I've done every deckathalon thus far, and there have been some frustratingly difficult ones, but the new balance deckathalon is by far the worst offender so far. I can't even get past stage 5! Since there's no balance shield, all you can do is tower shield, which isn't nearly sufficient to keep you alive. On the second floor, I started with full health, and shielded first turn and then died instantly from two spectral blasts. This is with balance deck 4 and a max health jewel socketed, so there's nothing better I can get at this point. I also have a pet with all maycast healing talents, so there's literally nothing I can do. Another attempt, I was managing to stay alive by doing absolutely nothing but shielding and using fairy. Even then, I was taking damage. This method makes it impossible to kill the enemies if you need to be on 100% defense to stay alive more than a couple rounds.
One time, I managed to stay alive and built up some pips to scarecrow on the second floor, but that was impossible because anytime i got remotely close in pips, I would get mana burned. Plus! Killing them individually is super tough because they always put weaknesses on while you're trying to stay alive.
I know these events aren't supposed to be easy, but this level of difficulty should not be at this low a stage in the tower. I don't know what the solution is, but please make this easier so it's at least possible. Maybe add a balance shield as a treasure card and remove the enemies' ability to use spectral blast and mana burn? At least at the lower levels...
Let me know if you guys are experiencing the same thing.
I have the exact same frustration with this deckathalon, especially as a fairly new player to the deckathalons, I finished the life deckathalon with some frustration kicking in around stage 8 but it was at least achievable whereas the balance deckathalon is seemingly impossible. A lot of this is stemming from the fact that the flat resist given in the deck doesn't protect from the spectral blast spam and putting on elemental shields takes an additional turn that we often don't have the luxury of getting. Spectral hitting storm when they have a blade or a trap even into a tower shield is pretty much GG every time, along with straight up taking 30% more damage across the board because of the lack of set shields makes this event virtually impossible. I would like to see a nerf because I want all the professor badges but don't know if we'll be able to see one any time soon.
I absolutely agree. In other deckathalons you can learn, adapt your strategy, and climb to higher stages which gives you the recipe for the next deck and therefore a chance (once you've gathered enough runes) to craft it and progress again. I have a deck 4 from the last time this came round and it is socketed with a max health jewel. I have tried numerous strategies but there is nothing that you can do on the middle floor against two adversaries because of that spectral blast. You have no damage limitation to fire, ice or storm in the deck which is unlike any other deckathalon. I've spammed Tower and Elemental Shields hoping to survive long enough to hit but the piercing percentage by the fourth floor, and the fact you will have -25% nerfs to your damage by then, coupled with their 35% blades and 30% traps, means that will get enough damage through you are likely to be defeated before you get to hit one or both of them.
It's just far too brutal. As others have commented, there is no other TC strategy that will reduce damage sufficiently to survive. Try Brace and you get another 20% for four rounds but that's one round to put it up that you haven't got a shield in place. So that's a net loss in damage reduction if they hit that round.
Since day one of the event where I got to stage 4 I've been unable to progress further and only once in the thirteen attempts have I managed (by a fluke because the one that could have hit me fizzled) to get to the last fight. Where, predictably, I was defeated because I wasn't going through with full health and again got hit twice with Spectral Blast before I had enough pips to defeat him.
The pet I had been using has three 'may cast' heal abilities and outside in the regular game they trigger quite frequently. I know people will say "it's just random chance" but I am convinced that the chances are lowered in deckathalons because my pet has healed me just twice in those thirteen runs. Which is massively lower than regular duels.
Bear in mind too, that even if I do manage to clear stage four I now have to do stage five with the same deck, with enemies that are even harder to kill, just to get the recipe for deck 5. With only two days to go the chances are so slim in this new balance deckathalon as to be practically non-existent.
In other deckathons I've been able to progress and get the recipes for better decks and this is the key to being able to progress to higher floors and further up the placings. The current high scorers were obviously fortunate enough to get the better recipes when the Balance deckatahon event wasn't so horrendously unbalanced.
People like me who are latecomers to doing deckathalons are no unfairly pegged back and unable to progress. We face the choice of either continuing to attempt to progress the higher stages for the next recipe and give up on claiming event rewards (because only 34 points per day if you get defeated every time on the second floor is what you'll get), or grinding away at the lower levels to get runes and the rewards from the progress bar and giving up on ever advancing.
KI got this wrong in changing it and we can only hope it is reverted back to what it was so we have a chance to progress and craft the better decks.
I'm very glad I'm not the only one with issues on this deckathalon. Just a couple additional points after trying many more times...
My pet didn't maycast a heal once with 5 healing talents, so that may be broken? Or I just have really bad luck...
And one strategy where I came remotely close on stage 5 level 2 was spamming shield, fairy, and tempest. Didn't beat that level, but I got close a couple times. With spamming tempest, you pretty much have to pray that they try to manaburn you when you have no pips, then that gets rid of their pips. Still didn't work, but eh... maybe y'all can try it.
Overall, this deckathalon was a huge disappointment and I wasn't able to get any resources I was looking for
"Since there's no balance shield, all you can do is tower shield"
You can tower, weakness, plague, virulent plague, absorb, heal over time, and use elemental shields against Hydra and Spectral. Watch your pips against mana burn. Don't try to build up to a big AOE attack if the enemies have 5 or more. Hit fast and take out one opponent as quick as you can.
If your regular strat isn't working, try something else.
