Elric Galad

Stupid question : I want to use 3xxxx ID for my Text Description Entries since CP used 2xxxxx. Just wanted to check you don't use these.

Well, I think a Disoriented is hard to balance. When it works it is almost too strong, but you have so many ways to inflict Perception affliction that it also feels redundant. If I were you (or if you allow me to tweak your change for my mod ), I would keep the old -10 deflection debuff, but set it to base 10s (it gives another reason to cast bonded fury). 20% Melee resistance is enough. Pet also gets Superior Camouflage, so it has fairly good defenses vs every weapon attacks. Even at 15s% I would consider it enough since it is only a part of the ability. The ability should not become a must-have pick, which is a risk because it fits any ranger build. For your information, my next Steps are Barbarian then Rogue.

Well, you can still override the whole Progress Table without modifying the original file, bt it is indeed ugly since you have to copy the whole table. It's ~200 ko override to change anything... Ah ah sure. My mod is indeed less conservative.

Yeah, I thought about it. But the #2 is not a problem. If it applied to AoE weapons, it might be too strong. For #1, I would consider it, but the main problem is to clear the accumulated stacks when the invisibility breaks. I don't think it is that bad if you consider that the bonus comes from the target being studied rather than the ambush itself. If I find something, I'll improve it.

1) My new version of Shadowed Hunters (tested and working, I only have to change to description text) : - Stay at 3 Bonds - Healing buffed to 10hp/s - Added a new effect : while Shadowed Hunters is active Ranger and Pet stacks "Shadowed Hunters stacks" every 3s. On next weapon attack, the stacks are released to add 10 raw damages each. It is basically a backstab prepared over time for 10 raw damages/3s, for each member of the duo. Note 1 : it works even if the attack is after the breaking of invisbility (would be very complicated to code otherwise) Note 2 : Only applied once for AoE weapons and multi-hit weapons. I'm pretty happy with this idea (it really feels like Hunters now), but the numbers can be tweaked easily if it feels too weak or too strong. 2) I also changed Hastening Exhortation & Upgrades (all cost 1 zeal) : - Hastening Exhortation : Nimble for 15s - Zealous Exhortation : Swift for 15s - Hastening Command: Nimble and Strong for 15s

Nay, it won't . Distracting Training applies Pet's Intellect. So unless Bonded Fury is active, 9s would be reduced by default to 6.75s. Furthermore, be aware that the -10 Deflection from Distracting Training stacks with similar effect (cause it comes from a passive). Even if on paper it looks worse than Distraction, but at high level, you'll have tons of way to inflict Perception Afflictions and many foes with Perception Immunity/Resistance. I think a "hard" -10 Deflection is better than the Distracted. EDIT : oww, it's Disoriented, not Distrated. Well that feels a bit strong too. Of course, your change makes sense because of the name of the ability (EDIT a bit less if you choose Disoriented). And the added 25% Melee Weapon resistance is strong enough on its own as a Passive Ability. It might even be a tad too strong. I would even consider decreasing it to 20%.

Nice, one thing I can remove from my TO DO list I think you also cleaned the Penetration non scaling problem, aren't you ? As you know, I went further. But I didn't plan to clear restrictions for other 2 upgrades for Pallegina. WotFS adds a recovery and doubles the cost of initial effect. You really have to make it worths it if you don't plan to clean these 2. Good ! I also though that reducing a bit Doru Resolve (like minus 3) and maybe lowering his Perception Immunity to Resistance would make the fight... more interactive ? However, I don't think the fight should be easier. Maybe you could give him something to compensate such as some Fire Blight summons. At least Blights would open more possibilities to manage the fight than the current "immovible block of stats".

Sure, but I'm designing and testing my mod with CP installed so it's good to know what is planned. I'll probably revert to what I initially planned for distraction training (extra duration), and I'see what I'll do after tout release

Indeed, that's the Root of the problem. That means you have to bring ressource regenerating classes for such fights, which is annoying, especially for solo (but the game isn't balanced for solo anyway). I don't plan to change this for now, but I had it in mind as well. Dorudugan will be harder to beat after my planned SoT tweak...

Good point.

