Project for a Balance Mod

[Phenomenum]

14 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

Mind if I do then ? Just wanted to avoid overlap.

Yes, of course. Overall, i think rangers are fine with ranged weapons, but melee rangers need some tweaks.

[Elric Galad]

Okay, so here we go for a new update :

Reminder : the changes in red are in the optional additional package.

E) Barbarian
 

Mage Slayer :

Removed the Spell Resistance entirely.
Added -25% Hostile and Beneficial effect duration.
The purpose was to make Mage Slayer a bit less useless vs non-caster, and avoid the Random Factor from friendly spells (especially this critical healing you don't want to miss


Corpse Eater :

Greatly buffed special food (and also replaced bonus MIG and malus INT by more varied effects) :
Kith Meat : -5 Diplomacy, -15% Damages received, +3 Corpse Eater PL
Corpse Loaf : -3 Diplomacy, +3 Health per 6s, +10 Fortitude, +4 Corpse Eater PL
Forbidden Pie : -3 Diplomacy, +4 Resolve, Mind Affliction Resistance, +5 Corpse Eater PL
In addition, Kith Meat and Vessel Flesh can be bought from Vithrack and Imp vendors (Kith Meat price set to 100 gold)
The purpose was to change Corpse Eater to more powerful effects for increased cost. Their food is very powerful but not that much more than high quality food, which balance the effect IMO.


Instruments of Boundless Rage :
3 Rage -> 2 Rage
Added Fire Keyword


Heart of Fury :
4 Rage -> 3 Rage (aligned with whirling Strikes)


Savage Defiance & Upgrades :
15s -> 25s
Stalwart Defiance : changed to Gain Concentration every 6s


Leap & Panther's Leap :
6s Dazed -> 4s Stun
Dragon Leap :
6s Dazed -> 6s Stun (because panther's leap does more damages)
Panther's and Dragon Leap are now correctly tagged as Leap upgrades (which basically makes them scale as PL5 abilities -> efefctive +3PL)


Carnage :
Can now Crit (so can apply Blood Frenzy )
Accurate Carnage :
+5 Accuracy -> +10 Accuracy


Blood Surge :
25% Chance -> 50% Chance, but only apply to Hostile Targets (same change as Community Patch did for its Paladin equivalent)


Blood Thirst :
Cleaned the mess that causes it to proc twice on the same target and prevented it from being stackable with Crushing Blow.
Now proc only once except sometimes when 2 targets are killed in a row (it applies twice then, cause Recovery is cleared before second target is killed, so you keep one charge)


Barbaric Blow & upgrades :
Removed the PR and Damages bonus to make the ability more focused.
Now Barbaric Blow & Upgrades do :
- 75% Hit to Crit chances 
- +75% Crit damages bonus (note : Crushing Blow do get this bonus, even if it does not get Crit Damages Bonus in the base game due to a bug)
- +200% Carnage AoE (so roughly 2.5m radius instead of 1.5m)
- Barbaric Smash : no refund, but cost reduced to 1 Rage
- Crushing Blow : no recovery (not conditional anymore)



Other Changes from previous versions :

(Based on feedback from @Heukalyptus )

Pet Abilities :
Added Beast Keyword to all pet abilities cast by the Ranger so they benefit from equipment with bonus to Beast abilities.
Applied to Heal Companion, Revive Companion, Bonded Fury, Master's Call, Shadowed Hunters & their upgrades.
Not applied to Takedown and Play Dead cause they are cast by pet themselves (and PL can be detrimental to Play Dead cause it rise its duration)


Bonded Fury :
Range 6m -> 10m (aligned with other Pet abilities)


Power Stike & Inspired Strike :
Stun & Staggered effects set to 10s
Removed the additional Duration of Inspired Strike buff.
Inspired Strike bonus damages : 200% -> 300%
(So Inspired Strike is more focused on Single Target damages)


 

BalancePolishingModBuffs.zip BalancePolishingModNerfs.zip

Edited March 22, 2020 by Elric Galad

[Powerotti]

I don't like -25% beneficial effect duration, but forbidden fist/mage slayer looks tempting now.

Forbidden pie +5PL = 25% more multiplicative dmg to skills. That's a lot, so basically use HoF -> eat remains -> profit. If you kill many targets with one skill (Hof), did every of them gives you Blood Thirst effect, so you can eat multiple corpses in a row without recovery?

11 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

+200% Carnage AoE (so roughly 2.5m radius instead of 1.5m)

 There is some mysterious calculations

1.5m +200% x 1.5m = 4.5m

1.5 x 200% = 3m

[Elric Galad]

41 minutes ago, Powerotti said:

I don't like -25% beneficial effect duration, but forbidden fist/mage slayer looks tempting now.

I know you didnt' like it, but if it gives you idea, it's nice.

Quote

Forbidden pie +5PL = 25% more multiplicative dmg to skills. That's a lot, so basically use HoF -> eat remains -> profit. If you kill many targets with one skill (Hof), did every of them gives you Blood Thirst effect, so you can eat multiple corpses in a row without recovery?

Still "cost you" +1 Rage (so in term of cost efficieny, it is still a bit below, but lead to higher DPS) and "Food Slot" which brings nice stuff such as Mohara's Wrap :

-20% Recovery Time, -30% Hostile effect duration, +4 Might

Your point about Blood Thirst might be true.

