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Big changes in the Oct-Nov 2012 classlead cycle
Garryn
Member, Administrator Posts: 527 admin
Akin to most of the previous classlead cycles, I am going to do a bigger series of changes to some skills that require it. In this round, Runelore and Evileye are the targets. I'm going to post all the details here, so that any potential concerns can be caught before the actual implementation begins. There are several things that could potentially be problematic - all constructive feedback is, as always, very much appreciated.
Lagua: negate hunger in the room
Laguz: rubble-like effect in the room, short duration
Circle rune effects - most of these are entirely different from their regular effects. Not all runes can be used in this way, only the listed ones can.
Kena - afflict with hallucinations. 8s cooldown.
Fehu - after a 2-second delay, put the target to sleep or strip related defences. No cooldown.
Pithakhan - The next attempt to sip health or mana is blocked (elixir balance still taken). 20s cooldown.
Inguz - target is knocked to the ground. No cooldown.
Wunjo - after a 2-second delay, the target is hit with a rune sketched on the ground, if possible. If there are two applicable ones, a random one is chosen. The rune does not fade and blindness does not prevent this. 8s cooldown, increased to 14s if the Nairat rune is chosen.
Sowulu - damage to the target if he's not deaf. Unlike other runes, this one requires that the tablet is wielded. 4s cooldown.
Hugalaz - Next attempt to shield causes damage instead. Effect fades when triggered or after 10 seconds. 20s cooldown.
Nauthiz - The next attempt to eat a toadstool is blocked (toadstool balance still taken). 20s cooldown.
Mannaz - Defence. Next two rune activations (not including this one) only cost 2 seconds, rather than 3, and the 2-second delays are reduced to 1 second where applicable.
Sleizak - afflict with amnesia. No cooldown.
Nairat - After a 2-second delay, the next two attempts to cure a physical affliction are blocked. 20s cooldown.
Eihwaz - Rebounding aura is automatically stripped from the target the next time it's formed. 12s cooldown.
Loshre - After a 2-second delay, the next two attempts to cure a mental affliction are blocked. 12s cooldown.
The idea is to preserve the unique circle effects in a significantly altered form, making them much more dynamic and fluid.
Etchings:
Flame, Snowflake, Bolt: Runeguard only. Damage flares with fire/cold/electrical damage, and likely some special conditions (details to be determined, as straight damage could be excessive with all the other upcoming upgrades).
Hawk and Knife remain as they are.
The intent here is to maintain the overall 'feel' of the profession, while providing it with hopefully more viable tactical options for both 1v1 and team combat.
RUNELORE:
- Ground circles will be removed
- Weapon runes will likewise be removed - Lagua, Lagul and Laguz will become ground runes instead:
Lagua: negate hunger in the room
Laguz: rubble-like effect in the room, short duration
- up to two runes will be able to be sketched on the ground at once
- circles will be sketched on a runic tablet now, with up to 4 runes inside
- the Runelore user will be able to have multiple tablets, and they work from inventory (no need to wield them) unless stated otherwise
- each of the runes within a circle can be activated to achieve some effect; this costs 3s equilibrium, but doesn't require balance, and thus can be combined with DSL and dustthrow/curse
- each rune type in the circle will have its own cooldown after used - you'll be able to use a different rune upon regaining equilibrium, but not the same rune multiple times in a row. The cooldown will be per-type, and thus apply even if you have the same rune sketched multiple times.
- runes inside the circle don't have a regular timer; but the circle rune itself does have a limited number of uses; each activation of a rune within the circle reduces that counter, and the circle with all its runes fades from the tablet once it reaches zero
Circle rune effects - most of these are entirely different from their regular effects. Not all runes can be used in this way, only the listed ones can.
Kena - afflict with hallucinations. 8s cooldown.
Fehu - after a 2-second delay, put the target to sleep or strip related defences. No cooldown.
Pithakhan - The next attempt to sip health or mana is blocked (elixir balance still taken). 20s cooldown.
Inguz - target is knocked to the ground. No cooldown.
Wunjo - after a 2-second delay, the target is hit with a rune sketched on the ground, if possible. If there are two applicable ones, a random one is chosen. The rune does not fade and blindness does not prevent this. 8s cooldown, increased to 14s if the Nairat rune is chosen.
