[1.3.1] Magebow class

[lukep]

My next major update is going to be a rework of the class. Here's what I think (so far):

- remove archery training tree to get rid of access to Aim and Rapid Fire
- Completely rework arrows tree. It will still be mutually exclusive sustains (like chants), but will now have more diverse effects, rather then just +dam on hit and a chance of debuffing.
- replace bombs tree with "Charged techniques", which are talents modified by which arrow sustain you are currently using.

New Arrows tree

Mighty arrows: +damage, and something else

Ethereal arrows: better chance to hit (including stealthed enemies), (talent * 10)% chance to not use up ammunition

Elemental arrows: +damage on hit. (raw talent * 20)% of it is "smart" elemental damage (does the one of fire/acid/cold/lightning that would deal the most damage), the rest is evenly split between fire, acid, cold, and lightning.

Vile arrows: leaves a blight (or darkness?) map effect on hit (or reach?)

Charged Techniques

Power Shot: basically a steady shot replacement. Low cooldown, low cost, higher than normal damage.
+Mighty: even more damage%
+Ethereal: automatically hits with increased APR, resistance penetration and shield penetration(?)
+Elemental: elemental burst damage (rad 1)
+Vile: Leaves a map effect of some kind

Disabling shot: crowd control. Moderate cooldown, moderate cost
+Mighty: Stuns, maybe pins.
+Ethereal: Blinds and marks enemies (?% chance of seeing them each turn, even through stealth, blindness, walls etc.)
+Elemental: whichever is most likely to hit of knockback, blind, freeze, and hurricane(?).
+Vile: Confuses or curses/hexes

Area Shot: AoE attack. Moderate cooldown, med/high cost.
+Mighty: Cone, like war shout.
+Ethereal: rad 10 burst, firing at many/all enemies and marking them on reach (like in disabling shot)
+Elemental:Fire 4 arrows (individually, like stone missiles or Turn Back the Clock), one of each element. They each explode for more damage in a radius of 2.
+Vile: ~5 arrows shot like volley of arrows, each one piercing enemies and leaving a trail of map effects for blight damage.

Special shot: Unique for each arrow. med/high cooldown, ?? cost.
+Mighty: Knockback beam, like flamewave bomb
+Ethereal: teleport, shoot, then teleport back in one turn.
+Elemental:???
+Vile:???

Ideas/comments/suggestions?

[lukep]

Update time: Link

Code updates:
- No more overloading
- All talents have icons

Class updates:
- removed arrows and bombs trees
- Added new arrows and techniques trees.

For my eventual plan, see the previous post. I didn't get all of it yet, but it's enough to be playable and get a feel for how it will be.

Arrow Sustains
- Mighty: +physical power and crit mod
- Ethereal: chance to hit and chance to not use ammo
- elemental: deals smart elemental damage on hit (between 35% and 95% of it is the best damage type)
- vile: no bonus

Charged Techniques

Power Shot:
-Normal: steady shot-like
+Mighty: +100 damage%
+Ethereal: no bonus yet (will pierce enemies)
+Elemental: 50 damage elemental burst damage (rad 1)
+Vile: no bonus

Disabling shot:
- Normal: pins for a few turns
+Mighty: Stuns instead
+Ethereal: Blinds instead
+Elemental: Freezes instead
+Vile: Confuses instead

Area Shot:
- Normal: Volley of arrows-like
+Mighty: Cone, like war shout crossed with scatter shot (working out bugs...)
+Ethereal: rad 10 burst, firing at all enemies.
+Elemental:Fire 4 arrows (individually, like stone missiles or Turn Back the Clock), one of each element.
+Vile: 5 arrows shot like volley of arrows, each one piercing enemies.

Special shot: Not finished


I'll be working on this more soon to get it polished, but I wanted to get something out quickly. If you try it, let me know what you think, any bugs you find etc...

PS: great work on the class pack Daftigod!

