Design proposal for specialisations in Darkfall

Version 1.

by Dirtknap, 15th Feb 2011

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
DESIGN OBJECTIVES
SUMMARY OF MAJOR CHANGES
ARMOUR AND ENCUMBRANCE
Encumbrance breakpoints by magic school
Indicative encumbrance values for armour (full sets)
Effect of armour on strafe speed
MASTERIES
Melee weapon masteries
All weapon masteries
Sword mastery (1- and 2-handed)
Polearm mastery
Club/mace mastery (1- and 2-handed)
Axe mastery (1- and 2-handed)
Knives mastery
Archery mastery
Magic school masteries
All magic masteries
Witchcraft mastery
Necromancy mastery
Spell chanting mastery
Arcane mastery
Fire mastery
Water mastery
Earth mastery
Air mastery
Crafting masteries
OTHER POTENTIAL MASTERIES

Changelog
Version 1 → version 2:

‣ WC mastery attribute drain buffed to 30%/30secs from 20%/20secs.

 ‣ Axe mastery special changed to a bonus against casting enemies.

‣ Club mastery stamina degen buffed to 20% from 15%.

‣ Polearm mastery special changed to a short snare effect instead of a knocktowards effect.

‣ Sword mastery bonus changed to stam efficiency instead of attack speed.

‣ Knife mastery bonus and special changed to require rear or side position, not just rear.

‣ Archery draw speed and range bonuses reduced (20%->10%, 20%->15% respectively).

‣ Water magic mastery changed to a short snare effect on all spells that do cold damage.

Introduction
This is a design proposal for weapon/magic specialisations in Darkfall, the lack of which is often
cited to be one of Darkfall's weakest points. Specialisations are being worked on at some level
by Av for the expansion due mid-next year; this proposal is merely my version of a specialisation
system that I think fits well with Darkfall philosophy and existing design constraints.

Included in the proposal is a re-balancing of armour & encumbrance to fit in with the
specialisation system. In short, the proposal suggests that heaviest armours (plate+) be increased
in their level of protections but much more heavily penalised in their capacity for most magic
schools. Another key change is the modification of magic schools to have different levels of
tolerance to armour encumbrance, eg: lesser magic, greater magic, spell chanting and
witchcraft are highly tolerant to encumbrance, while necro, arcane, and the elemental magic
schools are very affected by armour encumbrance.

Design objectives
‣ Non-obligatory. Players must be able to be competitive without requiring a specialisation.
‣ Changeable. Players should be able to back out of a specialisation, or change specialisations.
‣ Differentiated. Different specialisations should feel and play different, with clear
niches/roles.
‣ Minimise changes to current skill trees and to established gameplay.
‣ Specialisations should be as independent of the armour system of bonuses/penalties as
possible in order to maximise the diversity of possible builds and player choice.
‣ When balancing specialisations, emphasise bonuses over restrictions.
‣ Provide a clear framework for future additions and differentiation in the future.
Summary of major changes
‣ rename current "mastery" skills to "expertise" skills, eg: "Greatsword expertise"
‣ rename "sharpshooter" to "archery expertise"
‣ introduce a new mastery skill for each major weapon group and magic school, obtainable
only through specialisation.
‣ rate of skill gain in base skill and melee expertise skills increased to account for new melee
'mastery' skill layer.
‣ effect of magic intensifies rebalanced such that mastery provides the vast majority of power
increase
‣ 'Rage' removed as a universal skill, now available only to melee specialists, healing effect
buffed (and not affected by encumbrance), and mana cost reduced to 25% of mana (from
50%).
‣ 'Archmage' skill removed as a universal skill, now available only to magic specialisations,
effect changed to grant vastly improved mana regen at the cost of max stamina.
‣ new skill "Martial discipline" available only to melee specialists; grants increased stam regen
at the cost of max mana.
‣ magic schools changed so that individual magic schools have different tolerance to
encumbrance: elemental/necro/arcane schools strongly penalised or totally restricted by
wearing armour heavier than approx bone/leather, SC/WC unaffected up to approx
chain/scale, LM/GM unaffected up to approx chain/scale and still only moderately affected
in full plate.
‣ (optional) armour changed to affect strafe speed; heavier armours strafe slower than lighter
armours.
‣ plate/full plate armour protections buffed to compensate for increased magic resptrictions.
‣ new item: bandages – moderate channelled heal over time, interrupted by any
damage/debuff/movement (purpose: reduce general downtime, reduce absolute
dependence on magic for healing).
‣ slight increase of stam cost of sprinting (to balance increased stam regen of melee
masteries)
‣ Prerequisites for Arcane and Necromancy magic reduced to 50 in Spell chanting and
Witchcraft respectively, down from 75.
‣ Prerequisites for “Mana conservation” skill reduced to 50 in “Greater Magic Mana Efficiency”,
down from 75.

