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Aj Gost -> RE: =DF= Paladin Armor Discussion Thread (9/22/2014 19:24:04)
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Hey Ash, this is my analysis based on testing and information provided by you.
Okay so after using each class for 12 hours in a variety of quests and against numerous enemies (random and undead) I came to the conclusion that Pally/Pyro might possibly be in need of a tweak or two. My saying this is based on my thinking that that Paladin, a T2 is either more powerful than or at least a bit to comparable to the likes of the Pyromancer T3 Dragon Coin/Paid For class. Powerful mostly in terms of healing and mana regen that is. (Ive also got analysis which would lead to suggest one might consider looking at the fact that Pally can keep a constant buff AND debuff going at the same time for little mana and without needing to take damageless turns.) :P I use Pyro for comparison because as a T3 and Dragon Coin/Paid For class is supposed to be straight up better than any T2.
All testing was done with my 2nd Main character specced as follows:
Level 62 Warrior
96END(90Stat Point+6wep bonus) gives a total of exactly 1800HP
121WIS(115Stat Point+6wep Bonus) gives a total of exactly 1615MP
Char was equipped only with a lvl 60 Necrotic Sword of Doom which has a damage range of 76-82. All calculations done for moves which use a percentage of the weapons damage range used the number 82.
First up is Pyromancer.
Pyromancer has 3 moves which are capable of healing the player directly. They are as follow: Rebirth, Warmth, and Malcifer
Rebirth has a 15 turn charge up and a 30 turn cooldown. It heals me for a potential 1800HP and a potential 1615MP for 0 Mana.
Warmth is another dual boost move. Warmth heals for 300% weapon max damage and gives back 100% max weapon damage in mana and as such gives me back 246HP and 82MP. It has a 16 turn cooldown. It costs 0 mana.
Malcifer is Pyro's Last healing move but it is also a damage dealer and applies a 25% weakness to fire to the enemy for 5 turns. It heals for 100% of weapons damage and as such gives back 82HP. Upon use it is subject to a 10 turn cooldown. It costs 30MP and deals total 140%weapon damage to enemy.
Now for Paladin.
Pally has 3 moves used to heal hp directly(Bless, G.Heal, and Seal) and 1 move to heal mana directly(Mana Regen). it also has the Inner Glow HOT Passive ability.
Bless is Pally's first direct heal. It deals 100%weapon damage(to non undead) and heals for 7% of max hp. For me it gives back 126HP on strike. It has a 9 turn cooldown and costs 25MP.
Next is G.Heal. Heal is a simple direct heal. It heals for 15% of whatever your max HP is.(in my testing I actually calculated it to be closer to 16.3% but I trust your notes Ash) For me, it gives back 294HP. It has a 14 turn cooldown and costs 35MP.
Last for the direct heals is Seal. Seal is comparable to Rebirth in that it offers a full hp heal(for me 1800hp) but it comes at the "cost" of draining all MP(for me 1615MP). It costs 25MP, has a 14(?) turn charge up and a 20 turn cooldown.
These next two are where I believe the balance between Pally, a T2 class, and Pyro, a T3 class, is kind of thrown a bit out of whack.
Pally has access to a direct Mana Regen skill(Which Ash even said it shouldn't have for one reason or another). It gives back 11% of your total stock of mana(for me 178MP). It has 0 cost and has a 6 TURN COOLDOWN.
The last ability is Inner Glow, Pally's Passive as one of the Necropolois Trio. Inner Glow is a Battlewide(I did experience it stopping its healing on around my 30th turn every time however) HOT(heal over time) ability. It uses the formula ((max HP)*(Pally Charge*.015)*.1) ROUNDED with each skill use counting as an addition to the charge maxing out at 20. Over the 20 turns it takes to make it out(stopping at 54HP per turn) It healed me a total of 609HP. Roughly amounting to a 33% heal over 20turns, turning into a 66%(1218HP) heal over successive 20 turn intervals. It costs 0 MP.
Conclusions: As far as pure staying power goes, Pally beats Pyro in every way. Pally's heals will almost always be more powerful than Pyro's because they work based on the %of HP or MP where the latter uses weapon damage to calculate heals. In fact this healing disparity can only get larger with level as high END investment(say a total of 1700+HP) will be able to always trump any weapon damage based heals because currently the highest max base damage weapons(for level EIGHTIES) still only have a base damage of around 90-100.% weapon damage heals(aka Warmth and Malcifer)for all other levels(with any meaningful investment into END) will always fall beneath the HP% based heal of the pally making Pyro's direct heal skills more effective than the T3 Pyro's.
What throws this disparity out of balance further is the likes of the Pally's mana regen which is HANDS DOWN superior to that of the Pyro and possibly unbalanced in general because of how it allows the Paladin to function. A flat 11%MP gain based on overall mana poolis fine but when it's on a 6 turn cooldown it becomes a bit broken. Compare that to the Pyro's MP regen skill which allows for, even in the hands a level 80 player with a powerful wep, only around 90-100MP regen every 16 turns and you can see that Pally's is just a bit toooo spammable.
Add in the fact that Pally's skillset has no combination of moves which can spend more than about 140MP over the 6 turns it takes to get another 11% MP back and you might begin to see my issue a bit more. Even on relatively low WIS builds the Pally's mana regen ability is still too powerful for how spammable it is specifically compared to the likes of Pyro's modest MP regening. The Inner Glow passive also has absolutely massive healing potential over the course of a long battle (which costs 0 MP and is ALWAYS ON), which trumps anything Pyro has to offer....... except Rebirth right?
Well in my analysis not really, Pally's Seal trumps that as well because of how the game works and his powerful, spammable mana regen.
Mana is not lost with HP in a 1:1 ratio. I spend 25 in a turn to use a skill and might turn around and lose 50-300HP the next turn. This means I run out of HP much more quickly than MP and as such Pyro's rebirth ends up being a move which heals me fully and kinda just tops of my MP as well. The idea that Pally's Seal kind of "gimps his mana" is a nice one but relatively untrue based on the power of his mana regen and how it scales ridiculously well with WIS. One could easily use Seal to get their health back and then follow right up with Mana Regen and because none of Pally's skills can exhaust mana fast enough, walk out with a mana profit by the time it takes its regen to cooldown. All the while being given a passive heal which is actually extremely powerful.
Sorry to wall of text you guys like that. Ive never posted something like this before but I fell strongly about this because I feel, and further research shows, that Pally's strengths are a bit too in line with a T3's or Pyro's are a bit to inline with a T2's. This analysis also takes into account the fact that pyro has one more stun(a 1 turn one though) than Pally. I believe that is MORE than compensated for by Inner Glow however.
Thanks for any feedback you might have on this data and analysis.
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