A lot's definitely changed, though I'm so-far actually having an easier time of it than I normally do, TW wise... though I
am running chaotic races (which can give you a random extra talent level per level -- I mostly run it because I'm addicted to psi-wielding
), which makes things a smidgen easier.
Still, despite the loss of stat gains, they've also lost strength dependency entirely and have gained some pretty nice quality of life stuff -- never having to manually switch weapons is pretty amusing. Buncha' other stuff, too. It's pretty neat. They feel a bit more livable and still do some nice damage and whatnot.
And the hounds are kinda' amazing meatshields, especially once you get the third talent running -- something that literally can't die for 5+ turns at a minimum and shoves itself in the way of whatever's trying to kill you is pretty great. Still a level off from the 4th tier, though. I'm kinda' disappointed they went with C instead of Z for the ASCII symbol :V
Though speaking of mods,
don't try to run the older faerie one with the new TW. While dark fae TWs are kinda' amazing (those clones are glorious), it also sporadically deletes your offhand and ammo items. Which is bad.
Haven't tried the wyrmic changes, yet. If it's anything like one of the mods that were running around, it's definitely a bit of a nudge upwards in regards to power, though.
E: Oh wow. 3 round max strength sashy with a 23rd level TW. Mostly due to the hounds, who were putting out ~450 damage/round total on their own, and completely surrounded her. That whole, "Yeah, I'm going to stay here and keep hitting you for another 6 turns after you flatline my health" thing is pretty incredible.
E2: Annnnd they just tanked pretty much the entire ambush.
After dropping more or less the entire thing's (outside bossdude) health reserves to half on the first turn via overlapping breath. Not sure how they're going to hold up into the late game, but for the west? The hounds are entirely
excessive. They've got more HP among the three of them than I do, do roughly the same damage per turn on average as the actual warden can at full blast (and more, when breathing or with the global speed buff going), and they
can't die until at least seven turns after they are killed >_<
And the blink regen can reset the unkillable state! This is freaking bonkers. Also their stats are kinda' crazy. Their everything scales off my magic stat... apparently on top of a base. Which means with my 76 mag, they've got a flat 96 in
everything. Any one of them was about on par with any critter in the melinda crypt. They're still matching 1-to-1 vs elite undead and junk (and, of course, they're very rarely alone). It's faintly ridiculous.
Have just noticed that blighted summoning does absolutely nothing for them, though, which is unfortunate. Putting elemental discord on something that does no fire, cold, acid, lightning, or nature damage is... perhaps something of an oversight :VScratch that. Discord's retaliative, not offensive. The lack of a t on dealt threw me off