SaruNi

Where are you getting +20 accuracy from for Tactical Meld? I just tested it again, and it doesn't give any accuracy for attacking the same target as the ally it's cast on (doesn't matter if using powers, ranged, melee, engaged, just not working at all, except for the +1 engagement). Bizarrely Tactical Meld can be cast outside of combat, despite being a pure buff, whereas Borrowed Instinct can't be cast outside of combat, despite having a hostile target.

Single-class Ciphers do actually start with enough focus to open the fight with one use of their strongest powers (for example a single-class Ascendant can start with 67 focus at level 9, and 5th tier powers cost 50 focus). After that though (first two or three casts) they do need to attack between casts.... Oddly, Whispers of Treason can be cast outside of combat, but not Puppet Master or Ringleader... an oversight, or more evidence for the ridiculous-seeming hypothesis that the devs were going out of their way to not make ciphers OP?

I don't in the case of Assassinate with projectile spells or dual wield full attacks, given that the attack itself is executed at the same time it onlly makes sense for both weapon strikes or simultaneous projectiles to benefit from it. Otherwise I think it's a case by case, something like Necrotic Lance that relies on an initial hit to work I'd want Assassinate to buff the whole thing while an ability that creates an AoE that rolls for each hit I'd only want the initial hit to matter. The attack is ordered at the same time, but both weapons do not hit at the same time. One attack launches first, and the other follows just after. (Which is also how it usually works in our physical reality.) That brief space of time gives the opponent some opportunity to start to shift around and defend. With projectiles---well it's magic, there's no reason why you couldn't first generate 5 projectiles and then have them hit at the same time; but that's not how it is currently. Think about a spell like Returning Storm---does it really make more sense for only the initial attack roll to matter? For a spell like Chill Fog, you can think of it as maintaining the magical energy with each attack roll, so that an increase in your resolve or power level will increase the intensity of your spell---and if you're hidden, your pulses can take the enemy by surprise. Ultimately, from a balance standpoint, it helps casters (other than assassin/casters and evokers) because they can cast AoE spells with duration that have multiple attack rolls and then use/receive accuracy buffs so those spells have a higher chance of actually hitting and/or doing more damage on subsequent attack rolls.

Healing over time appears to work the same way---spell power level and resolve are determined at each healing tick, not when the spell was cast. (Tested on a Lifegiver Druid---exit spiritshift form and the healing over time spells you've cast immediately have their healing reduced. But this also means you can have a Lifegiver or Priest cast a healing over time spell while another character is casting a buff to resolve (or inspiration for Nature Godlike bonus).) For example, you could have a Troubadour or Skald wait 3 seconds or 1 crit in order to fast-cast the AoE cone Resolve inspiration + Strength inspiration invocation on the Lifegiver who's simultaneously casting Moonwell or The Moon Light's, and you don't have to worry about timing it so that the invocation comes before the casting (the strength inspiration triggers Wellspring of Life for +2 power levels).

Assassinate only applies to the first projectile from a spell (unless it's changed very recently). Likewise it doesn't apply to jumps from spells. (However if a spell attacks multiple targets simultaneously in AoE---fireball etc---it will apply to all those attack rolls.) It was showing up for me on the minor missile and the bounding missile. Regardless, if it applies to AoE I think it should apply to all projectiles hitting one target and all attacks in a full attack. Tested it just now, Minor Missiles and Bounding Missiles are currently applying Assassinate only to the first projectile. I reinstalled and got the same result. Maybe a bug or using that invisibility ability. Regardless, I think projectiles all should benefit from assassinate. It's definitely counterintuitive (to humans as opposed to computers) and seems likely to be unintended. However I do like having spells with multiple attack rolls base the attack roll off the caster's state at the time of each attack roll, rather than the initial cast, because it lets you apply assassinate or (if pre-casting) Berserk and other buffs to Chill Fog, Returning Storm (which can't be precast btw), et cetera (and Transmuters and Druids need buffing more than Evokers do). There's also a benefit to the missiles themselves---if you're using Death Godlike and want to apply the Near Death bonus damage, whether they're Near Death or not will get recalculated for each missile.

Assassinate only applies to the first projectile from a spell (unless it's changed very recently). Likewise it doesn't apply to jumps from spells. (However if a spell attacks multiple targets simultaneously in AoE---fireball etc---it will apply to all those attack rolls.) It was showing up for me on the minor missile and the bounding missile. Regardless, if it applies to AoE I think it should apply to all projectiles hitting one target and all attacks in a full attack. Tested it just now, Minor Missiles and Bounding Missiles are currently applying Assassinate only to the first projectile.

Assassinate only applies to the first projectile from a spell (unless it's changed very recently). Likewise it doesn't apply to jumps from spells. (However if a spell attacks multiple targets simultaneously in AoE---fireball etc---it will apply to all those attack rolls.) Btw if you're assuming "dual wield is the default for rogues in most fantasy RPG games these days, therefore it should be the best assassinate style" that's not true of fantasy literature (or physical reality); the archetypal backstab weapon would be single weapon dagger, which is currently underpowered for assassinate (except maybe against enemies with extremely high deflection).