I think it might be nice, indeed. But I overbuffed WotFS a bit because of the upgrade restriction. Fearly easy to tweak down if needed. Got it. Somehow I thought that the self buff was applied to the ranger, which was interesting to get bond back. Anyway, the idea is nice. I'm not a big fan of the Distracted Part because it is close to Rogue's Persistant Distraction and stack poorly with various stuff. But I have never checked if Distraction Training itself stacks (it's a passive, so maybe). Of course, it goes well with the name. Melee Resistance is nice, for the reason you say. It doesn't have to be very high as long as it guarantees to walways provide a chance of distraction. Be cautious with the Debuff Duration because it uses the Pet's Intellect. Do you plan to include it on a Mod ? CP Update ? I was considering adding a Passive to ranger to recover some bond. One easy option would have been a very slow bond recovery (Something like 1 bond every 30s - 60s) called "Survivor Bond". This goes well mechanically with Shadowed Hunters and the "Survivor Aspect" from SSS DLC. It's not much but could be nice for boss fights. But if anyone has a better idea. Or maybe Rangers are fine without Bond regen... ?

Oh, nice ! How is it done ? Wrath of the five suns upgrades can't be picked in-game, even if they exist in the gamedata files (which is another reason why WotFS is Bad). It doesn't hurt to update them anyway, just in case someone want to mod this too.

Well, I've tried to implement this a few times and I ran into some problems : What you describe is a Pet passive that would, under certain circonstance, "auto-target the ranger" to restore 1 bond. The problem is that "auto-targeting" a particular target isn't easy to implement. There are a few ranger abilities, that auto-target the pet (so there is a way to auto-target the pet with a ranger ability), but the contrary isn't true. I also tried to implement a % chance of bond restored on ranger Crit if sharing the same target as the pet (based on Stalker's Link code). This didn't work either. Not sure why, but maybe combining the "share target" condition with the "% Chance on Crit" wasn't suppose to work. I would like to provide a way for ranger to get Bond back with a passive, but I don't want to competely change the Distraction Training icon (made by Boeroer) or its link with the pet. Unless I create a new ability ? What should it be ? Problem is that I would have to reuse an Icon for this, which would be meh. EDIT : I can use the old "Ranger generic icon" for a new passive, as it isn't use for any ability after CP icons have been installed. Feel free to suggest !

This thing is unfortunately hard-coded...

I'm not sure Party Assist works for all rolls (even if it works most of the time)

Yes, I agree, good idea. EDIT : It has to be noted that Heartseeker doesn't benefit from AoE Weapons and Bouncing weapons (even Driving Flight). This is a big limitation to potential gamebraking combo. That's why I think 3 Bounds and Foe only is still balnced.

Hi, I wanted to lower the PL required to get an ability, but I wasn't sure how to do. Adding an ability using Game.GameData.BaseProgressionTableAppendGameData and Game.GameData.BaseProgressionTableAppendComponent does not seem too complex, but I have no idea how to remove the old ones (except by replacing completely the Game.GameData.ClassProgressionTableGameData). Did someone succeed ? Is it complicated to do ?

Okay, Bond on Miss pet seems indeed a popular idea. Not the first time it is discussed on this forum by the way. I think I'm going to implement 25% chance of restored bond on Hit (similar rate as toughened fury after Community Patch) and set it to Tier VIII (to avoid a Tier IX crowd). Does not feel OP. Shadowed Hunters will probably stay at 3 bonds, but I will add my "backstab over time" idea (8 raw damages on next attack per 3s while invisible for both pet and ranger). If ranger has acess to bond restoration, 3 bonds cost is probably not that critical. I will have to test it a bit in game.

OK, Liberating Exhortation set to 15s for 1 zeal on my local version. Totally agree with that. Action speed increase was not a good idea for the reason you mentionned. 25s Hastening Exhortation is fine (and easy to code ) but I'll be much more comfortable if it had its own effect. That's why I'm suggestion Nimble for 15s (1 zeal). Nimble provides something that will never fully obverlap with Liberating Exhortation (and fitting to ability theme). Of course Zealous Exhortation would have to be changed to Swift. Swift is nice to save your backrow glasscannon when engaged. Nimble and Swift also feel like the tactical tools a "battle commander" would like.

