Reworking Chronomancy ver 2

[edge2054]

Seal Fate I accidentally reverted after fixing. Halflings would still need 10 strength to wear leather armor.

Fixed Celerity thanks.

[Parcae2]

Nameless Talent description bug: "... Reduce stun duration by 25%" should be "increase" the second time it occurs.

Am I the only one who thinks that Carbon and Matter feel more like SW trees?

[donkatsu]

Doesn't Preserve Pattern prevent one shots even more effectively than Damage Smearing?

Yes, but that's just because Preserve Pattern's numbers are better. Mechanically, Damage Smearing is specialized for preventing oneshots while Preserve Pattern is just equally good against everything. Whether you get hit for 800 damage two turns in a row, or 100 damage and then 1500 damage, Preserve Pattern doesn't care. In fact, Preserve Pattern prefers evenly spaced damage, because if you get spiked up to 650 modified paradox out of the blue by a big hit then you're effectively dead. Meanwhile, Damage Smearing's sole purpose is guarding against oneshots, without increasing your defense against anything else whatsoever. That's why it's a niche; it's not good for most things, just that one thing. I just happen to think that one thing is pretty much the most important thing, and lust over anything and everything that helps in that department.

[edge2054]

Nameless Talent description bug: "... Reduce stun duration by 25%" should be "increase" the second time it occurs.

Am I the only one who thinks that Carbon and Matter feel more like SW trees?

Thanks for the bug report.

I'm assuming you meant TW. TWs are thematically similar to Rangers. I understand that some of the defensive stuff (the armor on carbon growth for instance) could really benefit TWs. But in my mind Chronomancers manipulate two elements, Space and Time. Space is 'heavy'. Time is 'light'. Through their understanding of Time TWs can manipulate Spacetime but they're not all that adept at manipulating Space by itself (Singularity Arrow and Impact being the only two exceptions I can think of).

Eventually we'll probably see another melee Chronomancer class that focuses on the heavy side of things. In fact, Doctornull has such a class in one of his addons that's called 'Heavy' that may make it into the main game at some point.

So long story short, some of the stuff that's showing up in Carbon, Matter, and even Gravity isn't really designed for either PMs or TWs.

That's why it's a niche; it's not good for most things, just that one thing. I just happen to think that one thing is pretty much the most important thing, and lust over anything and everything that helps in that department.

I'll leave it in for now and we'll see how it goes.

Speaking of oneshots, I foresee people complaining about getting oneshot by Trim Threads and the currently Nameless Talent. In addition I'm really not a fan of stun durations that are longer than the skill's cooldown, more as a preference and less because it really matters too much whether you get stunned for 5 out of 6 turns compared to getting stunned 6 out of 6 turns.

I'll probably make Trim Threads back into a DOT so I can lower the cooldown on it. My temporal PM felt like it had a lot of turns with everything on cooldown. But can you elaborate on the issue with Nameless Talent one shotting people? To high of base damage?

[donkatsu]

I'll probably make Trim Threads back into a DOT so I can lower the cooldown on it. My temporal PM felt like it had a lot of turns with everything on cooldown. But can you elaborate on the issue with Nameless Talent one shotting people? To high of base damage?

It's just high base damage, yeah. Freeze is notorious for its high base damage, and it's even stronger than Freeze. But now that I think about it, it balances itself out in Insane and Madness due to player rank being normal, so maybe it'll be fine.

[edge2054]

At 80 spellpower and tl 15 Freeze deals 789 damage and Nameless Talent 626.

At 80 spellpower and tl 20 Freeze deals 970 damage. Nameless Talent deals 722.

At 100 Spellpower 1178 and 852.

At 100 spellpower and tl 30 Freeze sits at 1500 and NT at 1000.

*edit*
That aside, what are the impressions for Nameless Talent otherwise? I know I want a damage talent in that slot but I'm not convinced this is the one I'm going to stick with. For one I feel like it overlaps Cease to Exist functionally (killing bosses and elites), especially now that Cease to Exist has its own damage component. For two it overlaps with Temporal Wake (stun). For three it's just kinda boring imo. Effective, but boring.