Consider that HoF is pretty much the most optimal ability for Corpse Eater. Driving Roar (arguably the best SC barbarian ability) is still quite meh with +5PL for its cost. But I think it's good if Corpse Eater become optimal for something.

I'm not set about the +5PL though. I'm waiting for people feedback, the value is very easy to change anyway.

Quote

 There is some mysterious calculations

1.5m +200% x 1.5m = 4.5m

1.5 x 200% = 3m

Because it's +200% Area.
(Pi*1,5m²)*(1+200%)~2,5m²

Edited March 23, 2020 by Elric Galad

[Powerotti]

52 minutes ago, Elric Galad said:

Because it's +200% Area.
(Pi*1,5m²)*(1+200%)~2,5m²

Ok, my bad , it's indeed 2.5980762113533m

 

Carnage also scales with PL (in terms of %weapon base damage and +5% skill dmg per PL, i think) and can crit now, thus making Corpse Eater very efficent solo barb. Empowered Hof, Barbaric Retaliation, Vengeful Defeat - all those skills benefit from increase PL, cause carnage, and doesn't benefit much from atkspeed (lack of mohora/battered ysae).

Did you test how darryn's voulge works with critting carnage? Without this, carnage applies Static Thunder, but only weapon can crit and release stacks. If carnage crits, will it work like weapon crit?

Edited March 23, 2020 by Powerotti

[Elric Galad]

5 hours ago, Powerotti said:

Ok, my bad , it's indeed 2.5980762113533m

 

Carnage also scales with PL (in terms of %weapon base damage and +5% skill dmg per PL, i think)

it's +10% per PL of 33% weapon damage. So for 5 PL, it's 16% base weapon damage which is indeed powerful, but not broken IMHO.

Quote

 

and can crit now, 

Which is basically +25% damages. Raw damages don't benefit from increased PR. That's why I was comfortable with adding Crit to Carnage. It was mostly a buff for Blood Frenzy line. 

Quote

 

thus making Corpse Eater very efficent solo barb. Empowered Hof, Barbaric Retaliation, Vengeful Defeat - all those skills benefit from increase PL, cause carnage, and doesn't benefit much from atkspeed (lack of mohora/battered ysae).

Well, maybe, but I won't fill that comfortable with +1 Rage per ability (especially Shouts and Frenzy which are very important abilities IMHO) when facing long duration boss or "non-consumable" crowds. SC barbarian is already very strong in optimal conditions (akka the "Boeroer clumped zombie party") anyway.
Still not convinced it is a more OP subclass than Nalzpaca for example (which is also very meh against some groups).

Quote

Did you test how darryn's voulge works with critting carnage? Without this, carnage applies Static Thunder, but only weapon can crit and release stacks. If carnage crits, will it work like weapon crit?

I haven't tested it. I think it should work. Honnestly it sounds cleaner this way.

Edited March 23, 2020 by Elric Galad

[Powerotti]

I didn't said it's too strong, I just consider possibilities. +5PL that stacks with everything, sounds like quite decent bonus
 

 

 

[Elric Galad]

New Update : Wiz, Cipher and Various stuff

 

F) Wizard

 

Wizards are of course a pretty good class, but a couple of specialist aren't that great. I simply changed their unique abilities to make them more relevant. I also buffed the spells that applied Confusion because this status if clearly meh.

Conjurer :
Summon Familiar cast time : 3s/4s -> 0.5s/0s
It's not very well known, but Familiars provide a +1 stacking and generic PL Bonus, as well as random +3 to one stat and a minor bonus. IHMO, this is good enough to justify the subclass because such a bonus is very rare, and also precious for multiclass

Transmuter :
Form of the Fearsome Brute Armor : +100% Recovery -> +20% Recovery
Form of the Fearsome Brute Fist : 13-25 damages, 6PR -> 18-24 damages, 7PR
Form of the Fearsome Brute duration : 30s -> 20s
Form of the Fearsome Brute duration : +1 Engagement -> +3
This basically makes this spell almost as good as Citzal's Enchanted Armory, except for slightly slower attack rate., but with more Engagements, and of course inability to cast spells. This ensures this ability will never be completely obsolete. As I feared it would be too powerful early game, I tuned down its duration. This would also help preventing inability to cast spells to be too comitting to use in the late game.
Note : these changes also apply to Form of the Fearsome Brute Potions

Bewildering Spectacle :
Cast time : 3s/4s -> 0.5s/3s (work at least as a quick way to debuff casters, charm intellect-weak foes and de-buff Intellect Inspiration. 

Confusion :
Added Interrupt on Hit
AoE : 2.5m -> 5m
This is basically a way to debuff a big group of casters
Note : these changes also apply to Confusion Scrolls, Wael's priest and Trickster's versions.


 

G) Cipher

Cipher doesn't need too much changes, but a couple of Single Target Debuffs really needed a bit of Help.

Wild Mind :
Miscast : set to foe only, but damages lowered to 0.5 x Focus. This should make Serafen more user friendly. 

Antipathetic Field :
Changed to affect main target.
This makes this spell more convenient to use. It is also an indirect buff to Single Target Ciphers, since each Antipathetic Field triggers 1000 Cuts.

