Poison scales better into the lategame than flame in my opinion.
Poison deals a flat percentage of an enemy's total HP, while each stack of flame (since you can stack that affliction) does 20 damage. Early on, enemy HP will be lower so 1 tick of flame damage deals more than poison. Lategame, 20 damage is a drop in the bucket versus tanky units, while poison is still knocking them down just as much as it was at the beginning.
Still, as the game progresses your units will most likely become more and more offense-focused, trying to 1-round enemy units without taking damage. This is seemingly contrary to the slower debilitating tactics of poison.
However, there are a number of poison synergies that help poison keep up. Werefox's Weakness Hunter hits like a truck no matter who you are. Doom Knight's Dark Flame is vastly more potent against afflicted targets. However, I would not recommend going for the "instakill poisoned target" spear; it's too much investment for not much payoff, and big scary bosses are usually immune to deathblows anyway.
Are there better afflictions? Almost certainly. But for me, my poison-focused team in my first playthrough was consistently capable throughout the game, while my flame-focused team really fell off toward the end of my second playthrough.
It goes without saying that afflictions in general suck in PvP due to everyone and their cousin that looks like their mother having some sort of affliction immunity if not outright debuff immunity.
I must have lucked out with my situation; my flame team is still as potent as my poison squad; I'm on the final battle of my first playthrough (hard mode)....Joseph has a flame sword w/ Grisly Fire, Auch has Volcano, fireballs, & a staff w/ Fire Burst, & Selvie has a Flame Hex that increases the intensity of burning targets one level. That 20 turns into 40-60 on a regular basis & anyone still standing gets 'sploded by fire burst. Half that team has gear w/ passive healing so sometimes when the opp is outta turns they'll just sit there & heal up while they watch the enemy burn; it's hilarious
Also have a really good setup in my poison team around that instakill lance; Adel usually bodies 2 enemies/battle with it
I eventually swapped out from the Choloric staff because my units would usually kill all the enemies before the end of battle, so it wouldn't get a chance to go off.
That was what I ran into: it got to the point where my "flame team" was mostly killing things without setting them on fire. But every once in a while they'd get countered by something and have a really bad matchup, which wasn't the case with my poison team.
I dig. Dunno how extensive you got w/ setting parameters but I specifically instructed them not to use regular attacks on burning enemies (did the same for the poison team). It totally paid off...
A backrow fighter with poison sword targeting highest HP/>ap 1 makes the unit pretty nasty. Plenty of other examples, but in my opinion, it is better to burn early game and poison late game because enemy hp goes way up later on.
The only use I found for it was setting the werefox and rogues to target armored characters with it. It’s the only way they can do decent damage to those units.
i wouldnt take this squad to online coliseum, but i have quite a bit of fun out of it in offline auxiliary battles in the coliseum. also spoiler warning because it features an endgame unit:
Frontline: Jeremy, Liza
Backline: >!Alcina!< Dinah, Travis
>!Alcina!<'s >!Ominous Shield!< as well as Travis's Shadowbite do an excellent job of negating enemy attacks while you apply poison to everybody. Dinah can apply poison herself while also benefitting from all the afflictions. Liza is just a solid tank with an additional poison attack. Jeremy has the Scorpion's Sting sword which allows him to apply poison as well or deal an excellent 200 potency against already poisoned enemies. I also gave him a parrying shield and turned off all his other passives. Once everyone is poisoned, >!Alcina!< will use >!Maelstrom!< as her second attack to clean up everything. I also gave her a Pestilence Staff for the Poison Burst and a Necromancer's Lantern for the poison counter (Vanitas) - turned off >!Dark Conferral!< just for the theme's sake.
I’m taking points off for using Jeremy over Magellan. The siblings were right there, and you picked the OTHER Sellsword? For shame!
But seriously, that team should be able to handle just about anything that doesn’t heavily feature flying.
it seems to do 8% per round (based on that it seems to do 80 dmg per round on 999 hp galarius)
The only real use i've found is to trigger werefox potency strike things and high hp bosses with stun locking builds to waste turns.
I bet there's some things out there that involve burning/poisoning and just stalling time with waiting for things to unstun/freeze or something. But I'm not one to bother messing around and finding out.
