[b40] Illusionist class

[Pigslayer]

v19 is out:

http://te4.org/games/addons/tome/illusionist-class-0

- Updated for 1.0.0
- Buffed Dark Shroud.
- Replaced trapping with conveyance.
- Reduced Mirror Image's cost and cooldown.
- Fixed Hideous Laughter bug.
- Locked survival.
- Replaced Mislead with Greater Invisibility.

[ironroby]

v19 is out:

Thank you and welcome. Did ToxicChicken recruit you or did you just put up your own version after it seemed like the addon has became abandoned? Not that I mind either way that my favorite addon class is finally updated over half a year and for a 1.00 version validation no less! But still something that would be polite of you to clarify out of respect to the original author.

Now onto my, hopefully constructive and helpful, criticism and recommendations.

First, the basic lore and the idea of a class. Mages are only openly tolerated in Maj'eyal after the Spellblaze when they have some cover story. Alchemist manage by claiming to just to "potions and stuff" and not "real" arcane magic. Archmages and necromancers have to hide or became too well fortified to attack. Where do illusionists fit in there? My recommendation is that they act as traveling stage magicians, fortune tellers, tarot card readers, astrologers and the like. You can have a whole Gypsy-like guild and aesthetic feel to it, a nice opposite alternative to archmages who are all hiding in one city. Illusionists would be hiding their arcane magic in plain sight like alchemist by claiming to do complex smoke and mirror "tricks", not "real" magic. They should also have alchemist's -1 health like how they are as good as them in staff combat, they are rogue-mages without daggers, not some sheltered bookworms.

The most important stats for illusionist are mentioned to be magic and cunning. With survival locked and just one talent using cunning, this is not true anymore in any way and since cunning as a stat just fits illusionists, then you should give some incentive to raise the stat by unlock cunning/survival.The tree level should also be raised to 1.10 like shadowblade at least, a traveling trickster without innate survival skills is unthinkable. Will should also be mentioned as an important attribute, illusionist's spells tend to cost a lot and he has expensive sustains.

You can bypass the issue of having just one locked tree by adding two more. Namely spell/meta and spell/temporal (to class trees for better point allocation, you get fewer general points to spend as it is, or you could put one of them to general and conveyance to class). It would give the player more options and make the builds more varied and both are not flashy elemental trees and are buff/debuff without any direct damage as fitting for theme of the class, but still make the illusionist a better potential alternative to the archmage, with mind and shadow magic replacing elemental damage spells and with no Disruption Shield and Aegis, forcing you to be mobile/invisible. Both also fit my proposed lore by being far easier to hide than flashy elemental magic, if having any visible effects at all, as fitting for "just a stage magician". If you think that they should still be less skilled than archmages in them, make the trees 1.20, not 1.30.

Divination. It needs to be 1.30, not 1.20. Illusionist is the fortune teller archetype, divination should be his bread and butter, he should not be worse than an archmage in that tree.

Conveyance. So clad to have it back. Even necromancers and bloody arcane blades have conveyance!

Now to specific spells:

Dazzling lights. Consider keeping the cooldown at 9 without increasing. The dazzling effect is often more useful than the increased damage and area and thus it makes a situation where not increasing the skill might be a good strategy viable, while at the same time makes you feel punished for actually investing into it. That should not be the case. If you still feel the need to balance it, you might increase the mana cost a little instead. Besides, should a specialized light damage spell unique to the class really be weaker than the Illuminate available to other classes too?

Greater invisibility, the new spell. The description is far, far to vague. Does it stack with normal invisibility or replaces it? What "certain limitations" it allows to overcome? Reduced damage while invisible? Being seen with a light source on? Please be more specific.

Terrifying visage. Does it have a chance to work on everybody now and is not an instant fail against elites/bosses?

Transposition. Haven't made level 4 yet, did you fix the bug, it wasn't in the changelog? In v18 it added perfect strike, which isn't in the description, even when you canceled it.

Eldritch touch. The description says 5 turns, but it's actually 4 and continues to be one less than described when upgraded. As the fundamental, most important summoning skill, even one turn less hurts. Also, how does cunning effect it? It's strength, hit points, resistances, constriction talent? It would be useful to know, when you have to choose if cunning is worth adding to your build or not.

Charm. Why are summoned creatures immune? Is it because of game engine limitations or is it intentional balance? Because if it's balance, then since there's no longer a mass charm spell, I think that allowing you to steal the control over one minion (those who summon in the first place, usually summon more than one, half a dozen in some cases) isn't unbalanced. Often the summoned minions are the only other monsters around the summoner anyway, so the spell is otherwise useless for the fight.

Alakazam. It's obviously based on necromancer's Curse of the Meek, it even costs just as much, but it should be a little cheaper than 50 mana. After all, shouldn't a magician be better at the hat and the rabbit trick than a necromancer? Plus it doesn't have, or at least the description doesn't, the Curse of Hate effect, that would prioritize the bunnies as targets for the enemies, justifying the same cost.

As an afterworld, don't be afraid to give the class some power and extra options. I can understand if illusionist is not meant to be one of the strongest classes, but it shouldn't be a weak one either. The afflicted are supposed to be the challenge mode. This game has archmages, alchemists and solipsists running around, you don't have to worry about illusionist becoming overpowered when these guys are in the neighborhood.

