A big part of why Vengeance stumbles compared to its predecessors is the difficulty. But there's a lot more to that than just "it's too easy", which is the complaint that shows up most often on the Kingdom Rush subreddit: It's the huge disparity between the main campaign and the elite mini-campaigns. It's how even in the elite campaigns maps bounce around wildly between trivial and very difficult. It's how heroic and iron modes are but pale shadows of themselves from previous games. It's about the ludicrous separation between the top and bottom tier heroes and towers.
Yes, the main campaign is pretty trivial (and keep in mind everything I'm saying here is exclusively focused on "Impossible" difficulty). You have to get to the elite campaigns before finding any real challenge, and I just don't understand the reasoning. We've had three previous games where the campaign was plenty challenging and no one was complaining, so I'm not sure why they felt a change was needed now.
The nerfs to heroic and iron modes are also baffling. You want to make the main campaign easier? Okay, but heroic mode has always meant a step up in difficulty compared to campaign mode providing a serious challenge. But for most of the game - both the main campaign and the elite campaigns - that just isn't the case. Most of the time heroic mode feels no different in difficulty at all, just being a shortened version of campaign mode, and there are many instances where heroic mode was noticeably easier than campaign mode. What gives?
Iron modes were crushingly disappointing as well. The switch from restricting you from using certain tower types to dictating which towers you had to use was just wrong for so many reasons. I've explained in detail in previous posts that when you only have two towers to choose from, figuring out what to do with them is just too easy most of the time. In addition, no one likes Goblirangs, so it's just annoying to be forced to use them. I mentioned in a previous post my theory that Ironhide basically repurposed iron modes to showcase the premium towers to incentivize mobile players to buy them, and I truly believe that was the entire reasoning behind the decision.
But that's what's baffling: many of the premium towers are significantly OP - Blazing Gem, Swamp Thing, Twilight Harassers - but what's the point of buying them when the game is so easy? If you're going to go with a premium tower monetization scheme, you'd think they would want to significantly up the difficulty to incentivize purchases.
And speaking of towers, Vengeance is a huge step back from Origins in tower balance - and now we're just talking about the free towers. Origins finally hit a sweet spot in balancing things after some OP imbalance problems in the first two games. Yes, some towers were generally better than others - I'm always going to default to a Wild Magus over a High Elven Mage - but all of them felt useful, and their special abilities meant that I ended up using every single tower in the game at some point in my Impossible Hero Challenge because they all had a place. But Goblirangs? I wouldn't wipe my ass with Goblirangs.
The nerfs to Soul Impact (vs Rain of Fire and Thunderbolt from previous games) and reinforcements are just minor things after the major blunders in tuning, but they feel like salt in the wound. In previous games managing the cooldown of your major spell became a significant source of strategy on the hardest maps, but for most of the game Soul Impact just doesn't feel, well, very impactful, if you'll pardon the pun.
There are other changes I didn't care for. I feel the pace of the game is significantly slower than previous games, which isn't particularly fun. I also regretted that Vengeance backed off from having really big, dangerous enemies compared to previous games. In Origins I would be terrified when a Twilight Golem or Twilight Heretic appeared. Frost Giants and High Sorcerers are just no comparison. Both of these things just throw more fuel on the fire of the difficulty complaint.
But enough with complaining. The purpose of this series was to focus on the heroes. I've been on my soapbox enough and it's time to get on to the hero rankings.
Now in a previous blog post I remember saying that I wasn't going to worry about the actual grades in my final rankings, but I ended up changing my mind about that. I made that comment when we hadn't had too many maps that actually required grades yet, and I was worried that we wouldn't have enough to really distinguish the heroes. But most all of the elite campaigns ended up having grades, and the addition of a fourth elite campaign means I feel we have enough data points to compute meaningful averages.
Another item to note is that I did not include trivial 'A's in the computation of the final GPAs. This is a regret of mine from my Origins Impossible Hero Challenge. Thankfully there were far fewer trivial maps in that game, but still, including those 'A's did lead to some grade inflation.
Final Rankings
1. Eiskalt - 4.00 - Death incarnate
In Origins, Phoenix had a true damage AoE attack that made her my choice for best hero in the game. It was powerful, but it never felt overpowered, probably because the AoE radius was fairly small and the nominal damage on the attack was very middle-of-the-road as heroes went. But with Eiskalt they basically took Phoenix and cranked her up to 11.
His attack has a much larger radius and does significantly more damage, so that he can simply mow down most groups of mobs. In fact, some players advocate for not putting any points in Permafrost or Avalanche because they're arguably a DPS loss. For large mobs he has Ice Peaks to slash a huge part of their health away.
