Merlin - Discussion Thread

[shrewd quartz]

Yeah but some spells have only one stat that gets boosted, some have more

[stable thorn]

I honestly dont understand why balors is even an option on merlin

[civic moss]

if you have wildmagic and arcane shield i would think there is a world where you dont want balors ?

[stable thorn]

I havent tried balor on Merlin yet

but every time I pick balor I just dont see any difference

like I could have 5 stacks of power

take balor

damage is like bigger but not what I expected

5 charges should be +400%dmg

and I just dont feel it at all

Same with Ichor and Thorn

+100% damage but only difference I can notice is cooldown being significantly longer

I like to have charges on Merlin because of his talents

elemental affinity, shooting stars

if you dont have charges there is basically no reason to take brambles whirlwind and shooting stars

unless you have cooldown reduction I guess

But its usually hard to have both charges and cooldown especially with addition of joker card

They average amount of epic items in run is 8-9 I believe

at least for me

you definetely can have more

[agile magnet]

there's really no reason to take both of these when bramble one shots everything anyway lol

[stable thorn]

I mean sometimes you dont have a choice

[agile magnet]

I don't value charges because I play around defence and trait mostly. every time my primary damage spell is off cooldown so is my trait

[stable thorn]

What if you like have a 1 reroll left and the talent options are shooting starts and life seed

[agile magnet]

charges are fine late-game for balor's eye boost but they have lower value than defence objects for the earlier parts of the run

[agile magnet]

I just take whatever. most builds only need a few talents I don't mind having a few that do nothing

I almost always save my rerolls for objects unless it's late game and I have plenty of stars to spare

[stable thorn]

I mean at this point we can just say Merlin is op as hell why even discuss

[agile magnet]

I do that on all characters tho

[coarse stream]

Sigh I still kinda struggle on solo with merlin 🤷‍♂️

not every run is an auto-win

[stable thorn]

Sometimes rng just f*cks you over and over again

[agile magnet]

this has not happened to me once in the last thousand+ hours of gameplay

[coarse stream]

I feel in base nightmare its possible to win despite RNG

anything above that is a very different story though

[stable thorn]

well by your statements I dont even understand why are you in this thread

Doesnt happen to me so doesnt happen to any one skill issue ☝️ 🤓

[agile magnet]

true

[stable thorn]

when you reroll talent like 5 times just to see life seed or natural harmony in every option

[agile magnet]

I am here discussing merlin as a character and why I think certain objects/talents are good or unnecessary

[agile magnet]

I just take whichever one and then choose a different one next level and the pool gets smaller and smaller and good options will always show up in a run

meanwhile rerolling for objects will build your strength enough to carry you through the run in the meantime

[stable thorn]

It doesnt always work

[agile magnet]

I am telling you that it does

[stable thorn]

healing talent on lvl 2 is definetely not what you want to see

On merlin its like whatever because character is op

but on others like pied piper its death sentence

at this point its easier to restart

[agile magnet]

if it doesn't work, it's because there are holes in the player's gameplay and they need better rng to make up for it. if they have fewer holes in their gameplay, they can overcome worse rng quite easily and every run no matter what will go smoothly

[coarse stream]

I dont think Merlin is anywhere close to like juliet in power, and he has a very high skill floor

[stable thorn]

Cant say much about juliet

she is very lackluster solo

half of her talents is not available

[coarse stream]

Im saying it because Juliet is the only character I won nightmare solo with first time

but that was on release day idk how she is rn

[agile magnet]

I can win every run on pied piper without rerolling on base nightmare (this sounds arrogant but I'm just trying to illustrate the point that rng doesn't matter and every run is winnable no matter what)

also this is getting a bit off topic

[stable thorn]

I may be biased because I usually play to get a sertain build going

[zinc vapor]

don't worry, this did not sound arrogant

[stable thorn]

Yeah I know thats not how you supposed to play rogue likes

usually the correct stratagy in every rogue like is to play with the options the game gives you

[zinc vapor]

im the same way, especially on beowulf, but sometimes you just gotta adapt and change stuff around

[stable thorn]

and not force stuff

[zinc vapor]

i have started to get into the habit of building based on starter shop

[stable thorn]

but its only matters when your main goal is to win a run

after 300 hours its not my point of playing

[coarse stream]

This is alot harder though now right?

[agile magnet]

ravenswatch actually gives you a significant amount of control over your build if you approach the macro game correctly and know when to make concessions

[stable thorn]

YES, thats why its probably my most liked rogue like

on par with hades 1/2

game allows you to force builds by giving you rerolls

[agile magnet]

you can go into pretty much any run with a build idea and get almost perfect obejcts/talents for it every time if you approach the map POIs in the right order and use rerolls correctly

[stable thorn]

YES, thats what I do and like in this game

and I think you can only do that if you are experinced enough to do so

[agile magnet]

this is the merlin discussion thread 😭

[zinc vapor]

mbad i forgot

could eternal rose work with merlin?

[stable thorn]

My takes still applied to Merlin

[stable thorn]

dont think so

definitely not the best experience you can have

[zinc vapor]

i think ima go make enemies ride the lightning

this update made me realise real quick that multiplayer isn't for me

people leave if they dont get to play merlin

[coarse stream]

the discord vc groups should have people who wont leave

(because everyone plays merlin)

[zinc vapor]

i mean i expect it, but sometimes i wish players wouldn't leave and just press start so i can turn my brain off, go on pilot mode, and no diff mobs with wu kong

ill wait till it dies down before i log 100 hours on merlin

[stable thorn]

This was my best run on Merlin and probably in general

before that my biggest dmg stat was like 950+ with Gepetto

But these numbers are possible only with golden eggs

I was kinda surprised today that in a run with Eternal dream I had less total money

than on this run with coins

[civic moss]

golden egg without infinite money

[rugged brook]

tbh I feel like it can, because since they nerfed the "multiple dashes stacks its effect", that means playing around dash cast a spell...probably bramble whirlwind -_- lol...is good. Or Sacred strike stays active a bit after using a defense so you can dash sacred strike wild magic.

Also a dash spam might be "funny" cause you have the heal talent, then you get the dash talent with the cursed ultimate...which is actually REALLY strong baseline LOL, so...it is kinda worth playing in anticipation of it.

But tbh...I don't really like these "very late game" talents that feel like I wish I played it earlier in the run...like Aladdin Carpet dash, or...let me see

maybe melusine's overtone singing, carmilla heartbreak...I dunno just some talent ideas...it's like playing around that I'll get them this late, when they feel so..."different" to what I used during the run...I don't super get it.

Like overtone...I get it kinda if you play the AA melusine build...but it just feels like I wish I had it all along or I could get it earlier. Idk. Unless they add a chapter 4 though, but that's not gonna happen lol.

he also has a lot of "easy" crit if you play around runic potency/elemental affinity, so rose would push him over the edge fast.

Trinity gives a lot of bonus crit damage to play around too, but I have to say I am in the "I don't like this talent at all" camp. I feel like the concept of is it is cute, but I feel what would "save it" is if the +1 star reward gets replaced by something more...fun.

The idea I had is that each legendary is actually stronger on Merlin when he takes it...but frankly there's something about Merlin that feels..."we want to copy paste not have to code too much" to me...I'm ngl. Like they wanted to only need the art "person", not the "coding new things" person.

Ow also the "autoattack frost orb" build would good with the roses I guess. I don't like that build really lol but /shrug.

[jolly flare]

yeah i was expecting him to have a new mechanic or keyword unique to him

i would be sad if every new character was like the things you already know plastered into someone new

i mean he has a lot of spells that's really really cool but i meant things like another debuff or something like that

[wind elk]

he does have a new mechanic unique to him; 9 spells

[rugged brook]

---

Ok I did have some thought reading some of the old things said...
What do we think about :

Bramble whirlwind: big damage nerf, but now roots?
Shooting Stars: Now is waves of it +1/2/3/4 whatever, applies vuln still, so it'll be the "big damage" of druid, but it's kinda of a "dot".
Freezing Stones: Has a flat or scaling with levels increase in the block period it has as a bonus.
Lightning storm: Increases Range/aoe cone of the lightning spell.
Wild Magic: changes next attack to magical bear swipes that has more range/wider. Make it a "landing aa is easier, better damage for AA but not crazy, qol enhancer potency charges wise. Maybe does not interact with Sacred strike at all but idc.
Grace of Heaven: Moved to a starting talent (Eternal Dream needs a strong competitor imo, this is my choice).

Astrology: I vote this be a "mid run talent"...but..I dunno..maybe it duplicates items you have at random per level..could be busted...or not, maybe hard to code..LOL but...I LOATHE that it is a copy Aladdin starting talent that's a nono to me. The fact that it's plain stars is already kinda bizzarre concept to me I originally thought maybe he'll need the stars in a unique way...but he doesn't really.

[rugged brook]

see the thing is they have been copy pasting with enemies as well...so...Idk it is what it is..that is classic game deving but..you one can dream lol

I wouldn't be surprised that if Beo gets nekkid he is actually merlin LOL

[loud night]

Yeah, I love the concept but a single star of fate is kinda a pathetic progress reward. It's also something that, depending on RNG, you might not be able to see the final reward of until the 3rd act.

Maybe if it gave some trait cooldown reduction as the progress reward it'd be more fun

[rugged brook]

yeah like even if it is boring chunk of stats...+1 star is way too much of a joke imo

make it I pick hour glass +15 cd redection I pick excal +20 damage...etc...something I don't really know lol xD. Like Monkey's vitality immortality...that's worth!!! and people still don't like it

this one you might actually rng that you don't finish it...so I just idk...

[loud night]

Also: what's the purpose of Frost Orb? Every other spell has some reason to cast it without the need of a specific talent, but I can't see why I'd ever cast Frost Orb over a good ol' Fireball.

Just to apply Chilled, is that it?

[rugged brook]

I did have an idea for frost orb...maybe make it "staggers really good if you land it right" type of ability just straight line slow moving thing. But apparently some people really like the AA frost orb build...so Idk.

I mean it's kinda like a "summoner build" vibe if you play aaround it I guess?

like just spam them and watch them do their thing...which lol these kinda builds are...uhh..fun sometimes..maybe LOL

[loud night]

I mean, if Frost Orb didn't stop your movement during casting I could see it being useful on any build

Oh well, good to know that there wasn't anything about it that I was missing

[rugged brook]

I really feel for my personal taste, the "issue" with Merlin, like his defense spells are very good makes sense "choice competition wise".
Druid, the stone spell has its place.
But then..I feel like a lot of the rest are "which buttons gets to win dps wise"...which I just don't like that tbh.

