An turn based combat adventure RPG with a unique combat system with no dice rolling ⚔️.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Update #41 - General UI update & Boss Deep-Dive
almost 4 years ago
– Fri, May 27, 2022 at 03:26:50 AM
Hello all.
Welcome back to another update. In this update we will take a deep-dive into our first boss within the earth scenario, the Acidic Hydra. Before we jump into the boss deep-dive, see a few minor updates we've made to help improve the quality of the game.
If you haven't caught up on our previous deep dives, you can find them all here.
- We have changed the colour of the odd levels on each hero board as a subtle reminder that a hero gains a +1 buff of their choice at these levels.
- Several hero abilities have been reworded to make them clearer.
- Several spells have been adjusted to help overall balance.
- Knockback and Frozen have been reworded to make them clearer so you know exactly what phases the conditions skip.
- We have created a new elemental spell type called healing. This is to avoid any confusion on certain spells or abilities that increase the power of healing spells. They can now be easily identified with their own icon. See an example of the Cleric's spells below. Elemental type icons are in the top left corner of a spell.
- We've had a few token graphics updated to improve the overall feel of the game. Many of the symbols were ones I had created myself during the prototype stages and not got round to improving. I've squeezed in a few hours this morning to take a look at some of the ones I wasn't quite happy with. We have also removed the pierce icon from the game. The words un-defendable are now being used in its place as this is universal language that many of you will know from other games. It is also one less symbol to worry about, as we have lots more conditions coming in the future. Make sure to be following us on social media channels for a sneak peak of those new conditions coming next year. See below the graphic updates to the selected tokens.
Action Cards
Whilst we don't want to share many action cards with you, as that may spoil some of the adventure. We're happy to share the titles of our action cards to give you a peak into what's in store as you venture through the Shire regions. See below each scenario and their respective action cards.
Earth : Forgotten Forest, Trading Post, Treehouse, Base Camp, Foraging, Mountain Pass, Insatiable Hunger, Stone Circle, Grounding, Beckoning Roar, Travellers Arms, Waterfall, Cave Entrance, Earth Tremors & Swamplands.
Water : Pirates Ahead, Trading Harbour, Nightfall, Quench, Spot of Fishing, Ghost Pirates, Travellers On The Road, Thunderstorm, Heavy Rain, Ancient Temple, Coastal Path, Out At Sea, Rotten Bridge, Wandering Feline & Rock Pool.
Fire : Exhaustion, Volcanic Eruption, Rock Slide, Sneak Attack, Phoenix, House of Bones, Shadow Cave, Footprints in the Ash, Embarrassment, Intensity, It's Warm In Here, Dragon Arch, Mining, Treasure & Repairs.
Ice : Eyes in the Snow, Ice Cave, Artic Fox, High Altitude, Mountain Gully, Cold Feet, Frozen Weapons, Deep Snow, Blizzard, Green Boots, Alpine Forest, Frostbite, Aurora, Frozen Lake & Ice Huts.
Loot Items
We have had lots of positive feedback regarding the loot items, so here are the other half that we didn't show you.
UK Games Expo
We'll be at the UK Games Expo from Thursday-Sunday next week so please beware with us during this period if you have any questions or emails regarding the game. If anyone is visiting from the UK or Europe, please come and find us there, we'll be on stand 2-581 in hall 2. We will have a PvP Arena demonstration table alongside a PvE Scenario (solo) mode demonstration table. See below a banner from our PvP Arena demo station.
And with all of that out of the way, let's jump into our boss deep-dive.
Acidic Hydra Deep-Dive
This poisonous creature is a menace of the swamps. Some will say that the advantage the Acidic Hydra has over others is based on the old adage: two heads are better than one.
Acidic Hydra Passive Ability
Unlike our other bosses, the Acidic Hydra doesn't have a passive ability.
Acidic Hydra Boss Abilities
You are immune to Confused, Paralyze and Stun.
You have 2 separate life totals, one for each Hydra head. Each head starts with full HP. You may cast 2 spells per turn, one from each head only. The right head spells are on the top row and the left head spell on the bottom row. For single target spells your enemy must declare if they are attacking your right or left head. Multiple target spells deal DMG to both heads.
HydraHead Dies - SoloIntuition : You gain a permanent +4 AGI, +2 STR, INT & DEF. This effect stays even if a Hydra head respawns, making the rest of the battle significantly more difficult.
HydraHead Dies - Respawn : Place a CD die here with a value of 2. When this die is removed you revive your defeated Hydra head at full HP. Note that when the Hydra head dies, it will 9 times out of 10 be on a heroes turn. Meaning when it comes back round to the Hydra this die drops to 1 right away. Leaving you very little time before a respawn.
Right Head Spells
AcidSpray - A ranged poison type attack spell that deals 5 DMG to all enemies, plus another 4 un-defendable DMG if the target is poisoned.
Hydra'sGrowth - You gain +1 STR & INT for 2 turns for each time you've cast Hydra's Growth this battle.
JungleBite - A earth elemental type melee attack that deals 5 DMG plus hexes and enemy for 3 turns. This spell also has a 33.3% chance to add poison to the spell.
PoisonousHealth - Whilst you have a CD die on Poisonous Health both Hydra heads receive 2 HP when an enemy receives DMG from a poison condition.
PoisonousBreath - A ranged poison elemental type spell that deals 6 DMG to a single enemy whilst granting the right Hydra head HP equal to 100% of the DMG dealt.
Left Head Spells
Grapple - A melee attack that deals 2 DMG to a single target and increases all of their negative conditions by a duration of 1 turn. This spell also has a 33.3% chance to add Drenched to the attack.
Toxic Fog - A spell that poisons all of your enemies for 3 turns and grants them a can't be healed condition for 2 turns.
