Post by Lorenor on Jan 6, 2016 7:57:39 GMT -8
1. Introduction
2. Skill Rework
3. Rogue
4. Alchemy and Poison
5. Beastmaster
6. Playing with Fire
...
Beastmaster
Beastmasters in the current state of KT are defined by a single item: The Master Ranger´s Maille. It´s the only item in the game that somehow benefits from having pets. If it comes to the combat power of pets, warrior equipment seems to be the best choice. The STAT mechanic of pets, which is making all the pet´s STATs completely depending on their master´s STATs, clearly benefits warrior equipment, for two reasons:
1. If you compare typical warrior equipment like Berserker´s Battle Axe (12 STAT points), Heavy Iron Breastplate (14 STAT points) or Outlandish Heartpiercer (16 STAT points), you will see that they have a lot more STATs to offer than mage equipment like Elder Wand (5 STAT points), Murlock Skull (6 STAT points) or Warlock´s Vestment (10 STAT points). This is fine if we just look at the combat power of kobolds, because mage equipment oftentimes has very powerful effects that make up for the lack of STAT points.
The problem is that pets don´t care about equipment effects. They only become stronger based on flat STATs, which makes the pets of mages much weaker than those of warriors. A similar problem are ranged and melee weapons. While the attack speed difference between those weapon types is applied to your pets, the range isn´t, which I think is pretty unfair for all ranged weapon "beastmasters".
2. This imbalance between warrior pets and mage pets is even more increased by the fact that only the highest of the three values for STR, INT and WIL is used to determine the attack damage of pets. That means that every piece of equipment that gives at least two of these STATs (which is most of the mage equipment) has even less benefits for your pet´s STATs. Instead of the 13 STAT points from the Enigmatic Staff, only 7 points are affecting your pets.
Another problem I see for beastmasters is that they have nothing that really differs them from other "classes". Everyone can have two pets with full upgrades and, at least for warriors, at least the same, if not better combat power.
New pet mechanics
Independent STATs
Change the STATs of pets to absolute values, not based on the STATs of their master. This would make pets very strong in the early game and/or very weak in the late game, so the second suggestion is:
Pet levels
Pets should have levels as well. Not 10, but I think 3 levels would be fine. With each level, their combat strength increases by a good amount (worth around 15-20 STAT points in the current STAT calculation).
Pets gain a small amount of the experience their master gains (even if the master is already level 10). If you have more than one pet, the experience is split between them, so they level a lot slower.
Pet perks
Pets don´t get the benefits of perks purchased at the hunter´s lodge instantly. Only if they reach the required level, they will gain the perk bonus.
Perks from the hunter´s lodge (accessible to all pets):
Level 1 perks (30 gold or 1 bear pelt)
Thick Hide - Increases armor and spell resistance by 2 and out of combat health regen by 3
Natural Tenacity - Reduces damage taken from affliction and wild animals by 30%. Pets dodge boss special attacks.
Level 2 perks (60 gold or 2 bear pelts)
Inspirational Master - Increases your pet´s STATs based on your own STATs: 1 END or WIL = +0.5 health, 1 STR or INT = +0.05 attack damage, 1 DEX = 0.2% attack speed (not based on the highest out of both STATs; the pet simply gains 0.5 health for every point in END as well as for every point in WIL)
Viciousness - Increases movement speed by 25% and ignore 50% of the target´s armor.
Level 3 perk (90 gold or 3 bear pelts)
Loyal to the death - If the pet dies, it will respawn at the closest hunter´s lodge. 180 seconds cooldown.
Other perk (applying to you, not the pet):
Predatory Knowledge - Your pets constantly gain some experience. (60 gold or 2 bear pelts)
Natural abilities
Every pet has these abilities from the beginning:
Wolf
Adaption - Increases attack speed by 25% during day (wolf) or 35% during night (dire wolf).
Bear
Warm fur - Increases it´s master´s cold resistance by 25%.
Night wisp
Arcane spark - Deals 1, 3, 5 [+10% of it´s master´s spellpower] magic damage on hit (on level 1, 2, 3)
Spider
Venomous bite - Every attack poisons the target, dealing 10, 15, 25 damage over 5 seconds (on level 1, 2, 3)
Aditionally, you can choose one of these abilities for each pet at level 3:
Wolf
Pack hunt - Increases attack damage by 1 for every other wolf in a 12 unit range, capping at 10. Also reveals the closest enemy for 3 seconds every dawn (wolf) or dusk (dire wolf).
Sharpened fangs - Each attack causes the target to bleed for 3 seconds, dealing damage equal to 15% of the wolf´s attack damage per second and additional 10% for each unit the target runs.