When I think about invoker from Dota, his spells don't really compare like that...if anything they kinda "work together"...you need to tornado to land the meteor right type of thing, etc. Merlin just feels ok...I got the bramble whirlwind...good bye everything else. I think if just each button has a more "dedicated role" but if you keep boosting it's damage that sure use it all the way..I think he'd be more "charming". Cause to me he is effective but...idk, "why does he have multiple buttons" sauce needs more spice imo.

Also since potency forces you to save up for the "winning spell"...it makes the button comptition..."worse" maybe?

[loud night]

Definitely does

Makes the vulnerable on Starfall and the crit rate on burn/chilled talents a lot less attractive

I feel like a lot of the rest are "which buttons gets to win dps wise"
I dunno, I feel like each of his offensive spells is a tool to use in a specific situation. You use Bramble if stopping for a sec won't kill you, and Starfall otherwise. Same with Lightning vs Fireball.
But like you said, it's a lot less interesting than having the spells "combo" with each other. You're just thinking about how what spell is the best to use right now, instead of thinking about what opportunities casting one spell can open up

[shrewd quartz]

But the thing is, trait encourages you to reposition with Blink, then use the better spell

[jolly flare]

also it ends up being logical that if you get a talent for a specific spell you're gonna want to use it

[shrewd quartz]

Since using 3 potency for Starfall hurts

[loud night]

If any of his spells interacted with burn or chilled by default then that'd have you think about what to use a lot more

[rugged brook]

I will say that it does make him very "ok the chests gave me this then just play around that" versatile lol..so maybe it's not that bad IDK XD

[jolly flare]

the issue being some of the options dont compete with each other

like bramble whirlwind being a LOT better than the shield chill and starfall vulnerable

[rugged brook]

right that talent...I mean I hate saying nerf...LOL because...idk i like ez mode..but xD

[jolly flare]

i feel like nerfing it wont really change anything

in the power branch the issue is design-wise i think

they should make the other 2 talents more fun/impactful

[shrewd quartz]

You know what's also funny I just realised? His 2 Nature talents do jack for his actual Nature spells, one is a heal which he doesn't need, and the other is an Attack boost, for some reason.

Meanwhile Arcane gets a nice shield that makes you immune on EVERY special cast, and the other gives you straight dmg with a free rune on hit.

His power feels more like special and vice versa

[loud night]

If the Vulnerable lasted long enough so you could set up another 3 Potency spell then I'd consider it, but that'd also be really strong on MP. Maybe if it applied a unique debuff that was like Vulnerable but only for his spells then it could last longer and you'd have a reason to pick it

Maybe it could even have a unique effect depending on the spell you hit them with...

Although that might be way too complex lel

[rugged brook]

I mean I like his heal druid thing personally xD...ya stars would make sense if it's in waves, because...it's a little too restrictive, plus who doesn't love a shower of stars. Wild magic...I just think an animation/change in the range/width of attack change to the attacks would do a lot forr it..it would also give more of a "druid vibe"

Also ice orb...can we make it ice owl LOL just to celebrate archimedes, I think I'd love casting it if it just looks hype...ball of ice..is basic xD

[rugged brook]

if it roots though daaang...like I thought when I heard brambles no way they're not gonna play around entangle

dunno if that's op tho...

maybe smaller range idk nothing's really gonna change probably why am I doing this xd

I just want revenge on trees killing me in a "i rooted you" way I guess xd

[shrewd quartz]

Is anyone else bothered that we can't stop channeling Fork of Lightning by simply releasing the button?

I know you can dash out of it, that seems clunky though

[loud night]

I mean, it's not the only ability like that in the game so it doesn't bother me

[shrewd quartz]

What's the other one?

that isn't an ult

[rugged brook]

ya no I struggle with that spell cause of that...but tbh it's so strong for early game...so Idk I guess I'm like "it's worth"...but playing around it later on doesn't feel good imo...even when you max the arcane shield cause the shield kinda doesn't start at the "beginning of casting of it",and the end of the channel still the arcane shield drops off - I think..but need to make sure. Fireball spam was the most fun arcane angle to me

[shrewd quartz]

Yeah same here, I get a feeling they made the spell strong and liked how cool it was, but then didn't want to make it easy to use and feel slick so they left it mega sluggish like it's now

I'd rather it dealt less dmg but was also less cumbersome to use

[rugged brook]

which is perhaps fair...but then you bramble whirlwind...and think ok...what are we doing xD

[shrewd quartz]

Yeah the shield is dumb because it takes a while to activate, it's best with Frost Orb which has the quickest cast time, which is fine since few people use that spell

[rugged brook]

I agree I feel maybe if its talent makes the range better/more comfortable it'd be cool

[shrewd quartz]

IKR

no consistency

Also funny thing, spells which already deal sick damage, get a talent that magnifies that damage even more

So Bramble, Lightning, Fireball

And spells which are meh get meh upgrades

[amber swift]

Such a fun hero

[loud night]

Well, not an "ability" per se, but Slash Flurry on Scarlet. I dunno if anyone else has something like that

[shrewd quartz]

You mean the series of attacks after dash?

[loud night]

No no, you're mixing it up with her other Attack talent

It's the series of attacks after power

[shrewd quartz]

sorry i forget talent names

oh

lol then same thing i guess

[loud night]

The dash attack is a single quick strike

[shrewd quartz]

ehhh bad comparison, that gets over way quicker

[loud night]

Very good talent, unlike flurry lel

I mean, yeah it's a lot shorter, but having your quick attack sometimes become 3x as long can result in you dying, especially when you accidentally forget that you've got it on

With Merlin you're casting that with the knowledge that you're gonna be committed, unless you have a dash ready

[shrewd quartz]

That is not a channel though

[loud night]

But that's just how I view it

[shrewd quartz]

You're just stuck in animation

Fork of Lightning description specifically uses the word channel

[shrewd quartz]

Yeah I get that playing him, but can't help but feel it's wrong

[loud night]

I mean, you're stuck in an animation while multiple hits happen over a period of time. A combo, a channel, a rose by any other name...

[stable thorn]

Holy Merlin is not real, he cant hurt you

[static wind]

I kinda feel like the Fire Barrage talent should be included in the ability, like it should be the default effect when consuming Runes of Potency

[rugged brook]

Don't mind it either way, but I wish fireball's talent was that it gets bigger and bigger range, so that you get to lol from across the screen gaming..but minballs are good

[static wind]

OHHH that would be cool too, considering the dmg scales with distace

[zinc vapor]

It got nerfed? Wheb

[bold ermine]

Highkey bramble build feels like objectively the best one

[rugged brook]

this very patch LOL...it's brutal T_T

I mean...it's...."fair" and reasonable...but who wants that

[zinc vapor]

@rugged brook had a player say "welp there goes my deathless attempt" then left the lobby

like bro are people really that bent out of shape over having a singular death?

[rugged brook]

uhhh...LOL...Idk what to say about that. Maybe he had hungry grass and got salty -optimism-. There are people who intentionally split from the team with the only reason is to top the dps meter by the end of the run, cause if they kill everything else first..that'll happen...so...-pessimism-.

hungry grass in 2026 though...I doubt it xd

[zinc vapor]

What's wrong with 2026 hungry grass?

Ohh it's bad in multiplayer compared to solo?

[rugged brook]

uhh..no it's fine it's just...very slow scaling compared to the crazier picks now there is not a good reason to pick it imo, and this whole if you die thing makes it even kinda worse. Also I think it used to be able to work retroactivley meaning if you pick it later in the run it counts how many orbs you looted but I think they fixed that not completely sure though, you had to die once for that to work, but I think they completely fixed it?

[zinc vapor]

I mean true, but dying as Merlin is so hard to do

I had to stand still just to get hit

[rugged brook]

I think now you have things that makes you gain so much damage for early game which I think is better...but I guess it's fine..idk really xd

it's fun with philosopher/mirror scaling antic I suppose...but then you'd probably want mirror first anyways?..idk not too bad I guess

I think it should be more damage per orb for it to compete now...maybe

with modifiers it does have its perks tho...no wells no feathers...def worth then

[random steeple]

This discord is so good at making me feel bad at this game

[zinc vapor]

bro ur max death count is prolly 2, what do you mean

[random steeple]

I'm 500 hours deep on this game and Merlin has still been hard to pick up. A dozen or more Darkness attempts (excluding quick leveling streak) and I've only made it to chapter two a couple times.

Sorry, I really should have quoted rather than replying cuz I'm not trying to call you out specifically, just many fans here talk like everyone should be able to go basically hitless all the time and extrapolate that many of the games items and talents are useless because they do.

I mostly ignore it but when it's applied to this brand new very complex character it's just kinda killing my enjoyment this week.

[cursive salmon]

I dont have a ton of hours, but before merlin I was playing around 1-4 deaths usually on the heroes I play with my friends or solo in nightmare, scarlet carmilla snow queen

I am playing purely merlin now and im dying 10+ times per run - and its not even nightmare its darkness xd

Ur valid bro

Lmao

[civic moss]

different char that you cant really muscle memory considering his 9-12 spells per run

[stable snow]

Don't worry about that. Of course there are some very good players on this server, but I have the intuition that a good amount of people here had a few very good games and like to pretend they're good, but in fact are average at most. Don't give yourself too much pressure and enjoy the learning process.

[coarse stream]

I mean I have 1200 hrs and in solo I can win nm consistently w only like 3 characters, and w merlin im very inconsistent myself

[random steeple]

good to hear from other human tier players

of course I did get a pretty easy dash build win on Darkness the run immediately after posting this

[rugged brook]

I died a lot when I started playing him as well...I think it's a matter of learning his heavy animations, and the muscle memory of not just which spell..that you need to press "two inputs" lol, and what spells to cast when, and what the talents you have will "favor" you casting right now. Also the "new factor" off ow so many spells only to realise...really the actual juicy spells are "specific" - trying not to spoil...so it'll be easier to know which buttons to comfortably ignore.

