Game Mechanics Making Shadestepper More Consistent (Shadestepper Mini Revamp!)

Hey y'all! I wanna clarify how Nightcloak Knife would work because I didn't phrase it very well here. Here's a better description!

Nightcloak Knife: (updated)
If cast while in Vanish, Spin Attack will consume all Marks from nearby enemies and store them as Nightcloak Stacks (max 15).

Backstab or Powder Specials will consume all Nightcloak Stacks to send a Knife to each target hit. Each Knife will slash its target for every Nightcloak Stack consumed, repeating 4% of the Backstab's or Powder Special's damage per slash. (Marked damage boost is applied before Marks are consumed)

Here's the explanation: Whenever you cast Spin Attack while you're in Vanish, Spin Attack will comsume all nearby marks and store them as Nightcloak Stacks, but only after Spin Attack has dealt its damage. This means Spin Attack will still benefit from the marks' damage boost.

You can do this as many times as you like up to a maximum number of stacks. The only way you can make use of these stacks is by casting Backstab or by using a Powder Special. Doing so will send a Knife to each target hit, meaning you can have multiple Knives present at once (as opposed to the current Nightcloak Knife where you can only have one).

Each Knife would then slash its target, dealing a portion of the damage you dealt to the target with the Backstab or Powder Special that consumed the stacks. For each stack consumed, the Knives will slash once. If the max stacks is 15 and each slash deals 4% of the original damage, a fully-stacked Nightcloak Knife would repeat 60% of that Backstab's/Powder Special's damage.

Nightcloak Knife would be based on the Backstab's/Powder Special's final damage to the target, meaning it counts all damage multipliers including successful Backstabs, marks, Surprise Strike/Ambush, and Satsujin. This damage would be independent from you; the value it has when it got triggered will never change, and the damage of each slash can be increased by subsequently-applied marks.

Another thing about this Nightcloak Knife is that you can trigger them many times in a row without getting rid of the first one, meaning you can have multiple Knives slashing a single enemy. This would be unwise, though, as it would require you more mana without significantly changing your dps.

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Following that, I also want to clarify Satsujin's interaction with marks.

Before:

After:
Satsujin: (updated)
If an enemy has 4+ Marks, hitting them with Backstab or a Powder Special will consume the Marks, increasing its damage by +X% for each Mark consumed. (Marked damage boost is applied before Marks are consumed)
(cooldown still removed)

 

Hey y'all guess what. I made the post easier to read! I also clarified some statements about the changes, and made minor adjustments to some abilities. Check it out!

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also just a little comment about shadestepper in general, but sticky bomb is really helpful when dealing with moving mobs (cough tna). it requires 2 ap tho and is a trickster node, but hey it's there

 

Anyways, thank you so much for all the support so far! We got 15 votes in the poll, and they all think these changes would be good! Let's make shadestepper better y'all!

 

we should chant about it ngl

 

uh bump

Unfortonately after the oh so controversial Rodoroc Feedback Post, I am now tagged as a hot and sexy w*r cr*minal for using the r*d cr*ss as the symbol for proposed Nightcloak Knife's Nightcloak Knife Stacks the Umbrage ✚. I will now be raided in my house TNA style and will be execu--

I changed it to purple. Umbrage is a purple cross now.


And for those who are curious about what Umbrage means:

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A comment about Nightcloak Knife, I actually read a few statements about it (and abilities that consume stacks in general including Timelock, Crepuscular Ray, and Blood Sorrow). I understand that sometimes using those abilities at all is not worth it due to the cost of them consuming most, if not all, of your resources as whichever archetype you play. I don't know how one can deal with this problem, and I honestly think my proposed Nightcloak Knife change won't get rid of the problem (not to mention my proposed Satsujin change also consuming Marks uhhh).

With Better Marked's cooldown reduction (setting 4 Marks per second which I think is pretty crazy), I'm pretty willing to see if all these changes combined would make both Nightcloak Knife and the changed Satsujin worth using.

I personally find this topic pretty confusing and honestly I'd rather just playtest these kinda things instead of just theorizing and proposing ideas. If you got any thoughts about this topic, I'd love to hear it!

 

assassin player's wet dream

 

The thing is, an archetype doesn’t need more than one status it can inflict. It makes things more complicated than it needs to be just for a backstabbing assassin.

 

Umbrage isn't inflicted status, but rather stacks to gain. It's similar to Sacred Surge, Blood Pool, or Focus.

If it ends up being confusing, it can stay named as Marks instead of becoming something else.

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I'm glad you like it!

 

oh my god more than 1k views?????????? hello?????????

thank you so much guys remember to vote and subscribe I appreciate y'all, let's make shadestepper better!!!

