Boeroer

Well, on the other hand publishers made pretty bad decisions in the past that didn't help selling the game, didn't improve the game, frustrated the creators and led to bad critics. Just because they thought they knew what sells best. I'd say crowdfunding takes that problem away entirely. I mean if you can finish with the budget you collected from backers. Since you already got the money you can implement the game like you want to, nobody can force you to warp your game just because it may sell better if you do. And then we have publishers line Devolver Digital who almost never interfere with the artistic vision but all they offer is their expertise in the field of publishing. They are very small, but they are also very successful and publish creative and fantastic games ever year. I read that they have to turn down 25 games every day because everybody wants to get published by them. I mean sure: if you are responsible for the finances you have to make so hard choices, no matter if you are self publishing or are the publisher. But trying to maximize the profit and prioritizing that instead of focusing on delivering a sound game while making only "good" money seems to be the reason why most creatives believe they would be better off without a publisher if they only had the means to fund and distribute their game without one. Hence crowdfunding.

Those numbers also include hits/crits from spells (like Devotions, Iconic Projection etc.) though. Which are not relevant for Swift Flurry. It's not possible to determine which ratio of crits/hits your melee attacks had (unless your only offensive actions were melee attacks - which is unlikely since some buffs or heals also include attack rolls). But I guess you can see a general tendency nonetheless. I think if you don't build and play around Swift Flurry it's weaker than Lightning Strikes. But still: the synergy with Heartbeat Drumming is more potent than most people realize. Just because one can proc the other (endlessly in theory) which leads to a lot more procs than with Swift Flurry or Heartbeat Drumming alone.

They are the only ones with AoE party inspirations that not only can buff but also remove afflictions. I think they are in a good spot balance-wise. The only gripe I have with them is the limited spell choice (if you are looking for effectiveness). And they have nothing to balance that out (trinkets were dropped during development because Full VO and Ship Combat took away too many resources - I think it's safe to say that after Josh's post mortem talk).

It's only with Vanishing Strikes, right? Usually invisibility will break after initial target got hit and then AoE hits don't get Backstab bonus anyway. Or will they with your implementation?

As I said: if Blunderbuss doesn't get multiple backstabs it's all cool.

Because he will have -50% reload time and highly increased Sneak Attack damage due to Powder Burns and thus gets more Gambit shots out of Vanishing Strikes than any other Rogue. Gambit internally generates Guile but is capped after execution. But during execution it's there, adding tons of dmg bonuses to Gambit-hit-rolls. Mortars generate a lot of hits per shot. Thus you can see a lot of combat log entries that show +250% Gambit dmg. Also mortars + Stalking Cloak will stun all enemies in AoE, Blinding Smoke will unlock Deathblows immediately and all AoE hits under 2m range will get Backstab bonus. Assassin is also very good. More ACC and PEN but less shots. Streetfighter is a tad better in most cases of you are not fighting very high AR.

A Streetfighter with dual mortars would be best.

Generally Swift Flurry is a tool that lets you kill weak foes a lot faster while it doesn't help much against high defense enemies. Lightning Strikes is a lot more consistent. But also building around Swift Flurry can be more fun. Do a Berserker/Monk with Brute Force, Enduring Dance, Enervating Blows, Spirit Frenzy, Bloody Slaughter and Barbaric Smash, using both Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming and a Morning Star. With the first hit drop fortitude by 25-45 via Body Blows, weaken and staggered while your ACC crawls up to +12 and you also get pretty substantial crit conversion from Berserker Frenzy, Barbaric Smash and sometimes Bloody Slaughter. With this I can often one shot enemies who don't have stellar fortitude because I pile up 5, 6 or more attacks in a row from one strike. Also stuff like Saru-Sichr's stacking DoT procs off of Swift Flurry + Heartbeat Drumming. That is all cool because I attack squishy enemies with that dude mainly - also to abuse Blood Thirst if course (which is also only speeding up things if you're already winning).