[marble glade]

Anybody get the Locked Skin
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/736210314873405521/1464306364409974870/image.png?ex=6974fd12&is=6973ab92&hm=995bb76f1e879dd87bad967e8c5ba30df3b0a3502bf0ef542ae4ff55a2d9a4e6&

[shrewd quartz]

As in the hidden one?

[marble glade]

I'm assuming its because i did the trinity quest then destroyed the items with baba's mortar

[shrewd quartz]

Yeah doing that won't unlock the skin unfortunately

[marble glade]

I think i undid the requirements lol

[shrewd quartz]

You also have to get each item from the list from a side quest

[stable thorn]

Merlin dash build
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtBUrCwPPic&feature=youtu.be

Definetely not the best execution, but it was first try

(there wont be second)

[vital whale]

Is it just me or is it possible Merlin doesn't have banter with some characters yet?

Haven't heard him say anything to Melusine like ever.

[jolly flare]

i think he does say something among the lines of ''so you use hope as a resource to cope'' or something something like that

or at least is what i heard when i was playing with a friend using melusine

[fallow juniper]

"interesting" that the iframes only last for the first part, looks like a scam to me
have you made a report ? out of curiosity

[loud night]

I played a few matches with a friend who was using Romeo and I don't think they had any convos

[cursive salmon]

does merlin frost orb dmg stack? like if u have like 4 frost orbs in ur vicinity and u attack them is it 4x dmg

[loud night]

And then he swapped to Pied Piper and they repeated one conversation like 5 times in a single act lel

[tiny pivot]

IDK, I just completed a run with Merlin.

• Easy difficulty
• Trinity starting talent
• Got the three objects from the three quests
• Beat the master hands boss
• Still no hidden outfit

:/

[mortal hill]

Consensus seems to be you also have to beat Baba Yaga, so only Darkness or Nightmare would count

[stable thorn]

I was also surprised, but I thought maybe this interaction with similar talents was removed, so I didnt make report

[coarse stream]

Does the blood ritual ult from merlins cursed arts have any use in solo games?

[sinful sluice]

someone on reddit said to try and get excalibur as the last item from morgan

[stable thorn]

nah

just worse cataclysm

[tired hazel]

Does anyone have some tips on dealing proper damage with Merlin? I played quite a few games with him now and I mostly play co-op with a friend of mine. And It's quite common that one does better than the other in regards of dmg, how quickly the build comes online, what items you find etc. But usually we're somewhere between like a 60%/40% difference and with merlin, either me or him playing Merlin, Merlin is always just low on damage and often below 40%.
The main reason - we think - is because his base spells are kinda meh without runes of potency, problem here - we think anyway - is that most builds eventually start spamming stuff due to charges/low cd and what not. Sure you can spam, but you can't spam with 3 potency runes. So it feels really lackluster. Picking up a Balor's eye almost seems like a must to be able to build up 3 runes again.

Other than that we like the versatility his kit can potentially bring, like vulnerability, chill/ignite, lot of scatter/shield, some regen, a resurrect etc.. but compared to other heroes the damage just doesn't seem to be on par.

Maybe we're just missing something major, or need to learn to play him better, so any tips are welcome.

[stable thorn]

fork of lightning clears any camp with 3 runes

chapter 1/2

so u usually start with defense+special

and power+defense

its more than enough stagger to stun any elite in the game

[civic moss]

you must obtain the last item from the chapter 3 quest and it cant be holy grail from testing.

[stable thorn]

then press q and fork of lightning trying to hit as many enemies as possible

[shrewd quartz]

First try solo nightmare win with Merlin, granted I had a full set of Dragon Hides

that thing is nuts

before in previous patches, getting to 80-100 armor was near impossible, now I had 186 without even taking armor from consumables or grimoires

[shrewd quartz]

Nah you're not missing anything, his dmg really is bad without runes, so you're basically pushed to always take talents that either lower trait CD or give runes

[tiny pivot]

Excalibur, father time, holy grail was the order I got. Seems oddly specific, unless there's some special lore about the order of items from mythology. Will try again.

[civic moss]

possibly a bug

[shrewd quartz]

Order is irrelevant, all 3 items must be from each chapter's side quest, and you mustn't get Baba Yaga's Mortar because that destroys the items and fails the quest.

[civic moss]

it is relevant just because grail last doesnt work
assuming its a bug for now

also pretty sure it doesnt need to be from sidequest
only thing that matters is to obtain the last piece from quest in chapter 3

[shrewd quartz]

I mean I saw the same comment 15-20 times by now, suddenly you tell me they're all wrong lmao

Either way I got it first try so don't care that much

Just telling people what exactly I did to get the skin

[coarse stream]

I think @civic moss yamamoto is right when i got the quest done I didnt take all the items from quests

[shrewd quartz]

So far it's just "pretty sure" and "I think" vs dozens of people on discord and reddit explaining what they did. If someone wants to test it to be 100% certain, knock yourself out.

But I'm going to keep answering the question by saying what I know unlocks the skin for certain.

[coarse stream]

I got the costume yesterday, but I didnt record the run or screenshot the end screen so I cnt be 100% certain 🤷‍♂️ . I wasnt really trying for the costume, I was doing a fun run and got it

[rugged brook]

no lifeseed....there will be a second try where you had life seed!

[rugged brook]

I did it on easy, but I think...I got excalibur from the last boss being Mordred, and I got the prior items from "quests"...some people are saying you can't buy them from shop...but again I am not sure exactly what are the specifics but that's how I got it - on easy.

So for me it was Ogre first boss, Sindbad Second, Mordred Last, and god dang did I have to I have to spend a lot of rerolls for Excalibur on Mordred it wasn't showing up at all, so save every reroll. I dunno why does this quest does this weird thing, where after you get the first two items..the third item in the text description of the quest becomes "greyed out".

[rugged brook]

I mean to me, as you stated the potency system does "hold him back" in a "you can't just spam" way. I think the build I tried that doesn't hold him back like that, but I am not sure does it compare to whoever you cooped with (some characters have better dps than others imo), is the Sacred Strike/Wild Magic/Sacred ground/ cast any nature spell, with defense charges, and maybe a power charge or two and using all wild magic procs on sacred strikes. This build does not rely on potency at all. You also have a lot of extra potency for whatever spell, bramble whirlwind or whatever.

Does it compare damage wise, not sure frankly.

[rugged brook]

But Imo even if Merlin does end up not being the "biggest damager", which I am not super sure if this is his "curse"...I find him to be very useful in many ways for a team, so...kinda like Scarlet..she may end up lower damage than the rest but can be effective in unique ways regardless imo. He has stagger/heals, and cool focus fire dps for chapter 1, can print money, second ult is versatile value for a lot of the gauntlets the game has forced upon us so lol.

[stable thorn]

I dont know how people can play merlin and dont have biggest damage

his fork of lighthing has the most dps in the game

early

[rugged brook]

I mean to me that's the thing which is a great thing...he's strong early with his base kit, but some other characters if they luck out on certain things they are a lot "sillier" let's say...which I think is very fair..if not what makes Merlin "OP" his early game is great, which chapter 1 is really the scariest part of the game.

I think he's also not as reliant on luck to function well consistently, but need to make sure haven't played him much tbh.

[cursive salmon]

Im actually having a separate issue, I am way up on the damage charts but im dying like a madman
I do zero dmg in the first chapter, and prob avg in the second, but the third chapter hes nuking everything and blitzing around super fast

[tired hazel]

The blitzing around makes me assume you build around defense? Tried that a couple of times as Auronends mentioned with Sacred Strike/Sacred Ground and a mixture of other talents and like sure it works, but also wasn't comparible to what the other player did. Or did you try some other things?

[vital whale]

While he has some specific with Juliet

[vital whale]

DPS indeed is an issue in the first two chapter, I'm failing tomes with Merlin I never usually fail with the other characters

He can deal a lot of damage at once, but when the spells are reloading he doesn't cover a lot of enemies with his attacks, crowd control is very dependant on two druidic spells

[tired hazel]

That's pretty much my experience yeah. Tomes are fine if I leave them till later and drop a meteor or forked lightning, granted can group up the monsters enough.
It's not like the damage isn't there, he can burst pretty well, just that to do it again... takes potency and any way to get potency, other than using trait, simply seems to take too long to keep up with other heroes' damage in the long run. - in my experience anyway.

I feel like his kit is versatile enough to accept he's not like the top damage dealer among heroes, and when you solo it's definitely doable, but in co-op even if I purely focus on damage and I feel like I'm pulling my weight, the statistic screen showing below 40% damage is kinda feelsbad tbh. Maybe I just need to give it time and maybe whenever we co-oped the other just did a ton better - eventhough it felt like pretty normal runs, but we'll see.

[agile magnet]

it sounds like you're both using the wrong spells in the wrong situations

[agile magnet]

honestly just repeating light nova -> stone shield -> attack combo for a potency -> lightning will clear most camps quickly if you don't have your trait for potency

this will carry you through chapter 1 with good clears with no build whatsoever

every enemy that has a stagger bar will be permanently staggered by the first two spells, and every enemy that doesn't will still get interrupted by them and also die to the lightning immediately

[vital whale]

I can see that working well for smaller camps but for tomes it means waiting 8 seconds before doing that again

[tired hazel]

It's not that it doesn't work, like clearing seems fine, just that compared to others his overall damage seems low.
Also I mostly play co-op and to stagger monsters in co-op requires a higher value so often times combos that work when solo, don't stagger everything in co-op. Similarly, rounding everything up is more difficult with more players. That's not a Merlin thing of course, but it's more noticeable when you're trying to hit things like fork-lightning and they walk away to your team mate.

[vital whale]

same, I mostly play co-op so the light nova will usually stagger only the weakest monsters

(ghouls, small ghosts)

[agile magnet]

no? by the time your lightning finishes your defence is off cooldown and your power has about 1-2 seconds left

[vital whale]

that could potentially work well combined with the defense of a Piper though

[agile magnet]

I haven't tried this rotation in 4 player but I was using it in 2 player earlier and it's extremely powerful

it will translate well to 4 player too

I am very confident in that

[agile magnet]

the whole time I've been playing him both me and the people I've been playing with have just been saying "merlin moment" when an entire camp dies in 2 seconds

I think his damage is crazy high from start to finish personally

and enemies aggroing onto your team is often advantageous for lightning since your teammates having aggro means they're not attacking you

[tired hazel]

Fair enough, I mean I've had camps die quickly and easily, and it's not like Merlin feels weak, but when the statistics screen shows up it shows a different story for us with mostly Merlin being somewhere around 35-40% and the other 60%.

