Temporal Apostate - Reckless Two-Handed Chronomancer

[malboro_urchin]

Ooh! Excellent change, sounds like a fantastic investment, and feels in-line with chronomantic damage mitigation!

[twas Brillig]

Tear the Timeline might want to be a sustain, given that it's potentially a big trade-off.

You MAY be right, but theres also a thematic and mechanical loss when it becomes a sustain: you get to use it when its most effective for you. We're looking for a sense of consequence for ravaging the timelines in such a chaotic manner; to reach your incredibly powerful skills, you have to take Tear the Timeline, which benefits you, but can also be harsh. It echoes a sense of uncontrolled power. Hence, the category name Unstable Ascent--your power grows in leaps and bounds, but there are unavoidable consequences. Granted, there are rather easy ways to mitigate this downside, but the aesthetic persists.

Thank you so much for the thoughts and suggestions! I enjoyed reading through it all <3

Glad you liked it! I get what you mean about wanting a permanent trade-off! It's a cool thing that not a lot of classes do. That's why I snuck in that edit about reworking Unstable Ascent so its capstone was a sort of Temporal counterpart to Lichform. (That might be a nice place for a class quest, actually. Maybe something with Temporal Rift?) Maybe to continue the theme, the active/sustained skills in the tree should have passive side-effects like Sollipsism?

The Deeprock Stonewarden tree might be a good template, sort of spreading Infinitum Ascension across the entire tree. The first skill would give you a reduced version of the current capstone as a sustain/active, but also have a large up-front trade-off like the current first skill. Then each subsequent skill would give you a mix of active and passive abilities, with the final skill including the Written in the Stars resurrection clause. That'd also make the already very good Temporal Roar much more flavorful if it only worked while actively rampaging.

I don't see myself putting too many points into Fold Reality, especially since the class is already designed to make use of massive armor. I always feel threatened by elemental damage moreso than physical damage. Maybe Fold Reality could somehow mitigate more types of damage than just physical? Counterpoint: Energy is locked and learnable with a cat point, so this could get very strong, especially with this class's higher hp/level and built-in mitigation just from wearing heavier armor.

This is a really concrete concern. I'm going to change Fold Reality quite a bit.

Fold Reality no longer increases your flat armor nor your armor by a percentage. It retains the armor hardiness bonus, but converts a % of all damage you take to Temporal, and additionally (this is the gimmick) increases your Temporal resistance by a high amount while active. This not only directly reduces all damage you take as it converts it to Temporal and you take less Temporal, but all of the potential Temporal damage you are dealing to yourself is reduced when you activate Fold Reality as well, which will make it a lot more attractive to put points into to mitigate self-inflicted damage, like from Command the Stars and Tear the Timeline.

Sounds a lot like Damage Smearing--did that get changed a lot in 1.3? I still need to unlock PM. Another option could be paradox gain/anomaly generation. Maybe make all temporal damage raise paradox while sustained? That'd mean both gaining power from recklessly messing with time while also courting disaster.

One thing that may be lacking is a way to deal with multiple ability dependencies. Arcane Blade has some minor boosts to help there, and the new Twilight Warden can almost entirely roll with Magic and Dex. But Chrono Guy has to balance enough magic to do stuff, versus enough willpower to have high paradox, versus enough strength to wear massive armor/wield 2Hers. On the other hand that's...actually the same problem that Stonewarden runs into, more or less, and they work pretty well. I think the big thing to play with would, again, be paradox behavior. Rather than, I dunno, flexing your paradox into submission with your strength.

[Razakai]

I really like this idea. Thoughts so far after taking a brief skim:

- Temporal Roar seems effective but a little dull and same-y (Warshout, Bellowing Roar etc). Not sure what to suggest as a replacement though, as I'm unsure what the tree's themes/aim is. The first talent is cool so I think something Paradox related would fit, as that also ties in well with Ascension.

- Command the Stars reminded me little of a paradox-Blazing Rebirth. Having the damage be relatively high but divide it among affected targets would be interesting. Although if it's intended as a primary paradox regeneration mechanic that might make it too punishing to use.

- Making Ascension give Phase Assault 0 cooldown would be fun for the teleporting around every turn aspect.

[edge2054]

A few things.

Energy could start out unlocked. Maybe Energy/Fateweaving unlocked with Chronomancy or Spacetime Weaving locked (I'm hesitant for these guys to have Spacetime Weaving as teleport all over is such a TW schtick but thematically it might fit better than Chronomancy as See the Threads feels pretty controlled. Would appreciate someone talking me out of Spacetime Weaving though ).

The 1.3 trees these guys have are...

