance where this came up was blitz on attack and then chaos offering an attack boost. Didn't think it would hit the blitz but since like you said the boon only modifies base attack damage I was less sure about this particular interaction

[loud moat]

I guess its still helpful in a general sense. You still need to hit the "120" damage to proc blitz again. So if it pushes you above a threshold to apply and then immediately proc blitz on your next hit its helpful.

but thats kinda niche. Youre' better off getting Sprint speed, or some other chaos boon you can't get elsewhere. Boon rarity I really like.

Has anyone tested Demeters Plentiful forage with Chaos's % chance to get double resource gather? Will it proc twice?

Just had a run the other day with the Demeter boon. I had enough HP that I was healing like 40 every time I picked up anything. The percent HP Heal is actually super clutch. Combined with my Frosty Veneer, you can just facetank bosses for the most part. Just keep increasing HP and then between locations heal up with resource gathering.

[bleak night]

I just can't stop playing meme builds https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1252732088378200146/1343633599030890587/staff_special_meme.mp4?ex=67bdfbcd&is=67bcaa4d&hm=a32431f97e335e7d50ac631450e2cca2136f414f177bada36586c7dec4bacd38&

[spare kite]

That one and the other that had chance for 200% depending on missing hp

[magic moss]

staff supremacy frfr

[quick crescent]

good god

[willow phoenix]

wait how is Bearing heroic there in the end?

[bleak night]

It means you have multiple of the same node

I guess that means I have a lot of them ?

[willow phoenix]

Huh I don't think I ever had it be yellow like heroic though

[loud moat]

Love that. Everything the staff special should be. A slow, but precise shotgun tool. Never liked it as the spammy thing it was before.

[spare kite]

That's the legendary orange not heroic

[elfin lily]

I had that before the rework. It was awesome. I can't recall what my final health was but I could basically ignore hearts.

[willow phoenix]

Oh right legendary, still I never got it outside of blue and purple

[loud moat]

Honestly the heal it gives now in the new patch is much better IMO than what it did originally. It heals you based on a percent of HP rather than increase max HP.

I still think Vow of Scars needs some tuning. While I get that no healing at all is a decent enough handicap, it shouldn't just negate an entire boon/set of boons because of it. Maybe make it so that fountains don't heal? But other sources can still heal you?

[steel sequoia]

feedback it, looks smart

[loud moat]

At the moment, max Vow of Scars simply negates:

• Plentiful Forage Healing
• Apollo/Hestia Duo
• Vampiric Staff Upgrade (heal on Omega Attack Kill)

Theres ways for the Vow to be more flexible. Maybe something along the lines of Priming Health for the region ala Mortal Gain from Ares?

[bleak night]

I'm told Plentiful Forage bypasses it

seems like a glitch, either way I haven't tried myself

[spare kite]

Vampiric goes through scars pretty sure?

[loud moat]

I havent tried either. Im assuming at this point.

If they do, then they should, but it should be noted and/or clear based on the Vow (no healing from XYZ sources)

Even if they work despite the vow because of a glitch or otherwise, the way the Vow is worded disincentives picking those options (not that they are in anyway meta at the moment).

With Mortal Gain on my mind, how does that intereact with Aphrodite's Shameless attitude bonus? Does it count your total Max HP? Or the "new" max HP? Can you keep the bonus going by continuously reducing your Max HP in a fight?

[bleak night]

just saw this, did you still need help with it

[lucid gull]

best build to beat prometheus? (haven't unlocked ares yet, but i got everything else i think)

[solemn loom]

@bleak night Brainstorming template:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1272385014150991875/1343642045385805885/Screenshot_2025-02-24_at_12.53.23_PM.png?ex=67be03ab&is=67bcb22b&hm=2f875e9a2330a9c8a537aaa15a9d0a426ee19318b3aca52744af4ad226179e93&

Current the tool allow for shareable YT video with Arcana Cards & Oath + Title Description.
The above template is going to allow for boon selections as well (aspect/familiar/core boons/keepsakes).

looking for feedbacks before finalizing.

[bleak night]

it's pretty good to have as long as the links stay up. I can try it

[bleak night]

What aspect do you play a lot of or do best with ?

[lucid gull]

aspect of pan, momus and charon (charon is my best probally)

[uneven palm]

Is this like Aphro dash insta triggers Romantic Spark?

[bleak night]

do you know the general movement-based mechanics of Charon ?

[lucid gull]

can dash while casting omega special etc?

[bleak night]

Not quite, the first dash attack doesn't do much, it's the succeeding ones that do the Romantic Spark turbocrits

[bleak night]

ah, yeah you got it figured out then. On the surface, try to use it sparingly when charging, that way you can dash last second out of the way. If I don't need to dash, I'll charge it in place

as for builds, what do you usually run ?

[lucid gull]

apollo legendary

[bleak night]

Apollo probs for gain, but what other gods do you go for usually

[lucid gull]

the first one to appear bro 😭

[bleak night]

imo on Charon, going for legendaries takes too long. Best try to get components from other gods and match em. The best stuff atm is

Apollo start for Lucid Gain
Demeter for Arctic Ring
Hera, Zeus or Ares for your Special
Poseidon once you have a Cast boon so you can get Geyser Spout

[bleak night]

it's Ephyra, so you should be able to have a good array of options. Do you run rerolls in your Arcana ?

[lucid gull]

yeah playing without them feels weird

[bleak night]

Honestly, every single god in the game has use on Charon

[dire lily]

i've been trying to make geyser spout work but it just never really feels like a great option

[lucid gull]

so i start running apollo's thingy right?

[bleak night]

it has no Knockback and instant omega cast eruption now, it's just the old Night Arcana that boosted your Omega Cast damage

[bleak night]

Yeah, start Lucid Gain then just find any god you want. Lemme list what you want from each

[lucid gull]

ok

[dire lily]

do you usually omega cast when playing charon? i find myself popping fast all the time

[bleak night]

Popping the base Cast with your Omega Special counts as an Omega Cast, so Geyser Spout counts and just adds raw damage to it

it's +150 at common and adds +50 on a pom, so it scales fairly well

add 50% to that if you have Origination

[uneven palm]

For real if you're wondering who your fourth or 5th god is on Charon it's always Poseidon

[dire lily]

can you get geyser spout if you already have something that adds to your cast like meat grinder?

[bleak night]

yeah I think so. I mix Local Climate and Geyser Spout all the time now

[uneven palm]

I know Prominence Flare conflicted with Spout previously, but that might have changed

[bleak night]

Hera/Zeus/Ares are best for Special
Demeter is best for Cast

Aphro/Hestia have Casts that count for origination if no Dem, but you'd definitely just want Demeter.

Poseidon: You'll need a Cast first before he even offers Geyser Spout. You can forego him for something else if you have little to no rerolls left because this is legitimately the only thing you want from him.

Hephaestus: You only grab him if your core is done and you need a 4th god for defensives.

[halcyon oyster]

yes pls

[lucid gull]

OH YEAH, I FORGOT TO ASK, what is origination?

[bleak night]

Arcana 14

[lucid gull]

ok

[uneven palm]

Apply two status curses, get more damage

[bleak night]

It's the Arcana that boosts your damage by 50% if you have 2 curses active on a target from 2 different gods

[bleak night]

What weap do you play ?

[dire lily]

i'm struggling to get an axe build running on surface tears

[lucid gull]

i don't run origination then

[halcyon oyster]

pre-patch I used to clear with twin blades and aprhodite very reliable (got to 8 skulls before I got bored)

[bleak night]

how come? No space for it ?

[lucid gull]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1094347281865654294/1343646588320350330/image.png?ex=67be07e6&is=67bcb666&hm=4a5315524888e29f50addd8ab057685cc5abf2c524dc70d875748bfe6bd8888b&=&format=webp&quality=lossless

[halcyon oyster]

now with this new boss, twin blades kind of suck

[bleak night]

can you show me the Arcana in the altar? idk the icons ngl lol

[lucid gull]

wait

[dire lily]

i like artemis

[bleak night]

Aspect of Artemis is still good vs it

[dire lily]

game recognize game

[lucid gull]

i'm on a run but i'm gonna lose anyways

[bleak night]

Pan is good against everything but it's a little monotonous

[dire lily]

pan is sleeper

[bleak night]

what aspect are you tryna do, Charon ?

