Currently I don't think Hexer fulfills many of the class fantasies that it sets out to achieve anymore, it's kind of gotten outdated by time since it's barely changed aside from getting nerfed over time, it faces the same problem that DH did in which it's become somewhat of a shell of it's former self with a lot of old class designs that just scream "This button hard counters you" in many situations.
I think that Hexer should be about debilitating and absolutely ruining singular opponents over time, forming it's gameplan around withering someone down and standing on top of them, currently Hexer kind of just hits you with Poison, Silence and/or Burn and then uses it's 10% extra HP and inflated DEF/RES to try and kite the opponent out and win through that.
As you might expect, this doesn't work quite as well anymore, I won't get into the specifics of why but generally it boils down to the stat walling nerfs in GR2 and just damage creep in general has really seeped it's way into making them able to be rushed down like 50-60% of the time.
Here are some ideas that I concocted up about Hexer and how I feel it could represent it's class fantasy juuuust a bit more, I urge you to at least look at Spirit Pain if nothing else as I think there is at least a great idea there to implement.
Quote:Goals:
-Double down on Hexer's ability to cripple individual opponents over time, increasing the impact of curses and hexes and relating Hexer's class mechanics to those.
-Create a more unique identity for curses
-Integrate base Mage's kit into the class.
Quote:Black Bubble: -Changed from 3 range circle to 2 range circle -Dark/Water ATK scaling changed from 20/25/30/35/40 to 40/45/50/55/60% -Kraken Effect: Water damage/scaling are changed to Ice damage/scaling, lays down ice tiles underneath the dark water.
Underworld Flame -Nerhaven Effect: If burn infliction is successful, additionally apply a status which reduces the opponent's bonus Resistance to 0.
Wretched Oil -Galren Effect: Cover targets in oil for 3 rounds, reducing their MOV by 2, and decreasing fire/earth resistance by 10%.
Black Static -Redgull Effect: AoE size can be extended with + or - keys, up to +2 additional range.
Fleeting Spectres -Talvyd Effect: Spectres are now ethereal and pierce through enemies instead of stopping.
Eternal Darkness -Changed effect to: Inflicts Blind for 2 rounds, or extends blind duration by 1 round.
Quote:Spirit Pain: -Completely reworked. -Now summons up to 1/1/2/2/3 spirits of Black and White varieties onto the field in random locations. Spirits take 1 round to start moving. -Black Spirits move slowly towards the closest non-immune enemies (like butterflies) and possess them before disappearing, causing their next action which costs 3m or more to be completely negated, afterwards an enemy cannot be possessed again for 3 rounds. -White Spirits will float towards the closest ally, and heal them for 40/60/80/100/120 HP.
Quote:Curse Mechanic Change: -Enemies can now only be affected by 1 curse at a time.
Noshka's Famine: -Changed to gradually reduce the SWA of the target by 4/6/8 for every round passed for the duration of the curse.
Crippling Muysig: -Changed to gradually reduce the hit/evade of the target by 3/4/5 for every round passed for the duration of the curse.
Frailty of Credwa -Changed to gradually increase the damage the target takes by 4/6/8% for every round passed for the duration of the curse. -Rank based duration increases removed.
Fellel's Fumble -Main Class Restriction removed. -Cooldown increased to 4 rounds. -Now works on all attacks except those that ignore evasion. Hit Counter mechanic unchanged (more/less powerful with single/multi hits)
Plisfa's Masochism -Cooldown increased to 4 rounds. -Now works on all attacks except those that ignore evasion. Hit Counter mechanic unchanged (more/less powerful with single/multi hits)
Quote:Hellflame Uorate -Removed nullification of bonus RES -Target afflicted by hex now suffers Hellfire damage instead when damaged by Fire damage.
Imagin's Despair -Removed damage taken increase -Target afflicted by Hex is increasingly tormented by visions, doubling the effectiveness of fear, at the start of each round they may be inflicted with Knocked Down.
Llunel's Decay -All healing the target receives is reversed, being dealt as unprotectable physical pierce damage.
Quote:Evil Force -Main class restriction removed
Bloody Karma -Because curse effects only target once per enemy now, this has been tweaked slightly. -The Hexer now gains 10/15/20/25/30 Critical/Critical Evade versus Cursed Targets
Essence Taking -Changed to 1 rank (Engi and RM have this)
Dark Invasion: -Changed to 1 rank -Still Main Class Only -Curses placed by a hexer with this skill do not affect themselves or allies, but still may power up over time or be transfered.
