Burgfräulein, Paladin build in v12, discuss nerf in v13

[Flix 5,116]

I think that is a sound idea. I have implemented it for v13.

I attached the current v13 spells.txt below if it's needed now, but I haven't had a chance to update the French texts yet.

These are the current Paladin changes in this file vs. v12:

• Conviction: Duration and hits per second now match to prevent a stacking exploit. Base range reduced. Base damage sensitivity is halved and scales more slowly. Sensitivity from Singe/Chill/Zap modifications scales more slowly. "Assurance" modification reduces 1% armor per level instead of 10%. "Weaken" modification is replaced with "Subdue" which lowers opponent defense rating.
• Holy Fire: Base damage doubled (including Combustion modification), but damage, hits per second, and chance for burn scale more slowly. Base range and range scaling greatly reduced (including Explosive modification).
• Holy Shield: Duration now scales with CA level (results in 2 seconds gained at max level). Energy Shield Absorption is now 50% + 0.1% per level. Max Shield Energy scales more slowly. 
• Prayer: Hitpoint regeneration effect scales more slowly. Perseverance/Insight modifications now grant 5 Willpower/Intelligence points per level instead of 30.
• Fist of the Heavens: Damage per level scales more slowly.
• Holy Bolt: Normalized damage bonuses against Undead/Demons/T-Mutants.
• Blessed Hammer: Reordered modifications so damage/speed are bronze mods, racial damages are silver mods, and damage conversions are gold mods.
• Holy Freeze: Base range and range scaling slightly reduced.

spells.txt

[Androdion 884]

The changes in the BH mods make all the sense to me as well, I think those choices are much more relevant now.

Cool to see all other changes already implemented as well. I haven't had the chance to play again since I've started Nightmare but I'll pick up the "v13" spells.txt and run with it, the same way I've been doing so far. I'm curious to see the newly balanced effect of Conviction because I think Weaken was clearly OP.

Sadly I have no ETA on when I'll try it right now. I haven't stopped at home and these next few days will he more of the same. I plan to lock myself at home next Sunday so that's a pertinent date for me to try the changes.

@Flix - The changes in the order for the mods in BH don't affect anything on the current save do they? They update dynamically right?

[Flix 5,116]

1 hour ago, Androdion said:

The changes in the order for the mods in BH don't affect anything on the current save do they? They update dynamically right?

That is correct.  The modification tooltips will not be changed though without the updated global.res file - a cosmetic thing only.

[Androdion 884]

Nice. The tooltips are a non-issue so no biggie.

[Androdion 884]

On 12/24/2019 at 3:13 PM, Flix said:

• Conviction: Duration and hits per second now match to prevent a stacking exploit. Base range reduced. Base damage sensitivity is halved and scales more slowly. Sensitivity from Singe/Chill/Zap modifications scales more slowly. "Assurance" modification reduces 1% armor per level instead of 10%. "Weaken" modification is replaced with "Subdue" which lowers opponent defense rating.
•  

So I finally found some time to try out the new version of spells.txt and here are my findings. Before I said that Holy Fire+Conviction was still a very powerful match, and I thought that Weaken was mostly to blame for that. Guess I was wrong since the burn damage is still taking many away even in Nightmare. It's not as brutally effective as before because of the change in modifications, but it's still burning a lot more than I'd expect without Damage Lore being a part if my toon's skill set. So I have to believe that the biggest factor at play here is the sensitivity to fire damage, ergo Singe. My proposition is to change the order in which the modifications appear on Conviction, namely making the bronze mods be the gold mods and have the other ones appear prior to those. So it would be:

• Bronze: Zap/Subdue
• Silver: Nulify/ Assurance
• Gold: Singe/Chill

This would make Conviction's modifications more interesting to choose with a warrior type toon, with Fanaticism and the Devout Offense tree in mind. The one-up on both fire and ice auras would be left for last.

Still regarding Holy Fire, I believe that mastering the Lore skill has a huge impact on it so if the idea is to play an Auradin with burn damage that's a priority mastery, even more than Ancient Magic or Damage Lore. On both Paladin builds I've used that mastery and it results in a proper growth of the CA in practical terms. It's well balanced now, and with further levelling you can raise the damage even more with AM and DL for higher levels where mobs have much higher HP.

[Flix 5,116]

1 hour ago, Androdion said:

My proposition is to change the order in which the modifications appear on Conviction, namely making the bronze mods be the gold mods and have the other ones appear prior to those.

Good idea! I have been rearranging CA modifications a lot this week, so this is the perfect time for it.

I realized I did something unconsciously when I first started making mods, and that is that I would often design things so I could get all the "good" modifications for a CA, which is what I always wanted as a player.  As a developer though, I think modification choices should be properly paired, so that it's not always easy to choose.  If there is a modification that the player would always choose no matter their build or playstyle, then something is broken in the pairing. 

In v13 I found and adjusted a number of pairings where there was an obvious choice paired against a "trash" mod. 

[Flix 5,116]

11 hours ago, Androdion said:

Guess I was wrong since the burn damage is still taking many away even in Nightmare. It's not as brutally effective as before because of the change in modifications, but it's still burning a lot more than I'd expect without Damage Lore being a part if my toon's skill set.

I did discover one thing, that the Opponent's Armor - X% property was not doing what it said it was doing. It was actually giving a chance to reduce armor to "0" with each damage pulse. This was also happening with the Barbarian's War Cry modded a certain way.

I have corrected this in v13 at the bonus level (not released yet) so it may temper Holy Fire's killing power somewhat - though only against enemies who already have fire armor.

For Conviction, I decided the swap the bronze & silver mod pairs, and left the gold mods as is.