Deer and all things Doe related
As requested an in depth look at all things Deer.
Overview:
Deer has been stated to be a 'bruiser' or offtank as it were. While a lot of it's mods might add taunt or some form of armor restore and or healing. I feel it really fails in this department. Damage wise outside of cuteness overload everything is just a crushing or slashing attack that feels bland and low damage. Other than this it has some of the higher speed that animals can get but not the highest.
Abilities:
Antler Slash
Surprising amount of mods available for this basic attack.
- Antler Slash restores 8 power to you
- Antler Slash heals you for 16 health
- Antler Slash has a 50% chance to restore 40 armor
- Antler Slash Damage +43%
Some of the numbers might need to be played with to warrant having such a huge mod investment in a skill most people wouldn't even want on their bar if it didn't provide refresh. Outside of that the problem with adding % damage mods on basic attacks is without any way to add flat damage to the ability itself it will forever just be a piddly damage skill you use because you are forced to. Some skills that focus on an elemental damage type can somewhat bypass this for certain basics but it remains true for most. Thus you end up with hoping your basic can be modded to add some sort of buff or the above semi survival one.
Deer Kick
Even with less base damage than it's counterpart Pummeling Hooves this ability when fully modded ends up doing much more. These two skills end up being very very samey with the only difference really being a unique indirect nature mod kick gets over Pummeling and the later getting base taunt. Unless you count Pummelings different more unique sound effect I suppose.
- Deer Kick Damage +85
- Deer Kick damage +66 and reduces target's rage by -200
The rage reduction on this seems rather small to make much of a difference.
-Deer Kick deals +29% damage and taunts +252
The % boost on this is rather low on an already low damaging attack. The taunt amount isn't quite high as an addition either.
- Deer Kick implants insect eggs in the target. Future Deer Kicks by any deer cause target to take 310 Nature damage over 5 seconds
This is for the most part the only real synergy deer ends up having with any other skill in this game and why most deer you see running around are deer/druid. The problem with this is the delayed effect. You have to wait 8 seconds after the first kick to kick again to even apply this dot that takes 5 seconds to do it's thing. Thus truly this is over 13 seconds. Even if that weren't the case it's still a low damage addition but that is a problem the vast majority of indirect in this game suffers from.
Pummeling Hooves
As stated above this is mostly the same as Deer kick. You can mod a bit more taunt out of this attack but that is pretty much it. These two abilities really need a better focused role and separation between the two or something else done entirely. The mods are all % based with zero flat added so it ends up being a very weak attack.
- Pummeling Hooves Damage +38%
- Pummeling Hooves deals +22% damage and taunts +500
- Pummeling Hooves has a 60% chance to deal +66% damage and taunt +400
All the added taunt is nice but this ability does almost nothing in damage even if you get lucky and roll both 60% chances twice for the damage boost. To reiterate above these two NEED something unique to set them apart or just combined and something else set in the others place.
Deer Bash
Deer's go to stun and surprisingly the strongest hitting ability in deer's arsenal next to forest challenge. Comes with a moddable knockback that also adds a solid amount of flat damage.
- Deer Bash deals +120 damage and knocks the enemy backwards
- Deer Bash Damage +58%
- Deer Bash has a 60% chance to deal +110% damage
Huge damage variance can happen due to the third mod but when all aligns this skill actually hits worth mentioning. Still not anywhere near what a lot of skills can do but it's good in deer damage terms and is on their short cooldown stun.
King of the Forest
Deer's one and only area attack that comes with a few pitfalls. The range is 7 which makes it very very easy to miss unless every target is literally on top of your face. It also comes with pretty much the same animation that every single other deer attack does so its easy to notice it even happening. Outside of that it has a low base damage as almost all of deer's abilities do but due to some mods ends up in the average to low aoe damage attack range unless you have terrible luck.
- King of The Forest Damage +58%
- King of the Forest has a 90% chance to deal +160 damage
Small chance for this ability to do very very low damage. High chance for it not to happen but still a strange design concept that so many of deer's mods get % chance increases.