Armour and encumbrance

Different schools of magic should have different levels of tolerance to encumbrance. This gives
players more tactical decsions to consider when choosing gear for a particular situation and also
serves to differentiate the different magic schools more. The table below gives suggested
breakpoints of armour encumbrance for archery and each magic school, followed by a second
table listing approximate/indicative armour encumbrance values. Archery is included in the list
for comparison, however in my opinion, archery is already quite well-balanced with respect to
armour. Note that under this system heavy armours have higher magic penalties but would have
melee/magic protections buffed to compensate.

Encumbrance breakpoints by magic school

100% effect 50% effect 0% effect (uncastable)

Archery 40 100 180

Lesser magic 40 80 140

Greater magic 32 64 120

Spell chanting 48 72 90

Arcane 20 32 55

Witchcraft 45 60 75

Necromancy 18 28 42

Fire 13 18 28

Water 15 24 32

Air 18 32 54

Earth 28 48 70

Indicative encumbrance values for armour (full sets)

0 robes

10 padded

15 bone

20 leather

30 studded

40 chain

50 banded

60 scale

80 plate

100 full plate

Note 1: these values are for unenchanted armour. Feather enchants and the unburden spell will
of course increase the effectiveness of encumbrance-penalised magic schools.

Note 2: these values are for full sets, mixed sets will have encumbrance values somewhere in-
between, eg: full chain with scale chest and shoulders might have an encumbrance of 50-52.

Examples:

1) spell chanting is highly tolerant to encumbrance; SC specialists can wear up to full

banded before any SC spell is affected, though casting eg: an arcane magic spell will
have little effect with this much encumbrance.
2) an earth mage can wear full leather wihout impacting their earth magic spells at all; in
full studded, their spells do ~85% of normal damage.
3) WC is relatively encumbrance tolerant, which allows WC users to gear heavy and focus
purely on debuffs and DOTs in combination with a melee playstyle, or to gear lighter and
use WC spells in conjunction with other magic schools.
4) A caster in full full plate would only be able to cast LM, GM spells and only then at a
reduced capability (~40% effect for LM, ~25% for GM; unburden would of course increase
effectiveness).

Masteries
‣ access to a melee mastery skill becomes available at 50 in the corresponding 'expertise' skill.
For 1-/2-handed weapons, mastery requires 50 skill in both 1H and 2H weapon expertise.
‣ access to a magic mastery skill becomes available at 75 in the base magic school.
‣ masteries come with both bonuses and penalties.
‣ in general, fully-skilled masteries are worth ~20% extra effect compared to non-mastery
‣ pure hybrids can access all 'expertise' skills, but no 'mastery' skills - "jack of all trades,
master of none".
‣ player choices boil down to:
‣ 1 weapon/archery/magic mastery OR
‣ 2 crafting masteries OR
‣ no masteries (pure hybrid)
‣ can change masteries at will. once changed, skill points earnt towards a mastery are not
lost, but are rounded down to nearest 25 and former mastery skills are inaccessible/greyed
out.
Note: mastery bonuses below are at max mastery skill (ie: mastery skill=100). Mastery penalties
however always apply, even at skill=1.

Melee weapon masteries

The design intent for the special skills of each weapon specialisation is differentiation. Different
weapons ought to have their own “theme” and lend themselves towards different playstyles and
builds.

All weapon masteries

‣ access to 'Rage' skill (with buffed healing as above)
‣ +50% stam regen rate ("martial discipline" skill, when fully skilled)
‣ -25% mana ("martial discipline" skill, when fully skilled)
‣ max of 25 in elemental magic, necro, arcane

Comments:

‣ retains most elemental self-buffs & rays

‣ increased emphasis on managing limited mana pool

Sword mastery (1- and 2-handed)

‣ +20% damage with swords

‣ -15% stamina cost of attacks made with swords

‣ new skill: "stab" - 1.2x reach thrusting attack, ignores 20% of armour, does mainly bleeding
damage, 20 sec CD

Polearm mastery
‣ +20% damage with polearms
‣ +15% attack speed with polearms
‣ power attack modified to be a 1.2x max reach attack with a medium knockback
‣ new skill: "pin" – 1.2x max reach vertical attack that slows enemy movement speed by 20%
for 4 seconds. successful attacks with this skill on a mounted rider also dismount the rider.
20 sec CD.

