The Rage Review

[Hagbard]

Here I aim to do a review of Rage in its current state!
In this review, I will focus on Rage as it is, not in contrast to how it has been

The Skill

Stratagems: Raging is a combat - related support skill that focuses primarily upon offensive strategies involving increased damage and rage - induced tactics.Passively, the Stratagems: Raging skill allows you to focus your 'Rage' upon an opponent, using the command[rage.Once a target has been selected as the focus of your Rage, every successful blow upon that target will increase your Rage Level, while a miss will lower it by 25 – 40 points(depending on if the weapon is one - handed or two - handed), deduct between 1 and 5 stamina, and remove you from Enraged status if your Rage Level drops below 50, if currently Enraged. Dropping out of an Engraged status wind your character, resulting in a temporary blocking of health, stamina and mana regeneration. As your Rage Level increases, you will gain a Damage Increase bonus equivalent to your Rage Level (Rage Level / 2, to a maximum of a 50 % bonus at the highest level). Inversely, you will incur a decrease in your Defense Chance equal to half of the damage bonus you attain +5 % (maximum 30 % DCI reduction). Once your Rage Level reaches 100 points, you will enter the Enraged state, which is used in conjunction with Raging skill abilities to augment and enhance their effects.The Enraged state will last for thirty seconds, and inflict an additional 5 % defense chance increase debuff.If you defeat your Rage target while Enraged and while possessing a Rage Level of 100, your character will also regain 10 % to 25 % of their Hit Points, Stamina and Mana.The amount of Rage built per successful hit upon an opponent is calculated by referencing the detailed formula using [combatmessages in-game.Finally, stratagems: Raging is also used to purchase and subsequently use a number of combat - based skill abilities available only through the Stratagems: Raging skill.

Main Mechanics of the Skill

Rage Gain upon hitting an enemy

Rage gain upon hitting an enemy is tied into the type of weapon that you use, as well as the attack speed.
Currently I feel that this is in a good place.
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Rage Loss upon missing an enemy

Rage loss upon missing an enemy is one of the biggest drawbacks of the skill as of current.
I am a warrior with, beyond 100 skill in Two-Handed Tactics. I have the Precision Strikes perks from the Perception Tree, for a bonus of +6 Hitchance, I have the Two-Handed Tactics I and II Perks for another 5% hitchance, and an additional +9% hitchance from my Extraordinary Claymore.

That means a +20% hitchance on EVERY blow, and an additional 25% when using Intimidating Attack, which can be done every second attack, if I use a slow weapon.

Even with this above average hitchance, I still miss a lot against the enemies that I would actually need to use Rage against, causing me to lose 40 Rage from that. If I miss once, my bonus damage is cut in half and I'm one more miss away from losing the Enraged Status as a whole.
I'm pretty much maxed out, any new or intermediate player would likely miss a whole lot more, and I'd be surprised if they ever reached the Enraged status at all.

Suggested Action
I suggest that the loss upon missing is halved compared to what it is now, both on Onehanders and Twohanders.
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Stamina Loss upon missing an enemy

This ties into the problems with the previous point as well.
When you miss a strike, you are punished with losing Rage and Stamina. You can increase your chance to hit using Intimidating Attack, which also costs about the same stamina as you'd lose if you missed. Note that this does not by any means guarantee that you will hit, and it has a Special Ability cooldown that means it greatly favors slow weapons compared to fast ones.
The penalty for missing an enemy feels a bit heavy, and it will be even heavier on lower-end players who do not have the amount of stamina or hitchance that I do.

Suggested Action
Remove the staminaloss upon missing an enemy, or lower it to max 2.
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HP/Stam/Mana regen lock upon losing rage

The stamina-regen is the only part here that feels harsh, and once again it is something that will strike newer players harder than those who have already climbed to the top.
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Rage Duration

Enraged lasts for 30 seconds, but is nearly always cut short by missing enough strikes to get your Rage below 50.
Interestingly enough is that if you trigger Fury, the duration of that is independent of Rage. I don't believe I have ever seen Enraged fade out before I either lost the Enraged Status due to missing, or killed the enemy first.

The Perks

Intimidating Attack

Intimidating Attack is a nice perk that allows you to, for about 5 stamina, gain a 25% hitchance increase on your next blow (50% if you are Enraged). If Enraged, it will also stun the enemy for about 2 seconds.

