New balance update: First pass to summons and more tweaks (Stage 10)

[chilko]

hello everyone here goes:

Re-designed Summon tree

We always wanted summons to be different than just pets. At last we had the time to tackle this issue.

There are three premises behind this new concept

1. Summons should be cast during combat to change the tide of battle (not as a pet)
2. Summons should be different
3. All summons are usable at level 50.

I’m not going to take the time to explain all changes because they are not final but take a look if you want.
Damage, graphics, cooldowns, mana, etc have NOT BEEN ADJUSTED YET.

Spells:

• Beast Wrath: reduced damage bonus to 5% to 25% from level 1 to 5.
• Army of One: Maná reduced to 220-300 from level 1 to 5. Cooldown reduced to 50 seconds.
• Unstoppable Madness: Duration reduced to 10 seconds in all levels. New resistance added: cannot attack.
  Resistance levels adjusted to 40% to 90% from level 1 to 5. Maná reduced to 220-300. Cooldown reduced to 40 seconds.
  Please don’t say that this is not good enough to cover the distance, Barbarians can run around 50 mts in 10 seconds (and that is without spring)
• Denfensive and Ofensive Stance: Mana cost removed completely. Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds. Global Cooldown changed to very short.
  (We are analyzing if we make the duration of this skills infinite.)
• Winter Stroke: increased range to 35m.
• Intimidate: casting time removed. Range is mow 12m.
  
• BUG FIX: Now Rigorous preparation affects Miss Chance as it should.
• BUG FIX: Damage reduction of hard creatures is working as intended now.
• BUG FIX: Now Characters cannot Evade, Block or Resist when knocked down or stunned.
• BUG FIX: Pets damage is now adjusted according to the owner’s level (for example a level 5 Zarkit from a level 37 Conjurer was doing damage as if the conjurer was level 50)
  
• POSSIBLE BUG FIX: A couple of bugs fixes on the network code (thanks Enio for the video. please test again to see if we nailed these ones)

Today (friday the 27th) we added the following changes:

Summons: new zombies, new Golems and some damage have been adjusted (still preliminary)
Foresight: ranged increased to 10 to 20% from level 1 to 5
Parabolic shot: duration increased to 15-30 seconds. Range reduced 20 to 25%. (more range to marksmen less range to hunter)
BUG FIX: new network code fix for knockdowns (PLEASE TEST)
BUG FIX: attacking summons cannot be cast on another summon
BUG FIX: a bug was fixed that dispelled your pet when riding a horse

[Sem10n]

Mmm.... Let's see

[PT_DaAr_PT]

Yes YES YES to everything, specially this:

BUG FIX: Pets damage is now adjusted according to the owner’s level (for example a level 5 Zarkit from a level 37 Conjurer was doing damage as if the conjurer was level 50)

[Gawyn_Trakkand]

Originally Posted by chilko

Army of One: Maná reduced to 220-300 from level 1 to 5. Cooldown reduced to 50 seconds.

Unstoppable Madness: Duration reduced to 10 seconds in all levels. New resistance added: cannot attack.
Resistance levels adjusted to 40% to 90% from level 1 to 5. Maná reduced to 220-300. Cooldown reduced to 40 seconds.
Please don’t say that this is not good enough to cover the distance, Barbarians can run around 50 mts in 10 seconds (and that is without spring)
[*]Denfensive and Ofensive Stance: Mana cost removed completely. Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds. Global Cooldown changed to very short.
(We are analyzing if we make the duration of this skills infinite.)
[*]Intimidate: casting time removed. Range is mow 12m.
[*]BUG FIX: Now Characters cannot Evade, Block or Resist when knocked down or stunned.

FUCK YEAH!!!

<3 all changes above nicely done chilko + the balance team

[Immune]

Can't wait to see how the summons turn out. Have to say the list looks pretty awesome at every point.

[dunklermagier]

The changes sound real good to me
The UM change is ok, too (and I have to mention that my main character is a warlock!!!)

Some questions:

Are the durations of summons going to be changed?
Will the summons be redesigned?
Is it gonna be a complete change in the summon system?

It also would be nice to have some options when you are lvl50 as a conjurer (besides the Zarkit I mean...)

But sound real great to me nice work

[_Enio_]

Woot finally! Thanks for that push to Amun

Originally Posted by chilko

• BUG FIX: Now Characters cannot Evade, Block or Resist when knocked down or stunned.
  

Will resistance and evade boosting Spells cease to have effect while being knocked?

I especially think about Escapist here, it will be very easy to counter just with a knock to get the full damage in and not just spells. If yes, it would basically make Escapist only useful in combination with SoW (to not get knocked) or when your out of range of knocking spells.

If yes, how about changing it so that the unbuffed resistances get substracted when being knocked (zero resistance when knocked unbuffed) instead of just set to zero? This would allow resistance&evade boosting active spells/passives to have still effect when being knocked, even if itll be weaker since the base resistances are substracted.

[Gabburtjuh]

just a question, i know ppl think i whine to much, but are there going to be positive tweaks for hunters, because i only keep seeying nerfs or other spells, and i have to say, for me, and prolly alot of the not "hardcore" or "overgeared" hunters, after the update, hunter will complete lose it function, besides trowing the occasinal debuff or trick in.

[Edenner]

nice! i like the changes.

[_Enio_]

Another thing about UM came to my mind.

Current:
lvl1 - more than evry 2nd spell goes through
lvl2 - every 2nd spell goes through
lvl3 - every 3rd spell goes through
lvl4 - evry 4rth spell goes through
lvl5 - evry 10th spell goes through

Since it is now not a more situational version i think it should be changed to be 90% resistances on all lvls but make it 6,7,8,9,10s seconds ( or 5,6,7,8,10 for that last level boost).

Why i think that would make more sense:

The reliability of it blocking should be given on evry level considering the changed dynamics on it.

It is more likethe very situational SoW or Escapist, which both have the right approach there - give a reliable effect for a short amount of time, if they were not kind of reliable the cost vs. effect ratio wasnt given.

In short:

Low level UM at the moment is barely interesting, i feel forced to get it to level 5 to have some reliable performance on it.
I might go with a shorter duration though for some cases, but the effect should be reliable to some degree.