Inconspicuous - A spell that grants the left Hydra head 10 HP whilst reducing the right Hydra heads HP by 10. This keeps the heroes on their toes and allows the Hydra to make a self sacrifice in order to try and respawn the head.
PoisonScales - A melee poison elemental type attack that deals 1 DMG to all enemies whilst reducing the CD die of all your poison spells by a value of 1.
PoisonClaw - A melee poison elemental type attack that deals 5 DMG to a single target whilst poisoning and confusing them for 3 turns. This spell has a 33.3% chance to add knockback.
Boss Strategy
- This is a relatively straight forward strategy of bringing both Hydra heads down at the same time.
- Heroes that have AOE attacks will be superior in this battle than heroes like the Berserker and Warrior who mostly have single target attacks.
- If you take out the left Hydra head first, the inconspicuous spell is useless when the right head is playing alone. The other way around and you might see a head respawning.
- When playing as the boss you have an array of damage dealing spells, healing spells, damage over time spells and crowd control. Use these to your advantage in the current situation.
And that's a wrap for now!
We hope you enjoyed learning more about our Acidic Hydra boss that you'll be able to find in our Earth scenario. In fact, it's the first boss you will encounter there. We will be back after the UK games expo with a hero deep-dive, looking at our Huntress hero. Until then, have a great weekend.
- Heroes of the Shire
Update #40 - Boss Deep Dive
almost 4 years ago
– Tue, May 17, 2022 at 11:09:16 PM
Hello fellow gamers!
Welcome back to another update. In this update we will take a deep-dive into another final boss. This time the Great Leviathan from our Water scenario. This boss doesn't mess around and really means business. Heed your warning fellow adventurers, be prepared for a gruelling battle.
If you haven't caught up on our previous deep dives, you can find them all here.
A quick recap just in-case any of you have forgotten since our campaign. Our boss battles can all be modified to your player count, we recommend easy mode for 2 heroes, standard mode 3 heroes, hard mode 4 heroes and ultimate mode for 5 heroes. These modifications would be part of the boss setup. Our boss modifications were set to be in the back few pages of the rulebook. However we have since decided to pull them out and create them as cards instead. This makes for a smoother scenario experience as the cards can be kept nearby or even added to the ability tab to make visible all battle. This will add 6 new cards to the game, as they will be double sided with x3 being for the fire and ice scenario bosses and x3 for the earth and water scenario bosses. All of our boss boards by default are set to standard mode so no modifications are required, but see below a sample of our fire & ice boss modification cards which include solo mode, easy mode, hard mode and ultimate mode. Feel free to let us know in the comments below if you approve or dislike of this change.
Conditions Die Update
You'll notice on some boss spells a die icon followed by a symbol/condition. This allows the boss player to roll the conditions die to see if that condition would be applied to the spell. We have x2 conditions die, 1 for the Fire & Ice edition and 1 for the Earth & Water edition. Collectors edition contain both. Each die previously had 6 conditions on them, with a 16.6% chance of landing on the condition you wanted. This percentage was far to low and we found that the bosses very rarely added these effects to their spells. We have since removed 3 of the conditions from each die, so each conditions die now only contains 3 conditions, x2 of each on a D6 die. This increases the chance of adding the conditions from 16.6% to 33.3% making them feel more effective.
The Great Leviathan - Deep Dive
The dragon-like head of the Great Leviathan is a frightening sight as it rises out of the waters. He can thrash his serpent-like tail with such force and precision that his adversaries are stunned into defeat.
The Great Leviathan Passive Ability
WaterVortex : During your boss upkeep, trap an enemy at random inside a water vortex. This is a condition that deals 3 un-defendable DMG immediately and then 3 un-defendable DMG each token upkeep. This condition is also stackable.
The Great Leviathan Boss Abilities
You are immune to Frightened and Burn.
< 85 HP Soaked Through : All enemies receive a permanent drenched condition that can't be removed and you can target enemies with can't be targeted conditions.
< 70 HP Water Cleanse : Remove all negative buffs and conditions from yourself. One time effect.
< 50 HP Water Cleanse : Remove all negative buffs and conditions from yourself. One time effect.
< 30 HP - Unlock Tsunami Wave: This is a ranged water elemental type spell that deals 16 DMG to all enemies plus adds an intellect attack modifier.
SupportSpells
Ruthless - Whilst you have a cooldown die on Ruthless, damage you receive from any source grants you +1 INT for 3 turns. This spell is similar to the Berserkers Uncontrollable Rage hero ability, only slightly better that the buffs last for 3 turns.
Waterfall - You gain +1 DEF and +4 HP regen for 3 turns.
Thrash - Remove all buffs and conditions from yourself. During your next turn you may cast Tsunami Wave as if it were unlocked. Tsunami wave hits for 24 DMG on average, let's hope your enemies have a way of surviving such an onslaught of power.
Submerged In Time - You can only cast this spell on an enemies turn after their dice upkeep. END THEIR TURN. You also receive a bonus turn at the end of the round. This is a rather overpowered spell hence the cooldown value of 6.
Design Note : One of our upcoming heroes in our expansion has their own version of Submerged in Time.Make sure you're following us on social media as we broadcast live videos with kit reveals during the UK Games Expo,3-5th June.
Aqua Blast - A ranged water elemental type spell that deals 0 damage to one target enemy. This spell has both strength and intellect attack modifiers.
TidalWave - A melee water elemental type attack that deals 2 DMG to all enemies. This attack also has a chance to add knockback to the spell.
MindStomp - A ranged attack spell that deals 2 damage to a single enemy whilst leaving them paralyzed for 3 turns. Paralyze is a condition that stops your enemies casting attack spells.
RainStorm - A split spell that increases the damage output of our water elemental type spells by +2. The second half of this spell is a ranged water elemental type spell that deals 3 DMG to all enemies. This attack has a chance of adding poison to the spell.
