Any plan to rework the mindslayer?

[Parcae2]

That would make mindslayers less tedious, but no less boring. Right now, the problem is that they have few interesting tactical choices. The purpose of my suggestion was to create (restore?) a balance in which you have the choice between a fair amount of defense for a long time, or a huge amount of defense for a short time. But your point is correct, and Mindslayer shields as they stand might be irretrievably dull.

Maybe make the spiked shield paralyze you when it wears off?

Edit: Having thought more about the subject, I think that the key to making Mindslayers interesting is to focus on the TK weapon. Make it less like a weapons slot and more like a powerful summon, similar to the Animate Weapon talent.

Another idea might be to leverage the telekinesis concept to include elements of body reconstruction or alteration, like merging with a nearby wall, becoming unable to move but gaining some kind of defensive bonus. Or you could include some kind of counter, like the brawler's combo points, that enables you to throw enemies around like rag dolls when it hits the maximum.

[anonymous000]

I think the Mindslayers need to be reworked from scratch. To me their main problem is that they do not offer a unique playstyle. Other Classes in the game are often "positioned" quite well, like Wyrmic being a melee-caster hybrid, Temporal Warden has lots of supporting skills to work with the melee/archery skills, Arcane Blade merge spells with melee skills, etc. But the Mindslayers seems stuck in the middle, and their skills do not work well with each other. As for the shields, both using the shields and leveling up the shields are quite boring to me, why do we need to level up the shields individually?

My idea for the mindslayers is that they can be a short-range fighter which telewields all his weapons. Have Beyond the Flesh add +2 range to all melee attacks, and rework all the skills. I think it suits the theme Mindslayer much better but I am afraid it would be too huge for a change.

[Parcae2]

I agree that they need a comprehensive rework. My suggestion is for them to be short-ranged summoners, where all the summons are telekinetically wielded weapons and the mindslayer retains a large amount of control over her summons. The weapons float in the air in range X from the mindslayer, attacking nearby foes as the mindslayer commands.

Here's a sample tree:

Deathtraps

1. Pendulum

The weapon suspends itself in midair and sweeps back and forth, attacking all enemies in a row X squares wide. This gradually decreases to Y squares as the pendulum loses momentum, finally stopping its attack after Z turns.

2. Death from Below

The weapon buries itself in the ground and strikes upward at a random foe within the target area (radius X). Ends after Y turns. The unexpected nature of the attack causes the weapon to gain Z armor piercing.

3. Whirling Blade

The weapon spins furiously, attacking all foes in radius 1 for X turns.

4. Chop

The blade sweeps downwards as if using the ground as a fulcrum, doing X damage at the starting point of the attack, which gradually diminishes to Y damage at the end of its sweep (3 squares in a straight line).

All of these abilities do damage based on weapon damage, substituting Will and Cun for Str and Dex, and with the damage gradually decreasing as time goes on (so there's an advantage to using one ability, then another on the same weapon before the timer on the first has run out).

[Parcae2]

And here's a defensively-minded tree based on the same concept:

Warp Weapon

1. Sword Armor

The mindslayer warps a weapon's material (hereinafter referred to as the "defensive weapon") to shield her body, using a TK slot (see below), reducing all incoming damage by X (based on weapon damage), and gaining Y resistance to all damage types the weapon does (including on-hit effects).

2. Weird Machine

The mindslayer's defensive weapon has been twisted into such bizarre shapes that any enemy who attacks the mindslayer has X% chance of having to save against mindpower or be affected by Stun, Slow or Confusion.

3. Mind over Matter

The union between mindslayer and weapon has become so complete that the mindslayer can use the weapon in place of her own damaged flesh. Using this ability heals the mindslayer for X and removes Y physical effects, but reduces the amount of damage blocked by Sword Armor by Z% for 5 turns. This ability has no cooldown, but the effectiveness reduction stacks and each new use refreshes the duration of the negative effect (which is Type: Other and cannot be removed). Repeated use can lead to Sword Armor actually having a negative value, i.e. the caster is hurt for extra damage every time she is hurt.

4. Metallic Body

In extreme cases, the mindslayer can use her control over her defensive weapon to use its material to reconstruct her own body. If a blow would otherwise kill the mindslayer, it instead consumes the defensive weapon (permanently destroying it), while the mindslayer's hit points are set to a value based on the consumed weapon's damage and tier. This talent has no cooldown, but it takes a turn to select a defensive weapon, so the mindslayer will eventually run out of good ones if she has to keep spamming the talent.

