Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (Full Version)

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Laeon val Observis -> Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/28/2026 18:05:16)

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[image]https://www.dragonfable.com/images/DF/author/Verlyrus.png[/image]
Friday, August 28, 2026
Fleshweaver Pre-Testing!
Hey there, heroes!

This week, the long-awaited Fleshweaver class is finally available for testing! Note: This release requires an engine update!

[image]https://cms.battleon.com/DF/images/2026-08-28-FWTestDN.png[/image]

Fleshweaver is a flexible class with a variety of unique mechanics.

First off, you'll notice you begin each battle with 0 MP. Instead of spending MP, most skills spend HP, converting the spent HP into MP, along with 5% of your max MP.

Second, Fleshweaver always takes damage to MP before HP. As you use your skills, you'll build your barrier up to protect yourself!

Finally, for every 700 MP damage taken to your barrier, you'll generate a Protosoul, increasing your Crit by 5 each. You can carry up to 4 Protosouls at a time, and start battle with 1 already generated. Protosouls can be spent to empower your skills, increasing their effect durations and cooldowns (there are a couple exceptions!).

It's certainly a different playstyle from the other classes we have! If you are level 70+ and have a Dragon Amulet, you can check it out using the button in the Book of Lore!


Also this week, we have a new cosmetic weapon available for purchase!

[image]https://cms.battleon.com/DF/images/Promo-alloyedtorchdn.png[/image]

The Alloyed KabutoArc can be clicked to change its appearance and energy color, and can be purchased for 450 Dragon Coins from the DC Cosmetics shop!


Now for Fleshweaver's skill and mechanics details!

As mentioned before, you'll start each battle with 0 MP. Fleshweaver's skills that cost HP will generate MP equal to the cost + 5% max MP. Damage taken by the mana barrier will generate a Protosoul every 700 MP lost. Damage dealt directly to MP does not count for this— only damage that would be dealt to HP but was blocked by MP counts.

If you attempt to use a skill with an HP cost, but don't have enough HP, you can still use it and generate MP, but you'll gain a stacking penalty each time (-10 All, -10 Avd/Def) that can not be purged. However, it will reset when it wears off after 3 turns (Of course, stacking it will also reset its duration, so be careful!).

Though you can hold up to 4 Protosouls at a time (and gain +5 Crit per Protosoul), the Protosoul generation counter will still count damage taken, so with good planning, you can set up an immediate Protosoul after spending one. But if you misplay, you may find yourself down a Protosoul for a while.

