Iratus: Lord of the Dead

Iratus: Lord of the Dead

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jack_was 28 Oct, 2023 @ 6:46am
Defensive team: Blood Phantasm, Lost Soul, Skeleton, Dark Knight
Formed a team based on 2 ideas:
- Attack & Dread is regularly buffed by Rage Injection triggered by Lost Soul and Consume Hopes,
- Skeleton, Blood Phantasm and Dark Knight benefit from buffs of the enemies.
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jack_was 28 Oct, 2023 @ 9:20am 
All minions are immune to debuffs, BP has Legcuffs, LS has Essence of Mind and the rest Vampire Fangs.
Dashed Hopes skill works well with Lost Soul's stress attacks - Doomed to Heroism ignores wards (some enemy stances are cancelled this way) and causes Dark Knight to react softening magical protection. Multiple blocks can be removed by the Skeleton opening buffed enemy to BP's punishment. Just before Consume Hopes Iratus boosts everyone's Luck (more stress from DK and usually additional 12 points of mana back). Immune to stress and armored enemies are hurt while attacking a minion marked by BP. Those additionally resistant to magical damage must wait a bit till Attack of the minions gets high enough to pierce their armor.
Catacombs were a piece of cake except the Mad Scientist (Pyromancer would have been easier to deal with) who required some adjustments to typical strategy. Yet when he was self-buffed by regeneration about twenty times the Skeleton had no mercy.
MasterBLB 28 Oct, 2023 @ 10:43am 
Well, indeed there are some ideas in design of the team, however it can definitely be fine-tuned.

Items
If by "all minions are immune to debuffs" you mean every minion has Orb of Negation then that's a bit of wasting the slot. Well, maybe kinda the phantasm puts it into good use.

Blood Phantasm - Legcuffs are wasted on him, Skeleton would put them into way better use, assuming you use his Mystic Fortitude stance to shield the knight, which you should do. Instead, by giving him Drop of Divinity/Glutton's Tongue + Lantern of Souls you would drastically improve his healing and Moaning Chains strike(tongue), or make combo Consume Hopes + Rage Injection less harmful for the phantasm. Lantern will ensure he will be healed, or you can rely only on healing provided by Lost Soul.

Lost Soul - giving Essence of Mind her is not a great choice, as she does not attack every turn, she often does support work - heals, gives block/ward etc. I suggest to put 2nd Brain for her, that's way both her stress attacks based on dredge, and healing based on attack will be buffed during fight. As second item Lantern of Souls, as all other minions when needed can be healed by her immediately - though you can trigger the phantasm's stance to heal her if you would like it that way; in that case as the other item I'd put Acid Glands, her Inspire Heroics can apply it.

Skeleton - well, Legcuffs ftw! Thanks to them Skeleton can neither be stunned or moved, therefore his stance is uninterruptible, and thus the stance of Dark Knight. Other item - that depends if you want him to be able to gain from Rage Injection, Infectious Lunacy, Rites of Carnage, phantasm's mark etc., in that case he needs Enchanted Bone. If not, Spider Mandibles will work wonders on him. Other nice options are Drop of Divinity, Crow Paw, Glutton's Tongue.

Dark Knight - now he is the guy to wield Essence of Mind! Other item for him is either Vampire Fangs for extra safety, but try to incorporate Crow Paw; you'll apply the curses multiple times per turn, and moreover their damage will leech mana. Also when fighting against stress immune foes you'll still replenish your mana, opposite to putting the Essence on Lost Soul. If not Crow Paw, another great item for him is 2nd Brain, Glutton's Tongue, or Drop of Divinity.

Selection of minions
Right now your team is too much "in the middle ground", neither it is a solid stress team(Blood Phantasm should be replaced by Banshee or 2nd Lost Soul), or damage team(- Lost Soul +zombie). It works, but with dissonance which is caused by Blood Phantasm - if you use his Rage Injection and trigger it by Lost Soul two of your minions are not attacking in exchange for meaningless buff. If you use Lost Soul to deal stress damage then Phantasm is mostly wasted, as he has no stress attacks. Well, he can start to attack stress immune enemies if they don't have blocks, or use ultimate for ward removal; but still, this whole concept is far from being efficient.
Last edited by MasterBLB; 28 Oct, 2023 @ 1:14pm
Bumc 28 Oct, 2023 @ 11:18am 
The slow control teams are better against bosses, in regular fights you really want to kill some problem enemies by round 2 if not earlier.

