Rework Innate SkillsNow that Sigma will allow different skills to have overlapping timers, I think this is a good time to buff/rework many of the Innate skills. Previously Marco was against the idea of buffing them because they don't require skill points to use, but I think by putting timers on some of them you can make them into fun
utility skills without having them make real skills less desirable.
But first, why do we need to rework the Innate skills in the first place? I think we should because they're a simple way to make the game play of every class a bit more interesting and 'thematic'. Several of them already do this, so let's discuss which do and which don't
The good:- Burning Veil (necro): Nice, strong party buff. Fitting for a Necromancer who usually relies on minions. Buffs everything he does, from spells to totems to minions. Even the way the buff is applied is interesting, since you can't just click it and get the buff for your whole party. You can even double buff your totems.
- Vindicate (pala): Useful healing buff and damage buff in one spell. Need to kill enemies to get the benefit, so it has some interesting limitations (it's useless in some areas, like vs. Death Projector)
- Titan Strike (barb): Not as powerful as the above two, but it's a very fitting skill for the barb. The barb is supposed to be a tanky character and this skill rewards the player for getting into melee range to apply it. Every barb can use the heal, and the strength and dex bonuses are useful for most of them.
The bad:- Bloodlust (zon): Extremely minor party buff to physical attack and elemental spell damage. Theoretically every zon player should keep this buff up at all times, but you'll never notice it, especially late game. You can just click anywhere to cast it and buff all your allies on the screen, which is convenient but boring.
- Mark of the Wild (dru): Similar buff to Bloodlust, but also offers a minor buff to attack speed. This one is harder to apply to allies for some reason, since you need to click each of them to do it. No idea why, it's not like it's any more powerful.
The ugly:- Forcewall (sorc): This could potentially be a useful skill in some situations, but I don't know if it's good enough. Is this a skill you find yourself using late game?
- Bloodbath (sin): This is actually a really powerful ability, but the problem is that it's for a very specific subset of sins (melee dual-claw). I don't think it should be an innate skill. I would rather it be in the dual claw tree instead of the claw passive on there, and the sin get a new innate skill that every build can use.
Suggestions:- Burning Veil: No change needed
- Vindicate: Might want to change it even though it is good. Doesn't it take up a monprop on every monster in the game?
- Titan Strike: Nerf the early game heal (barb doesn't even need potions early game) and maybe buff it late game a bit. Possibly make it shoot a nova and add a small separate timer to make it feel more powerful.
- Bloodlust: Change entirely. Turn it into a much more powerful buff that substantially increases damage, cast and move speed (maybe also a lot of life on kill?) that only lasts for a short duration but has a long timer. That way you actually feel that your character is feeling Bloodlust for that duration. The duration and timer could change with level (say 3s -> 5s and 60s -> 30s).
- Mark of the Wild: Change it so that you're 'marking' a target instead of buffing yourself, to make it differ from Bloodlust. Some sort of powerful short-duration small-AoE curse on a long timer, with the duration and timer changing with level as with Bloodlust above. Or maybe you could somehow mark a target and you get bonus attack, move and cast speed when near it, but that might be impossible.
- Forcewall: Make the timer separate from other timers. Maybe have it spawn a circular forcewall around you every X frames that lasts for X frames, for a total of 3-4 seconds with a 20s timer. Like the Smith in A4, except around you and on a smaller duration so that it seems to move with you.
- Bloodbath: Make it an actual skill instead of Shadow Dancer, as suggested. Give the sin another innate skill, for example, 'Summon Drone: summons a flying drone that shoots Limpet Lasers, Electrofield and Fireball Sentry attacks and creates a Singularity at its location on death. 20s timer'. Something fun like that.
and bring warlocks back
