Sarlona Server - Augon, Vitrin, Allaric, Taheghi, Dhakenshaup, Diviciacus, Loukus, Mehujael, Phreddd, Talaun, Zhugeliangg
Officer of The Wulfepack - "If you call one wolf, you invite the Pack"
Visit http://thewulfepack.shivtr.com/
The mistakes of a fighter are the scars on his face.
The mistakes of a rogue are still locked in their place.
The mistakes of a mage were destroyed with a boom.
And the mistakes of a Cleric are lying in a tomb.
Sarlona Server - Augon, Vitrin, Allaric, Taheghi, Dhakenshaup, Diviciacus, Loukus, Mehujael, Phreddd, Talaun, Zhugeliangg
Officer of The Wulfepack - "If you call one wolf, you invite the Pack"
Visit http://thewulfepack.shivtr.com/
The mistakes of a fighter are the scars on his face.
The mistakes of a rogue are still locked in their place.
The mistakes of a mage were destroyed with a boom.
And the mistakes of a Cleric are lying in a tomb.
The lore argument is very much a secondary issue. It's nice if our game world makes sense rather than just being a series of odd exceptions taped together and has some internal consistency, but game balance is certainly the primary issue.
It's also very alarming that you've chosen one of the least informed and most exaggerated comments in this thread so far as summing up the so-called problem in a nutshell. The claim that most players find PMs unplayable in most content is groundless and absurd. There's just no nice way to say how wrong that statement is.
If you follow that poster's other comments in this thread you will see that s/he actually has no idea about the healing potential of the build, gets taken by surprise when some numbers are quoted and then has to ask for more information. Yet this is the quality of feedback you've chosen to accept in support of the changes you want to make. PM self-healing is godly in sub-reaper difficulties and the development team has insisted they weren't going to balance the game around play in reaper - so where does that leave you with justifying the healing changes?
I think it would be very useful for this discussion if you could give us some specifics on two points you've made. The first being how a largely self-sufficient build with excellent CC options in your opinion somehow work badly with groups, and the second being how building for self-healing (which involves a couple of spell choices, possibly a small AP allocation for neg healing amp in the tree, plus gear) is preventing PMs from reaching their potential as casters. None of these things are actually issues in the game; PMs are strong right now, can provide excellent support for their groups in the form of instakills and CC, and do not in fact have to make any substantial sacrifices to support their own self healing.
This seems like an excellent example of you taking advice from the wrong people and using it to amass a bunch of post-hoc rationalisations that have literally nothing to do with how the game actually works in order to support your chosen course of action. You'd be far better served by talking to people who are experienced playing the build in difficult content rather than random forum participants who are just parroting some slogans they've heard about PMs being bad right now while trying to pass off a huge increase in power via survivability as merely being a QoL issue.
Thanks.
Last edited by blerkington; 07-19-2019 at 01:42 AM.
So are you saying enemy mobs are an undead race? That a skeleton was not MAGICALLY (your word there) raised from the dead? So following your thematic reasoning a cleric player's cure light wounds spell should heal an enemy skelton for 50%. Yea REAL good thematic there . Just a big fat NOOOO to the 50% pos healing!!
Again find a different way to counter act the reaper healing penalty the actually makes sense. It is an issue. I think some PM s are doing reapers above their gear and/or skill level, but it is a problem none the less since exclusion is never good. Give more negative heal amp so the reaper penalty is negated on R1 maybe even up to R3 with decent gear.
Another option: Give the skeleton pet (which is just useless in general) a death sacrifice ability that acts like a harm spell and dispells the skeleton pet. Usable x times per rest with a x minute(s) cool down. Or something different from the pet idk spit balling ideas but NOTHING is worse than 50% pos healing
This is so true. Also think of builds taking T5 Arcane Supremacy from Archmage. If you start your Death Auras while its active you got the +25% Spell Critical Chance and +100% Spell Critical Damage for the whole time the aura is up (ad Extend in and you are in god mode for over 2min except for oneshots). Even right now I see Aura ticks of up to 800 in R5 - despite the selfhealing penalty. Yes, it wont heal you from low to full in one tick in R10 but... didnt you say you are NOT balancing around reaper?
