Post by Lugwy on Oct 17, 2017 4:35:29 GMT -5
Short story: It's bad.
Long story: It's really bad.
Actual story:
It says something that I have literally been warned by at least one player to not take the tree when I expressed my intent to do so a long time ago.
Nobody uses this ability even with the cooldown period removed because its "benefits" need to be spammed to be worthwhile, and with the mechanics currently present losing up to two attacks* alongside the Stamina cost until skill level 95** is painful for a one-hander. +2-3 Dodge is not significant enough compensation even for Light Armor as the defensive benefit is offset by the enemy living longer and potentially getting more attacks in due to you sacrificing attacks and Stamina to defend, and it's unlikely that a character will activate it when the enemy is in a state where those drawbacks are unnecessary (e.g. about to die).
The issue is that I kind of get what kind of niche it's trying to go for, but it just doesn't really work as its own analogue to Two-Handed's Followthrough or Dual Wield's Twin Strikes. The ability might eventually be worthwhile at Tier V, but asking a player to invest five ability points that will only pay off at the final point that is only accessible near the skill cap is a fairly hard sell when there's plenty of competing ability trees offering more up-front benefits.
This may be more like randomly throwing darts at a board and seeing what sticks, but there are a few options I can think of in trying to improve the ability to be somewhat appealing:
Other suggestions are appreciated to help this ability tree.
*Shield Bash doesn't work with activated abilities, which means an extra attack lost if you spec into Shield Bash and use Covered Strikes.
**Assuming you took Lightning Strikes (V), which gives you four attacks, which is equivalent to a character at that skill level taking Shield Bash. If you didn't take it and you have Shield Bash, you still lose one attack (all the other tier V abilities make three attacks).
Long story: It's really bad.
Actual story:
It says something that I have literally been warned by at least one player to not take the tree when I expressed my intent to do so a long time ago.
Nobody uses this ability even with the cooldown period removed because its "benefits" need to be spammed to be worthwhile, and with the mechanics currently present losing up to two attacks* alongside the Stamina cost until skill level 95** is painful for a one-hander. +2-3 Dodge is not significant enough compensation even for Light Armor as the defensive benefit is offset by the enemy living longer and potentially getting more attacks in due to you sacrificing attacks and Stamina to defend, and it's unlikely that a character will activate it when the enemy is in a state where those drawbacks are unnecessary (e.g. about to die).
The issue is that I kind of get what kind of niche it's trying to go for, but it just doesn't really work as its own analogue to Two-Handed's Followthrough or Dual Wield's Twin Strikes. The ability might eventually be worthwhile at Tier V, but asking a player to invest five ability points that will only pay off at the final point that is only accessible near the skill cap is a fairly hard sell when there's plenty of competing ability trees offering more up-front benefits.
This may be more like randomly throwing darts at a board and seeing what sticks, but there are a few options I can think of in trying to improve the ability to be somewhat appealing:
- Toggleable mode. Remove the hassle of clicking and have the whole thing be a combat stance as opposed to an activatable ability to gain the bonuses for a portion of stamina reserved. Probably not as appealing since it breaks the pattern and doesn't really change the other problems.
- Let Shield Bash work on activated abilities. Losing one attack, while still painful, is not as painful. However, this change will likely bleed over into other abilities and maybe item activations, for better or worse effects.
- More benefits. You're losing attacks activating this ability, so you'll want to get something substantial in exchange. Tack on some +(Min) Armor, +damage/+critical (even outside Expert Strikes), +block, maybe extra Dodge, and/or resistances as well? Give it some actual appeal to use offensively and/or defensively. Changes in this form might make the ability too powerful, though.
Other suggestions are appreciated to help this ability tree.
*Shield Bash doesn't work with activated abilities, which means an extra attack lost if you spec into Shield Bash and use Covered Strikes.
**Assuming you took Lightning Strikes (V), which gives you four attacks, which is equivalent to a character at that skill level taking Shield Bash. If you didn't take it and you have Shield Bash, you still lose one attack (all the other tier V abilities make three attacks).
