World Methods To Rebalance Powders

Powders are in a semi balanced stat as is, but there are a few instances where some powders too strong(Quake+Super Slow Base Damage) and some instances where they are too weak(Air Armor and Weapon Specials).
However it still maintains and acceptable balance through out the elements, still if something where to change this is how I would go about it.

Base Damage:
Now I know that faster attack speeds usually have more powder slots and get more damage from the powder you equipped, but still it would be more balanced at lower levels if they instead increased the base damage of a weapon by a percentage of it's original base damage.

How this would look is:
T6 Earth
+18-22 Earth Damage -> +3.6%-4.4% Earth Damage
where the percentages will add earth damage based off the average of the total damage of the weapon.
say the average damage(not dps) of a weapon is 500 then +18-22 Earth Damage would be added.
Of course they would stack in the same way they do now, but they will behave as I described.

Weapon Special:
What I would change here is make Quake and Chain Lightning be effected by weapon Attack Speed, so you don't end up with insane 40k quakes from your Stinger.

Another change I would have is I would alter how powerful each special is and how it effects each element.
the stats of each special will still stay at what it is now, but each special will only need 1 Powder and take the first T4-T6 as it's initial tier and special type. The effectiveness of the powders will be reduced at the base value but each additional powder will effect the damage of the element it is:

• neutral damage starts/stays at 100% of the "Original Stats" of that Special at that Tier
• the elemental damage for the same element of the powder starts at 75% of the Original Stats of that special, and each additional powder of the same type will add 25% of OS to that elements damage
• the elemental damage for a different element of the powder starts at 60% of the Original Stats of that special, and each additional powder of different type type will add 20% of OS to that elements damage

Examples:
Lets say you have a 2 slot weapon with 2 T6 Earths you will deal the same earth and neutral damage as they did before my change, but all other damage types would deal 60% of the damage they did before.

Now lets say you really want Quake on your Empire Builder but want it to deal water damage. You can do that now, because by having the first powder be earth and have the rest be water you would end up with a quake that has double(60%+20%*7=200%) the normal water damage of a quake would originally have(if T6's, 415%*2=830% water damage). May Salted's favorite weapon finally be more useful/practical


Armor Special:
Armor Specials will have there damage changed in the same manor Weapon Specials did, this means the Matryoshka Shell would become very powerful, but would cost alot of health when compared to chestplates at late game.

Lets say you deside to make a T6 Rainbow Matryoshka Shell, you would end up with 100% neutral, 125% of the special's elements, and 12o% every other element. If this were to apply to T5's and Fire Powder was your first powder, Each hit you take would give you +4% more neutral, +5% more fire damage, and +4.8% more earth/thunder/water/air for 8 seconds.
Or you could have it all be T5 fire and get 100% neutral, 425% fire and 60% every other element. For a result of +4% neutral, +17% more fire, and + 2.4% more earth/thunder/water/air for 8 seconds every time you get hit.

I would recommend a nerf to the Matryoshka Shell if my idea is applied

 

(hey this is pretty good)
(add a poll?)

 

Problem here is we would need to then rebalance every single item in the game as every single item in the game is balanced around the current state of powders, and I don't see this changing all too much overall.

 

I tried to make it fit the current balance of the game, the only problem I see with balance could be in the armor area were you tend to have more slots per item and the fact it is boosting every type of damage instead of only 1. I hoped that with the semi nerf to weapon specials that it would more or less balance out with the more versatile armor specials

The idea was to not change much I intended it to alow for special customization, to add more flexibility in the area of specials

If I were to reduce the amount it could vary by halve would it remove the need to rebalance every item?
Or do I need to make armor specials less of a jack of all traits and make it focus more on the element they are supposed to be?

 

Powders are intended to polarize. This literally goes against the entire point of how powders were meant; it's such a core thing you'd be changing that everything would need to be redone. For instance, you suggest that specials require only one powder to activate. This will break tons of armours/weapons wide-open, as they're balanced by lacking the ability to hold a special.

The armour specials being changed to just a weaker version of the weapon specials also ruins the point, as the intent was, to quote Salted, to get you killed. Encourage playing risky to get your damage buffs instead of them just...being there. This homogenizes them and removes a lot of the flair from the elements; it makes them all feel the same and makes rainbow a dominant strategy even moreso than it is right now...

