About Feoh Soultaker KR Update

[ShakaDeVirgem]

The playstyle characterized by necromancers, necromancy, necropolis, lich, dark mages, witches and undeads is a popular playstyle in most RPG games. I like this playstyle, so I looked for it in all games I've played, like:

* Heroes of Might and Magic
* Diablo2 and Diablo3
* Lineage 2 (C3, C4, High Five)
* Lineage 2 (GoD)

My experience with Linege 2 Goddess of Destruction is the most frustrating and poor.  The Feoh Soultaker has been neglected since the last Feoh update (2018 I guess) and nerfed since the C4. I have been playing/investing in the official servers since 2016 as Soultaker waiting for an actual revamp, so I decided to share my experience when I saw the latest KR update thsi week:

"Transfer 70% of your damage dealt to pets → Change to 80% transfer"
(See: https://lineage2.plaync.com/board/l2awknupdate/view?articleId=212537&viewMode=list&size=20)

This update is too naive and it does not improve soultaker survival, which is the main current problem of the class. Actually it is a nerf, because increaseing transfered damage from 70% to 80% just means the pet will die even more faster (it has too low HP), so the owner will spend more time re-sumoning or dying then actually fighting. It is preferable to keep the 70% transfer rate and improve / re-work the survival capabilities offered  by TransferPain.

Also, this updates tunes Transfer Pain using Mana Barrier as reference. You should not do it, because they are not equivalente skills. The correct comparison is:

• TransferPain + Summoned Creature + Sacrificail Soul === Mana Barrier.

It means you need to review and re-work the TransferPain + SummonedCreature + SacrificialSoul combo, and not only Transfer Pain.

TRANSFER PAIN: A NON-SCALING SKILL

Transfer Pain does not scale with the owner's gear and level, so it does not scale.

• Mana  Barrier: The better your gear, the less direct damage the Mana Barrier takes. It means more mana will remain for battle.
• Transfer Pain: The better your gear, the less direct damage the owner receives, but the same direct damage will be received by the summoned creature since it is stuck with same defense and same HP regardeless of the onwer 's level and gear. It means that even Tanks can kill your summon using low damage AOE skills... when facing AOE of archers, feohs, tyrs and NPCs the battle is unfair.
• Expected: the pet properties should scales with the owner's gear and level, something like ServitorShare + EquipmentShare. The game also lacks items for summoning playstyle , eg: there are no Greater Jewels focused on summoning / summoned creatures.

The damage is not correctly transfered to the Summoned Creature, so it does not scale.

• Mana Barrier: The first heavy hit consumes all the mana, the second consumes HP. It means you have time to recover mana with some rebirth-like skills.
• Transfer Pain (Actual): the damage is not transfered to the Summoned Creature and it is 100% inflicted to the owner... the owner dies and the Summoned Creature remains with full HP. The root cause seems to be related to the Summoned Creature quantity of HP.
  1. If received damage by the owner is higher then the Summoned Creature HP, then damage is not transfered. 
  2. Or, if transfered damage is higher then Summoned Creature HP, then damage is not transfered. 
• Transfer Pain (Expected): received damage should be transfered to the Summoned Creature until it consumes all the creature HP, then the remaining damage should be inflicted to the owner.

The Summoned Creature HP is too low and outdated, so it does not scale.

• My Summoned Creature has about 120k HP, whereas I have 200k ++ HP depending on build. The owner is a better HP reserve then the Summoned Creature, which sounds weird. The pet is 1-hited by tanks when it comes to direct damage.... unfair.
• The Summoned Creature dies too fast, too frequenly when transfering 70%/80% damage to it, then the other 30% or 20% damage goes to the onwer HP: The owner+pet receive all  the damage together, while Mana Barrier sends 90% of damage to "nowhere" and 10%/5% to the owner. That is one good reason why that skills are not equivalent to each other.
• The current game includes OP damage because of dragon weapons, pvp cloaks, +30 weapons, etc. Thus, most players can easily hit much higher then 120k damage: the pet can't survive at least 2 or3 hits, so most of the time i'm resummoning instead of fighting. We are in the 1-hit era, so a summon with only 120k HP is outdated. 

TRANSFER PAIN: A BAD SKILL DESIGN

• The distance between the Owner and the Summed Creature necessary to activate the TransferPain effect is too low and outdated. I understand it cannot be too high, but it cannot be too low as it is.
  • If the creature is closer, it is easily killed by low damage skills.
  • If the creature is a little far, the TransferPain effect does not work.
  • If the owner jumps forward or backwad too far, the Transfer Pain effect deactivates  even jumping is a problem.
  • It greatly limits the owner mobility in Olympic arenas, while mana-based feohs can freely move through the arenas. The same applies to Sieges. I guess it is a too dificult restriction applied to soultakers only, no other class has such a heavy limitation: esvicerators have almost perma invecibility+OP damage, sayha seers have perma hide (now mana barrier!), tankers receive almost perma capped damage, mana-based feohs have high damage reduction and can recover mana, archers and daggers can hide and dodge most hits, tyrs have OP atk and def... soultaker is the guy who runs and die .
• The 3-secs debuff invecibility of Sacrificial Soul is a joke when we see the OP game dynamics of other classes... It is a good 3-sec period to die while the Summoned Creature is not active, so TransferPain is not active as well. Why so many difficulties to play the Soultaker? Some dev in NC Korea hates the class, but the game is for players, not for devs.

SO SOULTAKER IS THE EARTH MAGE... OK, TELL ME A JOKE  

As Earth Mage, soultaker should be the most defensive Feoh, however it is the most paper feoh  you should rework it because it is a design and conceptual failure. As a Dark Mage, its damage should depend on weakening the enemy with debuffs, unlike archmages who are pure heavy direct damage. Where are the Soultaker debuffs? As a soutaker class specificity, it should have at least one special weakening debuff skill, which would offer some challenge to other classes. Curse Gloom? Oh common, nobody uses the Dark Stance because nobody wants to play a Single Target feoh, since it is not the feoh purposal.

[dmangus]

I am not sure what game your playing, but I'm not getting hit for 120k, its more like 1 - 6 million, through mana barrier, and with so called decent gear. They really need to tone down the damage in general and go back to giving healers chances to heal, and players chance to pop HP/MP pots to help live. Right now outside of UDs, Invincibility skills, or untargetable skills, every one is a one shot except those with literally all the top possible gear. All of which is outside the scope of average to even pro players. Only people willing to spend the cost of multiple cars can survive.  

[socketka]

its hard to scale and balance game where korea developers focus on their version of game (no super cloaks, no super jewels, no wings of splendor,...)

everyone is free to compare japan version (same like ours):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c1UhOAxYA0

and korean (official) version of game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KELtViFCPWI

 

there is no solution, either stop pvp if you dont like pvp style we are having now, or quit

[OmenOfSteel_Naia]

socky stop off topic.

@OP:
If you dont like Soultaker, change to AM or STS. Waiting for a fix = pointless.
Ofc if you change, no more free hero, thats the downside.

[Renne_]

Hello Shaka

Very good post and with many details that i really didnt know for your class! 

The only way that could actually work with transfer pain,could be the summon of an invulnerable pet, agathion style,that couldn't die,but you could share the HP dmg taken. Unfortunatelly their lack of designation (and fantasy) to re-make an old toon, will left another unsolved problemp..