But of course the most overpowered thing about him is his hero spell. Being able to freeze every enemy on the map for 12 seconds every 40 seconds is just ludicrous. Bottom line, if you're using Eiskalt then the game is on easy mode, even on Impossible and even on the most difficult maps.
1. Murglun - 4.00 - Death incarnate - 1
Murglun ties Eiskalt in overall GPA, earning perfect 'A's on every map. I would always pick Eiskalt over her just because of his true damage basic attack, but she is still more than capable of dominating every single map in the game. Like Eiskalt, using Murglun is putting things on easy mode.
Where to even begin with her awesomeness? She is a tremendous backer for your chokepoints. Tar Maker alone is worth the price of admission, giving every tower she's near 20% extra damage. Lava Pool gives her a true damage boost and combos well with enemies being blocked. Grouped up enemies then make an easy target for Infernal Heat. For big enemies she has Eruption for an insta-kill. And if any enemies manage to actually leak through, they'll find themselves subject to true damage as they pass beneath her due to her Magma Blood passive.
And then there's her hero spell. In my Origins challenge, Reg'son's hero spell, Vindicator, easily took the top spot in the hero spell rankings. The ability to instantly eliminate a single enemy is just so powerful. So how about we take it and make a freaking AoE version?!? It's truly unreal, and only Eiskalt's hero spell can top it for power.
3. Beresad - 3.97 - All around great utility
In the Origins challenge, the three flying heroes took the three top spots, and it's appropriate that flying dragons do so in this game as well. Beresad is another powerhouse of a hero, and a great lore addition after his appearances in Frontiers and Origins. City of Rivers Iron was the only thing that kept him from earning a perfect 4.00 as well. The very unique nature of that map (exclusively Carnival Dragons) negated many of his strengths (including his hero spell!), and I just couldn't justify giving him an 'A'.
What are his strengths? Well, he has a very balanced and useful kit. He has an insta-kill, an AoE true damage attack, and can summon a pretty decent blocker. His Fear the Dragon ability is tremendous, forcing enemies to run away and relieving pressure on chokepoints. His passive is also extremely useful, giving bonus gold so you're always ahead in your build plan versus other heroes.
His hero spell, while not quite as powerful as Eiskalt's and Murglun's, is still top tier. 180 true damage to every enemy on the map? Yes, please! You're just never going to go wrong with this guy.
3. Dianyun - 3.97 - The ultimate staller
The last hero added to the game is yet another dragon, although this time of the Asian persuasion. I'll say this about Ironhide - they never fail to make the dragons good.
He's a very different kind of hero, which I greatly appreciate. While his nominal DPS is fairly low, his strength comes from his ability to attack up to four enemies at once (well, in quick succession). It's perfect for this game, which focuses more on large hordes of enemies rather than single giants like Twilight Golems. But the true power of his basic attack is that enemies are stunned momentarily when hit. This provides great stalling ability, giving your towers much more time to attack.
It's more than just his basic though that makes him great chokepoint support. Supreme Wave is an enormous area stun that has an uptime of nearly 20%. Combo that with Divine Rain, which will keep your troops healed up, and you've got a tremendous force multiplier. The icing on the cake is his passive, which grants +1 gold for every enemy killed in his range (which is huge). While this is less than Beresad, who grants +2, it ends up netting more gold, since Beresad only grants it on enemies he kills himself, while Dianyun's ability works on any enemy killed in range.
His hero spell, Son of the Storm, is great in that it works much like Phoenix's eggs from Origins. There's no reason not to use it immediately every time it comes off cooldown, and the dragons have great versatility. You can group them up in one place to help take down large threats, place them on the back path to catch leaks, or just place them at your chokepoint for additional DPS.
Dianyun's only weakness is his exclusive magic damage, which suffers on maps with large numbers of magic resistant enemies. However, his other strengths more than make up for this, so much so that his only 'B' came on Ancient Ghosts Iron, due to it exclusively having high-magic resistance enemies. Otherwise, you're going to steamroll with him just like the other dragons.
3. Doom Tank SG-11 - 3.97 - Crazy firepower
Joining Beresad and Dianyun in the "single 'B'" club is Doom Tank. His lone 'B' came on Magincia Shores Campaign - one of the harder challenges in the game that many heroes struggled with.
There are two elements of his kit that make Doom Tank such a good performer. The first is the insanely high damage on his basic attack. Now the long cooldown brings the DPS way down to more reasonable levels, but its real strength is that it is an area attack, and like artillery towers it ignores half of armor. This gives him a great damage output.