Tenuous grasp :
0.5s/4s cast time -> 0.5s/2s : to be used as a chep enabler (eat that quick -20 Will).

Fractured Volition :
Change Weakened for Enfeebled. Enfeebled is a pretty rare Affliction, and I think it would work well as a Single Target Debuff

Haunting Chain :
Duration 20s -> 40s. It will be an extremely potent Single Target CC. Note that even a Resolve Resistant boss would suffer from it cause Frightened is very strong debuff on its own. 

Soul Ignition :
Target Fortitude -> Target Will (due to Cipher's passive, this is a buff)
16 damages per tick -> 20 damages 
Duration : 15s -> 18s
At first, I thought I should make Soul Ignition "more different" from Disintegrate. Then I realized that since DoT don't stack with themselves, having 2 DoT with similar effects still matter if you want to stack damages.  A Cipher build focused on Single Target DoT could pick this one on PL3 to wait for Disintegrate, and stack them at high level. So I simply ensured Soul Ignition was a bit more "cost efficient" than disintigrate (since it isn't action-economy efficient because of cast time) and I changed target defense to make it still a bit different.

 

Various Stuff :


Adra Ban in shop :
Added Adra Ban to Una's Shop, for 10000 gold per unit.
Since there's enough Adra Ban for any planned party build anyway, I thought it was too annoying to have to count them in advance and avoid upgrading interesting secondary items.

Binding Block :
+15 Accuracy -> +20
To align with other Accuracy Buffing modals (this one is also conditional so it derserved a little help). SInce it was easily the worst Shield Modal anyway, I thought it was good to buff it a little. Should work well on frontliners that don't attack very often.

Cuttlefish nerf (included in the mod secondary package) :
+1 Crew Morale -> +0 Morale
Cuttlefish was a bit too optimal for feeding crew (only 7 gold food to provide +1 Morale !). I think using other food should be favored !


BalancePolishingModBuffs.zip

BalancePolishingModNerfs.zip

Edited March 27, 2020 by Elric Galad

[Boeroer]

Conjurer: biggest problem with the Familiar is that it can't be used if you want to conjure other summons. It gets replaced. What's a Conjurer who can either have a familiar or another summon? A dilettant?

Solution would be to make the familiar independent from the summoning limit (see Many Lives Pass By phrase of Chanter). Or to give the Conjurer the ability to have two wizard summons at the same time (familiar + phantom or even two phantoms). I'd prefer the first one.

Antipathetic Field: too good then. Would need dmg tuned down.

[Boeroer]

Thinking more about it: Conjurer benefits the least from his PL boost because summons and summoned weapons only scale their duration with PL, not their stats. 

So maybe my second idea was better: allowing two wizard summons instead of only one would be a very interesting thing to have. It's not as powerful as Beckoner was in the early days because you'd still need two castings (two spell uses, two times investing casting time etc.).

Does anybody know if that's an easy thing to mod? I mean the general summons limit in the first place? And then maybe only make an exception to wizard summons (else we'd have a Conjurer/Beckoner with 24 sekeletons etc.)? Maybe you can give a certain value to each conjurer summon so that it is allowed as a second summon? No idea... 

Edited March 28, 2020 by Boeroer

[Elric Galad]

Just now, Boeroer said:

Thinking more about it: Conjurer benefits the least from his PL boost because summons and summoned weapons only scale their duration with PL, not their stats. 

So maybe my second idea was better: allowing two wizard summons instead of only one would be a very interesting thing to have. It's not as powerful as Beckoner was in the early days because you'd still need two castings (two spell uses, two times investing casting time etc.).

Does anybody know if that's an easy thing to mod? I mean the general summons limit in the first place? And then maybe only make an exception to wizard summons (else we'd have a Conjurer/Beckoner with 24 sekeletons etc.)? Maybe you can give a certain value to each conjurer summon so that it is allowed as a second summon? No idea... 

I have juste checked the file
Summon limit is coded per ability, so it would require duplicating all sumons for summoners. Weird interaction with Maura Tentacles. Even weirder when considering Multiclass summons.
Summons counting for limit seems to be ruled by a parameter which is different for familiar.

"SummonType": "NotSummoned",

This is most likely the easiest way to do.

1 hour ago, Boeroer said:

 

Antipathetic Field: too good then. Would need dmg tuned down.

That's fair. Probably aiming at something like 4-6 or 5-7.

[Boeroer]

8 minutes ago, Elric Galad said:

Summon limit is coded per ability, so it would require duplicating all sumons for summoners. Weird interaction with Maura Tentacles. Even weirder when considering Multiclass summons.

I don't quite understand...

So let's say Essential Phantom has its own variable that determines that it replaces every other summon (of the same "category")? Or how is that done per ability?

[Elric Galad]

39 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

I don't quite understand...

So let's say Essential Phantom has its own variable that determines that it replaces every other summon (of the same "category")? Or how is that done per ability?

What seems to me is that every ability does 2 things :
- Count itself as summon (or not in the case of Many Lives and various boss summons such as Magma Dragon Oozes)
- Set max summon to its own limit (which most likely doesn't count for Many Lives). Like 3 for Wurms or Call of the Primoridals

There's no different categories. Buth that's what I'm guessing. Need to test a bit.

