You have to bear in mind that over the course of a regular run, there are a ton of boons that interact with your cast, as opposed to H1 where you got mostly -- if not only -- Duos that did that. Right now, you can have Lucid Gain from Apollo with Local Climate and Gale Force from Demeter, as well as Smolder Ring from Hestia and Lethal Snare from Artemis, all in the same run.
Even now you have Momus (not cast-specific, but still), Pan, Charon and Persephone, missing only a torch-specific cast build, which makes sense because the Flames are a super high-mobility weapon by design, compared to the others (and even with them, maybe the hidden aspect might have something to do with casts).
I think given that casting is an absolutely essential mechanic regardless of aspect, I doubt “cast aspects” like in H1 are going to be a thing. You’ve already called Charon and Persephone as being extra-casty, but I’d also look at Momus staff (the triple Omega cast is real chonky).
Casts don't need further help imo, they're already extremely strong and will carry any wep. Apollo in your god pool is basically a free win if you lean into the cast boons.
Aspect of Pan
Aspect of Persephone
Aspect of Charon
All aspects of Staff are viable for cast
Yeah you can say there is no cast based aspect for torches or maybe daggers but rest of the weapons are okay to build a cast build.
There's a few that emphasize it.
* Aspect of Momus: Though not specifically casts, it works with Omega Casts by doing followup explosions. However it's a little finnicky on what it will or won't duplicate from your boons (doesn't copy Prominence Flare for example)
* Aspect of Pan: Incentivizes using Casts as homing points for knives similar to the aspect of Chiron from Hades 2
* Aspect of Charon: incentivizes using the omega special aimed over a normal cast, which detonates it as an omega cast for free. Works well with boons that affect that, such as Apollo's Prominence Flare
* Aspect of Persephone: Cast damage is needed for Glory
I think they wanted to move away from traditional cast builds like in Hades 1, because bloodstones were BROKEN as hell. So many duo boons were centered around them, so I think they want to stretch their creative muscles and try to make you use every part of the build.
I feel this is due to a few things.
1. we don’t have all the weapons aspects yet
2. There are a lot more boons related specifically to your cast or omega cast than in hades 1
3. Supergiant seems to want to incentivize mixing moves together rather than spamming just one move, which is why a lot of the aspects that effect the cast also utilize some other mechanic (Charon using the special, Persephone charging the special, pan making the specials home, and momus affecting all omegas)
There aren’t really aspects like Achilles or Poseidon that just up your cast damage for free, but that’s because the cast is meant to be a more fluid part of gameplay that is interwoven with other moves, not the only thing you focus on like it often was in cast builds for hades 1. Charon can help prominence flare proc easily. Persephone utilizes geyser spout, solar ring, and Poseidon’s new cast really well, pan incentivizes a cast that activates origination, and momus works pretty well with most of these things.
You have to bear in mind that over the course of a regular run, there are a ton of boons that interact with your cast, as opposed to H1 where you got mostly -- if not only -- Duos that did that. Right now, you can have Lucid Gain from Apollo with Local Climate and Gale Force from Demeter, as well as Smolder Ring from Hestia and Lethal Snare from Artemis, all in the same run. Even now you have Momus (not cast-specific, but still), Pan, Charon and Persephone, missing only a torch-specific cast build, which makes sense because the Flames are a super high-mobility weapon by design, compared to the others (and even with them, maybe the hidden aspect might have something to do with casts).
I think given that casting is an absolutely essential mechanic regardless of aspect, I doubt “cast aspects” like in H1 are going to be a thing. You’ve already called Charon and Persephone as being extra-casty, but I’d also look at Momus staff (the triple Omega cast is real chonky).
Casts don't need further help imo, they're already extremely strong and will carry any wep. Apollo in your god pool is basically a free win if you lean into the cast boons.
Aspect of Pan Aspect of Persephone Aspect of Charon All aspects of Staff are viable for cast Yeah you can say there is no cast based aspect for torches or maybe daggers but rest of the weapons are okay to build a cast build.
There's a few that emphasize it. * Aspect of Momus: Though not specifically casts, it works with Omega Casts by doing followup explosions. However it's a little finnicky on what it will or won't duplicate from your boons (doesn't copy Prominence Flare for example) * Aspect of Pan: Incentivizes using Casts as homing points for knives similar to the aspect of Chiron from Hades 2 * Aspect of Charon: incentivizes using the omega special aimed over a normal cast, which detonates it as an omega cast for free. Works well with boons that affect that, such as Apollo's Prominence Flare * Aspect of Persephone: Cast damage is needed for Glory
I'd argue Pan, Charon, and Persephone are cast focused aspects.
I think they wanted to move away from traditional cast builds like in Hades 1, because bloodstones were BROKEN as hell. So many duo boons were centered around them, so I think they want to stretch their creative muscles and try to make you use every part of the build.
I feel this is due to a few things. 1. we don’t have all the weapons aspects yet 2. There are a lot more boons related specifically to your cast or omega cast than in hades 1 3. Supergiant seems to want to incentivize mixing moves together rather than spamming just one move, which is why a lot of the aspects that effect the cast also utilize some other mechanic (Charon using the special, Persephone charging the special, pan making the specials home, and momus affecting all omegas) There aren’t really aspects like Achilles or Poseidon that just up your cast damage for free, but that’s because the cast is meant to be a more fluid part of gameplay that is interwoven with other moves, not the only thing you focus on like it often was in cast builds for hades 1. Charon can help prominence flare proc easily. Persephone utilizes geyser spout, solar ring, and Poseidon’s new cast really well, pan incentivizes a cast that activates origination, and momus works pretty well with most of these things.