[1.1.5] Metaclass - Mage Knight (Version 8)

[Phoenix1]

Got it, thanks. Fix posted replacing latest version.

[Sradac]

wheres the latest version???

http://te4.org/games/addons/tome/mage-knight

This says most recent was aug 30?

[Phoenix1]

Version 5.6.0, I just edited the file rather than uploading a new version (I guess the date is only listed for release, not for edits).

[Phoenix1]

New version posted. Actually only a few tweaks; toned down Eldritch Surge's stamina recovery some, buffed the passive backlash damage from Phoenix Wings (which was pretty anemic compared to most backlash items I see), and added a little tweak to Corona of Glory so the targets now target you, making it a helpful way to protect escorts/lumberjacks/Melinda/whatever.

Prior to these changes, my most recent Phoenix Knight seems solid through to the far east. Stamina recovery still wound up too high with maxed Eldritch Surge, but I don't think there are too many particularly glaring issues. I'm slowly gathering up the gumption to take another swing at some sibling classes, so we'll see how that goes.

[Phoenix1]

Okay, big update.

First and foremost, the Mind Knight is in (again). It has had...basically no balance testing, although I'm hoping I got the Phoenix Knight decent enough that it can't be too far off-base. It is, however, a much more tactical class, with excellent information-gathering skills and solid mobility. Plus telekinetic wielding. First post has been updated with a rundown of both classes.

I brought another Phoenix Knight through the game, so I have a more thorough understanding of what seemed to work and not, resulting in the following changes:

• Half casting speed is out. The main point of it was to mitigate Solar Bolt spam, but I found that it discouraged the use of other spells too much.
• Solar Bolt, thus, has a set cooldown of 4.
• Eldritch Surge has been completely reworked. Again. It is now an activated talent (instant use) that for a few turns lets you ignore Stamina costs for spells triggered by Eldritch Combat. It can, itself, be triggered by Eldritch Combat, so a Mage Knight who just keeps whacking away at foes will get some spell discharges every so often, even if out of stamina. Attacks that don't trigger Eldritch Combat while Eldritch Surge is active have a chance of lowering its cooldown by 1.
• On a similar token, the stamina regen for Phoenix Regeneration with a category point has been heavily nerfed, and Combat Veteran has been removed entirely.
• Combat Techniques, however, has been unlocked, so Rush is available.
• Corona of Awe no longer stuns. It simply calls foes to you, and gets some added benefits with talent levels, up until level 5 where it becomes instant cast.

Now, in addition to those changes, I went ahead and incorporated some additional ideas:

• I expanded on the notion of Mage Knights being capable with any weapon by adding more locked weapon trees - Archery (Bows), Archery (Slings), Staff Combat, and Mindstar Mastery (although I'll admit the latter is really more so Mind Knights can play Jedi). Staves also get some boosts to Eldritch Combat, to make staff fighting a viable option.
• I added Fire to Phoenix Knights unlocked, allowing a more logical progression into Wildfire. All Mage Knight classes will have a couple of stolen trees to expand their class options (Mind Knights get Psychic Assault and Grip).
• Focused Strike is now a ranged attack with a lower duration on the stat boost, but a shorter cooldown. Between that, the basic bolt, and talents like Flame or Mind Sear, Mage Knights should have a reasonable amount of ranged presence.
• I also tweaked some category masteries around.

I...think that's all the major stuff. Might be forgetting a few things, but that should be everything critical.

[Sradac]

Just downloaded this, Psychic Bolt for the mind knight does nothing when you have the Arcane damage sustain on. It takes a turn, it consumes sta, but dosent do any damage.

I am dissapoint.

[Phoenix1]

Fixed.

[Frumple]

So, uh. The now-ranged focused strike seems to go through walls? Is that intentional? It maaay be a little ridiculous when mixed with mind knight detection abilities. Also, being blind blocks hypercognition detection. Not sure if that's working as designed.

E3: Focused strike actually completely ignores its range limitation, too. It hits wherever you put your cursor, regardless as to how far away it is. So long as there's a target, it makes the attack. Just whacked something from two full dimjump distances away, through about five different walls

Also, minor, but focused strike makes reference to solar bolt, even when playing mind knight. The whole tree's like that, actually.