A version of this setup with ghoul over DK is what I used vs some bosses and some slow fights for even more self-harm and buffs from rage injection.
jack_was 28 Oct, 2023 @ 7:09pm 
Lantern of Souls is inferior to Vampire Fangs. Why? Because it can usually trigger only four times during the fight. When Skeleton and DK use Vampire Fangs they are healed while utilizing their stances.
I also disagree with wasted slot for Orb of Negation (Enchanted Bones in case of Skeleton) - without it minions can be debuffed or even stunned what makes them useless. Had this issue with DK before I gave him this immunity.
Why did I make BP immune to moving and debuffs? I want to maximize the efficiency of Rage Injection.
LS and BP look somewhat incompatible but in fact her buffs boost the efficiency of Moaning Chains.
The team slowly increases their potential damage and drives enemies insane what can make killing them by physical means easier. Stress attacks are not always reliable - in fact I like this feature while using Pain Amplification of the Shades because with Soul Flame they can refill HP, rage and magic regardless of the victim's sanity.
sandman25dcsss 28 Oct, 2023 @ 11:45pm 
I am not sure I get the idea. The damage seems to be split between physical and stress:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3064821267
I think it is better to replace Dark Knight with another physical minion like Headhunter since he is protected by Skeleton and use Lost Soul just as healer on first floor before you get vampirism item.
Last edited by sandman25dcsss; 28 Oct, 2023 @ 11:51pm
MasterBLB 29 Oct, 2023 @ 1:36am 
Originally posted by jack_was:
Lantern of Souls is inferior to Vampire Fangs. Why? Because it can usually trigger only four times during the fight. When Skeleton and DK use Vampire Fangs they are healed while utilizing their stances.
It isn't, just different. 1st, healing amount is much greater, 2nd, it allows to heal when there isn't action turn for the minion, 3rd it works with supporting minions whose don't deal damage. In this case however (skeleton and knight in stances, they can be triggered few times per round) Vampire Fangs work well.

Originally posted by jack_was:
I also disagree with wasted slot for Orb of Negation (Enchanted Bones in case of Skeleton) - without it minions can be debuffed or even stunned what makes them useless. Had this issue with DK before I gave him this immunity.
And that's why I advised you to give Legcuffs to Skeleton - he is naturally immune to debuffs, legcuffs prevents him to be moved so if he use shield stance on Dark Knight the knight will no need to afraid of his stance being interrupted; well, at least in vast majority of cases.

Originally posted by jack_was:
Why did I make BP immune to moving and debuffs? I want to maximize the efficiency of Rage Injection.
Well, let's start with fact that "efficiency" of his stance requires your other minion, Lost Soul, to use her move to trigger it. If she does that turn she cannot trigger Dark Knight by buffing enemies - so you lose potential damage. And how often enemies are kind enough to attack him on 4th position?
Well, okay, let's assume it triggered. What benefit it provides, except healing(which is very nice)? +1 to attack for minion. + ONE attack, starting from 2nd turn. By that time efficient teams culls the last survivors, and end the fight.
These items on the phantasm would make more sense if'd take the other upgrade for him, Grand Transfusion, and use it on Dark Knight in exchange with Skeleton's Unnerving Fortitude depending if you at the moment need healing or damage.

Originally posted by jack_was:
LS and BP look somewhat incompatible but in fact her buffs boost the efficiency of Moaning Chains.
Because they are. True, Lost Soul buffs enemies via Doomed to Heroism and Psychotic Stream, and Moaning Chains deals extra damage per buff or debuff on the enemy, but these skills cooperate rather poorly. Why? Lost Soul attacks leave blocks intact, so Blood Phantasm can't damage such enemy. Moreover, these are stress attacks, so the phantasm has to deal with full HP amount of the enemy once he/she will be opened for Moaning Chains strike.
You'll see true potential of properly used Moaning Chains today later.
EDIT: here you go:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/807120/discussions/5/3881599433118778001/

Originally posted by jack_was:
The team slowly increases their potential damage and drives enemies insane what can make killing them by physical means easier. Stress attacks are not always reliable - in fact I like this feature while using Pain Amplification of the Shades because with Soul Flame they can refill HP, rage and magic regardless of the victim's sanity.
And the key word is "slowly". Also by not focusing on either stress or vigor damage you needlessly complicate encounters for no real gain.
Last edited by MasterBLB; 1 Nov, 2023 @ 1:28am
sandman25dcsss 29 Oct, 2023 @ 2:06am 
The party inspired me for Lich, Headhunter, Skeleton, Phantom party, it is quite fun.
Skeleton and Lich go first, Skeleton goes into stance with vampiric item, Lich bufffs Phantom for +24 attack. Then Phantom uses 140% magic damage increase on Skeleton which means that +24 buff is multipled by 1.4 and is applied to enemy every time Skeleton is attacked. Finally Headhunter uses ultimate to finish wounded enemy resulting in +1 part (normallly I take 50% chance to kill), hopefully I will find tongue to apply to Phantom for some ridiculous damage.

I agree legcuff is great, my Skeleton loses stance too often currently.

