Passive Tree Feedback/Design Suggestions for All Characters Pt1

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Passive Tree Feedback/Design Suggestions for All Characters Pt 1

For easier reading or to see the post in full, see Reddit here

Tl;dr Long post with suggestions on how to improve passive trees, with a focus on final/ultimate passives. Tries to work solely with current game mechanics/assets (no brand-new skills such as Warchief). If you want to jump to the character you love most, search for “Name:” (for instance, ctrl+f “Merris:” without the quotation marks.

First, a huge thank you to the Realm Archive team for such a great game. I have played non-stop since the patch, recommended it to anyone I can, and loved every moment of it.
The intent of this post is to help improve the game. I realize fully that it may not have any impact, and that’s ok. I enjoyed writing it; I hope you enjoy reading it.

Design Philosophy:

• Every character should have at least two strong, thematic builds that change some aspect of how the game is played and at least one additional generically powerful build as an “opt out” option.
• “Strong builds” such as Cast Merris, Strike Lorien, and Warchief Kront are the goal. These builds are fun and deliver the “Oh wow!” moment when you finally complete the tree by allocating their final points. These builds may very well need a nerf, but the goal here is to bring many builds up to their level. Then if nerfs are needed, they can all be nerfed accordingly.
• I will focus on mechanically interesting passives when suggesting changes. Most of these will be “ultimate” passives. The remainder of the trees also deserve love, but this is already a very long post.
• Changes should be mindful that the developers are human and have limited time and resources. For example, “Merris should have an ability that lets her ride a dragon,” while cool, would require all-new assets compared to tweaking summon stats or behavior. I’ve opted to stay away from radical design space.

Skadi:

Skadi is currently lackluster performance-wise. However, her character identity and design space are very fleshed out, allowing for an easy jumping-off point for design.

Tree passives:
Hero’s Journey
Current: You deal more damage to Skeletons.
Damage: +100%
Suggestion: Add “Elites and Bosses have a chance to drop an additional item.”
Chance: 10%
Reasoning: Currently this is more of a meme point. Giving it chance to find items make is a good early-game option for players looking to build up a collection.

Highlander
Current: You have increased Life Regeneration.
Life Regen: +5%
Suggestion: Make this apply to Life Regeneration and Healing.
Reasoning: More options and makes Skadi one of the premier self-healing characters available.

Thrill of the Fight
Current: Your attack hits have a chance to lifesteal.
Chance: 1-4%
Lifesteal on Hit: 7
Suggestion: Increase Lifesteal on hit to 12.
Reasoning: Four points here would be approximately half as effective as Mort’s Vampirism, with the addition that it scales with luck. Solidifies Skadi as a self-healing character option.

Ultimate passives:
Wanderer
Current: A Random skill you have gains +1 level on every 3 levels you gain
Suggestion: Change to “A Random skill you have gains +1 level on every 2 levels you gain.”
Reasoning: With the addition of many extra god Blessing choices, this ability was already being diluted. Taking it back to the previous value is a good start.

Mythology
Current: Enemies take more damage for each status they have applied to them.
Damage: +15%
Suggestion: Add “If you would apply a status to an enemy that already has that status, it has a chance to be applied to a nearby enemy.” Chance: 20% Range: 160
Reasoning: This passive is already strong for single-target. Giving it some area scaling makes it more viable and delivers the “Oh wow!” moment we are looking for. Think of it as Mort’s Malady but for enemies that are alive. If needed (for instance, if this just freezes the entire screen permanently) the chance or range can be decreased.

Song of the North (upgrade to Ultimate passive)
Current: While at full life, you deal more damage.
Damage: +40%
Suggestion: Change to “Your attack hits have a chance to trigger an additional attack.” Chance: 30%.
Reasoning. The current passive is too restrictive, and people loved the old Witchsword (the nerf was likely necessary but still hurt). Giving Wind Fervor back with full luck scaling is a good compromise.

Heroic Training
Current: Your Adept Blessings deal more damage.
Damage: +222%
Suggestion: Add “Legend Offers can spawn on Adept Offers. -10% More Legend Offers.”
Reasoning: “Blue Skadi” is a cool idea and easily accessible to new players. Allowing players to be able to fully spec out of Expert and Master Offer Chance while still getting Legend Offers makes this less of a tradeoff.
*Note: This node is currently also increasing the value of some non-damage offers, notably Summer’s Fury passive. Fixing this OR making it an intended interaction (such as reading “…and adept passives are more effective”) may require more buffs/nerfs accordingly.

Torr, Selki, and wolves in general:
Suggestion: Redesign this whole series of passives.
Reasoning: Community response has been that a summon wolf build is very on-theme and desired for Skadi, but is currently very under tuned. The below suggestion focuses on making the wolves feel mechanically unique and tied to Skadi rather than being generically good summons.

Selki and Torr: New Tree passive, Replaces Selki)
Strike. Your Attack hits have a chance to summon a Wolf to fight alongside you for a duration. It uses your Movement Speed at 130% and deals 20% your Attack Damage.
Chance: 15%
Wolf Attack Time: 0.54
Wolf Duration: 20 Sec.
Strike Damage, Stike Critical Chance, and Attack Speed Value: 30%
Wolves: 2
Reasoning: Allowing Skadi’s wolves to scale off her Strike stats make them mechanically unique and support her “one of the pack” flavor. It also makes them able to scale off both her Strike stats and Summon stats, allowing for some potentially very strong wolves in addition to other summons if you choose that playstyle. The summoning being tied to a strike is mostly for this interraction and allows for a higher upper limit to the redesigned Ultimate ability:

Call the Pack: New Ultimate passive
You can summon additional Wolves.
Wolves: +12
Reasoning: The additional wolf count is somewhat arbitrary, but should be enough to deliver both the power and “Oh wow!” response desired.