Sowulu - damage to the target if he's not deaf. Unlike other runes, this one requires that the tablet is wielded. 4s cooldown.
Hugalaz - Next attempt to shield causes damage instead. Effect fades when triggered or after 10 seconds. 20s cooldown.
Nauthiz - The next attempt to eat a toadstool is blocked (toadstool balance still taken). 20s cooldown.
Mannaz - Defence. Next two rune activations (not including this one) only cost 2 seconds, rather than 3, and the 2-second delays are reduced to 1 second where applicable.
Sleizak - afflict with amnesia. No cooldown.
Nairat - After a 2-second delay, the next two attempts to cure a physical affliction are blocked. 20s cooldown.
Eihwaz - Rebounding aura is automatically stripped from the target the next time it's formed. 12s cooldown.
Loshre - After a 2-second delay, the next two attempts to cure a mental affliction are blocked. 12s cooldown.
The idea is to preserve the unique circle effects in a significantly altered form, making them much more dynamic and fluid.
Etchings:
Flame, Snowflake, Bolt: Runeguard only. Damage flares with fire/cold/electrical damage, and likely some special conditions (details to be determined, as straight damage could be excessive with all the other upcoming upgrades).
Hawk and Knife remain as they are.
EVILEYE:
Weaken (tentative name) - this will be a Transcendent ability in Evileye. Once the target has been afflicted with 4 afflictions that share the same herb cure, the Diabolist will be able to hit with a new weakening effect. Multiple weakenings will be able to be stacked on the same target, only one per plant, though. Weaken will have several implications:- each Weaken will increase the mana threshold for catharsis by 10% - for example, if the target has two of these, the threshold will be 70% rather than 50%
- each weaken will slightly increase the evileye mana drain from the Wight form
- finally, if the target has two or more of these, the Eliminate ability will only require 6 seconds to complete instead of 11.5, as the daegger is guided by the weakness
The intent here is to maintain the overall 'feel' of the profession, while providing it with hopefully more viable tactical options for both 1v1 and team combat.
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Comments
‘Every sword’s a weight to carry. Men don’t see that when they pick ’em up. But they get heavier with time.”
I know you said you didn't particularly like affliction combat, and that locks should not be the intended goal, but to stick 4 of any particular herb affliction past purge/focus/tree would basically necessitate a lock to begin with.
It's also probably rather selfish of me to request more on top of a fairly big change to one skill, but Necromancy really needs to be looked at. There is literally nothing in that skill that facilitates Diab combat. Putrefaction and Animate are easily replaceable in a new skill (or the other 15-20 easily thrown out the door and replaced with something more useful). Vivisect is obviously a significant part of DK combat as well. But other than that, the only other thing that's even moderately useful is Leech, and only then in groups with multiple people using it
I'll probably have more later, but Halo 4 beckons.
So are you saying that you never use: Shroud, Belch, Lifevision, Soulmask, Sapience, Vigour, Putrefaction, Deathaura, Gravehands, Soulspear, Soulsense, Blackwind, or Animate?
Necromancy is a utility skillset, not a combat skillset. Think of it like Diabolist Pioneering or Trailblazing
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
Regardless, the Necromancy part was just a question for Garryn to see if it was in the cards. The main point was that the concept of Weaken is not going to work, if that is the only addition.
The problem with the class is the delicate balance in afflictions/second in evileye. It either sucks or it rocks. You definitely have a point with weaken. It's hard enough to stick 3 separate afflictions from the affliction list. I don't see 4 same herb afflictions sticking in 1v1. You have to remember you have access to toxins when you're fighting. (Smart people can nullify this in a command) but against people of lower skill, this broadens your list a little. **I'm glad that we're moving away from "Affliction overwhelm" and finally starting(<--important) to move to a new (if not first) focus for the class.
I'm too lazy to post trailblazing. You get the idea.
Clearly, the three are analogous (/sarcasm. They aren't)...in the same way that a swiss army knife is similar to a pair of toe nail clippers with a nail file attached. <-- Context. Very important.
Malignist's focus was true locking into mana drain for Catharsis, which I admit isn't very good but is hardly 'unfocused'.
Verick was the only Malignist that ever really gave me trouble, and I don't believe he would just throw afflictions at the wall to see what stuck. The average malignist would spam stupidity/impatience with hemotoxin on hunt until the person just stopped healing. This worked on people that didn't handle stupidity very effectively, which was most people.
