Trickster Melee Rework v3.2 with Energy Shield and more trickery

The current trickster does not embody the spirit of a trickster. The trickster needs more chaos, but not in the form of chaos damage. And more tricks. Always more tricks. The theme of the new trickster is outplaying your enemies with an impish arcanist's wile. The trickster's greatest aspiration is to maintain his impish delight fueled by ironic detachment.

Ascension Clusters

Harness the Void
Assigns two random magic based curses on melee hit for three seconds.
Increase elemental damage by 33.3%
(Curses are consecutive)

Voidcaller
Expired curses grant endurance charges.
Endurance charges cause energy shield to recharge 7% faster per charge.
13% damage reduction if energy shield is full.
21% damage reduction if energy shield recharge has started recently.
21% increased run and attack speed while energy shield is at zero.
Requires Harness the Void.

Now you see me
Phase Run grants invisibility for 1.5 seconds.
Increase energy shield recharge by 40% while phasing.
Regenerate 15% of maximum Life while phasing.
Cannot be supported by increased or reduced duration.

Divine Comedy
After spending 600 mana drop a smoke bomb causing affected enemies to become paralyzed decoys for 3.33 seconds.
Cannot be supported by mana multiplier.

Arcane Trickery
Double strike has a 33.3% chance to shock, freeze, or chill your opponent.
Elemental ailments increase physical damage by 33.3%
Elemental ailments have a 33.3% chance to apply 3-111 chaos damage.
Elemental ailments have a 7% chance to reflect back to the caster granting onslaught for seven seconds.

Arcane Distortion
Increases to physical damage apply to spell damage for seven seconds. Gain 3 power charges.
Increases to spell damage apply to physical damage for seven seconds. Gain 3 frenzy charges.

Vile Persuasion
Toxic dart possess affected enemies for three seconds causing them to explode on death dealing 25% of their total life damage as cold damage.
Regenerate 3% of maximum life per explosion.

Alchemical Reverence
Cold damage shocks.
Fire damage freezes.
Chaos damage applies bleeds.

Skill gems

Reflect
Reflect all damage for .7 seconds. .33 second cast time. Three second cooldown. Requires 150 dexterity.

Void Strike
Project multistrike melee hits from a distance. Capable of three charges. Requires 200 dexterity.

Toxic Darts
Slows enemies and applies a elemental damage debuff. 2.5 second cooldown. Requires 200 dexterity.

Rupture
Causes surrounding enemies to receive increased damage. Three second cooldown. Requires 200 dexterity.

Footwork
While disabled increase global evasion rating by 30% and dodge rating by 7%, while enabled increases physical damage and critical strike chance. Requires 200 dexterity.


****

Rogue
Voidwitch
Underworld

"

鬼殺し wrote:

Still, a greater focus on EV/dodge/ES as a concept would be most welcome. Ghost dance is great because it combines the idea of extra evasion/dodge when you have energy shield (although the first one is 'full', it really shouldn't be), but Escape Artist doesn't build on it at all. It goes off in some brainfart direction boosting ES and EV, forgetting dodge altogether -- and dodge is THE single greatest tool a Trickster should have.

See, by going EV/ES, you're giving up Acrobatics/Phase Acrobatics (40% dodge, 30% spell dodge), and the Ascendancy notables need to more than make up for that. Right now, they do not.

More broadly speaking, I find most of your suggestions too convoluted, specific or involved to be viable as Ascendancy notables. Sorry. :(

The abilities you are pitching would work better for a duelist ascendancy. As for the idea of jack of all trades assassin type character, that's quite bland and the scion does that much better. I am giving the character more agency and a higher skill ceiling.

Specialized classes are a good thing when we have like eighteen ascendencies. Furthermore: constraints allow for creativity. Just ask any oldschool RPG players.

"

鬼殺し wrote:

Well, uhm...the Trickster was always meant to be THE EV/ES specialist (if that wasn't obvious just looking at the nodes), so that's a no to the Duelist call, who is EV/AR typically. Not really getting a 'let's discuss this' so much as a 'this is what I want and that's that' vibe from you, so I'll bow out. Good luck. :)

Haha not a discussion when you take my concept and paste your es and jack of all trades concepts over the top of it. These are the solutions to the problems I see, and you are just pitching those problems back at me.

ES is restrictive for this playstyle. Dodge/evasion works better for rapidly dipping in and out. ES would work better for assassin so they can dip in deliver their damage, then wait for their dots while the ES recharges. The trickster rework is setup so a high skill player can keep up constant pressure, while pushing the limits of actions per minute with a bar full of skills.

There is some overlap between assassin and duelist as high damage melee types, but duelist can borrow more from the defensive side of the tree and can use physical skills such as blinds, push kicks, and stuns while specializing in longer blades, shields, leeching, unarmoured combat, and blocking.

Skill gems are pretty much "the more the merrier" as far as I'm concerned, go wild there, but I'm noooooot really a fan of these ascendancy changes.