Right now, if playing R10 stuff I'm just not using undead form. Which is ok for me, I cannot expect all healers having/using harms on me. My DCs are decent, still, and my job in R10 is using instakills and masshold/cc.
Btw: just checked, if entering a quest non-reaper the Arcane Supremacized death aura ticks for over 2k - even the lesser reaches 300s (~950 neg spellpower, 195 neg heal amp thanks to Curse Necromancer Set) - and I dont have scion of fire (+30% more crit multiplier) or Wellspring (+150 SP). So thats the thing you are balancing around. And we will get a 3rd, even more powerful aura AND can then be healed by positive energy? Asking for more power creep? Here we go.
PS: I'm not a tripple all completionist, got 0 racial PLs and only the PLs needed for DC casting (Spell Pen*9, Evo*3).
Edit: Negative Energy Conduit (3 AP for 20 neg h-amp) still giving profane bonus (so not stacking with Adh. of the Mists set from RL). Please change it to a stacking type like its done with positive h-amp in all other enh. trees.
Last edited by Horst-of-the-Wood; 07-19-2019 at 05:05 AM.
"Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man."
How should I know ? You can come up with your own reasons.
And why are you so sure, a Wizard can make it easier ? Maybe he'd pike all the time ?
Nope. It doesn't.
Being able to heal and perform healing in grop are two completely different things.
- OK. Why not ?
- Unearthed Arcana still an official supplement published by WotC, I see no problems with the spell points.
Sure ! Where do I sign ?
He has ~150HP now, without any changes. :-\ But, just in case : Sure ! Where do I sign #2 ?
Last edited by MasterKernel; 07-19-2019 at 01:53 AM.
I agree, In my opinion they are focusing on the wrong things to cover for the deficiencies of reaper.
Again, people played in undead for I) dc bonuses, II) self healing, III) other form perks.
Of the three, different archetypes built around some more than others. For example, melees used primarily the self healing. Things like shiradi zombies also used the self healing (rip). Insta killers would be perhaps more balanced between the two. However, nowadays I see sorc specs insta killing just fine, so I wouldn’t know. Dc casting is not my forte.
I fail to see how, even after balancing around reaper (wasn’t that NOT supposed to happen?), the main reason why melees stopped using form is not addressed. That is, the self healing was no longer worth it. The new boosts to forms seem incompatible with melee trees, given the power level and the depth of the ap investment needed.
Honestly, I fail to see a rational discussion. On whether the changes hit the mark, or target the real issues. Most of this class passes are just buffs and a bunch of people saying nice buff my character...
Yes, an ek with pm will suck less now. No, I don’t think it is more than some flavor build.
To be clear: after your update Wraith form have same Necro DC ( and Vampire have same Necro and +1 more Enc DC ) as Lich form with much more appealing bonuses to survival. Give reason to take Lich form at all over Wrait or Vampire forms!
I wonder how it will help party dynamics to mix Thanos with a Robot Trex, now with 2 sources of healing...
Current biggest limitation on spell caster Necros is boss DPS, and thats it, pretty much gone with the T4 negative immunity strip + level 9 DoT.
I have the feeling we are not going to see many of these "Wizards" joining parties.. they don't need one anymore. Kinda makes their party role a little bit less interesting if they arent in parties.
I just picked a form that would give you the max, but with the proposed changes you would get that +8 in either lich, wraith or vampire form and as others pointed out wraith will likely be the go-to form even though lich is the more iconic and powerful undead caster. With lower will saves in general and more aoe debuff options against will saves I am not sure the +1 enchantment dc will be a compelling reason to go vampire. 35% ghostly and a little dodge cap is really good in difficult content. If they fixed the knockdown immunity for floating forms (which disappeared a while back when they made a bunch of system changes - wiki is wrong in stating this still works) wraiths should have that would be an even more compelling reason to go wraith since switching to a backup zephyr stick is a pain and costs dc.
If regular movement speed and spellcasting speed is unaffected I would expect to see more zombies than vampires which is giving a 20% hp boost at the cost of 1 dc and even with that 1 dc hit you would be well ahead of all other arcane dcs.
