Rebalancing Chanters, or the makings of a mod

[Livegood118]

Hi all, this is a project I’ve been thinking about doing for the past while and which I might release a first version for this weekend. I'd like peoples' views on the balance of various chanter abilities with a view to making a mod that'll allow for more diverse character builds.

 

One of my primary objectives was to provide a genuine alternative to having a priest in the party. With the changes made the Chanter will be able to provide immunity to the following status afflictions:

 

– Charmed (Level 3 Chant)

– Confused (Level 3 Chant)

– Dominated (Level 3 Chant)

– Frightened (Level 2 Chant)

– Terrified (Level 2 Chant)

– Terrified (Level 2 Chant)

– Prone (Level 3 Chant)

– Stuck (Level 2 Invocation)

– Hobbled (Level 2 Invocation)

– Paralyzed (Level 2 Invocation)

– Petrified (Level 2 Invocation)

 

Which is more or less exactly what a priest can give you except for sickened and weakened.

 

There’ll be three main components to the mod:

 

1. Chant Changes

2. Invocation Changes

3. Item Changes

 

I’m not a genius and this is babby’s first modding project for Pillars, so I welcome commentary/views/suggestions. Some of the changes may seem overpowered, but when you take in to account what you could be doing (e.g. the Dragon Thrashed, Mercy and Kindess, Aeyfllath Ues Mith Fyr or low level chants for faster invocations) then they don’t really seem that bad after all.

 

The bottom line is that many of the Chanter’s abilities are completely useless when examined in isolation or in comparison to the benefits that just bringing another class along can bring. I'm looking at you "The Fox From the Farmer".

 

ITEMS

 

For the time being my only plan here is to:

 

– Drastically increase the Proc chance of The Thunder Rolled by Waves on Black Seas for Stormcaller (Approx 25% I think)

– Increase the %area increase of Voice of the Mountaintop, as this gives much smaller benefits than int

 

CHANTS

 

Lvl 1 Chants

 

– At the Sight of Their Comrades: made in to a passive so it will stack with everything

– Blessed was Wengredh; made passive and Movement Speed increased to +2

– Come Soft Winds; about 80% damage increase at level sixteen through scaling

– Dull the Edge, Blunt the Point; both start at -15% damage reduction, increase -3% per 3 levels to max of -30%

– Thick Grew Their Tongues: -20 Concentration to start, increase of -2 concentration per 3 levels to max of -30

 

Lvl 2 Chants

 

– The Fox From the Farmer: +60 Defence against disengagement attacks

– Lo their Endless Hosts: the Same

– One Dozen Stood against the power of the Saint: Immunity to terrified and frightened

– Rime and Frost: the same

– Sure-Handed Ila Nocked Her Arrows: Reload bonus increased to 50%

 

Lvl 3 Chants

 

– Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr: the same

– Seven Men, Onto the Deck: +60 Prone Defence, +20 Concentration, + 10 Freeze DR, + 10 Shock DR

– The Dragon Thrashed: the same

– The Silver Knights' Shields; Buffed to +20 Deflection - still non-passive, so will not stack with other modals

– They Shielded Their Eyes from the Fampyr's Gaze: Moved to Level 3, immunity Charmed, Dominated and Confused

 

Lvl 4 Chants

 

– Her Courage Thick as Steel: Damage shield increased to +55

– Old Siec would not rest: Endurance Drain increased to 35%

 

Lvl 5 Chants

 

– Mercy and Kindness:  the same

– With All Your Strength: the same

 

INVOCATIONS

 

Level 1

 

– Hel-Hyraf Crashed upon the Shield: DR Reduction starts at -6, increases to -12 at Level 15

– Reny Daret's Ghost: the Same

– If Their Bones Still Slept; Big deflection buff for the skeletons so they can tank better, increased duration

– Not felled by axe, nor broken by storm: Slash DR Bonus = +10, Shock DR Bonus = +15, both increase +1 per 3 levels

– Thrice She was Wronged, and Thrice Justly Avenged: Starts at 12–19 Shock damage, increase +9 per 3 levels to 57-74 @ level 16

– The Thunder Rolled: Stun Duration increased by 2 seconds

– White Worms Writhed: the same

 

Level 2

 

– At the sound of his voice, the killers froze stiff: the same

– Gernisc Slew the Beast: Increased damage and accuracy for the Wurms, increased duration

– The Lover Cried out: the same

– Do you see your sisters across the moor?: Wisp Accuracy increased

– Rejoice, My Comrades! Two Fingers of Daylight: Still immunity to frightened + terrifed, Endurance heal increased to +60

– Reny Daret's Ghost spake I'll catch you Ben Fidel: Terrified duration increased to 20 seconds

– Shatter Their Shackles, Cast off their Chains: +30 Disengagement Bonus, Immunity to hobbled, stuck, paralyze and petrify

 

Level 3

 

– Gernisc's Beast: Drake improved damage, accuracy and endurance – increased duration

– Urdel and Gurdel: the same

– Rise Again, Rise Again: +15 all defences on revive

– Seven Nights She Waited: the same

– The Bridge Caught their Ruse: +8 Dex, +12 Per, +8 Intellect

– The Brideman Slew Thirty: +12 Might, +8 Con, +8 Resolve

 

Level 4

 

– So Singt Thy Biting Winds: 4 extra bounces to compete with Seven Nights

– Their Champion Braved the Horde: Attack Speed bonus increased to +60%

– What Rou Naka Found: More accurate spore with more endurance. Duration Increased 

 

Level 5

 

– Ancient Instruments of Death: More accurate, more endurance, more defence. Damage type = Raw

– Boil their Flesh from skin to bone: Damage and Huge Range increase. 