This is a perk that is useful in the beginning, less so later on. I believe bonuses to Hitchance increase cap out at 45%, and an endgame warrior will likely surpass that.
The perk also heavily favors slow weapons, due to the cooldown between each use of it.

Suggested Changes
Either remove the stamina cost, or remove the cooldown between uses of it. Rage users are already punished very heavily stamina-wised, I believe.

Enraged Torrent

This is a perk that allows you to strike a random adjacent enemy, on a successful strike on your main target.
It is somewhat useful when fighting larger groups of chaff, but is hampered somewhat by the cooldown on its use.
I have not noticed any Stamina usage on this skill, not sure if that is intended or not.
This is a skill that is mostly used when fighting zombies and other "trash" mobs, it is rarely worth spending the opportunity to use it against anything stronger.

Suggested Changes
None

Prejudicial Slaughter

This ability allows you to make a great gamble, and attempt to recover some HP and Stamina by doing a killing blow on an enemy. Successfully killing an enemy with this attack will reward you 15 HP and 15 Stamina, if you are Enraged and kill your target it will also increase your swingspeed for 20 seconds.
If you fail, you will be unable to use Special Abilities for a while, and your Arcane Resistance is lowered to 0 for a few seconds, and all your resistances are lowered.

I do not believe the reward for this ability is consistent with the risk of it. And I have never noticed any change to my swingspeed when executing an enemy while raged, though I've gotten the system message saying that the rage-execution succeeded.

Suggested Changes
Change the ability to restore HP/Stamina equal to (Enemy Animus Worth/5). This will make it worth to use against bigger and meaner opponents, and a feat of true bravery.
Change the Enraged version to add an AoE fear to enemies in the vicinity of the kill (like Intimidating Display in DnD).

Furious Momentum

This skill allows you to do extra damage based on the amount of steps your take between activating the ability, and hitting the target (a maximum of 200%).
This ability would be tremendously useful if it was more reliable. Currently, it only takes the amount of steps into account, not the "actual" momentum your character would have". So you can trigger it, and then run around in circles before stopping to hit the enemy.

Suggested Change
Make the perk require you to charge in a straight line after triggering it, and being able to strike enemies while still running.
Currently you have to trigger the ability, run the steps, then stop and stand still just before you hit the enemy.

Berserking

When triggering (75% on reaching Enraged) this ability increases your chance to inflict a critical hit by 20%, which making you 10% more likely to be critically hit.
It is somewhat useful, but not really worth the 10% critically hit chance.

Suggested Change
I propose a major re-work of this perk!

You are a rage, incarnated. When you enter the seldom achieved state of being completely and utterly enraged, you take it even one step further, and enter a state of absolute chaos, going completely berserk, complete with absolute disregard for your own well-being. Your attacks in this state are so utterly frenzied that few survive to speak of the horrors you commit, so long as you don't fall victim to your own throes of fury. When fighting an opponent that is your current Rage Target, if and when you under Enraged status and you achieve Rage Level 100 against said opponent, you have a 75% chance to enter Berserk status for a period of twenty seconds. While under Berserk status, your swingspeed will increase by 0,25 for every swing of your weapon, with an additional 0,25 if you hit the enemy ( for a total possible of 0.5 increase to swingspeed per hit). Every swing will also lower your Defence-chance by 5%, or 10% if you hit with your strike, as you lose yourself further to your frenzy.
Your swingspeed can not be improved beyond an effective Swingspeed of 2.

Acrimonious Techniques
This perk gives you a 25% chance to double Rage gain from a swing, working fine as it is.

Evasion Infuriation
This perk gives you a 50% chance to gain Rage, if your attack is parried or evaded. Also affected by Acrimonious Techniques. Working fine.

Fury Fervor Perk Tree

This is the main benefit of Rage, the chance to heal yourself during combat and to increase your hitpoints and stamina.
The drawback is, that the perk tree is utterly useless unless you get the final Perk, Fury Fervor IV.

The throes of fury are able to bring you to seemingly unnatural states of being. When the Fury condition is activated (50% chance remains from FF III), your character gains both Hit Points and Stamina Points equal to that of the bonus it applies, as opposed to simply raising these levels.

The final perk is what makes the tree useful, since otherwise you simply have higher caps for you hitpoints and stamina. I do not know if there is "any" other skill which has perks that have so little use without the final perk.

