Arcane Blade Discussion

[madmonk]

Hi

I just played the Arcane Blade through, very fast to 7th Level. I did it without physically hitting anything including Bill, I just used spells. We have to adjust the Blade!

My ideas - do feel free to accept, reject, ignore these ideas I am hoping that what I am going to suggest can be the start of something good!

The Arcane Blade

They combine arms and magic together...
So they should not be as good as the Fighter in arms combat.
So they should not be as good as the Archmage in casting spells.

So we could adjust as follows

Limit the number of offensive spells the Blade has access to. Give more utility spells (ID, Phase door, etc)
Reason: I could cycle through my offensive spells (4) and by the time I had finished the first was available again

Increase the cooldown period for all spells - triple at least (they are not as good at casting as the Archmage)
Reason: Spells are harder to cast for the Blade

Shorten the range for all spells to around the same distance as the archer or even less - maybe 5 squares
Reason: I could kill creatures at really long range without being hit.

Eliminate some of the more specialised combat schools that are currently available
Reason: Not as good at arms combat as a fighter

Give them a new school (Defensive Measures)
They can cast spells on their kit to give them temporary immunity to certain types of damage (would include Stone Skin)

Give them a new school (Offensive Might)
They can cast spells on their weapons to cause additional damage (fire/water/air/nature/sharp branding)

Start them with a sword instead of a Staff
They are called Blade - I hope for a reason

I think that will do for the moment

[darkgod]

Yeah I dont like them as they are either

I'll reduce the elemental schools, maybe only fire and lightning ?

Shorten range and tripple cooldown, sounds good but not sure how to do it. Classes do not alter the working of talents ...

What do your propose as talents for your new schools ?

yes start with a sword sounds good.
2H or weapon& shield ? humm

[Shoob]

2H or weapon& shield ? humm

make it random (actually, dont)

hmmmm.... I am leaning toward 2H because it seems more in character... or make a bladed staff or something for them. either a scythe or a pike could also work I guess, but we dont have them yet.

[madmonk]

School of Defensive Measures

Brand of Physical Resistance (+ to resistance)
Brand of Spell Resistance (+ to resistance)
Brand of Fire Resistance (+ to resistance)
Brand of Lightning Resistance (+ to resistance)
Brand of Nature Resistance (+ to resistance)
Brand of Put in Brand of choice Resistance (+ to resistance)

These may be cast on any armour item.

School of Offensive Might
Brand of Increased Damage (+ to Damage)
Brand of Accuracy (+ to hit)
Brand of Fire Damage (+ Fire Damage)
Brand of Lightning (+ Lightning Damage)
Brand of Put in Brand of choice Damage (+ to damage)

Branding (Allow more than 1 Brand to be placed on a weapon)

Leave in the base arms school (so they get the armour, and arms and weapons schools)

OK, if you cannot easily adjust range and cooldown, then having a reduced number of offensive spells should be good. As long as they get a bladed weapon, doesn't really matter what it is!

Brands can only be put on bladed weapons... (perhaps!!!)

[darkgod]

I had an Enhancement school planned for a while which looks kinda like your offensive one:
- Fiery Hands: add fire melee damage and increases fire damage %
- Frost Hands: add ice melee damage(cold+chance to freeze) and increases cold damage %
- Crackling Hands: add lightning melee damage and increases lightning damage %
- dunno

For the range thing I thought about this:
I could give staves a range, which they do not use, but instead spells cast will use the staff range as their base range.
If you do not have a staff all spells are of range 1.

There is also the Magical Combat hidden school which could be brought into light as:
- Arcane Combat: allows to use magic instead of strength for weapon, armor and talent requirements. Also grants a free melee attack with a spell cast
- ?
- ?
- ?

[madmonk]

Shoob: what do you think?

[madmonk]

Sorry about that... the little patter of tiny feet@bed time proved a major distraction...

Yes, like what you propose. My base idea being that the initial easy spells should be about the physical stuff and only later do you get the elemental resistances.

If you do not have a staff all spells are of range 1.

Would it be possible to have a range of say 5 squares using your idea? Or would the spell have a range of 1?

The reason I ask is that my idea for the Blade is they cast a couple of spells to weaken the enemy, and then charge in to finish them off using physical means.

Talking about charge.... Use the Blinding Speed of the Archer as well as a possible school.