How do people feel about Shard Storm/Sphere of Destruction? Is this a fun mechanic? I've had an idea for a spell that causes a bolt to explode in mid air for awhile and making Paradox Bolts explode I think could be fun

[donkatsu]

Oh, I wasn't factoring in the spellpower bonus I was getting from paradox. Although I would guess that npc chronomancers are going to be getting that spellpower bonus too, thanks to inflated stats, pushing Nameless ahead of Freeze.

It's a solid talent that I would definitely take and invest heavily into, but it's sort of boring in actual use. No interactions with other talents, and you already have a stun skill in Temporal Wake. Quantum Spike was cool because it was high damage that required a condition (destabilization) that you were responsible for fulfilling, and it could be fulfilled in any number of ways. Nameless's condition (rank) is out of your control. So how about another condition? Say, it deals additional damage or inflicts a status if you're currently splitting the timeline? That provides synergy with Cease to Exist, but also See the Threads and Revisionist History. I like flexible combos like that.

Also I would like to see this damage talent occupy tier 4. I know the reason for its existence is to help cooldown issues, but physical PMs are going to want to pick up Uncertain Position and Cease to Exist. If Nameless is in tier 2, then that means physical PMs have to sink 2 points into temporal spells in order to access those two core talents. 2 points actually isn't a huge deal but people hate point taxes.

[Kiba333]

At 80 spellpower and tl 15 Freeze deals 789 damage and Nameless Talent 626.

At 80 spellpower and tl 20 Freeze deals 970 damage. Nameless Talent deals 722.

At 100 Spellpower 1178 and 852.

At 100 spellpower and tl 30 Freeze sits at 1500 and NT at 1000.

*edit*
That aside, what are the impressions for Nameless Talent otherwise? I know I want a damage talent in that slot but I'm not convinced this is the one I'm going to stick with. For one I feel like it overlaps Cease to Exist functionally (killing bosses and elites), especially now that Cease to Exist has its own damage component. For two it overlaps with Temporal Wake (stun). For three it's just kinda boring imo. Effective, but boring.

How do people feel about Shard Storm/Sphere of Destruction? Is this a fun mechanic? I've had an idea for a spell that causes a bolt to explode in mid air for awhile and making Paradox Bolts explode I think could be fun

I think a few effective but boring spells could be fine.
Though i also wouldn't mind seeing something more nifty. But exploding paradox bolts strike me as a bit of an overused horse? Maybe it's just me but i get the feeling this conclusion comes up fairly often when people brainstorm about creative spell/stuff: "we have too many normal boring projectiles, how can we make them more interesting?" -- "I know le'ts make the projectiles explode!". This doesn't mean though that i fundamentally deny that you can pull something unique and fun out of it.

Some random thought/idea i had a short while ago. How about a spell that lets you summon a temporal stalker (or other temporal horror) or a few weaker telugroth. Those wouldn't be as strong as temporal hounds when looking at them in isolation but they could have some cool synergies with other spells. Like for example fired paradox bolds could bounce back and forth between you and your summon. Hitting it with energy drain would not damage it much and instead heal you. Casting swap on it could share 25% damage between you and the summon for 2 or 3 turns. Hitting it with time skip could extend it's duration by X turns instead of damaging/banishing it (continuum destabilization would still apply). Temporal damage recieved by the summon could be stored and upon it's death released in a powerful explosion. I could go on with such examples but i think you get the gist?
I am not sure where it could be fitted in but perhaps you can pull something out of the idea one way or another.

[0player]

The clones from Guardian Unity don't act, and stand for ~12 turns rather than 2 (which, I assume, is because summon timer goes down with actions).

