Thoughts on additions / changes to skills.

[Own]

The Plant: I think I've figured out how to balance this to the point where it can be useful, without having to spam it over and over and over. Bronze Charge - 1 Plant. Silver Charge - 2 Plants, one on either side of you. Gold Charge - 4 plants around you in a circle. Could maybe add thorns and brambles to the final stage in the middle of the circle for the full gold charge, to slow down enemies a little bit and cause small DoT to them.

Flashback, a Defensive skill: Activate the skill once to leave behind a ghostly image of your character. Activate it again to instantly reappear at that position, provided you're on the same map. Doesn't work in puzzle rooms and is wiped when any cutscene activates, to avoid complications. Takes up a % of MP while the spell is set. Bronze Charge: You may instantly chain into a bronze charge of any other skill upon relocating. Silver Charge: Triggers an explosion around the marked Flashback spot, damaging and pushing back enemies as you reappear there. Gold Charge: Undoes the last hit your character has taken, provided the warp is triggered while the damage is still above your character.

Stasis, a Defensive skill: Activation of the skill locks enemies around you in a time crystal, freezing them in place - but leaving them unable to hurt you, or be hurt by you. Ideally used for crowd control, if you have 10 enemies around you but can only reasonable take 5 at a time. Increase the charge of the skill to timelock more enemies at once, increase the duriation of the timelock or apply a slowing effect to enemies once they exit Stasis.

 

[Teddy]

I think the two defensive skills sound very cool! Especially the stasis one. I've saved this thread for when we're doing the Support tree overhaul!

I'm not really sure I see how the plant change helps things though? A similar thing I have in mind is to give the plant summon a faster cast animation, that cancels at an earlier frame, so that the spam can be done faster. I like the fact that the charges give you new plants! (I do agree the plant isn't at a good spot right now though)

 

[Own]

I dunno, I just suggested it because I usually see people use plant as a 'spam it as many times as possible until mana is empty to build a plant nest' type skill. Making it so people can just unleash a garden around them at once seems like it would fit how it's being used, but if the skill is being retooled, that might not be necessary.

Also, another support skill that might be fun.

Help-O-Bot, a Support Skill: A summon akin to Frosty Friend that doesn't engage in combat. Instead, it helps in various passive ways. Emits a pulse of color around it every 10~ seconds that temporarily enhances MATK/ATK, DEF, CSPD/MATKSPD, Mana Regen or Movement Speed, depending on the color pulsed. Scoops up enemy drops for the player and heals itself when picking them up. Runs away from enemies when damaged. At silver/gold? charge, a forcefield appears around it every # seconds, guaranteeing any one projectile that hits it is returned to sender as a perfect block would.

 

[Hatchetman4651]

@Own Wow, these skills sound amazing, They really would make combat so much more interesting than it already is, which I thought was close to impossible because all the different skills/ charge levels. One thing though, isn't the Help-O-Bot idea just an advanced pet?

 

[GarlicJelly]

You could have a support skill where a player is doing a minigame like the pet capturing minigame (I'm thinking of something close to DDR with your character) and the different combinations would create this pulsating buff your Help-O-Bot idea has. Would look fun if the support in your team is busting moves in the battle field while his friends are all blocking, dodging, charging skills and attacking. Make support skills fun!

Plus, imagine everyone having at least 1 point in the support skill... because random victory dance parties.

 

[Quote]

If you don't mind me intruding with a thought of my own:
I feel like the Air slash skill (Second air skill?) was a bit lackluster. Perhaps it should work more like this:

(Boomerang Cutter Charged, Megaman X1 @ 1:31)

Notice how they circle and come back in, then shoot back out again. I feel like this would give a bit more area that they would cover, making them more useful as a whole.

I know it's not the most creative change, as I have to show a video of it being done before for me to explain it the best that I can, but I still think that the skill would highly benefit from this.

 

[Own]

Vortex, a ? Skill: Targeted in the same manner as Meteor Strike. Summons a swirling vortex at that spot, sucking enemies that get too close into the middle of it to keep them contained. Upgrading it drains a fixed % of their life away for each second they spend inside of the vortex, or causes damage to enemies depending on how many enemies are trapped in the middle of the vortex being grinded against each other.

