New cleric skills.

[brissenden]

After testing the new cleric skills both with lvl 23 and a newly created (and already upgraded to level 16) character, i have made some conclusions. I'll start with the most important thing: sacred fire. The skill is good for low levels (till 10-13) , but neccesity AND complexity of aimining makes it highly unreliable for crowd control, which is very sad. Even sadder is the fact that this skill, being completely useless at high levels, requires upgrading to rank III for an enormous cost of 6 skill points to learn flames of faith (flames of faith, though, is imho a must have for mid level clerics – between levels 10-15 – especially for those who pick as well the guardian wolf, companions and mercenaries). Suggestion: why not making sacred fire damage increase with player's level (+0.5 or 1 fire damage per level), so at level 20+ it will still be a powerful skill? Another suggestion is to fix the skill's AOE, directing it 3 meters around, not in front of the player. Less important (but more useful for high levels) skill is battle prayer. If only it would stack with Arbeno's might, i'd say it is another must have. But sadly it's damage bonus completely vanishes after activating Arbeno's might. More than that, if might has rank III, and battle prayer rank I, activating battle prayer AFTER Arbeno's might lowers your DPS even more, making it just a useless mana draining skill. Suggestion: as already said, let it stack. And, at last, guardian wolf. Perfect for mid levels, no suggestions (except of maybe giving the wolf a backpack, which might not be possible, heh). Also wanted to say about the retribution skill: it looks like the cost has increased from 2/2 to 2/3. Well, i maxed it after level 15, but for 15+ levels all undead enemies become too easy for clerics, and low levels can't afford spending SP because of another passives. Maybe making it 1/2 could bring more balance. That's all, sorry for poor english.

 

[0rion79]

Sweet: I have already reported almost the same conclusions in the beta tester topic.

 

[DavidBVal]

Yeah, I've been wanting to upgrade sacred fire for ages, but I'm always out of time. I'll do it, hopefully on next update.

 

[SirDonkalot]

David , you ever considered going over the warrior skill "Charge" aswell?

Maybe im the only one ? , but i feel charge, there is something wrong with it..
Either it twirls the chosen targed around , or it doesnt notice the hit at all.

I always felt Bash (knockback) + Charge would make up a nice synergie, but charge is a bit out of place. When you Bash the target and charge, the target gets moved to your starting point of charge, and you have to run back.

 

[0rion79]

Yes, I agree with Sir Donkalot.

I think that many players (me incldued) reported the issue so far.

BASH n many cases does NOT work in favor of the player but the monster, since it breaks Duel and forces the player to run after the monster unless there is a wall on the other side that prevents the monster from getting a distance.
It is even worst if Grissenda has that ability because she uses it in the worst possible moment. I know it is designed to allow a player to flee, but it doesn't work very well either.

About CHARGE, I think it is a great skill but it has the same problem of Sacred Fire: it is hard to aim and in too many cases it "fizzles" because it is used without hitting the enemy.

About Battle Prayer, after testing it a bit more after my last feedback, it is really nice but it overlaps too much with Arbenos Might and Holy Shield.
The general feeling is the attempt to provide something better about the same topic.
What about replacing the MAX +8 armor & +5 damage with a temporary bonus to all physical traits?
Not necessarily reaching the same effective bonus but making it cumulative with belts and other spells. Really, it is too messy in this way.

For instance, a +2/3/4 bonus to STR, DEX, END plus AWA would grant a total of:
+3/4/6 damage on average player using a 1-hand weapon; up to 6 to Archers (4 from Dex + 2 from AWA) and +10 to Grissenda if re-trained to become a 2-handed specialist.
+2/3/4 armor class, +5 in total with the bonus from AWA
UP TO 20+6/lev temporary hit points (+140 at level 20), compensating the lack of armor class.
UP TO +20 extra resistance vs. poison, that is often a very annoying matter.

Considering the cost and how brief is the spell duration, I don't think that it is overpowered.

 

[brissenden]

Maybe a suggestion to give BASH and CHARGE an auto-aim at the closest enemies could solve the issue (and also the glitch with reaching places impossible to reach by other classes, like pass through closed gates and etc., by just making it impossible to use without an enemy out of the range area). And battle prayer rank I could provide +1 STR and +1 AGI (1.5 damage for both hand and light weapons), rank II +5 armor (stacking with holy shield) and +8 to all resistances and rank III +1 END and +1 PER.

 

[0rion79]

Battle prayer would not be good enough then... but for sure properly spreading the bonus among different levels would make it a fair deal for a class that has some serious identity problem

 

[brissenden]

Battle prayer would not be good enough then...

But letting a skill to help pass trait checks also ruins the balance, so i'm not even sure about traits gained through skill points should be allowed. Maybe adding only +1 STR for each rank of battle prayer (because there are no known trait checks for STR, at least for me) with minor armor and resistance bonuses would be better.

 

[brissenden]

For example:
rank I adds +1 STR, +3 armor and +5 to all resistances;
rank II adds +2 STR, +5 armor and +10 to all resistances;
rank III adds +3 STR, +8 armor and +15 to all resistances.

 

[0rion79]

I see your point, but this is also an RPG: I see nothing bad in a cleric asking for divine help for problems that he wouldn't be able to resolve with his human limits.

Also, bonuses would be temporary and lasting for 12 seconds, not permanent, and the pure armor class bonus that you provide would enter in conflict with other spells owned by the cleric, making things still messy.

If my +2/+3/+4 progression is too strong, then even +1/+2/+3 sounds still reasonable to me, granting decent bonuses both to the main character and his companions.