dunehunter

Cripple Strike is probably too strong for a 1 cost ability now, better than most of rogue's rest ones..

I don't understand why players complaining trickster is weak. Wall of Many Colors is one of the best CC spell in the game. And you can cast it like a wizard, weak? hell no. Illusionist is weak because all wizard subclasses(except evoker) is weaker than non-subclass wizard, but it's not the only issue of illusionist.

Then stuff like Zealous Focus stacked with Warrior Stance and a nerf would be the result. Not good for single classes. The non-stacking of modals / putting modals into the active category is the better solution in my opinion. I agree, the activate ability not stack rule can make Single class more attracting. As a Crusader you're already able to stack passive to get all 6 Stats Resistance, making activate ability stack will make them too OP.

I think a future patch will mostly aim at improving underwhelming things in the game so I'm not so worried about Cipher.

Except all of those abilities require repositioning and time that you would otherwise spend doing direct damage. From a DPS perspective, there is no comparison between a dual wielding rogue using full attack abilities (which have gotten a +25% damage bonus) against flanked targets every ~2 seconds (even faster for streetfighters) vs. an assassin spending ~2 seconds triggering smoke veil and repositioning for a backstab. If a streetfighter grazes with devastating blow, it's not so much of a loss because they'll be following up with another attack immediately to give them a second chance to do damage and trigger the effect. If an assassin grazes with a backstab, they've just wasted as much as 4 seconds of combat time because they'll have to stealth and reposition again - that's around the time it takes for a wizard to launch a fireball. There is just not enough of a damage differential to make up for the time differential. If a single-class rogue has to spend time during combat stealthing and repositioning and still can't backstab most enemies down to bloodied or below, what's the point? ------------- Some possible alternatives: 1. Add an "Improved Backstab" ability at PL 4 or 5 that increases damage and applies a 3 second stun (accuracy vs. fort) to allow the rogue to make a follow-up attack. 2. Make backstab innate the way it is in every other CRPG and have it grow to a set max damage level determined by subclass. 3. Make "assassinate" guarantee that attacks from stealth critically hit; maybe balance by removing the current crit damage bonus. After playing a high-accuracy assassin in 1.0 and 1.1, it's kind of galling how often "assassinate" currently doesn't land. 4. Reduce recovery when invisible/in stealth. 5. Leave backstab at 100% but reduce Smoke Veil's cost to 1 guile. I can't think of any other ability that costs 2 resource pool for a 5 second effect while offering zero direct damage or debuff capability. That’s why I never pick smoke veil, I only use shadowing beyond. Smoke veil = dps lose, shadowing beyond is positive gain. But of u can pick smoke veil to dodge some single target spells like missile spells. That’s a different story tho.

I post my thought here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/101940-engagedisengage-is-a-mess/ @Boeroer, hopefully it gives u clearer understanding about the current system.

I will first list a few fact: A Stunned, Paralyzed, Blinded, Terrified enemy CANNOT be engaged. Flanked and Perception Affliction are tied to each other. So if in a case when Flanked is removed, Perception Affliction will be removed at the same time. Persistent Distraction will cause Flanked when engage enemy, but when leave/disengage it will remove Flanked on enemy. Combine 2) and 3) Persistent Distraction will remove Blinded. Combine 1) and 3) You cannot put Flanked on enemy who is CCed, because CCed enemies are immune to engagement, thus Persistent Distraction become useless. Edit: I also want to point out, disengage has a time delay when triggered. You will not immediately disengage when u try to leave the circle of enemy. And this will mess up with AI so Disengagement attack is not triggered. Let's imagine this case 2: You are currently engaged with an enemy. Now you try to run away from the enemy. You are about to move out of enemy's engagement circle. Enemy's AI see you are running away, so it decide to chase you. Enemy moved. Enemy lose disengagement attack because a moving target cannot trigger disengagement attack?? Hopefully the dev can polish the engage/disengage system better. I assume the CC enemy immune to engagement is because in Beta, there is a combo Ryngrim's Replusive Visage + Unbroken. So the dev makes CCed enemy immune to engagement. I don't think this is a good solution, maybe a short-term one but not elegant. The case 2 is easy to fix to, remove the disengagement delay(make the engagement circle smaller?), let disengagement attack trigger more easily.