This is it in a nutshell. PMs are disadvantaged in one place and one place only and that is high skull reaper grouping. So again the devs never balance around reaper but PM doesn't really have an issue outside of high reaper. The community offered up many suggestions on this that would be just fine for high skull groups: make harm scrolls more accessible, fix harm targeting so it works like heal targeting, auto-granting harm to divines when they take heal etc. making it easier for divines to heal undead. I ran a PM inquisitive flavor build for fun and was getting mid 100s per tick non-crit healing with death aura in R5 and I didn't even have an insightful nullification item. Your PM self-healing set would include legendary velvet capelet (+2 profane stats, insightful negative hamp 43, greater boon of undeath) , legendary silverthread belt (enh null 202, null lore 29 and ironically positive enh 202 and pos lore 29 for cocoon action now), Legendary Cursed Scroll (Neg Hamp 80, Ins Null 101, Nec Focus 8),
So the issue with PM healing in parties was fixed wrong in my opinion, esp when the issue is mostly just a high skull problem. I don't think this is so bad it ruins the game, but it shows the devs either haven't been paying attention to past discussions on PM healing issues in groups or if it's another case of over-correction.
I think the larger dc gap created with U43 will be interesting. Will the devs balance around a maxed out triple triple triple winged PM pushing more people to play that build or will they balance around sorc/warlock with lower dc potential making wizard a more casual-friendly build for dc casting where you can reach higher dcs than other classes even without any past lifes. My guess would be the former based on past history.
PM is a massive ap investment and realistically if you are investing all those points and gear slots you want the capstone and maybe even tier 5. You also want harper tree and kta as a martial build. This makes it really hard to fit in a dps tree and kind of boxes you out of ek into something like maybe vistani. It would only make sense to do this if you are playing a DC-first arcane warrior where you use necro and enchant on mobs and your weapon on bosses and are close to a max dc caster. Giving up a few dc for martial boss dps seems more compelling than ever to me for PM - just don't try for balance - overbuild for DC and accept weaker boss martial dps that still will beat spell dps.
Warforged or bladeforged make for more interesting EK builds and also have great self healing without so much ap investment.
Last edited by slarden; 07-19-2019 at 05:46 AM.
Milacias of Kyber
Leader of the Crimson Eagles Kyber
The Myth- TR will make my character powerful
The Reality- Those kobolds in Water Works won’t have a chance but nothing else cares-Learn to play your build and all its abilities in actual difficult content, get gear and reaper points in level 30+ content and raids.
Milacias of Kyber
Leader of the Crimson Eagles Kyber
The Myth- TR will make my character powerful
The Reality- Those kobolds in Water Works won’t have a chance but nothing else cares-Learn to play your build and all its abilities in actual difficult content, get gear and reaper points in level 30+ content and raids.
Some ideas for additional tweaks and balance for shroud forms with this assumptions:
Shroud Role (1st role is more important):
1. Zombie – weapon attack improvements, quasit-tank improvements
2. Vampie – enchantment improvements, melee attacks improvements ,
3. Wraith – survivability improvements, Sneak attack improvements, casting ability improvements
4. Lich – casting ability improvement, magical survivability improvements
Base form:
Shroud of the Zombie: While in this form, +4 Constitution, +2 Strength, +20% damage with attacks but you attack 20% slower than normal. You gain +5 PRR, +3 MRR.
Shroud of the Vampire: While in this form, +2 Charisma, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom. +3 Perform skill, and your melee and unarmed attacks have a chance to heal you for 1d3 Negative Energy damage per Wizard Level, +1 Enchantment DC
Shroud of the Wraith: While in this form, +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence. Enemy attacks have a 15% chance to miss you due to incorporeality, +1 Sneak Attack Dice, and you gain Feather Falling.
Shroud of the Lich: While in this form, +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +10 Negative Amplification, +5 Negative Spell Power, and +15 Magical Resistance Rating, +1 Necromancy DC
Ascendant form:
Zombie: While in Zombie Form, +20 Melee and Ranged Power, +10 PRR (+15 total). +20% Racial Bonus to maximum Hit Points (stacks with EDF)
Vampire: While in Vampire Form, +1 Enchantment DC (+2 total). +2 Charisma (+4 total) Your melee attacks have a chance to dominate your adversaries. On Hit: Target has a chance to be Paralyzed (Will save vs. DC 20 + INT / CHR Mod + Enchantment Spell Bonuses). On Save: -10% Movement and Attack Speed.
