Retool Earth a bit

[SageAcrin]

Crystalline Focus already grants physical save, and Stone Warden is, well, Dwarves that get Crystalline Focus. Both are good with Chant of Fortitude, too.

The class that builds 60+ physical save normally, and doesn't have bad physical save certainly won't need more. It's a notable nerf for both-they have good physsave as it is, and aren't that special at physical tanking.

(Stone Warden's a bit above the curve for a heavy armor user but lacks any specifically anti-physical skills, except maybe Riposte. AB can potentially forgo heavy armor but generally doesn't-still, though, Stone Skin's the only notable physical durability boost. Either way...).

Also, the fact that Crystalline Focus, a skill associated with Earth/Stone playstyle heavily, already grants saves...well, it seems redundant to have in the same tree pair.

Of course, that doesn't rule out having it grant armor, armor hardiness and physical save, I suppose.

[HousePet]

A category designed for a caster class, is never going to be great for AB or Stone Warden.
I forgot that Crystaline Focus now gives some saves too.
Was thinking Body of Stone could give some Armour.

[jotwebe]

Was thinking Body of Stone could give some Armour.

Using Body of Stone sure makes armour look more interesting, what with having to stand there and tank melees.

[SageAcrin]

A category designed for a caster class, is never going to be great for AB or Stone Warden.

You know that Crystalline Focus is the best Physical resistance pierce in the game, and that it works on all physical damage, right?

It's a very good option for both Stone Warden and Arcane Blade. The only reason more don't field it is because both have an excellent set of unlocks.

Body of Stone granting armor would be boring. I'd rather see it grant that new Stone Warden occasionally used trait, where you get a flat rate damage taken off of all attacks, based on your armor.

Not nearly as much as Stone Fortress does, but maybe like 5%*talent level of your Armor in elemental damage blocking.

That makes it a powerful advantage against mages...that you have to stand still for. Which makes it more Archmage in focus. Considering that, as I said, I don't think Stone is really bad for the physical types already, that seems neat enough to me.

[jotwebe]

Body of Stone granting armor would be boring. I'd rather see it grant that new Stone Warden occasionally used trait, where you get a flat rate damage taken off of all attacks, based on your armor.

I'd call it "straightforward" rather than boring, but this does look more interesting, especially if amour is available via Stone Skin for those who want it.

[Parcae2]

Personally, I'd like stone spells to be used to move through walls and collapse them on your enemies, Sandworm Lair style.

EDIT: Something like this:

-Body of Stone provides Wraithform and the ability to move, but only in walls, at 20% of normal speed (at level 6?)
-Stoneskin swaps places with Earthen Missiles and provides unbreathing at level 6.
-Dig/Landslide/Earthquake can be used on a wall next to an enemy to collapse the wall on top of the enemy, dealing extra physical and air damage.

The idea is to differentiate Earth from the other spells by giving it a different gameplay strategy (lure/knockback enemies to walls, collapse walls on top of them).

[SageAcrin]

Well, high power spells and passive defenses, and powerful, straightforward escapes set Earth/Stone apart, at least, now they they've got a game plan.

However, I certainly will say that change to Body of Stone would set it apart. I'm not sure how well it'd work, and it's a little less straightforward than much of both trees are now, but within that it's certainly interesting.

(I'd rather see 50% movespeed, though. 20% is a loooot of delay.)

[HousePet]

You know that Crystalline Focus is the best Physical resistance pierce in the game, and that it works on all physical damage, right?

Yes, but Crystalline Focus isn't a category.

[SageAcrin]

I have two problems with looking at it like that.

Firstly, many people do run up entire categories for a single skill, because the skill is that good. Shattering Impacts is a good example of this, but people have ran up entire trees 1/1/1/5 for similar capstone skills.

There's nothing wrong with one skill being inordinately good for your class or your build, as long as it's taken into account and is balanced.

In this particular case, the one skill-Crystalline Focus-is inflated relative to the two classes. To Archmage, it's just one of many piercing/+damage options. To them, it is the only one, and one that impacts much more of their damage than a small subset.

Secondly, Earthquake is perfectly fine for any Arcane Blade. An AB with less than 50 Spellpower is probably dead-ABs are Fighter/Mages with a great way to run Spellpower off Cunning and multiple Magic category requirements.

With 50 Spellpower, Earthquake tends to keep everything with 55 or less Spellsave-most every crowd, and some bosses-stunned for its duration. And AoE Stun is great, just ask Fireflash. Earthquake's badly underrated, for some reason.

Stone Warden has a harder time getting good Spellpower, but the payoff is arguably better. Stone Warden has very few offensive options, and the damage over time effect looks a lot better then.

(Earthen Missiles I also find quite good for Arcane Blade, but I admit, Stone Warden's better off just leveling the Halves skill instead. Gets you a better version. >_>)