The other element is his The Expendables ability. For one, adding three blockers is a huge boost to any chokepoint, and two, while their damage might not seem like much, with all three it actually adds up to an average of 30 extra DPS, which is huge. When you add in his other abilities, which are good but not amazing, you end up with a hero that can put out immense DPS and is good in almost any situation.
6. Jack O'Lantern - 3.84 - Like a lesser Doom Tank
Jack took a handful of 'B's throughout the series, dropping his GPA below our top tier heroes, but he had no 'C's and is still a reliable hero.
As the title suggests, he's like a lesser version of Doom Tank. With only a four second cooldown, his Explosive Head ability basically gives him a ranged AoE attack that ignores armor just like Doom Tank's. And while the damage is less, the area is greater. Like Doom Tank, he can also summon blockers. While the ghouls are sturdier than the expendables, they also don't respawn as quickly.
All that's great, but here's where the problem comes in. Jack suffers from the same problem Eridan had in Origins - with a split ranged and melee kit, he's only ever operating with half a kit. It's generally best to let him stay behind blockers and use Explosive Head as much as possible, but then this negates his Haunted Blade and Spirit of Vengeance abilities entirely.
His hero spell, Nightmare, is pretty good, both doing damage and relieving pressure on chokepoints. It also tends to group up enemies nicely for Explosive Head or Soul Impact. The ability to teleport is always welcome on any hero, allowing them to jump between lanes easily, which is crucial on some maps. All in all he rounds out to a good hero, but that half a kit problem is what holds him back from being a great one.
7. Tramin - 3.61 - [checks notes] Wait, is this right?
Tramin definitely takes the award for sleeper hero. In my first post for this challenge I did a ranking based on my initial impressions of the heroes. I had Tramin coming in very low, just above the three free heroes.
It certainly seems like he should be. He does AoE damage, which is a good thing as we've discussed in the previous two entries, but his nominal DPS is very low. His abilities, including his hero spell, are okay, but certainly don't seem that great. Now Nitro Rush does greatly increase his DPS, and it has a 55% uptime, so all I can figure is that its the gamechanger.
Helping him out was his strong performance in the Rise of the Dragon campaign. He earned straight 'A's in all maps and modes, and that certainly boosted his GPA. Still, he's definitely the hero I was most wrong about.
8. Margosa - 3.52 - The ultimate duelist
Going back to my initial impression rankings, while I was impressed with and really liked Margosa, I was worried she was going to suffer from being a one-trick pony. Pretty much everything in her kit is geared towards going toe-to-toe with an enemy and DPS-ing them down. That's not a bad thing, but there is such a thing as overspecialization, and with no ranged, AoE, or utility abilities I worried she would underperform. I'm happy to relate that I was wrong, and she's a great hero. I'm surprised her GPA is so much lower than Jack's, and I'm really surprised she came in behind Tramin, but you're still rarely going to regret choosing her. Maps with a focus on high armor enemies are her only weakness.
9. Jigou - 3.45 - Tank par excellence
In the history of the Kingdom Rush series there has never been a tank as good as Jigou. He has truly insane health regeneration, and there are few enemies in the game that are a serious threat to him. For those that are, he has Glacial Form to keep him going even longer.
He has good utility besides just tanking large threats, though. Earth Slam is great for when your chokepoint is in danger of being overwhelmed, and Frozen Breath likewise can provide some breathing room, while Ice Ball is a nice DPS enhancement. His hero spell is nothing fancy and has the annoying habit of missing enemies you really wanted to hit, however.
Jigou suffers more from the problem I expected Margosa to have. He's a tremendous tank and chokepoint supporter, but that's largely it. His DPS is on the low side, especially facing armored enemies, and his terribly slow speed means supporting multiple lanes is extremely painful.
10. Jun'pai - 3.35 - Middle of the road meh
That's really all that can be said about Jun'pai - he's meh. He has a surprising amount of utility, and his kit suggests he should be a much better hero. After all, he has decent both melee and ranged damage, he has an AoE, a stun, a silence, and a heal, and his hero spell does okay damage. But he suffers from jack of all trades syndrome - doing a lot of things, but none of them particularly great. He reminds me a lot of Xin from Origins, and ends up near the same place in the rankings.
