Rework of Old Magic Schools (Part 2/5) – Spiritism

[Marchioro]

Although I have proposed a series of changes in a compilation of posts named “Changes that MUST be made considering long-term development of MO2”, as I am not sure what Star Vault's next steps will be, all proposals in this new compilation will ignore the previous ones. However, for those who followed the previous posts, you will see that it is fully possible to incorporate such suggestions here, especially with regard to part 3 (Magic Schools Fundamentals).

Unlike other magical schools, the iceberg of spiritism is much deeper than is usually thought. In this case we are talking about a magical school that does not just encompass the use of spells, but a whole other separate universe, known as the Etherworld.

I would really like to say that I have best solutions for every aspect of this school, but at least I do for the most part... Thus, I will explain general problems and solutions, or things to take into consideration when design a solution, for each aspect and finally talk about spells:​

• Quality of life
  

  • Spirit Box;​
  • Banishment and Death Sickness;​
• Etherworld​
• Spells;​

Spirit Box

This is the primary resource for the use of this magic school, as well as for the most relevant necromancy spells... In total, there are 5 different types of spirit boxes, 2 of which can be obtained through purchase from NPCs, this being the most viable method in the game. The only known difference between these boxes is their capacity to store "spirits" (Kau = Life Force). The other 3 spirit boxes are extremely rare drops... In short, the problems with such an item can be listed as follows:​

• NPC spirit boxes do not have enough capacity for someone who intends to actively use spells that consume such a resource;​
• This way, more spirit boxes need to be placed in the inventory, mainly when farming spirits;​
• There is no way to transfer the contents of one spirit box to another;​
• It's an item that drops on death;​
• This way, the rare players who have superior spirit boxes do not use them;​
• There is no crafting method;​

In this context, the following solutions can be Applied:​

• The spirit box will now be a soulbound item, it does not drop on death.​
• When dying, the person will lose all stored spirits.​
• At the location of the body, a temporary item will be created, which will contain all spirits lost in death.​
• Spirits can be collected by anyone who has a spirit box in their inventory.​
• The item will persist in the world until the timer expires or all spirits are collected.​
• It is not possible to collect more spirits than the capacity of the spirit box in the inventory.​
• Make it compatible with combining system;​
• Just as was promised with the spellbooks, add some kind of small bonus according to the rarity of the spirit box, encouraging the obtaining of rarer spirit boxes;​
• When Glass Blowing was a reality, add a crafting method for advanced spirit boxes, at least better version than the npc;​
• For sure, the best ones can still be only obtainable through drops;​

With these changes I hope to encourage the use of better spirit boxes, both for those who use it and for those who want to collect loot from another player, and put an end to the problem of slot management, as well as making it easier to sell spirits... As there are many scenarios where specific builds only buy small spirit boxes and the seller only has just farm medium or vice versa.


Banishment and Death Sickness

This is a problem that is partly related to spiritism. One of the community's biggest complaints is the discussion of the minimum time to be ressurrect after death (Death Sickness)... We all know that when fighting within an enemy's territory, staying alive and eliminating targets is just as important as ensuring that guarantee they stay dead... Therefore, priest camp is essential in this type of scenario.

However, it should be noted that many territories have a large number of priests in their domains, and sometimes it is not necessarily about fighting within enemy territory, but rather at some point of interest on the map where numerous groups can have outposts built around, whether they are the owners or not (allies).

In this cases, priest camp is an out of the question strategy... Given the nature of Mortal Online 2, in which group fights at points of interest tend to be long-lasting, mainly because everything in this game takes time... Most of the time It ends up being extremely frustrating to fight the same opponent that you have "already defeated" 3 or more times and realize that he still keeps coming back for the same fight.

In this same context, it is worth mentioning that the banishment mechanic is just as disappointing... When banished within the ether, the spirit is sent to the nearest red priest, in addition to, of course, receiving the Banishment Debuff. This debuff prevents mana recovery within the ether for 5 minutes. As long as the debuff persists, the target cannot be banished again. Therefore, there is no reason to have a spiritist banishing enemies killed during a fight, since after being banished they can simply press the home priest button and return completely invulnerable while waiting 20 seconds to be ressurrect...

