15 Nov 2014

OK, time for another massive post. This time the vanquisher is in my sights.

First off, the particle art is amazing. Throughout. Even when I don't say it for every single skill, just imagine I said it.

Second, again, I'm focusing on the problems, because that's where the attention is needed. Please don't think my view is negative overall because my is on the problems.

Third, my thoughts about passives are the same here as they were in the Destro thread. So I'm not going to repeat them.

Fourth, ranged weapons have balance problems in TL2 that are the fault of the devs, not the custom class designers. But I think custom classes have an opportunity to fix it as well as possible. I'll come back to this again after the skill comments with some details.

Now for the skills:

Ricochet: Perfect in all respects. Looks nice, balanced, inventive tier bonus.

Frost Pilum: Looks better than awesome, no balance problems.

Eye of Storm: Why is there a "charge rate bonus 0%"? Also, the block penalty has odd phrasing and no capital letter. Otherwise fine.

Seeking Shot: Fine.

Explosive Shot: A really admirable attempt at taking one of the most imba skills in TL1 and making it sane (slow cast, high cost, shot range doesn't reach edge of screen). It's still a little on the strong side, but I don't think there's anything more you can do while staying true to the original spirit. Tier bonus is inventive.

Arrow Hail: Looks beyond amazing. Bug: I'm getting 8sec at rank 1. As a Venomous Hail clone, this skill is just as OP as Venomous Hail. I guess that's OK, since that's where Runic set the bar, but I would weaken this skill if not for the precedent.

Needle Arc: Fine. Somewhat lame, but the original was lame and I'm not sure there's any way to fix that while being true to the original. The tier bonuses at least make it a defensive skill. Also, looks great.

Stab: Our fist serious balance problem. This skill is way OP, especially when it gets fast from the tier bonus. Compare this to the Zerker's Raze skill -- the damage here is nearly as high, it's more spammable (especially w/ tier bonus), and it hits multiple targets. A (partial?) fix might be to make it a single-target skill. (Aside: note that however Raze does single-target-ness is bugged - the user can bypass it and hit multiple targets with shift.) Also, this should maybe require a melee weapon so that we don't end up with builds that excel at both ranged and melee damage. ("I punch you with my pistol!")

Steel Dance: Bug: The dodge bonus not working. Balance: The narrowness of the dodge mechanic make this borderline not worth it. Needs more spice. Query: Why isn't this a stance like Eye of Storm?

Wind of Justice: Bug: Something's funky here - I KB+stunned a monster but did not damage it... Balance: Underpowered. Could use a shorter cooldown -- just fast enough to push melee away each time it closes in. (If it starts to feel too much like spammy damage when you do that, increase the KB so you can increase the recharge back up.)

Poison Dirk: Here's our second big balance problem. This skill is even more OP. At full rank, it's an omni-directional, homing, piercing AoE that deals hybrid WDPS and flat damage, with a fast cast speed and no recharge... guys, really? Really? The damage numbers are pretty low, but I'm not sure it's even possible to balance a mountain of strong mechanics this big no matter how low you make the numbers. Some of the aforementioned awesome needs to go.

Ambush: The delay from activation to hit is just too long. Throwing knives in random directions to pass the time looks cool, but doesn't solve the problem. Bug: Won't cast without target even with shift+click.

Hamstring: Is this supposed to be a Savage Rush clone? (I ask because that's what I get if I hold down RMB and move with LMB.) If so, the speed boost is way OP (even more OP than Poison Dirk) because monsters have zero chance of hitting me at that speed. (If not, then I can't really evaluate because it's not working as intended.) Also, the description needs cleared up so that you can tell which effects go on you and which on the targets.

Lightning Bomb: Looks amazingly awesome, Balance is fine.

Flame Trap: Fine. But why KB? Wouldn't pull be better?

Smoke Bomb: 0% WDPS? Needs slightly bigger range for blind. Teleport to mouse might be better than teleport backwards.

Fletchette Trap: Here's our third (or maybe fourth) big balance problem. It's far too easy to kill stuff that's way out of aggro range, and even way off the screen. Either needs the throw range or the shoot range reduced. Also, needs a longer cooldown. Maybe give it a faster cooldown with tier bonuses.

Devour Trap: A little lame. Maybe this should pull more foes? Maybe have a *chance* to pull each foe in range? Also, seems to have an undocumented stun. Also, also, this is the only skill with art problems -- the black cloud does not play well with ground textures, sometimes appearing underneath them, and sometimes doing this funky thing where it alternates rows of pixels with the ground texture.

Flame Bolas: I think the flat fire damage should come at the very end of the lifespan (currently it seems to come on-hit) and should be AoE (this skill is too fiddly/delayed for just single-target damage). Also, immobilize+flee = durr.... Needs a new tier bonus.

Shock Trap: Looks insanely cool. Same balance problem as Flechette Trap (killing things at extreme range) and needs the same fix (either reduce throwing range or reduce firing range). Also, seems to be missing an animation for shooting things.

OK, now coming back to the topic of ranged weapons:
The problem is that pistol(+shield) is strictly superior to bow, xbow, shotgun, and dual pistol. Bow, xbow, shotgun, and dual pistol each have built-in advantages (range, AoE cone, execute) that more or less balance the basic attacks, but that collapses as soon as you start using skills to do damage (since skills have their own range and projectiles/AoE that override the weapons' traits). I've put some thought into this, and the best solution I've come up with is to dink with the skills to give them extra layouts/damage shapes in event blocks conditioned on having a certain weapon. (This is planned, but not implemented, for the outlander overhaul in my mod... someday.) I'd suggest something like this (some of these are half baked):
Ricochet & Frost Pilum:
- bow, xbow, and dual pistol have a chance (scales with skill rank) to fire a second projectile right after the first
- shotgun always fires a short AoE cone in addition to the projectile.
Seeking Shot:
- bow, xbow, and dual pistol fire 1 extra projectile per tier (1/2/3/4).
- shotgun always fires a short AoE cone in addition to the projectiles
Explosive Shot
- bow, xbow, and dual pistol do something???
- shotgun fires a few small extra explosions around the periphery of the first.
Arrow Hail:
- bow and x-bow add an extra circle-shaped damage shape at the center of the main damage shape. Extra damage shape does 50% as much damage as the main one.
- shotgun adds an extra ring-shaped damage shape around the outside of the main damage shape. Extra damage shape does 50% as much damage as the main one.
- dual pistol replaces the main damage shape with two smaller damage shapes in a visa logo configuration. Each shape deals 75% as much as the main one.
I'd lean towards not tweaking the other WDPS/WDMG skills since they might be used with non-ranged weapons.
While I think these changes improve balance overall, I can also appreciate the opposing opinion that it's not a mod-maker's job to over-complicate his or her class's skills in order to fix Runic's bad weapon balance. Do with it as you will.