I am looking for help coming up with replacement abilities for the upcoming Elfen and Faeling demigod power, as listed
here. The Loboshigaru power suffers many of the downsides mentioned as well, so it should be discussed too!
Essentially, having such a high regeneration bonus wastes the large number of 'overflow' levels that will inevitably occur, as well as providing a smaller benefit (with a very limiting terrain restriction). When compared with the active offensive abilities of Aslarans and Orclach, the passive offenses of Dracnari and Viscanti, the escaping skills of Furrikin and Trill, the passive defenses of Dwarf and Krokani, the utility of Lucidian and Human, and so on, One with Nature falls short.
Before the racial stat overhaul, the primary benefit of the Elfen race is having no poor stats, with racial (non-titan/demi) base statistics rising into the range of 16-17, with a low stat of 10-12 (10 strength for bard/nature specs, 12 charisma for warriors). The racial regeneration of mana and health in the forests had no effect for this spec race, if played in their specialization's org, due to enchantment, skill, and org construct bonuses. Without statistics, the race's ostensible mechanical point is lost.
The current effect of regeneration is a 1% of the vital's maximum value every 10 seconds per level. A player with 6000 health can therefore expect to regenerate 60hp per level per tick and so on. The numbers on health pools are still a little uncertain, but from what has been put out so far, we can expect that vital totals averaging around 6000-7000 will be average. Each additional level of regeneration is therefore a benefit of 60-70hp/10s.
Right now, demigods automatically recieve a 3/8 regeneration to all vitals. The basic regeneration enchantments add 2/6, bringing the baseline for regeneration up to 5. Before any specific buffs, the One with Nature benefit is down one level of buff, the Lobo is down three. Currently, all Serenwilders get at least a 2/8 bonus to health and mana regen when outdoors (this relevant because Elfen are the Serenwilde spec race). At that point, these elfen are at 7, only receiving three levels from their demigod power - half of what is considered balanced against other races. If those Elfen are Druids or Stag Warriors, they additionally recieve a 4/8 buff from stagform, bringing them to 8 and only one third use of their racial benefit. Two levels is ~150/10s. For comparison, sparkleberry over 1500/10s to multiple vitals in any terrain.
Seeing as most of the unique bonuses from a race come at the demigod level or higher, it's not appropriate to have a benefit that is so quickly rendered negligible without artifacts or effort.
In my next big post, I'll try to lay out a few different ideas I've come up with, to try and spark potential ideas.
Comments
So what if the cap caps your regen? That's why it's a cap. Saying you only get 3 levels from the demi power is not really true. You get 6 levels, it's capped. So...I would be really happy to never have to use mercy again ever. Less enchuantments to get/wear/etc.
At the very base, with no skill bonuses, no organization bonuses (like constructs), no buffs from divine or questing sources, no domoth-related buffs, no artifacts, and no karma blessings, there are several levels of these abilities that are capped out for these three races. There are no other other racial demigod powers that cap out under those conditions, or even under fully buffed conditions - though defense/offense values might cap, most of the demigod level bonuses to those things are universal in some way - it's highly unlikely you'll have capped everything. Add in any external bonuses at all and the effect intensifies.
This is not an argument against the existence of caps: it's an argument against having a small handful of races having primary effects that cap out (far before they get maximal benefit, as well), while the majority do not.
If it is a simple matter to max out your regens currently then perhaps certain abilities could be modified to limit this, though it'd also be interesting to see how the cities turn out in terms of regen potential.
I guess my other concern is the situational nature of some regens. It's okay to say that Seren Demis can wake up with 7 regen, but this drops to 5 indoors. Health regen for Totems users is also 10... when they're bonded to tree and standing next to an appropriate totem... they also get a couple levels if they're standing in a river.
I'm also kinda curious to see how the other orgs shape up in these terms, I think Mag is the only one that gets a regen option from a construct (outside the planar regen ones), and well Glom's one is based on it being night yeah?
IDK, I feel like I see a lot of "regen options" on my skills that could potentially be switched to something else (Tree, River, Moon, and Sun all immediately come to mind... ESPECIALLY TREE AND RIVER) , because they're skills that could be doing something useful as opposed to making my bodyscan go up and down when I walk around. And while doing that we could then work out if one with nature could become as some form of artefact equivalent trait or if it's unsalvagable.
I've been mulling over this today, nothing I can give you at this point, but know I'm reading this thread and taking ideas on board.
I feel like this would be too limited, just because it would mean the demipower would only function inside Serenwilde or Glomdoring depending on your race while moving it to a wider availability (natural terrain) seems too good.
All benefits are relative to the system that they exist within. One side of all this is that I feel that the overhaul has lead to situations such as this, that there is stacking available that's not really useful any more, or has highlighted existing issues, that there is stacking that was never really useful.
If "Serens" can access such high levels of regeneration without employing their skills then this can negate the usefulness of some of their other skills, which means they could potentially be envoyed to something else. (Ever since this has come up River and Tree have really annoyed me >_>)
One idea that popped up was what if we actually ran with the overstacked regens? figured out just how over the top they can be pushed and then had something like an active heal that is stronger based on your regen levels (even the otherwise useless ones), long cooldown. Though this of course is a stacking mechanic which the system is designed to minimize but might be a way to work with the issue?
Suggestion: increased ability to bypass movement hinders like carcer etc, being in their natural home allows them to blend into the surroundings and become harder to prevent tracking
This will not be live when the racial overhaul hits, but will be deployed some point after. I'd give a timeframe but I don't want to be held to it, but the goal will be as soon as possible.
I agree with @Celina, making everything suck equally so as to give the illusion of the end result being a good thing is not the way to go.
It certainly doesn't make me want to play an Elfen post-overhaul anymore than the current iteration of regen does, not when there are so many better options with other races, and being in Serenwilde I should want to play an Elfen.
Depends on how it's done though and the intended levels of the system. If everything is currently too high then it needs to be nerfed.
Still hoping tree and river can be changed to something more useful.
Kinda gotta ask... what's the point of having regen buffs then?
I feel like everyone wants to be at the top and it seems like that makes a system where it can vary kinda pointless.