Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
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Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
I'm debating giving it some armor and dropping the flat damage cap.
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
Repulsion blast should probably do less damage than it does now (I'd suggest 10-20% less), considering it's an aoe with low cooldown that has a useful effect.
<darkgod> all this fine balancing talk is boring
<darkgod> brb buffing boulder throwers
<darkgod> brb buffing boulder throwers
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
Armor is cool.
I think Repulsion Blast is sitting at a good spot right now. The AoE is not important. Temporal Bolt and Gravity Spike are both spells that prefer more living targets. The knockback is nice, but you already have a ton of other ways to stay out of melee range and it doesn't come close to other effects like cooldown reduction, or stun, or digging. Instead it's a spell that has a chance to do more damage, and it pays for it in range and having 1 higher cooldown than your other starter damage spells.
I think the damage conversion on Gravity Locus should drop to 50%, for theme reasons. All damage conversion is rare, and the prodigies that grant it give 50% and 33%. A normal talent shouldn't exceed that. Also, the physical build no longer needs it as much as it did in the past, due to the Matter tree and the new Spatial Tether.
I think Repulsion Blast is sitting at a good spot right now. The AoE is not important. Temporal Bolt and Gravity Spike are both spells that prefer more living targets. The knockback is nice, but you already have a ton of other ways to stay out of melee range and it doesn't come close to other effects like cooldown reduction, or stun, or digging. Instead it's a spell that has a chance to do more damage, and it pays for it in range and having 1 higher cooldown than your other starter damage spells.
I think the damage conversion on Gravity Locus should drop to 50%, for theme reasons. All damage conversion is rare, and the prodigies that grant it give 50% and 33%. A normal talent shouldn't exceed that. Also, the physical build no longer needs it as much as it did in the past, due to the Matter tree and the new Spatial Tether.
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
Plus, it's thematically appropriate for Matter Weaving to give armor, since the description of the spell is basically that you turn your innards into steel.
On Spatial Tether, I would suggest putting a line in the description that specifically points out you can cast it on yourself or a friendly target, since that's supported in the code but would never have occurred to me if I wasn't reading the commit log.
Also, on the topic of preventing damage with saves - if a target saves against Time Skip, it takes temporal damage, but the Rune of the Rift inscription you get from the Daikara rift doesn't deal damage unless the save fails. It would make sense to have the Rune always deal damage too, since it's a rune-ified version of the spell.
Now that Attenuate doesn't recover paradox when the target dies, it should probably either have a paradox cost or say in the description that it's free, since you normally don't expect a talent to be free unless it's one that gives you back resource.
On Spatial Tether, I would suggest putting a line in the description that specifically points out you can cast it on yourself or a friendly target, since that's supported in the code but would never have occurred to me if I wasn't reading the commit log.
Also, on the topic of preventing damage with saves - if a target saves against Time Skip, it takes temporal damage, but the Rune of the Rift inscription you get from the Daikara rift doesn't deal damage unless the save fails. It would make sense to have the Rune always deal damage too, since it's a rune-ified version of the spell.
Now that Attenuate doesn't recover paradox when the target dies, it should probably either have a paradox cost or say in the description that it's free, since you normally don't expect a talent to be free unless it's one that gives you back resource.
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
Hmm.. not sure on changing Rune of the Rift without nerfing the damage. Thing hits like a freight train.
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
Time for Ye Olde Guardian Unity Balance Commente again ...
I think it needs to be nerfed again a bit. Blended Threads and the displace damage talent are excellent defensive possibilities. Sorry for all the inconsistent feedback!
(By the way, I really love how Blended Threads works right now. It forces you to really, really think about how you position yourself, which is great!)
I think it needs to be nerfed again a bit. Blended Threads and the displace damage talent are excellent defensive possibilities. Sorry for all the inconsistent feedback!
(By the way, I really love how Blended Threads works right now. It forces you to really, really think about how you position yourself, which is great!)
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
Yeah, I'll make the damage split more in line with similar talents (so cap out at 30% or so). Probably double it for the initial hit.
I've been playing a Threaded-Combat build the last few days and have to say I'm not happy with it
So Blended Threads probably isn't going to stay how it is. In fact, all three weapon trees will probably see quite a few changes over the next few days.
I've been playing a Threaded-Combat build the last few days and have to say I'm not happy with it
So Blended Threads probably isn't going to stay how it is. In fact, all three weapon trees will probably see quite a few changes over the next few days.