The solution to this whole scenario is very simple:​

• Change the minimum time of Death Sickness to 1 minute and make it a scalable;​
• When resurrected as a priest, the player will gain a new debuff called "Spiritual Sickness" with the same duration as the last Death Sickness;​
• If the player dies while the Spiritual Sickness debuff is active, the time of the next Death Sickness will be increased by 1 minute, until a maximum of 5 minutes;​
• When banned in the ether, the player will gain the Death Sickness debuff at its maximum duration of 5 minutes;​
• Players cannot be banned inside of Blue Cities;​
• Unlike the current version, the resurrection spell will be the only way to resurrect someone during the Death Sickness debuff, but it will not be able to remove Spiritual Sickness;​

With these changes, in addition to solving this death time problem, I hope to bring greater value to spiritists. Whether inside the ether, keeping players dedicated to banishing enemies, or outside, making the resurrection mechanic much more appealing;​

 

[Marchioro]

Etherworld

This is a very problematic subject... There are many aspects to consider here, from immersion until to gameplay itself.

Everyone here is aware that it is perfectly normal to take inspiration from other projects during the process of designing your own. MO2 is not an exception… Depending on your knowledge of the world, it will eventually be possible to understand exactly which works they were inspired by, whether for the design of the gameplay (mechanics and systems) or for the lore.

For those who don't know yet, the lore about the Etherworld is strongly inspired by the beliefs of Ancient Egypt about the soul, at least the version widespread in current magic schools (there are other versions such as animism). This is evidenced by the nomenclatures Akh, Auw, Ka/Kau. My background allowed me to quickly identify this inspiration...

Knowing this, one of the things that always sparked my curiosity were the choices behind graphic design in etherworld. Why are souls (Akh) filled with life force (Ka) red? Why do the Akh take this jellyfish form? In short, what color Red and Jellyfish represents in Nave? What are the reasons behind that?

I had an interesting discussion on the Lore discord channel. A player, SweetPepper (Pep), gave me a plausible clue for choosing red (Although I personally prefer green, but I can live with that). Eventually Mats (The Lore Guy) joined the discussion. We had a small conversation, but in the end, he didn't answer me why all spirits are jellyfish... I asked that mainly because according to beliefs in the ancient Egypt, Akh could take form it wanted, usually a Bird. Of course, in other cultures, different shapes are used to represent souls, such as butterflies or moths (I personally feel more enchanted by moths). Anyway, I've never heard anything about a connection between jellyfish and souls… Follow the link for anyone interested:

https://discord.com/channels/345493247931711488/817931904628162610/1277390551599022202

The point I want to raise is the lack of variability in the spirits and content within the ether. Why don't we have other types of spirits in the ether, why don't we have bosses exclusive to this type of content?

Currently, this remains the most restricted content in the game, in the sense that to enjoy it a high investment in terms of gold is necessary... And the experience is disappointing. Especially when it comes to combat. I personally have always hated the way combat between spirits, PVE and PVP works, whether before or after the big patch that "killed" spiritism. The biggest reason consists of this drain-based mechanic (Channeling and Hitscan). To understand this, let's consider the following scenario:
​

• This is a single server game, which means many players have high ping;​
• High mobility in ether, all spirits have a fixed speed of 800. 1000 with ether momentum;​
• All hitboxes were deformed with EU5;​
• In an older update, the method for determining damage changed from client to server;​
• In another update, the use of hitscan-based spells was changed to only be possible when confirming the target (see the target's name);​

You don't need to be a genius to realize that these changes negatively affect the game as a whole. Mainly for players with high ping. Since now we need to wait for the target's name to appear (heavily affected by ping) and we still don't have confidence in the game's buggy hitbox. Regarding combat in the ether, if before it was practically impossible to banish an opponent determined to escape, after the changes it became even worse, since now you must count on a disconnection or stroke suffered by the opponent...

If Star Vault doesn't believe what I'm saying, I either invite a member to log into an account with spiritism during a large-scale battle and then play around with trying to banish players in ether. For greater reality, preferably someone who does not live close to server.

The same idea also applies to PVE. Of course, I'm not saying that it's impossible to farm spirits, but rather that the experience got even worse. It's amazing how over 3 years, with each update we have, the etherworld gets worse and worse. Except for moments when I am forced to fill my spirit boxes, I have never entered the etherworld to play actively since February 2024.

