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Reply: Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles:: Reviews:: Re: Krazyguy75's Final Review: All content unlocked and completed.

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by Krazyguy75

Section 2: The Diviner as a Class (4/10)

I wanted to like this class. I tried different builds. I went rifts, I went healer, I went DPS. None of them were unplayably weak. But none of them were fun. I got a little joy at level 9, because she finally gets a good card. But prior to that? She is almost certainly the weakest class in the entire game, and in a particularly un-fun way. What is the problem, you ask?

Too many tradeoffs. In his quest for balance, Marcel seems to have sought to optimize this character, rather than even them out, when optimization should be the task left to the players. She has a great perk deck, but sacrifices range and power from her attacks to get it. She has modifier deck manipulation, but sacrifices attacks to use it. She has ability card manipulation, but it's really bad and on top of that she loses cards to get it. She has light and dark consumption, but it only makes bad cards into decent ones, not decent cards into good ones. She has healing, but can't heal herself. She has Shields, but can't shield herself. She has teleport, but the rest of her movements suck and she can't teleport into unexplored rooms. She has rifts, but no consistent CC, they only work after her turn, and her initiatives are honestly quite bad; mostly 30-40s which almost guarantees you go after some enemies but before others, whereas you really want to always go completely before or completely after. Anything she does has something she's terrible at to "balance it out".

But the biggest flaw with such tradeoffs is that you can only do one good thing per card half, whereas being bad at things limits your actions on every single turn, so multiple strengths are a lot less impactful than multiple weaknesses. She just is unable to do too many things, so instead of a useful swiss army knife like cragheart, she's more like a tool drawer with all the tools jammed in so its nearly impossible to pull any single one out when you need it. The sheer number of inconsistent or bad actions resulted in my final build being based around basic attacks and items that modify them. The other widely accepted built revolves around rifts, but having tested it I just felt like occasionally disarming 2 enemies for 2 rounds isn't anywhere near as good as just dealing 6 damage to 2 targets each round with top and bottom attacks modified by items.

And even with the character being quite flawed, it's worse specifically within Forgotten Circles. It highlights some of the worst parts, by forcing you to play unconventionally rather than letting you experiment and come up with such unconventional methods yourself. Things that should have been fun, like learning how teleports can be useful, instead are forced upon you as mandatory tasks. It feels honestly terrible; this is worst in the final boss, which you basically have to sit out of to do side tasks. On top of the railroading by overly restrictive scenarios, you also get unnecessarily restricted into "never exhausting", which we eventually did away with altogether, because it just didn't add anything and actively took away the joy of this class. Your mediocre losses became unusably bad, and your good losses became massive risks. And you can't step in to take a hit, because you losing cards can literally cost everyone the mission. It put undue pressure on me as the Diviner because suddenly I'm the one who singlehandedly can ruin everyone's fun.

What I'd change: 1) In order to make Rifts more consistent, I'd make the initiative of rifts 15-25 instead of 20-30, and drop some other cards with useful bottom halves to the 5-15 range. Then up the average rift creation range by 1 to make it easier to place them. 2) In order to make basic attacking less optimal, I'd give consistent single target CC and nerf the perk deck. 3) In order to make ability card manipulation better, I'd make the level 1 cards non loss, but weaker; something like "Look at the top 2 cards or Top 4 cards with light, put back in same order" and "Look at the top card; you may shuffle the deck; if dark put it on bottom of deck instead of shuffling." 4) Make heals work on you. 5) Remove railroad-y tutorials from the FC campaign in favor of missions with places where it'd be useful but not required. 6) Remove the "exhaust = loss" clause from all scenarios, and make any that would require it mechanically... not require it.

Now, with the summary out of the way, I'll review specific cards; a lot of this section is written from a design standpoint and vaguely addressed towards Marcel:

1-Peer into Battle: T: This is... vaguely useful, but nowhere near as core to the class as it should be. You are the Diviner. You should be good at Divining, AKA stacking decks. But while other people are doing 3-5 damage, you are rearranging cards, which will almost never be as impactful. It pretty much limits this card entirely into downtime. This is made worse by the light requirement; without light it's frankly just a bad card and with it it is still very situational. B: Good effect for big parties. This often will result in 6+ healing for a 4 player party, which is bonkers for level 1. That said, it's the kind of effect I think supports in the base game needed more of. I approve of this; it's a step up from the mediocre healing in the base game. I: This is a bad initiative for a card that wants to be used before attacks. Not all initiatives need to be great, but too many are bad on this class, so I will list them all. And personally, I think this is one of the best candidates, as it would balance it against its dark counterpart by letting you plan out the enemy hits for that round, while nerfing the bottom slightly by making it more likely to lose regenerate.

