Sigils of Hope is a spell that feels bad to cast. It’s expensive, requires frequent attention, and the payoff is just keeping up an uptime buff rather than anything visceral or interesting. Putting it in your build is taking on a chore in exchange for a strictly numerical benefit.
The only time it feels kind of decent is when you completely bypass the casting mechanics with Last Wish (when it works, eg. in arena). All we’re doing there is “upgrading” the spell to a passive that we can hotbar and forget about, which is not speaking to a great and satisfying mechanic.
I suggest fixing Sigils by converting it into a powerful, low uptime buff that strongly incentivises diving into the thick of the fight and staying there. This is a chance both to make the spell more fun and provide some QOL for aggressive/risk-taking (esp melee) Sentinel builds.
This does result in a little similarity with Holy Aura, but I don’t think it’s that bad since Holy Aura’s nova potential is pretty mild. They can be further differentiated by speccing Sigil strongly towards a self/single-target buff and defensive layer and leaving the party-buffing aura role to Holy Aura.
Proposed key characteristics:
long cooldown (25s+)
short duration (~4s)
No stack mechanic
Powerful buff
Duration can be extended by killing enemies or hitting rares (with limit to how much you can “bank”). I.f.f. you continuously hit enemies, can achieve ~50% uptime, maybe push 75% with node investment.
Should probably have some nodes that explicitly favour melee over ranged.
Fate of the existing nodes
Stat buff nodes can be scaled by 3x to compensate the lack of stacking and lower reliability of the uptime.
Divine Flare triggers when the duration ends, instead of on a recast. A child node could replace/reduce the on-hit duration extension in exchange for scaling on the explosion (per-hit during the sigil duration)
Faith threshold could be “when you drop below X% hp” threshold instead of damage, making it more predictable and general as a defensive layer. Since the trigger frequency is severely limited by the long Sigil cooldown, it + its child nodes could also be somewhat stronger.
Cast speed/mana efficiency/max sigils nodes can be respecced to focus on the cooldown + duration extension mechanic
Various nodes could be replaced with more interesting/powerful effects in reflection of the fact that it’s no longer a passive-like ability with 100% uptime
I mention this issue before in the sentinel thread and I agree some buff skills are not convenient to use. One idea I have for sigil of hope is for the sigil to have long duration but drain mana per sec to compensate.
Also, I dislike this idea of upgrading convenience in the skill node/idol instead of upgrading offense/defense/mechanic. I saw a design theme in some of LE skills where the base skills are awful to use and need deep investment for it to be convenient such as the wraith skill and sigil of hope. In moderation, I guess this design is fine but it feels excessive at the moment. It should feel average/good to use in base form and feels amazing after investing in it.
100% agree that paying extra for smooth skills is a bad taste.
Tying the duration to draining mana is more elegant on one level since it encourages you to stay in melee without introducing a new mechanic. And you get an interesting synergy for investing in mana generation in skills and items. The downside is that it would work very poorly with heavy spender skills which make up a solid proportion of interesting specs for Sentinel. I could see it working well so long as there is some kind of opt-out in the tree to make the buff work for mana intensive builds.
Yea but draining mana still feels better than 35x4 stacks… At 1mana a sec that is equivalent to 140sec without any mana regen. Any other way to make it more convenient is good too.
I think a complete redesign as it no longer really functions with the rest of the remade skills. I actually removed it from my rotations and play much smoother and have more benefits by having a better rotation.
Just my thoughts: make it toggleable (similar to stances) but it drains mana. Make different skill nodes add additional stats as noted above as well as augment the V-fx upon using certain skills to keep it more interesting at the cost of adding additional mana/sec to sustain
I was thinking of a channeled buff much like focus. Where you channel one second per charge you want to have up. Each charge lasts five seconds. For example, three charges take three seconds of channeling and lasts 15 seconds, all charges dissipate at the full time not one per five. Then you can change the skill trees to handle duration, physical, elements, and void for additional benefits.
Having to channel this skill nearly keeps it exactly like it is now, pump up the stacks. I guess if you’re saying it should take less mana, that would “be nice”, but it doesn’t sound like you’re avoiding the annoying part.
The duration section could have mana reduction nodes. I think the instant cast aspect is what is wrong with the skill. The cost time for instant just means you have to invest into mana nodes. My VK runs with over 200 mana and has no issues with it, but I just get tired of instant cast mechanics on different timers. The gain a charge per hit can reduce the effect by having refresh thus allowing you to save that “bothersome” mana issue you have.
I’m just chiming in to say I completely agree sigil sucks to cast. Last wish also doesn’t work well in mono.
Totally looking forward to a rework on it. I think the devs haven’t made a pass on paladin yet this patch so we might see some skill reworks relating to paladin.
I think sigils is a great skill with nice synergies. The only thing that sucks is the way to cast it and the interruptions, which makes the game less fluid.
But you can have the same issue with other skills that you cannot put on autocast such as devouring orb when you put it to follow you.
For Anomaly bubble and holy aura the CD fits to the duration, which has why you can put it on autocast.
My suggestion would be to implement an “aura mechanic” for those skills with specific nodes, that let you have the skill on all the time, but it reduces the Mana regeneration equal to the amount that it would take you to cast it.
Totally agree, this is one of the most painful skills to use. If the goal is to have fun gameplay, this is as far from fun as i can think of. Whatever they’d do with it, it would probably be better than now.
I might be wrong, but isn’t sigils pretty much used in most paladin builds? Hell, Sentinel builds in general. not a big sent player, but it seems like its apart of most builds on the forums.
Thanks!
Well, that’s my point. Why would they change something that almost everyone is using? Its getting plenty of use. Just a genuine question, Jerle. I swear to a deity of your choosing I’m just curious. Your reply would be shitty to a new player, imo. Anyway!
