Feedback:User/Soldier198/Rebalancing Soul Reaping
Rebalancing Soul Reaping
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| User | Soldier198 |
| Categories | Skill feedback → Necromancer → Soul Reaping |
This page is a theoretical rework of the Soul Reaping attribute.
Soul Reaping: For each point of Soul Reaping, the sacrifice cost of your Necromancer skills is reduced by 1%, and you gain 1 Energy whenever you animate a minion. For every 2 points of Soul Reaping, you gain 1 Energy whenever you cast a Necromancer hex on a foe (maximum energy return 50% of the base energy cost of the hex +1 additional energy).
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| Soul Reaping | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
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| Maximum Energy gain on casting a Necromancer hex | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 | |
Concept
Soul reaping is known to be an imbalanced attribute for the primary reason that the amount of energy it returns is wildly uneven depending on what type of content the player is playing. Depending on the area of the game, it can give very high returns on energy, or it can give very little. It is particularly effective in PvE where enemies tend to die frequently. This allows the Necromancer to simply spec into Soul Reaping and give little active thought into energy management as the Soul Reaping mechanic does most of the work itself. In PvP where foes tend to die less frequently, Soul Reaping becomes less valuable. This is particularly problematic in arenas such as Guild versus Guild and small scale formats like Random Arenas and the Codex Arena. In these arenas, the inherent effect of Soul Reaping becomes underwhelming.
Arenanets original intention behind the design of primary attributes was that they would be a generally safe place for players to invest their attribute points. These attributes were supposed to be universally useful in enhancing the builds of primary professions. Obviously, there were some design issues throughout the years that led to certain classes having primary attributes that were near essential to the performance of the class (such as Rangers and Expertise) while other professions were released with primary attributes that could often be ignored (as was the case of Ritualists and Spawning Power when Factions originally released). Soul Reaping acts merely as a source of energy gain. It does not have any unique functionalities, nor does it do anything specific to the Necromancer profession in the way that other primary attributes do, i.e. Fast Casting affecting casting speed or Divine Favor granting additional health gain.
This conceptual rework of Soul Reaping is designed to operate based on functionalities of the Necromancer that can be seen as core to its identity. To this end, there were three core mechanics of the Necromancer that were chosen to have a direct interaction with Soul Reaping. These interactions are designed to make Soul Reaping an effective primary attribute for the majority of Necromancer builds so that players who invest in Soul Reaping gain resource cost returns regardless of what format they are playing in. Ultimately, the redesign will attempt to replace the imbalances of Soul Reaping with consistent mechanics that are effective in all game modes.
Iconic to the Necromancer, Minions are obviously a central component of their profession as no other profession is capable of creating them. Previously, the energy required to create minions was fed from the death of creatures. As this functionality has been removed from Soul Reaping, the energy gain one would have gotten from the death of a minion has instead been reversed. Now Soul Reaping will grant energy whenever a minion is created. This is intended to basically frontload the energy gain from minions so that minion masters can operate at roughly the same pace as they used to.
Sacrifice skills are also core to the Necromancers identity as they are the profession on which these types of skills are the most ubiquitous. Adding a 1% reduction in sacrifice to the sacrifice inflicted by Necromancer skills per rank of Soul Reaping presents a new, interesting dynamic of balance that can be applied to a wide variety of Necromancer skills. Obviously, this addition needs to be balanced with existing skills that already have a sacrifice cost to them, and you will read below many of the existing skills that will be rebalanced to account for this new mechanic of Soul Reaping.
Lastly, Necromancers are one of two professions that feature heavily the usage Hex spells (the other being the Mesmer). As such, the redesign of Soul Reaping allows it act as a form of Energy return for Hex heavy builds. Because many Necromancer Hexes are already quite expensive, this change is well in line with supporting the use of Hex builds. However, there are certain Hex spells that will need to be rebalanced to account for this change. This energy gain will also only occur one time for all foes affected by a hex. This way, AoE Hexes like Spiteful Spirit and Lingering Curse will not return obscene amounts of energy. Additionally, the change to Soul Reaping allows it to return a maximum of 50% of the base energy cost of a hex plus one additional energy. So, 5 energy hexes can return a maximum of 3 energy; 10 energy hexes a maximum of 6 energy; 15 energy hexes a maximum of 8 energy; and 25 energy hexes a maximum of 13, which cannot be realistically achieved due to attributes capping at 20.
