Spellthief hasn't gotten a lot of new DLC in a little while and has been kinda left in the dust, I think introducing a few new-ish monster spells to its possible spell repetoire could make things more interesting for them, not every single one of them has to make it in of course, and possibly you could place restrictions on them for players specifically which I'll also mention, but here's what I'd possibly consider making stealable for spells:
Quote:Ominous Spell (Changed to magic)- Currently heals for 500 HP and provides LV/3 as all bonus stats to the Ice Giant that casts it after a set amount of turns
-If a player uses this ability, the LV is capped to 10 EDIT: the heal is halved as well.
(I also just love the idea of players being able to turn HUGE after the cast goes off, this is countered entirely by a single null like requinite or shells or wash away etc.)
Quote:Self-detonate - When adjacent to an enemy, destroys self to deal Fire magic damage to all within a 3 Range circle equal to level + 500% of Fire ATK. Requires a certain number of turns to pass before it can be used.
-If a player has this ability then a 5 round cooldown will be put into place at the start of the match, yes it would kill the player too, possibly have damage cap out at player LV*10 or current health (whichever is lower) so you don't reach scenarios where this deals over 600 damage.
(Please let me chiaotzu someone.)
Quote:Chilling Howl - Unleash a freezing roar. Enemies in a 2 Range circle take Ice magic damage equal to 150% Ice ATK It can also inflict Frostbite LV X (X = 10 or LV/2, whichever is higher) for 3 rounds.
-100% SWA scaling should be added so it does decent damage
Quote:Banshee Wail - Unleash an ear-piercing scream. Enemies in a 2 Range circle take Sound magic damage equal to 150% Sound ATK. It can also inflict Fear for 3 rounds.
-100% SWA scaling could be added for more damage, Domino Resonate already does this better so may as well.
Quote:Denile - Fires its own jam at an enemy within 3 Range who is enchanted with an elemental, dealing Water magic damage to them. Also seals Elemental Impacts and certain elemental enchant effects for 3 rounds.
Quote:Howl And Haunt - Roar at a target within 4 Range, inflicting them with Hunted LV X (X = 10+25% of level) and gaining Quickness LV 5 for 3 rounds.
Quote:Demon Drool - Spits a vile, demonic acid towards the target in a line. The first enemy hit by the projectile takes Dark and Water damage. It can also Poison the target randomly.
Quote:Immolate - Changed to magic.
Quote:Angler Light - Changed to magic.
Quote:Thunderclap - Changed to magic, FP cost lowered to user's LV/2 (currently equal to LV)
Quote: Railgan - Allowed to be stolen from Beetles.
Anything I didn't comment on specifically is probably more than fine for players to have access to, I just want to have a blue mage plz
Posted by: Sarah54321 - 08-12-2019, 03:28 AM - Forum: Sigrogana
- No Replies
Fliers with a simple print on them, yet fancy border, could be found in the lesser known places. The fliers are relatively harmless, though some might scowl at the idea.
The flier, if turned around, would outright state that the meeting is atop the hill, and specifically on what day it will be held on. It also specifically state that anyone is welcome, even those of Mercana-Following Origin. Interesting, would you go, perhaps?
((A lesson on Huggessoa is being held at the top of the Shrine, to the right of the actual building near the Nameless Flowers. It will be held on 8/12/2019, at 5 PM CST. Hope to see you there!))
As given some context by the Screenshot I posted it seems that the Argentyle caverns re no longer marked as a dungeon. Snakemen are no longer spawning in the area, and Alga plumes do not work, however they still work in the portion that is considered Jammer caverns.
I've been running an engineer build that has become at least acceptable in combat while featuring engineer skills prominently in its usage, but I've tried numerous builds that didn't work while I tried to shoehorn them in as much as possible. So, without asking for the parts of my current build that work to work better, here are some ideas that would make engineer a better build option for other classes now that it's seeing some attention elsewhere.
Though the buffs planned for it are very exciting, I find they don't address the more prominent issues with engineers and instead make the existing strengths (jetpack upgrade, etc) better.
Before addressing problems, I'll state the problems.
