Another run that ended at the last boss.
Too big a deck to combo out on ascend 
Heads up: Dawncaster apparently has a maximum number of cards you can play/draw during your turn (or perhaps times it can tell you you can’t hold more cards?), and if you exceed this limit, you lose.
I was using an Arcanist with the ability that when you inflict frozen, you draw a card. So I had a deck which was mostly conduits and flashfreezes, and, because played cards go to your discard pile immediately rather than at the end of your turn, I could hold everything which wasn’t free in my hand and just cycle through the conduits and flashfreezes. That was all going fine until I got an enchantment which made me draw a card when I got three chain. The first game I used it, I decided to kill my enemy in a single hit, so I started bumping up my chain and eventually hit the limit.
Thank you! I had missed that entirely.
Wow, I missed that as well.
Because I paid for it, I’ve taken a small break from Dawncaster to play Dicey Dungeon. The game is quite fun but it is also making me appreciate Dawncaster even more. The depth of the latter is rather impressive. I also quite appreciate playing in portrait mode.
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Ah, I never thought to tap on combat fatigue to get the description—saw it on that screen and figured I’d figure it out if it came into play.
I guess that means you can’t cull your deck down to a single hand of cards, eh? I’ve used the strategy in the past with games like Meteorfall but not yet with Dawncaster.
So this was my second win on Difficult - A great bow seeker who just piled on an insane number of basic attacks, buffed by lots of stuff.
What worked:
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Using “weapon training” on “stalker weapon” - basically use your ability every turn. This, plus Mindstrike means your first action for one mana is. 16dmg / 8dmg combo first action, each round. That carries you to around Canto 5-6 with not much effort.
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I actually bought and imbued Duel Mastery off Color (1 deep wound every 5 basics) - in the portal zone. This killed the big boss in three rounds (25 basics = 5 deep wounds = instagib)
What didn’t
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The passives I got were so hodgepodge and useless. Brighter and Conjurer at the end.
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I had a greed in my deck for way too long and it almost ended my run a couple of times.
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I just had the craziest combo I’ve ever had:
Arcane Warding: Gain 2 Barrier. Permanently improve the barrier you gain by 2 when you play this. Unique.
Force Expulsion: Deal damage equal to twice your barrier. And some stun effect that didn’t matter.
Now this is all luck, but I got Arcane Warding in my first couple of fights. I also memorized it early so it was the first card I played each fight. By the end of the game I was around 80 or so Barrier.
I also memorized Force Expulsion as soon as I could. Every single fight started with an attack of at least 100 by the time I had the combo going. I instantly killed everything but the final boss.
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Dawncaster update with new DLC is out …
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I recently bought the first expansion and loved the way it mixed up the standard run. I’m looking forward to adding in some new zones.
Cloud saves is beyond fantastic.
Oh, and I killed the Necromancer for fun. You get 50 gold.
Has anyone noticed that on the archive screen there is a little color display up top that shows you which characters you’ve completed per difficulty? It’s pretty sad but that forced me to play through the story mode with each character, just to fill out my completion. It at least allowed me to mess around with builds I’ve never tried. I also discovered a talent that lets you keep your stacks of chain between fights. That’s just stupid; I culled out all cards that don’t chain and was doing hundreds of damage.
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The Pale Warden seems buggy. I’ve tried to get past him 4 times now and it keeps freezing on me.
Looks like I have to do that now….
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There was a second update yesterday with bug fixes.
Also, I back when the last expansion released there was a steady stream of weekly updates, so the designer certainly seems very active in squashing bugs.
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Managed my third win of difficult with a mage - Spire + Ice Weapon.
There is some really nice ice synergy stuff - and the fact that you are essentially defending whilst attacking means you don’t have to o too far off your plan.
Defeated the last boss in two turns I think
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I still can’t get a win on difficult with the mage even though I think he was my strongest class on normal. He’s the epitome of glass cannon and I find that I’m just not healing enough. I’ve also got in a run of trying a chain build and a burn build over and over but I’m not sure those are good at the higher difficulties unless you get lucky and draw a powerful talent. Damage that slowly ramps up leaves the mage too vulnerable to getting killed; he needs big burst. I like your ice idea and I think I’m going to try it out today.
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Dawncaster:
What is everyone’s opinion on these talents:
Headhunter - Whenever you defeat a boss you gain 50 gold and heal to full health.
Fast Recovery - Healing from inns, fires, etc. restores full health.
I can’t for the life of me win on difficult and I’m stuck in a rut where I feel at least one of these talents is necessary. But perhaps I wrong; what would I know?
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I find Headhunter good, but Fast Recovery terrific. But you’re right that, on difficult, bosses often leave one hurting.
I’ve got this weird thing going on where I am. It getting the cards that I need. Now I know this sounds like an excuse for sucking, but it’s been doing this run after run. To clarify, this isn’t me hoping for a strong rare card and not getting it, this is across the board. For example, I created an arcanist with the chain weapon. I didn’t get a single lightning card until the 4th zone from any kills or from the merchant. I’d say a good 80% of the cards offered to me were fire/burn cards. Just now I finished a run where I build a healing/divine arcanist and I didn’t get any divine cards from kills or merchants until the third zone; most of what was offered was lightning.
I’d say I’ve had 4-5 runs in a row like this. Bad luck or bad algorithm?
My guess is buggy algorithm. I noticed earlier that, once I started down a path, I got a lot more cards related to that archetype. Sometimes it seemed to think I wanted to go a direction I didn’t, and I’d just keep seeing cards for that build.