Sometimes I even pick a random range card just to have more chances to get a monocle
I enjoy this part of strategy, and this is the reason I normally play on a few ascension levels below maximum. I usually do not pick ‘remove affinity’ and ‘reduce reward options’ ascensions.
I have vague plans to visually rearrange / group ascensions to better communicate their intended severity.
As a small example, with affinity, you can also play in the opposite direction – picking Monocle will increase the chance of encountering cards with random ranges.
I’d prefer having a monocle over fireproof gloves when going to the lava pit.
On high stages, Fireproof Gloves do help significantly against enemies’ Burn damage. In fact, I had to nerf them a few versions ago since they previously prevented 100% of Burn damage, completely countering hardest fire monsters.
Conversely, there are cases when controlled small self-damage is beneficial (Enduring Fist, Embroidery Needle, Pipette, Pythos Dwelling, etc), and Burning with Monocle is a potential synergy in these cases.
I always avoid abacus, since it’s not really that useful to have
Interesting. I almost auto-pick Abacus with Mage, since increased Ivory Tower block is (usually) enough to offset the spikes of enemy damage. Also, I feel I was punished for having Abacus by Frozen Giant / Ice Dragon far more often than by Eye of Dilemma.
I agree that Abacus is less useful in other scenarios. My second-place in frequency is probably in dexterity-scaling Rogue builds for Juggling. I also remember using it with Immolate and Bird of Hermes with some success. In theory it should be very good with Thermal Fracture, but I never once encountered that combo.
fumble floor(greed * 0.03) effects I don’t think it has the same expected average value, because it doesn’t depend on the amount
I meant floor(greed * 0.03 * number of effects) effects
Isn’t it spelled “symptom”?
Yes, noticed it too when posting my previous message. Fixed.