Attack:
  • 1 hit x 200% damage
  • Heal 2% max HP
Fleshsaw:
  • 5 hits x 40% damage (200%)
  • Costs 250 HP, Cooldown 5
  • Applies -20 All,+20 Health to target on hit for 3 turns.
  • Empowered: Cooldown increased to 11, effect duration increased to 9.
Fingerswarm:
  • 1 hit x 150% damage to all targets
  • Costs 100 HP, Cooldown 1
  • Empowered: Cooldown increased to 2, damage increased to 225%.
Nailburst:
  • 1 hit x 200% with +200 Crit
  • Costs 200 HP, Cooldown 4
  • Applies a 200% None DoT for 1 turn, or applies a DoT execute to the target if they are below 30% of your HP.
  • Empowered: Cooldown increased to 6, DoT effect duration increased to 4.
Erupt Horror:
  • 4 hits x 100% damage (400%)
  • Costs 400 HP, Cooldown 7
  • Gain +100 Bonus, +200 Crit for 3 turns.
  • Empowered: Cooldown increased to 12, effect duration increased to 7.
Slough Skin:
  • 2 hits x 75% damage (150%)
  • Costs 250 HP, Cooldown 6
  • Purge enemy effects from self, gain debuff immunity for 1 turn.
  • Empowered: Cooldown increased to 9, effect duration increased to 3.
Morbid Cage:
  • 4 hits x 40% damage (160%) with 50 Bonus
  • Costs 200 HP, Cooldown 12
  • Stun target on hit for 3 turns, and also apply -75 Avd/Def for 4 turns.
  • Empowered: Cooldown increased to 15, -Avd/Def duration increased to 7.
Hecatoncheires:
  • 6 hits x 25% damage (150%)
  • Costs 250 HP, Cooldown 6
  • On hit, applies -(Level) STR/DEX/INT for 2 turns, and gains +(Level) STR/DEX/INT for 3 turns.
  • Empowered: Cooldown increased to 13, -effect duration increased to 6 , +effect duration increased to 7.
Flesh of Ice:
  • 2 hits x 50% damage (100%)
  • Costs 200 HP, Cooldown 6
  • Gain +200 Avd/Def for 2 turns.
  • Empowered: Cooldown increased to 8, effect duration increased to 3/
Flesh of Light:
  • 1 hit x 150% damage
  • Costs 150 MP, Cooldown 8
  • On hit, apply 1 turn of -80 Bonus/Crit
  • Empowered: Cooldown increased to 13, effect duration increased to 4.
Flesh of Nature:
  • 4 hits x 40% damage (160%)
  • Costs 300 MP, Cooldown 11
  • Gain 5% max HP HoT for 3 turns, and on hit, gain a stacking -5 Health res per hit, and apply a stacking +15 Health res per hit to target (4 turn duration).
  • Empowered: Cooldown increased to 19, HoT duration increased to 6, Health res durations increased to 7.
Flesh of Darkness:
  • 1 hit x 150% damage
  • Costs 150% MP, Cooldown 7
  • Apply a 100% damage DoT and -35 Boost for 4 turns
  • Empowered: Cooldown increased to 10, effect duration increased to 8.
Flesh of Water:
  • 3 hits x 30% damage (90%)
  • Costs 1 MP (not a typo, you need 1 MP!), Cooldown 8
  • Heal 4% max HP per hit.
  • Empowered: Heal per hit increast to 7% max HP.
Flesh of Energy:
  • 2 hits x 125% damage (250%) with +200 Crit
  • Costs 250 MP, Cooldown 1
  • Gain +50% Crit damage for 1 turn.
  • Empowered: Cooldown increased to 4, effect duration increased to 5.
Flesh of Fire:
  • 6 hits x 50% damage (300%)
  • Costs 200 HP, Cooldown 4
  • Gain Overwhelming Hunger, a permanent effect that converts 200 HP to MP at the start of your turn (After DoT effects). You also gain 20 Boost while this effect is active. These effects increase each turn. HP conversion increases by 50, and Boost increases by 5.
  • Empowered: HP conversion starts at 400, and Boost starts at 40.
  • If you run out of HP to sustain the Hunger, this will automatically deactivate.
  • When used, this skill turns into Dual Immolation.
Dual Immolation:
  • 6 hits x (50+X)% damage with 200% Crit
  • Costs 0 HP, Cooldown 8
  • Damage increases with missing HP, up to 600% total at 1 HP remaining.
  • Empowered: Damage scaling is doubled, up to 900% total at 1 HP remaining.
  • When used, this skill removes Overwhelming Hunger and turns back into Flesh of Fire.
With Fleshweaver, you'll be able to take risks and survive on the edge, but if you miscalculate or stretch yourself too far, things can turn disastrous fast. Manage your Protosouls, HP, and MP, and you'll be able to weave your way through anything in your path.

As always, things are subject to change and adjustment and feedback, so please let us know what you think!


And that's all for this week!




GodJank -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/28/2026 18:18:59)

There is genuinely no way we've actually got our hands on FleshWeaver.

This class is so cracked oh my god this is cool

Edit: Nailburst is extremely messed up.


Nailburst:

1 hit x 200% with +200 Crit
Costs 200 HP, Cooldown 4
Applies a 200% None DoT for 1 turn, or applies a DoT execute to the target if they are below 30% of your HP.
Empowered: Cooldown increased to 6, DoT effect duration increased to 4.

The upkeep on that is really, really good if you use your empowers on it. Flesh of Darkness is a reasonably strong DoT too with the added bonus of having -35 Boost. I am definitely seeing the potential for DEX to overtake INT in certain matchups. One thing I am a little miffed about is not being able to Hecatonchieres > Fleshsaw > Flesh of Energy > Dual Immolation. By the time you've used FoE, Fleshsaw or Hecaton (depending on which one you use first) will have already run out. But maybe this is intentional?

I know we have all given Verly a very hard time these past few months, but man. Again and again, I'm constantly impressed by how insanely cool some of these reworks and releases turn out to be. FleshWeaver is so insanely cool, and I'm genuinely tipping my hat to the devs for going the distance. God, this has been great.



Laeon val Observis -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/28/2026 19:27:14)

Probably it's just a display anomaly, but when I was doing my usual type certification for Inn combat, Emperor of the Sea Chickens and Kittyipillar, the latter's DoT seems to have jumped straight to KO-ing me instead of deplete MP first, deplete HP for the remaining damage (I was 1 HP at that time whilst under the effects of the All/MPMBDP debuff while the Alice in Wonderland reference monster's DoT was active). Otherwise, it's pretty much deserving of its lategame status with the skill level and skill costs to properly utilize.

The fact that its Soulsynch equivalent skill is in a location normally associated with DA skills makes me have the impression that this class is likely to be a DA-only upgrade to SW+CW unless of course it takes a unique route aside from a Guardian-like training regiment.