Bots and effective threat range:
The meta currently revolves around high mobility. Most builds have an effective threat range of an entire map distance of dealing at least some respectable damage, and bots are often left in the dust with this or cut effectively short. A medcopter can, in a turn, heal an ally up to 4 tiles away and a metalaegis can grant protection to an ally up to 7 away or put a reflect tile under an ally around six tiles away. A turret has a much more prominent threat range with increasing its AoE bullet spray.
FP costs:
Without any tools to gain FP, you're either relying on another class that has them or you're running dry quickly. A full level electro shield will run you 27 FP, getting 2 bots on the field will run you 100, upgrading an ally will run you 15, grenades and jetpack both 15. In two turns of combat, you burn through approximately 172 FP. Which means you're going to need to invest in will or spend a lot of time generating FP elsewhere. The best FP generating classes don't synergize well with mechanic's strengths. Offhanding a gun as a monk or duelist will do nothing but hinder you. As a MG/Engineer, I used a lot of vampire shell. As a ST/Engineer, I use blue steal and energy laundry a lot. With evoker gaining a 3m 150 FP generation, engineer having nothing but scraps to increase its capability in singular fights hurts it slightly. Especially since you are required to run over the scrap to gain an effective 25 focus.
Axe/Gun specified skills:
I would be legitimately surprised if any engineer has ever included bashfix into their build for any reason other than the lack of bashfix being a reasonable skill to include in a build. It's 3 momentum, only cures engineer devices, and requires an investment of an axe in your build. You can argue that a wrench is an axe, but you could also argue that a wrench is a worthless weapon with no bonuses (if it was modified to be an engineer's go to weaponcessory, that would be neat). It might be a thing with the new bot coming out if it didn't require an axe. That's all that there is to say on that.
Gun skills have the problem of low scaling on guns in general. The only way to get anything out of this is to mutate other weapons into guns. Which is what I do now. It changes grenade from a 1m filler into a threat. But these have a problem better listed separately... A heavy investment into skill is not entirely too important for engineer abilities, and so this is only really an option if you go MG/Engineer and even then performs rather poorly due to requiring so many different stats to get up damage and efficacy.
Elemental Damage Types:
With no way to enchant away your fire damage, you'll run into that resist message very quickly. Flamethrower and grenade launcher are (soon to be, in flamethrower's case) good skills, but there exist more ways to resist or absorb fire damage than any other element, some of which can be done blindly if you are one of a couple classes or care to carry a red letter on your belt. As they both require significant build investment to be good (a mutated gun is rarely good for a MG) and fire being tied to strength which has only a pair of guns scaling poorly with it.
Jetpack doesn't leave you airborn:
It's a 1m movement. Engineer has no real synergy with airborn or most classes that have synergy with airborn. The only time this ever comes up being a problem is for upgrades on DH's and the like who seem to think it leaves you airborn.
Lack of defense:
Rogue is an evasion heavy class. Engineer has metalaegis, Medcopter, increased belt size, electroshield, and jetpack for flee-mobility.
- Metalaegis is only effective on ranged hitters (as most melee skills will bypass protection), and people who spam projectiles (most of which are AoEs that can be cornered in to hit without being reflected or will hit unless you place it in front of the person you need to protect, lowering the general efficiency of the tile). It also costs 50 FP and doesn't do any reasonable damage due to its lack of range and damage output. In a long slog fest with tanks who can't evade, it can eventually add up, but they won't proc the protection usually so it's not cost effective. Great against ghosts that Ether Invitation and forget that protection exists. Its weakness of being easily ignored is also its strength there. Most fights a metalaegis is out, it will never reflect with a tile or protect an attack. Though I don't know how many times it's denied the possibility, there's almost always a plan B for attackers.
- Medcopter coming with the class that has an increased belt limit makes it relatively pointless. It doesn't carry pr-hi potions which you can get easily.
- Increased belt size is great. Either hit an engineer with interference or watch them slurp juice eight times in a single fight.
- Electroshield is a deterrent that most builds can get around. It's just another defensive option that only effects on-hits. Okay, not great.