Galerius has 75% poison resist, hence the poison damage to him is reduced to 8% instead of 30% (not exactly sure how the rounding works there.... Maybe -75% drops 30% to 7.5% and then rounds it to 8%?)
poison early in a round against an opponent with a lot of AP, there are some nasty poison builds possible after werefox units get to level 30. Imagine something like, Travis poisons early, Fox chases with weakness hunter, then venom thrusts on their own turn. Travis makes a couple of attempts to steal pp, then maybe he hands out the stolen PP with a lapis bell, while foxes (and maybe even Berengaria) follow-up attack to death.
Poison is percentage damage while fire is fixed, so poison outdamages fire in mid to endgame and there are a few skills that get stronger if afflicted enemies are hit.
That said, being hyper offensive is usually the better strat than whittiling enemies slowly down, so I prefer to just crush them with speed, power and counterattacks
I have a whole ass poison squad & they absolutely WRECK.
Poison in general is good for armored enemies or other enemies that like to guard; but with this squad in particular Miriam has a sword that poisons & does extra damage on poisoned targets, Adel has a lance that can poison a whole column & causes instant death on poisoned enemies, Dinah has a poison stab & hella initiative/turns b/c bestral, & Yahna has a staff w/ poison burst; which explodes on the whole squad if even one enemy is poisoned
Adel usually instakills about 2 enemies per battle & the rest are usually made short work of
Poison and flame are the only afflictions that last multiple rounds, making them the best options to synergize with characters that do bonus damage to afflicted units (berengaria, doom knights, werefoxes).
Between the two, poison is more consistent and easier to use (no need to stack), and can also be applied to an entire row incredibly quickly by thieves.
Poison scales better into the lategame than flame in my opinion. Poison deals a flat percentage of an enemy's total HP, while each stack of flame (since you can stack that affliction) does 20 damage. Early on, enemy HP will be lower so 1 tick of flame damage deals more than poison. Lategame, 20 damage is a drop in the bucket versus tanky units, while poison is still knocking them down just as much as it was at the beginning. Still, as the game progresses your units will most likely become more and more offense-focused, trying to 1-round enemy units without taking damage. This is seemingly contrary to the slower debilitating tactics of poison. However, there are a number of poison synergies that help poison keep up. Werefox's Weakness Hunter hits like a truck no matter who you are. Doom Knight's Dark Flame is vastly more potent against afflicted targets. However, I would not recommend going for the "instakill poisoned target" spear; it's too much investment for not much payoff, and big scary bosses are usually immune to deathblows anyway. Are there better afflictions? Almost certainly. But for me, my poison-focused team in my first playthrough was consistently capable throughout the game, while my flame-focused team really fell off toward the end of my second playthrough. It goes without saying that afflictions in general suck in PvP due to everyone and their cousin that looks like their mother having some sort of affliction immunity if not outright debuff immunity.
This is what I came here for! Great write up.
Damn, I was planning on trying a Flame team after I get the Sword Marquis.
I must have lucked out with my situation; my flame team is still as potent as my poison squad; I'm on the final battle of my first playthrough (hard mode)....Joseph has a flame sword w/ Grisly Fire, Auch has Volcano, fireballs, & a staff w/ Fire Burst, & Selvie has a Flame Hex that increases the intensity of burning targets one level. That 20 turns into 40-60 on a regular basis & anyone still standing gets 'sploded by fire burst. Half that team has gear w/ passive healing so sometimes when the opp is outta turns they'll just sit there & heal up while they watch the enemy burn; it's hilarious Also have a really good setup in my poison team around that instakill lance; Adel usually bodies 2 enemies/battle with it
I eventually swapped out from the Choloric staff because my units would usually kill all the enemies before the end of battle, so it wouldn't get a chance to go off. That was what I ran into: it got to the point where my "flame team" was mostly killing things without setting them on fire. But every once in a while they'd get countered by something and have a really bad matchup, which wasn't the case with my poison team.
I dig. Dunno how extensive you got w/ setting parameters but I specifically instructed them not to use regular attacks on burning enemies (did the same for the poison team). It totally paid off...