So far, my critique would probably be the above debuff. While the stat demerits feel in the right place, having it active for 3 turns feels punishing.
EDIT: Another thing I've noted is it feels like it demands significant All or element-specific resistance stacking. Maybe adding a Damage Reduction effect somewhere is in order.



Shadow_Knight41 -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/28/2026 20:11:39)

Not what I expected, though I dunno what I expected. It's pretty cool that animations are "different" than usual ones, and smoother, too. Can't say I'm a fun of that pirate legs haha. And ummm... I really don't have much to say, I never do. I just wanted to type something, I love this game and the forums, but my interest is wavering, which scares me.



DragonKeeper -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/28/2026 22:10:13)

I have been experimenting with this trial model. It is interesting playstyle mechanics and fun to learn. I am not sure what we will need to sacrifice in the saga in order to obtain Fleshweaver as a story class but I will probably use it for at least one of my six alternate characters.



Deni3000 -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/28/2026 22:51:27)

Craaaazy cool mechanics for a crazy cool class. It seems overpowered at first, but using health as currency makes it a lot riskier, and the mechanics force you to expose yourself to a lot of status ailments. And it's not exactly overpowered for questing since you run out of health far more quickly and don't keep the MP between battles. I haven't anywhere near gotten the hang of it yet, so maybe it really is overpowered, but for now I'm really enjoying it as it is.

Also, in the kneeling animations, are the knees bending backwards? If that's intentional for the body horror angle, that's really cool attention to detail.

Edit: I like that Piotr has special dialogue when wearing the fleshweaver class too, just noticed that.



Laeon val Observis -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/28/2026 23:25:40)

Overall impression of test FW in its current state: using the MP bar as both an extension of our HP bar and the cost of our non-Ice/Fire Flesh of <insert non-Ice element here> skills is a good identity, but the intense MP cost of said skills means that even Doomed Mode mobs can puncture fast and hard enough that the HP cost of the HP depletion skills -which give it the more CW-like feel- are more felt to the point that even the aforementioned glass cannon feels more durable. Flesh of Fire/Dual Immolation is awkward identity crisis of Soulsynch and Final Draught seemingly rolled into one.

Possible means to reinforce FW to make it worth sacrificing Aegis and our prowess at SoulWeaving:
  • Reduction of the MP cost of the non-Water "Flesh of" skills - probably reduce them by no more than 80-90 percent of their current costs. Should give FW sufficient beefiness.
  • Reduced Mana Barrier damage monitoring for Protosoul generation - if altering the base effect duration will devalue this class-exclusive resource, this would be the only viable course of action. 500 Mana Barrier damage feels like the lowest possible figure.
  • Nonzero starting MP - but not 100% either. At FW's current state, it's practically a one-trick pony akin to Ranger arming up the shield Turn 1.
  • All Damage Reduction tied to nonzero MP quantity - 20% all Damage Reduction tops to give it some facetanking capability, which it seems to advocate to with the blind being shorter compared to the Boost debuff, fades when MP drops to 0. Was tempted to give FW a purge skill, but might be too dangerous, so this is a more stable means of giving it a bit more survivability.
  • Static HP depletion over time for Flesh of Fire - should allow it additional aggression.
  • Removal of the AllRes/MPMBDP demerit - HP costs, compounded by the pseudo-DoT of Flesh of Fire, are punishing enough.

EOD analysis: Using a full Inn build, with 200 END, 145 WIS, 100 INT, managed to conquer the "gate" that is Convergence II Jaania (Normal) (Seaweed, 2 HP pots laced with HoT/+Bonus Arachnalchemy at full power consumed). FW present design is that its skill costs are best suited in 1v1 scenarios. HP costs cause intense psychological duress during multis. Possible recommendation would be to modify how the HP cost is regenerated as MP as the MP regen is in a good state (e.g. halve the HP cost, retain the MP regen values).



Jet Silver -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/29/2026 0:23:16)

Gonna let one of my final forum posts just be to say I was here when Fleshweaver came out, lmao



Digital X -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/29/2026 5:27:49)

Same haha, I could have sworn this came out already. Either that or I was so behind in game I wasn't even aware and I've just seen old concept art. The transition from regular HP damage to MP damage will take a while for me to wrap my head around that though.



Bluu -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/29/2026 6:01:49)

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Was tempted to give FW a purge skill, but might be too dangerous, so this is a more stable means of giving it a bit more survivability.
It has one.

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Another thing I've noted is it feels like it demands significant All or element-specific resistance stacking. Maybe adding a Damage Reduction effect somewhere is in order. All Damage Reduction tied to nonzero MP quantity
Every class mandates significant All or Element Resistance stacking for endgame fights.