Comments:
 ‣ emphasises melee utility and tactical control of enemy positioning through knockback and
snare.
‣ Rationale for double bonuses (damage + attack speed) is so that PA users can realistically PVE
with PAs, and to bring PAs as the lowest DPS weapon up to par with other weapons.

Club/mace mastery (1- and 2-handed)

‣ +20% damage with clubs
‣ 20% of all damage done as additional stamina damage
‣ new skill: "bludgeon" - interrupts spellcasting and prevents casting for 2.5 secs after hit. 20
sec CD.

Comments:

‣ strong anti-caster weapon through tactical timing of magic lockout and stamina degen
pressure on caster's smaller stamina pool.
‣ Good potential for specialised stam degen/pressure builds (combined with spells like
exhaust, rend, WC debuffs, etc).

Axe mastery (1- and 2-handed)

‣ +20% dmg with axes
‣ attacks ignore 10% of armour
‣ new skill: "overpower" - slashing attack that does 30% extra damage to enemies casting a
spell and also interrupts spellcasting. 20 sec CD.

Comments:

‣ emphasis on straight damage

‣ good against heavy armour and casters in melee range

Knives mastery
‣ +20% dmg with knives
‣ attacks from the rear or side do an additional 15% dmg
‣ new skill: "exploit weakness" – short range stabbing attack that ignores 50% of armour, very
high bleeding damage over time, 20sec CD. Requires rear or side positon.

Comments:
 ‣ highest melee dmg weapon, shortest range
‣ emphasis on positional combat and armour penetration
‣ great potential for use of stealth to land devastating opening attack from rear position

Archery mastery
‣ +20% damage with bows
‣ +15% range
‣ +10% draw speed
‣ -15% max mana
‣ arrows ignore 10% of armour
‣ max of 50 skill in elemental magic, necro, and arcane
‣ special skill: “perception” - +15% target identification range (from all that squinting in the
distance for targets)

Comments:

‣ great scout/sniper potential

‣ good potential for either heavy armour + melee playstyle or light armour + magic playstyle

Magic school masteries

The design goal with the magic school masteries here is 1) differentiation, such that each magic
school should have a clear theme and identity, and 2) viability of each school as an independent
school/mastery. Consequently, magic schools that are not strong in offensive capability, eg: spell
chanting and witchcraft have been granted special skills that buff the caster in some way, as
well as being given a higher degree of encumbrance tolerance. The more offensive magic schools
have been given generally more defensive special skills to compensate for having lighter armour
choices.

All magic masteries

‣ access to “Archmage” skill
‣ +100% mana regen rate ("Archmage" skill, when fully skilled)
‣ -25% stamina ("Archmage" skill, when fully skilled)

Comments:

‣ increased emphasis on managing limited stamina pool

Witchcraft mastery
‣ +50% damage/effect of all WC spells
‣ +20% spell haste for WC spells
‣ max of 50 in elemental magic, no arcane
‣ special skill: "mysticism" - 30% of enemy attributes debuffed add to casters stats for 30 secs.

Comments:

‣ Strong debuffs and DOTs, attribute drain.

‣ Good melee hybrid/nuker potential due to attribute drain skill and fairly heavy armour
‣ Great self/group AE-heal (bonused WB)
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 100% WC effectiveness: chain/banded mix
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 50% WC effectiveness: full scale

Necromancy mastery
‣ +20% effect of necro spells
‣ max of 25 elemental magic, no SC, no arcane
‣ special skill: “vampirism” - 15% of all damage done by necro spells and melee damage heals
self

Comments:

‣ can play good nuker or melee hybrid roles -- vampirism skill + knives + bonused pierce debuff
should balance needing to wear light armour for necro school effectiveness, making for
interesting and unique playstyle.
‣ great melee debuffer (bonused slash/pierce/crush debuffs)
‣ good self-healing (HS/S2H/WB + bonused vampiric touch (plus other dmg spells))
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 100% necro effectiveness: full bone, almost full leather
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 50% necro effectiveness: full studded

Spell chanting mastery

‣ +50% effect of SC healing and dmg spells
‣ +200% duration of buff other SC spells
‣ +20% passive spell haste for all spells
‣ max of 50 in elemental magic, no necro
‣ special skill: “inspiration” (passive) - 100% of damage done and 50% of all healing done by SC
 spells returned as mana.