Tsunami - A ranged water elemental type attack that deals 5 DMG to all enemies whilst trapping an enemy inside a water vortex.
Boss Strategy
- When playing as the boss you have unlimited power! Use it to your advantage. If your enemies try to keep you crowd controlled don't worry too much as your Water Vortexes will eventually take their toll. 9 un-defendable DMG over 3 turns is hard to deal with.
- When playing as the boss, if your enemies are attempting to play the crowd control game, save your Thrash spell for when you receive a condition that hinders you. Also save your Submerged In Time spell for when it's an enemies turn who might try to jeopardise your combos.
- Attacking heroes will want to try and paralyze the enemy after they have cast Thrash to stop a huge Tsunami Wave going off. Heroes such as the Engineer, Shaman or Paladin come in handy during this battle. Alternatively if the allied heroes have no way to paralyze the boss, mitigating the damage with some protection would come in handy. Heroes like the Paladin, Witch Doctor or Runesmith offer good protection.
- Sometimes attack is the best form of defence. Playing as the heroes you will want to try and cleanse off as many Water Vortex conditions as you can, alongside watching out for a huge Tsunami wave. But at the same time keeping a constant flow of damage heading towards the boss to end this battle quickly. Playing the long game here will not be wise as those Water Vortexes will burn through your allied healers spell pretty fast keeping your party alive.
And that's a wrap for now!
We hope you enjoyed learning more about our Great Leviathan boss that you'll be able to find in our Water scenario. We will be back soon with another boss deep-dive, but until then have a great week.
- Heroes of the Shire
Update #39 - Boss Deep Dive & Loot Items
almost 4 years ago
– Tue, May 10, 2022 at 02:22:49 AM
Hello fellow gamers!
Welcome back to another update. In this update we will take a deep-dive into a new boss from our Water scenario alongside taking a look at some of our loot items.
If you haven't caught up on our previous deep dives, you can find them all here.
As requested by some of our backers, here is a look at our loot items. We decided to only show you the Weapons and Trinkets. If you'd like to see the Head and Chest items, let us know, otherwise we will try not to spoil absolutely everything for your adventures :)
Water Behemoth
The formidable, thick-skinned Water Behemoth is the epitome of power. He is a giant water monster whose colossal size is one of his predominant faculties.
Water Behemoth Passive Ability
Mark Of Death : During your Boss upkeep you may place a Mark Of Death token on any enemy of your choice that doesn't already have a Mark Of Death. Enemy units holding this token receive 50% more incoming damage.
Designer note : We used to have conditions called Retribution and Weak. Retribution was the same as the Mark of Death whereby the enemy received 50% more damage and Weak granted the enemy 50% less damage when attacking. We chose to remove a few conditions from the game as feedback we had was that we already had many status conditions and it could become overwhelming. Instead we left in their opposites which were Protection and Advantage.
Water Behemoth Boss Abilities
Pre-Battle Cannon Distress : Each hero adds a Cannon card to their ability tab. Enemies must use these cannons to break through your Tough-Skin ability.
94 HP - Tough Skin : You are immune to all damage, except damage from cannons.
< 56 HP - Suffering : Your Tough-Skin ability is no longer active.
< 30 HP - Mark Of Impending Death : The DMG from your Mark Of Death ability increases from 50% to 100%.
SupportSpells
WaterControl - Reduce all of your cooldown die by a value of 2. With a short cooldown, this effect can be fantastic combined with a flurry of attacks on enemies with a Mark of Death token.
Behemoth Strength - Whilst you have a cooldown die on Behemoth Strength your attack spells also grant a +AGI attack modifier.
Sea Breeze - Your next attack grants you HP equal to the amount of DMG dealt to enemies that have a Mark of Death.
Submerge - A very powerful buff spell indeed. Target ally receives +3 STR, INT, DEF, AGI and HP regen for 3 turns.
Attack Spells
BeckoningWave - A ranged water elemental type spell that deals 1 damage to all enemies. This spell adds a defence attack modifier and allows you to roll the conditions die twice, looking to add drenched to the spell.
Hydrosphere - A melee water elemental type attack that targets a single ally. This attack deals 5 DMG, plus an additional 4 un-defendable damage if the target has more than 20 HP.
Shatterthe Seas - A ranged water elemental type spell that deals 5 damage to all enemies and wounds them for 3 turns. Wounded is a condition that reduces HP received by 50%. This attack also allows you to roll the conditions die x2 to add knockback to the spell.
Cataclysm - A split spell that reduces the AGI value of all enemies by 2 for 3 turns. The second half of this spell deals 4 damage to all enemies, whilst also dealing 4 damage to the cannons.
Thunder-Stomp - A ranged water and electric elemental type attack that deals 6 damage to all enemies whilst also dealing 6 damage to the cannons.
Boss Strategy
- When playing as the boss you will want to always be attacking enemies with Mark of Death conditions to take advantage of your 50% additional damage. You will also want to destroy the cannons as quickly as possible. Remembering that Water Therapy is a way to reduce your cooldowns allowing you to maximise damage on those pesky cannons.
- This battle is all about allocating enough resources to break through the Water Behemoths armour, whilst leaving enough back to protect yourselves from the Mark of Death. If you focus on breaking through the bosses armour too much your party may receive too much damage to make a come back. On the other hand if you focus on protecting yourselves so much, the cannons will never penetrate the bosses armour.
- Be mindful of using taunt conditions if you have a mark of death condition on you.
- If the battle is going in your favour your support or healing heroes may continue to use the cannons after breaking though the bosses armour. This un-defendable damage might come in handy if the cannons are haven't been destroyed.
