Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback General skills balance suggestions.

I have finished the game on the classic mode back on the launch and I am currently doing a tactician mode, so I am not the most experienced player around, But I decided to create this topic so everyone can contribute with what they think. So feel free to agree, disagree and come up with new suggestions.

The majority of the skills are fine by me, so I will mention only those that I think that need balance for more or for less. Also keep in mind that I have not used Scoundrel skills, so I cannot answer for it. Also English is not my main language so some misspellings might occur.

Aerotheurge
Uncanny evasion: I think this 90% dodge increase + 20% movement speed is too much for a 1 AP skill, maybe removing the movement speed could do.

Tornado: I would decrease it`s cooldown from 10 to 5.

Geomancer
Acid spores / Artillery plant: I do not understand why we would use the acid spores that cost 2 SP when we could summon the Artillery plant for 1 SP that can use the spores and other things. I would invert the SP costs. 1 for acid spores and 2 for the Artillery plant.

Reactive armour: I would remove it`s friendly fire.

Huntsman
Assassinate: I think this is the most problematic skill on the game. for a 115% damage with 3 AP cost, it is just not Worth it, I would increase it to 175% and maintain the 50% from stealth.

Arrow storm: I think it`s damage is too high, I would nerf it very slightly.

Glitter dust / farsight: These are two skills that I just can`t find a good situation to use them, I would ask for a change on them, just don`t have an Idea to give right now.

Necromancer
Infect: I would decrease it`s AP cost from 3 to 2.

Black shroud: I think this skill is underwhelming. I would increase it`s AOE.

Totems of the necromancer: I would remake this skill. I do not like the idea of having to build summoner to increase the effectiveness of the ultimate ability of the necromancer tree. Even so, the totems are very fragille. Instead it could rase zombies from the corpses to draw the agro from us, cap them at 4, give them some decente stats, make them last for about 4 turns and make them scale with our level instead of summoning. That is more like an ultimate necromancer skill.

Polymorph
Chicken claw: I think it is one of the most OP skills of the game. But I only would decrease it`s duration from 2 turns to 1.

Summon Oily blob: I think this summon is very underwhelming, I would increase it`s stats considerably.

Pyrokinetic
Flaming crescendo: I think 3 turns are too much to wait, I would make it 2.

Fire whip: I think it`s range is too short, I would increase it in 2m ou 3m.

Summoning
I think 5% increase on summons stats with every point invested is way to high, leading to some insanely powerful summons later in the game. I would decrease it to 4%.

Ethereal storm: I think it is too powerful, I would remove the healing fator of this skill.

Source
Bless: this is an old request. I would remove the SP cost and increase it`s AP cost to 3.

This makes no sense at all for me. I agree on the rest.

I think that Bless should not consume any memory - it's mostly a quest related skill (besides saving the pigs on fire and the historian I found not much use for it, and as soon as things like holy fire become truly interesting, much stronger source skills become available which compete for memory).

Where I strongly disagree is with nerfing Summoning. It's one of the most fun ways to play the way it is now, nerfing it would lead to less viable party compositions.

You are correct, it was a mistake, I corrected it. I ment 3 AP. I didn`t want to make it less because it would banalize cursed floors.

Other things I would like to add:

Pyrokinetic
Epidemic of fire: I will compare it to Chain Lightning, that work in a very similar fashion. It causes very slightly more damage (about 5% or less) and causes necrofire. With that, I don`t think it worth 2 SP compared to Chain Lightning that uses 1 SP. At the same time I don`t think inverting the SP cost with the Fire Slug is the answer, like I did to the Acid Spores and Artillary Plant, because the Slug is not that good to be a 2 SP skill. So I would ask for a straight buff to this skill, in damage and area of necrofire created.

Warfare
Unslaught: It costs 2 SP and 4 AP, as it atacks 5 times 50% damage, we have a total of 250% damage, it only beats 2 regular atacks by 50% more damage, Very disapointing for a 2 SP skill. It could be used as a decent pre-fight burst on ideal circunstances and buffs, but I don`t think it is enough. I would change it to 60% damage per atack, giving a total of 300% damage.

Bouncing shield: I can imagine some people might throw some rocks at me here, and don`t get me wrong, I love this skill, but I think some people will agree with me that it is too powerful. It scales with the shield armor and for that it can be used by almost anyone. A shield that is supose to be a tanking equipment shouldn`t be one of the best damage skills, but I wouldn`t nerf it too much, let`s say 80% or 90% of the shield armor in damage.

