Simplest Demigod Balance Tweaks
3 hours of work for GPG, months of enjoyment for players
Demigod Forums
The following small tweaks would go a long way to open up the state of play across the board.
Some of these changes are more complex, of course, but I tried hard to keep it to the numbers so it would be an afternoon's work for GPG or a couple of days for a modder.
I found some of this stuff in other people's posts, so all credit to them:
Gameplay:
1. Nerf BotF to 600 HP and 4 hps
2. All values on the Assassin stats skill line increased 20%
3. All values on the General morale skill line increased 10%
4. Decrease sigil active time 25%
5. Idol Minotaur health increased scaling 15%
6. Idol Priest heal cooldown increased 4 seconds
DGs
1. QoT's Spike Wave functions as an AoE interrupt along path of wave
2. QoT's Bramble Shield lowers mana cost at level 4 a la Rook's PoT
3. DA and QoT baseline health increased scaling 10%
4. DA's mana regen increased 15%
5. DA baseline autoattack damage increased scaling 10%
6. DA's Warp Area can hit a single target up to three times when no other targets available
7. Reg's Mark of the Betrayer interrupts enemy abilities when it is cast
8. TB's form switch animation from ice to fire accelerated to 0.2
9. Sedna's Yeti baseline speed increased 15%
10. Range on all levels of Erb's Bat Swarm decreased by 15%
11. Erb's minion baseline health decreased scaling 10%
12. Rook speed increased 0.1
13. UB speed decreased 0.1
14. Occulus Blast Off ability functions as range 5 AoE interrupt at point of impact
15. Stun/Interrupt immunity on Oak's Shield available starting at skill level 4
On the balance stuff you can see my biases here. Since June or so the high-level metagame has revolved around healthstacking + monks + sigils + demigods who have interrupts and stuns. Every DG who doesn't fit into the above formula needs to be played at a much higher level to compete, regardless of their other abilities. Something's gotta give.
Gameplay Rationale -
HP stacking is nerfed a bit with BotF and Sigil changes . Without revamping the idol priest mechanic completely I thought the best way to mitigate the advantage they present would be to increase the cooldown between heals, which will make burst damage more effective. Stats and morale become more viable as build lines. Idol minotaurs become more effective as tanks.
DG rationale -
Reg, QoT, and Occ get interrupts. QoT gets a bit more health and a big mana bonus to lategame shield. Erb has a slightly lower escape window. UB has a slightly lower speed advantage. Yetis might still be useless, but at least they move faster. TB gets a faster form switch, which makes dancing less frustrating. DA gets some buffs, which he needs to stay competitive. Rook and Occ get a bit of speed, which makes the curve shallower for new or intermediate players. Oak needs to invest a bit more and a bit later to get his invincible portal lock on.
What I'm going for is an across-the-board shift in balance away from straight HP stacked teams of UB+Erb+Random and toward a more diverse set of playstyles and strategies. The secondary objective is to make this balance change as easy to absorb for the developers as possible.
With that in mind, if someone wanted to make an elegant mod which incorporated all of these balance changes, or at least the complex ones like adding an interrupt to Spike Wave, that would be truly awesome, and it would make any integration into the official build that much faster.
If you have any thoughts on this stuff please feel free, but KISS - keep it simple, stupid - changing the numbers slightly is easy to implement and balance, completely rebuilding and rebalancing a given ability or mechanic is hard
Thanks for reading
Kestrel
