Slayerj
Posts: 121 Joined: 03-22-17
Last post: 1095 days
Last view: 81 days
I'm here today to propose a revamp to alchemy, not in the vein(Thank you Asker!) of direct damage increases, but more in line with what Alchemy FEELS like, if that makes any since. Something you can look at and go, "Yeah, that's alchemy."
To start things off I must say, pretty much nothing here is doable without our Mabi Code Lord and savior, Kammy. Nothing here is set in stone and I would love people to point things out and suggest changes and such to help iron this suggestion out (with credit being given where it belongs). I really hope some great alchemist can share their wonderful wisdom as well as the everyday alchemist man, as everyone deserves a say and to shed light on their view points of the skill set.
Bellow are my Proposed changes to Alchemy.
Cylinder Changes:
(All of which would be tag based and thus retroactive)
Currently, Cylinders differ largely in the dmg values they add or remove for each of the four elements of alchemy and upgrades. Overall, this largely only effects the three damaging skills, Flame Burst, Heat Buster, and Water Cannon. There are a few other things like frozen blast times and rain cast maybe but ultimately these are largely ignored or not even known.
I propose that cylinders take it a step further to vary them up even more so that damage isn't the final deciding factor all the time and will add to what makes alchemy alchemy, utility and thinking for the situation at hand.
Water type Cylinders: Based on the Tier (Water being T1 and Tidal Being T2 with The Tower Water being T1 for balance reasons) should increase the base damage of any alchemy skill (before calc) if used/hit within 200 range, deal 5%-10% more dmg based on which tier, but lower damage by 4%-8% if used/hit at 75% of skills max range. Also, based on Tier, frozen blast base chance +2%-4% to work. Yes, this one is a a somewhat damage buff but it still has a draw back and makes you have to think. The frozen blast buff is just there to add to the slight increase of time. (I would love something that isn't just a dmg increase but I cannot think of anything, please suggest.)
Wind Type Cylinders: Based on the Tier (Wind being T1 and Hurricane being T2 with a potential Tower being T1 for balance reasons) should increase the base max range of any alch skill by 250-350. It should also increase the angle of frozen blast by a base of 3-6 before any upgrades. This one has some more that will be talked about in skill changes as well.
Clay type Cylinders: Based on the Tier (Clay being T1 and E.quake being T2 with a potential Tower being T1 for balance reasons) would add +10-25dmg at the end of all calculation, ignoring defensive values and skills. This one has some more that will be talked about in skill changes as well.
Fire Type Cylinders: Based on the Tier (Fire being T1 and Volcano being T2 with the Tower being T1 for balance reasons) should increase the stun time of alch skills by .5-.9 seconds.
Base Cylinders and Base Towers (and maybe Dream catchers? I'm unsure) would be able to get one of these bonuses via Alchemy Experimentation through the two NPCs (The one in Dunby and the One in Tir) but would not gain the upgrades of that element. This keeps these cylinders to be a bit more useful while still fitting the theme.
Skill Changes:
Wind Blast: CD lowered to somewhere around 10-20 seconds. DMG slightly increased (from base we have before the poll change. I don't think the skill needs huge damage, but it does need SOME.) Additionally, Wind Cylinders can cast the attack 2 more times before going on CD, and Towers can cast it 1 more time (a potential wind tower could cast it a total of 3 extra times)
Or
Windblast: CD lowered to somewhere around 10-15 seconds with the addition of lowering monster protection stat by 5 for 10 seconds (not stacking with itself). This is changed to 7 with a T1 cylinder, and 10 with a T2. Towers would only be 4 and a potential wind tower would be 12.
For both of these, +2 cylinder pressure when you hit the CD would be a nice touch.
Water Cannon: Gains a small splash cone aoe at 5 charges behind the target hit. It also ignores 50% of a mobs protection if charges are greater than 2. This helps out it's lack of crits in the end game without very high crit rate, but doesn't completely ignore it like an AoE. The small splash just seems fitting for a water based skill. I'm not sure how large it should be but I think it shouldn't be too large. As for the dmg amount? I'm not sure, 30-60%? Maybe the cone could be larger and stronger if you're within the 120% boost range and weaker and smaller if you're at the 80% range.
Flame: I think this is fine honestly. I could be wrong, someone correct me and suggest something if needed.
Heat Buster: I think it could use it's AoE from live but not a direct thing. Either a very large AoE with a low splash dmg, or a smaller AoE with more splash dmg. Suggest away!
Sand Burst: While using a t1 earth cylinder +.4 seconds to the blind time, and +1 while using a T2. A potential Earth Tower being +1.4 That's really all I'd change for the most part. It's got almost no dmg, but a 2-3 second complete shut down on a mob? Nice. I'm not sure if the CP ever needs touching up on again or not.
Frozen blast: I have almost nothing to say on this at this time. Please help.
Rain Cast: Same as above.
Shock: Same as above.
Chain Cylinder: Just...at the very least, at rank 5, drop +1s and only allow +2-4s. Other suggestions are nice.
Elemental Masteries: First, the damage formula should be addressed in a way that makes these more impact (and the way the master title works should be improved. That 10% is 10% of 10%, so it's a 1% increase...), but also maybe add bonuses to the skills based on their ranks? Either for all alchemy, or just for their respective skills.
Golem: Something needs to be done. The idea behind this skill was fine, but it's long since become a meme free damage thing with the help of AI. For a skillset all about things being different and useful, every golem is the same thing, a large pool of HP ready to WM. I'm personally not sure how to address this in a way that would satisfy the community. Ideas are very much welcome.
B.Spikes: I'm not sure if anything needs to be done or not. I'd love to be able to make an iron plated wall using iron plates or something, to give them more uses and make a wall that reflects more dmg %, but that's just me.
Synthesis: Could use a few more fixed recipes and synth item grades changed around.
Fragmentation: Could use more things to frag. Plates are untouched, and it'd be interesting to take a higher leather and break it down into lower leather? I'm not sure.
Metal Conversion: I have 0 idea if it needs anything or what.
Please, if you have any ideas whatsoever, please suggest them here and, with enough agreement in the comments, credit will be given as the post is updated. I'm not the best at alchemy and I know my ideas are often wild and completely out there but I love this skillset but often find it very lacking outside of flame burst spam... Let's make Alchemy more interesting together.
Edit: Come on guys, this thread isn't meant to just look at the ideas I've put here and think on those, it's meant for these ideas, your own, and others, to be expanded upon, thought up, posted, anything. Everyone has a voice. I won't name who, but one person I've shown this enjoyed the ideas above in the general feel they said it gave off for alchemy. They felt however, they had little room to speak because, while being an alchemist, they had not enough playtime behind it or in general to say anything. I'm here to say, say ANYTHING. You play this game, your words matter.
Idea Edit 1: (Credit: Cj)
Idea with little fleshing out via a good friend of mine who doesn't touch mabi much anymore, but never played pro. He loved the idea of actual Alchemy Symbols (historical ones) being used in either the skills or some way for the skill-set itself. Currently in Pro, we do have sprays and perhaps could find a way to make craftable alchemy symbols to put down for different effects? Problem being that I don't think a single alchemy symbol is ever used even once in-game and would have zero reason to be used. As for what they did, I'm not sure myself and he doesn't really care enough on the idea to flesh it out more at this time, so it's a free one to think about if you wanted to.