Doppelganger, a Defensive Skill: Summons an exact clone of yourself behind you. This clone does absolutely nothing, but enemies may be drawn to attack it much in the same way as they attack Frosty Friend. While it has much more HP than FF, it's HP will steadily drain downwards after being summoned to ensure it can't be spammed over and over again. At silver charge it may explode on death, dealing damage. At gold charge it will slash once every second in the direction it was summoned facing.

 

[Own]

Chowdown, an Offensive Skill: Beastly fangs snap forward in front of the player, dealing damage with a chance to instantly kill any enemy under % HP. Putting points in this skill increases the minimum % of HP the enemy needs to be. If this skill kills the enemy, the player receives a temporary buff to (...?). Charging the skill increases the chance for insta-death and the buff received. Some enemies when devoured may have special effects on the player. (ex: Eat a slime enemy, gain # uses of a skill that enemy has. Eat a slime, spew slime on the floor that slows enemies. Eat a ghost, go invisible/immune for a second or two. Yeti, get icy breath that freezes enemies solid.)

The special effects part might be unnecessary / too much work.

Guardian Glyph, a Defensive Skill: Summons a circular glyph on the ground bearing the mark of the Goddess. Players can enter this field but enemies cannot. Enemies can attack the outside of the glyph as if it were a Frosty Friend-style summon to kill it, but it's HP normally drains down to 0 even if not attacked - it's a temporary spell. Players can't attack or charge while inside the glyph, but it's a safe spot to regenerate Energy or a barrier to put between enemies and the player. Charging increases the size of the glyph and it's HP.

 

[GarlicJelly]

Chowdown sounds a bit OP on boss fights. XD Maybe it could work like Axe's ultimate in DOTA? (When enemies are under 450 HP you instantly kill them which means that the skill does 450 damage when enemies are under that amount. If the enemy however is not under 450HP then the skill only deals 300 damage.) This might not scale very well into late game so if you can figure out a good % ratio for the skill to not be OP I wouldn't mind adding this as one of my skills.

Guiardian Glyph sounds awesome! I want that on a mage.

Edit: Maybe Chowdown could deal flat damage + % of enemy missing health instead so it works well in both early and late game?

 

[Own]

'Enemies', not bosses. Of course you can't eat a boss, no game with a devour-esque skill allows for that. =P

 

[GarlicJelly]

But I don't wanna have a skills I can't use in boss fights. Besides who said you can't bite a boss? I call that BS! XD

 

[Own]

That's why I wrote that it does a base amount of damage as well. =P You can still damage with it but not have an insta-kill chance.

There's also plenty of boss fights where the boss summons minions.

 

[GarlicJelly]

Yeah, I didn't give it that much thought.

 

[Own]

Element Spiral, a defensive skill: Summons three protective circling orbs around the player: Red, blue and yellow, respectively doing fire, ice and air damage. Charging the base level causes them to extend outwards farther from the player and faster. The next tier increases their damage, range, speed and makes them inflict small status effects. Red will DoT burn whatever enemy it hits, blue will slow, yellow will do a very small stun. Maximum tier causes them to be able to hit 2-3 times each before vanishing? Could also extend their duration as well, if they have a duration and don't simply block mana for as long as they're out.

Aura of the Turtle / Personal Space?, a passive skill: Creates a circular field around the player, slowing all projectiles, spells and enemies that get within the bubble, allowing for better dodging and potentially shielding. Leveling it up increases the size of the bubble / slowness of the enemies? Or maybe it should just slow projectiles/spells?

Magnetized, a passive skill: Melee attacks and skills suck enemies in towards the player to increase the chance of landing a hit, shield blocking pushes them away. Even moreso with a perfect block, or perfect block zaps with a stun? This one seems situational.

 

[Own]

Energize: A spell designed to help combo other spells and skills. Energize allows other skills to be cast instantly at a higher level than normal, similar to perfect guarding off a spell. Blocks a # of EP until it's effect is used, similar to summons. Normal cast: Allows a Spell/Skill to be instantly cast at Bronze level, . Bronze cast: Allows a Spell/Skill to be instantly cast at Silver level, then the Spell/Skill after that to be instantly cast at Bronze level. Maximum cast: Allows the same as the others, but starting with a Maximum cast, then a Silver cast, then a Bronze cast.

