Shadow duelists improvement ideas

[Pig Princess]

Even before rework there were significant problems with shadow duelists, namely:

1. They are too dumb to kite properly, but they still try; nevertheless, even if they are not 1-shotted immediately, because of their inability to kite they just die without adding meaningful damage or being decoy for more than 1-2 enemy hits. And in case AoE attackers shadow duelists are waste of resources and time, spherical in vacuum.

They have very niche use only in situation where enemy can't target them at all for some reason (ewecus, for example), and it's sad to see usefulness of duelists be entirely result of oversight of mob's AI. They should do better than that.

Rework didn't address that at all, just made them less wasteful when used as disposable decoy, but only if they were already present; now with limited lifespan one would likely die before being able to cast them as decoy if caught off guard. 6 of them can hold enemy without AoE slightly better than 3, but again, they can do better than that, much better, and still remain disposable minion by design but interesting to use. Also they die so fast and consistently and live outside of combat for so short that even them being tied to location instead of Maxwell doesn't make them much worse at this point.

2. 75 hp means shadow duelists can't withstand even 1 hit from bosses no matter what player does, and often 2 hits from other enemies. Paired with low damage output (0 in a lot of cases) and absence of any other use, it's actually detrimental to summon them because player would spend sanity and time on casting instead of doing damage with Maxwell himself.

This didn't change with rework.

3. There is lack of control options for player, which means duelists screw up kiting pattern and often fight in general: they attack Klaus deers, trigger extra spells, are killed nearly immediately and thus waste resources; last I checked using sleepy time stories to pacify Dragonfly is nearly impossible with duelists around (I'll have to check again with pan flute).

At least after rework punching them to desummon is much cheaper, so it's an improvement.

So here are my suggestions:

1. Make Maxwell be able to switch places with any present on screen shadow duelist. Mechanically it can be useful to make decoy receive otherwise unavoidable hit, and since they are disposable, them dying as the result is not much of a problem. Lorewise Maxwell splits his mind, so technically he should be able to transfer consciousness in any part, right? It also fits Maxwell personality very well to make someone/something receive hit for him as long as he himself is safe.

But this change alone won't be enough.

2. Make shadow duelists teleport upon hit just like shadow creatures or give that ability to shadow duelists after some kind of improvement action that should make them less disposable. For example, such action could be tying them to Maxwell for some cost and removal of despawn timer. Or giving night armor to them so they could actually to something on their own. It could be just another AoE spell of Codex Umbra that would cost sanity or some craftable made with sanity (so in a way Maxwell would be insentivised to "store" sanity in such craftable beforehabd, just like Wendy "stores" her health for Abigail via spectral cure-alls beforehand).

3. Make shadow prison hold anything in place except Fuelweaver and Shadow Pieces, including shadow duelists and maybe shadow creatures. It wouldn't be broken against the latter because they teleport on hit, which essentially means they will escape prison after 1st hit. Shadow duelists inside prison could be strategically placed for better control of mobs aggro to use it strategically, for better control of hp distribution in the area, for being backup escape plan (for limited time though), etc.

4. Strengthening spell/action from p. 2. I would prefer ability to give shadow duelists night armor and shadow duelists stopping to kite as long as they have armor, maybe attacking twice as fast (it would be still around twice as slower than player and 40 damage per hit). Keep in mind that they would still despawn after 2 minutes, and one would have to give new night armor to new puppet, as well as prototype night armor itself after gathering materials for it. I would like to remove hp regen of duelists because it's useless for beta shadows anyway and nearly useless for live version as well. In my version written here it's simply redundant. Armor should loose durability as usual and drop upon duelists death/despawn.

5. Maxwell should be able to cast additional spell that forcefully moves duelists in the area of effect from their position to center even if it means crossing shadow prison wall. Just as if Maxwell pulled the threads to control puppets. This spell should have no cost since it's basically continuation of duelists AI and vital for their reposition in reasonable time, especially in battle.

With this I can see myself fighting tier 3 shadow bishop and even Ancient Fuelweaver with duelists, and in general using duelists whenever possible, spending tine for designing layouts and practicing my reaction and precision; it would be also so satisfying to see Maxwell becoming thuly excellent puppet master he was supposed to be, and I like the idea of Fuelweaver vs Maxwell fight becoming contest of masters of shadow magic.

Edit: I need to check a couple of things and will do so once I'm at home, namely, if shadow prison can hold shadow duelists right now. If it isn't able to do it already, then I suggest to make it a thing as was mentioned above. Apparently shadow prison can't lock duelists in place; well, the fact that it immobilizes mob/bosses before casting animation is finished is pleasant surprise.

Aside from that as generic suggestion I would like spell casting animation to be cancellable, because right now animation cancels if Maxwell takes damage, but he can't cancel it on his own, which is strange and very inconvenient in combat (at least against Celestial Champion phase 3).

 

[ShadowDuelist]

I think Shadow Duelists are now meant to be disposable, kamikaze fighters, but for that purpose, gameplay-wise, it currently locks Maxwell on a side of battles just pressing the codex umbra non stop as the duelists die, like a meeseeks box, which is not optimal.

I think instead Maxwell should just summon them in an area, and then fight alongside them.
For that purpose I think instead of casting a shadow duelist, you should place a spawner instead: each spawner will spawn only one duelist at any given time, and if the duelist dies, after 1-2 seconds a new one will pop from the spawner.
The spawner should remain for the current max possible duration of duelists, and should be unbreakable by mobs.

What does this accomplish?

Maxwell can summon whatever amount of duelist spawners that he thinks he needs in the combat area (just one duelist will come out of the spawner, and only a new one will pop if the original died) and they will keep respawning automatically as they stupidly die, but still making some damage or acting as decoys, freeing Maxwell to fight alongside them, or keep using the prison/trap powers.

The spawners could maybe be removed by force attacking them, or just with a new button from the codex "unsummon all" or something

 

[ArubaroBeefalo]

5 minutes ago, ShadowDuelist said:

like a meeseeks box

we need a crossover skin

[ShadowDuelist]

4 minutes ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

we need a crossover skin

Hi, I'm Shadow Duelist, look at me!

[Thieverpedia]

You know that feeling when you make a suggestion and find an even better one a little further down?