Elric Galad

The point is that all mentioned abilities would be okay ones even without this effect. Circle of Death for example deals damages in a super big AoE. Destroy component is only the icing. Boil the Flesh triggers additional explosions upon kills. And all these effects work on a mere Graze. I have never add any issue with killing a boss when Near Death. Yes, Blunderbusses synergizes super well, but this is the point of Blunderbusses to synergizes with such abilities (because without that non-mortar blunderbusses deal subpar damages). "Don't do this at home" basically. I don't think you can deal more damages than the target HP. So yup, you would be fully healed when dealing the final blow vs Dorudugan.

Changing an affliction has too much impact on the whole balance. But now that I'm thinking about it, tweaking Persistent distraction to something else than distracted is very tempting : - it makes Rogue a bit more tactical to play since you can't just engage and get full bonus. - it makes Blinding Strike AND SMOKE CLOUD line much less redundant. - It makes Sap (and various strikes) much more useful as a 30s Deathblow enabler... Persistent Distraction could become -5 all defenses. This would be universally good without risk of breaking the balance.

Yeah, I agree this design isn't that good. But I don't know what could be changed because it comes from the basic principle of PER afflictions. EDIT : Unless going for something like -10 Deflection (or -5 all defenses, closer from PoE1 to avoid too good synergy with Gambit) instead of an affliction ? A nerf and a buff because as a passive, it would stack well (and stacks with Blinding Strike). But that's quite a radical change so I would only proceed if public acclamation. Finishing Blow & Upgrades : Ok, new try, base ideas : - I'm going to remove the +50% unconditional damages. It's better to add more damages based on remaining health. +50% damages translates on average to +1% damages per 1% health loss (up to +100%). It's good to make the ability more focused, since, as pointed by @NotDumbEnough, there are other Rogue abilities doing good damages. - I'm coming back to my idea of % chance of instant killing anything Near Death. But instead of using a "Destroy" component, I will add "fatal damages" (10000 raw damages) to avoid party members to be erased from existence by those skeleton archers. So, with some other minor tweaks, it leads to : Finishing Blow : - 2 Guiles - +10 Accuracy - +3% damages per 1% of health loss (up to +300%) - 25% chance (per swing, bullet, etc...) of dealing fatal damages to Near Death foes Eliminating Blow : - 2 Guiles - +10 Accuracy - +3% damages per 1% of health loss (up to +300%) - 25% chance (per swing, bullet, etc...) of dealing fatal damages to Near Death foes - 2.5m radius Shaken for 12s, except to main target (no change, except fixing the description that mentions frightened) Devastating Blow : - 2 Guiles - +10 Accuracy - +4% damages per 1% of health loss (up to +400%) - 50% chance (per swing, bullet, etc...) of dealing fatal damages to Near Death foes Infestation of Maggots : The damages seem lowish and too conditional (5 raw/damages per tick vs blooded, it is still less than Swarm of Insects) I'm going to change this to 15 raws damages per tick x percentage of health loss. 7.5 raw damages per tick vs blooded is enough. The AoE is good even if the duration is lower than Tier 2 Swarm of Insects and it has no side effect.

gn.auranic_regenerate_spells.gamedatabundle.zip Just a little change so Auranic regenerates a spell slot every 12s (BPM Nerf/optional package). If your party gets Potion of Enlightenment to get a ressource every 30s, not reason for a Megaboss to run out of ability. If someone wants to try.

Sorry, but I can't find where the Blackbow is tagged melee in Gamedata. The Weapon Summon action is a melee component, but it is not a "true attack", just a component used to give Blackbow an action time. The actual ranged attack is tagged ranged. The spell you listed works with Instruments of Pain though. Sunlance range is hilarious with Instruments of Pain.

It's not so bad, I think. The assymetry between your party and foe is not as big as, for example, in JRPG. On one extremity of the spectrum, you have Kith encounters (and psuedo-Kiths, often class-based vessels or wilders) where foes are extremely dangerous and not so resistant (a bit like you), and on other extremity Megabosses. I think the main different is how much reliant you are on healing. That's why Mercy and Kindness is so much above the curve for your party (and is going to be nerfed next BPM version). For Finishing Blow itself, I have 3 options : - Buffing the 2 guiles ability (that would buff foe using it, but probably not to tremendous proportion). My issue is I have no "benchmark" for 2-ressource pure damage abilities. So the foes using it would be a bit more dangerous, but not to extreme proportion. I'm not sure about which parameter should be changed. Note that eliminating blow is a mediocre upgrade for a 2-ressources ability in this case (Eliminating Blow causes a Tier 1 Shaken Affliction - description mentions Frightened and is misleading ; I will correct it anyway). - Setting the ability to 1 guile but nerfing its effect. Something like +10 Acc, +25% damages, +1% damage per health loss, +2% damages per health loss for devastating blow (Skaen's Priest should get Devastating Blow then). This is easier to balance because Accurate Wounding Shot is my benchmark for 1-ressource damage effect. And because this would be strictly superior to Crippling Strike as a damage ability (except vs higher AR). So the foes using it could spam it more, but the spike would be lower, so more manageable for player in a certain way. Note that eliminating blow is a good upgrade in this case (Tier 1 affliction 2.5m radius AoE but not to main target is okay for a 1-ressource ability upgrade). Or adding a new effect : This idea has been discussed above. This was close from my initial idea The issue is that Near-Death destroy effect outright kills (not just knockdown) party members. That would be a big issue vs said foes. EDIT : now I have a doubt. Is it also true when "gibs" are disabled ? EDIT : instead of "destroy" vs Near Death, it could also be extreme damages vs Near Death, so foes would only knock you unconscious. Still looking for other ideas. Leaving apart Eliminating Blow, the ability would be easier to tweak if it had an effect distinct from damages. Another issue is that SC Rogue already has a super good pure damage ability with Gambit... Having a distinct effect would be better to avoid this overlap (although limited to SC and Finishing Blow-line is still useful when low on Guile... but 2 Guiles is a big cost then) Something to consider is that Dual Wield Full attacks are very good when accumulative damages modifier are stacked. The -58% from the inversed -35% damages becomes additive with +300-400ish % damages, so you're essentially getting twice single handed weapon damages as base damages.

