Stone Skin Level Talent display and Lore ?

[John Robinson]

When leveling I noticed Lore is now playing an important role, you can see it, for example

Myshana's Tears 2 Heals 70 + (Lore x 2) HP

When testing Casting Stone Skin 1 then looking at effects I see Turns are 10 not 8 as listed. He starts the game with Lore 2.

Raising Lore to 3 raises Stone Skin 1 duration to 11
Raising Lore to 4 raises Stone Skin 1 duration to 12

If I'm right;

The description currently reads "Stone Skin 1 Self-Only Buff for 8 Turns Uses 3 AP and 8 Spirit +20 HP, +2 Armor

Could read as

Stone Skin 1 Self-Only Buff for 8 + Lore Turns ....

I have not tested this with Phalanx Shield but would like to know if it works the same way

[fallen]

John Robinson - all buffs and curses now work that way. It is primarily described in the Leveling screens. I will check and see if there is enough space on small screen phones to safely add that text. Gets a lot harder when its 8 + Leadership. Otherwise, we might need a different way of expressing it.

Also, note that it is -not- a bug that curses / buffs last through combat. This was discussed at length during the Alpha and instead of opting for SP reduction, we went with Duration increasing, and allowing buffs to potentially run through multiple combats (which, in itself is a form of SP reduction, right?). With 4+ Lore, you can really see that a single Stone Skin cast might last you 2 combats, even more reason to raise your Lore.

Note that at the end of combat, depending on your difficulty, a couple of Turns are "burned" as you regroup.

[John Robinson]

Didn't think about screen size, there is only so much info you can pack in there, I do like the way it is displayed. Wouldn't want it to look to clinical with a box full of numbers. I like the fantasy descriptions.

fallen "Also, note that it is -not- a bug that curses / buffs last through combat" I'm not sure what you were trying to help me understand?

Yeah I'm thinking all the time about reading between the lines. Increasing duration is just like reducing the cost in SP, thanks that's exactly how I try to figure things out.

I really had a hard time deciding to post this in the bug forum as if there was something missing or needed correction. Or post it in the tips section as a question.

Now that I think about it, I'll start shooting them out as questions, and save solid bugs for this section.

Sorry about any misunderstandings you know I'm always late for school, but never to old to learn.

Am I on the right track?

P.S. Now that you hinted about Leadership, I feel a new Tips thread coming on.

[fallen]

John Robinson - I did move this over to Tips & Techniques. Your post is awesome and very useful for anyone who might have missed it.

We spent a bit of time in the alpha trading messages about it, and during that time it was being classified as an exploit that Curses / Buffs lasted past combat. I was just pointing out that after a lot of balancing and looking at the system, we have determined that that is here to stay! And, then we integrated skills increasing Duration to make it an even more appealing rules.

Note, enemy curses last after combat as well. You might have seen slayernz's thread about 20 round Vermin Rot, which sticks with you for a long time.

[John Robinson]

Ahhh.. Yes now I remember. I'm glad you didn't take it out, even though the curses last too. It is really great knowing when you cast Stone Skin starting with 10 rounds but you won the battle in 4. So you get to glom until the next enemy encounter, bang! you start with the left over 6 rounds of Stone Skin. Without having to spend more SP to buff before combat. I did think you took out the "Exploit" post Alpha. Great it became incorporated into the fabric of the game.

Using other Talents can compensate for the negative Dodge and Accuracy effects of Vermin Rot. So far Vermin Rot is manageable. Our party members cast much more devastating curses. The blade sweep bumps Outlander's Accuracy back up, and buffs can be cast to increase his defense. The curses aren't there to ruin play balance. They make you think about how well the game is designed to let you overcome them if the members of the party work as a team.

Ok, Now that the thread has been moved it's fair to ask. What Talent does Leadership and Knowledge buff ?

[tenbsmith]

Great thread, will definitely keep this in mind when I level up. In most games--e.g., skyrim--I don't bother with buffs, but for this game I'm gonna give it whirl and try playing on more difficult levels.

I vote for including language like "8 + Lore turns" in the description of talents because otherwise it is misleading. Early in the game, prior to leveling up, you refer to the description of talents repeatedly as you learn what they do. That becomes your de facto understanding of how the talents work. It is hard to overcome that early, repeated learning with a information that only appears in the level-up screens.

[fallen]

Will work on it, thanks.

[Karjus]

Question.. does camping reset your buffs or just count as some turns used up for them? Hmph. Suppose I could just jump on and check myself..

[fallen]

Resets the buffs.

[johndramey]

I've been noticing the increased duration as well, been pumping lore on my Outlander and was very pleasantly surprised to see his Level 3 stone skin ability lasting something awesome like 7 rounds. Very nice for longer combat, and really a life saver for the small, brutal skirmishes my style tends to bring about. Now I can buff all my characters with impunity!

[John Robinson]

Dec 12, 2013 10:43:51 GMT -5 tenbsmith said:

Great thread, will definitely keep this in mind when I level up. In most games--e.g., skyrim--I don't bother with buffs, but for this game I'm gonna give it whirl and try playing on more difficult levels.

I vote for including language like "8 + Lore turns" in the description of talents because otherwise it is misleading. Early in the game, prior to leveling up, you refer to the description of talents repeatedly as you learn what they do. That becomes your de facto understanding of how the talents work. It is hard to overcome that early, repeated learning with a information that only appears in the level-up screens.

In the mean time I added "8 + Lore turns" to Vraes's Talent Table of Terror.

[John Robinson]

Dec 12, 2013 16:45:10 GMT -5 johndramey said:

I've been noticing the increased duration as well, been pumping lore on my Outlander and was very pleasantly surprised to see his Level 3 stone skin ability lasting something awesome like 7 rounds. Very nice for longer combat, and really a life saver for the small, brutal skirmishes my style tends to bring about. Now I can buff all my characters with impunity!

The Outlander also has the skill called "Natural Mastery" I have found a big improvement in accuracy. Like Stone Skin,
it also gets a plus one round for every point of lore you have.

[johndramey]

I was thinking about picking up that talent, but have so far steered away from it due to the simple fact that I'm hitting more often than not. I could see it as a good skill if you are focusing on building up a tanky Vraes, but my current play style is focusing on ending combat ASAP while soaking hits. Vraes and Vincent basically need to be healed after every encounter, but since I boosted Kyera's Myshana's Tears talent to level 3 and have pumped her lore up she heals 140+ per cast.

Basically, I've built the perfect skirmish team. I really start to lose ground if combat lasts more than 4 turns or so, that is when all the HP damage starts to take AP away from my all or nothing charges. Once my team loses momentum it's pretty much all over.