1-Anticipate Intricacies: T: This is miles better than the other one. The ability to effectively remove a null from the deck is very strong. But again, without Dark, it is really bad. However, unlike Peer into Battle, the change of Dark genuinely takes this from "terrible" to "strong", as it doubles not just one but two effects, and putting an additional card is insanely strong. B: The first of many cards where I go "why are the enhancements so good here and so bad over there?". It starts off decently, but adding curse to it for 150GP takes it to insane, and adding target for 175 to that makes this god tier. 6 curses from a single use of a level 1 bottom action? My god man! I'd definitely remove the dot from next to Curse, personally. It doesn't need that. I: This is honestly fine; this card doesn't care as much about how fast it goes.

1-Protective Aura: T: It's... not great. At first I didn't realize how auras work, and this was a really useful but honestly not overpowered card. Then I found out that auras kinda suck by RAW, and since then, it's been frankly pretty bad, maybe affecting 2 allies on occasion. It did give me a question about auras and targeting, though. I don't know if there needs to be an ally affected by it currently to play it, since allies can enter and leave the aura at any point during the turn. If you can play it, this is a lot nicer, as it reads "XP and light for free" at worst. I do think it should affect you, though. It's not like Diviner tanking a bit of damage will break the game. B: This is the first disturbingly bad effect. I cannot ever think of a time I'd want to use this. With light, it's a bad effect. Without, it's garbage. You are rearranging something that rarely matters; ability cards are almost always similar in power, and those that aren't are typically shuffle cards, and thus can't be avoided, only delayed. And regardless, the game is supposed to be balanced no matter the order these are drawn in, so rearranging them shouldn't matter. Maybe this would be useful to avoid summons or something, but usually a stun suffices. And you aren't even guaranteed to hit the summon card with this; you have to go in blind. On top of that, it won't work on enemies who currently have a shuffle card out, which is ~33% of all enemy types at any point. And on top of that, it excludes bosses, which are one of the only categories where stacking the deck could really be impactful. AND ITS A LOSS. On a 9 card class! That has a built-in party loss condition for this expansion! The only reason to ever use this action is to get 2 XP from it at the end of a scenario. I: Our good initiative, hampered by the effects that you'd want to pair it with being on the top. Given this card's bottom sucks, it's regrettable to have to use it as a Move 2.

1-Claivoyance: T: Why would you make an almost strictly worse protective aura? Even assuming attack 5s, you are reducing 0.6 average per attack compared to 2!! This is so much more terrible. This card doesn't even break even on damage reduction with Protective Aura until you are facing Attack 33s! This is just bad. Even if it turned positives into equivalent negatives and crits into nulls, you don't break even with prot. aura unless facing attack 13s! I don't understand how this held up under mathematical scrutiny for 10 seconds, let alone made it into the final cut. And it doesn't even have the decency to affect you! B: This would make a great non-loss. As loss, it might as well read "move 2". A blind shot in the dark is terrible, especially since it only hits one card from each deck. Most enemies don't have cards you want to avoid, so hitting multiple enemies isn't very relevant. Working 1/4 of the time at most for the enemies that matter is the final nail in the coffin; this is pretty much worthless. I: Both sides are bad, which is sad, given this is the kind of initiative we could really use. But I'm not taking a card with only Move 2 on it even if it were initiative 01.

1-Otherworldly Journey: T: Strong but not OP. Dropping people into traps, behind walls, over obstacles; this is one of the most versatile effects in the game. It's fun, interesting, and well balanced. This is honestly the kind of card the Diviner needed more of: unique effects that can be used in a variety of ways, that don't have any particular conditions or downsides to their use. B: Teleport is fun and useful. Overall, teleport is one of the things this class does well. I mostly share my opinion with the top; we need more effects like this, that are just generally useful. I: 34 is not a good initiative. It's all but guaranteed to go after some enemies and before others, which is not where you want to be. But it doesn't matter a ton for this card; it's just something this class does a ton so it needed mentioning here.