[darkgod]

Ok currently I have them as
- 2h users
- use 2 new schools, Enhancement and Magical Combat
- access to fire, air, conveyance (needs unlocking), divination (needs unlocking), 2h-cripple, both generic combat techniques

Enhancement currently has:
- Fiery Hands
- Frost Hands

I dont want to do a shock & acidic hands, sounds boring. Maybe some kind of defense could be in there too.
Maybe:
- Earthen Barrier: reduces physical damage taken by X% for some time ?
- Inner Power: increase all stats for some time or sustained ?

Magical Combat:
- Arcane Combat: % chance to project a Flame/Flameshock/Lightning/Chain Lightning as a free action with a melee blow without triggering the spell cooldown
- Arcane Dexterity: increases spellpower with a % of dexterity
Still need 2 more here.
Maybe:
- Spell Reflection: chance to reflect incomming spells
- ??

[kingvictory2003]

Got one to level 20 just a bit ago--I must say they're quite fun. They hit pretty hard with the 2h weapons (although I kinda wish they could also use sword and board as I really want to try out Ringil with a magician ), and the spells definitely add a good amount of damage. Because of how often arcane combat goes off even at level 1, mana is definitely a huge problem if that ability is left on. That was certainly the case in beta1, and I'm thankful that it can be toggled in beta2. The result of that feature was that I never turned it on, not even against bosses (I meant to but forgot all about arcane combat until after the fights.).

Most of my mana goes towards Sense/Identify/Vision which I got at level 10, and less frequently, Phase Door/Teleport which I got promptly at level 20. Those spells VASTLY increase survivability. I have 1/5 flame and 5/5 flameshock, and right now only use flameshock as a standalone spell just when I want the visual effect (huge cone of BOOOOOM). Once I get an energizing ring though . That's REALLY what I'm waiting for--I imagine I could leave on arcane combat and really start annihilating things.

I don't know if that's the right way to go about things, as I can envision that being extremely powerful, especially against single targets if I boost Flame to 5/5. Well, I'll have fun with it while I can, and if I'm actually patient enough to scum for one of those rare rings.

The lightning spells looked pretty underwhelming to me just looking at the great variance in damage, but maybe I have to give them the chance. Maybe they're designed to be like the diablo 2 lightning spells, which had gigantic variability in damage, but also very high potential max damage.

Hopefully this one survives so I can see how the current endgame goes. I'll give further thoughts upon winning, or dying.

[madmonk]

I am obviously playing this wrong...

I keep dying very fast! Highest level? Level 4...

[kingvictory2003]

In the early levels I boost Weapon Combat at every opportunity for +attack, sword mastery for extra damage, and played like a frightened bunny (especially when you see a Cute Little Bunny, I've died to like 3 of those darn things thinking they were crystal rats). Once I got to level 3 or 4, I got heavy armor training, which significantly ups the survivability with mail armor, metal boots and metal helms. When you have a spare point, massive armor training allows for those juicy plate armors of stability. Once you have enough strength, and then enough magic to get those divination spells, I got enough constitution to boost health a couple of times. +80 HP is never anything to sneer at. If I'm patient enough to gain more levels, I'll max out health.

[kingvictory2003]

Oh yes, one quick question--does the last ability in the arcane combat increase BASE physical damage by X, or does it add damage at the end of the calculations. In all honesty, +20 damage at the end is pretty underwhelming for 5 skill points, but I could see if it were added to the weapon's base damage, that would be quite nice, but not necessarily overpowered.

[madmonk]

In the early levels I boost Weapon Combat at every opportunity for +attack, sword mastery for extra damage, and played like a frightened bunny (especially when you see a Cute Little Bunny, I've died to like 3 of those darn things thinking they were crystal rats). Once I got to level 3 or 4, I got heavy armor training, which significantly ups the survivability with mail armor, metal boots and metal helms. When you have a spare point, massive armor training allows for those juicy plate armors of stability. Once you have enough strength, and then enough magic to get those divination spells, I got enough constitution to boost health a couple of times. +80 HP is never anything to sneer at. If I'm patient enough to gain more levels, I'll max out health.

Yes, that is exactly what I do... I don't believe I play the frightened bunny bit enough.

[registeringislame]

I don't think they should have attack spells at all, just sustained spells or activated enchants.

Way I see them is as a very powerful hitter made of glass. They lack the armour/shield of the warrior and the sheer hitpoints of the beserker. If an enchant runs out... better get it up quick.

[Shoob]

I suppose I got lucky with mine, on the first floor of the trollshaws I found an acidic dwarven-steel battleaxe which made it sooo much easier I am up to lvl 7 now, cant wait for the next level (ice and mana replenishing). but yeah, they are more glassy than berserkers, but they can do more damage.

P.S. could someone please tell my skeletons to stop quaffing the blood of life, it is annoying