Abilities that look good on paper, but............

[Gregorovitch]

Riposte: Sounded like a no-brainer for my rogue. probelm is that she hits her targets so hard and so fast and has such a high interupt rate from her perception that her victims are almost permantly interupted so they never manage to hit her in one-on-one sitiations which means that Riposte almost never gets a chance to trigger. Bascially useless. (Now if Eder could have it that would be really cool).

Into the fray: I got this for Eder. I thought it would be great to have him yank wizards and priests into melee and kill them swiftly. But what the ability doesn't tell you is that it only works if there is a clear line of sight directly from Eder to the intended victim with no other enemies in the way. In practice this situation almost never happens as there are *always* enemy melee between Eder and the enemy spell casters until they've all been killed in which case there is no point in using this ability because it is quicker to just to saunter over to the now exposed wizards/priests and dispatch them where they stand.

[Smash Palace]

I have to agree, 90% of class abilities are useless for all classes. I've started well over 30 games, trying each & every way but in the end i always come bak to Offense, Defense & Utillity, & hardly ever class abilities.(Hate the per rest/encounter thing, voids the point of taking that skill in the first place)

[Matthew]

Into the fray maybe good on DPS fighter flanking from side? Even then it would be just as easy to walk over. Maybe pulling an enemy removes the engagement on another character? Like enemey on yo Wizard so you grab that one. Dunno, haven't tried it yet.

Mine: Dangerous implements (?) Like 1.25 damage at cost of 3 endurance per attack. I figured it sounded like a small amount so why not. In practice, the endurance isn't huge, but then you realize the hit to health adds up. After 2 or 3 fights and your Wizard is on low health and now you are forced to rest or at risk of dying. If the ability makes me rest every 2-3 fights for a tad extra damage on wands, then I'd rather just use more damage spells and rest, save me the talent point.

[Matthew]

Originally posted by fevvirus:

I have to agree, 90% of class abilities are useless for all classes.

Depends on the class really. There is like one modal I like on Ranger, rest I don't like. Priests get one or two, rest I don't like. Even the bonus spells not that great but sometimes I get those if nothing else looks decent.

Fighter has good ones though. -17% armor recovery turning heavy into medium, defender modal which adds 10 to defenses and +2 engagements, extra damage on a weapon group, grazes into hits, a second chance like ability.

Rogue is decent too. Hits into crits. Invis + backstab takes two talents to combo, but great for combining defense and offense. Various strikes apply status effects, which is good for times when casters don't want to waste spells to do so.

[busards]

Paladin's Reviving Exhortation: Commands an unconscious ally to awaken and get back up with an immediate spike in Endurance. After a 15 seconds, the target will lose half of the regained Endurance.

It's still a good ability but what they don't tell you is that:
- the amount of endurance is so absurdly high and affected by might
- it doesn't give endurance over the maximum endurance the ally has

So if you have 20 might (+30% healing), and you heal an ally with 150 max endurance. The skill will revive with 390 endurance... but as it's capped, the ally will only have 150/150 endurance... and then, after 15 seconds, the ally will lose half those 390 endurance which means 195 endurance... and as he only has 150 endurance, he will drop dead again!

It's still a good ability to momentary revive someone for 15+ seconds (depending on your intelligence) but it's double-edged if you have high might because pretty much no one will survive past those 15 seconds. On the other hand low might make this ability a lot more usable because the revived ally has a chance to actually survive the endurance loss after 15 seconds.

An ability that works better with lower stat is a failure somewhere.

[Erei]

The ranger. It was good on paper, but mid game-end game it's crap. You have better support and better ranged.
Into the fray. It's supposed to be some kind of pull. I unlocked it on Eder, I thought it would be great to pull mages into the fray, and the like, but it never worked. I mean, the spell was used, but pretty much nothing happen, ever. Did try several time in case it was a resists or something, but nope. Dunno if it's bugged, I'm bad, it's a useless skill or all of that.

[Lyle]

I actually thought of that when picking abilities at level up, and got Deep Wounds instead. A constant tick of raw damage could perhaps be useful against tougher opponents.

