[Mod] Central GD-Zenith Thread


^ Download Link ^

Don’t forget to follow along with the Grimarillion project, which features the Zenith masteries!

[i]The work of a hero in the West surely saved all of Cairn from annihilation. But Erulan was not the only region assaulted by the Aetherials and Chthonics. To the East, and at the Zenith of Destruction, another apocalypse begins…

Welcome to Enolis.[/i]

Welcome (again) to a Grim Dawn - Zenith thread. In the announcement thread I tossed about some basic information about the mod, particularly along the lines of what the mod is (an entirely new custom-campaign) and the general concepts going into its development. Here, however, you can look to actually testing it out and, eventually, playing the full campaign.

This post will update over time with changelog information and previews of things to come. I would rather clutter up one thread with this information than the entire already-cluttered modding subforum. I’m sure you guys as much as the moderators of the forum could appreciate that.

Version:
Alpha - v0.6B
Beta
Release

Post History:

Terror Knight Overview!
Alpha v0.2 Preview
Alpha v0.2 Release - the Outrider!
Lore Preview!
Alpha v0.3 Release - the Champion!
Alpha v0.4 Release - the Riftstalker!
Alpha v0.5 Release - the Necrotic and Balancing Patch!
Zenith’s Crafting Systems - Preview

Oh, hey, look at that. Zenith v0.6 is out. Fun ahead, download above:

Hotfix B:
Bugfixes:
Riftstalker + Champion now modifies Fleshwarped instead of Inhuman Reflexes, as intended.
Riftstalker + Outrider now modifies Inhuman Reflexes instead of Riftstalker + Elementalist, as intended.
Epoch of Terror now unlocks at the correct mastery rank.

QoL:
Whispers of Madness has had the volume of its audio reduced by 15%. Let me know what you think.

Hotfix A:
Fixed Primordial Transfer so as to behave as described below. Unsure how this got missed, but oh well.
Fixed the Necrotic’s Necrotic+Elementalist skill to behave like Primordial Transfer.

