okay, so I'm currently trying to "fix" my class's charge bar skill [Respite] to re-balance the challenges a bit.

TLDR, I need help with [Stat] and understanding how Engineer Charge Bar works

Here's how to skill works:

Whenever the caster cast [a certain skill] that consume a charge (like engineer), if it's an defensive buff it'll proc [Respite], which grant affected allies 3 sec of bubble, and a bunch of status resistance. The damage absorbed by the bubble are affected by caster's level.

Now my problem is that initially, I didn't want to the bubble to be invulnerable, which means if players went and bit more than they can chew, the bubble will break, along with all of its benefit. I had a nice balance figure to work it out when leveling in game, including [Path of Torchlight] mod by @Darkthan9800

Up until I try Synergies Darkness Fall

Even mini bosses start 1 shot the bubble whenever I cast it.  So in the end I had to bump up the numbers to ludicrous amount to suffer at least 1 hit from bosses, resulting completely OP in leveling period, and I want my class to be enjoyable during leveling and not just endgame, many hours had been put into thoughts and play test to ensure that too (at least for me)

I had an idea currently to make it work. First I create a [Stat] just like railmanchargebonus, and when I cast [a certain skill], It'll [convert charges to stat], and the bubble will have the [stat name] and [stat percent] base on such. Here's what I did with [Salvation]. note that [Respite] does not only proc from this skill, there's other skill that proc this skill as well.

   [LEVEL1]
      [EVENT_START]
         <BOOL>ATTACHES:1
         [STATWATCHER]
            <STRING>STAT:PLAYER CHARGES
            <STRING>PRIMARY_TARGET_TYPE:SELF
            <STRING>SECONDARY_TARGET_TYPE:VALUE
            <STRING>WATCH_TYPE:LESS THAN
            <FLOAT>SECONDARY_VALUE:1
         [/STATWATCHER]
      [/EVENT_START]
      [EVENT_START]
         <STRING>FILE:media/skills/lightbringer/chargedeffect/judgement_warmup.layout
         <BOOL>ATTACHES:1
         <BOOL>STATSHIDDEN:1
         [STATWATCHER]
            <STRING>STAT:PLAYER CHARGES
            <STRING>PRIMARY_TARGET_TYPE:SELF
            <STRING>SECONDARY_TARGET_TYPE:VALUE
            <STRING>WATCH_TYPE:GREATER THAN
            <FLOAT>SECONDARY_VALUE:0
         [/STATWATCHER]
         [EFFECTS]
            <STRING>TARGET:SELF
            [EFFECT]
               <STRING>NAME:lightbringer_respite       <= the stat name
               <STRING>ACTIVATION:DYNAMIC
               <STRING>DURATION:INSTANT
               <STRING>TYPE:CONVERT CHARGE TO STAT
               <FLOAT>VALUE:0
            [/EFFECT]
         [/EFFECTS]
      [/EVENT_START]
      [EVENT_TRIGGER]
         <STRING>FILE:media/skills/lightbringer/salvation/salvation placeholder 1.layout
         <BOOL>NOSTEALEFFECTS:0
         <BOOL>STATSHIDDEN:1
         [AFFIXES]
            <INTEGER>AFFIXLEVEL:1
            <STRING>TARGET:FRIEND
            <STRING>TARGETTYPE:PET
            <STRING>AFFIX:LIGHTBRINGER_SALVATION_1
         [/AFFIXES]
         [AFFIXES]
            <INTEGER>AFFIXLEVEL:1
            <STRING>TARGET:SELF
            <STRING>AFFIX:LIGHTBRINGER_SALVATION_1
         [/AFFIXES]
         [AFFIXES]
            <INTEGER>AFFIXLEVEL:1
            <STRING>TARGET:FRIEND
            <STRING>TARGETTYPE:PLAYER
            <STRING>AFFIX:LIGHTBRINGER_SALVATION_1
         [/AFFIXES]
         [STATWATCHER]
            <STRING>STAT:LIGHTBRINGER_RESPITE
            <STRING>PRIMARY_TARGET_TYPE:SELF
            <STRING>SECONDARY_TARGET_TYPE:VALUE
            <STRING>WATCH_TYPE:LESS THAN
            <FLOAT>SECONDARY_VALUE:1
         [/STATWATCHER]
      [/EVENT_TRIGGER]
      [EVENT_TRIGGER]
         <STRING>FILE:media/skills/lightbringer/salvation/salvation placeholder 1.layout
         <BOOL>NOSTEALEFFECTS:0
         <BOOL>STATSHIDDEN:1
         [AFFIXES]
            <INTEGER>AFFIXLEVEL:1
            <STRING>TARGET:FRIEND
            <STRING>TARGETTYPE:PET
            <STRING>AFFIX:LIGHTBRINGER_SALVATION_1
         [/AFFIXES]
         [AFFIXES]
            <INTEGER>AFFIXLEVEL:1
            <STRING>TARGET:SELF
            <STRING>AFFIX:LIGHTBRINGER_SALVATION_1
         [/AFFIXES]
         [AFFIXES]
            <INTEGER>AFFIXLEVEL:1
            <STRING>TARGET:FRIEND
            <STRING>TARGETTYPE:PLAYER
            <STRING>AFFIX:LIGHTBRINGER_SALVATION_1
         [/AFFIXES]
         [STATWATCHER]
            <STRING>STAT:LIGHTBRINGER_RESPITE
            <STRING>PRIMARY_TARGET_TYPE:SELF
            <STRING>SECONDARY_TARGET_TYPE:VALUE
            <STRING>WATCH_TYPE:GREATER THAN
            <FLOAT>SECONDARY_VALUE:0
         [/STATWATCHER]
         [EXECUTE_SKILL]
            <STRING>SKILL:RESPITE - 6M        <= Executed [Respite] here, same as other skills who proc this
         [/EXECUTE_SKILL]
         [EFFECTS]
            <STRING>TARGET:SELF
            [EFFECT]
               <STRING>ACTIVATION:DYNAMIC
               <STRING>DURATION:INSTANT
               <STRING>TYPE:ADD CHARGES     <= Reduce charge by 1 after said [stat] have calculate the total charge before deduction
               <FLOAT>MIN:-1         
               <FLOAT>MAX:-1
            [/EFFECT]
         [/EFFECTS]
      [/EVENT_TRIGGER]
      [EVENT_TRIGGER_FOUR]
         [AFFIXES]
            <INTEGER>AFFIXLEVEL:1
            <STRING>TARGET:FRIEND
            <STRING>TARGETTYPE:PET
            <STRING>AFFIX:LIGHTBRINGER_SALVATION_1
         [/AFFIXES]
      [/EVENT_TRIGGER_FOUR]
   [/LEVEL1]