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
Alright, starting to make some changes.
Blended Threads reduces Bow/Blade threading cooldowns when you hit with the opposite weapon. This effect can occur X times per turn. Yes, that's a lot. And a lot more with melee. Should be good incentive to cycle cooldowns.
Thread The Needle no longer reduces cooldowns. It was a great on paper talent. In practice it was terrible. By the time I needed it things were dead and I had no targets to use it on. It's getting the Paradox reduction from Threaded Arrow once per target hit. This should help the Paradox issues the hybrid build has.
Aside from that I need to figure out what to do with Threaded Arrow since it will lose the Paradox reduction. I may just drop it. Still debating.
I'm going to drop Blade Shear and move the parry effect from Warden's Focus into that tree. Should help melee builds survive better in melee. Hybrid builds can skip it if they want.
I want to do another passive effect as the capstone for the Bow Threading tree. Not sure what yet. And not sure if Arrow Echoes or Threaded Arrow will the talent dropped for it.
Blended Threads reduces Bow/Blade threading cooldowns when you hit with the opposite weapon. This effect can occur X times per turn. Yes, that's a lot. And a lot more with melee. Should be good incentive to cycle cooldowns.
Thread The Needle no longer reduces cooldowns. It was a great on paper talent. In practice it was terrible. By the time I needed it things were dead and I had no targets to use it on. It's getting the Paradox reduction from Threaded Arrow once per target hit. This should help the Paradox issues the hybrid build has.
Aside from that I need to figure out what to do with Threaded Arrow since it will lose the Paradox reduction. I may just drop it. Still debating.
I'm going to drop Blade Shear and move the parry effect from Warden's Focus into that tree. Should help melee builds survive better in melee. Hybrid builds can skip it if they want.
I want to do another passive effect as the capstone for the Bow Threading tree. Not sure what yet. And not sure if Arrow Echoes or Threaded Arrow will the talent dropped for it.
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
The order of arguments to the description of Attenuate is wrong on the more_fixes branch - should be ":format(damDesc(self, DamageType.TEMPORAL, damage), duration, radius, damage*0.4)".
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
The % resist all on Thread Walk probably shouldn't scale with your Magic stat; it can stack up to high levels when combined with voidwalker items, and the warden has enough teleports now to keep Out of Phase permanently active. A single point in Thread Walk can end up boosting your survival by a lot.
I'm sure you know that the new Blended Threads is ridiculous, but the new Blended Threads is ridiculous.
Adding a teleport closer to Blade Threading helps the tree be more dynamic, and I'm enjoying the trend of the Temporal Warden as the fighter who teleports everywhere because walking is for peasants, but I'm not sure Blink Blade needed the help; it's now my best closer, my best attack, my second-best cooldown reduction, my best effect dealer, and my best effect cleanser all in one button.
I think replacing Braided Blade and Threaded Arrow was the right choice. Too many active skills that weren't earning their keep. I like Arrow Threading as a straightforward utility option for controlling your paradox. It's hard to judge the value of Blade Ward, because even as a TW that uses melee, half the time you're in "melee" range you're actually firing a bow and don't benefit from the parry chance.
Speaking of which - why change Singularity Arrow to deal self damage again? Currently it's struggling to be worth the space on my toolbar, never mind being worth more than 1 point in the talent. A point-blank Singularity was tactically useful for melee wardens, since it could suck enemies into range.
I'm sure you know that the new Blended Threads is ridiculous, but the new Blended Threads is ridiculous.
Adding a teleport closer to Blade Threading helps the tree be more dynamic, and I'm enjoying the trend of the Temporal Warden as the fighter who teleports everywhere because walking is for peasants, but I'm not sure Blink Blade needed the help; it's now my best closer, my best attack, my second-best cooldown reduction, my best effect dealer, and my best effect cleanser all in one button.
I think replacing Braided Blade and Threaded Arrow was the right choice. Too many active skills that weren't earning their keep. I like Arrow Threading as a straightforward utility option for controlling your paradox. It's hard to judge the value of Blade Ward, because even as a TW that uses melee, half the time you're in "melee" range you're actually firing a bow and don't benefit from the parry chance.
