A deep look in to Psychology
Surprise, I'm back at it again. Prepare for another long winded writeup about Psychology, it's issues as I see them and possible suggestions. As per usual I'm going to break it down ability by ability and mod by mod so strap in and put on your readers.
Overview
Many start off trying this skill due to the early nature you can acquire, then as they progress in their gorgon careers, typically abandon it for greener pastures. It is not to say it doesn't have SOME merits but they are very select and it generally performs worse in all fields for what it does. Most of the time it seems to be used for its out of combat speed but with mounts looming and speed nerfs as well the future for that is grim. Outside of that is going heavy into it's epic attack and praying the target doesn't evade and the ability crits because the rest of the damage is low. On the support side you end up with a strong single target heal, a worse AoE heal than other skills in flat numbers and a self only tri heal with a long cooldown. As often mentioned in other support skills the lack of an anti stun or removal is a huge negative as the extreme amount of stuns really places a high value for it.
Before I begin breaking down the abilities I'd also like to add that the current iteration of crits and the crit mods for this as well as mentalism are too drastic and hold back the skill due to this. AH pet's are another example of the craziness with crits but that is a whole nother issue. The idea of having crits for specific skills is wonderful but the power flux between not critting or getting a 12-20k crit or even 30k in regards to AH is just crazy. This also means the regular non crit damage of these skills will always suffer lest it push those numbers even more insane than they already are. Fairy magic is kind of a rule breaker here because it gets access to the crit's and multipliers as far as I know while also having the ability to build up really high damage attacks before you factor those in.
- Psychology/Mentalism Critical Hit Damage +180% when Psychology is active
Instead of having these mods I feel it would be better served to remove them and specifically set a better balanced number internally of what respective crits for the skills should be. Enough to make a spike and difference but also allow the skill to feel impactful without. You could also bake them into the specific epic attack mods so those abilities still feel 'epic' in nature but at a lower rate.
Abilities
Psychoanalyze:
Long cooldown rage debuff that also acts as a trigger for You Were Adopted. Outside of that the mods for this are all over the place in what they offer and lacking in % damage increases making another example of bad unless it crits.
- Psychoanalyze deals between 160 and 360 extra damage
- Psychoanalyze, Tell Me About Your Mother, and You Were Adopted Damage +113(2)
While it does have these flat damage modifiers, without the above mentioned % damage increase, it is hard to raise the damage to a useful level especially with the longer cooldown. Not to mention having a trigger spell for an Epic on a long cooldown leads to plenty of issues. Ideally this should be a much lower cooldown for both functionality and just damage capability in general.
- Psychoanalyze causes the target to be worth 16% more XP if slain within 60 seconds
I think only rabbit and Psych have a mod like this and I feel they are such an insane waste of a mod slot when something else could be in its place and eventually have zero value.
- Psychoanalyze restores 115 Health to you after a 15 second delay(2)
Most of the mods that add things that do ‘x’ after ‘x’ amount of time are just not worth it due to the long delay. Especially when placed on abilities that one would use for other reasons or just damage in general. I will caveat this by mentioning the recent change to one mod rabbit gets on it's Carrot Power heal down to 8 seconds is a good mark for what a lot of these should be. I find that one useful and in a good time frame to the point it has saved my life many a time.
(- Carrot Power restores 240 Health after an 8-second delay)
- Psychoanalyze restores 172 Armor to you(2)
A huge amount of armor is restored when doubled, the problem being it now adds another priority for the skill. It seems better when these higher number restores are used on abilities that are not a trigger for something else or one that isn't a high priority outside of crowd control or support in and of itself. Psychology’s mez Tell Me About You Mother has one attached as well and that flows better as an option even though it is also used to trigger You Were Adopted.
- Psychoanalyze causes the target to take +20 damage from Psychic attacks for 60 seconds(2)
Slightly low in the added damage considering the cooldown of the ability but still a good addition. This would perhaps be better served on another shorter cooldown ability but it does fit the theme of this particular ability.
Tell Me About Your Mother:
Typical single target mez like ice magic's or bards. The only difference here is it is also used as a trigger for You Were Adopted. Before I list the mod's for this particular skill I'd like to suggest an idea of my own to add alternative uses for this ability and make mez's, which are generally not the most helpful in groups, better. Some things would need tweaking in the length department but adding a mod that turns this into either an AoE or frontal conal if that is possible. While it would still break on damage it would add a valuable CC that isn't just 'spam stun' like most skills. It would also allow a support player to have a more active role in group combat beyond heal and pray. It could also offer a 2 second immunity to breaking either on the front end or when it breaks on the back end the spell but I feel all mez's need that in general due to the nature of them and groups.
- Tell Me About Your Mother causes target's attacks to deal -20 damage for 60 seconds(2)
These mods are good in and of themselves and would add further benefit to my idea above. Mayhaps a shorter length or reduced damage to balance it out? Something like the below.
(-Tell Me About Your Mother causes target's attacks to deal -15 damage for 15 seconds(2)
- Tell Me About Your Mother restores 141 Armor to you(2)
As previously stated above this is a good type of ability to attach these to.
- Psychoanalyze, Tell Me About Your Mother, and You Were Adopted Damage +113(2)
Considering Tell Me About Your Mother does 1 damage base and has no other ways beyond this to increase damage it seems weird even including it at all. Perhaps another Psychology ability would benefit from taking its place? Or even a mod that adds indirect when it is broken/the time is reached.
- Tell Me About Your Mother boosts your Epic Attack Damage +110 and reduces the Power cost of your Epic Attacks -19 for 15 seconds
Solid addition and probably one of the many many mods you will be taking to beef out You Were Adopted or possible other Epics if pairing.
Strike a Nerve:
Typical core attack with increased damage on vulnerable state. Somewhat low base damage.
- Strike a Nerve deals between 48 and 160 extra damage(2)
Not the biggest fan of large differences in added extra damage to skills. Beyond the fact these don't get added to tooltips it also adds more fluctuation in a skill already full of it with crits.
- Strike a Nerve deals +132 armor damage(2)
Same issue I have with all mods that add armor damage after the fact. They don't scale with the abilities damage modifiers so it is just what you see is what you get. Thus if the number does not start high you would be better off if it just added flat damage instead, especially with the massive increase in armor elites have gotten recently. Having more abilities and builds that can specialize in burning said armor would be a boon.
- Strike a Nerve Damage +38%(2)
Somewhat smaller %'s considering the variance in added damage and lower base.
- Strike a Nerve generates no Rage and instead reduces Rage by 490(2)
Always a fan when these mods also add in the zero rage generate portion. Number reduced might be low but at the same time it's more an issue with how quickly rage is gained by monsters which leads most to being spam rage attack machines reducing the usefulness of things like this. I’d also like to add the idea that maybe Rage reducing abilities, or specific ones at least, could place a small pause on the rage generation of the entity it is used on. This would add more to these abilities and the idea of reducing rage in general. I’d also suggest putting a diminishing return on it like with stuns as to prevent exploitation.
Cause Terror:
Decent range single target fear that hits directly to health. While I like fears I do wish a feared mob was naturally slower(something like 50%) and classes with pet's had a way to force their pets to still attack a feared mob but that's a function issue outside of just this ability. Alternatively a Mod to make this AoE would be much appreciated and help further in adding more control playstyles. I'll go further into that in my suggestions portion of this.
- Soothe, But I Love You, and Cause Terror Damage +70(2)
- Cause Terror Damage +174(2)
- Cause Terror deals +70 damage, costs -17 Power, and reuse timer is -6 seconds(2)
All of these are great mods to build up this ability but the problem being there are no % damage increase mods to go with these. This then again leads to low damage unless it crit's type deal. As mentioned above a lowering of the crit ceiling and added mods would go far in smoothing out how psychology plays while also keeping the flavor.
Soothe:
Legitimately just a big rage reducer that does 1 damage. I have an idea for a replacement to this ability to add better functionality to psych but regardless if they ever slow rage gen this is one of the higher reducers when modded
- Soothe further reduces target's Rage by 950
- Soothe, But I Love You, and Cause Terror Damage +70
- Soothe Damage +100
Not entirely sure the point of added damage to this ability considering it starts at 1 and has no %'s. Adding different functions instead would be a better mod slot and more in line with the idea behind the ability. I soothe you by hurting you does not make the most sense unless they are masochistic.
