Making Primal Infusion desirable

[DaltonRaccoon]

I think artifact inscriptions should be the most desirable infusions in the game, for obvious reason. And for the most part, they are. If you're pumping your magic stat, you can't go wrong with a Rune of Reflection. Taint of Telepathy and Infusion of Wild Growth are at least somewhat competitive choices for a mindpower focused character.

But Primal Infusions are considered awful by pretty much everybody that is familiar with the game. Here are the major problems that we need to address:
1) Its status cleanse is not targeted; it affects all three statuses. A newbie would think this is good. In reality, you usually want to target the most threatening status afflicting you; you don't want to heal a poison instead of sleep, or heal a curse instead of a stun.
2) The non-scaling elemental affinity is inferior to the damage reduction of a normal Wild Infusion, which can sometimes scale up to 40% all resist!

Currently, I feel like Primal Infusion occupies the same nebulous sort of place as a Sun Infusion, in that it /can/ be useful in certain circumstances, but nobody will ever use it. This is because of the limited number of inscription slots you get, and the opportunity cost of not choosing a better inscription. I would rather have some of the classic go-to inscriptions such as a Movement Infusion or a Heroism Infusion than a Primal Infusion.

Off the top of my head, I have a few ideas of how Primal Infusions can gain the status of respect that they deserve for being an artifact:
1) Remove the elemental affinity. Simply make it cleanse one each of physical, mental, and magic.
2) Let it offer non-targeted cleanses as it currently does, but give it a powerful heal similar to a Healing Infusion.
3) Let it offer non-targeted cleanses as it currently does, but make the elemental affinity scale to one of your stats; preferably constitution or willpower, and make the scaling strong enough that its damage reduction is competitive with a non-artifact Wild Infusion.

Any other ideas, from people who have a better perspective on game balance than I do?

[xnd]

hm, i use sun figuring it can blind a whole bunch at once and make it harder for them to hit me = take less damage while I kill them? maybe it should do some other effect also?

[HousePet]

I don't think it is bad.

For comparison, the Rune of Reflection is pretty much always weaker than other shield runes, but the ability to have it in addition to two shield runes makes up for it.

The same applies for the Primal Infusion. On a direct comparison with a Wild infusion it isn't as good. But it can still be useful. Since it gives affinity, you can use a Wild and Primal for super toughness as well.

[grayswandir]

I like the idea of using a stat for it - probably will. Rune of reflection is generally pretty comparable to a random shielding rune if you're actually building magic (it has a low base power but scales with magic at 5/3 the normal rate). If we want to model it off of the reflection rune, then if you build the stat it should be pretty strong at the original purpose, with an added bonus.

What if we did something fun like make it specifically target your longest debuff, and heal you proportional to its duration?

[Candesce]

What if we did something fun like make it specifically target your longest debuff, and heal you proportional to its duration?

In addition to the affinity, you mean?

Hrm. How often is the longest-duration debuff going to be the highest-priority one to remove?

Simply making which debuff will be removed predictable might well be enough to make the Primal infusion interesting; it depends how frequently you'd be able to substitute it for a Wild.

[twas Brillig]

Simply making which debuff will be removed predictable might well be enough to make the Primal infusion interesting; it depends how frequently you'd be able to substitute it for a Wild.

Predictable how? is the question. Having a built-in priority system would be a UI mess or a guessing game. You could let people specify a priority (either physical/magical/mental or stun/poison/burn/...) and while that would be unique, it's not particularly primal.

What are other "primal" effects that exist in game? The Fungus tree? Harmony?

[Candesce]

Predictable how? is the question.

"longest-duration debuff" was the suggestion, and I think it'd work.

Giving priority to various disables is significantly more buff than I think is necessary or desirable, but I can't claim enough experience for any certainty.

[HousePet]

Well Endless Pursuit removes the shorter duration buffs. So something for preferentially removing the longest duration buff would be interesting.

[DaltonRaccoon]

Comparing it to the Rune of Reflection is a good idea, balance wise. RoR is generally not desirable unless you pump magic hard, in which case the scaling compensates for the low base. It is, essentially, a gift to classes with magic as a primary stat.

what could be done to make the Primal Infusion feel like it's especially geared toward NATURE classes? Have it boost or mimic one of the talents in the antimagic tree, perhaps? Or maybe offer a STRENGTH scaling elemental affinity, but also apply an arcane spell failure chance while the affinity effect is active?

[HousePet]

NATURE classes aren't necessarily ANTIMAGIC.
Maybe make it scale with CONSTITUTION?

[Micbran]

I AGREE. Primal is... Primal. So STRENGTH scaling fits thematically, assuming that being primal deals with raw POWER. Though, I feel like primal doesn't have enough NATURE in it. Maybe have a NATURE explosion for each effect cleansed?

Besides, who builds constitution as a wilder? Like nobody, right?

[Atarlost]

If we want it to be targeted to nature classes the question is what are the nature classes?

Summoners are will/cunning.
Oozemancers are will/cunning.
Wyrmics are strength/will/cunning, though pure will/cunning and possibly strength/dexterity/cunning and dexterity/will/cunning are possible as well.

If you want to cater to nature classes the clear choice is either will or cunning.

[HousePet]

I wouldn't say Wyrmic is primarily Cunning.
Or that this item should be targeted at a few specific classes.

[Micbran]

This is more difficult to find a common stat on primal when compared to RoR. Only magic users use the magic stat. Psionic users, nature users and afflicted use willpower (and cunning). Since RoR uses magic it's bound to magic users. But there's no nature stat, so you can't really bind primal to a specific category of classes, wilder in this case.

[grayswandir]

I'd like Willpower (decently wide as it hits wilders and psi users), or Constitution (a strong enough scaling might be incentive to actually build constitution some).