I think the Bless skill not consuming a memory is a good idea.

About the Summoning nerf I think I overdone it, but I am still convinced that the passive need some short of nerf, so I am changing it to 4% instead of 3%.

After some hours testing more skills I bring more balance suggestions, and this time I have tested Scoundrel as well.

Aerotheurge
Breathing Bubble / Mass Breathing Bubble: these skills already have very limited use in situations and it also ignores positive clouds, so I would make them only stop harmful clouds and let the effect of good ones do their job.

Superconductor: After doing some tests I discovered that this skill chain every time it hits one enemy to another, for example, if you hit 2 enemies that are close to each other, each of them will be hit twice, and if they don’t have magical shield, they will be stunned in a single cast! That is insanely powerful. I would remove this secret effect from this skill.

Smoke Cover: This skill only offers some smoke to cover you, in other words, almost nothing. I would decrease its cost to 1 AP and increase the AOE of the smoke.

Blessed Smoke Cloud: I don’t know if it is intended or not, but it costs 2 SP, Like Smoke Cover, It is very situational and the invisibility only last for 1 turn. I would decrease its cost to 1 SP and increase the AOE by the same proportion of Smoke Cover.

Hidrosophist
Arcane Stitch: 3 AP is too much for what it offers, I would drop it to 2 AP.

Healing Tears: This one is incredibly overpower for a 1 AP, each tear restores more than the restoration skill. I would raise it to 3 AP. I wouldn’t make it for any less.

Summoning
Planar Gateway: This skill doesn’t fit anywhere on the game the way it is. There is a lot of skills on this game that make you get from point A to point B in an instant, this one not only cost 1 SP but it also cost 6 AP to use the portals in combat and the enemies can use it too! literally making it inviable combat wise. Even the teleport pyramids are a better teletransport measure, they also cost 6 AP but if you pre-set them before combat (or keep them in your pockets) you have 3 locations to teleport to and the enemies can’t use them. As a solution, make it cost 1 AP to teleport around in combat and prohibit enemies to use it, to compensate, whoever uses the portal will receive a debuff that will prevent them from using it again for 2 turns.

Scoundrel
Gag Order: This seems like the Chloroform that didn’t work out. It is inferior in practically any way compared to it. It costs 3 AP compared to 1 AP, deal less magical armor damage, breaks invisibility / sneak, it is melee range, the cooldown is higher and in most situations it is better to have a sleeping enemy than a silenced one. As for the solution, make it destroy a lot more magical armor and reduce the cost to 2 AP.

Daggers Drawn: This skill falls on the exact same problem as Onslaught, so I will give it the same solution, make the 55% damage a 60%.

Fan of Knives: The problem with this skill is that Whirlwind can pretty much replace it. The damage is the same, whirlwind cost 2 AP compared to 3AP + 1 SP of the Fan, both can backstab and scale with weapons, It only beats Whirlwind in range, that don’t make the cost worth it, and the odds of getting a backstab in multiple enemies to take advantage of said range is very, very slim. So I would increase the damage to 110% and make the targets bleed.

Others
Dome of Protection: It provides way too much armor regeneration on top of the 10% damage reduction on the elementals, I would drop the regeneration by 30%.

UPDATE FROM PATCH 3.0.268.526

I am very pleased with this update, my list have shrunk a lot. For me, balancing is going on the right direction. I am updating my list based on the recent patch. I will Copy paste the suggestions that didn’t made into the patch and comment the patched skills that I feel needing more tweaks and changes. Everything new will be colored in red. Feel free to agree, disagree and come with new ideas!

Aerotheurge

Uncanny evasion: I think this 90% dodge increase + 20% movement speed is too much for a 1 AP skill, maybe removing the movement speed could do.

Tornado: I would decrease it`s cooldown from 10 to 5.

Breathing Bubble / Mass Breathing Bubble: The patch has given these skills immunity to silence, but the actual problem persists, it is incredibly situational and blocks positive cloud effects, so I will stick to my original suggestion and make it filter the bad effects from the good ones.

Superconductor: After doing some tests I discovered that this skill chain every time it hits one enemy to another, for example, if you hit 2 enemies that are close to each other, each of them will be hit twice, and if they don’t have magical shield, they will be stunned in a single cast! That is insanely powerful. I would remove this secret effect from this skill.

Blessed Smoke Cloud: Its AOE was increased, but it still cost 2 SP, I stick to my suggestion of decreasing the cost to 1 SP.

