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What will make or break the cleric (for me)
pgt1027
Member
I know that the cleric is still very much a work in progress, but I think the conviction system could either be great or a complete dud based on two factors.
The first is if the things that gain conviction for your cleric are thematic. That is, if the things you do to gain conviction are things that would make your cleric... well... convicted in their mission and their beliefs. It should feel like your cleric is whipping themselves into a righteous fervor. It could be themed to their secondary archetype and/or their religion. What will make it feel like a dud is if the things you do to gain conviction are just random crap. Normal abilities that just randomly have a "gain 1 conviction" or "chance to gain conviction" tacked onto them.
The best way I can think to explain this is with what WoW did with the Warlock class and one of its mechanics. Early in the game, the warlock would use "soul shards" to power many of their more potent abilities. Warlocks gained soul shards by killing enemies they were channeling the "soul drain" spell on, after which the soul shard would show up in their inventory as a class specific reagent. This was very thematic for their class. You're a wizard who uses evil magic and you empower your spells with the souls of your enemies. Pretty brutal. And then they changed it. It now works where you can get up to five soul shard charges which are just a ticker in the corner of your screen and it seems like half your spells either produce or use souls shards, completely divorced from the idea that you're harvesting the souls of your enemies. Lame.
The second is if there's some cost associated with gaining conviction. Maybe the only surefire way to gain conviction when you need it is using a holy relic that has a cooldown and/or limited charges. The things you need to do to gain conviction stacks might take up time that you could be used for healing, instead of the things you would normally be doing, but when you have more power and use less resources in the long run. Time management, resource management and risk vs reward. Those are typically the things that make playing a cleric interesting and not just glorified wack-a-mole.
At least for me.
The first is if the things that gain conviction for your cleric are thematic. That is, if the things you do to gain conviction are things that would make your cleric... well... convicted in their mission and their beliefs. It should feel like your cleric is whipping themselves into a righteous fervor. It could be themed to their secondary archetype and/or their religion. What will make it feel like a dud is if the things you do to gain conviction are just random crap. Normal abilities that just randomly have a "gain 1 conviction" or "chance to gain conviction" tacked onto them.
The best way I can think to explain this is with what WoW did with the Warlock class and one of its mechanics. Early in the game, the warlock would use "soul shards" to power many of their more potent abilities. Warlocks gained soul shards by killing enemies they were channeling the "soul drain" spell on, after which the soul shard would show up in their inventory as a class specific reagent. This was very thematic for their class. You're a wizard who uses evil magic and you empower your spells with the souls of your enemies. Pretty brutal. And then they changed it. It now works where you can get up to five soul shard charges which are just a ticker in the corner of your screen and it seems like half your spells either produce or use souls shards, completely divorced from the idea that you're harvesting the souls of your enemies. Lame.
The second is if there's some cost associated with gaining conviction. Maybe the only surefire way to gain conviction when you need it is using a holy relic that has a cooldown and/or limited charges. The things you need to do to gain conviction stacks might take up time that you could be used for healing, instead of the things you would normally be doing, but when you have more power and use less resources in the long run. Time management, resource management and risk vs reward. Those are typically the things that make playing a cleric interesting and not just glorified wack-a-mole.
At least for me.
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