The test mod now includes an experimental source of healing, starting with version 2: up to two on-attack summons that cast leeching tethers. They work well enough in campaign and Crucible, but only provide baseline healing; anything other than the most reckless setups will still want another source of sustenance (or at least Aeon’s Hourglass).
On the subject, the modded Allagast has now been tested in Crucible as well as campaign, and it does very well; in fact it might be wise to tone down some of the changes a bit. The Preliminary test results from my third post have been updated accordingly.
A few notes on the leeching summons as tested.
Tethering wisps, or: the Aethercoil
For testing, the Doodled-Over Allagast mod offers wisps that each cast a single leeching tether:
Allagast’s Aethercoil
20% chance on attack, 2 summon limit, 8s duration, 2.5s cooldown
Pet skill: Corrupted Tether, 6s maximum duration
- 60 aether damage
- 40 lightning damage
- 60 electrocute damage over 2 seconds
- 8% ADCtH
(The test wisps use the Elemental Seeker mesh for visibility reasons, but ideally they’d be aether-themed.)
Why summons?
First off, why resort to summons for healing? They would not be my preferred solution, but they offer some advantages… foremost of which, actually being implementable. :P
The reason I would like to use leeching tethers is that tethers are the most distinctive feature of Storm Box, which makes them a good fit for Allagast thematically. Other templates would certainly work just as well, much like a plain “health restored” proc, but they wouldn’t be as interesting.
I also feel that any granted skill should be automatically casted, as Allagast builds already have nearly a skillbar’s worth of active skills (see the test build), and adding more would be burdensome to say the least.
With that in mind, my original order of preference for a healing proc was:
- Lifesteal from Lightning Tethers themselves. Unfortunately impossible, as item modifiers can’t be applied to skill modifiers.
This would have been a great fit for Allagast playstyle, as well as representing a different take on lifesteal; one that rewarded targeting, positioning and movement for a change. (I’ll admit, however, that balancing would be finicky: in my brief testing, going from 1% to 3% meant going from “just alright” to “eep too strong”.) - Leeching tethers on autocast. Also not possible, it would seem.
Losing control of targeting makes this solution less interesting tactically, but it would still be nice, as well as easier to balance. - Summons with leeching tethers.
They work well enough in testing and add a bit of color. Easy enough to tune. Reasonable fit thematically. - Plain “n% health restored every x seconds”
With the first two options being off the table, let’s consider tethering summons.
Summoning mode
The wisps would work best as a permanent invulnerable pet à la blade spirit, but I’ve never seen permanent invincible pets granted by items. So, short-lived wisps it is, which is not ideal: tethers are broken when a wisp is replaced, and I couldn’t find a saturating autosummon controller, i.e. one that would only summon a new wisp if there’s less than their maximum number alive.
Adjusting wisp count, lifetime and cooldown is a simple way to mitigate the issue. In testing, 2 wisps with a lifetime of 8 seconds (with 6 seconds of tether time) worked well on a 2.5 seconds cooldown.
Pet behavior and parameters
I settled on mobile summons because I felt that they were a better fit for Allagast’s kiting style, as well as being a bit more fun to play with. Tethering totems could work – and they’d give Kaisan a taste of his own medicine :P – but the soft requirement for autocast would prevent us from controlling their position, which might prove troublesome; even so, they might be worth testing, perhaps by spawning them on the player’s location.
With wisps, I originally intended to retain the ability to control tethers indirectly by having pets maintain a near-fixed position relative to the player. Unfortunately, the available pet controllers don’t seem to allow for that. Similarly, pet AI has no notion of how tethers work, which means that the wisps can’t use positioning and movement to maximize their effect.
So the wisps merrily wobble and roam their way around the battlefield like unwary puppies on an electrified leash. The results aren’t half bad, although tinkering is probably needed to find the right values for leash length, aggression, and so on – something I’ll happily leave to people who actually know how pet AI works in Grim Dawn. :P One thing to note is that wisps work best if they’re allowed to flee and move away from targets, thus extending their tethers; they seem to snuggle up otherwise.
Tether parameters for pets
Although AI limitations factor in my preference for multiple weaker wisps over a single powerful one (more tethers mean a better chance of randomly landing one across multiple enemies), the primary reason for it is consistency and ease of balance.
Two wisps with one tether can each target the same enemy, which means that their yield doesn’t vary quite as much between mobs and individual foes. (Two wisps with two tethers each are mighty fun, but start feeling a bit gratuitous. :P) From there, it’s easier to find the desired baseline without worrying about bursts getting out of hand, which is a problem with Bat. Tethers do burst against mobs, but less than you might expect, since monsters generally cross them for a few ticks’ worth and no more.
Closing notes
This post more or less concludes my active contribution to a potential Allagast revision.
Tuning is always warranted, alternatives can be explored, other ideas considered, and so on, but on the whole, I reckon that these changes represent a significant and perceptible improvement to Allagast as a set based on Storm Box and TSS. They feel good in testing and play very well. Whether they fit the designers’ concept for Allagast is of course another matter.
Also of course, it’s perfectly possible that I missed something and my changes are totally broken and OP. So, if one or more of our valiant Praetorians enjoys Allagast gameplay and feels like taking the test mod for a spin, I’ll personally stand them a virtual drink of their choice. :P