Well it's things like that, if they don't attack me but remain in range of the lightning that's great, but in my experience they just walk out of it. So maybe that's just on us and how we play

[agile magnet]

are you building around your defence? that is what creates high uptime on your dps in the late game

[tired hazel]

Tried a lot of different things, defense feels the most comfortable for sure.

[agile magnet]

the more defence you can spam the more grace of heaven will reduce your trait cooldown. the lower your trait cooldown the more you can spam celestial wrath + full potency on the spell you're building around. ideally your trait should be off cooldown almost at the same time as your primary damage spell

you can also immediately clear any late game camp with cataclysm -> celestial wrath -> damage spell

[tired hazel]

Yeah I tried that - the defense trait cd into damaging spell - a couple of times and it works very well, arguably plays the smoothest for him out of all the things I tried, but then another hero comes in and just spams their power or special a couple of times and things just melt even quicker.. At least that's what it feels like.

[agile magnet]

hmm that's odd. it might have something to do with the rest of the build? your damage should be high enough that things aren't even surviving a celestial wrath + bramble in a sacred ground

holy fire/sacred strike is also good damage to follow up

[vital whale]

there's a rather good talent for merlin where he get basically invincible for a couple of secs when he casts arcane spells

[agile magnet]

when I build this way it feels like nobody else gets to play the game

[vital whale]

That one removes the Forked Lightning greatest weakness

[tired hazel]

Could be the rest of the build, with that one I aim to spam defense + get as high damage stat as possible, it's not rocket science and in the stat screen usually the damage stat is similar between players, with some spikes of course but no insane differences.

[agile magnet]

this loadout while stacking moonstone/cryptic prophecy/raven skull/adder stone/flaming pearl with balor's eye has in my experience meant nobody else gets to play the game

my trait is off cooldown for every camp and every camp dies to one combo

tamatebako first, father time's second, excal/raven effigy third

hope diamond/balor's eye/devil's pocket

[tired hazel]

It's not too far off I think. Thanks, I'll try and aim for exactly that, next time, see how it goes.

[cursive salmon]

I am using defense to spam his celestial wrsth off cd with bramble, idk what it is with his celestial wrath but its unironically his highest dmg spell or something

I also in a different build, and maybe this is some low skill shenanigans cuz we kinda suck, will build a lot of special charges and special dmg and spam attack a shit ton of frost orbs everywhere with high natural crit chance thru eternal rose or his startjng trait and elemental affinity

[rugged brook]

Which characters were you cooping with if you don't mind me asking, and was it a duo or what. Cause who ever is fastest running from point a to b, can pump cleave damage till everything is dead before you get there..well..there it is lol.

I mean...I am not a math wizard, but...how Merlin animates/his mechanics..it wouldn't shock me he is not gonna compete dps wise in an amazing way, but his burst dps/stagger/heals are very usefull for these other hereos to snowball to get to that "lol" level "safely". That's how I view him, dps is boring! xD.

With that being said, I just want him to have one unique "vibe" about him that doesn't feel copy paste of the rest into one...but whatever he's fine.

to me

[undone lynx]

in order to get the hidden outfit do you have to win the run?

[rugged brook]

ya, and don't get grail last is the "main" bug some people are saying will cause you not to get the outfit. I did it on easy

[undone lynx]

damn

so I wouldn't have got it anyway

[undone lynx]

So has anyone used the blood ritual ult that revives for its offensive abilities

[shrewd quartz]

Tried it out and it's basically Cataclysm with less damage but also less cast time

So it's more safe to use but then again, you're sacrificing HP for Bramble Whirlwing lol

In the end, I mostly use the middle one to gain potency, but might throw Cataclysm when I get to a POI if I see annoying enemies

[zenith drift]

The holy traits feels far more broken than his nature or arcane traits

[outer karma]

agreed

[zenith drift]

Think he has a couple nature traits too focused on healing

Like I never take Life Seed for instance

[potent plover]

I find many items do not really fit Merlin: items seem to encourage focusing on a single skill, e.g. the special and then give stacking benefits for that: e.g. +80% damage for special, +20% critrate, 2nd charge and lower cooldown. This seems more efficient to me than spreading out items to benefits different skills. Unfortunately such more onesided playstyles are less fun to play than his skills being more equal in power level.

[mortal hill]

It's because Jokers are nowhere nearly as good to bridge the gap to warrant the opportunity cost of 3 epic slots and stacking multiple other card rares and spreading your dmg. The new hourglass change is great for him, but for jokers to compete with items like balor's and overall item stack meta, they had to copy EACH card and maybe finish off set bonuses (e.g. 4 kings 1 joker, 80% power + additional 80% power), and (2 kings 2 jokers, total 120% power bonus and you get 40% crit bonus). This seems overpowered for 1-2 jokers on the surface, but you'd need to take into account opportunity cost of rares too and goes to show how strong the one ability specialization meta is and how strong items like balor's + charges are with lots of cdr. Jokers would probably provide too much tempo in this scenario but limit your endgame potential. As of how it is now, Joker's place seems to be to help players still adapting to item builds and helps raise their output a bit higher when they have too much variety/anti-synergy, albeit while diluting the epic pool making stars of fate that much more necessary. Sidenote: If the game were more difficult and had a baseline of 5 neg mod nightmare and you were forced to lose objectives because you didn't generate enough tempo, and jokers worked the way I suggested above, they'd be way more appealing for the veteran player.

The only thing that can rival pure power (power charges + power cd epics) and pure special seems to be Hybrid Defense CD + Power, or Defense + Special, or pure defense (since his defense talents raise his primary resource generation which offsets having less cd epics and how strong his defense talents are). In my limited # of games, dash build seemed strong although it comes on late, and ultimate is decent but shines moreso when the team is weak.

[mortal hill]

The nice thing about Merlin is he probably has the most endgame viable builds, but will have to see when we get talent reworks in the next patch how the other char's weak builds will change.

[agile magnet]

I kinda like joker for this reason. I don't think it needs to exist in a space where it means hybrid builds can compete with stacking single abilities. I think if the devs wanted the game to be that way they would fundamentally change the way the object system works to be more in line with a game like risk of rain where taking multiple different sources of multiplicative damage (ap rounds, crowbar, delicate watch etc.) is significantly more efficient than stacking one

I like joker existing in a place where if the player is choosing to minimise their rerolls and hybridising their build it makes them stronger but that the player is still rewarded for high rolling their build for single abilities (or exploiting the reroll economy meta)

[agile magnet]

I don't really think about it in terms of items not fitting merlin. he kinda functions the same way every character does. if I'm building towards power on melusine I stop using special. if I'm building towards defence on carmilla, I stop using my power. it's just sorta how this game works and merlin having multiple spells in each category actually gears him towards this much better than the other characters, since utility of many of his spells serves the player much better than other characters having single option (mostly damage dealing) abilities that completely fall off in the late game depending on your build

[mortal hill]

I don't think that analogy is appropriate with RoR2 because all of those objects mentioned work on all of your abilities. Those objects mentioned are more akin to taking voodoo dolls, eggs, having multipliers like strength, vulnerable that apply to all of your damage. I've played it but not too much, but afaik it didn't segregate the dmg from your character's kit, which is the reason it's harder to compare the two games and methods of item balance via stronger focused ability specialization upgrades or moderate overall increases.

[agile magnet]

yeah that's why I said it would mean fundamentally changing how objects work. this game is more akin to arpgs where you gear/build towards one damage dealing ability and then have some defensive/utility skills to supplement. any build in an arpg that spreads their points into multiple damage dealing skills tends to be non-meta (although usually viable for most content) much like ravenswatch

joker has definitely made my no reroll runs stronger on average since I can't just force high rolls and I like it for its place there

the thing about ravenswatch is that even if you wanted to optimise your joker set up you'd still kinda have to spam your rerolls for it

and if that became stronger than stacking single abilities it would just be the thing everybody would be forced into and it wouldn't really change anything lol

[mortal hill]

Yeah I could see the value in no-reroll runs, but that's also a niche ruleset. Yeah, agreed you'd need to spam rerolls but you can guide your build into it if the game is steering you that way on multiple first chest openings (and across them seeing multiple card types and joker epics out of red) and if it were competitive, would be moreso a desired choice. It wouldn't necessarily need to be stronger but it'd sure as heck have to be a lot more compelling for this game's difficulty (I did an edit and mentioned "Sidenote: If the game were more difficult and had a baseline of 5 neg mod nightmare and you were forced to lose objectives because you didn't generate enough tempo, and jokers worked the way I suggested above, they'd be way more appealing for the veteran player"). But yeah it all varies depend on the lens of what we are balancing around, nightmare completion with relatively much less build knowledge, or veteran top-end build balance.

[agile magnet]

yeah honestly I agree. currently if I'm using rerolls I'm not gonna bother playing into a joker build I'm just gonna take the specific object that benefits me most and then use my rerolls to get that build going. it's kinda dead as an object unless I'm either doing no/minimal rerolls or just doing something different for fun

I think for the average player who complains about rng though and doesn't really know how to use rerolls properly, joker in its current state is a pretty nice compromise

like a lot of players approach the game in a way where if they open a chest and see something that makes them stronger they take it, they don't really understand the fundamentals of building and joker is super good in that situation

now I'm thinking that's how the devs play 😭

[runic vessel]

I dont understand the trinity quest for merlin. Can someone help me out. I am new to the game

[shrewd quartz]

You need to get the 3 specific items listed in the description to get the quest done and get the "reward" part

And when you get each of the 3 items, you get a single reroll (star of fate)

[runic vessel]

thanks. Doesnt sound that good. So is it just RNG if i get a chance to get those items? Or is there something specific that I need to do to get those items?

[dapper osprey]

We’ll all these items are legendary, so you need to complete quests or by any chance find them among cursed items and pick them.
Items are:

1. heal when using defense
2. Cooldown on abilities reduced by 20%
3. +10 dmg per legendary talent

So yeah, need to keep all rerolls for this quest talent

[shrewd quartz]

There is another way to get legendary items beside side quests and cursed chests (which are given for defeating key mini bosses). Red wells will give you a legendary item on the last buy.

