Elric Galad

Just checked Blackened Plate with Rusted Armor and AR malus was -5 AR. Usher's Visage aura is small though. Ok, I think I found the main conceptual culprits for Ranger demanding ability tree. These are Vicious and Resilient companions talents ! These 2 are pure stat buff with no gamplay interaction. Yet, missing PEN is too critical to be missed. Missing AR is slightly more tolerable (esp for Ghostheart) but also feels a must-pick if you want to benefit from these juicy Hardy abilities. What if I gave pet +2 AR and + 2 PEN per default ? Vicious companion could become a pure unconditional damage talent, but with a lower value compared to conditional ones. +15% damages might be a bit too little if the +2 PEN is removed so I would consider rising its values, but also Merciless Companion and Predator's Sense values for a better Companion package. The idea is that Vicious Companion shouldn't feel necessary but not bad enough to never be picked, and the other two shall only be picked if you have reliable sources of debuff. Or I can give Vicious Companion another new effect so it synergizes more with certain builds. Resilient companion should become something else. I'm leaning toward increased health pool (it work well with Play Dead)

Mwahahahaha Just remembered the Cleansing Flame doubling tick rate forgotten in the base game but re-added by Community Patch. Tested it and it basically multiplies by 2 the number of ticks, basically doubling any DoT damages (including itself) bar initial tick. It doubles tick but does not halve duration. Basically I can add a similar effect (multiply factor only 1.3) to Recall Agony to buff all DoT damages with the same magnitude as other damages. Won't stack with Cleasing Flame but will stack with everything else. Also CP Cleansing Flame might be a bit too powerful after CP change. This thing is a much faster disintigrate (208 base damages) that also bounces, target deflection, double other DoT damages (well it doubles itself, but I already counted it) and reduces beneficial effects.

Yup, it's a live saver into long term mitigation. It wont save your pet for long on its own (but party member can) Rangers in general are. Those 3+predator's sense initial pet passive + protector pet + stalker link are annoying to get all. I can't think about an easy solution that would fix this, granted BPM don't alter ability tree. Maybe Predator's sense and Sneak attack one should scale with pet PL (which scale to 9, +1 for a cute) ? That won't address that one feels a bit forced to pick them all. Basically I agree that you have named an issue. Other martial classes tend to have their strengths more concentrated in a couple of active, except monks maybe who are also quite starved. Wounding shots are passable for SC Ranger. If you go ranged, get twin shot, if you go melee, hunter claw will be enough. On a general note, SC Ranger may have an easier time than MC for ability point because their Tier 8 - 9 Active don't have upgrades. 1 point = 1 great ability. Blackened plate does stack with everything. So is Beza's toothed blade (with propre upgrade -2AR on crit). That's not the main topic but worths mentionning. Monk won't do it in an AoE and crits aren't that reliable. Chanter will eat up one previous phrase. What do you want more than an autohit permanent enfeebled in a line ? Vs crowd, the autohit hostile extension duration is crazy (few non boss foes are con resistant) . Vs bosse, that's the perma guaranteed affliction that matters (buddy rogue will appreciate). And if somehow it does not synergize well with your party, you can have Interrupt on crit, deflection debuff+bond regen and shadowed hunters on tier 9. Yup. But you're almost guaranteed to hit and tranquilizing shot is instant to apply and cost 1 bond (1 Ancestor Memory from buddy Cipher for a complete Obelisk carrousel) . Vs Auranic, allow me to consider this the greatest boon.

I should check properly, but as far as I get, only attack damages benefit from it. SA damages actually come from a status, like DoT. Not stronger but less unique, that's the main concern. +30-40% weapon damages is significantly less than 30% raw lash. Current version is optimal want you wanna weapon gang against 1 hardy foe (and work also with instant and even pulsating spell) No. Same debuff don't stack. That also a reason not to tweak it. But it is also a reason why a tweak won't be gamebreaking, as it only does an existing debuff.

