Bringing doomed up to snuff for 1.4 and beyond

[ratbuddy]

Hopefully we can all agree that doomed needs some help; damage output and survivability of the class are both pretty miserable. I'll break things into two types of suggested changes: changes that are minor or easy to implement and which could be included in the upcoming release of version 1.4, and longer term changes that would require more extensive coding.

Short term:
- Improve deflection. Doomed fold like a wet noodle when hit, and a boost here (either to max capacity or recharge rate) would help. Remove the constant hate drain.

- Gesture of guarding boost. This skill barely blocks any damage at all. Hardly 4th-tier skill material. Double or triple the blocked damage and ditto for the number of blocks per turn. Consider letting it block ranged damage as well.

- Cursed sentry using channel staff. Staves are currently used as melee weapons when deployed with cursed sentry. Letting cursed sentry use channel staff (and a few levels of staff mastery) would provide a much needed boost to ranged damage output.

- Remove or reduce damage done by player to friendly shadows. Shadows are already paper thin, and things like the summer/winter mindstar set result in even more flimsy shadows.

*This post is a work in progress, will edit as necessary. Please feel free to chip in with your own ideas!

[StarKeep]

Deflection; in its current form, it cannot be buffed too much, because a -50% to all damage is obscenely strong.

Propose: Lower damage absorbed to 25%, triple its current maximum value, increase its recharge rate to 1 per turn, scaling with Heal Mod and TL Multiplier.


Creeping Darkness; requires 2 talents to start functioning, does nothing before than

Prop0se: Combine the 1st/2nd talent into slot 2, move slot 3 into slot 1, make slot 1 spawn darkness all along the line, add a new slot 3 that interacts with Darkness tiles for some form of kiting/slow/tricky tricks.

[astralInferno]

I've long said that doomed is basically three classes in one. Obviously, fixing this is a long term issue, if people agree with me.

-Mind focus. Fears is this, Punishments is this, Gestures is probably this. I'd focus this on some kind of horrible spectre. To some extent, my Blighted addon is a mind-specialist doomed fix.

-Physical focus. Force of Will, obviously. You could argue that Gestures fits here as well (especially given they give +crit chance to go with the crit damage), but as they do mind damage I put them above. I have an addon planned for this, too, as it happens. (I didn't come to advertise, promise.)

-Darkness focus. Possibly the most obvious/famous/iconic theme of Doomed. Darkness, Shadows, One With Shadows.

The problem as I see it is that the trees all have /internal/ synergy, but not much between one another. Further, they don't have much of a running theme across all of them, apart from the obvious 'hate caster.' I think it'd benefit from being split into two or more classes, each with several more trees.

[Crim, The Red Thunder]

Shadows in the darkness build? Backwards.

Shadows are lacking so much in offense lategame (and are so overwhelming early game) that they're gonna be a cast iron ***** to change. They're best use is for the melee build doomed, as distractions and decoys, not for some sort of offense. And they're critical to all builds currently, because of the needed distraction from your own paltry health. You're forced to invest, but get nothing out of it lategame beyond the distraction.

Fears are a great tool for survival too, but are in need of a buff. The biggest flaw is the total lack of a means to deal with fear resistance. They're far from useless lategame, but are near worthless on most bosses and uniques, where your biggest threats are.

I'd almost advocate just unlocking fears for them. Locking it dissuades people from using it, and adds a delay before it can get useful, by the time they devote points to it instead of other things giving them more immediate rewards.

Darkness is just a mess of garbage at the moment. The entire THING could be reworked into almost anything and be better. The complete randomness, and lack of good damage tools just hurts across the board. (admittedly, I haven't played with darkness since the I500 massive rework merge into the main game, so maybe they got better in damage potential since then)
Current uses seem to involve making darkness for stealth (and hoping it doesn't creep out of the critical tiles exposing you to enemies) or getting inside it for other bonus damage (which only helps casting, which brings up hate cost limitations) Your best reliable damage with gestures is almost impossible to synergize with this, because enemies get sight problems with darkness.

Gestures need more outside synergy. IT's one of their strongest tools, (25% stun on every blow? How can you decline?) but it's ignored because it makes most weapons and onhit procs do nothing, and it's damage output is less then you'd get off psiblades. (and you don't have the generics for both.) While it probably shouldn't be psiblade tier damage, it could stand a buff from what it is.

People also dismiss feeds ability to mitigate damage, not sure if that's jsut experience of the folks I've heard talking, or an actual trend. May or may not need looking at.

