It's a fun game and there are several how to play articles/videos all over Boardgame Geek and Youtube, so I won't be discussing rules in depth here and some game terms that might not make sense are included (oh who am I kidding, Mike you know what I'm talking about)
It's tactical skirmish heavily influenced by video game MMORPGs and 4th ed D&D.
Ok Full Stop
wasn't D&D 4th ed so bad that WotC released 5th ed quicker than an average MS Windows version? Yes. But that is 100% because D&D was meant to be table top role playing and Gloomhaven was designed to be tactical skirmish. You're expectations are different. DnD4e's combat system routinely got in the way of the role playing while Gloomhaven's entire point was a series of missions unlocked by successfully completing previous missions with their tactical skirmish rules.
Anyways, Gloomhaven is fun because the game play uses both tactical and strategic elements; the choices you make tactically have strategic implications. In game terms, selecting your cards early in the characters 'hand cycle' limits what you can do later on. It is inevitable that you will paint yourself into a corner and get stuck with a useless, useless turn. But then you'll get better at the game :)
Gloomhaven also has well developed campaign mechanics. Your party unlocks new missions, your guys get better, and once you start getting sick of playing the same guy for months on end you'll likely be close to 'retirement' so you can start a new guy.
So that was several paragraphs not about my character and just my thoughts on the game at large.
Your Face went on a journey.
Your Face was a random archetype selection and named because of a multi year running joke, mostly funny to only me, but every once in a while, I make a clever pun and everyone laughs at Your Face.
Conceptually, Spell Weavers are the MMO version of a blaster. An AoE glass cannon mage. Low hit points, low card count. You can easily put yourself in bad positions and then the game will smack you around. Spell Weavers simply don't have the endurance to freelance a combat; they absolutely need the team.
Now it probably turns out, that I was the best choice to play a pure blaster character. My favorite archetype in City of Heroes was the blaster. Everything I learned about playing a blaster was learned the hard way, so the lessons stuck.
Your Face survives by managing her aggro. Don't put Your Face in a position to get punched, unless a) there's no other choice or b) you're sure Your Face can take a hit. Practically speaking, this means you routinely want to go late in the round, so the rest of your party gets the monsters good and pissed at them.
Going late segues into the next tip! Know what you do well! Spell Weavers have a ton of moderate damage AoE spells. Don't fall in love with them! Because in most encounters, Your Face won't defeat a monster starting at full health with one attack. The ideal turn, is to go late, wait for your group to smack around everyone in the room, and then step in and finish 3 off.
A Spell Weavers deck is also ridiculously different than everyone else's that you might be playing a different game. Everyone has super 'once a game' options on cards. In general, you got to plan those carefully. Because using a 'once a game' power in round 1 means that ALL later turns will not only not have access to that card, but also go quicker, sapping your characters endurance and utility. Not so for Spell Weavers. Their signature card is Reviving Ether
It's the top half. All your once a game cards return to your hand. This is crazy powerful! This almost always happens several rounds into the game; while your party is running out of gas you hit a button that damn near resets your game to round 1. This card dictates how you play.
1) You don't have to save it for the most optimal time, but you absolutely need to get your money's worth playing it. 4 cards back at a minimum
2) You really shouldn't take too many short rests. This card is too important to discard randomly on a short rest, and you don't have the spare health to re-draw,
Early, Middle and Late level play
Early on, Spell Weavers are one dimensional. You do have some cards that let you tank the bad guys for a round, or heal some friends for a round. But they're most definitely a cut below your attacks. Either your attacks are the aforementioned AoE's or they're single target that earn you experience so you can level. Oh yeah, it's quite easy to earn XP with a spell weaver. Your two best AoE attacks earn XP based on how many doobers you target and your single targets can be buffed with any color of magic; doing that earns 1 XP. You usually get around 15 XP via cards.
