Sorry for the lack of real updates, but I have gotten back to this project and have started working on Chapter 3. I won't bore you with Chapter 3 details juuuust yet, but I did want to make a master post to show you what you can expect to find in terms of skills with Chapter 3. This chapter will be the biggest update of the entire project, adding 28(!) new skills for you to learn and play with.
16 of these skills will be "Passive" skills, which must be leveled up using the Credit from the Dress Card. However, as soon as you get the Dress Card, you can freely start upgrading these as you see fit, to customize your playthrough to your liking.
Without further waiting, here are the new skills coming with Chapter 3:
Jack Updates
Level 8 - Aura Burst | Cost: 10 MP
Aura Burst is an exceptionally powerful Mystical Elemental spell. It comes at a hefty cost, one-third of Angela's total MP pool, but deals significant Mystic Elemental damage. In addition to having (what I think is) an awesome animation sequence, Aura Burst has a little extra something something.
Bonus Effect: If the target is afflicted with Magic Break Level 2, which can be inflicted by using Mystic Missile 2 times, this attack will "Overload." After dealing its regular damage, it will deal its damage a second time, and then remove Magic Break Level 2 from the target. This is a LOT of damage from a single spell-cast. And because it removes the status AFTER dealing its damage, you still get the 50% reduced Magic Defense bonus from Magic Break Level 2.
Level 9 - Mystic Guard | Cost: 1 MP | Cooldown: 5 Turns
Inspired by Celes' "Runic Blade" from Final Fantasy VI, Mystic Guard will cause Angela to draw all magical damage to herself for 2 turns (even if she has party members). She will then negate the damage of the Magical Skills and will instead absorb MP equal to the caster's Magic Attack. The Jack was sorely missing a way to restore MP, since until this point they only had Healing Wind as a defensive skill. Mystic Guard is there to give you a little more safety, and some options to outplay some of the more scripted opponents.
Level 10 - Razor Wind | Cost: 8 TP
Angela will strike out at her opponent, hitting them with 5 Normal Attacks. These attacks can critically strike AND they deal an additional 20% Critical Damage when they do! Each of these strikes also has the potential for a "Lucky Strike" adding 25% of Angela's Luck to the damage she deals.
Wizard Skills
Level 8 - Electromagnetic Burst | Cost: 8 MP
First up for the Wizard is a new skill that takes advantage of the Barrier from Mage Shell. While Angela has the effect of Mage Shell (a state that lasts for 5 turns) she can cast Electromagnetic Burst. What this will do is remove her Mage Shell, both the state and the barrier. It will then explode with Pure Damage. This damage is unaffected by Defense or Magic Defense and has no Element.
In addition, however, Electromagnetic Burst's strongest effect is that it will place the opponent in a "Sealed" state, wherein they cannot use any abilities (barring a few exceptions) for 3 turns. There are a few skills that ignore this state, such as Titania's "Fairy Queen's Glory" instant-death attack. In addition, Mytha's Basilisk Stare, Mighty Crush, and Exterminate are all immune to this effect.
Level 9 - Mystic Binding | Cost: 8 MP
Mystic Binding is an interesting skill with a lengthy cooldown (7 turns). What it does, is places 5 Mystic Bindings on the enemy, reducing their evasion. When the foe is struck by an attack, one of the bindings will burst, dealing 125% of Angela's Magic Attack as Mystical Elemental damage to the foe. This means that, essentially, your next 5 attacks get bonus damage.
The binding will fall off after 7 turns, taking all of the chains with it, so you need to be proactive to pop each one to get the most damage out.
Level 10 - Primal Force | Cost: 10 MP
Angela's capstone skill for this chapter is a pretty complex one. It can deal 5 different types of damage, depending on how you choose to use it. Essentially, this skill's type and effect changes based on the last Elemental Spell Angela used. If none of Angela's 4 primary skills have been used since this skill was last used, it will have a weaker effect. I'll list the different types of forces below:
If Angela hasn't used a spell:
Primal Burst - Angela will release a blast of Mystical Elemental damage, hitting all foes.
If Angela uses Fireball:
Primal Flare - This will deal a significant chunk of fire damage to ALL foes, and will always inflict the Burning state on all foes.
If Angela uses Icicle Spears:
Primal Spout - This will deal a significant chunk of water damage to ALL foes, and will always inflict Soaked state on every target.
If Angela uses Bolt Snap:
Primal Shock - This will deal a significant chunk of air damage to ALL foes, and will always inflict Blind on every target.