Frostfall is most likely because it has double type of damages. Kapana Taga has the same property.

Did anyone try Heart of Fury ? It could be 1+1/target

He is speaking about BPM Hunter's Claw. I changed it because Hunter's Claw is very broken by the Save/Reload bug. BPM Hunter's Claw provides +2 Acc per strike up to +20, costs only 1 bond but lasts only until the end of battle. I don't know. I spammed it a lot in my latest run. It worked fine, but of course was better for longer battle. Upgrades are very good too since they basically doubles the effect. It is a very grindy ability. I would say 1 bond for a full attack (so slight DPS increase due to PL bonus) that provides +4 Acc /+ 4 all Def should be ok. Marked prey is 1 Bond for 10 Accuracy against 1 foe at a time and no one complains. Probably not good for all fights (that's why Accurate Wounding Shot is for as the ultimate 1 ressource damages attack), but making Ranger into slowish boss fighter makes sense for "Hunter". Edit : I might consider some minor buff to the attack such as adding +10 Acc. So a bit more DPS and misses less ?

LUC multi proc isn't tied to the number of targets but to the number of attacks. Driving Roar and Dazing Shout are each 1 AoE single attack. It's not always obvious. Instruments of Boundless Rage should be 2 Separate attacks.

No, Watershaper Focus has a similar property and works with bounce.

For the same reasons I removed it for Barbarian : - when you would use it for the refund, it's bonus would likely end up in overkilling - uselessness Vs Bosses - would be useful mostly Vs near Death, and you have much better way of dealing Vs Near Death foes (circle of death, sip from the marrow, etc...) And also : - would not work for Skaen Priest

Ok, so finishing blow again. Now I start to think that the cost might be the root of the problem. Finishing blow is a damages only ability (bar the Interruption on Hit) and you pay 2 Guiles for just damages, mostly conditional. So the conditional damages have to be very strong to justify picking this and spending 2, while spamming Arterial Strikes would provide more obvious benefits while doing most of the job done. To worth the 2 Guiles, these damages would have to be so high when the conditions are met... That it would become a nightmare playing against* By setting this ability to 1 Guile, I would provide Rogue a spammy tool to finish targets. Rogue doesn't have any other pure damages ability (which is good design since the whole class is about this) so it would be much easier to find room for it in a build. It may involve tweaking down the values a bit (and upgrade, and Skaen's) but probably not that much when I compare to my own pure damages ability benchmark, accurate wounding shot. * Funny consideration : You and your foes are not playing the same game. You are a very dangerous target doing extreme damages with relatively low health so spike damages work Vs your party. Your targets are often less dangerous but tend to have tons of hp. Less so when fighting Kiths, but even them are often more numerous but less dangerous than you. Spike damages tend to be a bit less good for the player party in my experience. I would tend to think that it is only partially related to my own prudent playstyle.

Ok, this worths taking into account then. Is this the time that gets actually applied (I guess yes) ? I'll correct this.

Lay on Hand isn't a spell.

Indeed, but BPM also intends to buff foes. I should have said Destroy on Near Death, like Circle of Death, Detonation, etc... These effect don't cause Permakill. I think only Disintegration means Permakill. I don't think there is another ability that prevents Hauni O Whe from dividing for example. Foes with Finishing Blows hit super hard anyway (those skeleton archers mostly). If they target you when you're under 25% health, you're already pretty likely to get knockdown due to the bonus damages. It is already +10 by the way.

I won't go Corpse Eater. +1 rage is an extremely bad malus when your very best abilities cost 1 rage. +2PL from food is barely cute when you can get the same from potion of ascension (which does not stack unless abusing the save/load bug that allows food to stack with everything). And it is not even the best food bonus anyway. Consume Corpse isn't reliable cause it doesn't work on half of foes.

