Right now INT is the only real dump stat. Some builds are completly OP with very high INT like buff/heal priests but alot of builds/classes could drop it to 3 and it would not bother them. AoE increase/decrease exist outside the combat system its not something you can calculate like HP, damage, accuracy etc. making it hard to balance. The other part of INT, the duration increase feels like a all or nothing attribute. You either ignore it because you can live with the basic duration of your skills on a build with not many duration based skills or you go all in and max it out to get insane buffs.

 

I dont have a solution for this but because the discussion is all over the place I thought it needs its own thread.

Posted this before but...

 

Take a lesson from Attunement in Dark Souls. Higher INT = More spell casts. So for example a character with 3 INT might get four fireball casts per rest or a Fighter gets two knockdowns per encounter, but having maxed int equals eight fireballs or 4 knockdowns. I don't think this could possibly create any sort of balance issue, but would be an undeniably attractive convenience.

I kind of like that idea, Longknife.

 

On the other hand I'm not sure there's a problem here, other than that of magnitude. The effect especially of dumping Int is not all that dramatic. I'd prefer to see durations and AoE's that really are short enough/small enough that you'd wish they were longer/bigger.

int as a dump stat? this strikes us as ... odd. ignoring the significant dialogue relevance we has seen thus far, am trying to think o' a PoE build wherein we would not care 'bout intellect. is no doubt some cipher and fighter builds that we could choose abilities that had no or negligible aoe and that the pohaz we used were all o' the instantaneous variety, but by the same token, we has come up with a ranger interrupter that made might rather inconsequential.  

 

*shrug*

 

am not seeing a genuine issue.

 

HA! Good Fun!

I kind of like that idea, Longknife.

 

On the other hand I'm not sure there's a problem here, other than that of magnitude. The effect especially of dumping Int is not all that dramatic. I'd prefer to see durations and AoE's that really are short enough/small enough that you'd wish they were longer/bigger.

 

 

I think someone also suggested taking my idea but applying it to resolve instead, which I've got nothing against.

 

Really - to me - the best way to give stats more meaning without having to drastically change their gain rates comparatively to each other (which I'd imagine would create MORE rebalancing work) is to tack on new dimensions. Someone else suggested adding a crit rate bonus onto Dex I think, and I'm sure others have made some additional attribute effects aswell. All of them should be seriously considered, as far as I'm concerned.

Numbers and attributes not being final, if you don't want to extend the duration of skills or buffs like those of food, I guess it's ok.