I believe its been said that we give them some combination of materials and heat to level them.
Battle sprite skill details discussion
Perfect for my play style. I like to go recon and the shadow cloak will be perfect for reconing in pve. Also like the poison attack.
Question: how long will the cloak increase if you upgrade it? Will it be minimal and unnoticeable like the movement speed increase? Or will it be very noticeable and perhaps op at times?
Will the damage/guardian shield from pet skill scale according to the level you playing at like weapons do? or fixed number?
@Apophis-Set-Two i did the same question to Nick waiting for answer lol
but i want to believe that "the heart attack" skill only works on the initial drop (and because if players have a zombie and a totem and spam heart attack they would take advantage of this healing themselves)
The skill says it "increases the chances". Even if it's by a 100%, the 100% of zero is zero. Or at least I want to believe that.
Thats because it has already been answered, and also common sense, do you think they will allow that bug to appear? its almost like trying to harvest cr from zombies.
Thanks, seems easy enough. This skill is great for a swordie like me. Could you also explain if I would have to hold the button for Shadow Cloak to continue in cloak or would I only have to press once? On an added note I'm really glad I can put everything on the right analog, really happy you guys didn't go above 3 skills for the starter sprites. Thank you very much.
edit: Wow I just can't leave you alone--the questions keep coming! How would partial invisibility work with the AI? Is it a matter of distance, time in line of sight? I'm really curious now, sorry man. I hope you reply, I'm looking forward to it.
Much appreciated,
gamepad player
wowowow i can't wait... no really i'm just rrreeaalllyy anticipating the sprites so much... hopefully they don't turn out to be a dud and this update is going to be a good update!!!
If anything this gets people playing the actual meat of the game again. I just hope there is some sort of an upscale in difficulty in the near future.
Drakon didn't surprise me at all. Fireballs, and a fiery aura that deals damage, as expected. Seraphynx surprised me a bit as I was expecting status resist augmentation, though pretty straightforward. As for Maskeraith? Wow. He sounds like he will be way better and way more active than I was expecting. He sounds like he will be OP compared to the others. It will take a lot to convince to get one of the others.
@Nick regarding Maskeraith's haze, what is considered 'heavy damage'? Can you give us a rough comparison?
All in all, I am impressed with this. Seems like this update will be well worth the wait.
~Ethanol, the guy who will almost definitely pick Makeraith.
My only concern is the "Extra Hearty" skill for two reasons:
1) Text says "increased chance", and I generally despise anything random
2) It doesn't seem like to be quite as useful against bosses or in pvp as every other skill of every other sprite, as it depends on killing an enemy
I'd rather really just have some sort of nerfed, non random, huge delay, party heal/heart spawn
Healing in sk is a delicate subject though I guess, given how the game currently works.
Also, why does it have an offensive skill ? I'd rather have some party buff like quicker shield regen, or smaller dash delay, or resist against status effects, or such.
Out of the four main bosses, only one of them don't have respawning enemies. Even that one does have respawning enemies in the Shadow Lair verison. A weapon that gives enemies increased chance of dropping hearts is pretty much the only conclusion every suggestion topic on healing weapons have come to as being functional.
Also, the laser is defensive. Even if it doesn't have any kind of knockback like the turrets do, a continous stream of damage is great for interrupting things like scuttlebots, devilites and greavers.
I love the heart attack thing just for the name
This is really cool ^o^
I'm really looking forward to Maskeraith. Caustic Quills seems like it would synergize really well with a Blitz Needle, among other things, although that really depends on how potent it actually is and on how quickly it casts.
Hexing Haze provides a little more DPS and can save you the effort of killing off multiple already-weakened enemies. It also seems like it spreads in that hexing more targets increases its duration, so it doesn't seem like a skill that you'll need to be pressing every 5 seconds like Firebolt.
But I'm going to have to question how well this skill is designed:
"Shadow Cloak: Grants you partial invisibility and a defensive boost for a limited time. Shadow Cloak is cancelled if you take damage, attack, or perform any other action."
I'm assuming the point of invisibility is that you won't be able to be directly targeted, at least by mobs that aren't already aggroed to you, so what's the point of the defensive boost if you're invisible?
