[1.4.4] Eternal Darkness - A Full Necromancer Rework v2.21

[HousePet]

So is the addon... Undead?

[Razakai]

http://te4.org/node/4142

v2.6
- Improved compatibility with other addons
- Finger of Death deals increased damage

Quick update as the Grave rework is going to take some serious effort.

[Orangeflame]

When I activate blood barrier and then use a shorter duration shield rune, my game seizures and stops responding when the damage shield runs out

[Razakai]

Yeah, when a shield expires it sets damage_shield_absorb to nil, which is usually fine except for how Crimson Barrier is a distinct effect from regular shields, so it causes the absorb bar to freak out. I guess I'll have to make it so CB no longer stacks with regular absorbs, just need to figure out how.

[Razakai]

http://te4.org/node/4161

WARNING - WILL BREAK YOUR GAME IF YOU HAVE ANY POINTS IN COLD FLAMES

v2.7
- Fixed a bug with Crimson Barrier causing lockup if used at the same time as other shield effects
- The Grave tree has been heavily reworked
- New Tier 1 skill, Frozen Orb. Fires a slow moving orb that targets nearby foes with ice shards
- Black Ice now allows you to detonate Frozen Orbs, which inflict cold damage and freeze within radius 3, but increase the cooldown of Frozen Orb by 5 turns
- Chill of the Tomb is now Tier 3. Damage slightly reduced, now inflicts damage instantly rather than as a projectile. Also leaves behind damaging cold flames that spread and freeze
- Hungering Cold no longer freezes unfrozen targets. Instead applies Hypothermia, which pins and cripples. The damage against frozen targets pierces through iceblocks


Grave should be a much more viable tree now. Frozen Orb is a bit of an odd skill, so I'd appreciate feedback on that along with how the numbers feel.

[Orangeflame]

Black tentacles is ignoring LoS and range, and can be cast into a vault without opening it first. This is a feature, right?

[Razakai]

I seem to be ignoring LoS on quite a few spells by accident. I need to fix a few other things, like Frozen Orb firing enough iceshards to instakill nightmare bosses, so I'll schedule a fix this weekend. Probably going to give Grave a simpler, more reliable T1 nuke to match Invoke Darkness/Drain Life rather than the weirdness of FO.

[Orangeflame]

Blood Barrier is giving a LUA error on use. However, it still seems to give the expected results, although it costs no mana (only health) and does not go on cooldown.

tome-1.2.2-1407414635.png (146.71 KiB) Viewed 8522 times

(edit to avoid double post)
Now that I'm a lich, I'm noticing that Finger of Death isn't doing any instakills. Do my enemies need to be below 20% life before I cast, or after it deals damage? Also, what's the chance based on?

[malboro_urchin]

Probably going to give Grave a simpler, more reliable T1 nuke to match Invoke Darkness/Drain Life rather than the weirdness of FO.

While I do think this is a very good idea, I also think that Frozen Orb should continue to exist somewhere within the Grave tree. It's nifty that you brought an ARPG classic into ToME!

[Zul]

I seem to be ignoring LoS on quite a few spells by accident. I need to fix a few other things, like Frozen Orb firing enough iceshards to instakill nightmare bosses, so I'll schedule a fix this weekend. Probably going to give Grave a simpler, more reliable T1 nuke to match Invoke Darkness/Drain Life rather than the weirdness of FO.

While I agree that Frozen Orb is ridiculously overpowered (doing up to 50*5*5 = 1250 damage with one cast, plus Black Ice damage!), I would hate if it was replaced with a boring generic nuke. The spell is fun (especially with the detonate interaction). I think severely limiting the amount of orbs that can be generated with one cast should be enough (IMHO it should have less damage potential than Earthen Missiles, so I suggest to use that as a basis to calculate the orb cap). Maybe also reduce the range?
Black Ice also seems too strong, both the damage and the slow. (20% more cold damage at level 1. Compare that to end game sustains like Frostdusk, which increase damage by 2%!)

All the Grave spells are fun, but probably a bit too strong (especially combined with Black Ice).

[Razakai]

Orangeflame - Oops, I think that's from me being overzealous in find+replace when fixing the prior issue, it's looking at the wrong gfx. Will fix. And Finger of Death only works at below 20%, yeah. It's more of a flavour thing than anything. I'm planning on changing up Lichform a little in the future, as I think giving such a big talent entirely free was a mistake. Current thought is to move it back into Necrosis, as Vampiric Gift is a little redundant now we have a whole lifedrain tree. I might make a special Lich generic category and replace Meta too, as soon Necromancer won't have any friendly fire spells.

malboro/Zul - Don't worry, it won't be another beam or bolt, it'll be something with a unique mechanic. And Frozen Orb will stay, I just need to fix the bug with it firing at double speed and increase the secondary bolt speed. Grave is a bit too strong in general, and Black Ice is way too good. I'll post an early draft of what the new tree will look like:

