Am I nuts? Wait, don't answer that. I don't often come back to a forum after an energetic brain dump anyway. I thought this was my speed of game. I have approx. 1, maybe 2 at best, hours a night to poke around at something before seriously hurting my schedule. I went into this looking for, and mostly finding!, some quick, light tactics, cards, and a weird sense of humor. Around level 13-14ish, things started getting rougher. I was able to think through those, though the time expenditure was exorbitant and my sleepiness at work paid for it. Now, I'm at Return to the Astral Shrine. Stop it. Just stop it. I'm sure that feedback will show that 3000% of your userbase breezes through this in 3 tries or less, when queried. That's not my experience. I build, and rebuild, and analyze, and rebuild again. I blew my entire late night segment on at least 12 replays. I blew my entire stash of gold paying for said replays. I'm torn between a.) asking for help, knowing I probably won't remember to come back/subconsciously will avoid this forum due to past bad experiences, b.) sitting and hoping that some patch comes down the line later due to people leaving once they hit this speed bump, which feels frankly like an abusive GM trying to tell me I've stayed at his house too late, c.) hitting my head into this difficulty wall until I get angry and uninstall. I already dropped cash on expansion content, was considering continuing to do so to get some wacky item-card combos, but this isn't the game I signed up for. Maybe there is a d.) path: is there any way I can just skip this censored censored censored level and find some other way to make up the XP I'd be missing out on? I just want to play maps that don't make me homicidal. I don't think it's a big request.
You're not alone. Here are some earlier threads to get you started: http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/massive-wall-hit.8497/#post-107638 http://forums.cardhunter.com/thread...rine-of-the-astral-guardians.8074/#post-99215 Also, take a look of http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/penniless-peasant-builds.10192/#post-123233 for some cheap build suggestion. Instead of bashing your head into a wall, you might want to spend some time replaying earlier levels and maybe level up additional characters that let you try different tactics / party compositions. Lastly, you don't have to complete Astral Shrine adventures in order to advance: http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/shortest-path-through-the-sp-campaign.5542/ You can return to those later.
Ranting, no comment here outside of please separate your ranting and what you are suggesting. You are correct in that the community's thoughts on the matter are going to differ then the average person's thoughts on it, but just because you had a bad experience doesn't mean the difficulty is off or anything. If you can't beat then you need to get better at either building or playing. Spending gold on retries on regular adventures isn't a great idea. Have you even tried looking for builds yet? Because Penniless Peasant builds (which does include said adventure) are near the top of page 1 of adventure discussion and strategy. I wonder how you could've had bad past experiences with your account being so new, I guess it likely means you are hiding behind a new account because people would recognize your main account. Though I am fine with you hiding behind an alt but don't think I will assume that you had valid reasons to call past experiences "bad". I doubt they will reduce the difficulty of this module so this is a bad option. This option is a bad one, if this continues to be the way it stays then quite seriously quit, the point of games is to have fun, if you don't normally have fun playing it, don't. The game didn't magically change significantly since you paid for the expansion content, so this is what you signed up for, and if you don't like it then that's your problem. They never promised that the difficulty level of all modules are going to be the same. More ranting, I wonder who could be the person posting this. Actually I bet if you email support they might be willing to let you skip some levels.
It may be a good idea to tell us why you find the adventure difficult. Are the enemies too powerful? Do you not have enough gear? etc. Pawndawan's suggestions are also good, do take a look at them.
No, just frustrated. And the key to having fun is to stop doing the things that frustrate you. Play another module, play a league, play some other game, or maybe read a book or a webcomic. Come back when you're feeling better and have some new ideas on how to beat this module. You don't have to beat either of the Astral Shrine modules to complete the campaign. And playing modules above your level will earn you bonus XP.
I understand exactly what you mean because when I got to that adventure I also wanted to strangle kittens. Recently I started doing all the 1 HP quests and the Astral Guardian maps were... very easy. I thought I wouldn't be able to beat them, but no. They're easier then Goblins in the Woods (Omg that one is hell). The thing is, your positioning sucks. That's just it. Any way, either learn to position characters correctly... or use auto block. Penetrating attacks or armor removal is also good. It just takes patience and checking every turn how many steps they need. These maps are all very easy if you just jump them with all your chars and hit them with penetrating attacks. Then the map just got way easier. Sunder is also great. And I hate to tell you this, but it doesn't get any better. All of the later maps are extremely difficult, Gnome Lords and Cardstock are the exception. Attack of the Artifacts adventures are notorious for their difficulty as well. I have to say none of the later adventures or expansions are anything to be considered easy. Maybe the initial adventures of Acquire Inc are easy due to the fixed decks... but maybe they're just Mauve Manticore 6 all over again. Never spend gold on revives, chests, or any of that nonsense. That just makes it harder. But I made those mistakes myself... this game would be so easy if everyone just scoured the level 13 shops for Bejeweled Shortsword, Double Edged Sword and that kind of goodness. Not to forget the Runestone for Wizards, Glimmer Boots, Pearwood Staff, Robe of Lightness. A good Common/Uncommon setup on Wizard or Warrior would really make even the hard maps easy.
Mr. lughebu, Sound advice above. (I slaughter Return with a simple elf warrior, by the way. Automatic Shield (Rare, found in The Daily Deal or Randimar's Rarities), Hefty Chopper x3 (Common!), Frenzied Slicing (Uncommon!), Cuirass Of Froth (Uncommon!), something with Quick Reactions (but your helmet taste may vary), and I guess whatever suits me that day for Elf Skill (like for Quick Run, Escaping Run, Elven Trickery, Slippery, etc.) and Boots. Really wanna watch the Chops fly? Equip a priest to draw, draw, draw! Heehee! ... I don't even recall what troubles I ran into before the Citadel expansion gave us Auto Block. It's the only shield that warrior even considers for Return.) However, the real reason I respond is to address your past bad experiences. Do you mean on forums in general? I'll say this, and I've said it before: this is the only online multiplayer game I even play. The community, overall, is very nice. The devs even help cultivate such a community -- but even then, this game's playstyle and flavor probably attract a different crowd in the first place, too. I hope you'll enjoy your stay here. $E^ J Regards, Bob $:^ J P.S. Edit: I've played with limited time, too. Although you can't close the game during a battle and have it stay put indefinitely, you can close the game between battles during the same adventure with it keeping your progress. Smash the tar out of something, then soak in the satisfaction for the next day or two while the game sits in turned-off-limbo-land. (Sudden flashback to Kid Radd...) I hope this helps.