Concerning the chances: Heartbeat Drumming and Swift Flurry can both proc! So the cases are if you crit: - both proc - Heartbeat Drumming procs - Swift Flurry procs - none procs This is different from calculating conversion chances. I that case if one source triggers it's over. But in case of Swift Flurry + Heartbeat Drumming if one procs the other can still proc, too, adding two attacks. Also both (!) can proc Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming again if they crit! And again and again... That's why you can chain a lot of crits with one single strike if your crit chance is very high. So it's better than most people think. Hard to calculate though.

If you'd gain a passive via trinket you wouldn't need to put a point into it. It would work as soon as you switch to that trinket. So no raillroading problem. Also it's no problem to put some additional (like Holy Meditation and whatnot) spells to that trinket. You trinket examples are good. But as you said the downside is that you'd never be able to combine Inspiring with Aggrandizing Radiance. Most likely you wouldn't even cast two of them in one encounter since it would be the same spell (level) basically. So in terms of "power" this would be one of the weaker solutions. As MaxQuest said: another approach would be to actually add those things as "real" passives - but then what you said becomes true: would take away even more points from spell selection. So I'm for C or D at the Moment. Leaning a bit to D because C's implementation sounds a bit fiddly and not so trivial while D is just adding some new spells per Copy&Paste and altering them.

So I'm not actually sure if you understand what I mean. Solution D would not add those spells as additional casts but like Grimoires: as bonus spells which you "can" cast - but it costs a spell use like any other spell. So... what do you mean with too many casts? It's 2 casts per PL as always with priests. You wouldn't get more casts out of your priest but would have to choose between upgraded Interdiction/Radiance and the other spells of that PL. Wasn't the whole point of trinkets to add more spell choice? But as I said: if the passive version is preferred that's also fine. Is more like PoE. But it doesn't help with the "spell railroading" that we wanted to remove with trinkets in the first place. Just saying...

Ok, nice. But is this preferable to Solution D where you actually get the same - but more spell variety? So basically: C --> one cast max of Holy Radiance per encounter; upgrades with passives, competes with nothing two casts max per encounter of Interdiction; upgrades with passives, competes with other PL1 spells D --> one cast of Holy Radiance per encounter; doesn't upgrade, competes with nothing two casts of Interdiction; competes with other PL 1 spells two casts of Inspiring Radiance; competes with other PL 2 spells two casts of Empowered Interdiction; competes with other PL 3 and so on If C is y'alls' preferred method than I'm totally fine with it. Just want to make sure everybody understood what Solution D means.

Solution D is also not bad: you'll have way more spells at your disposal. So you can choose to only cast Interdiction (PL1) but also Painful Interdiction (PL5). With unlocking passives you'd only have that one Interdiction spell to cast (max twice per enc.). I made this quick draft to illustrate: ----------------------------------------------- Name: Building on Solid Foundations Appearance: journal Description: This essay refers to the well known book „Daily Affirmations of Focus and Efficiency“ that is very popular among followers of Abydon. It describes certain excercises and techniques that allow priests to improve and refine some of their basic abilites. Contained spells Interdiction Inspiring Radiance (Holy Radiance +10 ACC AoE buff) Empowered Interdiction (Interdiction +10 ACC bonus) Aggrandizing Radiance (Inspiring Radiance with +2 to all caster‘s stats) Painful Interdiction (Empowered Interdiction +weaken) Brilliant Radiance (Aggrandizing +burn damage) Intimidating Interdiction (Painful Interdiction +frighten) Reviving Radiance (Brilliant Radiance +revive like Revive the Fallen, but AoE) Anathema (Intimidating Interdiction +disoriented) ------------------------------------------------

