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Improving the Oppressor (Suggestion thread)
malyc
Member Posts: 9 Arc User
I've been wanting to make an Oppressor, except I feel the entire line of chilling/freezing an opponent is fundamentally flawed at this time. The primary reason for this is how control immunity works in a PvP or PvE scenario in conjunction with the CW's class features and feats which require a control effect to be on the target.
To put it simply, when an opponent is immune to chill, chill-based wizards can do a whole lot of nothing for damage. Compound this with the Oppressor's current state and there's your reason why no CW can go a chill-based damage build. However, I have a set of suggestions to help remedy these issues:
1) Alter Chill's current format from a single debuff to two debuffs. The first is an indicator for how chilled a target is (and is the one used to calculate damage boosts from Chilling Presence or feat-based boosts such as Blighting Power or Cold Infusion. The second debuff is the disabling portion.
Reasoning: This would result in the feats still going through to control-immune enemies while not actually controlling the enemies (these opponents would be immune to the second, but the first would still remain).
2) Alter Ray of Frost to cast indefinitely until the player stops holding the key down or the target dies.
Reasoning: This is mostly a quality of life change, but if Devoted Clerics can cast their divine at-wills indefinitely, I'd like to have the same.
That does it for the general changes, but I still have a bit more about the Oppressor feat tree. It's currently garbage by comparison to the other two. It lacks damage, disable, or utility. In fact, it's a minor boost to a couple skills, most of which can't be used together effectively. Where the other two trees do a decent job of becoming more focused in utility or damage, the Oppressor tree is a conglomeration of garbage that is only slightly more useful than other builds in very specific circumstances. For this reason, I'm suggesting a remake to the entire tree, and focusing it more toward the disable and control portions than the mistake it is currently.
Tier One-
No changes. The first two tiers should always be generic stuff that the other trees can find useful, and these two feats accomplish this.
Tier Two-
Chilling Control - Removed. Replaced with Alacrity.
Tier Three-
Cold Infusion - Reduces enemy damage by 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5% per stack of chill on it.
Glacial Movement - Removed. Replaced with:
Cold Storm - Lightning damage attacks now have a 5/10/15/20/25% chance to apply 1 stack of chill to a target.
Tier Four-
Alacrity - Was moved to tier two. Replaced with:
Permafrost - Targets that are unfrozen have a 10/20/30/40/50% chance to retain 2 stacks of Chill.
Controlled Momentum - Removed. Replaced with:
Sudden Freeze - 3/6/9/12/15% chance upon application of a stack of chill to apply another one.
Tier Five-
Shatter Strike - Removed. Replaced with:
Shatter Strike - Frozen targets are considered as having 12 stacks of chill for damage purposes.
I know this probably won't happen, but eh. I'm posting it anyways just to see discussion or what-not.
To put it simply, when an opponent is immune to chill, chill-based wizards can do a whole lot of nothing for damage. Compound this with the Oppressor's current state and there's your reason why no CW can go a chill-based damage build. However, I have a set of suggestions to help remedy these issues:
1) Alter Chill's current format from a single debuff to two debuffs. The first is an indicator for how chilled a target is (and is the one used to calculate damage boosts from Chilling Presence or feat-based boosts such as Blighting Power or Cold Infusion. The second debuff is the disabling portion.
Reasoning: This would result in the feats still going through to control-immune enemies while not actually controlling the enemies (these opponents would be immune to the second, but the first would still remain).
2) Alter Ray of Frost to cast indefinitely until the player stops holding the key down or the target dies.
Reasoning: This is mostly a quality of life change, but if Devoted Clerics can cast their divine at-wills indefinitely, I'd like to have the same.
That does it for the general changes, but I still have a bit more about the Oppressor feat tree. It's currently garbage by comparison to the other two. It lacks damage, disable, or utility. In fact, it's a minor boost to a couple skills, most of which can't be used together effectively. Where the other two trees do a decent job of becoming more focused in utility or damage, the Oppressor tree is a conglomeration of garbage that is only slightly more useful than other builds in very specific circumstances. For this reason, I'm suggesting a remake to the entire tree, and focusing it more toward the disable and control portions than the mistake it is currently.
Tier One-
No changes. The first two tiers should always be generic stuff that the other trees can find useful, and these two feats accomplish this.
Tier Two-
Chilling Control - Removed. Replaced with Alacrity.
Tier Three-
Cold Infusion - Reduces enemy damage by 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5% per stack of chill on it.
Glacial Movement - Removed. Replaced with:
Cold Storm - Lightning damage attacks now have a 5/10/15/20/25% chance to apply 1 stack of chill to a target.
Tier Four-
Alacrity - Was moved to tier two. Replaced with:
Permafrost - Targets that are unfrozen have a 10/20/30/40/50% chance to retain 2 stacks of Chill.
Controlled Momentum - Removed. Replaced with:
Sudden Freeze - 3/6/9/12/15% chance upon application of a stack of chill to apply another one.
Tier Five-
Shatter Strike - Removed. Replaced with:
Shatter Strike - Frozen targets are considered as having 12 stacks of chill for damage purposes.
I know this probably won't happen, but eh. I'm posting it anyways just to see discussion or what-not.
Post edited by malyc on
0
Comments
I definitely think we could use some work in our control abilities. Mostly, I'm hoping for a second specialization and some options outside Ice (psionics?)
The chill changes you suggest definitely help. A few basics that I would like the devs to consider:
-Control should be a viable, desirable path for players
-Since we have so few skills, no skill should lose viability when going from 'trash' to 'bosses'. Any hard-resists (like how bosses can't be frozen) should be compensated with a debuff or group buff.
-Honestly, I think every tier in the Oppressor tree should be control or self/group buff. We already have 2 damage trees, additional damage feats seem redundant and against the 'point' of the tree.
but i hope neverwinter would give us a chance to stand a bit against those who are immune to cold