[lukep]

Update again: Link

Change log:
- Ethereal/power shot now pierces enemies
- changed Ethereal shot's description
- removed manasurge rune at birth
- Fixed archery.lua, but it now overloads
- Elemental/power shot no longer hits the caster with the explosion
- Mighty arrows now boosts damage directly, and more than before
- Elemental/area shot can target enemies behind others. (but still only enemies)
- Life rating reduced from +2 to 0
- start with Phase Door

To Do (new):
+ Fix ice block HP on elemental/disabling shot.
+ Change mighty/power shot into increased crit chance?
+ Area Shot targeting display is wrong (range 10)
+ elemental/power shot particles
+ elemental arrows is powerful (?)
+ Too many class trees, not enough generic
+ Power shot scaling is very flat
+ Mighty/area shot projects the cone from the arrow.
+ replace magical feed (shifts mana/stamina back and forth)
+ replace forceful shooting
+ Vile/disabling shot confusion power scaling

I have been playtesting this class, and it seems quite powerful and versatile. I just had my second death, in the Dark Crypt after getting careless, so they're not invulnerable, but I fared well against uniques, especially since I could choose which of the disabling shots to use to avoid immunities.

[lukep]

Polish update: Link

Done:
- Elemental/Area shot never takes time during targeting
- Vile/disabling shot confusion power scales to 40 + 10 x raw talent level (vile arrows)
- Fixed ice block HP on elemental/disabling shot.
- elemental arrows is fine, in retrospect.
- Change mighty/power shot into increased crit chance
- Power shot scaling is less flat, but still somewhat
- elemental/power shot damage now scales
- elemental/power shot particles radius fixed
- Bowcasting is now a generic tree, bringing the balance to 5 generic (including survival and training) and 5 class (including 2 locked trees).
- magical draw buffed to +3% crit per level instead of +2%
- reworked magical feed (also shifts mana/stamina to the more empty one)
- They now start with the best possible elm quiver in their offslot.

To Do:
+ Area Shot targeting display is wrong (range 10)
+ Mighty/area shot projects the cone from the arrow.
+ replace forceful shooting
+ Make the good quiver be in the mainhand slot.

[Hunter]

I've started playing it with a Yeek (my usual mode for testing new classes is to try with a human for immediate access to a category point so I can check out the options, then try a Yeek to see if it's a class that can get past the starter dungeons. Only certain ones can unless I get really lucky with drops.) I died twice getting past the ritch boss, but overall, the class seems pretty powerful but not overpowered. I'm quite enjoying it so far. More diverse than a straight-up archer but not as overcomplicated as an archery-focused TW or a MS. One thing I want to make sure of...the bombs are obviously spells in the traditional sense, but can I assume the Spell/Arrows also count as "spells" for the purpose of Dexterous Casting?

[lukep]

I've started playing it with a Yeek (my usual mode for testing new classes is to try with a human for immediate access to a category point so I can check out the options, then try a Yeek to see if it's a class that can get past the starter dungeons. Only certain ones can unless I get really lucky with drops.) I died twice getting past the ritch boss, but overall, the class seems pretty powerful but not overpowered. I'm quite enjoying it so far. More diverse than a straight-up archer but not as overcomplicated as an archery-focused TW or a MS. One thing I want to make sure of...the bombs are obviously spells in the traditional sense, but can I assume the Spell/Arrows also count as "spells" for the purpose of Dexterous Casting?

Well, the charged techniques are not actually "spells". I may change that in the future, but I was worried about essentially doubling offensive power through the faster cast speed. This also means that they are unaffected by cooldown reduction from boots of spellbinding and cannot be silenced.

As for the Arrows tree, those talents are spells, but they are all instant cast, so the increased casting speed does not matter.

Dexterous casting was intended for boosting all of the utility talents that they get, and also works with (non-instant) Runes.

I'm glad to see people enjoying the class.

[Hunter]

Okay, gotcha. Not sure I use my utility spells in desperate situations enough to invest more than a point in casting speed so I can gain access to higher-level skills in that tree, but I'm only at mid-game right now, so we'll see. My main suggestions seem to be covered by your updates above It would be nice to have a tree that affects bows rather than arrows, such as bonus to range/attack speed, or perhaps even something affecting a bow's use as a melee weapon (or defensive device) in desperate situations. But, yeah, it's a fun class and I think I'll try to get a winner out of my current skellie (my yeek having died tragically multiple times while tackling the High Tempest in suicidal chain-reincarnation.)

[lukep]

It's been a while, but it's update time again. Changes:

Hooks and superloads for everything.

Phantasm tree unlocked, divination tree locked.

Elemental disabling shot confuses instead of freezing.

Implemented a new T4 arrows skill, replacing Vile Arrows, "Magical Throw". It replaces your bow for the purposes of archery, allowing you to wield a staff, or a sword/shield if you want. It currently does not scale, and it is compatible with the other arrow skills, allowing you to use both at the same time.

