Revamped Skirmisher

[Doctornull]

I noticed that Block-ing doesn't allow ammo to replenish, unlike spending a turn moving or waiting.

Block => ammo refill might be a neat way to distinguish this class from all others, since it provides a good in-combat mechanic which interacts with both of the class's gear peculiarities.

[nsrr]

Wouldn't hurt any, I suppose. You're probably in a pretty tight spot if Blocking is the best use of a turn, but running out of ammo might actually create such a situation. On the other hand, you could use that turn to swap in a full shot pouch and probably better off than using a turn on Block and reloading 1-3 shots. Might be worthwhile if it were a full reload. It's an idea, anyway, I'll think on it a bit.

[Doctornull]

Wouldn't hurt any, I suppose. You're probably in a pretty tight spot if Blocking is the best use of a turn, but running out of ammo might actually create such a situation. On the other hand, you could use that turn to swap in a full shot pouch and probably better off than using a turn on Block and reloading 1-3 shots. Might be worthwhile if it were a full reload. It's an idea, anyway, I'll think on it a bit.

Maybe a half-full reload, plus some Stamina, and maybe some healing?

I dunno, it's just sad that Block never seems like a good idea.

[nsrr]

I've been slowly plugging away at play testing. Things feel pretty good over all. The Pace Yourslef flat damage reduction feels maybe a bit too strong early, but that will fall off I expect, and you ought to get something good in exchange for a global slow. Plus, aside from Trained Reactions, it's the only reliable damage reduction the class has.

I'd like to do something with Block, but I'm not sure what yet, and I don't want to add any new class trees or bloat out existing talents (even adding the Armor and Hardiness that's coming to Buckler Expertise in 1.6 made the talent a bit bloated, imo). What I'm considering at this point is shuffling a few things from the class side over into a new generic tree that would be unique to Skirmisher and then adding a couple things to the trees I pull stuff out of. I feel like the passive offense and defense talents are the best candidates for generics, and I would probably arrange the tree like this:
1)Sling Mastery and ability to equip shields with Cunning (and change damage mod to Dex, instead of doing it on the fly with the shield attack talents).
2)Melee attack deflection with shield equipped and immunity to your own projectiles.
3)Armor and Hardiness with light armor equipped.
4)Projectile deflection with shield equipped.

Basically, we take the first talent from Skirmisher Slings and the two passive defense talents from Buckler Training, splitting the armor and hardiness off into it's own talent. That would give us three new talent slots on the class side to work with. Obviously Buckler Training would be a good place to work in some shield and/or block related stuff. A nice passive that does X and Y (reload, heal life/stamina, remove debuffs, whatever) when you Block would be nice for one, and maybe another do X and activate block for free talent as the other. Not really sure what put into Slings. Maybe a targeted multi-shot, like 'fire 3 shots for X damage; each shot is targeted individually'. Maybe a reduced range for that one.

I haven't started on this at all, or even drafted anything, but I've been thinking about incorporating shield/block mechanics more, and I think the only way I'd be comfortable with that would be to open up a little space on the class side. So, I'm kicking ideas around and figured I might as well go fishing for opinions while I'm at it.

[Doctornull]

Even just reloading at the base rate -- the same you'd get for waiting a turn -- would make Block usable, albeit rarely.

Reloading at twice the base rate -- the same as you'd get for waiting two turns -- would make Block interesting, albeit still somewhat rarely.


(Or something else... but right now it seems like Block is counter-productive in the few situations where I've wanted to use it, and that's weird for a Shield class.)

[nsrr]

I decided against doing any reshuffling of talents into new trees. I did do a little something with Block... Pace Yourself now gives flat damage reduction and a chance for incoming blockable damage to trigger Block, which occurs in the damage projector before Block is checked, so you instantly get the benefit on the triggering hit. The flat damage reduction has been reduced overall and is now based on your Defense so it builds up slower as well. The free Block can only occur if Block is not on cooldown, and it starts the cooldown when triggered . The damage has to be a damage type you can block and be greater than 25% of your block value (before resistances, because that's the only way to trigger Block before Block is checked for damage reduction).

I also implemented the Venomous Strike fix for ranged attacks from the 1.6 alpha. Additionally, I restructured the turn proc implementation on Lacerating Strikes and Scoundrel's Strategies so the proc per turn per enemy is limited to your turn and the not the enemy's turn. Essentially this means you may have more chances to proc the turn loss and talent lockdown effects in situation where there is a large speed difference between yourself and your enemy, but multi hits like Noggin Knocker or Bombardment will not trigger extra procs.

v1.1.2
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[Venomous Strike]
Now properly applies effects with a ranged weapon.

[Scoundrel's Strategies]
Reworked turn proc implementation so speed differences favor the actor rather than the target.

[Lacerating Strikes]
Reworked turn proc implementation so speed differences favor the actor rather than the target.

[Bombardment]
Reduced fatigue penalty to 50% from 65%.
Reworked turn proc implementation so speed differences favor the actor rather than the target.

[Pace Yourself]
Flat damage reduction is now based on Defense, scaling from 20% of the value to 40%.
If you have a shield equipped you will have a scaling chance [20-40%] for any blockable damage over 25% of your block value (before resistances) to trigger Block, if it is not on cooldown.

[nsrr]

Rearranged Buckler Training. Dash and Crash is now he teir 2 talent and Bash and Smash and Buckler Mastery were each bumped up one. Decided to add a reload on block to Sling Supremacy while I was at it. Just a regular reload for the time being. I might do something more creative in the future, but I'm still not sure where it might fit in without bloating talents too much. Adding a reload is pretty harmless and at least makes blocking at least as good as skipping a turn if you're out of ammo. Tweaked Trapping and Scoundrel masteries a bit. Bumped Scoundrel up to 1.3 and dropped Trapping to 1.0. Neither makes much difference, but brings things in line with 1.6 having all major talent categories at 1.3 and minor categories at 1.0 (no more 1.1 or 1.2 masteries). Yes, I consider Scoundrel a major category for Skirmisher.

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v1.1.3
[Sling Supremacy]
Added reload on using Block.

[Dash and Crash]
Moved to teir 2.

[Bash and Smash]
Moved to teir 3.

[Buckler Mastery]
Moved to teir 4.

[Scoundrel]
Mastery increased to 1.3.

[Trapping]
Mastery reduced to 1.0.

[nsrr]

v1.1.4
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ToME 1.6 compatibility (removed code which is now redundant)

[Bombardment]
Increased sustain cost, reduced fatigue penalty.

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Once I have a bit more time to play around with the 1.6 changes I might come back and make other changes here, possibly change Bombardment to the 1.6 updated version of the old talent (which properly only uses stamina once and does not double dip fatigue).

[nsrr]

v1.1.5
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[Buckler Training]
Fixed requirements (thanks SuperHC!)

[General]
Pace Yourself in base is now close enough to my modified version that I have removed all changes. Notable difference is that the slow is applied whenever the effect is sustained, rather than only when foes are nearby as with previous version of the revamp.