I got Cold Embrace to work. And it was actually quite amazing! The way i figured it out was to find a way to not have to worry about trying to make them hit. I found that, (say you have 3 cast stones) if you lay them in a triangle formation (quickly. like cast --> dash --> cast --> dash --> cast), you can treat this kind of exactly the way you talked about hunting blades. Just set and focus on dodging. No matter where you go, you will basically be hitting the enemy with at least 1 beam. and that bonus damage racks up suuuuuper fast, especially with poms invested into the cast. If you try it the way you were exhibiting in the video (which i did at first), you just get hit if you want the beams to do any damage. Truth is, you just don't need to be hitting with all the beams. I do want to see how my strat works with extra stones but i have yet to get extra stones with it.
Crystal Clarity is my favorite cast duo boon. It is so strong when you get all the pieces together and is how I got my highest heat runs including my 32 heat statue :)
Blizzard Shot and Ice Wine carried me through the run any time I got them, no matter how fucked up I was. Absolutely broken spells, god tier - especially with Hera's bow. Load these bad boys in and watch everything die. I once 4-shot Hades with Hera's bow with Blizzard Shot.
“I wish blizzard shot did more” he says, right after a clip of it draining Hades health like he’s a mere wretch and not the god of the dead. The damage on this thing is so insane the devs probably removed everything else that they planned for it like moving fast or doing chill because just murdering Hades is a thing you should totally be able to occasionally do with the right boons.
Great video! Can I suggest a guide on Trial of the Gods? Like a video explaining what happens when you don’t pick each god. Maybe even a priority rank on whom to pick, but a guide itself would be cool. Thanks for the great content!
18:24 Where you're going wrong with Cold Embrace is how you're laying out your stones. You don't want your stones next to each other creating a small laser at Zag. Instead, spread the stones farther from each other so the lasers cover a larger area while you dash around the room and attack in circle patters. Sets up a reliable way to spread a curse for privileged status and can be used to clear damage control enemies. It's not great but you can utilize it if you get it. My favorite cast builds are definitely with slicing shot but if the boons don't go your way, it can be one of the worst.
My first hades kill was using the demeter+dionysus combo, loved it as soon as I used it for the first cast of it. Love your ranking/opinion of various things vids!
Discovered this channel relatively recently and have been binging content to "level up" my game in Hades. Great content, and keep it up! I wouldn't mind seeing a "greatest accomplishments" best of video, or super unlikely builds compilation video of past content of yours distilled down into a top 10 or something. Also, maybe as an April Fools' Video, I'd love to see your top 10 cutest costumes you've worn on stream!
I got Ice Wine/Scintillating Feast on my aspect of Hera run the other day. I also got things like jolted and double strike as well as an extra cast stone. I went into the fight with Hades with the Charon braid as well. Fastest fight against Hades I've ever had.
Yay, I was waiting for this video! These are some of my favourite Duo boons because I love using Cast builds. You put most if not just all of them where I expected you to put them on the list, but I have to say I enjoy using all of them, sometimes especially the ones on lower tiers because it can be a fun challenge to make them work (Curse of Drowning might be the sole exception because I have such a hard time using it effectively, i.e., in a way that doesn't kill me). One particular example is Cold Embrace; I once had a run with Cold Embrace that worked out so well that the build is one of my all-time favourites. I combined it with Aspect of Achilles and a backstab package consisting of Parting Shot, Blinding Flash, and Divine Dash for bonus damage, but I also had a really cool synergy around slowing foes as much as possible with Glacial Glare as a base and Killing Freeze and Dionysus' Numbing Sensation as add-ons. Moreover, the Drunken Strike I used to activate Numbing Sensation also helped towards Privileged Status bonus damage for my Cast. Long story short, it all fit together really nicely, and it made using Cold Embrace a lot of fun! PS: Correct me if I'm wrong, but the shards created by Blizzard Shot don't actually inflict Chill, or do they?
I found it easier for me personally to send my casts with cold embrace in completely random directions when fighting enemies instead of firing them all in the same place. That way I don't need to worry that my beams will hit, they will eventually, and I don't dash into awkward positions risking to get hit for no reason trying to aim with them. Was still mildly effective though... but still had a lot of fun !