Glacial Spike - Fires a massive shard of ice, dealing cold damage with a 25% chance to freeze. On impact the shard pierces and shatters, inflicting further cold damage in a cone behind the target. At talent level 3 and above, nearby targets have a chance to be struck by a splinter of the glacial spike, inflicting cold damage with a 25% chance to freeze.
(does this description make sense? basically a bolt spell that also triggers a cone of cold damage behind the target, and TL3+ gives a chance on hit to trigger additional bolts from the original target that hit nearby targets)
Chill to the Bone - Sustain. All damage you deal with a chance to freeze gains an additional chance to trigger. Your attacks now pierce through iceblocks, reducing damage absorbed from your attacks by iceblocks.
(seeing as Grave has a heavy freeze focus now, a mini-uttercold seemed handy, as well as a way to more reliably freeze. It might get some additional bonuses, but we'll see how it goes first)
Frozen Orb - Moved to the tier 3 talent instead of Chill of the Tomb, with numbers slightly adjusted to suit it. Chill of the Tomb is now learned at the same time, and is used to detonate your orb to deal cold damage+spread cold flames at the cost of an increased cooldown.
Hungering Cold - Numbers slightly adjusted, I think the damage for the frozen component was too high. Pin+Cripple might be a little too good for such a wide range spell too, and the slowing effect is a bit too similar to Rigor Mortis. Probably going to give it Pin and reduce Stun resistance against unfrozen targets instead.

So the new Grave tree's theme is heavy on the freezing side of things, with iceblock pierce and stun resistance debuffs. Should be the highest damage of all Necromancer trees, but requires some finesse to get the best results due to the unusual mechanics and combo spells.

[Orangeflame]

Affliction Graft is a bit too good.
1) clearing 5 effects is very powerful, dwarfing any wild infusion
2) enemies cannot have a chance to resist the debuffs
3) 'other' type debuffs can be transferred, like 'smeared' from Damage Smearing, Cauterize, or even runic saturation. (this is a bug, I think)

Suggested change:
For each debuff, the targeted enemy has a chance to resist based on spell save vs your spellpower.
The first (0, 1, 1, 2, 2) debuffs to be resisted by your target will be cleared from you despite being resisted (though the enemy will not be affected).
Make it no longer affect 'other' types.

You groan every time I post in this thread, don't you?

[Razakai]

Yeah, to be honest a lot of stuff is way too good atm. I actually thought it already checked resistances, but if not it will. It'll probably only transfer 1-3 in the future, and might get some other tweaks until it's in a better place.
The next release is going to be a balance/numbers pass, so I'd appreciate pointing out other overpowered stuff so I can look at it.

[Orangeflame]

The next release is going to be a balance/numbers pass, so I'd appreciate pointing out other overpowered stuff so I can look at it.

Mwahaha. Here's some feedback for stuff I've used and abused with this char:
http://te4.org/characters/62972/tome/9b ... cd17469954

Note that all my responses are based on my current character, with 80 spellpower, 100% crit chance, +97% dark damage, and 200% crit mult. Damage values are going to be high (and rounded off to even values)



Point of reference:
Invoke Darkness: hits for 1000 damage.
Fine as is.

Black Tentacles: Very good damage (hitting for 300/turn without tentacles) in radius 3. Confuse debilitates foes (28%). Tentacles really debilitate foes with silencing, pinning, grabbing.
Remove base damage (well, and fix targeting)?

Blood Barrier: +100% healing mod for 10 turns. Then add on a strong shield, and the draining is gravy.
Make heal mod only scale with talent level, not spellpower, maxing out at around 50%?

Brittle Bones: -50% res all for 5 turns. 3000 physical damage in radius 3 (in conjunction with Black Tentacles)
Nerf -res all to -20%? Make it reduce phys res in a larger quantity to make up for prior change?

Death Vortex: 150 damage/turn. Chance to freeze with Frost Lord's Chain, or the new Black Ice replacement.
Fine as is.

Drain Life: 300 damage/turn. Heals me for 71% of dealt (before heal mod).
Fine as is.

Haunting Shades: 150 damage. -30% damage to enemies. Restores souls.
Fine as is.

Corpsewall: not as OP as I thought it would be. As in, it didn't kill a 3k hp unique all on it's own. Still deals >1k damage on stuff that can't kill back, though.
Not sure. Probably works very well with brittle bones, but the enemies with enough hp to survive the 5 turns for bone curse to run out also happen to be very good at dismembering dismembered piles of flesh, bone, and necrotic mass. Coincidence? I think not.

River of Souls: 900 damage in radius 2. Consumes souls at an atrocious rate.
Absolutely destroys groups where Death Vortex can recover souls quickly, but is balanced by the soul cost.

The Meta Tree: what did you expect?
Disperse magic (great for everyone)
Spellcraft (actually mediocre now that you've removed FF on most necro skills)
Quicken Spells (great for necromancers)
Metaflow; often forgotten, but for necros, double Forgery of Haze!


edit: And I still haven't gotten any messages about Finger of Death actually insta-killing anything.

[Zul]

I'm not sure whether making Grave the highest damage category. It already provides very strong CC.

Blood of Power is too strong (knockback + daze + damage without any cast time!). The bonus damage also seems too strong. (Compare it with one of the corresponding corruptor ability.) Maybe add a cast time and drastically increase the self damage? Currently, the damage is negligible and no real trade-off.
Consider making it impossible to transfer the self damage though (Affliction Graft!).

Devouring Swarm probably does not check resistance when transferring effects.

Exsanguinate probably gives you too much lifesteal (compare that to the single target sun paladin lifesteal).