11. Asra - 3.13 - Here's the REAL one-trick pony
I'm not dogging on Asra - there's nothing wrong with being a one-trick pony if the trick is really good, and that's the case with her. Spider Bite is the trick, and it's unique in the Kingdom Rush series as being a guaranteed kill, but not an insta-kill. However, as I explained in a previous post, I've come to vastly prefer it over other heroes' insta-kill abilities. Because she only uses it in melee, it can be much more precisely applied, as opposed to all the times I've had to watch a hero with an insta-kill waste it on a trivial enemy. Her Shadow Dance and Shield of Shadows abilities really exist just to support her applying it - she teleports in, applies Spider Bite, and Shield of Shadows keeps her safe until she can teleport out again.
It's a great ability, but I would have preferred it to be a targeted hero spell. As it is, the rest of her kit is pretty weak, her hero spell included, and that's why she comes in near the bottom of the rankings, which isn't surprising given she's a free hero.
12. Mortemis - 3.03 - [checks notes again] Wait, is THIS right?
"Flabbergasted" is the only word I can use to describe the feeling when I saw how low Mortemis' final GPA ended up being. I even doublechecked my spreadsheet to make sure there wasn't a calculation error. But really it was the Cursed Bargain campaign that did it to him. That campaign was notorious for a lot of high magic resistance enemies, and it did him no favors. He did no better than a 'B' on any of the maps, and there were some 'C's as well as a 'D' on the infamous Ancient Ghosts Iron. A couple of 'C's in the other maps that had hard magic resistance enemies combined to nullify many of the 'A's he picked up, and so here we are.
He has a good kit - he does good DPS and has great stalling ability between Undead Servitude, Call of the Haunted, and Rotten Bodyguard, his hero spell. Combined with good DPS he's a competent hero, but magic resistance nullifies him pretty hard.
13. Veruk - 2.81 - You get what you [don't] pay for
Veruk isn't bad, per se. His kit is geared towards tanking and stalling, and he does a decent job of the former and a pretty good job of the latter, but being a free hero it's obvious he was tuned to be on the weak side of the spectrum. His tanking ability is ultimately somewhat limited, and his DPS is pretty trash. It makes sense - you don't want to give away the farm on free heroes in order to incentivize purchases. He doesn't feel like a bad hero, just a free one.
14. Oloch - 2.42 - [Buries face in hands]
But you know who is a bad hero? Freaking Oloch. There's undertuned and then there's just trash, and Oloch is trash. His DPS is trash, his abilities are trash, and his hero spell is the ultimate trash. I remember the first time I used his hero spell thinking, "Really, that's it?" Only because this game is so easy does Oloch survive as well as he does. He wouldn't have lasted two minutes in Origins as a hero.
Yes, I am bitter because I had to give him an 'F' on Ancient Ghosts Iron, ruining my no-'F' streak that had been going since I started my Origins challenge, but it did not unduly bias me. Even before we got to that map he was racking up sub-par grades, leading to his dismal final GPA. Keep in mind that in my Origins challenge, Razz and Rags' final GPA was only 2.76, and they were terrible. Here Oloch blows them away to crown himself the undisputed dunce of the Kingdom Rush series.
Accuracy
So you may remember that in my very first post for the series I took the bold step of giving my initial impressions for how I thought the heroes would shake out after just a single map. It's time to revisit those rankings and see how I did. Here are my initial rankings (remembering that we did not have Dianyun at that point):
- Eiskalt
- Murglun
- Beresad
- Doom Tank SG-11
- Jack O'Lantern
- Mortemis
- Jigou
- Jun'pai
- Margosa
- Tramin
- Veruk
- Asra
- Oloch
I'm proud of how accurate I was, although to be honest it's not particularly hard in this game to tell, since there's such a huge separation between Eiskalt and Oloch. I got the top 5 right (although technically Eiskalt and Murlgun tied, as did Beresad and Doom Tank). I clearly underestimated both Margosa and Tramin, while overestimating Mortemis. Everyone else was just about right considering Dianyun would push everyone below him down one spot.
Hero Spell Rankings
I didn't do Best Choice awards for this series since the answer was always going to be Eiskalt - seriously, in all the maps I did there's not one where I wouldn't award him Best Choice. So we can skip that analysis this time around and move straight to the hero spell rankings.
1. Glacial Storm (Eiskalt)
I've already talked about this, but Glacial Storm is simply too OP to be in the game. Keeping every enemy on the screen frozen 30% of the time...there just aren't words.
2. Volcanic Barrage (Murglun)
Two words and that's enough: AoE insta-kill.
3. Hellfire (Beresad)
I know we're just following the hero rankings right now, and I promise it will change shortly, but their hero spells are a big part of what make the dragons so powerful. It does massive true damage to every enemy on screen - what more do you want? (Besides Glacial Storm or Volcanic Barrage)
4. Son of the Storm (Dianyun)
Dianyun's hero spell combines high damage, no resource management (it always make sense to use it as soon as it's off cooldown), and great versatility in being able to place it where it's needed most.