Trickster has long been pretty much my favourite ascendancy, and melee Tricksters specifically are among my favourite characters - usually it's claws, Wild Strike, crit, life/evasion/ES. And unfortunately these changes would largely remove the appeal of the class for me. I think Trickster is in a pretty good spot at the moment; there are some bits that could be tweaked, but I don't see the need for this drastic a rework at all. Too much good stuff is getting thrown out here - I mean, the game now no longer has an evade/ES specialist? I have to say "no thanks" to that.

"

nooooodles wrote:

This will be the first ascension with a granted ability. The granted ability will encourage players to use an overflowing chalice like setup, granting another layer of trickery.

Granted Ability: Potent Brew Increase run and attack speed by 13% while under flask effects.

Why though? I'm a little biased against this one because utility flasks are about my least favourite part of the game, but this seems a little...impulsive? Random? Disconnected?

Nothing in the rest of the proposed ascendancy nodes supports/acknowledges this skill. I could have gained this speed in various ways in the existing Trickster (frenzy charges, ES recharge, movement skills, all of which you've eliminated) without having to take up an extra skill slot. And a 13% speed buff is a long way from being a unique enough buff to feel like it justifies adding a whole new class of skill.

"

nooooodles wrote:

Harness the Void: Randomly assigns two dexterity based curses on melee hit. Switches every seven seconds.

This could be a reasonable pick for some characters, yeah, though I'd note random curses is pretty much the opposite of "high skill". I know you want "more chaos", but I'd think the chaos is what the trickster's enemies experience, not necessarily what the trickster deals with.

"

nooooodles wrote:

Voidcaller: Expired curses grant endurance charges. 15% increased run and attack speed at full endurance charges.

Shadow is Dex/Int, the polar opposite of Strength-aligned stuff like Endurance charges. So if anything, Shadow's ascendancy classes should be specifically avoiding them. Endurance charges are for tanking damage, not dodging it.

Plus I love Swift Killer and you're just flat-out removing it for this.

Could be an interesting node on Hierophant or something though!

"

nooooodles wrote:

Vile Persuasion: Toxic dart possess affected enemies for three seconds and explode on death dealing 25% of their total life damage as cold damage.
Arcane Divine: Double strike has a 10% chance to apply a random elemental affliction.

I can't speak about the efficacy of a skill gem that doesn't exist yet, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't take this Double Strike node even on a Double Strike character.

And really, the Toxic Dart one seems like functionality better included in the skill itself, so it's actually a potentially interesting skill for any other class.

"

nooooodles wrote:

Eyes on me: After spending 600 mana drop a smoke bomb that causes enemies to become decoys for 2 seconds.

"Enemies become decoys" is by far my favourite thing in this set; specific numbers aside, I do think that's a neat idea that'd be fun to play with :)

"

nooooodles wrote:

Skill gems
Footwork: While disabled increase global evasion rating by 30% and dodge rating by 13%, while enabled increase physical damage by 40%. Requires daggers and 200 dexterity.

"While disabled"? So free 13% dodge for one gem slot? Bit too much of a no-brainer, surely? Or is this a rotating buff like the Aspect skills?

Really enjoying Trickster, I am against any drastic changes personally.

About what could fit the dodge archetype, why not a reactive attack on dodge, that has a change to blind ?

"

nooooodles wrote:

Arcane Distortion: Every seven seconds 60% of physical damage applies to spell damage.

Do you mean :
"Every seven seconds, adds 60% of your physical increase damage as spell damage" ?

Thanks for the feedback, gave me some things to consider, changed things up as a result! Most of these skills and abilities are for things like wildstrike/elemental hits. The trickster is a master of arcane fuckery who plays with a full skillbar in order to keep constant pressure on his foes.


1. I mean, the game now no longer has an evade/ES specialist? I have to say "no thanks" to that.

ES is restrictive for this playstyle. Dodge/evasion works better for rapidly dipping in and out. ES would work better for the assassin so they can dip in deliver their damage, then dip out while they wait for their dots and ES. We can even spike DOT damage while energy shield is recharging.

The trickster rework is setup so a high skill player can keep up constant pressure, while pushing the limits of actions per minute with a bar full of skills. Instead of es, we get tricky and use other forms of magic to mitigate damage.

2. Already deleted the granted ability, I think you were writing this while I was still editing. What I liked about it is adding more for the player to juggle and giving additional class identity. The skill choice was wrong, I can come up with something better.

3. With random curses, your damage spikes unpredictably. With the right skill gem combination attacks like wildstrike become very powerful.

4. Having endurance charges will help to mitigate more damage, while also making you reconsider your CWDT chain. Combined with reflect you can come up with some interesting new possibilities provided you are fast enough. Endurance charges are magic in nature and gives the trickster more sustained power. Like I said, this class is about constant pressure, not timing your energy shield and chosing your opening which is more assassin like.

5. I can just crank up the double stike random affliction at like 35% then it starts to look really attractive. The intention was using this as a base for some arcane CoC fuckery. Again I love wildstrike, so this is really just a more customizable wildstrike.

6. Evasive stance: 30% increased evasion, and 7% increased dodge. Attack stance: Increase physical damage and critical strike chance.

