Psycho Shield/Wild Leech/Borrowed Instinct/Devotion of the Faithful

[dunehunter]

So I raise these abilities because they feel a bit messy to me. 

 

Psycho Shield: Self +lvl 1 Resolve Inspiration, Enemy -10 Resolve;

 

Wild Leech: Self +lvl 1 Inspiration, Enemy -lvl 1 Affliction;

 

Borrowed Instinct: Self +20 acc +20 def, Enemy -8 Int, -8 Res;

 

Devotion of the Faithful: AOE +4 Mig, +20 acc;

 

Imo all these +-acc, def and attributes should be put into inspiration/affliction category for balance concern. It's just funny a lvl 4 Cipher spell is weaker than lvl 2 ones. And some spells is extremely powerful because they stack with the current inspirations and number of bonus is pretty OP compare to current Inspiration/Affliction system.

 

My suggestions:

 

Psycho Shield: Self +lvl 1 Resolve Inspiration, Enemy -lvl 2 Resolve Affliction;

 

Wild Leech: Self +lvl 2 Inspiration, Enemy -lvl 2 Affliction;

 

Borrowed Instinct: Self +lvl 2 Percerption Inspiration +lvl 2 Resolve Inspiration, Enemy -lvl 1 Int Affliction, -lvl 1 Resolve Affliction;

 

Devotion of the Faithful: AOE +lvl 1 Might Inspiration, +lvl 3 Perception Inspiration;

 

Also Devotion of the Faithful is much much stronger than the lvl 5 priest spell Champion's Boon too, zzz.

Edited April 2, 2018 by dunehunter

[Clean&Clear]

I think these spells just haven't been changed yet, there's a lot of inconsistencies in various spells in the beta, that's probably one of the last things they're going to do. But it should be definitely changed in the way you proposed, to be in line with the inspiration/affliction system.

[MaxQuest]

Agreed completely on Wild Leech. At the moment it's too weak and situational to warrant to be picked and casted over other alternatives.

 

I would leave Borrowed Instinct and Devotion of Faithful as they are though, because +20 acc is why I would take them in the first place; and -32 will (from instinct) in second.

 

And am neutral on Psycho Shield. Because -20 will and +30% hostile effect duration make it almost good; on the other hand frightening can be situationally good as well, if it will "silence" the enemy from using offensive abilities.

Btw, what I don't like about Psycho Shield, is that unlike other resolve inspirations this is considered a hostile action, and won't help you to get rid of being frightened yourself. All in all I find that this power needs a buff; and I am inclined towards bonus deflection.

Edited April 2, 2018 by MaxQuest

[dunehunter]

Agreed completely on Wild Leech. At the moment it's too weak and situational to warrant to be picked and casted over other alternatives.

 

I would leave Borrowed Instinct and Devotion of Faithful as they are though, because +20 acc is why I would take them in the first place; and -32 will (from instinct) in second.

 

And am neutral on Psycho Shield. Because -20 will and +30% hostile effect duration make it almost good; on the other hand frightening can be situationally good as well, if it will "silence" the enemy from using offensive abilities.

Btw, what I don't like about Psycho Shield, is that unlike other resolve inspirations this is considered a hostile action, and won't help you to get rid of being frightened yourself. All in all I find that this power needs a buff; and I am inclined towards bonus deflection.

 

Yeah but with Cipher/Priest you can stack 40 accuracy and 20 defense and u can still buff more with inspiration right? That's sounds a lot to me. And other classes has less method to increase their acc in compare with PoE 1. And stack rule is applied to all other buff so why not these two too.

Edited April 2, 2018 by dunehunter

[MadDemiurg]

Borrowed instinct needs to hit an enemy which is a major downside compared to other buffs, so it needs to be stronger.

 

As for priest, I'd honestly buff some of their other buffs (lol), like champion's boon, strong buffs is pretty much the only thing going for them atm. Devotions was stronger than most higher level priest spells in PoE1 as well.

[Boeroer]

As far as I know Devotions and Borrowed Instinct do not stack. So no ACC +40.

 

I would leave Devotions and Borrowed Instinct as is because that makes them stackable with PER inspirations.

 

Stacking ACC is already more difficult than in PoE (no Inspiring Radiance, no Inspiring Exhortation, no marking or Coordinated Attacks so far). It's good to have some buffs that don't use stat based inspirations but directly boost ACC.

 

Wild Leech is a bad joke.