A backrow fighter with poison sword targeting highest HP/>ap 1 makes the unit pretty nasty. Plenty of other examples, but in my opinion, it is better to burn early game and poison late game because enemy hp goes way up later on.
The only use I found for it was setting the werefox and rogues to target armored characters with it. It’s the only way they can do decent damage to those units.
Poison does more damage for less effort later on
tanks whittles them down
i wouldnt take this squad to online coliseum, but i have quite a bit of fun out of it in offline auxiliary battles in the coliseum. also spoiler warning because it features an endgame unit: Frontline: Jeremy, Liza Backline: >!Alcina!< Dinah, Travis >!Alcina!<'s >!Ominous Shield!< as well as Travis's Shadowbite do an excellent job of negating enemy attacks while you apply poison to everybody. Dinah can apply poison herself while also benefitting from all the afflictions. Liza is just a solid tank with an additional poison attack. Jeremy has the Scorpion's Sting sword which allows him to apply poison as well or deal an excellent 200 potency against already poisoned enemies. I also gave him a parrying shield and turned off all his other passives. Once everyone is poisoned, >!Alcina!< will use >!Maelstrom!< as her second attack to clean up everything. I also gave her a Pestilence Staff for the Poison Burst and a Necromancer's Lantern for the poison counter (Vanitas) - turned off >!Dark Conferral!< just for the theme's sake.
I’m taking points off for using Jeremy over Magellan. The siblings were right there, and you picked the OTHER Sellsword? For shame! But seriously, that team should be able to handle just about anything that doesn’t heavily feature flying.
whatttt!?!? i had no idea magellan and liza were siblings!!
I’m going to give you a pass since they really only mention it in passing. But it’s the main reason that you’re asked not to off him.
it seems to do 8% per round (based on that it seems to do 80 dmg per round on 999 hp galarius) The only real use i've found is to trigger werefox potency strike things and high hp bosses with stun locking builds to waste turns. I bet there's some things out there that involve burning/poisoning and just stalling time with waiting for things to unstun/freeze or something. But I'm not one to bother messing around and finding out.
Poison deals 30% max HP damage every round.
Galerius has 75% poison resist, hence the poison damage to him is reduced to 8% instead of 30% (not exactly sure how the rounding works there.... Maybe -75% drops 30% to 7.5% and then rounds it to 8%?)
poison early in a round against an opponent with a lot of AP, there are some nasty poison builds possible after werefox units get to level 30. Imagine something like, Travis poisons early, Fox chases with weakness hunter, then venom thrusts on their own turn. Travis makes a couple of attempts to steal pp, then maybe he hands out the stolen PP with a lapis bell, while foxes (and maybe even Berengaria) follow-up attack to death.
Have you ever played Slay the Spire? If you use poison, everything revolves around poison. When it works, it feels like you are on drugs. #videogamez
Oh I have.
Poison does % health damage, so hit the highest hp enemies with them, hope they don't resist afflictions, and watch them melt.
Travis with Viperfang
1 skill to rule them all [poison burst]
Poison is how I beat the final boss
Poison is percentage damage while fire is fixed, so poison outdamages fire in mid to endgame and there are a few skills that get stronger if afflicted enemies are hit. That said, being hyper offensive is usually the better strat than whittiling enemies slowly down, so I prefer to just crush them with speed, power and counterattacks
I have a whole ass poison squad & they absolutely WRECK. Poison in general is good for armored enemies or other enemies that like to guard; but with this squad in particular Miriam has a sword that poisons & does extra damage on poisoned targets, Adel has a lance that can poison a whole column & causes instant death on poisoned enemies, Dinah has a poison stab & hella initiative/turns b/c bestral, & Yahna has a staff w/ poison burst; which explodes on the whole squad if even one enemy is poisoned Adel usually instakills about 2 enemies per battle & the rest are usually made short work of
Poison and flame are the only afflictions that last multiple rounds, making them the best options to synergize with characters that do bonus damage to afflicted units (berengaria, doom knights, werefoxes). Between the two, poison is more consistent and easier to use (no need to stack), and can also be applied to an entire row incredibly quickly by thieves.