Ever since the new batch of talents appeared in the 2.0 beta, I have been troubled by several, sometimes repeated, designs choices. I highlighted my issues with these choices in several posts on the Winds of Magic beta boards. But seeing as how we are now more than half a year removed from the beta (and the beta boards have been closed), I thought it would be prudent to speak up yet again.
NOTE BEFORE CONTINUING.
I am, emphatically, not discussing talent balance in this topic.
I am discussing my issues with the mechanical design of these talents.
I will only bring up balance where it is absolutely necessary.
I also will, mostly, refrain from providing suggestions. I am not a game designer, nor do I know what can and cannot be done in the game like an actual Fatshark employee does.
KURNOUSâ REWARD vs DEATHLY DISSIPATION
Kurnousâ Reward
Killing a special or elite enemy with Trueflight Volley restores 30% ammunition.
Deathly Dissipation
Killing a special stops your spells from generating overcharge for 10 seconds.
On the surface these talents are remarkably similar, both effectively reward ammo for killing specific enemy types. The devil is in the details. Kurnousâ Reward works on both specials and elites, while Deathly Dissipation only works on specials.
Pressingly, Siennaâs ranged weapons are not all paragons of special killing like Trueflight Volley is, or crossbows, or handgun, or many other weapons. The Pyromancer player can easily be shut out of gaining value from their talent by the presence of a superior special sniper on the team depending on their weapon. I believe that deserves some consideration, especially since the Pyromancer lacks for talents that would otherwise give them âammunitionâ management (outside of Exhaust, which has its own issues).
MASTER HUNTSMAN
Just going to stick this in here since it is tangentially related to the prior discussion. There is a glaringly obvious problem with this talent; not every mission has a boss, even in Cataclysm. Thus this talent can be rendered 90% useless by pure chance. Thatâs just awful.
MAINTENANCE TALENTS
âMaintenance Talentsâ is the label I am giving to the group of talents that provide the player with a limited duration buff for a period of time after performing a specific action. Thus enticing the player to periodically continue performing said action to maintain the buff.
Some examples of Maintenance Talents includes: the Witch Hunter Captainâs âHeretic Sighted,â the Battle Wizardâs âSoot Shieldâ, and Handmaidenâs âWillow Stance.â
Now, on the whole, I donât have any deep seated issues with the mechanics of these talents. In fact, there are a good number of talents in this vein that I believe are perfectly acceptable and well implemented. Talents like the Ranger Vetâs âExuberanceâ or even effects like the Mercenaryâs passive âPaced Strikesâ are very good and do not deserve much, if any, scrutiny.
The problems arise when the activation requirements are not carefully chosen. Poorly chosen triggers can negatively affect the player psychologically. Let us consider the Slayerâs talent âGrimnirâs Focus.â
Hitting an enemy with a charged attack reduces damage taken by 40% for 5 seconds.
The major issue should be apparent to anyone who has played Bardin for any great length of time: many of his melee weapons do not use their charged attacks every 5 second. Some weapons, like warpick, have charged attacks that are more situational, and some like 1 handed ax or dual axes simply have weak charged attacks.
Thus âGrimnirâs Focusâ presents a conundrum for the thoughtful player. The player must either stick to weapons that make constant use out of their charged attacks or force themselves to consistently perform an attack they donât want to use in order to maintain the buff.
I find the latter of these to be utterly unacceptable. A player should not have to contort their play in an unnatural way to accommodate a talent. The former might possibly be acceptable were it not for the fact that the Slayerâs other damage mitigation/avoidance talents in the same row (âOblivious to Painâ and âBargeâ) are both pitifully inadequate at the task.
Thus even after the nerfs to Q canceling & a buff to his base health the Slayer is still dominated by greathammer builds, because it is a powerful weapon that can easily take greater advantage of the Slayerâs available talents that most other weapons.
Other Maintenance Talents that I believe could use a stern review are: Drakiraâs Alacrity, Hunterâs Pursuit, Blood Drinker, & Spring-Heeled Assassin. They all either require the player to go out of their way to maintain said buff or are completely random procs that are outside of the playerâs control entirely.
SKULL-SPLITTER & A THOUSAND CUTS
I really, really dislike that these talents attempt to force the player to use very specific weapon setups. It means there is so little choice in this talent tier. I believe it is a deplorable concept that sucks the fun out of the Slayerâs special niche of being able to pick two complementary melee weapons. The fact that Hack & Slash exists as an alternative is not comforting in the slightest.
Between these two talents and the whole Grimnirâs Focus thing above, I canât bloody stand playing Slayer anymore. It offends my sensibilities on an almost spiritual level, like putting the milk in first.
RIDE THE FIRE WIND
Another vexatiously random talent. Sure, unlike things like Master Huntsman this always provides some benefit. But the issue is that it is an entirely random element that cannot really be planned around by the playser. It just gives a fluctuating power buff. Nothing dependable, nothing that will affect the way the player plays. Just a buff to their âDamage Dealtâ number at the end of the mission.
Itâs a talent that is taken because âwell at least it will always be buffing my ranged attacksâ rather than because it excites the imagination of the player with the possibilities it provides. This talent somehow manages to be more boring than its neighbor that only gives 5% attack speed. At least the player can depend on flat attack speed to be there when it counts.
HELBORGâS TUTELAGE & SMITE
These talents are just inefficient. Especially Tutelage due to Mercenaryâs innate crit bonus. These should be good talent options for giving slower weapons like the greathammer & greatsword better proc uptime, but the whole âno random critsâ bit scares people off. Especially since Mercenary and Zealot donât really have much reason to not stack crit, so the talents donât end up really providing much benefit than being able to pick two minor properties on your gear. Gear that many players might not have due to wanting crit gear on their other careers.
If these talents didnât have anti-synergy with normal crit stats they would be much better. I rather like the idea of a talent that can generate and store a guaranteed crit. Perhaps something like âAfter not being hit by an enemy for X seconds, your next hit will be a guaranteed critical strike.â Something that that would be very valuable to slower weapons since they could start out every fight with Swift Slaying active.
SPIRIT-CASTING
Why does the reckless, half mad Pyromancer who benefits from slinging spells willy nilly and living dangerously get a talent that promotes playing safe & defensively?
The only other talent in the game that takes health into account is the Zealotâs âCastigateâ talent, which rewards the player for living dangerously like the Zealot passive does. Meanwhile Spirit-Casting works at cross purposes with the Pyromancerâs passive of âshoot lots of spells, get lots of damage.â Critical Mass encourages the player to chew through their health via aggressive manual venting to keep the fireworks going and the damage rolling. But Spirit-Casting says âno, be more conservative and donât vent away your health.â Why this talent exists on the Pyromancer is truly beyond my comprehension.