Elric Galad

@Constentin Lévine, maître fromager

Just a draft of a Sacred Immolation rework in order to align Pulse Duration and self damages duration. It is a common plan with @MaxQuest This change is quite technical, both rule-wise and implementation-wise. Sacred Immolation effects each follow different rules : - Sacred Immolation damage is a Pulse effect. Pulse effects do benefit from INT but not from PL. - The self damages is an Hostile effect. It does "benefit" from INT and PL and is reduced by RES. - Sacred Sacrifice self-rez. It does "benefit" from INT and PL and is not reduced by RES. This one can be extended by SoT. => This somehow causes Sacred Sacrifice self damages to work the same way due to a bug (corrected by current BPM version) The idea from this file is to align all durations. This requires coding them as sub-effects of a "master" beneficial effect. As a side effect Sacred Immolation now does benefit from INT and PL, is not reduced by RES and can be extended by SoT. The duration can be significantly higher than before (~21s with my SC Paladin with Axe of Magran) especially because you do get an "ultimate tick" when the spell ellapse (even if previous tick was like 0.1s before it ellapses). It might require a little duration tuning. EDIT : or not. Scaling from PL for damages is a buff (and not much for MC Paladin), but self damages not reduced by RES is a nerf. Overall it's pretty equivalent. But overall it feels quite clean. EDIT : New version, now includes upgrade. I'm going to further tweak Sacred Sacrifice for other reasons, but the new version below is the closest from vanilla game. Notes : - This file is for now only about Sacred Immolation itself. I want to stabilize it before adding the upgrades. - Sacred Immolation is disabled when active. In vanilla game, Sacred Immolation is disabled when the self damages is active, which allows recasting it when already active with RES duration reduction of the self damages part. This isn't possible anymore. Sacred Immolation will be re-activable as soon as all its effects stop, and not sooner. - Tested Voiward damage reduction : OK - Being knocked down stop the effects as before. - Because of display issue, I had to code a dummy AoE attack for targetting (that also carries the cast/recovery time) and a display Status. Divine Immolation will probably require a secondary dummy AoE for targetting allies. - As it is a draft file, I didn't include previous BPM change 4->2 Zeal and/or CP change AoE 2.5->3.5m. For now it is as close as possible from vanilla. Sacred Immo.zip

Considering Deadly Surprise : Play Dead is nice as a full heal (that takes some time), but the upgrade feels a bit redundant. BPM set its bonus damages to +350% (pet damages, that's not so much) but it doesn't address the problem of its redundancy with Vengeful Revival in particular. Therefore, I plan to revert back to vanilla game +100% damages only and add some affliction(s). That will also help pet to trigger its sneak attack on its own, and gets some actual benefits from Acute Inspiration from Bonded Fury (Deadly Surprise is a "pet ability", not ranger's). Currently my choice would be to add Shaken and Disoriented afflictions vs Will on next attack (Surprise !). Base duration would be 25s because pet has a naturally mediocre Intellect. That would also help Stag pet to land its crits

I don't think Brilliant is overvalued but it is indeed not that useful in most fights. Yes, you can use it to repeat your high tier spells, but that's about it, and I mostly find to too slow too. You're better spamming Disintigrate for such fights. The point is Brilliant is close to impossible to replace in a satifsying manner in fights that requires it. Basically some Boss Fights and maybe Survivor challenges. With BPM, Potion of Elevation and Tier 9 Chanter His Heart Did Fill With the Light of the Dawn! could work.

My bet on the Frightened Child.

Indeed. But my main worry was that it could consume the "Stunning Surge" OneHit charge if the first pellet only grazes or hit. But apparently, it does not... somehow. OneHitUse seems to apply to the whole attack. Then the duration is indeed the key to prevent it from happening twice. Funky thing is that if your second attack happens slower than the duration ellapses (with very Low INT and DEX), maybe you can get double refund. Not sure if it is possible to make a build around this, but if someone can, that's you

-10 contributes to grazing only if your accuracy is more than 25 point higher than enemy's defense. It happens but it would be optimistic to state it is always the case. In other cases, you'll have 25% of "natural graze roll" anyway. Anyway I will probably tweak it to fit the description with BPM. What is described above is quite unintuitive. Also if anyone knows how stunning surge works exactly, I'll be happy.

That may explain why it seems to perform unperfectly (althought I usually get the refund). The -10 Accuracy isn't great in this case. And for mortars ? Do you need it to crit on main target ? Edit : Gotcha. It's coded as "if first attack that doesn't Miss is a Crit, you win" Miss -> See you next bullet Graze -> Your 2 guiles are spent Hit -> Your 2 guiles are spent Crit -> Your 2 guiles are won back Therefore, you can expect Blunderbusses to perform slightly better since Misses are quite forgiving. Hit are often transformed due to Gambit Hit to Crit, but Graze and you loose.