Gambit can only recover its own guile. The only thing it provides is hope. Hope to cast it for free. The average cost of Gambit spam is probably somewhere between 1-2 Guile with reasonably favorable circumstance, unless I'm missing something. You can probably do better (very high Acc and Aware inspiration), at least versus weak ennemies, but saying it is a free ability is probably an overstatement. Setting Twinned Shot to 1 Bond is IMHO a much more reliable way of increasing Ranger DPS Sustainability.

She must have learnt from psychomantis that the gamer and his computer behind the 4th wall are more vulnerable than the armoured avatar.

Indeed, this ability is so bad on paper that no one even sees it was even worse in reality (due to applying pet Intellect) If only weak ennemy miss the pet, a simple solution would be to also apply it on Graze. A slide of 25 dice roll threshold would help. I thought about the Bond restoration too, but I saw a few (non blocking) issues : - Getting bond back when facing weak ennemy would also feel like an overkill. - Would make Rogue the only single class martial without ressource restoration. Either it would feel bad for Rogue, or I will have to add a Guile Restoration effect. In the later case, all martial single class would feel a bit too similar for my taste... - Bond Restoration is so precious that it would feel sort of mandatory. Given that you only get 3 Tier IX ability point and you probably want Prestige, it may reduce Single Class Ranger build diversity (that's why I'm also considering lowering Blood Surge to Tier VIII). Totally agree. For the moment, what I'm thinking about is a 8 raw damages stacking per 3 seconds (applied on next attack), for both pet and ranger, to mirror the healing effect. Using Takedown Combo on top of that would still be an option. Reducing defense based on Invibility time would work but it would be a debuff within a buff with multiple effects. A bit too complex to describe and use, sort of "abilityception". What I'm wondering is : - Should it cost 2 or 3 Bonds ? 3 Bonds would feel expensive if only used for repositionning, but 2 bonds would feel cheap if used for longer. Also 2 Bonds would make it almost strictly superior to Deadly Surprise. - Would it be OP for Solo (or full single class rangers party) ?

For sure. Or maybe I can add a small AoE to soul ignition ? (and balance stats accordingly)

Yeah, you're right I probably got confused with what I remind of PoE1 Suspension effect. Thank you for pointing it. I really really want Commands to cost 1 zeal (except reviving) for maximum flexibility. The fact that they are nearly instant cast makes casting twice a command with half duration and cost not so significant, but it requires more micromanagement and that the Paladin is available to cast again when the first command ellapse. So, in short I agree with you that 20s/2 Zeal -> 10s/1 Zeal sounds like a small nerf. I can put it back to 20s or maybe 15s, but then it would compared too favorably to Hastening Command for Multiclassed Paladin. So should I set back Hastening command to 30s too, but then 30s Nimble, or even 30s Strong+Quick for 1 Zeal would feel slightly too strong. So maybe 15s for Liberating Command & Upgrade ? (1 Zeal) And also 15s for Hastening command & Upgrade, but adding an extra +15% action speed to Hastening Command too ? (1 Zeal) EDIT : Or just give Nimble for 15s to Hastening command, Nimble + Strong to 1st upgrade Swift to 2nd upgrade Nimble is just fun tactically that I think it would fit Paladin perfectly. Very polite way to tell me that I'm not working fast enough, thx More seriously, I always try to state if I change something, but not being able to state it in the original post. it's a bit annoying that it is not possible to edit old posts, that would be very convenient for this kind of thread.

Sure sure, but I don't want to make it work exactly the same way. That's why I'm suggesting a bonus that grows while ranger/pet is waiting in shadows, preparing themselves and regenerating. Assassins are fast killers, Rangers should be... careful killers ? Yes, but is it that bad ? Brand enemy has an Auto-Hit and inifinite duration that I won't give to Soul Ignition, but Soul Ignition would deal more damages per tick. The 2 won't be abilities from the same class anyway. It's hard to make 100% original abilities from a simple DoT (and it's not really my purpose either : just want to make them "different enough" within a given class)