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Removal of the AllRes/MPMBDP demerit - HP costs, compounded by the pseudo-DoT of Flesh of Fire, are punishing enough.
The demerit only applies if you do not have enough HP to consume for your skills. What you are proposing is that players should be able to freely bypass the HP cost of their skills by maintaining a healthy Mana Barrier and recklessly using left-side skills at 1 HP. The -All/MPM/BPD Debuff is only -10X for 3 turns i.e. the penalty isn't that noticeable if the enemy is close to death and you want to do a final push, and the HP costs aren't as punishing as you make them sound because you obtain an equivalent amount of Flat Damage Reduction + effectively 5% of your MP's worth of healing.

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Probably it's just a display anomaly, but when I was doing my usual type certification for Inn combat, Emperor of the Sea Chickens and Kittyipillar
These fights are easier than story bosses and the fact that this is where a bulk of your testing lies takes away the credibility of all of your endgame-related posts.

I appreciate that you are excited about the new class, but it hasn't even been out for twelve hours. Maybe we should give it some time before providing feedback and changes that don't reflect the actual quality of the class.



Laeon val Observis -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/29/2026 6:17:40)

^
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It has one.

Yeah, did see that after rereading the skill lineup a second time.
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These fights are easier than story bosses and the fact that this is where a bulk of your testing lies takes away the credibility of all of your endgame-related posts.

So, are we to imply to imply that those "crutchless expert-level" plays+builds are an absolute? While I actively refuse to that as it as such is more of a show of slothfulness and laboratory vanity, how about to those who are less optimized or lucky, the latter of which why I do not really stick to such proposed standard of meta sheeps in favor of adapting to the fear of tempo disruption by consuming pots at the minimum.



GodJank -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/29/2026 6:35:54)

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So, are we to imply to imply that those "crutchless expert-level" plays+builds are an absolute?

No, but the difference between story bosses and Inn bosses are that story bosses are supposed to challenge lower level players with worse gear, who may not have a full understanding of their class and can generally afford to play a bit carelessly. Inn challenges are meant to be tackled at lvl 80-90, where you are supposed to genuinely pay attention to boss mechanics and understand how your class operates. It comes off rather weird immediately recommending several buffs/nerfs and changes, when you've barely even tested the class. Those fights can be dealt with just by pressing the Attack button, or doing really sloppy gameplay without really caring about mechanics.

This is a bit like getting a brand new state-of-the-art gaming computer, and stress testing it by playing indie games. Very little is being demanded of you, and you're not really being tested to your fullest potential. I think playing this game casually and just "having a little bit of silly fun" is great and people are allowed to do that, but why is it that every time you get any sort of pushback, you immediately start having some vendetta against "le elite expert level endgamers"? The fact that you're unironically calling people "experts" or trying to put people here on some sort of higher pedestal sounds like you're intimidated. You don't have to be, dude. We're all just players, just like you.

So while I wouldn't FULLY agree with Bluu's statement that it "takes away the credibility of all of your endgame-related posts" (it seems a little mean), I understand the sentiment and I generally agree that it's not a good idea to test out a class against only mechanically easy fights, or bosses that deal low damage. For example, why not try Dance of the Stars, Covetous Fortune, or even Blades & Bones if you want a good res stack?



Deurzz -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/29/2026 8:05:01)

Most of these impressions come from testing the class against challenges I have done before such as Dragonlord's Legacy, so it is heavily focused around a player that has already experienced endgame challenges:
The good:
-Very unique playstyle + aesthetics/animations, very fun to play
-Cool to see it being similar-ish to other weavers on some skills but still differentiates itself
-Decently balanced for the testing phase, I don't think it's far ahead of the pack/overpowered, probably top 4 free classes alongside techno/ds/bdl? (As a first impression)
-Overall pretty flexible, rotation very dependant on enemies & incoming damage (does make it harder to play probably)
-Empowerments are generally solid, feels fun to play around
-INT vs DEX vs WIS choice seems good, could see arguments for any of these stats depending on the fight

The confusing/bad:
-Arachnalchemy seems to not work?
-Widget seems inconsistent - after eFire, the widget stays active and consumes a soul on the next skill by default, but after eNature/eIce the widget is inactive.
https://youtu.be/1ohDWAfX4Kg?si=0ZCvHlndHTXO1BgF&t=187 03:07 as a visual example

-Unempowered MP spenders (Light/Nature/Dark/Energy) feel incredibly bad to use without empowerment imo
Most of the times you lose more of your HP + MP pool clicking these skills than they reduce, especially considering every hp spender is effectively a 5% MP heal (or auto attack being a 2% HP heal)
-Class can very quickly lose control of the fight, mostly because none of its healing skills work without MP, and inn fights can very easily empty your MP pool + deal more damage than mp recovered whenever you are outside of Fire synch.
Probably intended, but I thought it was noteworthy since it does make a class that is already fairly difficult to play as a baseline even more difficult.