 

Ok so lowering it so you only needed 1 powder to pull off a 75% weaker special was too much, and making armor specials have buffs to all types of damage was too much power to rainbow.
I think I misworded what I meant by "behave in a similar manner that weapon specials do" I meant "have their damage changed in a similar manner weapon specials did", I never intended to suggest a change of their overall mechanics.

Spoiler: The only thing I did consider changing

But I did once think of suggesting the Air Weapon Special behaving semi-like the Stasis Rune, in Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, so that at the end of the timer the momentum and bonus damage based off the damage you inflicted while the mob was floating would be dealt at that instant. Instead of getting one powerful attack of your choice and sending them flying or waiting out the timer to escape or divide the threats.

I do think that I was a bit to generous with the effectiveness of each additional powder, would this be any better?:

• Both Specials requires 2 powders still, any additional powders would only effect damage, have no effect on the duration or other forms of effectiveness, and absolutely no changes to mechanics of either armor or weapon specials
• neutral damage starts/stays at 100% of the "Original Stats" of that Special at that Tier
• the elemental damage for the same element of the powder starts at 100% of the Original Stats of that special, and each additional powder of the same type will add 10% of OS to that elements damage
• the elemental damage for a different element of the powder starts at 75% of the Original Stats of that special, and each additional powder of different type type will add 7.5% of OS to that elements damage

 

I'm not 100% sure what exactly you're going for here, but

I can tell just by this that you're missing the point of powders.

The idea is to polarize into elements, and into your specific build. Keeping neutral damage the same just makes them into boring damage boosts.

 

nice information

 

What I am trying to do is to try to find a better balance in powders by both nerfing and buffing powders so they offer for more creativity and add more purpose for having more then 2 powders in your powder slots. I originally wanted specials to activate with only 1 powder because I wanted to add a reason for having 5 different powders in a 5 slot item. Also the first part of my idea of changing how much base damage powders add to weapons from a fixed number to a % of the original base damage, would be counteracted by the ability to increase and augment the damage you deal with your specials. Unless the idea of being able to be optimize specials to give more of a boost to certain elements of the players choosing is against the idea of the polarization of powders and specials, I really think this could lead to further customization and polarization that is up to the players discretion. But if you still think that my numbers are not good, I could find a better solution like adding diminishing returns to make it not as powerful as it could end up.

Spoiler: example

1+(-3+(x+7)^(1/2)) would result in x2.69 damage, with x = 15 powders, in 1 one element, I could keep making it more and more acceptable to balance aswell

I think I understand what you mean by I am taking away polarization, and this is my attempt to correct it:

• Both Specials requires 2 powders still, any additional powders would only effect damage, have no effect on the duration or other forms of effectiveness, and absolutely no changes to mechanics of either armor or weapon specials

• The term "Original Stats"(OS) I use to define as what the current damage stats are currently in use for that Special at that Tier, and if you where to use an additional powder it would add damage from the Tier of that powder(not the specials) from that Special you are using.

Weapon Specials

• neutral damage starts at 80% of the "Original Stats" of that Special at that Tier

• the elemental damage for the same element of the powder starts at 100% of the Original Stats of that special, and each additional powder of the same type will add 20% of OS to that elements damage

• the elemental damage for a different element of the powder starts at 80% of the Original Stats of that special, and each additional powder of different type will add 20% of OS to that elements damage

Why I have elements that are not type of the special start at only 80% of the damage they use to do, is to make the specials more favorable for their respective elements without making them the only option.
Armor Specials

• neutral damage starts/stays at 50% of the "Original Stats" of that Special at that Tier

• the elemental damage for the same element of the powder starts at 100% of the Original Stats of that special, and each additional powder of the same type will add 10% of OS to that elements damage

• the elemental damage for a different element of the powder starts at 0% of the Original Stats of that special, the fist 2 additional powders for each different type will add 50% of OS to that elements damage, and after an element reaches 100% each additional powder to that element will add 10% of OS to that elements damage

Why I have elements that are not type of the special start at only 0% of the damage they use to do, is to make the specials more favorable for their respective elements without making them the only option. Also I have neutral start at 50% so that it will atleast do something for neutral

 

Except it's only meant to add a single element. That's what polarization means; to align with a singular idea or goal. Being able to split them up fundamentally goes against everything we've balanced things around up to this point.