- King of the Forest gives you +15 mitigation of any physical damage for 20 seconds
This mod ends up making King of the forest a much better version of doe eyes due to the uptime comparatively. Still a somewhat small number when compared to other tanky skills and makes for some weird gameplay of just using king of the forest right off the bat for the buff.
Overall I think this ability needs a slightly higher range, a bigger taunt value added and flavor wise this ability makes more sense getting the knockback that bash does considering you are waving your antlers around. Well imaginary antlers if you are a doe.
Does Eyes
The one and only dedicated mitigation skill of deer. Has a very low uptime for an equally low mitigation amount considering it's your main source outside of the above modded king of the forest. Comes with a lot of mods that restore health or armor but all seem to be too low in number for the amount of mods spent
- Doe Eyes restores 95 armor
- Doe Eyes restores 42 power
With the cost of the ability taken out having both of these mods nets you 62 power
- Doe Eyes heals 64 health
Regardless of the numbers being low it also comes with the issue of when to use it. The mitigation amount is lower and lasts 10 seconds on a 30 second cd so you either go for maximum consistent uptime or relegate the whole thing to just a restore of stats with a bonus mitigation. This is made even more complicated when the last mod is considered.
- After using Doe Eyes, your next attack deals +169 damage(3)
Now this ability has three roles in which it serves. While yes you don't need to pickup every mod for this considering it's a very steep 9 mod investment for a somewhat crappy skill, even if it does have a nice graphic. It still leaves this ability as a half thought out mess in the end. Overall I think baseline doe eyes should be a self heal with an additional mitigation bonus that lasts much longer than the cooldown as to not create a problem keeping the buff up but at the same time allow proper usage of the restoring features in the ability. As to the increased next attack that can be rolled over on to something else. Never been a fan of tacking damage buffs on healing or mitigation skills especially when they are super short or in this case one time.
Cuteness Overload
An epic attack that is only epic in it's cuteness. Seriously hearts for days. The vast majority of it's mods end up turning it in to a glorified heal instead of a damaging ability. Once again a victim of what does the ability actually want to be.
- Cuteness Overload heals you for 84 health
- Cuteness Overload heals you for 72 health and increases your movement speed by +6 for 8 seconds
Cuteness Overload Damage +60%
- Cuteness Overload restores 135 armor to you
- Cuteness Overload deals 546 Psychic health damage over 12 seconds
A grand total of 10 mods for this ability and it ends up being amazing as a survival skill more than anything else. Restores a ton of health and armor plus gives a nifty sprint. Sadly as a damage ability this is quite lacking. No flat damage, a relatively long cooldown and a rare indirect type of which only necromancer has mods that can boost it in skill pairing makes for a not so good time.
Bounding Escape
One of the better movement skills in this game plus it can be sidebarred. The freeform movement and increased jumping makes playing a deer feel unlike most any other skill in this game. Like a lot of deer's ability stat restoring mods are tacked on to this en masse.
- Bounding Escape heals you for 72 health
- Bounding Escape restores 117 armor to you
- Bounding Escape restores 44 power to you
The numbers are a bit low for some but I feel these are the type of abilities that getting stat restores on makes sense.
- Bounding Escape grants you +42% Projectile Evasion for 10 seconds(2)
Comes with a hefty and almost near immunity to projectiles to boot. The downside being how things are classified ranged avoidance is better than projectile avoidance but nonetheless.
Forest Challenge
This ends up being one of the better if not best abilities in deer's arsenal. Baseline it gives a 100 hp heal with a flat 750 taunt added on. When all the mods are taken for this ability it turns in to a true powerhouse in both damage, increased taunt capability and it actually can increase your max HP by a fair amount. Honestly for all the mess that the rest of deer is this one ability is just all around amazing, kudos.
- Forest Challenge Damage +60%
- Forest Challenge Damage +80, Forest Challenge Taunt +1280
Huge amount of extra taunt and with the damage this ability can do the shining grace of making things want to hit you
- Forest Challenge damage is +118 and reuse time is -1 second
- Forest Challenge raises Max Health +52 for 60 seconds (and heals +52)
Since it can be double stacked this mod adds a nice touch and buff to an already great ability and is much more enjoyable than a flat increase to the healing like most mods end up giving.