They are not so far from penetrating bosses. PotD megaooze is 16 AR, Belranga is 17 and Doru 18. With the -2, and a little something such as Blackened Plate, it should work. That's the deal, yes. Vengeful grief if nothing else works. Probably optimal only vs Doru. Most of builds will have a noticeable number of somewhat useless ability vs Megabosses, especially vs Dorudugan. Yup, debuffs and interrupt feel bad for this fight. I feel the issues you describe is really specific to megaboss fight. And for these ones, rangers especially SC have a strong monster hunter identity. Heartseeker will reduce their HP for the whole fight, hunter's claw will give you super stats... I also consider tranquilizing shot to be Auranic kryptonite. Use is with a multihit blunderbuss or Frost Seeker and are guaranteed to shut down any obelisk showing some sign of arrogance. Pets should be somewhat tanky, with a full heal for 2 bonds and a 1 bond better Lay on Hand (upgrade also reduce damages by 25% in additional to +2AR.). They won't be pure tank level of tankiness, but still decent hp pool. Shadowed hunter should help too, with some offensive buff wrapped in. It was worse before modding. Some were displayed shared, but were not. Hunter claw line is already one of the most complex ability of the game. High dev cost to change and potentiel bugs. It is also quite strong. Stalker's link : how would work with a ranged ranger? I'm not against new ideas, just these 2 are too tedious. And I'm not super convinced pet needs more support.

Nice to have the option, in case you need to mitigate a Subclass penalty, build for Mindweb, or use your character as a decoy for a specific non friendly AoE spell (there are better way to do that but still). Also specific case such as Nalzpaca really hating Arcane Dampener, etc... Never wasted, rarely important.

Yup, and it also has stacking with everything. At least a decent spell to spam with Soulblade (cheaper) or Psion (cheap cost matters, might be one of most impactful cheap spamming spell when Whispers can'be used) I'll pass on modding this one. Really the only frustrating thing is the DoT and Soul Annhilation not benefitting, but this can't be easily corrected.

OP, not that much,but most likely technically difficult to doand not super necessary.

Well BPM improved Into the Fray and Hold the Line, so they are fine now, even if not fit for all builds. Superior Deflection has always a very averagish talent. No issue, nothing great either. Tanky concept of Fighter is perfectly fine, that's not what I said. But they rely on Unbending that makes them almost unkillable and +3 engagement modal (no class can get so easily such engagement galore). They have other cool talents (+20 vs Per/Int/Con affliction is sweet, armored grace, Refreshing defenses) but these are their selling point. That is what makes shield a bit redundant for them : they are much better using their second hand for offensive purpose because they almost never need a shield to begin with.

Yeah, I'm wondering a lot about recall agony at the moment. The thing about it is that it synergizes with absolutely nothing. The added damages don't generate focus, wounds for shattered pillars, % lifesteal. They don't work on DoT. They don't even work with Soul Annililation. It is only about the damages. The added damages might be cool on a boss (the spell isn't weak), but some other Cipher spell can have similar results. Disintigrate will do similar or better damages without having to worry about focusing (not same cost of course, but way more reliably). Psychovampiric shield will debuff deflection for all your party buddies while having some utility. You really have few cases for which picking it sounds the right choice. Actually I'm thinking about changing its effect to +30% damages received, or to +40% damages received because that would be additive damages, not multiplicative. For spells it would be similar, for weapon worse, but working with DoT would make so much more sense for cipher. Also focus generation and Soul Annililation would be improved. There is already a paladin ability that does this in an AoE. The effect is less unique, but the current ability having zero combo potential feels like a failed unique design IMHO. Or is there any synergy I miss ?