General Changes[ul]
[li]Removed universal Zenith skills from all masteries except the Necrotic. This only applies to mod mergers. If you are interested in merging the Zenith masteries into one of your projects, ask me what this means.[/li]
[li]Removed the ‘Kick’ Special Animation reference. Added ‘SpinAttack’ to SingleHanded and Melee2H. Added ‘Attack’ to Ranged1H, Ranged2H, and Dual Ranged. This only applies to mod mergers. If you are interested in merging the Zenith masteries into one of your projects, ask me what this means.[/li]
[li]Restructured the Zenith resources to reduce collisions with other mods to make merging the mod much simpler. This process may also have fixed any asset-related bugs, potentially fixing the issue of skill icons scaling too small; however, as I’ve never reproduced that bug myself, I cannot confirm it myself either.[/li]
[li]Added circular Class Selection images to Necrotic and Riftstalker for compatibility with mod mergers.[/li]
[li]Got transperant UI mastery rank lines working in all masteries.[/li]
[li]Added corners akin to vanilla’s to the class images within a mastery.[/li]
[li]Fixed Class Selection images not fitting their designated window correctly.[/li]
[li]Fixed Necrotic’s Class Selection image sometimes not appearing in its designated window.[/li]
[li]Fixed the mastery bar investment button’s coloring not matching that of the mastery bar for some masteries.[/li]
[li]All Zenith masteries have been heavily reworked! It is recommended that you make a new character with this update as an old character may find many of its skills missing, and with them, their skillpoints. (DAIL users - does not apply to Terror Knights; Elementalists had some skills rearranged in terms of the rank mastery investment required to unlock them, so be wary of that.)[/li]
[li]All Zenith masteries have been upgraded to expanded skilltrees, allowing for 99 skills to be used (rather than 36 as in vanilla).[/li]
[li]All Zenith masteries now feature five dualclass skills, one for each other mastery. These skills are unlocked after investing 32 points into the mastery they’re in. For instance, the Outrider features a dualclass skill ‘Stratagem of the Hell Hunter’ which is unlocked at Outrider Mastery Rank 32 but requires the Terror Knight mastery (at any rank) to use. Likewise, the Terror Knight mastery unlocks its own skill for the Outrider once you reach Rank 32 in Terror Knight. …There’s no way in hell these are all balanced, and are subject to change pending user feedback (that means you!)[/li]
[li]Champion + Necrotic has been renamed to ‘Judicator’ from ‘Reaper’.[/li]
[/ul]Terror Knight[ul]
[li]Evocation of Terror: Increased cooldown by 20 seconds, from 25 to 45 seconds. % Weapon Damage now slightly scales up with rank, but starts at its original value of 200%.[/li]
[li]Soldier of Madness: Energy Reservation substantially raised. +All Skills regranted. Grants +1 All Skills at 10/10 and +2 All Skills at 20/10.[/li]
[li]Entropic Reign: Health Cost/second raised by 19% (is now 500 Health/second at 12/12).[/li]
[li]Lust for Carnage: Now works with ranged weapons, 1H, DW, and 2H. With ranged weapons, features a 0.9 meter explosion radius and a 100% Projectile Pierce chance.[/li]
[li]Carnivorous Slaughter: Now works with ranged weapons, 1H, DW, and 2H. Does not feature any bonuses for ranged weapons.[/li]
[li]Added a new skill line: ‘Whispers of Madness’ - A bloody-pox-like skill that inflicts heavy Fire/Vitality damage upon a target. Modifiers are much like BP’s modifiers. Features some sound FX that occur whenever the debuff is passed from enemy to enemy. I think it’s neat but you may find it annoying. If too many people dislike it, I’ll either adjust the volume or scrap it altogether. Do let me know![/li]
[/ul]Elementalist[ul]
[li]Adjusted the PFX on Cold Snap’s proc so that I’m no longer blatantly stealing FX from the Fangshi mastery.[/li]
[li]Added new PFX to Ice Surge and adjusted the existing PFX.[/li]
[li]Added new PFX and new skill icon art to Rider of the Storm and fixed a grammatical mistake in its description.[/li]
[li]Added a name to Citadel of Ice’s proc.[/li]
[li]Fireball: Has received a new skill icon.[/li]
[li]Elemental Flow: Is now a tier 7 skill. It really felt as though it were providing too much at earlier levels, so rather than adjust its stats, for now I want it to be made available a little later on in the mastery.[/li]
[li]Rupture: Cooldown and Duration raised to 10 seconds each. This skill still felt a little strong to be spammed every four seconds, but its purpose as an area-combat skill has been improved thusly. Zenith’s ample supply of Cooldown Reduction can keep you frequently casting this skill if need be.[/li]