- Forest Challenge and King of the Forest power cost is -19
Somewhat boring mod consider the already 8 mods beyond this forest has. Maybe adding -1 second off each would or something of the like would spice it up enough or adding cuteness overload to the mix since that is such a high power cost.
Summon Deer
While not the most damaging pet in this game by far I still find myself liking this fellow. I'm not quite sure it's intended role since it doesn't really draw enough aggro to act as a tank pet and it's damage even when modded is a far cry from good thus leading to the aggro issues. Personally I like the idea of it serving as a tank companion as that opens up some good synergies with other skills such as using a DPS pet with AH or covering weak pets with necro. Even from a tank perspective with my suggested changes below it could turn out useful in a lot of ways. It just needs some damage adjustment since it does come with a whopping 300% taunt increase when modded.
- Summoned Deer attacks taunt +150%
- Summoned Deer have +70 armor
- Summoned Deer have +70 health
Both of the stat increase mods should be slightly higher to help reinforce this as a tanking or at least damage sponge pet. It still won't be in the range of what a true AH pet can get but even if it was so what? AH pets can literally punch a hole through steel and that's not the purpose truly of this pet.
- Summoned Deer deal +20% damage with each attack
With the low damage currently of the pet this even when double stacked doesn't seem to do much. The numbers need fudged with a little between base and mods to allow that massive taunt increase to matter and make it so the pet hits for something that is ok but not overly so. As an added addition I also feel like adding a forest king type of attack to the summons attack cycle would help differentiate this from other tank like pets. Reinforces the theme of a rampaging deer and allows it to do something most pets cannot. Harm or aggro more than one mob at a time. Currently the summon comes with some slight hp, armor regeneration and varying evasion types. Since the deer skill has no way of healing the pet either base or via mods consider upping the amounts regened respectively or possible increased avoidance too via mods. I'm not trying to create a power house with these ideas but more a tank pet that doesn't fold the second things touch it and can at least weather a little bit of a storm before it goes poof.
(Please considering allowing a chance for the summoned deer to be both either a buck or a doe and not just a buck at all times. Small gripe I know but would be nice to see some doe love and representation)
Misc mods
- Psychic Damage Reduction +32 when Deer is active
- Nature Damage Reduction +32 when Deer is active
Both of these are one mod each and on the head slot. Very specific in mitigation type and very situational. Good vs low damage attacks of the above type but less useful on big attacks and useless vs anything else. Overall deer's mitigation is all flat amount and spread out. At best you can get 30 from physical always. Plus another 30 1/3 of the time and then 32 to both nature and psychic. Truly nothing to write home about especially considering unlike non animals and their awesome pairings they can get tank sill wise deer has just unarmed and nothing else. In which I feel it makes it show just how bad some of deer's abilities are comparatively. You end up just using the deer skills as hp/armor restores and all of unarmed for the damage and mitigation. Doe Eyes being the only non attack that feels like it adds anything even if in design it somewhat sucks. This is also partly due to unarmed as a tanky skill having no options in it's abilities beyond 'this does damage' but that's a whole nother animal.
- Combo: Deer Bash+Any Melee+Any Melee+Deer Kick: final step hits all enemies within 5 meters and deals +100 damage.
Not the biggest fan of combo mods but to make bash do damage worth note you have to take the knockback mod thus you end up trolling yourself knocking the mob back to then run forward to continue to finish the all melee combo. Another reason the knockback on king of the forest makes more sense ;-)
Additional thoughts
Overall Deer feels very unfocused as a whole. Everything tries to do everything but outside of one or two abilities does not do it well. There needs to be a better focus and idea behind the abilities it does have. What makes me want to hit deer kick over pummeling instead of just mindlessly mashing them as random meh damage attacks.
Deer could also use more abilities that offer something beyond damage either be it a better mitigation ability or something that while doing damage can also act as its buff so you don't end up using defensives to boost damage.
