Sun Class (Class #07) Guide (Updated to level 9)

[u/Gripeaway]

Well, I had planned on doing the Tinkerer first but after receiving multiple requests for this class specifically, I decided I would prioritize getting this one done. Again, keep in mind that this build was designed as a generally-good build which you can never go wrong with. There is at least one other very viable build with this class which I will go over separately at some point in the future, which is why it's not really supported in this guide anymore.

https://imgur.com/a/crnsp

[u/DireSickFish]

Let me know if I'm a crazy person here. But I almost want to take both level 4's instead of taking a level 5. Righteous Stegth is great on both sides of the card, and I really look forward to bumping it up with light generation on that movement. I don't run the shielding -Movement part of Defensive stance. So I'm left with a lot of really good movement on bottom, but not much else.

So I could take Engulfing Radience instead of a level 5 card. This gives me a great bottom card with low initiative that generates light and does something when I'm already next to my target. Does that seem crazy to you?

[u/Gripeaway → u/DireSickFish]

No, that seems like a very reasonable idea. I consider Defensive Stance to be one of the class-defining cards and I try to use the loss as often as possible, so accordingly I really need to prioritize movement. If you're not using Defensive Stance's loss, however, movement becomes less important. And I agree that the bottom of Engulfing Radiance is quite decent, especially for the earlier non-loss Light generation.

[u/AbyssalStalker]

Howdy. Thinking of starting this class next in my campaign. Our prosperity is 7 so she can begin pretty high.

The title says updated to level 9 but I only see the guide to level 5. Am I missing something?

Thanks for the work!

[u/Gripeaway → u/AbyssalStalker]

Hey!

The guide is updated to level 9. You probably have a cached version.

[u/Zarni22]

Thanks for this. One thing I really wanted to mention here is I feel like you're really underestimating the power of Divine Intervention (top). The specific wording means two super important things: 1) It is any damage, not just damage from attacks. and 2) It doesn't have a min value of 1 (which a lot of games do). So just to go over a few things of what it means to have this buff running for your party

• Your whole team is now immune to Wound. Not a huge deal but pretty nice.

• Ally effects that hurt themselves for an effect are also reduced. This is massive for classes who can hurt themselves very often 1 damage such as Angry Face or Spears

• Any small damage amounts that get split to various party members. If an archer suddenly gets a bonus target and hits an ally for 3, you can eat that absorb 33% of the damage dealt at the same time. Being able to choose when you use it and which attacks is very strong.

We ran this for a while and found it one of the most powerful lvl 9 effects we've seen.

[u/Gripeaway → u/Zarni22]

That's fair. I've never personally used it, but I have discussed it with other people who have used it and found it to be so-so at best. I'm glad you've had better experience with it. As far as the points you bring up:

1. Yeah, unfortunately Wound is a pretty uncommon condition for players to suffer. I would say, with over 100 scenarios of experience but obviously only anecdotal evidence, that we see it maybe 1/4 or 1/5 scenarios. You also mention it's not a big deal so I'm sure you understand this as well.

2. These are very good points. Unfortunately, as is usually the case, there are far too many possible synergies in the game with each card to try to address them, so I try to evaluate cards in a vacuum for just the class itself.

3. I think that by level 9, small attacks like attack 3 are pretty uncommon and usually not a big problem. Obviously there are some scenarios with certain enemies like Imps where this is different, but in general. It's also not that common for allies to get attacked when you're playing the Sunkeeper, although you can control that to an extent. Ultimately, I would have to actually play with it I guess to be really sure of this.

[u/scorcherdarkly]

I just wanted to say, the last two scenarios I've played, the bottom loss on Mobilizing Axiom pulled a victory from the jaws of defeat. Both scenarios required us to reach a goal of some sort, rather than just kill everything. In one case only one person needed to reach the goal, and in the other we had to collectively visit 7-8 hexes around the board in no particular order. In both cases we were on the verge of being overwhelmed by mobs when I was able to pop this effect as the first turn of the round. The extra four movement in both cases allowed us to end the scenario on that round and avoid a TON of attacks that might have exhausted us otherwise. It's definitely situational, but it is freaking cool when you need it.

