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What is the Dark Watch missing?

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The Burning Stickman
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What is the Dark Watch missing?

So, of the three major hero teams, the Dark Watch seems to be the least optimized. The Freedom Five build on each other and have great draw, tanking and deck control, even with a little healing, and they have several options for huge damage turns. The Prime Wardens may lack deck control, but they put out enough cards and healing that they can weather all but the worst of storms and keep chugging along, and have several options from retrieving things from the trash for re-use, or after destruction.

Both teams have a lot of synergy and are really strong, especially once they're fully set-up.

The Dark Watch, as it exists now, seems to have a lot of trouble gaining traction. Now, granted, they are still missing one member, who for all we know will pull the whole team together and put them on par with the F5 and PW.

So the question is: What can Harpy bring to the table to solidify the team?

Card draw? Healing? Out-of-turn powers or card plays? Some other mechanic that no other team offers?

Edit: I suppose another way to look at it might be which hero do you use as a fifth with the team currently?

Kratos13
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My general issue with DW Fixer is that his Bitter Strike essentially costs someone a Play action if you want to keep other Ongoings or Equipment out.  Ironically, vanilla Expatriette and Setback both have base powers for extra card plays which can help feed Bitter Strike, but DW Expatriette and DW Setback's base powers do not.  So I think out of turn/extra card plays would help the Dark Watch.  And for extra card plays to be sustainable, extra card draw would be necessary as well.  Again, ironically vanilla Nistmist excels at extra card draw for herself but DW Nistmist does not, though her Enlightenment should be more effective.

Reverend Pete
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DW already has healing with Setback and Nightmist.

 

Granted, maybe not as much healing as the other teams (the Prime Wardens ALL have some healing capability, and all of the F5 except for Tachyon do too).

 

Extra card plays would help the DW quite a bit, I think. 

Arcanist Lupus
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The Dark Watch is missing a dedicated support character. The F5 have Legacy, who protects, heals, boosts damage, and draws cards. Tachyon draws cards as well. The Prime Wardens have AA and CC, and PW Fanatic and PW Haka aren't slouches either. The Dark Watch's interteam interaction is limited to Salvage Yard, a little bit of card draw from Setback and Nightmist, and Setback's tanking, which is haphazard at best.


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TakeWalker
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Probably just consistency. Anything you can think of, Dark Watch can do, but only if they have the precise card (or two, or three) in play at the time. And some things -- card draw with Enlightenment, for instance -- often come with a large drawback that either can't be mitigated, or that mitigating will prevent mitigating some bigger hit.

But yeah, more out of turn stuff would help, especially to get DW Fixer set up.

Foote
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Kratos13 wrote:

My general issue with DW Fixer is that his Bitter Strike essentially costs someone a Play action if you want to keep other Ongoings or Equipment out.

From my perspective, Fixer has it well within his means to be totally self sufficient with Bitter Strike and doesn't always need sacrificial lambs from his teamates. When I play DWFixer in my group, I tend to do what I've called Tool Twisting, where on turn two when I have a stance and tool down, I will Bitter Strike away whatever I have more of in my hand at the time. So if I have 3 stances in hand, I will sac my current stance with bitter strike and replace it next turn. If my hand gets more tool heavy, ill start cycling tools. You don't get to keep out that sweet perfect combo of tool/stance all the time, but I'd argue if you wanted to do that than Original Fixer would be the better choice, and you have the added benefit of not screwing your teamates in the proccess (until they actually have something you can safely scrap to buy you a turn).

Rabit
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Foote wrote:
Kratos13 wrote:
My general issue with DW Fixer is that his Bitter Strike essentially costs someone a Play action if you want to keep other Ongoings or Equipment out.

From my perspective, Fixer has it well within his means to be totally self sufficient with Bitter Strike and doesn't always need sacrificial lambs from his teamates. When I play DWFixer in my group, I tend to do what I've called Tool Twisting, where on turn two when I have a stance and tool down, I will Bitter Strike away whatever I have more of in my hand at the time. So if I have 3 stances in hand, I will sac my current stance with bitter strike and replace it next turn. If my hand gets more tool heavy, ill start cycling tools. You don't get to keep out that sweet perfect combo of tool/stance all the time, but I'd argue if you wanted to do that than Original Fixer would be the better choice, and you have the added benefit of not screwing your teamates in the proccess (until they actually have something you can safely scrap to buy you a turn).

Agreed! Instead of looking at it as Kratos13 described, I look at it as Fixer's card play gives him +2 to damage... wink


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XtremeGuardian
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Agreed. I always viewed DW Fixer more as a master martial artist constantly changing his weapon or stance after landing the big hit. His style reminds me of an epic climax from a martial arts movie. It also makes Bloody Knuckles an awesome card.

 

That being said, I do think that DW needs out of turn card plays to support characters such as Fixer and Expat. They would benefit heavily during set up. Both Fixer and Expat can fall into a spiral of playing a card (in Expat's case ammo) and immediately destroying one in the same turn resulting in almost no growth of their hand or play area.

Natediggadoggity
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Since we've now seen a tease of Harpy's gameplay and style, it looks like she'll be a good fit, tentatively. We've seen her uncontrollable flock, which could become a good sacrificial ongoing for DW Fixer, and her DW variant allows for an extra card play.

I have high hopes that her cards that let her flip her control tokens back to the magic side could have great other beneficial effects, like card draw for the team, or out of turn power use.

But the best hope I have is from the card "Character Witnesses" in the Celestial Tribunal. Setbacks's welcoming smile looks so friendly and forgiving. She has to be doing well as a team member, right?