Overall, very happy with the class!
It feels very unique and fun, strong enough to take on the most difficult inn challenges but imo not in an overbearing way, fairly similar to other strong classes that have been strong for a long time.



Bluu -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/29/2026 8:16:18)

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So, are we to imply to imply that those "crutchless expert-level" plays+builds are an absolute? While I actively refuse to that as it as such is more of a show of slothfulness and laboratory vanity, how about to those who are less optimized or lucky, the latter of which why I do not really stick to such proposed standard of meta sheeps in favor of adapting to the fear of tempo disruption by consuming pots at the minimum.
If you cannot beat fights that are easier than story bosses with the class, then your suggestions on how to improve the class are probably not very useful lol

Any rational person looking at your post about you only having defeated the Sea Chicken and Kittypillar (bosses that the game itself claims are very easy), but then immediately turning around to give several suggestions on how to improve this allegedly underperforming class, is going to assume that you have done very little productive playtesting of the class and have jumped at the opportunity to put your opinion out there. I would have respected your opinion a lot more if you had beaten a 4- or 5-star difficulty (the game itself rates the difficulty of the bosses after all) with all the crutches available before giving your feedback, as opposed to doing a 1- or 2-star difficulty fight without crutches. That you still struggled and immediately assumed that I was mocking you for not being able to get a crutchless expert-level clear is a projection of your own insecurities and embarrassment at having been called out publicly, but this is a risk you took knowing full well that you were posting your opinion on a very public forum.

Additionally, I would greatly appreciate not having to waste my ChatGPT tokens to comprehend your posts. Lorekeeper is going to be very upset about this.



GodJank -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/29/2026 11:34:05)

Yeah I think the diversity in stat usage is also really cool, and it'll be really interesting to see what stat spreads people will come up with. It's dope how it has the potential to either burst incredibly hard with INT (empowered Dual Immolation hits like a freight train if you edge), have strong sustained damage with your two DoTs (one of them being 800% None DoT if empowered) or have more flexibility with your various mana skills, not to mention that it contributes to your overall bulk. It also helps you get more Protosouls, as you take more damage, which gives you more opportunities to empower your skills. I had the most fun with the class so far with Blades & Bones and Chaos Slayers.

Edit: I'm definitely enjoying 200 WIS/END 45 INT (45 DEX sometimes) or more situational spreads. The empowered elemental skills are really, REALLY good, and having more mana to play with means you can get access to more Protosouls.



TFS -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/29/2026 14:24:32)

Fleshweaver is really fun and unique! Here is a breakdown of my thoughts on it:

+Fleshweaver feels strong and viable for the hardest bosses, as befits an endgame class with 10 years of anticipation and an unlock cost.
+Fleshweaver has very unique and complex playstyle that's fun to use - balancing HP, MP, and Souls constitutes a lot of moving parts. It feels rewarding to 'bank' your HP into the MP bar when your HP is low and the recoil can't kill you, but conversely you have to be careful not to hit the MP cap and waste HP. Which means...
+...different stat builds are better suited to different fights, rather than the class just having a one-size-fits-all build like basically every other class in the game. INT/END is preferable in scenarios where a damage race is important, but all the additional bulk you get from END/WIS is better adapted to many more fights. I think the 'optimal' build for this class will be contingent on the specific fight and your specific rotation - depending on how early you use Fire and Horror and on how much damage the monster does, you want to split INT and WIS just enough so that Horror doesn't overcap you. All this is to say that there's a large amount of customization and player agency.
+Despite having a unique playstyle, Fleshweaver still feels like a Soulweaver class since you still have to play around the central mechanic of draining yourself for synch (fire) just enough to maximize its damage without losing control of the ramping recoil.
+The protosoul empowerments and fake deathproof of 1 HP + MP barrier even make Fleshweaver superficially similar to Chaosweaver!
+Unempowered Aegis having a 2 turn shorter cooldown than if empowered is also something I appreciate a lot; the unempowered version has a different use case than the empowered one, so it doesn't feel like a 'waste' to not empower it.

-However, Fleshweaver is REALLY bad for questing - you sacrifice your HP to charge up MP and get a damage combination going, but your MP resets to 0 at the start of each fight. So, when playing a large number of fights against weak monsters, you just damage yourself a ton and don't get anything out of it.
-Some skills, namely Wiggly and Light, are useless/filler. Dark is also kind of suspicious - the DoT is good if and only if you can use an empowerment though.
-High MP costs on Light/Nature mean you hurt yourself for defensive effects that protect you from less damage than you take in MP. I feel like the unempowered version of Nature (as well as Dark and Water) could stand to be tuned up. Light, as said before, is just a nonsense move that hurts you for more damage than it protects you from, as if trying to use a blind to reduce incoming damage is at all compatible with the class's playstyle in the first place.
-The class paradoxically performs more poorly versus lower damage fights, due to Protosouls being too slow to generate - so you have to seppuku yourself with Uragiri. This can be rewarding if used tactically, but feels more like something you 'have' to do rather than something that can provide you with an optional optimization - probably isn't great that the class is so contingent on a specific endgame item just to keep pace with easier content. I think this could be remedied if Protosouls generated more frequently in some way.