Had similar thoughts when using Blizzard Shot. Was expecting it to be harder hitting than flood shot and was disappointed on that run. They are completely different
I was waiting for you to call out the instant placement of the cast with ice wine and am glad you did! One of my favorite builds is an eris rail hangover/trippy shot build. The fast rail attack makes it very easy to rack up stacks in between casts and specials. Plus it makes you eligible for th legendary which increases damage by 60% when they are in fog. So your hangover is wrecking them with 75% from eris + 60% from the cast. And the cast is also up by that much and has no delay from the lob. AND you have privileged status from chill + hangover. Throw in scintillating feast which is benefiting from all the same general purpose damage boons and constantly reapplying jolted and it is just broken as hell. If you get PP from artemis or the duo boon for hangover from ares, it's all even better. or more damage from that one demeter boon that procs when you're out of casts. It actually works really well with either cast mirror talent too. The casts fit in real nice with stygian soul (proc eris with special, cast, apply hangover, cast, proc eris, repeat.) or with infernal soul for more burst (try to get flurry cast for this.)
I hope you revisit this and bump lightning rod. It has all the benefits of a tracking boon without actually having to worry about anything tracking. It can't be outrun, it works around obstacles, it hits in an area. All you have to do is stay a little bit close, and you can fight while it's happening. And you don't have to worry about aiming your cast at all. Hit the enemy? Great. Don't hit the enemy? ALSO GREAT.
Just wanted to say I love your videos man. I’ve been loving rogue likes as of late and after playing vampire survivors, and Risk of Rain, Hades is definitely the most enjoyable. I’ll definitely be looking forward to you guiding me through Hades 2!
i have never got the cold embrace duo boon but i did have a demeter crystal with crit effects with zeus cast build with jolted and lightning strikes while the cast is on the ground with my adamant rail. it was a very powerful build i found for my playstyle as well but hades got me in the very end
My favorite that I ever had was hunting blades with lightening rod. The blades go chew up the enemy on their own and then you don’t need to rush to pick up your stones. Just let Zeus do his thing for a bit.
As far as arctic blast goes, if you have a successful demeter cast build going, that thing's stacking chill so fast it's just constant explosions. It is a little less safe since enemies are going to move a little faster, but they still move slower than when they are hit by hunting blades!
I really like ice wine. It's kinda wonky with Beowulf and Hera because of the weird delay it has but with Poseidon sword, Achilles spear or even Eris rail (idk) it works perfectly. Also, the +30% extra damage is specially great because trippy shot is the highest burst damage cast, and +30% is really beefy Also crystal clarity. I saw a reddit clip of someone just deleting Hades. They had stygian soul but like 4 casts, probably mirage shot, glacial glare, arctic blast and I think Demeter call. Arctic blast was doing a lot of work, because the chill applies so incredibly fast
I love lightning rod. I feel like it has to be considered the only S tier duo boon if you are not running a cast build and get offered it. I'm probably skipping most of these if I'm not concentrating on my cast or taking them with just the intention of selling them off, but lightning rod fits any build and just gives free damage and most likely jolted status and damage.
Worth noting that while the Artemis Zeus boon doesn't let you land Jolted it does let you land Exposed, and with the bouncing you're liable to get in backstabs fairly often.
You would also need to get parting shot duo boon in addition to lightning phalanx to get the backstabs. Not impossible to get but another piece to the puzzle.
blizzard shot is the sss tier for me, it simply rips the life out of bosses especially the hated elysium bosses (i hated theseus to the guts) it surprises me that it kills asterius in 4 cast (i cast 6 times but the 4 cast is the perfect hit, i use controller btw) and kills theseus in 3 cast. By the time i got to hades it took awhile because hades keeps moving around so its hard to hit a perfect cast, but the damage is INSAAAAANE since all my pom mainly goes to my cast, and i snag chaos boon that increase my cast by 1 and increase my cast damage
Cold embrace is good if you pom cast alot and use BM movement strats IE hades fight putting them between you and boss b4 lazer swirl so he takes contuios dmg while you hide behind a pillar. Also instead of stacking them into one "super lazer" as ive seen alot of people do, its much better to get an extra cast and place them in a square around target. Not the best for multi mob encounters but on bosses like hydra and hades it can be really powerful
One time as I was on a 20 heat run with Zagreus’s aspect or Nemisis aspect sword (can’t remember which one) but Curse of drownings pulse activates Lightning’s if you have sea storm, just thought I’d say this, but idk if your ranking these cast duos on their own or if your counting as if they stack with anything else, but I’d thought I’d say this fact just in case you end up getting Curse of Drowning along with Sea Storm in a run, try it out sometime! I honestly think this duo of duos combo is amazing
I haven't pursued Dionysus cast duos yet, but yesterday I experienced 6 bloodstone + blizzard shot. Will be hard to top that. Is it possible to have ice wine and scintillating feast at the same time?
