Once again I'm thankful for a heroic mode that actually increases the difficulty compared to campaign. This one is tricky, and wave 6 is an absolute nightmare, with all the worst threats thrown at you at once.
You'll notice right off the bat that we begin by repairing the Darkray Tower, whereas in campaign mode we waited until late in the map to do so, mostly as insurance for getting the win. It's the most effective way to deal with the Void Blinkers early on, as there's just not enough gold for a tower defense that can handle the big units on the bottom path, all the Mindless Husks, as well as the Blinkers. And honestly it needs to stay repaired constantly throughout the map, as it's just not possible to build a leak-proof defense that doesn't require it. This adds a huge element of stress to the gameplay, as you want it to be used as little possible so you can spend money on upgrading towers instead of constantly repairing it.
This is another of those maps where some of the micro strategy might not be completely obvious from the videos. For instance, in wave 2 you absolutely must keep any Husks or Glarelings from moving from the top path down to the bottom path. If they do, they might be the target of the Eldritch Channeler's Mutation Hex instead of the second Bladeclaw Horror. If that happens it's a loss, as the bottom lane is relying on Mutation Hex to take care of all the Abominations and Horrors as there just aren't enough resources to take them down conventionally.
Impressions
The grades are a little bit lower than campaign mode, befitting the increased difficulty. Raelyn takes a 'D' as clearing this map with her was an absolute nightmare. I think it took 15 attempts to get the win, and that's 'D' territory for certain. The challenging maps just continue to put a spotlight on her weaknesses.
Most of the rest of the grades are unsurprising, but Onagro's GPA sadly keeps sliding downward, and I don't expect things to improve as we go on. This final act just prioritizes movement a lot - the Vile Spawner that appears when your attention is already fixed on a different lane, for example, and you need to get to it ASAP before things get out of hand. While his DPS and abilities are fine, his movement speed is simply unreasonably slow. Since he can't block he's basically like a flying hero, and when has there ever been a slow flying hero? Okay, well there was Dianyun in Vengeance, but he made up for it by having a ludicrously large and powerful attack range.
Final Grades
- Vesper - B+
- Raelyn - D
- Nyru - B+
- Torres - B
- Anya - B
- Grimson - B+
- Broden - A+
- Therien - B-
- Onagro - C+
- Warhead - B
- Lumenir - A-
- Kosmyr - A
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