[Boeroer]

3 minutes ago, Elric Galad said:

- Count itself as summon (or not in the case of Many Lives and various boss summons such as Magma Dragon Oozes)
- Set max summon to its own limit

So what would happen if you set "max summon to its limit" to two with Essential Phantom?

[Elric Galad]

Just now, Boeroer said:

So what would happen if you set "max summon to its limit" to two with Essential Phantom?

Probably you can cast another essential phantom and it won't unsummon the first.

But Consider Maura's Tentacle now. The limit has to be set to 6.
But if you cast Maura's Tentacles first, and then Essential Phantom. The limit is set to 2 : Essential Phantom is summoned, then all Tentacles are unsommuned but 1. See the mess ?
And I'm not even taking multiclass into account.

Once more, that's what I'm guessing. I would have to test it in game, but it seems unlikely to work.

[Heukalyptus]

On 3/22/2020 at 11:04 PM, Elric Galad said:

Savage Defiance & Upgrades :
15s -> 25s
Stalwart Defiance : changed to Gain Concentration every 6s

Typo, you changed Savage Courage upgrade, not Stalwart Defiance upgrade. I would find it more elegant if Savage Courage gave a Resolve Inspiration (Resolution T2 or Courageous T3), instead of the stand-alone Concentration every 6s

 

On 3/22/2020 at 11:04 PM, Elric Galad said:

Leap & Panther's Leap

I used Leap mainly as a mobility tool, I find the Stun buff unnecessary to make the skill good, but whatever. 

 

On 3/22/2020 at 11:04 PM, Elric Galad said:

Crushing Blow : no recovery (not conditional anymore)

The skill tooltip still shows a bonus 2P on this upgrade - is this a typo or ?

 

14 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

Wild Mind :
Miscast : set to foe only, but damages lowered to 0.5 x Focus. This should make Serafen more user friendly. 

 

On 3/22/2020 at 11:04 PM, Elric Galad said:

Pet Abilities

Sweet, I need to try out a Ancient Druid/Ranger now, see how it plays out ! I just remembered that the Ghostheart subclass also have pets summoning abilities, how do you feel to have them match the others Pets skills (keywords and range) ?

[Elric Galad]

6 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Antipathetic Field: too good then. Would need dmg tuned down.

OK, I'm cancelling Antipathetic Field change. This would lead to an ability too different from its original purpose. 

5 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

I have juste checked the file
Summon limit is coded per ability, so it would require duplicating all sumons for summoners. Weird interaction with Maura Tentacles. Even weirder when considering Multiclass summons.
Summons counting for limit seems to be ruled by a parameter which is different for familiar.

"SummonType": "NotSummoned",

This is most likely the easiest way to do.

Nah, it doesn't work like That. I don't know for now how to make Familiar not count.

I keep the orginal design. Insta-cast summon has its use and +2 PL still works for various spells such as Web, Wall damages, etc... Enchanting has a similar problem anyway. I guess it's not ideal but my purpose is not to change completely the game anyway. 

2 hours ago, Heukalyptus said:

Typo, you changed Savage Courage upgrade, not Stalwart Defiance upgrade. I would find it more elegant if Savage Courage gave a Resolve Inspiration (Resolution T2 or Courageous T3), instead of the stand-alone Concentration every 6s

Well, once more, the original ability didn't provide Resolve. Also similarly to Wild Sprint immunity to Engagement (which could have been provided through Swift), I wanted the ability to work even in case of Resolve Debuff. There's a couple of abilities that follow this kind of design, so I left this for the sake of diversity.

Quote

I used Leap mainly as a mobility tool, I find the Stun buff unnecessary to make the skill good, but whatever. 

Unecessary maybe, but I'm very concerned by the fact that 2+ costing abilities should provide sort of powerful effects since martial power pool is limited. Barbarian already has Wild Sprint as a 1-rage mobility ability so I wanted Leap to provide something different.

Quote

The skill tooltip still shows a bonus 2P on this upgrade - is this a typo or ?

It's a bird,
It's a plane,
Nay,
It's a bug => Corrected in next version

Quote

Sweet, I need to try out a Ancient Druid/Ranger now, see how it plays out ! I just remembered that the Ghostheart subclass also have pets summoning abilities, how do you feel to have them match the others Pets skills (keywords and range) ?

Range => Well, the idea of Range Buff was to enable handling a 10m away pet. This would be different, since it determines the initial position of the pet, not how far you can manage it. Tactictically 10m summon feels a bit "too convenient", so I'm not fond of it.
Keyword => Technically it's a Spirit ^^ . More seriously, I think Ghost Heart is fine as it is. Don't want to overbuff them. 

Edited March 28, 2020 by Elric Galad

[Elric Galad]

OKay now speaking about Smoke Veil / Shadowing Beyond :

Let's start by reminding how Shadowing Beyond & Enduring Shadows work. It's weird :

The question is what to do about Shadowing Beyond & Enduring Shadows incosistent Deflection bonus : delete it completely or apply until the end of duration ?? (That is the only consistent behavior). Once more, I have no idea what the Devs intended. 

Note that I want to Mod this ability line to 2 Guile. Priest can cast it as a Tier IV ability so I believe that it is the same level of ressource. I can't imagine Priest casting a 3-ressource ability as a Tier IV Spell...