That said, prior to the recent updates Malignist had a statistical advantage because their attack rate was greater than healing rates by a fair margin. I can't speak for current values, because I don't fight or use malignist these days - but they were built to do what they did, and were for a while the only class that could pull it off. Once you got them to the point of 'locked', it didn't matter waht you used to finish the kill. Verick used behead more often than anything, because it was faster.
As far as 'on topic', four afflictions of the same cure is probably a little excessive to achieve. You want to reward the person for 'winning' with a kill method that's possible to stop - but it can't be either too easy or too hard. Four of a single cure would let you push through the focus stack, but nothing else really comes to mind.
Don't Runelore using classes get, "Activate all runes on me." Does mannaz reduce that eq time?
Lagua: I think rite of well-being is cool and all, but with level 80 and whatnot, could we have this increase levels of satiety over time? Ooo. For allies, you get fed. For enemies, you get over-fed doing damage. Counter is bitterbrew?
Tablets:
I'd like to see some wytchen/runeguard only circle effects. Unique runes, unique effects, take your pick. Doesn't have to be much, but one or two would be nice for differentiation. RG's have isa, could work from there.
The eq on that skill is 1.7s sans diadem, that's not really needed imo.
Everything else in the post sounds good, though. Really like the Lagua idea.
@Garryn : Will whetstones and chargers be workable for Runeguards, after this? I see no real problem with whetstones. Chargers are very iffy, though, and I lean towards no.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
I do have a question about Evileye though. Will the four afflictions have to all be given via Evileye skills or will toxins from daegger hunt count as well? In the later case, there are certainly enough kelp afflictions to go around so (for example) it should be doable to stack up kelp cures while weighing down healing priorities through use of paralysis and stupidity. But I'm sure we'll see how it all plays out.. either way it's a great start for making the class more viable.
I would assume that a Diadem would affect the eq of the rune ability, but not the innate cooldown. Maybe they'll release a class-specific artifact for that, I dunno.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
I can drop the requirement to 3 afflictions if 4 would be too much. It will apply to all herb-cured afflictions, not only Evileye ones.
Necromancy changes - no immediate bigger plans, but it's possible down the road
Activate - Hrm, using the same term is probably confusing here - it's not the same thing as the existing Activate ability in Runelore
Runes within the circle don't fade upon being used, but the entire circle will fade (including the runes in it) after its runes have been used enough times (around 40-50 is my estimate, but this could change)
The current anti-hunger circle blocks hunger attacks entirely, which should be useful after level 80 as well. The lagua rune will retain this functionality.
Canopy functionality and duration will remain the same, yes, with the change that the effect will drop if the rune is smudged or otherwise destroyed (currently circles can't be removed once activated).
Class-specific rune circle effects - any suggestions?
Laguz: Just something thematic, instead of making it "rubble" why not some way of saying the earth melts (runes being earth magick). It would have no effect except for appearance.
Class specific:
First off, I know we tossed this idea to Nemesis awhile back and she gave it the head nod. People like @Caelya and @Aleutia have been asking the age old question, "Why do we share this skillset?" Since you're pretty much reworking Runelore, how open would you be to renaming some of the Wytchen runes to terms used from either of the demonic languages?
Wytchen:
Maybe the eihwaz rebounding effect could be class specific for RG? Wytchen won't get much benefit from it, even in teams. Instead, when someone attempts to curseward with eihwaz up, they give themselves some random affliction from a brief list of afflictions.
Since wytchen are the 'tainted' of the two, you could easily argue 'darker' circles for the rune effects for
Berkana: Additional physical affliction. 12s cooldown (Lethargy, Weakness, Clumsiness, Limb paralysis, vomiting)
Jera: % based health steal, 20s cooldown.
Algiz: Reduces magick damage resistance or adds a brief damage "bonus" of 10% across the board.
Othala: Ability to see which afflictions on cured on target for the duration. 60s Cooldown, 50 second effect.
Gular: Balance knock off, room wide prone? Long cooldown.
Runeguard:
Othala: Alarm that detects the presence of enemies. Area wide: beaten by phase/bw. In room: Only beaten by evade. Duration would be your discretion.
Instead of tablets for wytchen, what about shrunken heads/skulls that recite the demonic words (runes) inscribed upon it for circle effects?