SKill Discussion Topics - The Shalafi Cabal Skill Trees

[Joel]

... well, I'll try all of these !
Thanx you roxx !!

[Joel]

Well I've reworked the elementalist tree to make it less annoying and stick a bitmore to the classic elemental repartition in D2.

I've also beefed up some skills and make some more themed.

Code: Select all

Skills         Level   Prerequisite        Effects
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1. Pyroblast       5  - Release small fire sprite that randomly wanders and explode into flames.
 2. Shocking Trap   5  - Create a  ball of ligthning that explode in lightning bolt when enemies walk on.
 3. Freezing Ray    5  - A piercing cold ray that freeze enemies.
 4. Fireball        20 1 Launch a fireball with a fire trail that explodes on strike.
 5. Power Surge     10 2 An electric inferno that release bolts of ligthning. 
 6. Icicle Assault  20 3 Release multiple homing ice bolts.
 7. Volcanic Rift   40 4 Induce many fire & rocks explosions on strike.
 8. Static shock    30 5 Charge a monster with high electric field and make it explode in litghning bolt.
 9. Oni no Ona      40 6 Summon an winter spirit that unleash a ice storm on its victim.
10. Earthling      50 7.8.9 Summon three elemental spirits that cast various multi elemental missiles.

[Brother Laz]

You are sure that Icicle Assault works?

The third lightning skill is FoH, right?

...

I still like that name Oni no Ona.

[Joel]

[quote=Brother Laz";p="76985"]
You are sure that Icicle Assault works?
[/quote]

Trying to make it looking right by follwoign your advices right now

[quote=Brother Laz";p="76985"]
The third lightning skill is FoH, right?
[/quote]

yep with reworked gfx and without the special vs udnead stuff
but I'll try to make it work like we already discuss.

[quote=Brother Laz";p="76985"]
I still like that name Oni no Ona.
[/quote]

So do I

[Xcolibri]

I really like the skills, just one question about Volcanic Rift: With 'on strike', are you talking about melee here?

[Joel]

Well, on strike, mean when the missile strike a wall or a monster.

Hope I don't lose too much time to redo these skills trees ... but whenever I've almost compelted one, th elast skills won't work ...

[kingpin]

That's always so. The last one is always a trouble.

The skilltree looks really cool, nice ideas

[Brother Laz]

Design your skill trees with 2-3 skills extra per tree. That way, if something fails to work (and it will) you can substitute with the extra skills. If somehow everything works, just put the spare skills as charge-only skills on another character.

Yep, found that out the hard way too: whenever you start working on a nice skill tree with 10 planned skills, you'll end up with 7 skills.

And do the harder skills first. Saves a lot of nail-biting at 3am.

[Joel]

well , about the Battle Mage ...

Can someone with somewhat nice experience of the D2 melee sorc tell me
what kind of skills could fit this theme.

Already having these :

Armor --> give AC bonus for 8sec.
Protective Shield ---> give red-dmg & FHR bonus for 8 sec.
Tenser's Transform --> give +hp%,+dmg%,+ar% bonuses.
Enchant Weapon ---> give +ar/+dmg-mag dmg to BM weapons.

What lacks ?
new offensive stuff, weapon buffering spell ?
Can I can her some missile ?

[Brother Laz]

Two words:

Attack Rating

[Xcolibri]

new offensive stuff, weapon buffering spell ?
Can I give her some missile ?

That depends on how much you want her to be in melee. And how good she can take her stand hand-to-hand.

I suggest to give her some melee-orientated skills first, area of effect spells that are cast on hit with +weapon effect.

For projectiles, I would say short-ranged missiles are okay, some kind of nova attack must be here, and the boomerang skill she is supposed to have is great, too.

Are 8 seconds for the skills you wrote about only for skill level 1? I'd say, it's too short, 8 seconds pass quickly, also, you have to cast two spells, so it's only 7.8 secs

Some kind of aura would be nice, also she needs attack/cast speed increases.
Brother Laz has an important point, too, attack rating is crucial. In addition to giving her some skills with ar, skills with -monster defense and yes, ITD, do the job fine.

