Create Diversity Among artifacts and companions.

treesclimber

@mimicking#6533 @nitocris83


I don't think i am the only one that likes to see variety in the game so this post is a bit an attempt to extend that variety focusing artifacts and companions.

Artifacts:
Currently we see a big mass of players using 2 or 3 artifacts as their main artifact being all the others a rarity to find, some more than others but nothing comparable to those "big bad guys", so what i wanted to ask is allow artifacts to be affected by damage and healing multipliers, there are already some, the ones i know capable of that are symbol of water and thayan book of the dead (just the DOT). The artifacts with independent damage and healing are the following:

(I included Eye of lathander and bloodcrystal ravenskull but i don't know if it was wise to)

EDIT: VANGUARD'S BANNER BUG IS FIXED!!


One big concern is pvp, not the damage artifacts, thayan book of the dead has been this way for a long time and i don't remember any super massive hits, the problem is in the healing ones, while currently in end game pve using a emblem of seldarine for example is as good as nothing, sure incoming healing bonus is a good factor but if a player takes hits that nearly 1 shot him/her every 2 seconds there will be little that a 4k heal will do, however well buffed it could represent a good healing, the problem is in pvp it could have a game breaking aspect.

Another thing that doesn't seem much right too me is Beacon of simrill, the way this artifact works makes it practically useless as running for healing will often put the player in a dangerous situation and the power bonus is practically impossible to get in a group.


Companions Active bonuses:

A big factor keeping players from picking x or y companion is the fact of a very weak active bonus on lvl 70, similarly to artifacts only a handful of companions is seen in endgame content.
Being these:

So what i propose is apply the general lvl progression to these stats, something close to this(ignore the points):

Where single stat companions would give the owner 900 of a stat and double stated companions give 1000 (the ones that give 165 now), these values will still be relatively small when compared to other companions but much more adequate (what i mean is, at a very high amount of power, to get 1% damage a player has to get more than 400 power, so for example a siege master will be worth probably 2100-2400 power). There are some exceptions to this 900, 1000, such has swashbuckler increase to 1800 and not 900, but the progression still the same, with 2 exeptions, damaran shepherd that doesn't need changes and quasit (people would get sad with a stat drop so i say let them keep the bonus as legacy).

There would be (and are already now) some lack of linearity among companions:

Companions with special bonuses:

After messing around a bit with these bonuses i got some decent data, i used 2 low stats and weak weapon characters on purpose and in solo play so i expect party content with a decent character to have miserable performance, some details and suggestions:

Deadly poison (Tomb spider), in spite of log accusing a critical strike this power can only critically strike randomly at low chance, also there is a big inconsistency in the effectiveness of this power.
Poison (Wererat thief), no critical strikes, not affected by DR debuffs;
Zzaaap(Aranea), Crits, is affected by DR debuffs;
BloodThirst(Lightfoot thief) Can't crit, is affected by DR debuffs;
BloodFire(Renegade evoker) Can't crit, is affected by DR debuffs.

1 note i tried these companions in 2 30 minutes sessions so they had plenty of chance to trigger.The ones i didn't mention i didn't try because i was out of AD and there were none for sale on preview. 2nd note, some of these also can't flank but as i played alone and didn't pay much attention i can only assume which ones don't by looking at other's % so i wont take conclusions about flanking

Overall the damage they provided was very disappointing, my suggestion upon the results i had in order to make these all content viable:

Deadly poison, regularize the DR debuff effect and critical strike, add to the base damage an amount equal to the player power dividing by 50.
Poison, add to the base damage an amount equal to the player power dividing by 100 and add the DR debuff and critical strike influence;
Zzaap, increase the chance for this power to trigger by at least 3 times.
Bloodthirst, change base damage to at least lvl*3, it may be too powerful for TR's soloing but in a dungeon it wont be.
Bloodfire, change base damage to 3% of player max HP, like bloodthirst it may be too powerfull in solo but not in a dungeon.


Some companions bugs:

treesclimber

When i say bonus damage not working on archons i mean that 0,5% by each archon, these bugs are know i just wanted to make some pressure because they are important and old bugs. And....i missed some stuff i thought i wrote, that's what i get for writing this half asleep.

ghoulz66

I hope artifacts get an overhaul in the future and behave like an additional encounter with their damage scaling. Damage dealing artifacts are so useless for pve endgame.

treesclimber

ren047 said:

Would giving the option to switch runeslots in companions to offensive/defensive and vice-versa solve part of the problem? Even at the cost of AD?

That is a more complicated problem because companions have a inner balance and a reason to have slots like they do, it is just my opinion but i don't think a option to make those defense slots offense slots is needed but yes a way to make more useful for people that intended them to be offense slots, the best example i can give you is an eldritch runestone, a rework would be needed to make it work like that but that is runestones related matter. To answer directly to you question: post is simply regarding the increase on active bonus nothing to do with runestones slots.

sobac

Yeah, indeed, those companions that were created before mod6-7 never received a stat boost, well, actually, not a single companion received a boost, AFAIK An epic companion that gives 165*2 stats as active bonus is not even meh (unless some sort of buff debuff power). I think these companions should receive a x2 boost and some might start using them as active. +50% HP should help too.

As for companion influence - if i'm not wrong, it's WAI, or was WAI at least. It gives you a % of comp stats without any items/runes. Striker comp, for example, have 477*3 stats. That's why comp influence is quite lackluster, but it works. Don't remember if HP counts too.

treesclimber

sobac said:

Yeah, indeed, those companions that were created before mod6-7 never received a stat boost, well, actually, not a single companion received a boost, AFAIK An epic companion that gives 165*2 stats as active bonus is not even meh (unless some sort of buff debuff power). I think these companions should receive a x2 boost and some might start using them as active. +50% HP should help too.

As for companion influence - if i'm not wrong, it's WAI, or was WAI at least. It gives you a % of comp stats without any items/runes. Striker comp, for example, have 477*3 stats. That's why comp influence is quite lackluster, but it works. Don't remember if HP counts too.

No, just tried it again, no stat increase from anywhere.

nitocris83

Linking this thread in the community report. Thank you for the thought/work put into this

treesclimber

nitocris83 said:

Linking this thread in the community report. Thank you for the thought/work put into this

Thank you.

@sobac we were both wrong, companion influence is working, it will pick your companion base stats and increase them by the % of companion influence stat bonus, the player will see this change on himself by bonus sharing, eldrich, augments and bondings, all work as long as you had the insignias/artifact equiped by the time you summoned your companion. It's not uch but it's there.

sobac

Indeed Saw your post in preview thread and thought you will update this one later. Man, really, i thought it was working like eldritch runestone in defensive slot Maybe it was working like that in the past, dunno. Anyways, never payed too much attention to this stat.
OTOH, bonus stats should still be updated a bit