[li]Citadel of Ice: Has been changed into a toggled buff, damage reduction rescaled (but still significant). Toggling the buff off initiates a 3 second cooldown. Proc has been given a cooldown but shoots more projectiles. Energy cost/second raised by 14%.[/li]
[li]Added new skill line: ‘Pyroclasm’ - ground-target AoE dealing heavy Fire/Lightning/Electrocute damage.[/li]
[li]Added new skill line: ‘Stormbolt’ - Think PRM but good (hopefully).[/li]
[li]Added new skill: ‘Might of Magic’ - I can’t really compare it to anything. See for yourself![/li]
[/ul]Outrider[ul]
[li]Has been given a facelift.[/li]
[li]Marksman: Now supports 1H and 2H ranged weapons equally. Its procs will activate with both weapon types (and with dualwield ranged).[/li]
[li]Marksman: Now features ‘transmuters’ (which are actually global passives) that benefit 2H Ranged, DW Ranged, and 1H + Shield/Focus in unique but powerful ways.[/li]
[li]Providence: Shield block chance halved.[/li]
[li]Deleted the dualwield ranged skill line. If you were using it, spec out of it before updating the mod or you will lose your skillpoints![/li]
[li]Deleted Railgun, Gambit of Slaughter, Kick, and Alchemical Enhancement.[/li]
[li]Moved Hawkeye up to tier 9 (50/50). Duration increased to 4 seconds. No longer reduces enemy movement speed.[/li]
[li]Moved Concussive Blast to tier 1 (replacing Kick).[/li]
[li]Reworked the Autofire skills. They now summon a player-scaling pet with a rifle. This pet gains new skills as you rank up both Autofire and Autofire II.[/li]
[li]Added a new skill line: ‘Barricade’ - Summons a wall that cannot be pathed through, but can be shot over. Modifiers add Retaliatory effects to this wall and buff players that fight in its vicinity.[/li]
[li]Added a new skill line: ‘Battle Sense’ - Two passives and a buff that will improve the offensive and defensive potential of Outriders greatly.[/li]
[li]Added a new skill line: ‘Cluster Bomb’ - Think Canister Bomb from Demolitionist, but Cold/Physical/Vitality based, with a slow.[/li]
[li]Added a new skill: ‘Biobomb’ - Think Grenado but it makes a lasting area-of-effect that deals harsh poison/acid damage to enemies unlucky enough to be caught inside.[/li]
[li]Added a new skill: ‘OMNI-Round’ - A projectile that applies all of the hard crowd control effects in the game for the same duration. Decent cooldown, no energy cost or weapon requirement.[/li]
[li]Added three suspiciously Soldier-like passives to the mix.[/li]
[/ul]Champion[ul]
[li]Litany of Blades, Divinity, and Aetherstorm are now passive skills rather than buffs, freeing up space on your hotbar. Litany of Blades no longer has a weapon requirement. Litany of Blades no longer converts Physical -> Aether.[/li]
[li]Taunt: Has received a new modifier. Has also had the effectiveness of its Taunt increased from 200% to 500%. I don’t actually know what that means but it’s probably better.[/li]
[li]Aetherstorm: Is now a tier 7 skill (was tier 9).[/li]
[li]Honor: Is now a tier 3 skill (was tier 2).[/li]
[li]Army of None: Summons now have a Blitz-like skill by default.[/li]
[li]Added a new skill line: ‘Ground Stomp’ - Does what you’d think. Aether/Physical nova.[/li]
[li]Added a new passive: ‘Earthshatter’ - Grants some CC resists and features a Aether/Lightning/Physical nova when you’re hit.[/li]
[/ul]Riftstalker[ul]
[li]Riftstalker Mastery: Reduced health gain per mastery point by 8. This is a loss of 400 health at 50/50 mastery investment.[/li]
[li]Warp: Deleted it and its transmuter.[/li]
[li]Added a UI icon to Void Siphon (buff) so that you’ll know when it’s active.[/li]
[li]Void Siphon: Increased buff radius to 8 meters, from 5 meters.[/li]
[li]Tether: Increased buff radius to 8 meters, from 5 meters.[/li]
[li]Push the Advantage: Greatly increased cooldown of the proc. No longer reduces Swap’s cooldown.[/li]
[li]Rout: Improved damage and damage scaling. Now reduces Swap’s energy cost.[/li]
[li]Swap: Removed cooldown. Substantially raised energy cost.[/li]
[li]Merged Excite and Not of this World into one skill, is now a mastery rank 8 skill.[/li]
[li]Riftstorm: Improved damage and damage scaling.[/li]
[li]Intangible: Removed weapon requirements, now converts some Aether to Pierce and boosts both Aether and All Damage. Is now a mastery rank 6 skill.[/li]
[li]Multitask: Improved damage and damage scaling, bumped up a couple mastery ranks.[/li]
[li]Sap: Now available at mastery rank 1.[/li]
[li]Inhuman Reflexes: Now available at mastery rank 3.[/li]
[li]Fleshwarped: Added an energy reservation cost.[/li]
[li]Serovin’s Scattering: Radius increased to 4 meters. Added new PFX.[/li]