[halcyon oyster]

what about staves and ranged in general

[lucid gull]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1094347281865654294/1343646900410126429/image.png?ex=67be0830&is=67bcb6b0&hm=b1ccc6590c34ba825c778f5be513e55086576a4206181945b94e91b544df07ae&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1451&height=816

[dire lily]

yeah i was playing around w charon, trying to do just 45f atm since i took a long break before patch

[lucid gull]

origination lvl 1 lol

[bleak night]

don't run Excellence if you can help it. It costs too much (5) and it's only blue rarity.

Blue rarity boons are not that much better than common ones

[lucid gull]

ok

now i'm running origination

[bleak night]

Staff got heavily buffed, but it's closer to melee than fully ranged ngl

[bleak night]

you're playing Charon, right ?

[dire lily]

does anyone else feel like you play the staves basically the same

[lucid gull]

yeah

[bleak night]

Huntress does nothing for you, it's only Attack and Special (not omegas)

open the 2 cost up by removing it and moving it to maybe I and II

[lucid gull]

ok

ooooh i got the epic boon thing and the duo one

[bleak night]

for the most part, yeah.

[bleak night]

Yeah, that's the only rarity one you should use. Excellence is really bad.

[civic ocean]

I wish Huntress would make you start each room with -5 mana

[regal talon]

which is better? wicked or rapid thrasher for staff?

[bleak night]

Wicked

[civic ocean]

Usually wicked

[regal talon]

ok cheers

[bleak night]

Wicked gets the boost from your % damage boost Attack boon as well

[lucid gull]

bro my setup seems pretty much better now wth

[bleak night]

yeah Excellence was bad lol

[lucid gull]

i saw that earlier setup on a haelian video some months ago

[bleak night]

Oh, the order of stuff changed + people figured out Excellence is just completely worthless

[civic ocean]

Woah chill chill

[lucid gull]

damn 😭

[civic ocean]

It isn’t worthless its just bad value lol

Like Wayward son on Scars is actually worthless

[bleak night]

that makes it worthless, no? Because it's gated behind such a massive cost

[lucid gull]

ok imma do one run, let's see if i can reach typhon

[bleak night]

Wayward Son can activate Divinity if you're running DDs instead of Strength

it's like me running Sorceress on Charon when it doesn't work with the Omega Special

[civic ocean]

Yeah but excellence can activate a line too

[bleak night]

at the cost of a few other cards

Sorc and Wayward are 1 cost

[civic ocean]

Like its bad but worthless is like “this doesn’t do anything”

[bleak night]

Worthless because it's a net negative to your build because it starves you of 5 Grasp that could be used elsewhere that would have made it way better

[civic ocean]

Well again, opportunity cost and net negative are a bit misleading right like the effect of Excellence is positive it’s just too expensive, the effect honestly isn’t that bad especially when combined with the Hera Rarity package right

[bleak night]

Pretty sure nobody really prios Uncommon Grace anymore since Extended Family exists now

[regal talon]

LMAO, i picked wicked thrasher then i got rapid thrasher

[dire lily]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/946433501325033512/1343646553922863134/image.png?ex=67be07de&is=67bcb65e&hm=cf550543716e821c5b56fc4c2075939a0bb710a1ff7b5228fb16e7d822aad4d6&
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/946433501325033512/1343648801818415104/image.png?ex=67be09f6&is=67bcb876&hm=1a4b11ddbbb1d6ffa128d156292370b514b3fa68c68cdfd8727b4b8c5e3a843b&
would anyone be able to discuss an axe build for surface charon is making me lose my mind LOL

[civic ocean]

I wonder if you could do Excellence with Air Fryer actually

[neat pier]

Do you guys use The Queen?

[spare kite]

Mostly if running zeus focus

King ramson is too funny

[bleak night]

why are you doing 45f surface

[dire lily]

for the challenge:/

[civic ocean]

They just did 44 gotta climb it up

[bleak night]

it's not really worth your sanity, trust me

[dire lily]

is it not possible?

[civic ocean]

Its hard

[bleak night]

nah I've done higher, I just hated myself

[dire lily]

how much worse is it than uw

[bleak night]

way

[dire lily]

godammit

[bleak night]

way way way way way worse. 50F Surface is maybe 50% harder than 50F UW

[civic ocean]

Frenzy 2 surface no other Fear is harder than 32 fear Underworld IMO

[dire lily]

i've gotten to summit a few times but get overwhelmed by the mobs there

[bleak night]

I have a vod of my run up if you want it ig

[dire lily]

it's really hard finding an opening to cast a lot of the time without bleeding time

or hp

[neat pier]

Bruh can't imagine Prometheus and Typhon with 40% speed

[lucid gull]

guys i just noticed if you have the double special hammer on charon, you can spam q to proc the cast explosion twice

[civic ocean]

Yes, with this setup

1-two of messenger, sorceress, and swift runner
2-furies and persistence
3-seer and lovers
4-one of eternity/strength and champions
5-Boatman and Origination

You honestly don’t need to vary this too much for almost any build IMO

[neat pier]

Pog thanks

[bleak night]

honestly, might be better to try a different aspect with 45 for now

[civic ocean]

Like Unseen and Eternity are probably good on omega builds but honestly not really?

[bleak night]

Charon has a hard time in super high fear surface runs because of how slow it is to come out of endlag

[dire lily]

literally this

[bleak night]

also are you running Strength instead of DDs for it ?

[civic ocean]

Don’t you have some like hypersuperdoubledashcancel tech to help with this

[bleak night]

DDs are better for Surface because Athena can just replenish your DDs

[bleak night]

Machi does that. I can't control the second one most of the time

timing is super tight

[dire lily]

i usually just run strenght + dash but i'll give the dd's a try

[loud moat]

Blooddrops from Ares can be a great way to get aroud that. Super fast omegas and attack speed.

[dire lily]

is there a pin for that clear doc i keep losing it

[civic ocean]

Echo does this too right

Idk if you agree but my heuristic is that if I’m prioritizing flat damage I take strength and if Im prioritizing weapon damage I take death

[bleak night]

Surface

everything hurts harder so having that DD prio is better

[civic ocean]

Yeah but like DDs wouldn’t be better or worse for surface or uworld because you get DD replenish in both

[dire lily]

and it's impossible to dodge everything

[gaunt nymph]

Ares legendary with hera duo is insane

[bleak night]

except enemies in the UW hit for less and there are abusable items in the Charon wells that bypass Scars 3

[civic ocean]

Do they still do that

[bleak night]

yep lol.

[civic ocean]

The tooltip says they dont sadge

[bleak night]

they still do, tested earlier

[civic ocean]

Underhanded tactics

[bleak night]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10Ivfhuer7AyLxQXPIuvLRGigui5-Z2G-gEFk3xWBir4/edit?gid=203046253#gid=203046253

There's a 55f surface run recorded there already ig if you wanna check how Mel Axe is played

[dire lily]

it really comes down to your aspect and loadout but generally the uw is easier than surface

[neat pier]

Uhh, just to note, they changed Seer to Enchantress, and Eternity is 3 cost now

[civic ocean]

I don’t think it comes down to anything the underworld is like very very very much easier than surface unless the colour gold and old people make you paralyzed with fear

[civic ocean]

Right yeah
Enchant at 3 and its Death not Eternity

[neat pier]

Ohh right

[civic ocean]

The DDs one

[neat pier]

Still need the DDs, Prometheys is eating me alive

[dire lily]

it's still difficult you can get a lot of room rng that are run killers

esp the opening rooms and on slower aspects

[civic ocean]

A lot of people are feeling Death more this patch now that strength doesnt work on armor

I kinda wanna try running excellence now

[bleak night]

[civic ocean]

Like Excellence over Origination with Air Quality

[bleak night]

just hit that good hammer that's perfect for your aspect in Ephyra or restart

[spare kite]

Surely there's better grasp usage

[bleak night]

pretty much how I played it lol

[civic ocean]

Oh 100% but if you had like a personal challenge to use every arcana card at 32+, how would you use Excellence?

I think AQ scorch might pretty well with it because the rarity increase would apply to scorch applicators

[dire lily]

you overrode your normal atk in the 55 run and cleared? lol

[rich belfry]

what builds r good on zorephet aspect of melinoe ? i really still dont know what to choose and how to choose for each aspect

[spare kite]

Tell myself the challenge is to only use 25 grasp

[bleak night]

Dashing Heave

[bleak night]

Aphro Attack is the most consistent for damage, for the most part

[civic ocean]

Wounds is actually diminishing returns with Mel Axe isnt it

[rich belfry]

and the special?

