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The Shaman
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52.901 MB
16 Jul, 2022 @ 7:40am
13 Mar, 2024 @ 5:04am
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modargo
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The Shaman

Description
The Shaman is a mystic who uses the primal forces of the elements in battle. The Shaman is a moderate-high complexity character with a variety of mechanics and builds — strong on A0, reasonably challenging on A20, and fun to play and explore at all levels.

The Shaman's play revolves around two mechanics: Elemental cards and four Shaman debuffs.

Elemental cards
The Shaman's cards each have one or more of the four elements: Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Earth (plus some non-elemental cards). Some Shaman cards and relics have effects based on which elements a card has. The cards of each element also share themes (for example, Lightning cards are more focused on attacks and powers, with many attacks that hit multiple times, many ethereal cards, and no block).

Shaman debuffs
Each element has an associated debuff that is applied by many cards of that element:
  • Ignite (Fire): Causes the enemy to lose 1 HP per stack each turn. Does not reduce.
  • Chill (Ice): Reduces the enemy's attack damage by 1% per stack. Each turn, Chill is removed if it is at 5 or below, and otherwise is reduced by 40%. (You can hover over an enemy with Chill to see what effect more Chill will have.)
  • Shock (Lightning): Increases attack damage dealt to the enemy by 1% per stack. Does not reduce.
  • Resonance (Earth): Increases the effect of other Shaman debuffs by 5% per stack. Reduced by 1 each turn.

Success as the Shaman will require building a deck with the right balance of different elements, using the strengths of each one to compensate for the weaknesses of the others. Look for the benefits you can gain from focusing on a specific element or debuff and for interactions across elements.

The Shaman has a high density of synergies between cards and relics, which can make for powerful decks. Balancewise, this makes the Shaman a bit stronger on average than the base game characters (other than Watcher) and also relatively stronger on A0 (in part due to having strong and synergistic offensive options).

The Shaman contains a full 75 cards, 11 relics, and 3 potions.

Be sure to check out the mod's config screen for tweaking the UI. You can enable:
  • Large element symbols
  • Element letters (color blind accessibility)
  • Relic reminders (for Ancestral Totem) — if you have Minty Spire running, this will be automatically on and the config option won't be there

Go forth and bring harmony to the elements!


Check out my other mods!
20 Comments
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modargo  [author] 26 Dec, 2022 @ 9:21am 
Blood Magic is the enabler for most of the in-class synergies, yes (beyond the more general idea that if you draw more cards than you have energy to play, anything that costs 0 is decent). Other than Blood Magic, there's a few things like Twig giving extra ignite and Become the Storm giving them lightning element. And there are some out-of-class synergies too, like you noted with Dead Branch (not sure how much else there is, at least in terms of base game relic synergies).
drewmarc 25 Dec, 2022 @ 10:53am 
I see. Read the Flames is similar to Cut Through Fate. You trade out the damage, switch the order of scry and draw, and add Fading Ember to your draw pile in order to gain one more draw.

Fading Ember is like a shiv alternative. All the synergies that I can think of (except Dead Branch) require Blood Magic first. Am I missing something there?
modargo  [author] 21 Dec, 2022 @ 2:34pm 
@drewmarc: Good to hear you've enjoyed my other mods as well :). I enjoyed making them.

For Fading Embers, I'd say it's more that Circle of Embers can be really strong block in the late game for an ignite-focused deck (enough to be worth the Fading Ember it puts into your deck), and Read The Flames is good throughout the entire game (draw and scry is a powerful combination). You don't want too many copies of either, but they can be a key part of a winning run. If you want to start somewhere, try taking Read The Flames when you see it -- I think it's a strong card.

For the totems, I'd agree that Earth is the most generally useful. Ice and Fire are expensive and usually don't give immediate benefit, but have their niches that they're powerful in once you get going. Lightning I've found can be one way to get enough block for the late game, particularly if you have a lot of Thunders.
drewmarc 21 Dec, 2022 @ 10:36am 
I've enjoyed most of your mods (I see there's one I haven't tried yet), so thanks for all of your hard work.
I'll try to get Fading Embers to work, since you were able to do so on A20. Would it make sense to make them add fire element? That way, you can find them with Fireball, or discard them with Ashes to Ashes.
I was surprised that lightning was better, by the way. I had gone in thinking that Ignite was stronger than Shock unless you could do *a lot* of damage anyway. I still think that's true, but lightning is so much more versatile.
I wonder how people find the totems, by the way? I like Ice in theory--more energy is good--but 3 energy without getting anything that turn is a hard ask. Lightning and Fire are kind of meh. Fire has potential, but there aren't a lot of ways to gain energy, and fire can already draw cards fairly well. Earth is the best of the lot. The fact that it's the cheapest goes a long way in making it good. Too bad there are so few common earth cards
modargo  [author] 20 Dec, 2022 @ 10:40pm 
@drewmarc: Glad you're enjoying the mod! Playing at A20 I've found that Twig is a very strong boss relic -- the block makes a lot of Lightning cards much stronger and there's a ton of synergy for it. It can be tricky to get enough block with a heavy Lightning deck without Twig, though. Anyway, I plan to make an update in the next month or two with small balance adjustments, including slightly weakening a few Lightning cards.

Fading Embers are generally a downside, yes. Though it's situational; early on, for example, a Fading Ember will often be better than another Strike or Defend, and later on they can be okay if you have synergy and/or a good amount of draw. I've found that each of the cards that makes Fading Embers has a role to play, some more limited than others.

For Consult the Stars, thanks for reporting that, since it's definitely a bug. I looked into it and it's set as a buff instead of a debuff. I'll fix that in the next update I make.
drewmarc 20 Dec, 2022 @ 9:44pm 
I really like this mod so far (on Ascension 15). One thing I've noticed is that everything lightning tends to be better than anything fire. Lightning has 1) damage 2) extra energy 3) card draw 4) Stormfront to play all those powerful Ethereal cards. With World Twig, it also has block.

Fire does get damage and card draw, but it also has negative card draw in the form of those pesky Fading Embers. Are those low tempo cards meant to be a downside? Even with Blood Magic making them give +2 block, I actively avoid them.

I also ran into a bug, though I don't know if it's fixable. If you have Orange Pellets and play Consult the Stars after playing a power and an attack, Orange Pellets doesn't remove the debuff of having to pick an element. Again, it might not be fixable, since you are presented with a menu afterwards, but I thought I'd mention it.
Kinje 28 Jul, 2022 @ 1:11pm 
The character concept is neat, but feels overtuned. I've played through three games, and every one of them I've rocked the heart with barely a single point of damage taken - frequently with the latter statement being true throughout the 3rd act.
modargo  [author] 26 Jul, 2022 @ 10:09am 
@Sagil: That's intended. Take a look at Sadistic Nature in the compendium.
Sagil 26 Jul, 2022 @ 6:02am 
Ignite, Shock and Chill don't trigger Sadistic ability.
Sagil 23 Jul, 2022 @ 7:58pm 
Nice character, love the new mechanics which offer lots of different strategies and synergies. Ignite and shock do feel more powerful than chill and resonance, but as you said may change at higher ascension level (which I haven't reached yet). Thanks for the work. :steamhappy: