Don't buff bernie!

[mima_]

i wouldnt worry about someone who somehow able to unlock the skill after killing cc or afw then in next game they find their minion can kill bosses with 4000 hp.. 

idk why u compare with wendy. while wendy with abigail can kill bosses solo too. im not even talking about bq .
but antlion. just with/without bushhat, abigail can kill ant with 0 damage taken 

[Kubicska]

4 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

The way riffs work are really janky so idk.  They have random downtime.

I meant Bernie would transform when you turn on the rifts either by world setting or giving Wagstaff an Enlightened Shard or giving the Beckoning Hand the Dreadstone and you also have either the Shadow or Lunar Bernie skill unlocked.

So the Lunar and Shadow Bernie wouldn’t function or do nothing until you activate the Lunar Rifts for Lunar Bernie or the Shadow Rifts for Shadow Bernie.
For example if you have unlocked the Shadow Bernie skill but don’t have the Shadow Rifts on and you instead turn on the Lunar Rifts first then Bernie wouldn’t transform until you turn on the “correct” rift associated with his alignment.

The few days “downtime” of the rifts after one closes wouldn’t mean anything since Bernie would transform on the spot when you activate the rifts tied to his alignment.

I honestly can’t explain this simple idea even more in depth than this, it honestly shouldn’t even have to be debated since why would you be walking around with a Shadow (Pure Horror) or a Lunar (Brightshade) Bernie before the rifts are even turned on?

There aren’t other planar creatures before the rifts anyway and there shouldn’t be exceptions.

As for Willow maybe having planar damage dealing spells just make her attack only deal planar damage when she’s wearing the Brightshade Helm or Void Cowl depending on witch skill the player choose and just deal regular damage otherwise and maaaaybeeeee a bit less

[Yuuko]

1 hour ago, Mysterious box said:

Idk Burning Bernie felt pretty lackluster when I tried it compared to what you lose but I guess I'll give it another shot.

Its potent in slaughtering groups of weak mobs like Abi.  Spiders, bees, shadow monkeys, hounds, etc.  It deals 50 retaliate damage per hit, so spiders, bees, and elemental hounds die when they attack a second time and normal hounds die on the 3rd.  Mobs with slower attack patterns like Spider Warriors will die slower.  I tested against Bee Queen and Dragonfly.  Bernie did about 5000 damage to Dfly and 2500 to Bee Queen before hitting 0 health.

imo its lackluster mostly for being a boring play style.  Its only so fun to watch a mob do all the work for you lol.  But its worse with Bernie because certain parts of his default behavior make him unwieldy, so I imagine most people would pass no matter how strong Bernie was just to not deal with his own downsides.

That was kinda the conflict with Wendy's first refresh - At first Abi just got bonus stats when Wendy's health was low, and while Abi could solo Deerclops when Wendy was at lowest health, and even solo Bee Queen with potions it was just boring...  The update that cut Abi's damage back, but gave Wendy a boost when fighting with Abi brought that duo back to life.

I don't see Bernie as a sentient being, more a tool of Willow - an animate object that aids her, hence why she can craft multiple of him.  Still I think there is room to improve the experience as a Willow player who wants to focus on Bernie.  Being strong is not always being fun.  Going from 2000 health to 2600 is strong, but it doesn't give the player any more options.  That's why I made my thread about the Bernie skill tree.  I'll give the short of it here - there are 2 big reasons people will not invest in Bernie tree:

1)  Cannot pick up Bernie at any time.  Its not too tough to raise sanity after you've explored and settled in, but in those early days it might be tough to always bring your sanity up.  Bernie can easily get caught on structures and distracted with mobs preventing you from moving forward with your play.  Even with the new skill that lets Bernie get big at higher sanity caps, above when you'd draw aggro of nm monsters, he will still provoke the ones that follow you and fight them slowing you down.

2)  Bernie is limited by your insanity.  He cannot grow big unless you can drop sanity which falls apart in Lunacy events.  Its been a long standing issue that lunar island completely disables Bernie.  Moonstorms and rifts do this too.  Investing points in a kit that can be completely disabled during critical parts of the game makes that skill a bad choice.

I suggested in my thread that a skill be added that lets you pick up Big Bernie returning him to small Bernie in your inventory at any time, and one that lets him grow big to aggro nightmare monsters even if your sanity is high (nm phase, protecting other players, etc) - and add also growing for either lunar or shadow depending on which alignment you pick (grow only for opposed alignment) to enable him in lunacy if you spec that way.  These will give Willow more control over Bernie, taking away the problems with him.

We'd still want to add at least 1 other active perk like Burning Bernie that gives Willow something to do through him.  idk what on that yet though...  I think healing might be nice, so while Bernie is burning and returning damage you can actively keep that Bernie out but maybe that isn't important...

edit: Eh a nifty idea just came to me.  Maybe Bernie gets effected by Burning Frenzy too so you both get +25% damage against a flaming target?  You could chill back and cast it while just lighting Bernie and the target mobs on fire, but you would also be able to attack yourself so it fits well for either active or passive play with Bernie.

[Jakepeng99]

2 hours ago, prettynuggets said:

idk why u compare with wendy. while wendy with abigail can kill bosses solo too. im not even talking about bq .

I was talking about abigail without Wendy.

[Mysterious box]

21 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

I was talking about abigail without Wendy.

I mean they did mention antlion but that aside Bernie isn't beating most bosses without help from Willow especially the ones that matter.

[mima_]

2 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

I was talking about abigail without Wendy.

u can basically kill antlion with abigail without wendy help . wendy just in sideline using bush hat. and not even a scratch on abigail in this fight lolol