So i had the idea that a way to improve the random weapon shrine and reduce the frustration and “oh f*ck i screwed myself by using this” factors wouldn’t actually be too difficult on paper. Remake the process so it´s more like a mini interface like the trial chests and let you view what you get from the roll, and if you want to take what you got from that roll.
If you like it ? Then take it and be happy about lucky coins spent, if you dont? Feel somewhat bad for coins wasted but at least it wont ruin or badly downgrade your ability to melee things.
I like the idea. It’s important that we still lose the coins from interracting with the shrine, since it’s a risk that is first and foremost a choice. The further choice not to take the new weapon allows you to persue whatever meta you are working within.
I dislike the idea: you end up persuing a meta out of choice and not out of improvisation. Part of the charm for me about CW is how varied each run is, specifically due to the lack of control players have over what they can use. Yes, things can get sucky if you’re really unlucky, but I have had runs where what I thought would have been a regretful purchase became viable, and furthermore, enjoyable.
I don’t feel like this specific change is what the shrines need, but I do agree there is some balancing that swap/ temper shrines would benefit from, and mainly to make green (maybe blue) shrines more attractive, and not another part of the scenery.
There isnt really a lack of control though, a player who wants to use the weapons they got can just skip the swapping shrines and go for the tempering ones instead. Random stats aside that does at least ensure you wont have problems with THP and the like for the most part. Which is good.
You wont be a shade that goes from having a Sword&dagger with a painbuild to a painbuild with a 1handed axe…which only really pains you and your teammates when it occurs. And other careers similarly have weapons that will just ruin them if added to the wrong setup which kills the fun very quickly…
I´ve had several runs getting really, really bad weapons and traits that got me killed in the next few melee fights since…well i couldnt fight much of anything really. Boons too but that´s another topic.
How arent they good though? They are fairly cheap and if you get lucky you can get very strong stats from early on. Plus hero power is priceless since its boosts damage, stagger and cleave(some weapons).
A strategy i like using is upgrading 1 weapon to green (50 more power) then in the next map upgrade the other to blue (100 more power) then upgrade the green weapon to orange in the one after. If i just keep going like this i get a lot of power for each upgrade and i have a fairly good shot at getting rather helpful stats too.
The reason i take that order is because i figure it´s better to get pilgrims coins bonus on the ranged weapon and the chance is bigger to do so on the blue shrine when i add 2 new properties.
The randomness is what makes the chaos wastes fun. If you want to play safe and predictably then just upgrade the weapons you selected in the keep before the expedition started. Easy.
I see that most players avoid the random weapon shrines and only upgrade their existing weapons. This is completely understandable because they selected the best weapon for their build at the start of the game, and any other option would be a downgrade or, at best, a lateral move. Right now the only reason to pick a random weapon is if you can’t find any upgrade shrines and the random weapon will be one or two tiers higher in power. So, really not much incentive at all.
I really think that the random weapon shrines should give ANY melee or ANY ranged weapon in the game. No class or character boundaries. That way you can end up with weapons that cannot be equipped in the keep. Bounty hunter with a longbow, Grail Knight with a troll hammer torpedo, shade with fireball staff. It would add an extra dimension of craziness and provide some incentive to use the random weapon shrines. We shouldn’t waste this opportunity to embrace the chaos.
Some characters I’ll take just about any melee or any ranged weapon, especially if its a big upgrade (from white to orange/red).
However, there are characters where I like maybe 1-2 weapons or the opposite end, have 1-2 weapons that would ruin the run if I ended up with them.
We could really do with something like an item scrapper in Risk of Rain 2.