An alternative to Tabula Rasa: Kaom's Skin

The loss of shields wouldn't prevent RF builds from using this chestpiece. In fact it'd encourage them to use staves -- do not forget about Leo's reduced DoT mod. That would be a significant buff to RF builds, at least in terms of socket potential -- even if this chest didn't have sockets. In terms of actual defense though, that's the harder part to plan around. If your defense is paper thin you die regardless of how much you regen unless your enemies are dead first.

That said I'm not sure I'd bother using it at low levels like some people like use the Tabula Rasa for. While defense is less necessary, your regen is much lower because of lack of life/regen nodes. At least the tabula offers a glass cannon offense and the use of shields, where this would not.

I don't want to overdo my praise for this unique idea, because I'm not sure it should be in the game, but I'll say this: this is the only two-line, low-level-yet-map-viable unique idea I've seen where I'm not sure it shouldn't be in the game.

The chest is too OP, even without the use of a shields...I mean think about it, 20% of 8000 life would yield 1600 life regen, at 10k life would yield 2000 life regen...drawback is not big enough imo! At that amount of regen you would be able to tank rather well with no other defenses! Even at a modest 5000 life would yield 1000 life regen, too much!

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justinmm1988 wrote:

The chest is too OP, even without the use of a shields...I mean think about it, 20% of 8000 life would yield 1600 life regen, at 10k life would yield 2000 life regen...drawback is not big enough imo! At that amount of regen you would be able to tank rather well with no other defenses! Even at a modest 5000 life would yield 1000 life regen, too much!

Yeah, i also think it's a bit too much for such a chest with the only drawback being what it currently is. Something like - max res or some of these:
less attack/cast/move speed/leech(rate)/life/es/block/dodge seems a bit better.

Just my thoughts of a few minutes.

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justinmm1988 wrote:

The chest is too OP, even without the use of a shields...I mean think about it, 20% of 8000 life would yield 1600 life regen, at 10k life would yield 2000 life regen...drawback is not big enough imo! At that amount of regen you would be able to tank rather well with no other defenses! Even at a modest 5000 life would yield 1000 life regen, too much!

It is very hard to get to 8k life without Kaom's Heart, and almost impossible to get 10k life without Kaom's Heart (and a legacy at that). A more realistic estimate without life on the chest is topside of 7k. And you still have to count getting 10% life regen at the minimum for it to give the 20% return. Even at that, it's still pretty much basically the same as life leech while costs you pretty much all your defense, and you probably don't have much of an offense either. Some folks might use it for niche reasons, but I think the vast majority would be RF builds. The type of returns you're talking about require a significant investment I don't think anybody but RF would do.

For those thinking it is too OP, consider Cloak of Defiance and Mind over Matter carefully. Granted, CoD did get nerfed... so this might be a tad overstrong as well. But I doubt it's any more OP than a legacy CoD.

Legacy CoD needs EB for enough mana, forcing you to focus the other gears to give you alot ES. Without ultrahigh mana regen CoD is weak, legacy CoD is weak, MoM is weak... But "Kaom's Skin" can be combined with everything as long as you don't forget to pick the life regen passives. You could even take CI and Zealoth's Oath and focus on high ES that isn't converted to mana.

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ghoulavenger wrote:

The loss of shields wouldn't prevent RF builds from using this chestpiece.

That's not what my point was at all. My point was to prevent it from being an EASY, wildly overpowered option. Think on it: combine this with a Rise of the Phoenix, or even a Springleaf. (which would become hyper-viable then and there; >1k HP/sec JUST from gear?)

The lack of shields isn't to prevent RF from using it AT ALL, just to make it not be the "hyperpowered mandatory" option, the equivalent of, say, gloves on a crit character: you basically have your choice of Maligaro's or Atziri's, and any other pick is at a huge disadvantage.

Rather, the point of balance is to make sure that there's more than one viable choice. Eliminating shields would make it an important one, more akin to, say, using Kaom's Heart or BoR: there's an explicit part of your build you can count on not having with those two items.