Obviously, Riposte would be more useful with a slower hitting fighter-rogue

Originally posted by fevvirus:

I have to agree, 90% of class abilities are useless for all classes. I've started well over 30 games, trying each & every way but in the end i always come bak to Offense, Defense & Utillity, & hardly ever class abilities.(Hate the per rest/encounter thing, voids the point of taking that skill in the first place)

You are doing it wrong then. Class abilities are often great. paladin Auras and FoD are great. Rogue abilities such as Blindin Strike and Escape are pretty much vital. Priest Interdiction with Painful upgrade is one of my favorites in the entire game. Cipher resource related abilties are also useful. Wizard with Blast and Penetrating Blast is sweet. Fighter with extra knockdowns or tankiness...

[Spielraum]

Chanter's class talents are useless so are cipher max focus and x1.2 soul whip. You dont start combat with max focus and if you are trying to regain focus, you wont want to use a slow high DPS weapon.

Druid wildstrike talents are a waste compared to the other better talents that can be taken such as elemental damage +20% and resist +5.

[ppaladin123]

Into the Fray is definitely my biggest regret so far.

[Lyle]

Dont you guys save before level up?

[Smash Palace]

^All the time

[Zloth]

Originally posted by busards:

So if you have 20 might (+30% healing), and you heal an ally with 150 max endurance. The skill will revive with 390 endurance... but as it's capped, the ally will only have 150/150 endurance... and then, after 15 seconds, the ally will lose half those 390 endurance which means 195 endurance... and as he only has 150 endurance, he will drop dead again!

That sounds more like a bug to me. It should give back half the endurace the character actually gained!

[Balzaphon]

thats why last stand potions also increase max endurance they can fix that by increasing the max endurance by same amount with same duration

[DarkExcalibur42]

Originally posted by Lilith:

Mine: Dangerous implements (?) Like 1.25 damage at cost of 3 endurance per attack. I figured it sounded like a small amount so why not. In practice, the endurance isn't huge, but then you realize the hit to health adds up. After 2 or 3 fights and your Wizard is on low health and now you are forced to rest or at risk of dying. If the ability makes me rest every 2-3 fights for a tad extra damage on wands, then I'd rather just use more damage spells and rest, save me the talent point.

That Dangerous Implements thing would probably work better on a Fighter. But then you'd have to build a ranged fighter, which seems odd to me.

[Matthew]

Nah wands are pretty crap damage. The only thing saving them is Wizard's Blast with high INT (I believe makes Blast radius larger), otherwise one of the worst weapon types in game.

I'm guessing Infuse with Vital Essence gives health/endurance and it would take away from that first. Never actually tested it. So Teldan (Teldar?) ring, bonus 2nd level spell, and eventually per-encounter tier 2 spells means you could buff up to use it. But at that point, you may as well still just spam damage spells.

All for a minor increase in wand damage.

If it were something unique or powerful, like changes full wand damage to raw (bypasses DR) then maybe it could be something to build around, but too much effort for an extremely minor wand damage increase.

[otakon17]

Originally posted by busards:

Paladin's Reviving Exhortation: Commands an unconscious ally to awaken and get back up with an immediate spike in Endurance. After a 15 seconds, the target will lose half of the regained Endurance.

It's still a good ability but what they don't tell you is that:
- the amount of endurance is so absurdly high and affected by might
- it doesn't give endurance over the maximum endurance the ally has

So if you have 20 might (+30% healing), and you heal an ally with 150 max endurance. The skill will revive with 390 endurance... but as it's capped, the ally will only have 150/150 endurance... and then, after 15 seconds, the ally will lose half those 390 endurance which means 195 endurance... and as he only has 150 endurance, he will drop dead again!

It's still a good ability to momentary revive someone for 15+ seconds (depending on your intelligence) but it's double-edged if you have high might because pretty much no one will survive past those 15 seconds. On the other hand low might make this ability a lot more usable because the revived ally has a chance to actually survive the endurance loss after 15 seconds.

An ability that works better with lower stat is a failure somewhere.

Sounds more like it's bugged then.