"Ah, but you can make tons of money with spirit farm, yada yada yada…” - There are many ways to make money in the game, whether legal or illicit. Spirit farming is currently not the lucrative source of income that some believe it to be. And regardless of the case, it is not about whether it is viable in terms of profit or not, but about the experience involved in the process, fun. After all, as far as I know, we’re talking about a game, not a job.​

 

[Marchioro]

Another important point to be highlighted is the existence, or rather the inexistence - kkkkkk -, of so many buffs in the ether. What's the point of having so many buffs with varying durations between 1 - 5 minutes? Is it really that difficult to fix the problems with buffs disappearing during a fight? Can you understand how frustrating it is to be involved in some combat, whether PVE or PVP, and suddenly your buff disappears, simply because God wanted it that way? But your opponent, for some reason, still has his buffs... Or knowing that your 1-minute buff is going to end, and you need it for everything you're doing because the system revolves around this RIDICULOUS buff.

I can understand that part of the reason there are so many buffs is to avoid using these magic capabilities in certain conditions, but I'm sorry to say this is a stupid design... I believe there is a better way to do this, simply relating these abilities to the level of the Ether Lore skill, same way you already did with Walker Knowledge.

Speaking about capability in the etherworld, I do not believe that it is correct to allow any spirit in the game to have forms of combat in the ether without investing points in this type of knowledge (Ability points). Some buffs should only be allowed to be self-cast. Furthermore, the mana drain without knowledge of at least Ether Lore should be null, that is, a player who dies and assumes spiritual form should not be able to drain another's mana without the knowledge to do so, after all, what does he know about the Akh and Ka?

Finally, we have the mixed issue in the interaction between the etherworld and the material world... One of the saddest things that happened at this school was the unnecessary nerf to the ability to scout during ethereal form. This nerf needs to be reversed and, in the same way that it is possible to see the target of a spirit inside the ether while outside, the reverse should also be possible. I know for this to happen, some form of counterplay will be necessary (wait for the topic about spells).

I would really like to have more ways in which a dedicated spiritist in ethereal form could interfere in the material world... Of course, in this case damage and direct healing are out of question. I believe a more appropriate way could be inspired by Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings) before coming to Middle Earth as an Istari. I'm talking about his spiritual form as Maiar, in which he was able to inspire (manipulate feelings) others and grant some visions. Thus, I propose some forms of indirect interaction, whether through buffs or debuffs. Some mechanics based on tether or auras could fit here, as they would require proper positioning in combat. This way, we would have room for a playstile in which a spirit can aid allies or “haunt” enemies.

In one of Henrik's latest streams it was mentioned that Star Vault was testing a projectile-based form of combat in the ether. I personally find the idea interesting, since it is more than clear that maintaining the current mechanics is unfeasible for the future of this school. In this context, regardless of the path they follow, when proposing solutions they must take the following ideas into consideration:
​

• More varieties of spirits in the ether, with different mechanics;​
• Add bosses inside etherworld;​
• Add 1 or 2 bosses in material plane in which at some point in its mechanics it will be necessary to have a spiritist inside the ether to deal with it. For example, at certain moments, the boss will call for spirits that will keep him invulnerable while they persist;​
• Make the combat in etherworld enjoyable;
  
  • Something not so ping dependent;​
  • Something that handles high mobility in the ether (maybe some kind of slow when taking Kau damage);​
• Restrict content in the etherworld to builds that have not invested points into it;
  
  • Limit the use and performance of some spells with skill points in Ether Lore, in the same way that necromancy interacts with Walker Knowledge;​
  • Disable Kau draining (Spirit left click) for those who don’t have Ether Lore enabled and make it scale with that lore;​
• Review buff durations and ability to cast on target;​
• Bring back spirit scout;​
• Add indirect ways of interfering with the material world in spiritual form (tether and auras seems to be best option for that);​
• Implement counterplay mechanics against spirits while outside of ether;​
• Introduce ways in which a living spiritists can be useful as a spirit when they die;
  
  • Spirit Box as a soulbond item;​
• Implement more spells that can be useful outside of ether too;​

 

[Marchioro]

Spells

As I said initially, I would really like to have solutions for the entire scenario mentioned here, but I believe I have good solutions for most of the problem considering the proposed design:

All numbers proposed here will assume a base Intelligence and Pysche of 100, Mental Offense and Focus at 100, no trinkets and no masteries. Since I have no way of testing the impact of the proposed values, keep in mind that they are certainly subject to possible corrections. The important thing here is to reflect about the idea.