So, in that case, we could see an INCREASE in RF build diversity: the whole POINT was considering RF builds that used this. A Staff RF build would be an option that, today, really doesn't exist, but this sort of build choice would let it exist... As meanwhile, taking this chestpiece with no restrictions or other drawbacks to combining with a shield would NOT really enable any staff RF builds: sure, they'd be better than before, but just like before, you'd be far better off with a shield.

Staff RF builds have already been proven viable thanks to Leo's reduced DoT mod. We don't need this for them. Although this would definitely be a good item for it. Rise of the Phoenix is just the easiest and cheapest way to do it.

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The lack of shields isn't to prevent RF from using it AT ALL, just to make it not be the "hyperpowered mandatory" option

Exactly. Plus it also fits King Kaom: that guy didn't like shields, he liked weapons!

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So, in that case, we could see an INCREASE in RF build diversity

Exactly again. I want to point out though that this item was not purely designed around Righteous Fire, even if that is the only skill people associate with my unique.

I have built (non-RF) characters with 11%-13% life regen already. Making that 22%-26% means life regen becomes an actual defensive system, especially combined with other things like Enfeeble, Temporal Chains, Chill, Freeze, (Staff)Block and Dodge, kiting, amongst others.

What I really had in mind when I created this item, was PvP. In PvP Life Regeneration is strong because you kite a lot. And the fact that you hit much less also means LGoH and Life Leech are much less powerfull in PvP, indirectly making Life Regen relatively stronger.

The drawbacks are however sufficiently significant for a PvP character too. HLD PvP is mostly in Standard, so obviously one would still prefer a legacy Kaom's Heart over a Kaom's Skin.

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It is very hard to get to 8k life without Kaom's Heart, and almost impossible to get 10k life without Kaom's Heart (and a legacy at that). A more realistic estimate without life on the chest is topside of 7k. And you still have to count getting 10% life regen at the minimum for it to give the 20% return. Even at that, it's still pretty much basically the same as life leech while costs you pretty much all your defense, and you probably don't have much of an offense either. Some folks might use it for niche reasons, but I think the vast majority would be RF builds. The type of returns you're talking about require a significant investment I don't think anybody but RF would do.

I agree with your explanation about Kaom's Skin NOT being OP. I don't think it would ever become a hype chest. It is something for weird specialised builds only.

While RF seems obvious, I do think though that they won't be the only people using it. Legacy Kaom's Heart + Rise of the Phoenix is much stronger, so only the poor will have 2 choices because if this chest. And even in that case, it doesn't seem to be stronger then the Phoenix approach, so we'll have to wait and see how many RF end up with it.

The main use is indeed intended to be niche. People also tend to forget you can wear it from level 1. For someone investing early enough in flat life regen and later adding % regen, a Kaom's Skin can easily get you through the whole game if combined with other defenses:

Araku Tiku can have 4 life / sec
2x Blackboil gives another 8 life / sec

=> That is 12 life / sec, Kaom's Skin makes it 24 life / sec, AT LEVEL 1!

Throw in 2x Kikazaru at level 20, and you'll not need anything else but life and other liferegen in early game as a defense.

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I don't want to overdo my praise for this unique idea, because I'm not sure it should be in the game, but I'll say this: this is the only two-line, low-level-yet-map-viable unique idea I've seen where I'm not sure it shouldn't be in the game.

Thank you. Tabula Rasa was my inspiration: a simple unique that can be used at any level, not too strong but certainly worth considering if you're not uber-rich.
Why shouldn't it be in the game then according to you?

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That said I'm not sure I'd bother using it at low levels like some people like use the Tabula Rasa for. While defense is less necessary, your regen is much lower because of lack of life/regen nodes. At least the tabula offers a glass cannon offense and the use of shields, where this would not.

You forget about flat life regeneration being much more powerful at low levels (see examples above). Also don't forget Tabula Rasa is often not at full potential in the very low levels because people can simply not yet support the mana cost of a 6-linked skill.

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That being said, I really dislike the downside of "Cannot use shields".

We can't go around that because of RF. And it fits the lore really well... .


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