Either way that talent is by far his worst, requiring luck and giving you squat in the meantime.

Oh yeah btw I actually picked the "delayed heal on dash" talent in a run

how did this go through playtesting lmao

Even if you wanted to go full support Merlin, anything that impacts trait and provides utility is obviously better

What's even more hilarious is that the only other dash related talent is an ult upgrade, which makes your dash have a duration and deal damage to enemies. So you're incentivized to maximize that dmg, meaning your heal is now on the other side of the room...

If he REALLY needs to have a dash talent, let it drop a mini fire orb that explodes after a second or two, idk, just not a worthless heal on a hero that already has nuts healing

[rugged brook]

I would like this talent more if it had something else as well going for it. I dunno about this whole "sacred strike" is dash attack vibe but on defense, heal on dash when most dash items revolve around offensive dashing..."cause Merlin's different like that"...it feels...a little contrived, not actually "flavorful" but.../shrug.

Then he gets an Aladdin carpet but a broom, wasn't Aladdin starting talent enough like...ugh.

Like a unique dash attack that heals based on the damage he does and that heal spills to other people with a cool "seed flourished" animation, or whoever is lowest health or something just to scale off crit roses/more damage antics.

IDK

maybe lotus flourishing animation to hint at black lotus vibes lol...fantasies on top of fantasies

[shrewd quartz]

See, that actually sounds cool and interesting

[random steeple]

Got the grail last and bugged the hidden outfit unlock

[stark needle]

easy xd

tks for the guy who said how it was done btw. chalice, hourglass, excalibur xd

[undone lynx]

Has anyone tried combining wild magic bleed with your forbidden spells unholy strikes

[somber skiff]

I'm surprised there are no items for trait cooldown or charges in the game. A handful of characters could utilize them.

[undone lynx]

Snow queen, carmilla, Beowulf, Gepetto,and merlin

True but their power levels could get really out of hand

[tiny pivot]

Has Passtech ever confirmed requirements for hidden outfits? Or just let the community speculate?

I have them all except for Romeo. Would be nice to put some of the rumors to rest, IMO.

[zenith drift]

The wiki has em down iirc

[proven elbow]

when adding items, you have to consider that everyone should be able to use them

the presence of Melusine prevents that

it would also interact weirdly with talents that already affect those like Scarlet's starting talent

that's why trait buffs/modifiers would probably remain restricted to talents

[rugged brook]

they sometimes confirm when in response to them getting bugged, and that they'll be fixed soon xD, I don't think they have confirmed all of them "officially" though? But ya try https://discord.com/channels/614096898290089994/1289545792390168688

[somber skiff]

I program for a living, its not that complicated to add conditionals

But yea it'd definitely only apply to a handful of characters

[undone lynx]

Very much this a new player grabbing a trait item on someone like pied piper would be a problem

[tiny pivot]

RIP. Death in chapter 3, was really hoping to beat the round on darkness, getting credit for the completed sets and all these new talents in darkness difficulty. Didn't really have a specific build, besides combining philosopher's stone and ogre blood for damage. Was mainly choosing items and talents that I don't yet have darkness difficulty credit for.

[viscid lantern]

Just a little advice, you def could use a little bit more armor to help with survivabilty, since effective HP is a product of both VIT and Armor

Those vajras are kinda stuck until level 10, so i suggest you cheat out some XP from the the feather fountain to help the start of act 3

if u are going for his dash build again

[tiny pivot]

Thanks for the advice - I def plan to run it again, aiming for talents and item sets not yet completed on darkness. Going to take me at least a couple more runs, considering all of the talents and item sets still to be completed. And I generally don't buy feathers unless I get an early hope diamond and have tons of shards to blow.

Completed every character on darkness, plus all of the pre-built challenges. Just can't bring myself to do a nightmare run though. So for now I'm "settling" with trying to get everything tagged with darkness.

[coarse stream]

Managed to get the no-reroll achievement on nightmare

[dawn junco]

How bad am I with Merlin? I shot a fireball BETWEEN three spiders.

[undone lynx]

Idk that's kinda slay

You just threaded the needle between 3 spiders

[modern walrus]

its called "firing a warning shot" and shows your momma raised you right

[wise magnet]

Can anyone explain why I couldn’t use my revival ult after it came back up?

[cursive salmon]

Did u have enough hp

[coarse stream]

Managed to do adrenaline on merlin

I definitely think his defense build is so strong light nova is great damage and stagger early

[mortal oasis]

Merlin Regeneration Question:

Why does Merlin's regeneration count as self healing but not healing to allies? (Please correct me if I am wrong, but I have no ability to heal myself in this run aside from regeneration.)

I have noticed that even though Merlin applies a lot of regen, it has not counted for his overall healing in the stats. During the run shown, I was playing with a friend and noticed for the first time that Merlin has self healing stats, but no healing to allies stats. I knew this was the case cause his healing is always so low by the end of the run, despite constantly providing regen.

My main questions is, am I confused or is there a difference between the healing from regen applied to your self vs applied to teammates?

[rugged brook]

ooow that's an interesting question...I was wondering how the hell did Juliet out heal me but I didn't bother to read what's going on and was just like Juliet gaming I guess. I wouldn't be surprised that maybe the Regen is being registered as self heal for whoever it's on...but I'll need to double check that.

I think regen was originaly an effect only caused by Unicorn Horn, then Carmilla got it on boiling blood, and maybe when they coded it to be Merlin can cast it to others, how it's registering is not "accurate", but again need to double check, you don't have a pic of the teamates stats right lol

Well to be fair though Juliette was running the dash shield talent I think so it'd make sense she outhealed me anyways...xD

[mortal oasis]

I do not have my teammates stats, they were running wukong so I don't expect any health from them

[mortal hill]

I believe the reason it shows healing to allies as 0 is because it is bugged. I think it might also have to do with having more than one merlin in the game; one doesn't get the ally healing stat.

[leaden terrace]

Do you guys have any hints on how to be competitive in damage with Merlin in coop? It feels like he does no damage unless you stack runes and by the time I have the full runes stacked the camp is usually almost cleared by my allies. ofc u can always use trait, but that has a really long cd.

[royal flint]

there are a few build archetypes going around, but one of the best combos is if you stack Sacred Strike and Wild Magic.

The idea is you can Shift Shift in, Use your Trait, then Bramble Whirlwind then Auto Attack for SS+WM auto damage. Bramble Whirlwind isnt needed but is nice to have ofc. And Celestial Wrath + Grace of Heaven make this scale really well

The bleed damage alone can take out pretty tough mobs

Before finding these combos/builds my damage was lacking a ton behind my teammates

[leaden terrace]

What itens do you prioritise on that build?

[royal flint]

defense cd reduction and charges are always good for more sacred strike CD+mobility, power dmg and cooldown reduction are great for more bramble hits, attack dmg joker cards can be good too

if you get a major shaping in the first shop you can try to get a quick 2x epic item for power dmg or cd, or maybe a joker card with stacked attack cards (havent tried that yet) but would probably scale really well. the sacred strke + bleed is good for strong mobs / bossing, and your power dmg with bramble + trait is for all the mobs

if youre fighitng crabs or things you need to knock you can use Shift + E more to knock things down, but shift shift with the dmg circle thing is really good early game for damage and for multplayer when the stagger meter is harder to get up

but also... if anyone else has things to add, i played during release and am now just getting back into the game since merlin was released. though i just used this build to comfortably solo darkness difficulty

boutta attempt nightmare

[fading dome]

Act 3 is an animation check. The only thing that matters is how fast your animation are and how quick you can move across the map. Merlin having a longer cd on his movement skill (8) and being an old man make him less likely to compete in those edge cases. He should shine more in game with lots of negative mods where the power level is lower.

The best way to instaclear is bramble with lot of power dmg amp full rune.

[rugged brook]

yeah I am with Mugu here, but the thing I like has a lot of bursty aoe spells which are very usefull to make pois much quicker to finish to move to the next, heavy stagger damage, and if you lean into healing a little bit with a mermaid tear or 2, and the power heals, and if you can make it a little spammable...you can sustain the team like crazy. So that's how I look at it. Reduce ult cd a bit and the cursed ult is so versatile, the rezz is pretty good.

The spam sacred strik wildmagic build is also -unfortunately- the only build I felt gives him an interesting angle, if you add some heals to it. Boost damage circles, heals, shields staggers...pretty good, not what I thought a wizard will be...but good xD.

I didn't mention holy grail too

[carmine latch]

I max leveled all characters - now as Merlin came out, I want to give him a try. However I am a little overwhelmed by his variety and many possibilities.

Which „builds“ - or lets say general directions do you recommend ?

[rugged brook]

https://buildmaker.ravenswatch.com/build/6977ee8987a1416cdf3e75a1
Something like this.
So Power/Defense spam...special feels meh, but lightning is good for early gaming till you can build up. Eventualy the theme will be Power, use a defense spell Attack, usually blink but whatever.

Also get used to what stone shield does, cause it's a defensive spell but on a power button so that's a little trippy...or it helps a lot

[wispy dune]

The defensive talent that takes cd off your trait is a busted autotake in every build. Bramble is also busted. So u have that build.
Theres also the sacred strike and nature bleed attack (wildmagic) tho and thats pretty funny. He is the best character for bleed by a lot.

Sacred strike for 560% of base attack dmg at legendary. Wild magic does 350% of that dmg as bleed. So if an attack does 100 dmg normally it does a total of..... 2520. Before crit or str.

[zinc vapor]

is merlins hidden outfit bugged on switch?

or do you have to do them in order?

[potent mica]

I did it on ps5 and steam, hourglass last on Morgana, other 2 items don't matter order, as long as you close Quest in act 3 on Morgana.

[zinc vapor]

are both chap 3 quests morgana?

[potent mica]

In act 3 she is in the 2 quests.

Regardless of the order of the excal8nur or chalice, father's hourglass time has to be delivered by her.

[zinc vapor]

ah okay, i was tol the order of all 3 didn't matter

[potent mica]

I also thought it didn't matter, but it has to follow this pattern.

[wispy dune]

what difficulty did u do it on?

I did it on difficulty one the other day and didnt get it. Thought maybe that had something to do with it.

