How did you celebrate?

I was today years old when I discovered that Ghosthands-





Don't interact with the Critter creature property that deals backdamage when hitting them with a fist type weapon or kick skill





I don't know if this is intentional. But considering my ability to not proc riposte or other damage return, it seems like an oversight.

Reproduction:

Equip Ghosthands

Find Critter

(Rapid) Kick Critter

IMMEDIATELY REGRET THIS COURSE OF ACTION.

Dark imbue is getting quite outdated, especially since the changes to bonus damage. As it stands now, dark imbue is nothing more than a desperation move to scrounge up a little more hit for a painfully short duration, at the risk of losing momentum if the regularly resisted element in dark is resisted. The main two issues are:

• The additional dark damage is not bonus damage and triggers resist momentum loss despite doing less damage, even with maximum investment, than many other sources that are considered bonus damage.
  
• A three round duration. Very short for something as passive and basic as a hit buff and a small amount of extra damage.
  

A pocket-sized black book bound in leather and smelling distinctly of ozone and iron. The writing within is, unless otherwise specified, painfully neat. Almost like it was machined.

I. A reflection of self

    It has been approximately eight hundred and thirty-two and a half days since my awakening and somewhere drawing upon three hundred since I discussed with my sister the concept of writing thoughts in a journal. My dallying has taken far too long, and now it is time I put thought to pen, and pen to paper.

In these two years, the discovery of self has become my primary focus upon this green earth. I have tread every continent and dined upon its wildlife. Savored the flavors of their blood and the richness of their meat. I have breathed their air and listened to their culture from afar, an interloper in the guise of a god-blessed. I have been made witness to what it is that makes a man good and what makes a man bad. Seen the broken and destitute, and broken bread with the frivolous and rich. I have broken hearts and bones, and then mended them all the same. Played the part of a noblewoman and knight. Danced about in plate too heavy to be considered useful, that which I woke up within and have steadily soaked in my blood and sweat, and even the tears I still do not understand.

Yet, what do I have to show for it? Who was I, and who am I?

When I look in the mirror, I see the face of a corpse of someone I do not know, and will never know. I have seen someone with my exact features and felt fear, knowing that my existence is a farce cobbled together from the divine earth, a body taken from some street, and the blood of twelve beasts. I stand in a mirror and shape my expression like I see people wear when they are out living their lives. I smile and see the maw of teeth that will spell the end for years to come. I shed tears, and feel nothing. I contort my features in anger, yet I do not know what someone is supposed to look like while angry. I could squish them together and force my lips into a snarl, letting the world see all-consuming jaws that they rightfully fear. Yet, my face does not naturally contort so. Nor am I able to craft my expression into such. People are afraid to be angry around a pretty face like mine. Or my meek appearance. Or they are soothed. Or I stand at the back and watch. Anger is a feeling I cannot fully express, yet I feel it boiling within me like a great serpent that will inevitably uncoil and hurt someone I care about. I feel the joy of breaking someone's limbs soothe it. I feel the joy of having my ribcage shattered by a Dullahan, and that only causes it to rise higher and higher. I know not when it will reach its crescendo, only that my blood burns hotter and hotter and hotter, and my body continues to heal despite all the pain I endure. I broke my hand on Garrett's armor and it healed within the week. I thought that was the crescendo, but it was only an expression of my desire to inflict unadulterated pain upon another in the heat of combat. I wanted to stick my claws through his visor and let him feel the sting. Let him know sharp pain and not the dull clanging that goes through his body when someone batters that indomitable plate. But. I also like Garrett. I still have the flower from my second visit to Dormeho, when he showed me the park.

Yet, I also feel the same way for my sister. She towers over me. She trains me and has tended to me while I have had my body battered and my back broken. Lingering within, I feel a desire to hurt her and my other siblings. To feel them cower beneath me. Shiver. Shake. With pain. I know that pain is what they will grow from. Learn from. Every ounce of pain is a new opportunity to learn, to grow. Yet they are also not the vessels of change made of divine mud. I could hurt them and they would hurt for years. They could hurt me, and I would hurt for weeks. I feel my spellcasting grow more and more with my rising anger and desire to inflict lasting pain. The poison becomes stronger. The flames of death burn hotter. To see someone afflicted by my curses brings an otherworldly joy that nothing in this plane can match.