[Pigslayer]

@ironroby

Nice ideas! I'll definitely include some of your suggestions in the next release. Greater Invisibility has a larger invisibility bonus and it doesn't have a damage penalty.

[ironroby]

Nice ideas! I'll definitely include some of your suggestions in the next release. Greater Invisibility has a larger invisibility bonus and it doesn't have a damage penalty.

Thank you.

But still, how does it stack with the normal invisibility? It seems to be meant to work as a temporary power up that you can't keep up long, because of the great cost per turn, not as the replacement for basic invisibility.

So, if you have normal invisibility on, can you then switch the greater on too for increased non-detection and to get your two long cooldown light damage spells off without damage penalty? Or does the damage penalty from normal invisibility still apply and isn't overwritten, so you would have to turn the normal off at just the right moment?

That info should be in the description too, that's a lot of unclarity in what might be a 10 point, 300 mana investment that will strongly affect any illusionist build.

[Pigslayer]

Recent changes (v20):

- Reduced Dazzling Lights' cooldown to 8.
- Fixed Transposition bug.
- Reduced the cost of Alakazam by 10.
- Reduced Greater Invisibility's mana drain by 4; improved description.
- Improved the description of Hocus Pocus.
- Raised illusionist's life rating to -1.
- Adjusted starting stats.
- Raised Divination to 1.30.
- Raised Survival to 1.10 (unlocked).
- Added Meta tree at 1.00 (locked).
- Reduced the cost of Conflict by half.
- Brought back Mass Charm; replaces Hideous Laughter.

@ironroby

Terrifying Visage does not work on bosses. It works on everything else though. Greater Invisibility does not stack with regular invisibility. Eldritch Touch's description is accurate. Summoning it counts as a turn. Cunning improves its damage and stats. 3 talents scale with cunning: Eldritch Touch, Prediction and Transposition.

[ironroby]

Testing a character.

Transposition can now miss, is that intentional? Because that would mean that your mage character has to raise accuracy too now, to make a talent usable.

[Pigslayer]

Recent changes (v21)

- Buffed Hypnosis.
- Buffed Transposition.
- Nerfed Doppelganger.

Testing a character.

Transposition can now miss, is that intentional? Because that would mean that your mage character has to raise accuracy too now, to make a talent usable.

It was intentional. One of the staff combat talents gives a permanent +1000 accuracy when maxed out. Anyway, I changed it, since Transposition is useless without it.

[ironroby]

It was intentional. One of the staff combat talents gives a permanent +1000 accuracy when maxed out. Anyway, I changed it, since Transposition is useless without it.

I haven't actually ever put 5 points to Blunt Thrust, but shouldn't that just give you infinite accuracy for just that skill? That comes with a cooldown?

Right now, my character now has permanently infinite accuracy. That's much worse that the v19 two turns of perfect strike.

I think that the problems are coming from the Transposition being based on Switch Places that has an accuracy check, I think, right?

So, if it can't be done otherwise, the solution might be to have the skill actually do give you Perfect Strike (and shorten it to one turn, if that's even possible), but only if you actually cast the spell, not just select it like in v19 and then just include it in the description.

That a teleporting switch can give you one sure hit on the disoriented target is actually not that much more far-fetched then it giving you extra defense.

And it's not like a mage being able to get one perfect normal melee hit in once in a few turns unbalances the game or something.

[HousePet]

Err, that talent only gives +1000 accuracy when using that talent.

[Pigslayer]

Err, that talent only gives +1000 accuracy when using that talent.

Oops. I misread it.

Recent changes (v21b) - fixed Transposition, along with other minor tweaks.

[ironroby]

Recent changes (v21b) - fixed Transposition, along with other minor tweaks.

Great, now just only the Perfect Strike effect power should be raised from 100 to 1000 in lua (effect power of just one hundred gave my Illusionist an accuracy of 56, which can be missable on certain enemies without any extra accuracy investment, not like a spell that shouldn't be missable at all) and the description changed to something like "...Switching disorients the target, increasing your defense by %d for %d turns and giving you a perfect opportunity to strike for one turn.", to correctly reflect the actual abilities of the skill.

Transpotition should then finally be perfect next update. It was a difficult skill, but it could be made to work after all.

[Pigslayer]

Done! Illusionist-v21c is available now.

[ironroby]

There seems to be a bug with the Mirror Image, when you teleport away, it will stay on, on that upper level corner where your summons are listed next to you. After that, when you use the skill again, new Mirror Images sometimes also stay in that corner.

Right now, it tells me that I have three mirror images around, when I actually have none.

Perhaps it has something to do with the Forgery of Haze that I assume the skill was based on? How can I reset the "summons bar"?

I wouldn't worry much, just that don't the listed summons still take up memory and particles?

[Pigslayer]

Illusionist-v22 is available.

http://te4.org/games/addons/tome/illusi ... ionist-v22

It's mostly bug fixes and talent tweaks. I haven't tested it yet.

[Digit]

Hey! I really love this class, and I was wondering if you could update it for the 1.0.1 release?

It would mean the world to me, and to countless others!



~~~When life gives you lemons, make them combustible~~~