E: Also, you can cheese eldritch body a bit if you find a mastery amulet for knight magery. Wear the amulet, activate e.body, wear something else. Same for eldritch aura. I'm guessing it'll work for any of the effective tlvl sustains.

E2:Okay, so dimensional jump once it hits effective level 5 is hands down the most ridiculous mobility talent in the entire game. Simple suggestion: Have sequential uses allowed the final ability increase the talent's cooldown in an increasing degree; +5 cd for the second teleport, +10 for the third, +20 for the fourth, +40 for the fifth, etc. Or just a flat +10 cd per sequential use.

Similarly increase the stamina cost as you use extra teleports. Perhaps cumulatively increase the cost by ten every time it's used on the same target (So if you hit yourself three times, it'd be 80 (10+20+50) stamina, but if you hit yourself and then two other critters it'd only by 30.). Alternately, just have each extra teleport drain another ten stamina.

Definitely add the teleport debuff whatsit. If it increases in strength with subsequent applications, that increasing chance of fizzling might also be sufficient (or worth adding on to the ones above).

As is, though... yeesh. That's insane. I can cross the entire map with pin-point accuracy for 10 stamina -- and it's instant, so stun can't disable it and it works through confusion. *checks* And for whatever ungodly reason, despite being labeled "Is spell: True", it works through silence.

E4: And... yeah. Dimjump makes escort quest silly easy. At 5/5 you've only got to get within something like 40 tiles of the portal to insta-succeed Twenty-ish if you can't get LoS for the initial escortee target.

[Phoenix1]

So, uh. The now-ranged focused strike seems to go through walls? Is that intentional? It maaay be a little ridiculous when mixed with mind knight detection abilities. Also, being blind blocks hypercognition detection. Not sure if that's working as designed.

E3: Focused strike actually completely ignores its range limitation, too. It hits wherever you put your cursor, regardless as to how far away it is. So long as there's a target, it makes the attack. Just whacked something from two full dimjump distances away, through about five different walls

Also, minor, but focused strike makes reference to solar bolt, even when playing mind knight. The whole tree's like that, actually.

Nope, not intentional at all, will fix. Although...I think blind just beats whatever expanded senses you may have as a general rule, but if not I'll see what I can do to fix that.

E: Also, you can cheese eldritch body a bit if you find a mastery amulet for knight magery. Wear the amulet, activate e.body, wear something else. Same for eldritch aura. I'm guessing it'll work for any of the effective tlvl sustains.

As far as I know, that's just a fact of life with sustains that scale with talent level. I'm pretty sure if you're not at an actual level-up, you can even invest points into one, activate it, go back, remove all but one point, and have them remain active at the improved level, at least until you deactivate them or level again.

E2:Okay, so dimensional jump once it hits effective level 5 is hands down the most ridiculous mobility talent in the entire game. Simple suggestion: Have sequential uses allowed the final ability increase the talent's cooldown in an increasing degree; +5 cd for the second teleport, +10 for the third, +20 for the fourth, +40 for the fifth, etc. Or just a flat +10 cd per sequential use.

Similarly increase the stamina cost as you use extra teleports. Perhaps cumulatively increase the cost by ten every time it's used on the same target (So if you hit yourself three times, it'd be 80 (10+20+50) stamina, but if you hit yourself and then two other critters it'd only by 30.). Alternately, just have each extra teleport drain another ten stamina.

Definitely add the teleport debuff whatsit. If it increases in strength with subsequent applications, that increasing chance of fizzling might also be sufficient (or worth adding on to the ones above).

As is, though... yeesh. That's insane. I can cross the entire map with pin-point accuracy for 10 stamina -- and it's instant, so stun can't disable it and it works through confusion. *checks* And for whatever ungodly reason, despite being labeled "Is spell: True", it works through silence.

E4: And... yeah. Dimjump makes escort quest silly easy. At 5/5 you've only got to get within something like 40 tiles of the portal to insta-succeed Twenty-ish if you can't get LoS for the initial escortee target.

