We talked about this a bit on IRC today.
Basically the idea is to split Off-Balance away from accuracy completely so it only gets applied on Physical Power vs Physical Save checks.
We'd also buff Off-Balance to apply a 15% or 20% global speed penalty so its power level would be more in line with Brain-Locked and Spell-Shocked. We'd also nerf slime's speed penalty to 15% since they'd stack (at least partially).
Finally we'd add a new cross tier effect just for accuracy vs. defense called Something-Clever (Exposed Defenses maybe? If someone has a hyphenated name that would be nice to stay in theme). Anyway Something-Clever would increase the chance of being crit by 10% and increase the amount of critical damage you take by 10%. The reason it's kinda weak is because it's highly spammable. But it should be a nice incentive for people to pump accuracy.
I volunteer to code this if DG likes it and I might code it anyway and make it an add-on or something.
Saving Accuracy
Moderator: Moderator
Re: Saving Accuracy
Nice ideas all of them. "Exposed" is a good name for the effect, whilst also having an amusing double entendre.
Re: Saving Accuracy
Off-balance really wrecks some of my early melee characters, I'd happily see its frequency reduced. What about keeping the name "Off-Balance" for the new effect (it seems to fit with the accuracy and defense theme) and changing the old effect to something a bit more... aggressive, like "Knocked-Prone"?
Sorry about all the parentheses (sometimes I like to clarify things).
Re: Saving Accuracy
Aww, but I liked doing ~250% damage with my normal attacks about 90% of the time, as well as strongly debuffing enemies with this character (with other weapons equipped that boosted crit rate as well as bringing accuracy to above 60).
I agree that the effect gained from critical hits should be weaker than from having a weak physical save, as it is extremely spammable with Mindslayers and Archers in particular. What if the two effects were something like this:
Off Balance (Weak physical save): +15% chance to be critically hit (for spells and physical), -15% global speed
Exposed (Weak Def vs. crit): -10% all damage, drains 1/10 of each resistance, excluding Resist All (like Feed Strengths)
I agree that the effect gained from critical hits should be weaker than from having a weak physical save, as it is extremely spammable with Mindslayers and Archers in particular. What if the two effects were something like this:
Off Balance (Weak physical save): +15% chance to be critically hit (for spells and physical), -15% global speed
Exposed (Weak Def vs. crit): -10% all damage, drains 1/10 of each resistance, excluding Resist All (like Feed Strengths)
Re: Saving Accuracy
lukep, this would decouple the accuracy vs. defense checks from crits completely. As it is now investing in combat accuracy isn't fun unless you're a crit focused character. You put just enough points into accuracy as you can get away with and that's it.
The current version of Off-Balance is also very weak compared to the other effects... unless you're a crit focused character.
Your suggestion for Off-Balance is basically what I suggested but with more added to it. Ask yourself if, as a player, getting hit with a 15% speed penalty is enough? Especially considering this is going to be tied to another effect (often Stuns, Blinds, etc.) Relatively speaking I think a 15% speed reduction is pretty comparable to brain-locked and spell-shocked. It's more defensive in nature then spell-shocked but we all know that defense is generally king anyway.
Exposed doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong but is it meant to be like a mental effect? Like a over-compensating for getting hit? If so I don't really like it thematically (not all creatures are going to react the same way). Otherwise I don't know why Exposing your enemy would increase your resists (unless it's just to that one enemy).
Aside from that what's really wrong with +10% crit and a +10% critical power multiplier? It's fairly weak because it will be entirely spammable (every attack can trigger it) but it rewards players who invest heavily in combat accuracy and makes armor training and defense more valuable (no player wants to get crit).
I know I'm coming off like I'm shooting down your ideas I just don't know how they're an improvement over the initial suggestion.
edit: And rereading my initial post I don't think I made things clear enough. But yeah, this wouldn't be called on crit because calling stuff on crit means the cross tier effect only matters to people with high crit scores, which really isn't an incentive for say a Bulwark or Cursed to want to pump Combat Accuracy any more then they need too.
The current version of Off-Balance is also very weak compared to the other effects... unless you're a crit focused character.
Your suggestion for Off-Balance is basically what I suggested but with more added to it. Ask yourself if, as a player, getting hit with a 15% speed penalty is enough? Especially considering this is going to be tied to another effect (often Stuns, Blinds, etc.) Relatively speaking I think a 15% speed reduction is pretty comparable to brain-locked and spell-shocked. It's more defensive in nature then spell-shocked but we all know that defense is generally king anyway.
Exposed doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong but is it meant to be like a mental effect? Like a over-compensating for getting hit? If so I don't really like it thematically (not all creatures are going to react the same way). Otherwise I don't know why Exposing your enemy would increase your resists (unless it's just to that one enemy).
Aside from that what's really wrong with +10% crit and a +10% critical power multiplier? It's fairly weak because it will be entirely spammable (every attack can trigger it) but it rewards players who invest heavily in combat accuracy and makes armor training and defense more valuable (no player wants to get crit).
I know I'm coming off like I'm shooting down your ideas I just don't know how they're an improvement over the initial suggestion.
edit: And rereading my initial post I don't think I made things clear enough. But yeah, this wouldn't be called on crit because calling stuff on crit means the cross tier effect only matters to people with high crit scores, which really isn't an incentive for say a Bulwark or Cursed to want to pump Combat Accuracy any more then they need too.