Curse

Spoony · Apr 28, 2006, 09:12 PM // 21:12

I'd like to talk about improving smiting skills. Might sound stupid at first, but look. How many times did u happen to find people talking stuff like "Smiting sucks", hm? For me, it was definetly at least 1 times too much. It isn't all skills, because some of them do their role well (For example symbol of wrath , balthasars aura). But some of them , just lie mainly not unlocked, because why waste faction / money for a skill that you don't use or don't think is good enough? Let me give you some examples -

Banish - 20 - 58 dmg (0-16 smiting) , 1 sec cast, 10 recharge, 5 energy.
You don't get it do you? Let me give you something to compare it with.

Vampiric Gaze - 18-63 10 energy, 5 second recharge , 1 second cast

Diffrences - damage is not much diffrent, thats not the point. vampiric gaze here has 5 more energy cost , using it for less recharge AND it is a blood skill, so it drains health, giving the caster the ability to survive for longer. What can a smiter do? Geesh, who cares, smiting sucks anyway. You see my point? You might think of a sollution to that, like "Why they survive for longer, when a monk can heal himself." Pretty easy to answer that, Necromancers have soul reaping which gives them energy, and monks dont(There are some like those, for example Divine spirit, but i dont think thats enough). Monk here does a more of an endurance role, whether than the role of doing damage, that IMO should change, because prolly all kinds of characters can change themselves from that point(for example ranger can be wilderness survival based, which gives lots of regen, or/and be a trapper, or a warrior can be a stance tank or a frenzy shock warrior)

Another skill

Smite - 10 energy, 1 second cast, 10 second recharge.

Here, again recharge. This does 10-58 + 10-37 dmg - 20-95 damage.(if attacking, of course)

Ill give you a another skill, yes blood magic skill which you might predict it would be -

Shadow Strike - 12-50 dmg + another 12-50 dmg (if 50% + hp) giving u a total of 24-100 dmg. U might be suprised but the point is damage here , too. Compare, how it often comes for you to find someone attacking comparing to finding someone with 50%+ hp? For me, it is loads more often. Plus, it is 2 seconds recharge faster. What do blood necromancers have as a con for this skill? what else, 2 seconds cast. IMO, not fair. blood wins here , again.

Bane Signet - 25 seconds recharge, 2 seconds cast, 0 energy cost, 26-58 dmg.

Id give a signet here, as the bane signet is a signet itself(doh:P). Its my last skill , as i need to go to sleep. I might add some later , if the topic gets some interest.

Barbed signet - 20 seconds recharge, 2 seconds cast, 0 energy cost, 8% sacrafice, 18-63 damage. You might think - the 5 seconds recharge and the damage is influenced on the sacrafice. I'll tell you how much is it , excatly.
Most targets have 480 hp, so 480 x 8% = 38,4 hp. This might sound high as the signet does lower damage at start, but its not hard, u just need 7+ blood magic to overheal it with blood stealing. (not counting the 0,4 dmg, as u heal steal a total of 38 hp while 7 blood magic attribute).

Apart from that, id just like to mention to set the range of signet of judgment from foe + adjacent to foe + nearby, (compare Ray Of Judgment here).

You might also discuss to remove the need to have touch range in holy strike, and make it a spell and give it a longer cast (preferably 1 sec, cuz knockdowns dont last long), but personally, i dont feel such a need.(or maybe u do?)

Oh yeah, and i almost forgot - I think Holy Wrath's -10 energy when attacked is definetly too much , would think of -6 to -3 or -1, depending on attribute, but ur free to discuss that.

Ok, i hope you enjoy reading my work , and u do understand my point. And please, don't blame things in a way of "This sucks, its gay. Why? Because it just does". Ciao guys:P , Max The Owner

Xasew · Apr 28, 2006, 10:27 PM // 22:27

Balth's Aura and Zealot's Fire need to be buffed.

Smiting is bad, because it has no utility. Blood has OoB, Life Siphon, Blood Ritual and Curses has some great stuff, too. Let's face it, it's not very practical to put point in Smiting and Healing, because doing offencive and defencive stuff at the same time isn't easy.

Spoony · Apr 29, 2006, 08:47 AM // 08:47

That's a fact. Smiting doesn't match other casting skills, you can actually barely call it an offensive part of a character. The only people that usually die by a smiter are warriors that dont pay attention what kind of damage are they just dealt. How many people usually take smiting in for example, HA, or gvg? that would be like 5%> of the teams there. I agree with you Xasew - Smiting needs some utilities.

I'd be glad to see more of you to talk about this, as many people ignore smiting attribute of a monk. For now, it's just dead space, because who wants to use a attribute based on such skills that don't even match others?

Riplox · Apr 29, 2006, 03:18 PM // 15:18

I agree with the smiting buffs. Something definitely needs to be done about those skills. It's almost useless unless you're doing UW and maybe some select missions with undead. I would be all over some holy spiking

Wasn't holy power supposed to be some insanely powerful force that smote everything it touched? The way GW has it is more like smite everything it touches, but only after you do it a bunch of times. I say increase the damage by 75% (50% is too little of a boost). Or you could have divine favor augment smiting the same way it does to healing.

+75% Damage -

Balthazar's Aura - Enchantment Spell
For 10 seconds, foes adjacent to target ally take 15-33 holy damage each second.

Bane Signet - Signet
Target foe takes 39-75 Holy damage. If that foe was attacking, he is knocked down.

Banish - Spell
Target foe takes 30-74 Holy damage.

Holy Strike - Skill
Touched target takes 15-69 Holy damage. If knocked down, your target takes an additional 15-69 Holy damage.

Holy Wrath - Enchantment Spell
While you maintain this "Enchantment", whenever target ally takes attack damage, this spell deals 66% of the damage back to the source (maximum 8-62) and you lose 8-3 energy (changed from fixed value of 10 energy).

Retribution - Enchantment Spell
While you maintain this "Enchantment", whenever target ally takes attack damage, this spell deals 33% of the damage back to the source (maximum of 8-26 damage).

Scourge Healing - Hex Spell
For 30 seconds, every time target foe is healed, the healer takes 23-101 Holy damage.

Shield of Judgement {Elite} - Enchantment Spell
For 8-18 seconds, anyone striking target ally is knocked down, and suffers 8-62 damage.

Signet of Judgement {Elite} - Signet
Target foe is knocked down. That foe and all adjacent foes take 23-95 Holy damage.

Smite - Attack
This attack deals 15-69 Holy damage. If attacking, your target takes an additional 15-45 Holy damage.

Smite Hex - Spell
Remove a "Hex" from target ally. Foes near that ally suffer 15-105 damage.

Strength of Honor - Enchantment Spell
While you maintain this "Enchantment", target ally deals 2-12 more damage in melee.

Symbol of Wrath - Spell
For 5 seconds, foes in this location take 12-41 Holy damage each second.

Zealot's Fire - Enchantment Spell
For 60 seconds, whenever you use a skill on an ally, all foes adjacent to your target are struck for 8-44 fire damage.