[bleak night]

you forego it for the most part

[rich belfry]

oh

[bleak night]

put Demeter or an offensive one like Zeus or Hephaestus on Cast

ngl Mel Axe is a really awkward aspect because it's only really god tier if you find one hammer out of 12 lmao

[civic ocean]

Either don’t touch it or put something with a really long curse (hera/demeter) if you really need a second curse to activate Origination

[dire lily]

on zoro would it be fine to lose the 40% atk and just run apollo instead for the space? how much does it really matter

[bleak night]

with Mel Axe I usually just activate Orig with Cast + Glamour Gain

[civic ocean]

Yes that is ideal

[bleak night]

it can help, but you gotta make sure the Apollo is Heroic or Epic, otherwise you'll do absolutely no damage

idk I just went Aphro Attack on my Axe run

[rich belfry]

aa whats is oriq again ?

[civic ocean]

Origination Arcana

[bleak night]

Origination is Arcana 14. 2 curses from 2 different gods will get you a 50% damage boost on that target

[rich belfry]

ohhhhh

hell u need change it sometimes with every aspect

[dire lily]

on ur 55 run you swapped to apollo and it looks really comfortable

[bleak night]

huh, that's last patch's

I went Aphro Attack for the one from 3 days ago

[dire lily]

yeah i was looking at an older one

[bleak night]

Ah, gotcha

idk I don't have rerolls so I just take what I can get

[bleak night]

the Arcana? Yeah. There's a core that's completely gone for on every single aspect though

Entire bottom left corner, for instance, is always ran

[civic ocean]

Honestly I think you can tell pretty much everyone “run the bottom left corner 4 and ignore the top right corner 4” as a general heuristic and I think that’s probably correct

[bleak night]

Momus and Selene run the 2 cost crit combo one

Charon used to run something up there no more autoticking Hex

[civic ocean]

Do they like have to have to like you could do that for sure but I think you could get by on both without

Honestly I still play Momus just spamming normal attacks with hammers tho so

[bleak night]

for Momus yeah. For Selene, the 15% crit on your Omega Special and shield bash is too good to pass up

it's super easy to swap on Coat and Selene loves to omega because Shine boosts the damage by a lot

[civic ocean]

Ye Selene is probably crazy with it true just take out like furies or smth

[bleak night]

I haven't played Selene in months

I just default to the funny speed Coat whenever I want to use it

[civic ocean]

Yeah that coat is cool with the waves

[bleak night]

apparently they nerfed the Omega attack of Coat too for some reason? Like, the offensive properties

[civic ocean]

Sadge falcon punch is nerfed

[bleak night]

ngl I have no clue why they'd do that

[willow phoenix]

It's bugged I think, if you channel coat o attack then dash sometimes the attack doesn't come out and you still consume magick

[bleak night]

people already complained about how they found the blocking kinda clunky, no ?

[willow phoenix]

And without dashing the range is very weird, like it starts from behind mel or something, making the range super short

[rich belfry]

what is it ?

[bleak night]

Dashing Heave

[midnight pulsar]

Ive been grabbing eternity and it feels fine on high-ish heat with Than axe, it just makes getting omegas off easier

[rich belfry]

shame i didnt find it now , but got aphro on attack and demeter on cast now

[civic ocean]

Yeah I use it on a 32 build with Mel Staff alongside Sorceress so that the omega attack is faster than the time stop and like its good but not necessary

[bleak night]

Rapid Slash makes you play with Aspect of Thanatos level attack speed, so not bad to use that if you find it

[civic ocean]

Yeah if you don’t get heave or rapid maybe you have to play for blood drops and hermes?

Actually maybe ares is cracked on Mel Axe for that reason

[midnight pulsar]

Ares feels cracked on everything

[civic ocean]

The beyblade persephone build didnt work out sadly

I think Perephone might be Prom Flare’s time to shine though

[nocturne heart]

frosty veneer+tough gain unkillable build?

[civic ocean]

Unfortunately these work the other way around

Unless im mistaken but pretty sure im not

[willow phoenix]

Try tough gain + brave face + warm breeze

[civic ocean]

Brave face tough gain does seem cracked ye

[bleak night]

[willow phoenix]

I need to stop mentioning warm breeze before it gets nerfed lol

[bleak night]

nope

[civic ocean]

Does it work through scars

[willow phoenix]

Probably not lol

[bleak night]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1217110523091357747/1343152703890788435/image.png?ex=67bd8d6f&is=67bc3bef&hm=7fd1493cdf3b1be1567e7e5ced8f195fc4a88aa659527eac12c810b0594665cf& I need to try to beat this record

[willow phoenix]

Still good though, I think the game might have a bit too much dodge chance available which makes warm breeze very good rn

[bleak night]

I'll turn on Grit 3 and try again

[civic ocean]

Now you got me thinking about Excellence

[bleak night]

Warm Breeze

[loud moat]

I think they do a decent job of spreading things out over a couple of gods/boons. Doing the math for max dodge you'd want:

Apollo - Daze (not dodge but chance of missing works with Warm Breeze)
Aphro - Wispy Wiles for technically unbounded dodge chance increase. Only limit is number of Air boons in the game I suppose
Hestia - Hot Pot. For 5% and 10% on scorched foes
Hermes - Dodge Chance based on number of boons. I think Heroic is 1% per boon

After that, any God that gives you more Air boons.

[willow phoenix]

half of that is the warm breeze build though lol

[loud moat]

I guess my point is that youd need to commit to at least 3 gods, Aprho/Hestia/Apollo to make it really worth it. Which steers you towards specific build types.

You can also get 10% from Circe I suppose.

[pure grove]

Funny enough, the most obvious build with those three is axe, which benefits heavily from dodge anyways

[loud moat]

Yea, and Apollo Sprint is great. Aphro Weakness is also amazing if you do end up getting hit.

Honestly, I'd grab Demeter, just for freeze, but if you can build into Frosty Veneer, suddenly you are practically invincible. Combined with Plentiful forage percent heal on resource gather means you just pump health and heal back any damage you do take.

[willow phoenix]

Frosty won't work because there's no way you have enough water with that build

[pure grove]

Aphro has water

[loud moat]

yea with aprho you have enough

[cursive oyster]

yea but with aphro you want her air boons for wispy

[bleak night]

what're you guys talking about ?

[loud moat]

combined with all her health gain/damage boost boons you can also go for Demeter/Aprho duo

[cursive oyster]

trying to stack dodge chance with warm breeze

[loud moat]

Warm breeze and why its amazing

[civic ocean]

Dodgemaxxing

[bleak night]

ah

Warm Breeze is pretty busted unless you have Scars 3 on ye

I think I regenerated 1400 HP in that afk Typhon fight

[loud moat]

But yea, mathwise:
Circe - 10
Hot Pot - 5 (10 with scorch)
Wispy Wiles - 3% per Air Element (20+ usually)
Hermes - 1% per boon (20+ usually)
Gale (Familiar) - 6% Dodge chance

So you're looking at roughly 50% dodge chance when min/maxed. Combined with Daze (30? percent chance if the damage goes through Dodge).

Combined with Frosty Veneer means you can pretty much face tank most things. Even if you do get hit, all it takes is 3 misses to regen that 20 HP back.

[willow phoenix]

there's gale with 6%

[loud moat]

What's Gale?

[willow phoenix]

the familiar

[loud moat]

Ahhhh you right

[neat pier]

Engraved pin ends your run if you don't clear in 10s or just consumes 1 DD?

[bleak night]

ngl you can easily reach around 70% with Aphro/Zeus/Apollo being 3/4 of your core

36 from the air stacking alone for wispy

[pure grove]

It consumes a DD

[neat pier]

Gotcha

[bleak night]

I got to 30% Wispy and I had 6 gods in my pool that I was actively poaching non-Air stuff for to get weirdo stuff like Brave Face

can easily get to 70+ with Daze as a secondary check

[willow phoenix]

I got to 40% before daze without trying too hard to stack dodge, just hermes, hestia, apollo

So honestly the setup doesn't need to be that crazy, with 40% I was already healing through Prom with strength

[bleak night]

I should probs try to do another of those builds

just stack air gods and force Hestia in Olympus or something

[wide flicker]

I certainly hope some of the Wardens on the surface get reworked. The double up on the Monster of Typhon is beyond atrocious

[bleak night]

the rhino or the twins give you issues ?

