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Season 2 of The Bazaar came with quite a huge patch, mixing general changes and multiple impactful hero updates as well. As usual, we also got various hotfixes soon after, correcting the out of line Pygmalien build combining hogwash and lemonade Stand while adding a lot more changes to an already large Patch 2.0.0.
Before we take a look at the best performing builds in our State of the Game series next week, let's take a tour at the big headlines following this patch.
The Ranking change rewards a riskier approach
Up until this point, locking in a Bronze run was a priority in the early days, as to not lose any ranks at the end of our journey. As such, players were often enticed to build for a strong opener, and look to dominate the early PvP fights.
Once at 4 wins, we could either keep pushing to get to 7 and likely start losing momentum from there. Or start making more high roll oriented choices, in hope to get a power spike and a shot at 10 wins.
Now that we don't lose anything if we only win 0 to 3 PvP fights, a riskier approach might be more rewarding overall. Indeed, with the punishment of not finding something key to our otherwise insane build lifted, more players might be enticed to go for 10 rather than play it safe.
This mindset change could impact various aspects of the game:
- The Enchanted Item starting kit loses some appeal, as that pick was typically the best to help our early power in PvP. Now, the Gold Skill, or maybe the Income pick, might have more upsides except for heroes with great small item pools.
- Building our economy at the cost of a few PvP fights, or not being able to pick elite monsters, will not be as punishing as it was in the past. Now, that early approach in order to then focus on specific vendors we know are kind of expensive to reroll, or simply being able to purchase several large items, won't cost us a rank point anymore when it fails.
- Forcing a build we know is a powerhouse in the current metagame should net better results overall. Indeed, whether we wanted to test a build we saw online but didn't understand all the finesses of yet, or just enjoy playing something super specific, there is no drawback anymore except for the time invested.
The change to Futura (the kind lady allowing us one last stand when we reach 0 prestige), now offering to "Upgrade your Bronze-tier and Silver-tier items to Gold-tier" also goes in that direction. Indeed, this possibility means we can focus on picking up more skills during our run, at the cost of keeping our items at lower rarities. If that strategy goes south and we lose early, we can upgrade most of our carpet and have both a strong set of items and tons of skills to support them.
Overall, those changes should lead to more unfortunate journeys, but also more 10 wins runs. Note that you can still play for a strong early game and aim to lock in 7 wins in all your runs, as every stage nets an extra rank point.
Dooley
The change to power drill in the hotfix will limit Dooley's ability to go for 10 wins due to a weaker late game scaling, but should not impact most of our Silver runs. Indeed, As long as the Cores keep being this good, we will always have items to build around in the mid-game. It is a bit anti-climatic to start with this character after writing about the game rewarding a riskier approach, but Dooley might the character still looking to chain 7 wins runs rather than adopt a 4 or 10 approach.
With the hotfix to Pygmalien's hogwash and lemonade stand, Dooley should be able to inflict damage to that hero again. Yet, with Heals now removing more Burn and Poison on top of more Regen available, regular damage builds feel like they got the short straw in the new season.
Is it finally time for Damage Dooley to shine?
Pygmalien
The Regen experiment lasted about 24 hours before the developers took it away, for good reasons. Then, with hogwash not that strong to build around anymore, Pygmalien is probably back to jabalian drum as its best way to dominate in PvP.
beehive is quite the curiosity with its change in the hotfix. It should be a little harder to collect Busy Bees, as we need to find beehive specifically to get more of them. However, the enchantment change looks very scary now, so holding the fort until level 10 might be a valid strategy. It was quickly hot fixed to scale based on each individual Bee, but I feel like it still has a lot of potential.
As for the Investment Opportunities expansion, most of what I have faced or heard about it has been about it supported jabalian drum even more. ring king gauntlets with their multicast, wrist warrior if you can find a fast shield item, or simply speedrunner alongside yo-yo have been pretty strong so far.
On May 9th, speedrunner took a nerf, starting at the silver rarity and now only charging from adjacent toys. I don't think the item is necessary for that build to thrive, but giving it more strong items would have pushed it too much, hence the quick reaction.
For that quick nerf, the Pyg's Gym was buffed to gain a bit more value and trigger faster. That item was miles away from jabalian drum, so it will likely require a huge change to compare to it.
Mak
Except for Magnus' Femur, which you now have more incentives to upgrade due to the change, but remains a solid build to aim for. Mak got only better with Season 2. Indeed, the Reagents got a small buff to help them feel better after the harsh nerf they received during Season 1. The revert to Boiling Flask should allow building around that item once more. Plus, a few new skills have appeared to grant more Regen, a big part of Mak early power, and a solid Diamond only skill for Potions also joined the party.
Yet, none of that trumps the extra 50 health Mak got at the start of a run, which makes a big difference during the first days. The Bazaar is about winning PvP fights, and although 50 Hp typically stop mattering after day 2 or 3, winning those because of it is a huge change in my book.
More health means more time, which often equals more poison dealt to our opponent, and more regen for us.
As for the Dangerous Experiments expansion, I feel it is a home run. Not only it added a new build for Mak, it also feels viable looking at the early feedback from the community. There are items to help its speed in Apothecary or Library, while we can also use the poison items to scale Refractor. Once refined, this should be a new, reliable way to build for a Mak run.
Vanessa
The new Tortuga item brought a friends oriented build for Vanessa, granting the pirate even more ways to build around the multitude of friends we can pick up early in a run. There is obvious synergy with pufferfish due to each item charging the other, while electric Eels were also praised in the feedback I saw online.
The new larger item must have been pretty good, as it quickly took a slight nerf in the May 9th hotfix, reducing its damage output and increasing its cooldown in the Silver and Gold tiers.
The other meaningful change for Vanessa is the revert on shipwreck, which should allow the Aquatic build to regain some strength in the process. It is only collectible as a diamond item, making it quite rare, but with Tortuga earlier on, they could complement each other over the course of a run. Considering that build leverages several friends, it should make these much more reliable to pick up early with Tortuga now in the mix and their old build available once again.
Overall, the only bad news for Vanessa is the nerf to shot glasses, now at 4 seconds cooldown. clamera got changed on May 9th, not slowing multiple items anymore, which could hurt Slow builds looking to go off immediately in a fight. Combined, both nerfs could hurt Slow builds looking to go off quickly in a fight. Yet, the hero now has a good variety of builds available, so she should remain a competitive pick despite these changes.
Closing Words
With the hotfix removing Pygmalien's ability to enchant Hogwash and demolish the competition, The Bazaar feels like a cool place to hang out once again. Plus, a second hotfix in as many days shows the developers are eager to find the right balance for Season 2 to kick off the right way.
Mak definitely made the most of the patch with buffs and a good-looking expansion, probably the character to keep in mind early on. Vanessa got a new item and regained the ability to build around Aquatic items, net positives for the Pirate even if the second hotfix was a bit of a bummer. Dooley feels worse overall, especially in the late game, but can still count on its excellent early and mid-game to represent a safe pick to chain Bronze and Silver runs.
Lastly, Pygmalien got a fine expansion, although Mak's looks way cooler. Plus, the quick hotfixes probably means we are back to play Jabalian Drum and Freeze oriented builds. The first one can be exciting with the expansion coming in as support. As for the other, the nerf to Cold Room in Patch 2.0.0 will naturally make it look worse, but probably still good enough compared to several other builds. Hopefully, Beehive can bring some sense of novelty.
