Nullpack 2019-02-21: Gravitic Infantry

[Doctornull]

My next addon class is going to be a Primal Barbarian wilder type dude, who is sort of a cross between a Berserker and a Summoner. When you play this class, you'll start with two "Feral Rage" talents, and you'll learn new ones as you defeat specific bosses.

What I'm thinking right now is:
* All feral rages are timed effects, which last for 8-20 turns each. They cost Equilibrium to use.
* All rages give you a bonus to Physical power (= more melee attack damage and making Berserker status effects stick).
* A talent enhances all rages to give each one a unique "roar", which is an area attack centered on you, triggered when you crit or kill. This roar will have a cooldown.
* A higher level talent allows you to summon an affiliated animal when you "roar".
* An even higher level talent grants a % chance to extend all Frenzy effects when you crit or kill, and a lot of the best Berserker perks are Frenzy effects (like Bloodbath and Unstoppable) so this is awesome.


Basic Ferality Rages:
- Wolf - move speed, defense, % chance to pin when you hit; "roar" is an intimidating howl
- Wolverine - survive into negative HP, +% all damage, % chance for a bonus melee attack when you are hit; "roar" is a melee slashing attack against all adjacent foes for bleeding damage


Earned Ferality Rages:
(obviously you can't get all of these, since you'll only face one boss per area)

- Norgos the Guardian - resist all damage, regain Stamina; "roar" = 10-50% chance to stun for 3 turns
- Norgos the Frozen - armor & hardiness, ice retaliation damage; "roar" = cold damage + frozen feet effect

- Wrathroot - poison & disease immunity, regeneration infusions cooldown 2x faster; "roar" inflicts a root-grab effect which slows enemies
- Shardskin - arcane & blight resistance, bleed damage retaliation; "roar" inflicts manaburn

- Rantha the Wyrm - armor, cold resistance, bonus ice damage; "roar" = cold damage + confusion dragon roar effect
- Vashra the Writhing - armor, fire resistance, bonus fire damage; "roar" = fire damage + confusion dragon roar effect


Any other bosses who ought to give some kind of feral rage? Sandworm Queen will give you the Harmony unlock so she's already rewarding enough, I think.

[HousePet]

How about the Minotaur boss?
Briagh?
Ullsmklkjdasghlba? (the water dragon)
The random uniques? eg. Warg Titan, Ant Queen...
Ureslak?

[devilindupriest]

Sounds like a really fun idea. I think the minotaur definitely deserves one. The obvious choice would be a confusion, but that'd double up with the dragon/s.

Maybe one for the Room of Death? It's not a 'boss' per se, but it's definitely a defining moment. Likewise the Wierdling Beast, although that might be a bit..weird.

[Doctornull]

How about the Minotaur boss?
Briagh?

Are Minotaurs natural, or are they more like arcane hybrids or horrors?

Briagh is early enough to be a capstone rage, and currently kind of unrewarding (relative to the other boss sandworms you fight, and relative to Vor armory). Sold, I'm including this guy. Thanks!

Ullsmklkjdasghlba? (the water dragon)
The random uniques? eg. Warg Titan, Ant Queen...
Ureslak?

The random unique bosses are a really good idea, but I'm not sure how balanced it is to give a solid permanent benefit based on your RNG luck... then again, this is a Roguelike so maybe it's entirely appropriate to give solid permanent benefits based on RNG luck.

Gotta think about that.

Cheers!

[Forger101]

Don't forget about Ungolë. Maybe aim for 3 bosses in West and 3 in East?

[Doctornull]

Don't forget about Ungolë. Maybe aim for 3 bosses in West and 3 in East?

Ungolë is a good idea, but I don't feel like having 8 rages total would be good. Hmm, maybe 2 east + 2 west.

[HousePet]

Could have some of the bosses give an upgraded version of the rage instead of a new one.

[NemesisZeru]

Welp, I'm about to make a Heavy...but they have so many skills that seem tempting, and I'm not sure how to go about it. @_@

So, any tips for getting one going? Being able to(hopefully) ask the creator himself is a neat treat, too. x3

Edit: I was looking at older versions of Heavies that had Shield Wall and no Temporal Assault, so that...changes things, yeah. Still, I'd love to hear from the guy who made the class. x3

[devilindupriest]

Welp, I'm about to make a Heavy...but they have so many skills that seem tempting, and I'm not sure how to go about it. @_@

So, any tips for getting one going? Being able to(hopefully) ask the creator himself is a neat treat, too. x3

I'm not the creator, and I might very well be doing it wrong, but I love the class. Since the addition of Temporal Assault I've been going for Temporal Assault unlock at 10, where previously I was doing Shield-Defense at that point. Even just having a shield and using block occasionally/sometimes-even-correctly has been enough armor to carry me through to 20 just fine. Noting that I play on Normal Adventure.