 

[Elric Galad]

If it is one of your objectives, I would say that a chanter could truely replace a priest if and only if he's able to cast immunity without waiting.

 

Invocations against Hard CC (Petrify, Paralysis, etc...) are not convenient at all.

Your chanter and party members might be caught before your phrases could be stacked.

It's uttery unreliable, and I will never take them into account when creating a party.

 

It would require more modifications in chanter (play)lists than you did to solve this issue...

Like changing "the fox..." to add immunities from the "shackles" set.

I'm not saying you have to, but this is just an idea.

 

 

That said, I understand your approach. I've stop playing for too much time to check the actual values of your buffs, but a couple of them seems a bit accross the board (which is the most common modder's mistake in my experience). 

 

Currently, chanter is strong, yeah.

The strongest AoE DPS with "dragon trashed"

Not exactly the initial purpose of the class though...

Edited December 7, 2016 by Elric Galad

[Livegood118]

If it is one of your objectives, I would say that a chanter could truely replace a priest if and only if he's able to cast immunity without waiting.

 

Invocations against Hard CC (Petrify, Paralysis, etc...) are not convenient at all.

Your chanter and party members might be caught before your phrases could be stacked.

It's uttery unreliable, and I will never take them into account when creating a party.

 

It would require more modifications in chanter (play)lists than you did to solve this issue...

Like changing "the fox..." to add immunities from the "shackles" set.

I'm not saying you have to, but this is just an idea.

 

 

That said, I understand your approach. I've stop playing for too much time to check the actual values of your buffs, but a couple of them seems a bit accross the board (which is the most common modder's mistake in my experience). 

 

Currently, chanter is strong, yeah.

The strongest AoE DPS with "dragon trashed"

Not exactly the initial purpose of the class though...

 

Thanks for the input.

 

Regarding changes across the board, my main purpose here is to make a lot of the abilities that don't really get a look in edgewise viable and alternative choices to the more standard ones e.g. Dragon Thrashed, Aeyfyllath Ues Mith Fyr, Seven Nights, The Ogres and the Level 2 CC invocations. Something to remember about the Chanter is that their abilities are essentially on cooldown all the time – so it's not the same as the priest where you can simply spam spells and their actual ability selection is very limited indeed. So, if you want to go support route under the changes I've proposed, you will definitely have to sacrifice some offence, which is fine imo. 

 

That being said, some of the buffs that the priest gets are 100% flat out ridiculous. They basically cover all immunities, can buff chars with 65+ Deflection and 40 Accuracy, +105 concentration etc ...

 

I think in principle I would like to be able to take the immunities from Shattle Their Shackles and put them on the Fox and the Farmer but this is definitely beyond my abilities with the UABE. If Loren Tyr was still around he might be able to work a bit of magic but definitely not me with my pleb computer skills.

 

I think that the best that I could do is keep Shatter Their Shackles as a Level 2 Invocation so it's not available super-early, but reduce the phrase count requirement to two phrases. At level 7, one level after you get your first level 2 Invocation this would mean that the max you would ever have to wait to cast the spell after brisk recitation would 8*0.8 seconds, which is 6.4 secs. I don't think there's any monster in the game that spams paralyze that quickly apart from Laguefeths. By the time you'd get to Laguefeths at level 10 you'd be able to use it every 5.6 seconds, and then every 4 secs at level 16. This seems fast enough to me? 

 

So, a sample "back line"/support build under what I've proposed might look like this:

 

Chants:

 

1. Fort + Will Buff

3. Speed + Reflex Buff 

5. One Dozen Stood Against the power of the Saint  (Immunity terrified + frightened)

7. Sure Handed Ila  (Attack Speed + Reload Speed Buff)

9. Confuse/Charm/Dominated Immunity

11. Seven Men, Onto the Deck  (Prone Immunity)

13. Damage Shield 

15. 100% healing increase

 

Invocations

 

1. Hel Hyraf's Fury 

2. Skeleton Summon 

4. White Worms Writhed 

6. Shatter Their Shackles  (Immunity Stuck, Paralyze, Petrify and Hobbled)

8. AOE Paralyze 

10. Might + Con + Resolve Buff

12. Dex + Per + Int 

14. Their Champion Braved the Horde (+60% recovery reduction, which also affects waiting period after chants - so more buffs even faster)

16. Ancient Instruments of Death

 

So at level 16 this guy would be able to give all kinds of immunities more or less on demand, big buffs to the party every 20 secs or so (+8 Dex, +12 Per, +8 Int, + 12 Might, +8 Con, +8 Resolve) and attack from the back row with Stormcaller every 36 frames with big interrupts and AoE CC on attack. A genuine alternative to having a priest around but without stepping on the priest's toes too much – most immunities to afflictions can be granted more or less instantly but you have to wait much longer to get your buffs out. You could switch the reload buff to level 5 and get gunner before then and start shooting with 70% reload reduction - something which would definitely fill the void that chanters have between level 3 to 9 currently.

Edited December 8, 2016 by Livegood118

[Dr <3]

I like the idea of a good mod, but Chanter is already op at the moment, i just find useless to pump him even more

Edited December 8, 2016 by Dr <3