Solo Mode
At our UK Games expo stand in June we have a demonstration table dedicated to solo mode. Here we will be demonstrating our solo mode to exhibitors. One thing we were asked about during our KS campaign was how much of a table hog the game is, as the boards look quite large. We have since reduced the size of the hexes and hero boards by about 8%. See below a graphic which is 90cm x 90cm that we will be using at the show. This fits everything on we need for solo mode, permitted the scenarios hexes would grow as you explore. But please see that you don't need much more space than 1x1m square to play heroes of the Shire solo mode, so it fits nicely even on smaller gaming tables. We will be streaming and posting during the event so please make sure you're following our social media channels. We may or may not be revealing x2 new heroes with their mini's and their kits that will be coming in next years expansion.
Note we have some place holders for real items that we will be using
And that's a wrap for now guys!
We hope you enjoyed seeing some loot items and learning more about our Water Behemoth boss that you'll be able to find in our Water scenario. We will be back soon with another boss deep-dive covering our Great Leviathan (final water boss). Until then, game harder.
- Heroes of the Shire
Update #38 - General Update & Hero Deep Dive
almost 4 years ago
– Sat, Apr 30, 2022 at 12:38:17 AM
Hello fellow gamers,
Welcome to another Heroes of the Shire update! In today's update we're taking a deep-dive into our Paladin hero, alongside some general updates and the completion of Damian's top 10 combo's.
Trash Mob Update
There were 2 cards missing artwork in the last update. Please see below the Terrapin and Alligator have now been added.
Hero Spell updates
Here are our last few updates regarding spell changes. If you didn't already notice, we started in alphabetical order last update, so here are the P>Z spell updates.
Paladin - Righteous Shield has been buffed to now remove all buffs and conditions from the Paladin. Whilst this was a very strong ability anyway, these changes have been made to fit the Paladins theme/archetype.
Scholar - Light Storm & Geyser both buffed by +1 damage.
Scholar - Condemnation spell has been buffed. Now increases 2 CD die by a value of 3 and 1 CD die by a value of 2. Old text, one CD die by 3, one by 2, one by 1.
Scholar - Improvement - Instead of falling asleep for 2 turns the Scholar now receives -1 DEF for 2 turns.
Shaman - Elemental Healing has been buffed from 2>3HP gained from casting an attack spell.
Shaman - Wind Totem and Totem Mayhem abilities have been swapped, allowing heroes to gain access to the Wind Totem earlier on.
Shieldmaiden - Shield Wall. Instead of granting -1 DEF and going first in the round, it now grants +2 DEF and you go last in the round. This change was made to help the Shieldmaiden become a stronger tanking hero. Making her last in the turn order keeps the +2 DEF buff on her for longer.
Shieldmadien - Chaaaarge ability has been removed which increased the DMG output of her Warrior ally. This new spell is called Better Prepared and allows the Shieldmaiden to remove her CD from her strongest spell Ambush after she has cast her Shield Wall spell.
War Drummer - Defensive Might ability changed. Previously granted +1 DEF at low HP. New ability now grants +2 DEF when taunting (+3 DEF when in scenario mode).
War Drummer - Mercenary card changed to an ally card, making him much harder to defeat. This has been balanced by forcing the War Drummer to have to wait until round 3 to cast his Mercenary spell.
War Drummer - Disarm spell removed and replaced by Savage Strike which deals 9 DMG + STR modifier to a single target. We also changed the name of Planned Attack to Disarm to make it be more fitting with the spell itself.
Warlock - Scourge spell has been given the poison elemental type.
Warlock - Demonic Armour cooldown increased from 3>4.
Warlock - Creeping Gloom ability removed. This was a balance issue, as Gloom was already buffed around 1 year ago from -1 debuff of stats to -2 debuffs. With last years buff to Gloom, this Creeping Gloom ability made it even stronger. The new ability that replaces Creeping Gloom is called Excessive Poison. This new ability allows the poison from the Warlocks scourge spell to be stackable. Meaning if an enemy already has poison, a second condition would be placed on target enemy instead of resetting the existing condition. Poison temporarily reduces an enemies agility value by 1, so stacking x2 poison will reduce this by 2 which is similar to the old Creeping Gloom that this ability is replacing. There's method in the madness :)
Warlock - Deathcoil buffed. Instead of granting 8 HP if target enemy dies, the spell now reads you gain 100% of the DMG dealt as HP. Bare in mind this spell has pierce, so it's always going to grant 7 DMG and 7 HP without buffs.
Warlock Demon Form - Hero ability would usually deal 2 DMG to all enemies during the demon's hero upkeep. This has now been changed to happen during the demon's end step. Meaning that the turn the Warlock transforms into the demon and then goes to end step, this ability triggers.
Witch Doctor - Toxic Strength reworded to say 'You may cast an attack spell now' instead of being able to cast any type of spell.
Witch Doctor - Toxin Spray used to grant poison. This instead now grants wounded, a condition that reduces the amount of HP an enemy can receive by 50%. This was changed due to the Witch Doctor already having lots of ways to poison an enemy.
Bard - Power Of Music ability changed. The Bard had her instrumental aid changed recently to fit her thematics better, so that her buffs only last whilst she is playing the instrument. In order to achieve this we had to increase the effectiveness of her buffs as they couldn't be used as frequently. This buff made the Power Of Music ability too strong. Her new ability now allows her to play all of her instruments at the same time after casting Musical Intervention, which would usually only allow a second instrument. This is still a very strong ability which fits the character of a Musician.
Spell Name Changes
Shieldmaiden | Battle Hunger > Shield Wall
Shieldmaiden | Summon Help > Reinforcement
War Drummer | Planned Attack > Disarm
Hero Deep-Dive
Today's deep dive will cover our Paladin hero. This hero has a special place in our heart as it was our very first hero created, well over 2 years ago now. This hero has had many versions, alterations and changes, so we'll share a few with you below. If you enjoy our deep-dives and want to catch up on any of the other heroes or bosses, please see the links below to their updates :
This final board with abbreviated stats and all spells aligned left to right, lowest > higher CD values
ThePaladin is a Holy Warrior whose protection is not limited to his sword and shield when charging into battle. His religious fervour is deeply embedded in his belief that his divine light will enable him to conquer all.