Speaking of which - why change Singularity Arrow to deal self damage again? Currently it's struggling to be worth the space on my toolbar, never mind being worth more than 1 point in the talent. A point-blank Singularity was tactically useful for melee wardens, since it could suck enemies into range.
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
I have my eye on that percent effect reduction stat and may strip it off thread walk outright. Defense and resist all is already really strong and the attack does still have weapon damage scaling I believe as well. I know, not the most fun thing in the game, but it is an effective means of talent scaling especially when you factor in other how it works with other multipliers, i.e. crits and weapon mastery.
Blended Threads may be a bit over the top but from a design perspective I think it's finally doing what I wanted it too, giving the player a strong incentive to weapon swap. That incentive is even stronger for melee and it needs to be as melee is just far more dangerous than plinking away with arrows.
Yeah, Blink Blade is good. I wanted the tree to be self contained and not rely on Thread Walk to function. I think Blade/Dogs should be just as viable as Bow/Dogs. I worry about it on rares honestly. It's a flurry/rush vs. the player. As far as being OP in the players hands I'm not too concerned. I'm halfway through the prides and some foolhardy use of Blink Blades has nearly killed me a few times. I have Precog at 4 points and a lot of that stems from needing to know if I can use Blink Blade safely. In practice this means I'm often using two turns to cast one Blink Blade. Additionally when I do use it to close, it's usually on cooldown when I need it to clear an effect.
I put Blade Ward at the top of the tree so hybrid builds could skip it. For pure melee builds it's godly
My justification for Singularity Arrow is that it's basically Gravity Spike on an arrow, which is also self-damaging (pre-Gravity Locus). With my last character I really didn't like how little thought it took to use so I made it self damaging again. On the other hand it is a bolt so the targeting is a bit more punishing than Gravity Spike. I'll think about it.
Blended Threads may be a bit over the top but from a design perspective I think it's finally doing what I wanted it too, giving the player a strong incentive to weapon swap. That incentive is even stronger for melee and it needs to be as melee is just far more dangerous than plinking away with arrows.
Yeah, Blink Blade is good. I wanted the tree to be self contained and not rely on Thread Walk to function. I think Blade/Dogs should be just as viable as Bow/Dogs. I worry about it on rares honestly. It's a flurry/rush vs. the player. As far as being OP in the players hands I'm not too concerned. I'm halfway through the prides and some foolhardy use of Blink Blades has nearly killed me a few times. I have Precog at 4 points and a lot of that stems from needing to know if I can use Blink Blade safely. In practice this means I'm often using two turns to cast one Blink Blade. Additionally when I do use it to close, it's usually on cooldown when I need it to clear an effect.
I put Blade Ward at the top of the tree so hybrid builds could skip it. For pure melee builds it's godly
My justification for Singularity Arrow is that it's basically Gravity Spike on an arrow, which is also self-damaging (pre-Gravity Locus). With my last character I really didn't like how little thought it took to use so I made it self damaging again. On the other hand it is a bolt so the targeting is a bit more punishing than Gravity Spike. I'll think about it.
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
Thinking more about Blink Blade. We could pull one of the later teleports off of it. So it'd be four hits. Up the damage a bit to compensate. I like it as a closer though. Helps the flow of the Blade tree a lot.
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
I'm not sure Singularity Arrow requires much thought to use now, either; I think, "Can I fire without hurting myself?" and if the answer is "No", I don't. Plus, when it was safe to use nearby, you had more valid targeting options and therefore more of a decision to make - do you want to aim for the biggest group, or try to move targets together for a follow-up AoE, or pull enemies into melee range, or push enemies out of melee range?
As a PM, I find that Gravity Spike is a much more interesting skill once I have Gravity Locus, because I can spike enemies around without having to pick a target that won't blow me up with splash damage. The trick of casting Temporal Bolt then using Redux to repeatedly move an enemy into the path of the bolt only works if you can target Gravity Spike pretty freely, and likewise for the tricks you can perform with Spatial Tether.
As a PM, I find that Gravity Spike is a much more interesting skill once I have Gravity Locus, because I can spike enemies around without having to pick a target that won't blow me up with splash damage. The trick of casting Temporal Bolt then using Redux to repeatedly move an enemy into the path of the bolt only works if you can target Gravity Spike pretty freely, and likewise for the tricks you can perform with Spatial Tether.
Re: Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)
You could always make it not hit friendly targets at talent level 5. That gives an incentive to invest more points.