I was lucky with items, both Skeleton and Headhunter have vampirism items while Phantom has natural vampirism because of being in 1st position.
Last edited by sandman25dcsss; 29 Oct, 2023 @ 2:10am
sandman25dcsss 29 Oct, 2023 @ 2:31am 
It is a bit crazy for middle of 2nd floor:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3064950164

Main issue is initiative to set it up on 1st turn and I actually have +3 initiative artifact which I don't use in easy fights like the one on screenshot preferring to get an extra part from artefact in the same slot so only one enemy was killed during 1st turn (by Headhunter's ultimate to get extra part). Berserker died this turn to own attacks :)
Last edited by sandman25dcsss; 29 Oct, 2023 @ 2:36am
sandman25dcsss 29 Oct, 2023 @ 4:44am 
Last edited by sandman25dcsss; 29 Oct, 2023 @ 5:02am
sandman25dcsss 30 Oct, 2023 @ 11:51am 
Great magister was attacking Skeleton thrice per turn, lol.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3066682230
Late game I rarely use skeleton stance because too many enemies have wards (I ignore blocks) and fights are over faster than I remove wards.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3066685347
Who needs 50% chance to kill when you can have 100%
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3066685310
The only problem is that I don't have any mana items so sometimes it is scary because I cannot cast eternal battle more than once per fight.
Last edited by sandman25dcsss; 30 Oct, 2023 @ 11:53am
sandman25dcsss 30 Oct, 2023 @ 1:35pm 
In final battle I tried to compare "critical on Headhunter for 600+" damage and "moving spell to return skeleton back to 1-2 position for stance with 272 retaliation damage", still the same result - victory in 4 turns, 800 damage per turn.
120 parts in every category is not a joke, never had it before and I had 2 tongues. Never found mana item, this is 1st time in my 300 hours.
Last edited by sandman25dcsss; 30 Oct, 2023 @ 1:38pm
jack_was 1 Nov, 2023 @ 1:20pm 
Originally posted by MasterBLB:
Because they are. True, Lost Soul buffs enemies via Doomed to Heroism and Psychotic Stream, and Moaning Chains deals extra damage per buff or debuff on the enemy, but these skills cooperate rather poorly. Why? Lost Soul attacks leave blocks intact, so Blood Phantasm can't damage such enemy. Moreover, these are stress attacks, so the phantasm has to deal with full HP amount of the enemy once he/she will be opened for Moaning Chains strike.
You'll see true potential of properly used Moaning Chains today later.
EDIT: here you go:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/807120/discussions/5/3881599433118778001/
Don't forget the skeleton who deals with blocks in no time because Lost Soul fuels its Smite.

Originally posted by MasterBLB:
And the key word is "slowly". Also by not focusing on either stress or vigor damage you needlessly complicate encounters for no real gain.
I admit the are ways the team can be more efficient - especially BP should be able to provide Rage Injection more often.

Seen your ideas of other teams who deal with enemies is no time and it is really impressive however I enjoy somewhat different playstyle: strengthen my minions and safely dispatch of the enemies. I could compare it to the concept of fast reading skill - I don't want to swallow books in no time because I like to delight with them.
MasterBLB 1 Nov, 2023 @ 1:52pm 
Originally posted by jack_was:
Don't forget the skeleton who deals with blocks in no time because Lost Soul fuels its Smite.
Well, if you've maxed Skeleton's initiative then it has 8 vs BP's 6, so indeed it can clear the blocks for him. Good point mate, and good mini-combo within the team.

Originally posted by jack_was:
Seen your ideas of other teams who deal with enemies is no time and it is really impressive however I enjoy somewhat different playstyle: strengthen my minions and safely dispatch of the enemies. I could compare it to the concept of fast reading skill - I don't want to swallow books in no time because I like to delight with them.
Because I respect other people's opinions I didn't told you smth like "the team is crap", instead I've gave you some hints how to improve it, while preserving the original concept:
  1. If you make Skeleton unmovable by giving him Legcuffs his stance will be very hard to break.
  2. If you use Skeleton equipped with Legcuffs to shield Dark Knight it will open item slot occupied by Orb of Negation - potentially for Essence of Mind, as my experience shows this items works extremely well with DK's stance. Well, you've seen what Vampire Fangs given to him preform.
  3. By moving Essence of Mind out of Lost Soul you can put something else; the best candidate will be something which debuffs on hit, like Crow Paw, Ashes of a Burned Witch, and Acid Glands. Debuffs from these items will strengthen Phantesm's Moaning Chains and Knight's Stare Into The Void.
With such changes your favored play style will be still preserved.
jack_was 1 Nov, 2023 @ 2:17pm 
There is one more potential combo to utilize: Smite and debuff causing item.
Using it I could deliver more power to Moaning Chains, use other skill of DK (based on debuffs instead of armor) and eventually get a lot of profits from Consume Hopes.

The question is: will such item trigger DK's stance based on debuffs?
MasterBLB 1 Nov, 2023 @ 3:04pm 
Originally posted by jack_was:
There is one more potential combo to utilize: Smite and debuff causing item.
Using it I could deliver more power to Moaning Chains, use other skill of DK (based on debuffs instead of armor) and eventually get a lot of profits from Consume Hopes.

The question is: will such item trigger DK's stance based on debuffs?
Sadly, nope :/ Was testing that some time ago (Crow Paw on Skeleton in Mystic Fortitude), and it didn't worked. As I spoke with a developer they said this interaction has been cut off deliberately, otherwise Dark Knight in No Tomorrow stance, equipped with Crow Paw/Ashed of a Burned Witch falls into endless loop.
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