Paladin Hero Abilities
Divine Aura - All allies including yourself gain a permanent +4 base HP.
Refraction - All allies including yourself gain a permanent +1 Light Damage.
Support Spells
Second Embrace - Heal a single ally for 4 HP plus an INT modifier.
Imprison - Paralyze and stun a single enemy for 2 turns.
Purify The Sick - All allies receive 2 HP and remove all negative buffs and conditions.
War Banner - You gain +1 defence for 3 turns and then reduce all of your cooldowns by a value of 2. This includes the CD of War Banner itself.
Light Screen - All allies receive protection for 3 turns. Protection is a condition that reduces incoming DMG by 50%.
Attack Spells
Lead By Example - A melee attack that deals 3 DMG to a single enemy target.
Dispel Evil - A melee, light elemental type spell that deals 0 DMG with an +INT modifier. This spell however has pierce which is un-defendable DMG, plus it's a light elemental type spell that gets boosted by the Paladins Refraction hero ability.
Divine Light - A ranged, light elemental type spell that targets all enemies, dealing 3 DMG to them plus granting you 2 HP.
Smite - A ranged, AOE light elemental type spell that deals 2 DMG plus heals all allies for 100% of the damage dealt. Damage dealt is after defence, for example you attack a Warrior for 8 DMG and he defends 5 of that, you gain 3 HP from the DMG dealt. This spell is very powerful vs heroes that have pets. Our Hunter hero deep dive will be coming up next :)
Wrath From Above - The Paladins most powerful direct damage spell. A ranged attack that deals 5 DMG to a single enemy with both +INT and +STR modifiers.
Paladin Spell Mastery
The Paladin has 3 paths to follow, each offering a completely different play style depending on what your group requires. See Divinity down the left, Reinforcements in the middle and Renewal on the right. These different paths give the Paladin lots of flexibility in his approach to how he is played.
Divinity
This path leads the Paladin down the path of light. Granting the Paladin x2 new light damage spells and another way to buff his light damage. Light Wave is a powerful spell that places glowing on all of your enemies. Glowing is a condition that deals 2 un-defendable damage when an enemy gains HP, (the enemy is you). Beacon Of Light now only deals AOE light damage but it also buffs the agility of all allies, which comes in very handy for re-arranging the turn order. Your Wrath From Above spell gets even better when you unlock Wrath King. An ability that grants you damage immunity for 1 turn after casting Wrath From Above.
Reinforcements
Not interested in becoming a light mage? Melee DPS to the rescue! Steel Contact increases all of your melee attacks. Overwhelm is a fantastic buff that grants +2 all stats plus HP regen for 3 turns. You can unlock perpetual damage which is a strong attack that strikes a second time, even more so powerful after being overwhelmed. Stunning Clash is the longest stun spell in the game, stunning your enemy for 3 turns can be detrimental to an enemies strategy.
Renewal
No Paladin would be complete without the ability to heal. Unlock a new heal called Radiant Heal, that's a slight upgrade to your Second Embrace spell. But now with 2 strong healing spells at your side you have more consistency. Unlocking a Celestial Shield can prove extremely useful. Who needs to heal when you can grant huge shields by unlocking your new Celestial Shield spell. Your own HP will constantly be replenished each turn in this path, alongside having access to one of the most powerful abilities in the game, Righteous Shield. This ability removes all buffs and conditions from the Paladin and makes him immune to damage for 1 turn. This shield maybe activated at any time during battle. If this shield is popped in response to an enemies attack, their attack is still lost.
And that's it for our Paladin hero, he's a jack of all trades similar to the Druid, Shaman and Runesmith. He pairs up very nicely with the Cleric or Scholar helping improve their damage output with his Refraction ability.
Damian's Top 10 Favourite Damage Dealing Combo's
Continuing on with our Top 10 favourite combo's, please see our countdown from 5 > 1 below.
Number5. Musketeer / Huntress - Gunpowder Blast!
This combo utilises the Musketeers Gun Power spell to its full potential. Turn 1 the Huntress casts Inner Beast on herself granting +3 STR, while the Musketeer casts Gun Powder. Turn 2 the Huntress casts Marksmenship into Double Shot dealing 11 DMG to all enemies. With an average defence of 5, this hits for 6 DMG plus 50% from Marksmenship, taking it to 9 DMG. This attack strikes again dealing another 9 DMG to all enemies after defence, then granting them all knockback, which deals another 4 DMG. On the Musketeers turn 2 she casts Front Line granting the Huntress +2 STR. Turn 3 there is a CD value of 1 left on Gunpowder still, allowing the Huntress to cast Piercing shot which deals 2 DMG plus STR, which is now increased by +5. Taking the piercing shot to a grand total of 13 DMG to all enemies which is un-defendable damage. Before the Musketeer has even had her turn 3, a total of 31 DMG has been dealt after defence. An array of firepower from our female heroes to say the least :)
Number4. Scholar / Berserker - FancyManoeuvre
This combo strips away your enemies defence value leaving them vulnerable. Turn 1, the Berserker casts Furious to grant himself Advantage for 2 turns. Turn 1 the Scholar casts Incognito with the Incognito Studies ability activated granting the Berserker +3 STR and the Scholar +3 INT for 3 turns. Turn 2 for the Berserker sees him casting Hostile Manoeuvre which grants X damage, for this example, let's go with X being 3. This is followed up with an Exhaust Armour spell that grants an enemy -2 DEF for 2 turns and then a strike for 3 DMG. At this point the Berserker has an additional 6 DMG assuming he hasn't taken any damage turn 1. This 6 DMG plus the Berserkers 6 STR = 12 DMG, plus the 3 DMG from the Exhaust Armour spell, totals this up to 15 DMG. This damage also has advantage and our enemy has -2 DEF. Using 5 as our average DEF value this is an incoming 15 DMG - 3 defence, of 12 DMG. 50% of 12 is 6, taking this spell to 18 DMG. Scholar turn 2 casts Improvement, which removes the cooldown die from Exhaust Armour. Turn 3 the Berserker opens up with another Exhaust Armour which grants target enemy yet another -2 DEF leaving them with 1 DEF. The attack will deal 12 DMG, which is 11 DMG after defence. Only to be followed up by a Holy Flame from the Scholar with deals 16 DMG, 15 DMG after defence. A grand total of 44 DMG to a single target by the end of round 3.
