Showing Posts For RiiSEN.9072:
Shiro/Glint is fine. Jalis could use some tools tho. If Rite was an upkeep ability..
I actually really do like that idea. Would definitely make Jalis more viable as a secondary for Shiro, though Jalis would still be much weaker then glint in most respects.
-Allow to move while under the effect of crystal hibernation.
definitely not. honestly adding a taunt to it would be a more interesting option.
-Rework sword 2
No. What it needs is a tweaking, like an increase to the chill effect and any of its bugs removed so that it is more dependable.
-Rework energy and skills cost.
that is an extremely vague statement. Which skills? What is your reasoning behind the change?
-Rework Jalis Malyx and Ventari.
Honestly I think Jalis sits at a great spot currently, though maybe it overlaps a little too much with Glint. That is my one and only complaint. Again, extremely vague statement.
-Phase Traversal remove cd, is enough ending without energy, we don’t need more limits. Although 3s CD seems fair. Also make it if you use it with no target it just ports you towards the direction of your cursor.
So many different threads on the topic. My stance is no, the spell is extremely potent the way it is.
-Jade winds to work like basilisk venom or usable from range.
No, Jade Wind is very strong. It may need a slight reduction in energy cost to make it more usable for in-game situations and not just in a vacuum.
The rest I won’t even reply to. all of them are nopes.
I wouldn’t doubt that it is broken. Then again, the condi’s you apply to them only last for 3 sec instead of a flat out copy.
ITT: Underwater Greatsword
This isnt so much a Mallyx problem btw, its a rev condi problem. Mace 2 should burn a little more, and the power on 1 should be higher because if youre going rev condi youre mosty likely going to have to go hybrid. Without decent burning, condis need power to assist it.
Also, mace 3 should inflict confusion as well.
There should be a trait for chill to do damage based on power/condi like necro has, or more damage to enemies that are chilled, or chill does damage when enemy has condis on them.
I’m glad you brought this up. I’m sure you and others have seen my thread on possible Mallyx changes and I just want to say that I think this is actually an interesting and more unique way of fixing the problem. Instead of increasing our condi’s damage more, why not use the condi’s in a way so we can fill that gap of dps in a more unique playstyle?
For instance, in these changes, you would still gear a standard rabid condi build but while using elite you would be making your other attacks hit harder based off of your precision and condition damage, while still trying to maintain high stacks as is accustomed to standard condi play.
While I’m not saying that each individual change I made is good or reasonable (like it says its merely a dream), I would say that the core philosophy of the playstyle shift would be both great for character differentation as well as fit alongside the much more fighter orientated feeling that Revenant’s possess.
For everyone arguing for/against condi builds remember that there is a lot about the raids that we don’t know, as we’ve only seen 1 boss. And that boss happened to require at least some condi builds. The one thing we know for sure is that condi builds will be viable since nothing is going to be zerg-able in the raid. How well Rev stacks up to other condi builds does not have to only include their dps but how well their utilities stack up comparatively as well.
Until we know more information, this is a guide PURELY for the highest possible dps, and should be treated as such.
“Salt, salt, moar salt. So salty like fries from McDonald!”
The real question is not if I can catch your ranger, but if I SHOULD be able to catch your ranger.
And yes, I find swiftness/charge a gap closer. Its not a teleport, but it IS a way to close the gap if you are using them intelligently. Besides, why are we talking purely about gap closers? You asked me to list mobility options.
so much this. the more dynamic you make the skill the easier it is to balance. If they find that the nerf is too hard they will lower the cd. If not it will stay the way it is. But I don’t think some of us realize just how much it would break/change the flow of gameplay to just increase/lower energy cost.
or change a trait so that spells that center around you or the tablet center around both.
I’m not saying that he is wrong, I just don’t think those are the correct questions to ask. For one thing he is asking the question, “is this your fault or someone else’s?” The third question is essentially the same as the first, in regards to the answer Roy would logically be able to give.
Sorry there is just no way Roy is gonna jump in and say “yup that’s all me” or “no… that is the guy down the hall.” As a design studio they stand together and the answer to any question such as this to any professional studio will be, “We, [insert company here], made this choice due to internal testing and data collected.”
The only thing wrong with the first question is the fact that you solo him out. If you asked for the design team’s thoughts on the matter they would be more likely to give feedback.
Facet of Elements in Glint, Unyielding Anguish in Mallyx, and PT in Shiro. Then you have Axe 4 and staff 5. At a slightly shorter range you have Unrelenting Assault.
But totally, we have no mobility options.
several of our legends have mobility spells, and so do some of our weapons. Saying that PT is our one source of mobility is not accurate.