[willow phoenix]

spawn of typhon is the outlier imo, that one is just nasty

[wide flicker]

The one that is normally solo

[willow phoenix]

That's worst than the tail with shadow

[wide flicker]

two of them is just abysmal

[bleak night]

Yeah I just take the melting hammer whenever I do surface runs lol

[civic ocean]

Is the second one armored

[willow phoenix]

I keep getting the twins whenever I use shadow though so luck do matter I guess lol

[willow phoenix]

yes all the shadows are armored I think

[bleak night]

yep

[wide flicker]

Idea is cool - kind of like Extreme measures for minibosses. But man, some balancing would be nice

I only had one Frenzy on, and it just felt like damage cannot be avoided, without just spam-dashing like a crazy person. And even then.....

[willow phoenix]

Thank god there's no double Talos at least lol

Double dragon still nasty though

[civic ocean]

I suspect we’re going to get a reversion to the “anything with a name runs through your cast like my first dates leaving the venue” change

So that might help

[dire lily]

just had a run with 4 heroic 2 legendary 4 duo and a few infusions 💀

[neat pier]

Speaking of, does anyone feels Talos does too much dmg?

[dire lily]

no he's probably the easiest miniboss

[neat pier]

I see, I have a hard time with him because of how cramped his arena is

[dire lily]

everything he does is telegraphed just learn the attack patterns there's a lot of space to dodge around

[bleak night]

I still get hit by that guy a lot

[dire lily]

the most general advice i have is to try and get behind him for everything except the bombs

[dire lily]

he's so free 😭

[primal phoenix]

What's the best weapon for apollo in your opinion ?

[willow phoenix]

Charybdis is definitely easier imo lol

[dire lily]

i think apollo axe is p great

[bleak night]

dunno, depends. For me, Typhon is free

[willow phoenix]

Selene, any staff, axe

[bleak night]

rn it's Persephone Skull apparently

[willow phoenix]

oh yeah that too, the o attack gets crazy

[bleak night]

yeah, it goes hard

[willow phoenix]

overlaying the o attack with wide grin deals so much damage

[primal phoenix]

Still don't have the perse one, can't find the bloody flowers

I have like 20 moss but the flower just doesnt spawn

[wide flicker]

I heard somewhere that the Black Coat is op. If so, what makes it so?

[cursive oyster]

definitely not op

[dire lily]

i have the most trouble w yargonaut at max speed

every time i see him in a high fear run i cry a little

[cursive oyster]

i’d say it’s on the lower half of weapons rn in terms of objective strength but

[willow phoenix]

I rank black coat on the bottom of my personal tier list lol

[cursive oyster]

at least it ain’t charybdis

[bleak night]

I have only seen that dude like 2x, idk how to fight it

[bleak night]

from whom did you hear that lol

[dire lily]

it's so bad esp w the additional testament add

[cursive oyster]

he just shoots bouncy bullets -> teleports -> swipes

does get a bit tricky with shadows

[dire lily]

charbdys is fine you just need to take out a head or two asap

[wide flicker]

Might have been Steam Discussions. It's been a while, and using it myself, it didnt feel amazing. So I wanted to ask the veterans

[willow phoenix]

Steam discussions takes are like the wildest out there tbh lol

[cursive oyster]

maybe i haven’t fought her enough this patch

[willow phoenix]

Charybis is much easier this patch

[bleak night]

Steam discussions is trying to convince me that Axe is trash

[willow phoenix]

As someone who has never had problem with Charybdis it got easier lol

[dire lily]

i'm starting to believe charon is:,)

[primal phoenix]

I HATE him, he just busted my skull run that lil shiet

[bleak night]

but that aside, I can toss you a build. I have it written here somewhere

#h2-builds-and-combat message

[civic ocean]

Charybdeez nuts

[dire lily]

how many nmares will we need to upgrade the hidden aspects

i forgot what the count was from h1 and dont want to overcap

[hard geyser]

Strongest Moros build?

[pure grove]

You realistically never run out of those because of Charon shipments and bones

[willow phoenix]

I don't remember but I think it's 7 every aspect, so rn it's 84, 126 with hidden aspects later on if they cost the same

[bleak night]

Hera Attack + Zeus Special + Dem Cast

[dire lily]

probably hera/zeus or aphro

[bleak night]

Born Gain for your Regen

[dire lily]

the ares moros build didn't feel terrible either but havent done that much testing w it

[calm maple]

aphro attack goes pretty hard on moros, since you want to stay close anyway to detonate attack w/ special

[dire lily]

yes it is good

[hard geyser]

I guess I don't fully understand how Wounds work. Is it just boosted damage on the first hit and when it resets? Or is it one boosted hit, then 30% boosted damage until the reset hit?

[calm maple]

cardio gain w/ torches makes it difficult to spend magick faster than you can gain it

[pure grove]

30% base, and inital boosted attack

[dire lily]

the hit that applies the wound gets additional atk

[civic ocean]

Additional Power

[dire lily]

yeah sorry power

it's great on harder hitting weapons but a lot of the time you really just take it for grevious

[wide flicker]

for your Coat build, does it matter which Aspect you choose?

[cursive oyster]

you want mel for this one

[bleak night]

Preferably just go Mel Coat because you don't use Mana and the movespeed bonus feels really good

[hard geyser]

So a hell splitter big chop build with heroic attack boon is where it's at?

[dire lily]

is nyx still trash

[bleak night]

I mean I personally hate Hell Splitter, but if you have it already then ig so ?

[dire lily]

or did the patch help it at all

[calm maple]

I just got my first run past Prometheus, my first Typhon kill, and the first run where I seriously messed around with torches. Moros w/ Aphro/Hestia/Hera (and Heph, who was mostly dead weight)

[cursive oyster]

hell splitter exe chop than axe my beloved

[bleak night]

idk I don't touch the other coat aspects

[hard geyser]

Big Chop is so fun and dumb though

[bleak night]

you can just grab Heph for armour and Mint Condition no ?

[dire lily]

trusty shield is goated

[cursive oyster]

honestly i only click big chop if i have hitch attack and rapid slash/exe chop already

[civic ocean]

The listed % increase is constant, like Apollo or Hera. On the hit that applies the Wounds status, whatever hits the enemy strikes with +50 power, which is a different bucket than % damage increases.

This is a little bit counterintuitive to what people are saying which is to use high base damage attacks - it can work with lower base damage attacks too to be honest since it makes every attack a big attack when it applies the wounds

[dire lily]

it's not because you can get more dmg w other options if you have high dps

[calm maple]

yeah but I didn't get either of those; all he really gave me was Uncanny Fortitude. Which isn't nothing, considering all the mana boosts I wound up getting

[cursive oyster]

uncanny is pretty great

uncanny fortitude burnt offering is funny

[bleak night]

Uncanny Fortitude is rly good ngl, it counts primed mana as well

[swift shadow]

noob question: for a Pan Knives build, what boons do people recommend? I've been having tons of fun but only when I get a certain combo of Demeter Cast and raw dmg on my Attack/Specials, and usually go for Aphro or Poseidon there. Is this the best? far from it? What do people suggest ?

[magic moss]

pan poseidon

poseidon special+slip dem cast born gain with origination gg ez 4 boon clear

[dire lily]

pos pos and pos

[civic ocean]

I like Posiedon + Ares and Hestia + Demeter

[swift shadow]

ok, seems i'm on the right track. Thanks everyone. Uncle P is the best

[dire lily]

everything else doesn't matter just get slip + king boon and it's a clear

[magic moss]

man i want to push boonless even further now staff is so fun

[civic ocean]

Poseidon is great and all but they have to bring back HAHA YES

[dire lily]

i like staff too, just wish there was an aspect that focused more on the basic abilities but ig then it would play too much like coat

[magic moss]

its called getting good hammer rng

[civic ocean]

Oh I bet Hearty staff with Ares is kinda crazy now too

[magic moss]

@bleak night new goal, 50 with void3 boonless staff

[calm maple]

Yeah, it's good, but compared to the Cardio/Fine Line/Heart Breaker/Incandescent Aura combo I got from the other three, it was kinda puny.

[gray flame]

What boons/hammer am I looking for to try the Poseidon Pan build everyone always talks about?

[magic moss]

poseidon special+slip dem cast born gain with origination gg ez 4 boon clear

[gray flame]

I’m getting tired of Typhon

Thank you!

