Reworking Bonehart and Ashbite

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Reworking Bonehart and Ashbite

by tmn loveblue » Sun Nov 18, 2018 10:06 am

I have had this in mind about reworking the two dragons for a while. Not because they are bad. Thematically, they are excellent and worth every compliment. I just don't feel like they actually live up to their value sometimes though, and also partly because I want to flex my brain every once in a while. So here goes:

BONEHART
Dracolich

HP: 450
Attack: 20-51 True Damage. Bonehart has two forms of attack.

  1. Bonehart spits an orb of venom every 3.0s, dealing damage in a small AoE. This is consistent with the current version.
  2. A small plague carrier spawns from his rib cage, targeting an enemy for single target damage. Four carriers spawn at 1-3s each, independent of one another. They will not target enemies already infected.

This allows Bonehart to infects more enemies aside from using abilities, but his damage has been nerfed to balance it.

Armor: None
Speed: Unchanged

Respawn: 15 seconds

I find it ill suiting to make a dracolich with power over the dead suffers from a lengthy respawn. In my mind, Bonehart should be a soft, slightly vulnerable target but does not punish as hard as Ashbite for dying. He should be like Phoenix, tampering with the fine line between life and death with his abilities, and death shall not hinder him.

His HP has been nerfed hugely for it though.

INNATE

    Incurable

    Bonehart infects enemies with an unrelenting disease via attacks and abilities, dealing 5 DPS over 6 seconds.

SKILLS

    Spine Rain (Active; CD: 20 seconds)

    Rains 4/6/8 jagged bones from above, each dealing 80 Physical Damage in a small AoE. The bones persists for 4 seconds, during which the area becomes infected, dealing DPS equals to Bonehart's damage and slow enemies by 25%.

With solid area True Damage (80 + 20-51 DoT), this is his bread-n-butter AoE ability, also with new interactions with the rest of his kit. You'll see--

    Disease Nova (Passive, CD: 10 seconds)

    Taking 50 damage or above within 5 seconds cause Bonehart to explode, dealing 40/60/80 True Damage in a wide AoE and immediately triggering Spine Rain regardless of CD. Bonehart reforms from the bones after its duration ends.

    Bonehart's HP after reform is the same as it is before.

You probably see where this is heading now; the Dracolich will be characterized by his ability to cheat death times to times again, but also but his utter lack of single target damage. This is evident both in his attack pattern and in his first two skills, as above.

With Disease Nova, Bonehart can bypass the long CD of Spine Rain to deal more AoE damage, up to 160 True Damage, given that there are area or ranged attackers to trigger the skill. Players should attempt to move him in and out of combat matching with the skill's CD for maximum effectiveness.

    Plague Carrier (Active, 18 seconds)

    Launches 6/8/10 plague carriers from his body, moving up the path, each infect and deal 60/80/100 True Damage to one enemy.

The consistent pass-through damage of Plague Carrier has been removed considering all the other AoE damage fitted into his kit. After all, this ablity is almost guaranteed 360/640/1000 True Damage on its own (not on the same foe, but still), hence, such a change would not be as big an effect unless numerous spammable foes are present (think little spiders). Clever use of Spine Rain would ensure such a thing won't happen.

    Bone Golem (Passive)

    Summons a Wishbone for every fallen enemy, maximum 3 active at once. Wishbones are skeletal monsters animated by Bonehart's life force.

    Stats:

  • HP: 80/100/120
  • Damage: 5-7/10-15/20-25 Physical Damage. Claws at enemies instead of bite, for thematic effect.
  • Armor: None
  • Respawn: None

I changed so that the Wishbones can spawn more frequently and feel more like an actual part of Bonehart's abilities. To make up for the rate, their durabillity has taken a large hit. However, their damage has been amped drastically.

With that, Wishbones would merely be annoying hindrance on the trampling path of giants, but against weaker foes, they can deal substanstial damage.

    Unstable Disease (Passive)

    Diseased enemies explodes on death, dealing 30% of their max HP as True Damage, capped between 10-100/20-200/30-300. The AoE gets wider the higher the damage dealt, from Very Small up to Extreme.

This is by far the most ambitious change yet. As of right now, Unstable Disease is alright, but I regret having a Saurian Brute explodes dealing the same damage as a Broodguard. It is simply not EPIC.