Temporal Combat
Weapon Folding - Temporal Damage + %chance to gain 10% of a turn.
Invigorate
Weapon Manifold - Adds three procs to Weapon Folding that affect a radius. One lowers physical and temporal resist by 20%, another causes a random status effect (stun, confuse, blind, or pin), and the third does a 20%? slow.
Breach - Reduces Armor hardiness and immunities on the target by 50% (this overlaps with one of the Temporal Apostate talents).

Flux
Induce Anomaly - Instant cast. Restores paradox and creates an anomaly.
Reality Smearing - Converts 30% of all damage you take into X Paradox.
Attenuate - Small AoE that deals temporal damage over time. Heals those with reality smearing.
Twist Fate - Delays an anomaly for up to X turns. While delayed you can cast the anomaly using twist fate and choose it's target location. Cooldown scales with talent level.

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Armor penetration is especially good with talents that deal weapon damage (i.e. Assault, Flurry, Death Dance, Steady Shot) as Armor is factored in prior to these multipliers being applied. It's also especially good on classes with good crit and crit multiplier. A two-handed class with a bunch of armor penetration and an abundance of weapon damage talents is going to be a beast.

MAD
I think Strength and Magic will work as primary stats for this class. Willpower should be less of a concern if we keep sustain costs low and give them multiple ways of dumping Paradox (Induce Anomaly and Command the Stars) as well as a means of managing anomalies when they occur (Twist Fate and Tear the Timeline).

Temporal Wardens are currently Dexterity, Magic, and Willpower and they've been working fine so far.

[Aeoch]

Temporal Roar seems effective but a little dull and same-y (Warshout, Bellowing Roar etc). Not sure what to suggest as a replacement though, as I'm unsure what the tree's themes/aim is. The first talent is cool so I think something Paradox related would fit, as that also ties in well with Ascension.

Agreed. I replaced Temporal Roar with Chrono Fissure--it doesn't interact with Paradox in any out of this world way, but it fits the aesthetic of the class changing and fracturing reality around them by displacing enemies and creating a terrain effect like Schisms.

Making Ascension give Phase Assault 0 cooldown would be fun for the teleporting around every turn aspect.

I want to agree, but I'm not sure if that is feasible. It may be too OP. Also, Edge wants to shy away from Dimensional Step, which I agree with. And a no cooldown Phase Assault during Infinitum Ascension is quite reminiscent of that.

[Candesce]

I think Strength and Magic will work as primary stats for this class. Willpower should be less of a concern if we keep sustain costs low and give them multiple ways of dumping Paradox (Induce Anomaly and Command the Stars) as well as a means of managing anomalies when they occur (Twist Fate and Tear the Timeline).

Temporal Wardens are currently Dexterity, Magic, and Willpower and they've been working fine so far.

Hrm.

Looking this class over, I have to wonder if it's intentional that it doesn't get any accuracy bonuses outside of Combat Training or any way to reduce enemy defense outside of Daze.

I think every other melee class gets at least one of the two, though it might get stuck in a locked category.

Is dexterity intended to be a primary stat?

[Aeoch]

I think Strength and Magic will work as primary stats for this class. Willpower should be less of a concern if we keep sustain costs low and give them multiple ways of dumping Paradox (Induce Anomaly and Command the Stars) as well as a means of managing anomalies when they occur (Twist Fate and Tear the Timeline).

Temporal Wardens are currently Dexterity, Magic, and Willpower and they've been working fine so far.

Hrm.

Looking this class over, I have to wonder if it's intentional that it doesn't get any accuracy bonuses outside of Combat Training or any way to reduce enemy defense outside of Daze.

I think every other melee class gets at least one of the two, though it might get stuck in a locked category.

Is dexterity intended to be a primary stat?

Dexterity is not intended to be a primary stat, no. They are reckless, and that is reflected in the mechanics as well. Accuracy doesn't really go very well with reckless!

If they are having big issues with missing, it will be remedied, though.

[Candesce]

They are reckless, and that is reflected in the mechanics as well. Accuracy doesn't really go very well with reckless!

If they are having big issues with missing, it will be remedied, though.

Thought it might be something like that. So long as it was intended!

[edge2054]

AoE talents that don't require a weapon to hit as well as map effects that deal damage are another way to approach the problem of accuracy.

[elboyo]

I'll try and provide some feedback for as many of these as I have good suggestions for.

Strike Through Time - I really like the mechanics of the skill, but a buff that lasts 3 turns and takes one to activate and can be dispelled might be a hard sell. What would you think if it applied a debuff to an enemy as part of a weapon attack instead? If you keep the damage low, I think that it would be a very reasonable use of an action.

