The Mesmerist's Silk and Spindle, and the Mushroom King

The Mesmerist's Silk and Spindle

A Mesmerist takes a creature with a charm and lets it fight for them. Now there is a damage spell and a mana spell, both in three rungs, and the class starts with a staff of its own. The Mesmerist is the one class held back for the full game, so this half of the post is a look at what is coming.

The silk: a rot that hobbles

A thread of silk winds round one creature and eats at it every six seconds for thirty seconds. While it holds, the creature is slowed.

• Fretting Silk (level 1). 14 mana. 16 damage a tick, and the creature moves at 65% of its pace.
• Gnawing Silk (level 9). 50 mana. 68 a tick, at 60% of its pace: it cannot outrun you.
• Throttling Silk (level 17). 110 mana. 160 a tick, at 55%: it can barely walk.

For its mana, each rung hits about as hard as a Magister's bolt of the same level, spread over thirty seconds, with the slow on top. It is resisted as magic, so what decides whether it takes is level.

The spindle: mana back faster

• Slow Spindle (level 1). 8 mana. Mana returns 25% faster for ten minutes.
• Turning Spindle (level 5). 20 mana. Half again as fast.
• Humming Spindle (level 9). 40 mana. Twice as fast.

It speeds whatever you were doing: standing, sitting or studying. You can cast it on a friend as well as yourself, so in co-op a Mesmerist keeps the Magister and the Lightbearer going too.

What you are holding

A panel under the group panel shows whatever follows you: a charmed creature or a hireling. It shows the name, its health, its level, and for a charm "up to" a time. That is the most the charm can last. Most break sooner, and a charm breaks toward you. A hireling reads "hired".

The charms themselves are unchanged. Silken Leash, at level 1, holds a creature of level 4 or under. Bewitch, at 5, holds 12. Mind Yoke, at 15, holds 26. The orc in the pictures is a despoiler from Frostspire Reach, level 13, so that one is Mind Yoke's.

A staff to start with

The Mesmerist starts with the Clouded Staff, a magenta stone over an indigo grip. The Magister starts with the Scorched Staff, an ember stone on a charcoal shaft. Each has the numbers of the staff it replaces. A character who begins at level 6 or deeper carries the gilt Goldcrest Charmstaff or Goldcrest Spellstaff instead. The creation screen now shows every class holding its starting kit.

Every caster, in the demo too

• Spell damage grows with level: every damage spell a player casts gains 3% a level from level 2, which is more than half again by level 20. Heals and creatures' spells are unchanged.
• A run begins with your best spells ready: the strongest damage spell first, then the top rung of each line. Before, a road start filled your runes in the order you learned the spells, so a level 20 Magister could wake holding Ember Dart with Frozen Star left in the book.
• The spellbook shows what is in each rune. Drag a spell onto a rune, drag one rune onto another to swap them, and right click a rune to empty it.
• Two slows on one creature no longer multiply. The stronger one holds.

The Mushroom King, and a run that ends on a summary

• The Mushroom King is the first of four wins. He stands in the Drowned Grotto every run: level 14, 920 health. Bring him down and the win is recorded on your account, and you can retire victorious or press on. He carries a bounty of 250 gold, paid if you retire and lost if you die afterwards. He always leaves his cap or the Gardener's Cudgel, and sometimes both. The other three wins are the Eternal Judge, Bannoch and the Cinderwyrm.
• The world map letters the four wins with who keeps them, and the crown tiles on the tree say which boss each waits on.
• A run ends on a summary: gold earned, chests opened, secrets found, bosses and enemies defeated, and what killed you and where. Then the draft, which is now called "Take something with you".

Answering a blow pays

• A timed guard, or a roll that carries you clear of a blow, gives back what it cost and a swing's worth of endurance on top. Iron Guard doubles the swing it gives back.
• Six new boons, each changing what one of those answers does. There are 38 now.

• Riposte: a timed guard strikes back at the attacker, and the blow counts toward staggering it.
• Slipstep: for a second after you roll clear of a blow, your hits count double toward a stagger.
• Mercy Stroke: killing a staggered enemy gives you back a third of your endurance.
• Ringing Blow: when you stagger an enemy, everything within 3 meters is a third of the way to staggering too.
• Weathered Eye: a feint's warning ring is drawn pale and never opens, so you can tell it from a real blow.
• Tumbler: your rolls are clear of blows from earlier, and for longer.

Trader Wemble's new shelf

Seven new arms: the Blued Arming Sword (85 gold), the Blackened Greatsword (160), the Ashwood Pike (120), the Bronze Flanged Mace (80), the Tarred Yew Bow (90), the Banded Heater (40) and the Oakboard Pavise (60). And Wemble's Folly, a hammer at 1,999 gold. Each blow fills a creature's stagger two and a half times as fast and shoves it further, and it swings slowly.

Try it yourself

Play the free demo on Steam, and if this is your kind of descent, wishlist Ashburrow to hear when the full game launches. Thank you for playing.