Bear
War beast - Increases health by 25%.
Frost Queen´s Gift - Each attack drains 3 warmth from the target. If the bear´s health drops below 50%, he gets 5 armor and attack damage. (only frost bear)
Crushing paws - Charges at the enemy and stuns him for 0.75 seconds. 25 second cooldown
Night wisp
Elemental - Allows you to transform the wisp to a forest-, rock- or fire-elemental.
Spell eater - Spell casting (from it´s master) increases attack speed by 25% and heals the wisp by 15%.
Spider (in case it will be added)
Broodmother - Increases health by 15%. If the spider dies, it will spawn 3 level 1 spiders that fight for 20 seconds.
Venom Huntress - The poison of the spider´s bite deals 50% increased damage and slows the target by 7%.
If anyone has better ideas for the pet perks, please let me know... I must admit I just made most of them up to have examples and am not really satisfied with all of them.
Change to foraging:
I thought the difference in the difficulty of taming a pet might be too extreme between a forager and a non-forager, so instead of making foraging increase taming chance by a flat 2%, I would make it 8% of the existing chance instead (that means with 25 foraging, you have +200% chance to tame a pet, which is a total of 45% if you just have a taming rod).
Elementals
If night wisp reach level 3, you can choose the perk "Elemental", which is an active ability. It can be used on a tree, a mineral deposit or a campfire, and it transforms the wisp into a forest elemental, rock elemental or fire elemental.
Forest elemental
The forest elemental is a treant. He counts as tree in most aspects (takes longer damage from fire, takes extra damage from forestry, can be healed with nature´s grace, reduced damage from ranged weapons etc).
He will heal himself or allies, plant trees from time to time, but can also attack (he´s just not very strong).
Rock elemental
A very tanky follower that has slow attack speed, but high armor and health and also ignores 5 damage of every physical attack. It is possible to use mineral tap on him, which increases his attack speed (by the same amount mineral tap increases mining speed). Therefore all mining speed of the attacked is counted as armor penetration, so if the attacked has 25 mining, he has 37.5% armor penetration. Mineral tap counts towards this armor penetration as well.
Fire elemental
Deals very high damage, but looses health if it looses warmth (so during night, rain, winter etc). Therefore the health regeneration is increased when it would gain warmth (day, campfire) and it also gains 35% attack speed near campfires or burning trees or buildings. Attacks burn the target.
New beastmaster equipment:
Falconer's bracers
Slot: Offhand
Crafting: Hunter´s Lodge (0 ART), 1 iron, 1 leather
STATS: 3 STR, 2 DEX, 2 INT, 1 ARMOR
Passive: Allows to "tame" a bird (the closest bird will fly to you and from then on follow you). While you have the bird, your vision range is increased by 2 and you have vision to highground. Since the 15 ART perk gives +50% vision range to birds, you get an additional +1 vision range (50% of the +2) if you have 15 foraging.
Active: Send the bird (if you have one tamed) to scout for you (similar to storage outpost bird). While the bird is scouting, the passive is disabled. The further the bird travels, the longer he will need to come back. There is no other cooldown than that on this ability.
The bird doesn´t need a pet slot, but if you unequip the falconer´s bracers the bird will fly away.
Builds into Beastmaster´s Vambrace.
Beastmaster's Vambrace
Slot: Offhand
Crafting: Hunter´s Lodge (15 ART), 1 Falconer's bracers, 1 Antlers, 3 leather; *can only be crafted with at least one tamed pet (wolf or bear, wisps are NOT tamed!)*
STATs: 5 STR, 4 DEX, 4 INT, 2 ARMOR
Passive: Attacks with a bare main hand have 15% taming chance.
Passive: Pets gain 5*your level health.
Passive: When your health drops below 35%, your pets become enraged and gain +25% movement and attack speed for 20 seconds. 45 second cooldown
Active: Wild animals and enemy pets will flee in fear for 5 seconds. 45 seconds cooldown.
Poacher´s Bow
Slot: Main hand
Crafting: Hunter´s Lodge (10 ART), 2 lumber, 1 wool, 1 iron ore
+ 5 DEX
+ 2 STR
3.5 range
Passive: Increases the damage against animals by 6.
Passive: Gains +1 STR for every trophy in your hunter´s lodge, +3 for troll nose bone (maximum +10)
Builds into Repeating Crossbow and Venomous Arbalest.