 

♫ make it great ♫
♫ make it great ♫
♫ make it great ♫

 

Hey a little update uh, my version of Nighcloak Knife sucks.

No one has pointed this out yet but if both Nightcloak and Satsujin are always available when entering Vanish, why not just use Satsujin all the time? Why cast Nightcloak then Satsujin for a +60% damage boost when you can just use Satsujin twice in a row? I realized after a while that turning Nightcloak Knife to a one-time damage boost will make it even more useless, which makes sense in retrospect lol.

To face the consequences of not thinking through the details of my ideas before posting it, I shall edit this post once more. (think of it as uhh The Art of Iteration as described by Mistress Qira)

linebreaklinebreaklinebreaklinebreaklinebreaklinebreaklinebreaklinebreak​

Another thing I've read about Nightcloak Knife is that it is intentionally designed to be a global damage boost; it's made to improve all damage you deal, including main attacks. My approach on making it exclusive to Backstab and Powder Specials restricts shadestepper into a hit-and-run archetype, and restricting room for creativity usually makes things less fun.

However, the current Nightcloak Knife still has room for improvement. Some frustrations I've personally experienced around it include:

• Being stuck with a low amount of stored Marks in 1v1's
• Subsequent casts decreasing my current stored Marks sometimes (I use Dash + Spin Attack to move around quickly and shred crowds, but Vanish's unpredictable cooldown resets when dealing with crowds cough replace Silent Killer with Smokescreen cough sometimes turns the Dash into a Vanish)
• Duration being unclear, having to tab in order to see how much time left the Knife has
• The Knife's target choice feeling random and unpredictable, especially when spamming attacks on multiple enemies

One way to deal with these problems is by making use of the proposed stored Marks system.


(yeah having a lot of named stuff for a single archetype will probs be confusing. goodbye umbrage)

There are two key differences between the current Nightcloak Knife and this proposed "Nightcloak Knives" change:

1. The stored Marks is now dynamic. This means you can use this ability again and again to increase its power further instead of resetting whenever you use it repeatedly.
2. You can now have multiple Knives present at once! The ability still functions like before as a damage amplifier, but you can now have more Knives to amplify your damage against multiple enemies at once. This should make Nightcloak Knives' damage boost feel consistent and predictable.

Additionally we can display the amount of Marks currently stored with a boss bar, letting players know how much damage they can expect from their attacks.

As for the duration, I went with a system similar to the passive powder special Concentration where every Mark you store has durations independent from each other. This should encourage more use of Spin Attack during combat, giving shadestepper a dynamic factor to play around in order to deal as much damage as possible.

Anyways I'm still looking for feedback, and constructive criticisms are especially welcome! And thank you so much for all the feedback and support so far!

 

bump 10char

 

omg a hater



Whoever you may be, I would love to know your thoughts about this suggestion! Feel free to provide constructive feedback or criticisms in the replies, I'll hear you out!

 

I'm a fan of smokescreen and more smoke bombs, but the other ideas dont flow well i feel.

 

Huge fan of this post. I too love shadestapper concept. For me bothering me is vanish cooldown and the time you need to spend for staking marks. This post makes both of this problem solved

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I only dont like concept of death magnet

 

I see. Looks like Death Magnet is just unpopular. Do you not like the reworked version? or Death Magnet itself?

I'm glad you like it!

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ehem sorry I didn't respond quite right before

I'm glad you like some of the changes! About the other nodes, though, what do you mean by "dont flow well"? What kind of improvement would you like to see instead?

 

I just dont like that shadestapper is a class low surviwe ability for realy big dmg. Death magnet is geting enemy closer but you do it need to do it you have schadow traweler to get close.

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My idea was to makes somethink like
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If u dash while in vanish you deal your basic dmg of your wepon (you dont louse
vanish)
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(This idea was made in a minute)

 

Yeah you do have a point. Even this reworked version of Death Magnet moves enemies away from you. To be fair though Shadow Travel gives a lot of walk speed bonus.

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That is a nice minute idea. However we already have Dancing Blade, which does the same thing. It's an acrobat node though and is very far away from shadestepper, unfortunately.

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I guess Death Magnet is more on the higher-skill side of shadestepper as most of shade's abilities are pretty straightforward. I honestly also agree that Death Magnet is a funky ability, though I still looked for a way to make it work. It's also pretty hard for me to get a feel on how good these ability reworks would be because I can't really playtest them.


But yes thank you for the constructive feedback, my guy!

 

I know its an acroback ability but for me they need to remove death magnet for somethink more usefull

 

I see. Well thanks again for the feedback my man!