And there's [Respite] that proc;

[SKILL]
   <STRING>NAME:Respite - 6m
   <TRANSLATE>DISPLAYNAME:Respite
   <STRING>SKILL_ICON:skillicon_divineshield
   <STRING>ACTIVATION_TYPE:NORMAL
   <STRING>TARGET_ALIGNMENT:GOOD
   <FLOAT>RANGE:10
   <FLOAT>FINDTARGETANGLE:360
   <FLOAT>TURNRATEOVERRIDE:-1
   <BOOL>HIDDEN:1
   <BOOL>CAN_BE_SILENCED:0
   <INTEGER64>UNIQUE_GUID:1779625509979859292
   [LEVEL1]
      [EVENT_START]
         <STRING>FILE:media/skills/6m aoe.layout
         <BOOL>STATSHIDDEN:1
         <BOOL>CAN_CLONE:0
         [AFFIXES]
            <STRING>TARGET:SELF
            <STRING>AFFIX:LIGHTBRINGER_PROC_RESPITE2
         [/AFFIXES]
         [AFFIXES]
            <STRING>TARGET:FRIEND
            <STRING>TARGETTYPE:PET
            <STRING>AFFIX:LIGHTBRINGER_PROC_RESPITE2
         [/AFFIXES]
         [AFFIXES]
            <STRING>TARGET:FRIEND
            <STRING>TARGETTYPE:PLAYER
            <STRING>AFFIX:LIGHTBRINGER_PROC_RESPITE2
         [/AFFIXES]
      [/EVENT_START]
      [EVENT_END]
         <BOOL>CAN_CLONE:0
         [EFFECTS]
            <STRING>TARGET:SELF
            [EFFECT]
               <STRING>NAME:lightbringer_respite
               <STRING>ACTIVATION:DYNAMIC
               <STRING>DURATION:INSTANT
               <STRING>TYPE:CLEAR STAT       <= Clearing [stat] to avoid multiple stack that can benefit other [Respite] proc
               <FLOAT>MIN:0
               <FLOAT>MAX:0
               <FLOAT>CHANCE:100
            [/EFFECT]
         [/EFFECTS]
      [/EVENT_END]
   [/LEVEL1]
[/SKILL]

And it worked, to some point.

[Respite] will now scale with my charge bar, as well as character level. I can tweak the [stat percent] at the affixes to fit my intended play style.

But for some reason after the 1st cast from a "drained charge bar" (always the first cast), the 1st cast would show the correct about, but the next cast, no matter how many charges I have, it'll always add 1 more extra charge to it, and only once. After that its back to normal again.

And for some reason, it now instead of deducting 1 charge, it deletes everything. 

I've been scratching  my head for days with this one. If anyone have any idea where I did wrong, I'm ready to learn. 

p/s: sorry for the wall of text, I type this ASAP while baby sitting. Didn't noticed I had so much here

Hey sorry for the late reply Rhythmier!

I also saw you updated Lightbringer - with your new fix? I'll update my download as well

You're really a sharp modder now / keep it up!

I use photoshop but you can use every other program too. Skills inside these programs come with time working at it. If you have some detailed questions feel free to ask.
When I create skill icons I copy paste an existing one to keep the same grid size. I can dig up a .psd with the basic layout. After I’ve created the colored icons I remove the saturation and save that as the Disabled skills. Now you have to copy paste the text files with the locations and rename all the code lines within or delete unnecessary lines. Else GUTS will through an error failing to load 2 icons with the same name.
This is all I have in mind without sitting in front of it.
Cheers
lolesch

@Rhythmier You can also give a single icon manually. Directly gives the icon Path file that we want to add.

The disadvantage is that we cannot see the icon on GUTS because giving a single icon I don't think requires. IMAGESET, but I think we can get more control because we know what icon we want to add.

You need a single Icon .png or other image file then just convert it to .dds
Of course you also need to adjust the size so it's not too big or small (I forgot the exact size for Torchlight 2 Icon).


Example file path:

<STRING>SKILL_ICON:media/ui/icons/skills/abilityicons/monk/thousandfists.dds
<STRING>SKILL_ICON_INACTIVE:media/ui/icons/skills/abilityicons/monk/thousandfistsb.dds

This is what I do because I still can't make my own iconsheet and imageset files.

@Phanjam  @Sch123   @lolesch

Thanks for the tips guys, will get into it once I have more free time on hand. Leisure time is a luxury for me currently