Why are we bringing back Talents?
We have decided to bring back talents, as a result of a poll in the discord a few months back. In this poll we learned that while players enjoy being able to customize their character, some of our older system designs actually limited our players with the variety of spells they can use. The re-introduction of Talents hopes to keep customizability, without overwhelming and restricting player’s options. Due to this, Spell trees and loadouts have been removed at this time.
What are Talents?
Talents are what make you different from any other witch or wizard, giving you the possibility to improve your spells in a way and combination that suits your combat abilities. There are three different categories of talents: Duelist, Transfigurer, and Mediwizard. These categories have up to 5 tiers of talents you can select from that are geared towards that category's specific combat style.
Duelist: These talents are geared towards witches or wizards who attack their foes more aggressively!
Transfigurer: These talents are geared towards witches or wizards who aim to guard their allies and distract foes!
Mediwizard: These talents are geared towards witches or wizards who want to heal and protect their allies during fights!
Talents will be unlocked at Level 16. The levels each Talent Tier will be unlocked at is listed below:
Tier 1: Level 16
Tier 2: Level 31
Tier 3: Level 51
Tier 4: Level 61
Tier 5: Level 71
In PVP scenarios, including Challenges, Classes, and Dueling Halls will now give everyone the same stats with the ability to create your own unique Talent setup.
In PVE, everyone will still have their gear stats.
Talents can be accessed by doing /me --> and clicking the Talents Icon (it's in the place Spell Trees was).
Magic
With the re-introduction of Talents, there was bound to be some Magic balancing. The Systems Team and the Player Testers tested Magic very carefully, and we hope the results create a combat system that allows everyone to use a variety of spells.
Because Spell Trees have been removed, we have had to change the ‘base value’ of all of the combat-related spells to fit into the new Talent system accordingly. You may notice that some of the spells that you didn’t use prior to this update are stronger, despite not having any spell point mechanics; and then the spells that you had all 3 points in, may be a little weaker. We gave all spells an average balancing value, so that there isn’t the overuse of only a few spells like we had before.
Unfortunately we will not be listing every single balancing change that we made during testing, as there is simply too much to track and list.
We will however list a few key spell changes that we feel changes the functionality/meta of these spells
- Levicorpum is now a skillshot spell.
- Levosus no longer puts the target's Ascendo on cooldown.
- The initial hit damage of Baulectrium was reduced by 1/4. Increased mana cost 30 --> 38.
- Removed cast time from Incendo. Incendo can now also deal damage to the caster.
- Ignis is now a short ranged projectile that ignites the target, with a slightly increased hitbox.
- Increased base blindness duration on Antioculus 1.5s --> 3s.
- Reduced mana cost of Tempellious 32 --> 28. Reduced cast time 1.5s --> 1s. Increased velocity 30--> 45. Reduced spell gravity slightly.
- Reduced cast time of Igniotempus 2s --> 1s. Reduced mana cost 42 --> 37. Increased base radius 4 --> 5.
- Reduced mana cost of Lacerum Incisis 55 --> 50. Reduced initial damage by around 1/2.
- Reduced range of Incarcerum 30 --> 20. Reduced mana cost 35 --> 27.
- Reduced mana cost of Specutelum 17 --> 12. Reduced cast time 1s --> 0.7s.
Gear
As some of you may know, Talents bring in a lot of extra stats on top of gear. During testing, we felt that the balancing of Talents & Gear stats combined was extremely OP. We have gone through and made pretty significant changes to the amount of stats that you can get from gear max. The stats that have been adjusted from this change include: Cast Time, Radius, Range, Debuff Duration, and Knockback.
We have also gone through some of the Healing Gear Hands and nerfed the values, due to healing being overpowered during testing.
We hope that these gear changes will be great the first time around, but we will keep an eye on player feedback after release, and may make changes.
Gauntlet Bosses
We have received some player feedback on the forums about some of the bosses in the Revenant taking too long to kill. We have made some health adjustments to hopefully address those concerns a little bit. We may make more balancing changes after release.
Enchantress Health: 400,000 → 380,000
Butcher Health: 500,000 → 470,000
Other Unspeakable Patches
The Unspeakable team has made a few patches from player feedback and suggestions:
- Added a Staircase warp to warp to any level of the Dark Prison
- Added a checkpoint to the Library Parkour
- Added the Required Level to the Quest Journal
- Updated /help to include additional help getting XP
Credits:
Talents Design & Implementation: Zmiy and xAutumnn
Talents Balancing: xAutumnn, Salmandingo, and Player Testers
Spell Balancing: xAutumnn, Salmandingo, and Player Testers
Gear Re-Balancing: _Klene, Thrashaba, Salmandingo, and xAutumnn
Boss Re-Balances: xAutumnn
Backend Implementation & Release: DenizTM and xAutumnn
Other World Patches: Unspeakable Team
