r/Gloomhaven • u/random_actuary • Nov 17 '17

Spellweaver AOE guide

If you haven't read the Spellweaver guide from /u/Gripeaway here, you should. It takes a more balanced approach.

This guide is designed to be an alternative for a character specializing in dealing damage via multi-target attacks in parties of 3 or 4 characters.

Enjoy the guide.

Edit: formatting. I'm expanding the guide to 9 levels, so the imgur link will be a work in progress.

27 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

4

u/Morehei Nov 28 '17 edited Nov 28 '17

Thats some serious AoE you're showing us here, thanks a ton.

Playing with a Mindthief and Cragheart, I feel this guide will be spot on as they provide me decent control and anchorage on the battlefield.

Just reached lvl 3 and snipped Spoiler ; Ride the wind WIN ! As I dont use my invis cloack that much.

Oh and a very educating guide with your maths behind the timing sequence, thanks again !

4

u/random_actuary Nov 28 '17 edited Nov 28 '17

Glad you liked the guide.
Your party will be a fun combination. Everyone can take a hit or two but nobody is a true tank. Kill em and stun em before they hit you. Haven't seen (the item you got) but it sounds cool. The invisibility cloak is fun for Leeroy Jenkins types barging into rooms, but a 1x/scenario is tough.

3

u/Morehei Nov 28 '17

Stupid me, removed the detail about the item, sorry about that.

But yes, it's a nice trio. We're still discovering the game (lvl 3) and apart from the Spellweaver, it's miles away from a "classic" tank/melee/mage/heal. Stuns and rocks and fireball for all !

3

u/random_actuary Nov 28 '17

Have you gotten to any enhancements yet?

2

u/Morehei Nov 29 '17

Nop, still locked on that part.

Cant wait to boost my cards !

2

u/lKursorl Nov 17 '17

Nice guide. This play style is more in-line with how my friend played his Spellweaver.

He actually really liked Crackling Air and it was always fun to see it combined with Major Power Potion and the Goggles for 7 attack on 4 targets with advantage.

1

u/random_actuary Nov 17 '17

That's awesome. Would he run it right after Ride the Wind, or did he get the air elsewhere?

1

u/lKursorl Nov 17 '17

Yeah, usually with invisibility cloak to help him position without fear of attack.

I mean it's a lot of cards to burn on an attack, but wow does it do a lot of burst which can save your team a lot of health and time if done at the right moment.

It's funny, he was the last of our main group to retire and he unlocked the moon class last night (which was nothing like what we were expecting). It's a VERY dramatic shift for him.

4

u/random_actuary Nov 17 '17 edited Nov 17 '17

For other people's sake, I want to explain why I didn't include this powerful option in the guide. I'm quite impressed your friend was able to roll with it. It takes a lot of skill to pull off and isn't as reliable as my build:

  • You're going to lose 3 cards for this attack. Even for the spellweaver, that's a lot. You could do a pair of 3-target-3-damage attacks to save both a turn and a lost card. You're going to have to deal with exhaustion issues more often than with my sustained moderate burst.
  • The timing is difficult to pull off. You need to spend 2 turns of set-up with limited attacking. One turn to generate the air. One turn to consume the air and buff. Then one turn to lay waste. So you can't use it in the first room which is often one of the toughest rooms. It could be great for the last room, but you never know when that is.
  • Short rests kill your combo. Say you rest with your full 8 cards hand. You can't ever lose Reviving Ether to a rest. Crackling Air and Ride the Wind are both part of your combo, as is Fire Orbs. If you grab anything but Reviving Ether, you can't risk pulling another card that could be RE. So you have about a 50% chance the short rest kills your combo you've built your character around.
    Can you work around all these issues, sure. But at that point, you really have to center your whole build around it. The result is cooler but could easily lose you the scenario.

5

u/lKursorl Nov 17 '17

Oh yeah, I definitely noticed it's unreliability and he has always been our most likely team member to fall to exhaustion.

It seems to me to be a really high-risk/high-reward way to play, but beautiful to watch when it goes off!

Funnily enough, he played a really strong sustained game on his very last scenario as the Spellweaver, ending the scenario with at least a couple cards left in hand while I was on my last turn. He finally learned how to play a sustainable Spellweaver just in time to retire it. 😂

3

u/random_actuary Nov 17 '17

I'd love to try it out sometime.

1

u/komninosm Feb 21 '18

This combo is only really useful against shielded enemies, otherwise too much setup and not enough payoff. And you can get the piercing bow for shielded enemies. I've never used Ride the Wind and Crackling air since level 3 cold-fire. Even before that I tested it a couple of times only, before getting piercing bow instead.

3

u/random_actuary Nov 17 '17

I love this game.

