Impackt: Year of the Ox

Come and see what item died this week!

Blueprints:

It’s another dagger with the standard +critical chance. Reasonable craft for a Tier 6 item but it’s not going to be making any differences for leveling heroes.

From a crafting perspective: Pretty expensive to craft. Although it only requires a normal quality Ninja Garb, that item happens to be:
1) Tier 7
2) A champion request so it goes for pretty high value already
3) Cannot be removed by mastery or ascension

Outside of that the normal material/dungeon component costs are reasonable (you can lower the Deep Coral to 1 with ascensions) but the Ninja Garb part means this isn’t the best idea to craft.

From a meta perspective: This is the new best-in-slot for the Light Armor slot meaning we say farewell to Swan’s Garment.¹ We’re seeing a continuation of a theme where slots that previously had no health options are now being provided a high tier item for their spot, and as covered in previous impackts Health will nearly always win out for Green-types over other options.

This is because of two reasons:
1) Dead heroes do nothing except inspect in the floor
2) The attack they lose swapping to a survival-based item isn’t enough that lowers their combat effectiveness. We’re trading minor damage for a big chunk of survivability.

Furniture

There are 2 indoor pieces of furniture this time.

On the left we have the Bamboo Arrangement, adding a splash of red and green to your shop. On the right is the Bamboo Saplings. Neither decoration has animation or special customer interactions (I mean to be fair there’s not exactly any room for that.)

Clothing

First up there’s a new hat for your merchant – a pair of Ox Horns.

You can change the colour of the horns

We also have a pet skin. This is new ground for a seasonal pack – the first time a pet skin has been included. It’s for the new Ox pet and looks like this:

Superior Pack

Blueprints

There are 2 blueprints this time.

From a crafting perspective: I think it is fair to say Tamas has taken a hand in designing these recent seasonal packs, given how many leather-based items we are seeing. This is a much nicer craft than yesterday’s Cloudwalker Armor (no precraft) though it does not topple the Republic Coiffe for the leather craft slot.

From a meta perspective: with these shoes we see an end to the reign of Shoes of Style². The same reasoning I explained with the Cloudwalker Armor also applies here – it’s a slot that previously lacked viable health options and we’re happy to trade a bit of damage off (really helpful in LCoG 12 for example.)

From a crafting perspective: the Oxen Impact definitely does live up to its name. With ascensions you can lower this to 14 Jewels, making it a very good item for your metal crafting slot (also has no weird precrafts or component requirements.)

From a meta perspective: that’s a lot of damage. A heck of a lot of damage. And it comes with a lot of defence. Basically this weapon smokes every other option for a hero if they can wield it and should be heavily considered for all of your gun wielders.

Note: although this gun means the end of Handcask ’65³ in terms of best-in-slot, Handcask still remains a great option if you’re looking to gear heroes on a budget. It still defeats all other weapons, just not the Oxen.

Flooring/Wallpaper

This is the Year of the Ox/Lunar New Year in action.

Summary

• Cloudwalker Chakram is another dagger for the collection.
• Cloudwalker Armor is great for your heroes but has an unpleasant precraft
• Cloudwalker Steps⁴is the new hot pair of shoes for your heroes.
• Oxen Impact makes one hell of an impact.
• You can start growing your own bamboo
• And dress up like an Ox
• And reskin your Ox to be more festive.

Final Score

Mega Pack: 7/10
Superior Pack: 9/10

1. 4.04 Swan’s Edges
2. 11.71 Swan’s Edges!
3. 5.83 Swan’s Edges
4. (ctrl+c ctrl+v cloudwalker)