The warping-master

The warping-master
Scenery 19 of 31 · Votskarr, the Voth confluence. Alone · Nightmare · Beastmaster.

At half health his rope attack flips from a pull to a push. Above 50% it drags you toward him; below 50% it throws you away. The only runs that did not clear were automated players that stopped casting.

What you hold

You hold exactly 10 spells: the Beastmaster's two starting spells, plus one from each of the eight boss drafts so far (after sceneries 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17).

• Tap: something came with him, a Summon. A helper that acts on its own.
• Hold: the leash lane, a physical Beam. You cannot move while channelling it. It was the most-cast spell in the runs.

Each boss draft deals four cards. The first card is always one of the Beastmaster's own spells; from the third draft on, one card upgrades a spell you already hold. The rest are random. The rule: At each boss draft take, in this order: a new damage, control or summon spell; if none is offered, an upgrade of a damage, control or summon spell you hold; if neither, any new spell. Between two equal cards, take the Beastmaster's own.

The build we used:

1. bleeder (Summon, damage over time). Card one.
2. mirror (heavy Summon). Card one.
3. relay (Summon, arcs to 2 more bodies). Card one.
4. brief one (light Summon). Card one.
5. blistering (fire Halt: burn plus vulnerability). A random card, taken over an upgrade of mirror.
6. loud one (Summon that leaves a pool). Card one.
7. long one (heavy Summon). Card one.
8. first to arrive (light Summon). Card one.

If the deal differs: no build took an upgrade. Screamer turned up in 7 of the 10 builds and long one in 6. Quickening, loud one, brief one and relay each turned up in 5. On Nightmare the boss ignores all control statuses (slow, root, stun, weaken, mark); burns and vulnerability still work in full.

Talents

You have 18 talent points, and talents are your choice. The runs put all of them into one tree, Beast (Beastmaster talents). Rows in a tree open at 5, 10 and 15 points spent in it, and the ultimate at 20. Each point went into the deepest open row, with a new talent bought before a second rank. In the order bought:

1. What It Does on Its Own ×2: summons deal 3% more damage per point.
2. Sooner Than the Last ×2: Summon spells recharge 3% faster per point.
3. His Own Skin ×1: +2% maximum health.
4. His Stamp on Its Teeth ×2: +3% combo damage per point when a second element hits.
5. Nothing to Lean Toward ×2: enemy statuses and ground effects wear off 2% sooner per point.
6. Unmarked ×1: summon bites +4% until first wounded.
7. The Last of Its Clock ×2: summon bites +4% per point in the last quarter of its life.
8. It Does Not Let Go ×2: summon bites +4% per point while it is slowed or rooted (not stunned).
9. It Plants Its Feet ×1: a summon that survives a hit has a 5% chance of a 4 s last stand, biting 25% harder.
10. What Comes Back ×1: summons heal you for 1% of the damage they deal.
11. A Thicker Hide ×1: your summons have 2% more health.
12. Longer and Further ×1: your summons last 6% longer and move 6% faster.

The fight

1. No pause on Nightmare. The boss never moves: keep summons coming and hold the leash lane on him. Cast is Left mouse / South; hold it to channel. Switch spells with next (E / R1) and previous (Q / L1).
2. Knot and Standing count (bolt, answer: strafe) are unwarned shots. Move sideways between channels.
3. Taut (beam, answer: jump) is warned about a second ahead. Jump with Space / North.
4. Slack (drop, answer: blink) gives under a second of warning. All 58 times it opened under the Beastmaster, the Beastmaster blinked out (Shift / East).
5. Above 50%: Arm length (beam, answer: walk out) gives a two-second warning, then pulls anyone on its line up to 14 m toward him and leaves weaken. Walk off the line.
6. From 50%: Letting go (beam, answer: jump) replaces it. It has a shorter warning, then pushes anyone on its line up to 14 m away and leaves weaken. Jump it.
7. One hold-levy is in the room. The room clears only when nothing hostile is left standing.

What goes wrong

• Stopping casting. The 3 runs that did not clear (mid-range style, three different draft orders) were stopped after 30 minutes without either side falling. Their casting fell to about 2 spells a minute, against 33–41 a minute when the same build and style cleared in 132–270 s at the other skill level. They sat at about 26% health. The runs stopped fighting; the build was fine.
• Fighting close. In four draft orders the close-range style needed 660–935 s and dropped to 75% health; other styles cleared those builds in 143–357 s (one stalled run aside).
• Nightmare. Going down alone is a defeat, and the scenery restarts.

Tested

We ran 60 automated runs on the shipped rules: 10 draft orders, each played in 3 styles at 2 skill levels, with legal talent purchases. 57 cleared. The other 3 were stopped after 30 minutes without either side falling. Clears took 56–935 s; the build above cleared in 66–167 s. The lowest health in any clear was 75%, and 25 runs took no damage. These were automated test runs, not human play.

Screenshots

One complete fight in the current build, played by an automated test player with the game's normal controls: the Beastmaster alone on Nightmare, holding the build used above. The fight took 2 min 31 s of game time.