5. Beast Form (Margosa)
Margosa's Beast Form combines crazy high damage with crazy health steal, making her a powerhouse who goes from enemy to enemy, DPS-ing them down. With it she can completely solo waves of lesser enemies, and only the most powerful enemies in the game are a real threat to her. What's even better is that with careful management you can get close to 100% uptime on it.
6. Rotten Bodyguard (Mortemis)
The Rotten Bodyguard is a powerful backup to summon onto the field. He has an AoE attack that stuns, and because the stun duration is nearly identical to his attack speed, he basically can stun-lock a large group of enemies for his entire duration (damaging them all the while).
7. Nightmare (Jack O'Lantern)
It damages the enemy and forces them backwards on the path, so it's great for dealing with hordes of enemies descending on your chokepoint. It also helps bunch enemies closer together, helping make Soul Impact more efficient. Not a game changer, but a nice ability.
8. Bombaggedon (Tramin)
The AoE damage really can help soften up an incoming wave of enemies. The biggest key to this ability is making sure to set it far enough back on the path so that enemies you want to hit don't get past the box before all the bombs are released. It can also be placed far back on the path so that it catches any leaks through your chokepoint.
9. Call of the Valkyrie (Doom Tank SG-11)
I understand that on the mobile version it does insane damage due to a bug, but on the Steam version it just never feels like it does very much. Certainly not a game changer, and greatly complicated by having to account for the delay between using the ability and when the bomb actually lands.
10. Terror from the Deep (Jun'pai)
It feels like Doom Tank's hero spell (unimpressive damage), but with a smaller area of effect. I wish it worked like Captain Blackthorne's Release the Kraken ability from Frontiers, where it stunned enemies passing through the area while continuing to damage them. That would make it a much more powerful and useful ability. As it is, unless you place it right over your blockers you're just not going to get much effect out of it.
11. Ice Zone (Jigou)
The damage and slow effect are okay, but I pushed it down here because it has the annoying habit of missing enemies you really want to hit, even if they're in the area of effect
12. Enter the Warmongers (Veruk)
The goblins are alright, but epic they are not. It would be a lot nicer if Veruk summoned a goblin shaman who did magic damage instead.
13. Toxic Rain (Asra)
This ability starts the game feeling powerful, since it can one-shot the enemies you face in an area, but by the time you get to the elite campaigns you feel like you're just tickling the enemy. Very much reminiscent of Eridan's Arrow Storm hero spell from Origins.
14. Seal of Isolation (Oloch)
The distance it moves enemies back up the path is just pitiful for what's supposed to be a hero spell. I've been trying to decide all series long if this is the worst hero spell in the Kingdom Rush franchise, or is it Razz and Rags' Changeling ability from Origins. The jury is still out, but they both are miserable piles of uselessness.
Other Stats
As with my Origins series, here are a few interesting stats before we close:
- We had a grand total of 63 trivial maps which did not warrant handing out grades. Contrast this with the mere 13 of Origins. The entire main campaign ended up being trivial apart from Silveroak Outpost Heroic and Denas' Castle Campaign. We still got a few trivial maps even in the elite campaigns, which is just insult to injury.
- The Ancient Ghosts Iron ended up being the hardest map in the game, earning an average GPA of 2.93 and being the only map where the average fell below a 'B'. Magincia Shores Campaign and Pond of the Sage Campaign came in close though at 3.00.
- The Ancient Ghosts Iron was also the only map where I had to hand out any 'D's - three of them (as well as my one 'F'). I know the grades are subjective, but I think this does provide some statistical backing to the assertion that Vengeance is far too easy of a game.
Epilogue
As I said at the beginning, I don't regret doing this series, but it hasn't been nearly as much fun as my Origins Impossible Hero Challenge. Vengeance is most definitely a flawed game, which is puzzling since it's built on the solid back of three previous KR games. I hope it is not a portent of things to come from Ironhide.
There are two directions I could go from here, Kingdom Rush-wise. First, Legends of Kingdom Rush is now available on Steam. It's not a tower defense game, but some kind of turn-based action RPG, but I feel invested in the Kingdom Rush franchise enough at this point to play it. Or I could head back to Kingdom Rush Frontiers for an Impossible Hero Challenge there. I'll go ahead and let you in on the secret - I'm finishing up writing this very long post after I've already started on the next thing, so I'll just tell you we're heading back to Frontiers for another Impossible Hero Challenge. I hope you'll join me.
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