+2 power level can be useful for spells with short duration, but it's much less so for spells with long duration. So perhaps give long duration spells an additional bonus (would +20% effect be OP?). Also, since "each jump does 20% less damage than the last jump" makes jump spells benefit far less than projectile spells, make it so all jumps have the same damage roll (at least in most cases... and I like the idea of each jump doing more damage as in Bounding Missile though that does seem likely to be unintended).

To make focus gain less dependent on strength, but still dependent on attacking with weapons... but without favoring fast weapons or blunderbuss too much over slow weapons... one option would be to give a flat +focus/second for something like 5 seconds after every weapon attack, but that doesn't stack with itself except to increase duration. If requiring it to hit still favors fast weapons too much it can just trigger on attack (your psychic will to attack causes you to focus or whatever). Instead of having Soul Whip damage scale with Resolve (the OP's suggestion), the focus gain from Soul Whip could scale with Resolve. With casting times reduced, if you want to do a DD caster cipher you can make a few comparatively wimpy attacks from low Strength but have the focus gain end up being the same or better. And weapon attacks take the place of what for wizards/druids/priests would be casting time.

That's only with Citzal's Spirit Lance. The Beguiler subclass is supposed to be able to gain focus by using Cipher Deception powers on any enemy vulnerable to Sneak Attack, so a pure caster cipher may be doable, but last I read that was bugged. For a pure ranged weapons cipher, Ascendant lets you use Soul Whip even at full focus without having to use any powers. Its soul whip does 10% less damage but gets a +20% damage bonus at full focus. However it takes a lot of damage (about 200 with biting whip) for Ascendant to get to full focus and if you're at full focus for 5 seconds you lose all focus. Shortening casting times, increasing focus gain, improving a few durations, and fixing bugged powers (Tactical Meld fast cast for +accuracy, Pain Link, etc.) might be enough. Also make it so Mind Blades doesn't do 10% less damage per jump target, so that increased power level (from Ascendant's +3 power level at max focus, or from empower) is more useful. Once the fast-cast accuracy bonus works, and other buffs have shorter casting times (ciphers have resolve and strength buffs), the stats won't be such an issue. (If that seems too OP for multi-class then like the fast-cast +accuracy spell---which currently doesn't work at all---make it the fast-cast buffs higher level.)

The problem with Illusionist is that the bonus makes it tankier but the school restrictions make single-class illusionist suboptimal for tanking (no enchantment spells for fortitude/will defense and armor, not to mention loss of conjuration's Arcane Veil makes illusionist's deflection strictly worse than other wizards against all except veil piercing attacks). It would be cool if illusionists could actually create illusions. Like an illusory wall that enemy AI treats like a real wall. Or an illusory decoy caster that enemies run after to "attack" that can't do damage and gets dispelled on hit (maybe with a fast distant teleport ability to escape out of range of spells / slow ranged weapons while not being too OP against melee...).

Or the flavor elements don't interact enough with the mechanics of the class. For Conjuror, how about: - all familiars can fly over binding web, mentioned in description - familiars are fast cast (at most 2 per encounter so not OP) - reduce the random bonus from familiars so it's mostly flavor - instead of just adding a bonus to summons/summon weapon casting speed, have the familiar act as a sort of interdimensional conduit or aid who allows for faster summoning (and still vanishes when another creature is summoned) For Transmuter, giving the Ogre form immunity to fortitude attacks might be too much, but give it a high enough fortitude bonus (on top of the +4 strength / +4 constitution) to enter the Transmuter's own Chill Fog / Fetid Caress / Pull of Eora / Malignant Cloud without substantive harm. And Touch spells could be made more relevant by allowing them to be used in Ogre form....

And Cleaving Stance triggers on melee kill... so perhaps Assassin/Fighter rod Blast with Debilitating Strike (-5 dex -5 perception) followed by smoke veil + melee assassinate on enemy you're almost certain to kill after they're clustered together, applying the modal to the mob right before the spells/abilities hit....

After a little more testing: Ordinarily, casting a spell doesn't end engagement. But casting Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage and causing Terrified immediately ends engagement, even if the enemy doesn't run away. Bleh.

Thought I turned the AI off... but did set them to attack. Maybe if it's possible to maintain engagement without attacking?....