Boneshard Blade
Slot: Offhand
Crafting: Hunter´s Lodge (5 ART), 2 murloc skull fragments, 1 leather
+ 7 DEX
Passive: If the target is in melee range, you will always attack with melee attacks (even when using a ranged weapon). The weapon´s on-hit-effects are not applied.
Passive: Direwolfs will always dop leather.
Passive: Killing bears grants stacks (up to 10). Each stack will give additional +1.5% attack speed. These stacks are "saved" for the heartpiercer, so you don´t have to start collecting again after crafting the heartpiercer when you used the hunting knive before. This attack speed bonus is applied to your pets as well.
Builds into Outlandish Heartpiercer and Faithful Whirlwind.
Changed equipment
Huntsman Jacket
Now crafted at hunter´s lodge.
Master Ranger´s Maille
Crafted at hunter´s lodge
STATs lowered slightly.
Bare hand taming and pet respawn removed (since the effects are already used for level 3 perk and beastmaster´s vambrace).
New passive: Allows to tame one more pet. The base experience they gain (the percentage amount of the experience you gain) is shared between them, so they level slower.
Note that there is no more a perk for a second pet at the hunter´s lodge, so this item is, except for the truffle quest, the only way to get 2 pets (unless the Broodmother´s Veil from "Alchemy and Poison" is added). This is so that the term "Beastmaster" really means something.
Wolfsbane
Decrease leather cost to 5 and STR to 10.
New passive: Increases STR by 1 per level.
Changed passive: Day wolves will attack you on their own and all wolves will ignore the shine of your lantern or torch.
Changed passive: Grants 15% movement speed and 25% attack speed during night. Killing a dire wolf increases your movement speed by 3% and your attack speed by 5%, stacking up 5 times. If you reach 5 stacks, wolves won´t attack you or your pets anymore and all wolves near you (even pets) gain the same bonus as you do (30% movement, 50% attack speed) and ignore all sources of light. The effect ends at dawn.
Be careful, the second passive might make the wolves ignore you, but they will still attack your allies. Also, wolf pets go really well with this weapon, since they will get the 50% attack speed, too.
Repeating Crossbow
Crafting: Poacher´s bow, 1 antlers, 2 iron ore, 1 wool
+5 DEX, +7 STR, 4.5 range
Changed passive: For each 10 Focus (DEX -18), this weapon shoots one more bolt, but has 10% decreased attack speed. Targets getting hit by multiple bolts only take 25% of the damage from all consecutive bolts.
2. Skill Rework
3. Rogue
4. Alchemy and Poison
5. Beastmaster
6. Playing with Fire
...
Beastmaster
Beastmasters in the current state of KT are defined by a single item: The Master Ranger´s Maille. It´s the only item in the game that somehow benefits from having pets. If it comes to the combat power of pets, warrior equipment seems to be the best choice. The STAT mechanic of pets, which is making all the pet´s STATs completely depending on their master´s STATs, clearly benefits warrior equipment, for two reasons:
1. If you compare typical warrior equipment like Berserker´s Battle Axe (12 STAT points), Heavy Iron Breastplate (14 STAT points) or Outlandish Heartpiercer (16 STAT points), you will see that they have a lot more STATs to offer than mage equipment like Elder Wand (5 STAT points), Murlock Skull (6 STAT points) or Warlock´s Vestment (10 STAT points). This is fine if we just look at the combat power of kobolds, because mage equipment oftentimes has very powerful effects that make up for the lack of STAT points.
The problem is that pets don´t care about equipment effects. They only become stronger based on flat STATs, which makes the pets of mages much weaker than those of warriors. A similar problem are ranged and melee weapons. While the attack speed difference between those weapon types is applied to your pets, the range isn´t, which I think is pretty unfair for all ranged weapon "beastmasters".
2. This imbalance between warrior pets and mage pets is even more increased by the fact that only the highest of the three values for STR, INT and WIL is used to determine the attack damage of pets. That means that every piece of equipment that gives at least two of these STATs (which is most of the mage equipment) has even less benefits for your pet´s STATs. Instead of the 13 STAT points from the Enigmatic Staff, only 7 points are affecting your pets.
Another problem I see for beastmasters is that they have nothing that really differs them from other "classes". Everyone can have two pets with full upgrades and, at least for warriors, at least the same, if not better combat power.
New pet mechanics
Independent STATs
Change the STATs of pets to absolute values, not based on the STATs of their master. This would make pets very strong in the early game and/or very weak in the late game, so the second suggestion is:
Pet levels
Pets should have levels as well. Not 10, but I think 3 levels would be fine. With each level, their combat strength increases by a good amount (worth around 15-20 STAT points in the current STAT calculation).