Mindslayers can have up to three TK weapons at a time (value subject to change). You can have all three be assigned to offensive roles, or all three be defensive, although all number values of a defensive weapon are reduced by X% if it is the second or third defensive weapon in use.

[anonymous000]

The idea to make them a short-ranged summoner is a good one. I think we can add some short-ranged fighter talents and caster talents for diversity. So short-ranged fighter talent (Focus tree) would be for single-target nuking / piercing attack, summoner talent (Psi-fighting tree) for multi-target attack/defense/support, caster talent (Force tree) for stronger supporting skills

In born talent:
Focus: Instantaneous sustain. Focus your sword on one enemy at a short range. Disables sword summoning and any Psi-fighting tree talent; enables the use of Focus tree talent and add 2 ranges to melee attacks
Force: Sustain with 12 turns cooldown. Use your mindpower beyond controlling the swords and enables the use of Force tree talent, reduce weapon damage by x%.

Focus tree talent:
1. A sustain which increases weapon damage by y% and increases the range of melee attacks (maximum 2 extra ranges). No psi cost, takes no turn and no cooldown, so it works like a passive which is not applicable when you are summoning the swords
2. A pierce attack which knocks back enemies
3. A single target attack like Flurry, but with the Focus sustain and the buff from 1 it becomes a ranged nuke
4. A sustain, when you kill an enemy with crits your swords lash at a random enemy instantaneously, works like 1

Force tree talent:
1. An sustained AOE version of Implode which centers on yourself, with increased damage. Drains psi rapidly with no cooldown nor initial cost
2. A ranged stun which causes damage
3. Bind, at high levels you can bind up to 3 enemies in one turn, drains psi per turn per enemies bound. The duration should be shorter than what we have now
4. Any idea?

The defensive-minded tree sounds interesting but seems too good for a mindslayer. In my opinion mindslayer should be a little bit frail without too much regard for defense. If I am going to design a defensive tree it will be something like this: You have some basic defense, but you have to put yourself at risk to gain psi

1. A Psi-shield which lowers all incoming damage by x and gain psi per attack. Spiking the shield lower all incoming damage by xx and drains psi. This skill does not take a turn to cast and has no cooldown.
2. Deflect projectile, gain psi when you deflect one
3. You lose some HP to buff the psi-shield (both the damage reduction and psi gain) for some turns
4. Any idea?

[Zeyphor]

Also, I'd love to see an (unlockable?) telekinetic archery talent tree for Mindslayers that gives you something like:

When Beyond the Flesh is sustained with a launcher, it will fire independently at your closest enemies (at speed 1.00) based on Willpower instead of Strength and Cunning instead of Dexterity and applying Conduit damage. This uses reloads, but your launcher can fire while you're reloading or moving, and it will reload itself on any turn it doesn't fire at a target.

Kinetic Projectile (Sustained): Enhance your telekinetic projectiles with kinetic energy. Increases the travel speed, accuracy, and damage of telekinetic projectiles. When deactivated, the effects persist for [X] rounds, during which arrows will penetrate targets while shots will knock them back.

Thermal Projectile (Sustained): Enhance your telekinetic projectiles with thermal energy. Arrows are set alight (radius 1 fire damage on hit), while sling bullets are supercooled (ice damage on hit). When deactivated, the effects persist for [X] rounds, during which arrows will leave trails of fiery clouds while shots will leave trails of icy vapor.

Charged Projectile (Sustained): Enhance your telekinetic projectiles with electrical energy. Adds lightning damage and a chance to daze to telekinetic projectiles. When deactivated, the effects persist for [X] rounds, during which arrows will ionize the target (reduced lightning resistance) while shots will warp magnetic fields (radius 1 chance to disarm on hit).

Sapient Projectile (Activated, 1 turn): Imbue a piece of ammunition with just enough free will to hate your target. Your next telekinetic projectile will be aimed directly at the chosen target, gaining [X] accuracy and [X] damage against it. On each subsequent turn, the projectile will shoot itself at the target again from wherever it landed. The projectile's sapience fades after [X] turns, or when the target is dead.

You're giving up a lot of your normal ranged damage by not wielding a mindstar, but also giving up on any synergy from a TK melee weapon. You also get less out of your shields/auras because you're in melee less. Your ranged damage output won't compare to a real archer, and you have limited control over its targeting. However, you're getting an alternative source of damage that doesn't require psi and can hit out to range 10 eventually. You're not restricted to a particular type of launcher: you can use arrows to weight towards dealing damage, or slings to weight towards crowd control and debuffing.

http://te4.org/wiki/Psi-archery_%28category%29
i thought youd like to see this