Hellow fellow Edainers !I come here with yet another thing , that I would like to speak about and it's
Lorien central spell. Well not exactly only about
the Elven Wood but also the other spell -
Refuge in the Woods.
I want to just remind you what the second spell, I have mentioned, is doing currently. Refuge in the Woods used to be casted on any tree present on the map. That tree become a blessed tree then and was able to heal all allied units around. Due to some mechanic problems and the fact that spell was pretty strong , it was changed so now blessed tree is spawned at the target area. You can only cast this spell near your base or near other blessed trees.
The central spell has not been changed since 4.5 release and his description says:
Creates a forest on the target area that buffs troop. Also creates a targetable Heart Tree at the center. The wood will remain for as long as the Heart Tree is present, the longer the wood is present the strong the effect of the buff:
- At the start the wood only cloak units, allowing Lorien units to use their ambush ability.
- After one minute, even revealed units will be able to use their ambush ability.
- After two minutes, the ambush ability cooldown will be reduced by 75%, allowing the ability to be used more often within the thick wood.
As we can see, now Lorien spellbook consists two spells which are summoning a tree which grants buff around it. While both spells work totally differently, the theme of summoning a tree slightly argues with the new idea of Edain 4.5, talking about the uniqueness of each spellbook. Moreover, I recognize every well oriented building too strong in current Edain version, about which I have talked in my propose about wells:
https://modding-union.com/index.php/topic,36095.msg479063.html#msg479063.
In addition, we can also observe , that central spell is not being used that often , due to it's current way of working as well as low popularity of ambush ability usage.
So I have come up with an idea on how that situation could be changed, by including certain Lorien mechanic, which is under used right now. The concept is following:
The current central spell is replaced by a new spell:
Golden Tress - passively grants player the ability to upgrade his mallorn trees with following upgrades:
Billowing Fog - The Mallorn Tree disguises allies in the area.
Ban of Protection - reduces the armor of nearby enemies by 20%.
Border Guard Post - Increases the attack range and damage of nearby archers by 15%.
Each Mallorn tree can be upgraded with only one of those upgrades. Each upgrade costs 100 resources.
In addition if player also has Blessed Galadriel or/and Twilight Queen spell, he he is able to buy an additional one upgrade from the followings:
Valars blessing - ( Requires Blessed Galadriel spell to be bought ) increases resource production of Mallorn tree by 20%.
No one enters - (Requires Twilight Queen spell to be bought ) deals damage over time to all enemies surrounding the Mallon tree.As you can see, the new central spell uses special improvement mechanics for Mallorn trees, which in their current form are practically not used at all, mainly due to the fact how the new eco system works. Most players will always first improve the base's economy to gain access to silverthorn arrows. Due to this, as well as the fact that improvements of eco 3 are not so often seen during pvp games, special improvements to Mallorn tree are practically unused. By placing them in central spell, I think their usage will increase. They also allow you to highlight certain aspects of the faction.
Billowing Fog allows better use of the new elven unit ability, which requires being stealthed. Ban of Protection makes it easier to deal with potential harrasment. The Border Guard Post, which increased the visibility of the Mallorn tree, has been changed. This ability is not needed when Lorien has access to the spell revealing the entire map. That's why I changed the effect of the upgrade to allow it to strengthen another important aspect of Lorien faction - archers.
In addition, the new central spell introduces an additional function for Galadriel spells, which now introduce an additional boost in case the player lost his Galadriel or cannot afford her.
What about Elven Wood then ? I recognize it as really nice concept and would like to see it stay in Lorien spellbook. While I would like to think about it more , I have came up with following option , that in current way , spell could work pretty well as tier 2 defensive spell. To not actually loose healing ability it could be changed that after 3 minutes ( so when Elven wood grows to its max potential ) player gets possiblity to choose his last effect:
- Units can use ambush ability without need to be stealth when in a range of Elven Wood.
- Units are being healed when in a range of Elven Wood.That way the healing effect could be postponed a little bit and defending the Elven Wood would be more rewarding.
Please now, tell me what do you think about that idea. What would you like to change about it or if you like the current state of those spells. I'm glad to hear any feedback form you.