How would you feel about Shadowing Beyond costing 2 Guiles and applying Deflection bonus for whole Duration ?
It think it's strong, maybe a bit OP but my main Concern would be for Enduring Shadow : 20s +50 Def & Swift would be very strong for 2 Guiles
I would consider lowering the Duration of Enduring Shadows in this case.

Another possibility would be to Lower Shadowing Beyond Deflection bonus if applied for the whole Duration.

I wanted to set Smoke Veil to 1 Guile. How would it compare to Shadowing Beyond ? Should I remove the recovery time altogether ?

[Boeroer]

Shadowing Beyond et al. are upgrades of Escape. I would give the upgrades at least the same duration of the deflection bonus that Escape has and decouple it completely from the invisibility.

"What they intended" - I guess they just screwed this up a bit.

 

Edited March 29, 2020 by Boeroer

[Elric Galad]

11 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Shadowing Beyond et al. are upgrades of Escape. I would give the upgrades at least the same duration of the deflection bonus that Escape has and decouple it completely from the invisibility.

Technically, they're not. Not more that Smoke Cloud is an upgrade from Smoke Veil. So they could have common points, but is not required to be a strict upgrade.

That's why what I'm considering is to have a lower Deflection bonus but applied for the whole Duration. Note that a reason for this is that it would be much easier to code (especially because there are many versions of the ability for Imps, Xaurips...). But also much clearer on Tooltip.


What I'm considering :

Smoke Veil : 1 Guile. Main benefit is to evade danger, apply backstab and Assassin passive. Does it require lowering recovery ? I think not really. 1 Guile spamming is enough.

Shadowing Beyond : 2 Guiles, Def apply for whole Duration but only +25 Deflection

Enduring Shadows : 2 Guiles, Def/Swift apply for whole Duration but only +25 Deflection, still 20s

Edited March 29, 2020 by Elric Galad

[Boeroer]

Not technically, but which player will know that? They are upgrades visually as well as logically. The implementation doesn't matter for the common player.

If I pick an upgrade to an ability like Escape which lets me move around in a blink and gives me a x sec deflection bonus - and then the upgrade also lets me teleport around and gives my a deflection bonus (seems to be the same stuff als Escape so far) AND makes me invisible (which seems to be the upgrade, right?) - why would I assume the deflection bonus ends with the invisibility? It's neither intuitive nor logical. I would assume it works the same as Escape with an added invisivility. 

Edited March 29, 2020 by Boeroer

[Elric Galad]

3 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Not technically, but which player will know that? They are upgrades visually as well as logically. The implementation doesn't matter for the common player.

If I pick an upgrade to an ability like Escape which lets me move around in a blink and gives me a x sec deflection bonus - and then the upgrade also lets me teleport around and gives my a deflection bonus (seems to be the same stuff als Escape so far) AND makes me invisible (which seems to be the upgrade, right?) - why would I assume the deflection bonus ends with the invisibility? It's neither intuitive nor logical. I would assume it works the same as Escape with an added invisivility. 

Yup, but I don't want to make Deflection to end with Invisibility (which would be very weird as well as completely useless).
I just want Deflection value to be tuned down if it applies for 10s (20s for Enduring Shadows) instead of 3s. The value will be clearly written in the ability description anyway. Furthermore, if the player expect to have still a Deflection bonus applied when Invisibility brake and be protected, he will. He will just be a little less protected than what he expects (if he hasn't read the description).

A similar thing happen for Smoke Cloud : it does not provide the Invisibility from Smoke Veil. But Invisibility does not appear in the description either.

Edited March 29, 2020 by Elric Galad

[Elric Galad]

H) Rogue

Rogue is the perfect example of a perfectly good class with a lot of subpar abilities IMO.
I really think that their non-attack abilities are mostly overcosted, so you can be perfectly fine by only spaming crippling strike, which is sad. Some of their strike are okayish (Sap), broken (perplexing sap) or meh (strike the bell line) so I've reworked them a bit.
Subclasses needed a bit of rework too : Tricksters gain too much for what they sacrifice and Streetfighter sare too abusable with Blunderbuss modal. So these 2 are among my few nerfs.

Reminder : changes in red are either nerfs or complete rework, so I've include them in the secondary package of the Mod.

Trickster :
Sneak Attack 20% + 5%/PL -> 10% + 5%/PL
Trickster gains 7-9 abilities for a bit less sneak attack, so I think the value they had on Game Launch (when they had less abilities) was fine.

Streefighter :
Blunderbuss Modal : Distracted for 10s -> -10 Accuracy for 10s
This was so easy to activate that it basically removed all the fun of the subclass. There might be other way to activate Streetfighter, but none is so easy.

Smoke Veil :
2 Guile -> 1 Guile (overcosted)

Shadow Step & Upgrade :
3 Guile -> 2 Guile
Paralysis 6s -> 8s (6s Paralysis wasn't worth 2 Guile)

Shadowing Beyond & Upgrade :
3 Guile -> 2 Guile
+50 Deflection that was weirdly cancelled on 1st or 2nd attack (without any explaination) -> +30 Deflection for whole duration EDIT : tuned down to +25 for next version.

