[Perdition]

I made a thread a long while back about curses and how they really miss the mark in the way they're described.

Powerful modifications to your weapon that come with an equally powerful downside.

Currently, nothing really conveys this theme other than debatably Rustic.

It's of my opinion that curses should have effects that are -better- than what we currently consider to be the best enchants, but with hefty downsides. The point of the curses is that they're supposed to be extraordinarily strong, thus, making them equal in power level to what you can get otherwise defeats the purpose of them. Why get something equal in power level with a downside versus the alternative that comes with no downside?

My first suggestion is for "Fleeting"

I think the weapon in question should receive an increase by 5-10 in all parameters instead, but you're put on a timer. Every round, the boost for those parameters would decrease by 1 (2 in the case of a boost of 10). This debuff would continue even when your weapon's parameters return to their base level, meaning your weapon will then become weaker and weaker, resetting at the end of the battle. 

I think this conveys the aspect of a fleeting weapon, it's powerful, but only for a moment. There's an inevitable end to that power that quickly approaches.

Moving on to "Parasitic"

Every basic attack or skill using the weapon would siphon 10-20% of your max FP in order to increase the damage of said attack by 10-20%. If you use a skill/basic with the attack without being able to afford the FP for it, it then starts to consume 10% of your max HP per action.

This one is self explanatory--the weapon is a parasite. It leeches your focus in exchange for a large boost in damage, but if you're not able to maintain your FP then it'll start killing you. I actually think that 20% would probably be better, as smaller increments of leeching give the user more time to cheese the downside with FP regenerating tools or blue potions. It would also mean when you run out of FP, you're losing 1/5 of your health by using the weapon, making it even deadlier.

Lastly "Demonic"

The weapon would deal bonus Hellfire magic damage on basic attack equal to your LV, but it also deals that same value to you. 

Another straight forward one. A potential 60 extra hellfire damage each attack sounds massive, but you're also eating that same amount each time you use the weapon, and it only works on the weapon's basics. You'll either need serious sustain to manage it or be confident enough you can kill whatever you're trying to kill before it kills you.



Of course I may have missed the mark on these, whether it be the ideas themselves or the numbers involved with them. As for the other curses, I think they probably fill their niche well enough. Haunted Soul has its uses still, the same goes for Rustic and Blood-drenched.

[Autumn]

I support the addition of curses having more meaningful impact, however given that Parasitic could very easily be paired with a duelist with 160 max FP and Sadistic renewal, recovering all that FP in 1 basic attack is practically a joke, I think it should perhaps be a flat value instead to control it a bit more for low FP basic attackers instead, thats the only flaw I see in the suggestion, otherwise I like the theming behind it.

Haunted Soul and Haunted can't be left behind either, both are very nice but not at all close to these effects listed, and would quickly be overshadowed. Haunted Souls is even a doomed curse and should have a power budge a tiny bit higher than most curses.

[Perdition]

Yeah, it was difficult to find numbers for that Parasitic idea because there are a few ways to get absurd FP regeneration. Maybe it could also reduce the effectiveness of FP recovery effects by half or some other amount?

I was wary of if Haunted Soul/Haunted needed changing since they're both viable atm but it probably is for the best that they also receive touching up.

[Sawrock]

Parasitic could negate ALL FP regen/heal, but do more damage based on FP consumed this way per turn?

[Perdition]

I think negating all regen might be a bit too harsh, perhaps instead it negates everything -except- leeching effects. So, you can still replenish HP via rebound, vampirism, life drain etc. And you'd be able to get FP back with rebound, ritual sword, golgorth, etc.

[Sawrock]

Then it's not really a drawback, in my opinion. It becomes manageable.

[Shujin]

For Demonic I personally thought some offensive Berserker like state would be cool, maybe even unleashable via skill but giving you a holy weakness and stuff.

But generally I am on board with getting curses a bit more meaningful.

[Perdition]

For Haunted Soul, an idea came to me was that it self inflicts an uncleansable confusion on you at battle start, however all your attacks with the weapon inflict fear as they do with current Haunted Soul. In addition, your attacks against feared targets would deal 20% (or some other value) of the damage as bonus dark magic damage. However, your attacks against allies due to confusion also deal that same amount of bonus dark magic damage.

The cursed version of Haunted would be the same thing except the fear is inflict based, and the bonus damage is 10% (or some lesser value)

The idea is that because you are possessed, the possessing spirit doesn't distinguish your friends from foes. The spirit manifests when you strike someone that fears you, striking in tandem with you. Because of the confusion though, it also manifests if you end up attacking your allies (even if not feared). This way it keeps its current identity as a way to apply fear from attacking, but it also gives it a boost to be comparable to the new curses.


As far as the drawbacks of parasitic, I think only allowing leeching effects is still a hefty drawback as you are unable to heal or regenerate FP at all otherwise. If you think about it, there are only so many leeching effects in the game, and they are not large enough to offset eating 10-20% of your FP/HP per attack. Vampirism caps at 24%. So if you deal 100 damage, you'd heal 24 health from that attack. If you have 1000 HP though, you'd be losing 100 HP.

FP leeching effects are even more specific, and although they can have bigger returns of FP compared to the returns for HP you get from HP leeching, it's still something you have to specifically go out of your way for. I think not allowing any means to manage your HP and FP would make the risk outweigh the reward too much.

[Snake]

Easy deal, but takes a wee bit of work to make, probably.

At the battle start, Parasitic grants one Buff and one Debuff.

"Symbiosis" buff starts at LV(10% of your maximum FP at combat start).
- Grants bonus damage to all actions by 5+(LV*0.5)%, (max. 25%).
- If your current FP amount falls under 2.5x of Symbiosis LV, Symbiosis is removed.
- Permanent duration, cannot be cleansed or stolen.

"Parasitism" debuff starts at LV0.
- Reduces all healing and FP recovery by 75%.
- Every time an offensive action is done, its LV increases by Symbiosis' LV in an additive way; this lowers maximum FP while doing HP darkness damage that ignores protection, both equal to Parasitism LV.
- Permanent duration, cannot be cleansed or removed.

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The genius of it is, with Symbiosis removed, the LV cannot be increased anymore so once the 'best' of the weapon is used, you're left with 20% of your max FP, 75% HP reduction and no damage bonuses. And since Symbiosis won't exist, the LV for 'leeching HP' will be 0, therefore it will also stop mooching from your HP.

Yeah, 'boo', not as lethal as the OG but this makes a bit more sense. If every cursed weapon has the potential of killing you, merchants would be damn rich by now for selling those and retrieving from the corpses, lmao. ANYWAY moving on!

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I think Haunted Soul is already underwhelming, and I can't think of any better gimmicks that fit its theme. Maybe within every basic hit you slowly reduce both of yours and the enemys' status resistance with no cap? We don't really have a real counter to that yet. I can think of it reducing 5% of your Status Resistance and the enemy's, permanently, over time. If you attack them while they are feared.

Modifying from their 'natural -25% Stat Res' drawback:

Haunted Soul - Attacking Feared enemies inflicts a debuff, on yourself and your target, that reduces Status Resistance by LV for 5/10/Inf rounds. (Max. 90%)