I just started playing this game does it matter the order of which God Boon to get or as long as you get the requirements for the each of the required boons is all that matters? Also you don't rank "all" the boons? just the ones worth ranking? @jawlesspaul
Well... A video ranking ALL boons would be REALLY long. It doesn't matter which god's boon you get first! I just think the cast duo boons are interesting and fun to talk about 😊
Not sure how mirage shot makes s tier given 80% of the time you’ll be doing 80 damage with the cast you don’t use instead of 50. Sure, with the right entirely other duo boon it’s good, but… you only have ~40 chambers to put everything together which includes all those rooms where you just got… a key.
I don't usually take Poseidon when I'm looking for cast builds so the only times I've been offered mirage shot are for casts I'm ignoring. Artemis, Dionysus, Demeter, Zeus, Hermes... that's already 5 gods so Poseidon? Just isn't rating for me. But then I'm not playing on high heat with loads of Erebus gates for random Poseidon boons to just pop on in to my 5 god cast hunt.
![[DRAGON BALL LEGENDS REVEALS ＆ STUFF] LEGENDS FESTIVAL 2024 Special Edition Part 1](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/mV5bGIswTtQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I got Cold Embrace to work. And it was actually quite amazing! The way i figured it out was to find a way to not have to worry about trying to make them hit. I found that, (say you have 3 cast stones) if you lay them in a triangle formation (quickly. like cast --> dash --> cast --> dash --> cast), you can treat this kind of exactly the way you talked about hunting blades. Just set and focus on dodging. No matter where you go, you will basically be hitting the enemy with at least 1 beam. and that bonus damage racks up suuuuuper fast, especially with poms invested into the cast. If you try it the way you were exhibiting in the video (which i did at first), you just get hit if you want the beams to do any damage. Truth is, you just don't need to be hitting with all the beams. I do want to see how my strat works with extra stones but i have yet to get extra stones with it.
Sounds like a fun build to try!
It's also bomb if you drop them all and just try to hang out in the backstab zone on a boss
@@JawlessPaul you also want to place them far away from the boss
Crystal Clarity is my favorite cast duo boon. It is so strong when you get all the pieces together and is how I got my highest heat runs including my 32 heat statue :)
Nice! I love it!
Blizzard Shot and Ice Wine carried me through the run any time I got them, no matter how fucked up I was. Absolutely broken spells, god tier - especially with Hera's bow. Load these bad boys in and watch everything die. I once 4-shot Hades with Hera's bow with Blizzard Shot.
Sick!
“I wish blizzard shot did more” he says, right after a clip of it draining Hades health like he’s a mere wretch and not the god of the dead. The damage on this thing is so insane the devs probably removed everything else that they planned for it like moving fast or doing chill because just murdering Hades is a thing you should totally be able to occasionally do with the right boons.
Big fan of Trippy Shot and how it stacks with duo boons. So much fun to play.
It's such a great boon!
Great video! Can I suggest a guide on Trial of the Gods? Like a video explaining what happens when you don’t pick each god. Maybe even a priority rank on whom to pick, but a guide itself would be cool. Thanks for the great content!
Don't pick: Athena, Aphrodite
Anyone else isn't nearly as annoying.
Sounds like fun!
Pretty true!
18:24 Where you're going wrong with Cold Embrace is how you're laying out your stones. You don't want your stones next to each other creating a small laser at Zag. Instead, spread the stones farther from each other so the lasers cover a larger area while you dash around the room and attack in circle patters. Sets up a reliable way to spread a curse for privileged status and can be used to clear damage control enemies. It's not great but you can utilize it if you get it.
My favorite cast builds are definitely with slicing shot but if the boons don't go your way, it can be one of the worst.
I'm gonna try your method tomorrow during the stream! thanks for the tips
My first hades kill was using the demeter+dionysus combo, loved it as soon as I used it for the first cast of it. Love your ranking/opinion of various things vids!
Cool! I'm glad you liked the video!
Discovered this channel relatively recently and have been binging content to "level up" my game in Hades. Great content, and keep it up! I wouldn't mind seeing a "greatest accomplishments" best of video, or super unlikely builds compilation video of past content of yours distilled down into a top 10 or something. Also, maybe as an April Fools' Video, I'd love to see your top 10 cutest costumes you've worn on stream!
Great ideas! Thanks for checking out my content!
Your wife has the most hilarious sounding sneeze xD
Yes... and quite loud as well
Lightning rod is top tier in my book. Combined with other casts and double strike is amazing
it ain't bad!
Getting sea storm and curse of drowning together is really op
Indeed!