[potent mica]

https://youtu.be/H2_1mN7-k_w?si=ursk2swaay37XBUt

Every campaign is there, I did it live on twitch and exported highlight to yt

[last nest]

Hi! There's a known bug regarding unlocking Merlin's hidden outfit, regardless of the platform. Condition: ||if you complete the condition with Holy Grail as the last object at Morgan, the hidden Outfit will not be unlocked||. It will be fixed in a future update!

[potent mica]

nice

We had played and taken the hourglass before Act 3 and the outfit didn't appear. I thought at first it was just about completing the quest with Morgana using the hourglass. In some situations, it's possible to finish in Act 2 considering store sales, the well, and optional bosses.

[wispy dune]

So im guessing its impossible to get father times hourglass from this quest if you already have the other 2 items as merlin

I just used over 10 stars here + i have lep bonus. There are 9 legendaries left in the pool. I see 4 each time

Probability of not seeing father times hourglass in a single choice = 5/9

Probability of not seeing it over 11 rerolls. (5/9)^11 = .0015559

Seems a little unlikely

[agile magnet]

Was it in your shop?

[wispy dune]

It was not

I did check that.

[agile magnet]

weird, I'll try to replicate a similar situation myself when I have the chance

[viscid ermine]

Unlucky, I've definitely finished it with FTH

[rugged brook]

No I experienced that as well, it seems that the last item sometimes with morgan seems to require a lot of rerolls, and also for some reason the third item needed "greys out" in the quest description, I dunno if this is a bug or some sort of intentional "ow for that the rng gets worse cause the crit damage is worth it?".

[zinc vapor]

@velvet moat does his hidden outfit have to be in darkness or higher or no?

[velvet moat]

no, any dif

just cant use modifiers

[keen compass]

I did this last night successfully. Got Grail act 1, Excalibur act 2, then had to reroll 2 or 3 times for FTH on the Morgan quest.

[wispy dune]

I also ran it again and got it.

[deft meteor]

I really hope they do something for his stars shower 'cause it's really underwhelming but for me it's his favorite ability, but it lacks of constintency and it's also aesthetically underwhelming

Love him tho

[leaden terrace]

The whole hero feels underpowered, I hope they do something about the rune system which massively holds him back atm.

[viscid ermine]

Nah, he is super strong when you get the muscle memory for him. Easiest hero for carrying 4P nightmare games if you're decent with him.

[agile magnet]

no hate but if he feels underpowered you're playing him wrong

[viscid ermine]

I don't think I've hit 1M+ damage on any other hero as consistently.

[leaden terrace]

Well he works ok, but whenever I play with allies I get outdamaged a lot, what are the things I'm missing most likely?

[viscid ermine]

Starfall specifically scales more from runes than some of his other spells baseline. Most others gain just damage, but starfall also gains targets, making the high rune version of it very good for sparse large groups. No rune version I use only when there are 2-4 stragglers to finish off.

I see people hype up the 360 brambles but tbh I think the roots/vines would be his weakest spell baseline. The brambles makes it better version of starfall.

[agile magnet]

how I approach merlin:
early game rotation usually stone shield/light nova/lightning vs camps you can stagger. trait boost the lightning, otherwise do 1 basic attack combo before it when everything is knocked down by your other two abilities
vs camps I can't stagger starfall is actually useful but lightning is still better almost all of the time

late game I usually have built defence cooldown/charges to spam grace of heaven cooldown reduction on my trait. my rotation is usually blink spamming around the map and immediately killing everything with celestial wrath->bramble whirlwind. if things don't immediately die to that, sacred strike + wild magic will do the rest. after bramble I just blink around a few times and sacred strike and everything will die to bleed

sacred ground is also a good supplementary talent for this late game

[viscid ermine]

^This. Learning to stagger on him was the biggest difference maker for me when first playing him.

Helps immensely for Ch2 quest bosses to use Stone Shield and Light Nova properly

And Ch1 giant as well

[agile magnet]

the stagger of his base kit is absurdly overtuned. even on corruption runs or with multiplayer scaling it still keeps everything pretty much permanently staggered

plus lightning just 100-0's half a camp with 3 potency

[leaden terrace]

I already do the light nova stagger into potency lightning, the problem is falling off lategame

[agile magnet]

that's where defence cooldown/charges + grace of heaven + celestial wrath/bramble whirlwind come in

with legendary grace of heaven 4 blinks will get your trait off cooldown

[leaden terrace]

4 blinks is a lot though

[agile magnet]

not by late game it isn't

you could alternatively do 3 blinks with 3 sacred strikes if you don't have celestial wrath and want full potency

[velvet moat]

certain builds are faster in terms of "stealing damage from your allies" like DEFENSE with brambles whirlwind.. luckily enough, merlin has so many quick damaging abilities thats its almost impossible to lose the damage race to your teammates, like just getting brambles whirlwind or celestial wrath (ideally with grace of heaven) already yields massive dmg output

[agile magnet]

this will also work for your wild magic bleed attacks if you have that

[leaden terrace]

I like the bleed, but by lategame we kill so fast that the opponents don't even have time to bleed out

[agile magnet]

it's mostly supplementary/boss damage. bramble whirlwind and celestial wrath are his two best damaging abilities

[leaden terrace]

I think I also lose damage because my allies play a bit recklessly sometimes and I have to heal them on full potency so they don't die.

[agile magnet]

let the weak perish

[velvet moat]

wait for them to die, blow up the camp, res them manually or with ritual ult... profit

[leaden terrace]

Is a Balor's Eye+Charges build viable on Merlin?

[velvet moat]

its viable on any character

[agile magnet]

I almost always take it on my bramble builds

[leaden terrace]

I just feel like Merlin in particular doesn't profit from +charges, because extra charges without potency aren't that strong

[velvet moat]

interesting.. you mean DEFENSE build?

[agile magnet]

but you do need a few cooldowns if you go down to 1 charge since 4 blinks is faster than the base power cooldown

[velvet moat]

coz in my DEFENSE builds when I have whirlwind I never have the need to go balors everything just dies in one blink+trait with wrath + brambles with 3 runes.. if anythign I was contemplating of getting second charge for my power, no balors, coz I rotate so quick sometimes that I have to wait for my brambles

even with hourglass

[agile magnet]

all merlin builds are defence builds 😭

[velvet moat]

fax

theres no build where you dont want grace of heaven

[leaden terrace]

How aggressively should I reroll for Grace of Heaven?

[velvet moat]

I mean.... early game dont use rerolls (that much) on talents..

ch2/ch3, depends

I am stil rerolling even on level 2 sometimes if it offers some bulls*hit to me but I shouldnt!

I am ragerolling

[agile magnet]

on this patch I basically never reroll my talents. it's already hard enough to balance crit damage/rerolls while also getting a clean build. rerolling talents feels very wasteful

on a defence build grace of heaven can be soft replaced by sacred strike for potency (you lose out on celestial wrath but it's still fine if you have brambles)

[leaden terrace]

What starting talents do you guys go for, I like the money from eternal dream, but using it is very distracting, should I go for the extra crit on 3 potency rune talent instead?

[velvet moat]

true, but I do prefer to HAVE full build over having crit damage, crit is not that important, as I said few weeks ago, you only need base dmg... if your build is flowign well, its gonna do the thing even with less dmg

[velvet moat]

ED is probably the best but I stop playing it coz cba hyperfocusing on the rotations all the time, its tiring... play crit chance in spell-fopcused builds and astrology or trinity in ATTACK/DEFENSE build

I go trinity almost always if I see one of the three legendaries in my shop otherwise I usually go astrology

I try to upgrade astrology to at least epic, getting higher rarity talents saves you money so its like "eternal dream" from Wish, it gives you money too, just not much and only indirectly.. but it gives 3 rerolls which is yuge

[agile magnet]

astrology is the safest way to increase your odds of getting a strong build. eternal dream and runic might are mostly tempo starting talents that fall off in relevancy late game anyway

like your 35% crit isn't really gonna matter if you get devil's pocket/card set and the shards become irrelevant when your econ kicks off naturally later

but the early rerolls can get you the win book

[leaden terrace]

win book?

[velvet moat]

runic might is good in SPECIAL builds like fireball, coz with it and elemental affinity and +40% crit from jacks, you basically have 100% crit chance, so you dont have to go devils pocket which again saves money

[velvet moat]

thats a book?

[leaden terrace]

Oh, that is a book? I always thought it was a box

[agile magnet]

personally I don't play special build on him because I think it sucks lol

[agile magnet]

I forgot this is an in-joke

[leaden terrace]

But Zapping something with a strong lightning is so much fun :<

[agile magnet]

yeah I use lightning as my primary damage ability until I get brambles most of the time, but I never invest any objects into it

[velvet moat]

I recently found out you can play him similar to carmilla... with her you can start with DEFENSE and move into mass punishment... with merlin, you can start with special fireball, and move into pure dash build if you have 6 specials (or maybe 7 is better but 6 was enough) and father times hourglass, and 7LB, you can cancel your fireball cast with a dash if you press SPECIAL+SPECIAL+DASH quickly... this way you are basically perma dashing even without wings.. you have damage early game and you have damage late game.... but its mostly for fun build obviously fireball is still doing more dmg

[agile magnet]

I am proud of you for doing this conditionally and not just abusing 7 leagues as they work currently on merlin lmao

[velvet moat]

isnt that worse? you have to press 3 buttons to make it work..

maybe controller users have it easier, idk

no can do with keyboard

[agile magnet]

I can do it with keyboard but I also have an mmo mouse and all of my relevant binds are on mouse buttons

but also I am sure they will patch it because it is so insanely broken

[velvet moat]

I only hope they patch his broom dash so it can fully benefit from witch's broom

and the mad hat merlin bug ofc

[agile magnet]

what happens with it currently?

[leaden terrace]

That's a shame, zapping things down is my power fantasy, I guess I should only live that fantasy early then

[velvet moat]

you only get the effect first 0.25 sec of the dash or something.. basically not working on him

after you get swiftness

[agile magnet]

from the 1 dash run I did I think his dash build is best with holding attack anyway

but they should definitely fix that

[agile magnet]

I mean it's still fine later I guess it just doesn't compare to his power build and if I were playing special build I would probably pivot to using fireball later into the run

[leaden terrace]

Fireball is fun too

[agile magnet]

the problem for me is that making fireball build good involves building everything the same as bramble except using a worse spell for damage

I still want grace of heaven/celestial wrath with defence cooldown/charges it's just that instead of instantly killing everything on the screen with bramble I kill like 1-3 things with a fireball

[velvet moat]

you can even make him swing his staff before he takes off!!! makes it look like hes manually accelerating!!!

