Punishment

this gem droped a few minutes ago in 0.9.4c

Yep, I just found one yesterday too:



I'd like for this to be an int-based skill since I want an "iron maiden" style summoner, but I realize that str-based chars will find a use for this too.

I know you said you are not looking for feedback on this skill couse the latest change is temporary.

That insane dmg return is overkill in PVP. 150% of your burned health will be returned as a dmg to your opponent. With 30% dmg reduction from armor he will do the same dmg to you as to himself.

"

Rory wrote:

Okay, the change wasn't merged into the latest build, it'll be in 0.9.5 unless we find some way to improve the skill before then.

What is wrong with this suggestion from 0.9.3? What are the plans for this skill?

"

Rory wrote:

Unavailable

This skill has been removed for 0.9.4 - Any gems still in existence will remain, but we are not looking for balance feedback at this point.

I took this skill in a reward at the beginning of Act 1, Cruel yesterday. Didn't know it was remove...

I'm hoping the skill in some form will be in the final game. Thorns is a staple for summoner builds.

Too weak, it needs to have a much larger damage reflect on monsters, but if you're fighting a player it needs to be lessened.

Hope you don't remove this, I was hoping to make a summoning build where monsters would attack minion and take the reflected damage.

850% sounds like a lot, but it is very negligible in Chaos Runs. It is only noticeable against rares/bosses, and even then, it is negligible.

I agree that thorns is an important mechanic for summoner builds. The difficulties I see with this skill are:

-useless at low levels, except versus rares
-takes a curse slot
-possibly overpowered for PVP
-awkward scaling

Most abilities scale in games as they level in damage, cost, cooldown, or area of effect. Punishment scales it's damage exponentially, but still does not warrant enough attention in late game because of the opportunity of cost of losing that curse slot.

SOLUTIONS:

-Don't scale the damage. Leave it at a flat 100-400%. (this may have to be altered for PVP, perhaps 25% for Player Characters; I assume this sort of thing will happen regardless, much like in Diablo 2, this would be a functional problem on many skills)
-Leveling should scale area of affect (up) and mana cost (down) and duration (up), instead of damage.
-Make it more like an aura, do not make a player choose between Improved Criticals and this (for instance).