Geomancer

Acid spores / Artillery plant: I don’t mind the change on the number of spores decreased and total damage increase, the cost problem with these skills remain. I still defend the idea of inverting the SP cost of the spores and the plant, even with the plant nerf of only shooting 1 spore it is overall a better choice than casting 3 spores for the double of the SP cost.

Hidrosophist

Arcane Stitch: It was buffed to remove several debuffs. It is very welcome, but I still don’t think it worth 3 AP, I would still make it a 2 AP skill.

Healing Tears: This one is incredibly overpower for a 1 AP, each tear restores more than the restoration skill. I would raise it to 3 AP. I wouldn’t make it for any less.

Huntsman

Assassinate: I think this is the most problematic skill on the game. for a 115% damage with 3 AP cost, it is just not Worth it, I would increase it to 175% and maintain the 50% from stealth.

Glitter Dust: On my original suggestion I didn’t have any idea to give for this skill, but I have now. Aside from the effects of the skill, marked targets would reveive 5% or 10% more damage of all sources.

Polymorth

Chicken claw: I think it is one of the most OP skills of the game. But I only would decrease it`s duration from 2 turns to 1.

Pyrokinetic

Flaming crescendo: On my original post, I asked for a buff for this skill, now I am asking for a nerf XD. I think the patch overbuffed it, by making it ignore magic armor, cost 1 AP and explode in 1 turn. I don’t know if it is a glitch, but the description of this skill displays a very low damage potential, but when it explodes, it causes about 50% more damage than a Fireball. I suggest returning it to be 2 AP, making it explode after 2 rounds and maintaining the magic armor ignore buff.

Fire whip: I think it`s range is too short, I would increase it in 2m ou 3m.

Summoning

I think 5% increase on summons stats with every point invested is way to high, leading to some insanely powerful summons later in the game. I would decrease it to 4%.

Ethereal storm: I think it is too powerful, I would remove the healing fator of this skill.

Planar Gateway: The patch reduced the AP cost entirely, but the buff went to the wrong aspect of the skill, the AP casting cost was never an issue, rather, its combat effectiveness. I will use my original post: This skill doesn’t fit anywhere on the game the way it is. There is a lot of skills on this game that make you get from point A to point B in an instant, this one not only cost 1 SP but it also cost 6 AP to use the portals in combat and the enemies can use it too! literally making it inviable combat wise. Even the teleport pyramids are a better teletransport measure, they also cost 6 AP but if you pre-set them before combat (or keep them in your pockets) you have 3 locations to teleport to and the enemies can’t use them. As a solution, make it cost 1 AP to teleport around in combat and prohibit enemies to use it, to compensate, whoever uses the portal will receive a debuff that will prevent them from using it again for 2 turns.

Warfare

Unslaught: It costs 2 SP and 4 AP, as it atacks 5 times 50% damage, we have a total of 250% damage, it only beats 2 regular atacks by 50% more damage, Very disapointing for a 2 SP skill. It could be used as a decent pre-fight burst on ideal circunstances and buffs, but I don`t think it is enough. I would change it to 60% damage per atack, giving a total of 300% damage.

Bouncing shield: I can imagine some people might throw some rocks at me here, and don`t get me wrong, I love this skill, but I think some people will agree with me that it is too powerful. It scales with the shield armor and for that it can be used by almost anyone. A shield that is supose to be a tanking equipment shouldn`t be one of the best damage skills, but I wouldn`t nerf it too much, let`s say 80% or 90% of the shield armor in damage.

Scondrel

Daggers Drawn: This skill falls on the exact same problem as Onslaught, so I will give it the same solution, make the 55% damage a 60%.

Source

Bless: this is an old request. I would remove the SP cost and increase it`s AP cost to 3. Making it not consume memory would also help a lot.

Others

Dome of Protection: It provides way too much armor regeneration on top of the 10% damage reduction on the elementals, I would drop the regeneration by 30%.

After running some more tests I have come to the conclusion that Epidemic of Fire don’t need any buff, so I am scrapping it from the recent list. I think was looking at the problem with a wrong angle. Maybe it is Chain Lightning that is very powerful for a 1 SP skill, so I could ask for it to fork up to 5 times (down from 8) to match Epidemic of Fire, but that is up to debate.

I was away for some time, might update my list soon with some ideas I had recently, but I need to do more tests.

LIST UPDATE

Hey guys, I just wanted to update my list with some other ideas I had and tweak some suggestions I gave before. Here I will be addressing: Shocking Touch, Decaying Touch, all Skin Spells and Gate to Infinity. Everything new from the past list will be colored in red. I also gave up on the nerf of the Summoning perk. As always, fell free to agree, disagree and come with new suggestions!