Glad to hear that Makeraith will be useable, and not a hipster sprite, not that there's anything wrong with that.
Also, you guys sure are precise with your question. Always know what to ask and stuff. And that's good, because maybe the dev team overlooked something or didn't think that doing action A while action B is working would achieve something strange and unexpected.
All in all, I love this update, and will hopefully bring something new to the table.
Oh man, that game comes down to effigy of common MMO. Skills, skills trees, level ups... eh... ehhhh...
Trait, what stands out SK (Everything for everyone) now vanishes, eh, eh...
The question is, how are battle sprites gonna level up. There soo many options its really hard to choose.
1-Usage in clockworks, although that would be worst cos you could just stand and spam just before end.
2-heating, i think best idea, although it would really need much heat, for example just like gear but muuuch more, and of course the higher lv the more heat would be needed.
3-heating from (2) and maybe using some materials. I personaly like this idea, each sprite have 3 skills. Buying augument for skill would cost you materials which can drop from moster dealing special dmg, for example the first dmg attack would need materials from shadow dmg mosters so fiends and undead, second from beasts and slimes and third from gremlin and constructs. Tey could use any other combination, there are many options and combination for this.
4-finding special items in clockworks, as @Shocktag pointed out, we could still use heating up with this.
5-how about special mats and heating (yeah this heating can work everywhere xD) which can be bought for tokens (in high numbers for higher levels) from Brinks.
6-Any other option will be also good, but as you can see this has some SEERUS potential.
I always thought that we would get Sprite Missions, so they can level up, like we did for Ranks.
Then you can Train skills by using certain Materials at a machine in the Lab.
The Eventual "Ultimate Skill" would be learned from the Final Sprite Mission.
@Zeddy
I said "not quite as useful", as it really depends on the situation and boss. I'd rather have something uh, more predictable/consistent as I said. And that requires less fighting if what I want is healing.
And something that deals damage counts as offensive in my book.
jumping the part "now the difficulty should be harder"
I fear to see this as a step forward to classes. if you can play this well you *could* focus on help playstyles instead of forcing them.
no, up to the questions:
extra crispy and venom will upgradable only once? meaning, from weak to normal?
will the cooldowns be displayed as the dash cooldown? if so, there will be only one cooldown for all moves?
I recollect you saying theat harnesses could change the attack type of the sprite. is that still true?
what will be the aim system of the skills? facing, yes? you can't count on everybody using a mouse.
will some skills require the knight to stay still?
ok, if you can't answer, I'll understand. if you can leave me your adress I could craft an acheron and protect you from that stalker.
Caustic Quills will work very horribly with a Blitz Needle. The Quills will only work for 1 hit. Blitz Needle charge has 15 needles, 15hits. Don't think the skills can boost even one whole blitz charge.
man, all im thinking is "so much possible lag"
I think this thread was meant to focus on the fighting and attacks and kungfu skills... Anyways...
Another question : Do the attacks home? or is it some AT BS... If not/so, do the attacks kinda have a delay hit time, when the projectiles have to travel through the air?
Please be sure to balance the sprites; we don't want to see (for example) drakon clones as much as we want to see moar wolver clones.
Please be sure to balance the sprites; we don't want to see (for example) drakon clones as much as we want to see moar wolver clones.
Will monsters be buffed? They're already easy enough.
I think I will regret my pick of BS and its ultimate... The nightmares begins...
Earlier you said that you can Augment your "Battle Sprites" with certain materials to change how they attack, etc. Does this mean that if you feed it a lot of a specific material, say something shock related, that it would turn their attack element into that specific element?
Example: You feed a Drakon a lot of Thunderball's, Silvercoil's, etc, which will Augment its fireball attack to become a shock based elemental attack instead.
So instead of dealing fire damage, it would deal shock damage instead.
Is that what you mean or are the Battle Sprites stuck with whatever damage they do at this point in time, and if you do make more of them, would it be possible to add more diverse elements to the mix as i would really love a Sprite that does Shadow damage, and i know a few others who would be interested in a shock based Battle Sprite as well.