Expel Spirit – I still hope they will successfully implement projectile combat in ether… But even if that, banishment should be something only available for spiritist with etheral capabilities, thus this spell will still be needed. This spell should be different for those who has high investment in Ether Lore;​

• Increase duration to 15 minutes;​
• Only Self-cast;​
• If a spiritist has 100 points in Ether Lore he will be always under effect of expel spirit no matter what;​

Transcendental Seance – Perfect;

Transcendental Awareness – Similar to expel spirit, it makes sense that this skill must have some kind for those who invested many points. Furthermore, this is going to be the beginning of a mechanic that allows the use of other kind of visions in future, thus increasing immersion in the game:​

• Change to be a toggle spell;​
• 8 mana to cast and consumes the same amount per second to keep it;​
• Each point in Ether Lore skill decreases mana consumption to cast in 1%;​
• If a spiritist has 100 points in Ether Lore he can cast this skill without consuming mana;​

Ether Barrier – Almost perfect:​

• Increase duration to 15 minutes;​

Ether Momentum – Almost perfect:​

• Increase duration to 15 minutes;​
• Increase move speed to 400 (With the recent changes in stamina and mount speed, this movement speed inside ether must be updated in order to enable a better spirit scout);​

Kau Regeneration – Almost perfect:​

• Increase duration to 15 minutes;​

Mental Healing (New Version) – Since the nerf this skills is useless… I personally don’t see any problem with the idea of make it be based in mana regeneration, the problem is in its duration. However, I believe it will be better to work as an aura (All auras here can be easily adapted to tether);​

• Change the effect to an aura of 8 meters radius around the caster. The aura has the following properties;​
  • It will be a toggle spell;​
  • 2 mana to cast and consumes the same amount per second to keep it;​
  • Each point in in Ether Lore will decrease the mana consumption to cast in 0.05%;​
  • It will grant to anyone inside the aura extra mana regeneration based on caster’s natural mana regen of 20% (40% while inside the ether);​
  • People can only be affected by only 1 aura of the same type;​
  • You can only have 2 spiritual auras active at same time​
  • You can not be affected by your own aura;​

Spiritual Restoration (New Spell) – I know, the name is not good, but it can be changed… The idea here is having some similar effect on stamina regeneration. This will help people during long fights, mainly in mobility. For sure it will be the difference in some case between chase and running away.​

• Copy and paste from mental healing, the only change is instead of mana regeneration it will be stamina;​

Spiritual Regeneration (New Spell) – No more comments… This is going to be the Hp counterpart of these kind of spells.​

• Almost a copy and paste of the rest, expect for the values;​
• It will heal 1 hp per second (2 inside the ether);​

Inspiration (New spell) – This is going to be a direct buff to attributes stats. For now, we can only see a basic difference in the status that is affected by attributes. However, I hope you saw my last post when I proposed a spell called Arcane Shield. One way to deal with that was based in some builds with a certain value of strength (125). With this kind of mechanic, I want to see inspiration as way to enable things that usually are not able to be done with a few builds.​

• Copy and Paste aura mechanic then change the buff;​
• It will increase the attributes (strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence and psyche) in 3 (5 while inside the ether);​

Horror (New spell) – This is going to be the debuff version of inspiration. This aura can be more impactful than it appears. Can you see that losing some attributes can be difference between pull a bow, be heavy and able to mount, cast a spell… I’m still unsure about that one…​

• Copy and Paste aura mechanic then change the effect:​
• It will decrease the attributes (strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence and psyche) in 3 (5 while inside the ether);​

Exhaustion (New spell) – I don’t think it is a good idea to have a debuff counterpart for each aura here, mainly because stealing mana and hp inside the ether from someone seems too strong for me. Mana is already something scarce and most build don’t have passive regeneration, which makes no sense to counter hp regen. “Ah but there are thursars”, it still seems wrong. In this scenario the last option will be stamina, but in this case, I think it will be better to instead of stamina regeneration, increase the stamina consumption, after all, we already have atrophy in game.​

• Copy and Paste aura mechanic then change the effect:​
• Increase the stamina consumption in 10% (20% inside the ether);​

