New Skill Development - Part 2

Most of the fleshing out of the design happens during the programmer's implementations of the skill prototypes. Collaboration between the designer and the programmer is important, as decisions like which animations should be used, interactions with some support gems, skill timing, the different graphical effects needed and the specific stats being used are best answered with knowledge of both the balance and technical consequences in mind.

We've implemented the two new Warcry prototypes over the past few weeks, as well as set up tech for "Cooldown Groups" for use on them. All Warcry skills, including Enduring Cry, now have the Warcry tag and say "Shares a cooldown with other Warcry skills". This is to promote players making a choice; Players can use one frequently, or they can chose to alternate them and overlap their duration. The shared cooldown also cuts efficiency for players using multiple Warcry skills with trigger gems.

The possibility of having "Warcries" not be spells or attacks was suggested during development; This would mean they can have a very fast use speed, as they wouldn't be affected by Cast Speed from the passive tree or support gems. This would make them better for attack characters that have no increases to Cast Speed. It would also mean that Enduring Cry and the new Warcry skills aren't affected by "Cast" trigger gems, which solves a problem discussed earlier.

Decisions like these are always challenging, as they impact existing characters, and not all players would be immediately aware of the change. We're still playing with this, questioning whether the benefits outweigh the potential costs, as it also reduces the number of support gems that affect Warcry skills. This kind of change opens up some design space, like having the ability to add Warcry specific increases in the passive tree, on unique items, or new warcry specific support and trigger gems.

Testing and discussion of the skills is still ongoing. Because these warcries are developed in parallel with other major changes to the game, their starting level, mana cost, and balance won't be decided on for some time.

I can, however, give you a glimpse of our second prototype, affectionately named "Abyssal Cry":



The iteration process will continue over the next few weeks. Next time, we'll be able to show you the development of visual effects for the skill, and walk through the balance of the gem. See you in Part 3!