Special Paradox Mage event for Daikara 4

[timphiz]

I'm posting this not because I have some amazing idea for an event, but because the normal Temporal Rift is such a death trap for Paradox Mages due to most of the enemies having 100% temporal resist. I suppose it's probably beatable if you invest heavily in the gravity tree or are just really damn good. I have 2 adventurer mode wins and had to just run and jump through the Zero G zone then got destroyed in the Lumberjack Village zone.

Maybe something like an quest where you escort your young self (because everyone loves escort quests) or save your grandparents' village from getting massacred by Orcs.

[Varil]

Huh. I haven't played a lot of Paradox Mages, so I never even played the TR with one. It hadn't occured to me how rough that might be.

Hmm.

It feels weird to me, that an event revolving around time might be a particularly difficult quest for a master of time manipulation.

I don't have an opinion on a special quest or anything, I just thought that seemed counter-intuitive.

[edge2054]

The reward for doing the Temporal Rift on a Paradox Mage is amazing (Rune of the Rift is like a bonus Static History on a shorter cooldown).

Yes, it's hard. Time Elementals have 100% temporal resist and Paradox Mages primarily deal physical and temporal damage. Yes you need to invest in Gravity if you really want to do the Temporal Rift.

That said I don't think it's really a 'death trap' because to unlock the class the player should have gone through the Rift at least once before and have a good idea of what to expect. Paradox Mages also have a talent that increases Temporal Resist which can help significantly as well as two means of targeted teleportation (on very short cooldowns if properly invested).

Anyway... not every zone and every dungeon is going to be easy for every class. I skip the Dark Crypt on probably 80% of my characters and I tend to avoid the Rift unless I'm very well prepared.

But... if someone has a specific idea it's worth posting. And honestly any alternate ideas would need to be just as hard as the Rift is currently or the Rune of the Rift would need to be nerfed (for an idea of what I'm talking about, look at the Epoch fight).

edit: Actually this post has me thinking. Maybe the time elementals could be removed from the second and third areas of the rift. So paradox mages that don't want to invest in gravity would have the choice of running through the first area and still have a reasonable chance of killing the bosses without having to deal with invincible monsters.

Though I think the Rune of the Rift probably needs it's paradox reduction looked at anyway.

[timphiz]

I don't think the Epoch fight is that hard if you come prepared. The problem is that preparing for the rift as a Paradox Mage basically just means building your character in one specific way. When I got there on my guy with 0 points in gravity I was pretty much unable to seperate the cursed boss from two of those ultimate purple tornadoes. And since the Eidolon doesn't give you the option to return outside of the rift the character was just finished. I still used up all my lives trying to beat the fight. To be fair it was pretty derp of me to go in there in the first place, but it feels kinda like if Wyrmics were unable to do the ruined dungeon without investing in the fire drake tree.

Plus, I think it would be cool and fit with the theme if Paradox Mages got their own special fight similar to wardens.

[bricks]

The Rift is much harder for any melee class, IMO, than for paradox mages. At least, the first area. The second and third are often a crapshoot for me, but I tend to pull it off somehow.

[jotwebe]

Haven't died in the rift in a loooong time, melee or not. Bring a bow, doesn't need to be a good one, and knockback from projectiles will keep them off your back.

[tekrunner]

If the rune's paradox reduction gets taken away, then it would really need to stop bringing back enemies at full health. Even right now I'm not sure it's worth using by anyone but paradox mages, because of that bug/feature.

[edge2054]

I don't think it should be taken away tek but 120 every 12 turns is really high. It trivializes other forms of paradox reduction early game.

60 would be more balanced in my opinion.

I think removing the time elementals from the second and third parts of the rift is still a good idea. Having to build specifically to deal with them doesn't sound great and getting through the first phase of the rift without fighting is an option.

[bricks]

Not to hijack this thread entirely, but is the Rune's tendency to bring back foes at full health intended, or is it "intended?" I think it would be more fun (and a neat introduction to the metaclass) if it always caused a random anomaly.

[marvalis]

If I understand the code correctly, then the code stores the target in the target of a new object. The target is removed and the new object is placed on the map. After a number of turns the object removes itself and places its target back on the map. If you target yourself, then you get the effect "EFF_CONTINUUM_DESTABILIZATION" but you do not get removed and added to the map.

Judging from this, I think the 'healing' is not intended, since nowhere is hard-coded that the target should be healed.

It kinda surprises me that the current HP is not stored in the 'target' table.

[edge2054]

hehe... consider thread hijacked.

Yeah, the healing isn't intended. This was one of the earlier chronomancy talents I wrote and it really should just be cleaned up and rewritten (maybe I'll get a chance to do that today). The artifact is extremely powerful though and I think a random anomaly chance would be a nice balancer for it. The bug/features it currently has are a means of balancing it now but they're sub-optimal.

Regardless... the paradox reduction is to high.

edit: Or better yet, the temporal instability object could have a chance of generating anomalies each turn rather then the Rift having a chance to generate them on cast.

[Varil]

What if, instead of straight reducing paradox, it gave you "temporary" paradox? IE you repair 120 paradox, but 10 turns later you get 120 back, and a chance of random anomalies just as if you'd cast a 120 paradox spell. Using the rune to temporarily "patch" the timeline, basically.

[timphiz]

I think removing the time elementals from the second and third parts of the rift is still a good idea. Having to build specifically to deal with them doesn't sound great and getting through the first phase of the rift without fighting is an option.

I think that would work well. Maybe replace them with lumberjack abominations and ice giant abominations or something.