Comprehensive Mindslayer rework

[HousePet]

Skate does the same amount of movement speed as Celerity. Is that really too much?

[Suslik]

Skate does the same amount of movement speed as Celerity. Is that really too much?

Hmm indeed. Well, that's a lot. Ok, then maybe nerf it passively if you add spiking to it. Actually the class looks more balanced at this stage than I was afraid it would.

[edge2054]

Skate does the same amount of movement speed as Celerity. Is that really too much?

Celerity isn't generic and it's on classes that have lots of mobility options already.

Which isn't to say skate is overpowered, it's still a sustain rather than a passive and it has the knockback reduction thing. But drawing comparisons like that straight across doesn't really work. With class talents you have to balance rather or not something is going to break one or two classes.

With a generic talent you have to ask yourself is this too powerful if given to anyone and everyone.

[Suslik]

We've discussed things in the irc and made a following conclusions:
1) Spiking passives looks like a class feature. Maybe we should concentrate on these mechanics more.
2) Class currenly has 6 somewhat mirroring each other abilities: kinetic aura-mindlash, thermal aura - pyrokinesis and charged aura - brain storm. Also spiking auras is mostly useful in the beginning when you don't have enough abilities.
3) Since transcendence trees buff only focus abilites and there are plenty offensive abilites overall, from some point you just don't spike auras anymore.

So here comes the proposal:
What if we merge the 2 trees into 1 and make spiking auras' effects equal to current focus abilities? Like spiking kinetic aura should act like a mindlash with all bonuses applied from transcendence, debuffs, and stuff? That'll free a lot of space on the skillbar and eliminating regular active abilities will keep the class unique. Also passive effect of Iron Will can be merged with frenzied focus and cooldowns of auras set to way lower values to allow semi-rotation. Graphics and targetting from focus abilities should be transferred to aura spiking as well.

What do you guys think?

[Doctornull]

Playing around with 1.2b13 + git right now.

Spiked shields seem much better than before in theory, but it's hard to tell in practice, becasue the information displayed is insufficient.

Like... exactly how much energy has my shield absorbed in the last 6 turns? How big will my damage shield be when I make it?

Also, why don't Psi Damage Shields interact with Arcane +% shield gear? (Why create a new timed effect, why not just make damage shield a Physical effect which is shared?)

[edge2054]

Like... exactly how much energy has my shield absorbed in the last 6 turns? How big will my damage shield be when I make it?

It's displayed on the sustain itself for me. Like combo points etc.

[Doctornull]

Like... exactly how much energy has my shield absorbed in the last 6 turns? How big will my damage shield be when I make it?

It's displayed on the sustain itself for me. Like combo points etc.

Mine doesn't show that.

I'm using 1.2b12 in Git.

[Suslik]

it only shows after it absorbs some amount of damage

[Doctornull]

it only shows after it absorbs some amount of damage

Mine had absorbed damage that same round.

Here's what the tooltip showed me:

Screen Shot 2014-05-26 at 5.00.53 PM.png (172.86 KiB) Viewed 3285 times

Where should I see the damage absorbed?

[Suslik]

[Doctornull]

So, as you can see from my image, that number does not appear for me.

Oh well.

[HousePet]

We've discussed things in the irc and made a following conclusions:
1) Spiking passives looks like a class feature. Maybe we should concentrate on these mechanics more.
2) Class currenly has 6 somewhat mirroring each other abilities: kinetic aura-mindlash, thermal aura - pyrokinesis and charged aura - brain storm. Also spiking auras is mostly useful in the beginning when you don't have enough abilities.
3) Since transcendence trees buff only focus abilites and there are plenty offensive abilites overall, from some point you just don't spike auras anymore.

So here comes the proposal:
What if we merge the 2 trees into 1 and make spiking auras' effects equal to current focus abilities? Like spiking kinetic aura should act like a mindlash with all bonuses applied from transcendence, debuffs, and stuff? That'll free a lot of space on the skillbar and eliminating regular active abilities will keep the class unique. Also passive effect of Iron Will can be merged with frenzied focus and cooldowns of auras set to way lower values to allow semi-rotation. Graphics and targetting from focus abilities should be transferred to aura spiking as well.

What do you guys think?

While they are similarish, I don't think that any of those points justify merging the categories.
If they were merged, you loose some interesting options. If you wanted to focus on pure kinetic for example, you would have Kinetic Shield and Kinetic Leech, neither of which do damage. Your only early damage talents are Kinetic Strike and the merged Kinetic Aura/Mindlash, until you get TK Throw and Implode.

As for Skate, I can't see giving any class +50% movement speed as too powerful. But if it is changed to be spikeable, then I would have to say that giving a class a movement infusion, a perfect phase door and a rush talent as too powerful.

[Parcae2]

Maybe instead of making spiked Skate a movement infusion, it could do the opposite - immobilize you and provide some kind of defensive advantage. Or it could be a way to bring back Mindhook.

[Suslik]

Your only early damage talents are Kinetic Strike and the merged Kinetic Aura/Mindlash, until you get TK Throw and Implode.

yeah but since you have fewer abilities I think it's best to set auras' cd to 4 or 5 to allow rotation or semi-rotation(hello tri-beam archmages), because they are going to be your only means of ranged offence most of the game. currently I ended up not using spiking auras in midgame at all due to excess of other offensive options. And I had no skill points, nor space on the skillbar nor need for the last talent in projection tree. If it was merged with iron will though, it'll be very desirebale though even for build that are not going to use psifighting a lot.

idea about spiking skate to movement infusion was born from class vision and mechanics, not from gameplay experience. from gameplay experience mindhook or it's alternative is very desired: making telekinetic throw eiter move target closer or farther(depends on where you want them to be) can solve that as well as spiking skate to this action but it feels not very logical.

[darkgod]

Also, why don't Psi Damage Shields interact with Arcane +% shield gear? (Why create a new timed effect, why not just make damage shield a Physical effect which is shared?)

Because damage shields are not physical effects, it's not logical and psi shields certainly shouldnt be categorized as magic nor helped by magic shields bonuses