Reworking Chronomancy ver 2

[Renegen]

Having played and won as a Paradox Mage, I think Chronomancy doesn't really have any issues. It has great damage, cc, mobility and good late game. All that is gated by Paradox which is hard to decrease in the middle of the fight. It feels different from other mage classes because of how unique Paradox is as a ressource and also because almost all the spells are aoe, it's not a class that uses much finesse. It also has quite a few unique/gimmicky skills that are fun to use, like time travel. I don't see anything that needs to be touched. I will seriously try a Time Warden soon, I know it has some of the same problems an archer does, nothing serious.. I think.

The Mindslayer had few skills, bad late game and was too reliant on shields and auras and as an avid Mindslayer player I was happy to see the changes. On the other hand, Chronomancy rework feels like just some project pushed for no particular reason. I'm kind of worried to have these amateur game designers changing things because they heard a few buzz words, If people don't want to play a class, it doesn't mean it has to be reworked. Is the Anorithil or the Marauder next?

[Doctornull]

these amateur game designers changing things because they heard a few buzz words

Which buzz words do you mean?

Is the Anorithil or the Marauder next?

Marauder was just re-designed.
Anorithil could use some help, thanks for the suggestion.

[darkgod]

Renegen, I can understand the worry that a class you like may change.
I can not however understand insulting people.

Also you'll learn that edge is the guy that made the chronomancers in the first place, if his designing skills were good enough for you then, have a little faith now please.

[edge2054]

On the other hand, Chronomancy rework feels like just some project pushed for no particular reason.

When I wrote Paradox Mages I didn't even know how a function worked. I got a ton of hand holding and I learned a lot in the process. But I made a lot of concessions that I wouldn't have made if I was a better coder at the time.

There was also a lot of stuff in the original design that got cut because the game was changing so rapidly during the earlier betas that certain ideas were no longer viable. As a result Paradox Mages ended up with a ton of filler talents that, in my opinion, don't really fit the class theme.

I understand not wanting to see a class you love lose talents that you love or get reworked to the point that what you loved about them is gone. But as Darkgod said I hope you'll have a little faith. The last class I wrote, Solipsists, I've gotten a lot of positive feedback on. I feel that both my skills as a coder and a class designer, amatuer or not, have come a long way in the last five years.

I love time manipulation characters, just ask my former tabletop GM who had to ban them from our Heroes game. I'd like to do a better job and bring the class up to my own personal standards so that *I* enjoy playing them.

Also the base mechanic of Paradox, while it is getting fine tuned, is still going to work very much the way it does now. It won't be mana 2.0.

[Parcae2]

Renegen, take a look at the spreadsheets posted on Page 2. I don't see how any fan of the class can look at some of those ideas and not go "Woo."

[Nori]

Looks pretty awesome. My only gripe(sarcastic) is there is 9 class trees! Talk about decision paralysis.

Love thread the needle. Always felt like bow and melee talents on TW didn't mix well. You either went one or the other.
Also like how the passives and sustains work for both melee and bows so that both are always useful.

But is there too many talents to have a truly bow/melee TW? For instance, threaded blade reduces bow talent cooldown. If you max that tree though you are already down 20 points so how many bow talents are you gonna get? I guess you would probably end up having to 1/5 a lot of skills.

The temporal guardian tree is a must have tree right? If that first skill replaces weapon mastery?

[edge2054]

I'm having some similar concerns Nori and may drop a tree or two.

Temporal Guardian and Temporal Combat could probably be merged. The only talent out of those I'm not really fond of is Recursion but I could probably split them up into blade and bow trees (there's a number of blade and bow talents I'm not a fan of).

[SageAcrin]

Oh, random (somewhat generalized) suggestion here.

If you have some leftover talents that don't fit, or are looking at phasing out existing talents, don't delete them! Leave them in the game for monsters, items and possibly other things to use!

[Nori]

I'm having some similar concerns Nori and may drop a tree or two.

Temporal Guardian and Temporal Combat could probably be merged. The only talent out of those I'm not really fond of is Recursion but I could probably split them up into blade and bow trees (there's a number of blade and bow talents I'm not a fan of).

That sounds reasonable. Strength of Purpose and Weapon folding could merge. It'd be really powerful, but the proposed Strength of Purpose is really similar to weapon mastery. Plus this is a skill that would be required.

Could warden's focus and breach be merged?
Phase shift is a nice talent, but kind of bland. Not sure what skill it could merge with. Wouldn't want to get rid of the effect though.

[Matanui3]

There needs to be a Chronomancer with the Archmage time tree.
It's not fair they get better time spells than the actual time mages.

[edge2054]

There needs to be a Chronomancer with the Archmage time tree.
It's not fair they get better time spells than the actual time mages.

I've had this thought many times

I'm seriously considering giving Paradox Mages Damage Smearing (moved into the Time Travel tree) which is a good stand in for Time Shield.

Congeal Time and Essence of Speed Speed Control covers with Slow and Haste (and I'll probably rework that tree too).

That just leaves Time Prison. Was considering a Temporal Stasis spell that is a sustained Time Prison.

Anyway I can't just give them Temporal verbatim...

Well I guess I could but I'd prefer not too.

[edge2054]

Here's my current spreadsheet. Some stuff may change when I sit down to start coding it but I think this will give PMs and TWs a lot more options, especially when it comes to staying alive and surviving anomalies.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Fate Threading is already coded and anomalies are already updated. Just waiting on Darkgod to apply the patch.

Spacetime Prodigy is a tree I'm still working on. The theme is merging Physical and Temporal. Current talents are Warp - Warps the target, dealing X temporal or Physical damage (based on the targets resists) and inflicting a random status effect for X turns and Spacetime Mastery - You use the higher of your physical or temporal damage and resistance penetration. Increases physical and temporal damage and resistance penetration by X%.

If anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate it.

[Parcae2]

Looks amazing, and I absolutely cannot wait for it to happen.

Only two quibbles:

1. Damage Smearing needs to be nerfed, and possibly made less annoying to use. Maybe have it deal half temporal and half physical damage, to minimize Ward abuse? Also consider making it a sustain if it is nerfed enough.

2. Anti-teleport talents strike me as being anti-player. The AI rarely uses teleports and almost never uses them effectively except as distance closers.

[Parcae2]

I had to post again to say just how cool this new PM/TW will be. Hurry up and implement it already!

I can already see one of these becoming my new favorite class, as long as Damage Smearing becomes less overpowered and irritating to use.

[edge2054]

Hm.. how is Damage Smearing annoying to use?

I'm not sure about making it physical/temporal with physical being the most common damage type in the game. That would be a huge nerf. On ward abuse doesn't damage smearing chew threw wards quickly?

As to Dimensional Anchor being anti-player that tree includes two ways to teleport monsters which makes it a possible nuke when combod. It also makes teleports less reliable which shifts the dynamic away from relying on just teleports to escape. Plus teleporting mages really piss me off and I feel like teleport should have at least one counter in the game.

Arguably it will hit undead the hardest but skeletons will be able to cut the duration in half and ghouls have leap.