- Jetpack is great, but the high CD and low distance means it won't actually keep you safe from enemies. Only useful for positioning before 2 3m skills. If you try to use this as a defensive measure to get out of range of enemies, you'll usually run into a scarlet twister, forced move, heaven kick, etc mobility attack. And on a class that only has other passive defensive measures that help against on-hit attacks, inviting spells and AoEs is generally a bad idea.
Upgrades:
An increase in duration and an added benefit make these so much more viable beyond jetpack upgrade. With that said, the one that stands out to me as the least worthwhile stat boost and worst skill to share is electro shield. Requiring 3m to apply after you're upgraded with it and 5-15 critical (which if you go up to the full rank of this, your ally will run out of the upgrade just as their shield runs out which means they won't be able to apply it a second time if you manage a 7 round fight to begin with.) Other than that, the upgrades are fine but not great. Though, without the bomb upgrade skill from engineer and substantial fire attack, magic gunners won't really succeed all too well with grenade launcher or flamethrower.
Guile Boost:
I'd argue that this is the least impactful stat in the game to invest in past a certain point and even less for engineers. Okay for magi gunners with the flank scaling and the amount of skills you might pick up as a magic gunner, but even without investing into this much I didn't even get close to being capped on scales while running one rank in every shell. Rogue's resourceful and Engineer's technological marvel mean that guile is not worth much to you. As a destiny rogue now, I have 33.5 skill slots with no investment in guile.
Next post will be me trying to throw out a bunch of small ideas that could alleviate these problems.
I feel as though Ghost has so many effective tools offensively and defensively that it beats out many classes in almost every conceivable facet.
It's no secret that Ghost is one of, if not the most popular classes in the game right now. Because it has so many tools to keep itself alive, deal damage, and properly leverage some of the best weapons in the game, it very rarely loses out to other classes in competing archetypes. Before making a suggestion, I'm going to cover some of the reasons I have for making this claim.
Survivability: A core aspect to the class' identity.
Ghosts have access to Wraithguard, which provides them a buffer of 300 HP, can block unfavorable positions (such as your ass), and can stall out fights once the Ghost has gone unconscious. The spirit summoned never times out. Because of its duration and its small, but good enough, cast range, Ghosts can all but guarantee using this skill at the very least trades evenly with momentum from the enemy. Because the spirit will mitigate the full damage of an attack even when it dies from transferring it, this buffer very often exceeds the 300 HP threshold. To visualize this, imagine taking 500 damage from one attack, when the spirit is at 10/300 HP. It will still mitigate the remaining 150 damage off of the hit, despite its health.
Ghosts have access to Rebound. Though this is not nearly as momentum efficient as Wraithguard, it comes with unexpected utility that adds more tools in Ghost's toolbox. This skill can serve its function as a heal, but it also has no trouble wiping out a non-spellcaster's FP to zero after two or three casts. Additionally, it can be used as a way to bypass 'on damage' effects, such as: killing someone with 50 HP and Body of Isesip, or finishing someone off who Die Harded across the entire battle map.
Ghosts have access to Eviter. Though this is Duelist, and not Ghost, the latter necessarily inherits the strength of the former. Eviter provides such potent damage reduction that it can easily be a deciding factor in fights, and adds another layer of passive damage mitigation for the class.
Ghosts are permitted to build heavy evasion, without exposing a glaring weakness elsewhere. With free stats and the aforementioned mechanisms for surviving, Ghosts can defend against spells and autohits well enough that they can forego some defenses for raw evasion. Using Disengage with Miragewalk still forces an unfavorable circumstance on just about everyone -- moreso if the leap back necessitates burning additional momentum just to reach them afterward.
The class has access to an enormous suite of damaging effects, passives, and skills. Claret Call provides a finite, stacking bonus to all attacks and skills, almost all of which have higher scalings than every other skill or spell in the game. Blood Spike, which costs a small tithing of HP, has more scaling in an Area of Effect than every spell and invocation Evoker has. On top of this, it benefits from and applies Claret Call. Much of the same can be said about Scarlet Twister, but the health cost attached to it is significant enough to dissuade endless spamming.