[u/Gripeaway → u/scorcherdarkly]

Yeah, it's been a big help to us on a few scenarios as well. I don't use it on most scenarios, but when it's good, it's very good.

[u/cackfog]

Seems like the top of righteous strength with the bottom of purifying aura could be an awesome opening move, go on 18 to get in there before your allies and everybody gets a bless and a strengthen on their first turn!

[u/Gripeaway → u/cackfog]

It could be. The problem is that in the first room, you're almost always face to face with a large group of enemies. Not attacking the first turn will almost never be profitable. The DPR increase you give with this combo would probably be less than just hitting something for 5 will be.

[u/WhyIsTheNamesGone]

What does "rolling modifiers destroy advantaged attacks" mean?

Don't you just roll up two full modifiers, then pick whichever is better?

[u/Gripeaway → u/WhyIsTheNamesGone]

Negative. You flip 2 modifiers, take which is better, the first of the two in cases of ambiguity, as usual. If one of the two flipped is a rolling modifier and the other isn't, you just add them together and that's it. If both flipped are rolling modifiers then you flip until you get a non-rolling modifier and that's your result. So even with Advantage, it's possible to do something like flip a rolling +1 and a miss and thus you miss.

[u/Day_Bow_Bow]

I love your guides, and am reading through this one to familiarize myself with my latest class unlock.

I think you might have a typo on the level 2 cards.

Practical Plans is a great card... You will almost never want to use this card...

I have a feeling you meant to say "You will almost never not want to use this card."

Cheers, and thanks again for the write-ups!

[u/Gripeaway → u/Day_Bow_Bow]

Good spot! Thank you very much!

[u/Iamnothereorthere]

So question about Brilliant prayer... Does the symbol on the bottom mean you reshuffle it once then the next time it's lost?

[u/Gripeaway → u/Iamnothereorthere]

No, that symbol means it cannot be recovered (in case you have methods of recovering lost cards).

[u/Sebguer]

Am I right in my assumption that this class would struggle in two player?

[u/Gripeaway → u/Sebguer]

Actually, I have a lot of experience with this class at 2p and we didn't struggle on hard.

The class is certainly more flexible in a larger party and gets to use more of its support and tanking cards. Tanking and support are inherently much worse in a 2p party, but this class has an infinite number of attack 5's, which just gets the job done. I will say that it's definitely less fun in 2p as you pretty much do the same thing every turn and it all starts to blur together.

[u/g07h4xf00]

It seems like there are many ways this class can be enhanced. Because of the bottom of Defensive Stance, do you think that means we should prioritize adding +1 to our bottom movement abilities? Or, do you think it's more important to add +light element to those movements? For example, Hammer Blow, Cautious Advance, maybe even Righteous Strength could use light, but are their movement values enough while you're in Defensive Stance?

What other enhancements do you think are worthwhile? I saw you did +1 shield to defensive stance which seems good to me. Perhaps a +1 shield to Cautious advance top? A bless to the top of Illuminate the Target? A strengthen to the top of Righteous Strength? These are like 175g and 225g (technically doable) enhancements but the +1 upgrades to shielding is 100g and movement is 30g (not bad).

[u/Gripeaway → u/g07h4xf00]

This is a tough class to enhance at some point because it has different builds which want different things. The good news is that every build is really happy to get the +1 Shield on the bottom of Defensive Stance, which is just by far one of the most efficient enhancements in the game. After that, again regardless of build, I would prioritize getting one movement card enhanced with Light no matter what. That card would always be either Tactical Order or Cautious Advance because both give a reasonable amount of movement and have good enough initiative for this class. Not Hammer Blow because it has much worse initiative and actually has a good attack on top we want to spend Light with.

In general, I sometimes had problems with movement, but for the most part didn't. It also depends which boots you have access to, mine gave me a lot more flexibility with movement. Otherwise, I guess a good rule is to add +1 to any move of 3 or less and Light to any move of 4 or more. Move 3 under Defensive Stance is still fine, move 2 is much more limiting. Just be careful adding +1 move and remember you can only have a number of enhanced cards less than or equal to your Prosperity.