Ok my proposal for Unbroken : -15 reflex (no change) -20% stride (worse than before to balance with new feature, this values is targetted so that fast runner doesn't fully compensate but the result would be a slightly lower than base speed) +1 engagement, +10 PEN for disengagement attacks (no change) Shield Mastery : when using a shield, +1 AR (players are used to it so I shall keep it) and all engaged targets get -20% action speed (similar fashion as Persistent Distraction) . Stride penalty on engaged eventually felt like one more gluing feature, which isn't that great if foes don't disengage. I chose to keep the "fighter with a shield" vibe for Unbroken. The new feature is strong, but it is based on the assumption that shields aren't very good for fighters since their defenses are already so high they don't really need it. This design offers some flexibility : you might want to play mainly without shield since the maluses aren't that bad and the free engagement does help. And just swap for shield when needed : the new feature is good enough to justify swapping vs bosses or annoying crowd, and Quickswitch does support swapping. Or you can play mainly with a shield and just enjoy the additional tanking and debuffing.

This. This is what genericity fighters don't get (Swashys do get it through persistent distraction). The most thematically fitting would be a heavy Stride penalty, persisting a bit after disengagement of course. Like -100% Stride. Gluing. Joking (or not). Just to show it could be powerful. Would be an hilariously bad synergy with disengagement attacks. Just let me think about the details. How it will work with Shield mastery.

Not excluded but not sure I want to add advantage to disengagement granted how unreliable it is. The good part with parting sorrow is that it also apply to foes killed while engaged, so a bit less conditional. Too radical I think. Other consideractions : -15 reflex is perfectly fitting. It is part of the - 15 secondary defense tryptic with Fury Shaper and BPM Nalzpaca. -10% stride is fitting too. It could be even harsher if I need to en force the subclass identity. There are only a couple of fights (Doru) where minus stride is more than an inconvenience. Even in this case, items could overcome a penalty (-25% stride could still be too bad) - Unbroken isn't especially tanky. -15 reflex +1AR leans toward positive side, but only slightly. They are tanks because of engagement and incitative to get a shield. - The engagement and disengagement bonus is also perfectly fitted. That's really the shield bonus that feels i complete. If I want a shield fighter, why not Black Jacket which can instantly swap in and out shield for big Clear Out (akka what I call three handed style) ? I could also make Unbroken style swapping specialist with a benefit for all styles. But it should en force their grinding grit identity, even when offensive. Some Wild ideas : -2HS could get +~100% reach (akka phalanx mastery, perfectly fitting with engagements to poke who you want) -1HS could get 33% miss to graze. (multiplicative with BPM confident aim and 1HS style for a total 60% miss to gracze) - DW could get some retaliationish feature. Maybe 100% Full Attack Riposte when missed while Blooded. Maybe too much. Just brainstorming ^^

I don't really want to stop the inevitable though. Delaying it is ok. This strategy should be somewhat rewarded. Solely shortening duration makes each tick bigger which in turn makes each reapplication bigger (but with Shorter duration the number of ticks being reapplied decrease). Overall it is a neutral change. The above change was also about having more rounded numbers. Basically Yes. Switching to a non DoT isn't excluded if necessary. But I don't think it is necessary.

Consider that the main aspect of my change was to set tick to 1s. This means the damages on each reapplication is divided by the number of tick. More ticks mean bigger division. The reduction to 5s is only a secondary aspect. I thought about making it a flat 6 damages on each hit without any DoT component, but it would have changed the spell too much.

Unbroken still feels like a very meh subclass. Engagement and bonus for disengagement are ok. The issue for me is that Shield Mastery interacts super poorly with Fighter as a whole because shield is a rather poor piece of equipment for a fighter. Why caring about your defenses when you have unbending? Shield feels like an overkill. Having a shield is also meh for Clear Out, Power Strike and all Fighter offensive abilities that work better with either 1HS or 2HS. To be more clear, the idea isn't that Unbroken bonuses are bad (especially because their penalty aren't harsh), but that they don't synergize well with most builds. I haven't found an idea yet. Either Unbroken should remain the shield wearing fighter (possibly with an offensive bonus while wearing one) or the AR bonus shall be less conditional (work with metal armor too???).