Thanks for reading if you got all the way through this.
Can we make the night a little bit less dark in game? It's really hard to see anything and there's no way for the average adventurer to properly light up an area. It would be great to have either a proper light source or a less dark night. It's especially a problem in places like the sky temple where it's night in a dungeon and you can't see the mobs
first things first kill double turning and like 90% of the hatred for the class is gone.
With that out of the way, I like GS! I think summoners in games are fun, I love minion types, and I think the versatility of youkai having niche passives (as summons) to fight back a variety of opponents is really cool! My favorite thing to do in this game is position Drowned Woman so that people can't AOE me without losing momentum, or walking Wind Elemental into gust traps.
Installing for elemental immunities is kind of lame but it looks like we're moving away from that with every youkai rework so that won't be necessarily the topic here.
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GS is not a weak class. It is however, an outdated one. Most of it's class power budget is in Chain Unsummon, which recently got gutted (as it fucking deserves), but almost the entire rest of the class feels dated. I am not insisting that GS is weak in any way- Youkai are strong, even in the current sphere where they're arguably at their weakest.
However, I think shapeshifter is better at the whole "having youkai on the field and commanding them" bit than GS. It feels like GS' entire class identity hinges on its ability to get 4 youkai out in a turn instead of 2, and literally nothing else.
Here's my list:
YOUKAI TAMER: +25 power to enemies with a Youkai race sounds really cool, and would be incredibly fun to play around now that there's a lot of new ways to play around that, except- It only works on basic hits. Leaving this passive to languish in the realm of weird 80 apt builds and awkward MG setups. If it just worked in general, I think it'd be kind of neat.
SPIRIT WELL: 5 SP for +18 FP. This is the most useless stat passive in the game. I have no idea why you'd ever take this unless you were just autopiloting clicking all the innates while filling out a class.
MISTY DIMENSION: I kindly request someone replying to this find me a single use for this passive. I guess a twin dancing ST/GS would run it for like...sneak attack? This passive blows.
ASTRAL AEGIS: This is a glorified stat passive for +5 Def and +5 Res. While that's good and all, there is very obviously a hole here where this was once a much better skill with interesting ramifications, but was too strong and nerfed into the ground. Aegis Shift is completely pointless I have no idea why you'd spend your time pressing that button.
SOUL CHAINS/JUDGEMENT BLADE: Okay guys I know it's really cool but this combo kind of blows lets be real. More useful for punishing other summoners and people wearing beast bands than it is for it's actual intended combo. However, it's a fan favorite so w/e i'm not too broken up on it.
SPIRIT REGENERATION: don't.
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Other passives/skills in GS that aren't listed here are, in my opinion, solid enough to merit their current state. Even if Encourage could totally be a lot cooler than just a raw stat buff.
This isn't necessarily meant to be a "WE SHOULD BUFF GS" thread, because GS isn't bad. But I want to bring attention to just how lame like 70% of this class actually is.
Status Inflict vs Status Resist has long been extremely polarized. Either you will always fail or you will always succeed with almost no middle ground existing.
This is because of the fact Status Resist is attached to Sanctity, a stat that most races gain extra benefits for and thus almost no characters will willingly build Sanctity on a race that does not get something on top of what you get by default. Yes, I am aware some people will still build things like SAN Humans out of spite but the fact of the matter is the exact same stat spread will perform much better if you alter the race to something that gains a significant bonus for having built SAN.
It becomes problematic when you want to avoid statuses then realize you are not a race that gets anything for SAN. Thus you're faced with the decision to build sub-optimally to have status res or to consider a different race to make it more beneficial. Not to mention the Corrupted that are actively penalized for building SAN.
A potential band-aid fix for this issue would be providing benefits to races that otherwise did not have any SAN benefits prior. So every race (other than Corrupted, thems the breaks) gets something for building SAN unique to them. These races being:
Humans
Homunculi
Mechanations
Every other race in the game gets something for SAN even if it might not be great (reaper/apertaurus made obsolete by Arcane).
I'd envision the SAN benefits being attached to preexisting racials rather than something entirely new, building off what's already present.
Some possible suggestions being:
Human -
Profession - Humans commonly spend long times studying and preparing for a specific type of job. Thus, when buying a 'History' trait, it does not cost a Trait Point. Additionally, stat bonuses gained from History traits are increased by 1+ Scaled SAN/20.