~Arachnalchemy effects are bugged to not apply to Fleshweaver
~Inconsistently, some 1-hit monster attacks don't redirect 'spillover' damage to HP when they've depleted all of Fleshweaver's MP
~Reflects damage you through the MP barrier. Probably not intentional?
~Elemental moves change the color of the well on Fleshweaver's arm, but not on its body
~When zoomed out, some moves that visually appear to be a ranged attack - such as Nail or Water - still have you run up to the enemy first
~No element locks?
~Flesh of Fire and Dual Immolation use the same absorb -> unleash animation; wouldn't it make more sense for Flesh of Fire to be the absorb and Dual Immolation to be the unleash?

Overall I'm quite excited about the class, Fleshweaver is powerful with a fun playstyle and definitely lives up to the hype so far.



Bluu -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/29/2026 18:19:16)

I'm really enjoying this class and its unique playstyle so far. The three latest classes in Evolved PumpkinLord, Dragonslayer, and Fleshweaver have all been very welcome additions to the game imo, in that they're all very bulky classes that have the ability to deal good damage and don't adhere to any strict rotation per se, even though each of them naturally has their own best practices. All of these classes feel really good to play because they give the player lots of agency - not just in the stat builds you use, but also in how you decide to actually play the fight.

But onto the topic of Fleshweaver specifically, the class feels overpowered to play despite being quite balanced and reasonable in practice, which is a good sign because it means that it's fun and enjoyable. As others have said, its unique playstyle makes various builds viable and the stat spread of the class can be tuned to the challenge you're fighting against. I disagree with TFS' claim that every class besides Fleshweaver has a one-size-fits-all build because that is not the case - I and many others frequently experiment with non-standard stat spreads for the more challenging matchups, but I will agree that Fleshweaver encourages this type of experimentation a lot more. The 5% MP Heal that accompanies the MP recovery on every skill that costs HP means that a 200 WIS build effectively gives you a shield of 90 points of damage every time you click a Flesh skill on top of the mana barrier you naturally build, though you are nonetheless discouraged from playing recklessly as you would rather not have your health dip too low with no means by which to recover it lest you pick up a stack or two of Soul's Edge. The debuff itself isn't a run-killer by any means though, and you can certainly play around it with some smart maneuvering. At the cost of having swords aimed at my chin, I do think that the penalty should be increased the more you activate it (i.e. quadratically rather than linearly for example).

From what I can tell, the defenses and sustain of this class are top-notch. Even outside of the 5% Mana recovery on HP-cost skills, the class comes with a 2/7 shield in Flesh of Ice and a foreign status purge in Slough Skin that comes with a 1/7 effect barrier. The former can be empowered to a 3/9 shield (which isn't as useful imo, but still good to have in the kit) and the latter into a 3/10 effect barrier (which is fantastic). While the unempowered Flesh of Nature and Flesh of Water aren't the best, the empowered versions are quite good and provide you with lots of effective health, which you will need if you intend to use Flesh of Fire / Dual Immolation a lot through the course of the battle.

That segways into my next point, however: the unempowered versions of Flesh of Light/Nature/Darkness/Water/Energy leave a lot to be desired imo, given how much of your effective health pool you have to sacrifice to activate them. Flesh of Light is genuinely atrocious whether empowered or not. Nature and Water, as previously discussed, are ideally empowered, but can be used in their unempowered states if necessary. Darkness being a 4/8 or 8/11 -35% Boost with a strong DoT attached is quite good, but I find myself frequently choosing other skills over it if the debuff isn't that meaningful. Energy's base form is quite bad to the point where it feels like it's a typo that the status is one turn inclusive - I would never use this skill without a Protosoul either. As it stands, these skills come with a huge opportunity cost in their unempowered formes and should mostly only be clicked if you have the protosouls to empower them. I would certainly see the use case for them if the unempowered versions' MP costs counted towards protosoul generation though, because then you would forcibly use these skills in their bad states (well, save for Water of course) to generate more protosouls, which would give more of a use case to Energy and Darkness, though I can see how that would be tricky to reasonably balance.