- Soothe boosts the healing from your Major Healing abilities +44 for 10 seconds(2)
With the shorter uptime It just pales in comparison to generic mods that add much more to minor or major heals always or add armor to the restores. I’ll add them below to prove my point.
(- Healing of your Major Healing Abilities +74(2))
(- Major Healing abilities also restore 112 Armor(2)
(- Major Healing abilities have a 65% chance to restore an additional 137 Health(2))
Pep Talk:
Typical single target heal with a wide assortment of mods that also add side functionality
- Pep Talk removes ongoing Poison effects (up to 44 dmg/sec)
- Pep Talk removes ongoing Fire effects (up to 48 dmg/sec)
While these things are generally better on minor heals or ones with shorter cooldowns it's still a nice addition. Also considering Psych does not have a minor heal it is what it is.
- Pep Talk restores 47 Power(2)
- Pep Talk Healing +106(3)
- Pep Talk Reuse Timer -4.5(2)
-- Pep Talk restores 112 Armor(2)
All around these beef out Pep to be one of the best single target heals. Literally nothing negative to say about the ability at all. Maybe for flavor when the ability is used on someone make them say something positive in a chat bubble like when Tell me about your mother is used. Could even just be a cheer or yay!
Ridicule:
Low damage mini taunt on a skill that does not offer much mitigation to even be used as a tank pairing. As per soothe I have a major rework idea for this ability that I will go into below.
- Mock and Ridicule deal +45 damage and taunt +160(2)
- Ridicule deals +45 health damage and taunts +425(2)
Same issue as explained above. Damage added is also low per mod spent considering there is no % damage increase like most of the abilities in psychology leading to low damage regardless.
- Ridicule boosts movement speed by 4.5 for 6 seconds
I love little combat speed boosts and wish more skills, especially tanking skills, had access to these. They just help a lot in combat and corralling everything.
Fast Talk:
Somewhat strange ability as it only functions as a smaller deaggro and rage reducer but there are usually better options than using this for that function. The base deaggro is also pretty low. This ability also could function for my proposed revamp I'll talk about below.
- Fast Talk taunts -540 and reduces Rage by 900(2)
Solid amount of rage reduction but I feel the reduced taunt either needs to be higher or the base on the ability does.
- Fast Talk heals you for 37 health(2)
- Fast Talk heals you for 58 armor(2)
Not the worst restores but not enough to really warrant using the ability I feel unless you really want to go into the rage reducing route which as mentioned above has its own pitfalls outside of solo play.
Positive Attitude:
A tri resource heal with a long cooldown and strange assortment of mods that give various things. This honestly would be better suited as an AoE option or at the very least a targetable heal with a reduced cooldown to give Psych as many healing options as other skills.
- Positive Attitude boosts your Out-of-Combat Sprint Speed by 4 for 60 seconds
The bread and butter of why Psychology is used most of the time. I'd imagine this will probably go bye bye soon so not much point in talking about it more.
- Positive Attitude increases your Poison Mitigation +16 for 30 seconds
Very strange addition due to the fact it's a long cooldown as is and only affects a rarely used damage type. Changing this to all damage types, or at least a few combined, as well as the above mentioned shorter cooldown would add to the skill a lot I feel.
- Positive Attitude increases your Core Attack Damage +98 for 15 seconds(2)
Good in theory but is more of an afterthought benefit of the skill due to the above mentioned things. Still a pretty good amount of added damage if you happen to use core attacks. Mayhaps lower the number if any of the above ideas are put into place, especially AoE, and change it to nice and core? That way it affects more builds and would fit the theme of the skill.
- Positive Attitude Reuse Timer -14
Maybe adding in a second mod to this would do the trick mentioned above but honestly the ability should be a lower cooldown anyways due to lower amount restored.