Singularity - Although it is cool to have little black holes show up, it feels very controlled to me. Carefully managing stacks of buffs and schism creation doesn't fit with the overall reckless theme you wanted. What do you think about this? -- Have this capstone consume all schisms in 10 radius and giving you a huge paradox boost (like 50 or 100 per schism) for X turns (X being the schisms consumed). Also have it grant the ability to ignore weapon talent failure due to paradox for some short number of turns and grant you additional damage proportional to your newly boosted paradox. You might need to change the name if you do this, but this was a cool idea that came to me when thinking about consuming the schisms.

Chrono Grasp - this seems a little insane. At worst, it doubles AoE damage against your target. If Rip From Time allows you to pull the clone, this would be insanely broken if you used Chrono Grasp > Rip From Time > Teleport.

Written in the Stars - I think that this skill would produce an unnatural play style in which players would actively avoid killing weak monsters so that they could make use of a guaranteed revival every time they walk into a major fight.

Pierce the Veil - Have you considered stealing global speed as the proc for this talent?

Split Reality & Rift Strike - Do these include procs from items, procs that require critical hits, and procs that require mind/spell/nature talent hits? If they do, this tree will be absolutely ridiculous for anyone that gets even a few early artifacts with procs. It would be very hard to balance these two skills if they worked with everything.

Tear the Timeline - Does temporal burn hurt you as well? If it doesn't, I feel like it should.


I really like the overall ideas and the theme of the class. I hope that my suggestions can help push this concept forward a bit.

[Aeoch]

Hey elboyo,

Singularity - Although it is cool to have little black holes show up, it feels very controlled to me. Carefully managing stacks of buffs and schism creation doesn't fit with the overall reckless theme you wanted. What do you think about this? -- Have this capstone consume all schisms in 10 radius and giving you a huge paradox boost (like 50 or 100 per schism) for X turns (X being the schisms consumed). Also have it grant the ability to ignore weapon talent failure due to paradox for some short number of turns and grant you additional damage proportional to your newly boosted paradox. You might need to change the name if you do this, but this was a cool idea that came to me when thinking about consuming the schisms.

This is an interesting idea, but I'll have to think about it. I'm not prepared to drop how Singularity works at the moment, because mechanically speaking it is a great culmination for Schisms as a whole.

Chrono Grasp - this seems a little insane. At worst, it doubles AoE damage against your target. If Rip From Time allows you to pull the clone, this would be insanely broken if you used Chrono Grasp > Rip From Time > Teleport.

You're completely right. I'm writing in that the clone takes significantly reduced AoE damage, but not entirely reduced. Thus, you would still gain damage for AoEing, but not a ridiculous boost.

Written in the Stars - I think that this skill would produce an unnatural play style in which players would actively avoid killing weak monsters so that they could make use of a guaranteed revival every time they walk into a major fight.

Perhaps. Needs more discussion.

Pierce the Veil - Have you considered stealing global speed as the proc for this talent?

I'm still wracking my brain with what I want to do here. Thats another on the list of possible routes!

Split Reality & Rift Strike - Do these include procs from items, procs that require critical hits, and procs that require mind/spell/nature talent hits? If they do, this tree will be absolutely ridiculous for anyone that gets even a few early artifacts with procs. It would be very hard to balance these two skills if they worked with everything.

Yeah. If it actually goes into the game, its probably going to be reworded to only include Sunder Time, Weapon Manifold, Chrono Massacre and Pierce the Veil. Even that is a little sketchy. Ahem.

Tear the Timeline - Does temporal burn hurt you as well? If it doesn't, I feel like it should.

It does! The amount of Temporal damage it would do to you is reduced by Fold Reality, just like Command the Stars.

Thank you for your suggestions!

[Aeoch]

I just added Apostasy of Time, a new category for Temporal Apostate. To further identify them as a class that holds no qualms with destroying reality around them, Apostasy of Time delves into the theme of destroying their enemies with displacement, and causing temporal shocks and ripples throughout the battlefield in an uncontrolled and possibly lethal way! You can even cause the End of Time!

No clue if this will stay in. Still purely conceptual. Feedback is encouraged!

[astralInferno]

This class looks amazingly cool, you can be sure I'll try it out when I can.

Unstable Ascent feels like it should be a Magic tree to me? It's more focussed on weird time shenanigans than breaking things.
Admittedly, the whole class it weird time shenanigans, but it feels more magicky.

I also wonder if Terminate could be instant-if-it-kills, but take a turn if it doesn't? Given that that might be impossible to code, perhaps it would work like Cease To Exist (the new chronomancy talent for Paradox Mages in Timeline Threading), or it could just give you a turn on-kill.

Scars of Time is fairly cool, I hope that finds a home somewhere.