Overview:
Skadi has a ton of space to grow thanks to the great design by the developers. The above suggestions allow Skadi to go a number of mechanically unique directions (wolves or statuses) as well as some strong generic options (additional Blessing levels, Luck/Strike, Adept Blessings).

Avoron:

Avoron is currently propped up by the Equilibrium + Waste + Inner Peace combo, but otherwise lacks a strong compelling build. Fortunately there are a lot of thematic and mechanical elements put in place by the developers already that help inform changes. Importantly, Avoron is the first character new players have access to which will help shape the design changes.

Exalted rework
Current: You gain +100% Attack Damage
Suggestion: Change to “You gain +80% Damage.” And add “You gain +20% Area.”
Reasoning: Exalted is mechanically unique and looks great (check it out if you haven’t). Changing it to be all damage not only provides a substantial buff but helps solidify Avoron as a great all-rounder. As an additional bonus, it will help new players experiment with different Blessings, notably Power Blessings since they are also supported on Avoron’s tree. The added area is primarily to give even more visual feedback to this very cool ability.

Tree passives:
Cleansing Aura
Current: Reduces the duration of all negative effects on you.
Duration: 20-60%
Suggestion: Add “+0.20-0.60 Life Regeneration.”
Reasoning: Currently there are very few things in the game that reliably apply negative effects to players. Allowing for some strong self-healing early on the tree will help newer players get a build going and plays in thematically to a tanky character.

Tectonic Plating and Aegis
Suggestion: Swap the position of Aegis and Tectonic Plating. Change Aegis to +1 Revivals.
Reasoning: Chaining revivals is a cool idea, but an ultimate that can fail to proc (or not be needed) during an entire run sets up many “feels bad” moments. An additional revival being available to any Avoron build will help smooth out the gameplay.

Ultimate passives:
Tectonic Plating
Current: Your damage is increased for every 100 Armor points you have.
Damage: +4%-12%
Suggestion: Change to “Your Attack Damage is increased for every Armor point you have. Damage +0.2%” and “Whenever you block, there is a chance trigger an additional attack. Chance: 25%” [Requires Outflank].
Reasoning: An Ultimate passive for the block portion of the tree. The damage scaling number is informed by Kront’s Overpower passive (Kront’s double-dips for Attack and Power Damage and scales off Life but requires 3 points to reach 0.15% and isn’t an ultimate). The counterattack is thematic for a “Walking Fortress” character identity (a suggestion for changing the name of the passive). Keep in mind that Block from the Vanguard passive has a 50% chance with 5 points invested, so luck scaling is encouraged here.

Guardian Angel
Current: Power. When you take damage, prevent all damage for a limited duration.
Duration: 2 sec.
Cooldown: 10 sec.
Suggestion: Change to “When you take damage, prevent all damage for a limited duration and apply Smited to all enemies.” Duration: 2 Sec. Cooldown: 10 sec.
Reasoning: This ultimate already encourages an “unkillable” build (similar to the current Aegis) but only shines with enough duration and cooldown reduction, making it very “all or nothing” to be effective. Applying Smited (which has its own internal cooldown of 4 seconds) screen-wide should help pad out the survivability before you become nigh-unkillable and look/sound cool (though it may also get annoying over a long run).

Grand Archon of Aulum
Current: All Blessings offered are Adept. Your Adept offer bonuses convert to Expert at a diminished rate. Adept to Expert Rate: 60%.
Suggestion: Change to “All Blessings offered are Adept. Your Adept offer bonuses convert to Expert.” Adept to Expert Rate: 100%.
Reasoning: It is currently exceedingly easy to get master (and legendary) offers through itemization, making this ultimate mostly uninteresting (even in conjunction with Devotion). However for newer players, an all Expert run is a high worth chasing, and this will likely be the go-to ultimate until they develop an item collection.

Champion
Current: Your Attack Damage is increased.
Attack Damage: +108%
Suggestion: Change to “Your Attack Damage, Attack Speed, Attack Area, Life, Armor, and Movement Speed are increased.” Attack Damage: +108%. Attack Speed: +9%. Attack Area: +18%. Life: +18%. Armor: +18%. Movement Speed: +9%.
Reasoning: This is a good generic ultimate but 108% Attack Damage doesn’t amount to much comparatively. Making this the mother of all generic Ultimate passives should at least make it a viable option.

*Note: I do not know the reasoning behind the 108 number, but I assume it’s related to Avoron having a connection to the number nine, which is why I kept the other values similar. If desired, you could also incorporate Duration, Luck, and Increased Experience to make it nine stats all getting multiple of nine as a bonus.

The Crusade: New Ultimate passive
You are Exalted.
Whenever a Power triggers, there is a chance it triggers an additional time.
Chance: 50%
Reasoning: Currently there are 3 ways to become Exalted in the game: Avenger (chance on block), Inspired Research (when you gain a level), and the Unique Mythic Weapon Crusader (chance on hit). This ultimate allows for players who really enjoy the holy warrior theme to have unlimited access to it. We also take Kront’s Ancestral Knowledge passive, allowing Avoron to become a premier Power Blessing character (don’t worry, Kront is still keeping his mechanically unique Powers, but they couldn’t double-trigger anyway).

Overview:
Avoron is the first character new players are introduced to and is the tried-and-true fantasy knight. The mechanically unique builds allow him to become an advancing fortress of steel or a radiant crusader, while his generic options are strong for new players or those with access to game-changing uniques.