Etherworld Portal – Since I want a way to spiritist come back to fight, respecting the Death Sickness debuff and skill investment, this skill just needs some small adjustments:​

• Increase mana consumption to 80;​
• You can not pass through an Ether Portal under the Death Sickness debuff;​
• Decrease the value of reserves loss (mana, hp, stamina) by 50%;​

Dispel Portal – Perfect? I mean, until now I never saw people really using this spell, except for trolling new spiritists with almost empty spirit boxes…

Resurrection – Just need a few adjusts:​

• When resurrecting someone make people come back to live with full life (It is a 10 seconds spell that costs 100 mana and priests already do that);​
• Make it possible to resurrect someone with the Death Sickness debuff;​

Mental Projectile – Can I not get blinded by my own spell? I mean, I can not hold it for 20 seconds like ecumenical (I’m not asking for that), so it would be good to clearly see the target while casting this spell.​

• Decrease the spell's brightness in the default setting without the need to use filters;​
• I would like see an after effect like Eldritch Blast in Baldurs Gate 3, like some kind of smoke vainishing in the air after the railgun being shot;​

 

[Marchioro]

Spiritual Familiar (New Spell) – Star Vault intends to work in the last pillar of elementalism (entities). We still don’t know how strong they will be, but according to Henrik they will do some minor things like increasing breathing in water, illuminate, regulate body temperature… Basically minor buffs and debuffs. It seems more than correct that spiritism get one familiar at the same kind (but for the God’s sake not a jellyfish). I don't have a formal idea about the usage yet, but we could consider things like:​

• A familiar that can only be seen by those under the effect of transcendental awareness
  
  • It helps the owner fighting inside the ether;​
  • Can grant some minor buffs related with Kau Resistance and Damage;​
  • If the auras come to be a thing in game, when sent to an ally, whenever the owner casts an aura spell, the familiar could create a second aura around the ally.​

Ethereal Binding (New spell) – This is going to be the first spell based on magic circle/traps. The main purpose here consists in a counterplay to players outside the ether dealing with spiritist in ethereal form.​

• 50 mana to cast;​
• 5 seconds to cast;​
• Uses 10 ritual blood;​
• “Draws a magic circle of 5 meters radius with blood to binding any spirit who enters inside”. The magic circle has the following properties:
  
  • Has a duration of 10 minutes;​
  • You can only have 1 magic circle at same time;​
  • Whenever a spirit enters inside the circle:
    
    • It will be trapped until the end of spell;​
    • Loses 400 movement speed (600 if ether momentum is buffed)​
    • If its Ka (mana) reaches zero it will be banished without the need of expel spirit;​
    • Turn visible to anyone;​
    • Can only take spiritual damage (spiritism spells);​
  • The spirit can only leaves when banished or pressing Home/Priest button;​
• This spell must be transferred to symbolism when it was available;​

Ether Spike (New Spell?) – This spell is already in game, but currently not available for players. For now, only the Gravekeeper and the Hierophant can cast it. It is a cool spell, but it has some problematic animation… I know it sounds cool to put your hand on ground to cast something, but let’s be honest, we know this is huge drawback in MO2, mainly because besides the impossibility to moving during the animation, the spell needs to perform a path before appears. If we get some kind of great benefit to cast it, like some AOE damage while protected, I would not see a problem with that animation, otherwise it must be changed. It would be good if we had more forms to deal damage ignoring psyche other than elementalism. I believe it could be interesting to have some kind of powerfull spell around the caster that must rely on in the absence of nearby allies, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous​

• “Draws your own Kau and condenses into a thorn that pursues whoever is inside the area, including spirits”​
• Keep the same animation;​
• 40 mana to cast;​
• 2 second to cast;​
• Only Self Cast;​
• 15 meters;​
• 45 – 55 damage (AOE around the caster);​
• Psyche doesn’t work here;​
• Remove knockback;​

Blink (New Spell) - For those who don't know yet, there is a difference between blink and teleport. The objective of both is the same (translocation), but the method used is completely different, at least in fantasy terms. Star vault plans to release Blink as a mentalism spell. However, according to the descriptions, what they call a blink is actually a teleport, as it is instantaneous. The philosophy behind blink is different... Basically the idea consists of opening a portal to another dimension where the laws that govern it (physics = time, speed, gravity...) are different. When leaving in another point of this dimension and returning to its own, people who remained oblivious to the method have the illusion that the translocation was instantaneous. At this point it is already clear what I intend here:​

