Update 0.8

Mostly working on the second part of the Enchanter rework along with the usual various balance changes and bug fixes. Lots of great discussion in Discord lately regarding all sorts of different areas to look into in terms of reworks and balancing. Will be trying to keep up as best I can though obviously there is only so much I can do. Right now my main areas of focus are:

1. Getting the entire game as crash and bug free as possible.
2. Getting all the talents balanced or in some cases completely reworked. Basically getting every class feeling good and close to the state they should be in for Web-Release. I think once Enchanter is done then Storm Mage is the only other class that needs serious work. Most other classes just have 1-2 talents that might need a bit of work.
3. Balancing out when and how many attribute points the player gets from all sources. I think the attributes themselves are otherwise pretty well balanced in term of relative power. Getting this right will, I believe, clean up a lot of issues with overall game difficulty, game difficulty over the course of the dungeon and character builds and progression. With attribute points being so strong, a lot hinges on getting the numbers right here.

There are plenty of other issues in terms of descriptions for things, UI and Quality-of-Life features, general polish and more minor balance that I'm just sort of ignoring at the moment while I try to get these more core systems working. The plan is really to get the foundations as stable as possible and the core systems balanced and engaging before addressing the more specific issues. 

ENCHANTER REWORK PART 2:

The enchanter was sitting in an odd place where he had a very rough early game but a very strong late game with a weird dead zone in the middle while you waited for stronger talents. I'd like to avoid this sort of balance for the classes as much as possible. Instead each class should have some sort of theme or core playstyle that their talents synergies to support with one or more gaping holes in their kit that can only be fixed through spreading out your build. 

The Enchanter for example should have very minimal raw damage output. The major problem with the old Discord was that it was actually one of the very best, if not the best, raw damage spells in the game. So the new version of Discord with lower damage helped with that but gave the Enchanter a very rough start. While Discord shines in the later game, it just doesn't really work as an initial talent. The Enchanter was also missing a Tier-2 talent compared to the other mages which was adding to this dead space. These two aspects are what I'm trying to address with this update.

DISCORD:
Discord has been changed to a Damage-Over-Time spell with output similar to Life-Spike. For the sake of keeping the numbers clean for balancing, the damage modifier does not effect the internal damage of Discord (I would just have to 1/2 the displayed value to get the same final value which is messy).  The Ability-Power modifier is applied to the duration rather then the damage so high AP will make the damage mod last longer, increase the total damage, but not increase the burst potential. I really want to stay clear of Discord as any kind of burst damage spell by itself. In my opinion this change has many desirable properties.

• The overall, total, single target damage of discord is nearly twice as high as it previously was which gives the Enchanter a workable damage spell for the early game with easy targeting.
• Since AP effects the duration, the spell never gains any real burst potential in the late game and its rather at this point that its damage modifier component starts to shine.
• Discord is never the best follow up to Discord since all it will do is reset the cooldown. Again the enchanter kit should lack this burst potential.
• The Enchanter, especially in the early game can deal with multiple enemies more effectively since he can spread the Discords out. 
• He feels like he's gained a lot of 'Action-Economy' since he can always just fire and forget Discords and take other actions while they are ticking their effect. Of course focusing other sources of damage on Discorded targets is still the high skill play.
• Discord becomes the offensive reflection of Life-Spike which is more defensive. Where's the necro is essentially encouraged to life-spike and run away, the enchanter is encouraged to Discord and then stand and fight. Since life-spike is the only other Damage-Over-Time ability in the game, I don't think its a problem to have at least 1 more ability like this.

MIRROR IMAGE:
I had a number of ideas for Tier-2 talents for the enchanter but this is the one I'd like to try out first. I'm looking for a talent that adds some additional tactical possibilities without necessarily filling any of the holes in his kit which I believe are essential. Thematically this could just as easily be 'Summon Spectral Shield' or something. Basically it summons an immobile tank adjacent to you that does not attack but soaks up damage for you. I was actually surprised during play testing as to how useful this is and how well it synergizes with the rest of his kit. There are all sorts of ways this can be us used and abused non of which seem particularly broken. 