Aerotheurge

Shocking touch: I think it would be better to decrease its cost to 1 AP. Since it causes 22% more damage than his long range sibling, Electric Discharge, it would be better to nerf its damage by like 10%, so Shocking Touch would be a cheaper attack for short ranges, and Electric Discharge, a more expensive for long ranges.

Uncanny evasion: I think its 90% dodge increase + 20% movement speed is too much for a 1 AP skill, maybe removing the movement speed would do.

Tornado: I would decrease it`s cooldown from 10 to 5.

Breathing Bubble / Mass Breathing Bubble: The patch has given these skills immunity to silence, but the actual problem persists, it is incredibly situational and blocks positive cloud effects, so I will stick to my original suggestion and make it filter the bad effects from the good ones.

Superconductor: After doing some tests I discovered that this skill chain every time it hits one enemy to another, for example, if you hit 2 enemies that are close to each other, each of them will be hit twice, and if they don’t have magical shield, they will be stunned in a single cast! That is insanely powerful. I would remove this secret effect from this skill.

Blessed Smoke Cloud: Its AOE was increased, but it still cost 2 SP, I stick to my suggestion of decreasing the cost to 1 SP.

Necromancer

Decaying Touch: I think it would be better to reduce its cost to 1 AP to compensate its lack of range and dealing the same damage as Mosquito Swarm.

Geomancer

Acid spores / Artillery plant: I don’t mind the change on the number of spores decreased and total damage increase, the cost problem with these skills remain. I still defend the idea of inverting the SP cost of the spores and the plant, even with the plant nerf of only shooting 1 spore it is overall a better choice than casting 3 spores for the double of the SP cost.

Hidrosophist

Arcane Stitch: It was buffed to remove several debuffs. It is very welcome, but I still don’t think it worth 3 AP, I would still make it a 2 AP skill.

Healing Tears: This one is incredibly overpower for a 1 AP, each tear restores 33% more health than the restoration skill and last for 3 turns compared to the 2 turns of the restoration. I would raise it to 3 AP, but I think 2 AP could also be accepted.

Huntsman

Assassinate: I think this is the most problematic skill on the game. For a 115% damage with 3 AP cost, it is just not worth it, I would increase it to 175% and maintain the 50% from stealth.

Glitter Dust: On my original suggestion I didn’t have any idea to give for this skill, but I have now. Aside from the effects of the skill, marked targets would receive 15% more damage of all sources.

Polymorph

Chicken claw: I think it is one of the most OP skills of the game. I would decrease it`s duration from 2 turns to 1.

All Skin spells: I believe these skills are currently lackluster for costing a SP and having a limited return. To fix it I would increase the resistance to their respective element to 120% and remove their debuffs of the opposite element completely.

Pyrokinetic

Flaming crescendo: On my original post, I asked for a buff for this skill, now I am asking for a nerf XD. I think the patch overbuffed it, by making it ignore magic armor, cost 1 AP and explode in 1 turn. I don’t know if it is a glitch, but the description of this skill displays a very low damage potential, but when it explodes, it causes about 50% more damage than a Fireball. I suggest returning it to be 2 AP, making it explode after 1 round and maintaining the magic armor ignore buff.

Fire whip: I think it`s range is too short, I would increase it in 2m or 3m.

Summoning

Gate to Infinity: I think most people will agree with me that this skill have practically no use for a 2 SP skill. I would suggest a rework of this skill, so it would fully restore the health and armor of the summons around and refresh their lifespan duration.

Ethereal storm: I think it is too powerful, I would remove the healing factor of this skill to bring it to the level of the other ultimate skills

Planar Gateway: The patch removed the AP cost entirely, but the buff went to the wrong aspect of the skill, the AP casting cost was never an issue, rather, its combat effectiveness. I will use my original post: This skill doesn’t fit anywhere on the game the way it is. There are a lot of skills on this game that make you get from point A to point B in an instant, this one not only cost 1 SP but it also cost 6 AP to use the portals in combat and the enemies can use it too! Literally making it inviable combat wise. Even the teleport pyramids are a better teleport measure, they also cost 6 AP but if you pre-set them before combat (or keep them in your pockets) you have 3 locations to teleport to and the enemies can’t use them. As a solution, make it cost 1 AP to teleport around in combat and prohibit enemies to use it, to compensate, whoever uses the portal will receive a debuff that will prevent them from using it again for 2 turns.