So to make it epic, giants like Saurian Brutes will blow up in a bang as big as an Abomination's. This heavily reward the killing of a worthy foe, by way of wiping clean the slate of all the other ones. Explosions from weaker foes will take a hit, but will new mechanisms and more AoE in place, getting the massacre going isn't very hard.

Overall, everything of Bonehart centers on weakening as many enemies as possible, and not intend on focusing down any of them. Actual slaying is left for the towers, picking on infected, slowed, half-HP tattered hordes limping along the path. His powers are local, causing havoc around the place with his presence. With Ashbite, you'll see a completely different thing.

That's it for Bonehart! What do you guys think? :hero:
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Re: Reworking Bonehart and Ashbite

by Ninja » Tue Nov 20, 2018 3:50 pm

This is a really awesome makeover! I agree with you that he shouldn’t suffer all that much from dying, being undead himself, so your changes to his stats impressed me. ;)

I really only have one main gripe. First, I feel that while the new Bone Golem ability is thematically accurate, it will be extremely OP, essentially creating a barracks that constantly follows Bonehart around, multiplying his ability to wreak havoc on hordes insanely by virtue of what is probably the best stalling ability that uses units in the game besides maybe Sand Warriors from Alric. The rudimentary concept of flying heroes is that they have either meager or nonexistent blocking power, balancing out their crazy mobility and immunity to damage from 85% of all enemies. I feel that you should instead leave it at 1 Wishbone maximum, but make the Wishbone infectious and constantly moving up the path while also switching enemy to enemy without really blocking them (essentially combining Sand Warriors with Ignus’s dashing ability). This would allow them to infect many enemies across a given path, heralding the approach of the dread Dracolich. :twisted:

I also like the epic touch you added to Unstable Disease. It’s definitely a solid addition aesthetically, although I can’t decide whether its inconsistent with his playstyle (because he’s an AoE monster and the new caveat is tailor-made for large enemies) or supplementary to it. Perhaps it’s superfluous, but either way it’s really cool. :hero:
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Re: Reworking Bonehart and Ashbite

by tmn loveblue » Sun Dec 09, 2018 2:16 am

Ninja wrote:This is a really awesome makeover! I agree with you that he shouldn’t suffer all that much from dying, being undead himself, so your changes to his stats impressed me. ;)

I really only have one main gripe. First, I feel that while the new Bone Golem ability is thematically accurate, it will be extremely OP, essentially creating a barracks that constantly follows Bonehart around, multiplying his ability to wreak havoc on hordes insanely by virtue of what is probably the best stalling ability that uses units in the game besides maybe Sand Warriors from Alric. The rudimentary concept of flying heroes is that they have either meager or nonexistent blocking power, balancing out their crazy mobility and immunity to damage from 85% of all enemies. I feel that you should instead leave it at 1 Wishbone maximum, but make the Wishbone infectious and constantly moving up the path while also switching enemy to enemy without really blocking them (essentially combining Sand Warriors with Ignus’s dashing ability). This would allow them to infect many enemies across a given path, heralding the approach of the dread Dracolich. :twisted:

I also like the epic touch you added to Unstable Disease. It’s definitely a solid addition aesthetically, although I can’t decide whether its inconsistent with his playstyle (because he’s an AoE monster and the new caveat is tailor-made for large enemies) or supplementary to it. Perhaps it’s superfluous, but either way it’s really cool. :hero:

Hey, thank you for your reply :D I totally forgot to write a follow up response! Truly appreciated that you took time for a thoughtful reply like this.

Ah, and also I reckon Bone Golem should be balanced if put on a CD for 7 seconds after each spawn?
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Re: Reworking Bonehart and Ashbite

by Ninja » Sun Dec 09, 2018 2:02 pm

You're welcome. ;)

I think a 7 second in-between would do a lot for the move's balance. That would be a good change.
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Re: Reworking Bonehart and Ashbite

by Big Bad Bug » Mon Dec 10, 2018 2:53 pm

I can totally see this Bonehart dominating Endless Mode in a way never seen before, using the HP of enemies against them as they explode for even more damage. Just imagine that once basic enemies like the Savages reach 900 HP, a single one of them will explode for 300 damage and trigger a chain of explosions that would topple all but the Reaper Lords themselves. :shock:
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