Cursed!

[Sirrocco]

I personally tend to think that having a bit of power differential is fine - especially in cases where, as with the Cursed, you pay for it up front. To put it another way, if they're weaker than the Archmages, I don't think they need nerfing.

[Zonk]

I haven't had a lot of success with Cursed, although I love the class concept, especially the Gloom talent. From what I've been reading though, it looks like they're much better at higher levels.

What I really dislike is being unable to use talents unless you're wielding a two-handed axe..why not allow any two-handed weapon, just like berserkers?

I understand that axes are particularly brutal, and they're 'related' to the unlock, but wouldn't any two-handed weapon still fit with the class concept(using big weapons and no shield because you don't care about your own safety that much)?

[Dervis]

The early game is quite difficult for Curseds because of your lack of stuns, subpar damage and inability to hold a full hate bar. If you make it to level 20-25, stack your defensive talents and fix your damage output issue, you'll be able to slaughter everything without barely breaking any sweat.

Most of the cursed talents scale linearly (+5% +10%, +15%). It sounds like that should be changed to the drop-off scaling other classes have (+5% +9% + 12+). Is that a reasonable change? Or is the problem that you can layer a Dominate + Rampage + Critical + Blindside to wipe things out? Would it be better to change a talent or two to not add % bonuses, but add something else (like attack + Darkness damage or attack + Mental damage)?

As far as unlimited resources goes, I think some of the higher skills should consume a bit more hate. That won't hurt new characters, but will make the more powerful characters work harder for hate.

It would help...
- Stunning Blow 1 (125% damage + effect)
- Stunning Blow 5 (160% damage + effect)
- Slash 1 (zero to full hate) (117% to 140%)
- Slash 5 (zero to full hate) (117% to 232%)
Sure Stunning Blow carries a very nice effect with it, but in the late game that 232% will blow anything out of the water.
My biggest concern though is that too many abilities scale with hate and that just multiplies the issue. Maybe the Slaughter skills should just have static values since they're your bread and butter (and probably give Dominate a hate-based component instead - as it is now Dominate is the dominant melee skill in early game, and it carries very well into the late )

In regard with the unlimited resource issue, I made a change in the lua files a while back which I think actually works pretty well:
Changing the hate system to decay faster the more hate you had:
Class/actor.lua 146
t.hate_regen = t.hate_regen or 0 -- check Hate decay below
Insert in Class/actor.lua 203
-- Hate decay
if self:knowTalent(self.T_HATE_POOL) and self.hate > 0 then
self.hate = math.min(self.hate * 0.985, self.hate - 0.01)
end

Or is the problem that you can layer a Dominate + Rampage + Critical + Blindside to wipe things out?

That's not the issue, that's the fun part in any class.

Edit: Changed a number in the formula, 3% was a bit too steep.

[Vee]

The problem Cursed have - especially in early game - is getting the hate meter up so they can benefit from the talents. That's where seethe comes in - you can gain a few hate points to start up your slaughter machine. A Cursed surrounded by enemies (pit) gets much stronger than picking out single foes other classes would prefer.

Wrathroot didn't seem much of a problem once hate was near 10+ after clearing a pit right before meeting him. Bill actually seems more of a problem, as level 2-3 hasn't enough hp yet to take him head on. Which seems the best strategy for most enemies.

Nice thing about Rampage: When you get hit, it can get activated by itself, without actually starting the cooldown.

I have to admit that I don't really get to use dominate much, though... Gloom with the added weakness effect debuffes enemies enough to just go ahead and use normal melee attacks.

About the 'Axes only' requirement: I think it's something that balances out the benefits due to the large number of sustained and passive effects.

At last a warning: If you have Life Leech and encounter some brittle jelleys, turn off your gloom, or you have a HUGE army of jellies around you pretty fast - unless that is what you want.

PS: avoiding to rest and using infusions helps to keep some hate.
PPS: This thread heads towards spoilers... perhaps a mod should move it to that forum?