The offenses leave nothing to be desired and are really good as they are; very intuitive and customizable based on what you actually need during the battle. If I could make a suggestion, it would be to not make Fleshsaw so extreme in terms of its protosoul empowerment, because going from a 3/6 -20 All to a 9/12 -20 All is quite the leap and can actually hinder you in some cases, although I would completely understand if this skill were intentionally designed this way in the interest of balance. Nailburst being as spammable as it is really ups the class' enjoyability factor, as it's easily one of the best animations in the game. Fleshsaw, Fingerswarm, Hecatoncheires, and Slough Skin are really good as well, all of which have low enough cooldowns that you will be seeing them a lot.

Animation-wise, the class is fantastic. However, I do have a gripe with Flesh of Fire and Dual Immolation using the same animation - there isn't a Flesh of Wind skill on the class and if it were to have a stepwise skill anyway, I'd much rather have the setup skill be Flesh of Wind rather than a repeat animation. I'm guessing that Wind must have been intentionally omitted so as to not step on Piotr's toes, but it is quite weird to have all the other Orb elements, so to speak. I would also have preferred if the Flesh of Water skill used blood rather than just water to really sell the body horror theme, but I do understand the soulwell concern there. Lastly, while I do generally like Darkon's work, I really don't like Erupt Horror as an animation; it looks extremely weird, clunky, and not at all like the player is actually hurting the monster in any meaningful way, rather just roaring at them and flailing its arms awkwardly, which somehow causes the monster to take 3000 damage. I doubt that any of the animations are going to be changed this late into the development, but I did want to bring these points up anyway.

Apart from that, I do agree with TFS' point on Fleshweaver being really bad for questing, and I'm not sure how that issue would be reasonably addressed; I hope that it is, though, because it would be quite an awkward flavor fail for a class like this to be atrocious at surviving long quests, since the lore behind it involves using Fleshweaving to survive an unnaturally long time by devouring spirits and subsuming the bodies of others to increase your lifespan. If there was a way to have Fleshweaver start off at 0 Mana at the beginning of a quest rather than a battle, that would be really useful imo.

Overall, this class has been very satisfying to play so far and has actually lived up to 10+ years of expectations, which is no easy feat given the amount of controversy surrounding it. Apologies if it sounds as if I came into this with much more criticism than praise - I do really love and enjoy this class, it's just easier to express criticisms than praise at times and this might be one of them.



Deni3000 -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/29/2026 20:06:34)

I actually never considered using Uragiri to generate protosouls quicker, that's gonna be fun to try out, thanks for the idea TFS. I tentatively agree that 700 damage is too slow for generating protosouls although I honestly don't think it's that bad. The cooldown increases of empowered skills already discourages spamming empowers, so maaaaybe the threshold can stand to be lowered a bit, but the unempowered skills feel mostly solid. I haven't tackled any crazy inn challenges with this though, so take that for what you will.

After using the class a bit more in casual questing, I'm starting to feel it might benefit from a mechanic that turns a portion of excess mana at the end of a battle back into HP, even if it's only like a quarter of it. It really wouldn't effect the actual combat balancing of the class in big boss fights, but I feel it might be critical for the class to be able to survive longer end game quests like the one near the fissure that has a ton of tanks or exaltia. These longer quests are still fully survivable, it just restricts the player to a very limited rotation and discourages experimentation. Bluu suggests starting with zero mana at the start of a quest, but that would allow you to tackle most non-inn bosses with a full health and mana bar (since they usually have a heal button/pad), which would be broken.

I will agree that the "Flesh of Light" skill isn't great. Love the animation for it, it deserves a buff so it gets seen more often. At the very least I don't think the unempowered 1 turn blind justifies an 8 turn cooldown.
Heavy disagree with Bluu that unempowered "Flesh of Energy" is bad, 1 turn cooldown for a 200 crit skill is crazy good.

TL;DR: Opinion hasn't changed after more testing, FW is still great although the light skill does badly need a buff. Maybe converting a portion of the mana back to health at the end of a battle would be good for longer quests, but haven't found any current quests impossible.



Cryomancer -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/30/2026 8:22:44)

Spent a bit of time testing Fleshweaver out - I think there are a few lingering issues here:

- Some of the unempowered skills aren't the greatest - base Light only lasts for 1 turn and the 150 MP cost probably means that you end up with less resources than you started off at (even empowered Light is pretty niche), base Nature costs 300 MP and only lasts for 3 turns (so you sacrifice nearly as much HP as you heal), base Water is only 12% if all three hits connect, and base Energy's crit damage buff only lasts for the turn it is used on (Bluu mentioned this earlier, but I feel like this is a typo and that it was supposed to be 2 turns inclusive?).