I got Ice Wine/Scintillating Feast on my aspect of Hera run the other day. I also got things like jolted and double strike as well as an extra cast stone. I went into the fight with Hades with the Charon braid as well. Fastest fight against Hades I've ever had.
It's super good!
Yay, I was waiting for this video! These are some of my favourite Duo boons because I love using Cast builds. You put most if not just all of them where I expected you to put them on the list, but I have to say I enjoy using all of them, sometimes especially the ones on lower tiers because it can be a fun challenge to make them work (Curse of Drowning might be the sole exception because I have such a hard time using it effectively, i.e., in a way that doesn't kill me).
One particular example is Cold Embrace; I once had a run with Cold Embrace that worked out so well that the build is one of my all-time favourites. I combined it with Aspect of Achilles and a backstab package consisting of Parting Shot, Blinding Flash, and Divine Dash for bonus damage, but I also had a really cool synergy around slowing foes as much as possible with Glacial Glare as a base and Killing Freeze and Dionysus' Numbing Sensation as add-ons. Moreover, the Drunken Strike I used to activate Numbing Sensation also helped towards Privileged Status bonus damage for my Cast. Long story short, it all fit together really nicely, and it made using Cold Embrace a lot of fun!
PS: Correct me if I'm wrong, but the shards created by Blizzard Shot don't actually inflict Chill, or do they?
I believe I tested it and I think they do... maybe I should double check? Cool build idea btw
I found it easier for me personally to send my casts with cold embrace in completely random directions when fighting enemies instead of firing them all in the same place. That way I don't need to worry that my beams will hit, they will eventually, and I don't dash into awkward positions risking to get hit for no reason trying to aim with them. Was still mildly effective though... but still had a lot of fun !
Cool!
Had similar thoughts when using Blizzard Shot. Was expecting it to be harder hitting than flood shot and was disappointed on that run. They are completely different
Indeed!
I was waiting for you to call out the instant placement of the cast with ice wine and am glad you did!
One of my favorite builds is an eris rail hangover/trippy shot build. The fast rail attack makes it very easy to rack up stacks in between casts and specials. Plus it makes you eligible for th legendary which increases damage by 60% when they are in fog. So your hangover is wrecking them with 75% from eris + 60% from the cast. And the cast is also up by that much and has no delay from the lob. AND you have privileged status from chill + hangover. Throw in scintillating feast which is benefiting from all the same general purpose damage boons and constantly reapplying jolted and it is just broken as hell. If you get PP from artemis or the duo boon for hangover from ares, it's all even better. or more damage from that one demeter boon that procs when you're out of casts. It actually works really well with either cast mirror talent too. The casts fit in real nice with stygian soul (proc eris with special, cast, apply hangover, cast, proc eris, repeat.) or with infernal soul for more burst (try to get flurry cast for this.)
That's a great combo! Sounds like fun!
I hope you revisit this and bump lightning rod. It has all the benefits of a tracking boon without actually having to worry about anything tracking. It can't be outrun, it works around obstacles, it hits in an area. All you have to do is stay a little bit close, and you can fight while it's happening. And you don't have to worry about aiming your cast at all. Hit the enemy? Great. Don't hit the enemy? ALSO GREAT.
It definitely has it's uses!
Just wanted to say I love your videos man. I’ve been loving rogue likes as of late and after playing vampire survivors, and Risk of Rain, Hades is definitely the most enjoyable. I’ll definitely be looking forward to you guiding me through Hades 2!
I can't wait for it! 😊
i have never got the cold embrace duo boon but i did have a demeter crystal with crit effects with zeus cast build with jolted and lightning strikes while the cast is on the ground with my adamant rail. it was a very powerful build i found for my playstyle as well but hades got me in the very end
Nice!
My favorite that I ever had was hunting blades with lightening rod. The blades go chew up the enemy on their own and then you don’t need to rush to pick up your stones. Just let Zeus do his thing for a bit.
Totally!
As far as arctic blast goes, if you have a successful demeter cast build going, that thing's stacking chill so fast it's just constant explosions. It is a little less safe since enemies are going to move a little faster, but they still move slower than when they are hit by hunting blades!
Nice!
