Hello, firstly i'd like to say i'm a massive fan of the mechanical changes you've all done across the board, and i'm greatly looking forward to release. Amazing job, really.
Now, there were two minor nitpicks I had and wanted to suggest revisiting- the fighting style feats for Fighter and Warden. For reference:
Now, we'll start with warden! I like the idea of using parries to refresh ability cooldowns, it's unique and the payoff is worth it. However, the shield wall one is rare to trigger and comparatively little use until in the "danger zone" HP-wise.
For fighter, we have 2 feats that simply work- those being furious focus and clustered shots. Then there are 2 that have low percentile chances to trigger the ability that also has fail-states.
Whirling Frenzy seems really cool since it gives you three chances of AoE damage that is very hard to avoid, and the 5% chance to proc is alright in light of the fact that dual wielding gives +2 attacks.
Heroic Durability, however, has a chance to proc, and then can be completely useless against foes with +2 weapons. This.. doesn't feel great. Furthermore, it might as well not even exist when people cast stoneskin on you, and it's the only feat here that would be useless for PvP since +2's are our regular cap.
So in my humble opinion, the shield feats for warden and fighter are lacking compared to the others. If I had to make an uneducated suggestion on how to make them feel more rewarding, it would be to try and alter them to either have more of a guarantee, or broaden the benefits. F.E:
-Shield Wall's proc chance when struck from 5% to 10%, given that the effects are mild more often than not
Or,
-Shield Wall spreads to nearby allies.
-Hell, maybe even a mix of both?
Heroic Durability could also be done a number of ways:
-changed from 10/+2 to 5/-, or if we don't want to step on barb's toes;
-give it physical immunity akin to shield wall. Or to retain its identity from shield wall,
-boost the required weapon EB to +3 so that it's only defeated by GMW and artificer weapons, and retain its uniqueness that way. If taking some DR away to make this happen is necessary then I still think it would be better off to have a smaller damage soak that affects more things- perhaps this would be the best option overall since it helps narrow the currently-wide gap in survivability between fighters who do and don't have this feat?
All of these would achieve the same goal of steering further away from the "all or nothing" benefit that it currently gives.
Regardless of takeaway, I remain excited for the server and very much look forward to playing!
Now, there were two minor nitpicks I had and wanted to suggest revisiting- the fighting style feats for Fighter and Warden. For reference:
- Overpower:
- While wielding a two-handed weapon, there is a 10% chance whenever the Warden successfully parries an attack to reset the cooldown of Gather Courage.
- Shield Wall:
- While wielding a shield, there is a 5% chance whenever the Warden takes damage to grant 10% physical damage immunity for 1 rounds + 1 round / 6 levels of Warden. If the Warden is below 50% health, this increases to 25%.
- At 18th level the Fighter can choose a fighting style to master. They may only choose one of the following.
- Whirling Frenzy: While dual-wielding, the Fighter has a 5% chance whenever dealing damage to an enemy for their next 3 attacks to attempt a melee touch attack on all nearby enemies. Each successful touch attack will deal 1d4 damage + their STR modifier.
- Clustered Shots: Each time the Fighter successfully hits the same target with a ranged attack, they deal an additional +1 damage, stacking up to 6 times and lasting until they change target or the target dies.
- Furious Focus: While using a two-handed weapon and in Power Attack stance, the first attack of each round ignores the Power Attack penalty to attack bonus. This does not work with Improved Power Attack.
- Heroic Durability: While using a shield, the Fighter has a 10% chance whenever they take damage to gain DR 10/+2 for 1 round + 1 round / ½ their Constitution modifier, rounded down.
Now, we'll start with warden! I like the idea of using parries to refresh ability cooldowns, it's unique and the payoff is worth it. However, the shield wall one is rare to trigger and comparatively little use until in the "danger zone" HP-wise.
For fighter, we have 2 feats that simply work- those being furious focus and clustered shots. Then there are 2 that have low percentile chances to trigger the ability that also has fail-states.
Whirling Frenzy seems really cool since it gives you three chances of AoE damage that is very hard to avoid, and the 5% chance to proc is alright in light of the fact that dual wielding gives +2 attacks.
Heroic Durability, however, has a chance to proc, and then can be completely useless against foes with +2 weapons. This.. doesn't feel great. Furthermore, it might as well not even exist when people cast stoneskin on you, and it's the only feat here that would be useless for PvP since +2's are our regular cap.
So in my humble opinion, the shield feats for warden and fighter are lacking compared to the others. If I had to make an uneducated suggestion on how to make them feel more rewarding, it would be to try and alter them to either have more of a guarantee, or broaden the benefits. F.E:
-Shield Wall's proc chance when struck from 5% to 10%, given that the effects are mild more often than not
Or,
-Shield Wall spreads to nearby allies.
-Hell, maybe even a mix of both?
Heroic Durability could also be done a number of ways:
-changed from 10/+2 to 5/-, or if we don't want to step on barb's toes;
-give it physical immunity akin to shield wall. Or to retain its identity from shield wall,
-boost the required weapon EB to +3 so that it's only defeated by GMW and artificer weapons, and retain its uniqueness that way. If taking some DR away to make this happen is necessary then I still think it would be better off to have a smaller damage soak that affects more things- perhaps this would be the best option overall since it helps narrow the currently-wide gap in survivability between fighters who do and don't have this feat?
All of these would achieve the same goal of steering further away from the "all or nothing" benefit that it currently gives.
Regardless of takeaway, I remain excited for the server and very much look forward to playing!
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