[li]Caedra’s Collapse: Added new PFX.[/li]
[li]Added a new skill line: ‘Riftblade’. Basically Phantasmal Blades with Frenetic Throw and some other goodies.[/li]
[li]Added a new skill line: ‘Warp’. Basically Shadow Strike without a cooldown and with some other goodies.[/li]
[/ul]Necrotic[ul]
[li]Deleted the Twinning skill line. Just wasn’t doing it for me.[/li]
[li]Primordial Transfer: Removed cooldown. Duration reduced by 3 seconds at all ranks. Added a 6 meter Area of Effect. Note that applying this skill to multiple targets does not buff you further; you can receive the benefits at most once at a time. Against multiple targets, it behaves solely like Curse of Frailty. Moved it up to a tier 6 skill (was tier 5).[/li]
[li]Claws of the Beast: Fixed targeting…again.[/li]
[li]Fleeting Obsidian: Reduced Total Damage Reduction from 15% to 11%.[/li]
[li]Defender of Death: Increased and rescaled % All Damage penalty.[/li]
[li]Bonds of the Broken: Now features -% Energy Cost for Reaper’s Glare, scaling with rank. The now proc has a 0.3 second cooldown - done so as to try to negate some bugginess in multiplayer.[/li]
[li]Reign of Chaos: Now increases the Energy Cost of Reaper’s Glare. [/li]
[li]Added a new passive: ‘Arcane Experience’ - Mental Alacrity but good.[/li]
[li]Added a new passive: ‘Soul Seeker’ - Chaos -> Pierce conversion, Armor, and Pierce resist, at the cost of Aether and Chaos resist.[/li]
[li]Added a new toggled buff: ‘Foreknowledge’ - Offensive Ability and % All Damage. Available early on as a slight boost to a character’s progression.[/li]
[li]Added a new toggled buff: ‘Situational Awareness’ - Projectile Deflect chance and a handful of Cooldown Reduction.[/li]
[li]I attempted to make a really cool quasi-summoning line, but it just wasn’t fun to work with (and was definitely overpowered and spawned too many things beyond a player’s control; protip: don’t let summons summon summons). Being the source of the stagnation of my development, I deleted it and didn’t attempt to replace it. So right now, the Necrotic has a lot of empty space still remaining. Expect another slight update to this mastery sometime in the future to correct this, possibly after the expansion releases and opens up more skill concepts to work with.[/li]
[/ul]Below is the list of all of the dualclass skills and what they do. Spoilers![ul]
[li]Terror Knight[LIST][/li]
[li]Combat Art - Warmages - Weapon Pool Skill with no weapon requirements. When proc’d, converts 100% Elemental -> Physical and grants Total Speed, Internal Trauma Duration Reduction, a small degree of Physical Resist, and improved Health/Energy regeneration. These bonuses last for a scaling duration after the proc.[/li]
[li]Combat Art - Hell Hunters - Weapon Pool Skill requiring a two handed weapon (melee or ranged) or a staff. Activates on Crit (like Upheaval from Shaman). Does a large amount of % Weapon Damage and features bonus % Crit Damage as well as 33% ADCtH. When proc’d, converts 100% Elemental -> Vitality and grants scaling, flat OA. These bonuses last 20 seconds, but also drain 45 health per second (total of 900 health over the buff’s duration).[/li]
[li]Combat Art - Dreadnaughts - Stacking low-health buffs (as seen in Champion). First buff grants an extreme amount of Armor and boosts Physical Damage considerably. All buffs after the first grant % Armor and every-even buff (2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th) grants +1% Max All Resists. Unlike the Champion’s skills, these bonuses stop under 30% health, rather than under 20%.[/li]
[li]Combat Art - Desolators - General buff with loads of +% Armor Piercing (for Phys->Pierce conversion; if you have even 1% Armor Piercing on a weapon you won’t do any Physical Damage) and Vitality -> Chaos conversion. Features an on-hit proc that fires out Chaos/Fire projectiles. Compared to the other dualclass skills in Terror Knight, this one doesn’t really have as much ‘flair’ in terms of stat bloat, but I like the way in performs in game, so I’m not expecting to change it much.[/li]
[li]Combat Art - Revenants - Ground-target AoE that reduces enemy’s maximum health, total resists, and deals % Health Damage for every second they stand in it.[/li]
[/ul]
[li]Elementalist[ul][/li]
[li]Warmage Sorcery - Simple toggled buff with damage absorption (at ranks 6+) and Vitality -> Elemental conversion.[/li]
[li]Purifier Sorcery - Devastation-like Cold + Elemental Damage projectile attack. Duration and number of projectiles scale with rank. Eventually the cooldown is shorter than the duration, but recasting does not allow you to stack multiple instances of the attack, just like Devastation.[/li]