Possible ways to improve: Increases damage of the skills/spells Energize is combo'd into? Reduces EP cost of them? A preperation spell that allows for burst damage via chained skills/spells might be good enough on it's own, though.

Optional functionality: If normal attacking while Energize is active, gives a small damage boost / large crit chance for 1-3 swings if attacking instead of using skills?

 

[Fred]

Aura of the Turtle / Personal Space?, a passive skill: Creates a circular field around the player, slowing all projectiles, spells and enemies that get within the bubble, allowing for better dodging and potentially shielding. Leveling it up increases the size of the bubble / slowness of the enemies? Or maybe it should just slow projectiles/spells?

I really like this one, I think something like this would fit perfectly in the new support tree (that should make its way into the game sometime after the second temple is done, I'm hoping!). I'll just have to come up with some clever way to create graphics for it that doesn't clutter the view for the players, but still looks bad-ass (and hopefully dosen't take forever to create!)

I also like the Energize-skill, it's always nice with skills that amp up the action in combat. It would be a really helpful tool for players focusing on slow charged skills, like the meteor.
Negating the charge time for a fully charged skill, coupled with a silver and bronze after that, might be a bit overpowered however but it's hard to tell. The skill would get increasingly less useful since players cast speed will constantly increases during a play through so it might not be a problem at all.
We would have to do some testing too see that it doesn't completely breaks the game for certain builds, but I'm intrigued by it. Keep 'em coming Own!

 

[GarlicJelly]

I really like this one, I think something like this would fit perfectly in the new support tree (that should make its way into the game sometime after the second temple is done, I'm hoping!). I'll just have to come up with some clever way to create graphics for it that doesn't clutter the view for the players, but still looks bad-ass (and hopefully dosen't take forever to create!)

The aura could pulsate outwards from the player and display a thin circle at the max range. Maybe you could also have some kind of heat coming up from the waves pulsating out that makes things behind the character (from the players perspective) become a little fuzzy.

 

[Own]

Potential slowing-field representations:

Transparent turtle shield underneath the player.

A thin green line on the ground around the player with a tiny, animated turtle running along the edge.

A faded out clock face underneath the player.

 

[Own]

Well, here's a completely different type of skill.

Shield Bash: A defensive skill. Causes the player's shield to magically slam outwards a short distance in front of them, creating small damage and massive knockback against one foe. Using this skill damages the shield and can shieldbreak it if not careful. If a Perfect Guard is chained into this skill, it's damage is dramatically increased and EP/Shield HP cost become 0. Leveling up this skill increases the range of the skill, reduces the HP damage to shield and increases the damage dealt. Knockback is additionally increased, especially to larger enemies.

Potentially can be used to knock out projectiles / stop enemies at a distance? Stunning a bee with shield at range, causing boar to stun into the projectile shield, ghost to stun against projectile shield, etc?

Also potentially briefly stuns an enemy if bashing the shield against an enemy breaks the skill, if only at gold rank?

I'm sure this could be better designed, but the shield seems awfully lonely for being such a major part of the combat system and not having it's own dedicated skill.

Or, if not that:

Guardian Shield: Creates a ghostly shield that (follows after / circles around?) the player, aborbing attacks or projectiles that it intercepts. It's HP is based on the player's equipped shield, with a bonus from skill level. If the Mystical Shield breaks, so too does the player's shield. It can't be summoned if the player's shield is broken (or possibly can, if at 1 HP?). The Guardian Shield is treated like the player's actual shield for the purposes of perfect blocking, if the player presses the shield button before a projectile / enemy attacks into the guardian shield.

Possibly draws enemy aggro like snowbuddy at silver or gold rank? Or the size of the Guardian Shield? Or just damages enemies that attack into it?

Ideal use would be positioning it between the player and enemies, so that the player can still attack through it at enemies without having to whip out their own shield.

 

[MrChocodemon]

The Guardian Shield
"(follows after / circles around?) "
why not have it active the whole time and dmg the player would receive is dealt to the shield.
The shield can still break and you could make it so it only absorbs 30% and can be upgraded to +5% dmg absorb.

If you take 100dmg
Level 1 --> 70 to the player and 30 to the shield
Level 10 --> 20 to the player and 80 to the shield