[velvet moat]

my biggest issue with fireball is, and the main reason I found out about the broom exploit, is that it has long cast time...

it works and its fine, and is very good with seven league because you always fire fireballs with at least one rune so balors is not needed... its just slow

[agile magnet]

long cast time, relatively small damage radius

I would honestly rather play stars than fireball

[velvet moat]

pulls agro like fkn carmilla bats

the small fireball talent

[velvet moat]

fireball is still better coz it has stagger

and base dmg is higher (60 vs 72)

240 vs 288 with 3 runes

• the small fireballs are actually doing insane damage, I think only like 33% less than main fireball or something.. and you have 8 (4 in 7LB build)

[mortal hill]

bro picking starfall over fireball

moskay:

https://tenor.com/view/hamster-triggered-rage-shaking-gif-17789643

[velvet moat]

its ok... just like you, he clearly never played any of these, so hes lost!!

[mortal hill]

I was born with the fireball, you merely adopted it!

[velvet moat]

luckily for both of you, I know I guy who can preach the gospel of lord jesus christ and put you on the correct path once again!!!

@mortal hill dont test my gospel guy finger!!

[agile magnet]

yeah but that's a talent

when I played stars it still killed everything on the screen and it did it faster than fireball

[velvet moat]

yeah.. coz you havent played fireball

[agile magnet]

I have and that's why I'll never play it again lol

[velvet moat]

fireball 7LB full build is basically dash build.. and dash builds melt...

you always have 1 rune with fireball.. you dont have that with stars

[agile magnet]

but the 7 league interaction is interesting I was just talking to culex the other day about wanting a build that can pivot into dash late game like with carmilla mass punishment

[agile magnet]

yeah but grace of heaven exists so it doesn't matter

[velvet moat]

its still incomparably slower

you dont want defense cdr or charges in your special build

by having them you are already weakening your build

and even then you only have one starfall on a camp and you can hope it oneshots.

[agile magnet]

that's why I'll never do it

[velvet moat]

with fireball you dont care.. dash fireball, dash fireball, dash fireball

works very well with roses as you can see in my clip.. I actualyl had finished fireball build I only trolled by picking balors but I wanted to test it

this is the primary reason why starfall cant compete with fireball in terms of dmg output.. and the fact its a dash build

[coarse stream]

I had a build on carmilla which is a special into dash pivot but its basically go normal special build, get 7 league and roses and cruel strike, then take heartbreaker at level 10, its probably not the most optimal but its fun

[agile magnet]

yeah with two talents

[velvet moat]

fireball is doing baseline more damage than starfall.. you dont need talents.. you will get at least one anyway

[coarse stream]

I dont even know if heartbreaker scales with blood you currently have so idk if its even good

[velvet moat]

if you just do what you were doing in your starfall build, ie get grace of heaven and just press trait, its still doing more and faster

[coarse stream]

oh damn this is merlin thread not general, F

[velvet moat]

OUT!!!

[agile magnet]

idk about that

I think vs scattered enemies fireball is kinda dogwater

the 7 leagues thing sounds fun though I will try it

[velvet moat]

and I am not even talking about the fact you have perma shield

[agile magnet]

do you think this fireball build can compete in damage with grace of heaven/celestial wrath/sacred ground starfalls if they're both in the same run?

like if both merlins get to pick 3 talents for their build

[velvet moat]

having celestial wrath is not really healthy for testing this since whoever presses it first, wins the camp in terms of damage dealt

sacred ground detto, not important

[agile magnet]

well it's not really fair to remove components of one build and provide all of them for the other lol

the idea behind me preferring starfall is that I would build for brambles with defence but just use stars if I don't get it

I'd rather do that than ever use fireball

[velvet moat]

who said that

[velvet moat]

I mean, yeah, so you can proc your wild magic.... you have to pres ANY nature spell.. thats the primary use of starfall at that point

[agile magnet]

I mean the special build is using arcanic rune and fire barage but stars is just base with nothing else considered

but if I'm using stars I'm building around the talents I mentioned

[velvet moat]

yeah, but thats the build, and you want your talents in your build.. and I already said 2 times fireball is doing baseline more damage than starfall, its 60 vs up to 72

you would also wanted to have vulnerable stars in starfall build

[agile magnet]

yes but it's slower with a smaller damage radius, the idea is to kill everything on the screen quickly like brambles

nah vulnerable stars is mostly relevant for bleed build imo, everything will be dead by the time the stars fall anyway

[mortal hill]

starfall should've been arcane school, idk it feels more appropriate thematically, and fits into blink into middle of mob camp (sacred ground) > 3 rune starfall > trait > aoe bramble. Is what it is though.

[agile magnet]

yeah currently stars are competing against stone shield at base and then bramble whirlwind with talents. it's just never really the best option

[velvet moat]

I wouldnt mind tbh if they replaces fireball with stars and gave us new nature spell

[mortal hill]

https://tenor.com/view/tradeoffer-trade-offer-gif-22327168

swap frost orb for starfall, ez

change schools 😮

[agile magnet]

I don't think I would even notice if they did this in a stealth patch

[viscid ermine]

Frost orb being on special is good for the power build.

You get crit scaling from ignite on Holy Fire and chill from Orb then you gigacrit with brambles

Or just auto to death if you run the orb chasing minigame where you beat your own balls instead of the enemies

One thing I haven't found a great way to integrate into my own gameplay is the Ultimate that replaces attack with piercing rune granting Ult projectiles.

It is really awkward with sacred strike and even without it I rarely use it

Everything else in his kit I can find a time and place for

[wispy dune]

I thought this was a box.

[agile magnet]

yeah sorry it was an in-joke with people I used to play with a long time ago and I have just never stopped calling it the book

[wispy dune]

We call it tomato bagel.

[mortal hill]

This is the exception though. Also it requires you to have elemental affinity talent, and holy fire talent for that specific scenario you're describing. Otherwise currently it's either chill or ignite from special, not both. Chill/ignite debuffs last only for 5 seconds, however the frost orb can come back and refresh the chill. Definitely applies more for when building power cdr instead of compensating it with defense cdr and generating runes during cd. The holy fire competes with blink sacred ground cast, and for me at least, becomes less relevant when getting to act 3 (light nova still good, but the benefit of holy fire seems to wane, the dmg + ignite isn't too strong imo for a talent spot if not taken early game for tempo, compared to just having the mobility of blink + sacred ground). Frost orb goes from 6 sec duration to +2 sec per rune spent, but the question is if it's worth spending runes for chill for the crit debuff in the first place, since the movement is akin to chasing a roomba. Bottomline is it seems more relevant early to mid-game if taken then (strictly speaking for self-application purposes). Having one debuff up at most times isn't out of the ordinary though.

Unholy strikes definitely does seem like least viable option in the forbidden ult tree. If only it synergized with the wild magic/sacred strike. But yeah you'd need to build ultimate cd to a point where you can have constant good uptime on it, and at that point, you're robbing epics from charges/cdr so how much are you really gaining, lol. And that's the nice thing abour merlin's kit, is that any cd downtime is compensated by the rune generation, so it feels unnecessary to build that fast if you can't sync it well with your ability cd, and begs you to just do ultimate meteor spam while losing very little.

[velvet moat]

:essaying:

[deft meteor]

So I really like Merlin heal, we finally have a mage that can heal on command without having to fight which is why it's weak, and it should be! But you can actually make his base heal pretty relevant if you build support, the only problem I am having is his priority target... Currently you can heal someone and spend another charge to heal again, but instead of chosing another target it refreshes the healing on the first one 'cause they are still low health.

Which makes the healing lowkey useless, you want a regeneration healing on multiple target, or refresh the healing after some ticks, not immediately

I hope they will look into it, at least make so that you can't use healing on the same target before 2 seconds/ticks or something

[mortal hill]

I mean it still stacks the next blessing regeneration values into the current running ones, so you don't lose on that aspect, if that's what you're thinking. I would've expected and preferred, however, if blessing target selection operated off of closest ally to mouse cursor when cast. Maybe they wanted to limit heal exclusion griefing or it was just easier to program it this way, idk, but definitely takes a lot of control and agency out of the individual.

Or in addition, being able to hover-target the ally portrait above the map, as long as they are in range to receive it.

[deft meteor]

Hold on, does the healing stack?

[mortal hill]

Yes, the regeneration value gets larger applying more and more. Similar to how bleed does.

[deft meteor]

I will admit I haven't noticed it, that's surely nice, I thought it only refreshed it

[mortal hill]

I believe internally the oldest applications will eventually fall off so then the # does decrease.

[deft meteor]

Yes and yes, I like both your suggestions, I thought so too

Yesterday I was playind with friends, and this happened, and healing priority was really awkward

(For context, we just grabbed the maiden, that's why we were so low)

And I was specifically building for healing, but the outcome wasn't great, and I don't mean the healing it was fine, just the priority

[mortal hill]

Ah, they probably did it because of console players, since there is no targetting or semi-targetting capability due to lack of cursor.

[rugged brook]

I will say if you like the healing angle, rushing Holy Grail/Power heals talent is a lot stronger than the regen, especially that making power/defense spammable seems to be his strongest angle I think.

Those two combined the regen on top of it will pretty good, otherwise..its strength is it works out of combat as you said I think. Holy Grail proc ontop the light nova shield feels pretty good.

I guess with the seven league you can get also dash heal value (without abusing it even lol)...but..Idk the dash heal is...a little too slow and not easy to "position it right" and for what?
Wasting a legendary and a talent for dash heal is a little much, power spam you get to aoe damage, aoe heal, maybe bait attacks with rock shield, proc wild magic attacks and control the whole situation better I feel. He feels like potentially the strongest healer if you get his power to be just a little spammable, because it animates fast and is easy to position around how it works.

[velvet moat]

master race suffering once again due to plebs.. ofc!!

[rugged brook]

Honestly you can even just get Holy Grail alone or the power heals alone if you don't want to invest that much..both together will be on the overkill side...but..uhh..can't hurt to have both I think.

[deft meteor]

I noticed the nature talent healing a lot too, but the hero literally has a healing ability that with talent can also shield... That's like the ultimate support fantasy, that's why I hope to see some changes on the priority.