Number 3. Dragon Knight / Scholar - Pyroblast Chain
This combo is all about Spamming Pyroblast each turn. With a solid amount of damage and a stun effect, your enemies will soon feel the heat of battle. The Scholar is required to be a Pyromancer. Turn 1 the Dragon Knight casts Knight's Pledge, granting all allies 50% more DMG on their next attack. The Scholar waits for nobody and immediately opens up with...you guessed it, Pyroblast. This deals 13 DMG. Using our average defence value of 5, this attack will hit an enemy for 8 DMG. 50% of 8 = 4. So a total of 12 DMG plus stun. Turn 2 the Dragon Knight casts Ignite Armour followed by Light 'Em Up, placing a burn condition on all allies. Turn 2 for the Scholar, as they hold a burn condition the CD die on their Pyroblast is reset, allowing them to recast Pyroblast dealing another 8 DMG after defence plus stun. This fast paced duo have already dealt 21 DMG after defence by round 2, where other combo's are still getting started. This can be a continuous loop for the Scholar as long as the Dragon Knight recasts Ignite Armour and Light 'Em Up every 3 turns. When it gets to round 5 the Scholar can gain additional damage from Volcanic Ritual (final spell in the fire book, page 2). A super fun combo that's relatively easy to setup. Failing that, this duo still have lots of synergies together stacking burn effects.
Number2.Shaman / Engineer -Electrical Storm
The Shaman has better, more consistent combo's but this is one I always love to try! It requires quite a few steps to setup which is why it's easy to disrupt, but my gosh, is it rewarding if your enemies don't see it coming :) This combo requires the Engineer to be a Tinkerer. Turn 1 the Shaman summons her Fire & Ice totems and casts Combustion granting herself +3 INT for 3 turns. The Engineer creates a Lighthouse Turret and throws up a Static Shield granting a shield but most importantly +2 electricity damage for 3 turns to the Shaman. Turn 2 the Shaman casts Focused Attack which will be granting the Shaman an additional 3 DMG when she attacks. Turn 2 the Engineer upgrades the Lighthouse Turret to level 1 and casts casts hard work upgrading it again to level 2, followed by Boost which makes the Engineer go first next round. Turn 3 the Engineer starts us off by upgrading the Lighthouse Turret to level 3 and then activating Illuminate to grant the Shaman advantage. Spell for turn the Engineer casts Lightning Orb to reduce an enemies defence value by -1. Turn 3 for the Shaman and this is where the fun starts. She gets out her Electricity and Water totems, granting her an additional +2 INT totem bonus. The Shaman then casts Bolt Connection, which deals 0 DMG + 6 base INT, +2 INT from the totem bonus, 2 electric DMG plus 3 STR from focused attack, taking us to a total of 13 DMG. Deducting the enemies defence value of 4, leaves us with 9 DMG + 50% from advantage which takes us up to 14 DMG. This spell is then followed by a Lightning Bolt in the same turn which deals 4 DMG plus paralyses an enemy. This totals to 17 DMG, which is 14 DMG after defence and 21 DMG after advantage. This one spell Bolt Connector deals a total of 35 DMG after defence.
Number1. Warrior / Bard - Echo of the Winds
We're down to my number 1 favourite combo and it's a big one, so buckle up. Instant death is on the horizon! Turn 1 the Warrior goes first, choosing support stance and casts All Eyes On Me. The Bard plays her Drum instrument with her hero ability granting the Warrior +2 STR for 3 turns, which in turn becomes +4 STR due to All Eyes On Me. The Bard casts her CD: 0 spell Cheer for turn, granting +1 STR, INT, DEF, AGI which becomes +3 for the Warrior. Leaving the Warrior with +7 STR for 2 turns and +4 STR for 3 turns. Turn 2 the Warrior jumps into brawl stance and casts Bloodlust, granting +2 STR & INT, this is a +4 instead so the Warrior is now at +11 STR. Bard turn 2 casts Angry Voice, increasing all the negative buff durations of the enemy, but most importantly increasing our positive buff durations by +2 turns, taking all our buffs back to 3 turns. Turn 3 the Warrior stays in Brawl stance and casts Windfury which deals 1 DMG plus strikes 3 times. At this point the Warrior has +11 STR from buffs, there is a +3 permanent STR buff from being in Brawl stance plus a base value of 5 STR. So a total of 19 DMG. With an average defence value of 5, this strikes for 14 DMG x3, which is 42 DMG. And we're only halfway through with our fun. Turn 3 the Bard casts Echo, which allows an ally to repeat their previous spell cast, of which we'll target the Warrior and cast Windfury for a second time this turn. Total of 84 DMG in one turn.
And there we have it, my favourite top 10 combo's! I hope it's inspired some of you to do some theory crafting of your own in preparation for the arrival of your Heroes of the Shire game. Understanding not only your own hero board but that of your enemies, will prove essential for those who wish to prove themselves in our tournaments.
And that's a wrap for this update!
Thank you for joining us on another update. We're full steam ahead now trying to get the last few bits and pieces finished off. We'll be back again with another deep-dive soon. We've been asked to cover some loot items in a deep-dive so we'll be sure to include those next time round, alongside some more boss deep-dives. Until then, have a great weekend and happy gaming.