• “The caster forces his way into the etherworld. The ethereal plane rejects his presence and continually try to expel him draining his Ka”​
• Channeling;​
• You can run while channeling this spell​
• Can only be used while under 100% mana regeneration;​
• It requires Ether Portal Knowledge in order to use it;​
• 15 mana to start channeling and drain 10 mana per second while inside the ether;​
• For each point in point in Ether Portal, only he mana draining decreases in 0.5%;
  
  • With 100 points in Ether Portal, the spells costs 15 mana to start channeling and 5 mana per second while chanelling;​
• While channeling the caster disappears and jumps alive into etherworld;
  
  • While inside the ether the caster:​
  • Gains 100 additional movement speed;​
  • Can only be attacked by any kind of damage and seen by other entities in the same plane;​
  • Can only suffer damage from the material plane if it was spiritual damage (Spiritism spells);​
  • Will remain under the effect of all previously applied damage over time and debuffs;​
  • When suffer any type of damage, will lose the same amount of HP and Ka (Mana);​
  • If its mana reaches zero before leaving the etherworld, he will be under the effect of "Spiritual Exhaustion"​
  • Lasts for 5 minutes and prevents mana recovery on any dimensional plane​

 

[Marchioro]

All these changes related to the level of knowledge in Ether Lore and Ether Portal aim to encourage specialization on the part of players. I always thought it was wrong to allow a spiritist to have the ability to cast all his buffs on another spirit and turn him into a soldier in the etherworld... Not that it would make any difference because the system nowadays is a bad joke.

Another important thing is this fact that is neglected by Star Vaut until now, known as immersion in the character. I'll talk a lot about this in necromancy... But for now, can you see that we have a magical school developed to have affinity with the spiritual world, and one of the most interesting features of it would be the ability to see and interact with spirits being something totally disposable in the daily activities in game?

The proposed change in transcendental awareness, in addition to making this immersion a little more possible, also opens up room for other types of eye spells in the future, be they the ability to see through illusions, see in normal or magical darkness, see invisibility. It's these trivial things that make the game richer in detail. I know that for combat in a game where the most important spells are hitscan, seeing spirits 100% of the time is something that gets in the way, because they are targets. That's exactly why I decided creating spells based on toggle.

I won't deny that I'm not absolutely satisfied with all the proposed spells, in this case I'm talking about auras. Honestly, it's difficult to imagine a healthy way for spirits to interfere in combat between players on the material plane. But this is part of the nature of MO2, the combats are never fair and the feeling that players hate most is helplessness, knowing that nothing can be done in some situations. I still believe that even though I didn't like every buff and debuff I proposed, the path to this solution will still be based on Auras. It is worth noting that each of these spells can be easily adapted to a tether mechanic.

Another reason I initially chose aura design is positioning. Given the nature of combat where players are always moving and fights are always a mess in terms of formation, it's up to the spiritst to find the best positioning since he doesn't just give his Auras to ally X... Everyone in the area is benefited or harmed. Tether in turn alleviates this management. Nothing prevents both mechanics from being present in different spells. However, I must point out that in the case of tether, it would be interesting if the values were a little higher, since the effect is for just one target

Yes, I'm aware that the aura mechanic was most likely more expected in harmonism. For this reason, I chose to make this distinction and limitation on the number of "spiritual auras". In this way, providing more opportunity for some kind of "Auramancer" archetype in the very, very, very distant future. Furthermore, it is clear to encourage the use of auras, particularly in the etherworld due to the values involved. It will still be possible to use at least one aura on the material plane due to the mana drain, but with reduced effect.

The same logic applies to Ethereal Binding, this is certainly a spell that looks like symbolism. But if we wait until "someday" this school is launched, we probably won't have a viable way to deal with spirits while on the material plane. It is interesting to note that it will still be necessary for the group or player to have some investment in spiritism to deal with spirits, but at least they do not need to be able to enter the etherworld. I know it won't be useful in open field, and I don't even want a way to deal with spirits in open field without a proper combat... Jowever it can be really good inside builts, dunegons and POIs, basically the circle must be placed in choke points.