[li]Archmage Sorcery - Permanent passive buff. Grants some cast speed, +all damage, and a % chance of 100% CDR. When you’re struck, there’s a chance lightning bolts will hit up to 20 nearby enemies.[/li]
[li]Saboteur Sorcery - Toggled buff which converts 100% Aether -> Elemental as well as flat and % Elemental damage. If you reach 40% health while the buff is active, Riftstalker’s Serovin’s Scattering will automatically activate.[/li]
[li]Sinner Sorcery - Toggled buff with +% Crit Damage and +% Health Regeneration. On kill, regain some health and energy and convert 100% Elemental -> Acid for a period of time.[/li]
[/ul]
[li]Outrider[ul][/li]
[li]Stratagem of the Hell Hunter - Passive buff that grants chance of terrify, Acid -> Vitality conversion, and a proc on-attack that creates a very large ring of flame around the player.[/li]
[li]Strategem of the Purifier - Toggled buff that grants Acid -> Elemental conversion, static CDR + Energy Cost reduction, Elemental Retaliation, and some DA.[/li]
[li]Strategem of the Stalker - Toggled buff that grants Aether -> Cold conversion, DoT duration reduction, Armor Absorption and Damage Absorption. Features an on-hit proc that increases total speed and heavily benefits shields.[/li]
[li]Strategem of the Spellbreaker - Toggled buff that converts Vitality -> Pierce damage. When hit while the buff is active, chance to summon a Riftward with all three of the Riftward’s skills.[/li]
[li]Strategem of the Vagabond - Toggled AoE debuff (like Veil of Shadows/Night’s Chill) converting Vitality -> Acid damage, granting reflect damage reduction, and dealing Poison, Chaos, and Life Leech damage to enemies nearby.[/li]
[/ul]
[li]Champion[ul][/li]
[li]Bulwark of the Dreadnaught - 3-target WPS skill requiring melee weapons (1H, 2H, or DW). Phys/Fire/Lightning damage.[/li]
[li]Bulwark of the Archmage - Forcewave-like skill requiring a shield, 2H melee, or a staff. Elemental Damage and Lightning Damage, and reduces enemies’ damage for a short time.[/li]
[li]Bulwark of the Stalker - Simple toggled buff. On block, another, far more potent buff benefiting 1H + Shields.[/li]
[li]Bulwark of the Skirmisher - Veil of Shadows-like AoE debuff that reduces enemies’ Pierce, Aether, Chaos, and Life Leech resistance.[/li]
[li]Bulwark of the Judicator - Modifier for With Reckless Abandon. Adds another 2 targets to the skill’s hit, increases % Weapon Damage done, and converts 100% Aether -> Chaos. When the skill is used, buffs the player, converting Physical -> Acid for a scaling time and granting % Lightning, Chaos, Acid, Pierce, Electrocute, and Poison damage.[/li]
[/ul]
[li]Riftstalker[ul][/li]
[li]Desolator Protocol - 5-target WPS skill. No weapon requirements (multi-targets only apply to melee). Some flat fire damage and +% Aether/Chaos Damage.[/li]
[li]Saboteur Protocol - Toggled buff, converts Elemental -> Aether. When you kill something, 25% chance to cast a version of Rupture that deals Aether/Chaos damage and debuffs enemy’s total resist.[/li]
[li]Spellbreaker Protocol - Modifier for Korvoranian Tactics. Converts Aether -> Cold, gives some energy regen. On attack, chance to cast Riftblades. [/li]
[li]Skirmisher Protocol - Modifier for Fleshwarped. Grants Lightning -> Chaos conversion and offsets the -% Health Regeneration from Bloodless. When you’re struck, receive ANOTHER chance to cast Champion’s Earthshatter (new skill, listed above).[/li]
[li]Pursuer Protocol - Pierce/Chaos Devastation, no weapon requirement. Nothing too special because Riftstalker and Necrotic are already highly synergetic.[/li]
[/ul]
[li]Necrotic[ul][/li]
[li]Reaper’s Fragment - Revenant - Amarasta’s Blade Burst but modified substantially with many unique mechanics.[/li]
[li]Reaper’s Fragment - Sinner - Primordial Transfer but for Elemental Resistance. [/li]
[li]Reaper’s Fragment - Vagabond - Ability to throw another Biobomb (new skill in Outrider). I felt a little lazy in implementing a dualclass skill like this but the more I thought about how the two could be used together, the more I wanted to try it out. Let me know what you think![/li]
[li]Reaper’s Fragment - Judicator - It’s technically a passive buff, but that’s a workaround to getting my intent to work (the buff itself does nothing): Any and every attack you do has a chance to inflict heavy Chaos and Lightning damage against a single target, with a cooldown.[/li]
[li]Reaper’s Fragment - Pursuer - Veil of Shadows-like AoE debuff. Deals Pierce and Acid damage to enemies around you; as long as it is affecting one enemy, you gain cast speed, energy regen, and % Chaos Damage.[/ul][/LIST]
[/li]
And now for an important (and somewhat unfortunate) announcement:

When you’re a storyteller it isn’t hard to tell the good stories from the bad. The bad ones last a couple weeks to a month before they drift from your memory; the good ones last a lifetime. Without a doubt, the toughest thing with being a storyteller is convincing people to listen to your good stories, once you know they’re worth listening to. The medium of choice varies from person to person and from tale to tale. Some could choose to write books, others may make films or animations, and others may modify some ARPG made by Box Entertainment.

I’m telling you this because I have a story to tell with Zenith, one that has persisted in my head for over a year, and one that I hope you’ll eventually get to play a part in. Alas, Zenith’s medium of choice is not as simple as putting pen to paper or turning on a camera. It requires a lot of time and effort for it to be fully realized…

…With this update I’m putting further development of Zenith-content on hold. There are various reasons for this and I hope to share them with you here so you understand where I’m coming from. I’ll also note that this postponement is not indefinite; I fully intend to return to and FINISH the entire Zenith mod one day. But I just can’t bear to continue with it right now.

This update was seven (and a half) months in the making. It was massive, multiplying the size of the mod several times over (last I checked, the compressed file is 2.5x the size of the last version). It saw me go through several creative dry spells where I just couldn’t think of anything to do. More often than not, it stressed me out considerably and made me depressed to work on it time and time again. For a volunteer-based, profitless project, I frequently asked myself if this was worth my time, effort, and loss of hair (I didn’t actually lose any hair). But I continually felt an urge to get this update done. And, now completed, it remains imperfect; there are still things I’m not satisfied with and wish I could have done better in making.

About three months ago I came up with a map for the world of Zenith, amended my Zenith Design Guidelines document, and wrote up a rough storyboard for how I want the campaign to progress. You’ll find some of that contained within the mod files, if you want to poke around (spoilers!). I was intending to start asking people if anyone wanted to help me cobble the world together. And then something marvelous happened: Nydiamar released. Find it here: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53131

I LOVE the world that Van Houck has put together. I utterly adore it; it’s beyond my ability to describe my admiration for the mod. But this world - and the fairly-simplistic and surely-a-bad-idea one that Crate’s Grava has been making on the dev stream - has made me realize something that’s a little important: I’m an utter noob when it comes to this sort of stuff. I am leagues behind Van Houck and Crate in terms of what I can put together in a reasonable span of time. But if I have anything to my name, it’s perseverance. I’m not quitting, I’m taking some time off to learn and practice worldbuilding. I have some other map mods that I’m going to assemble first, as stepping stones to improve my personal skillset (something something Dermapteran Roguelike Dungeon…). I’m leaving the stressful implementation of Zenith behind me for now; when I return to it, I shall see it through to nothing short of perfection, possibly with the help of others. I just now know I’m not capable of that yet.

While all of the above was happening, I’ve felt as though I’ve shirked in my responsibilities as a lead designer of Cornucopia. There have been some real-life obstacles getting in the way of my development of Cornucopia as well, but Zenith is certainly partially to blame. I have done nothing but a little bit of bugfixing and a bit of playtesting to help get v0.4.0.1+ of Cornucopia out the door; adoomgod has been on his own and he fully deserves better than that. For the record, he doesn’t know I’m writing this. I’ve not consulted with any of my fellow modders on this at all; this sabbatical from Zenith is my decision and mine alone.

I will fix bugs in Zenith as they’re reported (please, don’t be dissuaded from reporting them!), and I’ll help to amend the files here and there for mod-merger compatibility purposes (i.e., getting everything to play nice in DAIL/Grimarillion/whatever else). I will also release balancing updates here and there in accordance with the feedback I receive from this patch. When the expansion releases, as I’ve promised, I’ll tune up the Necrotic a bit more to finalize its skillset. I may also work on releasing some of Zenith’s unique items, components, and its crafting system on its own as time permits. Beyond that, I cannot say.

One day, however, you and I will get to climb to the top of the Zenith of Destruction, and thwart the god of gods upon that apex.

[INDENT]Soon™.