I like that this ability is something totally new to the game that no other class has. I've mentioned before that Flaming Battle Sphere should be balanced to be extremely fragile but with a high damage output. Fragile to the point where not placing it correctly should basically have it just get insta killed. When that is achieved then Mirror-Image can stand on its own as the 'summon tank' ability.

BALANCE:

• Healing Shrooms have had their healing reduced from 50% => 30%. Honestly this barely made a difference in my play throughs so far so for me at least I'm concluding this is fine.
• Recovery will now also reset the players cool-downs. This likely still needs some work but here's an initial stab at it. It probably needs to be pushed in the direction of Meditate to make it more interesting to use.
  
• Removed Shield-of-Recovery since its just brokenly OP and the warrior already has enough talents. With some modification this could potentially be rolled into Shield-Wall as the Warriors Tier-3 special ability.
• Evasion is now added to the base 20% chance to strafe dodge (this needs to be documented somewhere). I really don't want Evasion to be good as a passive defensive stat as I believe this encroaches on the HP and heavy armor of STR. Having evasion heavily compliment speed and movement on the other hand is a really solid synergy if we can get the balance correct.
• The Librarian is now guaranteed on level 3 of Fortress/Temple again. I think this is pretty much essential to smoothing out the mid game and allowing players to setup to tackle the branches.
• Flame Portal now consumes the fire sources (50% at Rank-2).
• Glyph Doors will no longer spawn on UD:1 as many classes just arnt ready for them at level 1 and I could easily see this as being a new player death trap.

ITEM BALANCE:

• Ring of Harmony 20HP,6MP => 10HP,3MP. This was just unreasonably good and would have to be a Boss drop to warrant such inflated stats.
• Potion-of-Power (and other Power sources) now boost Ability-Power rather then just Magic-Power. This was just an oversight.
• Potion-of-Power (and other Power sources) now grant +10DMG to weapons rather then x2DMG. The description was correct, but the actual code was x2.
• Armor-of-Repulsion has had the 4 enemy requirement removed and the recharge mechanic is now based on reflecting 10 projectiles. I agree with the feedback that these item recharge mechanics should be as unique as possible per item.
• Boots of Sprinting no recharge after using 10SP.
• Hammer of Crushing DMG 17 => 16. Its still absurdly powerful.

BUGS AND CRASHES:

• The trails on slow moving projectiles like Arcane-Arrows will no longer overwrite clouds.
• Slime-Bomb will no longer miss the player due to evasion.
• Strafe-Dodging was behaving oddly where even things like summoning monsters was causing the 'DODGE' popup. Strafe-Dodge will now only work against melee attacks and projectiles. I think this is basically how it was working already just without the odd DODGE popups.
• Reflection should now correctly reset the projectile travel distance so the projectiles actually hit the shooter.
• Dominating and enemy will now stop them from constricting you.

LEVEL GENERATION:
As always another new level type. Dark Temple this time.

UPDATE 0.8.1:

• Fixed a level gen crash on Orc:3 where Tome, Boss and Librarian all try to spawn at same time. Simply not having Tomes spawn on Orc/Temple:3 should fix this problem for now. Also made changes so they are easier for the generator to place in general.
• Target Base AoE spells like Lightning Bolt and Fire Storm will no longer always target the player when an enemy is confused.
• Enemies that reactively blink (frogs) will no longer blink onto traps.
• Enemies that proactively blink (imps) will no longer blink onto traps.
• Removed Quick Shot (an unused talent) from appearing in librarian.
• Small enemies will no longer be unstable on doors.
• Fixed the crashes with NPC Lunge.
• NPC Lunge will now work again even if they will collide with a wall behind you (previous changes broke this).
• Fixed a crash when casting Mirror-Image on a fire shroom or other trap.
• Fixed: Using a portal with an ally that is lunging causes him to complete his lunge at the old position after following you through.
• Fixed: A Mirror-Image when grabbed and thrown off screen would lose its sprite and subsequently cause a crash. This was actually a much more general bug where any ally throwing or being thrown off screen would have lost its sprite.