What is going on with combat?????

DT is still my best tool against ghosts (the other day I downed three of them at once in Shuttered Eye), but it's not the overpowered beast of old anymore.

 

Pullout them stone/ice fist with healing touch. Kill 7 ghost at once =P Death Touch is a focus heavy spell.

 

And how many talent points was that? I'm sorry I must not have been listening to that part...

 

I already use Ice Fist and Healing Touch as complements, and they're very useful. But against ghosts, I found that DT is a wonderful skill to use.

About focus, I just checked with my PVE usual deck, and considering the stillness buff (from no stillness, with glyphs costing 0.9x their nominal focus, to 5 stacks, for a cost factor of 0.65), and my locked deck innates (all locked glyphs get a further 25% focus cost reduction):

Code:

Stillness DT IF HT
-- 0.9     5  6  8
1x 0.85    4  5  8
2x 0.8     4  5  7
3x 0.75    4  5  7
4x 0.7     4  4  6
5x 0.65    4  4  6

So, DT is always the cheapest in terms of focus.

 

At which point, when you calculate the talent points needed to get ice fist and healing Touch, then you find yourself with enough points to start reaching towards that lovely innate that boosts your death DAMAGE.
At which point, it starts getting juicier and juicier.

Now, in a LOCKED deck, it doesn't matter if all you have is Death Touch. In a random deck, you'll need more glyphs. And to be perfectly honest, after getting Death Ray and Death Field, you'll likely think about picking up Heal Touch and Ice Fist. And Fire Fist. And Chris Spears only knows what else, it's not a long list.

My point is, that Death Touch will always have a certain role, if you try to arrange things so that other spells do death touch's job better than Death Touch itself does (eg, heal user, damage target, faster and more for less focus), then the game is broken. Death Touch IS, SHOULD BE, AND (when the game is balanced correctly) WILL BE the spell of choice for those looking for a simple, easy way to heal yourself while damaging the opponent.

 

Simple and easy yes, unbalanced and overpowered no. Its heal is low and its damage is mid range but the fact that it does both makes it useful. It used to be the first thing i put in my deck, now (since it was adjusted) it comes after healing touch, flame fist, ring of fire and fireball. Tier one spells are free cast if you stack so focus doesn't really come into it, and as far as value i would rather healing touch for 190 than deal 80, heal 20 but having both is always nice. It is great for PVE still but in PVP most people are choosing to spend that cooldown on either a big heal or a big hit.

 

Which is actually part of my point. I believe that DT, DR, and DF should actually be a bit stronger compared to other similar spells than they are now. Note that I didn't say stronger THAN other spells, just stronger compared to where it is now. Maybe a 10% boost in it's damage, maybe less.

But if you scroll back up, you'll find that what I was responding to was @Bambino's statement that healing was more efficient focus->healing. I was pointing out that the draw of DT, of all the Death spells, was the elegance and simplicity that a damage and heal spell gave, rather than raw dps, hps, or focus cost efficiency.

 

yeah i wasn't actually arguing with anybody, was just adding my 2 cents on death touch.

 

I base my arguing that Healing/Fist spell are more effective through combat in the field & my combat log. None of it is theory, so I'll argue this all day long.

 

@Katrina Bekers
Which skills were locked & which were dealt?

 

I use all-locked decks. (*)

Probably Stone Fist can go as low as 3 focus on high stillness. I had it in my deck, but removed to favor ice spells; I remember it was the fastest spell to return available after I ran out of focus, so it must cost less than DT's 4 focus.

I'll make tests and expand the table.
___
(*) - Until @Chris will pry them from my cold, dead hands...

 

I see, I see... Stacking a fully dealt deck minimizes focus cost a lot! When it comes to combat these days, it's all about focus management. Using a locked deck in R19 is not efficient on focus at all. Very seldom will I be able to stand still all the time in PvP combat. With the new combat announcements, it seems it will be easier removing multi-task requirements to a large degree, which I am not fond of. Either way, If the masses like it, so be it. I just hope the people that like spell weaving also get benefit.

 

Now I'm curious to know how low can go a first-tier spell with dealt+stack glyphs.

And I hope they will never, ever plug the hole of Offhand Attack!

 

Now if only my two handed hammer or mace could crush a cloth wearing enemy (like it should, cripple him to the ground) then we now have an even battle ground between mages and melee's!

 

If you have banish Undead, it destroys ghosts and liches...try it you will be surprised

 

One thing i would like to see in the skills, is melee attacks shouldn't use a focus bar! I look at focus as a magical casting type bar, and magic stuff should be drained from it, but if i use a body slam, knock down, knock back etc shouldn't take focus, instead maybe have a str bar or something, just for melee attacks without magic (all melee).

If im not Magical i still need to add heightened awareness, to fully use those melee only skills, as a melee i shouldn't have to use any focus skills, since those are based on magic. i lose a lot of points in places where i need them, in the weapons skills.

Focus should solely be for mages or magic only!

No matter how you describe focus skill, the fact remains, to be an excellent spell caster you need those skill points in the focus tree! melee should have a separate bar for melee attacks. That probably would balance out the fighting PVP between both mages and Melees. I would love to see them try that out and prove my outlook on it wrong!
(sorry just woke up and downing coffee!) getting that energy up!

 

This is unfortunately a pitfall of every open system. I can't think of a single open build system where you aren't forced to make healing part of your character simply because since everyone can, the game would be absolutely trivial for anyone who takes it if they balanced the content to be doable for people who don't.

 

I believe the whole reason it's called 'Focus' is because it's something everyone needs.. to focus! That's why special melee skills use it. It makes sense to me. By keeping them together, using the same support tree, it makes hybrid decks possible! if we separated them, we might as well switch to a class-based system because it would cost too much to do both!

 

I personally hate the idea of healing spells in combat, healing potions in combat.. (though i might be tempted if they become alcoholic. And I prefer to play through any game never using them.

If i have to heal to stay alive and slay the enemy, I feel like I'm doing it wrong. Allowing healing just makes an artificially larger Hitpoint pool. We need smarter ways to win fights, than just have higher DPS, and higher HitPoints.

I'd much rather see all regeneration turned off. and need food/sleep to replenish my health and focus while I'm resting. heal spells and potions would serve to speed up the recovery time while resting so I can get back in and fight more quickly.

Another idea is to have any health over 50% naturally regenerate slowly back to 100%, but any health under 50% will naturally degenerate slowly down to 0%. So Some one who is badly injured, will likely die in time without proper care, but if you are only mildly injured, you will naturally heal on your own. This adds a great level of realism. A badly wounded combatant will have to step out of a fight to try and patch-up those wounds, or else be at a disadvantage. I can see this being much more fun!