[Joel]

well .... I've extended the duration to be 8sec + 1/slvl. I think it's ok.

Now the main stuff is to find a way to make the Battle Mage interresting to play without creating a horrible mutant, a spellcasting cabal with a melee sub-class ...

So, you see my problem ...

[Xcolibri]

I've extended the duration to be 8sec + 1/slvl. I think it's ok.

Then make sure that the boni are really worth it and the mana price stays low.

Now the main stuff is to find a way to make the Battle Mage interresting to play without creating a horrible mutant, a spellcasting cabal with a melee sub-class ...

So, you see my problem ...

I'm not sure How exactly do you want the Battle Mage to be? What's wrong if one Shalafi subclass goes melee?
Of course, I don't know the class how it is in the MUD. That is probably why I have criticized all the missiles in her skill tree. So maybe we just have different images of a Battle Mage (?)
Actually, if you don't even really want to be her a melee-fighter, your skill tree from Feb 3th is fine. Just make sure that those skills works together (like Forgery + Bloodstone's Joining or Alacrity and Mental Knife).

[Joel]

[quote=Xcolibri";p="78742"]Then make sure that the boni are really worth it and the mana price stays low.[/quote]

Sure, about 5+1.5 AC/slvl for Armor and likely boni for others.

[quote=Xcolibri";p="78742"]
I'm not sure How exactly do you want the Battle Mage to be? What's wrong if one Shalafi subclass goes melee?
Of course, I don't know the class how it is in the MUD. That is probably why I have criticized all the missiles in her skill tree. So maybe we just have different images of a Battle Mage (?)
Actually, if you don't even really want to be her a melee-fighter, your skill tree from Feb 3th is fine. Just make sure that those skills works together (like Forgery + Bloodstone's Joining or Alacrity and Mental Knife).[/quote]

Yep, in the MUD, the Battle Mage build is a bit special.
She crafts her weapons, use semi-ranged skills and can beef herself up with stuff like alacrity ....

Maybe I have to transfer the weapon crafting skill here ??

[Xcolibri]

She crafts her weapons, use semi-ranged skills and can beef herself up with stuff like alacrity ....

Maybe I have to transfer the weapon crafting skill here ??

Well, that would make sense. Although...hmm, it fits better to the conjuratrix, I think. This could be different if the crafted weapons would be very good but ethereal like you did for the battlerager armors. Yes, that sounds nice.
Just be aware that those crafting skills - being a great idea - still take one slot which maybe would be better for something else (since you can find/buy weapons). If those weapons are special for any reason that would be different.

Alacrity would be better if cast speed would be increased, too. If you now change one or two of the missile into melee supporting skills, I wouldn't have complains about the battle mage skill tree at all.

[Joel]

Update so :

Shalafi - Battle Mage :

Code: Select all

Skill                      Lvl  Req  Effect:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1. Armor                   5    -   Give a temporary AC bonus. 
 2. Alacrity                5    -   A charge up bonus of IAS and ICS
 3. Mental Knife            5    -   A magically charged magic attack.
 4. Protective Shield      20    1   Give a temporary red-dmg and HR bonus
 5. Forgery                10    2   A enchant like bonus of +dmg-mag and +ar%
 6. Dancing Sword          20    3   Create a flying scimitar like short ranged attack. 
 7. Tenser's Transform     40    4   Give a temporary hp%,dmg%,ar% bonus
 8. Bloodstone's Joining   30    5   A charge-up bonus of lifesteal & manasteal
 9. Blade of Damocles      40    6   a stunning ITD attack with only 75% SrcDmg.
10. Steel Dance            50  7.8.9 Create a nova of magic blade that use SrcDmg.

Better no ?
The Alacrity/Joining work like the Werebear/wolf charge up so I think they stack. Forgery is a modified enchant, so the three are stackable.

The Dancing Blade is a spinning missile with short range that looks like the D2 flying scimiter.

Steel Dance is well, a nvoa of sword, with no pierce, medium radius and about 1/2 srcdmg.

[Xcolibri]

Src Damage?