1-Ray of Light: T: Why doesn't this affect you? Would that have been too strong? I don't think so personally. You aren't the tinkerer, with a 12 card hand full of useful CC and losses and a variety of heals. You have 2 non-loss heal cards to heal allies all the way till level 7. As such, having stronger heals than the tinkerer should be guaranteed; it shouldn't need a tradeoff. Not to mention that as a squishy, self healing isn't as powerful as it is on the medium health tinkerer. Also, the tinkerer is kinda considered the weakest starting class (and probably the weakest class of all by level 9), so I'd make it stronger just for that. B: This is very strong, but only because of your perk deck. I'll talk about that more in detail, but my opinion can be summarized as follows: Make her perks less powerful and buff the attacks overall, so she stays more consistent across all levels. In this case though, I don't really think it needs a buff; this card is already really good. I: 48 is one of the worst initiatives you can get; almost everything acts below 50 on average, but not consistently enough to guarantee going last. Not that this really matters on this card. Just another bad initiative on the Diviner.

1-Cursed Ground: This would be great if it had insane initiative. As is, it's not great, but decent. But it's honestly made a joke of by the bottom of Anticipate Inticacies. Here you are spending a ton of time and effort to maybe get 2-3 curses if the enemies draw the right ability cards, and that card can easily drop 4-6 with a bit of monetary investment. But personally I think rifts in general are bad design; they entirely depend on you acting before the enemies and the enemies moving. They will be useless against an enemy type about 50% of the time (either due to initiative or lack of movement or already being in range), which in scenarios with only one or two monster types can easily result in turns being completely wasted. That's just too much variance. B: I like the idea here, and it's fairly well done. That said, it's still fairly weak on a class with next to no top movement. I: This card needed something like initiative 05 for the top. Not 25. This is terrible initiative for an already situational effect.

1-Void Snare: T: This would be great if you had any good initiatives to pair it with. Honestly, 2-turn disarm is so strong I'd not want to make it consistent without a cost. But given you have no decent bottom actions to pair it with, like all rifts this basically becomes a super situational card where you have to hope they draw correctly. B: This is quite strong as well, and some of your only consistent CC. And again, this attack probably doesn't need a buff even if you nerf the modifier deck. Honestly, I might even remove the multi-target to add a bit extra range. I: Poor, but honestly I'm fine with that because the top could be so insane. That said, something else with a good bottom needs ~10 speed initiative to pair with this well or this card is doomed to mediocrity.

1-Dimensional Transfer: T: Decent and versatile. I like this effect, even though it isn't too strong. B: Teleport is still nice. I: I really think this would be a prime candidate for that ~10 speed initiative. The top needs to go early or late, and early is always better, and the rifts need something to pair with, and teleport is generally useful. And most of all, the top wouldn't be particularly OP even at fast initiative, because it's mostly just a single target stun with a downside, and you can't perform "2 turn invis" cheese on allies unless they go incredibly fast.

X-Bad Omen: T: Sorry... a double loss? On a 9 card class? Does it kill bosses in 2 hits? Does it grant you immunity to damage? Does it make your allies all powerful? If not... what the heck is it doing on a 9 card class? You don't have the space for it to occupy 11% of your hand. And even if it weren't for the fact that double losses on a 9 card class suck inherently without god tier losses, this loss is still bad! Great, you get to curse the enemy 6 times. I could do four of them from just an enhanced bottom action with no losses, or 2-3 with a rift. It doesn't even get you XP if you play it at the end of scenarios. And 6th from the top is usually around half way through the deck, anyways, so its not like you are drawing them much earlier. As a non-double loss, it'd be bad. As a double loss, this might as well not be in the class. Why would you ever play this? That said, I do appreciate the 666 theme. But flavor should work with cards, not overrule them. B: Start how you mean to go on, I guess. This half is worse than the top. Honestly, even as a non-loss this wouldn't be game breakingly OP, though it'd probably be OP nonetheless. But as a loss, it's a joke, and as a double loss, it's a joke of a joke. Bad omen indeed; play this card and you are all but guaranteed to lose. But again, 6 theme is nice. I: As much as I appreciate your dedication to the theme, a double loss with initiative 66 is abhorrent. You want double loss initiative to be insane. This should be operating at initiative 06, not 66, so that it works as a Move 2 to pair with other cards.

