Fanatic - Is She Underpowered?

Other Games SotM Game Engine
1

After playing multiple games with Fanatic, my group has come to the consensus that she’s kinda weak.

Outside of particular team builds, the only items that she brings to the table are Absolution, Zealous Offense, Aegis (a luck draw), her desperation nuke (a luck draw), and End of Days (a double-edge sword). Overall, the feeling is she lacks focus. She doesn’t do consistent damage, she doesn’t heal as well as Tempest or Legacy, she doesn’t tank or buff as well as Legacy, and her powers do way too much self-harm resulting in too much risk for little reward. She definitely needs more utility or to do more damage.

Are we the only ones who feel this way?

2

No, she’s actually one of my favorites, and I feel she consistently performs well. She deals consistent damage, especially if you’ve got Legacy or some other method of buffing her power. (Just +1 damage and she’s doing 4 damage per turn in her power phase alone.) Final Dive is the most hilarious card in the game, and often very effective, given that it flat-out destroys a target. She can also take tons of punishment (from herself or others) because of Aegis. You call it a “luck draw,” but I’ve never had a game where it didn’t come up before her death. And her occasional novas are very powerful. She definitely has some cards I don’t find terribly useful, but I really think that she’s one of the most fun and most consistently useful cards in the game.

3

Chastise and Embolden are 2 of her best cards.

4

I don’t think she needs a full re-work or anything, but as I said in another thread, I think she could use a tweak or 2. In particular, I think Sanctifying Strike would be much better if its damage was irreducible. It wouldn’t hurt on Holy Nova either, but at least it has the heal. Her main problem is that if a baddy can “reduce all damage by 1”, her base power and several cards become basically useless. I’m hoping that her alt might remedy this problem some.

5

Well, that’s her whole thing, isn’t it? She’s very all-or-nothing. Reducing the damage she deals makes her useless, but buffs make her fantastic. Bonuses and penalties apply double to her, at least for the purposes of her base power, and that sort of defines her whole playstyle.

6

My experience with Fanatic started similarly – often feeling like I had a lot of useless cards, couldn’t get the few really cool cards I needed, and w/out a buff from Legacy, wasn’t doing a lot of damage.

Since then, however, I’ve come to appreciate Fanatic. Many times she’s had the one card that could make a difference. Just yesterday it was her judicious use of Chastise on Tachyon to keep Tachyon protected from Spite but to then let Tachyon be free because Spite caused the team to pick up Ongoing/Equipment cards. This was also, btw, an excellent situation for Mr. Fixer to use Bloody Knuckles.

7

^^ Chastise must be played on non-hero targets. This was Errata’d to stop the Chastise/Lead from the Front combo. Chastise is still a pretty good card though, able to neuteralize strong targets for an extended period of time.

I feel Fanatic is solidly in the middle. Not the most powerful hero in the game, but certainly not among the weakest.

Divine Focus is also an incredibly good card, especially with buffs. It turns all of her cards that you dont want into “deal 2 radiant damage”. Get up a reasonably good size hand and throw down Divine Focus, then drop all of your weak cards for damage and if you do it exactly right, you have a Prayer of Desperation in your hand to replenish your hand size your next turn. Then you can let Divine Focus end after taking no damage and getting a new hand, or you can keep Divine focus up and belt out another 12 easy damage. Again, this card is insanely better with buffs, if you can get it so it deals 3 or 4 damage per hit, it will shred through a Villan’s hp in no time.

Wrathful Retribution is a great finisher, if you get it. And I tend to get it most of the time. So in addition to the obvious damage buffer characters, anyone who helps Fanatic to draw cards is very good with her, Tachyon or Visionary being easy choices there.

8

I didn’t like Fanatic very much at first either but she has definitely grown on me. The thing with Fanatic is that she is a martyr character. This means you have to go in with the mindset that she will be defeated, but before that happens you can deal a ton of damage with that Max HP - Current HP card (I forget the name) and provide nice utility with Chastise, End of Days, and that other card that prevents damage from 2 villain targets (not the Villain Character Card). Not to mention that if you’re defeated you probably soaked a ton of damage for your teammates. I think her flip side abilities are pretty powerful as well.

9

I’ve actually never had Fanatic die before a game finished. The thing to remember is that potentially Fanatic has up to 30 extra hp after she hits 0 the first time, maybe more if stuff like Mr. Fixer or Tempest’s abilities to get cards out of your trash come into play. She can soak a -lot- of damage, also that her most powerful strike is fueled by her having low hp (if she has Absolution in play and 1 hp on her counter she can fire off 30 damage -before- modifiers). She also has Divine Focus, which allows you to dish out damage at the start of every turn (which can also help to control retributory damage from villains like Baron Blade) and things like Chastise which essentially let you control what cards your team has to deal with, and End of Days which is a nice panic button card for when you’re going to be in serious trouble and you’d be better off with a clean slate.

So if you have the right cards, in the right situation, you have a character who can dish out a lot of damage, -heavily- control the battlefield, and have up to 60 or more hp depending on her cards, all of this -before- the boons other heroes give her. Yeah, I don’t think she’s underpowered at all.