Quick to Master - Humans live in a world where they must constantly adapt to situations and circumstances they find themselves in, which makes them more versatile than other races. They gain +2 class skill points for every class. Additionally, their skill pool size is increased by 2 + Scaled SAN/10, letting them equip more skills at once.
Divine Eyes/Eyes of Elimination - I'm wary of messing with this for better or worse but it's the most obvious pick for giving Humans something that scales with SAN. It's already a bit of an investment to qualify for on builds that want to actually cast EoE instead of only cheesing you with Divine Eyes. Perhaps if Divine Eyes was adjusted but as it stands it'd feel either way too overbearing to buff with SAN bonuses or too punishing to require SAN to use effectively if it was balanced around having SAN to use at its current efficacy. At most, I could see it being a SAN requirement instead of WIL requirement to buy the Divine Eyes tree for now.
Humans are pretty OK as it stands, and getting extra stat points is pretty standard for some SAN scaling benefits ala Kael instinct, so getting 6 stats (8 if you're lispoolian and hard dump SAN) for 38-45~ points invested (accounting for APT bonus) feels pretty fair to me. The skill pool bonus is largely unneeded nowadays but the alternative is more class skill points and that feels a bit much. Having SAN act like a 2nd WIL for skill pool seems in line for Humans.
Homunculi -
Homunculi Physique - An artificially created lifeform. Received healing reduced by 10%. HP per point of VIT reduced by 1. FP per point of WIL increased by 1. HP/FP per point of VIT/WIL is increased by Scaled SAN/20.
Salamandra Flame - Can just get Scaled SAN added to its damage on top of everything else. For a total of 100% SWA + 100% Fire ATK + 100% Scaled SAN.
Wyvern Assimilation - Infused with the blood of a wyvern. 30 + Scaled SAN% status resistance versus Poison.
Salamandra Flame Arts -
Explosion - Dunno what to do for this one that's sensible. Possibly lowering the 50 damage requirement by something like Scaled SAN/2? Or just straight up Scaled San if you want to get crazy with it. Honestly if someone is building SAN and actually critting they deserve the fireworks at that point.
Poison - Make it scaled on SAN/2 instead of GUI and cap it at 20/25. You have to deal a significant amount of damage to even have a chance of landing this it can afford to be higher than LV 15 poison, and you're sacrificing the more consistent Explosion for this. Additionally, another possible change is to have the infliction rate scale with SAN. Something like adding Scaled San/10 to the 5% of your inflict per 10 fire damage. So 50 Scaled SAN would make it 10% per 10 damage instead.
Purification - Easy. Cooldown reduced by Scaled SAN/20.
Amalgama Mutation - There are a lot of different abilities here to consider even if a lot of them are reflavored versions of one another. I think it best to leave the unique class of mutations alone given how powerful they are already, and provide bonuses that are equally effective regardless of what you roll.
With that in mind:
Spell Mutations - Either adding Scaled SAN as damage or amplifying the bonus vs the races it has by Scaled San%. The race damage bonus for these almost never comes up since 10% is negligible for an ability that's 100 SWA/100 ELE ATK scaling. Odds are they'd do more damage casting something else if they're building for Attune Grudge even if they rolled the correct spell, not to mention it cannot be double-tapped due to having a 1 round cooldown, so doubling up on the two being problematic is unlikely.
Support Mutations - These all vary between HP/FP regen and curing status ailments so it's difficult to provide a blanket buff for all of them. My first thought would be reducing their cooldown by something like Scaled San/20 rounds, so you could lower them from 5 round to 3 round cooldowns. I'm unsure if also providing a numerical buff from Scaled SAN on top of that would be overkill. Jorg is already pretty good for self-sustain but it is certainly an outlier.
Please for the love of all that's holy let their own racials heal them fully. Matil's 120 at level 60 gets cut to 108 by default as it stands.
With that aside out of the way: The healing mutations could afford to have Scaled SAN added in full. It's a piddly amount with the cooldown you'd expect on a healing skill. Otherwise the cooldown reduction should suffice for the status ailment recovery mutations.
Status/Element Resist/Weakness Mutations - These are tough since my first thought is to modify the resist values by Scaled SAN/2, but Dev already went already removing every instance of that from prior racials to make resist stacking more difficult. These will likely all be left as is, unless Dev decides otherwise.