Shemanala: Sorry, but a cooldown reducer for each skill is something that just works as a basic augment. Not sure if any sprites in the future would ever not have it, but who knows!
Nick mispelled ma name!!!! :O
I... :O euhm..... >.< ............... IDK what to say -_-
IDK how to feel about dis either o.O
NICK WTF?????????
SHAMANALA
I don't really agree with your definition of "offensive". Antiguas are not offensive weapons, they're defensive. The damage output is low, but their mobility allows for you to stay at a distance while slowly whittling down your enemies. This is known as a "defensive playstyle". It is necessary for defensive playstyles to deal damage, otherwise they wouldn't be viable to use. Seraphynx' abilities represent a defensive playstyle, Drakon represents an offensive one (lots of damage over lots of area, presumably not much in the way of interruption. Even the fire shield is there to let the user play more aggressively and run into melee range, evidenced by the fact that the fire shield deals damage.)
I'm sure that Nick has said that there are a certain set of equipment available for each of the battle sprites that will alter their output attack type. There are a total of 3 types of equipment for each type of attack, and each sprite can put on either 2 of the given. So Drakon can have elemental and shadow attacks, but no piercing attacks. Seraphynx has elemental and piercing attacks and Maskeraith have piercing and shadow attacks. This also correlates to their attacks, where no fire pierces, magic and healing are not darkness and the shadows within pierces through you.
Another question : I noticed that though Drakon is a all out offensive pet, why is there an augment that boosts defense? Would it be better if the Area of Effect increases instead? Would adding duration be considered a good thing, considering you have a cooldown, unless the answer to my first question was a yes.
I am curious about the Maskeraith's defensive buff. If the intention is for it to be a ninja-like escape skill, rather than a defensive buff I would give it two components: a non-breakable, short-duration Movement Speed Increased: Very High and a breakable cloak effect that prevents new aggro and dispells existing aggro outside a certain radius. Personally, I'd prefer to see a more versatile, double-edged buff effect. For example, the Shadow Cloak could be a breakable short/medium-duration (~3-4 seconds) buff that dispells all aggro and inflicts warning/deathmark. Taking hits or performing a non-basic movement action disables the cloak (shielding would be disabled to prevent players from breaking the cloak out of reflex). Players can then use this defensively to escape a hairy situation (existing projectiles and committed attacks are not canceled, so you would have to use this carefully in the heat of battle), or offensively to deathmark monsters (deathmarked monsters are stripped of their resistances for 5 seconds and weak to all damage)
" I noticed that though Drakon is a all out offensive pet, why is there an augment that boosts defense?"
Technically thats for offense too. You can take more hits ergo you can attack in this mode without thinking about dmg (great for fighting with any sword other than brandish, i can see the glimpse of using cutter series with this). Its just like Brick main skill in Borderlands.
As Curious-Mewkat said, how will the basic attacks be directed? Projectile-based aiming, instant hitscan damage, homing missiles, or a mix?
And do you plan to have abilities like the Hexing Haze, AoE auras, that will not be centered around the character? Something like a meteor shower spell in WoW; click on the ground and it hits over there.
Hey that reminds me klipik, in my dream you could control where your spiralmon could aim
I think the Maskeraith cloak is so you can hex things and then vanish, allowing you to wait out the hex.
I think it's intended to work like a kill/w status sprite, so if you put an AoA, hex, and poison, you can vanish and the statuses will probably kill them.
drakon's fire barrier is meant for melee. it doesn't only boost defense, it also deals damage to nearby enemies.
dagoth, taking more hits is named "tanking" and doesn't actually boost offence.
If maskeraith is able to use its invisibility ability in lockdown it would give guardians and strikers recon ability. Even if Maskeraiths inivisiblity is broken by using any other actions. Strikers could still use invisibility attack and then run away.
(Apologizing if this has already been brought up)
When you say "powerful combat skills that all sprites can execute on your command.", can I me shooting a sword, charging a gun, or swinging a bomb while I command them to attack? Or do the commands require a knight's full attention?
Basically, can a knight and their battle sprite both attack simultaneously?