- Inspire Confidence / Positive Attitude Healing +63(2)
Can't complain about this considering it also affects another heal of psych's
Mock:
A basic attack that hits for direct HP damage. Comes with a very small amount of extra taunt and can be modded for more of such. While it's strange Psychology has all these mini taunts on a skill that is not used for tanking perhaps that could be changed. The idea of a support tank hasn't really been much of a possibility but with some changes could become a thing. It would also offer animal form tanks another option beyond unarmed which is sorely needed.
- Mock and Ridicule deal +45 damage and taunt +160(2)
- Mock deals +105% damage and taunts +400, but reuse timer is +2 seconds(2)
If all of these are taken it turns Mock into a pretty solid single target aggro generator especially if other threat modifiers from another skill are in place. The fact it ignores armor and hits directly to HP only adds to this. There is a suggested revamp below for this ability.
Inspire Confidence:
The AoE heal of Psych. Starts off equal to the rest but when the mods are factored in does not hold a candle compared to BC or other variants in the healing department. Slightly makes up for this with utility mods.
- Inspire Confidence / Positive Attitude Healing +63(2)
Solid addition as mentioned above.
- Inspire Confidence increases all targets' Accuracy +16 for 10 seconds(2)
Not a bad mod in concept but truly should last just a little bit longer and really only be one mod making room for another brand new mod in it's place. Currently very little evades and other skills have their own options to deal with it and or stuns to counter it. Fits with the theme somewhat though.
- Inspire Confidence increases the damage of all targets' attacks +12 for 30 seconds(2)
I'm a fan of group buffing skills and abilities and wish we had a better selection for this playstyle. Probably needs to be just slightly higher in number to make it worth the mod investment.
- Inspire Confidence restores +165 Health after a 25 second delay(2)
- Inspire Confidence restores +119 Health after a 15 second delay(2)
If the timers were changed from 8 and then 16 delay I would have no problem at all with these mods and feel like they would be a welcome addition. Sadly at the current delay it's a rough sell. I know I talked about this above with Carrot Powers heal after 8 seconds mod but it just feels so good at that timer during combat. It would be a functional HoT almost in which this skill lacks completely. Albeit the higher heal mod set should probably happen first and the lower one second as the confidence is waning as time goes on.
But I Love You:
A very strong debuff that has a relatively short cooldown. Suffers the same as most Psych abilities in the fact it's hard to make it do significant damage due to lack of proper mods but considering the debuff I'd honestly say the tradeoff is worth it.
Soothe, But I Love You, and Cause Terror Damage +70(2)
Solid flat damage increases especially since it covers 3 different abilities. Sooth probably should not be on this like I mentioned before though.
- But I Love You deals +20% damage and stuns the target
Super great addition as not only does the ability offer an amazing debuff it now gives you a relatively short cooldown stun. This is sadly the only % damage increase this ability gets though so it will never even come close to being a hard hitter.
- But I Love You boosts your Nice and Epic Attack Damage +75 for 8 seconds(2)
Once again a good pair of mods especially since very few things give both nice and epic damage increases at once.
You Were Adopted:
The main reason anyone does a damage route psychology build. Get every mod and hope it doesn't evade and crits for ginormous damage.
- Psychoanalyze, Tell Me About Your Mother, and You Were Adopted Damage +113(2)
- You Were Adopted deals +40% damage and Power cost is -18(2)
- You Were Adopted Damage +55%(2)
- You Were Adopted deals +33% damage and triggers the target's Vulnerability
These are all good mods and offer one of the few guaranteed Vulnerability triggers in the game. Outside of this not much to say about the ability. It's a good epic but like the rest of psych would benefit from a more middle ground approach to crit vs non crit.
Suggestions
Now on to the ideas I've been alluding to probably way too many times above. Threat is a pretty major issue for a lot of builds in both ability to generate it and dump it. What I propose would not only give an alternative option in helping this problem but also another role for a support minded player. There are a few ways to accomplish this but the first could be something almost like how BC skins work. The simplest route would be a specific buff you can keep on one target that either gives a % to increased threat or adds a certain amount of threat to every attack. Inversely a second buff causing the opposite could be introduced or even just an aggro wipe/massive decrease for your specific target of choice.
I feel like the skin route is probably the easier implementation of the routes but the other version would require a bit more thought and timing. These easily could take the place of the abilities I mentioned above and fit the theme of the ability AKA soothe or fast talk being the aggro wipe and Mock the aggro generator spell.