Skill Rebalances
The majority of these skill changes will focus on adjusting the sacrifice cost of skills and the energy cost of hexes. To prevent Necromancer hexes from being overpowered in PvP, some of them have seen increases in their energy costs. Sacrifice skills have seen a general increase in their percent sacrifice cost; the general aim with these skills was to make moderate investment into Soul Reaping (attributes of 8-10) the breakeven point for where the sacrifice cost had previously been, whereas full investment into Soul Reaping (13 attributes and above) will make these skills sacrifice less health than before.
Additionally, many skills that exploit corpses, aside from Minion skills, have seen an energy cost reduction and the addition of health sacrifice. This was done because the previous form of Soul Reaping made these skills rather inexpensive to use due to the reliance on enemy deaths (which would have given energy) in order for these skills to operate. Health sacrifice now serves as the balancing counterweight to account for the reduction in energy cost of these skills.
Blood Magic
Barbed Signet: Increased sacrifice cost to 15%.
Blood Renewal: Increased sacrifice cost to 20%.
Blood Ritual: Increased sacrifice cost to 25%.
Blood is Power: Increased sacrifice cost to 40%.
Cultist's Fervor: Changed functionality to: "Elite Enchantment Spell. (5 seconds plus 3 seconds more for every rank of Soul Reaping.) Your non-hex Necromancer spells cost 1...5...6 less Energy. You suffer from Bleeding (10 seconds) each time you cast a Necromancer spell.
Dark Fury: Increased sacrifice cost to 25%.
Dark Pact: Increased sacrifice cost to 20%.
Life Transfer: Increased energy cost to 10.
Offering of Blood: Increased sacrifice cost to 25%.
Order of Pain: Increased sacrifice cost to 25%.
Order of the Vampire: Increased sacrifice cost to 25%.
Ravenous Gaze: Increased sacrifice cost to 15%.
Signet of Agony: Increased sacrifice cost to 20%.
Signet of Agony (PvP): Increased sacrifice cost to 20%.
Touch of Agony: Increased sacrifice cost to 18%.
Wallow's Bite: Increased sacrifice cost to 18%.
Well of Blood: Reduced energy cost to 5; added sacrifice cost of 17%.
The Bood Magic line saw the largest number of changes as many of their skills feature a sacrifice cost. Cultist's Fervor saw a functionality change that now permits it to only reduce the energy cost of non-hex Necromancer spells. This was done to prevent it from overpowering hex builds with the new Soul Reaping functionality. Compared to other sacrifice skills, Offering of Blood saw a lesser increase in its sacrifice cost in order to encourage its use as a source of energy management.
Curses
Defile Defenses: Increased energy cost to 10.
Defile Flesh: Increased sacrifice cost to 20%.
Enfeebling Blood (PvP): Increased sacrifice cost to 25%.
Malaise: Added sacrifice cost of 15%.
Meekness Increased sacrifice cost to 25%.
Parasitic Bond: Added sacrifice cost of 20%.
Plague Sending: Increased sacrifice cost to 18%.
Soul Bind: Split for PvP; increased energy cost to 15.
Well of Darkness: Reduced energy cost to 5; added sacrifice cost of 17%.
Well of Ruin: Reduced energy cost to 5; added sacrifice cost of 17%.
Well of Silence: Reduced energy cost to 5; added sacrifice cost of 17%.
Many of the Curses hexes were already quite expensive, and so didn't need rebalancing. The changes made to Defile Defenses, Malaise, and Parasitic Bond were done to prevent them from becoming too effective as cover hexes in PvP. Enfeebling Blood did not see an increase in its sacrifice cost in PvE because it is often used by secondary Necromancers and I wanted to preserve that aspect of play. Soul Bind already sees play in PvP, and so was split and had its energy cost increased to 15.
Death Magic
Blood of the Master: Reduced energy cost to 1; increased sacrifice cost to 15%.
Order of Undeath: Reduced energy cost to 5; added sacrifice cost of 10%.
Putrid Explosion: Reduced energy cost to 5; added sacrifice cost of 15%.
Putrid Flesh: Reduced energy cost to 5; added sacrifice cost of 15%.
Soul Feast: Reduced energy cost to 5; added sacrifice cost of 15%.
Verata's Aura: Increased sacrifice cost to 40%.
Verata's Sacrifice: Increased sacrifice cost to 25%,
Well of Suffering: Reduced energy cost to 5; added sacrifice cost of 17%.
Well of the Profane: Reduced energy cost to 15; added sacrifice cost of 25%.
The changes to Death Magic skills aim to balance out the cost of sacrifice skills as well as ease the cost of corpse exploitation skills now that Soul Reaping no longer gives energy on enemy deaths. Blood of the Master and Order of Undeath have seen energy cost reductions and a shift towards reliance on sacrifice cost as their balancing factors. This was done to ease the energy requirement of the minion builds they are often used in.
