1. They also have other ranged attacks. Besides, I figure even Wisps understand the basic concept of "Making the enemies die is good"...especially since Cherish, our healer, is also low on HP.
They do? Goombess didn't mention anything on the boss.
As for targeting, I have no doubt wisps like killing things. I do doubt their bloodthirst is such that they'll go after far away targets that aren't doing anything over close targets that are attacking them. I'd be thrilled to find out they're vulnerable to such kiting, in fact.
2. It was to let Cherish and Goom-Bess recover without losing our progress and while still dealing damage.
...you really think it'll take them less time (and not break the party or similar) for them to run back to base, heal up, and run back than for Ciro to die to two wisps and a boss wisp?
Or the boss following us, or the boss spawning with more goons when we return, or the level changing and rendering us unable to get back to the restore point without running into trouble.
1. I don't think the boss can even fit through the door. And if so, so what? It has shown no ability to move faster than us--or at all without leaping--and so we could easily escape it/lose it.
2. Any option but staying and fighting has that.
I'd lean towards it not being very mobile, but I'd lean towards it being completely useless at extreme range also. It's another unknown quantity that makes the plan more dubious.
And yes, that's what I'm getting at.
Again, I could be wrong, but I tend to be wary of any plan that promises to let us acquire loot and achieve objectives with zero risk or cost involved, like auto-fleeing a battle at any time, restoring to full, and then trying it again at our leisure.
It's got a better chance of success than attacking when we're weak.
Look at it this way: A damaged party of adventurers comes across a strong party of monsters. They could return to the Pool of Healing earlier in the cave, or fight them now. Which should they choose?
That's the problem. Suppose we're talking about a Roguelike. Is the game really going to let you do that without consequence?
Better yet, just look at precisely the situation we've got: A full-health band of adventurers engages a strong party of monsters, makes some mistakes, and becomes heavily damaged. They're now about to attempt to flee, heal up, and return to try the encounter again, presumably with 100% success and no side effects.
Is it really likely to be that easy?
Doesn't sound likely; I'm guessing off the screen means out of targeting range.
So am I, but it's worth a shot.
If it's a free shot, yes. If it requires sacrificing max MP to craft a weapon we don't need- and in fact, is probably worse than her current one- solely for that purpose, no.
I mean, I'm all for experimentation and improving our arsenal, but not for niche stuff like this unless we have a very concrete, viable plan. Enchanting Riltia's spear to take out Proxxy was a good example of that.
Wut? Many of us seem to like the idea of making a new ice-based skill or two, but we don't know what it will do, and given what the plant one ended up as, it might not be all that directly useful. I suggested a possible use of an ice skill if it isn't just a fire-at-enemy one, not that we should hold out all our hope for it being usable for that. Also, making a bloodshape item is a temporary thing, we can always re-absorb it.
And if we use ice and an MP-water-jug, all we lose is:
-MP-water (infinitely replenishable)
-Ice (we just need the Ice Spear and water)
-A glass bottle (sad, but one comes free with each purchase of a Health or Mana Potion)
I'd still prefer something involving acid. Then again, I'd prefer chain-crafting skills using renewable reagent matrices in an attempt to figure out a pattern.
You know what, let's just assume all future objections to making an icewater skill stem from my desire to complete The Chart. And thinking Acid + Blood is a more promising combination.
Yes, bloodshaping is reversible. But if there's no point making it in the first place, that's not very comforting.
It's like suggesting that we not make another skill now because we can always make one later.
Not true! There were SEVERAL basic things we could have done to keep Slog alive! Truly, his was an easily preventable death.
Like maybe just not fight a search bot. I mean, if you look back at the archives, at least one character has died literally every time we have fought a search bot. Ciro died during the first search bot fight, Riltia died during the second search bot fight (with Wilford as collateral), Al arguably died during what may or may not have been a third search bot fight, and Slog died during the last search bot fight.
Yaos died directly after the last search bot fight. Coincidence? I think not.
...
another thing that I've missed completely.
I'm officially having mixed opinions about the continuation of this game.
It seems like every single time there's an open-ended choice (aka every choice), we pick the dumbest possible option, and none of us at all can manage to think far enough outside the box to come up with something with a feasible chance at working. Furthermore, our chances of success are diminished further because we're all bickering and trying to shoot down/upvote each others idiotic plans.
But the few times we DO start thinking, we overthink the solution by ten thousand miles, and do something equally stupid. If not more stupid.
I personally don't see any option we can take at this point that doesn't result in the death of somebody. At this point, I'm seriously considering leaving Goombess to die, just because it would be less of a hit than losing Ciro or Cherish. Or both of them. Hell, I don't even think the Astral Influx can save us at this point.
I'm also not sure how my general sentiment is, on the whole of this game. While it's kind of funny to watch the MC fail hilariously, not only have our recent failures been the antithesis of hilarious, it's not fun to watch the MCs have just failure after failure and descend irrevocably into death, spiraling into the abyss, never catching a break, and being doomed to end in demise, with a penultimate success for the villains. I recall early on that it was mentioned we had ended up, not in a grimdark campaign, but in a Shakespearian tragedy. It's looking more and more like we're going to fulfill every bit of that mandate, down to a TPK and victory for Oric and his cronies.
Well, the solution to being stupid is to stop being stupid, not to give up and admit that we'll always be stupid.
As for the current situation, it's really not grim so much as unpredictable. We have two basic options, run or fight, and both of them are made entirely of uncertainties. Can we run without needing a roll or taking parting shots? Will throwing the wisps under the Boss Wisp kill or heal them? What happens to bosses when we flee? How much is Cherish going to heal herself for?
If everything functions like we want it to and our rolls are good, either plan would pretty much be guaranteed success. If we're mistaken or ignorant of something important, and/or if we roll poorly, things might go to hell. And even then, Ciro's got plenty of health and our allies would take an action each to drop, so I don't see this ending in a TPK unless things go
really wrong.
I'm dubious that leaving Goombess behind would improve the odds of the running plan, incidentally.
The Warrens seem to be a pretty bleak, messed up place, but I really don't see the spiral of failure and loss you're talking about. Again, what have we lost? Slog until we recover Al, Yaos admittedly, Al and Riltia until we rescue them hopefully, and that's about it.
We're getting better, both in tactics and raw power, and we've yet to go up against anything we simply physically can't beat, though we have had a lot of situations where failure was necessary to figure out what was happening. I don't think we have enough information to say exactly how this place works, but I certainly don't see our defeat as inevitable just on the basis of being too goddamned stupid to succeed.