The issue with this perk tree currently, is that sometimes the Perk IV will not trigger. Your max hitpoints and stamina will be raised, but you will not GAIN the same amount. This has been reported by both Silvrfirst, Lans and myself.

Suggested Action
The perk tree is fine, as long as the behavior of Fury Fervor IV is addressed.

Alternative Suggestions

Changed Enrage Mechanics

I'd like to examine the realities of Rage as it is now, versus how it would feel better for it to be.

Currently, during a fight you will often drift in and out of rage, as you hit and miss, hit and miss.
People talk about the damageincrease, but the biggest benefit is the hitpoints you gain from Fury Fervor IV ( which greatly benefits from getting to Enraged Status multiple times.

I propose that we try the following;

Enraged Status is reached as now, by gaining enough Rage to reach 100. Upon reaching 100, you have the chance to trigger Berserking and and Fury as usual.
While Enraged, you can not be brought out of the Enraged status until the rage period ends.
You still lose Rage while missing, but going below 50 will no longer bring you out of it.

Enraged status lasts for 30 seconds, with an addition of 5 seconds for every enemy you kill, up to a maximum of 30 bonus seconds. In total, Enraged status may last for a maximum of 60 seconds.
As your Rage Level increases, you will gain a Damage Increase bonus equivalent to your Rage Level (Rage Level / 4, to a maximum of a 25 % bonus at the highest level).

Once your Enraged status ends, your character will be fatigued, resulting in a temporary blocking of health, stamina and mana regeneration, as well as lowering their swingspeed by 1 for a duration of 15 seconds.
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The Reasoning

Currently, Rage is a marathon skill, while I feel it should be more of a sprinter skill, going by the theme.
I'd like to envision it as a surge of strength and power, using fury and speed and power to overwhelm the foe, rather than as extraordinary stamina allowing you to stay in the fight for hours.

The constant de-raging and re-entering rage is what makes Rage so powerful, because of the health regeneration, not the damage you do with it. We might even consider keeping the damage boost at 50% with these changes.
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Further Perk Suggestions

Bullrush
Animus Cost: Undetermined
Skill Requirement: 90% Stratagems: Raging

By spending 50 Rage and 10 stamina, you charge your opponent and attempt to knock them prone for 4 seconds.
If Enraged, you rush at them with such speed that the air is knocked out of them, setting their stamina to 0. (Stamina is returned after a brief period).
Chance to knock down opponent is (Stratagems Raging/2 + (Attacker Strength - Target Strength)
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Frenzied Howl
Animus Cost: Undetermined
Skill Requirement: 70% Stratagems : Raging

By spending 50 Rage and 10 stamina, you unleash a fearsome howl at your target which lowers their defencechance by (Stratagems : Raging/400)
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The Reasoning

It would be interesting to see Rage used for more than just reaching Rage, since you might not always want to reach full rage, but still get some benefits from the perk. By careful management, you could try and hover your rage around 50 until you wish to go full madman.

[Roman]

Berserking
When triggering (75% on reaching Enraged) this ability increases your chance to inflict a critical hit by 20%, which making you 10% more likely to be critically hit.
It is somewhat useful, but not really worth the 10% critically hit chance.

ITS 20%!
You cannot reduce it, divide or whatsoever. It just dosnt work like this.
what is more remember that crits bypass dodge and parry. 20% more chance that the parried or dodged hit will still deal dmg. its a lot

Enrage mechanics
I totally agree with raging all the time and it should be fixed.

About Hit chance:
Its so hard to say now how its work or if its too much or to low. I am afraid that augments and purple weapons will change everything. I would suggest to test how its gonna look like with the hit chance augument items.

Stamina costs of skills:
I will say no to removing stamina cost of any skill. I am ok with no cooldown as long as each time you use skill you get x2,x3,x4 more stamina demands.
Is it working like that? Hell no. Stamina costs of skills is bugged as hell and should be checked and reworked
Stamina builds have no sens now. First i will fix that.


But i found something very interesting. That can be cool if you just generate rage as a pool and use it for attacks,buffs etc. But in this case you will need to rework everything. Going half this half that is not a good idea in my opinion

[Hagbard]

Berserking
When triggering (75% on reaching Enraged) this ability increases your chance to inflict a critical hit by 20%, which making you 10% more likely to be critically hit.
It is somewhat useful, but not really worth the 10% critically hit chance.