Chimera Evolution - This is a lot to cover much like Amalgama Mutation, except every mutation's only similarity is the +5 ELE atk bonus it gives. So offering SAN bonuses will be on a case by case basis for the evolution skills Chimera gets. I'll go over them all individually.
Chimera's Dragon Wings - Unchanged. They don't even exist in Korvara and their biggest benefit is gaining the race-type itself. I can't really think of anything reasonable to have SAN provide without drastically altering the skill.
Chimera's Hot Blood - Intense body heat flows in the Chimera, protecting them from the cold. Gain Fireblood racial type. +5 Fire ATK. Frozen status effects you are inflicted with have their LV reduced by half (or 50 + Scaled SAN, whichever is higher).
Chimera's Fish Tail - Unchanged. Similar case to Dragon Wings, not much here to modify. The flooded water penalty negation is enough as is.
Chimera's Stone Stare/Venom Glands/Starlight Eye - Hard to modify since they're granting an existing skill rather than it being its own thing.
Chimera's Tyrant Paws - Monster-like feet allow the Chimera to traverse the snow. Gain Iceblood racial type. +5 Ice ATK. While you have no Legs item equipped, you do not trigger Ice Sheets, and your Kick skill deals Ice magic bonus damage equal to half of your character level + Scaled SAN/2. Makes for a good alternative to bladed soles for focusing on higher, single-instance damage. Unless this actually applies to rapid kick in which case uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh maybe not.
Chimera's Agile Flexor - Powerful leg muscles grant the Chimera insect-like agility. Gain Insect racial type. +5 Lightning ATK. Increases Kick's knockback by 1. Additionally, increases damage of kick skills by 10 + Scaled SAN/5. For posterity the +10 is base, I just reworded it. The damage increase is middling anyways but I don't want to go any higher than doubling the bonus here.
Chimera's Fierce Grip - Small nubs on the Chimera's hands allow them to get a painful grip on enemies. Gain Kraboid racial type. Grapple deals Pierce bonus damage equal to half of your character level + Scaled SAN/2 which can critically hit, dealing double damage. Same case as Flexor, pretty unremarkable damage but this shouldn't turn into Painful Grip. Comes kinda close if you can crit but at least you have to crit to see numbers like that.
Chimera's Shark Fangs - Unchanged. Like the tail + wings, nothing here to modify since its main draw is removing the physical stamina cost of eating corpses.
Chimera's Accursed Claws - Likely unchanged. These are one of the few good things Chimera has going for it even if the price to pay is steep and you only really benefit from this if you're committing to making a build centered around Grudge Claws. Amplifying the on-hit Dark damage's scaling by Scaled SAN/2% is a thought.
All Mutations - Possibly having Scaled SAN/10 elemental attack added according to the element being boosted.
Honestly I believe it'll take more of a total overhaul of Chimera to address its issues so all these minor changes may end up being irrelevant when/if that happens. Until then these might help tide Chimera over, combined with the change to Homunculi Physique suggested above.
Mechanations I won't get into the weeds with since they aren't in Korvara so any changes I suggest are highly likely to be irrelevant when/if they wind up being ported over in some shape or form.
These suggestions are merely rough ideas of where to go with making SAN do something for the races (Humans/Homunculi/Mechanations) that currently receive nothing at all for SAN.
I don't think the current state of sneak mines is very fun.
They do too much damage with too little counter play.
Being a melee and just having them spawned on you to instant damage isn't very fun, and a twin dancer or someone with rapid attacks is going to just eat pant.
My suggestion:
1. Give them a 1 turn activation phase. They can't be triggered on this turn.
2. Stop moving them per damage instance and instead double their turn round move.
And if the whole air pressure and sanctuary thing isn't done, that too.
Mixed Bag here, but I gave a whirl at making a cosmetic set for Ruler based around puppets. Not much of a spriter, but they've all got backs and sides, and an icon was even provided, too. I just think puppets are neat, so I've got no complaints about them being just cosmetic - that's the idea, really! As always, Dev is free to use them - if anyone else wants to use them for something else, please do reach out first.
Attacking enemies within 1 range incurs a 20% accuracy and damage penalty, and does blunt damage instead of piercing. However, if it hits, it knocks them back 1 tile.
Attacking enemies beyond 1 range has +10 hit/crit.
Potential skill: Phalanx Formation.
3m, 2cd, 15fp. Must target an ally in melee range. Create counterattack (prophylaxis) tiles everywhere within 2 range of them except within 1 range of yourself. These tiles disappear if either you or your ally move.
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