Comments:

‣ strong healer/support caster/nuker (bonused sacrifice, longest duration buff others, passive
spell haste)
‣ capacity to regen mana through dmg
‣ can wear up to full banded armour without penalty to SC spells.
‣ can choose between a lightly-armoured caster build with good spike dmg, or heavy-armoured
healer/support build.
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 100% SC effectiveness: almost full banded
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 50% SC effectiveness: plate/scale mix

Arcane mastery
‣ +20% effect of arcane, +30% effect of lesser and greater magic spells
‣ max of 25 elemental magic, no WC, no necro
‣ special skill: “arcane siphon” (passive) - 20% of all magic damage taken converted to mana.

Comments:

‣ good all-rounder: decent offense, defense, utility, and heal options.

‣ good anti-caster (magic dmg conversion to mana, bonused confusion, bonused burden)
‣ good heals (bonused heal self & stam2health, but no WitchesBrew; bonused heal other/LoH)
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 100% arcane effectiveness: full leather
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 50% arcane effectiveness: full studded + 1piece chain

Fire mastery
‣ +20% dmg/effect to fire magic
‣ -30% dmg/effect to other elemental schools
‣ +4.0 water magic (cold) resist
‣ special skill: “immolation” - caster becomes immolated in fire for 15 sec, which causes
melee attacks to reflect 4-10 dmg to attacker, and grants +4.0 fire resist. Also instantly
removes bleeds/poison DOTs from self, CD 5mins.

Comments:

‣ heavy nuker
 ‣ anti-water mage
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 100% fire effectiveness: full padded, almost full bone
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 50% fire effectiveness: full bone, almost full leather

Water mastery
‣ +20% dmg/effect of water magic
‣ -30% dmg/effect to other elemental schools
‣ +4.0 fire magic resist
‣ special skill: “cryopathy” (passive) - all spells that do cold damage
(icicle/frostbite/shards/ice storm/blizzard) slow movement speed by 20% for 2.5 secs and
drain 20% additional stamina.
Comments:

‣ heavy/utility nuker
‣ anti-fire mage
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 100% water effectiveness: full bone
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 50% water effectiveness: leather/studded mix

Earth mastery
‣ +20% effect of earth magic spells
‣ -30% dmg/effect to other elemental schools
‣ +4.0 air magic (lightning) resist
‣ special skill: “earth affinity” - passive +2.5 slash/pierce/crush resist

Comments:

‣ "battlemage" playstyle - high encumbrance tolerance + innate melee protection

‣ anti-air mage
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 100% earth effectiveness: almost full studded
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 50% earth effectiveness: almost full banded

Air mastery
‣ +20% effect of air magic spells
‣ -30% dmg/effect to other elemental schools
‣ +4.0 earth magic (acid) resist
‣ special skill: “ethereal form” - 1.5x run/sprintspeed, 50% dmg immunity for 10 sec, 2 min CD
Comments:

‣ most elusive of the elemental mages (good escape options)

‣ anti-earth mage
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 100% air effectiveness: bone/leather mix
‣ heaviest armour wearable for 50% air effectiveness: studded + 1-piece chain

Crafting masteries
‣ special skill: "expertise" - 10% chance per mat per craft of not consuming that mat (eg: for a
craft costing 8X 3Y 1Z, each X/Y/Z has a 10% chance of not being consumed, though the 'Z'
ingredient will always be consumed cause recipe requires at least 1 Z)
‣ greatly increased chance of top rolls for crafting items
‣ rare chance of inspired craft - chance of producing exceptional quality item
‣ open to further suggestions, i'm not much of a crafter

Other potential masteries/changes

‣ Mounts and mounted combat, “cavalier”
‣ Ship sailing and naval combat
‣ Economy/trade
‣ Exploration

Effect of armour on strafe speed

The default method of armour selection for Darkfall players is to gear as heavy as possible for
their anticipated playstyle – there is very little advantage in choosing to gear lighter than one's
desired encumbrance breakpoint. Modulating strafe speed by armour type serves 2 key
objectives: 1) it provides some tactical advantage to choosing to wear lighter armour than your
current effective encumbrance limit dictates, and 2) it gives lighter armoured players a slightly
better chance of damage evasion to compensate for greatly reduced damage protection.
 strafe speed

robes +10%

padded +5%

bone 0

leather 0

studded 0

chain -4%

banded -8%

scale -10%

plate -12.5%

full plate -15%