BPM Brilliant does not give back a symbol every 6s if you use the nerf package. It cycles regeneration of spells up to tier 3, 6, 9. First tick happens after 3s, so you have to wait for 15s for getting back a symbol. Over 15s, it's 3 spells at random of level up to 3,6,9 Vs 3 non random ressources for martial classes. The gap isn't that big anymore and one need to use spell slot with caution to control the randomness. It's really a trade off between raw power (in favour of casters) Vs predictability (in favour of martials - you know for sure that you will get enough ressources to cast your Heart of Fury or 3 Driving Roar). Chanters and even more Ciphers do get the shorter stick though. But that's fair cause they are already regenerating classes. I've seen Gambit builds working nice on a Kaylon video. But I'm using a SC Assassin right now and he's doing well by using... various abilities. His main focus is vanishing strike (disgusting with backstab, assassin passive and Ajamuut cloak) but I alternate with Gambit with a pair of blunderbusses when I want more Sustainability (more rolls, more crits, requires less accuracy over specialization). Dual standard blunderbusses is very nice to destroy one's deflection through Confounding Blind (not SC specific). BPM SC adds a couple of unique tools such as +1 guile through Great Soul, ressources regen through Wall of Flashing Steel and Concentration Removal (and long Frightened affliction) using Perplexing Sap. So Gambit is nice but I think it's better not to focus on it for every fight.

It also enables various funky tricks such as Shadowed Hunters + Whirling Strikes. Nothing especially powerful but BPM Shadowed Hunters is good on its own and using it to optimize Whirling Strikes positioning was already an option, so that's just icing.

It is designed as a boss fight ability. The relevant part is that even Vs Res resistant it still cuts the target from its offensive abilities (as well as res and PL malus). With BPM the duration is super long, by far the longest hard cc of the game. Also worth mentioning that cipher isn't the "Terrify specialist" class. Terrify affliction is still limited to this spell for him. But Cipher is extremely flexible with what he can cast, especially as an Ascendant, while Wiz Tier 5 is kind of crowded (Llengrath Safeguard, Spiritlance, etc...). Edit : it also helps that cipher has a fair number of passive abilities to support such kind of spell. +10 accuracy to spell Vs will, +15% affliction duration, etc...

Just ajdusted Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak, so now it applies its effect from any Invisibility effect and Stealth (and for 1s fixed after invisbility breaks up) Will be included in next version.

I would vote for the second one. Foolproof and clear.

The entire cave usually pulls in my experience. Sometimes you can kill a couple of Darguls before it happens, but no more.

Just for note : I will only make it 60s, not infinite duration. So it will be kind of broken with Weyc's Items, but only on a comparable level as a pollen patch. Yes, but I don't want to over-buff providence. Also Courage untill end of combat kind of make Hands of Light a bit redundant, and it's already a relatively narrow ability so... Yeah, many thanks ! I mean, I usually take my time before coming with sort of half stabilized solutions. Since I've been working on the mod, I have kept in mind a lots of implications of certain abilities, classes and builds. Such as "vanilla game" Sacred Sacrifice being one of the few ability benefitting from super high Constitution... That's why I hope my ideas make some sense. I try to avoid changing completely the design of an ability except in case of redundancy. Often a simple change can really make a difference about how a class feel. The best example is the cost reduction of Paladin Exhortations, which was paramount for making Paladin feels like a battle command.

Cipher passive Echoing Horror is... errr... a passive, so its Frightened affliction stacks with everything. Of course, it will get replaced or will replace other RES affliction, but a pure RES debuff (such as Psychovampiric Shield) will stack for a total of -15 Resolve debuff. Note : I don't think it makes the ability broken because of its marginal use, but BPM will make it never stacks for the sake of consistency. In exchange, I will buff it to 20s duration. It is a Tier 7 so hard to pick for MC anyway (Ancestor Memory being so juicy, few room for it). And its random targetting deserves a bit of reward. In addition, as a passive, its duration isn't affected by Power Level... Also worths noticing that about all On Kill effects works on friendly targets in spite of their description. This is well known for barbarian's but it also applies to Echoing Horror and Inspiring Triumph. (Community Patch Virtuous Triumph does not but it is explicit in the mod notes - and probably justified) Finally, Echoing Horror and Evasive Fire basically applies their effect to a random target within 10m radius (probably buffed by INT) of the caster.

These little skellies truly have a Magic the Gathering Token combo feeling.

I do not intend to purely nerf it, but switching to -25% recovery time will harmonize weapon with reload and without reload.

The chant is only 30% with BPM nerfs

First, I plan to update the description of Blood Lust and Blood Thirst to inform that it works on killed friendly target too. I think Blood Surge should work on the same targets. Paladin equivalent can stay "foe only", especially because it is accessible for multiclass and could degenerate with MC combos. Blood Surge does not have the same issue. From Boeroer post, I deduce Blood Surge is powerful enough as it is and buffing it would result into a "must pick" which is especially bad for a Tier 9 ability could it narrows the builds. Adding health on Kill was IHMO a nice way to buff it without making it into a must pick. I also try to avoid an ability to have an ability strictly superior to an other, so giving barbs a 50% Rage on any kills (making it superior to CP Paladin equivalent) feels ugly to my game designer sensitivy. All in all, a compromise I could propose is : - 33% Rage on any kill - +15 health on any kill. It worths a tier 9 without being a "must pick" (especially with BPM Potion of Illumination for long fights), has combo potential without absolutely require killing poor skeletons. It is about/almost as strong as current BPM version without summons, and is quite different from Virtuous Triumph (which is always good for the sake of variety).

