Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)

[edge2054]

No clue on the lifesteal. I have Spellblaze Shard on my test character and I'm not seeing any crossover with my bow.

Fixed the Warden's Focus while Frozen bug, thanks

As far as making it instant cast it was initially. I'm playing with it now and so far kinda like it costing a turn. But we'll see if I'm still using it when the novelty wears off.

*edit* Killed the Shade in 3 turns, one of those was spent casting Warden's Focus. There's two more lines of that log for Luck of the Little Folk being cast.

Granted, he tried to melee me twice.

[twas Brillig]

I also have Skullbreaker, which always steals life...though, clearly, it is not a bow.

Yeah, I don't think it's a big issue in the long run. As long as you're starting at range, it's not like it has a duration (which I didn't realize at first). If you focus on the targeting random skills part of it, it's a little weird, since the main one you'll get is melee-range. (though I guess you could use it as a way to jump from one scrum to a focused-target farther away) But that's not a big deal when you're using it for the other boosts. Thinking about it, I'm pretty okay with it taking a turn.

Oh, I don't think this is an issue with Wardens, but I just got an infinitely recurring error:

Lua Error: /data/talents/gifts/cold-drake.lua:120: attempt to perform arithmetic on global 'halflength' (a nil value)
At [C]:-1 __add
At /data/talents/gifts/cold-drake.lua:120 getTalentTarget
At /mod/ai//tactical.lua:83 runAI
At /mod/ai//tactical.lua:421 doAI
At /mod/class/NPC.lua:72 act
At /engine/GameEnergyBased.lua:126 tickLevel
At /engine/GameEnergyBased.lua:62 tick
At /engine/GameTurnBased.lua:46 tick
At /mod/class/Game.lua:1247

I think it was out of sight, but I did just shoot...I don't really know.

[IejirIsk]

are there any other good armours for tw's that dont req str? found a nice leather 'of void' but is leather.

edit1: Not sure if easy to (or should) fix, but items like Surefire dont autoswitch when you use them.

edit2: For clarity on my part, at least: Fateweaver. is that per spin, or just when you has spin?

edit3: Hidden compound, unless I getting rather unlucky, shots aren't wanting to shoot through freed prisoners.

edit4: I think... I just used thread walk*, didnt port, then used singularity arrow and ported... XD dunno if intended or not, but kinda amusing.

edit5: and for the record... ziggy patrols are hilarious to fight... especially since i have 7 ways to teleport (and blink blade has a huge range) and two of those give me passive buffs when i do.

edit6: surefire says activating is instant... but after i did, i got hit by snake's warshout

edit7: another one I fairly certain is standard... but hasnt come up much otherwise. using ports to clear statuses. Blind, you cant see the char. is fine for dstep. but for random ports... is a bit unnerving.

edit8: whelp... hit another LUA. with 'halflength' in gifts/cold-drake:120 and its spawned lag and tons and tons fo these errors... was fighting ulkris when i summoned my archer swarm
edit9: (cont) seems to also reference ai tactics... actually forced me to kill ToME.

[Razakai]

Has anyone else crashed on entering Derth while playing this branch? I've not seen any mention of it so I'm presuming it's just one of my addons doing it, but thought i'd double check.

edit: plus some feedback

- I really think the starter zone should get the Searing Halls treatment and have rares disabled. I died twice on Nightmare to them, as some particular class combos are deadly.
- The tooltip for Warden's Call is a little unclear. I'm guessing the 'may' part means they'll always appear unless space is an issue? At first I thought it was a random, undefined chance. If it is guaranteed, might be better to say 'will appear (unless there is no space)'.
- One thing I think TW could do with is a way to reduce or ignore resistance. Not to the same degree as a pure caster as dual phys/temporal is a rare resistance combo, but something to counter the occasional randboss or horror would be nice. Maybe make it part of the Breach debuff?

Otherwise, not really anything else, TW feel pretty complete.