Ground Contraction from the start, and raise it up fairly early to get the CD down and the range up. Typically I get to 4 by level 4 I think, although that last point for the ability to use it even when pinned sometimes escapes me until after I've spread single points out into other talents. Assault at level 12 as soon as it's available. I tend to put 1 point in Heavy Impact early on then hold off on raising it further nowadays, until after I start raising magic for the increased pin chance. Likewise the tier 4 is one of the last ones I get around to spreading a point to. Basically I'm saying Ground Contraction plus Shield-Offense tree is where I lean heavily (hohoho Heavy pun) for the first 20 levels or so. With that said, I really do like Shield Defense, once leveled up the defensive stance is like wearing a second suit of voratun plate for the cost of 20% physical damage, and the tier 3 increases the damage of shield slam, heavy impact, assault, etc.

Also, a lot of people don't seem to care for knockbacks like Overpower, but as long as you remember you're a human being and can control yourself, I find they're great against melee. Block-shield slam-assault-overpower, wait a turn or two for them to stagger back over to you, block the turn before they move adjacent, shield slam as they move up, etc.

[NemesisZeru]

Welp, I'm about to make a Heavy...but they have so many skills that seem tempting, and I'm not sure how to go about it. @_@

So, any tips for getting one going? Being able to(hopefully) ask the creator himself is a neat treat, too. x3

I'm not the creator, and I might very well be doing it wrong, but I love the class. Since the addition of Temporal Assault I've been going for Temporal Assault unlock at 10, where previously I was doing Shield-Defense at that point. Even just having a shield and using block occasionally/sometimes-even-correctly has been enough armor to carry me through to 20 just fine. Noting that I play on Normal Adventure.

Ground Contraction from the start, and raise it up fairly early to get the CD down and the range up. Typically I get to 4 by level 4 I think, although that last point for the ability to use it even when pinned sometimes escapes me until after I've spread single points out into other talents. Assault at level 12 as soon as it's available. I tend to put 1 point in Heavy Impact early on then hold off on raising it further nowadays, until after I start raising magic for the increased pin chance. Likewise the tier 4 is one of the last ones I get around to spreading a point to. Basically I'm saying Ground Contraction plus Shield-Offense tree is where I lean heavily (hohoho Heavy pun) for the first 20 levels or so. With that said, I really do like Shield Defense, once leveled up the defensive stance is like wearing a second suit of voratun plate for the cost of 20% physical damage, and the tier 3 increases the damage of shield slam, heavy impact, assault, etc.

Also, a lot of people don't seem to care for knockbacks like Overpower, but as long as you remember you're a human being and can control yourself, I find they're great against melee. Block-shield slam-assault-overpower, wait a turn or two for them to stagger back over to you, block the turn before they move adjacent, shield slam as they move up, etc.

I thought Shield Defense was removed? Didn't see it in the vault for characters made, like, today, but characters like a week back had it.

That said...going Treant, so between the racial, SoP and QF, I should be able to keep my stats covered well enough. Just was trying to get a feel of what skills to go for, since literally every class skill looks 5/5 worthy...which is really good design, actually. x3

[Spleenling]

Is Timekeeper supposed to random drop? I just found one playing an Arcane Blade.

[Doctornull]

Is Timekeeper supposed to random drop? I just found one playing an Arcane Blade.

It's not, but I can't figure out how to make it never drop (other than by making it a plot item, in which case it CANNOT be dropped, and that's even worse than having it randomly drop).

[jademonkey]

I just want you to know that rare creeps are awful. Especially when they're already grandmaster assassins haha. Can't see them, can't run away from them, and they do absolutely massive damage. I'm gonna have to do a creep run after this solipsist is done

Also, primal barbarian sounds awesome so far. Can't wait!

[Doctornull]

I just want you to know that rare creeps are awful. Especially when they're already grandmaster assassins haha. Can't see them, can't run away from them, and they do absolutely massive damage. I'm gonna have to do a creep run after this solipsist is done

Yay!

Note that Creeps can also eat your sustains, both mental and magical ones, so watch out for that weird "Gabong-bong-bong" noise.

(It is vastly satisfying to eat the Weirdling Thing's sustains.)

[jademonkey]

Well, I have a skeleton creep, Humerus Red Skeleton, just outside of Dreadfell. I really really like basically all of the skills. On the whole, creep is an absolute blast so far.

However, I think I'm going to put him on hold for a while. I absolutely hate hate (lol) as a resource, and sloth is pretty pitiful at restoring it, as far as I can tell. Spending a turn on marginal damage and 5 hate regen just doesn't seem worth it. I mean it's a good ability, but not a reliable method of generating hate.

Cursed do just fine with gloom since all of their abilities since they're all so cheap and they aren't really reliant on them, but the creep's abilities are more expensive and a little more central. I don't know if this is actually an issue or not, but I just did a cursed playthrough in nightmare (died in high peak ) and don't feel like dealing with hate for the time being haha. I'll probably come back to it in a few days or a week and do a character report, because other than the resource management it's shaping up to be really enjoyable.