If I'm not being clear above I'll mockup the envisioned abilities below....and yes all the puns intended with mock shhh
Soothe:
Through the sound of your honeyed words your enemies find you less of a threat
“minus x amount of threat in a 15 yard radius”
(Would only affect whoever you cast it on)
Soothing voice:
Adopt a more peaceful demeanor causing those around you forget you exist
“Decreased threat by x% for x minutes”
Or
“Attacks decrease x amount of threat per for x minutes”
Mocking Voice:
Continuously belittle those around you causing no small amount of bruised egos
"All attacks cause x amount of increased threat per attack for x minutes"
Or
"Increased threat by x% for x minutes"
Mock:
Belittle and degrade those around you with wild abandon
"Causes x amount of threat to everything in 15 yard radius"
Another example for my proposed mod to Tell me about your mother would look something like this
-Ability now hits all targets in 10 yard but lowers the duration of the mesmerize to 8 seconds
Beyond the fact adding more control options outside of stuns when you add in the mod below you now provide benefit either to yourself, the tank or party as a whole regardless of how long the mez lasts or not.
(- Tell Me About Your Mother causes target's attacks to deal -20 damage for 60 seconds)
You might be asking yourself “but if we replace Mock what would be the basic attack of Psychology?!” The answer to that is simple my friends, Ridicule. Not only does this ability come with all the added threat mods one would want from a basic it ends up being almost the same cooldown as Mock when you take the below mods for it.
(- Mock deals +105% damage and taunts +400, but reuse timer is +2 seconds(2))
They are both virtually identical but Ridicule comes with the in combat sprint mod when used which is a wonderful quality of life mod for tanking but truly for any playstyle or use of Psychology. Not to mention having a basic attack( I.E Mock) be a 'drop' spell feels really weird.
Due to all the extra threat currently in psych It would be very easy to also add an ability or just replace fast talk with it to allow Psychology to perform in that function and give another pairing for all tank skills and more importantly animal tank skills. Examples below.
Go to my happy place:
Shield yourself from life's torments by simply ignoring them.
"Mitigate x damage and a further x from elites"
(Ideally this would be universal but could be changed to whatever damage types seems the best fit. The universal aspect would cover the issues some tank skills have in mitigating against the elements or other types they cannot mod for)
Kind of hesitant to suggest it as another % mitigation damage tank ability because those are what are partially causing some of stupid strong tank combos as is. Regardless, something like this would be a welcome change and in line with the theme of the skill. An alternative more support version of the ability could be something like the below.
Empathetic Link:
Use the power of your empathy to shield another from life's torments
"10% of the next x amount of damage is mitigated and instead transferred to the caster"
A small twist combining the usual damage shields and reflecting damage in this game. Not entirely sure how plausible coding this would be but I feel it offers another unique variant and role. This ability could just be a cooldown or lessened in % and allowed to be cast on multiple party members at once but only one target per cast to avoid gibbing oneself.
On the topic of added functionality for this skill as well as other pairings I'd like to bring up two points. One this skill feels strange without inherently having some sort of AoE ability, whether base or through a mod, when it comes to damage. This then brings me to my second point of indirect psychic damage. Oddly enough only Necromancy offers a wide amount of it even though it's in horribly low numbers. Deer and Mentalism both offer one ability which can be modded for it and Rabbit has two 40% indirect psychic damage mods and one ability, even if horribly placed, that causes indirect. I bring this up because it is an untapped build market that could easily become a thing. Giving options to Psych for indirects and an AoE that does low direct but good indirect over time would not only fit within the theme of the skill but help support these pairings. Cause Terror would be a perfect subject for this honestly without having to even add in another ability.
Final Note
The idea behind this is not to enforce my own vision upon the game but hopefully give constructive criticism as well as options as to what I think could be done or added to further flesh out the skill, it's abilities or possible roles the aforementioned could have. Psychology as a skill has almost limitless design potential; it just needs a little bit of a facelift to get there.
To those who made it through this whole thing I thank you and hope you came out of it with something beyond a headache.