Wraith: While in Wraith Form, +10% Incorporeality (bringing your total to 25%, or 35% if you have Ghost in the Wind), +2 Sneak Attack Dice (+3 total). +3% Dodge & Dodge Cap. +10 to Hide and Move Silently, +50 Spell Points
Lich: While in Lich Form, +10 MMR (+25 total), +15 to MRR cap, +10 Negative Spell Power (+15 total), +10 Cold and Electric Resistance Racial bonus, Stacking Spell Resistance: +5, +20% Critical Damage for Negative spells
Improve Shroud Multiselector:
Deathly Tough: +10 Maximum Hit Points per Core (maximum 60 HP)
Deathly Resistance: 15 Magical Resistance Rating, +2 to all Saves
Inflict Weariness: Your attacks inflict 2-9 points of Negative Energy damage to a living target. This scales with 100% Spell Power. Your Vorpal Melee Hits cause Energy Drain, inflicting 1 Negative Level on victims.
Haunting in the Dark: +2 Assassinate DCs, +1 Sneak Attack Dice
Ghost in the Wind: +10% Incorporeal Miss Chance. (If you are in Wraith Form, this increases your total to 25%).
Deathly Power: +10 to Negative Energy Spellpower, +2% Chance to critical of Negative spells
Superior undead caster: +1 DC to all spells
Undead Chill: +15% bonus to Cold Absorption. You no longer take extra damage from Light.
Undead Shock: +15% bonus to Electric Absorption. You no longer take extra damage from Light.
Unhallowed Touch: You gain Ghost Touch on all attacks, +10 Hide and Move Silently
Also please consider the option for all TR and new players Wizard to be in Undead Shroud from level 1: Please move Shroud selector from Core 3 to Core 1 (and give as additional Improved Shroud multiselecotr on Core 3). I don’t think that will be OP.
Painfully obvious that now reaper is the standard, much like elite was in the past. I guess they gave up on pretending otherwise.
Exactly. But then this is not supporting a primarily melee build, which was the synergy that Steelstar mentioned.PM is a massive ap investment and realistically if you are investing all those points and gear slots you want the capstone and maybe even tier 5. You also want harper tree and kta as a martial build. This makes it really hard to fit in a dps tree and kind of boxes you out of ek into something like maybe vistani. It would only make sense to do this if you are playing a DC-first arcane warrior where you use necro and enchant on mobs and your weapon on bosses and are close to a max dc caster. Giving up a few dc for martial boss dps seems more compelling than ever to me for PM - just don't try for balance - overbuild for DC and accept weaker boss martial dps that still will beat spell dps. Warforged or bladeforged make for more interesting EK builds and also have great self healing without so much ap investment
Why? Because the is no proper understanding of what constitutes a proper melee build, the foundation. Also crucial, I don't think they understood WHY people where playing undead melees (mostly for heals, I think we'll agree), and how the current update does little in that regard.
I am not a fan of designs that do not scale well to higher difficulties. At lower difficulties, anything goes, so it is not a success in design that EK or whatever works there. Where the game fabric is tested is precisely when things get tougher, and failure is a possibility.
PS - If they don't want self healing to be a thing, they need to give melee undead some other stuff that is interesting and not locked in a t5. Short of that, may as well just trash the concept.
At the moment Lich is probably the weakest of the forms, Wraith is great defense and Vampire is better casting with the bonus to enchant.
Lich needs something to give it a boost though I don't think direct necro dc boost is necessarily it.
Lich form giving evards etc or +1 to transmute or something different rather than just boosting necro as the devs don't want it any higher if its +1 extra necro it would become the form of choice. I like the viability of other ones now but lich should have something worthwhile.
Milacias of Kyber
Leader of the Crimson Eagles Kyber
The Myth- TR will make my character powerful
The Reality- Those kobolds in Water Works won’t have a chance but nothing else cares-Learn to play your build and all its abilities in actual difficult content, get gear and reaper points in level 30+ content and raids.