-Ceno[/INDENT]

Acknowledgments:

  • Grim Dawn, from which I took and modified some art, animation, and sound files.
  • Guild Wars 2 and DotA 2, from which I took and modified some A TON OF art files and a sound file.
  • Risk of Rain, from which I took and modified a sound file.
  • cftx, who - through the Fangshi mastery - helped me make Elementalist great again.
  • ASYLUM101, who taught me how to mod.
  • J. W. Bjerk (eleazzaar) – www.jwbjerk.com/arthttp://opengameart.org
  • y-mir, mabuart, and artofty, whose art I shamelessly took for the class images. Check them out on deviantart, they’re pretty talented!

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Sounds terrifying.

/waits to see what Zantai thinks about all this

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

Excellent! Looking forward to telling you what you’re doing wrong providing constructive criticism!

lazy devs, no new areas

Worry not mock-Zantai, there shall be realms yet to explore.


(That off-tone rock to the right has been removed >.>)

storm caller + rupture :

  • i still got lag from this skill combination, but surprisingly the lag not heavy as before. Well done :smiley:

new class already, that was fast. (Please update cornucopia too, it look dusty there :p)

Seems promising, I’ll certainly follow your mod, Ceno. Your planned classes look very interesting.

(Replying to this here since it wasn’t really relevant to the Elementalist)

Blood Rage is intended to be offset by the tremendous amount of lifesteal in the mastery alongside the bonus Constitution, both of which can be found on Suit Up.

my borg cubes are coming now to visit you again.

Anything i can bite into for the next 4 classes? (IE tags!) I did see the empty folders in your source files but that wasnt tasty enough for me to figure anything out :frowning:

tags_skills.txt ought to have some nomenclature information, but skill design has not yet begun for them

Thankfully, or perhaps annoyingly, some spoilerish information may leak out from update to update as I work on things unrelated to the main update. :stuck_out_tongue:

Always the same with your work… It’s exhausting!
I have to clean the keyboard just after.

Cannot wait to try it!

zenithclass06 = necrotic

? :smiley:

necromancer? :stuck_out_tongue:

No (intended) summons.

Read into that what you will.

Note that these comments are in the context of having only tried the masteries in DAIL, so it’s possible there are differences from your personal mod.

Elementalist:
Fireball - I personally dislike lob type skills, but that aside seems fine. The number of projectiles from Barrage seems to greatly affect the spread of said projectiles. With a single point for +2 projectiles they’re basically all on top of each other, effectively tripling its damage against a single target. Meanwhile maxed Barrage is a Stun Jacks wide throw, making it more of an AoE clear skill. It’s kind of neat actually so you can tailor it for which role you want it for, but definitely not clear before taking it, and how tight the spread is with 3 projectiles seems unusual.

Breathe Fire - Usually I think these cone type skills aren’t super useful and feel underwhelming, but you managed to amp up the effects enough for it to not fall into that trap.

Sprite - An even smaller AoE Doombolt? With the typical huge lightning damage range? No thank you. More AoE and maybe even more duration so the lightning damage is more able to even out so you can’t get a totally garbage use of the skill.

Elemental Flow - I like the mechanic, just wish it was possible to see the celestial power’s effects without putting a point in, but that’s true of any skill that uses a built in power like that.

Citadel of Ice - Description should state that it immobilizes you for the duration like Blade Barrier.

Rupture - Why limit of 11 when it summons 4 at once? Should really be 12.

Ice Surge - I’m sure you know this and aren’t really an artist, but man the effect leaves a lot to be desired. Certainly doesn’t feel like “shards of ice” as the description says. Cold Snap AoE happening at the target instead of yourself would be way cooler, but I’m guessing there’s some limitation that makes that hard?

Everything else is fine or like it as is and don’t have useful comments to give.

Terror Knight:
The entire armoring skill line - This feels a bit silly to me, what I don’t have head armor unless I have the skill? :stuck_out_tongue: I wish there was something for all the DoTs and the CC resists like there is for Elemental to Cold/Fire/Lightning. Would help condense Leg and Torso Armor. I do think Torso Armor should get some bonus Armor Absorption, not just flat armor. And 100% duration reduction with 8 points in Torso Armor seems very good, but won’t that make additional points to ultimate level of it a bit useless getting only more flat armor?

Lust for Carnage - Not a fan of an effect on death on a WPS, makes it unreliable, but I suppose that’s the balancing factor for how potent the buff is.

