Guide Ability Tree Questions Thread

Asking again because last got buried, how do traps exactly work? It's kinda hard to understand only looking at the description.
Like how many times it damages per second, if the damage in the description is DPS, etc.

 

Traps, as in archer's Basaltic Trap?

 

Is assassin’s ‘wall of bombs’ ability specifically made to be incompatible with echos to stop the player from throwing 21 black hole bombs and lagging out everyone nearby?

In other words, was that a conscious choice or a happy accident?

 

Is the Crepuscular Ray midair activation change also meant to discourage use of Grappling Hook, along with choosing when to use it? Or was it just unintentionally nerfing using the two together? My current build is kind of falling apart since I love using Grappling Hook, but without having a wall nearby I can't really activate Crepuscular Ray. (Ex: an open field with no trees, can't activate it)

As a small suggestion, maybe shift-casting Escape will do a regular Escape instead of a Grappling Hook?

 

I think it's just a solution for people wanting to be able to use phantom ray with 5+ focus, since a good amount of people would rather preserve their focus and be able to cast phantom ray instead.

Part of the problem is just the fact that crepuscular ray really isn't that good

 

Just curious, what were the reasons behind making new base Uppercut a cone hitbox?
IMO, it just seemed to open up to a lot of whiffing Uppercuts at close range. I do appreciate the changes to help alleviate the issue, though it staying as a cone of this size will continue to be a big flaw.

 

Why does blood sorrow, an end-tree ability feel so underwhelming and hurts damage and survivability more than it helps (from my experience at least)

I have a suggestion if y’all wanna hear it too, mainly for theme fitting though

 

How do the various charge damage upgrades interact with each other? Do they all trigger if you hit an enemy?

 

why does mage suck?
ik mage has like heal n stuff but like
the damage is soo bad
its litteraly unbelievable
and archanist is just archer but like 0.1% of the damage

 

I will reply to the thread I will answer the questions I will be motivated I will

Okay, so this was actually really enlightening to test! I didn't go through and test every ability but I tested 6 of them and got some fairly consistent results.

Abilities that activate upon taking any hit will be triggered when the damage is fully nullified.
Mantle of the Bovemists and Mirror Image will still trigger when taking a zero damage hit, activating their usual effects.

Abilities that activate upon taking damage within a specific threshold will not be triggered when the damage is fully nullified.
Manachism will not grant mana and Sandbagging will not reduce cooldowns when taking a zero damage hit.

Abilities that activate upon triggering Agility will be triggered when the damage is fully nullified.
Counter and Parry will both activate when taking a zero damage hit, activating their usual effects.

I imagine the game acts as if you have taken a hit with a damage value of zero, meaning that on hit effects (Mantles, Clones) will activate, but effects that actually use the damage value to calculate if they will trigger on hit (Manachism, Sandbagging) will not activate. Agility effects (Counter, Parry) will trigger when the damage value is zero, because Agility itself can trigger when the damage value is zero. An interesting thing to note with this is that Counter triggering causes Mantle of the Bovemists to not trigger, effectively giving you more uptime on your mantles. Since Counter makes you dodge the hit entirely rather than making the hit do zero damage, it causes mantles to not activate even though a fully nullified hit will still activate them. Very cool!

If there are any more abilities like this you want me to test, please let me know c:

 

Basically, Patient Hunter adds a multiplier to the damage a Trap's explosion does, and that multiplier increases the longer the trap has existed for without being triggered (which is indicated by the number above the Trap). If I place a Trap and it immediately detonates, it will do 250% total spell damage (190/30/30 Neutral/Earth/Fire split). If the Trap sits around for a while until Patient Hunter's damage is maxed out at +100%, a +100% multiplier is added at the very end of the damage calculation for the Trap, making it now do 500% total damage upon detonation (380/60/60 Neutral/Earth/Fire split). Stronger Patient Hunter increases both the multiplier's cap and the speed that the multiplier increases.

 

hhggg I live

Hello again everyone! I promise I've been busy and not just lazy, I've been doing a fair amount irl and also working pretty hard on the upcoming ability tree changes! I plan on answering more questions here soon, but I'm currently visiting family so I'm just gonna share some cool stuff and then get back to this in a couple days c:

Here's a small new ability for warrior:

(For anyone thinking they'll find anything hidden behind the text, this node is currently just floating on Page 1 rather than in it's final position for the update. This is what I do for all new abilities whike they are being worked on, and there are some other new nodes barely visible that are at various levels of completion. Balance numbers are not final.)
Paladins are meant to empower allies and be a stable force in longer fights, so it never made sense to me that they would still be debilitated by slow and weakness. This ability isn't going to shift balance on its own but is some very nice QoL as well as being super fitting thematically for the archetype! (Don't worry, I've got more plans for Paladin than just this.)

There are some other new abilities I have planned, a few of which are definitely happening for the next patch. I've actually prioritized the chanages to make sure many of the most important are done first, and you all may find it interesting to know that Totemic Shatter was at the top of the list. What do you think it will do? :3

Besides new abilities, there are also changes to existing abilities! These two for mage I'm particularly excited for:


These two abilities have gained new interactions, enabling an entirely new hybrid to be possible on the mage tree! With Sunshower now making Arcane Transfer deal damage when enough mana is transfered, and Burning Sigil spawning under enemies damaged by Ophanim (plus a new connection between Arcane Restoration and Stronger Ophanim), Arcbender is now a reality. It has an extremely unique combat style and a lot of really neat options on the tree, so I'm excited to see what comes of this!

I hope you all find these changes as exciting as I do, and I can't wait to share more going forwards. Thanks for reading!

 

Xavier, I'm closing in on your location to give you a kiss in person

 

-I want more summoner summons
-I want Focus to stop being so petty about what counts as a missed shot. Really- half of the interesting archer nodes are effectively locked out because Focus can't handle seeing a random aftereffect fly off without bursting into tears.
-Seriously! Why should Grape Bombs be so easy for Sharpshooter to access if it actively makes it worse (and no you can't go off about the one time so long ago that it was super busted. That doesn't count.)

 

but will we get any meaningful balance changes/archetype reworks

 

no there will be no fun allowed

yes of course lmfaoo 100% xaviers been hard at work on this for months

 

I mean, you read the post, right?

 

Blood Sorrows ingame description is kind of confusing,
it doesnt explain if the overhealth is 2% of your own health or the effected players health per hit (though i would assume its based on your own)
and it doesnt explain the decay (just says "over" 10s and I personally dont know what that means)

 

I wanna know your general thoughts on the way focus is handled. Particularly: Twain's Arc having a focus requirement and the ways to build focus.

Since this thread is also for unintended interactions: pets seem to trigger Initiator (without giving you focus), essentially making you choose between having pets and having the node.

 

I think what they meant was if there were going to be nerfs to the high dps archetypes like trickacro or sharp and buffing shaman