The most obvious answer (to me at least) is that increasing energy cost upset the flow of skills too much, and therefore the only way to apply a nerf was to add a cd. Remember that a lot of our high energy cost skills are being deemed unusable. At 20 it was already sitting at a high cost, especially for a spell that only gives mobility. Honestly as a heavy armor wearing class we really don’t feel too terrible with the way it is currently, it just means using it in a smarter fashion then we were before.
Mallyx is a gameplay type that I would love to play. Sadly, both some of the current skills and the supporting traits either do not fit the playstyle or are just bland and nothing new. As such, here are the changes that I would make to make condi rev both more viable and also play slightly different then other condi builds in the game.
Mallyx abilities:
Empowering Misery – Now heals more for each condition applied to your target.
Pain Absorption – Redesigned
Grant Resistance to yourself and nearby allies. ( 10 energy, 15 sec cd)
Resistance (1 3/4 sec)
Interval: 1 sec
Duration: 5 sec
Secondary ability: Sadist’s Strength (15 energy)
Increases attributes, and when you apply a condition, apply an additional stack.
Stats: +10%
Condition Stack Increase Per Condition Application: +1
Duration: 4 sec
Unyielding Anguish – Energy cost reduced to 25 from 30
Embrace the Darkness: Redesigned
Transform into a powerful Avatar, knocking enemies in the air and you deal additional damage based off of current Torment stacks on critical strikes. (5 energy, -10 energy/sec)
Blowout (3/4 second)
Radius 240
On Critical Hit: Bane of the Living – Deal 20% of your entire torment duration damage instantly.
Traits:
Replenishing Despair – Attacking a foe with active conditions heals you.
Bolstered Anguish – Resistance also grants Retaliation.
Pulsating Pestilence – Renamed: Disastrous Despair – Increase damage by 3% on target for each active condition on them.
All numbers are guess-timation. The gameplay that I am going for that is different from other condition-based specs is the idea of using the conditions as a set-up tool for heavy bursts later on if the target allows you to stack on them. EtD is now a much different spell with a much higher upkeep, but its effects can be disastrous.
The old EtD effects have been transitioned to a secondary ability that plays off of a new version of Pain Absorption. The traitline as well as the legend should now feel functional and able to fit into several gameplay types.
Hope you enjoyed the read! And of course, comments/suggestions are welcome.
Edit: Forgot about the cost reduction to Unyielding Anguish.
(edited by RiiSEN.9072)
One other “bug” I’ve found with UA is that if one of the targets dies UA will end, even if other targets are still within the AoE range. I actually wouldn’t mind this if there was a gameplay mechanic to it, but when you’re simply losing damage it just doesn’t feel right.
Honestly, although at this point in development I don’t see it being doable, what they should have done is just created an epic quest-line with the new weapon being part of the rewards. Class specific quests for all classes would have needed to be developed near the beginning however, so its just not feasible.
A.Net, while wanting to give classes some new mechanics to explore through weapons, created a problem in which they are gimping their Elite Specializations at the very base level. While there are several ways to tackle the issue, at this point in development the best possible choice would be to give Elite Specs the new weapons/utilities/etc as an EXTRA passive and creating a new minor trait that gives each class a boost. For reapers specifically, I think a good option for the utility choices would be to allow Reaper’s in Reaper’s Shroud to use any slotted shout (and if there are classes with similar situations I would say that this would be a good idea for them as well).
His Path Branched Out Before Him, Yet He Knew Only The Path Of Sorrow
Alright, so Elite Specializations have brought upon A.Net some new issues. With a trait dedicated to a single weapon type, it means you should rarely deviate from that, at least in theory. The spec was created with the weapon type in mind, and you really can’t waste a resource such as a spec trait. So… what does this mean? Well, in other specs you can see that there are several choices you can make in regards to playstyle. The benefit that these specs have over the Elite Specializations is that you can move your weapon-type around with trait choices, based on maximizing the skills available to the bonuses.
With Elite Spec’s, this is off the table. Whatever weapon type you were given is what you SHOULD (once again, in theory) be using. In essence, the roles are COMPLETELY reversed in the trait-weapon interactions. You have the base of your spec in the weapon, and now must choose traits that specialize you further. However, at least in the Reaper spec, you just don’t see that.
While you do see some changes in game mechanics, the gameplay stays the same, heavily based on AOE. In an elite spec, the traits should give you the option to change the actual gameplay. Have a trait-line that emphasizes on AOE by giving bonuses to attack splash range or targets hit, a secondary line that focuses on increasing the power of your attacks/shouts on single targets, and the third increasing the mobility of the spec. I see some semblance of these sorts of ideas within the current iteration however the spec suffers heavily from just trying to do too many things at once. Stand-alone traits such as Chilling Nova, Reaper’s Onslaught, and Decimate Defenses are strong in their own right and serve to cement different playstyles, but there just isn’t enough of these traits to bring true choice to the table.