- TFS mentioned this earlier, but Protosoul generation is tied to enemy damage which paradoxically means that the class performs worse against weaker bosses. This wasn't an issue at all when when I attempted Never Apart where the bosses deal a lot of damage (and I suspect this would be similar for most 4/5 and 5/5 difficulty Inn fights), but against introductory Inn fights it felt like the class was struggling to generate Protosouls because the enemies didn't do much damage. This isn't that severe of an issue as you can simply gearswap to have lower resistances, though.

- I'm not sure how much the questing experience is taken into account when designing classes, but the class really isn't great for questing - Fleshweaver's skills primarily cost HP, but your MP resets to 0 at the end of every fight which is very problematic as you lose a bunch of HP for not much in return. I personally think the solution would be to have Fleshweaver's MP should reset at the end of a quest rather than at the end of a battle - this wouldn't affect Inn fights at all because each Inn fight is technically considered to be its own separate quest).

Aside from that, the class feels great to use. It's certainly difficult to use well given that the player has to manage three resources at once but it's an incredibly unique class and is powerful when used well - Dual Immolation doing 5k or so damage is a great reward for properly utilizing the class and managing your resources well. I also like how multiple stat builds are viable for the class as well - WIS/END is probably the safest (and is what I've seen other players use against some of the hardest fights), but both INT and DEX are also viable by virtue of Dual Immolation being an autocrit for the former, and Nailburst/eDarkness inflicting powerful DoTs for the latter.



JhyShy -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/30/2026 12:24:23)

Hello, just wanted to give my thoughts on the class since I beat solos with it without learning the mechanics which I feel helps indicate how uniquely strong this class is by itself. The class is strong, the Mana barrier innately lets it able to get out safely from +All gear without much worry if the MP bar is high, I do think this class shouldn't be much focused on crits and INT. I think it would be cool if this was either STR or DEX focused, replacing the protosoul's +Crit with a +Boost, letting it be less burst focused which a lot of classes do to being a consistent damage dealer (Which I think the class does well too with how small the -All is). Would love to have nature cost less though, its supposed to help HP and I get why it would cost a ton of Mana, but it might be better if it cost 250 or so, Energy would be much more fun if it had no cooldown I feel, helping it be a mana dump. Also the Water skill I think should heal a lot more than it does The +Stat skill I feel should do something more, it feels weak and the buff I feel doesn't really give as much of a benefit compared to the others. Very thankful that Fleshweaver has finally been released, no more teasing and "Haha in 2027 trust".

P.S (Please buff DBE's final to be enough to one shot the big daily elemental with its overdrive boost so it can kill it in one turn without dragon [X(])



MapCurse -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/30/2026 17:35:26)

Long time here, but ye, finally we seeing the Fleshweaver in game. FW is fun class in general, such a perfect animations and unique skills. The mechanics are interesting. How yes, FW use max INT to burst or WIS for tank and healing, but u can focus on use if u like a burst or tank for season fights. Just like a techno lol.

Looking forward for more FW content. [:)]



Aura Knight -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/30/2026 18:21:52)

Here's some quick feedback.

Some of the costs could use adjustments.

Water should be free just to have readily available a heal for emergencies.

The rest should adjust by 50-100 in reductions. Some are just too high when you also need to consider enemy damage potentially turning some skills unusable.

Attack should change to 2 hit and split the heal between hp and mp.

The more I try the class, the better it feels but there's still an odd awkwardness to it that I can't explain. I can't seem to like the mp reset because it can cause trouble during some quests. The class does well soloing and it is possible to quest with but it feels risky at times. I could see some long term enjoyment with it. The animations are starting to grow on me and I'm actually surprised by this because I initially did not like some. I look forward to the final product.



Jakau Ryuu -> RE: Friday, August 28th Design Notes: Fleshweaver Pre-Testing! (8/31/2026 3:48:50)

Oh wow, never quite thought I'd see the day, but real glad we got it before the forums closed down.
Took a bit to properly wrap my head around it (haven't been sleeping great lately) but I dig the versatility, both in how you can switch tactics pretty much on the fly in-battle and in how you can plan different builds emphasizing certain parts of its toolkit. I'm not in a position to gauge the sorts of adjustments it might need due to the aforementioned fatigue though. On a visual note, I'm admittedly still adjusting to the animations, but that's hardly a complaint in this context since we're pretty much playing body horror incarnate here. There's also something about how the class sits, almost evoking specifically a cat or dog, that's... borderline-cute in a hideously morbid way while still feeling predatory and straight-up wrong for a humanoid figure, which I think makes the whole thing worse/better.

Already decided years ago which character'll be taking the plunge in the event of the class' proper release (I'd already written her in my head to be the sort to "make the hard choices" even if the hard choice isn't actually necessary, so it felt like the best fit), but now that it's almost here I'm trying to brace myself for actually doing so, thanks to my newest character having reached Just Chillin' this past week... Aegis is just too likeable, man.



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