[dire lily]

charon eats typhon alive

try getting athena block on special for a really good time

[gray flame]

Ive done a couple Charon builds but I take too much damage

[lucid gull]

BRO I KILLED TYPHON

[magic moss]

dont get phalanx shot, its so bad xdd

[gray flame]

The tail pre-boss in particular eats half my DDs ahead of the fight

[calm maple]

Gaining Magick as I spend it, getting bonus damage from the spending AND the gaining? It's quite a drug

[lucid gull]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1094347281865654294/1343672537984274553/image.png?ex=67be2011&is=67bcce91&hm=3eda8f21ec400a78b7d09b198e640278d0f0703c6cadb9cf7dfbc97e2786352d&

[bleak night]

BIG

[dire lily]

i don't disagree but it's giga fun on charon kek

[civic ocean]

Essentially max out Poseidon’s internal synergy as much as you can, and pick up as many non-weapon %damage increases as you can. Furies, Strength, Origination (Demeter Freeze preferred on Cast) and Slip on the waves

[hard geyser]

I found I've had to slow down. The tail only really has like three or four attacks, and has a pretty solid buffer time between them. Just slow down and look for that period after each attack. The one that usually gets me is the choppy one. It chomps five times. So just count to five, dodge every time, and then whale on it

[magic moss]

you think 50 with hordes3 is easier or 50 with void3 judgement for boonless

[dire lily]

tail is just an experience check once you see it enough you wont get hit

[dire lily]

judge is easier

[gray flame]

What gets me is the big slide aoe it sends accros because I’m usually too far from him to see it wind up

[dire lily]

depends on your aspect for region 1 though

[gray flame]

It does so much damage too

[dire lily]

if you can manage region 1 judge is easier

[dire lily]

if you see it move off your screen go to the side it went to and just get behind it

just spam dash

[magic moss]

okok ill put some attempts in @bleak night staff broken weapon frfr

[dire lily]

do you have any boonless runs on record?

[bleak night]

he uploaded one earlier today

[magic moss]

47F yeah

[dire lily]

i dont see a category for it on the doc

[magic moss]

its not a 50 so yeah

[dire lily]

a 47 boonless is so much more impressive than a 50 though 😭

[polar chasm]

Just lost 300 health from the|| spawn of Typhon|| 😭 losing that much health from 6 hits is devastating. Really thought I'd win this run but now I have no DDs so I have no idea

Like it's so hard to tell when they'll hit, I cannot figure out when it's about to swipe

[magic moss]

not a 50

[dire lily]

found the vid i'll take a look

[polar chasm]

Tail took me out 😔 hoping the attacks get tweaked cause good grief

[primal phoenix]

If Circe banishes a night oath, it doesnt lower the heat now does it ?

[dire lily]

no

[primal phoenix]

nice

[wide flicker]

how bad is it to give up the first boon per region?

[uneven palm]

Horrible underworld, still pretty bad surface

[civic ocean]

Probably worth somewhere in the area of 4 or 5 fear?

[dire lily]

it's fine all the way up to around the 40 mark

the way i see it is there are a few fear breakpoints that are most notable, those being time 3 hordes and void

when you have to start thinking about those is when you start having problems

[wide flicker]

so for someone who is not a god, and only plays at 20, it should be fine to take?

[dire lily]

yeah

[cursive oyster]

i wouldn’t tbh

[civic ocean]

It’s fine its just not fun

[cursive oyster]

it’s just not a fun vow to play with

[dire lily]

yeah i agree there

you probably have better options at the 20 mark

[cursive oyster]

depends on if you’re comfortable with time 3 or frenzy 2

[dire lily]

if you want some suggestions you could post ur testament

[wide flicker]

Utterly hate those

[magic moss]

not me playing with onion 999

[dire lily]

the real killer isn't time 3 it's hordes fml

[cursive oyster]

hordes is awful yeah

especially on olympus

[dire lily]

hordes singlehandedly makes region 1 harder than 2 and 3 in uw runs

it's insane

[cursive oyster]

i disagree

[dire lily]

i have a higher escape rate in region 2/3 v 1 in 45+ attempts

i usually die to time in 1 or chronos at the end on high fear

[magic moss]

for the purposes of timer? sure i can see that somewhat. Overall difficulty no region 2 and 3 are significantly harder than 1

[cursive oyster]

oceanus is hot garbage lmao

[magic moss]

a lot of oceanus enemies have bad design tbh

well maybe bad is a bit too far, annoying at the very least

[dire lily]

yargonaut is objectively terrible design btw

[neat pier]

How do you prevent Athena from showing up in Olympus pre-Prometheus?

[magic moss]

you cant

[dire lily]

he has this one move where he shoots a bunch of small aoes around himself and there are cast abilities that completely obscure it

[cursive oyster]

lurkers are the only enemy there i don’t actively hate and their new back leap is starting to change that

[dire lily]

take toula and pop dd on prom

[dire lily]

what aspect do you have the most trouble w in ocean or do you mean this generally

[magic moss]

athena is an npc encounter in olympus, toula doesnt stop it

[dire lily]

really? TIL

[neat pier]

But good point on Toula though, I'm gonna need an extra DD with how tanky the summit minibosses are

[dire lily]

and this is exactly why i say toula has use cases

but yeah on oceanus, i don't struggle any more than in region 1 there with the aspects i run at 50, hera axe/pos blades have enough crowd control to mitigate a lot of the pack trouble and i have enough boons by then to get my build going

i hated doing erebus so much i'd just fig it every run last patch

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/946433501325033512/1299382055708393533/image.png?ex=67bdd657&is=67bc84d7&hm=a1a7699da8ab2c1d3185e738eb90eacf40f60de3235319227bf9bcca5e2e9ca9&

vapor than build i did on 46 last patch w low oceanus dmg just mostly from chronos

[willow phoenix]

I tried doing vapor this patch and it doesn't seem to work? Dunno if just visual bug or actually not working

[dire lily]

do you have the clear report, might be able to figure it out from that

[willow phoenix]

I didn't record it sadly but I did F10 it, I'll try to do another run later

My slip disappeared for the vapor activation but there was nothing

[pseudo dust]

Will vent reset its timer if i apply blast before the 4 seconds timer is up?

And what about if my blast recharge time is exactly 4 seconds?

[loud moat]

Yes

Good for Strike/flourish that is on a high timer (common or no poms), or Vent just acts as half the necessary curse for Origination. Otherwise Vent is kinda mehhhh

If you reapply CLANG under those 4 seconds it takes to proc, then it resets the timer. Making vent useless on high poms Volc Strike/Flourish (other than Origination set up).

[willow phoenix]

Not anymore

[loud moat]

really? Thats nice.

It doesnt stack I take it then. But plays the vent damage out and then you can reapply it

[willow phoenix]

Yea

[pseudo dust]

nice, though it'll still create a mismatch where no vent is applied and blast is on CD

[willow phoenix]

The damage is not amazing but at least it works

[loud moat]

Regardless of vent, you should decide on whether to full commit to buffing your Volc strike/flourish with rarity/poms from the get go or not. Vent is just an origination starter IMO

[tropic saffron]

Yeah pretty much

[willow phoenix]

I did a run with 2s heph attack and 4 sec Heph special. Got pretty insane. Vent only did around 20k at the end while blast did 130k

[tropic saffron]

Heph is really good you just have to prioritize him over other gods of you want to see his full potential

[loud moat]

Even without priority he's really good. Trusty shield for the win.

[willow phoenix]

Grand caldera is worth more imo if you already have Origination, since the aoe helps a lot in clearing rooms

[tropic saffron]

Tru. He's just good all around

[willow phoenix]

Huge blasts clears rooms very fast

[tropic saffron]

Grand caldera is BUSTED. It's legitimately amazing

I did a Madea run with heph and Echo hit Grand caldera. It was wild

[willow phoenix]

Heph with apollo is lowkey good too since blast can backstab pretty often without any aiming

[tropic saffron]

Had it at like lv 11 by Tartarus

[willow phoenix]

And the duo makes it deal more damage

Chain reaction is still the go to boon for blast build though imo

[loud moat]

Not to mention Apollo/Aphro Hearthrob shenanigans.

[tropic saffron]

Is that the Hestia one?

[willow phoenix]

Yes, the double blast

[tropic saffron]

Honestly Heph also has probably the second best legendary in the game behind apollo

[loud moat]

Can depend on the weapon I'd say. Its definitely never a bad thing.

