How Can We Help?
< Back
You are here:
Print

GM Viduus Invites Suggestions from Clerics About Their Profession

GM Viduus is all ears for clerics’ suggestions for filling spell slots, plugging holes in the profession, or other dev-related ideas! You can go read his words yourself and then chime in here:

http://bit.ly/2Mpb7n2

Category: Clerics
Topic: Developer’s Corner – Clerics

Date: 08/18/2018 07:10 PM CDT
From: LEAFIARA
Subj: Anything in the works?
Wizards and paladins apparently got some neat sneak peeks at Simucon of things in the works for their professions, which have now also been previewed in their folders here on the forums.

Anything going on for clerics that can be shared?


https://gswiki.play.net/Leafiara


Date: 08/18/2018 07:28 PM CDT
From: GS4-VIDUUS
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
Wizards and paladins apparently got some neat sneak peeks at Simucon of things in the works for their professions, which have now also been previewed in their folders here on the forums.

Anything going on for clerics that can be shared?


The wizard/paladin work was me polishing those classes up a bit between larger scale projects.

I’m interested in moving on to work on other classes, though not necessarily prioritizing clerics (although the class holds a special place with me as I played one before going paladin). I have been eyeing up the list, but haven’t personally seen any good ideas for plugging the holes or seen anything called out as in desperate need of attention.

If you guys have consensus on glaring issues, or good ideas for filling slots, you should post them. I’ve a laundry list of things on my to-do list, but the single best way to get bumped up my list is to toss out a suggestion that I’m dying to see turn reality.

Viduus


Date: 08/18/2018 07:35 PM CDT
From: LEAFIARA
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
> If you guys have consensus on glaring issues, or good ideas for filling slots, you should post them. I’ve a laundry list of things on my to-do list, but the single best way to get bumped up my list is to toss out a suggestion that I’m dying to see turn reality.

Just what I wanted to hear.
Give me two weeks tops and I’ll have two dozen suggestions along with associated reasons to each one of what I think the hole being plugged is. 😉

Thanks for all that you do, and appreciate the response!


https://gswiki.play.net/Leafiara


Date: 08/18/2018 07:39 PM CDT
From: GS4-VIDUUS
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
Give me two weeks tops and I’ll have two dozen suggestions along with associated reasons to each one of what I think the hole being plugged is. 😉


Sounds good. 🙂

Viduus


Date: 08/18/2018 10:57 PM CDT
From: KRAKII
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
And there’s always “Krakii’s Big Long List of Bardic Love”, improvements just waiting to happen, including several that directly parallel some of the Hot Sorcerer Nights & ELR…

.

Just sayin’.


Date: 08/19/2018 12:38 AM CDT
From: GS4-VIDUUS
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
And there’s always “Krakii’s Big Long List of Bardic Love”, improvements just waiting to happen, including several that directly parallel some of the Hot Sorcerer Nights & ELR…

.

Just sayin’.


If every non-bard topic didn’t seem to get hijacked every other day with bard woes, I might be more inclined to spend personal time addressing the actual issues I read in the bard folder.

However, as is, it just seems working on bards might be very similar to dating a crazed stalker. You see all the tell-tale signs that it’s a bad idea, but do it anyway, and then suddenly you’re both in something that isn’t making anyone happy. Only then it turns south and you’re getting 1000 hate emails a day waking up one day with a sonic knife in your chest.

I don’t care for idea of knives in my chest, or a clogged inbox. So… pass.

Viduus


Date: 08/19/2018 07:01 AM CDT
From: RATHBONER
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
>I have been eyeing up the list, but haven’t personally seen any good ideas for plugging the holes or seen anything called out as in desperate need of attention.

Medium cost attack spell. Something that levels 40-80ish cleric would use a lot because they have more than enough mana to spam 302 and not enough mana/CS to get value from 317. Something that isn’t restricted to targets that don’t exist in that level range (306). Something that doesn’t require 240 to get enough oomph on a cast to beat spamming 302 (312). Something that means that converting to a Bane deity isn’t practically required.

I’ve seen others comment on Discord that clerics get really boring mid-level and its my experience too. There’s much less variety to the attacks I use at level 50 than the attacks I used at level 35, or the attacks I used at level 20 and I don’t see it getting anything but worse as I level to 60 or 70.

There’s a lot thats been done for variety post-cap, but this has been a glaring gap for at least a decade and the only reason it doesn’t attract more noise is that people grind through it and then have plenty of post cap training targets to go for and it doesn’t seem urgent to them any more, or give up and are not playing a cleric any more so it doesn’t seem urgent to them either.

How can you look at massive amount of extra variety thats been added to wizards attack spells in recent years and not see a terrible lack of it in cleric spells?


Date: 08/19/2018 11:18 AM CDT
From: LTLPRPRINCESS
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
>> However, as is, it just seems working on bards might be very similar to dating a crazed stalker. You see all the tell-tale signs that it’s a bad idea, but do it anyway, and then suddenly you’re both in something that isn’t making anyone happy. Only then it turns south and you’re getting 1000 hate emails a day waking up one day with a sonic knife in your chest.

This was great and I love everything about this.

#bardlife


Date: 08/19/2018 12:19 PM CDT
From: DOUG
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
Almost feels like experience talking, there.