X-Inspiration from Beyond: T: Much better rift than the CC ones, because you can work with allies to guarantee a full party bless... but even in that case I feel like it's slightly underpowered. It's possible in at least one locked class to bless several allies who coordinate with you using just a bottom action at level 1. This is a top action, and should therefore be significantly stronger, which it is only slightly. Not to mention that this is really mediocre in small parties. But at least it's not terrible. B: Your only reusable self heal till level 7, for some reason. It's a pretty decent effect, at least. I: Another "too slow to go first but too fast to go last" card which should be at least 10 points faster for the rift. Though TBH I think this card has inherent anti-synergy, as regenerate would prefer to go last while the rift wants to go first. But in either case, initiative ~30 is just terrible.

X-Duality Shards: T: Here are the attacks that need reworking. This should be range 3 if not more if it's a generic attack. You are a support. You should never be within Range 2 of any enemy that isn't CCed, and it's hard for you to CC enemies without using top half actions. Honestly, I'd probably do away with the push on top in favor of a hard CC attack and change the bottom to push; Something like "Attack 2 Range 2 Stun//Attack 2 Range 3 Push 2" with a nerfed perk deck. That way the top provides a bit of reliable but short range CC for a pinch and the bottom provides Push to synergize with your rifts a bit more (pull has a much shorter effective range). B: I kinda addressed this in the top already ;) I: Another terrible 30-40 range initiative. This one could be in the early 20s, but if you went with the push on the bottom I'd make it sub 15 for rift synergy.

2-Gift of the Void: T: This is strong. Very useful; and as a burst it doesn't care about continued positioning. A worthwhile effect. That said, spreading out blessings is usually worse than stacking them; there is a good chance of at least 1 of these blesses never being drawn, which means its harder to keep adding them in. That is one effect I'm glad doesn't touch you. B: Also very very useful, and synergizes with Dimensional Transfer to make for one of the only comboes to grant invisibility to an ally. Sadly, this effect is sorely let down by the... I: ...initiative. Usually, you want to remove statuses before they take effect, and this really just doesn't let you do that. A fast initiative would greatly improve this card, but I don't know if this one is the one you should prioritize.

2-Revitalizing Font: T: Bad. It's not significantly stronger than a pair of slightly disappointing level 1 cards. A level 2 loss should be stronger than 2 level 1 cards, especially on a 9 card class. And it still doesn't have the decency to affect you! If the effect wasn't an aura, it'd be an alright card, but with such a tight positional requirement I can't imagine wanting to use this much. B: Not bad. First payoff for the rifts; all but gets a guaranteed proc, and lets you place 2 rifts in a single round. I honestly think this should be level 1; it'd make up for a lot of the problems rifts have at first level. I: Good enough; helpful to pair with a rift. That said, it could probably be a little better to make the top half stronger; as is there is a good chance of enemies acting before you.

3-Envision the Course: T: This was poor when it was level 1 and medium initiative, it's still poor when it's level 3 and slow initiative, even with the buff. This effect is just not very useful, as it rarely changes damage significantly, and at a level where everyone else is performing Attack 4-5s with their top actions. Knowing you won't miss is nice, but rarely does anything beyond give you peace of mind. B: Strong loss for this class, but honestly still not quite strong enough. I feel like the decision to make these melee was a bizarre one; you are already a 9 card class. A ranged summon could easily fit in the class, and would be a ton more useful than two very situational birds. But at least you can get your money's worth from these. I: Good for the summon, very bad for the top. I honestly feel like I'd prefer it be fast for the top even if that makes the summon weaker, just because you will likely use the top 2+ times per scenario and the summon at most once.