Pets gain a small amount of the experience their master gains (even if the master is already level 10). If you have more than one pet, the experience is split between them, so they level a lot slower.
Pet perks
Pets don´t get the benefits of perks purchased at the hunter´s lodge instantly. Only if they reach the required level, they will gain the perk bonus.
Perks from the hunter´s lodge (accessible to all pets):
Level 1 perks (30 gold or 1 bear pelt)
Thick Hide - Increases armor and spell resistance by 2 and out of combat health regen by 3
Natural Tenacity - Reduces damage taken from affliction and wild animals by 30%. Pets dodge boss special attacks.
Level 2 perks (60 gold or 2 bear pelts)
Inspirational Master - Increases your pet´s STATs based on your own STATs: 1 END or WIL = +0.5 health, 1 STR or INT = +0.05 attack damage, 1 DEX = 0.2% attack speed (not based on the highest out of both STATs; the pet simply gains 0.5 health for every point in END as well as for every point in WIL)
Viciousness - Increases movement speed by 25% and ignore 50% of the target´s armor.
Level 3 perk (90 gold or 3 bear pelts)
Loyal to the death - If the pet dies, it will respawn at the closest hunter´s lodge. 180 seconds cooldown.
Other perk (applying to you, not the pet):
Predatory Knowledge - Your pets constantly gain some experience. (60 gold or 2 bear pelts)
Natural abilities
Every pet has these abilities from the beginning:
Wolf
Adaption - Increases attack speed by 25% during day (wolf) or 35% during night (dire wolf).
Bear
Warm fur - Increases it´s master´s cold resistance by 25%.
Night wisp
Arcane spark - Deals 1, 3, 5 [+10% of it´s master´s spellpower] magic damage on hit (on level 1, 2, 3)
Spider
Venomous bite - Every attack poisons the target, dealing 10, 15, 25 damage over 5 seconds (on level 1, 2, 3)
Aditionally, you can choose one of these abilities for each pet at level 3:
Wolf
Pack hunt - Increases attack damage by 1 for every other wolf in a 12 unit range, capping at 10. Also reveals the closest enemy for 3 seconds every dawn (wolf) or dusk (dire wolf).
Sharpened fangs - Each attack causes the target to bleed for 3 seconds, dealing damage equal to 15% of the wolf´s attack damage per second and additional 10% for each unit the target runs.
Bear
War beast - Increases health by 25%.
Frost Queen´s Gift - Each attack drains 3 warmth from the target. If the bear´s health drops below 50%, he gets 5 armor and attack damage. (only frost bear)
Crushing paws - Charges at the enemy and stuns him for 0.75 seconds. 25 second cooldown
Night wisp
Elemental - Allows you to transform the wisp to a forest-, rock- or fire-elemental.
Spell eater - Spell casting (from it´s master) increases attack speed by 25% and heals the wisp by 15%.
Spider (in case it will be added)
Broodmother - Increases health by 15%. If the spider dies, it will spawn 3 level 1 spiders that fight for 20 seconds.
Venom Huntress - The poison of the spider´s bite deals 50% increased damage and slows the target by 7%.
If anyone has better ideas for the pet perks, please let me know... I must admit I just made most of them up to have examples and am not really satisfied with all of them.
Change to foraging:
I thought the difference in the difficulty of taming a pet might be too extreme between a forager and a non-forager, so instead of making foraging increase taming chance by a flat 2%, I would make it 8% of the existing chance instead (that means with 25 foraging, you have +200% chance to tame a pet, which is a total of 45% if you just have a taming rod).
Elementals
If night wisp reach level 3, you can choose the perk "Elemental", which is an active ability. It can be used on a tree, a mineral deposit or a campfire, and it transforms the wisp into a forest elemental, rock elemental or fire elemental.
Forest elemental
The forest elemental is a treant. He counts as tree in most aspects (takes longer damage from fire, takes extra damage from forestry, can be healed with nature´s grace, reduced damage from ranged weapons etc).
He will heal himself or allies, plant trees from time to time, but can also attack (he´s just not very strong).
Rock elemental
A very tanky follower that has slow attack speed, but high armor and health and also ignores 5 damage of every physical attack. It is possible to use mineral tap on him, which increases his attack speed (by the same amount mineral tap increases mining speed). Therefore all mining speed of the attacked is counted as armor penetration, so if the attacked has 25 mining, he has 37.5% armor penetration. Mineral tap counts towards this armor penetration as well.
Fire elemental
Deals very high damage, but looses health if it looses warmth (so during night, rain, winter etc). Therefore the health regeneration is increased when it would gain warmth (day, campfire) and it also gains 35% attack speed near campfires or burning trees or buildings. Attacks burn the target.