- Heroes of the Shire
Weapon Samples
Update #37 - General Update | Enemy Monster Reveal | Favourite Combo's
almost 4 years ago
– Sat, Apr 09, 2022 at 03:06:06 AM
Hey all,
Welcome to another Heroes of the Shire update! In today's update we're showcasing all of our enemy monsters aka trash mobs, alongside some general updates and Damian's top 10 combo's!
Trash Mobs
You'll bump into trash mobs when exploring regions of the Shire. We offer 4 themed scenarios, all of which are included in the Collectors edition. Our Fire & Ice edition contains the Fire & Ice scenarios only, whilst the Earth & Water edition contains the Earth & Water scenarios only. Trash mobs are found on adventure cards, action cards and sometimes summoned by bosses in combat. There are 16 trash mobs in each scenario. Of these 16 mobs, 4 are elite and 12 are non-elite. Elites are typically harder to defeat, drop more loot and have better stats. When a group of monsters are summoned you deal X cards from the trash mob deck at random to battle, unless an action card specifies exactly which monsters are summoned. Let's start with the additional 4 trash mobs that were unlocked via stretch goals during the KS campaign. We've spiced things up with these mobs by removing one of their spells and giving them a strong and unique ability.
4 New Stretch Goal Mobs
Goblin Shaman | Tranquillity - When an ally casts a spell you may assist them by casting Aveksha. This ability only triggers once per turn.
WaterMonkey |Evolution - Your Monkey Fist spell deals an additional X DMG where X is 5 minus the number of your allies in battle. Upon death your allies gain HP equal to X times 2.
BurningRaptor |Raptor Energy - Instead of HP you have raptor energy. You start with x8 raptor energy and you lose 1 energy anytime you receive DMG from an enemy spell.
Ice Serpent |Frost Bite - When you reach 1 HP or lower you don't die. Instead you immediately take a bonus turn. During this bonus turn you deal 100% more DMG. Upon death all allies gain 6 HP.
Regular Frame & Elite
After some discussion with the community we have decided to make our regular framed mobs have a bronze frame, with our elite monsters having the golden frame. 25% of the trash mob deck contains elite monsters, which have slightly better stats and drop double the loot items. See below the new bronze frame for the regular mobs :
Ice Scenario Mobs
Fire Scenario Mobs
Earth Scenario Mobs
Water Scenario Mobs
General Game Updates
We've made lots of minor changes over the last few weeks, see a small summary of some below.
General UI updates :
- All spells have been rearranged on their hero boards and placed in order of cooldown value from left to right. Left side being the lowest CD, right side having the highest CD.
- Stats on each hero board have been abbreviated from Strength to STR, Intellect to INT, Agility to AGI, Defence to DEF and Health to HP. This helps keep the boards uniform as the buffs and attack modifications were already using the abbreviations.
- We have made several UI changes to contrast, making text stand out better on certain boards vs darker background colours. Same for some conditions like shadow elemental type and lacerate.
Hero Spell updates
Runesmith - All of the runes on his Runic Path hero ability have been buffed. Protection now grants 3 HP shield instead of 2 HP. Strength rune now grants +2 buff of target allies choice instead of +1 and his Elemental rune has been increased to grant him +3 frost DMG instead of +2.
Blood Mage - Given a second hero ability called Disallow. This ability allows the Blood Mage to cast CD:4 spells when hexed. This is a balance issue as lots of the Blood Mage spells are CD:4 or above, making hex affect this hero more than most.
Blood Mage - Forward thinking ability removed. New ability called Improved Demon. This increases the Blood Demon's pet DMG by +1.
Blood Mage - Shadow Blood bottom ability removed. New ability called Blood Sacrifice. Shadow elemental type spells deal an additional 1 DMG. This increases to +2 if you have sacrificed a Blood Demon this battle.
Huntress - Flare has been buffed. The effects come into play at the end of round 3 now, instead of round 4.
Huntress - Defensive Parry has been changed to allow her to cast the spell when an enemy attacks her.
Illusionist - Ice Sculptor now allows you to reduce the CD of Phantasmal Image as well as Ice Block.
Illusionist - Shattering Blast stuns for 3 turns instead of 2.
Cleric - Glorious Health ability changed. New ability allows the Cleric to turn excess HP for her and her allies into damage directed at a single target.
Cleric - Piercing Immunity now also stops penetrate as well as pierce effects working on her.
Druid - Shapeshifters Bond. The druid now gains HP when shapeshifting instead of staying put.
Bard - Her CD:0 spell Travellers Fate has been changed. It used to read, you can ignore the effects of taunt. It now reads, this damage can’t be prevented.
Paladin - Beacon of Light buffed by +1 DMG.
Paladin - Overwhelm buffed. +2 STR and +2 DEF increased from +1.
Spell Name Changes
Assassin | Equip All > Poison Mix.
Cleric | Kind Heal > Quick Heal
Cleric | Group Heal > Mass Prayer
Cleric | Loosing Faith > Divine Blessing
Dragon Knight | Flame Blast > Hellfire Wave
Druid | Group Immunity > Barkskin
Scholar | Damage Immunity > Expedient
Engineer | Electricity Field > Static Innovation
Huntress | Hunter’s Strike > Arrow Blade
Musketeer | Slow Reload > Progressive Reload
Illusionist | Illusion Blast > Mirage Blast
Paladin | Almighty Strike > Divine Strike
Battle Pack & True Solo Mode
Here's a quick first look at the final designs for the Battle Pack and the True Solo Mode. No fancy renders for now, these are just some photos of paper ones I printed out and folded up a few weeks back. The battle pack cards will be wrapped in foil, similar to booster packs from TCG's. The True Solo Mode addon will come in small box.