Smoke Cloud & Upgrades :
Interrupt on Hit -> Interrupt on Graze
This ability was mostly fine, but I tend to think 2-cost martial abilities need to feel strong or unique.  Tier 1 inspirations felt a bit weak. Pernicious Cloud is nice but a bit inconvenient, and does not feel that great compared to Plague of Insects for example. So I simply added a better Interrupt. AoE Interrupt on Graze is quite rare, so I think it will be fine this way.

Finishing Blow & Eleminating Blow :
+3% damages per % health lost from 50% -> +1.5% damages per % health lost from 100%
 Devastating Blow :
+6% damages per % health lost from 50% -> +3% damages per % health lost from 100%
I did not change the max value, but I made these abilities count from 100%, so they will have great effect on Blooded target and will not feel like overkills.

Sap :
Hobbled for 30s -> Shaken for 30s
Added impossibility to receive Concentration debuff on target.
I simply changed Hobbled to Shaken so the ability feels less redundant with Crippling Strike (Rogue had no way to inflict Resolve Debuff on their main target). The new Concentration Immunity provides a bit of situational utility, even if it doesn't apply before Sap Interrupt. This new Sap is also nice for the total -20 Will it inflicts, which might be nice for Mindstalker or Trickster.

Perplexing Sap :
Removed the weird Confusion on target's attack effect.
Upgrade Skaken from changed Sap to Fighten.
This version of Perplexing Sap is basically a Silencing attack, or a cheap source of Tier 2 Affliction for Resistant foe.

Strike the Bell & Upgrades :
I completely changed these abilities which felt totally redundant (apart the Dazed effect) in addition to be weak.
 - Still Full Attack that Interrupts on Graze, with +25% damages and +2 PR.
 - Now all versions adds a 15s Dazed effect
 - Melee 1 Hander adds a -25 Will debuff for 15s
 - Melee 2 Hander adds a -25 Fortitude debuff for 15s
 - Ranged Weapon adds a -25 Reflex debuff for 15s
 - All other effects removed.
 - The upgrades now allow their respective -25 defense debuff to last for the whole Combat (in a similar fashion as Gouging Strike)
This ability is meant to provide an alternative to weapon modals. You can use various weapons for various effect but choosing the upgrade also feels committing.
Full attack Interrupting on Graze + 15s Dazed effect is a good basis for a 2 Guile Strike IMO.

BalancePolishingModBuffs.zip

 

BalancePolishingModNerfs.zip

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by Elric Galad

[pesadelo]

Just loving the changes thanks for the updates

[Elric Galad]

It's time for the Summon Rebalance Part of the mod !

After analyzing the current status of all summons in a separate Thread ( https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/114591-mechanics-the-summoners-tables/ ), I'm able to present a new version of my mod with a complete rebalance of many of the game summon spells.
This would be included in a dedicated package of my balance mod.

Weapon & Armor Scaling :

The biggest change is now that all summons weapon and armor scale with level (as Animated Weapons, Summoned Weapons, Companion Pet's Weapons and a handful of other summons already do).
They all follow the rules of the table in the link below (+1 PEN, +4 Acc, +15% damages for their weapons and +1AR at level 5, 9, 13 & 17) 
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/non-pl-scaling
(Only exception are some of the Tier IX Summons because you get them after level 17. But most of them will have legendary quality weapons, or strong enough weapons anyway. )

Other Balance Changes :

If a summon is too low on the power curve compared to the ressources it requires, il will seldom be used. This is true for every ability, but it is even more true for summons because you can only have one at a time.
For each class, I've tried to adjust the respective powers of their summons. Sometimes, a summon has unique ablities, so its raw power is less important. But in many cases, I had to buff them so they compare more favorably to others. In some rare case, I've nerfed summons to they don't feel OP, especially after I've added the common scaling. Nerfs are indicated in red below.

I think I did not makke OP changes, but feel free to tell me if you think they are.


Wizard & Monk :

Wizard's summons and Monk's Twin already had weapon scaling, and their level of power felt suitable for me.
I've made no changes about them (in a previous version of the mod, I've set Conjurer's Familiar summonig to almost instant).


Druid :

Druid will have access to a huge variety of summons, even if the tanking potential of Call to the Primordials was tuned down a bit.

Ondra's Whip, Watery Double, Lashing Vine : no changes. I think these abilities are balanced as they are (and they all scale at levels 5, 9, 13, 17 ).


Summon Sporelings :
Added Weapon & Armor scaling.
These summons are very tanky for their spell Tier, with very good duration. They are subclass-specific so I feel it is legit if they are a bit stronger.


All Blights Summons :
Added Weapon & Armor scaling.
I think these spells needed a bit of a buff, so Weapon & Armor sscaling felt suitable.


Call to the Primordials :
Added Weapon & Armor scaling.
Reduced the number of oozes from 3 to 2.
Reduced the duration from 30s to 20s.
Bog Ooze removed from the list of potential summons, replaced by Lesser Bog Ooze (but with the added scaling, it's actually somewhat stronger).
This spell already feels too strong so I want to seize the opportunity to make it more in line with other summons. It still benefits from Weapon Scaling, so penetrating with Ooze attacks will be easier.