There's synergy in terms of using the flail/club/morningstar modals to debuff as many enemies as possible for spells/abilities to hit. You can get action speed + recovery down to 1 second using Wild Sprint + Frenzy + Dual Wield (multiclassing Fighter for the two-weapon proficiency doesn't improve speed at all, even though the UI indicates it should stack it doesn't improve the final number). Wild Sprint lets you avoid disengagement attacks while you're doing it and run around whacking as many enemies as possible (won't be able to debuff an entire mob in 6 seconds but the weaker enemies are less likely to need debuffing). Dragon Leap would be good too if it didn't have a 3 second recovery time.. When I read that Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage (Terrified) was working to cause disengagement attacks (when engaged enemies run away) I thought that could be used to trigger a mass of disengagement attacks and apply the modal rapidly to mobs (one of the upgrades to Barbaric Yell grants +3 engagement, along with thick skinned that should be +4 engagement) but disengagement attacks don't seem to be triggering against terrified enemies who break engagement anymore (though I'm not 100% certain yet...).

After a bit of testing it seems that disengagement attacks are no longer being triggered when Terrified enemies break engagement to run away. It was said to be working before, but now I'm pretty sure it isn't. If an intentional change, I really dislike it....

Looks like Chanters can handle all afflictions except Confused. (For the 2nd and 3rd tier Intellect afflictions---Charmed and Dominated---they can use Charmed, assuming a second Charmed will overcome Dominated... though the twice-Charmed character wouldn't be able to use abilities.) Chants: Resistance to resolve and constitution afflictions Resistance to strength and dexterity afflictions +fortitude and +will defense Invocations: Immune to dexterity afflictions (+ strength inspiration when dexterity affliction "cleared") Immune to resolve afflictions Strength and resolve inspirations Dexterity and perception inspirations

Just tested Priest's Consecrated Ground---at 20 resolve and level 9 it heals 10.9 per second per character in AoE. Whereas the 30 damage shield only absorbs 30 damage total....

Usually to reduce recovery time, but you have to wait before accumulating more phrases anyway so I agree. Anyway, what I meant was that I hadn't tested it with heavy armor and that probably makes it good enough. But probably not as good as Nature Godlike Lifegiver et cetera....

Yes, but it's 5th tier... and is it good enough to make single-class Troubadour worthwhile? One other nice thing about single-class Troubadour is that once they start with 4 phrases they can summon skeletons as quickly as a Beckoner---with half the DPS, half the skeletons, but sturdier skeletons (harder to wipe out with AoE). Start: 4 phrases---skeletons cost Troubadour 4 After 12 seconds (more with high int): you've gotten 4 phrases again, can start casting skeletons again Skeletons last base of 12 seconds if not killed beforehand. Better once Ancient Brittle Bones is functional... I did some small test, surrounding my chanter with 6 tiger, he barely get any damage. Absorb 30 damage per 3 second = OP. Maybe in heavy armor with shield... naked with maxed resolve it wasn't enough to avoid taking significant damage as solo tank in the encounters near the village. Or maybe I've just been spoiled by my unkillable naked death godlike Saint Elga (just has to watch out for Mage Slayers).... And if you're using Brisk Recitation you probably can't use it with the affliction-resisting chants... unless you time the chant sequence perfectly in advance and the enemy AI casts the afflictions while you've got the other chants up. Every other tank class gets passives (or quick casts) for resisting or defending against afflictions, as well as interesting abilities that can be used simultaneously... there are still the invocations though. And it's AoE so better as support for primary tank....

Yes, but it's 5th tier... and is it good enough to make single-class Troubadour worthwhile? One other nice thing about single-class Troubadour is that once they start with 4 phrases they can summon skeletons as quickly as a Beckoner---with half the DPS, half the skeletons, but sturdier skeletons (harder to wipe out with AoE). Start: 4 phrases---skeletons cost Troubadour 4 After 12 seconds (more with high int): you've gotten 4 phrases again, can start casting skeletons again Skeletons last base of 12 seconds if not killed beforehand. Better once Ancient Brittle Bones is functional...

At level 9, Her Courage Thick as Steel absorbs 30 damage / tick before disintegrating... so 30 every 3 seconds for Troubadour with Brisk Recitation. Not affected by resolve. Not as awful as Ancient Memory but still.... [Edit: tried the invocation that causes Charmed again and it worked, maybe it was reduced to Confused before by an Inspiration the enemies already had?....] The invocations that cause Frightened are okay if you want to keep enemies from using abilities, but unlike Terrified it doesn't cause them to run away. The non-offensive invocations and the defensive chants seem to be suggesting Chanter as alternative to priest/paladin for dealing with afflictions, healing, reviving the dead, etc.... how are they at that? Can remove all except Intellect afflictions (and use the +will chant to help the party defend against those), can meta-game to match chants to the afflictions the enemies use (if they're not using afflitions for multiple stats...). Biggest limitation being slow accumulation of phrases except for skald---which implies that skald could be the best for non-offensive invocations too....

Invocation description says it's supposed to cause Charmed, but it actually only causes Confused.... Edit: Tried it again and it caused Charmed. Maybe the previous enemies had an Inspiration that downgraded Charmed to Confused?... well I'm confused....

Currently it applies Shaken but not Frightened... bleh. I like Frightened.