[willow phoenix]

Ehh heph legendary is very dependent on aspects

Some get huge upgrades while some are very meh

[loud moat]

Like Mel torches, having your Omega Special be 3.5 seconds instead of 2.5 is a bit of a nothing burger

[tropic saffron]

That's fair

[loud moat]

But for Momus staff having them proc every .5 seconds instead of 1.5 or whatever the change is is such a boost. Like bonkers

[tropic saffron]

Getting it on momus or moros is pretty crazy

[willow phoenix]

Seems like legendary in this game is not related to the main kit of the god at all outside of poseidon and ares

[loud moat]

Honestly momus staff is kinda bonkers already without upgrading. In the running for favorite weapon. Just being able to set up turrets while a boss is in their immunity phase is so overpowered. I can get 3 turrets going and then position myself in a better place.

[willow phoenix]

Which is weird tbh

[tropic saffron]

What does heph legendary do for pan?

Like how many more daggers does it get?

[willow phoenix]

In general it gives like +3 levels

[vital plover]

So I'm not sure i'm doing my builds right at all per weapon choice. Regardless of what weapon I go with, I always use the phial at the start, then selene and then hammer pretty much without fail every single run. Should I instead be opting to take an olympian based keepsake for the first region depending on the weapon?

Yea sorry, I use phial on surface runs

Is there some chart that has good god correlations with certain weapons? It seems confusing to me

darn that sucks

[uneven palm]

Faster, lower-power attacks like additional damage sources: Poseidon, Hestia in particular. Maybe Ares or Zeus. Think staffs, blades, torches, coats.

Slow, high-power attacks want percentage boosts: Hera, Apollo, Aphro, maybe Ares. Think axes, skulls, chunky omega moves like torch O attack or coat O attack or staff omegas.

Ares and Zeus and Heph are kinda in-betweeners you can build around them as primary damage but you might also slot them into less-used moves to apply statuses or blow stuff up occasionally.

That's like, the meat of it. Play around.

[neat pier]

What are S-Scales?

[uneven palm]

I think those are the pickaxe resource on the summit?

[neat pier]

Maybe its that, didn't get to spawn any yet

[surreal hazel]

they are, yes

also, errrr. I made the torches into an actual flamethrower: https://youtu.be/Ie-ibpVny10

[thin ridge]

Is this sped up cause the movement looks really weird

[loud moat]

Nah its blooddrops

boosts your attack speed. Torches special does this weird glide animation but with the speed means you end up in the full animation but can move a ton for the duration.

[surreal hazel]

Yeah, I put the video into feedback

the attack speed is nice and all, but the movement speed is basically uncontrollable

[paper bay]

how rare is that hermes armor from coins boon 'cause I ended up with 3k coins and can no longer spend them?

[loud moat]

It shouldnt make you unable to spend them. But it essentially turns your corn purse into another HP bar. I do wonder if strength and other Damage Redux affects it though.

[paper bay]

no, I mean, I have 3k to spare before Chronos, poor Charon could not withstand me

[surreal hazel]

Requires any hermes boon and a legendary roll

but hermes is a rarer boon than others, iirc it's capped at one per region

[loud moat]

Oh the way you worded your question was confusing

[paper bay]

Yeah I see it now.

[loud moat]

I think 2 hermes boons max for a run if im not mistaken?

[surreal hazel]

you can get more, at least on the surface

might be capped at 2 natural room rolls, but you can definitely just buy them from the shrines

[loud moat]

Ok, thats what I thought. Hadnt paid much attention. I know from natural rolls its capped at 2 per run but I'll see if I can find anymore this way.

[paper bay]

I got a rare atrophic affluence from chaos which is 110% bonus gold, a buried treasure, a sea star (from poseidon) and the Travel Deal from Hermes

[surreal hazel]

Is hera on that run?

[paper bay]

no

[hoary quiver]

So hermes got a new boon that makes chance based effects more likely, right? Could someone tell me what its name was and how much it increases chances at heroic?

[surreal hazel]

Success Rate and it doesn't affect that at all iirc

[hoary quiver]

affect what at all?

[paper bay]

not all chance based boons are affected

[surreal hazel]

chance based effects on boons

[hoary quiver]

I know, I just want to know the boons numbers since I can't access H2 right now to check in person

[rain hazel]

I didn't spend a lot of time with it, but being able to dash during blackcoat omega feels like a game changer

[surreal hazel]

So Crit chance, things like divine vengeance's 50% retrigger

quite a few Ares boons

Sea Star

[hoary quiver]

I am not asking about which boons it works on, but how big the chance increase is per rarity

[surreal hazel]

+30,40,50,60

multiplicative percent, so 50% divine vengeance becomes 75% if you get an epic Success Rate (+50% bonus)

the tooltips on each of the affected boons updates accordingly if you have Success Rate

[hoary quiver]

okay, thanks

[surreal hazel]

#h2-victory-boasting message such as here

also affects Keepsakes too

and probably some hammer upgrades? I can't think of any chance rate ones off the top of my head though

[hoary quiver]

Does it work with the crit chance from aspect of artemis (that's my favourite one)?

[surreal hazel]

Yes.

Oh yes.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1233146305308528650/1342516255067869224/20250221151851_1.jpg?ex=67bddfb1&is=67bc8e31&hm=e081c9e1820199f46c08a3f08fb32dd7a6f85523f6ccd0cf1240e8d22cdc8d91&

[uneven palm]

It boosts keepsakes??? Wowza

@magic moss your staff persistence must be paying off now. A little attack speed and a chunkier special and this weapon feels real good now

[magic moss]

i got a 47 boonless clear yesterday, new staff feels so nice to use

[uneven palm]

Just shredded 32F surface with Mel staff and a big double Aphro on special. New special opens up a lot of possibilities

[surreal hazel]

Double moonshot is a faustian bargain though

That range penalty hurts on a penetrating attack like that

[uneven palm]

I did feel that getting a sniper bot just out of range

[sage ridge]

hiii sorry if this question has been asked a lot what weapons are the best to clear with?

[uneven palm]

Pan with Poseidon special.

[sage ridge]

i know its probably a big matter of preference but theres probably ones that perform better with less effort

[uneven palm]

But everything is capable if you don’t like Pan

[sage ridge]

i like pan but ive just used it so much 😭 is thanatos axe viable?

and if yes which boons are good for it

[uneven palm]

Honestly… anything on attack? I like Hera or Apollo or Ares. Add Weed Killer from Dem and spin away.

[sage ridge]

🫡 ty

[marble imp]

i was literally just about to ask this haha. what's the verdict on ares over hera on attack?

[uneven palm]

Both are good. Unless you’ve got Wards then haaaard tilt to Hera

[civic ocean]

Ares is very dependent on whether or not you have Grievous Wounds I think

[uneven palm]

Yeah Ares really wants Grievous to scale up the damage for your attack (and everything else)

[civic ocean]

I would imagine that combining Grievous Blow + Lethality onto like a Seismic Hammer O-Cast would be remarkable

[umbral scarab]

I'm about to run a hepheastus build, any suggestions?

[surreal hazel]

Hestia on support

[civic ocean]

Remember that heph blasts do not scale with weapon damage, they are a seperate damage source

[surreal hazel]

Go mad on poms

Grand caldera is your friend

[umbral scarab]

would you say this is the one build that you shouldn't take origination?

[uneven palm]

You absolutely want Origination it’s the biggest global damage boost

Furies too

[umbral scarab]

I'm guessing cast and dash for origination, then

what about strength? I always find it to be more useful than death

[spare kite]

There's vent from heph as origination setup

[uneven palm]

Oh you’re wanting all Heph attack special I’m guessing? Then yeah gotta work in Orig on cast/special or add Vent

[umbral scarab]

It's just I usually go aphro, hera or zeus, and I want to change things up to spice it up a bit

[minor fern]

do we think there's any possibility of a legendary/duo/keepsake or anything that will let you put down 2 casts

[uneven palm]

Probably not it’d be a little game breaking

[minor fern]

fair but sometimes game breaking is fun

what if it prevented you from doing omega cast

or made you take damage from it like that one hammer for the rail in the first game

[spare kite]

That's on the same lvl as Beowulf's downside in h1 lol

[civic ocean]

Origination is more important on Heph Blasts than most builds. What weapon are you using?