Holy Grail also felt great for obvious reasons, and going support build I would be healing a lot with it too

Like the healing numbers aren't the problem at all, if anything he heals too much with his runes aha

Also, we stacked so friends have gone Unicorn Horn which gave them free 50 DMG value with my regeneration

But again, the priority was awkward and there was no way to control it

[deft meteor]

It's not meta and won't be meta even if Merlin could chose who to heal, but it was really nice combination to have

[rugged brook]

Right I was thinking about unicorn horn team fun too, but the way it targets is...I dunno...xD. It does come in handy a lot don't get me wrong though...like altars, or early game, or a lot of situations...it's not like useless by no means, I think just not a great "during combat" heal lol in coop, but still it's quite decent.

I think also it's on the can easily be "too broken" side if too convenient tbh...so that's why I am kinda ok with it as is. If he didn't have the power heal talent, I think I would be more grrr about his healing angle for sure, not that the game isn't full of "broken" things. I also don't super like the shielding talent for it lol.

But ya I think that it refreshes who already has regen maybe is what needs "change" the most, but I feel like the whole reason this heal is weird on many aspects is that a copy pasta situation happened when it comes to how regen existed in the game before Merlin was able to use it like that maybe.

I think I am struggling abit with the idea is a heal out of combat concept too dangerous to flirt with all together or not for how the game works..but that's sweaty thinking...let things be broken xD

like when carmilla had it with blood boil...it already felt like lol.."I have the power!!"..but anyways

[deft meteor]

It is, healing out of combat is really unfair in this game this is why he's like really weak without the runes, even tho you can spam it and if you have tear it also heals decently after a while even without the runes

I'm glad they find something ideal tho because when I play him like that I really feel like a healing mage aha

Hope they will have a look at priority target!

[outer karma]

Struggling a bit in 2p NM against 1st boss

I have trouble getting Merlin’s damage up in act 1

[coarse stream]

Frost orb w potency for the many small enemies and then stone shield repeatedly, lightning w potency for elites/minibosses/bosses unless you have Bramble talent

[undone lynx]

Has anyone used the blessing trait

Found any use in it?

[velvet moat]

blessing?

you mean Trinity?

[undone lynx]

Talent my bad

The one that gives you a shield on your regen

[velvet moat]

solid F-tier

[undone lynx]

Oh wow

Welp

How about wild magic combined with unholy strikes from forbidden spells

[viscid ermine]

doesn't work. Unholy Strikes deals Ultimate damage and Wild Magic only works off of Attack damage

[rugged brook]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLFAdG_VfUU
minute 33:18 onwards I think he elaborates different build ideas and how they play through out the run

[undone lynx]

https://tenor.com/view/green-alien-cat-green-alien-cat-meme-cat-rage-meme-angry-alien-cat-gif-16978295465898295971

There goes my idea

[vague vapor]

Just picked up Merlin, can anyone tell me what moves gives him i-frames?

[rugged brook]

The blink with defense, and the stone shield with power.
When you trait it's an iframe.
There's a talent that'll make casting a special gives you a blue shield effect that's an iframe.
Try to get familiar with stone shield/saving your power for what's likely messy, that'll help a lot.

[vague vapor]

Nice, thanks for the info. Like Ice Queen then with the trait i-frame, cool.

[rugged brook]

that's true..he is kinda like her that way..he's like a lot of the characters combined in a way xD

[drifting bay]

What’s Merlin’s best build

[agile magnet]

stacked defence cooldown with grace of heaven/sacred ground/celestial wrath/brambles whirlwind with sacred strike and wild magic as supplementary damage

[grim folio]

The infinite money build

[mortal oasis]

I just beat the hardest difficulty run I could with Merlin! With a score of 1190 as my highest score yet

[pliant apex]

can anyone tell me how ignite damage/scaling works?

[viscid ermine]

My numbers might be off a bit but it is something like 5dmg per tick and one ignite was somewhere around 5 to 7 ticks.

Afaik it only scales with generic damage (swords) and levels ( base x sword% x 1.1^(levels-1) )

[hasty patrol]

man do i love this guy

can someone explain his lore?

im trying to listen to it but like... i really cant understand anything english isnt my first language buts its not bad but like merlin speaks in.... riddles-? or like those weird scary poems

i understood the first memoir blah blah blah i was caged blah blah vivian let me out but why but then the second memoir comes in and he just kinda starts rapping

[velvet moat]

change the language of the game in steam, then

[hasty patrol]

i said my english is fine but i dont get like the way he speaks like i dont understand what he is trying to convey

[undone lynx]

||The short of it is coming to terms with and understanding that his powers of prophecy and future sight were not the things that made him powerful as they were stolen from him by the baba yaga but he believes his Ex girlfriend the lady of the lake took the power when she sealed him away||

@hasty patrol

[hasty patrol]

thank you for answering !!! but to be clear vivian is the lady of the lake right?

[undone lynx]

Yes

[hasty patrol]

oh alright thank you so much for answering !! have a great rest of your day.

[undone lynx]

You as well

[stone solstice]

Just did a run to try and get Merlin's hidden skin and ||after the Act 3 quest, I rerolled 4 times and was never offered the Holy Grail,|| so I guess that was for nothing. Really frustrating that that can happen at all, wish there was a way implemented to avoid it. As is, I probably won't persue getting it anymore because I didn't find that experience to be especially fun.

[velvet moat]

only 4 rolls? thats to be expected, depending on how many legendaries you already have

[stone solstice]

I believe I had 3 at the time; one from an Hourglass drop, the other 2 from quests, requiring 1 roll total up to that point

[velvet moat]

yeah thats completely normal.. kinda unlucky but its just 3 legendaries and 4 rolls... I once blew 11 and still didnt get my diamond

[willow tulip]

Is Trinity a good beginning trait to choose on higher diff run? I mean the demand for the trait completion is high on luck

[mortal hill]

High conditional requirement and by the time it's finished, I find it hardly pays off. I rank eternal dream > runic might = astrology (contextual) >> trinity. If I see one of the 3 legendaries in the shop, or tamatabako, then I might choose it.

[agile magnet]

for me runic might is the #1 choice with astrology being the occasional pick if I want to force a bleed build. I ignore eternal dream and trinity completely

[mortal hill]

it also depends on the context of if you're playing let's say solo or 4 player coop. In 4 player coop, I typically do the roaming and get to spam my spell chain sequence for free while getting the map uncovered, so it really minimizes the downside, and the value is huge. I could see in solo for instance runic might just be better because of tempo. But since I almost exclusively play coop, I never really choose runic might.

[agile magnet]

I think my main issue is that it kinda forces you into taking golden eggs to see benefit across the whole run, but I prefer having the 3 initial options of card/prophecy/egg and having baseline crit behind. If I roll into cryptic prophecy and golden eggs with eternal dream as my starter, it turns hitting 100% crit into a problem, and if I'm rerolling away from cryptic prophecy it turns rerolls into a problem

[mortal hill]

the 100% success chance tamata player is saying rerolls are a problem? nahhh :P. But yeah egg is da wae. Regardless of what build I'm doing, devil's pocket is mandatory, and if ability build, the remaining crit should get covered by 4 cards, so I still do both. With runic might 35% crit is definitely nice but also influences the playstyle by basically almost pushing you to only send abilities at 3 runes, regardless of cooldowns in your other schools. With eternal dream you can farm but as you become content, you can stop playing in this playstyle and the tempo from early legendary skills end of act 1 is nice as well.

ps I still almost never take cryptic unless desperate! haha

[agile magnet]

yeah you can go both cards and golden egg (and I often do), but it requires additional rerolls without high rolling which is why I like having the choice of all 3 with guaranteed crit from runic might. it means if I see prophecy+egg early I don't have to waste rerolls forcing cards because I'll still get my crit no matter what, and if I'm forcing rerolls to get card+egg without replenishing them through prophecy it makes the problem even worse. it also makes it harder to benefit from that crit since I'm more likely to need rerolls from grimoires throughout the run. I think runic might just allows for more flexibility and consistency

while also increasing general clears because I'm not wasting a bunch of time casting bad spells during/between fights

[willow tulip]

is there anyway to cancel early casting time of Merlin Meteor?

[velvet moat]

meteor dash + 7LB build??

[versed mist]

Felt like astrology as a talent is pretty boring. Had a thought to rework that I feel might be interesting.

Quest (x10) using your final star of fate grants 2 armor.

Upon completion, item set thresholds for super effects are reduced by 1.

I think this is so interesting as it trades off early game strength for an insane mid game spike / Play style which makes cryptic prophecy the PERFECT item for Merlin.

[velvet moat]

every champ has at most 1 quest as a starting talent from what I know... not that I mind breaking this rule, I am just stating the fact

for the reduced set bonus activation, we will get a melody next update

[versed mist]

I'm not sure what you mean by get a melody

[velvet moat]

check the upcoming udpate trailers and game news

[versed mist]

@velvet moat I still can't find anything relevant between melodies and set bonus. Just saw there will be 12 total , with 3 known to be related to locks, movement speed, and teleports.

[undone lynx]

Something I never noticed is that Merlin's ui elements change with the spell set you have active

[cunning marsh]

is the merlin dlc stored as an Part of Definitions\Heroes\Merlin.herodef.ot.DtHeroDefinition.gen or is the dlc managed globaly / somwhere else ?

asking for an friend

[unique escarp]

Hey new here trying to get his hidden skin from what I hear you need to do the trinity quest while getting Excalibur last from Morgan in Avalon from either side quest can anyone confirm if that is true

[leaden terrace]

It used to be Grail being bugged when gotten last, but I believe they fixed it. You have to do the trinity quest and the last item has to be obtained from Morgan

[paper heart]

was it really necessary to nerf Grace Of Heaven ?????

[viscid pilot]

Can Merlin still sneak sacred ground after meteor ultimate and celestial wrath? Cause i feel it's different now post patch

[velvet moat]

I also noticed it being different.. if he still can do it, you need to have really fast fingers

[modern walrus]

mind explaining that tech to me?
could you ult, then teleport to create sacred ground aftwards and have it still buff meteor?
and the same with celestial wrath? trigger it, then sacred ground before the lighting impacts?

[velvet moat]

it WAS possible, you had just enough time to do that, now it feels like it isnt possible

or maybe I just got slower along with other people, who knows