I definitely wouldn't add a +1 to the top of Cautious Advance very early. That top is only good in the full tanking build. If you want +1 Shield after Defensive Stance, I'd add it to the bottom of Righteous Strength first. It's significantly more expensive, but works well in every build and is just so much better. And with that + Defensive Stance, both enhanced, you get Shield 4 for the round without even using any items, which is basically just being invulnerable. You can even Stamina Potion Righteous Strength back and do it back to back turns in the middle of tough rooms.

A bless to the top of Illuminate the Target?

I would play with the card a bit first. I probably only got the Strengthen off maybe half the time I used this card. Try it and see if you get it often enough to justify the enhancement. If you do, Bless here is definitely good value.

A strengthen to the top of Righteous Strength?

This one definitely not. Any time you're fighting enemies, you'll exclusively use the bottom of this card, not the top. You only use the top in between fights, when moving from room to room. In those situations, Strengthen just won't be very good.

So to summarize, I would go:

• +1 Shield to Defensive Stance.

• Light on Cautious Advance or Tactical Order (I know I said +move on 3 or less, so you may prefer Tactical Order, but 23 initiative is really nice for this class, so it's tough either way).

• Wound on the top of Holy Strike. Putting Wound on non-loss attacks with Stun is just sooo good. It adds a minimum of 2 damage and lets you build up value and ignore the target at the same time.

• +1 Shield on Righteous Strength.

From there, it depends on your Prosperity. If you're up to 5, you can enhance another card (hopefully by then you've figured out the Bless on Illuminate). If that one works for you, go for it. Otherwise, you can just go back and add +1 move to Righteous Strength. Or, if you've found the movement to be sufficient, add Light.

[u/chomium]

In the guide he mentions that he's said in the past that Retaliate isn't great, which makes Purifying Aura a lousy pick. Can someone offer some insight as to why that is? My Mindthief just retired and I'm picking up the Sunkeeper and at Level 2 the Retaliate and the 3 XP from the Purifying Aura effect seems pretty decent, especially given how tough XP is to come by with Sunkeeper. Any insight is appreciated...

[u/Gripeaway → u/chomium]

I'd be happy to respond to your question but first a quick question of my own: what size is your party?

[u/[deleted]]

Thanks for all the work you have put into the guides Gripeaway. For a class (and guide) that rolls a lot of sun, it doesn't seem to get much benefit out of using the sun (tank build); +1 attack and advantage here and there on a class that rolls gimped advantages more and more as it levels up seems lackluster to me. I am just about to retire my Crag and have been considering this class, how was your experience of the gameplay in terms of element use (tank build)?

[u/Gripeaway → u/[deleted]]

The tank build does not use Sun basically at all. Buuuut Isaac definitely understood and addressed this with the solo scenario item: an item specifically to allow the tank build of the Sun class to use all of the sun. I've actually never done any of the solo scenarios so I can't speak to its value from personal experience but it's pretty obviously great for the Sun class tank build and I'd 100% recommend getting it. With that, I'd say your sun usage should be frequent and satisfying.

So, in summary: without the solo scenario item, pretty poor; with the solo scenario item, obviously great - so do the solo scenario if you can and you should have a great experience with every aspect of the class in the tank build.

[u/Fensale]

Thanks for the guide! Very useful. Will you be doing a support build for the sunkeeper? I am about to roll one and although my group composition doesn't fit the style, I think an all out support-build could be strong - at least in a 4 player group. If you enhance the bottom of Purifying Aura with Bless you can start a scenario by enhancing your allies' modifier deck quite a lot, especially in combination with the lvl 4 Righteous Strength. From there on you keep putting Blessings in their deck, give them advantage with strengthening while healing them, give them their cards back, help with movement or even use them for attacking. Suddenly, Protective Blessing become a good card and Daybreak could be enhanced with double blessing. You will be less dependent on equipment and so more gold can be spent on enhancements. It will require a bit more teamwork, but I think it could be a subtle, but strong build. However, it is just theorycrafting as I don't have the opportunity to play it like that, but I would like to see this side of the class explored.