That said, I've given up on Warhammer, and am in one of those "I'll never play MMOs again" slumps. I kind of hope it sticks, because they really are such terrible wastes of time. That said, I am the guy who quit Everquest permanently... around a half dozen times (I even gave all of my items away each time, as if to solidify the fact - it's interesting that I would be so sure of my decision each and every time). Still, whenever I cease playing an MMO, I tend to "wake up" as if from a bad dream, trying to understand why I would ever find myself in such a position due to the "play until you are so fed up you violently quit" aspect of the games. The same is not true of other genres, even if interest comes and goes; there are never any "hard feelings".  MMOs almost feel manipulative, where the primary goal is to simply keep you playing for the sake of your subscription, certainly not for your satisfaction - how many times have we all continued to play an MMO even when the only discussion on Ventrilo would be is how horrible it is and how we all hope the next patch is good? It's an amazing thing, that such games not only manage to keep players, but thrive so heavily that they have penetrated the casual market - where aspects like the above are least likely to be accepted (not to mention that MMOs actually have a fairly steep learning curve, another facet that means they should not be appealing to casual players).

In any case, as is obvious I've been using this website to post any rambling thoughts I may have about games, old or new, or game design in general. I've been playing Lock's Quest on the DS lately quite a bit and am thinking about posting something about that as I've had quite a bit of inner dialogue about the game the more I play it.

The Disciple of Khaine is a very contradictory class. The main problem is simply the fact that so many skills and tactics clash with one another and this makes it very hard to play a non-Dark Rites DoK properly or use tactics effectively. This is based on a 40 DoK and does not take any renown rank abilities into consideration, as I do think a 40/80 DoK can play vastly different from a 40/0 DoK (largely due to critical hit chance and of course extra mastery points), but I feel it’s unfair to say ‘’but you’ll be good at 40/80!’'

First and foremost is our ‘’main heal’’ that works off of damaging enemies, Rend Soul. This skill being enhanced via the Dark Rites mastery tree is just silly. It increases the damage of an ability which works off of strength and +damage. This is fine, but Dark Rites is all about the regular heals (Restore Essence, Khaine’s Embrace, Soul Infusion, etc.) that use willpower. As it stands, you can enhance Rend Soul more simply by slotting the tactic Divine Fury (+25% damage, -20% healing) and using strength gear rather than putting points into the Dark Rites mastery tree. Both going up the Dark Rites tree and slotting Divine Fury together is farce, however, as you are enhancing all of your normal heals: the kind that get the -20% penalty from Divine Fury. Likewise if you go for strength rather than willpower while going up the Dark Rites tree.

The Disciple of Khaine gets a second tactic that gives -20% healing as well, called Murderous Intent. The bonus this tactic gives is +10% critical chance and +10% parry. Obviously, slotting both tactics Divine Fury and Murderous Intent means you may as well drag your normal heals off of your hotkey bar. Now, this is where things start getting confusing - bear with me. We have many abilities that work based off of critical hits. Some of these are perfect matches with Murderous, such as Curse of Khaine, one of our claim-to-fame abilities that is a 100% heal reduction, or Khaine’s Bounty which grants us +50% autoattack speed upon critical hit. However, then there is Transferred Focus, a tactic which improves our healing by making our defensive targets more receptive to healing. Zealots get a similar tacitc, however ours has the distinction that it’s based on critical hits, not critical heals like the zealots. This means that not only do we have to be attacking to use this, but it’s best when used with Murderous Intent, and thus is best used with Rend Soul or Consume Essence due to the healing penalty. And the main problem: Rend and Consume aren’t even affected by the bonus Transferred Focus gives (just like they aren’t affected by the -20% healing, and they aren’t even affected by mortal strike abilities), thus it’s pointless to even try to use it in the first place. Some may consider this ‘’choice’’, but for me there certainly is no choice - I’m not going to slot two tactics that completely negate each other. This particular issue will alleviate itself as a DoK gets set gear and very high renown rank (as you can get +10 critical chance from those alone), but again I think it’s unfair to restrict potential builds (or arguably mastery trees in general) based on gear/level.

Something else that could alleviate this is simply making Rend Soul/Consume Essence type abilities do a check for +/- healing buffs after the check for damage and tactics, as stated currently they heal based on the damage you do - period. No heal buffs or ‘’mortal strikes’’ effect them. They can’t be affected by Divine Fury or Murderous Intent, though, which would only add to the confusion. I'd say do this and add text to the DF/MI tool-tips to say that they only affect Dark Rites abilities, but this would include Rend Soul (but interestingly, not Soul Infusion).

The main problem with going with a spec aside from Dark Rites is that if you want to heal, you basically need Empowered Transfer (which is what turns Consume Essence into a viable skill - this tactic changes Consume’s coefficient from 50% of damage dealt to 150%). This automatically assumes 12 points into Sacrifice tree, basically half of your mastery points just for the ability to remain a healer. If you want to do damage and nothing else, you’re playing the wrong class. I don’t care if it can be done, it’s the simple fact that there are other classes who do it more effectively and have utility better geared to the job. It could be beneficial to the class to move Empowered Transfer lower in the tree, opening up more build options.