The changes related to spirit box and limitations on the use of skills now allow only builds with a high investment in spiritism to be able to act even after death, respecting some rules. Before this, the player was forced to choose which playstyle he would adopt, now he can simply adapt according to the situation.

Ether spike, although it wasn't my creation, I have to say that I'm really pleased with the adaptations. Although the cast time seems to be low for a spell with this capacity, it must be remembered that the animation is long and the user cannot move. Furthermore, this is the type of spell that only shines in 1vX scenarios or very careful positioning, as it hits everyone in the area, including pets, walkers and AI usually you don’t want to mess, i.e., the caster is better off being alone. It has another use that will soon be highlighted.

Finally we come to my favorite spell, I'm very proud of this one, blink! This will be the other defense mechanic, in this case repositioning, for mages committed to using light armor. I believe that some will imagine that it is an extremely broken spell... In this case I will explain why it is not.

Firstly, if you notice the initial mana usage, unlike the Arcane Shield (Ecumenical), the cost here is tripled, 15. The reason for this is to avoid the abuse of quick clicks, basically pseudo Iframes. Therefore, the player who chooses to use it needs to make good use of their time within the ether.

There are a few ways to deal with this spell. The most common would be the use of Transcendental Awareness to see the caster in the ethereal plane. It's worth remembering that hybrids and psy-fighters can use this spell, just for a shorter time... So, think carefully about the exact moment to turn on your vision. Mages will have no problem keeping their vision active and can even choose to cause spiritual damage to the blink user.

Another way would be to use the Ether Spike. As I mentioned in the spell's description, it has the property that, if a target is located at the time of casting, the thorn will follow it until it hits it, regardless of the distance. Furthermore, it should be remembered that, in addition to hitting spirits, it does not need a clear target, that is, just use it when someone decides to use the Blink and observe the trajectory of the spike.

It is important to note that all damage caused to the blink user within the ether impacts both their HP and Ka. In this case, the ether spike having the ability to ignore psyche, will cause great damage to its Ka.

Therefore, the blink user must always be aware of their mana and possible damage, as the consequences for mistakes are severe… 5 minutes without mana recovery on all dimensional planes are nasty for any mage.

Having a player summon spirits in the ether also helps, as they can attack the blink user, its Ka, inside the etherworld. Finally, benumb mind can be used as counter play since blink can be only used with 100% mana regen. Basically, it's a high-risk high-reward spell with counterplay possibilities for both sides.

With all these changes, I believe that gameplay as spiritist in terms of PVE and PVP, both in the etherworld and on the material plane will become much more interesting.​

 

[Marchioro]

In short, all changes here aiming to:​

• Make etherworld experience fun in terms of PVE and PVP;​
• Make spiritism useful and more attractive.​
• Encourage specialization in spiritism;​
• Encourage the use of light armor;​
• Introduce more playstyles;​
• Introduce another new magical defense mechanic;​
• Counterplay potential for all proposed scenarios and mechanics;​

OBS: I know some people want to have some kind of “Multiverse Lore Note”… I don't want that.

I won't go on too long because I'm already tired of writing. Short anwer: Farm and buy it.

There are many more ways to make money nowadays than in the past. I got mine at the end of 2022 when I was just a noob with dreams of being a solo player, living in Hyllspeia. It cost me 4 months of roleplaying fishing and killing Urials, kkkkkkkkk, when I think about it I can only laugh… At that same time, I also gathered a group of 5 more guys who wanted to get the Ritualism book. At the time Tiamming was called "Lycosidae", I won't say it was all easy, but in 4 days, we all had the book in a moment where it used to cost 20k.

Some things take time, be patient... Otherwise, what makes you believe that you have the right to have the build you want as a beginner without any effort?

Surprise you, the minotaur dungeon is not a difficult, most people like me just go there for the pvp... the Multiverse Lore is just a bonus. If you think that "I'm not going to contribute money by buying from the dominant guild that controls this type of content", I must inform you that several guilds run seasons in different dungeons, including Mino. Just buy from them...

Otherwise just stop complaining, go play something else, you don’t deserve it.

MultiverseLore Notes = NEVER!

For now, just wait for necromancy post.

Until there, See you in Nave!​

 

[Dracons]

I think these are all great ideas and I hope the team is looking at posts such as this one