[edge2054]

I hear ya Kiba333. I'm pretty happy with how Shard Storm/Sphere turned out and I've just been wanting to push the envelope a bit more with the projectile code. Plus Rex did up some nice Temporal Bolt tiles for me that I'd like to put to use. Basically what I was thinking was a talent that lets you explode the Paradox Bolt, which would in turn shootout Temporal Bolts, one per target within range of the initial bolt. The Temporal Bolts would deal a small amount of damage and leave map effects on the ground when they hit that may slow or something.

Maybe I'll drop the homing bit from Polarity Shift bolts and take them that direction instead (bolts that leave radius one map effects behind on impact).

Anyway, how about this for Paradox.

Paradox Bolt
Uncertain Position
Cease To Exist
Sever Lifeline - Single target nuke. Deals 50% additional damage when the timeline is split. Targets with Trim Threads active may be instantly slain.

Or...

Paradox Bolt
Cease To Exist
Uncertain Position
Sever Lifeline

The idea being to give Temporal PMs a damage talent every four levels (when Trim Threads is factored in).

I'm not sure physical PMs will need Cease to Exist though. Soften will probably end up reducing physical resistance.

[edge2054]

The clones from Guardian Unity don't act, and stand for ~12 turns rather than 2 (which, I assume, is because summon timer goes down with actions).

Hmm.. I just tested one and it worked fine. Was anything else going on when this happened?

[0player]

Clarification: this only happens when there are no enemies nearby, it seems. So it doesn't want to act, I suppose. Yes, the situation was "something tackled me, I spawned guardian, I finished it". It happened twice in a row right after I put points into Guardian Unity, so I wasn't sure.

[Parcae2]

1. No, I did mean that Carbon in particular feels more like an SW (Stone Warden) tree. Covering yourself with spikes of carbon and firing them at people sounds more "master of stone" than "master of time and space" to me.

2. I like Damage Smearing conceptually, but I also think it's one defense talent too many. I would like to see it merged with either Phase Shift or Fateweaving, and have it bypass wards and affinities but not resistances. But that's just me.

3. Random idea for Temporal Reprieve: Maybe only have it kick in after X turns? That would enable some of the restrictions to be removed without letting the talent be too overpowered.

4. Time Travel is really strong, which throws off the balance of locked trees in general because it's not "what trees do I want" but "I want Time Travel and X other trees." I would like to see some of the talents moved to unlocked trees and Time Travel reserved for skills that pure temporal PMs will be using most.

[donkatsu]

I like Shard Storm/Sphere's interaction in theory. Haven't actually tried a physical PM in practice.

Even with another resistance lowering talent though, I'd still want to grab Cease to Exist for even more -resistance. -50% resistance for 10 turns is too good to pass up. Even if they're already sitting at -25% resist physical, for example, from Soften, applying Cease would increase your overall damage by 40% for at least 10 turns, more than that if you abuse Seal Fate, and that's not even counting the off-element DoT. So I think either way you order Cease to Exist and Uncertain Position would be fine from a physical PM's point of view, and if you want to put Cease first to space out the temporal damage spells better, then go with that.

That exploding bolt map effect thing sounds awesome.

I agree with Damage Smearing somehow merging with Phase Shift or Fateweaving. Their primary mechanic is that they mitigate the first hit, and you don't need two talents that both do that.

I also really like the idea of a delayed Temporal Reprieve, or really delayed anything. It promotes planning, and what better place to have delayed effects than on a manipulator of time? Although I don't know if Temporal Reprieve still needs tweaking at this point now that it doesn't interact with fixed cooldown spells.

[edge2054]

Yeah, I've been tempted just to unlock Timetravel and lock something else. Fatethreding feels pretty integral to the class though. And I'm not sure how I feel about locking Paradox (plus TWs don't get it so they'd end up with a lot of trees starting out).

As far as merging it, TWs have to unlock Fateweaving. I imagine that could be changed (thematically they seem to have a lot of 'threading' going on so it might make more sense for them to have Fateweaving then Chronomancy). And they don't have Phase Shift.

How are you guys envisioning it on Fateweaver?