New beastmaster equipment:
Falconer's bracers
Slot: Offhand
Crafting: Hunter´s Lodge (0 ART), 1 iron, 1 leather
STATS: 3 STR, 2 DEX, 2 INT, 1 ARMOR
Passive: Allows to "tame" a bird (the closest bird will fly to you and from then on follow you). While you have the bird, your vision range is increased by 2 and you have vision to highground. Since the 15 ART perk gives +50% vision range to birds, you get an additional +1 vision range (50% of the +2) if you have 15 foraging.
Active: Send the bird (if you have one tamed) to scout for you (similar to storage outpost bird). While the bird is scouting, the passive is disabled. The further the bird travels, the longer he will need to come back. There is no other cooldown than that on this ability.
The bird doesn´t need a pet slot, but if you unequip the falconer´s bracers the bird will fly away.
Builds into Beastmaster´s Vambrace.
Beastmaster's Vambrace
Slot: Offhand
Crafting: Hunter´s Lodge (15 ART), 1 Falconer's bracers, 1 Antlers, 3 leather; *can only be crafted with at least one tamed pet (wolf or bear, wisps are NOT tamed!)*
STATs: 5 STR, 4 DEX, 4 INT, 2 ARMOR
Passive: Attacks with a bare main hand have 15% taming chance.
Passive: Pets gain 5*your level health.
Passive: When your health drops below 35%, your pets become enraged and gain +25% movement and attack speed for 20 seconds. 45 second cooldown
Active: Wild animals and enemy pets will flee in fear for 5 seconds. 45 seconds cooldown.
Poacher´s Bow
Slot: Main hand
Crafting: Hunter´s Lodge (10 ART), 2 lumber, 1 wool, 1 iron ore
+ 5 DEX
+ 2 STR
3.5 range
Passive: Increases the damage against animals by 6.
Passive: Gains +1 STR for every trophy in your hunter´s lodge, +3 for troll nose bone (maximum +10)
Builds into Repeating Crossbow and Venomous Arbalest.
Boneshard Blade
Slot: Offhand
Crafting: Hunter´s Lodge (5 ART), 2 murloc skull fragments, 1 leather
+ 7 DEX
Passive: If the target is in melee range, you will always attack with melee attacks (even when using a ranged weapon). The weapon´s on-hit-effects are not applied.
Passive: Direwolfs will always dop leather.
Passive: Killing bears grants stacks (up to 10). Each stack will give additional +1.5% attack speed. These stacks are "saved" for the heartpiercer, so you don´t have to start collecting again after crafting the heartpiercer when you used the hunting knive before. This attack speed bonus is applied to your pets as well.
Builds into Outlandish Heartpiercer and Faithful Whirlwind.
Changed equipment
Huntsman Jacket
Now crafted at hunter´s lodge.
Master Ranger´s Maille
Crafted at hunter´s lodge
STATs lowered slightly.
Bare hand taming and pet respawn removed (since the effects are already used for level 3 perk and beastmaster´s vambrace).
New passive: Allows to tame one more pet. The base experience they gain (the percentage amount of the experience you gain) is shared between them, so they level slower.
Note that there is no more a perk for a second pet at the hunter´s lodge, so this item is, except for the truffle quest, the only way to get 2 pets (unless the Broodmother´s Veil from "Alchemy and Poison" is added). This is so that the term "Beastmaster" really means something.
Wolfsbane
Decrease leather cost to 5 and STR to 10.
New passive: Increases STR by 1 per level.
Changed passive: Day wolves will attack you on their own and all wolves will ignore the shine of your lantern or torch.
Changed passive: Grants 15% movement speed and 25% attack speed during night. Killing a dire wolf increases your movement speed by 3% and your attack speed by 5%, stacking up 5 times. If you reach 5 stacks, wolves won´t attack you or your pets anymore and all wolves near you (even pets) gain the same bonus as you do (30% movement, 50% attack speed) and ignore all sources of light. The effect ends at dawn.
Be careful, the second passive might make the wolves ignore you, but they will still attack your allies. Also, wolf pets go really well with this weapon, since they will get the 50% attack speed, too.
Repeating Crossbow
Crafting: Poacher´s bow, 1 antlers, 2 iron ore, 1 wool
+5 DEX, +7 STR, 4.5 range
Changed passive: For each 10 Focus (DEX -18), this weapon shoots one more bolt, but has 10% decreased attack speed. Targets getting hit by multiple bolts only take 25% of the damage from all consecutive bolts.