But there are still pains that sting even when the body is healed. The pain of the mind. Love is a harsh, addictive thing. I hate it. I hate it. I hate all these feelings. I hate human feelings because they cannot be controlled or healed like the body. I cannot drink a potion and make my longing go away. I cannot drink a potion and have a childhood. I cannot drink a potion and make my desire to cry and scream and shout go away. I don't know why I cry. I don't like crying. I can cry as I desire, but it doesn't make a difference. When I cry from feelings it stings and hurts and the muscles in my face twitch and I cannot stop them, and I cannot stop the crying when it happens. I do it when nobody can see so they won't know I am weak like that. I don't want their comfort. But I want their warmth. And I want their comfort. But they won't know how to help me. And I don't know how to help them. It makes my body numb and my limbs tingle when I see Red crying and I don't know what to do and I panic and I stop and I have to think and I don't have a solution. I can only hold her and pet her hair. I am afraid of people that cry.

That's enough. I hate this.

Solar Lance is one of the few skills I don't think I've ever seen anyone use, probably due to the class it's in and how it tends to be entirely outclassed by other skills. Currently, it's a single target curate spear skill that caps at 130% swa, and delivers 100% fire atk after three turns if the target is struck with fire/light damage. The thing is though, priest doesn't really encourage spear use itself, and the delayed damage often means the target is dead before then in PvE, or gives the enemy time to pull out a red letter/Chun install to make your Solar Lance a moot point. Even if it goes off, 100% fire damage which is Def and DR reducible is kind of terrible, hence why it remains largely unused. The skill itself also requires quite a lot of rank investment for little gain (5% swa per rank).

While the damage could be buffed, I still think the skill itself remains a touch boring, so instead of that, I think the delayed damage status could simply cause the inflicted to lose (Solar Lance Rank * 2) Fire res. The main point of this is that the delay effect has an impact on the target other than just delayed damage, and would be a boon to the rare flame priests. At the same time, the effect itself plays into the supportive nature of curate, allowing Ally fire users to take advantage. 10% shred on a niche single target base class skill that lasts 3 turns isn't earth shattering by any means, BUT it'd put it on the radar as a legitimate and flavorful tool rather than a joke skill.

Basically a trait that reduces elemental attack gained from all sources, but increases the actual bonuses from  the stats themselves

There is a seriously untapped market in this game for goblins considering there already exists goblin enemies.

A few ideas:

Lore:
Some goblins are PCs, other are stupid grunts. Why? Did we misunderstand them?
- Blessed by Isespia = smorter
- Half-goblins (dunno if this one's a good idea)
- You can awaken a goblin's intelligence with X process, like maybe goblins are made the same way as the black beasts and with enough magic mud or other components they can be "improved"
- Goblins who go into dark zones get smort?
- If a goblin is born under the right constellation, month, etc, it can awaken?
- Maybe we just didn't give them a chance before now :^) and the empire would cull their populations as they are classified as monsters, but now goblins are starting to detach from the old tribes for x reason. This could be an interesting point of racial tension
- A celestial event caused some goblins to become cool(er)

In the end, I think there needs to be some shift to the entire lore around goblins for this to fully make sense and transition. Developping what they are, or what they were before whatever change would occur to make this an interesting race. I think a lot could be gained from it especially since I don't think goblins overlap thematically much with any other race in the game.

Were goblins created for a purpose? To build a really tall tower perhaps?

Racials ideas:
- Bonuses to using alchemical items like bombs and maybe the more niche ones like strange liquid
- Small size = more evasion, can hide behind objects?
- Ability to enter the tile of an ally
- Bonuses to sneaking
- Nerfed version of earth child
- Some earth spell, like mud skin or something
- Regen life when standing on grass, mud or stone?
- Summon a single goblin mercenary in pvp :^)


Traits:
- Pillage one more gold bar from chests?
- Bonuses when fighting with other goblins!
- Something about shamanism. Consuming spirits in combat perhaps
- Ability to bribe human and goblin enemies to make them join you!
- Bonus to goblin mercenaries? Maybe that's going too deep, but I like the idea of goblin "pack tactics" being at play
- Using the steal skill successfully gives you some murai  if in non-spar pvp, this takes it from the player


Anyway, goblin girls, enough said 

Despite being moved by Cherry Blossom, Frost Tyrant's Life Drain will remain on the target. More than likely, this may also apply to other one-tile-movement skills.
If this is intended, Life Drain's description may need to be clarified, because it sounds like moving it at all should stop the Life Eater process.