Even without using these spells, Ether Invitation is a spammable attack that deals on average 150-200 additional damage before being multiplied by crit damage and other external % boosts. This poses a problem because it functions as a one-point-wonder. The missing health scaling does not scale with level, the cooldown does not scale with level, and the skill itself does not even require Claret Call to be present anymore. This provides a top tier offensive option for dirt cheap, and allows Ghosts to leverage the saved Skill Points on their other skills.
Ghost, by inheritance, gains access to Eclair Lacroix and Fleur. Because these are base class skills, it's important to be careful about attributing issues with the base class to the promotion. With that in mind, these two abilities add more area of effect damage (more scaling than almost every other ability in the game, a common theme), and shift the action economy. The latter could be far more of a discussion than I'm giving it here, but suffice to say influencing Momentum is single-handedly the most powerful trait in the game. Resisting physical elements to weaken Fleur is extremely difficult for non-summoners, and Eclair Lacroix can be spaced to detonate in front of enemies so that Spirit Mirror can be easily bypassed.
Because of its top-end damage and survivability, people will often find themselves in a situation where they're trying to damage race someone with 300 more health than them, at least 30% more Damage Reduction than them, 50% more actions per turn than them, and harder hitting spells, skills, and basic attacks than them. This would be a blanket statement if secondary classes didn't exist, which brings up the final point I'd like make.
Synergies: The Free Space in Bingo.
Ghost can effectively synergize with most of the other (generally agreed upon) strong items, to make itself a walking ball of optimization. The class works extremely well with swords, some of which put most other weapons to shame (Tarnada, Spine Leash, both granting access to Eclair Lacroix), and is one of the few that work with axes in general. It can easily support any other weapon that want hits and crits, like guns, daggers, or bows, simply based on passives and Fleur alone.
Ghost supports most of the other strong classes, too. It can easily leverage Hexer, Black Knight, Demon Hunter, Bonder, Void Assassin, Monk, Curate, any Archer promotion, and any other Duelist promotion. This could be viewed as a positive attribute, since promoting diversity is, in my opinion, desirable. However, the reality I'm seeing is less that everyone plays all of these different classes, and more that everyone plays all of these different classes...With Ghost. Even using a Katana, players are almost always better off using Ghost over Kensei for the majority of situations they encounter.
With all of that in mind, here are three changes I would like to see to prune some of this power:
Wraithguard no longer reduces the full impact of attacks that will overkill it. An attack that deals 1500 damage to a player with a full health spirit would be reduced to 1200, instead of its current iteration where it would be reduced to 1050. An attack that deals 200 damage to a player with a 10 health spirit will do 190, instead of 140. Lastly, the spirit will disappear when the caster drops to zero hit points, unless it's in range of Gravestone.
[list=*]This should incentivize investing more Momentum into Gravestone usage, which opens the opponent up to less disparaging momentum trades.
[*]Ether Invitation now scales damage with rank, dealing [4%/8%/12%/16%/20%] of missing health as additional damage on hit, and requiring Claret Call be active.
[list=*]This should make SP distribution across the numerous powerful abilities harder.[/list]
[*]Blood Spike now costs 8% of the caster's health, up from 5%.
[list=*]This should make people just a little more weary about spamming the ability every turn.[/list]
[/list]
As always, I appreciate the time taken to read through this.
Just as the title says. Banquet wasn't proccing protect from a metalaegis when targeted directly onto my character, but it procced when the metalaegis was next to a phantom being targeted instead. I have no idea what interactions might cause this.
Okay! It seems Roc's Rise is still adjusted to Firebird launch feather damage when it was doing only 4-5 damage. Because of this, Roc's Rise aoe damage currently is 4-5.
![[Image: 78b547b929fb5866b349f506ea7d71e7.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/528265985367736320/610312705101922354/78b547b929fb5866b349f506ea7d71e7.png)
![[Image: MwP8H5zOPEDHXcMAAAAASUVORK5CYII.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/346109854286479389/610280013261963274/MwP8H5zOPEDHXcMAAAAASUVORK5CYII.png)
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