Hmm...actually, I expect the stamina/cooldown increase won't necessarily remove the main issues you're talking about (since once you teleport to safety you can pretty much just rest), but would hinder what is supposed to be an important part of the talent (reshaping the battlefield). I've noticed myself that it also makes scouting incredibly easy, pretty much allowing you to blink around an adventurer party map, note everyone's positions, and finish up by isolating your initial target, basically obviating the value of Astral Projection.

My initial idea was to let it serve as both a short and long range teleport, but maybe I'll just remove the long-range capability and let it only affect a given target (including you) once per casting. Might reduce the range some too. That should remove the capability to scout, clear a map, and auto-win escort quests, while still letting it be a basic short-range blink + battlefield control.

Although...maybe an even better option would be to just always calculate the range from your starting position, so you can do multiple jumps if you need to "fix a mistake" so to speak.

The not being stopped by silence is intentional though. All Mind Knight spells ignore silence, since psychics don't usually need to speak to activate their powers. If anything, the is_spell distinction is probably what should go, since everything's based on Mindpower anyway.

[Dougiegee]

Just started a Phoenix Knight and it seems really sweet. There seems to be a problem with the version or something. I had to tick the show incompatible box when loading the addon and I can't use my online profile because of bad addon version. No biggie at all and I'm not really bothered, just thought I'd mention it. Will post a bit of feedback once I've played a bit more...

[Sradac]

thats a problem with b42 in general, all addons show up as incompatible.

its fixed in svn / b43

[Phoenix1]

Update posted. Dimensional Jump range has been heavily nerfed, and can now only affect any given target (including you) once per casting. Mind Knight talents are no longer considered spells at all. Focused Strike should properly check range and obstacles.

I also altered how Mind Knights handle telekinetic wielding; I love the premise, but it's a noticeable damage boost as-was (I mean, it still can be, but not constantly). They still get to equip telekinetic weapons, but don't get Beyond the Flesh. Instead, they receive an at-will talent called Telekinetic Strike, which lets them attack with their telekinetic weapon at range, range scaling with Willpower. They also attack telekinetically as part of the Weapons Master talents, attacking all targets with both wielded and telekinetic weapons. Finally, Telekinetic Strike can activate from Eldritch Combat. It should also be able to trigger Eldritch Combat, so telekinetic combos should be possible, but rare (with the highest probability being if you are out of stamina or all other applicable talents are cooling down).

Also added some Disarm Immunity to Fortress of Will, since it seems appropriate to a character who can grab its weapons telekinetically.

[MisiuPysiu]

Hey Phoenix,

Any work going on on this class?

I would love to see an update here.
Maybe the 2 missing Knight classes too

Cheers.

[Phoenix1]

Rumors of this project's death--

...were actually pretty much spot on.

But ya know, phoenix, ashes, etc.

First and foremost (and, I'll be honest, the primary motivation for starting this up again): graphics upgrades! Also known as blatantly exploiting all the hard work that was put into cool shaders and distortion effects and such. Eldritch Aura is now officially awesome (no, seriously, that's the technical terminology, it's like right there in the code). Glory Rising/Psychic Boost as well. Mind Knight attack powers now have a distortion for a visual effect rather than the previous nothing (eh, I stand by the decision for the time it was made, but distortions definitely cover it better), and Phoenix Knight offenses are a bit more solar. My personal favorite, though, is the fact that of all the graphical effects that could have been added to the game, DarkGod included flaming wings. Phoenix Wings now gives you cool fiery wings and, yes, they will flash different colors as enemies attack you.

As far as crunch...lots of changes. It's honestly kind of silly to list them all out, actually. The entire Knight-Magery tree underwent revision, including changing its name. A lot of talent effects were shuffled around or in some cases changed entirely (Mind Knights, for example, no longer have any active defense abilities). Weapon interactions with Eldritch Combat were adjusted and rebalanced - staves in particular needed several penalties to allow other weapons to be at all competitive. I cleared out a fair amount of "extras" in talents, although certainly not all of them. The first post has been updated with the new overview, and of course the talent descriptions are all updated.

[StarKeep]

Doesn't work if you have shaders off.

Also... HUZZAH, at last I can play one that properly validates!