1 Talent Idea and Barbarian Frenzy Rework

[Osvir]

EDIT: This might belong in "General Discussion" I realize, I've gotten used to use "Beta Discussion" as a sort of "General Discussion" for thoughts both regarding the Beta, and Pillars of Eternity in general. And I think I'm doing it by mistake, if a Moderator or Admin thinks this should go somewhere else, feel free to move it. This is related to how one ability works in the Beta, but it is also a general look at the ability (Frenzy) /EDIT

With some more thought about "Endurance" and a Solo Play viability, I got two ideas for making use of the "Downed" state as well as a bit of a personal disappointment in "Frenzy".

So here goes:

Talent: Second Wind or Similarly Inspired (Paralelly I can think of a couple of League of Legends abilities that could serve as good inspiration~ Yorick's Ultimate that brings back a character for a duration of time, Aatrox Passive or Zilean's Resurrect Ultimate)

Mechanical:
- The character activates the ability first, and can take no action after having activated it. If the character reaches 0 Endurance, they will get up again with 10% Endurance.

Tactical:
- Your Fighter, for instance, might be down at 1% Endurance, and you activate it. Essentially you get an extra 9% Endurance, but you will get "knocked out cold" briefly first, allowing enemy AI to target others. Activating it too soon will spend the duration/effect, and activating it too late would means "Knock out".

Lore/Description:
- I dunno~

Frenzy: Barbarian Ability
- I was surprised that Frenzy simply makes Health and Endurance go into a questionmark (and healing Endurance appearantly too). Whilst it is interesting, it wasn't very exciting to be honest. I think it would be a much better technique and much more powerful if it made the Barbarian "invurnerable" to Endurance damage (the portrait VFX effect supports this as well) whilst it is activated, and instead takes only Health damage.

In essence: Endurance goes down to 0, but the Barbarian can not be knocked out (all damage translated to Health damage).

When the duration for "Frenzy" is over, the Barbarian has only 1 Endurance. It's a risky move, because you'll potentially lose a lot of Health, but during the time you'll practically be invurnerable. In my opinion, this type of ability usage of Frenzy supports the Barbarian Class. Wild and disregarding of one's own health "berserkering".

In a fight where I used Frenzy when I had low Endurance (one hit KO low), my Barbarian still went down after 1 hit. I'm wondering if this is a bug or not, because appearantly it is supposed to (Frenzy, Off. Wiki) heal "a lot" of Endurance.

 

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Though, in combination with each other (Second Wind and Frenzy) it could become quite OP. Whilst "Second Wind" is simply a mere proposal to make solo play potentially more viable, I really would enjoy Frenzy to function in a different way than it does, to support the "Barbarian", or "Berserker", archetype.

What do you think?

Edited December 3, 2014 by Osvir

[Hormalakh]

I actually like this idea: I feel that barbarians in particular drop too quickly to be of much use in battle. Sure, they are melee aoe dealers, but with the ridiculous melee engagement system (which should obviously be burned in a fire - look at sensuki's work, it's eye-opening), they just get dropped too quickly to do much of anything.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Hormalakh