/ponder

Doug


Date: 08/19/2018 03:58 PM CDT
From: JL177
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
These have been mentioned before, but just restating since we’re bringing up the topic again:

309/315 merge – replace the empty spot with a mid-level attack spell (a warding/bolt spell combo with cast/evoke would be awesome)
320 – I believe it’s desired that this be some kind of maneuver-based attack spell?
330 become an innate ability – not sure what to put here but having commune here is certainty a waste of a high-level spell slot


Date: 08/19/2018 04:36 PM CDT
From: KRAKII
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
Less of a hijack than a, “great, you did it for this spell (and with this specific Lore)… now go do it with that spell (for your convenience, already using the same Lore).”

The number of times you see it just indicates that there was a LOT of love left behind…

.

And once things get fixed, I very seldomly mention them again. 🙂 So as incentives to NOT see those comments again go….


Date: 08/20/2018 08:40 AM CDT
From: KATIESA
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
Since it’s been asked, here’s my idea for 320 or 330…

I have found it mildly frustrating that my Liabo-aligned character can’t take advantage of ensorcelling because it simply does not work for her from an RP standpoint. Seriously, she’s not going to use something that engulfs her in nasty necrotic energy. But since she’s a weapon user, that mechanical advantage would be awfully helpful for her.

I think sorcs would be super upset if their 735 profits got reduced by a “good” ensorcelling, but what if clerics could add a temporary “divine inspiration” to weapons/armor?

Some details:
-works non-ensorcelled items only (no double dipping)
-same mechanical advantages as ensorcelling for some amount of time (two to four hours?)
-five levels tied to spiritual lore blessings/religion ranks
-can be cast 1-3 times a day based on lore (kind of like miracle)


Date: 08/20/2018 08:51 AM CDT
From: DOUG
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
>>I think sorcs would be super upset if their 735 profits got reduced by a “good” ensorcelling

This doesn’t matter. At all.

>>but what if clerics could add a temporary “divine inspiration” to weapons/armor?

Yes! But not just temporary. While I don’t really want to see just a ‘good’ side to the taint that is 735, we definitely need some way to bring the energies of the divine into play this way.

Doug


Date: 08/20/2018 09:41 AM CDT
From: LEAFIARA
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
Even if there were any hesitation (which I don’t think there has to be or should be) from devs to introduce an alternative competing for the Ensorcell slot, it could be designed in a way that makes sure the two largely cater to different audiences both mechanically and RP-wise.

Which I was already partway through brainstorming about, so I’ll share that now instead of later. 😀

Ensorcelled armor or shields improve defense against magic, which is huge for squares but less huge for other professions (except maybe bards). So let’s say we were to design something that squares don’t really care about. We could have options like:

* returning mana on a cast
* improved maneuver defense
* a chance to instantly recast a known defensive spell for free if it’s dispelled
* a chance to reroll fumbled or hindered casts
* reducing RT when hit by a maneuver

And more!

As for ensorcelled weapons, they primarily reward hunting styles using attacks that are more frequent but less focused, like spamming 302/702 or mstriking. So one alternative is something to reward attacks that are less frequent and more focused, like aimed strikes or channeled 317/1115. Some possibilities here could include:

* an increased chance for an aimed attack to hit its mark, a channeled bolt to hit a lethal spot, or an increased warding margin for channeled spells
* a chance of reduced RT for aimed or channeled attacks only
* some kind of offensive improvement (flare, phantom endroll boost, increased damage, reroll the randomized crit and take the better of the two, or whatever else) that can only trigger during the first attack against an enemy
* a positive effect (be it a stat boost, stat restoration, Truehand effect on your next attack, or whatever else) that can only go off during attacks that kill the enemy

The above is only one of many possible lenses to view Ensorcell through and design opposing effects against. There are many other lenses…

We could say in a much more broad sense that ensorcelled armor/shields improve defense, then design the concept for holy-ensorcelled armor/shields to improve offense. We could say that ensorcelled weapons refill draining stats like health and mana, then design holy-ensorcelled weapons to take fixed stats like strength and wisdom over the top.

We could say that ensorcelled armor/shields give a static and constant benefit, then design the holy counterpart to be a flare chance; conversely we could say that ensorcelled weapons mostly give a chance-based flaring benefit, then design the holy counterpart to be more reliable.

We could say that Ensorcell is tougher to put onto sanctified gear and impossible to put onto Voln armor, then design the holy counterpart to only be possible to put onto sanctified gear or Voln armor.

And you get the picture from there, I hope. 😀 I do want to reiterate that I don’t think an Ensorcell counterpart would have to be designed from a perspective of no mechanical overlap so we don’t step on toes, but I’m saying that even working with that constraint, there are many possible fun paths!


https://gswiki.play.net/Leafiara


Date: 08/20/2018 11:22 AM CDT
From: LEAFIARA
Subj: Re: Anything in the works?
Or for an entirely different paradigm, we could say that Ensorcell is set-it-and-forget-it and then design its holy counterpart to have some kind of upkeep or cooldown, lining up with the design of other holy spells like 340 or 1625.

In any case, the absence of a light counterpart to Ensorcell isn’t exactly a cleric-specific issue per se–more like a hole in the game which clerics happen to be best positioned to fill. Being such a broad topic makes it easy to talk about.

Describing cleric-specific issues is more complicated with a number of moving parts–never mind then following up with suggestions. But I’ll have at least a few issue + possible solution ideas ready this week, I think.


https://gswiki.play.net/Leafiara

 

Tags:
Table of Contents