If Angela uses Stone Blast:
Primal Quake - This will deal a significant chunk of earth damage to ALL foes, and will always inflict Knockdown on every target.
After every use of Primal Force it will be reset to its base form, meaning if you want to use one of the Elemental types again, you have to cast the base skill again. Multi-Target spells may not be a big deal now...but come Chapter 4, multi-foe battles will become much more common as Angela will finally gain a permanent party member.
Rogue Skills
Level 8 - Mystic Dagger - 3 MP | INSTANT CAST
- Angela summons a dagger and throws it at the foe, dealing 60% of her Magical Attack as direct damage. This attack is instant cast, meaning it doesn't take up your turn. But...Brewed...where's the cooldown? There isn't one! This attack deals very little damage, but damage that ignores defense entirely and can be dealt as many times as you want before selecting your attack for the turn.
Level 9 - Last Whisper - 3 TP
- I am SUPER proud of this skill because it has what is probably the most complicated state that i've created by myself. What this skill does is, Angela attacks for some pretty standard damage and inflicts the "Silencer" state on the foe. If the target tries to cast a Magical Attack, while under this state, three things will happen:
1) The attack will be nullified
2) The caster will take 2X their Magical Attack as direct damage
3) They will be silenced for 3 -5 turns!
Warning: I mentioned Fairies and I'm sure some of you are thinking about a busty, lusty Fairy Queen. Unfortunately, she is on the very, very, very short list of monsters who are naturally immune to the Silencer state. Currently that list is: Kitsune SPIRIT (only spirit form), Titania, and Celestina the Unicorn. As of Chapter 3, those will be the only foes immune to this state.
Level 10 - Death Sentence - 10 MP | 5 Turn Cooldown
- so i'm sure most of you have done the Fairy Queen hardcore quest. You may remember a fairy named Luna, who would inflict you with a state called "Luna's Wiles" that would cause you to suddenly take a huge chunk of damage when it wore off. Well, after much trial and error, Angela has learned how to recreate this effect with her capstone skill: Death Sentence.
Death Sentence does no damage by itself, but instead marks the target for the next 3 turns. During those turns, the Mark will memorize the damage that you deal to the target. When those 3 turns are over, the Mark will detonate, dealing 80% of the damage you've dealt in the last 3 turns as direct damage to the target, ignoring defense!
Warrior Skills
Level 8 - Blood Rage | 5 Turn Cooldown | Instant Cast
- To open up the Warrior's new skills is one that took some doing to get to work. Blood Rage is an instant cast that boosts Angela's Attack based on how much HP she is missing. If she is above 75% HP, it will do nothing (but will trigger a cooldown, working to avoid that). Once she's taken enough damage, she'll gain the following bonuses:
Below 75% HP = 25% Attack Boost
Below 50% HP = 50% Attack Boost
Below 25% HP = 75% Attack Boost
Since you're advised to use Blood Rage with the lowest HP possible, I opted to make it not take up your turn. ^_^
Level 9 - Adrenaline Burst | 5 Turn Cooldown
- This is a super cool ability that will make the Warrior a wrecking ball of attacks. What Adrenaline Burst does is instantly refresh all of Angela's cooldowns (does not include itself). It also grants Angela +6 TP for every cooldown that has been restored. As of Chapter 3, Angela has, not counting this skill, 4 cooldowns that can be refreshed for up to 24 TP!
Level 10 - Revenge | Only Usable Under 50% HP | 3 Turn Cooldown
- Revenge is the capstone skill for the Warrior and absolutely incentivizes keeping your HP as low as possible. It can only be used if Angela is below 50% HP and will deal damage based on Angela's missing HP. This means that the more HP Angela has, the more damage this skill can do!
In addition, it will also restore 20% of Angela's max HP after being used. Now, for balancing purposes, this skill does not scale with Attack power. However, I think you'll agree that it still deals an absolutely excessive amount of damage, and has a super cool animation ^_^
Something to note, Revenge DOES have a boosted priority of +50, this means that Revenge is likely to go first. This is to allow you to get as low as possible and not risk dying the turn you use this skill.
Passive Skills
Second Wind - Every point increases the healing of your Healing Wind skill by 5. At level 10, you get a bonus for a total of 60 additional healing. This causes Healing Wind to heal for 100 HP at no additional cost. This is essentially a full heal, for 5 MP.
Felix Felicis - Every point in this passive will increase Angela's Luck. At level 10 this increases her Luck by a total of 30. This grants an additional 30% chance for Lucky Strikes and adds an additional 8 damage to the Lucky Strike total. While this may not seem like much, keep in mind that Angela starts with 20 Luck. So at level 10, this passive gives a 50% chance for 13 additional damage per hit on all of the Jack's skills. This seems small, but keep in mind the Jack has several skills that hit more than once, and that this game doesn't get into terribly high numbers anyway.
