SOS Suggestions: Cipher Powers Balance / Soul Ignition

[swordofthesith]

Hi Obsidian!

 

Thank you for all the work on Pillars of Eternity! I recently powered up the Beta Backer and I am enjoying having an early look at the game and testing it out. As I play through the game and come across bugs and balance issues, I'll try as much as possible to research these issues and highlight them if I feel necessary and beneficial to the final release play experience of PoE. This initial post will focus on the Cipher class and balancing issues and bugs related to it. 

 

 

SOUL IGNITION

 

Soul ignition needs to be balanced.

 

RANGE ISSUE:

 

Right now there is a serious exploit with SI that allows a player to clear whole areas without entering combat. The range of SI is huge and a player can cast SI on a MOB and sit back and watch as the MOB is destroyed by the DoT effect without ever drawing aggro. I assume that this not working as intended and would recommend the developer's address this exploit in the next build if possible. 

 

Here is a post from another forum user confirming this exploit:

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66960-cipher-soul-ignition/?hl=%2Bsoul+%2Bignition

 

DAMAGE ISSUE:

 

Right now now if a player pumps might SI can dispense huge amounts of damage. My character at 21 might delivers  a crushing 500+ points of damage per cast. This completely obliterates most MOBS in seconds. I know that the Cipher was designed as a high burst damage class but I am unsure if this power is balanced. Instead of decreasing the damage for SI I would suggest that you INCREASE the FOCUS cost for SI. Require Ciphers to build up 45 or 50 focus prior to being able to cast SI. 

 

Here is a post from another forum user confirming the vast amounts of damage SI produces:

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67469-another-touch-on-attributes-cipher-power-comparison/

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2014 by swordofthesith

[PrimeJunta]

Yeah, this. Just tried it. Soul Ignition turned the whole thing into cheese. Needs big-time nerfing.

 

I'm actually also wondering a bit about giving the cipher such a big focus pool from the get-go. Monks need to collect wounds before they can do their wushu thing; it wouldn't be unreasonable for ciphers to have to do the same especially since all their stuff is per-encounter. I like it that the cipher spells are so punchy, but having effectively unlimited Dire Charms and Shrouds of Flame seems a bit too much of a muchness.

[ctdavids]

You don't even need to pump might.  It does huge amounts of damage period.

 

I don't think the issue is with their initiali pool.  Being able to get a couple spells off at the start is fine.  It's just that soul ignition is ludicrous.

[Ganrich]

Soul ignition is so good that you really don't need to use anything else. It is basically a finger of death. It's numbers need tweaking, but I feel that making "some" Cipher spells per encounter may help as well. Faster weapons means a Ciphers focus is replenished incredibly fast. Being able to back to back soul ignitions basically means you can kill 2 targets. This is more noticeable on easier difficulties, and IMHO makes them too easy.

 

Chanters are OP too, but at least their invocations take longer to cast as they start with 0 in there pool. They also take a set amount of time to build phrase counters.

 

Ciphers have great single target spells (some of the best in game) can cast a couple right off the bat and get focus back pretty quickly. Ciphers can use faster weapons to build focus insanely fast.

[Mayama]

Chanters are OP too, but at least their invocations take longer to cast as they start with 0 in there pool. They also take a set amount of time to build phrase counters.

Theirs a bug with chanters. Sometimes the chanting doesnt stop when you are out of combat. Skeleton army :D

[PrimeJunta]

IMO per-encounter doesn't fit the cipher concept. They should all work the same, and be powered by Focus. And I like the fact that they're really beefy.

 

I'm not so sure about the possibility to open with a really beefy spell. Halving the pool would still let you open with a mid-powered one, but it would have an opportunity cost--fighting for a bit would charge it up so you could then use one of the heavy hitters, and if you used up the pool in the opening, it'd take that much longer to get there.

 

If it was me doing the tuning, I'd halve the pool and double the charging speed.