Fire Stag : 
(Weapons and armor already scaled)
(minor) Change its fire shield so it procs on "damaged" as other fire shields, and not on Hit/Crit.
Set Engagement limit to base 3, so it can be more focused on being a decoy.
Adjust base damages to 13 - 19 with PEN 8 (equivalent of a sword with +2 PEN and fast attack rate), so it feels better for a summon of this Tier.
Explosion is now triggered by death instead of ability activation. That means Barring Death Door will prevent it from exploding and doing any damages.
But when Fire stag is killed by foe, it explodes as if the ability was triggered.
Fire stag can still kill itself to trigger the explosion.
Explosion has been set to foe-only.


Aspect of Galawain :
(Weapons and armor already scaled)
Adjusted base damages to 13 - 19 with PEN 8 (equivalent of a sword with +2 PEN and fast attack rate), so it feels better for a summon of this Tier. (Wolf gets higher base damage, and Lion has bonus attack speed).
Adjusted armor :
- base 5 AR -> base 8 AR,
- 25% recovery -> 0% recovery.  Bear gets +2 AR on top of this.
Added an Interrupt on Hit effect to its base attack so it feels like a living Concelhaut Crushing Doom (or Animated Pike and its plentiful Knockdowns). This is meant to be similar to pet's takedowns since the ability is already based on Ranger's pet.


Priest :

Priests aren't meant to be top tier summoners, but spiritual ally is a well-rounded summon. Incarnates have been mae more user-frinedly, even if the spell still give a PL penalty. These non-controlable summons are all really strong now, even if a bit unconvenient to use.

Spirtual Ally :
Added Weapon & Armor scaling (its armor scales up to equivalent of legendary plate).
Tune down duration to 25s because scaling weapons make him much better at high level and it was already a decent summon. In practice, Spiritual Ally seldom dies in battle so lower duration will makes it last less. It will poke much harder, but it will not change his non-weapon abilities (heal & corrode cone).


Incarnates :
Changed -5 PL for 35s into -1 PL (stacking if used multiple time) for 120s.
This counts as a hostile effect and is decreased by Resolve and similar feat.
This is supposed to make using Incarnate once not too bad, but using it several times in a row (especially thanks to Brilliant) more punishing. I could have made it last the whole battle, but I wanted to leave hope for Megaboss encounters, especially for a High Resolve build. 

Now for specific Incarnates :

- Eothas :
Equipment set to Legendary Quality. 
Replaced one of the priest incarnate by a copy of the first since it had an infinite recovery and could only act once.
Duration reduced from 35s to 20s (triple summons would be too strong for 35s).
Still arguably the best incarnate.

- Berath : Equipment set to Legendary Quality 
Duration reduced from 35s to 25s (double summons would be too strong for 20s).

- Magran : Weapon and shield set to Legendary Quality.
Buffed to be a defensive juggernat :
Set her CON to 25, RES to 25
Armor changed to 14 AR without weakness apart Cold and its Recovery would be lowered from +67% to +34% (this value is the one from a Fighter with Armored Grace wearing a heavy armor.

- Skaen : added +2 weapon PEN, +10 Acc, damages set from 14-20 to 18-25 (fast attack speed). +2 AR.
(Basically similar to a scaling from Exceptionnal to Legendary.)

- Wael : get scaling bonus (+4 PEN, + 16 Acc, +60% damages with weapons, +4 AR). Wael's Incarnate is basically a greater blight with better stats but without greater blight ultimate ability (it is limited to normal blight's ones), so it needed this. I also gave him +10 CON so its health pool is more in line with other Single Incarnate, albeit still the frailest. I also added +5 DEX, +5 PER : since Wael is basically only auto-attacking, let's make him good at it ! Feels like an auto-turret now...

- Rymrgand : No changes to this monster.


Chanter :

One thing to keep in mind with Chanters is that all their summons share the exact same pool of ressources. So if each one has not a clear role, it will be completely useless (meanwhile a Druid may sometimes cast Lesser Blight only because it's his last Spell Tier with a Summon). That's why I tried to define a precise role for each one and balance the summon toward this role.


Skeletons :
Added Weapon & Armor scaling. They start as poor so they have "exceptionnal" weapons at level 20.
Role : Skeletons are here for their numbers. They're fine at it (and have much combo potential).
Note : "Many Lives..." phrase skeletons don't really scale anyway.


Phantom :
Added Weapon & Armor scaling.
Phantom upgrade duration : 25s -> 60s.
Role : with such a duration, Phantom will be design as "summon and forget" for those chanters that don't like summons but still want an extra body. He's cheap, he stays for long so I think it's a good niche for him.


Wurms :
Added Weapon & Armor scaling.
Base Duration lowered from 25s to 18s.
Upgrade cost : 4 phrases -> 3 phrases (I have already aligned all chanter upgraded invocations with the cost of their original ability ; I want to keep this principle : an upgrade should be a strict upgrade, as for all other abilities / classes)
Role : Wurms are cheap ranged brute force. If you look at the table, they have pretty good attack strength for their phrase cost, especially when upgraded. That's why I believed I had to tune down their duration.


Wisps :
Added Weapon & Armor scaling.
Role : Wisps are utility-based summons and I think they are in a good spot for Interrupting / Distracting. Full scaling won't do much for their lowish attack but will at least bring them to 11 PEN.