Homemade Prototypes
Damian's Top 10 Damage Dealing Combo's
With a huge variety of hero choice, spell choice and customisation of heroes, the potential for theory crafting is endless. We've had many people getting excited over on our Discord, telling us some combo's they've found. Whilst these are by no means the best combo's, they are ones that we really enjoy pulling off every once in a while. On paper these combo's will seem OP, but in reality most of them are very hard to pull off as in the below examples our opponents are not reacting to our board state. I will break down my top 10 combo's over 2 posts, with 5 here below and my favourite 5 in the next update.
This combo relies on the Blood Mage sacrificing the Illusionist, which triggers Darkness. This allows the Illusionist to come back in his Illusive form, which is significantly stronger than his human form. The sacrifice will trigger both Darkness from the Dark Soul, and the Mirage Blast from the Illusionist. This will setup the Blood Mage with high INT to deal a devastating attack turn 3, alongside having the Illusionist in his powerful form. Not only that, having sacrificed the Illusionist early in the game, the Blood Mage can later revive him back in his Illusive form by recasting Dark Ritual.
This combo is all about stacking as many bleed conditions as possible in a short space of time. Using the Blood Mage's Blood Offering ability and his Blood Demon, alongside the Musketeer following the Fencing path. Here we have placed 7 bleed conditions on a single enemy by round 2. With the Blood Mages Blood Transfusion ability active, that's 21 HP over 3 turns he will gain, making him almost invincible.
Number8. Shaman / Cleric - Flashy Combo
This combo requires both the Shaman and Cleric to buff the Clerics INT value as high as possible, whilst stripping the enemies defence value to send 1 enemy to an early grave. With a totem bonus of -1 DEF and a Shimmering Aura bonus of -1 DEF, all enemies will have -2 DEF. The total INT gained from Combustion, Blizzard and Bestow Wisdom is +8. The Cleric has a default INT value of 6, adding on top the +8 that takes us to a total of 14 INT. If our enemy has an average DEF of 5, that would now be 3, due to the -2 DEF. Flash deals 2 DMG + 14 INT + 1 damage from Light Intelligence ability which = 17 DMG - 3 DEF equals 14 DMG. With 100% more that's a whopping 28 DMG after defence.
Number7. Runesmith / Assassin - Deadly Dart Combo
This combo relies on both the Runesmith and the Assassin working towards a deadly Poison Dart spell. The Assassin places poison on himself which triggers his Sickness & Health, turn 2 casting vanish to grant him 50% more DMG. Whilst the Runesmith follows the Strength Rune he can grant +2 STR each time he casts a Rune spell. Turn one the Runesmith casts Rune of Strength granting +3 STR, +2 STR from the hero ability and +1 STR from cover me. Unfortunately the +2 and +1 will be lost by the time the Poison Dart is cast however the +3 will still be active. Turn 2 for the Runesmith he casts Rune of Protection which is another support spell triggering Cover Me and his hero ability reapplying the +1 STR & +2 STR. This grants the Assassin a total of 6 STR from the Runesmith. Meanwhile the Assassin has 7 base STR, plus 2 from triggering Sickness & Health. Which brings him up to a total of 15 STR, plus any extra if he gets lucky with his Poison Coating ability. If we have an average defence value of 5, after casting Poison Dart which deals 2 DMG + 15 STR which is 17 DMG, -5 DEF leaves us with 12. + 50% more from advantage taking it to 18 DMG, plus 50% more DMG from the target being poisoned taking the grand total to 27 DMG from a single hit.
Number6. Warrior / War Drummer - WWE Combo
This combo is all about creating a huge body slam. Turn 1 the Warrior jumps into support stance and casts All Eyes On Me. Granting him an additional +2 on any positive temporary buffs received. The War Drummer turn 1 beats his drums for 3 turns, granting the Warrior +4 DEF, then casts Reinforce Defence granting him another +4 DEF. Turn 2 the Warrior casts Battle Cry granting himself +3 STR & DEF. The War Drummer turn 2 beats his drums again for another 3 turns, granting yet another +4 DEF to the warrior, into Sustain Warfare to beat his drums one last time for another +4 DEF. The Warrior is naturally at 7 DEF in Defence stance. He has been granted an additional 19 DEF on top of the 7 of his own. That's 26 DEF + an STR of 8 which grants Body Slam 32 DMG. If we have an average defence value of 5 that's 27 DMG after defence.
And there we have it, the top 10 countdown has started. That leaves my favourite 5 coming in the next update. Hopefully you've been inspired to find your own broken combo's. Note all of these combo's can be easily stopped with conditions like Paralyze, Hex, Confused, Protection, plus many other ways that heroes have of evading enemy spell damage. We'll cover some damage prevention tactics in a future update, for those of you that enjoy crowd control with a late game win. The above is a quick insight to the theory crafting I've personally come up with after play testing all these heroes over the last 2 years.
Hero Reference Sheets
We're almost done with our reference sheets which were asked for during the KS campaign. We've got the last 4 hero sheets to finish. We're still happy to share our first draft with you. If you'd like to checkout 13 hero reference sheets please please click the reference sheet below and be taken to a link to a google drive. Note the reference sheets, nor anything else in the game for that matter has had any form of final proof reading yet. So any spelling or gramma errors you encounter feel free to pass onto us and we'll make the corrections accordingly. You can effectively help speed up the process.
Final 48hrs to edit your orders
Earlier today we gave the pledge manager software the go ahead to lock in orders and charge cards. Please note that you have around 36hrs from the time of this email to finalise your order. Any questions don't hesitate to reach out to us and we'll do our best to assist you in anyway we can.
And that's a wrap for this update
Thank you for joining us on another update. We're full steam ahead now trying to get the last few bits and pieces finished off. We'll be back again with another deep-dive soon. Until then, have a great weekend and stay safe.
