Aphrodite started doing her cheat randomly even though we were hitting the enemies almost every round. It did it when we didn't attack, but it did the cheat even when we didn't attack. Just wanted to show you this, if it's not a glitch don't worry about it.
It's a bug, one that was possibly fine during the first week of test, but then somehow became bugged again during the "internal testing" downtime, and went live without any fix.
We tried it earlier today and found that at least the first life tendril will cheat every turn regardless.
I guess, pray for a patch soon? That said, the gear it drops is going to get a belated huge nerf so you may find it not worth the wait.