Somewhere around level 4, you can start sculpting your deck based on what you think the scenario needs. You can insert really good heals, decent defense buffs, or continue with the AoE blaster build. I had two general build philosophies: Build for a short mission or build for endurance. Also, a Spell Weaver is a fantastic chest procurer. Ride The Wind (nick named Jesse Owens from the Blazing Saddles line). You move EIGHT with jumping. So no traps or monsters can stop you!
Going to the movies this weekend be like...
3 rooms or less I considered a short mission. Build your deck to make Ragnarok level alpha strikes. All the cards you need to achieve this are of the 'once a game' types, so you don't have any staying power.
4-5 rooms I built for endurance. Get the single target bolts and the heals, those recycle back into the deck so you have some staying power. Nothing sucks worse then be being idle for the last 3 turns of a mission because you got knocked out from lack of cards.
End game, I was disappointed with. Ok, the Inferno card is super powerful and by the time you get it you can generate an alpha strike that shoots every mother f@#$er in the room
And last night, it was fun! I got to use it in a two room dungeon. Each room had 12 critters in it, and I dropped everyone in those rooms to half hit points with a single attack. You know what was not fun? Realizing that I could quickly get the necessary cards back into my hand and blast the entire room again. Well fun for me maybe, but not so much for everyone else at the table. I am 100% sure that Your Face could deal enough damage to kill everyone in that dungeon, demoting everyone else playing the game to providing me with a meat shield. Truthfully, I would have preferred to see an uber damage buff at L9 than the nuke the room card. But hey, I have 2-4 missions until retirement so what do I care?
Bucking the Conventional Wisdom
Every guide I read says the Crackling Air is a must have. CA is a damage buff on your next 4 attacks; normally +1 damage, but if you prime it with wind magic +2 damage. +2 damage is nothing to sneer at. But my experience was that CA really drops your Spell Weaver's endurance. If you don't exhaust immediately, you can't get it back with your Crackling Ether card or because it is in play. A Spell Weaver remains quite effective even without this card.
Gloomhaven's designer raved about the summon the Spell Weaver has, but I never used it. From what I saw of pets, they were only good to suck an attack or two. Which could be useful, but I never thought it was worth a card slot.
Gear Choices
Must buys
Your Face needs retiring. It was a fun campaign, but I am pretty sick of Your Face. Would I play this class gain?
Probably not. By the time we would cycle through enough characters that I'd want to replay this class, we'd likely have had enough of Gloomhaven. This problem is not unique to Your Face, every class will have this problem.
Now would I recommend this class to someone else? You betcha. It runs different than all the other archetypes and it was a challenging and rewarding experience.
- minor damage potion (+1 damage on all attacks this round)
- Harry Potter cloak (invisible for a round)
- beer goggles (advantaged on all attacks this round)
- armor piercing bow (ignore all shielding on attacks this round)
- Viagra stamina potion (return 2 cards from discard to your hand)
The game recommends you buy the damage potion and the cloak to start. And that's not bad, but we're playing 5 player which means that there might not be a stamina potion left for you to buy. Every class can use the stamina potion. The bow is situational, but when you need it, you really need it.
Useful not necessary
- the pendants or items that re-arm previously used items
- boots that make you move faster
- boots that ignore obstacles, terrain or monsters
- items that generate magic
Avoid
any melee weapon, any single target attack buff, any armour, any healing item.
Perk Choices
The first ones to get are either the deck clean up (remove four +0 cards OR replace a -1 with a +1), or the status affects (stun, curse, wound). and if you get the status effects first, clean up your deck next. and vice versa.
The next ones to get are the +2 magic generators.
Finally get the quick magic generators.
Finally, the last ones you should take are two +1 damage cards. And you only should only get those when every other option is exhausted.
To Sum up
Your Face needs retiring. It was a fun campaign, but I am pretty sick of Your Face. Would I play this class gain?
Probably not. By the time we would cycle through enough characters that I'd want to replay this class, we'd likely have had enough of Gloomhaven. This problem is not unique to Your Face, every class will have this problem.
Now would I recommend this class to someone else? You betcha. It runs different than all the other archetypes and it was a challenging and rewarding experience.