ITS 20%!
You cannot reduce it, divide or whatsoever. It just dosnt work like this.
what is more remember that crits bypass dodge and parry. 20% more chance that the parried or dodged hit will still deal dmg. its a lot

I'm talking about the CRITICALLY HIT chance, not the CRITICAL HIT chance. The Critical Hit chance is 20%, the Critically Hit chance is 10%. Do we know for sure that Crits bypass Dodge and Parry? I have not seen evidence of this.

About Hit chance:
Its so hard to say now how its work or if its too much or to low. I am afraid that augments and purple weapons will change everything. I would suggest to test how its gonna look like with the hit chance augument items.

Hitchance still peaks out at 45%. Should we be optimizing every skill based on assumption that everyone will have masterwork gear with augments? If so, I have some SERIOUS feedback on any magic skill.

[Roman]

Abount the crit - My bad, Sorry for that.

I think i heard that crit bypass dodge/parry but i would love to hear the confirmation about this

[Malik Azer]

It does. I've been up to lvl 200-whatever tumble and got hit by crits.

[silvrfist]

1) Agree with rage loss, the penalty to falter is too fast. One hit I get Enrage, the next hit I get faltered. :/

2)Agree that this is just make it uphill for newbs to pick up this skill when stamina/hp/mana regen kicks in so easily for them

3) Bug Post : We dont gain HP/Stamina when we kill enemies under Enraged status.

[Wyrmlance]

RAGE LOSS ON A MISS:
I agree with reducing the rage loss on a miss, since hit chances can be quite low. But halving it may be too much.

STAMINA LOSS ON A MISS:
As for the stamina loss on a miss, I feel like it is in a decent place right now, when we consider that you passively receive half of your current Rage Points as Damage Increase, and you do not lose stamina on misses at zero rage. It could be reduced if it hinders new characters, but having a penalty with the DI in place makes sense.

INTIMIDATING ATTACK:
Removing cooldown on Intimidating Attack is an interesting idea. Either removing it, or at least greatly reducing it could work, but at endgame your stam regen is so high even with the penalties incurred, that having it be nonexistent might be too much.

PREJUDICIAL SLAUGHTER:
I like this idea to change in Prejudicial Slaughter: Change the ability to restore HP/Stamina equal to (Enemy Animus Worth/5). This will make it worth to use against bigger and meaner opponents, and a feat of true bravery.
As for the fear effect, I don't really think it is necessary.

As for your remarks for using it for something else than reaching the state of Rage, that already exists. It is this:
As your Rage Level increases, you will gain a Damage Increase bonus equivalent to your Rage Level (Rage Level / 2, to a maximum of a 50 % bonus at the highest level). Inversely, you will incur a decrease in your Defense Chance equal to half of the damage bonus you attain +5 % (maximum 30 % DCI reduction).

It is useful even if you don't cap out.

[Roman]

i would like to know if DCI debuff and crit chance debuff is only for character you target or for everyone?

[Lans]

Hello everyone! As the player of Koss I wish to help contribute my own insights and experiences with this VERY chaotic and lesser understood skill tree.

Personal Feelings Summary

I love the notion and idea of raging; but I also am torn in the sense we've 'never' had a Skill Tree that literally offers you a laundry list of detriments in a way that you almost are wondering, "Should I use this, or will it get me killed because of massive penalties, or even stamina lock me at 0 and get me killed?"

There are quirks and flaws to it definitely; and I could certainly see it working with lower bonuses and boosts (And penalties) with a few of the ideas I do present here that aim instead of looking at 'raw power' looking at "How can rage be a more universally appealing tree with many viable applications and venues?"

The Original Rage I could easily and readily agree with most folks -- should 'never' be allowed to multi-proc players, and would only be 'balanced' if multi'd on a boss; since you can't stun lock, most bosses are so tough the +effects aren't something they cant rip you a new face regardless of your own bonuses. But with rebalance efforts, reglances at it, I feel a venue that might take a different gander and more "Everyone is welcome and useful here" approach versus a "One team mate gets to be uber, anyone else with this enjoy the bench for a moment."

Thoughts/Experience Summaries

Few players actually 'understand' and utilize rage well; admittedly from my observation, this skill for a long time was 'not even usable' before about 80 rage due to the miss ratings, imbalanced dodge rates in early Season 0, and just plain being difficult to figure out and utilize -- I was maxed in raging before I ever got enraged state. Imagine if I were a rogue saying, "I could only stealth at max hiding." So this is a 'very' high end to use and master skill, and thats assuming regarding...