10

My wife and I were able to beat a villain one time (can’t remember which one right now) with only Fanatic still in play. Every time her Aegis brought her back, we were able to bring it out the trash. It resurrected her twice. It was as if the entire team was beaten and broken, but Fanatic kept getting back up for one more swing of her sword. :slight_smile:

11

What savagegreywolf and Tegulus said. If you have a Tempest in your party, he’ll probably die before she will, and he can just keep bringing her Aegis back each round. As long as Fanatic doesn’t take more than 10 damage/round, she can keep swinging. Plus, at that point, Wrathful Retribution becomes super powerful.

12

So I’ve read over everyone’s comments and I don’t see anything that contradicts what I said - that Fanatic is very situational and doesn’t have a good deck strategy like Haka, Legacy, and Tempest. She needs rule additions that allow her to tank better early game and then switch off to breezing through her deck for Aegis and Retribution when her HP goes single digit.

13

The_Densetsu, I strongly disagree. She is one of my favorite characters to play, and I believe I have a decently good feel for each other characters’ various strategies.

That said, I believe you will REALLY like the innate ability of her as-of-yet unannounced promo card. Within the next couple weeks, we will put it up and an update to the Kickstarter, but suffice it to say, that version of Fanatic may be more your play style.

Hope this helps.

14

I’m curious, The_Densetsu, what is your “deck strategy” for Haka, Legacy, and Tempest, and why do you feel that Fanatic doesn’t have one? The game is all about adapting to different situations, and while Fanatic has her share of challenges, she also has her share of places that she excels… just like any other hero does.

15

Every hero is dependant upon the luck of the draw in some manner. Fanatic is dependant upon this slightly more, but I find that she’s a lot better off than Absolute Zero, who sometimes can go nearly the entire game before getting the cards he needs to be able to make his innate power worth using.

16

A quick guess… Haka strategy is Savage Mana. Legacy strategy is Galvanize and Inspiring Presence. Tempest strategy is Cleansing Downpour. :stuck_out_tongue:

17

In that case, Fanatic strategy should be Divine Focus + Prayer of Desperation. :stuck_out_tongue:

18

I would say team Fanatic with anyone who increases damage, Legacy, Ra, and Visionary. Legacy can increase it by two, Ra by one, and Visionary by another one. Meaning her innate power does ten damage, which is pretty sweet if you ask me… Or switch Legacy with Young Legacy, it’ll decrease Fanatic’s damage by two but then you have three heavy hitters on the field. I barely play Fanatic so I am no expert on her deck…

19

Actually Visionary can increase it up to 2 times [Twisting the Ether is not “limited”]

20

Here’s my Fanatic strategy:

She has lots of little one-shots that also allow her to draw a card. Play those ASAP. Sure, use Holy Nova and Final Dive situationally (such as when there are large groups of opponents, or when there is a single target hanging out with 4 HP. Especially use Final Dive on a Gene-Bound Guard - no reducing damage for you!), but the main things you want to get to fast are “Absolution”, Embolden, and Sacrosanct Martyr. Are you getting a plus 1 to all your damage, from Legacy, Ra, [redacted], or even maybe an Obsidian Field? Sweet! That makes Sacrosanct Martyr even better, as you can deal yourself 6 damage to output 7!

Now, blow yourself up. Since you’ve had a focus on drawing cards, you can easily get to at least one Aegis of Resurrection. Don’t bother putting it into play until you’re under 10 HP, as if it goes out earlier, it might get destroyed by a Villain or Environment card. Oh, also, hang on to End of Days for terrible situations (like a handful of minions and two spaceships from Voss, a pile of Citizens including Anvil and Truth from Dawn, or all of the Underbosses from The Chairman). And keep any Consecrated Ground cards for popping the significant threats - it’s one of the stronger ongoing/environment destruction cards since it also deals damage.

But your key focus? You want to feel the burn! Sacrosanct Martyr will quickly get you at not the highest HP, which means you won’t be taking a TON of damage from the Villain or Environment. Once you’re the lowest HP, that’s a bit more of a threat, but still, not too much, and you want it at that point. “Absolution” gives you a +1 to HP, which you certainly want. Embolden lets you use 2 powers and hurts you for 2, both of which you want. Sometimes, it’s correct to put Embolden on a different hero, but usually it’s for you, between your strong innate power, “Absolution”'s power, and Sacrosanct Martyr’s power.

So! Now, you’ve been doing a TON of damage. You’ve been hitting a lot of targets, giving yourself and your teammates occasional healing, taking out massive groups of threats with End of Days and individual hard to deal with cards with Consecrated Ground. You’ve even tossed around some annoying targets with Final Dive and once in a while skip the bulk of your turn to draw up to full with Prayer of Desperation. Sure, you might go into Divine Focus mode for a turn or two, but usually, you’re better off hanging on to those cards. Even Chastise is handy for when an Electropulse Explosive or The Kraken shows up.

This strategy alone is SOLID. You don’t NEED HP - they are just another resource. However, this strategy is not even finished. There’s one more delicious piece: Wrathful Retribution. Even without that major beat-down of a card, you’re doing a great job. But when you turn it over and the villain has under 30 HP, that’s Game Over folks. You take yourself down as close to 1 HP as possible fearlessly, since your Aegis will give you a second chance if you overshoot. And then you deal damage like only a self-righteous avenging angel can.

So, in short, she’s a slow burn. She has lots to do along the way, but between all her “draw a card” cards and Prayer of Desperation, you CAN get to what you need.

Thoughts?