3-Call of the Nether: T: Strong but deceptively weaker than it seems. Adding one enhancement is a huge deal here, as triangles and lines become doable; prior to that its almost always a max of 2 targets, and I've never hit all 4 across the entire playthrough; the rounds I could have were f***ed over by the fact I couldn't act before initiative ~30 so my allies killed them or they moved. Overall a fairly balanced effect. This is one where I'd buff the attack to 1 if I nerf the perks; it really relies on them as is. B: A lot weaker than it looks. Sure, it pairs with rifts, but it doesn't improve their initiative, and it requires darkness to pair well, and in most cases you just did something like disarmed a single enemy in exchange for dropping yourself in the middle of the rest of the enemies. I thought this card would be useful, and almost never ended up using it. I feel like the rift dropping shouldn't be conditional on an element; it's already situational enough without that, and that killed probably 75% of times I'd want to use it. I: Would be WAY better with 01-15 initiative, for both sides.

4-Preordain the Path: T: Far stronger than it at first appears. Being able to move with the top is incredibly powerful, and letting allies do so as well is very nice. Good effect. B: Eh. It was bad as a loss, but as a non-loss its still kinda poor. I almost never used this, because the Diviner has limited range on most actions, so I needed to keep moving up field and couldn't spend the turn doing nothing. Seeing the future just isn't worth it when most monsters do the same kind of actions, and rearranging cards won't delay it enough for you to keep any card from being used. This card's best utility is just letting you know the enemy initiatives, and even that is just... mediocre. I feel like this is where we should have been at level 1... It just suffers from the top almost always being more useful. I: Fine.

4-Cleansing Rite: T: This is rather nice, but very very situational. I think it should honestly have been a Heal 3 or 4 to even it out to be useful in scenarios without significant cursing. And unfortunately... B: ...the bottom is terrible. 9 discards is usually about the stamina gained by a "recover 2 lost cards" card. The tinkerer returns 2 lost cards to a character... at level 1, albeit with an element. And the tinkerer is a 12 card class. And the entire point of stamina recovery is to help out the characters who lack enough stamina, not to donate from the stamina-poor to the stamina-rich. I can't think of any reason to ever play this card; I'd probably not do it if it was "all allies recover all their discards", or even "all allies recover a lost card". You are the one in need of stamina, not them. Pair a situational top with a bad bottom and you get a card I cannot rationalize ever picking. I honestly think this bottom effect should just be completely replaced with something new. I: Eh, could be better later, but isn't hurt by being here.

5-Seal their Fate: T: This is quite strong. It basically gives the party a base 0.35 infinite range retaliate which doubles to 0.7 against muddled enemies, but it gets even crazier with curses to the degree of up to 0.56 retal doubling to 1.12 with muddle. That damage adds up pretty quick, though a lot of it will be rendered useless by overkill damage. Is it worth playing as a loss? Maybe occasionally. Not usually, especially due to the FC "exhaust clause". But it's definitely in consideration, especially facing huge numbers of enemies. Almost no other losses in this class have been worth considering, so this is a good change.. B: And this is crazy good. Even at level 5 this card is great. I would pretty much use this every turn if I could, even all the way up to level 9. A modifier deck nerf would bring this into a more sane degree of power, but even then I might nerf the movement down to 2. I: Another terrible 30-40 initiative.

5-Dimensional Divide: T: Decent for a rift, but honestly this kinda confuses me; why is this level 5 when you have disarm at level 1? Sure, wound is strong, but 2 round Disarm is probably as strong if not stronger than 2 round Immobilize + Wound. Especially since this will only work on 1 enemy per rift due to them being Immobilized in that hex, causing all future enemies to treat the hex as an obstacle (can't be immobilized in the same hex as another enemy). But a second disarm that works on 1, maybe 2 melee enemies is ok, I suppose. B: Teleports are nice. Shield auras with large ranges are decent. This half is decent. I: Honestly this is where this card falls apart. It's just not got a good enough initiative for a pair of "must go first" effects at level 5. This should be in the 0-15 range, not the 20+ range.

