Tales of Maj'Eyal 1.5 Beta!

[nsrr]

Any chance Light Armor training can let dex qualify for equipping light armor? Sick of carrying around/swapping in multiple strength items to equip t5 light armor on a rogue.

Or, better yet, just change the requirement for light armor to Dex. If not that, then changing the requirement if you learn Light Armor Training would be a fine solution, too. I find that the Str requirement is a meaningless burden, even at lower levels, and I end up lugging around +str gear for most of the game just so I can equip better leather armor when I find it.

[Sheila]

I think all light armor users can and should afford at least half STR so I don't really see the problem?

[voltteccer]

Literally every character wants 16 Str to wear gauntlets/boots/helmets. Another 4 points for drakeskin body armor is nothing.

[Micbran]

Literally every character wants 16 Str to wear gauntlets/boots/helmets. Another 4 points for drakeskin body armor is nothing.

And here I was pumping Str for PES. It's not that bad. Strength is a good stat anyways to keep around, some good prodigies in that section.

[Sheila]

Literally every character wants 16 Str to wear gauntlets/boots/helmets. Another 4 points for drakeskin body armor is nothing.

And here I was pumping Str for PES. It's not that bad. Strength is a good stat anyways to keep around, some good prodigies in that section.

Yeah PES, anything that hits with a weapon probably wants STR anyways or at least half stat it.

[FreePaperclips]

This is more critique then bug-testing, but I think the changes to Marauder need another pass.

The changes to Rogue skills, however awesome they are on Rogues, have had some unfortunate side effects. The changes to Dirty Fighting favor a debuffing rogue over damaging combat types and without Momentum, they've lost about 40% of their attack speed. When put together, their ability to kill before Unstoppable runs out is heavily compromised. The new and improved Dual Weapon Training gives them (unreliable) armor, but that's not enough to obviate the need for spell/mind damage mitigation. This gap might have been filled by the new Mobility, but it's locked now.

The tightest limitation on Marauders has always been cat-points. They need Bloodthirst to survive incoming damage and Battle Tactics to keep them mobile. On lower difficulties (or when played by high-skill players) there's been room to mix things up. The loss of Momentum might mean that Poison would get a second look, except that's another drain on cat points (and it's a weak investment that doesn't scale with their base stats).

The truth is that if they still had Momentum, these might have been small weakenings; not really problems, just re-balancing. But, without the ability to really burst their damage (with high speed and reliable crit/stuns), all of their stamina draining skills are active for far too long. A fight that might have been over in four turns becomes a fight that (because of enemy actions and healing) takes seven or eight. This is a critical problem on a resource starved class.

I don't have a good idea about how to change these either. The new rogue is awesome and I'd hate to see it reverted, but the changes just don't mesh with how the Marauder class is designed.

[The Tapir]

This is more critique then bug-testing, but I think the changes to Marauder need another pass.

The changes to Rogue skills, however awesome they are on Rogues, have had some unfortunate side effects. The changes to Dirty Fighting favor a debuffing rogue over damaging combat types and without Momentum, they've lost about 40% of their attack speed. When put together, their ability to kill before Unstoppable runs out is heavily compromised. The new and improved Dual Weapon Training gives them (unreliable) armor, but that's not enough to obviate the need for spell/mind damage mitigation. This gap might have been filled by the new Mobility, but it's locked now.

The tightest limitation on Marauders has always been cat-points. They need Bloodthirst to survive incoming damage and Battle Tactics to keep them mobile. On lower difficulties (or when played by high-skill players) there's been room to mix things up. The loss of Momentum might mean that Poison would get a second look, except that's another drain on cat points (and it's a weak investment that doesn't scale with their base stats).

The truth is that if they still had Momentum, these might have been small weakenings; not really problems, just re-balancing. But, without the ability to really burst their damage (with high speed and reliable crit/stuns), all of their stamina draining skills are active for far too long. A fight that might have been over in four turns becomes a fight that (because of enemy actions and healing) takes seven or eight. This is a critical problem on a resource starved class.

I don't have a good idea about how to change these either. The new rogue is awesome and I'd hate to see it reverted, but the changes just don't mesh with how the Marauder class is designed.

The new trees also seem really out of place compared to what appears to be the design of the marauder class. Duelist and Throwing Knives both seem much better suited for Rogue, who's flavored much more heavily around being the "clever strategist" type of fighter as opposed to the marauder's "reckless fighter" theme. Throwing Knives also seems mechanically out of place given that their Cun/Dex scaling runs contrary to the strength/dex scaling from marauder weapons, and it doesn't seem like you'd want to be spending turns using ranged attacks when you've got talents like step up, whirlwind, and rush that bring you closer to enemies and others like GWF and skullcracker that encourage being in melee combat.

EDIT: Also, I'm not sure why Total Thuggery got nerfed, since though the stamina drain has been lowered it barely gives any critical chance and respen compared to what it used to give. The only other reliable source of resistance reduction now is Exploit Weakness which requires a cat point to access.

[Razakai]

Locking Mobility was prob overkill. Will unlock that, change Throwing to work like normal knives (str scaling but cun with Lethality) and put attack speed on Total Thuggery. Note that for Marauder the intent for Throwing is late game you'd transition to using Quickdraw-melee if investing as another source of dps.

[FreePaperclips]

Locking Mobility was prob overkill. Will unlock that, change Throwing to work like normal knives (str scaling but cun with Lethality) and put attack speed on Total Thuggery. Note that for Marauder the intent for Throwing is late game you'd transition to using Quickdraw-melee if investing as another source of dps.

I just want to make sure I understand you: do you mean that Quickdraw increases phys attack-speed for held daggers? That's an inventive solution to adding attack-speed! But if so, it's not clear from the tool-tip.

[Razakai]

Nah I mean Quickdraw let's you throw knives via melee - so eventually Throwing can become a GWF style damage boost instead of ranged option.

[Micbran]

Razakai, what happened to buffing daggers to be 50% Dex and 50%Str/Cun stat scaling?

[Frensswa]

I didn't see it anywhere in the various changelogs, but the changes to the Unarmed Discipline skill tree are very welcome. In particular, I always thought Roundhouse kick was pretty underwhelming for the final skill of a locked tree. Touch of death is a much more interesting choice. The change from defensive throw to relentless strikes and the buff to open-palm block are also interesting. Overall very nice change from the old skill tree, in which arguably only the first skill was of worth.

[Sheila]

Any plans to change Dirty Fighting currently?
As it is it'll probably ruin Insane+ to some extent, since it'll be widely available and it'll destroy the reliability of movement infusions, which are pretty much a necessity.
I don't think this can remain in the current state. Lowering immunities is something that needs to be done very sparingly if ever.

[Mordy]

DF should probably lower the resist the same way that Wet does in the first place. Say, you cap it at -50 max and don't make it scale on how much resist the target currently has. That way, you only need 50% stun resist from gear + movement infusion to remain immune.

The way it currently works you'd need 300% resist from gear/talents + movement to remain immune.

[Sheila]

DF should probably lower the resist the same way that Wet does in the first place. Say, you cap it at -50 max and don't make it scale on how much resist the target currently has. That way, you only need 50% stun resist from gear + movement infusion to remain immune.

The way it currently works you'd need 300% resist from gear/talents + movement to remain immune.

It's not quite comparable since Wet is something that maybe a single class has and uses... Dirty Fighting is used by like 8 different classes.
I don't think it should stay in any way, shape, or form.