Maybe, but does Offensive Parry? Riposte and Offensive Parry only get triggered against melee attacks though (I thought). Anyhow - even if I like the concept I won't follow this "Disengagment-to-Offensive Parry"-path. It's way to fidgety and unrealiable. Applying Arterial Strike and then moving away (for example with high defense or even immunity against disengement or Escape) or casting Rymrgand's Repulsive Visage to make them flee is much more fun and reliable, too with the WotEP. My guess is this is a bug caused by the code change to make terrified enemy immune to engagement. Now actually you cannot engage a CCed enemy. Blinded, Stunned, Terrifed or etc. Engage/Disengage, Flank, Blinded, Persistent Distraction, all these things are messed up and make each other not working.

Haha thanks for the testing, so these works sometimes and sometimes not? Weird enough I think. Because I’m pretty sure I see my character use offensive parry when he disengaged.

1. Offensive Parry works with disengagement attacks. The problem is disengagement attack doesn't trigger properly sometimes. 2. Shadowing Beyond doesn't provide u 10 seconds' deflection, it ends as soon as you are out of invisibility.

Same as Terrifying Gaze from Lich. Any single-target ability will be retaliated by gaze.

Imo turn all abilities to primary attack is a wrong way to balance DW and 2H, full attack abilities cost source thus has limited use. Monk’s wound abilities are primary attack only because they are spammable, while stunning attack is full attack because it’s limited in source. It would be easier to give 2h some extra pen and double their enchantment bonus. Their enchantment material cost is doubled, fair enough to give them double bonus.

+1 I also think sword shield style adds reflex based on your shield bonus plus additional 6.

I believe that's the case. I was dead worried about my templar of berath and ran some combats in 1.1beta: every time I used flames of devotion + spiritual weapon on a even armored enemy, corrode damage was higher. At character level 6, power level 2, Corrode lash is doing 30% dmg on normal attacks. Multiplicative. Btw, empower spiritual weapon has no effect on item scaling of spiritual weapon. Did u see summon weapon lash scales? Or u just guess? Because lash damage is bugged when over penetrating.

It’s just scales bad with current system. Imagine you have already get some exceptional weapon at lvl 5, then u decide to cast firebrand and you get a weapon with 6 penetration. Congrats u waste 3 sec to summon that crap.

The thing I don’t understand is the nerf if priest spiritual weapons, 50% lash to 20% is a bit too much, nobody use summon weapons now. I tried both Firebrand and Berath sword, your weapon get no penetration bonus until like lvl 5 or something like that. 6 base Pen... I tried a few times with no Pen then I switch to fine weapons. Both are already bad because they are 2h weapons. In summary, they scales slower than enemy armor scales, or your real weapon pen scales. Bad weapon type, not impressive bonus and 3 sec cast time makes it very bad, even It’s instant cast I’m not sure if I wanna use them. But maybe they are considered as ok for lvl 2 spells.

Ranger is the king of accuracy in DF.

But...but this will nerf the only meaning of 2h weapons

That's just miserable! Why shouldn't it be multiplicative? I did some math and it looks like it will still be a damage increase, albeit a slight one, for most characters until you stack up pretty significant damage boosts through gear and abilities. By the time you're getting over +100% increased damage, savage attack starts to look bad, though it's still a boost if your accuracy is high. But that's not taking into account any reason you'd want a high hit rate than simple damage. Missing not only means you don't do damage, it also means you waste class resources when your abilities miss, and you don't land special effects attached to your strikes like interrupts or debuffs. This would be an interesting modal if the boost were multiplicative. You have to choose between damage or reliability and resource efficiency. As it is, it seems rare that many builds would want to use savage attack past the early game. If you play on PoTD, I'd never recommend to use savage attack in early game, the accuracy is already very bad and u want to get -10 from savage?

That dragon fight is ridiculously easy, Imo dragons should be faster, and more deadly. Now they are just a chunk of meatshield. Also boss should regenerate Concentration every a few seconds to prevent being Knockdown locked.

Stalkers link is bugged right now, it gives u permanent +10 accuracy no matter if u have pet or not.

Additive.

Empower is a broken win button right now, and I find that not using it makes the game a lot more fun. I really don't know who thought it's a good idea - hey let's let a level 10 guy cast something at level 20 basically once every single battle! That’s caster only, empower a meleer ability is not worth it except inner death.

A soulbound dagger for paladin is also an unique taste...

I still think great sword has an original pen of 6 is horrible, unusable for any class without +pen in PoTD. Slash + pierce is a very very bad combo. I think Savage Attack modal should gives +2 Pen. +30% damage is very bad in trade with 10 accuracy.