6-Enfeebling Hex: T: Terrible. You turn the average enemy attack from +0 to -0.15 or -0.3 at the cost of losing a card. Assuming you lose cards to prevent an average of 5 damage, that means you have to take 34 attacks to net even with losing a card to prevent damage. And losing a level 1 card to prevent damage is almost never something you want to do, let alone losing your level 6 card! And on top of that, you lose significant efficacy from your curses, which is one of the more powerful builds a diviner can use. With an average of 5 curses and enemies attacking for 3, you are only netting 0.07 more damage off on average if you spend the elements, meaning 72 hits just to break even with preventing 5 damage. At 6 curses or attacks of 4+ average, playing this card actively hurts your party. And it has the audacity to not only ask for one element, but two!? This is a terrible loss; it's only benefit is getting you 1 experience point... but wait, it literally has no benefit, since the bottom does that as well. B: But, fortunately, the bottom is good. Actually, very good. Muddle all is insanely strong, and two round strengthen for the entire party is also really decent. Combined with curses, the first part can become one of your strongest cards ever. The enhancement dot however, should be removed; it's insane to let someone get "Curse all enemies" for a mere 275 gold. I: While the bottom would much appreciate faster initiative, it's so strong I am totally fine with it as is.

6-Careful Attunement: T: Rearranging cards is almost never gonna do a huge amount of extra damage or damage mitigation unless you can remove cards. Sure, it's a big number, but it's also a level 6 top, so it basically has to compete with non-loss cards that are just doing 10+ damage split over multiple targets, and this is a LOSS. Even moving a x2 and +2 to the top will statistically be worse than most people's attacks. So at level 6 and costing two elements? This is a terrible loss and should never be considered, so it's a good thing it's paired with one of the strongest bottoms in the game... B: ...Ha! Got you! It's paired with a terrible level 1 top effect tied to a move! Moves are always nice, but that effect was mathematically bad when enemies were attacking for 3, and now they are attacking for 4-5, and a Move alone is no reason to pick this card. It's especially funny, since it is again strictly worse than your level 5 Dimensional Divide, which usually prevents more damage, moves you further, and ignores enemies and terrain. This card really needs some more careful attunement. I: Decent initiative, but worse than the level 1 equivalent of the bottom, which was the only reason to take that card. Overall, this card is just not even worse considering.

7-Curative Flux: T: Now that's a hell of a heal. Probably honestly where heals should be at this level though. And for once, it affects you! This is really really good and what a support loves. I wish this was where heals got to in the base game. B: Oh man an entire room stun! This will see play. The cleanse isn't terrible, but a free turn is just crazy good. Worthy of a loss on a 9 card class. I'd take this at level 9, but this feels about right at level 7. I: Eh, that's fine. Both halves are strong enough without good initiatives.

7-Ethereal Vortex: T: This is decent in a rift build. Let's you get around 3 damage and curse to each of 2-3 targets, which is quite welcome, and lets you move rifts upfield towards the enemies. At worst, this is okay, and at best, this is quite good, especially with your modifier deck. Outside of a rift build, however, it's pretty useless; it doesn't even place one on its own. I do kinda wish this was on the bottom and weaker (as bottoms need to be weaker), though, so you could pair it with other rift cards; right now the rift build is sorely lacking good bottom synergies. B: Decent and innovative. A lot less useful for long distance on most maps though, because teleporing from the start is rarely useful, and teleporting to the start isn't either. But it lets your party go over traps, so at worst it's a cool trick. Though like the top it is only usable in a rift build. Overall, decent. I: Another mediocre initiative, but one that doesn't matter. That said, we are way past critical mass for bad initiatives.

8-Deep Contemplation: T: But... why? This one makes no sense on this character. Sure, invis, strengthen, bless, and healing are huge, but... self only? The diviner doesn't want to have taken damage or be anywhere where she would, and she doesn't really benefit from advantage either given all her modifiers have conditions, and bless is barely better than your weakest modifier cards usually. I don't really get why this card is here. If it affected allies, it'd be useful and very good, maybe even OP. But on the Diviner only? This is just something she doesn't care about, despite the power level being where it should be for level 8. B: It was bad as a loss at level 1. It was bad as a non-loss at level 4. And now, at level 8, it's still bad. You need to be able to look at like at least 3 cards and remove or put to bottom at least 1 to have any significant chance of harming the enemies. Otherwise, most of the time this will just be "change a move +0 attack +1 to a move +1 attack +0, and they get the other next turn". Sure, knowing the enemy actions is useful, but you are level 8; you should be doing bigger and better things with your turn than this. I think it's a waste for a class called the Diviner to be so mediocre at seeing the future. I: To top it off, your unwanted invis is at a terrible initiative for an invis. This is frankly kinda insulting... At the very least this card could've been something like initiative 05 so you can pair it with rifts or modifier manipulation. As is, everything on this card is mediocre to bad.

