Diabolist revamp

Garryn

I'm sure this will be a surprise to nobody after all the hints I've been dropping - Diabolist is the next profession on our revamp list. The profession will undergo rather substantial changes; the plan with this revamp is to move it away from its current affliction-overload role. Thematically, the profession will become a combination of the current demon-summoning and ritualism, with strong ties to the Rashirmir realm.

The new primary skill of the profession, Ritualism, will focus on the usage of a daegger to sketch various ritualistic symbols. These will have a variety of effects including damage, applying damage resistance modifiers, afflicting, healing, and more. Damage-based strategies are going to become the primary focus of the profession, but in a somewhat different way than other ones do - the focus is more on timed effects and damage resistance modifiers. As always, please note that this may change if testing indicates that this approach does not work reasonably well.

The secondary skill, Nightfall, ties the profession to the Rashirmir realm. Here the Diabolist will learn to summon shadow pseudo-mobs (these are technically mobs, but cannot be attacked/etc) and utilise them for a variety of special effects, designed to augment the Ritualism skill.

Finally, Malignosis remains as the third skill, with many changes. The skill now focuses solely on the Ouroboros - the other demons and daeggers are gone. Most of the existing abilities remain, and new ones are added.

The profession is fully designed and in the process of being coded, with Malignosis and Ritualism already being almost completed. I'll be posting more information on this in the not-too-distant future.

Ivellios

interesting. Is it still gonna be the bashing speed power house like it is now with deadeyes bleed?

Khizan

Just reading over this, I have a couple of immediate concerns about timed effects translating into timebombs and the synergy between damage resistance modifiers and the already potent Deathknight/Summoner burst, but I will wait until I see the skills before going all Chicken Little about things.

Mathiaus

"...Ritualism, will focus on the usage of a daegger to sketch various ritualistic symbols..."

"...Finally, Malignosis remains as the third skill, with many changes. The skill now focuses solely on the Ouroboros - the other demons and daeggers are gone...."

Just slightly confused, nothing big. I'm assuming then that you're just saying that daegger hunt itself is gone.

Ailish

Ivellios said:

interesting. Is it still gonna be the bashing speed power house like it is now with deadeyes bleed?

Bashing speed powerhouse comes from Daegger Stab...

Khizan

Mathiaus said:

"...Ritualism, will focus on the usage of a daegger to sketch various ritualistic symbols..."

"...Finally, Malignosis remains as the third skill, with many changes. The skill now focuses solely on the Ouroboros - the other demons and daeggers are gone...."

Just slightly confused, nothing big. I'm assuming then that you're just saying that daegger hunt itself is gone.

I took that to mean that all the daegger skills will be in Ritualism. 

Salik

Deadeyes bleed bleed is almost as good for DPS. Regardless, I'm -happy- that they're getting away from Evileyes. I hate that. This excites me all in all. When do we get to start testing?

Edit: I should note, that's deadeyes versus daegger stab using only +int/collar artifacts, not a daegger.

Dicene

The Daegger makes a big difference. From a quick test just now: (L2 Daegger, L2 Collar, L1 Sash, Highfavour, Shrines in area, Daegger Hunt) - 94 dps. (same things with Deadeyes Bleed/Bleed) - 70 dps.

Also, as great as the DPS is, what will truly be missed is sit-bashing: 

Edit: Not going to let myself get excited or disappointed until I see those AB's. Any chance they're ready to show off, since you did mention you've finished the design entirely.

Ivellios

Ailish said:

Ivellios said:

interesting. Is it still gonna be the bashing speed power house like it is now with deadeyes bleed?

Bashing speed powerhouse comes from Daegger Stab...

I did the math, deadeyes bleed was better then using attack with dagger. Unless there is something i missed. At least, it was the case for clever.

Khizan

The thing about daegger is that artifact daeggers scale incredibly well. It's affected by the int sash, the magick damage collar, and also the artifact daeggers. That means that it gets two percentile bonuses to damage, which is huge.

Ivellios

Khizan said:

The thing about daegger is that artifact daeggers scale incredibly well. It's affected by the int sash, the magick damage collar, and also the artifact daeggers. That means that it gets two percentile bonuses to damage, which is huge.

Yeah, my demoner has none of that awesome expensive ****, so the dps was close between the two, but deadeyes had two attacks opposed to one, so more crits, so it was worth it for me to use deadeyes for bashing.