New T4 bowcasting spell, replacing forceful shooting, "Wind Flow". It slows incoming projectiles by up to 65%, and increases outgoing projectile speed by up to 130% (multiplied, not added). May need nerfing.

To Do:
- do something about special shot
- Area Shot bugs

download link

[Sradac]

yay!

[darkgod]

My eye is on you

[Sradac]

lukep,

LUA error when ethereal arrows tries to not use ammo:

Code: Select all

stack traceback:
	[C]: in function 'error'
	/engine/interface/ActorTalents.lua:137: in function </engine/interface/ActorTalents.lua:126>
Lua Error: /engine/interface/GameTargeting.lua:114: /engine/interface/ActorTalents.lua:137: /hooks/magebow/load.lua:25: attempt to index global 'ammo' (a nil value)
stack traceback:
	/hooks/magebow/load.lua:25: in function </hooks/magebow/load.lua:21>
	[string "return function(l, self, data) local ok=false..."]:1: in function 'triggerHook'
	/mod/class/interface/Archery.lua:67: in function 'archeryAcquireTargets'
	/data/talents/techniques/archery.lua:45: in function </data/talents/techniques/archery.lua:44>
	[C]: in function 'xpcall'
	/engine/interface/ActorTalents.lua:132: in function </engine/interface/ActorTalents.lua:126>
	At [C]:-1 
	At [C]:-1 error
	At /engine/interface/GameTargeting.lua:114 fct
	At /engine/interface/GameTargeting.lua:120 targetMode
	At /engine/interface/GameTargeting.lua:183 
	At /engine/KeyBind.lua:224 

[lukep]

New release (v10), thanks for the bug report. I found a few other things as well, and went off a few tangents (I'm on a roll, expect more soonish!):

Updates:
- Ethereal arrows reloading now works.
- Elemental arrows on-hit effect fixed, overload -> hooks errors.
- Ethereal "miss avoidance" reworked, it now always damages for XX% mind damage if you miss (ignores armour, on-hit, etc...)
- Wind flow now scales with CombatTalentSpellDamage instead of just talent level.
- improved descriptions, they now mention spellpower scaling as well as incomplete/buggy talents. They are also formatted bigger (more "white" space), if someone with a smaller screen could give feedback, I'd listen.
- elemental/disabling shot confusion now checks confusion immunity instead of stun.
- Magical throw takes a turn to sustain/unsustain, and different CD/sustain cost to differentiate it from the arrows skills.
- Nerfed Mighty Arrows damage bonus, it scaled with too many things. (-25% nerf)
- Module name and version name finally line up.


To Do (maybe roughly in order):
- Area Shot needs help
- Special Shot
- improve Magical Draw (10% STR -> MAG dammod?)
- change resource costs of shots based on arrows?
- Dexterous Casting is bland
- More trees? look at other classes.

- Special Shot ideas:
-- Normal = disabled? Random? Other?
-- Mighty = melee attack with an arrow
-- Ethereal = teleport + invisibility
-- Elemental = acid wave rune clone, with a disable.

Download (v10)

[MisiuPysiu]

Hey Lukep,

Great addon, i love this class. Ive been playing some archer-based classes in the past and looking forward trying this one out.
I hope a new version will come out soon, with all the things you want add on to this class.

Cheers.

[Sradac]

for area shot needing some help, one thing I noticed using area shot with elemental arrows;

Maybe this is my imagination / bad luck but it seems like if one of the arrows misses, all the following ones will. I've had plenty of times where all 4 arrows missed (because the first one did?) and other times where say the first 2 hit, but the second 2 didnt.

Without code diving im thinking maybe it works the way that one shield skill does where if the first one hits, THEN it does the following attacks, else, do nothing.

[lukep]

Magebow v11
EDIT: tested out elemental/area shot, and I hit after missing with one of the shots. Were you getting a "you missed" message, or just failing to get any message?

Also, I put a bit more work in, and now Magical Draw converts up to 10/20/30/40/50 STR dammod into MAG, instead of always all of it.

Mana/Stamina costs for the arrow skills now change depending on which of the arrow skills is up. Stamina was annoying to get working, but a few superloads fixed that.
Mighty: 1/2 mana, 2x stamina
Ethereal: 3x mana, 0 stamina
Elemental: 2x mana, 1/2 stamina

To Do: make elemental/area shot require 4 ammo, and have each arrow have a special effect.

Download link