Deadly Aim - Every point in this passive will increase Angela's Critical Chance and Critical Damage, up to a total of 20% Critical Chance and 20% Critical Damage. Combined with the other critical items that are being added, this further emphasizes the "Lucky" nature of the Jack class.
Mystic Force - Every point in this passive will increase the "potency" of Angela's Mystic Elemental Damage, maxing out at 40% increased potency at level 10. Essentially, this means that Mystic Missile, Ethereal Blade, and Aura Burst will deal 40% increased damage. And, don't forget, two of those three can ALSO get a "Lucky Strike"!
Blood Charge - Every point causes Blood Weave to increase the power of your next spell cast, from 115% up to 300% more damage on the next cast. This was inspired by the "Power Charge" and "Mind Charge" skills from Persona!
Elemental Mastery - Every point in this passive will increase the potency of your Fire, Water, Air, and Earth Elemental skills, by up to 40%!! This will also affect skills like Blinding Bomb from the Thief, which deals Fire Elemental damage.
Nightborn - Every point in this skill increases Angela's maximum MP, up to 25 bonus MP! The Jack and Thief can both utilize the increase in MP that this will bring, without having to sacrifice equipment to get a boost.
Rejuvenating Shell -Every point in this passive will cause Mage Shell to heal you, capping at 30 HP healed on use. This may not seem like much, but it makes Mage Shell an even stronger defensive skill, and can be used to smooth the cost of using Blood Weave.
Dread Venom - Increases the potency of Angela's Poison attacks (and the Poison state itself). Starts at 20% and scales up to 50%. Poison is the Rogue's bread-and-butter so this was a no brainer. I am keeping a close eye on this to ensure that the scaling is worth the investment, but it should be a great starting place for upgrading the Rogue...well, until you see the next two Passives.
Shadow Strike - Using Take Cover causes your next Quick Strike to deal bonus damage. Starts at 5 and scales up to 60(!!). This is a huge damage boost in a game that has relatively small numbers. Attacking from the shadows is a staple fantasy for rogues and assassins, so having Take Cover interact this way just seemed to make sense. 60 damage may not seem big, but trust me, it's pretty devastating.
Blindside -Blinding Bomb leaves your target vulnerable, causing them to take bonus damage from your next Physical Hit. This damage starts at 10% and scales up to 75%! Keep in mind, this doesn't even require the blinding portion of Blinding Bomb to land. If you hit a foe with Blinding Bomb, they will take bonus damage from your next physical skill. This can combine with Shadow Strike to put out some seriously deadly Quick Strikes.
Elusive Girl - Increases Angela's Evasion with every point. Starts at 2% and scales up to 23%. Evasion is always a really really sticky stat to balance. It completely nullifies any physical skill that doesn't pass the check. However, due to its random nature, in most games players will ignore it entirely. With this state maxed, Angela will have, in all classes, a native 25% Evasion rate, meaning she will dodge 1 in every 4 Physical skills. As a warrior, using the Defender of Grandfal (the best shield in the game so far) she will have a whopping 37% evasion.
Thick Skin - Increases Angela's HP. Starts at +5 and scales to +30. Very simple, keeping in the theme of each class having 1 universal passive. This one will probably be pretty popular since it's super useful for everyone.
Linebacker - Using Charge reduces the damage Angela takes for the next 5 turns. Starts at 20% and scales up to 50%. This is pure Physical Damage reduction, so it's applied after the damage is calculated. This may end up being a bit too strong, but i'm happy to leave it as is right now.
Shell Smash - Using Mighty Guard (guarding while in Defender Stance) causes your next Physical attack to deal bonus damage. Starts at 25% and scales up to 100%. This has an internal cooldown of 3 turns. Similar to the same passive for the wizard, this gives some bonus to using Defender form. This and Linebacker will, I believe, make Defender Stance and Charge much more attractive abilities, without just buffing them needlessly.
Brewmaster - Physical Damage dealt to Angela is reduced by 10 - 35%. This reduced damage is then stored in a state, and staggered over the next 3 turns as a dot. If you've played WoW, this is the same passive as the Brewmaster spec for Monks. What this does is reduces the upfront damage that Angela has to deal with, without fully negating it, as it will continue to bleed over. Utilized properly, this passive can make the Warrior extremely tanky, and really help holding onto that sweet spot for maximum damage.