[umbral scarab]

I dunno, about to take each of the six out for a spin

[civic ocean]

I am cooking something with Ares Heph rn I think

[nova cairn]

chat

Do mini-bosses count as guardians or is that just the actual end of area bosses

[civic ocean]

Guardians are bosses mid bosses are wardens

[nova cairn]

Deciding whether i should use knuckle-bones on the last area of surface

[nova cairn]

👍 thanks i forgor

[umbral scarab]

I'd say go for it - he hits pretty dang hard if you are still trying to learn the moves

[nova cairn]

i'm on 32 fear rn

[civic ocean]

Knuckle bones does almost 10k damage to the act 4 surface boss so

Id say it’s worth

[peak nebula]

10k damage = 5 seconds DPS, not that much

5-7*

[solemn loom]

@bleak night Hades 2 Builder Share, looks ready for use. 👍
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1272385014150991875/1343729114061996083/Screenshot_2025-02-24_at_6.39.34_PM.png?ex=67be54c2&is=67bd0342&hm=10b3f591067b3aaeb8a51b5484522b5b1d29ab5825eb813f01a9a71f7375ef3c&

[gray flame]

THANK YOU I DID IT

[magic moss]

nice

[solemn loom]

do you what's giving you an extra Earth element? the total from the boons is 3.

[spare kite]

digging or a side room in ephyra I'd assume?

[solemn loom]

Yeah, prob sure the element count is correct. xd

[sage ridge]

ALRIGHT... the build was great until Prometheus 😭

[harsh jolt]

Any quick and dirty arcana setup for 16 fear? i want to geto to 32 with all weapons on both route but i kind of hit a roadblock with surface 16

[uneven palm]

He doesn’t give you a lot of openings for big spins unfortunately.

Psychic Whirlwind helps a LOT so you can charge one up and get hits in while you dodge

[hoary quiver]

Can athenas keepsake activate in a boss fight? I guess not, but I wanted to ask just to be sure

[solemn loom]

https://hades2build.pages.dev/ - Hades 2 shareable resource updated.

[marble imp]

do bosses count as guardians btw

[umbral scarab]

What would you guys say are the use cases of each pet?

[umbral scarab]

bosses found at the end of each biome are guardians, minibosses found in the middle of the biome are wardens

[gilded forum]

does aspect of medea work on both the omega and normal version of the attack and special, or just the non omega variant?

[upbeat oar]

hey does anyone know if Hermes's success rate stack with Poseidon's Sea Star? getting a nice 60+% chance to double reward is hella nice

[half sigil]

https://imgur.com/a/wToWRCQ
guess the weapon

[jaunty moat]

daggers fr

[half sigil]

Nope

[jaunty moat]

giga moonburst

[half sigil]

No

[magic moss]

selene with scorn

[half sigil]

Selene the goat

[sinful hare]

Hey I have a question, for Hermes Infusion "Tall order" it states I need 8 essence of 1 type. Would the affect not activate until I have the 8?

[half sigil]

Yes

[sinful hare]

Thank you, I was wondering why offer it if I dont have the requirement to activate it yet

[half sigil]

You can take it and it activates later

Although imo Hermes has better boons on offer but it’s not bad

[sinful hare]

Im already almost at the top of Olympus, I finally met Ares this playthrough. Agreed.

[wraith coral]

For Aphro's boons. Is close calculated by the distance between Mel and thr Enemy or where the attack originated? Like if the dawnbreaker hits an enemy is it close to the attack?

[silent crow]

mel and the enemy

[wraith coral]

Sweet!

[main beacon]

whatever you do do not take bolstered array, that upgrade eats my skulls and i cant retrieve them. anyone else seen this? alraedy f10'd

i meant wide grin** the upgrade that shoots all skulls at once

[crisp oyster]

where can I find the new familiars ?

[civic ocean]

To answer your question, yes, it works, but IIRC it works multiplicatively, so if Sea star is 30%, Success Rate at 30% will change it to about 39%. Still, that's quite nice.

[upbeat oar]

ok thats a lot more sane than I first thought of. with only 1 pom, I got my seastar up to 49%

epic seastart and common success rate

[civic ocean]

I think with Ares' Mutual Destruction, Sea Star, and Success Rate, there's an opportunity to nearly permanently trigger Mutual Destruction once you've taken enough damage.

[analog ether]

Interesting question about Single Elimination:

Does it specifically require multiple foes to be present? Or does it still work if there's only a single foe on the map?

I would think it's the latter.

[round quartz]

It works on just one single foe
It's a free 20%+ to bosses

[timid temple]

the zeus omega blitz boon is so unbalanced with torches it's hilarious. you get 2 boons from the same god and you win the run, as if zeus wasn't already insane with them

[round quartz]

Also speaking of Ares
Ares is just extremely strong
Actually giving Hera competition for go to attack

[potent grotto]

Why is Prometheus so hard 😭

[timid temple]

the first time i fought him i was running demeter apollo duo so he was blue and the cast was blue and the gust was blue and i could not see ANYTHING

[potent grotto]

That sounds miserable

[analog ether]

It's been a while since I've done Skulls, any build thoughts for the surface?

[midnight pulsar]

Best performance least effort is like
Charon axe imo I know you asked like 4 hours ago but still

Legit press cast press special win the video game

[timid temple]

torches zeus attack + arc flash, or torches poseidon attack, or torches hestia attack + hot flash, or torches cut above + ares apollo/ares hephaestus. i like the torches.

[cursive oyster]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1334746789882105900/1343779442287312956/image.png?ex=67be83a1&is=67bd3221&hm=f6f3deacf4346fb6c1307a07ed8019af53750d177dc4eecfa7ebdd8630cab7ce&
boon boon boon is about to go crazy lmao

[potent grotto]

Any suggestions for Olympus builds for the black coat? I'm still really struggling to get past Prometheus, let alone Typhon

[timid temple]

static shock zeus?

[dire lily]

pos + zeus/ares

[timid temple]

could do hephaestus special for master conductor

[potent grotto]

Okay I can try it next time

Thanks

[half sigil]

Which coat

[timid temple]

dont think it matters tbh

[half sigil]

It does to an extent

[timid temple]

all of them can just sort of spam attack. i guess mel?

ares dash feels like wow back in hades 1 where dash boons did big damage

[half sigil]

Mel is probably the most flexible imo. Hera is imo the best for all coats overall (except maybe Selene depending on what you wanna do)

But because of atk speed, pos atk is also fine. You can even do hestia/dem duo if you want

I would strongly suggest not spamming attack

Combo rocket punch punch loop is much higher dps

[potent grotto]

I usually use Mel coat anyways

[half sigil]

It’s a good coat

[potent grotto]

Yeah I tend to alternate between attack special and cast

[timid temple]

tbh i just treat coat as fists: hades 2 edition. i know you can obviously get more from them butttt

[half sigil]

Yea it’s very important. And on special put a high burst dmg. Either Zeus or ares

Ares is better imo cause he offers a lot more than just burst on your special

[potent grotto]

Hera/Hephaestus has kinda become my go to regardless of what weapon I'm using but I figure there's probably better for some than that

[half sigil]

Hzra is usually considered the best god

Heph got a tad worse but he’s still an amazing support defensive god

[left moat]

what's the consensus on how good ares boons are?

[half sigil]

Extremely good

S tier i think

[potent grotto]

I just take a lot of damage from Prometheus and Typhon so I've been considering Demeter a little more especially if I can get her infusion that limits damage

And get said infusion active

[half sigil]

It’s important to know how prom works. He has very strict patterns

[potent grotto]

Yeah and I feel good about knowing his patterns

[half sigil]

Nice

[potent grotto]

He's just really really fast and I can't deal with some of his attacks

But like I know stick to the edges with most of his big AOE attacks and then use the position system for his thing where he leaps up out of the arena

[half sigil]

Depending on your weapon if you wanna be safe you can just wait out the fast attacks and only punish the slow ones

[potent grotto]

I probably should do that

[half sigil]

In phase 2 and 3 his combo is 2 fast 1 slow

[potent grotto]

I can get away from them fast enough with the black coat

[half sigil]

So just wait the 2 fast and only punish the 3rd attack of each combo

[potent grotto]

Alright

[half sigil]

(Also you can block everything he does lol)

[spare kite]

Block the memory lanes got it

[half sigil]

ok lol i meant his regular atks

[spare kite]

[amber dagger]

You can dash through the memory lanes which I find cool I know this is well know still cool

[cursive oyster]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1334746789882105900/1343787113090514974/image.png?ex=67be8ac6&is=67bd3946&hm=f6b18438b317d677af40c28735fad40bab8ab7a18859e13e4855f0c2efcff73d&
this is what i like to call the echo care package

[spare kite]

Yup

I'm an addict to it

[amber dagger]

I can remember like the first three but after that

[junior trail]

wait exceptional talent works with momus now?