Due to this, I feel that the DoK only really has one truly viable spec: full Dark Rites with spillover points into Torture or Sacrifice. The other two mastery trees are simply too needy to be focused on alone, and most of their key abilities are too high to effectively dual-spec them. Obviously, it is not a requirement that classes be able to dual spec, but for a DoK denying one third of your skillset is a very bad thing thing - especially when two of the mastery trees demand that you ignore the skillset that defines our archetype as a healer.

General thoughts/opinions/feedback on the Disciple in general

On Critical Heals
One thing that used to happen was that when we landed a critical hit with Rend Soul, Consume Essence or Transfer Essence, was the heal itself would be a critical as well. This has since been removed, and as far as I can tell it is no longer possible for heals via these skills to critical hit at all. Along with being plain unfun (in my opinion), this drops some versatility if one were to want to use abilities that work on critical heals such as Khaine’s Bounty or Restorative Burst in a Consume/Rend build.

On Building Soul Essence
Another great thing that used to happen was Soul Essence would be restored on a per-hit basis when using Essence Lash and Uncaring Dismissal. Obviously, this was a little overpowered as hitting 5 things with Essence Lash could put you from 0 SE to full. However, I really think that this mechanic was a good one and would love to see it make a return. As a random example: keep Essence Lash’s 45 AP cost, but make it restore 20 SE per target hit or something along those lines. On the topic of building SE, it’d be nice to see blocks/disrupts/etc. build SE, currently it’s a straight loss of AP as when the hit doesn’t land we get no SE. This may make the most ‘’sense’’ but it further hinders us against tanks, where we are already hindered due to less output from our damage-based heals. As well, something I didn’t mention above is that our best SE generating ability, Pillage Essence, is at the top of a tree that needs extra SE generation the least: Sacrifice. I think this can be solved simply by switching its place with Devour Essence to make it more accessible. Since Devour Essence is very similar to Khaine’s Refreshment, I found it odd that it wasn’t in the same place in Sacrifice to begin with.

On PVP Squishiness
While the Disciple can be a very good off-tank in PVE and most of the time while leveling up, it quickly became apparent to me at 40 that there are only two classifications when it comes to survivability in PVP: tanks, and everything else. DoK’s fall into the latter category and are absolutely destroyed if even slightly focused in PVP. The worst, I think, is the inability to escape any form of crowd control (aside from using rank 2 morale), as once a DoK is down they generally tend to stay down. I don’t know how this could be alleviated but I do know that it is a problem when the class is meant to be up close fighting to generate SE but cannot due to getting focused down within seconds. This is mostly based on 12 vs. 12 scenario play, so it can be even worse in bigger battles. I don’t expect to be a tank, but DoK either needs a better way to get in, get some hits, and get out, or a better way to generate SE at range.

On Chalices
Chalices, while an interesting way to define your character, simply don’t do enough at the moment in my opinion. I’d love to see them actually change the way abilities work or at least have better bonuses than simply stats. That or just make them a ranged item! /wishfulthinking

On Covenant of Celerity
Celerity seems to be causing a lot of people grief lately, coupled with Bloodthirst. A 60% snare for the entire group is definitely a bit much. In fact I find it so powerful that I usually use Potent Covenants along with it, making it 2 tactics dedicated to one ability. I also feel that it is one of the main things I bring to a group, which as a healer is a bit silly (granted all three of the covenants are very useful). What mainly feels broken is the fact that a tactic gained with 4 points into Torture triples the effect of an ability, making it more powerful than even if you had 15 points into the tree without the tactic. Given there is no other ability like this for the other covenants (and the fact that if it was nerfed, it would still either be either necessary or useless), Bloodthirst may warrant complete removal.

Summary

In the end, I’m sticking with my DoK through and through. It’s a very fun class and Warhammer is probably the only MMO to do the melee healer archetype justice so far. Dark Rites is still a very well done tree, but I would love to see the other trees become more usable both on their own and being mixed in with other builds. As it stands, after sitting and looking at the mastery builder for ages, I don’t see much of a point to go past 4 points in Torture and by an extension of that I see any reason to go into Sacrifice at all. Curse of Khaine is a very devious temptress, but unfortunately without Murderous Intent it just doesn’t do the mastery points spent justice. This will definitely change as a DoK progresses and gets more natural critical hit chance and also get more mastery points. I did bring up a lot of issues, but it’s hard to say how much balance is too much when you’re dealing with both healing and damage. These are just my personal opinions from playing the Disciple so far, I’m sure the developers will make the right choices with the class and it’ll become even more enjoyable in the future. Thanks for reading.