Now a question regarding a special priestly trinket (which I currently write): We talked about how it would be cool to have Inspiring Radiance/Aggrandizing Radiance/Brilliant Radiance as well as Painful Interdiction and Empowered (it's the PoE name!) Interdiction back. My question now: how do we want to do that (mechanically)? In PoE they were passive talents that upgraded your Holy Radiance and Interdiction abilites. So you could upgrade Holy Radiance with Inspiring Radiance (+10 ACC AoE buff) AND Aggrandizing Radiance (caster stat buff) AND Brilliant Radiance (damage buff) for example. Solution A: If I would simply add Inspiring Radiance etc. as additional spells that would not allow to combine those effects as in PoE. You could either cast Inspiring Radiance OR Aggrandizing Radiance at one time. You couldn't have both effects in one spell cast. But it would be the simplest solution. Solution B: I could add those abilities as passives to the trinket, but then you would get them ALL as soon as you equip it - which also doesn't feel right. Solution C : I don't know if that's actually possible, but maybe the best way would be to unlock those passives that upgrade Holy Radiance and Interdiction at certain Power Levels. So for example get the passive "Inspiring Radiance" as soon as you reach PL2, get Aggrandizing Radiance at PL 3 and Brilliant at PL 4 and so on. Is that even possible to mod? Can you help me? @Phenomenum, @MaxQuest? I need to know what's actually possible before I waste a lot of time... Edit: just realized Solution D could be a thing: Give spells at certain Power Levels that just do the same as the spell at lower PLs plus a new upgrade. So for example: Interdiction Inspiring Radiance (like Holy Radiance but adds a +10 ACC AoE buff) Empowered Interdiction (like Interdiction but has +10 ACC) Aggrandizing Radiance (like Inspiring Radiance but adds +2 to all stats for the Priest) Painful Interdiction (like Empowered Interdiction but adds Weakening) Brilliant Radiance (like Aggrandizing Radiance but adds burn damage) Wouldn't that be the easiest/best solution?

I think you should consult Jeff Goldblum on this...

Oh and by the way I will be on vacation again from Fryday till Monday. Just if you wonder where that annoying Theorizer is.

Nothing yet. I just asked if that's a problem for you guys or not. One solution could be that Backstab only works on the initial target. On the other hand we already have the 2m-rule which prevents too much AoE cheese. And you told me that blunderbusses only trigger Backstab once (not 4 times). So now I lean to "All cool - sorry for interrupting"?

Vanishing Strike gives you an invisibility that doesn't break when you attack. So every attack roll will get Backstab bonus. That means an AoE weapon will produce lots of Backstabs. Old Backstab: not a huge problem because AoE hits have very low base damage. Old Backstab uses base damage (+100%). New Backstab adds flat damage (20 raw) and is not based on weapon base damage. Now if you do 10 AoE hits they all will add 20+ raw damage. No matter how low their base damage is. And you can repeat that as long as Vanishing Strike is active.

That's why I ask you after theorizing.

No idea. We didn't even agree on the actual enchantment yet. I opted for this addition to the patch because you wrote this thread.

The first release is on a day or two. Butthat won't contain this helm + enchantment.

Because Assassinate is based on weapons' base damage and flat dmg Backstab is not. So 10 low damage hits produce ten times the backstab damage than one single high damage hit would. Is that the wanted behavior? As I said: I guess this is only a problem with Vanishing Strikes so no big deal. Just saying. That's good to know. Still valid for AoE weapons though. And why should I stop theorizing? Theorizing is good. It's much faster than testing and I don't need a computer for that. It helps to foresee eventual problems. If you can immediately bust the apparent problem: even better.

No worries! By the way I played a little more with a Berserker/Ancient (I mean Berserker/Fury would be cooler just by name - but the loss of healing is bad) but I totally skipped shifting and instead opted for Whispers of the Endless Paths. The combo of the huge and long-lasting Plague of Insects etc. and AoE-Taste of the Hunt (superstrong) + Blood Thirst, once the killing kicks in it's just *swoosh-swoosh-swoosh* - it's awesomest.

I'm fine with that.

@Crimson Panoply helm: Immunity to MIG afflictions sounds solid. I wouldn't even involve crits. It's a late game item and I would be fine with a blanker MIG immunity. I don't know if this would even prevent incoming MIG afflictions from canceling "Strong" from the Panoply' Frenzy. That would be neat. Also adding MIG affl. immunity will be very easy. The other suggestion of upgrading MIG inspirations by one tier is also not bad. It could simply be copied from the SSS axe. I wonder if both items in tandem would upgrade "Strong" to "Energized"? Or just suppress each other sorts of?