[Autumn]

A great trait to help you not get utterly destroyed by holy weapons, exclusive only to those vampires who are less evil than the others.

...except it's not, all vampires will take this anyway, could it be possible that only vampires with around 15 sanctity OR under can take this trait? Vampires should get very powerful abilities for building sanctity, and very powerful downsides to boot, these are my thoughts.

An alternative is that Brighter Darkness caps Essence at 100

[Lolzytripd]

yeah clearly vampires that have really high sanctity have embraced their vampirism.

[Egil]

Lower than 10 SAN and we can start talking.

+1

[Ranylyn]

Just my two cents on adjustments to make to this:

- Brighter Darkness Prohibits Sanctitiy from being raised above 10-15 (Or else everyone will just get it first and allocate stats second)
- To counteract the downsides of not having reliable silvermists with low sanctity for low essence, change their healing penalty to 25% with an additional 1% per 1 scaled San, so a low San vampire actually isn't completely dicked over by it.

You wanna have a "less evil" vampire? You're not getting 200+ essence.

[Chaos]

The benefits of Brighter Darkness are FAR too minor compared to Sanguine Crest. Shanking the racial boosts of a Vampire and leaving their flaws just for a halved Holy penalty and a very small amount of Light Resistance? You might as well take Brighter Darkness out of the game, because no one who uses the battle system will ever want to take it.

Let's also not forget that just because a Vampire utilizes their capabilities does not mean they're evil. It's not like you have to kidnap/kill children just to survive.

[Egil]

There are lots of things that PvP-oriented people are never going to take just because they're thematic but weak. Who uses MG's Fire Shell? Who uses the new, nerfed Mad Chop? Who uses the non-combo Kensei offensive skills or the weaker Monk offensive skills? Very few people- and that isn't bad.

Just because these alternatives are clearly weaker than other options doesn't mean that they should be removed entirely.

To me, a vampire full of essence being able to negate Holy and get light resistance doesn't make sense in IC and isn't thematic. Remove Brighter Darkness from high-SAN vampires and if most vampires don't pick it up, then good. Then, the enchantment that gives weapons 1.5x damage against vampires will actually be useful.

[Autumn]

- Brighter Darkness Prohibits Sanctitiy from being raised above 10-15 (Or else everyone will just get it first and allocate stats second)

I believe now there is a trait check upon log in, this can be easily fixed on said vampire's next relog.

- To counteract the downsides of not having reliable silvermists with low sanctity for low essence, change their healing penalty to 25% with an additional 1% per 1 scaled San, so a low San vampire actually isn't completely dicked over by it.

I believe if brighter darkness had a cap to which vampires could get it, it could dampen Stillness' healing effect to 50% or hell, 75%, to make up for their lackluster silvermists.

You might as well take Brighter Darkness out of the game, because no one who uses the battle system will ever want to take it.

I don't think the trait itself should be taken out of the game, there are a few vampires who could be shoe-horned into it, via through force, or by having no choice, some go vampire for the "Immortality" or the immunity to illnesses.

Let's also not forget that just because a Vampire utilizes their capabilities does not mean they're evil. It's not like you have to kidnap/kill children just to survive.

I have a differing opinion on this, A vampire who stores a lot of essence is more than likely feeding excessively and has accumulated a lot of blood, while it doesn't necessarily mean that they are evil, they are keeping more essence than is needed for them to actually survive, at that point it's power lust and they are embracing vampirism heavily, this is why one of my suggestions is for brighter darkness to cap their essence to 100 instead.

Overall, my opinion on brighter darkness being a bit more exclusive, is something more from a thematic stand point than from a combat stand point, so I agree that if you want to have over 150-200 essence, then you shouldn't be gaining a huge boon against the enchantment that is specifically supposed to target you, or a minor boon against the same element.

[Rendar]

Brighter Darkness is rather simple as it currently is.

However Vampires don't get nearly enough to warrant taking 150% extra damage (after defenses and the like, or was it before?). The bonuses from Sanguine Crest aren't enough to make us OP, even if +10 to STR/WIL/SKI/CEL/DEF seem like a lot. It doesn't account for the damage we take now-a-days. Characters who can deal.. say... 150 damage right now, would still be knocking us around for over 200 damage per hit. Mind you, this is 150 after my 50-60 defense, Ogata Waraji, and MA DR. I'd really rather not be taking 200+ damage (or 1/4th of my health) every time a duelist attacks me considering they can attack 3 times a round.

It's fine as it is, however it could make Lunar Lunatism operate at half power, meaning it's SAN/2 for the effects.

[Autumn]

Brighter Darkness is rather simple as it currently is.

However Vampires don't get nearly enough to warrant taking 150% extra damage (after defenses and the like, or was it before?). The bonuses from Sanguine Crest aren't enough to make us OP, even if +10 to STR/WIL/SKI/CEL/DEF seem like a lot. It doesn't account for the damage we take now-a-days. Characters who can deal.. say... 150 damage right now, would still be knocking us around for over 200 damage per hit. Mind you, this is 150 after my 50-60 defense, Ogata Waraji, and MA DR. I'd really rather not be taking 200+ damage (or 1/4th of my health) every time a duelist attacks me considering they can attack 3 times a round.

It's fine as it is, however it could make Lunar Lunatism operate at half power, meaning it's SAN/2 for the effects.

Where do I even begin with this.

Vampires don't get nearly enough to warrant taking 150% extra damage

Yes they quite do, you even stated it yourself.

+10 to STR/WIL/SKI/CEL/DEF

These are insanely good stats, like, this sets you far above everyone else already by getting +10 to already VERY core stats in any build.

It doesn't account for the damage we take now-a-days.

The more damage you take nowadays, the more you reduce, that is how %s work, so yes it is quite fair in my opinion, and this is only on basic attacks, which leads me to calling out lunar lunatism, which provides you a very VERY substantial hesitation debuff on anyone that tries to basic attack you in the first place, this much is already going to help against holy.

It's fine as it is, however it could make Lunar Lunatism operate at half power, meaning it's SAN/2 for the effects.

However having both of these is not 'fine' anymore, vampires are insanely strong, and rarely have any downsides, brighter darkness being exclusive to lower sanctity vampires would not make them feel useless either, that solution you have does not really fix the problem that I find with Brighter darkness + ALL the new vampire benefits.

[Sawrock]

Even if the benefits of high sanctity are more than the benefit of bright darkness, I do believe bright darkness should be limited to low sanctity (15 total sounds fine, because of aptitude). A vampire that embraces their vampirism and feeds to use their powers, and not for their thirst/to survive, is not a good-aligned vampire.