[spare kite]

Mood

[junior trail]

with mirrored even

[spare kite]

I have a vid where you can see me try doing the patterns then having to last second iframe through the 3rd/4th waves

[half sigil]

it's usually easier to ifreame everything that remembering tbh

[amber dagger]

I swear it’s not even that hard I do it accidentally all the time

[half sigil]

yea iot's pretty chill

[spare kite]

Yeah the window is like comically big

Pretty sure the hitbox of those attacks are just at the front

[amber dagger]

For-see through that

[potent grotto]

So would it be better to do the Zeus Hephaestus stuff or the Hera Hephaestus stuff for Olympus using the Melinoe black coat?

Are Posideon boons good in this game? I remember them being good in H1 with Stygius

Is the black coat one of them?

Gotcha

So what am I best off trying for my next Olympus run?

Because I'm still struggling to even beat Prometheus

I've enjoyed the black coat most I think. I struggle with the sister blades in general

My go to weapon for a while was Descura but I think now I'm finding I like the black coat more

I've not really tried Pan I think

I usually use Melinoe for those too

If I am using the sister blades anyways

[timid temple]

artemis blades are sooo busted if you haven't played with those

[potent grotto]

Gotcha also yeah I don't think I've tried Artemis blades either

lol gotcha yeah that's kinda how I feel using the black coat

[silent crow]

if it counts for anything i think pan blades are really boring and lame

[potent grotto]

Mel coat is so fun

[timid temple]

pan poseidon is so nasty i have separated it completely from the other 2 aspects

[silent crow]

pan poseidon so nasty I dont touch it anymore

[potent grotto]

I might do it once just to see how it feels since I've never done it

I mean 5 omega specials to end a boss sounds pretty braindead

[silent crow]

its also like the most linear build path ever becasuse trying to weave in any other DPS source is a waste of time

[potent grotto]

But like either the Hestia gain or Hera gain

Is that not the one that you get it back based on damage?

Oh

Gotcha okay

Born Gain goes hard though with this I bet

Fair

I get hit enough in normal runs that I like Heph's gain

Yeah that's fair that's the only downside of born gain

[silent crow]

even hestia gain is workable tbh

[magic moss]

im running unseen rn and honestly its a lot better than i expected tbh

[silent crow]

is it worth 5 grasp

[potent grotto]

I could maybe do boonless underworld

If I'm not on any oaths

[timid temple]

what do you run for boonless anyways

[potent grotto]

I have no idea I've not really looked into doing a boonless run

But if I were to do one I feel confident I could maybe do the underworld boonless

[uneven palm]

Unseen ain’t bad but also it’s 5. Tilts the value away IMO

[potent grotto]

But Olympus? Forget about it, I can't even do Olympus no fear and with boons

Boonless Olympus sounds like torture

[bleak night]

Mini can probs do it

[nimble prism]

Do i get the huntrees bonus dmg if my mana get primed?

[bleak night]

Doesn't count, no. If the blue bar is still showing a number that's 1:1 on current:max, still counts as full despite the priming

[nimble prism]

Thx

[round quartz]

Ares and Heph are very good together
You get so much Earth to trigger the infusions for both (Rallying Cry and Martial Art)
I have +70% on Martial Art and Rallying Cry is active with 14 earths

And if you grab Hermes Tall Order infusion as well

So much damage

[analog ether]

I wonder, does the Blade Rift get buffed by Persephone Skull?

Persephone buffs Omega move damage. Blade Rift is created by the Omega Cast. So for the purposes of the buff, would Blade Rift be considered part of the Omega Cast?

[indigo terrace]

What're the best special and cast boons to use for Aspect of Charon?

[uncut ginkgo]

Is there a way to see how many blood drops you've picked up?

[indigo terrace]

A little number will pop up above your head whenever you pick up a new one. It's pretty hard to see though

[analog ether]

Two ways:

When you pick up a blood drop, it briefly flashes the total buff percentage.

If you open the boon menu and hover over whichever boon grants blood drops, it displays a tool tip showing your buff percentage.

[junior trail]

No, Persephone Skull only boosts the damage from Omega Cast's detonation, not Blade Rift damage.

But since Blade Rift triggers after Omega Cast detonates, it synergizes well with Momus (especially with Premium Service), Charon, and Hermes's Winner’s Circle.

The faster it detonates, the more Blade Rifts you get.

[night hornet]

Hello, I'm having a lot of trouble with the skull, I can't seem to make it a viable weapon no matter what I do, the damage output is just way too limited and way too slow. Any advice on how to use the skull would be appreciated.

[round quartz]

Demeter cast is good for safety, freezing enemies
For special, you want any high percentage
Apollo special is good for more AOE and a rather good percentage up
Hera Special is another great option as Hitch never fails
And Ares could be good as it does buff percent and the wounds could go great

I just haven't tried Ares special on Charon yet

But in theory, it sounds very strong

And obviously lucid gain is a very easy choice
Or born gain
For magic regen

[obsidian remnant]

in the same boat rn, it feels terrible to play

but i also have a passionate hatred for picking things up, like revenants

[round quartz]

Medea skull is very good if you can learn it
Percentage attack and Zeus on Special. Just cycle between load attack then special into enemies

I don't know much about Mel skull, but Apollo attack with omega attack spam can work
Weed killer if you go that route
Or if you basic attack, just percentage gods

With Persephone, you want rapid hitting cast boons. Demeter or Zeus cast come to mind. Then take a percentage special (Hera is just go to because Hitch is busted)
Poseidon Geyser Spout or Ares blade rift on omega cast are nice supplemental option as well
Apollo prominence flare is something but I wouldn't recommend it as the flare being active stops you from casting again

[round quartz]

Specials auto retrieve skulls now if you are close enough

[obsidian remnant]

yeah i gave a few builds a shot and kept giving up halfway through ephyra because they felt clunky and slow; i was taking too much damage and time between revenant retrieval, errant skull retrieval, and the bad aoe dps

i may have to do a lower fear run to get used to the rhythms of it but even on a 0 grit fear run the damage felt very low

[round quartz]

If you struggle with AOE dps
It's just Hera attack (or now cast is a great option)
And with the buffed travel speed of skull, try to space yourself more rather putting your face into enemies (unless it Medea of course)

Or you can ignore playing the actual skulls and just go cast build lmao
Ares and Apollo duo is great
And if you can grab Ares Heph along with that as well

[obsidian remnant]

i can try it! i never use hitch if i can avoid it, it seems useless in boss fights

i’ll have to try full cast haha sounds memey but i bet it could be fun with enough omega speed bonuses

[round quartz]

The attack being 60%+ for Hera makes it good on its own

Even without the crazy aoe dps that hitch provides

[obsidian remnant]

i’ll try it next time! ty

[round quartz]

Of course

[half sigil]

Also hitch is 1 half of origination so it’s not too bad

[civic ocean]

I too tend to have a hard time with the skull, the two builds I use right now are

Mel Skull with Apollo Start, aiming for Apollo’s legendary and good hammers, trying to bomb foes from afar with O-Attacks while using Demeter or Aphrodite on the cast to keep enemies away from me and those and another curse to turn on Origination Arcana to amp damage.

The other way is to use Persephone with a Zeus start and investing a lot in Cast (NOT Omega Cast damage). You cannot gain charge towards your Omega Special while you are using it, so I mostly just play from distance with the cast and attack until my special is charged, then I let it rip with a strong %boon for huge damage while Im invulenerable. Lategame the cast damage from Storm Ring gets so high that it basically instantly charges your Special so you can cycle between them. You can do this with O Cast too but you will need a good boon

The trick with the second one is that Storm Ring is often good enough to win runs in its own, though it was definitely nerfed by bosses being able to escape casts easier

I didnt really notice on my 32 with it yesterday but it has been a while

[tame spindle]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1170037301645164636/1343842279688900668/image.png?ex=67bebe26&is=67bd6ca6&hm=301793f05fc315c9d12b690527252a79ef13f6fb2fb9a83b4ce1e01f8e95cc40&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1528&height=405 wow thanks bridal glow

[bleak night]

ooh you're gaming? wanna vc

[tame spindle]

omg lets go

[uneven palm]

With Persephone, try Anvil Ring instead of Storm Ring this patch. Damage is pretty comparable to Zeus now, it’s even better on crowds, and you still get three clangs with Winners Circle.

[civic ocean]

I like zeus a lot but I will definitely go for heph once or twice

Just got my first 32 surface with blades - Heinous Affront is unbelievable

[uneven palm]

This patch is so fun like all the Ares duos are good

[half sigil]

Ares is a massive W ya

[north granite]

He's like the new Artemis or Athena dash where it's almost a free win no matter the difficulty