Cleric Sacrifice spell too powerful?

[slayernz]

Okay, so Kyera was what you would call almost pretty growing up, with her slightly long neck and particularly knobbly knees that no amount of armor could disguise. However, she never actually accomplished much by herself. Sure, she could hit with her mace ("ouch," the monsters would say, "what will I do without the 3HP you just took from me?"), but her only real strength in the party seemed to be as nurse. "Nurse Kyera" just didn't have the right ring to it. Kyera felt she wanted to be more. Do more.

Then it happened. After a particularly long fight with some green black spiders, she hit level 6. She and her party returned to the inn, and celebrated the battles won with her colleagues. Only Karjtan didn't join in, obviously preferring to just take a moment of private contemplation on how wonderfully well the group was working together, lead by handsome Vraes.

Later, in her room, she opened her mystical book of wisdom, and finally understood a passage about a particular method of meditation that allowed Spirit to be generated out of the void between worlds. Sacrifice. That was what it was called. Excitedly she practiced and practiced, knowing this talent would allow her to be more than just a nurse, she would be the entire supply train that the whole party would rely on to explore even without camps or rest.

In battle, she would use Sacrifice once on herself, and once on the Wizard to allow him to fight that little bit longer. After battles, she would use the limitless nature of the spell to completely top each of the party up with mystical Spirit energy, including herself! This would mean that at the beginning of each encounter, the party would be at 100%, both physically and spiritually and all because of her.

There was no place for pride in Kyera's occupation, but all the same, Kyera felt honored to be able to become the most important person in her party.



So sacrifice ... should you be able to cast it out of combat? It certainly seems that out of combat, the Cleric is able to tank everyone up completely - both HP and SP. It instantly means that the next battle will always be strongly fought, and no longer will the Wizard run out of puff just at the wrong time.

[johndramey]

I think Sacrifice should just not be able to be cast on the Cleric herself. After all, what kind of sacrifice are you doing if it's to heal yourself

[Cory Trese]

Yeah -- that is a bug. Sacrifice should not be able to self target.

[fallen]

slayernz - the talent has also had balancing for the next update. It will no longer positively generate SP, for the Cleric or any other party member. Near level 10, you can get almost a 1 to 1 trade, but you will always be paying more than you get.

[slayernz]

cool, that makes more sense.

[fallen]

slayernz - it will allow a Cleric to be a powerful battery of SP for her team, but removes the incentive to have her drink every SP potion and then share the result via Sacrifice.

[absimiliard]

I'd never thought to try casting Sacrifice on oneself. Wow.

That is definitely overpowered.

The fix seems obvious, as pointed out already, just make it other-only.

{edit: I actually like that it generates SP. If it was 1/1, or lower, I'd never cast it. My playstyle has the cleric almost always running out of SP first in the group, so giving up her SP is always a hard choice.}

-abs

[eldur]

Nov 14, 2013 10:05:38 GMT -5 absimiliard said:

I'd never thought to try casting Sacrifice on oneself. Wow.

That is definitely overpowered.

The fix seems obvious, as pointed out already, just make it other-only.

{edit: I actually like that it generates SP. If it was 1/1, or lower, I'd never cast it. My playstyle has the cleric almost always running out of SP first in the group, so giving up her SP is always a hard choice.}

-abs

I have enjoyed it generating SP, but it eliminates the need for basic camps after level 6. (and I dont think it's all that fun to sit there and click sacrifice over and over until you have everyone back at full)
One of my combat tactics was Wizard - Fireball; Cleric Sac x 2 to wizard, Sac x 1 to self.

With camp location balance, you shouldn't have to feel the need to do this I'm thinking. (although I'll miss some of the combat perks)

I do think that it will still be a good talent, even if it isn't 100% efficient. My poor wizard becomes useless when out of SP (or SP potions), so this ability allows my cleric to give him enough power for more FIRE.

[fallen]

eldur - yep! That's the idea ... especially in places where camps were more few-and-far-between, your Cleric's Sacrifice capabilities might make other characters more powerful while she jealously hordes her SP for only critical heals and Sacrifice.

[slayernz]

The other alternative as mentioned in other threads is make Sacrifice a combat-only spell. That way she can help others during combat (make it use more AP per cast). After combat is over, you can't cast it. That way, the net generation of SP (cost = 8, benefit = 16) is not actually that bad. After all, Myshana's Tears 2 cost 16 and heals 70 and uses 3AP.

[eldur]

Nov 14, 2013 16:44:33 GMT -5 slayernz said:

The other alternative as mentioned in other threads is make Sacrifice a combat-only spell. That way she can help others during combat (make it use more AP per cast). After combat is over, you can't cast it. That way, the net generation of SP (cost = 8, benefit = 16) is not actually that bad. After all, Myshana's Tears 2 cost 16 and heals 70 and uses 3AP.

I really like this idea for the combat tactics that it inspires. It's also very useful in a prolonged fight, but will it encourage players to leave one weak enemy alive while everyone regens SP via sacrifice?

[fallen]

eldur - absolutely. And only my cleric will drink potions, then we will go looking for a fight

[johndramey]

Yeah, I'm interested to see the balance changes that have been made. I think the simple addition of not being able to cast it on the Ceric herself would go a long way to fixing any problem with the skill.