Discontinuities and General feedback in Spiritism Magic

Scai01

New member
Mar 1, 2022
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First off, I really enjoy that magic in this game has work required to actually utilize each magic tree. Whether in reagents or barriers of entry, each magic class requires you to work for it, making it more meaningful requiring investment to utilize fully. Each magic school has their place, pros, and cons. I really look forward to the potential of MO2. Keep up the hard work Devs of SV.

That said, there are a few things that I personally would like to ask about as there is a strange way the game seems to handle certain skills specifically in the Spiritism tree.

First off, what exactly is Kau? It can be easily recognized as your 'spirit health' in the etherworld. If you have low Kau, you are severely limited to what you can do even to the point of potentially being forced or banished to a NPC priest.

Kau in the living however doesn't appear to be as simple and based on how spiritism magic is described in the spell book, discontinuities can be found.
Mental Projectile is a powerful spell. The flavor text explains that it 'instantly drain Kau from your target'. In the living realm, this 'Kau' damage seem to translate to Health damage, while in the etherworld, it reduces your Kau (aka mana bar).

The problem with this is how most other spells do not follow this relationship of Kau = Health.
Ether Barrier: 'Make the target take less Kau Damage'. Works in the ether world, but it does not reduce the damage received from Mental Projectile in the living realm.
Kau Regeneration: 'Increase Kau Regeneration rate of the target'. Again, works in the etherworld to restore your mana faster, but it does not share that regenerative effect in the living realm(despite taking Kau damage from Mental projectile does reduce the target's health).

Both of these skills are currently solely used while in the etherworld to farm spirits and fight other spiritists but they aren't very practical in the latter case, as they are short and standing still while fighting spiritists is a dooming act. Mental Healing is also an example of such a spell that has to be so precise in extremely specific environment to be used. In my many hours of gameplay, I would like to offer some suggestions, and ask for clarifications especially on the topic of Kau.

If the distinction between Kau and health is indeed separate, change the text of Mental Projectile to that it 'instantly deals damage or drains Kau from the target'. This better separates the concept of Kau and health; explains that Mental projectile does in fact deal damage in forms other than Kau.

Ether Momentum, Ether Barrier, Kau Regeneration: Double the mana/Spirit Cost, increase the duration of effects to 2-2.5 minutes
Dispel Portal: Reduce the cast time. 4 seconds isn't worth to try and stop players from using portals or use to conceal your own portal when it already takes 3-4 seconds for the revival animation.
Mental Healing: My understand of the text 'This can also be done from the ether'. I understood that you can use this skill to benefit the living as a spirit as a mana battery sort of speak. If it is working as intended, perhaps change the text to 'This can also be used in the etherworld' or remove the second sentence entirely as it is already understood you can cast any spiritism spell in the etherworld. Otherwise, change the spell to a projectile and allow it to affect both the spirit and living at the same time.
Mental Projectile: Allow this spell to cast 180 degree on horseback. This is a stretch, but on horseback, it's a six second interruptible cast time that can not be 'held' like Ecumenical magic. Spiritism only uses one hand so it should allow for more movement.
Ether Barrier: Enable it to reduce the damage taken from Mental projectile. To follow the text of reducing Kau damage received in the living realm
Kau Regeneration: Allow a 0.5-1hp/sec health regeneration in the living realm. If Mental Projectile Drains Kau aka HP, Kau Regeneration should be able to recover hp

I understand that there are still many trees yet to be released and the team is opting to hold off before making most balance changes. Though right now I feel like the Spiritist tree is quite limited to just farming spirits, shooting projectiles or Resurrections. These changes would allow a little more utility and some quality of life for spiritists.

Apologies for the Textwall. I appreciate those who took the time to read the feedback.
 
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ArcaneConsular

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Oct 27, 2021
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basically all spiritism is good for is ether portals and revive. maybe mental projectile. But that being said ether portals are really useful for getting back to your dead body or traveling. Great for taming horses. Spawn in tame 5 horses ride back. profit. etc
 
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Scai01

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Mar 1, 2022
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I agree! Spiritism has some very interesting quirks and benefits outside of combat. Being able to 'scout' dungeons or areas before your main group arrives, taming horses, and Counter-griefing (killing horses outside enemy or known griefer's house). Spirits sounds to play a role in necromancy as well so it will be interesting to see the synergy between the two schools. Needless to say, Necromancy doesn't sound to require spiritism, just spirit boxes.

Spiritism does have uses and is required in group play, but i just feel like it is lacking. Your only using 20% of the spells, 80% of the time. It does some really extreme and awesome stuff such as resurrections, a long range finisher, and a whole world that 99% of peoples can't really interact with; so perhaps the lack of low-tier or mid-tier spells is my gripe about the school when on it's own. There is nothing that warrants investing less than 90-100 primaries into Spiritism just for Spiritism alone (without needing Mental Training).
 

Nefnate

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Jun 23, 2021
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basically all spiritism is good for is ether portals and revive. maybe mental projectile. But that being said ether portals are really useful for getting back to your dead body or traveling. Great for taming horses. Spawn in tame 5 horses ride back. profit. etc
Excellent post. Spiritism is currently rather non-sensical and not very fun or useful. I agree with your proposed changes.
 

Galahorn

New member
Mar 25, 2021
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Haven't tried spiritism yet. But does resurection work on pets? If not, this could add value to the magic school!