Proposed Doomed Tweaks and Darkness Rework.

[orange<]

Introduction:
Doomed have quite a few problems as a short-ranged caster with their lower damage, poorer damage mitigation, and unreliable mobility when compared to both high-ranged caster and melee classes. When added to managing Hate as a resource these problems make Doomed not only feel a little lacklustre, but also a little frustrating to play. I would like to propose some changes for discussion while I make myself familiar with add-on creation.

Aims:
- Keep the class identity.
- Alleviate some Hate management issues.
- Buff damage mitigation.
- Rework Darkness to provide more mobility and require less luck.
- Concentrate more on buffing damage through utility than buffing damage by numbers.
- Embrace the concept of strong skill synergies at high point investment, using Shadows as a strong stepping stone early/mid-game and utility late game.

To avoid:
- Buffing Shadows themselves, including scaling. We all know how dangerous Doomed NPCs can get.
- Losing the class identity as a short-ranged caster (I’ve never been a fan of range 10 with anything), including Hate as a resource.

Doomed current skills for the lazy. http://te4.org/wiki/Doomed

Proposed Changes:

Deflection:
- Remove Hate cost per turn.
- Introduce sustain cost of 5.
- Increase charge rate to 1/10 per turn.
Goals: Removing the Hate per turn cost gives a bit of relief from Hate management. Increasing the charge rate will allow Doomed to shrug of up to 24 damage a turn.

Gesture of Guarding:
- Buff damage mitigation to 20%-50% (Maybe combatScale with Cunning.)
- Increase to 5-20%(cTL:50%) chance to counter attack.
Goals: Make melee a little more appealing. Give Doomed compensation for their low range.

Unnatural Body:
- Increase heal mod from 50%-100% to 50% to 120%
Goals: Just a slight buff to a talent which feels like it takes more than it gives.

Shadows:
- Remove Hate cost for summoning when no enemies are visible.
- Shadow Warriors available at levels 1/2/3/4/5 or 1/4/5/6/7
Goals: More Quality of Life Hate Management Relief. Starting Shadows level 1 is more viable.

One With Shadows:
- Reduce cast time for all skills to 0% of a turn.
- Reduce Shadow Decoy sustain cost by 10 as other sustain costs are introduced.
- Shadow Transposition removes (not transfers) 1-3 detrimental effects.
Goals: Increase the usefulness of Shadow utility as their usefulness as damage dealers and damage sponges decreases during the mid/late-game.

Darkness Tree: Rework. Keeping the +%damage to foes in your creeping Dark.

1. Dark Tendrils.
- Moved to first skill. Instant Travel Speed. Leaves Darkness. Range 8. Grants Dark Vision range 1 per point. CD:12, 8 Hate.

2. Dark Pull.
- Teleport foes afflicted with dark tendrils to you reseting the pin duration and reducing the cooldown of Dark Tendrils by 2-6(raw talent level) if successful + free melee attack. Instant cast. Grants Dark Vision range 1 per point. CD:5, 5 Hate.

3. Dark Leap.
- Teleport (range 7) with darkness radius 1 on impact. If targeting a foe Darkness radius is increased to 2 (3 at level 3) + free melee, CD:12-8(raw talent level), 10 Hate.

4. Even Moar Dark (or a better name form someone with more imagination.)
- Inflicting status (confusion, stun, knock back, hateful whisper) produces Darkness radius 1 (radius 2 at level 3).
- Using Dark Pull produces Darkness where the foe lands (radius 1 at level 2, radius 2 at level 4).
- Movement Speed +50%-250% (as Dark Vision Provide Currently.)
- Global Speed (+15%) while in Darkness at effective talent level 6 (or 5 raw talent level.)

Goals: Give Doomed more mobility to compensate for their low range. Make the Creeping Darkness less random and therefore, more useful. High Point investment results in strong combat buffs and cross-skill tree synergies.

Overview:
These changes should alleviate the problems Doomed have as low ranged caster, while also buffing Gesture melee builds, by improving their existing damage mitigation and giving them some much needed mobility. By giving One With Shadows some quality of life tweaks we manage to make Shadows feel useful as utility right up until the end. By reworking Darkness to not only give mobility but to also make it more reliable and provide combat buffs we give Doomed a little extra oomph when it comes to slogging it out with range 10 casters and axe-wielding maniacs. By the removing the 0.2 Hate/turn of Deflection and Hate cost to summon Shadows we improve the quality of life for Doomed, you will no longer lose 24 Hate every time you level up your shadow skills, and your Hate won’t drain twice as fast for being impolite enough to let your Deflection shield charge while you auto-explore.

[Mordy]

Just make sure you don't buff even more the doomed rares :p

I don't think increasing the number of shadows at max level is a good idea. Maybe make it work on a diminishing returns scale instead? Like 2/3/4/5/5/6 shadows?

[orange<]

I don't propose allowing more shadows to be summoned. I am very much against buffing shadows (they're already strong enough on rares.)

The Shadow changes are pretty much just quality of life improvements. Making it so they're not a huge Hate sink out of battle, and making shadows useful at levels 1-3 rather than just being mild distractions without changing them on a point invested basis.

[Mordy]

Oh I guess I misunderstood your remark about Shadow Warriors available.

[HousePet]

Interesting suggestions.

Not sure about buffing Gesture of Guarding, as it synergises well with Psiblades. ("Your best free hand damage" includes mindstars.)

But anyway, yoinking ideas.

[orange<]

True about the Psiblades. I might try giving it some sort of "If Gesture of Pain is Sustained then +X% effectiveness" instead of the straight damage buff.

Making gestures and hitting things with rocks for mind damage is something I really want to make an attractive tree.

I've been learning lua as I go along while rewriting the Darkness tree. I think maybe I should have picked an easier tree. Creeping Dark looks complicated. I've got all the simple number changes done, but I've done something in the darkness.lua which is causing the load screen to stall at 100% after selecting New Game.

[HousePet]

The Darkness code is an object of pure fear.

[astralInferno]

The afflicted code is an object of pure fear...

[Micbran]

The fear tree is an object of pure fear. Heh.

[malboro_urchin]

Interesting suggestions.

Not sure about buffing Gesture of Guarding, as it synergises well with Psiblades. ("Your best free hand damage" includes mindstars.)

But anyway, yoinking ideas.

Outside of that, don't gestures completely ignore Psiblades?

[HousePet]

The mindpower/cunning/willpower boosts still increase Gesture damage. The other damage boosts do not.

[0player]

Everyone keeps saying how bad afflicted code is, but most of it has been cleaned up.
I like the changes and especially the attempt to make darkness spread predictable.

[Crim, The Red Thunder]

Buffing shadows isn't wanted or desired, I agree with that, but it's not shadows that make doomed rares terrifying. Go generate a level 100 doomed rare without shadows. Watch it eat you for breakfast.

Nothing has been said about buffing fears, they're one of doomed's best weapons, and they suffer in the lategame when you can really start running them hard, by having more and more things become immune to them, and no source of piercing this immunity.

Can't comment on one with shadows, my doomed win was before that trees inception.

Can see buffing gestures some, but making them play nice with on-hit effects would be a BIG buff too.

I could see darkness geting some teleports being nice, but darkness is hard to fit in on what makes a good doomed as is, but that's more of ageneral build problem then a bad idea.