A LOT of doomed's build problems also result from being wildly choked for talent points across the board. A heavy look at merging some talents down so this isn't as critical would help. (I don't even now how people deal with cursed items and antimagic on doomed. It's been done, but the sheer investment it takes away from you and other things that help you...)

All of doomed direct casting options seem heavily weighted towards either early game (Willful Strike) or lategame (agony). Others seem inadequate at all levels (the hit every turn cast... force of will?)

It's a fantastic class, with enormous potential, but it needs a lot of tidying. And what direction it moves in (I don't think a class split is needed yet. There's not enough to split without making something like a dozen new trees) dictates what gets changed.

[astralInferno]

To clarify, that entire post was assuming a bunch of new trees. I was dividing based on thematic lines rather than what actually works now, since I have little basis for that beyond what feels good.

...not very much on doomed feels good, tbh.

[HousePet]

Compared to Cursed, I think Doomed categories work reasonably.
Splitting a class into different damage type builds isn't a great move. You get no benefit and just restrict choice.
Most of the categories just need a few tweaks for synergy. Then a few more categories and it would be great.
There is no way that anything can be achieved for 1.4.
I'm slowly compiling and refining ideas for a 1.5 Afflicted update.
Top on my todo list is some stuff for Embers though. So I'll go into more detail about what I've collected in my hate idea soup after that is done.

My experience with Feed is that it is about as good as other afflicted categories. It is great when you have a handy boss nearby. But like many afflicted categories, it is a bit dilute.

[Isotope-X]

Would it be too powerful to make Feed either instant cast or taking up only half a turn or something like that? Activating it always seems to be a waste of a turn, but necessary all the same for Hate management.

[cttw]

I don't see how deflection can't be buffed for being too strong at 50% when most shields are 100%, for a larger total damage protection, and some even reflect damage or provide healing bonuses, status duration bonuses, etc. It is by far the weakest shield in the game, and the slow recharge is infinitely worse and harder to manage than waiting for a cooldown. If anything on a doomed could use a buff of 2x or even 3x or more, it is the deflection shield.

[StarKeep]

My shot at a Darkness Tree rework;

'Dark Tendrils'

'Send out tendrils of darkness at all enemies and Walls in target cone.
These Tendrils move slowly towards their target, dealing (5-50) Darkness damage to all foes they pass through, and (20-200) Darkness damage in a radius of 1 on contact with their target.
In addition, any enemy that attempts to damage you through, or from, a Tendril deals (10-25%) less damage. If in melee range of a Tendril, they are pulled inside, and dealt Contact damage.

Targets take 20% less damage from all additional instances of damage from this Talent after the first.

Your other Creeping Darkness talents interact with this talent in various ways.
The Damage will increase with Mindpower.'


'Dark Vision'

'Passively grants you Telepathy All in a radius of (3-8) around all active Tendrils.

Activate to redirect the closest (1-4) Tendrils towards a new target.'


'Dark Torrent'

'Activate to send out a small beam of Darkness from all active Tendrils. All Tendrils can hit enemies within a radius of (2-5) around them.

For every beam that hits a foe, deal (20-200) Darkness damage. Additionally pin them for 1 turn per beam that hits.

Targets take 5% less damage from all additional instances of damage from this Talent after the first.

The Damage will increase with Mindpower.'


'Creeping Darkness'

'At Talent Level 3, passively increases the radius of Tendril Blast Damage to 2.
At Talent Level 5, passively increases the radius of Tendril Contact Damage to 1.

Activate to instantly destroy all Tendrils, dealing Blast Damage, and turning them into Walls of Darkness.
These Walls of Darkness cannot be seen or passed through, except by you, and last (2-10) turns.'

[HousePet]

Looks like 1.4 will include friendly fire resistance for Shadows.
Deflection, Gesture of Guarding, Hateful Whisper, Reproach, Unseen Force will also have better scaling.

[ratbuddy]

Nice, are those changes live in beta 3?

[HousePet]

I don't think so.

[HousePet]

Further changes make Shadows cheaper and Focus Shadows will summon missing Shadows.
Gesture of Pain takes twice the base damage from you mindstars and copies procs from them. Which may be quite OP now.

[Parcae2]

Focus Shadows will summon missing Shadows

This is the single most important buff to the class so far.

[ratbuddy]

Doomed in beta is really fun now.

Let's go find a thread for nerfing skirmishers, that's another glaring unbalance that needs fixin'