The Present Demographic: Most rage players people admonish or get upset over the level of strength they have, don't always 'look at the numbers and facts' before saying; "That's ridiculous I should do that too." -- Rage Adepts often times take a pretty rail roaded set of options both in build, gear, and weaponry that can optimize rage to shine and straying from this (In gear choice, Stat distribution, OR Skill lay out) can deeply impact the value of Rage even in its argued "OP original state". This would be like having a "POWER CASTING" skill beyond Incantation; you'd literally need to be a pure mage to use that and not be hurting your greater flexibility and options.

The Damage: I am sure to observing players, and even staff if they were just 'glancing by' a max rage-warrior it seems unbelievable how much harder they can hit, but lets talk about 'why'.
- Most Rage Adepts, use the heaviest weapons plausible for them, this means you're not using a lighter or faster sword, rapier, polearm, or any of that -- you're using a Great Hammer, Claymore, Great Axe or other tremendous heavy hitter to 'get the most out of that damage increase'. If you tried using a 1Her your 'true benefit' is freedom to drink potions on the fly or use OFF-HAND TACTICS (Arguably vastly stronger than rage) or a SHIELD (Parrying, which ragers have to take 'anyway') -- the defense value of the latter option is drastically being under spoken about in Season 0 and people boot-stomping 2Hers and Rage will only lead to grave imbalances down the road once players 'realize how to use one handers and shields' adeptly. Its worth noting, most Rage adepts always fight in kitable areas too, fighting Mote many times she'd do exceedingly well and often win if we fought in a 4x4 area.

That is simply to say, like playing a Spellsword -- Ragers can often be pushed into a strange pidgeon hole due to the nature of "What stacks/works best for them", and I do believe staff are the sort they want any given skill to appeal to a wider audience than, "Wears plate? Yes. Huge weapons? Yes. Use rage." As it presently is, Rage is incredibly like Magic trees in the sense you require certain stats/approaches to even use it to adept levels, nevermind masterfully.(Hence all the rage clones)

But I believe much of our solution; could be found in systems other than raw damage; the staff 'has' provided generous and bountiful venues beyond a high % boost and exploring these could lead to Rage being much more universal/viable.

The Damage Change

This one actually makes me chuckle so hard -- it brings a tear to my eyes. People forget you can enchant +37% damage onto armor. "+37%". Thats one out of 7 armor pieces (shield) with absolutely no penalties. And much less sacrifice than 100 skill points. Skill points are the heaviest of expenses and most "meant to be honored" sacrifice a player can make in their character building. I'm not feeling like rage is seeing this presently and instead got the boot more out of jealousy from builds that just don't want it or want power from other places. My personal advocation is that rage also applies inate armor penetration to better embody the 'increased force' from the mad-ferocity; and that's something that would indefinitely prove useful to the build whereas I suspect the 100% DMG bonus could have lead to balance issues at the end of the line, but its suffice to say its silly I often hit under 40 [eyeless mages] with the heaviest weapon in the game and rage bar maxed.

Rage Loss upon missing an enemy

As Hagbard mentioned above, I largely second this. While I didn't manage a truly impressive HCI score like he did; I often fall back and rely on my INTIMIDATING STRIKE as my entire bread -- and butter, of this tree. I'd go as far as to argue its my favorite ability in it.

The reality is unless rage was shifted to a 'permanently on unless toggled off' Meter than wore down with time (-30 rage per every 5s after 20s?)

Regen Losses upon Losing Rage

There are still ninja foes that even with +25% HCI (Intimi strike) and pure warrior builds and tactics at 106% you can miss 8x in a row or only hit with the special attack (intimi strike). This means functionally we're still not at a point you really see Rage ever being reliably viable, it's like an erratic swingset than hurls itself around. With DCI already being destroyed from near-cap to 0 this means additional penalties. I've yet to see other builds again, that apply mega-penalties for failing to tumble where you take +50% damage cause you slipped out of tumbling, nor do I personally agree with any build being penalized for what it offers.