I really like ice wine. It's kinda wonky with Beowulf and Hera because of the weird delay it has but with Poseidon sword, Achilles spear or even Eris rail (idk) it works perfectly. Also, the +30% extra damage is specially great because trippy shot is the highest burst damage cast, and +30% is really beefy
Also crystal clarity. I saw a reddit clip of someone just deleting Hades. They had stygian soul but like 4 casts, probably mirage shot, glacial glare, arctic blast and I think Demeter call. Arctic blast was doing a lot of work, because the chill applies so incredibly fast
It's great! I really like it as well
I love lightning rod. I feel like it has to be considered the only S tier duo boon if you are not running a cast build and get offered it. I'm probably skipping most of these if I'm not concentrating on my cast or taking them with just the intention of selling them off, but lightning rod fits any build and just gives free damage and most likely jolted status and damage.
And you can sell it for $$$!
If curse of drowning would activate faster than I would use it more. The delay when activated is what gets me killed
Agreed! With the Hermes cast boon it is much better
Worth noting that while the Artemis Zeus boon doesn't let you land Jolted it does let you land Exposed, and with the bouncing you're liable to get in backstabs fairly often.
You would also need to get parting shot duo boon in addition to lightning phalanx to get the backstabs. Not impossible to get but another piece to the puzzle.
@@JawlessPaul Ahh, right. For some reason I was thinking spells could backstab without parting shot and the boon just let you do it from wherever. XD
Lol "That clump is a dead clump"
dead clumps, get your dead clumps here!
@@JawlessPaul 😆
blizzard shot is the sss tier for me, it simply rips the life out of bosses especially the hated elysium bosses (i hated theseus to the guts) it surprises me that it kills asterius in 4 cast (i cast 6 times but the 4 cast is the perfect hit, i use controller btw) and kills theseus in 3 cast. By the time i got to hades it took awhile because hades keeps moving around so its hard to hit a perfect cast, but the damage is INSAAAAANE since all my pom mainly goes to my cast, and i snag chaos boon that increase my cast by 1 and increase my cast damage
Cold embrace is good if you pom cast alot and use BM movement strats IE hades fight putting them between you and boss b4 lazer swirl so he takes contuios dmg while you hide behind a pillar. Also instead of stacking them into one "super lazer" as ive seen alot of people do, its much better to get an extra cast and place them in a square around target. Not the best for multi mob encounters but on bosses like hydra and hades it can be really powerful
I can see that... But it's so fiddly
One time as I was on a 20 heat run with Zagreus’s aspect or Nemisis aspect sword (can’t remember which one) but Curse of drownings pulse activates Lightning’s if you have sea storm, just thought I’d say this, but idk if your ranking these cast duos on their own or if your counting as if they stack with anything else, but I’d thought I’d say this fact just in case you end up getting Curse of Drowning along with Sea Storm in a run, try it out sometime! I honestly think this duo of duos combo is amazing
I can only imagine getting increased size on the lightning and walking into a group of ennemies...
"That clump is a dead clump" - JP 2021
Yes! I've had this combo before and it is crazy good!
Lol!
Lightning rod with zeuz shield is pretty good
love the machinarium soundtrack in the background, are you a fan of the game?
Definitely! It was one of the early indie games that I enjoyed back in the day
I haven't pursued Dionysus cast duos yet, but yesterday I experienced 6 bloodstone + blizzard shot. Will be hard to top that. Is it possible to have ice wine and scintillating feast at the same time?
It is indeed!
@@JawlessPaul that's great
hunting blades generally doesn't fail you imo. Get that engulfing vortex and you're good to go
Indeed! I love it!
I just started playing this game does it matter the order of which God Boon to get or as long as you get the requirements for the each of the required boons is all that matters?
Also you don't rank "all" the boons? just the ones worth ranking? @jawlesspaul
Well... A video ranking ALL boons would be REALLY long. It doesn't matter which god's boon you get first! I just think the cast duo boons are interesting and fun to talk about 😊
Cold embrace with lightning rod? Or with back stab damage?
Seems good! You'd need Parting Shot as well to take advantage of backstab though
Great video
Thanks!
Lightning rod underrated
It isn't bad, just awkward 😂
Other than cold embrace, crystal clarity and hunting blades i think you should take everything a tier down
Fair enough! 😂
Not sure how mirage shot makes s tier given 80% of the time you’ll be doing 80 damage with the cast you don’t use instead of 50. Sure, with the right entirely other duo boon it’s good, but… you only have ~40 chambers to put everything together which includes all those rooms where you just got… a key.
For a cast build it is amazing
I don't usually take Poseidon when I'm looking for cast builds so the only times I've been offered mirage shot are for casts I'm ignoring. Artemis, Dionysus, Demeter, Zeus, Hermes... that's already 5 gods so Poseidon? Just isn't rating for me. But then I'm not playing on high heat with loads of Erebus gates for random Poseidon boons to just pop on in to my 5 god cast hunt.
First
Impressive!