Previously I modded Blood Surge to 50% Rage on kills, but not from killed allies. This change was similar to what CP did to Virtuous Triump, its Paladin equivalent. But now, I was pointed that Blood Surge synergizes well with Berzeker's confusion to enable killing your own summons, and it really sounds something a Barbarian could do. Plus I don't like having 2 identical abilities (esp. when one is Tier 9...). So I will revert back blood surge to 25% Rage on any kills. But since it sounds a bit meh without summon trick, I will add a (100% chance) +15 Health on Kills secondary effect.

Well, I grinded just a bit and maybe because I had a party of 3 single classes (so quite focus) falling in front of a fight that wasn't the best for one of my character. With level 16 for henchmen, no big issue. Difficulty has been fine since then. I don't get it. Current starting money without blessing is fine. You should not change it. Then if players use a blessing... well, they should get the corresponding additional money. I don't see the issue...

Thanks OK, after a first round of reflection, here are my (sometimes radical) proposed changes for SC Paladin : 1. Divine Retribution : 2 Zeal per downed ally -> 1 Zeal What I'm trying to address : Divine Retribution being so brokenly strong that you have kind of an infinite pool of ressource. Now, I'm not trying to destroy builds relying on infinite summons, but to mitigate how easy they are to spam just about anything. 1 Zeal per downed ally is also enough for an ability point when not relying too much on summons, it still helps for drown out battle. Also as stated above it is mitigated by how BPM reduced various zeal costs. Further tweaks are also more lining toward buff direction. 2. Healing Chain (from current BPM version with 51+ random bounces of 10 health in about 30s) : - 2 Zeals -> 1 Zeal - Adding a 30s cooldown What I'm trying to address : - Cheaper zeal costs to make SC Paladin less reliant on Divine Retribution - Healing Chain being so dirt cheap for its power that it feels almost always cool to cast, while not replacing other heal. Basically it acts like a tweaked Healing over Time, halfway between an active ability with a very little cost and a sort of passive working in the background. - Avoid spamming abuse (spamming Healing Chain like crazy could basically make your party feel immortal). Other HoT do not stack with themselves. 3. (the most radical one, feel free to comment) Sacred Sacrifice : - Remove the reviving effect - Infinite duration for both the pulse and the self damages (so not reduced by RES) until knockdown or end of battle EDIT : probably leaning toward a very long duration, probably 60s. Infinite duration breaks the game with robe of the Weyc, least unstable coil and similar items. You'll be actually burning yourself to sacrifice. Note that Sacred Immolation and upgrades disable themselves while active. What I'm trying to address : - Redundancy between Sacred Sacrifice and Providence. Actually this one synergizes with providence. - less reliability on zeal/divine retribution (lots of damages for zeal spend). Dirt cheap in term of zeal compared to potential damages. Health management (your teammates can help) instead of zeal management... - Boost action economy since not having to cast it again helps you to do other things. - Provide something fun/fluff to do with your SC Paladin that feels quite different from the more "default" Divine Immolation upgrade Sacred Sacrifice + Providence will cost 5 Zeal, so with a high health pool and some health regeneration, you'll be able to do a lots of damages for the cost. 4. Providence : - Heal to full health (was quite reachable before with low CON, high MIG, Practiced healer and... fruits). THis is meant to favor high CON build as a replacement from removing similar effect from Sacred Sacrifice. - Remove BPM Courage until end of battle that felt a bit Random.

Yeah, now I remind that I've harmonized BPM Blood Surge with what CP did to its paladin equivalent : boosted on-kill proc to 50% but does not work on allies Mmmm could have tweaked it differently. Barbs killing his own allies could have remained an option (that sort of make sense lore-wise compared to paladin)

Yeah I'm testing a SC Paladin build with Slayer Seeker Survivor standalone. And I'm not completely sure of Chain Healing use either. Also I'm a bit concerned that SC Paladin is SO reliant on Divine Retribution and summons. Divine Retribution could eat a nerf (something like 1 zeal per downed ally would still be good, especially with BPM general nerf of Zeal cost). Of course it would require other buff, the general idea is that you shouldn't have to design your party around SC Paladin, or at least not on a single ability. I have some absolutely not finalized ideas such as extendid the benefit from self-rez (sacred sacrifice and providence - which already provides encounter long Courage) and/or making Sacred Immolation free but with a cooldown (how it would buff Multiclassed Pal could be an issue). I'll keep you informed as Paladin consultant