8-Anguish and Salvation: T: But at least this card is good. An all ally retaliate buff that is not only strong but also long ranged in effect is quite frankly really good. This will be quite helpful against large numbers of enemies. This is most certainly a useful effect. It feels a bit out of place on the Diviner, but it's not unwelcome; at worst it just lacks synergy. B: Also good, but honestly not good enough to warrant level 8. You already got a mass heal 3 with regen on the top. Heal 5 on the bottom honestly feels a bit weaker than that, especially since enemy attacks and player health pools are so huge. Keep in mind that when you were healing 4, tanks had 10 health, and now you are healing 5 and they have 24. But it's not bad, especially since you can still keep your old heal around. I: Add another one to the pile! Why did every initiative have to be in the 20-40 range, rather than actually useful for a class that depends on fast initiatives!?

9-Hand of Destiny: T: It's... ok. This will usually mitigate like 2-3 player damage and boost your decks by 2-3 damage. A heal 3, target 3 plus attack 3 target 3 is good, but not amazing for a level 9 card. And that's in 4 player. In 2-3 player this card gets much worse. It's only slightly better than your strengthen and muddle card, which is 3 levels lower, and on the bottom. This just isn't as strong as it looks. B: Oof. Another ability manipulation loss. If you could remove both shuffle cards, it'd be decent for things like slimes. But for just one of the two, as a loss? It's hardly worth playing even on the most RNG-ey monsters in the game. And it doesn't work on bosses? And it requires two elements? This is just really bad for a level 9 loss on a 9 card class. That said, this is the best of the ability card based losses, which is kinda like saying "the best of the Spellweaver retaliate cards". It's bad, but it might occasionally see play if you pick it. Which you won't. Because of the competing card choice. I: Why!? The top wants to go fast! It wants to be able to know how much damage it's preventing here and now, and what attacks to map it to this round! Why does this card instead have some of the slowest initiative in the game!?

9-Planar Fissure: T: Meanwhile, the competition is one of the best cards in the game, and by far the best on this class. Attack 3 muddle, all but guaranteed to hit 5+ enemies, that also places a rift?! The heck happened to your balanced cards! With your modifier deck, this is nearly inferno levels of strong. Honestly, I think this should be an attack 2, at most, or only range 1 of the rift. This is frankly overpowered to an almost indisputable level. And of course it synergizes with items extremely well, too. B: And paired with one of the best summons in the game, it just is like it's mocking how bad Hand of Destiny is in comparison. 9 health means that even under focus from 2 enemies there is a good chance of it living to be healed, and with 3 movement it's all but guaranteed to get a hit off. But with your modifier deck, its already good "Attack 2 Curse" usually ends up being something more like "Attack 4 Curse" with another status attached. And it produces either element you need, before your turn, every turn!? This summon is just great. Honestly, though, I don't think this half is OP, especially at level 9; just very good. I: It's probably good for the summon, so fine.

Perks: This perk list needs a rework. I think the decision to get rid of all the negatives was a good one, but I think the decision to get rid of all the 0s was not. Her perk list is too strong and it drags her down at low levels due to the reduced base attack numbers. More cards should be "add a card" rather than "replace X with Y". After all that, she should get an overall buff to her level 1 attacks, and probably get at least 1 extra level 1 attack or hard CC, so that she can maintain a use in 2 player without having to rely on an insanely overpowered perk deck. As long as she has this deck, the best strategy will be to ignore her most of her unique abilities and focus on her attacks with items to augment attacks, and she will be really bad in 2P at low level.

In conclusion: I'm gonna be frank. I didn't enjoy this class much. Too many turns felt like I was fighting against the cards. I know there are some people who like that kind of strategic play, but personally I think part of the fun of a class with diverse options is having most of them open at any time, and this class felt like it artificially locked them off. I enjoyed the Tinkerer in my online campaign; he could do a lot of things whenever I needed him to. But that's just not how I felt with the Diviner. In my opinion, she is in the weakest three classes in the game, and is the least fun even amongst those weak classes. And it didn't even feel balanced; her perk deck was OP with certain items, but at the same time, many actions were pretty much unusable. And a few are just bonkers OP, like on her level 9 card (for there is only 1 level 9 card in this class).

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