User:Titani Ertan/Update/Developer Update

This is a message log maintained by Titani Ertan. It contains horrifying announcements, clarifications and pies. Please edit this page when I start burning.

Titanic Update, May 35, 0000.1

Assassin

• Beguiling Haze: Energy cost decreased to 10. Casting time increased to 2. Functionality changed to: "Hex Spell. For 1...5...6 seconds, spell cast by target foe cost 5 more energy. Your attack skills are disabled for 1...5...6 seconds."

Beguiling Haze was not a popular skill, mainly because it was overshadowed by many other skill. By making it an Energy Denial skill, it may increase its use.

• Dancing Daggers: Increased energy and recharge to 10. Decreased damage to 5...23...28.

Dancing Daggers was doing too much damage with too low recharge and energy, and it also led to a powerful attack chain. By increasing its energy cost, recharge and reducing its damage makes other skills a viable choice.

• Desperate Strike: Decreased recharge to 4, changed Health requirement to 40...76...85.

Desperate Strike simply wasn't a good skill. By making it a semy-spammable attack skill with an easy requirement will perhaps increase its use.

• Golden Phoenix Strike: Increased recharge to 10.

Golden Phoenix Strike allowed a quick access to a dual attack. Because its relatively low recharge, you could use it multiple times on different foes. By slightly increasing its recharge, I didn't make it full time spam, but still a viable choice.

• Heart of Shadow: Functionality changed to: "Enchantment Spell. For 5 seconds, you have +2...4...4 Health Regeneration. When Heart of Shadow ends, Shadow Step to the nearest ally. Both you and that ally gain 30...86...100 Health."

Heart of Shadow was not a good skill. By completley reworking its function, it may find interesting uses as another important self-heal on assassins.

• Mirrored Stance: Increased Energy cost to 10. Functionality changed to: "Hex Spell. For 5...13...15 seconds, the next stance target foe uses fails and Mirrored Stance becomes that stance (8...14...15 seconds).

Mirrored Stance was a very foe-depended skill, as you entered both offensive and defensive stances used by the target foe. By changing it so that the foes next stance fail, and Mirrored Stance becomes that stance makes it a viable choice in RA and TA where stances are widely used for defensive purposes.

• Palm Strike: Reverted to the state before December 11th, 2008 update.

Palm Strike was simply too overpowered. Instead of ruining it a lot, we reverted it to the revision in which it was a good skill.

• Twisting Fangs: Now must follow a Dual Attack.

As a powerful skill, Twisting Fangs naturally had a high recharge. Its high recharge didn't make it a choice in normal combos (Lead-Off hand-Dual), so now it may be a good choice as a finisher.

Dervish

• Scythes now do 7-35 damage, and hit up to two foes.

Scythes were overpowered. As simple as that.

• Wounding Strike: Increased recharge to 5. Functionality changed to: "Lose an enchantment. Inflict Bleeding condition (4...15...18). If you lost an enchantment this way, inflict Deep Wound (4...14...16) instead."

Wounding Strike appliead a harmful condition (Deep Wound) covered by another condition. By its spammability, it aloud perma-Deep Wound covered by Perma-cripple on 3 different foes (now 2). It was simply too powerful. By creating a spammable and conditional Deep Wound, not covered by any condition, it is still a viable choice, but not an overpowered one.

• Eremite's Attack (PvP): Increased recharge to 5.

It is basicly the same skill as the PvE version. So we changed it to be actually different.

• Extend Enchantments: Moved to Wind Prayers. Functionality changed to: "Remove all enchantment from yourself. For 10 seconds, enchantments you cast last 100% longer and gain +1 to their respective attribute. End effect:Lose all enchantments and 10 Energy."

Extend Conditions was not a good skill in any situation. So changing it to an enchantment boost skill looked like a good and innovative idea.

• Rending Touch: Increase casting time to 1 and recharge to 10.
• Winds of Disenchantment: Functionality changed to: "Removes all enchantments on you. For each enchantment lost, target foe and a nearby foe lose 1 enchantment."

Rending Touch was too strong. It was abused mostly by Rangers to go through any important enchantment. We have raised the casting time so it can be interrupted and the recharge so it won't go through any important enchantment, but to still be a viable choice.

Winds of Disenchantments had a bad function. It was very unreliable, so we changed it to be a concentrated enchantment removal.

• Aura Slicer: Functionality changed to: "Deals +10...22...25 damage. If target foe is enchanted, you deal an extra 10...15...16 damage, and your next attack is unblockable."
• Zealous Sweep: Reduced recharge to 6.

Both of those skills were underpowered and overshadowed. By decreasing the recharge of Zealous Sweep and changing the functionality of Aura Slicer, they could stand in par with other scythe attacks.

Elementalist

• Searing Flames: Increased recharge to 5. Decreased conditional damage to 10...68...82.

Searing Flames was a great example of no-skill-required same-skill-stack type. It was an extremley overpowered skill, causing 7 degeneration on many foes at once and when stacked causing a lot of damage. By increasing its recharge, we made it a 1-spike oppurtonity and we also decreased its damage, to make it healable.

Mesmer

• Wastrel's Worry: Fuctionally changed to: "Hex Spell. For 3...7...8 seconds, spells successfully cast by target foe take an additional 0...3...4 seconds to recharge. Ends early if target uses a non-spell skill."

Wastrel's Worry was a fire-and-forget type of skill: You use this skill and forget you ever used it, as the target probably died in the meantime. It wasn't fun to play against, so creating an anti-caster skill out of it can be of good use.

Monk

• Amity: Moved to Divine Favor, increased Energy cost to 15, increased cast time to 1, decreased recharge to 35. Functionality changed to: "Elite Spell. Heals all party members for 4...49...60 health. For 10 seconds, the next time a party member will get hit for more than 80 damage, that party member and all nearby allies gain 10...26...30 Health."

Amity was probably the worst elite created in the game, and was left untouched. By changing it into a huge and party wide Spirit Bond, it may find use in high-rank PvE and PvP.

• Mending Touch: Added the clause "Remove 1...2...2 conditions" to the beginning.

At very low spec, Mending Touch proved to be a great self-condition removal skill. By making it remove 2 conditions only in high attributes, it removes the ability to remove many harmful conditions at once.

• Ray of Judgment: Decreased damage to 2...32...40. Decreased burning duration to 1...2.

Ray of Judgment was an extremley powerful spell, creating an AoE effect of burning in every pulse and damage. By slightly reducing both, this is still a good spell, but not overpowered.

• Smiter's Boon (PvP): Energy cost decreased to 10. Activation decreased to 1. Recharge decreased to 20. Moved to Healing Prayers. Functionality changed to: "For 15 seconds, whenever you cast a Smiting Prayers enchantment, a random party member with less than 70% Health gains 10...18...20 Health. Fails if you have less than 5 Divine Favor."

Instead of throwing it out of the window into the garbage truck right into the inciderator, we changed it into an interesting skill.

• Withdraw Hexes: Reduced Energy cost to 10. Functionality changed to: "Removes all Hexes. Removal effect: Heals target for -0...32...40 for each Hex removed. Cannot self target. Fails unless Divine Favor 6 or less."

Withdraw Hexes was about the 2nd worst elite in the game. Now, it is more of a Restore Condition based on hexes.