[IejirIsk]

Umm... Just got to myself... and... two things... the idea of him having reality smearing + induce anomaly is scary... cause i tend to cause enough myself... and... sever lifeline? ... want...

edit1: I just noticed, using the Arrow echoes, I get an error saying that I have no bow equipped (on subsequent turns)

edit2: well, another LUA. used melee binding on enemies, teleported then used the final attack (spray). then another time... this time with the wardens apparently causing it. their targetting if i had to guess from error message. 'attempt to index local 'target' a nil value. then goes to find space, call talent, bowwarden,
edit3: while surrounded by enemies. so that mighta been it.
edit4: seems to only happen with the spray melee
edit5: Is it... umm... well, my clone decided that rune of the rift was the best idea... XD
edit6: and why not every 2 levels for the blink blade and archer team?
edit7: wth... an escort every level of dreadfall... the 3 i've suceeded at getting, one is warrior (vitality good) and 2 alchemists... think i'm blowing them up myself with dust to dust on my gloves...
edit8: and more escorts... opened a vault (somehow escort still alive), and now keep getting a LUA error at: /data/timed_effects/magical.lua bad argument.

[mailius]

Although so far this thread mostly seems about TW feedback, here's my comments after playing a paradox mage on Nightmare through most of the intermediate dungeons:

Bug: Twist Fate seems to make a turn happen when you click the button to target, rather than when the paradox resolve. This makes the ability much less useful and somewhat dangerous to use.
Could you make the temporal bolt slightly quieter? I think that sound has also been used in the past for bad effects, so it's a little strange to hear it for a spell.
Could we get a sound for when Twist Fate catches a paradox? Right now it's hard to tell because the only thing visual that happens is the button lights up.
Could you change the wording for temporal bolt to indicate that at level 5 it reduces the cooldown of your other spells? It reads like it reduces its own cooldown.
Bug? Does silence prevent the contingency spell from firing?

Some general feedback is that a lot of the new abilities are really interesting, and make the class feel more thematically whole. Really good job and making things interesting, and the class not feel like just an archmage with a different theme.

Something I've noticed is a number of things (defense, spellpower, saves) have a +N (+n effective) tooltip. It'd be nice to know where that's coming from if it's chrono-related.

Defense: it seems like PMs have a ton of defensive abilities spread across multiple trees. ie. they have defensive abilities in 3 generic trees. Foresight, Energy Decomposition, Spin Fate, Webs of Fate are all spread across different trees (and this isn't counting dimensional step). At first I thought I'd have too much defense abilities with energy decomp. and reality smearing reducing incoming damage by about 50% together, but I changed my mind, and think it's closer to reasonable, although I'd rather see the reduction from energy decomposition rolled into reality smearing. Also both celerity and dimensional step seem to give the class good mobility. Also time stop seems like even more mobility, because we can't do damage in those turns. Timestop also has a dead level, going to level 3 does nothing for it, so I doubt most people will increase it past 2? Timestop also feels similar to temporal reprieve. Also thematically I feel like there should be a skill that grants temporal resistance (and maybe a lesser amount of physical resistance as well).

Offense: It feels like the damage is somewhat similar to a mage's, except somehow I'm not doing as much damage around 20ish as I expect. I have a feeling it's related to the lack of damage synergy talents, ie. spellpower increasing or resistance penetrating. Part of it also might be I'm spreading my talents around to try different abilities, and that I have several points invested in different defensive talents. In general the low offense makes my defense feel worse, since it takes longer to kill things which means I get hit more frequently. If PM offense is increased defense might need to be tuned down very slightly. I think it's interesting that it's possible to hit things 2 (sometimes 3) times with the same temporal bolt, but it seems to be much harder to do that once you start getting speed because it's harder to predict how far the bolt will travel so there's some anti-synergy with those skills.

[edge2054]

I sent a MR for the Ice Wall bug, it's in master and I'll merge that into the chrono branch today after I get all the typos and bugs fixed in this thread.

@Surefire - Fixed the description. As far as instant swapping on items I'll try to give it some thought but it might not be something that can be done easily.

@Blade Shear - Fixed thanks

@Arrow Echoes - Also fixed

@Breach - Nah. It's strong enough and I think buffing it would make that tree non-optional. I'll see about adding some resist pen to egos for them.