Major Change Request; Universal Rage Meters and Toggleable

Exactly as it sounds; instead of [rage, target foe, hope no one else did, use as intended we'd have it as [rageon or [rageoff and any foe struck would be influencing this meter. This would dynamically change the value of some skills like 'Enraged Torrent' that presently is used just to look kill smiting tons of zombies fast and would be a positive move towards everyone accepting no one should be denied a major 100 skill points with it no longer Super OP against a foe; those worrying about stun lock? Not a thing, it cant even happen. Fearful 2-3 ragers would kill you too fast? You shouldn't even be letting that many try to beat you up, don't let that happen. (same with 2-3 rogues or mages thats just a 'bad time'.)

New Feat; Cultural Raging

This doesn't exist, yet. The true desire seems to be get Rage to be a universally applicable skill it seems versus just being a niche or 'last skill a OP build gets' type, this one would literally change the way your entire rage trees works, but essentially a 10%+ raging option that brings up a selection gump; your selection is permanent unless a GM kindly changes it with some explanation as to why they'd reset that; that said, I feel this would liberate the entire tree; while long please read it. Its main thing would be altering the 'secondary bonus or primary bonus' in loo of other routes.

- Collatian Raging, Emphasis on HP Boost (Traditional+).
- Torian Raging, Emphasis on Stamina boost.
- Bhaskarian Raging, Emphasis on HCI secondary and lower loss of DCI. [Route that also gains from ranged attacks, if others don't already.]
- Prodean raging, Emphasis on Mana Secondary, lower DMG% for +SDI, faster casting, and basically is a 'mad magi' route good for magi, paladins, or spellswords. [These would also get rage raised from spells.]
- Room for more suggestions.

In my below posts you'll find I "emphasize" bonuses to most perks during enraged and different additional ones during Berserk itself; these are the 'big elephants' in this tree and everything in it should respond favorably in some way to being in these states.

Intimidating Attack

Very useful and impressive skill, but as Hagbard said ragers use this more than any other skill and borderline HAVE to use it until we start seeing huge HCI increasing gear readily available, there are 'top stat' versions I 'have' to use it to hit.

Suggested Changes
If NOT using Hagbards rendition of the suggestion I would say the ideal approach with this would be that it..
- During Enraged; No changes needed, already responds.
- During berserk; potentially lower defense% on the foe as well, remember true-end-game the +HCI won't be helping [See OSI Lightning Strike end game] and an "Auto-cleave" effect that targets the next foe.
- IF using cultural raging idea as well; the above idea would be true for Collatian/Collatian with Bhaskarian doing -DCI on foes as its bonus in berserk. Prodean would do 'spell echo' in berserk with -50% power. (Yes. Seriously.)


Enraged Torrent

Only good for trash mobs; Needs to stay on the intended original target and the additional hit just kind of happens to the extra foe for true viability. Combat is already chaotic with me having to target juggle erratically. No idea i'll have to improve on this I see as being as important as this alteration, unless we go with the universal rage meter -- then this is moot.

Suggested Changes
-During enraged this could also apply the 'Stun' tradition of Intimidating Strike, since those cant be 'stun locked' in A6, this is a good solution for giving a bit more use and oomph in crowd control without being OP.

- During Berserk this could hit an additional foe as well, as we all know its presently used primarily for trash mobs, this isn't bad at all and honestly 'rarer and harder to use than it begins to sound' Only shielders tend to be able to hold 3+ foes and not get beat down unless its trash mobs.

- If using Cultural Raging Feat idea, for all types (Even ranged bhaskarian if foes are side by side in a true multi-arrow style, harder to use than that sounds) and for Prodean do the spell echo with a 50% dmg reduction on nearby foes.

Prejudicial Slaughter

My god is this easily the most useless rage feat bar none. Going entirely with hagbards' pitch here, that sounds dreamy versus what it is now; its a coup de grace strike also give it +MAX HCI. (Yes. Max, if you're that on deaths door against a berserker, your hope is gone. All you have left is to 'pray' they dont land this due to finesse or parrying or just bad luck.)

Suggested Changes
Change the ability to restore HP/Stamina equal to (Enemy Animus Worth/5). This will make it worth to use against bigger and meaner opponents, and a feat of true bravery, encouraging this to also fill a rage bar based on the enemies' value with a penalty to that check to ensure rabbits don't help (Lol).

- If using Cultural Raging, naturally this would proc attached to spells too if PRODEAN selection or RANGED if Bhaskarian; great potential here, and I don't foresee any issues.

Furious Momentum

Detach 100% from the present swing table, as Hagbard said make it so as activated you run in a straight line.

- If Enraged, +30% HCI.
- If Berserk, Knocks foe down much like demoralizing strike.