General Thoughts Regarding Shouts and AOE’s In General
I may be crucified for saying this, but I don’t believe balancing a spell with a gigantic AOE in mind is entirely beneficial to the game mechanics. Lets just make an example. You walk into enemy filled territory with your trusty great sword at hand. What do you expect, as a player? First off, from both past experience and the visual asthetics of the great sword equipped, it is going to hit HARD. A great sword swing will be slow but if you hit with it you should see a huge chunk of health missing. Now, you have this ability that pulls several minions together. You decide to use the ability and then swing the sword down onto them. What happens? Well, since they all got hit, you should see huge chunks of health missing from multiple opponents. This is what makes interesting gameplay, feeling rewarded for doing semi-hard to pull off combos such as this.
With the reaper, there are SO many abilities with huge AOE’s. This ties into the issues that Elite Specializations have with build choice. Why have abilities that start with such an AOE centric toolset, when you could build them in a way that allowed the traits to more greatly effect diversity in game play? Entire synergies could be changed by trait centric choices. Anyways, just food for thought.
TL;DR: Elite Specializations suffer from a lack of build diversity and potency, due in part to the way bringing in new weapon-types to the classes was realized and the way that the new Elite Specializations rely heavily on Trait’s to determine game play choice.
This will be a long post detailing my thoughts on the overall design of the class, and will not delve into many specifics over certain traits and/or spell choices. I felt like this was a topic that no one had really delved into, at least in a lime lighted fashion. Without further ado, these are my thoughts on what could have been a better way to create the reaper elite spec.
He Was No Longer A Mere Warrior, But Death Itself
So… what does it mean to use a elite spec? Certainly A.Net has answered this question amongst the team of developers, and this will be purely MY take on answering this question and thus may be different then what A.Net has envisioned. An elite spec is the obvious front-running reason players will choose to buy the expansion, and compared to current specializations should offer the player some things beyond what previous specs have given, such as:
- Due to Elite specs allowing an additional weapon-type, they MUST offer greater build diversity then current specs
- They should alter the gameplay of the class to a greater extent then current specs
- While allowing greater build diversity they need to feel like they are a complete package of skills
Now, when it comes to the Reaper I could say that they have definitely done this. However, I fear that I don’t think they have gone far enough to warrant the title “Elite Specialization.”
Hence He Came From The Shadows, His Blade Afire With Lust
DISCLAIMER: Greatswords on necromancers are cool as hell!
So.. as I’m sure most of the people here that have played the beta weekends could tell you, we all absolutely love our Reapers. They are fun, they are visually some of the most awe inspiring sexiness in the game. So why do we complain about them so much?
There is a lack of options available to the reaper, for one. Gameplay wise they were created to fill a melee orientated AOE role, and a tanky one at that. Their single target isn’t the greatest, and they have a lot of holes in their mechanics when trying to take someone 1v1. If this were a regular specialization, or if the greatsword was something that was open to the class without requiring the Reaper spec, this would be okay. The fact, however, is that the greatsword uses up one of the spec’s minors and thus is required to fully use the specs potential.
This is a flaw in the design.
I don’t believe that relegating a trait slot to the ability to use a weapon type is a good idea for several reasons. The first is that this automatically weakens the spec. While a regular build will utilize 9 strong passives that create the basis of their strengths and weaknesses, a reaper only gains 8 passives and the ability to choose from 4 additional utility spells and an extra weapon-type. Now, this could be possibly have been a strength, but since you don’t gain an increase in spell slots this doesn’t actually further the gameplay of the build, since all you’re doing is adding to an already overwhelming amount of utility spells.
The second reason I do not fully believe in the design choice is that, since this takes the slot of a minor trait that would generally have increased the power of the gameplay choice, there are several repercussions.
1) The Great Sword itself and the utility spells need to present themselves as the best choices in terms of numbers and utility given. This is determined by the need to offset the loss of the passive; If a passive would have increased a spec’s damage/survivability by 10%, then the great sword would have to increase damage by that amount, the shouts would have to give superior utility choices, or they would have to combine for an overall increase to count it as a worthwhile trait. However, this isn’t a viable strategy for the designers since they need to make sure that this is a side grade to the other build options. Another choice to this problem is:
2) The other 2 traits need to compensate for the loss. This generally means creating passives that are much less generic and are complex in their use and application. While not a bad choice for A.Net to have done, it is clear that this is not what they chose. There is one other option:
3) Skills from the great sword need to have stronger coefficients that provide a 10% increase in output. Once again, not a very viable strategy if they want other specs to compete with the elite spec.
Continued….
(edited by RiiSEN.9072)