I don't have any opinion on which way would be balanced, I just didn't see the answer anywhere.
This is definitely something promising,as far as our avaliable data goes,Maskeraith Is realy cool,I kind of expected Seraphinx to have a healing move but I guess thats just too much when it comes to SK levels...
I definitely hope the things that COME WITH THIS UPDATE go for the better.....
This is what I think:
All of the swordmen would take Drakon.
All of the gunners would take Maskeraith.
All of the bombers would take Seraphynx.
Hmmm...
Vortex loves all these guys. Ray of light, Flame Barrier, and Hexing Haze all have potential with a well timed Vortex, especially if you toss in a Brandish or Troika charge.
But, yeah, Nick, you ought to buff all the monsters in the game, because between the Dash and these guys, it'll make the Clockworks way too easy.
I like them all for the most part, but they all seem to be somewhat monotonous due to all them offering defense buffs/auras despite the fact Drakon is designed for offense and Maskeraith is designed to debilitate. I can understand why this is to an extent considering that they're just the first 3, they're low rank Sprites and you can only have one to start with so you can offer a defense buff for everyone, but my feelings stand firm. I agree with Mohandar's post at #84 suggesting a MSI for the Maskeraith buff along with negating new aggro. If you don't feel like adding to Maskeraith, consider it for a future higher ranking sprite.
As for anyone for will implies or assumes that Sprites will be accessible in LD: They didn't permit it for a simple function such as the Shield bash, there is minimal chance they will make an exception for the massive combat contribution Battle Sprites have to offer, especially if a Striker and Guardian can gain invisibility via Maskeraith.
Higher rank sprites? It's too soon to jump into conclusions but no, thanks. All sprites need to be equally strong regardless of the conditions to obtain them, just as SL gear is as strong as a regular armor.
omg I love the Maskeraith so much. I feel in love with it when I saw it and now that I have read the skill description it totally fits into my game play style as I love causing poison and remote detonation (Biohazard <3). The only thing that would make it better is if it had a deep dark voice that would make me sequel slightly. Something like Nasus from League of Legends would be flopping awesome.
EDIT: Spiral-mon should be disabled in PvP for obvious reasons.
Battle Sprites have not been confirmed to be available in the Coliseum, and personally I don't think they will be.
@Nick
I'm going to dance hyperactively to this song now.
@Minnie-Maggie
The more I read about battle sprites, the less I am interested in them
Don't read it then.
I'm certainly interested in what's going on behind the scenes. And judging by all the "Y U NO TELL US WAT UR DOING?" threads, a lot of other people are too.
@Coelydragon
Will flame barrier move with the player? Will it have a chance to burn fellow knights? And again, what's partial invisibility? Is it that already-aggroed enemies will stay aggroed but non-aggroed won't be aggroed?
Flame barrier won't burn fellow knights, partial invisibility means to drop threat, just probably not completely
@Sweet-Hope
What happen with enemies like zombies, i mean lets say you have a resurrection totem and a bunch of zombies, players first kill zombies in the totem resurrection range and they get the loot, Zombies then resurrect and players now use heart attack on them. This mean they can get hearts from a zombie that has been revived? or heart attack only works on the first drop? (this mean when monster drop something)
Ressurected zombies never drop hearts. You can't increase 0% by multiplying it.
@Sroell
since trying to be a wall in this game is very difficult and unpopular
It certainly is fun though. I'm a tank, I would know.
@Apophis-Set-Two
Hmm, quick question. If you were in a party with a masqueraith, and a friend had a seraphynx, what would happen if the masqueraith shot the poison quills onto an enemy, as the seraphynx's laser beam was hitting it? Would the laser beam's damage increase? Or does the poison quill only effect a KNIGHT's attack?
Masqueraith not only applies poison, but the thorns which increases damage even further, for a single hit. One would assume this would trigger for all party members. That beam would remove them at a rate of one per second, seeing as that's the regular rate for beams to damage.
I've probably missed 1 or 2 (or 3 or 4 or 5 or 100000) posts talking about this already...But how exactly do we "level up" our Sprites? :3 Do we feed them materials? Or do we bring them into battle?
Edit: New page :D