Game Mechanics Reimagining Twisted Tether as a Utility Node

a relatively short and sweet suggestion before I pull out the big guns

Huge thanks to @Elysium_ for talking me into finally posting this!

Twisted Tether is a nice red node that provides more passive damage that scales off of the damage you take, and Acolytes have a lot of damage to take. While the ability looks like it synergizes well with Acolyte's identity, it ultimately doesn't have any significant effect towards Acolyte's strength; you can pretty much just not use the ability and still be successful as an Acolyte.

Today we're reimagining Twisted Tether as an ability that can help you be more efficient with managing your Blood Pool.



(uhh yeah damage that scales off of your max health)







How does it work?
Like before, hitting enemies with your Main Attack will spend 1 point of Blood Pool. However instead of tethering them to you, they simply become unwilling Sacrifices. If you hit the Sacrifices with Aura, they become Tethered directly to your Totem (instead of tethering them directly to you). The Tether allows your Totem to drain life force from them directly, then add it to your Blood Pool. The amount of life force your Totem drains from Tethered enemies scales off of your own max health and is dealt as neutral damage, meaning the amount of Blood Pool points you will drain from enemies will be the same regardless of their health and defenses.

By draining 0.5% of your max health from them, you gain +0.5 Blood Pool points. If your Totem drains life force from them every 0.4s for 4s, the Totem would drain a total of 5% of your max health from them, which is +5 Blood Pool points. With Twisted Tether consuming 1 Blood Pool point, utilizing Twisted Tether is a net gain of +4 Blood Pool points gained gradually, per enemy (this does not count the Blood Pool cost from Aura).

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Why does it work this way?
You might have some questions about this ability's design, particularly: why do you have to tether enemies with Aura instead of just with Main Attacks like before?

As an Acolyte, you drain and store Blood Pool points with your Totem, as shown with Sacrificial Shrine's visuals. It felt like it only makes sense if the life force drained from enemies that will add to your Blood Pool will go directly to your Totem as well.

Why it triggers with Aura is a good question. The current Twisted Tether design of Main Attacks tethering enemies to yourself makes a lot of sense thematically: your Main Attacks raidiate from you, so anything consequential to these attacks only makes sense to be connected to you. This design, however, no longer works if the enemies are tethered to your Totem instead. Something that radiates from your Totem, like Aura, would make it feel like your Totem is reaching to these unwilling sacrifices and tethering them to it, like a parasite draining its host's blood. This adds to the ability's "sick and twisted" design, and to Acolyte's edgy design in general.

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How would this ability benefit Acolyte?
This version of Twisted Tether does not focus on dealing more damage, but instead focuses on gaining more Blood Pool points. This would allow you to cast more blood-boosted Auras without it costing too much health by effectively reducing their Blood Pool costs. This will also make Acolytes less dependent on Double Totem to gain Blood Pool faster, and it opens up possibilities of Acolyte gaining more abilities with more radical Blood Pool costs. (i am definitely not gonna post a Blood Sorrow rework at some point hahaha)


I would love to hear your thoughts about this! Would this change make Twisted Tether more enticing to use? Would it be just as insignificant as before? Will this need to come with other Acolyte changes to be a good ability? Share your thoughts in the comments! Let's all strive for a better Acolyte design!

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Here's an example of an additional node that can benefit from this design of Twisted Tether. Anyone missing the old enclosure upgrade?

 

Agreed with all of these points. Twisted Tether in its current state seems like a waste of AP, and more ways to add to your Blood Pool is always great. I especially like this version, where it is not passive but rather requires you to be engaged in combat to fully utilize it. Nice suggestion!

 

That's an excellent point!

I'm glad you like it, my man!

 

I think that part of Summoner’s problem is that there is very little player interaction. Acolyte’s gameplay can be the same sometimes, where you simply set up your totem, your tether, slowly kill yourself, and then spam Aura. If i understand it correctly, this version of Twisted Tether will make a more active playstyle be more rewarding, which seems like a very good thing.

 

I've never played Acolyte before, but this looks like an improvement. Great Job!

 

Aw thanks man!

 

This is exactly what an Acolyte needs. TT right now is just a boring and low passive damage boost.
The Ability Tree Dragon should come and visit this post right now.

 

*cries* thank u that is so kind

 

bump + finally added visuals

now that I think about it, this should be nerfed down to like 0.25% for twisted tether, +0.25% for stronger tether

edit: nvm, I forgot aura costs blood pool lol

edit again: clarified what the paragraphs are about for easier reading

 

Gonna nitpick with the visuals, this typo is driving me crazy. "of you max health" should be "of your max health".

 

how the heck did I not notice that. gonna change it later

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but thanks for pointing it out!

 

i never said this what are y'all talking about (anyways check out my post yo)


I forgot to address a huge concern I had while I was designing this ability: wouldn't spell damage buffs make this ability too powerful?

The answer is, spell damage shouldn't increase this ability's damage! The technical reason is that it would scale off of your max health, and not your weapon's dps.

The balance reason is that, well, it would simply be too powerful! This ability would deal neutral damage, meaning it could penetrate through elemental defenses. While this would give it the potential to be very strong, a total of 10% of your max health dealt over 4s is a very small amount even if you have lots of health. If it could be increased by spell damage%, or worse yet spell damage raw, not only would it deal significantly more damage, but it would also significantly increase the Blood Pool points you'd gain! I tried to look for a way around it, but I ultimately decided that it's simply for the best if the damage it would deal couldn't be changed.

At the end of the day, this ability is for gaining Blood Pool points and not for dealing more damage.

That's all! Remember to like and vote and check out my poooosst!!!!

 

new twisted tether major id rip

 

Hey everyone!

I made a variation to this Twisted Tether rework that would work with the design of the new Major ID: Gruesome Knots!





This is actually the first version of this Twisted Tether rework. I scrapped this idea the first time because I thought it would be too limiting, and that it would encourage acolytes to take Storm Dance even more despite it being a ritualist node.

This version would also have Twisted Tether deal damage based on your DPS instead of your max health, which would require way less dev time!

Would you like this version of reworked Twisted Tether instead?

 

I kinda disagree with this rework. It deals damage, but kinda in practise the same way as it does now. Making mobs stuck in your totem is kinda pointless since Storm Dance exists and most mobs are going to day to 1 or 2 auras while bosses and special enemies would just escape.

Current Twisted Tether can actually deal quite a lot of damage actually. Panic Zealot with spell raw item slap can get 50k dps (even more if you take damage from other sources than your totem) with tether + MotL = Vengeful Spirit. I think Twisted Tether is fine as it is.

 

Oh, I totally forgot that current Twisted Tether can deal more damage when you take more damage. This would make the rework a huge dps nerf!

This rework came about because of how unpopular Twisted Tether was, but I suppose things have changed ever since lootrunning was reworked and the Major ID Gruesome Knots was added.

But yes, thank you for the feedback! This post in particular didn't receive a lot of it, so I'm especially thankful!

 

ok but if I buffed this damage to like 200% per 0.4s would this be good

also I didn't fix the "of you DPS" typo at all whoops