Cultural Raging would not alter this at all for anyone. You cant charge someone with magic nor a ranged weapon, thats silly, sorry chaps.


Berserk

SECONDED, you are an angel Hagbard; the shift to better swing speed without a penalty to someone for USING A SKILL, is a better direction. If Prodean for cultural raging this could just be where they potentially get their +Faster Casting/Recovery [They wouldn't get Swing Speed also.]

There will always be more enemies than there are you, any penalty to being critted more honestly hurts you more than a chance to crit will really 'help' you, or just a reduction to 15% with no penalty at all. [Prodean would still apply the crit bonus to spells if they 'can' crit. I dont think they can? If so just stick with slightly faster casting for those guys, if the concept is used.]

Fury Fervor Tree

Fine as it is aside from the oddity of not healing all the time when IV procs unless that already got fixed. IF using cultural raging this is where most of the secondary bonuses would be seen shifted in/from otherwise this is relatively great a tree and the only additional i'd love is at IV it neutralize bleed or poison when you go berserk; but I can't ask for the world now can I?

Change rage mechanics

Agreed with all of it but 50% is low enough, remember to properly theory craft folks to remember "Hey my gloves can give +37% dmg!" never should a single 'item' out weigh a "Skills" potential boost. It should at least stay 50%.

We may want to look at the Fury Fervor mechanics to ENSURE [If we use a universal meter you'll never be able to 'stack Fervor bonuses' (This was a bug I guarantee it, not intended!)] they're not better where they were before; as the absurd levels of HP Hagbard was reaching was a 'very strange way I have only managed once'.

Bull Rush Idea

Great idea, but with my post I incorporated that idea into the BERSERKS BOOST for Furious Momentum; saving staff time of coding a new feat too.


Frenzied Howl

Love it.


New Feat Idea, Dominating Strike

The idea is a colossal blow meant to outright end battles based on how much rage you have, if you're capable, but at the risk of losing all your benefits...; 70%+ Raging. Cost 39 animus.

Has the traditional +25% HCI and Would deal an additional (Rage Meter * 2) %damage with the strike with +50% dmg if enraged and +50% armor pen if berserk. Using this, HITTING OR NOT, would take away rage states 'and' empty your meter. The idea is like Hagbard said sprinting versus marathon; if you LET your raging foe get you to half HP and totally berserk; you better activate evasion, shield wall, defense mastery, or something to save you should they attempt this strike. Failure could impose -50% stamina too. [Winded in combat is death.]

[Nemo]

The previous posters covered most of my gripes with raging in-depth, especially in regards to stamina drains and missing hits leading to a see-saw effect. It's really a strange feeling to have an unreliable skill that can penalize you really hard in some cases.

As it stands, it seems debatable if it's worth taking.

I'd love to a second these changes though:

Major Change Request; Universal Rage Meters and Toggleable

Exactly as it sounds; instead of [rage, target foe, hope no one else did, use as intended we'd have it as [rageon or [rageoff and any foe struck would be influencing this meter. This would dynamically change the value of some skills like 'Enraged Torrent' that presently is used just to look kill smiting tons of zombies fast and would be a positive move towards everyone accepting no one should be denied a major 100 skill points with it no longer Super OP against a foe; those worrying about stun lock? Not a thing, it cant even happen. Fearful 2-3 ragers would kill you too fast? You shouldn't even be letting that many try to beat you up, don't let that happen. (same with 2-3 rogues or mages thats just a 'bad time'.)

Rage Loss upon missing an enemy

As Hagbard mentioned above, I largely second this. While I didn't manage a truly impressive HCI score like he did; I often fall back and rely on my INTIMIDATING STRIKE as my entire bread -- and butter, of this tree. I'd go as far as to argue its my favorite ability in it.

The reality is unless rage was shifted to a 'permanently on unless toggled off' Meter than wore down with time (-30 rage per every 5s after 20s?)

Additionaly, the stuns from Intimidating Strike cannot be chained anymore in this act so the stun ability it has seems decreased in utility.

Personally having rage be a toggle-able state would make more sense. Additionally it would assist in group hunting since currently only one person can rage at the same target.

In regards to the extra damage provided, i would personally love some choice in this regard, for example a stance where you can select +dmg, +hit chance, +swing speed, +casting speed (or w/e) that would then scale with the skill, similar to the mentioned "types" of raging.