Another idea : Finishing Blow. BPM already changed it so it counts health loss from 100% instead of 50% with the same cap value. But something still bothered me and I rarely used it. It is a pure damages ability costing 2 Guiles that starts becoming interesting when the target is around Blooded or below. Sometimes 1 Guile Crippling Strike was enough as a damages ability with benefits. Finishing Blow is specialized to get some cost effective modifiers vs very low health target... But in this case, all "Destroy on Near Death" abilities provide better results. So the easy fix would be to add a Destroy on Near Death (EDITED) to Finishing Blow too, which would make a lot of sense. But not 100% chances because : - destroy on near death Vs Deflection is quite powerful. - this would make bonus damages insignificant - you can get 2 (or more) rolls. First attack can put the target under 25% health and the second would have a chance to kill it outright. If the target is already below 25% before the full attack, it makes having 2 chances more significant. It also has nice synergy with blunderbusses. I think this is an interesting mechanic. My bet is 33% chances for Finishing and Eliminating Blow and 50% for Devastating Blow. Not as reliable as circle of death but does a lot of damages anyway. Would it be OP Vs Bosses ? I don't think so. Rogue has access to Marux Amanth which get the job done most of the time in my experience. Putting a boss under 25% is usually a short term death sentence.

Well, there is "treated as weapons" property, the actual object category in the attack gamedata bundle and some property in item files too (I can't check this week though). Fury weapon can't bounce either and I wasn't able to fix it for now. I will double check all that because I've learned a couple of tricks since the last time I tried. Maybe, we'll see when the mystery above is solved.

If you prefer melee, just go melee. If you have troubles in crowded area, the easiest way to do is probably to get some mobility abilities for a couple of your melee characters (escape, charge, leap, flagellant path and evasive roll). This won't allow to abuse choke points, but at least your melee won't be blocked. And if you really want to abuse a particular choke point, nothing prevent switching to ranged weapon from time to time. Even melee heavy builds are often decent with ranged weapons (bar maybe Devoted).

Could I incorporate this file in BPM ? (You'll be credited as usual) Gameplay apart, it is super annoying to do. Adding an extra ability to an existing table is easy, removing one (or changing its Tier) requires overriding the whole table. Anyway I think that the Tiers are fine for Arcane Archer. I is quite varied, without too much redundancy and Imbue : Death still bring some unique stuff to SC AA. Imbue : Death only has in common with fireball to be an AoE damages ability. They do different damage type, target different defense ; Imbue Death is foe only, has a 4 times bigger (2 times larger) AoE and Destroy Vs Near Death. For a character specialized in AoE damages, it makes sense to have 2 AoE abilities, at least to avoid immunity and high defenses issues. That said Imbue Death being the same cost makes Imbue Fireball almost obsolete. That's why I think Imbue Fireball should cost 2 bonds ; which won't be broken for a mere Tier 3 spell (because even with bounce, targeting with Imbued spells is harder). Fireball would be optimal for tight groups of foes, as long as friendly fire is not an issue. Imbue : Missiles is also too expensive at 2. 1 bond would make it a fairly good 1 bond single target damages ability, but it is the point for Arcane Archer to have better special attacks and worse auto attacks. BPM tweaked a lot of stuff for SC ranger. SC ranger feels very special compared to MC. That's why SC AA unique ability has to be special (foe only big corrode AoE), but does not have to be super special : there are many other reasons to go SC AA compared to MC AA simply because you will also get all SC ranger unique stuff. Thanks, I will look into this, at least for the ranged weapons.

Good point. Don't hesitate to share a list of you have one. Although PEN 0 is easy to check in gamedata files (default value is 7 for pure CC)

I think my main grip is that they didn't go for an Active Time Battle system similar to Final Fantasy X, where everyone acts in sucession but where there isn't a notion of "round" that... well... round up or down all things linked to duration or time taken by actions. Basically a slow action cause to act later. This kind of system would have allowed much much smoother translation of RTwP ruleset into Turn Based. And I don't believe it is more complicated. Only a few adaptations would have been necessary. But well... people seem usually happy. Some like TB and play TB, and some don't like it or feel that the rules fit better RTwP and play RTwP. I think that there is only few people who absolutely wanted to play TB and felt disappointed by it to the point no mode satisfy them.

TB is a mode of play that was added for free by the devs, and there are plenty of people that are quite happy of it. I've read tons of people stating it. The ruleset is not designed for it so I believe it feels weird and poorly balanced for hard core gamers, yes. Basically, you have many abilities that are bad in TB (this is true for RTwP, but not to the same extant), so one has to minmax and build for it.

Not false. Could go slightly back with following imbue table : Imbue : Missiles 1 Imbue : Web 2 (because Energized could lead to similarly broken results) Imbue : Fireball 2 Imbue : Eora 3 Imbue : Death 3 Also I'm thinking about giving Hardy Companion the Hardy inspiration for 15s (healing would still be 6s), because I usually find pointless to go Heal Companion route for a pet-only Lay on Hand and a 6s inspiration.