Finished the game at last

[ckdamascus]

Yeah, I felt somewhat similar issues as well. Although my pacing feels slightly different. I'm SKIPPING a fair amount of the packs and trying to strategically go further.

This makes it far less grindy when I only really need 3 hard battles to level up. I'm almost maxed on the important medals.

I'm also avoiding rune mages completely this time around, but I'm abusing my old Phoenix style that worked so well in Crossworlds. (Only because my Mage would have done it far worse with crappy leadership).

On one hand, I like a few things about this one

a) more battles so you aren't FORCED to obsessively prolong battles for medals like in Armored Princess. When I say "forced" I mean, so I can actually USE my medals in a useful manner for a lot of battles.

b) easier to complete sets and get more items. All in all, the items they give you seem a lot stronger and more plentiful. I'm seriously considering finishing a hunting set for extra bear power.

c) Less emphasis on no loss. A side effect fo this is "too much gold/crystal/etc". Honestly, I don't completely feel that way in my second play through as a mage. I am desperately short on crystals and I don't even have my spellbook even moderately maxed out yet. I'm actually somewhat short on gold but it is slowly changing for me now. I think it is because I actually bought a lot of different level 5s somewhat early on.

d) Balance is ... different/better? Besides some horribly horribly broken builds, I feel to compensate for the loss of mana accelerator they really made it possible to mega buff level 5s. Stoneskin that lasts for 7 rounds? Thanks! Because it was super annoying to waste my double casts on buffs only to recast them... when I was better off using other spells. Critical chance for magic? Woot, that's pretty nice. Although critical chance damage buffs of Viking/Warrior is pretty suspect. The amount of damage I end up doing with my 100% shooters was INSANE.

I wonder if it is just the Skald/Paladin class which is boring (I've hated using Paladins; I blame it on my Diablo 2 trauma).

e) NO MORE digging for scrolls. Thank GOD. Digging was a blessing and a bane, but I felt it hurt combat pacing when you are consuming/prolonging battles JUST to get more digs. What? Now I just steam roll battles and I'm still able to get close to 100% utility (only the valkyrie rage medal is absurd and mostly worthless).

I think with just some minor tweaks to balance, I find I can get a "great game" without having to scan as much and I can hit it MUCH sooner so I can have fun sooner rather than in Armored Princess it was a crazy gauntlet and you might not have much time to use/enjoy your overpowered army.