Do the spells like Dancing Scimitar, Blade of Damocles or Mental Knife add the weapon effect (damage, leech, etc.)?
I really would do that - even if that means to lower the current damage of the spells - to make her weapon play an important role and worth it.

Also, I would turn one 'temporary' skill into an aura. Maybe even Tenser's Transform, but I'm not sure. That would definitely boost team play, which is always great.

That's it

Is there already an ETA for the first act? (Say, when I stop critizising your skill trees, maybe ? ^^)
I just passed both of my exams and have some time on my hand.

[Joel]

[quote=Xcolibri";p="78934"]Src Damage?

Do the spells like Dancing Scimitar, Blade of Damocles or Mental Knife add the weapon effect (damage, leech, etc.)?
I really would do that - even if that means to lower the current damage of the spells - to make her weapon play an important role and worth it.
[/quote]

When I speak of SrcDmg , I speak about the fatc that the skills use a fraction of your weapon damage AND the effect of it (leech,etc ...).
So, Mental Knife, DS and BoD does add weapons effect to theirs.

[quote=Xcolibri";p="78934"]
Also, I would turn one 'temporary' skill into an aura. Maybe even Tenser's Transform, but I'm not sure. That would definitely boost team play, which is always great.
[/quote]

Hmmm, well TT as aura is uber ! Think of a Battlerager Transformed .
But Armor or PS can be turned into aura or castable on ally spells.

[quote=Xcolibri";p="78934"]
Is there already an ETA for the first act? (Say, when I stop critizising your skill trees, maybe ? ^^)
I just passed both of my exams and have some time on my hand.[/quote]

mmm, what do you mean by ETA ??? Beta ?
If so, well, almost, currently finishing some items and maps.

[Brother Laz]

Is there already an ETA for the first act? (Say, when I stop critizising your skill trees, maybe ? ^^)
I just passed both of my exams and have some time on my hand.

mmm, what do you mean by ETA ??? Beta ?

ETA = Estimated Time of [something starting with an A]
It means the final deadline of the mod's release. Sorta like June 2002 for patch 1.10.

If so, well, almost, currently finishing some items and maps.

Cannotwaitcannotwaitcannotwait...

[Joel]

I'm a bit reluctant to do it, but I think peopla will enjoy a three act, four class only beta or won't they ??

[Brother Laz]

(...) almost, currently finishing some items and maps.

(...) three act, four class only (...)

So which is it?

[Joel]

The Act are the 3 first one (mirkwwod, new thalos, wastelands) and the class are
Shalafi, Invader, Chaos, Hunter (the easy ones to do in fact).
Once I finish this **** exams, I'll get back on half baked skills edition (nadadad bugged and all but working so they will go directly into 1.10) polish some monsters gfx, remove stupid gossip from NPC and it should roxx.

[Joel]

Just a test for skill icons :

http://d2mods.xfernet.com/~cabalwars/te ... _icons.jpg

From up to bottom and left to right :

TP - ID
Earthling - Icicle Assault - Volcanic Fift - Fireball - Freezing Ray - Power surge - Shockng Trap - Pyroblast
Throw - Attack

Are they OK or should I change the style ??

EDIT :

Some skill preview :

The Fireball :
http://d2mods.xfernet.com/~cabalwars/temp/fireball.jpg

The Power Surge :
http://d2mods.xfernet.com/~cabalwars/te ... rsurge.jpg

[CiViC]

[quote=Joel";p="82385"]Just a test for skill icons :

http://d2mods.xfernet.com/~cabalwars/te ... _icons.jpg

From up to bottom and left to right :

TP - ID
Earthling - Icicle Assault - Volcanic Fift - Fireball - Freezing Ray - Power surge - Shockng Trap - Pyroblast
Throw - Attack

Are they OK or should I change the style ??

EDIT :

Some skill preview :

The Fireball :
http://d2mods.xfernet.com/~cabalwars/temp/fireball.jpg

The Power Surge :
http://d2mods.xfernet.com/~cabalwars/te ... rsurge.jpg[/quote]

all is fine , nothing i can see that is wrong,..

[ChaoticDeath]

Good job, everything looks awesome! Was that just one fireball? That thing was huge! And did you make the skill icons? Because they are great too!