ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

In the past TK-wielding a mindstar was the only sensible choice, now it works the other way with TK-wielding a 2H the optimal choice. Not saying TK-wield a gem/mindstar is useless, but they are just sub-optimal. Foregoing an extra attack every turn and the Frenzied Focus attacks is a heavy loss, and the Beyond the Flesh bonus for mindstar is actually a punishment by auto-pulling enemies to you when you don't want it. Changing how TK-wielding a mindstar/gem will open up more build choices.

My thoughts on how to change them:

Mindstar: Have it suits caster build more.
- BtF bonus changed to auto-fire a beam to a random enemy when you are not moving (kinda like Mindstorm)
- Resonant Focus increase the damage of the beam
- Aura bonus applies to the beam damage, remove the damage to adjacent enemies.
- Frenzied Focus have the auto-fire beam changed to an auto-fire ball-shaped attack, with a chance to pin enemies for 1 turn

Gems: Keep it something more for a generalist
- BtF bonus kept as is
- Resonant Focus also increases the power of the on-wield effect of the TK-wield gem
- Aura damage's range increased to 3. Damage can crit
- Frenzied Focus effect changed to having the Aura damage (with modifier) applies to every attacks you do

weapon damage scaling is really strong, nothing here can really compare. also the weird focus on aura damage since aura damage is close to nonexistent and the fact they eat up psi makes them detrimental to keep on

I agree that nothing here can compare with TK-2H, but if the changes can make people think TK-wielding mindstar/gem less of an underwhelming option, and more willing on use it on the margin, then it is a good thing.

The focus on aura damage is because, embedded in the agenda of making TK-wield mindstar/gem relevant, I also want to salvage sustained aura. Quite a lot of discussions were spent on reworking Aura and Conduit, but now it appears nobody really cares about the sustained aura bonus. As for the aura damage, at 100 mindpower each could give around 67 damage per turn, with two on you get 134 per turn. It is still low compared with a TK-2H, but if these damage can crit (IIRC they can't now) and also applied to multiple enemies at range it should decent, and there are stat bonus given from TK-wielding mindstar/gem as well.

But yes, we can probably do without the psi cost of aura.

anonymous000 wrote:I agree that nothing here can compare with TK-2H, but if the changes can make people think TK-wielding mindstar/gem less of an underwhelming option, and more willing on use it on the margin, then it is a good thing.

The main problem is that 2-handers get

1) by far the best passive effect on Beyond the Flesh
2) their own psi-fighting tree
3) by far the best Frenzied Focus effect

I just played a mindstar caster Mindslayer through Nightmare and it is viable at that level. Having an extra mindstar with psiblades bump is a major boost in mindpower and mindcrit; it's not the best but I don't think it needs a huge revamp; Psi-fighting can stay as it is. You are right that the auras are basically 10-cooldown offensive spells with an ignored secondary effect.

Suggested changes:
1. Mindstar passive is a low chance to reset the cooldown of a random skill. If that skill is a sustain that can spike, it spikes the sustain and immediately reapplies it. Resonant focus improves this chance. Frenzied focus rolls that chance against an increasing number of skills.
2. Mindstars improve the mindhook skill by making it near-instant and applying a mental debuff.
3. Reshape gives a small mindpower and mindcrit boost to mindstars.