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The latest Open Beta patch update for The Bazaar contains a lot of updates, especially skills wise. In that specific category, one particular change caught my eye, the switch from "At the start of each fight" to "The First time you use an item". Check out the latest Patch Notes for The Bazaar here.
This might not seem like a big deal, but this update could have a huge impact on builds based around a slow item that would be Charged or Hasted. Indeed, skills like Quick Ignition, Toxin Injector or Oceanic Rush were a great help to get our build started in a fight. Now, we'll need a low cooldown item to trigger those skills, which should push back the start of our loop, possibly making us more vulnerable to a Freeze or Slow strategy, able to disrupt us before we get going.
Some specific, build defining skills were also updated, and should impact certain strategies quite a lot:
These two, looted on Trashtown Mayor, have been incredible support to any Shield or Weapon based builds for a long time. Even with the monster moved to day 5 instead of day 2, many would still regard Augmented Defenses or Weaponry as a good enough reason to always pick Trashtown Mayor when it popped up.
Now, Augmented Weaponry might get replaced by Steelstorm when playing Vanessa.
As for Dooley and Pygmalien, they can always build around improving their Critical changes to maximize damage, or include more Slow, Freeze elements into their build, both disruptive means getting buffed in this patch.
Overall, I expect this patch to slow things down a bit, rewarding a build's scaling ability, or capacity to pop off before its opponent to disrupt them with Freeze and Slow. This feeling is reinforced by the buff to the Regeneration mechanic, which is now able to Crit and should help extend the duration of fights as well.
Vanessa in Patch 0.1.9
The skills should be the most impactful changes to Vanessa in this update, with the Weapon build now looking for Steelstorm instead of Augmented Weaponry. The other builds, especially the Aquatic one, might get a little slower due to the switch from "At the start of each fight" to "The First time you use an item" for a few skills. However, all of those non-weapon builds gets a new skill to look for in the late game.
Actually, even a Mono-Weapon build with a good Lifesteal output might use this as a secondary win condition.
The other change one could mention is Tropical Island now not feeling like a pure Stash item anymore. I still don't think we want to invest three spots on our carpet for it, especially as Vanessa isn't particularly great at slowing down the opponent. Who knows, maybe a build with Retaliatory Toxins, Dock Lines, Tripwire, and Electric Eels could emerge?
We even have a skill to support this build:
Pygmalien in Patch 0.1.9
The added ways to collect some Truffles is the big change for Pygmalien in my opinion, as it allows growing Fixer Upper's value even more. This might be counteracted with Vanessa gaining a powerful Poison Skill in Retaliatory Toxins, but I'm confident Pygmalien should end a fight before too much poison is applied.
Also, it was shared already that if the item giving you the Truffles is enchanted, then the Truffles will as well. Upon selling the Truffles, you will transfer that enchantment to the item gaining value. Pretty bonkers synergy if you ask me.
The other improvement to look for with Pygmalien is the buff to the Regeneration mechanic. Indeed, this should be a buff to the Frozen Assets expansion, which mixes Freeze and Regeneration items. Also, this could make Closed Sign a much better support item for Fixer Upper.
I believe these two improvements should more than make up for the lost Income in the associated start. Plus, Pygmalien also got some interesting redesigns, improving its pool of usable items.
Here's a picture share on reddit by Vaals_Out. Looks like the new Cargo Shorts is a pretty cool item. Wouldn't be surprised if a hotfix was coming out soon for it.
Solid Patch for Pygmalien.
Dooley in Patch 0.1.9
Did DJ Rob0t just become the old companion Core with this update ? Well, it is slower, but awfully similar. Plus, its Nanobots also got buffed, now at a 4 seconds cooldown - because there will be friends on each side, let's not fool ourselves - and able to deal a decent chunk of damage.
Simply the Companion Core, DJ Rob0t and 3 Nanobots means we used 8 spots on our carpet to get three 4 seconds 75 to 125 damage Nanobots that will likely be constantly Hasted after their first trigger. If we can find two more friends to go alongside that build, we can boost the numbers to 105 at the silver rarity, and 175 if Diamond.
Honestly, this doesn't look like a winning build in the later days, especially if we have to upgrade each Nanobot individually due to getting DJ Rob0t early in our run. However, this could represent a good way to rack up some wins up until day 5 or 6 before considering a switch. Indeed, DJ Rob0t now fills most of our carpet and allows us to have a chance in PvP and PvE during the early stage. Then, we could focus on economy for that period, and look for items in order to operate a switch later on.
Two other changes I look forward to testing in this patch are Thermal Lance and Uzi.
We just discussed how DJ Rob0t could be a good Haste / Friend build early on, and it just so happens Thermal Lance can now reach stupid amount of burns if Hasted, how convenient. Place it next to the Companion Core and see if we get somewhere.
Other items to consider as support are Solar Farm and Metronome in more Burn oriented builds. It'll probably be strong this way, but I liked the idea of the patch pushing an entire gimmick.
There is also a buff to Conflagration to note, which should further help Dooley's Burn strategies in this patch.
The other buff I wanted to highlight is the Uzi going back to a 2 seconds items. We've talked in the first section how some skills were changed, and we know need to use an item to trigger those: Uzi is your item.
I already liked the 2 seconds cooldown as a support to charging our Core fast. Now, with that change to Quick Ignition in particular, and paired with some help to Freeze and Slow strategies, I have a feeling a quick start will go a long way in winning our PvP battles.
Closing Words
Overall, I feel like this patch should slow down the pace of PvP matches, and reward disruptive and scaling strategies a little more. I expect Vanessa to rely on her Poison builds more often, while Dooley has a good reason to explore burning its opponent again and Pygmalien has all the reasons in the world to keep trying to scale Fixer Upper.
I hope this review of Patch 0.1.9 was helpful, and I wish you luck in The Bazaar! I should get to updating some of our guides soon, so check out the one about your favorite hero if you need some pointers on how to pilot it.
If you have any questions or if you're looking for coaching, feel free to reach out on Discord @den_ccg.
Good Game Everyone.
