User:Sageofprofession/Shadow Form Ideas

This is a list of my ideas for rebalancing the skill Shadow Form. I will admit, I have equipment and the builds for a Perma Sliver and Perma Cryer, and have been farming the Tomb of the Primeval Kings for ectoplasm (though I have never had more than 7 at a time.) I can say that Permas are a bit overpowered, so here i will be putting my ideas for Shadow Form rebalancing, while keeping it as a viable skill to be used as a normal elite skill.

January 7, 2010

Today, I came up with my first idea for rebalancing this skill. The essential idea for this first version was to keep this able to be used as a tank for PvE and PvP, yet eliminate the techniques used for inflicting AoE damage by farmers. The main aspects (energy cost, casting time) will stay the same, however, recharge would be reduced to 30 seconds.The functionality would change to:

Elite Enchantment Spell. For 20...32...35 seconds, all hostile Spells that target you fail, all attacks against you miss, your energy regeneration is set to zero and you cannot gain energy. All spells cast by you fail and Attack skills cost 5 less energy. This enchantment ends when you reach 0 energy. When Shadow Form ends, you suffer from Weakness for 15...7...5.

My ideas behind this was to target the core elements of the Perma Sliver and Perma Cryer forms as follows and the Perma daggers forms

• No spell casting: This aspect is pivotal in the conventional perma forms. This eliminates the factors that make the perma a viable farming technique such as Cry of Pain, Radiation Field, and Sliver Armor.
• No Energy regeneration and energy gain: The idea behind this was to eliminate the effect of Zealous weapons, the Critical Strikes attribute, and the skill Critical Eye. Since there is no energy gain, eventually any perma, no matter how good they are, will run out of energy from simply having to recast the standard chains (Arcane Echo or Glyph of Swiftness, Deadly Paradox, then Shadow Form). This came out of studying Warrior Defy Pain tanks and the like. Normally, I've noticed that Warrior Tanks pack their damage reduction skills with attack skills to convince the enemies to still target him. With the lower cost of attack spells, you could take attack skills with 5e cost and still be able to recast SF when needed.
• Weakness: This removes the danger of a focused nuke by foes after Shadow form wears off. While you still suffer from a very debilitating condition, you aren't going to be instantly killed as soon as you come out of the enchantment.

January 8, 2010

Just a quick spin on what I had come up with yesterday for Shadow Form

Elite Enchantment Spell. For 20...32...35 seconds, all hostile Spells that target you fail, all attacks against you miss, you gain -4 energy regeneration and you cannot gain energy outside of energy regeneration. All spells cast by you fail and Attack skills cost 5 less energy. This enchantment ends when you reach 0 energy. When Shadow Form ends, you suffer from Weakness for 15...7...5.

All that has really changed is the fact that the energy regeneration is not unconditionally set to zero. The wording may be a bit awkward, but my idea for the change is as follows.

• Blood is Power and Blood Ritual: This skills, if equipped on a party member could make the enchantment maintainable. However, I can see this becoming a gimmick build after a while, with a hero necro traveling with a player sin and simply spamming BiP on the sin. In that case, I think it would be useful to include an effect such as "Each time a friendly skill is cast on you, you loose 10...6...5% maximum health."

January 24, 2010

I thought up a new idea for a Shadow Form modification today.

Elite Enchantment Spell. For 20...32...35 seconds, you take 75% less damage from enemy attacks and cannot suffer from health degeneration and conditions. You cannot cast spells, and any spells cast on you cost 25% more energy and take 50% longer to cast.

I came up with this idea when I was playing on my monk with a VoS dervish in the party.

• Spell Effects: With the increase in the energy cost and casting time, this enchantment can be useful, but, again, it eliminates the common skills (Sliver armor and Cry of pain), but still allows monks to heal them.
• Damage Reduction: This allows for Shadow Form to be used for tanking, but also eliminates the possibility of this being a permanent invincibility skill as it is now. You will still take damage, but it will be dramatically reduced.