High skill players will rapidly change stances as it is a skillgem with a toggle. Off is evasive stance, on is attack stance.

"

nooooodles wrote:

Harness the Void: Randomly assigns two dexterity based curses on melee hit. Switches every seven seconds.

The old harness the void has this cool little interaction between damage conversion and chaos damage which would make for interesting build. by now it turns out that this is 0.7 elder-mods(non-chaos damage added as chaos-damage) which makes the old version quite weak in comparison. having said that, i really don't like this, because it makes the players own playstyle chaotic. Nevertheless, 2 free curses are pretty strong if you are willing to play around it. of courses one would probably lose warlords mark because of the curse limit?

"

Vile Persuasion: Toxic dart possess affected enemies for three seconds and explode on death dealing 25% of their total life damage as cold damage.

So a better version of infernal blow? just from a distance?

"

Alchemical Reverence: Cold damage shocks. Fire damage freezes. Chaos damage applies bleeds.
Arcane Divine: Double strike has a 33.3% chance to apply a random elemental affliction.

Except vile persuasion explosions, nothing in your tree deals elemental damage. Even worse, double strike is pure phys by default. thus the effect of literally all elemental effects will be zero. Wild strike is already inflecting kind-of all effects in rotation, so does not profit from it. What is the intended use here? Elemental-Hit-avatar-of-fire to inflict freeze and ignite and ignore Arcane Divine?

Hey leo, thanks for the feedback.

I already changed harness the void to add magic curse. You must have been formed this after I made changes. The playstyle is supposed to be chaotic, tricksters are chaotic in nature.

The theme is arcane fuckery- misdirection and sustained pressure with arcane infused damage spikes. Nothing in the tree is supposed to have elemental damage, that would make this crazy op.

For example: Wild strike with my harness the void applies two random magic curses. Out of a pool of despair, flammability, frostbite, conductivity, elemental weakness, enfeeble, and assassins mark. You are bound to have some wild effects.

Elemental CoC builds are what the rest of the kit is geared toward damage wise. With double strike (arcane divine), you can start an interesting cast on crit chain with elemental spells. Other nodes in the tree amplify these builds.

Arcane distortion will again affect things like elemental hit, and wildstrike. Combined with CoC you can have some pretty interesting combinations. If you want to throw a chaos gem in there your chaos will apply bleeds as enemies chase you around. I chose double strike because a faster attack would be a bit op. You can still stack crit chance and attack speed quite well with double strike. You can use any elemental to phys as base: molten strike, elemental hit, wildstrike, static strike, etc. Double strike applying an elemental affliction just gives a phys base that is assassin like, but wouldn't be too op.

"

Vile Persuasion: Toxic dart possess affected enemies for three seconds and explode on death dealing 25% of their total life damage as cold damage.

So a better version of infernal blow? just from a distance?

Infernal Blow is a melee attack skill that converts half of Physical Damage to Fire Damage, applying a special debuff to enemies. So no?

Vile persuasion stacks on the toxic dart debuff causing small packs to turn on eachother. Very tricky.

arcane divine is still at maximum a "meh". For elemental afflictions to have any effect, you have to deal elemental damage and they all scale by the amount of elemental damage inflicted. DS is not dealing any. if you split damage across elements, you will not see any effect. If you decide to deal single-element damage, you will have a 33% chance to apply the right ailment - which is worse than scaling simply to 33% crit-chance, which also scales your damage. Also elemental ailments are all quite meh, even if scaled heavily.

This really does not add up.

"
Infernal Blow is a melee attack skill that converts half of Physical Damage to Fire Damage, applying a special debuff to enemies. So no?"
So, yes, as your ascendany is adding exactly the same debuff? just 4x stronger? Conversion is really not the interesting element here, you can get an arbitrary amount of phys->x conversion easily.

"

UlfgardLeo wrote:

arcane divine is still at maximum a "meh". For elemental afflictions to have any effect, you have to deal elemental damage and they all scale by the amount of elemental damage inflicted. DS is not dealing any.

Thanks again for taking the time. I changed a bunch of stuff based off these comments.

I chose double strike as CoC trigger instead of lacerate because with all the other bonuses, especially harness the void. The damage would get pretty high, pretty quick. This is not intended to be an efficient steamroller class.

An example chain would be Arcane distortion with Arcane trickery + glacial cascade + magma orb. The glacial cascade converts phys damage and can shock. Magma orb can throw down freeze charges. With certain combinations of cast on crit gems, you can cover a wider range of the elemental spectrum. If you combine elemental damage nodes with harness the void, and physical damage you will have some serious damage spikes.

Double strike I think I will change it to applies shock, chill, or freeze. thanks for the tip!

There are several attack skills that convert phys to elemental damage which can all be used as bases and triggers in coc chains. And besides, this class isn't about effencicy, you are an impish arcane assassin, your goal is to look cool and enjoy yourself while disposing of monsters. The trickster is never without a sense of ironic detachment, and if he actually tried he would be far too powerful for any of this to be amusing.