It does not NEED further tweaking but that's a general principle I used in the past : don't nerf a spell if you can focus on nerfing the abuse only. That's why avoiding to nerf base damages is a goal.

I'm probably going to tweak Avenging Storm cast/recovery time to 3s/0s. I've always felt it takes too much time to cast, which cause a loss of DPS that it has hard time to compensate for a SC druid without attack tricks. Scrolls use a different cast/reload time anyway. Heaven's cacophony will be buffed a bit, but the cast time buff isn't what would make the broken part more broken anyway.

Should all the +2PEN +50% recovery modals be changed to +2PEN +25% recovery (make them good even vs 1 missing PEN)? Also applicable to mace modal.

An easy fix (similar to what BPM did to unbending) is to change the ticks from 3s to 1s. Without further change, it would divide by 3 the reapplication damages. Note that it would also divide by 3 the initial tick, changing the spell base damages from 4+2(initial tick) to 4+0.67(initial tick). Therefore the spell would be nerfed vs non abuse targets. I feel like it is the right direction to go though, I'm just wondering if a slightly tweak up is necessary to compensate the effect on initial tick. Maybe 5 damages over 5s with 1s tick. So the base damages are kept, damages per tick halved (compared to current) and the time the reapplication can happen is reduced a bit too. Other question : should a similar treatment be given to bleeding cuts and Saru Stitch? Like Bleeding Cuts to 3s 5% damages ticks. Edit : maybe not because it's fun and not intrinsecally abusable. Saru Strits is a lesser concern cause you can't equip your whole party with it.

I would't consider it especially broken. Strong, obscure and a bit abusable, but nothing gamebreaking.

It's basically the same mechanics as Unbending, but reversed.

Yup. The big difference here is that I seized the opportunity of Great Soul to help Cipher and Chanter to get more ressources as SC. There is absolutely no need to boost MC Cipher and Chanter. Yet, getting absolutely nothing from Adra Glow and an idiotic description feels wrong for them. So I want to give them just a little something that doesn't affect balance. For Cipher, the obvious choice would be Starting Focus BUT this is technically complicated as Adra Glow is a permanent effect, not something activating at the beginning of combat. (that's the reason behind Grest Soul bizarre effect for Cipher). So I'll opt for a +max focus since I want to keep it simple. +15 max focus will do the trick. A little annoying for Ascendant but just don't bath if it annoys you. For Chanter, I don't want to mess with ressources generation (troubadour balance, MC chanters already top tier), so I will give +33% AoE Auras (similar to PoE1 Voice of the Mountain top).

Probably applies on each attack roll (casting and damages). But echoing on Flame Shield casting itself probably does nothing (maybe can remove a nice spell and still applies if echoed on cast?).

Yeah that's the point. You might have a hard time using SC paladin as a damage dealer vs fire immune, but most of them have low cold AR and a few (cough cough Dorudugan) have low electricity AR. The PEN can't be too high or most encounter would be solved by spamming it. Note the Base 6 dual type (10 due to Tier scaling) is exactly the same as missile salvo. The PEN issue can somewhat be solved by using food for the few encounter that needs it. Anyway, LoPZ isn't a pure offensive ability. It is the strongest AoE spike heal of the game bar none. The goal of the offensive part change is to allow Paladin to somewhat contribute vs fire immune (while keeping everybody alive), not be the primary damage dealer. As you point Bleak Walker subclass rework would indeed provide an additional tool for this specific case. It is indeed a common feature for "2nd part" of martial attack. Monk Torment works the same. It can't be changed for technical reasons. But but but BPM addressed it by adding additional accuracy for the secondary part as noted in the patch note! (+15acc for Power Strike, +20acc for Inspiring Strike.) So don't worry, endgame efficiency is around the same as it would be with propre scaling.