Warfare

Onslaught: It costs 2 SP and 4 AP, as it attacks 5 times 50% damage, we have a total of 250% damage, it only beats 2 regular attacks by 50% more damage, Very disappointing for a 2 SP skill. It could be used as a decent pre-fight burst on ideal circumstances and buffs, but I don`t think it is enough. I would change it to 60% damage per attack, giving a total of 300% damage.

Bouncing shield: I can imagine some people might throw some rocks at me here, and don`t get me wrong, I love this skill, but I think some people will agree with me that it is too powerful. It scales with the shield armor and for that it can be used by almost anyone. A shield that is supposed to be a tanking equipment shouldn`t be one of the best damage skills, but I wouldn`t nerf it too much, let`s say 80% or 90% of the shield armor in damage.

Scoundrel

Daggers Drawn: This skill falls on the exact same problem as Onslaught, so I will give it the same solution, make the 55% damage a 60%.

Source

Bless: this is an old request. I would remove the SP cost and increase its AP cost to 3. Making it not consume memory would also help a lot.

Others

Dome of Protection: It provides way too much armor regeneration on top of the 10% damage reduction on the elementals, I would drop the regeneration by 30%.

I would like to mention some more changes, since it has been some time from my last post I can’t edit it, and I also don’t want to pollute the thread by reposting everything again, so I will list the changes here. The only changes from the last post are the values of Onslaught and Daggers Drawn and the nerf on Ethereal Storm.

Summoning

Conjure incarnate: This one I have overlooked for some time, but I want to address now. I really don’t like the way it leaps its strength between level 9 and 10 Summoning by practically 100%, it is something we don’t see in any other skill. I am not asking to get rid of the Incarnate or the Incarnate Champion, I just want the transition to be smoother. Instead of over buffing when it gets to lv 10, make it get gradually stronger with each level until it gets to lv 10 and become what it is now, Incarnate Champion would then be just a cosmetic change.

[EDIT] Ethereal Storm: I have given up on the suggested nerf, because of the way it is designed to use all elements brings the possibility to summon elements not very useful for the particular battle, so the healing seems like a good counterbalance, also, one bolt healing you is one less bolt damaging the enemy.

Warfare

Onslaught: Increase each attack damage to 75%.

Scoundrel

Daggers Drawn: Increase each attack damage to 75%.

[EDIT] Throwing Knife: It should cause 100% damage or cost 1 AP.

Aerotheurge

[EDIT] Thunderstorm: Lightning strikes should shock targets instead of straight stunning them. It is very common to stun lock all enemies for several turns the way it is, with shock, they have at least a chance to fight back, but if 2 lightning hit the same guy he will be stunned nonetheless.

With the Definitive Edition around the corner, I would like to hear your opinion about the general state of balance on the game, since my list of changes is complete for a while now.

As a quick add, something that have been bugging me lately, that I am quite surprised to have forgotten on my list is Ifan`s wolf summon. It is one of the most lackluster summons in the game for me, and it cost 1 SP and 3 AP. Without getting into spoilers, the skill is lore related, so I cannot ask for something else. However I could ask for a straight buff by giving it better stats and new skills of it`s own to worth it.

really don't get your gripe with the incarnate

it hits a power spike at level 10. it's a payoff for leveling a skill that is otherwise not terribly useful, considering its only practical use is the incarnate (until you get ethereal storm at like level 15 or 16) and arguably rallying cry/soul mate. summoning is a unique skill, so it makes sense that it would function in a unique way

i also think the idea of balancing the 3 source point skills is pretty out the window - they're meant to be OP. the cost is not only locking you out of using any other source skill (unless you use source vampirism) in the fight, but also having to recharge your source afterwards. and let's be fair, enemies get use of these spells too; you can encounter hailstorm as early as the second act, and by the time you hit the end of the game everyone's using crazy high damage nonsense. lots of stronger enemies have high resistances too, which mitigates some of the damage and brings them down a notch

if nothing else, just lower the damage so enemies' armor doesn't disappear as quickly

I think you might have misinterpreted my incarnate change, I am only suggesting that it starts paying off earlier than what it is now. Example: instead of getting a 100% buff between level 9 and 10, it gets 10% buff each level until it gets to lv 10 and becomes champion. Summoning will still be very appealing to level.

About the 3 SP skills balance, I think you might have seen my older list. On the most recent one, the only 3 SP skill I made a change is Thunderstorm, which would shock enemies instead of stunning them outright.