Mathiaus

Interested in seeing what finisher they have in mind then.

Garryn

Khizan said:

Just reading over this, I have a couple of immediate concerns about timed effects translating into timebombs and the synergy between damage resistance modifiers and the already potent Deathknight/Summoner burst, but I will wait until I see the skills before going all Chicken Little about things.

Summoner synergy will definitely be something to keep an eye on, yes. There are (almost) no physical resist modifiers, so deathknights are less of an issue.

For bashing, numbers are not finalised yet.

The existing triple-scaling on daeggers will need to change as well.

Salik

Mathiaus said:

Interested in seeing what finisher they have in mind then.

This is what really intrigues me. Just what is the plan for skills. How is it going to work to build towards a kill. It's damage they said, but is it damage that's a burst like Defiler or Summoner, or a burst more like what a Wytch does by preparing and then going pew pew pew pew? Is it yet something else? I'm intrigued, skeptical, curious, and want to try it.

Khizan

Garryn said:

There are (almost) no physical resist modifiers, so deathknights are less of an issue.

Physical damage is almost meaningless on deathknights compared to the impact of soulquench/negate/soulquench/soulstorm and soulquench/fleshburn/negate/soulquench/fleshburn/soulstorm combos. The axe is by far the least dangerous thing about a deathknight attack.

Lartus

Beware of leprosy and belch. You have been warned.  Muahaha

Garryn

Khizan said:

Garryn said:

There are (almost) no physical resist modifiers, so deathknights are less of an issue.

Physical damage is almost meaningless on deathknights compared to the impact of soulquench/negate/soulquench/soulstorm and soulquench/fleshburn/negate/soulquench/fleshburn/soulstorm combos. The axe is by far the least dangerous thing about a deathknight attack.

Right. That part will need testing for sure, for now I'll just say that most of the resist modifiers are linked - the -fire resist also gives +cold resist and vice versa, most notably. I'm more interested in seeing how these will end up stacking with Defilers - but that's a discussion for the beta testing.

Iniar

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that someone was a Guild Wars fan...

The secondary skill, Nightfall, ties the profession to the Rashirmir realm. Here the Diabolist will learn to summon shadow pseudo-mobs (these are technically mobs, but cannot be attacked/etc) and utilise them for a variety of special effects, designed to augment the Ritualism skill.

The new primary skill of the profession, Ritualism, will focus on the usage of a daegger to sketch various ritualistic symbols. These will have a variety of effects including damage, applying damage resistance modifiers, afflicting, healing, and more.

Guild Wars Nightfall is a fantasy Action RPG and the third stand-alone campaign in the Guild Wars computer game series

The Ritualist is a living conduit to the spirit world, capable of summoning bound spirits to the field that can attack enemies or protect allies. They can also summon ghostly weapons for their allies to wield, and commune with the spirits of their ancestors through the ritual use of ashes and urns.

I -am- a huge Guild Wars fan, so, yay!

Garryn

Ha. I had no idea, actually, but it's quite an amusing coincidence.

Dicene

AB's on the way soon? I'm still super nervous having no idea what my daily driver class is going to turn into.

Mathiaus

Agreed. I'd like to set up my spreadsheet and work on the beginning of a system before gathering the lines and testing in beta, since I'll have to scrap everything I have for evileye and so fourth.

Khizan

Classes change so much in the beta that it's really not worth working on a system until you see what we get. When Berserkers started they were a DSL clone.

Salik

Yes, looking forward to ABs. Still good to get a head start on things, even for theory crafting before we get to test.

Mathiaus

I more or less like getting an initial set up by looking at everything in the spreadsheet and seeing what afflictions or affects coincide with other things. It's a weird mental brainstorm for me, but works.

Dicene

I don't even bother doing that, I just want to see if it looks like the type of offense I enjoy, and if there are any mechanics that look particularly interesting to me. I'll put my offense together during beta when I have real numbers and messages to build with.

Dicene

Any news on this, @Garryn? I'm thirsting for AB's =(

Salik

Yes. ABs good. I am such an impatient bugger. >.<

Garryn

Ability helps are usually the last thing that I write after everything else is done, so - you'll have to wait and see!

Iniar

Garryn said:

Ability helps are usually the last thing that I write after everything else is done, so - you'll have to wait and see!

Tease.

Dicene

Where's the "weep" tag when you need it?

Salik

I'll just have to stab myself in the heart with my daegger out of sadness.