Edited April 2, 2018 by Boeroer

[Cheston]

+1 on Wild Leech not being worth it as-is. I support improving it to a level 2 inspiration/affliction, or increasing the duration, or maybe having it get more powerful over time? Also, the tooltip should also contain the duration.

 

I think Psychovampiric Shield is in a good place, but I'd also be okay with it changing.

 

I'm fine with Devotions and Borrowed Instinct since they don't stack. Though I can't think of a way to make it clear in the UI that they don't stack, without reintroducing unique buffs. Not a problem that urgently needs to be solved, though.

[dunehunter]

As far as I know Devotions and Borrowed Instinct do not stack. So no ACC +40.

 

I would leave Devotions and Borrowed Instinct as is because that makes them stackable with PER inspirations.

 

Stacking ACC is already more difficult than in PoE (no Inspiring Radiance, no Inspiring Exhortation, no marking or Coordinated Attacks so far). It's good to have some buffs that don't use stat based inspirations but directly boost ACC.

 

Wild Leech is a bad joke.

 

So Devotions stack with itself but not stack with other +acc buff? Hmmm these things are really confusing to me.

[MaxQuest]

So Devotions stack with itself but not stack with other +acc buff? Hmmm these things are really confusing to me.

ACC bonus from multiple Devotions does stack??

[dunehunter]

 

So Devotions stack with itself but not stack with other +acc buff? Hmmm these things are really confusing to me.

ACC bonus from multiple Devotions does stack??

 

 

Well I guess in PoE 1 it does? Not sure but I assume in DF too...

[Boeroer]

No, it doesn't. In PoE Devotions does not stack with itself and it also doesn't stack with Borrowed Instincts. The only ACC bonuses that stack with themselves in PoE are Inspiring Radiance and Inspiring Exhortation. Both were considered passives and thus stacked with everything. Both are gone in Deadfire.

PoE's Devotions stacked with stuff like Zealous Focus or Blessing because those were universal ACC buffs while Devotions "only" raised melee and ranged ACC.

 

The stacking rules of Deadfire are rel. simple compared to PoE (besides bugs/oversights): all passives stack, actives only stack if they don't address the same value. An inspiration from a spell like Blessing raises PER, not ACC directly und thus stacks with Devotions which raises ACC. Two PER inspirations don't stack - two active ACC buffs (like from spells) shouldn't stack either.

Edited April 2, 2018 by Boeroer

[Cheston]

all passives stack, actives only stack if they don't address the same value.

 

That's really straightforward! That should be explained to players somewhere if it isn't already- I understood the inspiration/affliction system pretty easily but direct stat buffs were more of a gray area to me.

[George_Truman]

Does devotions really need to be +20 though? No idea about this one but in PoE it basically trivialized the rest of the game.

[Boeroer]

Only because it stacked with stuff like Disciplined Barrage (also +20), Eldritch Aim (+15) and so on in my opinion.

[George_Truman]

Or ye olde scroll of valor. But don't forget the -20 acc -10 might debuff that comes free! Does it still do that?

[Boeroer]

-20ACC and -4MIG in Deadfire - if I remember correctly. It's still a spell that makes you want to bring a priest.

[thelee]

With the exception of Deadfire's Wild Leech, it's worth keeping in mind that even in PoE there were specifically-designated afflictions and we still had various custom debuff spells, and I think it was a deliberate decision to boost their power levels so they could stack on top of an existing Blind, for example.

 

Similarly, while you could approximate Devotions of the Faithful with a might inspiration, a high perception inspiration, and the related afflictions on the enemy, I think it is intended that it uses a separate might and accuracy adjustment so it can stack on top of all other might/perception effects (with the additional effect of not countering/being countered by inspirations/afflictions).

 

Sure, it might be a bit "messier," but I think the true fun of game systems can be where limited deviation is made from set norms, provided the norms are well-established. (That being said, however much I play a priest I can't help but confess that in both PoE and its current form in Deadfire, Devotions of the Faithful is ridiculously powerful.)

Edited April 2, 2018 by thelee

[dunehunter]

I still think Devotions is too good in DF than it is in PoE 1, since the effect of a lot buff/debuff is nerfed in DF, like stun/paralyze nerf, all acc bonus is tuned into inspiration for example wizard lvl 1 spell that gives 15 acc now only gives 5 perception. But devotions is not changed, which makes it really outstanding from the rest and feel too good to me.