22 Nov @ 12:08pm

OK, now it's time for some Alchemist comments.  First, some general comments:

1. Out of all the classes in this pack, the alchemist is the least finished. It's not really ready for testing, in my humble opinion.

2. Many of the skills are lacking tier bonuses. The ones that have them are really uninspired. You probably already knew this.

3. The 7th skill is missing for each tree. You probably already knew this.

4. Same issues with the passives as the other classes.

5. There are too many WDPS skills and WDPS skills that turn into hybrid skills with a tier bonus. Especially since the delivery vectors are similar on so many of these skills, we're ending up with essentially the same skill over and over, and when that happens the one with the best WDPS/cycle time is the winner, and everything else is a bad choice. Also, hybrid WDPS+flat skills are hard to balance, and having so many of them is a recipe for trouble.

6. Few (maybe none?) of the skills have recharges (or any other costs besides mana and cast time).

7. All of the minions share a bunch of problems: (a) No display for their damage in the tooltip. (b) Move speed is way too fast. (c) Aggro range is way too big. They are chasing stuff miles off the screen. (d) Not dying with zone changes or quit and restart.

Now, some skill-specific comments:

Ember Bolt: Generally fine. Maybe increase range as rank increases.

Ice Shock: A large ranged AoE on a low delay like this is maybe too strong (compare to embermage's infernal collapse). Funky behavior at close range -- skill should have min range req to prvent that. Projectile has problems with hills/uneven terrain.

Ember Lightning: THis skill just isn't working right. The particle isn't displaying much of the time. It's not chaining, despite the description that says it does. There seems to be some kind of hold-and-drag targeting, but I can't make it work worth a darn. I can't really comment on its balance in this state.

Ember Lance: This guys is as OP as it was in TL1. Maybe reduce the range in line with the embermage skill that's cloned from it. Has problems with hills/uneven terrain. Typo in description ("attack speedy").

Pyre: Exact same issues as ice shock.

Ember Strike: Range is too big.

Nether Imp: See general comments regarding minions. I had trouble getting the second imp to cast despite having a corpse nearby.

Thorned Minions: Probably OK. Potentially becomes a balance problem if minion health greatly exceeds monster health and/or minions can unfailingly be replaced faster than they die. Needs tier bonuses.

Alchemical Golem: See general comments regarding minions.

Beam Golem: See general comments regarding minions.

Terror: This skill is utterly worthless. Maybe with the addition of some secondary debuffs, it might become useful. (Or maybe a totem thing like in D2 so it becomes a "wall of fear.")

Burning Brand: SHould be OK so long as minion damage numbers are sane to start with.

Ember Shock: Startup is maybe too slow for melee skill for a caster. Generally you want to be quick at getting things out of your face. (See embermage's zappy hands skill.) The bigger problem is that all the overuse of hybrid WDPS+flat damage comes home to roost here: This skill is rendered completely worthless by the fact the all the other hybrid WDPS+flat skills are ranged attacks with bigger damage numbers and unconditional AoE with a bigger range. There's no reason to ever pick this skill when you can pick one of those.

Ember Shield: If this is supposed to be scaling with focus and vitality, it's not right. (Focus and Vitality aren't named "focus and vitality" internally.) Also, I've never seen the shield buffer effect used with a type. You might want to do some testing to see if it's really restricted to just phys damage like the display says. From a balnce point of view, I'm not sure scaling with Focus and Vit is a good idea in the first place because, well, Borris. Also, it's really hard to balance strong defense effects like this in only one dimension. (Compare to engineer's forcefield that uses mana, cast time, recharge time, and charge costs.)

Infuse: Simultaneously overpowered at low levels ("OMG it's like having 60 extra Strength!") and underpowered at high levels. Very overpowered due to all the WDPS skills everywhere. (Another place where that comes home to roost problematically.) Since this is basically a passive skill, why not make it a passive skill?

Frailty: While this would be useful as a ranged skill, its benefits don't justify the risk of using it at point blank range. Either make it a ranged skill, or dramatically buff it.

Ember Phase: Fine.

Ember Sentry: See general comments regarding minions (except the part about aggro). Range is too long. The "+X% phys dmg" mod is really odd -- especially since the minion does fire damage. (Either way the tooltip needs to be made to make sense.) Also, doesn't this use a beam graphic in TL1? Needs a duration indicator on the HUD.

First let me say that I love the lack of summon timers. I've always felt like a proper summoner should spend more time supporting the minions with other skills rather than managing cooldowns constantly, so it's already better than vanilla in that regard. Unfortunately there is one major issue it shares with vanilla, and I'm not sure if this can be modded or not, but minions are largely ignored by enemies. They can't really tank for you, and end up running in circles chasing the enemy as the enemy runs in circles chasing you, which is all rather silly. If at all possible, please address this.

...Nether Imp. They're reasonably effective in combat, and the raising from corpses effect is pretty cool, however there's one big problem. There are many situations where they are impossible to use at all.  You may be surprised how many types of enemies leave no corpse to begin with, not to mention how often corpses explode when you hit them hard enough. Also, the game seems to deliberately explode corpses in major boss battles and phase beast challenges wherein waves of mobs are spawned, to prevent them from piling up.
...
My recommendation is to allow summoning a minimum of one imp per cast, even with no corpses present, and amend the description to say you can lure more out of the nether realm by offering fresh corpses.

And as a minor side note, the nether imp footstep sound effects wear on my nerves after a while. I'd really prefer them to be muffled if not silenced altogether.

...Alchemical Golem. I think this has a lot of potential, especially if the general problem with enemy AI can be addressed. However, the golem desperately needs a move speed buff, as it spends the majority of the time trying to catch up to the rest of the group, often arriving just as the battle ends. It could also use some knockback resistance if it's going to tank properly.

Thorned Minions is a nice idea, but the aforementioned issue with enemies ignoring minions makes it wholly irrelevant.

...Ember Bolt could use a little fine tuning. The damage at Tier 0 is strictly inferior to auto-attacking with the first wand you pick up. It becomes serviceable once you're firing at least three bolts, but it should really gain an additional chance to poison, with poison chance and poison duration increasing by rank.

Ember Lightning damage also feels a little low, and the sound effect volume is much too loud.

I love the concept of Ember Barrage. It's like a magical minigun, and actually quite potent once it "spins up". I'm not so much a fan of the aim-assist on it though. Much of the time it arcs around what I'm trying to shoot, completely missing even stationary targets at short to medium range.

Ember Lance is much easier to aim, but the damage is almost nonexistent. It really struggles to break shields or penetrate enemy armor even on normal difficulty.

...some irregularities in the alchemist skill tree in general: Nether Crystals and Ember Sentry requiring level 28, and Alchemical Powder Bombs and Ember Phase requiring level 35. These all deviate from the standard progression of Tier 1 to Tier 7 skills.

There's also the fact that several alchemist skills do not improve with ranks except via tier bonuses.

Quote from: Phanjam

I'll track those down, but for now could you be a little more specific pls?

Ember Bolt, Ember Lightning, Nether Imp, Summon Alchemical Golem, and Ember Shock so far. Apparently Nether Crystals as well since it doesn't appear to actually do any damage at all. Even its tooltip says "deals ___". Could be more, but I haven't unlocked the rest yet.