Took a break from Invasion testing this afternoon to implement some updates to game mechanics, along with some marauder development. I'll spend a little time here discussing the most recent updates, before getting back to the new Invasion code (which is coming along great, by the way)... Just needed a temporary change of pace. =)
Firebrands, in specific, took a little bit of a running hit with this update, as silver inferno was reduced in power a bit. Its previous incarnation was fair at moderate stats, but its scaling tended to get out of control once crafted (or rp) gear was added to the mix, and especially so now that dexterity has been promoted to the rank of "statistic that actually matters to some people now" (via open wounds and the overextended attack system).
However, all of the marauder classes have (a weaker) silver inferno now - something which helps to promote the overall direction of the marauder class design (chaos!), especially now that allies are no longer protected from the inferno. (See http://nodeka.blogspot.com/2009/06/dirty-dozen5.html for my class direction primer.) The other marauder subclasses are definitely more attractive with access to the inferno, as well.
We can't leave firebrands without a unique ability, of course, and so they've developed the art of the eruptive stigma - a fiery rune which provides protection against special attacks (ice blades, kicks, lightning bolts, etc.) and which then responds by burning the offender's face off. It's a kind of a more situational form of unearthly rapture. (Don't worry, dajas - your rapture is still far superior, and in fact has been strongly buffed in the update as well, as it now triggers on the numerous types of attacks out there that ignore counterattacks.)
The other big portion of the update is related to the rapture/stigma pair - a mechanic update to counterattacks, which will now act logically for each of their damage types. (Thus, fire invulnerability will protect you from fire counterattacks, and so on.) Because of this, jakaens took a (probably long-overdue) hit to their immunities down to 50%; however, it's a tone that's also a buff in some ways, since their immunities are now effective against a variety of counterattacks. (Poliir are another class that, like marauders, need more design work in the direction of their intended flavor but have been held back by overly strong subclass abilities. I'd like to flesh out the "defensive" aspect of the poliir much more in the future.)
The consolidation of healing effects to all be affected by healing amplification is really a bit of a code-cleaning setup. Now that all healing functions in a standardized way, effects such as healing amplification will work consistently, avoiding the whole "does this ability work with heal amp?" guessing game. In addition, it makes it easier to introduce new functionality that interacts with healing, such as necromancer diseases/footpad poisons that reduce or even prevent healing. =)
Stepping back a bit to the 1/14 update, the decree of guilt buff is fairly self-explanatory. Alignment is a bit of a sticking point with paladins, and some of their abilities can really wreck it. Having decree of guilt function as an alignment-raiser felt fun and flavorful, improves the class's usability, and helps guilt to stand out just a little from the shadow of his big brother, decree of innocence.
And finally, the open wounds mechanic - this one's a strong benefit for having greater dexterity and +hit, two stats which were lacking in functionality. There's a lot of subtle possibility here. The damage dealt by open wounds is based on the wounder's +hit/+dam ratio, and the bleeding victim's maximum health. Thus, while open wounds will not have much effect in day-to-day running, it can be extremely effective in PvP combat, especially with good +hit gear for nastier wounds (and +dex to increase the chance of wounding). However, defense becomes important as well - a player can bind their wounds as soon as they leave combat, so it's easiest to take advantage of a good wound if you have someone able to tank the victim and keep them in combat as they bleed to death.
And now, back to Invasion work. =) Enjoy, and don't be shy with feedback!
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