Soul Reaping
Reaper's Mark: Added sacrifice cost of 15%.
Wail of Doom: Increased energy cost to 5; Increased sacrifice cost to 20%.
With the changes to Soul Reaping, Reaper's Mark becomes a valuable form of energy management provided one's team can kill quickly. Wail of Doom was given an increase in its energy cost as well as a doubling of its health sacrifice in order to keep it balanced in PvP.
How the new mechanics will work
To help evaluate the impact of these changes, I will attempt to demonstrate how the new Soul Reaping will interact with existing builds.
| Curses Hex Pressure (12+1+1 Curses, 12+1 Soul Reaping, 3 Shadow Arts) | ||||||||
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This is a standard Curses based hex pressure bar. It is suitable for a wide range of PvP formats. It has strong anti-melee through the use of Faintheartedness and Insidious Parasite. It can counter healing through Soul Bind and counter enchantments with Rend Enchantments. It also helps the team deal with conditions by absorbing them and sending them back to the enemy team with Plague Sending. Defile Defenses serves a cover hex and punishes blocking. Lastly, this bar uses Dark Escape as a defensive skill.
Because the player has chosen to invest heavily into the new Soul Reaping, they gain a maximum of 6 energy every time they cast a hex on a foe. Note that this energy gain only occurs if the hex is successfully cast. As such, interrupts remain dangerous as they will prevent the player gaining this energy refund. As we recall, Soul Bind was split for PvP and had its energy cost increased to 15. As such, the energy return from Soul Reaping will give it a net cost of 9 energy, similar to how it was before. Insidious Parasite, at 15 energy, also remains a bit costly as the net cost will be 9 after Soul Reaping. Plague Sending if we recall had its health sacrifice increased to 20%. The players investment into Soul Reaping brings that cost down to 7%, allowing them to use it without too harsh of a drawback. Defile Defenses had its energy cost increased to 10, so it remains about as powerful of a cover hex as it had been previously.
| Aura of the Lich Minion Master (12+3+1 Death Magic, 12+1 Soul Reaping) | ||||||||
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This is a Minion Master bar that uses Aura of the Lich as its elite skill. As Aura of the Lich creates several minions at once, the player can gain very large amounts of energy in quick fashion. When creating individual minions with Animate Vampiric Horror or Animate Shambling Horror, the player is refunded an instant 13 energy. Additionally, because Shambling Horror creates a Jagged Horror when it dies, this allows the Shambling Horror to act as a sort of delayed source of energy. Blood of the Master had its energy cost decreased to 1 and its sacrifice cost increased to 15%, but because the player chose to invest so heavily into Soul Reaping, it has a base sacrfice of only 2%. Masochism adds an additional 3% life sacrifice to each spell. On spells that do not already feature a sacrifice cost, such as Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support, Soul Reaping will negate this meagre 3% sacrifice. However, Blood of the Master will end up sacrificing an additional 3% because its own sacrifice cost already used up the entire reduction from Soul Reaping.
The energy gain from Soul Reaping will more or less negate the energy cost of the minion skills, and because Blood of the Master was rebalanced to focus on sacrifice cost it too will be easy on energy. As such, the remaining skills on this bar, primarily Necrosis, "You Move Like a Dwarf!" and EVAS, have free reign to use the players available pool of energy.
| Restoration Magic Healer (11+1+1 Blood Magic, 12 Restoration Magic, 6+1 Soul Reaping) | ||||||||
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This is a healing bar that uses Restoration Magic to heal and Offering of Blood along with Signet of Corruption to manage energy. Because Offering of Blood only had its health sacrifice increased to 25%, a 7-point attribute investment in Soul Reaping will drop this cost down to 18%. This permits Offering of Blood to be used without as much of a concern for health loss, and a well-timed Spirit of Life can negate this cost in its entirety.
Though the player no longer gains energy from Soul Reaping whenever a creature dies, they still have available options to manage energy when seeking to utilize secondary profession skills. I do concede that this combination of Offering of Blood and Signet of Corruption is not as powerful as the live version of Soul Reaping, but this is a necessary part of reducing the imbalances of Soul Reaping.
Conclusion
The aim of these changes is to reinforce Soul Reaping as an effective primary attribute for the majority of Necromancer builds while simultaneously eliminating imbalances in energy gain. Minion based builds retain much of the energy gain they had before, while hex based builds gain a new way to recoup energy cost. The addition of sacrifice reduction to Soul Reaping allows us to play with a new dynamic of balance that can be used in future updates to balance out troubling skills.
Thanks for reading.