@Starter Zone - I'd prefer to nerf the base mobs rather than having a special case. Don't want to set the precedent.

Also cleared up a few descriptions.

*edit*

Oh, as far as Blink Blade. It's really strong. Keep in mind that Arrow Stitched clones have a 50% damage penalty that applies to everything. The hits on Blink Blade aren't comparable.}

*edit again*

Ice Wall is fixed in master. Going to merge those changes in too.

[IejirIsk]

woot! and I must say... especially now that i got the relentless pursuit... (and for the bmost part before it) my TW does not care about status effects. between multiple means of teleport, vigilance, and timeless.

Love the idea of a fighter just summoning up random weapons to attack his foes. dstep + blink = many dead foes...
Threaded combat just intensifies it. alot of single pointers, and not played with hounds. speed control i just never had the points to fully get, so dont have any of it (at prides, anyway) and have enough buttons that mines aren't overly neccessary. Wish i could find higher void gear, to get the buffs when i teleport. and getting multiple blasts of status effects is nice. Stasis i think is about a musthave, for the paradox bump, more than timeshield. the detection on vigilance seems low, but dear lord any more would mean you would have to nerf it more XD. With a couple exceptions just leveled dex/mag/will evenly. found a piece of voidwalker leather. Like the idea of wormhole, but never really find a use for it. Does it work in no teleport areas? A talent buff for def on port, etc would be nice. Tempted to get chronomancy/chronomancy just for the def bonus. Breach is really nice. Focus + Blink Blade is a fairly strong OHKO usually. Main issue is the carry capacity... have all these items for in case i find something i need good str for, or for con... granted, did just grab 4/5 thick skin.
Phase pulse: is that x% for each status, or x% then 1/4 chance of either.

just thoughts before i head to bed. Loving the Wardens that I are.

[Razakai]

@Starter Zone - I'd prefer to nerf the base mobs rather than having a special case. Don't want to set the precedent.

Well, Searing Halls did remove all rares/randbosses, so you wouldn't be the first. I don't think the base mobs are particularly scary (unless you get more than 1 Rethread casting mob), but things like caster rares are incredibly deadly. I suppose it's part of the Nightmare+ experience though.

[edge2054]

Glad you're having fun and thanks for all the great feedback and testing over the last couple of days IejirIsk

Phase Pulse is one check per target and then picks a random effect if that check passes. It does this check twice though, at the entrance and exit locations, so if you have overlapping areas of effect on a short teleport you can get two effects on one target out of one teleport. Not likely since the chance scales with distance travelled though.

Paradox Mages should be done in the next four or five hours. Going to eat lunch, watch a movie with my son, and then finish up the last talent. I'll post once it's pushed

[IejirIsk]

@edge but, in theory can hit the same group 6 times in one shot with blink blade

and yea, always loved the idea of the chronomancers, trying to figure out how to make the mage style work... to go with paradox or without and is there a particular reason invigorate still gives sta? (or at least says?)

[edge2054]

@Starter Zone - I'd prefer to nerf the base mobs rather than having a special case. Don't want to set the precedent.

Well, Searing Halls did remove all rares/randbosses, so you wouldn't be the first. I don't think the base mobs are particularly scary (unless you get more than 1 Rethread casting mob), but things like caster rares are incredibly deadly. I suppose it's part of the Nightmare+ experience though.

Yeah, I just don't want the idea to build momentum. If I turn it off for PMs and TWs players will want it off in the AM, Dwarf, and Celestial zones. I'm not opposed to the idea overall I just don't want to put pressure on Darkgod if it's something I can address in other ways.

@Invigorate - For addons really. Doctornull requested it and he has a class that uses that tree and runs off Stamina.

[edge2054]

Alright, Matter is done!!!! So PMs are feature complete.

*dances*

I'll look at the starting zone tonight.

[edge2054]

My Warp test PM fighting Norgos.

[Parcae2]

Gravity Well description reads "global speed speed"

Edit: OK, Edge, you've done a really incredible job here and I hesitate to offer any criticism because, really, all I want is to play it as soon as possible.