The skills you love and the skills you don't

[yayswords]

Yes just revert it, I see no reason the old system should be changed.

Don't check just the mage, I can't even kill the archer. Maybe you don't want a druid to be able to take down a back row mob alone but I've been able to do it with heavy +magic stacking until now and if you compare nuke damage to magic bolt damage on most if not all targets there, you'll find the nuke does a bit more damage but not enough to motivate the added delay or SP cost. Not counting the DoT but still.

And if you didn't know, it's not possible to slowly kill a back row mob vs. ratmen/Mormont. Guard and heals will fly before you know it.

[jack1974]

Yes I reverted back to old behavior. Can kill the skeleton archer with one shot of Inferno now (65dmg!)
Also fixed the DoT, so that does max 5% of target HP and at least 4HP. Seems balanced so that the status effect become more important as the target HP is higher. Using your polar bear save the Burning causes 14dmg each turn (his max HP is 367) so seems cool and not crazy like before (42dmg each turn lol)

Only that different stat display in healer shop left to check and then can upload the fixed version

[yayswords]

BTW will the revert also change back magic bolt? Because it's doing much more damage now. Much more as in too much.

[jack1974]

Yes it was a consequence of that. I just tried with Mormont:
magic bolt = 6-8
ice spike = 27-35

[Troyen]

The reverted magic dot system seems better than the crazy damage yesterday. Did you try anything with using resistance to reduce duration of non-dot debuffs (confused, paralyzed, etc) instead of being just hit/miss or was that part of the system overhaul you just reverted?

The original issue with binary resistance (and this affected Loren/PS as well) was it being unreliable. You either reloaded until you got lucky or ignored the resistance stat on gear altogether (or both). At least with fire resistance I gain some limited value by reducing my incoming damage. With paralysis, I can stack all the resist I want, but if I get an unlucky combat role, my character can be paralyzed anyway - so why bother? Either I work around the paralysis (and could've used some other stat instead of resistance) or I get screwed and restart the fight.

If this is too much of an unbalancing change, that's fine, but maybe consider overhauling resistances and debuffs in Loren 2?

[renke_]

You either reloaded until you got lucky or ignored the resistance stat on gear altogether (or both).

I wouldn't judge it that harsh - sometimes the world is black and white... My playthroughs with paralyzis restistance at about 30 % were quite satisfying - sure, 2 in 3 attacks are coming through, but the result was noticable positive nevertheless. Pinning shot cheaters are more acceptable if one can be sure that any time at least one party member is able to smack the crazy bow punks

[jack1974]

I need to check how it works exactly, but I think I removed the resistance in the "trigger calculation". So if the skill says 30%, even if an enemy has 50% resistance it will still hit for 30%. For DoT resistance will reduce damage, for the conditions without damage I think need to reduce duration but perhaps currently is not implemented correctly (need to look at it more carefully).

[fabulaparva]

OK, I think I'm finally at the point where I tend to navigate to the same skills over and over, with a little variation depending on which combo and difficulty I'm playing with. These so called "favourite" skills will probably change once Act II is out and we'll see what one has to survive through in the beginning of that, in addition to getting Riley in the team.

Anyway, a short list of my current favourites:
Vaelis:
Two skills are the clear frontrunners for me: Throwing Axes and Leap Attack. Throwing Axes kicks all kinds of ass with the Bleeding status. Without Hunter in the party, Leap Attack is the one to use to smash the back row enemies.

Hunter:
Hide in Shadows is something I now always pick when playing with Druid/Hunter combo. When playing with the harder difficulties, this is the first pick.
Double Attack: Good For mauling single adversaries in the front row, especially with HiS and has no 'staggered'-requirement, yay!
Ice Flask is a regular pick for me if I'm not playing with Druid.

Ranger:
Bramble Coat. Yeah, smack me and I'll smack you back. Tank up the ranger and let the goblins melee me for all they care. They slowly kill themselves.
Strike Through got slightly nerf.. I mean, more balanced. It's still a good choice for staggering those back row bas...ahem, enemies.

Druid:
Eagle's Grace. Right now I tend to gravitate towards speed with my tactics, so this is an obvious pick.
Ice Spike. Pretty obvious. With easier difficulties, I also tend to pick Hail. However, with harder difficulties, the dmg Hail does is too low and I need to be investing to the healing skills, anyway....

[renke_]

I'm fascinated* - none of your preferred skills is a straight healing spell (the eagle-thingy doesn't count :)). Didn't you include one in your list because it's simply cRPG101 to choose such a ability?

*) I mean it - without any sarcasm. Honestly!

[fabulaparva]

Well, I do use Purify, when I'm out with the Druid. Not because I want to, or because I'd like the skill, but because I have to use it. Okay, maybe it is a bit RPG101.