Outside of Cuteness overload all of deer is either slashing or crushing and comes with two weak indirects of different damage types. This makes it somewhat hard to pair effectively because it does not give any %'s beyond that. You pair it with druid for the nature indirect great but then it's really druid doing almost all the heavy lifting of the pair. Deer just offers fluff synergy. On the flip side Necro is the only thing available that deals in increasing indirect psychic and offers the same of it's own. Once again though necro will be doing the vast majority of the lifting in that pair due to deer offering just the one indirect and on a long cooldown at that. There is also the point that the numbers are extremely small overall and don't scale well so everything turns to crap.
Then there is warden which makes everything damage wise in deer look like utter junk. Plus deer brings almost zero synergy of it's own to that pairing and anything there happens to be is provided by warden itself, of which there is little. Thus deer just brings the one thing warden doesn't have which is heals but requires a massive mod investment to do such.
I could go on with skill pairings but my point being deer does not stand well on its own nor does it bring anything unique to the table beyond some speed. There is a reason many people just relegate deer as their speed setup and outside of a few die hard players you really don't see it in any high end content.
Out of the skills I've done reviews for so far this one is the most in need of a complete redesign of some of it's abilities/mods and possibly new abilities at that.
New Ability or effect Ideas
-Deer are extraordinarily nimble in nature so it's kind of amazing all they get is projectile evasion on their sprint. Even something on a mod that gives some evasion when a deer kick is used or something of the like(Somewhat like rabbits kick evasion mod) would work. Outside of unarmed to an extent we don't really have skills that fall in to the evasion tank category and deer would be a perfect candidate.
-Mods that add effective synergies so that deer actually offers something to it's skill pairings. We have very few ways to add crushing vuln so that could be a thing. Maybe another psychic or nature attack/indirect to further reinforce what it has.
-Borrowing from the deer kick bugs indirect ability you could also attach this or create a new ability that adds an indirect dot of nature variety when hit or possible make it another damage type if that would be too strong when stacked with druids bramble.
-Consider via mod making antler slash aoe and either hit slightly harder or give excess taunt. Between that and King of the forest deer could make for an effective tank at holding aoe threat without having to rely on a non tanky skill to provide the options(In which animals have few effective options)
-So far priest is the only skill that I know of with an ability that can remove movement related things. Consider adding that to the deer's repertoire in some shape. It could act as a 'charge' ability. Something like 'Deer rushes forward at target and next attack causes increased x dmg. Provides 2-5 seconds of movement related immunity and increases sprint by x for x seconds. Further reinforces the nimble and speed aspect deer already has and doesn't make it awkward like the current cuteness overload is with its triple use nature. It also puts the increased damage from modded doe eyes on a skill that isn't mitigation based so it doesn't feel awkward using it for just that.
Wishes
-Adding deer armor. I know work needs to be done on most animal armor considering most all of it is either bad or maxes at lv70 but Deer would make a great animal due to it's size to incorporate visible armor on and to reinforce the tanking nature of deer.
-Please allow the unicorn horn or as I lovingly refer to it as my ice cream cone to drop at lv80 and beyond when that comes out.
-Adding more options for colouring for said deer form. We see literally ever colour of the rainbow in deer NPC's due to the genetics thing but with no armor and no options we just stay the same bland boring. This can be said for both rabbit and pig to an extent since they have nothing but a head slot. For both rabbit and deer a white form or 'snow' variant like lycan has would be a nice addition. Pig is a little bit harder in this regards but one day providing a female or smaller piglet(willbur) option would be awesome. There's also the option of all the boar visuals if that makes more sense. Either way animal visual options please and thank you!
(Also Lakini personally wants me to ask you to include capes for bats so she can wear her wizard hat and cape and look all pretty and magical!)
-More synergies to help deer go well with priest. It's unicorn helm enables priest so it's not a far stretch to say the two were considered an option to go together well
I'm sure there's a million more things I could add to this but as usual I'm already long winded. Thus thanks again for taking the time to read this and feel free to offer your own suggestions or even tell me mine are stupid.
P.S Citan wants deer feedback so you REALLY should speak up if you have any ideas.