Banish - Standard autoattack replacement skill. Blood Rage is a one point wonder unless you desperately need more OA/DA, otherwise 1 point gives maximum benefit from the Total Speed and Damage Absorption with minimal health cost.

Engage - Standard charge skill for melee. Nowhere to Hide feels pointless, the base cooldown is already shorter compared to Shadow Strike, and you get nothing else besides CDR compared to Nidalla’s Justifiable Ends. Needs some other stat to justify putting points in the modifier, maybe a chance for knockdown/back?

Conquer - Feels like it’s not done at all with the lack of visual feedback. Doesn’t seem bad stats-wise though.

Evocation of Terror - Badass big CD skill, graphic needs a bit more to go with its great damage.

Entropic Reign - Crazy stats, but crazy health drain. Might be okay, but health drain has a lot of ways to be countered, so maybe not. Needs more context I think to make a real evaluation of it. Certainly seems like the strongest reason why someone would use Terror Knight in their build though. Maybe needs to be an Exclusive skill, or do you not plan on utilizing Exclusive at all in your mod? More energy drain might be a good idea so the player has to invest more to maintain both bars up for the skill.

Whew, that was a lot. I like Elementalist, it feels pretty complete compared to Terror Knight. I find fear/terrify with melee combination to be a bit odd (running after enemies you fear to kill them can be annoying), but I guess the idea is throwing out fears to deal with everyone that isn’t your primary target as you kill each enemy.

Pretty sure its not possible.

Sprite - An even smaller AoE Doombolt? With the typical huge lightning damage range? No thank you. More AoE and maybe even more duration so the lightning damage is more able to even out so you can’t get a totally garbage use of the skill.
The damage and duration aren’t changing, but I may reduce its cooldown. In Zenith, bosses will NOT be immune - or potentially even resistant to - Skill Disruption. I want this to be a single-target high-damage skill that can also temporarily make bosses more vulnerable, too.

The entire armoring skill line - This feels a bit silly to me, what I don’t have head armor unless I have the skill?
Consider it…underarmor. :stuck_out_tongue:

Banish - Standard autoattack replacement skill. Blood Rage is a one point wonder unless you desperately need more OA/DA, otherwise 1 point gives maximum benefit from the Total Speed and Damage Absorption with minimal health cost.
I’ll make those scale with level. I had intended to, just wanted to make sure the proc could actually function.

Conquer - Feels like it’s not done at all with the lack of visual feedback.
It’s literally the War Cry animation…because it’s a war cry… :stuck_out_tongue:

Evocation of Terror - Badass big CD skill, graphic needs a bit more to go with its great damage.
Agreed. Sadly I physically cannot get the PSEditor to work so I’m presently limited to using existing FX.

Maybe needs to be an Exclusive skill, or do you not plan on utilizing Exclusive at all in your mod?
No Exclusives. I try not to tell Crate how to make their game, short of balance nudges, but personally I think Exclusive Skills are pretty asinine design.

Edit: Oh and the summon limit of Rupture actually doesn’t work. Cooldown permitting, you can get tons of firepillars out. Pretty sure I can’t fix that.

Exclusives are cool, but I wish Crate would expand upon them to make them customizable.

Eg; A skill with TWO exclusive transmuters (or more)
Or
Auras that are exclusive to each mastery, but not to all masteries. (could have 3 exclusives per mastery and then be able to choose one from each but not all 6)
and I’m sure there are other applications but these two have been interests of mine since the original release of AsylumsMod …

It’s the same animation, but War Cry has an effect that gives visual feedback on the actual AoE. It’s the lack of that that bothers me in Conquer that bothers me.

I agree, I find Exclusive Skills pretty dumb as well.

Huh, okay then.

This is exactly the sort of thing I had hoped Exclusive Skills were going to be, only to be disappointed.

Nah, exclusives as an idea are pretty good as they allow to have buffs with substantial bonuses while limiting FoTMs from getting them. In fact the only non-exclusive buffs worthy of more than 1-3 points investment in vanilla game are Heart of the Wild and Military Conditioning, both of which give pretty huge bonuses to the most basic stat.

Installed DAIL with Terror Knight+Frost Knight. Best masteries atm, amazing sinergye

Updated with a brief description of Alpha v0.2 and where I’ve been with regards to the mod.


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