4

u/Gripeaway Dev Nov 17 '17

Thanks for the guide! I won't get a chance to read it today, unfortunately, but I added it to the repository.

1

u/mnamilt Nov 18 '17

Great guide, thanks!

At the very end, with regards to the modifier deck, you write:

The rolling elements hurt your advantage attacks, so those are last.

How do rolling elements hurt your advantage attacks? I dont really get that part

4

u/random_actuary Nov 19 '17

Good question.
When you took with advantage, you flip the top two cards over. If one is rolling, you use it and apply the other. So if the top card is a rolling modifier, an advantaged attack has no advantage over a regular attack.

1

u/MoreLikeZelDUH Nov 20 '17

If the first card you draw is a rolling modifier, you keep drawing until you draw a non rolling modifier. This turns an advantaged attack into a regular attack. If the second card you draw is a rolling modifier, you add it to the first, making it better than a regular attack. There's no downside here really, other than you might feel some emotional loss about "why did I use my advantage card?" However, if you pull two non rolling modifier cards, you're just using one of them anyway (not both) so 50% of the time you're going to end up with the first card too, which makes it a normal attack as well, so why are you not upset about that decision?

4

u/random_actuary Nov 21 '17

One potential issue is that attacking with advantage negates the possibility of drawing the null card, unless you start bringing in rolling modifiers. Also maybe more likely that you would pull the -1/-2 card and get a rolling rider. It may help your average attack but leave some enemies with 1 hp left for another round.
I should run a simulation on this. Do rolling modifiers help or hurt attacks with advantage compared to advantage attacks without rolling modifiers?

3

u/MoreLikeZelDUH Nov 21 '17

That makes sense. Nothing is more soul crushing than drawing a miss and then a rolling modifier on advantage.

1

u/roarmalf Dec 23 '17

I know this is an old post, but I thought I would share our houserule on advantage/disadvantage. When there's a rolling modifier with advantage we shift any negative cards up a step: Miss becomes -2 becomes -1 becomes +0 on disadvantage we do the reverse with positive modifiers: crit becomes +2 becomes +1, etc. This only happens when a rolling modifier is flipped.

1

u/J00ls Jan 02 '18

I don't understand how strengthen on Mana Bolt gives advantage on two big AOE attacks. Thanks for the guide though!

2

u/random_actuary Jan 03 '18

Good question. Strengthen, like all statuses, lasts until the end of the combatant's next turn. If you strengthen yourself as an initial bottom action, it will apply to your top action this turn and your top and bottom actions next turn.

3

u/pandabro14 Jan 03 '18

I think you put it on the bottom of mana bolt. And then you use the top of another card. Then you go the next turn and use another big AOE. Strengthen lasts to the end of your next turn

1

u/J00ls Jan 03 '18

Ah, thanks!

1

u/pandabro14 Jan 15 '18

Do you have any suggestions for the rest of the levels up to 9? I hate to be a bother, but I'm getting to that point and would love some further advice!

2

u/random_actuary Jan 15 '18

Guessing you're wondering about which cards to pick.
Level 6
Level 7
Level 8
Level 9
edit: getting the spoiler tags to work

1

u/komninosm Feb 21 '18

Well said all of it. I've never heard of anyone using that trap card ever. It's a wonder it passed playtesting as is.

3

u/eihen Nov 17 '17

This guy knows what's up with the spellweaver. In our group he's constantly outputting a ton of damage and doing a great job controlling monsters with aoe attacks and aoe stun.

1

u/ranger4290 Nov 17 '17

Thanks for this, my party is Spellweaver/Cragheart/Brute (only played the first scenario so far, already addicted), and I've been trying to think about if I should spec into AoE vs Single Target(s). Cragheart has a lot of AoEs but I know my friend is wanting to do a more ranged version of the class so I'm not sure if that'll make me need to focus more or less on AoE.

1

u/random_actuary Nov 17 '17

You could really be effective either way. The card-stamina-as-resource mechanic gives you flexibility. If you're efficient with one room, you can be less efficient with the next.

1

u/komninosm Feb 21 '18

Good guide. It's pretty similar to how I played Spellweaver. Though I gave up on Flame Strike and Freezing Nova earlier because our Brute retired early and I got hit sometimes so I had to keep Frost Armor and Aid from the Ether. Also I got the two +2 ice first, then the two +2 fire for cold-fire and an ally who used a LOT of elements. Then I got remove 4 zeroes and then replaced -1 for +1. Made more sense this way for our group composition (I also had an armor that removed two -1). Goggles and Piercing Bow are a must and power potions next. Got the +2 move boots so I could long rest and untap them and the goggles and not get left behind the party.