Ogres :
Added Weapon & Armor scaling.
Set their active abilities to 1 per encounter. I didn't want them to be better than Drake at AoE or better than Wisp at Interrupting.
Changed their "Down the Hatch" ability : it doesn't provide Tenacious and Robust anymore : this would have lead to too much AR and PEN if added with the scaling. Now "Down the Hatch" is renamed "Ogre Defiance" and only provides 10 health per 3s for 20s. Disoriented drawback has been removed. 
I added 2 PEN to their attack abilities to compensate for the loss of Tenacious.
Role : Tanks with damage dealing potential. With a bit of armor scaling, they will become tougher than Animated Weapons. Oh, and they have this wonderful 3 base Engagements and self-heal, as well as some AoE attacks (the upgrade provides an Immobilizing effect). 


Drake :
Added Weapon & Armor scaling.
Duration 25s -> 35s.
Added : Ground Immunity, Fear Aura and Dex Resistance that all other drakes have (Dragon Summon gets an improved version of Fear Aura).
Knockdowns :
- 2 per Encounter -> 3 per Encounter
- Damages set to 15 - 25, base PEN set from 7 to 10.
- Only affects Hostile
Fire Breath :
- 1 per Encounter -> 2 per Encounter
- PEN set from 6 to 9
Role : Drake is on a weird spot : it is basically a lesser version of Dragon Summon, but is not that much cheaper. It comes alone (well till its death), but its barely OK stats don't really give him an edge over multiple summons (Ogres or Weapons for example). Its upgrade require it to die to be useful, which may not happen reliably.
That's why I think it deserved a good buff. I added the classic resistances and fear aura of other Drakes. Even with this, I doubt that it matches the raw power of Ogres and Weapons, that's why I want to increase the number of uses of its AoE abilities, to give him an edge over them (especially Ogres who have a bit of AoE themselves).
Even with all this, Drake remains a weaker dragon. That's why I wanted to emphasize its longer duration side since its the only logical edge he can get over a grown-up. 
Also, the Drake that the upgrade summons upon Death does not count as a Chanter Summon, so you can have another Summon Active alog the second drake.
The result, I hope, is a well-rounded summon who can tank a bit, attack a bit, have some AoE and utility, has an average summoning cost and last for a decent duration (but less than hey phantom).


Dank Spore :
Added Weapon scaling. AR already scaled, but I aligned it with other summons progression.
Duration 25s -> 35s.
Foul Thing explosion on death :
- added 40 - 55 raw poison damages
- set Sickened affliction to Infinite duration as announced by the ability.
- only affects Hostile
- corrected a bug that prevented the Sickened affliction to be displayed.
Role : Dank Spore is an utility summon, but still a bit weak since its charm ability has a long casting/recovery and its upgrade's explosion on death is tricky to use and only proc 20s Sickened.
That's why I improved the Explosion on death : it's a Tier VIII upgrade, so it has to be a bit strong. 

Animated Weapons :
Are currently already fully scaled.
No change.
Role :  Summons so good I had to analyse all other summons to make sure they could be relevant in front of them. Great brute force with a bit of Prone attacks from Animated Pike.


Dragon :
Will receive the benefit of full weapon / armor scaling.
In addition to scaling, I'm going to change Dragon stats because they currently don't make sense, with a bottomless pit of health but lower AR and attack than the drake !
- Armor 7->10(+4 from scaling) with resistance to Fire and Slash and vulnerability to pierce. (Based on the (scaled) version of the Drake, +1 AR)
- Health 200 + 50/level -> 100 + 30/level
- Attack : 16-22 CRU/PIER, 7 PEN, normal attack speed -> 20-26 CRU/PIER, 9 PEN, fast attack (+scaling) (this is based on the drake attack, but slightly improved)
Role : the ultimate summon, but not the best at everything. Its defense will be good, and HP the best, but multiple summons could still have more total HP and AR is not significant vs everything in PotD upscaled. The Dragon is mostly about AoE. It is also good at tanking but it has a rather low duration (less benefit from PL). I don't think improving its auto-attack is that significant because the dragon should mostly use its special attacks. But a 7 PEN attack was not noble enough for this creature. Its fear Aura (causing Frightened) also brings a bit of utility.

Miscellanous Other Changes :

Fire Godlike Fire AR :
2 -> 4 (so they have as much as Pale Elves...)

Martial Casting :    
15% Action Speed -> 100% Action speed when casting summoned weapons.
Since Summoned Weapon only require to be cast once every minute, the previous value was a bit unsignificant.
They also only had 3s cast time without recovery, so 15% didn't help much.
Halving their cast time saves around 1.5s per cast so this Talent would be an equivalent to Quickswitch for casters.

Quick Summoning :  
15% Action Speed -> 25% Action speed when summoning.
Same as for Martial Casting, you can only have 1 summon active, so 15% Action speed didn't save much. But Summoning spells have higher casting time so Quick Summoning didn't require to be boosted as much.

Updates from previous versions :
- DoT added to Shadowed Hunter on first pet attack : 16s raw damages per 3s for 30s -> 20s raw damages per 3s for 30s (this is a Tier IX ability after all)
- His Laughter Rang Through the Hall : Dazed for 8s -> previously 20s -> now 30s.

BalancePolishingModBuffs.zip

BalancePolishingModNerfs.zip

 

BalancePolishingSummonRebalance.zip

Edited May 2, 2020 by Elric Galad