I don't mind doing compounds on T1/2 since minis don't have that much health to survive 1 or 2 hits at that point. But I absolutely despise doing compounds on T3, the hp bloating on minis making them comparable to normal mobs is absurd.
I personally went out my way to make a bomb set just to make it a more bearable experience for everyone whenever a compound comes up.
The enemies drop pitiful amounts of items and heat and there's typically only a handful of treasure boxes throughout a level that is mostly huge spaces with a couple trap rooms connecting them.
Challenging the meta is definitely novel and I enjoy them for that, compounds are certainly interesting to go through, they have a unique play pattern and are very dynamic, but as mentioned their difficulty does not match their reward at all. Fully clearing a D28 compound feels like torture and the big reward at the end is something like a single radiant drop and your heat bars gain 1 pixel.
It is not worth it to build a cool non-meta weapon that is uniquely good in compounds because clearing a compound is not worth it compared to just running through, and the fact that most of the treasure boxes are literally at the elevator further pushes rushing through compounds, because those handful of boxes at the end are the majority of the loot pool.
@Dibsville: "single radiant drop and your heat bars gain 1 pixel."
Yes this is the thing that should be addressed the most, You make an interesting point about how the loot box should be more spread across the map.
@Scuttlechan: "I personally went out my way to make a bomb set just to make it a more bearable experience for everyone whenever a compound comes up." Yay!, how do You feel about the change in the play pattern?
...might not be a feasible idea, but Dibsville got me thinking; what if there were gates tied to defeating enemies set up *off the main path*, so that if you want to sprint through and ignore things, you can - but you take on the chance of getting more loot if you decide to stand your ground and deal with the mixed enemy spawns. Like, pseudo-danger-rooms or something...
@Jcyrano Still going my way through upgrading some status bombs, but DBB- Heck, even 4* status bombs make compounds so much easier to deal with without feeling like the minis are hounding your toes. Specially when it comes to dealing with drops or scarabs.
It's been a pretty chill experience, since there really aren't that many dps bombs I focus mainly on support with status bomb or staggerlocking with DBB. But I always carry my Tortofist around as pseudo-sword/bomb cuz no elemental bombs (Shard bomb is a thing IK, but I prefer less disruptive options)
I'm relatively "okay" on Compounds but my biggest annoyance really stems from Tier 3 Compound enemies (compound-lings? Minis?) being as strong as regular ones in terms of health, maybe it's because I'm bringing 4-5* gear to Tier 2, but the Minis going down in a single melee hit in those tiers feels right for the abundance of them.
In other words, if the Compound minis' health didn't scale as intensely and they were as easy to dispatch in T3 as they are in T2, I'd probably be fine with them. Things like Scarabs' attack being so wonky and Drops having a frame 1 wind-up are a whole other issue but I wanted to add that in since it's attached to my main complaint.
@Scuttlechan using the Torto like that is definitely something new... and is amazing, the Elemental shard is not a good idea right now (needs some work). You should write how You use the Torto and why in an entire post, that would give another tool to other knights! and keep making those status bombs those are really good, get the DR now that is free, super recomendable.
Something I don't think I've seen mentioned in here is just how long it can take to work through a Compound if you're actually trying to kill everything instead of running past most of the enemy spawns. Last week I suffered through a required D27 Compound in order to get to a guaranteed D28 arena, and I think it took me over 15 minutes to get through that one miserable unprofitable level. More than half of it was spent backpedaling across a good chunk of the level, spamming Brandish charges in my wake. I know I probably would have done better using a DBB, but I don't use bombs all that often, and even that would do nothing if it was a Drop level.
@Jcyrano You know what? You're so right! There is not enough love for niche weapons that either get tossed aside in the name of efficiency and optimization, or knights who gave them a try but just didn't get far enough in learning the intricacies of such weapons.
What saddens me the most is that those who are newer to the game would rather jump right away to the "better" weapons instead of trying out what fits them the most, hopefully now that the CE/CR economy is much lower compared to years back can be a good incentive for players to branch off.
Give me a few days and I'll drop a post about the Tortofists on the Arsenal.
It's okay for new players to jump to the easiest weapons first. It becomes sad only if they never try the other weapons.
It would help if Radiant Fire Crystals were less scarce. A knight will look at their weapons and say, "I'm only going to upgrade my favorites to 5 stars." So they don't give the less-favored weapons a fair chance to show their 5-star glory.
@Scuttlechan, Awesome! looking foward to it!
Bopp is right about the Radiants scarcity, even with the forge update, there is no enough radiants to level a pletora, You will have to pick favourites!
@Bopp, If Radiants would drop one level earlier whould that help?
Yes, dropping Radiants one level shallower would help.
Alternatively, I support having an up-conversion recipe for Radiants. Even if many Shinings were required to make one Radiant, a lot knights would take that deal.
Ok, found a list, not sure if accurate... But I have a suggested tweak that might help? hopefully.
Depth and Crystal Breakdown
Cracked Fire Crystals (0-star): Depths 1–4. - - -> Depth: 1 - 5 : 4 is Crossroads on the arcade, but Not Sure in missions
Dim Fire Crystals (1-star): Depths 5–8. - - - - - -> Depth: 5 - 8 : 8 is Moorcroft Manor on the arcade, but Not Sure in missions
Warm Fire Crystals (2-star): Depths 9–13. - - - -> Depth: 9 - 14 : 13 is Crossroads on the arcade, but Not Sure in missions
Glowing Fire Crystals (3-star): Depths 14–18. - -> Depth: 13 - 18 : 18 is Emberlight on the arcade, but Not Sure in missions
Shining Fire Crystals (4-star): Depths 19–26. - -> Depth: 19 - 24 : 23 is Crossroads on the arcade, but Not Sure in missions
Radiant Fire Crystals (5-star): Depth 26–28. - - -> Depth: 24 - 28 : This would be 2 floors earlier where 5-stars fire crystals drop.
this gives us an overlapping of 1 level (Depth: 24) that could be 60/40 on Shining Fire Crystals favour if wanted and yet that would probably be favourable in some cases.
Honestly, I could probably run (And have, now that I think about it...) most compounds with a Combuster and a Dark Briar Barrage and be perfectly fine.
Ah, wait, there it is. Good old gear issues again, huh? Lol.